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Do you speak Japanese?

What's your level in Japanese ?

  • Native speaker

    Votes: 33 4.8%

  • Native level (upper-advanced - JLPT1)

    Votes: 23 3.4%

  • Advanced (JLPT2)

    Votes: 41 6.0%

  • High intermediate-lower advanced

    Votes: 48 7.0%

  • Intermediate (JLPT3)

    Votes: 66 9.6%

  • High beginner/lower intermediate (JLPT4)

    Votes: 124 18.1%

  • Know the kanas, but still pretty much beginner

    Votes: 133 19.4%

  • Just a few words or phrases (greetings, etc)

    Votes: 170 24.8%

  • I don't know anything, but I want to learn !

    Votes: 54 7.9%

  • Don't care about Japanese language.

    Votes: 1 0.1%
  • Total voters
    686
hi. i'm quite new to this web site....
well, i speak japanese because i am japanese.
Since i live in Rome, i cannot really say that i actually speak it perfectly.
(i know slangy things but not formal ones)
I used to live in japan up til the end of the primary school and i can speak it fluently enough but the Kanji is the biggest problem i have. I know easy ones but my Kanji knowledge is completely useless. Some of you might know Kanji better than i do though i am (sort of) a native speaker!
(i speak Japanese at home and English at school.)
 
you all still put me to shame i only know lik39 but its a work in progress.by the way does ken mean dog in japanese the kanji cards if not i am reading them wrong.
 
by the way does ken mean dog in japanese the kanji cards if not i am reading them wrong.
Click to expand...
It does, but not really...
The kanji, "犬" can be read in two ways, "INU" and "KEN".
"Ken" is usually used when it's connected to the types of dogs.
like, guiding dog is 盲導犬(mou dou ken) in Japanese. Not Mou dou inu.
So KEN is still correct as its furigana, but if you want to mean a "dog" by itself, then you have to say "INU".
 
i can't wait to have fluent conversations with nihonjin!! i must have patience...
 
I speak Osaka-ben well enough to be understood and to have conversation in Japanese, but I only know hiragana and katakana and kanji to a third grade level... even though I live in Japan.
 
I know a few greetings and stuff, but other than that not really...I really wanna learn though ^^
 
I'm high beginner/lower intermediate, working on my conversational skills at the moment
 
I started with Japanese 2 month ago, so I can read and write the kanas and perhaps 20 kanji, so a very stupid beginner
 
I'm on JLPT4 was going to present the 3-kyu this year but decided to postpone it one year too insecure to take it
I'm on a basic conversational level. Greetings, buying, selling, travelling, can talk/understand better than I can read. And can read more or less without problem, except for Kanji Been studying for... 2 years now, I do believe.
 
about kanji

Hi,I am a native japanese.
I also feel Kanji is difficult because each of them have two or three different prononciations and meanings.
I don't know how to read some kanji but easy to understand its meaning.So I can read books or newspapers fast.
You may be interesting to know each elements or constructions of kanji.
As for me,English is more difficult......
 
I've been learning for 3 months. i can read kana and some kanzi, but can't speak much.

//edit: @miyuki

my japanese teacher also says english is difficult. but she finds german and latin very easy!
 
Last edited:
With a few more months of study, I feel like I'd be able to pass JLPT 4 (whichever test it is that's the easiest). Is there any point in taking that, other than just to say you have?
 
Fantt said:
With a few more months of study, I feel like I'd be able to pass JLPT 4 (whichever test it is that's the easiest). Is there any point in taking that, other than just to say you have?
Click to expand...
Not to discourage you, but honestly, I'd have to say probably not. The level of Japanese that the JLPT 4-kyuu tests you on is so basic that being able to pass it doesn't really say anything about your ability to do anything practical with the language. If you're just looking to get a feel for how you well you're progessing in your studies, you can try to track down some sample questions online (though it sounds like you've already done this) and see how you do with them, but I wouldn't waste your money or time taking the actual test.

If you're looking to work in Japan in an environment where command of the language is a necessary part of the job, I'd say that you'd need to pass 2-kyuu or 1-kyuu for it to mean much of anything, assuming that your would-be employers were familiar with the test to begin with.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much what I've gathered, jt. I'm not discouraged at all. It's a long road to language competency - I'm just along for the ride. Wheeeeeeee!
 
Well, I'm a senior in HS and I've studied Japanese for 5 years now. The first three years were extremely slow and easy...but fun. We did a lot of the basic traditional culture stuff, and all got inflated gpas. haha. Since this past summer, though, when my Japanese class went to Japan for an exchange trip/homestay/etc, I've been really motivated. In Japan, I nearly doubled my kanji knowledge from 250 to almost 500. I had been using the Basic Kanji book vol1 up until then, and then in Japan I went to Kinokuniya and purchased volume 2. Currently, I'm at around 700 or so, and I can recognize a lot more.
 
I think I would put myself in the higher intermediate section, but then some of the listening still troubles me. I guess it's because the language has too many homophones. That, coupled with the vast usage of casual slang, still bothers me. Although I could communicate what I want to say in Japanese (such as daily speaking), but I still have troubles understanding 100% of conversations among native speakers.

In the university that I am attending, there's a Japanese program that focuses heavily on Kanji and Kanji Goku. But then, we don't get much chances in actually using the language in class.
 
You're at a university in Canada, right? It may seem like a stupid question, but there are those here who use the flag to show birthplace instead of location, and even those who just like to put up different flags because they don't want to be judged by where they are. Anyway, I was just curious whether you were studying in Japan or not.
 

You are right, the university that I am in is located in Canada. If I were in Japan, I guess the listening part would've been much better by now. From what I heard from friends who stayed in Japan, they tend to do much better in the listening part of JLPT than us who studied in foreign countries.
 
I guess I'm somewhere on the intermediate level. I'm done with learning kana and basic grammatical rules. Next is ... everything else!! That's gonna be a looooooooong way to decent speaking and reading levels. Basically, I can understand if two Japanese talk standard and quite slowly with very common words. Also, replying to very common and easy questions and statements is OK.

I think I need maximum exposure to the language and that's almost impossible to achieve outside Japan (except if you are lucky enough to find a Japanese friend that'll actually speak to you in Japanese ).
 
I am pushed to listen read and talk in Japanese everyday now, but since I don't take any course, my progress in grammar is not desirable. I can tell a 漢字 means, but I have trouble still with 発音、 to make matter worse, I found many Japanese 言葉 that has completely different or similar meaning share the same 漢字 root, but different ending, like perhaps -む or -じる, or -さる。 This make me relate Japanese to tagalog.

ax
 

漢字はとても奥が深いですね。
一つの漢字が漢字の組み合わせやすい方で読み方が変わ るのは当たり前の事ですね。
違う読みで辞書を引いてしまって見つけられないときが あります
 

I'm pretty much at the level Masayoshi-san mentions. I just took the 4kyuu JLPT, and had my eyes opened about my listening comprehension abilities (or lack thereof). For myself I agree with Masayoshi-san that I would need maximum exposure of the language (ie. in Japan, 24/7) to become truly conversational.
 

In the meantime, there are things you can do to improve. Watch Japanese TV (if you can get it), or download TV shows or anime; listen to Japanese music; they have internet radio stations in Japanese; basically find some good source of Japanese audio and listen to it a lot. Another thing to do is to speak Japanese to yourself whenever you have a chance. It really does help. And, of course, find a Japanese person to speak with at least occasionally. Of course, being in Japan is the fastest way, but not the only one.
 
hmmmmm what level am I.....High beginner/lower intermediate maybe for the first 3 months or so. I studied at home then I found a place called "Bunka centre" (culture centre) where i went to learn Japanese from a volunteer group, but thats only twice a week(for an hour and half per class) at home we always talk English... after a few months I stopped going coz I found work. At work I mostly speak English even with the japanese english teachers. But I've been here for a year nearly and about 3 months ago I got off my backside and start studying japanese again. At home we speak Japanese (tell u the truth, it really helps me progress in my japanese lingo)
I joined a martial arts club at school its very very hard but Im trying my best!!!
I go to Japanese classes again. I would have gone to Nagoya to learn but its way too far to travel. coz i leave out in the sticks!!!
 
i really want to learn japanese, just don't know where to start. i only know words. any help?
 
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