Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-216.186.132.194-20150907000841/@comment-53539-20151006152603

The others have beaten me to the obvious ones, so here is some advice for further along. I'm going to talk here from experience...

Sooner or later you'll best trying face to face with real Japanese people... When you get to that stage things because easy and difficult at the same time. Difficult because the language is throw at you randomly, but easy because you learn quickly. There is no sure way of making sure you learn a language then having to apply it in practice.

To be honest, most of the things you learn in learning during courses you'll never use, or there is short cuts and alternatives to certain phases. Having been to France... Honestly, I made it by just pointing at things and the person was usually able to work out what I wanted with some safe gestures and images, such as pointing to a book and showing some money in hand. But as useful as it is to note this, its better to learn, a lot of non-English folks abroad like it when you attempt to speak the common language of the country. English speakers have a rep for demanding the world speaks English and not bothering to learn anything else but English. :-/

Its basically like this; even though there is thousands of words in the English dictionary, you only need 300 to make a conversation occur. But those 300 words aren't enough alone.... The same rule will apply often to any language.

Its more or less important that you learn how to string sentances together, in short, then to learn random words. And no, just learning to say "hello" and "good bye" is not enough. Though learning to say a handful of polite phrases is beneficial if you make a lot of mistakes. Either way, asking if you can buy a piece of fish is better then saying "buy - fish", as thats a lot more vague to a native of any language. Better to learn 300 words you can string into a sentence then 300 words of no use.... To put it simplier, better to learn a sentance you can use then a single word you can't.

And honestly if you plan to ever go to Japan or any country... Best advice anyone can give someone is to learn how to ask to go to the toilet. You can see off any human needs there is such as thirst, food, getting lost, etc, but the ONE THING you can't see off so easy is your own bowels. .Its possible THE most important phrase when going abroad to learn, despite what they tell you directions can be put together one way or another... You don't always need to know left or right... You can work out almost anything with a little common sense, and humble pie eating over things like that is no shame. But wetting yourself... That is a humiliation that is quite different. >_<

I've always been supportive whatever the case, of people who want to learn another language and its better to learn young then old. Its easier and the sooner you try and learn, the better. As you get older, you take longer to learn things... But don't be shock if you struggle to learn a particular language. Some people just can't grasp languages like Japanese. I struggled to learn French, but I found German easier, when its suppose to be easier to learn French for a native English speaker then any other language in the world. Don't let yourself down if you never learn Japanese, as there are many other languages to try. :-/