Want to become fluent in japanese....your opinions please?

Question

Hi everyone. I'm a 13 year old teenager and I was wondering if I could become fluent in Japanese even though I don't live in Japan.


If I watch japanese anime(for oral comprehension), if I study a lot(writting, grammar, vocabulary etc.) and if I get a native speaker as a tutor to me(once or twice a week), could I become fluent? Keep in check that I already speak 3(and a half lol) languages: russian, french, english and a little bit of spanish. I'm also quick at learning.


Thanks.

Answer 1

Wow - you are really good! At least this is not Chinese with it's thousands of dialects....

Luckily the basics for both reading and writing Japanese can be easily learned. Learn the Tokyo standard. There are other dialects of Japanese - learn those later if you are going to visit a particular province.

The best language program out there is the Pimsleur language programs. Get that for Japanese.

For reading, you can try just buying a few dictionaries and buying some original manga. I suggested getting a system that is "graded" - breaks down the Kanji based on the year the kids in Japan learn them. This can help with learning them, so the more complex ones you learn later.

There are some cheap and easy to use "learning to write" systems out there as well - you can check out the local bookstore and probably find a half dozen of them.

If you have a local tutor, you have one up on me - I have never had anyone else around who knows Japanese, so I have always lagged behind badly - you have a good shot of learning this very quickly.

After learning Japanese, I suggest trying out Korean and Tagalog as well, and add German to your knowledge base as well. If you can learn all of these, then you can be one world class translator and can work/live in just about any country in the world!

Answer 2

I studied a bit of Japanese in college. I really don't know how anyone can become fluent in a language without living in the country of that language. For example, I lived in Mexico for about a year so I could learn Spanish. Learning a language is much more than knowing vocabulary; it's knowing the culture, the religious beliefs, the mentality of the people. I would have to say, start preparing to go study in Japan for at least a couple of years.

Answer 3

Without you living in Japan for an extended period of time, I would never (personally) be willing to call you fluent, but it is possible to gain proficiency if you did those, yes, but *only* with a native speaker as a tutor.
However, just because you like anime doesn't make it the best thing for learning. There is a lot of slang and ways of speaking used in anime shows that are generally not used in real life and you, as a beginner, would probably not be able to detect the slight differences between how an anime character says something to another character and how *you* should say the same thing to a person in real life.

Answer 4

To become really fluent, 99.99% of people need to be an environment where they are surrounded by Japanese speakers and communicating only in Japanese 24/7 for a certain period of time (I'd say at least six month) after learning the words, grammer, structure, etc. I think this goes for pretty much any language.

What you listed will give you a very good foundation so that once you're in that environment, your progress will be very fast.

Answer 5

hi brynn im 16 yrs old and im a japanese.i live in america now. i just came here 8 month ago and my english is still bad..

well, i've been learning english since i was in junior high. we learned grammer, writting, vocab,,,,pretty much everything. but we didnt learn how to pronounce english. so i watched american movies alot. it really helpful with your listening and vocab skill! if you like japanese anime, you should watch a lot!! (i dont like them tho lol) and if you have free time, you should always listen some japanese..do you like japanese songs?? if you do, it helps your listening skills too..you can learn some slangs and cuss words from them lol
i think you should learn grammer because japanese grammer is totally different from american grammer..
japanese writing is pretty hard for foreigners i guess cuz we have 3 different types of letters. "katakana", "hiragana" and "kanji" and we have 46 alphabet...lol

but you seems like you are so smart (cuz you are trilingual!!!)
so you can do it!! good luck :)

Answer 6

You can do it. Study through high school and college. Then worry about coming to Japan to get more expirience, even if you're not completly fluent when you arrive its worth the trip and you'll learn a lot once here. : ) Keep it up!!

Answer 7

Yes my daughter is doing the same she is 15 She already understands a lot to the words and some pharses she even has a email that she writes stories very deep in the amine. She studies spanish and seeks to study Latin.

Answer 8

Doubtful. Fluency doesn't come just from study methods. It comes from environment. You could probably get very good at the language, but unless you are in an environment where you are constantly using it and are learning about the CULTURE as well as the language, i highly doubt you could get fluent.

Answer 9

Enroll in a Japanese class or hire a tutor.

Answer 10

I am the same but I take Japanese at school. but my teacher says that it could take up to ten years to learn fluently. I