Question How long does it take to be able to understand spoken Japanese?

Hello, I'm new here so please excuse me if I'm breaking any rules by asking this.


I want to learn how to understand spoken Japanese. Yes, my goal for learning Japanese is to watch anime. I already have two Japanese textbooks (Japanese The Manga Way and Colloquial Japanese The Complete Course for Beginners) and I have Anki/TinyCards set up so that I can learn Japanese vocabulary. But my my main goal is not to be able to read Japanese or even construct sentences on my own yet, I primarily just want to understand the language first. I know people will say that learning how to understand first isn't the right way but when we were babies we were illiterate until 5-7 years old, so I think it's the most natural way. Anyway with that said, if I continue learning Japanese from flashcards and text books, how long would in take until I could understand the language in an anime like K-On or Pokemon (since they are said to be easy in vocabulary) without subtitles? Also, do you have any tips for auditory comprehension?

Adults don't learn the same way babies do. And you do not get permanent exposure to the target language.
You want to understand spoken Japanese. Watch the videos with subtitles and identifiy words and phrases. Look up the words that you don't understand. Continue. Try to recognize the words and phrases in another context. Study the grammar to understand how the words come together to form sentences.

Get lots of input appropriate for your level or else you'll get frustrated and give up. How long it takes to be able to understand the animes without subtitles will depend on the amount of time you spend learning and your dedication.

cez said:

Adults don't learn the same way babies do. And you do not get permanent exposure to the target language.
You want to understand spoken Japanese. Watch the videos with subtitles and identifiy words and phrases. Look up the words that you don't understand. Continue. Try to recognize the words and phrases in another context. Study the grammar to understand how the words come together to form sentences.

Get lots of input appropriate for your level or else you'll get frustrated and give up. How long it takes to be able to understand the animes without subtitles will depend on the amount of time you spend learning and your dedication.

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I'm currently spending 3-4 hours a week doing textbooking studying plus at least 1 hour a day consuming Japanese media (anime, game shows, video games etc). But I'm still very much a beginner, with that said, if I continue doing this for the rest of the year would it be a reasonable for me to aim for the goal of being able to understand 85-90% of an "easy" anime in ~6 months time?

PlusUltra said:

I'm currently spending 3-4 hours a week doing textbooking studying plus at least 1 hour a day consuming Japanese media (anime, game shows, video games etc). But I'm still very much a beginner, with that said, if I continue doing this for the rest of the year would it be a reasonable for me to aim for the goal of being able to understand 85-90% of an "easy" anime in ~6 months time?

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General rule of thumb to achieve professional working level proficiency is 88 weeks or 2200 class hours for a native english speaker. I think your six month goal is possible especially if the easy anime is one that you watch repetitively. To understand 80% of an easy anime you've never seen before might be a stretch.

PlusUltra said:

I want to learn how to understand spoken Japanese.

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PlusUltra,

I know you want to learn Japanese, espeically how to understand spoken Japanese. But at this point your main task is not to learn vocabulary or grammar but to master reading and writing hiragana and katakana.

Have you already mastered reading and writing hiragana and katakana? If not, watch this video:

PlusUltra said:

I'm currently spending 3-4 hours a week doing textbooking studying plus at least 1 hour a day consuming Japanese media (anime, game shows, video games etc). But I'm still very much a beginner, with that said, if I continue doing this for the rest of the year would it be a reasonable for me to aim for the goal of being able to understand 85-90% of an "easy" anime in ~6 months time?

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Try learning a sentence a day... Once you learn the kanas try to write it...