13 How many years does it take to learn Japanese?
Description
This article is from the Japanese FAQ, by TANAKA Tomoyuki tanaka@cs.indiana.edu and Olaf Meeuwissen olaf@IMSL.shinshu-u.ac.jp with numerous contributions by others.
13 How many years does it take to learn Japanese?
Americans often ask me such a question, expecting an
answer such as "10 months" or "about 2 years" or
"5 years, 7 months, and 12 days".
such a question only reveals the questioner's naivete
about learning a foreign language. (similar naivete
about about learning a foreign language is almost as
common among the Japanese.)
do these people also ask,
"how many years does it take to learn to play
the piano / guitar / soccer / baseball ?"
see also the next section "Japanese learn English faster
than Americans learn Japanese".
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