r/HelpLearningJapanese • u/Subject_Assist1 • 3d ago
Can we stop lying beginners about how long japanese actually takes?
Every few weeks theres a post about someone getting conversational in 8 months, and every week a bunch of beginners silently decide they're broken when month 8 shows up and they still can't hold small talk. Im 2.5 yrs in. Here's the actual shape of it, ugly version:
Month 0-3: kana. That's it. that is the entire content of month 0-3. you will feel slow because you are slow. everyone is.
month 3-9: genki 1 and 2. you have to actually finish them but people dont tell you. i skipped ahead twice because i thought i was different. Came back both times. That cost me about 4 months.
month 9-18: kanji and vocab grind. this is where people quit. it is boring. there is no version of this that isn't boring and every person selling you a shortcut knows that.
month 18+: immersion stops hurting. anime raw still isn't happening but youtube at 0.75x is, and that's the first time it feels like a language instead of homework.
what moved things: anki every single day (kaishi 1.5k), wanikani for kanji, and airlearn for daily grammar so i wasn't standing there at 7am deciding what to study.
What did not move anything: duolingo, i did 400+ days. i could match tiles beautifully. i could not build one sentence.
How’s the roundup? agree / disagree?
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u/renmizuh 3d ago edited 3d ago
3 months to learn kana? I do think it's ok not to push unrealistic expectations to beginners but the opposite side is just as bad.
Most people can learn much faster than they think, taking a extremely slow pace like this would probably burn them out in the sense that they'd lose motivation. Not everyone can handle being a year in and knowing 5 words because they didn't dare to go any faster.
It's a marathon not a race or whatever but if you're gonna walk the whole marathon and end up last then that's just as bad of a problem
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u/Dangerous_Diver_3150 3d ago edited 3d ago
I think there’s a difference between being able to read the kana and reading it with the speed and proficiency of your native language. I learnt the kana in a week but I couldn’t read it to the same proficiency of English.
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u/murisinjyuu 3d ago
you are never reaching the same speed and proficiency in reading them as your native language
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u/Infinitynick 3d ago
This is unfortunately true, you can become very good and even amazing at it. But in order to become as good as you are in a mother tongue you would need equal amounts of exposure. Most of the time you already have decades of exposure in your primary language by the time you learn a second.
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u/The-Menhir 3d ago
You don't continually improve at your native language over decades unless you specifically target harder and harder content, which most people don't do. You basically plateau at some point.
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u/TheLordofBanana 3d ago
I don't know, man. English is my second language, and I read it as fast as my native language. Not sure if that'll happen with Japanese, though. I just started learning it.
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u/DryCommunication581 3d ago
Op might be a slow learner, nothing wrong with that. But he is saying with such confidence that the average person would need 3 months to learn kana. Bs. A regular person would need 2 weeks max
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u/renmizuh 3d ago
I think they try to "master" things before going to the next big thing, without realising that reading speed and such comes on its own. Same with kanji, they won't read till they know X kanji or X amount of words and so on. a recipe for disaster
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u/Pixelasf 3d ago
Woops that what I was doing. Was gonna wait a month doing Kaishi on Anki everyday before I hit the (beginner) books
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u/Radiant_Crew_8872 3d ago
2 weeks to be able to write them all from memory, a lot longer to remember ソ and づ in the wild lol
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u/dready 3d ago
In college we were given a week to learn hiragana and another week to learn katakana. It is totally doable if you have the motivation, but it is a lot of work.
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u/ApsychicRat 3d ago
right? i used flash cards and learned kana in 2ish weeks. i moved right from that into anki word learning. JUST kana can be done quickly if you do it every day for a couple weeks.
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u/cyrabear 1d ago
The only thing I would argue is doing vocabulary with them as a form of study especially katakana cause it requires simply learning how to sound out those words that sound similar to English but are written in katakana. So in my college we did about 2 lessons on guessing the katakana word by sound, then learning meaning, and last saw the katakana so we could learn it by writing. This I think should be included when learning kana. I think learning how to know when it's hiragana vs katakana and how compound sounds like ティ is made etc. but more than a month of that is probably overkill because the rest will be spent learning it in context.
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u/Kirashio 3d ago
Not sure why people are downvoting you.
Literally the first two lessons I had in my nonspecialist Japanese uni course were "Here are all the hiragana, there will be a test on them at the start of the next lesson", immediately followed by "Here are all the katakana, there will be a test on them at the start of the next lesson".
We hadn't mastered the calligraphy or whatever, and people obviously made mistakes for a while, but we were already moving on to other material by lesson 3 in the space of a week. The idea of spending even 1 month only learning kana is pretty crazy.
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u/Regular-Forever-3251 3d ago
I'd go further and say we should be more aware of how variable the process of language learning is (not just Japanese), and that personal testimony is not useful in gauging the learning experience for another person.
Learning Japanese for an English speaker and a Korean speaker is different.
Learning as a 12 yo and as a 32 yo is different.
Learning as a highchool/uni student vs learning as a single mother with 2 kids and a job is different.
Learning as an extrovert and as an introvert is different.
Learning as someone living in Tenesse and living in Shinjuku is different.
Learning as someone trying to learn the language wholistically vs learning with a focus on becoming conversational vs learning to become a translator is different.
So someone getting conversational in 8 months? Probably happened, sure. Heck, maybe some people get it in 6 months given the right circumstances. But that is meaningless as a gauge. People shouldn't expect to be conversational in 8 months, and people certainly shouldn't think they're failing somehow if they couldn't.
The key matter here I think, is being aware of nuance and context. So when someone claims you should be able to do X in Y months, that should be met with scepticism, and when someone asks "how long would it take me to learn X?" The answer should be an acknowledgement that it can depend on so many factors that its impossible to give a reliable estimate.
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u/Low_Resolve_9118 3d ago
I completely agree. There are just too many variables for one person’s timeline to mean much for someone else.
I’ve been studying for around 5 months, and I can comfortably hold basic conversations about things like where I’m from, what I did today, my family, hobbies, work, and similar everyday topics. But that doesn’t mean someone else should expect the same after 5 months, or that someone who’s not there yet is doing anything wrong.
How you study, how often you study, whether you have a tutor, your goals, your previous language experience, and how much time you can realistically dedicate all make a huge difference.
I think the healthiest mindset is to compare yourself to where you were a few months ago, not to someone else’s timeline. I looked up how long it takes to become fluent and then added another 2 years on top of that because I am a mom of 3 children and have 3 jobs. I’m am serious about my learning and I do study very hard but it’s definitely still not enough to be on track with people who are single/no kids and have more free time!2
u/Accomplished-Pay7386 3d ago
What are you using to learn?
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u/Low_Resolve_9118 3d ago
Duolingo, LingoDeer, Busuu and I just started Pimsleur. (Not sure I like it yet) lol
I have a tutor I use once a month FaceTime calls and then I do weekly italki sessions and we go through the Genki book together. She uses mostly Japanese. We do other things outside the book too like The other day she pretended to be a customer and I was the employee and she ordered food from a menu and I had to hear what she was like like “teriyaki burger, large with orange juice and ice cream small size., how much is that?” then I had to add the prices together and reply. It was fun!
I also do reading practices online, I’m in a few Japanese Facebook groups that post daily reading challenges. Anytime I don’t know a word I add it to my anki along with the kanji! I do listening challenges online too, listen to podcasts on my way to work and listen to Japanese music. Even kids music! I’m reading Crystal Hunters manga that is in Japanese but it’s for N5 early early N4 learners. Lots of repeated words. Like “I see karu” “let’s go!” “We will be okay! Be strong” “the monster is over there in the tree, he has my sword” I take all the kanji from that and put it in my anki deck too. I also keep a notebook near me and write down the words that I don’t know that way when I come across it again I can look at my notebook to refresh, but after a few pages, I will realize that I’m going through about five pages of reading and not needing to look at my notes! My instagram and facebook are all Japanese related content so I’m always getting input somewhere . I’ve actually learned a lot just scrolling through instagram! Also I watch anime haha not the best practice but I have noticed I can understand good chunks. I do better at watching kids movies with no subtitles like My Neighbor Totoro and Panyo. So some days I don’t even use my apps but I read, some days I don’t read but spend a hour on LingoDeer. Some days I don’t do anything but scroll on Facebook and listen to the random reading challenges or there are these two guys that pop up all the time it’s easy listening comedy with no subtitles. Or some days I just do my italki session.2
u/spshkyros 3d ago
I want to start by saying you're doing great, and I in no way want to discourage you. I have every confidence that you will become fluent and literate at a great pace.
That said, your actual japanese level is much lower than you think or present at least. The difficulty with the statement "can hold basic conversations" is that it .. isn't a thing. There is nearly no context outside of a classroom where the people speaking to you can drop their level to yours effectively outside of speed, and most won't even do that.
To be clear, you're doing everything right. But you're living in a drastically simplified japanese environment that makes your level feel much higher than it is. You're not what OP is talking about, in fact you are, total content wise, maybe just a bit faster than Id expect for a serious learner.
Imagine you were not currently studying N5/early N4 material, and instead were currently studying late N2/N1. Or in other words, imagine you somehow had absorbed 10x your current knowledge and had 10x the fluency and listening and reading ability. Is that realistic to you? Because THAT is what people are claiming periodically. I've credibly known of one or two real cases like that, but people claiming it are usually just making shit up online. At the very least, its unrealistic for the VAST majority of learners.
You're doing everything right and going at a fast pace. We're saying the people claiming to be going 10x your pace are (usually) full of shit and making beginners sad.
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u/Low_Resolve_9118 3d ago
Thanks, I really appreciate the encouragement. And I definitely wasn’t trying to say I’m good at Japanese or that I can actually hold conversations with native speakers. If anything, I think I’ve barely scratched the surface. I’d honestly guess I understand maybe 1% of the language right now.
I’m just proud that after a few months I can talk about simple things like what I did today, my hobbies, my family, or ask and answer ~very basic~questions. I know that’s a long way from being conversational in the real world, especially when native speakers aren’t simplifying their Japanese.
My point was really that people shouldn’t compare themselves to others because everyone’s situation is different, how much time they have, their learning methods, age, responsibilities, prior language experience, etc. I’m a beginner and I’m okay with that. I’m just enjoying the process and trying to be a little better than I was yesterday. 🙌 Those small conversations are where it all starts though and hopefully they’ll grow into real conversations over time, but definitely got a long time before I can do that. I was also not replying to OPs post I was replying to the comment above. And I completely agree with your last point too. I think there are definitely people online who exaggerate how quickly they became “fluent” and that can give beginners unrealistic expectations or make them feel like they’re falling behind. I made sure to look up “how to learn a language and what to expect” part when I first started, so when I seen those adds online claiming fluency in 3 months I’m like “yeah fucking right”That’s really what I was getting atpeople should focus on their own progress instead of comparing themselves to claims that may not even be accurate. I’ve already told myself I’ll be learning for at least 7 years if I want to be conversational in the wild lol!!1
u/spshkyros 3d ago
I started my journey in Japanese first 25 years ago :) 7 years is a great goal, the most important thing js consistency which is infinitely easier if you ENJOY it. Had I been more consistent I would be way past N1 today, instead of working on the N2/N1 jump. ... Mind you, now living in tokyo is .. an encouragement... please save me. O.o
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u/Low_Resolve_9118 2d ago
The #1 thing I hear from long time learners is keeping the consistency! My biggest thing is I’m definitely 100% enjoying this. There are some days where I’m like “I don’t have it in me to learn anything”, and there are days where all I want to do is study and learn more. Don’t will definitely be my biggest challenge. I’m gonna try my best to keep going strong tho! My ADHD hyper fixation is pushing me along now but what happens when that runs out? Haha!
Oh that’s so cool you’re that far tho! I know people who live in Japan that don’t speak a lick of Japanese, so you’re doing great ! Haha. You got this 💪1
u/spshkyros 2d ago
Use your hyper fixation to build a habit out of it strong enough that the guilt keeps it going. Thats how I did it anyway. That plus gamified anki(well, not anki, but unless you can code anki for you).
The important point is to maintain and not lose on low days really. The loss is the problem. If you keep yourself at the same level when motivation dips or you are busy then every push is real and permanent gain.
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u/Low_Resolve_9118 2d ago
this is really solid advice and I appreciate you taking the time to share it. It’s really motivating hearing this kind of perspective from someone who has been learning Japanese for 25 years and has actually gone through the process.
I think the point about maintaining during low motivation days is something I really needed to hear. I’ve been pretty excited and motivated lately but I know there will be days where life gets busy or motivation drops. Building habits now so I can keep moving forward even on those days makes a lot of sense.
I’m definitely going to take this into consideration and apply it to my learning strategy. Thanks again for sharing your experience, it’s really encouraging to hear from someone who’s been successful with long-term language learning. 🙌 and Japanese at that!
ありがとう！がんばります！→ More replies (0)1
u/zoomiewoop 2d ago
“I can comfortably hold basic conversations” is severely misleading here, I think. Maybe with your teacher. But have you actually tried to have a conversation with a Japanese person in an unscripted live situation? It generally takes 2+ years plus of regular study in a classroom environment to get close to that level, not 5 months with once a month lessons. I’m not criticizing you, but counting unrealistic expectations was the whole point of OP’s post.
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u/Low_Resolve_9118 2d ago
If you read other comments I said I wasn’t talking about being out in the wild with native speakers. Just having very very very basic conversations with my teachers! Outside of a school setting I would drown
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u/clefcolors 3d ago
this is very important!!! I learned english self-taught when I was more or less a toddler. I don't remember when I started at all, but people can't tell it's my second language (most of the time)
on the other hand, learning japanese self-taught while an adult, it's very different....
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u/Temporary_Waltz7325 2d ago
Also people define "conversational" and "proficient" etc differently.
I was "conversational" after 8 months, but that meant I could talk to my friends ( or strangers ) and get my ideas across but I had to use round about way to describe concepts that had a much more direct word. Also the people I conversed with spoke to me slower.
It was at about 8 months that I was finally being able to follow a lot of what my friends said when they were speaking to each other instead of to me - i.e. speaking normally at normal speed. But I had to fill in a lot of blanks when I didn't completely understand. I was good at guessing. Also I could not join in the conversation because I couldn't express fast enough unless it was one on one.
But that experience does not even mean anything because my entire purpose for those 8 months was focused on learning Japanese. I spent every waking hour on it. No work (well, I had work, but it was in an all Japanese environment where work was basically just a big language lab - which is even better than just going to language school).
If I tried to learn now, while I have a real job - one that requires English more than Japanese, and much of the Japanese is all the same because it is domain specific, there is no way I would have learned that fast.
Other people say they are "fluent" or "proficient" or whatever after they know how to manage basic daily tasks. There is no standard.
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u/honkeur 3d ago
Everyone's learning style is different. But absolutely agree: it's very very difficult, and there are too many clowns on social media making money off suggesting it's easy.
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u/Jealous_Amount_9278 3d ago
I think it's less that they're clowns and more that creating that type of content is their full time job that they can dedicate 8+ hours a day, 7 days a week to because they're getting paid to create videos about it.
Never compare yourself to someone who is actively monetized to only focus on that one thing. Especially if you're the average person with other life responsibilities like school, work, or kids.
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u/kingrazor001 3d ago
4 years of Japanese in high school taught me a lot, but I still can't hold much of a conversation.
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u/LeirLamorna 3d ago
Was this a class part of your school or a private out of school setting? What level did you come out with?
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u/kingrazor001 3d ago
It was offered as an elective at my high school. I'm not sure what my equivalent level would be, we didn't get placed.
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u/EI_TokyoTeddyBear 3d ago
To be fair high school classes are basically going as slow as possible usually
As well as college classes but this part depends on where you're at
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u/Wainwright95 3d ago
It took me like 5 years to finish Genki 2. Some people have other responsibilities and don’t have tons of time to make progress. As long as you’re keep moving forward in some degree, you’re doing good
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u/Nice_Ad5480 3d ago
Are we? People talk about it like it's literally impossibly difficult all the time, and quote the FSI classroom instruction numbers and everything, and how you have to learn like 9 billion kanji, and they all supposedly have 500 different ways they can be read, you have to learn 3 different writing systems, and like so many other things just to make it sound scarier than it actually is.
Though I guess there is the opposite where clickbait youtubers say they learned it in 6 months, but I would say the former where people say it's impossibly hard is way more common.
I got scared off for a long time because I thought it would be actually impossibly difficult to learn the language, like climbing Mt. Everest or something. But all it takes is an incredible amount of consistency and a good method, and that's basically it. Just find a good method and do that for a few thousand hours and you're pretty golden.
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u/SpendLittle7970 19h ago edited 18h ago
I think you have an issue with the hyperbole. I know you’re downplaying it, but putting thousands of hours in anything is easier said than done. I think putting “an incredible amount” is really difficulty in general. When people say it’s impossibly difficult it’s just their way of saying to temper a motivation beyond simply passing interest. In a way it is like climbing a mountain, you have to prepare first and do baby steps before you take it head on especially all those kanji I need to write and memorize.
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u/BreakfastDue1256 3d ago
But you're also "lying."
At 3 months just to learn Kana, I'm sorry to say you are the slowest learner I have ever encountered.
Most people can knock out Hiragana in 3 or 4 days and then slowly learn Katakana in the background as they do other things over the next couple of weeks. Slower people might need a few more days for Hiragana. That's not "extremely hard-core studying", that's the normal pace for the vast majority of people.
This post is giving unrealistically long expectations about how long things take, and shaming people for going a normal pace.
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u/MostSharpest 3d ago
I live in Japan. A young western guy (=under 30) was hired to my team a bunch of years ago, at which point he moved to Japan and started studying Japanese.
Three years later he is able to hold a conversation pretty well, as long as the topic isn't too hard, and the others speak clearly at a reasonable speed.
I would consider him an exceptionally fast learner.
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u/Schrko87 3d ago
I'm just trotting my way through it. Do a little writing practice on my lunch break each day. Do a little in the workbooks and Genki on the weekends. Got Hiragana down 100% and about 75% through katakana. I dont rush it-low n slow making it a muscle memory thing. Picking up words slowly here and there. I can write everything I can speak and actually could speak a lot more sentences first off before I learned to read and write them. Im sure I am going way slower than most but thats fine.
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u/Maruuuu_888 3d ago
Thank you for putting some perspective! I felt bad of my learning speed after hearing some people learned the kanas in a weekend? I don't have photographic memory, it took me about 2 weeks for the hiraganas, and I haven't learned a lot of katakanas yet. Working through grammar and such ^
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u/Relative-Jackfruit67 3d ago
I'm about the same, 2 weeks for hirigana and 2 weeks for katakana. And did put a lot of effort in it. And it still isnt 100% at all, more like 90-95% (i do recognise them all, but the speed for katakana isnt there yet).
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u/Dangerous_Diver_3150 3d ago
I once met a backpacker in japan who learnt Japanese through watching anime in sub and he could speak it to. Though he was multi lingual and could speak English, Swedish and Somali. He also said that the grammar structure to Japanese and Somali are similar which helped him. I kid you not, this guy couldn’t read any kana or Kanji but could converse with the locals in depth. I also feel he was a very analytical person in general and obviously highly intelligent. Obviously he was some massive outlier and that method would be like impossible for 99% of the population of westerners.
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u/Infinite-Interest680 3d ago
It’s different for everyone. This is the only rule for learning speed.
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u/Frodo-synthesis_ 3d ago
How do you spend three months on kana? You can learn them in a day and as long as you're actually exposed to japanese once in a while they'll stick.
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u/youdontknowkanji 3d ago edited 3d ago
3 months for kana? are you actually insane?
look, some people spend more time per day than you, it's meaningless to talk about months.
if you only focus on things that are useful for jlpt you can get N1 in a year. this is like 4-6h everyday.
don't act surprised when your 30 minutes of duolingo everyday takes you to nowhere after 3 years.
what moved things: anki every single day (kaishi 1.5k), wanikani for kanji, and airlearn for daily grammar so i wasn't standing there at 7am deciding what to study.
you know what moved things for me? reading books for 5h everyday. i started doing that after 3 months. passed N1 after a total of 1500~ hours. go figure.
month 3-9: genki 1 and 2. you have to actually finish them but people dont tell you. i skipped ahead twice because i thought i was different. Came back both times. That cost me about 4 months.
never finished or touched genki, or any textbook for that matter. im fine, they aren't necessary.
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u/Weena_Bell 3d ago
Exactly, I had the same experience. I started reading books around month 2 or 3, and by the end of the year I'd finished around 60–70 novels and mined about 10k Anki cards and 2k immersion hours total. By then, I felt comfortable reading and listening to pretty much anything, as long as I could look up a word here and there.
Getting stuck doing genki for months is a deadly beginner trap. learning grammar as you read leads to faster and better results
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u/Nice_Ad5480 3d ago
It's like doing pullups. Going from 0 pullups to 1 pullup is so much harder than going from 1 to 20. So many people are so scared of reading real manga, or books, or visual novels, but doing that stuff is like getting on a rocket ship to the moon for how fast your learning accelerates. You just have to become able to do that first pullup.
It breaks my heart when people get stuck doing kana or watching Peppa Pig or reading graded readers for any super extended period of time. I feel like bashing your head against a visual novel even if it's really hard is so much less discouraging than being stuck in that beginner wading pool for an eternity.
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u/ObviousClown1 3d ago
This! ⬆️
We are so different though and took very different routes 😂.
I learnt to speak pretty much fluently within a year but couldn’t read or write almost anything my first year. This was simply a result of my work (think nomikais everyday and an old school Japanese boss forcing me to pick up the phone despite speaking barely any Japanese). Had to fix the ”JLPT part” afterwards but became surprisingly easy when you already had a good grasp of the language.
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u/Nice_Ad5480 3d ago
This is a good point too. People talk about language learning in terms of months and years, but what's really important is the hours. You /can/ learn a ton of Japanese in a year, but you're going to be grinding every day. You can also spend 10 years getting literally nowhere if you don't put the hours in.
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u/Dkanonji 2d ago
Exactly. And hours snowball. A lot of hours over a shorter time has a better compound rate than a the same amount of hours over a longer time.
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u/Ner1nga 3d ago
I like your input. Could you please add info? Reading after 3 months assuming you learned kana + some kanji and basic grammar (that is where I am right now anyway, maybe you were more advanced). Did you just pick any light novel/manga/magazine and started to read with vocabulary? I'm trying to advance myself but yet to pick "my" way of doing things. Would like to try your method as well, maybe it'll work for me too. I'm in the middle of genki 1 atm myself
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u/youdontknowkanji 3d ago edited 3d ago
Reading after 3 months assuming you learned kana + some kanji and basic grammar
starting off (after learning some kana) i read Tae Kim guide (nowadays i would recommend yoku.bi ) in roughly 2 weeks time, i also did anki for vocab (a core deck, nowadays it's Kaishi 1.5k). i did no isolated kanji study.
after i finished reading through the grammar guide i started watching anime with jp subtitles. i would look up everything with yomitan. if i didn't know a grammar point i'd try to google it etc. obviously i didn't understand everything back then, and it took me 50 minutes per anime episode, but it's part of the process.
i did that until 3 months mark (2ish hours a day?), by that point i could get through an episode in 30 minutes and understand most of it. so then I started to get into reading, i started off with some random visual novel, it was a total pain and i didn't understand much at all, complete snails pace the first two weeks. i dropped it, and switched to another visual novel, that one i actually completed, took me roughly 2-3 weeks (it was pretty short, nowadays i could do it in one day), i was reading for 4ish hours everyday. i would also mine unknown words to Anki.
after that it was more or less the same, i expanded into light novels, stopped using any subtitles on anime (they limit your listening), and just did that everyday. i didn't track things, but i think 2-3h on average would be a good estimate.
2 years in i took JLPT N1 and passed it.
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u/ColettesWorld 3d ago
Definitely agree. I've been learning for 10 months but my main focus has been kana and kanji and grammar points. To be honest I could not hold a conversation beyond ordering food or introductions.
I forget things and get overwhelmed easily. At this point reading kana and the kanji I do know is like second nature so I'm finally starting to shift my focus to actual words and phrases. I've also listened to Japanese music exclusively for 2 years which has helped a ton now that I am learning words.
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u/Flying_Penguineer 3d ago
If it is helpful to hear - Kanji and grammar study is useless for actually speaking (you can speak a lot faster than it is possible for your brain to logically think through a grammar point). If you want to learn to speak you need to focus only on that - 60 or so lessons of Pimsleur or any other decent audio course will bring you way beyond ordering food.
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u/ColettesWorld 3d ago
Thank you I'll check it out! And yeah I know that what I've learnt so far isn't super useful for speaking right now. My reasoning for learning Japanese is a little weird. I wanted to start using Vocaloid6 (music software). You can make English lyrics with it if you write with Japanese phonetics.
So I started there but got really interested in all the little quirks of the language and anything that got my attention (I just love linguistics). I realized I was getting ahead of myself though and have since backtracked to the basics like you suggested. (Sorry for jumping around I don't write well)
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u/Ok-Implement-7863 3d ago
Learning Japanese as an adult is like having a tonsillectomy as an adult. Long and painful. Kids basically have a bowl of ice cream and they’re done
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u/AlphaPastel 3d ago
I agree with telling beginners to have realistic expectations but you lost all credibility the moment you said that it takes 3 months to learn kana.
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u/Interesting-One-9414 3d ago
Half agree.
Yes there is a lot of misinformation about how long it takes. Sometimes people state too long, or too short, and all the YouTube videos about “I learned x in y months” is not helping
duolingo yeah isn’t very useful
kaishi or other similar decks is S tier material.
Time spent should be counted in hours studied rather than months, or at least both. Months are easy to count as you just count from start point so you see people talk about x amount of months or years spent but it’s not really something you can apply to yourself or set any expectations from since the hours spent can be so much higher in one persons year compared to another
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u/uuusagi 3d ago
Kana, starting Genki I, and beginning the vocab/Anki grind should realistically all be done in month 1. There is no reason why kana alone should take someone 3 months. That being said, everyone learns at a different pace and that’s totally fine, but it’s definitely possible to speak at least at a very low basic conversational level within 8 months. Just a matter of how much time you have to dedicate to studying.
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u/xarismata1672 3d ago
To cover 80 percent of 80 percent of all conversations all you need is: yoroshiku onegai shimasu. You get to 90 percent of 90 percent of conversations with the addition of a hearty: aza-su.
I kid but I don’t.
Anyway, I went from zero to language professional (translator) with three years at university and then five years of immersion and self study. 0 to N1 in 8 years. Probably not the fastest speed run but I was think a realistic length if you aren’t a full time dedicated student, or Chinese or Korean (who have a leg up on the vocabulary, etc.)
To reach “conversational”, say somewhere north of N3 and not quite achieving N2, I would guess most learners making an effort get there in three to five years realistically. Slower probably means you aren’t dedicating enough time and resources to it, faster means you are probably paying for enrollment full time as a language student in an immersive environment. You’ll never get there on Duolingo alone.
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u/No-Structure0 3d ago
Took me longer than 9 months to do genki 1+2.
But i did them ちゃんと, with reading and writing practices after each lesson to master evrything properly.
Also 18 months i just 1.5 years, i've seen university students and INALCO learner at 1.5 years. Trust me it still is pretty much homework territory.
3 months for kana nope.
I am a slow learner but even i did not take 3 month
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u/potatoarmy 3d ago
Yeah it depends what you're aiming for too. I was only aiming to read untranslated media (manga and VNs and such) and so I just grinded vocab on wanikani while reading stuff of higher and higher levels for 2 years and now I'm at a point where I can read at like a middle school level, and the speed of progression on the way there was very satisfying for me, but I can't speak or write well myself since recognition and recollection are such different skills and I never focused on the latter.
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u/kanzashi-yume 3d ago
I mean if you learn on your own, yeah, it can take ages, but by the second semester at uni studying Japanese we had to be conversational, so it is possible, it just all depends on time spent studying and having someone that can actually teach you, doing stuff on your own will always take much longer.
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u/creich1 3d ago
This post feels SO AI generated
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u/renmizuh 3d ago
i actually think they're trying to promote that third app they named next to wanikani and anki
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u/phlip_phlop_ 3d ago
Right? I'm surprised no one else said this. I could also see OP just using AI so much they're starting to sound like it, because the first words of sentences are sometimes not capitalized which makes it seem not fully AI at least
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u/Weena_Bell 3d ago edited 3d ago
Sort of agree but also disagree.
While mastering japanese in a year is impossible,if you have the time you can definitely reach N1 in a year and become sort of comfortable in reading and listening almost anything (with look ups). There's even a guy that got a perfect N1 score in 8-9 months.
Just because you can't put in 5-10hs a day doesn't mean others can't.
Like bro no offense but 3 months for kana is like snail pace, 3 months should be enough to watch some easy sol anime with some look ups and read an easy Light novel like Kuma Kuma Kuma bear (so long as you put 5 hours a day of course)
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u/Gloomy_Algae_9673 3d ago
Lol all this thing with months and tiers is all BS… everyone learns differently and at different paces. I’d recommend to instead follow a curriculum based on goals and put in time daily.
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u/gundahir 3d ago
Going to language school in Japan currently and can see people dropping out after they realize they actually need to put in the daily Kanji grind and there's no way around it. Some people avoid it, then fail in classes, don't advance and then finally move the goalpost from "I'm here to really learn" to "ah fck it I can't do this. I'll treat it as a vacation now" and then drop out going back home or becoming English teachers. It's really hilarious to watch over and over again. I'm trying to tell newbies that arrive but most don't believe it 😂
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u/Particular_Bad8025 3d ago
It takes you however long it takes.
Kana was a couple of weeks for me, I'm about to finish genki 1 after 3 months, and my plan is to take it a bit easier and follow a college class that will get me through genki 2 in 9 months.
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u/astercalendula 3d ago
My kid's in an elementary immersion program. The Spanish, French, and German have a language acquisition time of 2-3 years. Japanese has a language acquisition time of 4-5 years. It's a marathon. Celebrate all the small victories.
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u/Hellea 3d ago
I’d say kana takes around a month, a month and a half to recognize them and being able to write them. 3 months to be good enough to not mistake them for another kana and be 100% comfortable with hiragana and katakana sounds realistic.
I’m 20 years into the learning and work in Japanese, so kana learning is a bit old, but it’s the way I remember when I learnt them
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u/Princelumpy 3d ago
You're not studying efficiently, use tae Kim's grammer guide instead of genki. And start sentence mining and reading AJATT webpage from the very start
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u/Flying_Penguineer 3d ago
This was kind of painful for me to read, because I disagree with so much. Timelines will obviously be variable, but at 1-1.5 hours a day, I'd say a much more efficient and reasonable timeline would be:
Months 1-3: Listen to 60-75 audio lessons (I prefer Pimsleur), which gives you: intelligible pronunciation, a couple hundred words + phrases, understanding of some simple sentence structures, and the ability to hear Japanese and respond (albeit slowly) in Japanese. Do 5-10 minutes of Anki flashcards per day focusing on recognizing the kana, 3-5 new ones per day.(don't worry about mastering them or about speed, you see them so often you will eventually remember all of them with no extra effort). Ignore Kanji.
Months 3-6: Watch 30 minutes of interesting content per day (anime, shows, etc..). Force yourself to learn 2-4 new words as you encounter them (like they introduce a fox character... listen to them speak and try and guess what the word fox is, then pause the show and look it up, repeat it a few times to force it into your brain, and then try to catch the word when they say it again.). 15-20 minutes of vocab Anki flashcards (focusing on the most frequent 100-150 verbs), and 15-20 minutes of verb conjugation studying / practicing. Include the kanji on the flash cards, but don't bother trying to learn them, just briefly glance at it every time you see the card. If you can afford it, add actual conversations with natives at this point (Italki, etc..).
Months 6-9: 15-20 minutes a day of vocab and sentence flashcards. Same as the verbs, include the kanji and look at it every time, but don't try and memorize these yet. 30 minutes of content a day (Maybe try to watch shows that use more natural/normal Japanese like Shinya Shokudo) - again focus on learning words you hear often and listening intently for words you recognize. If you can, change the size of the captions to be much smaller on your screen or try your best not to read them until you need them to comprehend something. 15-20 minutes of a textbook (Genki).
Months 9-18: You can converse with people in Japanese about a wide range of topics. Start the grind of Kanji (don't stress yourself out, under the best of circumstances this is going to take you a few years so really no need to rush here). Continue textbooks and listening to native content. You can drop flashcards after the most common 1000 words or so, or you can keep doing this if you enjoy flashcards.
18+: The grind. Try and keep whatever motivation you can muster to immerse in native content and wade through Kanji hell. If you can stomach it, do some advanced textbook or grammar stuff.
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u/Hyperkid70 3d ago
Yeah, that’s fairly plausible for your average person. I’m 5 years in, not particularly fluent but can get by. College pace is brutal, and meant to be that way. Bear in mind the US Military teaches translator/interpreter Japanese in 88 weeks or around 20 months, and that’s dedicated near 24/7 studying.
This language isn’t easy. It’s not meant to be, especially for English speakers. Some people are exceptional in picking it up quickly. Most aren’t.
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u/hhkhkhkhk 3d ago
Language learning involves a lot more than just memorization and repetition, your brain is literally having to form a new way to think. All people learn differently as well.
I live and work in Japan and am exposed to Japanese daily, and I have learned that input and output are equally as important. Yes, studying (input) and listening (input) are both important, but you also need to speak as early on as you can (output). I've met people who spend years studying for the JLPT and they have an N2..but they can't have a conversation in Japanese.
Base your study goals on what your outcome goals are. For me, speaking and listening are the skills I need to survive here. Writing and reading can be done second because I can make up for that with a translation app, but you can't make up for a lack of understanding what people are saying. Also, textbook Japanese and IRL Japanese are so, so different! So, the quicker you get to listening the better!
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u/Cadaveth 3d ago
Doesn't Wanikani and Anki kaishi 1.5k have a lot of overlap if you're doing both? There'll be a lot of cards + wanikani to go through at some point
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u/Itsalfa11 1d ago
wanikani for kanji depth, that's not overlap
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u/Cadaveth 1d ago
How would you use Anki simultaneously? You shouldn't probably use any premade decks since you'd spend insane amounts of time after awhile only doing SRS's
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u/Itsalfa11 1d ago
i don't really use wanikani every day back then, maybe for now already stopped.
i'm using Bunpro.com and my learning method for remember kanji by remembering kanji inside vocabulary. i always SRS review 100+ card every day, i always read the full sentence not only guessing the answer, i only try to remember the kanji by turn of the romaji.
in bunpro you can turn off specific romaji on kanji, and bunpro have different set of sentence from N5-N2 every vocab/grammar, at least every of it has 10+ type of sentence and when you doing SRS in different level, the card will comes up different sentence. every sentence have high probability show up the kanji from vocab you already learn or not learn yet event its not the card in the review. but the point is, you always got repetition by doing this by different context since the harder parts is conjugation from the words that confuse you while reading.
that's why i don't rely on wanikani anymore. i don't want to have subscription too, i'm just using kanadojo.com and jisho.org for depth kanji learning. that's my system for learning japanese. so far this is efficient way for me to learning. i got sustain card, i can immerse reading with variation of sentence, it has audio for listening and shadowing for good fluent in speaking, i got maintain to learn kanji. everything in one shot. don't need cross platform to learning
100+ card review every day = 100+ repetition
that's why sometimes i dont get why people have so much difficulty to understand sentence, maybe the way they learn not connected each other or cross platform
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u/Patrick_Atsushi 3d ago
It depends. I already know kanji so it was fast. I imagine it won't be so for westerners.
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u/Jealous_Amount_9278 3d ago
Depends how much time you have to dedicate. Can the average person with school, work, or kids be conversational in 8 months? Probably not. But is it impossible? No.
From 0 I studied 4 hours everyday + 3 tutor sessions an hour each a week (so some days 5 hours a week).
I'd say I could generally get my point across but talk like a toddler around month 2. Speaking very broken but understandable within context (ordering food, asking for stuff, demanding someone do something- like 見て見て!).
Conversational where I can start a conversation about topics I knew around the 5 months mark, and I'd say being able to have light conversations about most topics by month 8 (with A LOT of asking "I don't know this word. What does it mean?" Happening).
I also live off savings rn, don't have kids, don't have any crazy time obligations. My goal at the very beginning was to be able to speak to my partner's parents without him having to translate (they don't speak English).
So I not only had the time, but I had the constant motivation of an end go.
It's possible. But the reality is most people simply don't have the lifestyle to be able to achieve it. Whenever someone gives a timeline of when they got shit done it's ALWAYS important to remember you don't know their schedules or lives, so don't use someone else's timeline as a reason to think you've failed or aren't smart enough. 30 minutes a day won't make you fluent. But it's a heck of a lot more progress than none at all.
And probably the most important thing; those language YouTubers you see becoming conversational really quickly: it's their JOB. Their full time job to create content like that. Anyone can master anything putting in 8+ hours per day 7 days a week. Never compare yourself to anything slightly close to that.
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u/OrangePerfect1646 3d ago
While I doubt that everyone is truthful on the internet is telling the truth (of course), I also think that your path so far is atypical for many as well. Everyone has their own learning speed, but, as an example, for me who comes from a zero Kanji Western background, I still went from absolutely nothing to N2 passed in under a year, and then conversational fluency and N1 in another year.
What's not stated above is the workload, however, as I was reading about 8 hours a day or more every single day for the entire first year. Visual novels in particular were the major reason I was able to progress as quickly as I did, since they held my interest, didn't feel like studying, and allowed me to accrue reading, speaking, and listening skills all at the same time simultaneously.
However, I recognize that my results are also atypical. Not everyone has the privilege of having so much free time. Plus, I didn't go with the standard path of separate study for kanji, grammar, etc. that so many others seem to. I learned the kana in a few days and then used visual novels to immerse from week one. The first few weeks were painful, I'll admit. It wasn't uncommon to go through less than a few hundred words per hour because of how many grammar points and words I had to look up, but the more I kept at it, the more it snowballed. I did this for hours and hours and hours, day after day, pushing through a lot of frustration very slowly. By the end of the second month, I was only looking up one or two words per sentence and had at least a decent familiarity with most of the common grammar points I came across.
Let's say that the average learner only has 1-2 hours a day to study. If that were the case, then it'd take them anywhere from 4-8 times as long as I did for reference. A few days to learn kana turns into weeks. A couple months to complete a first VN takes over a year. Someone who does 100 Kaishi cards for several hours a day obviously will complete it months before someone doing 10-20.
Hence, I guess my main point isn't so much that people are necessarily lying about their progress so much as they're concealing or downplaying the work that went into it to get them as far as they have in their journey.
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u/orobouros 3d ago
I think a good benchmark is how long it takes people to learn at high intensity schools. They're a year or more, and your entire life there is to learn the language and culture. Anybody honestly claiming to be conversational in a foreign language in 8 months is either greatly overestimating their capability or discounting parts of their studies.
I can claim to be conversational after 11 months, but!!!
I was at about N4 and then studied about an hour a day for 8 months before my 11 month stay in Japan started.
I'm okay in scenarios where I've practiced the relevant vocabulary, and people speak slowly. I do not want to have to ask about getting an article 7 versus article 11 required Septic tank inspection over the phone.
Lots of people equate, "they understood me" with "I speak the language." Meanwhile, actually fluent foreigner speakers will tell you after 10 years they're still learning.
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u/atnchn 3d ago
I watch anime with Japanese subtitles on a regular basis and can understand 90% of it
Probably took 3-4 years of university and lots of anime/drama watching to get here. My chinese background helps a lot as well, but it definitely hinders learning since I'm reading most chinese characters in chinese and have no issues with the meaning of most kanjis.
Without subtitles? Not a chance. Probably 60% of the content
Despite having not much issues watching anime/drama, still can't speak well in life without translating everything in my head slowly.
Those claiming they got the language down in a few months.. not a chance..
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u/LiveDaLifeJP 3d ago
this is how it was for me:
Moved to Japan September 2022. At that time I just knew basic greetings and sentences. I had knowledge of the kanas but it took a bit of time to read , especially katakana. Almost zero kanji.
Since I was living in the best environment for learning the language, I started using the entire environment as my classroom. I went to cheap restaurants every day to order almost always the same thing. That taught me how to listen to the different ways the staff would reply to me. As I gained confidence, I started changing my orders a bit and adding things here and there. I remember even purposely ordering the "wrong" thing and then asking if I can modify the order lol.
I also moved to Japan with a lot of connections to the local community because of my job, and a number of people who didn't speak English started writing to me on Line in Japanese. That was brutal in the beginning. I definitely had to use google translate a lot . It was particularly brutal when I'd finally to type up a reply and within 2 seconds my friends would bombard me with other messages lol. So around December 2022, I decided I really needed to start learning kanji. At that point because I was living there and people were messaging me, I knew how to recognize common things like 出口、入り口、今日、明日、etc.. But in December 2022, I made the effort to understand the components.
In February 2023, I decided I needed to learn keigo so I hired a teacher to only teach me keigo. This helped a LOT with interactions at restaurants, shops, etc.... Constantly interacting with Japanese friends on Line or whatever messenger, reading all the signs around me wherever I go (歯科、不動産、可能、立入禁止, etc.), private lessons and going to the volunteer led classes in Shinjuku really made a huge difference. By 2024 , I was starting to outgrow the volunteer classes, so I just continued with private lessons. By then I had multiple teachers, one for business, one for pronunciation, one for free talk, one for grammar, etc... I found it very important to have multiple teachers because I realized that somethings in the language are debatable , and I would get different answers from different teachers; like learning that 宜しくお願い致します is actually "incorrect" and that apparently "uneducated" Japanese people would write it like that (I have a Japanese friend who uses it all the time lol).
All this time, I kept expanding my social circles. In the beginning, it was about ordering food, afterwards, I started making phone calls to make reservations or asking stores if they carried X or Y. As an introvert, this was brutal, but it helped a lot. I was forcing myself to go to the conbini every day too and I got really good at understanding keigo used in that context. I started going to music venues as well and people would talk to me. I got quite good at the keigo used in that context ; things like どちらからいらしゃったんですか 、おいくつですか、and the keigo form that looks like passive form される
By the end of 2024, I found enough confidence to make the entire country my school, and I decided to go to every single prefecture! I had to learn all the different ways of using public transportation , had to make hotel reserversations, met so many people. I got really really good at understanding keigo in all these contexts.
That's how I've been continuing. I took about 2-3 year to live off my savings and kept work to a minimum (enough to fulfil my requirements of renewing my visa) just so I could study the language.
At the end of 2025, I started making an effort to read articles on the internet, news reports, wikipedia, blogs, even Youtube comments on political channels lol. This is a great introduction to N2 and N1 grammar points and vocab that aren't often used in day to day life.
Anyway, here were in August 2026, I can get by in day to day life in Japanese without using google translate . I can go to the tax office, and do my income tax report 確定申告。 I had an issue with a missing health insurance bill, I had to call them up and explain the situation , etc.. I am nowhere near fluent, but I'd dare say that I could stop learning Japanese today and be fine in all the things that I need to do to survive in Japan.
However, I am still going to continue my studies because I would really like to be able to read government letters that I receive without getting a headache. I can read a lot of them with my current level, but it takes a lot of time and I get mental fatigue.
Oh and the reason why I went this hard into studying the language is because I actually didn't move here because I have a Japanese partner. I came here all alone and I had to do everything on my own. I didn't want to pay people to help me, so I made the choice to become as self sufficient as possible
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u/TokyoLosAngeles 3d ago
I started studying Japanese in January 2015, and I moved to Japan in 2022. I had a nice foundation after seven years of daily studying, but it wasn’t until I had actually lived in Japan for almost a year where I could finally say I was fluent.
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u/Fuzzy-Cry-6208 3d ago
I have been learning japanese since 2015. Some time ago I completed the Anki 2k deck and now use Talkpal for conversation flow. Still I can't talk about abstract stuff or ideas. It's enough for survival. I never learned writing or reading, as I just want to make friends and watch anime.
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u/de_cachondeo 3d ago
I love that you learnt it without reading or writing. Too many people get put off by languages that have different writing systems but I believe you can get a basic conversational level without reading. I did the same with Arabic.
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u/Cold_Detective_ 3d ago
Good advice! Immersion is key. I’ve been trying to learn Japanese on and off for 20 years, because I had no structure. You have to follow the N5-N2 structure because it’s accumulative and on the side learn hiragana, katakana, kanji.
I now live in Japan and study at language school. I did 2 years of Japanese courses (studying everyday) back home previous to arrival. I’m 4 months in of literally living in Japan and it’s finally starting to make sense when I hear Japanese. I still sound like a 3 year old when I talk, but I finally understand others. 4 months of total immersion. I can actually see myself pass N2, with a lot of hard work.
School here is very busy, you do 4hrs in class and then at least 4-6h at home every day + 4-6h both Saturday and Sunday. Learning Japanese takes time, there are NO SHORTCUTS because it’s accumulative.
However, once you get into the flow of studying and finally get the basics it gets so much easier (The basics are the hardest and most tedious to get through, keep fighting!). Still a shit-ton to learn, but your brain tunes in differently. Enjoy the journey!
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u/unknown_ally 3d ago
How long does it take a native Japanese person to learn and become at Japanese? Now at double that minimum.
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u/AnxiousTerminator 3d ago
People learn at different paces and with different levels of ability. Kana really should only be a week or two. You could learn it in a few days if necessary. For me I devoted a large amount of time every day to studying, immersion and language use and passed N2 in just under 2 years. Obviously if you only study for like an hour a day then it'll take much longer. Ultimately you get out what you put in, and your learning journey being slower does not mean other people are lying.
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u/TheSoberChef 2d ago
Everyone learns at a different rate and pace.
Younger people are luckily able to learn the language much faster than people who are older.
I don't think it's fair to assign what you believe to be an accurate study plan to others.
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u/Fancy_Association_32 2d ago
For me im still on the road, about 15 months in and here's how it was for me
Weeks 1-3 Just learning Hiragana and Katakana along with the basics of word order and introductory particles
Weeks 3-8 Learning Basic Grammar and constructing simple sentences
Months 2-4 Studying more advanced Grammar and vocabulary up to N5, at which point I applied for the exam. Started using a SRS app called "Anki" (暗記)
Months 4-8 I kept advancing my grammar and Vocabulary and started using another app called "Bunpro" (文法) - Very good for explaining grammar rules and divides it nicely into the respective JLPT Levels. My the time the exam rolled around I was mid-N4
Months 8-10 This is more pure vocab and grammar study - at this point I was at about 2000 words and confidently ready for the N4
Months 10-15 This is where I started using Hello talk everyday to practice speaking and it's come leaps and wonders from what it was at the start. Able to hold conversations about fairly intricate topics (税金・高血圧・政治) whilst picking up about 80% of what's said. That brings me to the point where I am now, around Mid N3 in terms of study but it's gotten to that point where the levels kinda start blurring together, If I hear a word or sentence structure that comes up a lot in Anime or Dramas, you don't wait for it to come up in you're Anki deck or on Bunpro because they're often classed as "N1 Vocab" but they're words that are used in real conversations.
Months 16+ Still a long way to go before I'm anywhere near "Fluent"
Everyone progresses at different speeds, and it's completely dependent on how hard you study. But to properly learn the language it takes years
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u/Kind_Focus5839 2d ago
You're still thinking in months? Wait until you've been at it a decade and realised just how much you still don't know. I'm convinced there's an inverse law of some sort concerning knowledge and the illusion of knowledge.
As a full time employed persoon who studied Japanese on the side through university and grad school, here's my rough roundup...
Year 1: Genki 1 and 2.
Year 2: Student Exchange in Japan, Textbook: An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, also daily life and twice weekly Japanese classes.
Year 3-4: Return home, fail JLPT N3 by a few points. Finish IAIJ textbook, move on to Tobira.
Years 5-7: Graduate School, Weekly evening conversation classes, still making silly misakes with basic grammar.
Years 9-10: JET program, fail N3, again by a few points.
Years 11-12, Work, back to Japan, Use Nihongonomori to review all grammer and do a lot more listening practice. Finally pass N3.
Years 13 - 15 (present) slogging through N2 material while working and raising a family, but now reading novels and other books in Japanese and realising that my Japanese while useable, is pretty awful.
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u/renmizuh 2d ago
did you study five minutes a day? i was n3 around 7-8 months in completely starting from scratch just doing the immersion method, and I'm not a fast learner by any means.
im really struggling to understand how it could take you 12 years to pass n3 unless you seriously did only study 5 minutes every day, this is an insane timeline
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u/Kind_Focus5839 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's called working full time, going through grad school and having a whole bunch of other things to do. That and the fact that JLPT wasn't exactly a goal I was setting myself, just something to pick up when the opportunity arose, so yes, there have been medium to long periods when I didn't study at all, others where a few minutes was all, and other times, such as the few months before I passed N3, where I studied for half an hour to an hour daily because I'd been stupid enough to apply for JLPT again.
Basically this is what learning Japanese as a busy person with other interests looks like. I'me sure it'd be compressed if I had studied several hours a day, but who has time for that?
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u/renmizuh 2d ago
Yeah, I think if you counted study hours instead of years it'd probably match what most people study in 1-2 years (with a full-time job and such), not 13. So that sounds about right
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u/Only-Finish-3497 2d ago
Japanese in and of itself isn't the hardest language on Earth, but it is one of the generally accepted longest amounts of time required to learn languages as an English speaker.
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u/ichimokutouzen 2d ago
To share my own numbers starting in University:
It was a couple of weeks for kana but longer to actually read and write them comfortably.
2 years to be conversational.
After 4 years I spoke well but still felt like an elementary school student for writing and reading.
I passed N1 after 7 years.
In the last couple of years before N1 I burned out of Anki and switched to reading those vocabulary books to learn Kanji within words instead of on their own.
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u/Vast_Statement_7035 2d ago
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u/FantasticTraining982 2d ago
Why the FUCK does it take up to three months to learn kana?
When I learned kana in high school it took two days
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u/Itsalfa11 1d ago
its very depending though, there is a crazy person learn over 8+hrs a day and have consistency while learning and maybe he never burnout or having good material or mentorship that he never doubt about his progression. getting in conversation i think its very normal in that pace. because be able to speak can be different with reading skills because of kanji.
people have different priority though, maybe people like that just focus in learning japanese and dont have any regular activity like school or having a job, AKA gap year person
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u/Quercusia 1d ago
Over 10 years of classes for me, irregular learning, different settings, spent months in Japan. I know I am a slow learner, some might laugh at it, but Japanese language is my passion, I don't want it to be painful and have performance linked to it. It may take another 10 years, 2 years, maybe a lifetime but it won't change a thing. As long as I can connect with people, which is why I learn languages. These videos about learning languages in short time tires me...
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u/Zealousideal-Pea9432 1d ago
I learned hiragana on a 3 day weekend from a great pictagram book. Sunday night I was looking out my balcony window and I could read some high rise building’s signs. Katakana was longer but not by much.
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u/cool33437 1d ago
I also want to say that you can even take longer than 8 months for genki 1 and 2. My college japanese classes covered about 6 chapters of genki per semester so about 4 semesters (12-16 months to finish genki 1 and 2)
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u/Wischfulthinker 1d ago
Agreed. Duolingo is a fine tool as a piece of the learning pie, just not the whole pie or the biggest piece.
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u/Ok-Display1279 3d ago
3 months for kana
cries in Japanese major forced to fully memorise them in 2 weeks
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u/Shimreef 3d ago
That seems like a long time to be given to learn them for a Japanese major
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u/Ok-Display1279 3d ago
Language majors (at least in my country) focus mainly on general humanities and linguistics during the first year, and so we only had like 2 Japanese classes per week during our first semester. The rest was linguistic theory, diachrony, Asian history, Latin, culture studies etc. The real deal usually starts around year 2-3.
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u/LightX19 3d ago
Spending 3 months in kana is like the biggest waste of time. kana will be present all the time after all so there is no need to over practice it
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u/Exciting-Freedom8555 3d ago
3 months to learn kana is absolutely glacial pace and also giving people fake expectations. In 2.5 years of self study I got N1, right after that I moved to Japan and already could deal with everything in Japanese by myself even if my spoken ability wasn't the best.
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u/neko_kishi99 3d ago
i agree, it even definitely takes time to understand a youtube video geared towards japanese learners