I thank you for your earnestness to correct me, but I promise I know the definition of the word fluent. This is the same concept I was referring to.
I'd like to point out that the US government doing something (anything) doesn't make it the right way of being done. That aside,
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about is still a practical example of someone who learned Japanese in a comparatively short amount of time. Yes, he was unusually dedicated, but he still did it. I've also had the pleasure of being acquainted with a large number of people who have learned English (yes, to fluency) in incredibly short periods of time, and often by unorthodox methods (two learned primarily from playing Online cooperative games o.0), so my mind is rather open to the possibility. At any rate, my claim was never that this was the standard speed at which to learn a language, but rather that it was possible, because what's possible is defined by the individual. Similarly, most people will never achieve a multi-million dollar personal fortunes through business, or become rocks stars. Yet, some people do, and the main cause of this is an intense motivation and the burning certainty that, for them, it
is possible, and that they won't stop and will do everything and make every sacrifice they can until they're there. These things are incredibly difficult, involve a level of chance, the right methods, and might be said to be effectively impossible. And for the people who think they are, well, indeed. They are. But not, it would seem, for everyone. If you want it, you'll get it. Be a rock star! I fully intent to achieve fluency in a similar amount of time. I'll let you know how it goes, and should I fail, please feel free to laugh in my face. I'll deserve it
But I won't regret it, because I'll be putting in my all.
And this doesn't have to be everyone's goal! Not everyone
wants to be a rock star (I don't want to be a literal one
). Learning a language is a GREAT thing, and I don't care if you take 4 years, 6 years, 10 years, or 2 months, I'll applaud you for doing something great. Maybe it's just a hobby for you, or you outright don't have time. I'd never say that's bad! You can play the guitar all your life and never want to be a musician, it can just be fun. But just don't sit on your laurels! I have so many aunts and uncles who've been learning languages all their lives, but they still can't read a picture book or have a conversation with a toddler. Don't be that! Do it! Set an impossible goal for yourself, even if it's only impossible for
you. Even if you don't prove it possible, you'll go a lot farther than you ever would have trotting along. Do you know when world records get broken? Right after they were broken
last time! Once you see it's possible to run the track in 56.2, you realize it's not as impossible as everyone thought, and maybe 55.9 isn't either.
Guess what? It isn't.
Moving on, I agree fully, 100%, that one should learn the formal forms if one plans to visit Japan very soon. As I said, that's what those books/tapes/etc are directed to, and they're great
for that. Most of them even feature business-specific dialogue, or tourist dialogue, or host family dialogue, or what have you.
However, I take for granted that anyone here in this forum is not interested in that, and anyone learning the language for the long haul probably won't really have enough information to communicate with until they've started learning the dictionary form anyway - especially since any complex sentence you construct (or read, or hear) will contain the dictionary or plain forms, even in very polite speech. The bread I eat is "taberu pan," not "tabemasu pan." Not to mention the ever popular -ndesu construction.
Beyond that, the dictionary-to-masu conjugation is the single easiest conjugation in the entire Japanese language, so you'll be losing almost no time by learning the dictionary forms first, whereas if you learn the -masu first and bury it in your brain, when you move onto a more advanced level, you'll have to conjugate from -masu to dictionary (also relatively easy) and *then* conjugate to whichever conjugation you desire. This is a waste of mental processing time, and a step away from fluency. Eventually you'll weed out the initial -masu stem from your brain, as I have, and the damage will be reversed, but you're still having to learn over something you could have learned correctly in the first place. To that end, I stand by my statement that learning the formal forms first is a waste of time and ultimately (if temporarily) damaging, and that instruction set up that way is not geared in the proper direction for the serious learner.
Anyway, I won't be replying to this thread again after this post, because I don't want to start anything explosive in here. Do feel free to rebuff me (you have a right), but I'll be letting whatever's said stand. Please do not view my statement in the previous post as a personal attack; it was rather an attempt at encouraging the original poster, after I found your post personally discouraging.
To the original poster, Good luck again!
