How long to learn Japanese?

Japanese 日本語
1

I dipped into Japanese last year before going on my honeymoon. It made such a big difference.

Learning some key phrases and sentences allowed us to make some amazing connections and learn some fascinating things about Japan.

I’d love to get back into my JP studies again hence the question…

For anyone who speaks semi-fluent Japanese, how long did it take you to learn Japanese?

Any advice or thoughts are more than welcome :slight_smile:

It’s probably my favourite language to speak :heart_eyes:

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I’ve been learning Japanese more consistently for a few months now and something I’ve noticed that slows down the learning process is you don’t just learn a direct translation of a word, you need to also learn:

  • Whether it’s written in Kanji or hiragana/katakana
  • How to say something in a more or less formal way for different situations
  • Cultural aspects (e.g. in Japan it’s considered rude to be too direct, you you usually need to find a more roundabout phrase to communicate your meaning!)

Japanese is one heck of a challenge, but a worthwhile one!

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3

For some reason it’s just so far, even though it’s a proper nightmare sometimes!

4

Interesting question! I think it depends on a lot of factors, like the grammar and pronunciation of someone’s native language, whether or not they have studied languages with different scripts before and of course, the sheer amount of time you have available to study!

This blog takes a deeper dive into the topic: How Long Does It Take To Learn Japanese? An Honest Answer