1 Year in Japan Near Fluency Possible?

Well I'm pretty sure you get this question a lot and their is no clear answer since it all depends on the student and the time and effort he is willing to put into learn such a difficult language.

First off I learned about 200 Kanji in about 2 weeks. Learned all the Kana and mastered it in 3 weeks. I quite a fast learner when it comes to Kanji for some reason I can memorize and learn it quickly like remembering an image.

But realistically speaking if I amassed enough money to live and study Japanese in Japan for 1 year. Would I be at least above conversational level? Just asking if it were possible. It worked for me when I went to France and learned it in about 3 months (I know the languages are more related to English which is why I learned it quickly. But would the same approach work for Japanese.

My non-Japanese spouse's experience has been that if you attend a Japanese language school full-time, and also review and study at home, you will be able to get by in everyday life in one year or so. Memorizing some kanji, so you recognize signs, but putting together coherent sentences and understanding what others are saying to you takes a bit of time because of the grammar differences. Enjoy learning! :)

Daily conversation is absolutely doable but if you want to a deeper discussion in Japanese in one year's time,that may be a stretch. My korean friend learns how to speak fluent Japanese in 2 1/2 years, but because Korean and Japanese are quite similar in structure/grammar, he has a bit of an advantage. So in your case,don't be overly optimistic. But still, try your best and anything can happen.

Three weeks is not that fast for the kana- at my university we were expected to have them all learned in 2 weeks. The first 200 or so kanji are far simpler than kanji you will encounter later, especially once you start coming across the ones with abstract meanings and very complicated structures.

Fluency or near fluency in a year is not something I've ever seen anyone achieve. Two to three years of full time study in Japan, with a lot of effort put in outside class hours as well, would be more realistic.

I learned Spanish very quickly and was fairly fluent (could hold my own in a conversation and watch a movie without subtitles) with only about 6 months of university study, and I wasn't even in Spain. Japanese has taken me far, far longer though, especially the writing, which I am still working on.

It's really difficult to do. I studied a year in Osaka after learning Japanese since high school. I could get by with everyday conversations, speak to Japanese people, and get around without a problem (I would probably almost be able to pass Lvl 1 of JLPT). The difficult part is going to be reading and writing especially with difficult Kanji involved. No one can really learn that that quickly unless you already know Chinese.

Also, no matter how much you try to cram, the things that you learn might not be practical and you will need a lot of time to understand the practical implications of a sentence structure for example. Naturally, you are probably an english speaker and no matter how hard you try, your thoughts are going to be in english. Trying to translate those thoughts into Japanese is the problem because sometimes there just isn't a way to do it. If you really want to be fluent, you really need to be thinking in Japanese and you don't start doing that in just 1 year.

I should rephrase my situation. All I really wanted to know if that if a 1 Year Japanese Language Course would bring me to conversational level. Language skill that would allow me live out life, not being confused or lost in Japan. This plan will most likely be in place in 4-6 years. By that time
I will have gained experience in some sort of IT Field (You can thank the Air Force for that).

Right now It's application season for college and applying to SDSD, UC Irvine, NYU.
Thank you for answering my question.

Definitions of fluency can vary. Within a year you can certainly reach a level where you can get by in daily life, but many people wouldn't consider that to be "near fluency". I consider fluency to be a level where you can participate in a conversation on virtually any topic, and hold your own in a business situation- you won't be at that level after a year. Anyway, good luck with your studies- sounds like you are very motivated.

Yes, that's what I meant when I answered your question earlier - in one year you are likely to get to a level where you can get by.

One non-Japanese person I know has stayed in Japan one year as a high school exchange student, then came again as JET, etc., (no not really full-time study, I know), and he gets by alright, though not "fluent" at all, particularly in business conversations... that's the level you are likely get to in one year :)

medium / advanced conversational level is possible

fluency is not. fluency will take you at least 2 years to achieve and it will have to be done in japan, not abroad.

if you only study abroad then it will take 2 years to achieve a conversational level.

there are some exceptions but in my experience this is the case. you can't become fluent without totally immersing yourself in the foreign language environment

one thing about kanji, it's nothing to learn 200 kanji especially if you only remember the meaning and not the various readings. those readings while annoying to learn, are important because the pronunciation changes when you use them in normal japanese depending on the situation.

the other thing is that the first few hundred kanji beginners learn are extremely easy to remember. when you start getting into more difficult stuff you will have a hard time remembering things because they look so similar, and writing them is very difficult, some kanji have 20-30 strokes and are a big challenge.

Dear Juan,

According to my experience, one year can be enough to have a very good base in Japanese if you go to Japanese class everyday and study hard once at home.
I had studied Japanese for five years at the university in my homecountry when I went to Japan to stay for a couple of years. I noticed improvements after the first six months of living in Japan, and after the first year I managed to reach a very high conversational level (on the other hand, kanji study never seems to have an end!), started to manage to watch movies in Japanese (no subtitles), understand song words, join conversation on almost any kind of topic (well, at least those I could understand in my native language as well!). Of course the second year in Japan allowed to improve my first basic skills, and we all know there will always be something to be learnt when it comes to foreign languages. Nonetheless...
So please go to Japan and study the language, you will surely get great results if you do your best!
A piece of advice: I try not to watch too much TV in my homecountry, but I do suggest to watch TV while in Japan. TV really allowed me to sprint up my learning process. In addition, Japanese programs often have Japanese "subtitles" when people speak, so it happens to be a good exercise to memorize kanjis as well!!!

Good luck!

I find that how good a person's Japanese is closely related to how many Kanji and vocabulary they know.

So for example, I work in a junior high school and I am studying kanji and vocabulary taught in elementary school. I'm almost done, about a 1,000 kanji.
I can talk with the kids in my school all day long. But older kids and adults are a bit of a problem. They start using more complicated vocabulary that they most likely learned in school. Every time I speak with an adult and I don't understand a word, it's usually made of kanji I haven't studied yet.

See what I'm trying to say?

If you learn the first 1000 kanji AND 4,000-5,000 words associated with those kanji, talking with children and teens should be easy but having a 'serious' conversation with an adult about topics like science, history or politics is going to be difficult.

If you learn all the 2,000 kanji kids learn in school plus 10,000-15,000 words, then I imagine you could talk to a Japanese adult about almost anything with little trouble.

I know maybe 800 kanji and 8,000 words. I test myself from time to time:)

Grammar isn't so difficult. I think vocabulary and as someone else said, 'thinking in Japanese' are the biggest obstacles.

Hope that helps!

Just an addendum to XYZs comment on watching TV. Try this website:

http://xorsyst.com/japan/watch-japanese-tv-online/

and you can watch live Japanese TV online. Part of total immersion.

Good luck and have fun.

You are thinking too much. Just study as much as you can and see what happens. Also as many people has stated above "fluent" has many different meaning. Just study and do your best instead of over thinking.

I have been here for 8 months. I came with very very basic aisatsu and a some random vocabulary. It took me about a week for hiragana and a week for katakana. If you walk around and constantly try and read signs, you will keep practice with those alphabets.

I am on 4th grade kanji and plan on finishing elementary school this year (2014) and take on high school next year. I work for a company that is owned by my wife's family. So I am lucky and get time to to study everyday. There is little to no English spoken at work, so I have to struggle through Japanese. I learned about 5,000 vocabulary words in Romaji, which help but without the Kanji, they can get confusing because the sounds and meanings are so similar, they are easy to mess up.

It's only been 8 months, but I have been ridiculed, threatened and put in my place by my wife and her family for my lack of picking up Japanese fast enough. So I am doing it all under pressure. I study at home when I go home, but have a small baby, so I also have to take care of the child and learn how to be a father, which is a challenge itself.

I can already communicate pretty well with many people. Basic conversation is easy and when I have had a few drinks, I stop thinking and become really good in conversation. Understanding is hard, especially when people speak to you as if you are fluent, when in fact you aren't. I recommend tackling Kanji as soon and as hard core as possible because if you get through the 6th grade level, most basic conversation words, you will really understand. Once you get there, go crazy with flashcards learning vocabulary and use words as much as possible. Make lots of mistakes and speak speak speak.

Also, remember to take breaks and enjoy yourself as much as possible. If you get frustrated and feel at a loss, you will get in danger of what happens to many foreigners, and start blaming Japan and hating it here. Japan is by no means and easy place to live, unless you are rich and fluent in Japanese. The passive aggressive approach that many people here take to things may make everything, including learning the language difficult. Be yourself, and have fun with it, and you can speak in a year. I speak well enough to get by now after 8 months, and I still think I never went about it the right way. Also, make sure someone who can speak both Japanese and English is available to help you. Some concepts and weird things about the language need to be explained in English. When you do start to speak, be extremely confident. Japanese people are very insecure, especially with foreign language. They also are honored and surprised when a westerner confidently speaks their language to them, even if the grammar is all over the place. They will usually understand wheat you are trying to say and (unless its my wife and her family) be very impressed and likely to want to work with you.

Fluency is a tricky question- after being here 3 years I said I was fluent, and now after 8 I retract that even though my Japanese is leagues beyond what it was then ;) But after a year of full time study you should definitely be able to become conversational, get around without many problems, and make friends.