Hey guys, so I’ve been wanting to travel to japan for a long time and I finally found a good exchange program from my school that would maybe allow me to do that in kyoto, the only problem is you need to get N1 level in a test, now I know actually knowing japanese to an N1 level is pretty difficult because of the grammar and amount of characters and stuff, but how long would it take me to just be able to pass the test? because if it’s a year then I could start now and take the trip my senior year, but if it would take me longer then I’m just gonna have to find some other excuse to visit sometime.
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Passing the N1 takes around 3,000 to 4,000 hours depending on the person. So I would say don’t count on doing it next year.
I’d perfect my understanding of punctuation in English first.
I don’t know what level of Japanese you have now, or your availability. A few people have done it in a year. From what I can tell, it takes 6+ hour days of studying, and some of these people seem (or admit) to skipping output, which your program probably requires you to do.
You’ll likely want to hire a tutor and/or take classes.
Time is irrelevant it’s hours spent and the quality of the hours, it’s at a minimum 4000 hours
https://cotoacademy.com/study-hours-needed-pass-jlpt-comparison-levels/
One year starting from zero is vanishing unlikely unless you can do it literally full time and even then it’s nowhere near guaranteed
It’s about the number of hours, not overall amount of time. If you can study 5-6 hours a day consistently focused on the exam (getting you to around 1800-2200 hours), N1 in a year is definitely possible.
I think there are two issues at hand.
1. we don’t know your current level
2. we need a better definition for “ get N1 level in *a test*”; are you required to take the actual JLPT exam, or just an internal placement test?
Either way, it would be helpful if you could attach the specifics (website link) of the exchange program.
From what it sounds like, your primary goal is not to master the Japanese language fluency but to visit Japan and travel. Why don’t you make a side-by-side comparison table of both options (exchange program or travel by yourself) on the cost/ time/ energy investments? The school this program is offering, is it where you wanted to visit? Is it conveniently located near things you wanted to see? the nature of an exchange program dictated as such that you’ll be going to school for most of your week and using your free time to do school work, so you won’t be hiking/bar hopping/canoeing/surfing all the time. Are you okay with that?
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As someone subscribing to this language learning subreddit we are biased to advise you to do anything you can to master the language fluency. On the other hand, I feel obligated to remind you that the opportunity cost is a real thing and if you were a complete beginner, the thousands of hours you would’ve needed to invest in language learning could potentially be invested somewhere else, such as working to fund your trip so you can afford to stay longer and more comfortably.
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in general, going as far as to “dedicate all time and resources to master the language and do school work” to achieve “visiting and traveling” is not infeasible, just not the most practical.
It’s like a thirsty person decided to do a few thousands of burpees and then wipe his sweaty body with a towel, then squeeze the towel to extract a few drops of sweat and then drink that sweat, while the option to simply turn the faucet has been there all along. You see a towel lying there, that doesn’t make drinking towel sweat the best thirst-quenching idea. Your school happen to have an exchange program, that doesn’t make it the most simple or intuitive way to “visit and travel”—you realize people with enough money and time (and health) can just pick up and go traveling, right?
If you want to just visit and travel, just work on getting more money and time. Think really hard on where you want to go and what you want to do.
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Answering the original question: if you have a perfect score in N2, it would take a year to pass N1. Assuming you have a full time job, taking part in an actual JLPT exam (not a similar exam or online mock exam).