It seems like a tough language, but I'm willing to put the time in if it's not an entirely futile effort.
I'm not that interested in speaking it, unless that's absolutely required to understand subtleties in the writing. I mainly want to read things by amazing people like Shigesato Itoi, and browse 2ch and other stuff like that I guess.
By your estimation, if I take maybe an hour or two every day out of my schedule to study Japanese, how long do you think it will take before I'll be able to read pretty much anything I want?
I'm just looking for an average here, so I know it's not a hopeless attempt.
I think this site(http://www.alc.co.jp/) is useful for both english learner and Japanese learner.
When reading English wikipedia or article,
I often look up words there.
Even though I started five years ago, I am still not fluent.
I took it for two years at school, and this is the third year since then with just anime/movies/game.
I can translate manga now with the help of perapera-kun but i lack vocabulary.
Even for this I used an electronic dictionary.
僕、五年前始まったのに、まだ流暢ない
大学で二年ぐらい授業をとった、そして二年後でアニメや映画やゲームをした
今、ペラペラくんで漫画を訳せるけど、まだ語彙量なし
ここまで電気辞書を使ってるね
I started learning around two years ago and I can read pretty much anything I want now (as long as it's not too hardcore classical). I couldn't say for sure but I would assume I've always done more than 1-2 hours a day, and really much more when the time's there. I just... read a lot.
I suck at writing though and I can only speak well if I'm drunk.
>>5
sorry but that's entirely impossible. You can not mastered 2000 kanji in just 2 years. And even if you could, there's no way to memorize about 10.000 compounds in just 2 years. Also Japanese Grammar is pretty tough as well in my opinion, especially because it gradually gets harder the further you progress.
>>1
If you spend 1-2 hours each day, I'd say you will need about 5 years to be able to comfortably play visual novel with the help of an electronic dictionary. Learning to read/write the language on your own is definitely possible, so go for it.
It depends on your determination and the resources you use.
Fortunately, internet is full of resources for learning Japanese, so make good use of them and you can make possible what other people deem impossible.
Check this (if you want seriously to learn Japanese, don't miss any of this links):
http://ichi2.net/anki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembering_the_Kanji_I
kanji.koohii.com
smart.fm
lang-8.com
www.alljapaneseallthetime.com
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2471
www.japanesepod101.com
>sorry but that's entirely impossible. You can not mastered 2000
>kanji in just 2 years. And even if you could, there's no way to
>memorize about 10.000 compounds in just 2 years. Also Japanese
>Grammar is pretty tough as well in my opinion, especially
>because it gradually gets harder the further you progress.
two years would be impressive, but judging by virtually every white kid i've ever met, it's next to impossible. i've met many, and only 1 or 2 were like that. i did it in 3 years (passed 2kyuu after 2 years of study, 1kyuu after 3 and i can now read novels and translate documents), but i spent a year of intensive study at the university with the best japanese language program in japan. i am not normal and have been told so many times, but it's possible.
It'll take you years and years.
You've probably given up on anime and other fantasies of yours before you can even read and understand Nihongo properly.
>>9
Lies.
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembering_the_Kanji_I
>> http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com
+1 for both those links, I've "learned" 500 kanjis so far, and I work on the RTK book 2 hours a day.
>>3
Hi, good evening!
> Even though I started five years ago, I'm still not fluent.
始まる is an intransitive verb and 始める is a transitive.
But in such a case, you should regard the verb " start" as a transitive when you translate it into Japanese , although it doesn't have an object.
Because it actually means I started (studying Japanese) five years ago.
僕は五年前「始めた」のにまだ流暢でない。
This one is good too:
http://www.jlptstudy.com
>>6
I learn at least 1000 words a month currently. In the holidays I plan to attempt 3000. You can learn 20,000 words in a year if you really try.
I checked out and subscribed to Japanesepod101. The main dude is kind of a douche and isn't very good at Japanese OR English, but it still works because the format is good and the Japanese natives are good.
I find it really effective to listen to it while grinding levels in WoW.
>>16 Here.
I tried doing 100 words a day (3000 a month) but I had to cut back down to 50 to still be able to do my uni work and have time to relax. But even so, 1500 a month is still good, and I'm on track to hit the 20,000 mark near the end of 2010.
First learn Japanese's alphabet, kana (hiragana and katakana). They should only take a week to learn. Practice reading articles until you can read them quickly.
Next learn kanji. The government has a list of characters you need to know for everyday use. You can find it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_j%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji. Make sure you organize the table by grade level, starting with grade 1. I went by grade, first learning the English meaning and on'yomi (how the character is pronounced when with other characters), then going back and learning the kun'yomi (how they're pronounced alone). When you finish grade 6 you will be amazed how much you can read.
After that you can start reading simple stuff on the internet. There's a good Firefox plugin called Rikaichan which will let you mouse over a kanji to get its meaning and pronunciation: http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/
When you've finished the secondary school kanji ("S" on the chart) you can start reading offline stuff in books. I recommend you buy a Canon Wordtank so you can quickly look up new words. Read something fun like a translation of your favorite author. Good luck!
"How to install Japanese keyboard" (Blog Source: Tofugu) http://www.tofugu.com/japanese/how-to-install-japanese-keyboard/
>>20
No linux? I still haven't figured out how to get scim-anthy to work.
Is that 'Rosetta Stone' software any good to learn to read Japanese and translate manga or doujinshi?
I've never heard anything good about rosetta stone.
In fact, particualrly, ive heard alot of bad stuff about it.
The one thing ive heard is that its good for training your listening skills, but a better audio course probably would be too, anyway.
"How to type in Japanese" (Blog Source: Tofugu) http://www.tofugu.com/japanese/how-to-type-in-japanese/
Japanese government warns Baidu IME is spying on users (News Source: Tech Republic)
https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/asian-technology/japanese-government-warns-baidu-ime-is-spying-on-users/
>>1
So I'm thinking, it's been now 11 years since OP made this post. Has he learnt Japanese yet? By this point, he should be fluent by now, surely?
I started in 2005 and haven't learned all of Genki 1's vocabulary yet. So easy to give up; but I keep starting over again. Probably should pay for tutor twice a week.
You probably suck so bad because you lack the motivation to learn.
If you study two hours a day, you can manage to read with a dictionary in five or six years.
After 13 to 14 years, you will be able to read reasonably well without a dictionary.