People who know English as their first language...and then learned Japanese, how long did it take?

[dcpsoguy]

And How did you learn?

Thanks...

 

[tallest1]

My ex-roommate didn't know any other language besides English when he started Japanese 1 but near the end of the year, he became one of the top in the class and could converse and write really well in standard Japanese. This year, he's doing Japanese 2 and he doesn't seem worried at all.

Though I can tell you have he studied virtually everyday for the class and studied hard. He's a natural-born genius type so results may vary.

 

[StageLeft]

My brother (native is english) was in japan for a year and other than doing some light reading/learning himself before he went the rest he picked up only by talking with people. he was teaching english and speaking in english most of the day so he didn't get a hell of a lot of chances with japan during the run of a day, but by the end of the year he had conversational japanese enough that he could ask for directions and have conversations with people. Sure he'd have to get them to repeat sometimes, but it wasn't that bad.

He just moved there again permanently with a software company so i guess they thought his japanese was good enough to be a project lead.

 

[RaoulDuke]

i told you man, take a class