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Interesting topic... hmm I'd have to say when I was taking a placement test for the school I was to attend. It was sent to me before I even went, with a subsequent "interview" in Japanese over the phone! They actually took the time to call me from Japan! After completing the placement test.. err, well, I wouldn't call it complete. There were a lot of blanks, especially in the verb conjugation box. And when I finally got to classes and saw the pace they were going at, one 3-month period was the equivalent to a semester in junior college! I realized that whatever I had learned in class or on my own in America was just the tip of the iceberg in Japan. But I'm glad I got to realize that big difference. I know that not everyone can have the opportunities I did.. and someday I'd like to continue studying more at that school, because even 2 years of intensive studying in Japan is barely enough!

I'd like to be fluent on a native level someday but I'm not going to rush it at all. But, unless you end up living there for 25+ years... isn't one always learning new things about language?

It's such a great thing.

I'd have to say it's when I play some of my Japanese computer games and when I watch stuff like Yakuza movies and try to put together what's being said without reading the subtitles... It can be really intimidating! gonk

I think it was the beginning of my 3rd year of Japanese class. Up until that point I had an A average in japanese and thought I had a grip on it. I soon learned I was dealing with the kind and gentle kind of Japanese called "Japanese for foreigners" and was about to encounter the ugly beast called real Japanese.

My sensei all but stopped speaking in English in class, and the textbook we had was evil! All of a sudden we went from talking about things like "What do you want to be when you grow up" and "What kind of tv shows did you watch last night" to "What do you think about the theory of evolution?" Ack! We also had these evil little dialogues where we would literaly spend weeks trying to figure out what's going on in them. Everyone bitched and moaned, and then my sensei said in english "You need to learn these because this is how Japanese people actually speak."

And even that stuff is the more formal stuff, forget trying to figure out a slang filled manga or movie.

I was recently talking to a first year student (I'm at the end of my 4th year) and she was like "So, you basically learn all the grammatical structures your first two years then spend the next two getting fluent, right?" Um, yeah, something like that. sweatdrop

Its alwasy funny when you end up teaching Japanese people about their own language. For instance, my Japanese girl friend was shocked to learn that zubon (pants, dirived from a Dutch word) was not an English word. Most Japanese simply assume that katakana words come from English xd Hell, even my modern lit sensei at my Japanese university was impressed when I showed her how to derive kurui (black) from ancient Chinese cool

That being said, you'll always, not matter how long you've studied a foreign, find a new and interesting challenge (or frustration depending on how you see it). Hell, I've know people that have lived in Tokyo for years and can't speak a word of Japanese. Not that you have to know any Japanese to survive in Tokyo (very foreigner friendly). Reading my text books always gives me a head ache and writing essay is perpetual suckiness. Seems like their is always too much to study... neutral

I realize how little Japanese I know when 1) I listen to J-Pop and 2) try to read in Japanese (I have untranslated comics.) With the music, I can never understand what they're saying, even if I know all the words, and with the comics, there're so many kanji I don't know or understand, it's crazy. sweatdrop

Ah that's right! gonk

Furigana is your friend, especially when you barely know the basics of the language. *eyes almost popped of my head when I read an old issue of the Japanese Shonen Jump* And forget just learning the slang, imagine trying to trasliterate it all, especially with something like Shimotsuma Monogatari...