How long does it take to speak Japanese fluently?

Question

For a complete beginner how long would it take to speak Japanese fluently?
Just give me some numbers, no big explanations.
I plan on being extremely dedicated

Answer 1

It usually takes about 10 years to speak a language more or less fluently, studying every day of course. With Japanese it would probably take 15 years if you are not from China or Korea. Keep in mind that it is impossible speaking any language 100% not even your native one. So, better focus on the conversational level. Good luck.

Answer 2

I have read that it takes 8000 hours of dedicated study time to become fluent in Japanese. If you study for 3 hours a day, that's a little over 7 years.

Personally I studied Japanese for 4 years in college and lived in Japan for 6 years but I am not 100% fluent.

Answer 3

Do　you know Michael Arias? a movie director.
I think he is one of very few non-Japanese who speaks fluent Japanese.
(He speaks very natural Japanese.)
He had learned Japanese at the university for 4 years, and then he has lived in Tokyo, Japan since he was 24(he is 40 now)
A total of 20 years.

Answer 4

For a complete beginner 5 years if you were very dedicated with regular lessons.

If you lived in Japan and studied hard less than 2 years.

You can learn some Japanese at these sites

http://talksushi.com/

http://www.kanjisupremacy.com/

http://kaorusensei.com/

All the best with your studies.

Answer 5

A Mormon missionary supposedly spends 6 months learning Japanese. Many of them are impressively fluent, and I've seen them use their language skill to get good jobs in Japan or back home. There is a trade off, however, and they are only fluent. They aren't taught to read or write, so that's as illiterate as you can get.

Many college level students I've seen are most dangerous around the second year. They tend to know enough Japanese to get meanings exactly switched around. There's always one undergrad who started from scratch (white guy, no ethnic background) at the college Japan club who's fluent like a talk show host, which goes to show you can do it in less than four years.

Many professional translators have a masters in Japanese (required for certification by the American Translators Association), so that's comfortably six years.

But aside from personal experience and observations, the US government has an official assessment of who long it takes to speak Japanese fluently:
http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november...

You have to keep in mind that the model for the US government figure is a 40-year-old white guy with a college degree who's smart enough to have a federal government career. Some younger people may learn faster, and others may never get rid of an ingrained bad habit especially if they are self-taught.

Anyway, the assessment is 88 weeks at 2200 class hours. Japanese is considered a Category III language, "exceptionally difficult for a native English speaker."

So obviously, results will vary according to your motivation and access to learning facilities. You will likely never achieve these kinds of results from self-study alone.

Answer 6

Depends on your language aptitude. There are tests that determine your aptitude; one that involves a pseudo language. If you do well with that preliminary test, it shows that you have an aptitude to learn languages. It is actually best to live in the country in which you're learning the language. I lived in Japan for ten years so I had the luxury of speaking, listening, and reading Japanese only. When you're in the states, you'll be listening, reading, and speaking English MORE than you'll be doing in Japanese, so that makes it harder to learn. You could learn "passable" basic Japanese in two to three months, but you'd be speaking at the level of a Japanese second or third grader. Hope your dedication perseveres. Good luck.

Answer 7

I learned Japanese for almost 3 years and I still suck at it.

Being extremely dedicated means to engage yourself to speak to Japanese people, memorize the most common Kanji (there's more than 100), and to listen to and read the Japanese language through books, songs, movies, newspaper, and all of that.

Assuming you would do this, maybe 5+ years

Good luck!

Answer 8

I know where you're coming from, i want to learn to speak Japanese fluently too. I heard it takes a couple of years (two years or so), but if you're truly dedicated and hard-working then i'd say a year. I just started getting serious about learning the language a couple weeks ago and so far i'm learning a good pattern (if that makes any sence :P).
I know i gave ye a big explanation but i just thought i'd share that with ye XD.

Answer 9

It takes a lot of patience and time to speak and write the japanese language fluently, especially the Kanji characters.

Answer 10

Honestly it depends on your talent in learning languages
Fluent? Yeah you are going to need at least like 3 years
I'll say 3-6 years.