Re:How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months
by jacquesm on Monday October 19, 2009 @08:48AM
(#889958)
No, I can see clearly that that's all interrelated.
I was exactly wondering whether you just learned that language a few years ago and you'd somehow mastered it to this level in a short time or if there were some circumstances that would explain your proficiency better. It's quite rare to find anybody that spends even a moderate time in Japan to know the language at that level.
A good friend has her degree in Japanese and she would not even begin to claim that she's either fluent or comfortable in the language, and that's after 5 years of studying it intensely. To her it's a 'good basis to start learning Japanese', which she says is almost impossible outside of living in Japan for an extended period. It's against that background that I'm impressed, I know a little bit of how much effort that must have been, even if plenty of it went 'as you go' by immersion.
I think that I was looking for exactly the first two words of your reply.
My own 'second mother tongue' (English) I've been learning since I was 10 years old or so and I'm still learning, there isn't a day that I find some turn of phrase that I hadn't encountered before. I've also noticed that speaking a few languages helps to make you (much) more forgiving towards others in a foreign tongue.
Do you come across many foreigners in Japan that have your level ?
I was exactly wondering whether you just learned that language a few years ago and you'd somehow mastered it to this level in a short time or if there were some circumstances that would explain your proficiency better. It's quite rare to find anybody that spends even a moderate time in Japan to know the language at that level.
A good friend has her degree in Japanese and she would not even begin to claim that she's either fluent or comfortable in the language, and that's after 5 years of studying it intensely. To her it's a 'good basis to start learning Japanese', which she says is almost impossible outside of living in Japan for an extended period. It's against that background that I'm impressed, I know a little bit of how much effort that must have been, even if plenty of it went 'as you go' by immersion.
I think that I was looking for exactly the first two words of your reply.
My own 'second mother tongue' (English) I've been learning since I was 10 years old or so and I'm still learning, there isn't a day that I find some turn of phrase that I hadn't encountered before. I've also noticed that speaking a few languages helps to make you (much) more forgiving towards others in a foreign tongue.
Do you come across many foreigners in Japan that have your level ?