Do You Want to “Master the Japanese Language in Just Two Months?” (2024)

I’m sorry, but it’s not even remotely possible — here’s why.

Do You Want to “Master the Japanese Language in Just Two Months?” (1)

Do You Want to “Master the Japanese Language in Just Two Months?” (2)

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9 min read

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Dec 23, 2021

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Do You Want to “Master the Japanese Language in Just Two Months?” (3)

I was targeted by a Facebook ad with the following headline:

Master the Japanese Language In Just Two Months

Does this headline make you want to laugh or cry? I don’t know what you make of it, but this ad made me angry.

After spending an entire decade to get good at Japanese, you’re telling me that I could have mastered the language in a mere two months?

Of course, we all know that any ad phrased like that is clickbait. We all know that there’s no shortcut. There’s simply no way to master the Japanese language (or any other language) in two months. Not even children can do it. If you see any ad that promises that you can master Japanese in two months — please don’t pay for any language courses. They are either making false claims or taking creative liberties to change the meaning of “master.”

So what should you do if you’re interested in studying Japanese and want to get good at it? Before answering the question, we first need to know what kind of a beast we are dealing with.

According to the US Department of State Foreign Service Institute, it takes an average of 2200 hours (88 weeks) of intensive study in Japanese to get good. Japanese, along with Chinese, Korean, and Arabic, are classified as Class IV languages. Super-hard languages, they call it. These are some of the hardest languages to learn for English native speakers.

The Foreign Service Institute has been training US government officials for over 70 years. If there was a way to master Japanese in two months, you’d think that they would have figured out how to do that by now.

Why is Japanese so hard to learn, let alone master, for English native speakers?

The writing system is complicated

Most obviously, the writing system is completely alien to a native English speaker. Or for any speaker of a language that uses the Roman…

Do You Want to “Master the Japanese Language in Just Two Months?” (2024)

FAQs

Do You Want to “Master the Japanese Language in Just Two Months?”? ›

We all know that there's no shortcut. There's simply no way to master the Japanese language (or any other language) in two months. Not even children can do it.

Can you learn basic Japanese in 2 months? ›

It takes committed learners around 4-6 months to achieve a beginner level of Japanese when starting without any prior knowledge of the language. Once you've reached this milestone, you'll be able to do the following: Use basic Japanese phrases to introduce yourself, order food, and ask for directions.

How long does it take to master Japanese language? ›

Starting from the idea of difficulty the FSI estimate gave us, it will take you 2200 hours or 44 weeks to reach Japanese fluency if your native language is English. That's: 1 year if you spend 6 hours every day on your Japanese studies. 6 years if you study for 1 hour every day.

Is Japanese a hard language to master? ›

The SLS ranks languages by the length of time typically required for native English speaking students to reach “Professional Working Proficiency” in a large number of languages. Japanese is ranked as a Category IV language, the hardest category to learn, requiring 2,200 class hours — as compared to the easiest group of ...

How many times a week should I study Japanese? ›

Those who spend more hours daily learning and practicing will probably progress faster than those who only dedicate a few hours per week. So for those looking to learn the language as a secondary language, at least 2—4 hours should be spent in a day learning and practicing the language.

How hard is Japanese to learn? ›

The Japanese language is considered one of the most difficult to learn by many English speakers. With three separate writing systems, an opposite sentence structure to English, and a complicated hierarchy of politeness, it's decidedly complex.

How many words do you need to know to be fluent in Japanese? ›

About 3000-5000 words will give you 'basic fluency'. At this level you will be able to find a way to say anything you want to, but it probably won't be the way a native speaker would say it.

What is the hardest language in the world? ›

The top 10 hardest languages in the world include Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Finnish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Georgian, and Navajo. These languages are renowned for their intricate grammar systems, complex writing systems, and significant differences from English.

What is the hardest language to learn? ›

1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world.

What's the hardest part of learning Japanese? ›

Listening comprehension is one of the hardest abilities to work on when learning Japanese, solely because it requires so much time investment — much more than any other skill here. You may be able to read a sentence, but if you hear the same sentence in audio form, you might have no clue what it means.

Is Japanese harder or Chinese? ›

There are distinctive disparities between the two language structures. Japanese grammar generally follows SOV (subject, object, verb) language. In contrast, Chinese grammar follows SVO, similar to English, making learning and speaking Chinese easier than Japanese.

What makes Japanese so difficult? ›

Is Japanese the hardest language to learn? Japanese is considered challenging for English speakers due to its distinct grammatical structure and writing system, but difficulty varies by learner.

Is 1 hour of Japanese a day enough? ›

To maintain a high level of proficiency, you have to spend more than 1 hour on Japanese each day anyway. So even if you magically got fluent, it wouldn't last long. In the very beginning it is easier to improve. Until a certain point studying Japanese for one hour a day is going to be sufficient.

Do Japanese students go to school every day? ›

Public schools in Japan have classes five days a week, from Monday to Friday. There are also schools that have classes on Saturday. In junior high and high schools, there are six class periods each day, typically lasting 50 minutes for each.

How long does it take to learn basic Japanese? ›

Depending on how many hours per day you can study Japanese, attaining a basic level of fluency can take between six months and one year. Once you've reached a basic level of Japanese fluency, you should be able to: Ask for and understand directions.

Can I learn basic Korean in 2 months? ›

If you are looking for learning basic alphabet and manners, you can learn that in a day. Learning how to speak some sentences may take a week or two to learn. But if you are thinking of completely mastering the language, you won't be able to do it in two months or less.

How much Japanese can I learn in one month? ›

Give yourself a deadline to reach the end of the post: a month from when you begin studying. At the end of the month, you should be able to form coherent sentences, read some basic text (with furigana) and understand some spoken Japanese. You'll be surprised at how much you've learned!

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