Japanese time it takes learn jap

Hi, i was woundering how long it would take to learn japanese. I am thinking of taking it in high school this year and am going to Japan in April and i wanted to be able to get some manga/anime and also to spark a conversation.

P.S. I am also thinking of using one of those learn language CD/book things and was woundering if u could recommend one.


Thanks

 

Most japanese students continue to learn japanese throughout their life. Within a year of concentrated study, you can master the two kana, upwards of 500 kanji and acquire a conversational level of japane grammar.

In reality, the only time-consuming part of learning japanese is learning the kanji - and this can prove very time-consuming, especially if you're not constantly exposing yourself (ooh, matron) to them. As is often said, you'll need around 2,000 kanji to be able to read a newspaper, these are considered the general use kanji [there are a lot more, but 2,000 is fine for living day-to-day in Japan, or for you manga/anime fans]. I learnt them at about 10 every day, and that was quite a challenge - each character has its own stroke order, a handful of different pronuniciatons and meanings, and many compound words.

 

While I'm not exactly qualified to answer this, I can suggest a tape/workbook box you can borrow fromany public library. I used the Berlitz Basic Japanese language course. It focusues primarily on pronunciation and conversational Japanese, with no instruction on the written language. As for going to Japan, it is possible to get by without knowing the language, though it is a definite help. It is best to find someone who speaks English, which isn't too difficult. There was a site I found about living in Japan, unfortunately I lost the URL. Just go to Google and search for "living in Japan guide" and you'll get all the help you need.