Tokyocooney's Japan forum

Hey, I'm considering taking Japanese as a course in university next year, but I just want to know what I'd be getting myself into. I'm interested in learning Japanese because I am considering studying abroad for a year during university, so knowing the language would not be a bad idea. My question is this: how hard is Japanese to learn? Mainly, how hard is it to learn to speak and read Japanese, not so much writing it. The course description is this: "An introduction to spoken and written Japanese focusing on developing proficiency in the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Acquisition of basic grammar, hiragana and katakana scripts, and oral communication skills will be emphasized. Basic kanji (Chinese characters) will also be introduced. Open to students with no prior background in Japanese." I know pretty much nothing about the Japanese language, am I setting myself up for failure or do you think it won't be too bad? Is it just a matter of putting a lot of effort into it?

You should go and take the course
The introduction courses are always easy.

If the language is hard or not, depends on you and your skills.

At the same time you will get some kind of information that is the Japan the country, where you want to do your exchange year.


As for myself:
I'm bad at languages. (suffered hell when learning English, Swedish and German) But Japanese was easy

I took 2 years of classes in my university before exchange. Gain somekind of language abilities in Japanese. But in Japan you really realize that you don't know nothing and I had to start the courses from the beginning. The vocabulary was insuffient...

I wish you luck

Thanks for the response. I am thinking I won't be taking the Japanese course for the simple fact I don't want to risk jeopardizing my average. Japanese, as far as I know, is one of the toughest languages for an English-speaker to learn and I don't really want to cause myself any extra stress in my first year of university. I can always decided to take a class outside of school to learn the language.

I took Chinese in university and basically got straight As because I was one of only 2 white people in the class, and the teacher gave us and incredibly huge pity curve. Like if we could write our name on the paper we got an A. Mostly becasue all the otherstudents were Asians taking the class for an easy grade. Like an Italian person studying french, its different, but not THAT different.

For a japanese class it porbably wouldnt be like that. There will be tons of otaku anime nerds who do nothing but intake japanese media.

All of this said, though I would say, the sooner you start the better. I started studying Japanese in Japan and I was paying for classes out of my beer money, and going to class instead of going out and enjoying life. The head start on the language would be worth it if you are considering moving to Japan.

How difficult would you say Japanese is to learn and how long did it take you to learn the language to the point you could converse with other people in Japanese and also read Japanese?

As an English speaker I did find Japanese difficult, particularly the politeness levels. The classes teach you a "desu/masu" form that's generally safe, but the problem is that clerks or servers will tend to speak more politely and any friends you make less so. This can be frustrating, especially when you advance to the point of trying to decide which forms you should be using yourself.

One thing I learned was not to try and equate the languages in my head. Going from, say, English to German the structure is similar enough that you can do a word-for-word translation and usually get your point across. Japanese isn't that way, just look at the results babelfish gives you. I stopped thinking in terms of "cat=neko" and instead tried to connect a mental picture with the Japanese word or structure.

One problem with answering your question is deciding how you mean "converse." If you want to talk quantum physics or Marxist theory that's one thing, but small talk can come pretty quickly. Cooney's bit on "Atsui desu ne?" is truer than you may think! People you meet will tend to be curious about you, your home and what you think of Japan. You can have a pretty decent conversation on that with even basic Japanese.

Practice is the key, of course. Classes give you grammatical tools but only real life teaches you how to use them well. If you avoid trapping yourself in an English bubble your comfort level can improve pretty quickly. You may well be able to do this even before you go to Japan if you can find an exchange student at your university.

I guess I'd sum up by saying that while it's hard it's also worth it. I'd suggest taking the class. There's even a silver lining to those anime nerds Cooney mentioned, they usually drop or quit coming pretty quickly and will make you look good by comparison.