subject: I Have No Time To Learn Japanese [print this page] Learning Japanese is something that people want to do these days. If you are thinking of going to Japan for a few weeks for vacation or on a business trip this is a good reason. Or it's possible that you simply find great pleasure in learning new languages and you are ready to take on Japanese as your next personal challenge. Being able to speak in another language is something worth doing and will give you great pleasure when you succeed.
Although I had wanted to learn Japanese for a long time I guess the main reason why I finally decided to do something about it was because I was planning a long trip to Tokyo. I figured if I didn't learn how to at least speak a little bit of Japanese, I'd be trapped living off of Pocky and vending machine snacks for 3 months. I've come a long way since then and people sometimes ask me if I can speak Japanese fluently. I don't always know how to answer.
If you want my opinion, sure, I can get by in Japan fairly easily, but am I fluent? I don't know about that. No matter how much I study or practice, I can't really say I'll every be able to speak perfectly fluent Japanese New words and phrases will always crop up that you don't know. I am actually able to watch and fully understand what's happening in Japanese cartoons and movies now without subtitles--that's how I know I've come a long way.
There is still a way to go in my learning but I'm getting there, slowly but surly. Going from knowing almost nothing at all to being able to speak pretty good Japanese wasn't easy, and you're probably wondering how I did it.
If you want the honest answer, it took many hours of study and perseverance. If you think it's going to be easy to do this then you will be mistaken. In essence, learning any new language takes a huge amount of time and effort. But the important thing is that anyone can actually do it they want to.
Finding enough time to study with other things in life can be tough. If you try hard enough there's always moments when you can fit in study while doing other things like traveling to and from work while listening to Japanese podcasts or other audio.
