I’m currently an 8th grader in the u.s. I’ve been studying japanese for a few months now. I want to take japanese for all of high school and hopefully go to a japanese college. What are my chances? Will 4 years even be enough?
Honestly, it depends on how hard you study within those 4 years. I know people who have been “studying” Japanese for years and they still can only pass N4…
But if you study for hours every single day for 4 years straight, I am positive that N1 is achievable. Again, it all depends on how much you study.
Realistically N4 and if you keep up at it then N3 could happen. It all depends on how much you study outside of class.
It depends on how rigorous your curriculum is.
I finished all the Japanese my high school had and that added up to not even all of Japanese 101 at my university.
Japanese 101 being one quarter or about 3 months.
Just doing what you need to to get an A in class? Maybe N5. If you ever want to be more than barely conversational, you’ll have to put a lot of time and dedication into learning and getting very familiar with the language on top of just the surface-level studying typical of foreign language classes.
Like everyone else is saying, it really depends on the work you put in. I’ve been studying Japanese for a little over 2 years I think and am probably at about N3.25. If you start now I’ll definitely envy you as I wish I started studying earlier.
I think you should spend this summer doing a bit of studying by yourself and if you find a true passion for it go all out. If you do that you’ll certainly be pretty good by the time you graduate.
Good luck and I hope you pursue it!
Want a realistic answer? You’re only a few months in and you’re young. Go to high school. Take Japanese. If you like it and are good at it, tell your teacher your ultimate goal and she will work with you to reach it, even if the level of Japanese at your school is below what you need to get there. Teachers love nothing more than earnest and enthusiastic students who want to learn from them. It is ultimately up to you, not the school and its curriculum.
Oh… like an elective course? Depends on the course, really.
A lot of high school Japanese courses I’ve seen described tend to be “let’s take a semester to learn hiragana and katakana!”
In other words, an utter waste of time.
I’m at N2 and been studying for 5 years including a year of Japanese (two semesters) depends on what you do with the time. In my case I focused mainly on vocabulary, grammar and communication rather than writing. My kanji skills are probably at a first or second grade level at the most.
Ask your teacher if they could give you private lessons, or source a private tutor. High school Japanese alone will not be enough. (My high school offered Japanese all the way through AP.) My advice would be to take it with a private tutor and attempt the JLPT tests as you become ready for them. Any language study requires serious dedication so commit yourself to plenty of practicing on your own time. If you do this you can certainly learn any language well enough to be ready to study in it.
depends. i took 3 years of college japanese and was in the “would easily pass the n4 but probably have a lot of difficulty with n3” hole. another year may not have fully addressed that. it was not my major, just one elective per semester. so if the high school is equal to my college experience, i’d say at least n4 and maybe n3 if you really apply yourself and go a bit over and above.
The classes supplement your learning but the progress and becoming efficient is all on you. It’s all about the time and work you put into studying OUT of class, like I said, using the class as a supplement or thing to work off of.
I attended a 2 year Japanese course in Japan and spent hours of studying after class. Compared to other classmates who only relied on the class without studying/reviewing on their own, didn’t get very far compared to the people (myself included) who put in the extra work needed to learn/retain the language.
On a side note. Although dedication/repetition and studying is important , everyone learns at a different pace. Do what works for you and your goal.
I took 3 semesters of Japanese in highschool plus volunteering for the Japanese classroom to learn more (since not enough people signed up for Japanese IV at my school), but the stuff learned in those classes got me between the jlpt N5 and N4 levels since a lot of the time in the classroom was interrupted due to a bunch of covid outbreaks at my school. Something to expect is that classrooms typically overlook the speaking aspect of a language. Took 5 semesters of Spanish in my middle and highschool years combined and ended up slowly losing my passion for the language because the high emphasis on correct formal grammar kinda sacrifices the life of the language yknow
but ANYWAYS, if you remain dedicated to the language both inside and out of the classroom (through various media like songs), I believe you’ll get to the jlpt N4 level and know atleast a few things for the jlpt N3 level. just keep in mind that school mainly focuses on the reading/writing part. As already implied, speaking really isnt much of a requirement in the highschool curriculum so thats why it isnt emphasized on.. there may be exceptions cause every teacher is different but i hope this helps!
High school Japanese will not get you anywhere near college-level proficiency, but I still think you should take the Japanese classes if you’re truly interested. That said, plenty of colleges offer study-abroad programs that will allow you to study in Japan for a semester or even a full year, so keep that in mind when you start your college search (usually you should start looking during your junior year of high school, so don’t worry too much about it right now).
13 comments
Honestly, it depends on how hard you study within those 4 years. I know people who have been “studying” Japanese for years and they still can only pass N4…
But if you study for hours every single day for 4 years straight, I am positive that N1 is achievable. Again, it all depends on how much you study.
Realistically N4 and if you keep up at it then N3 could happen. It all depends on how much you study outside of class.
It depends on how rigorous your curriculum is.
I finished all the Japanese my high school had and that added up to not even all of Japanese 101 at my university.
Japanese 101 being one quarter or about 3 months.
Just doing what you need to to get an A in class? Maybe N5. If you ever want to be more than barely conversational, you’ll have to put a lot of time and dedication into learning and getting very familiar with the language on top of just the surface-level studying typical of foreign language classes.
Like everyone else is saying, it really depends on the work you put in. I’ve been studying Japanese for a little over 2 years I think and am probably at about N3.25. If you start now I’ll definitely envy you as I wish I started studying earlier.
I think you should spend this summer doing a bit of studying by yourself and if you find a true passion for it go all out. If you do that you’ll certainly be pretty good by the time you graduate.
Good luck and I hope you pursue it!
Want a realistic answer? You’re only a few months in and you’re young. Go to high school. Take Japanese. If you like it and are good at it, tell your teacher your ultimate goal and she will work with you to reach it, even if the level of Japanese at your school is below what you need to get there. Teachers love nothing more than earnest and enthusiastic students who want to learn from them. It is ultimately up to you, not the school and its curriculum.
Oh… like an elective course? Depends on the course, really.
A lot of high school Japanese courses I’ve seen described tend to be “let’s take a semester to learn hiragana and katakana!”
In other words, an utter waste of time.
I’m at N2 and been studying for 5 years including a year of Japanese (two semesters) depends on what you do with the time. In my case I focused mainly on vocabulary, grammar and communication rather than writing. My kanji skills are probably at a first or second grade level at the most.
Ask your teacher if they could give you private lessons, or source a private tutor. High school Japanese alone will not be enough. (My high school offered Japanese all the way through AP.) My advice would be to take it with a private tutor and attempt the JLPT tests as you become ready for them. Any language study requires serious dedication so commit yourself to plenty of practicing on your own time. If you do this you can certainly learn any language well enough to be ready to study in it.
depends. i took 3 years of college japanese and was in the “would easily pass the n4 but probably have a lot of difficulty with n3” hole. another year may not have fully addressed that. it was not my major, just one elective per semester. so if the high school is equal to my college experience, i’d say at least n4 and maybe n3 if you really apply yourself and go a bit over and above.
The classes supplement your learning but the progress and becoming efficient is all on you. It’s all about the time and work you put into studying OUT of class, like I said, using the class as a supplement or thing to work off of.
I attended a 2 year Japanese course in Japan and spent hours of studying after class. Compared to other classmates who only relied on the class without studying/reviewing on their own, didn’t get very far compared to the people (myself included) who put in the extra work needed to learn/retain the language.
On a side note. Although dedication/repetition and studying is important , everyone learns at a different pace. Do what works for you and your goal.
I took 3 semesters of Japanese in highschool plus volunteering for the Japanese classroom to learn more (since not enough people signed up for Japanese IV at my school), but the stuff learned in those classes got me between the jlpt N5 and N4 levels since a lot of the time in the classroom was interrupted due to a bunch of covid outbreaks at my school. Something to expect is that classrooms typically overlook the speaking aspect of a language. Took 5 semesters of Spanish in my middle and highschool years combined and ended up slowly losing my passion for the language because the high emphasis on correct formal grammar kinda sacrifices the life of the language yknow
but ANYWAYS, if you remain dedicated to the language both inside and out of the classroom (through various media like songs), I believe you’ll get to the jlpt N4 level and know atleast a few things for the jlpt N3 level. just keep in mind that school mainly focuses on the reading/writing part. As already implied, speaking really isnt much of a requirement in the highschool curriculum so thats why it isnt emphasized on.. there may be exceptions cause every teacher is different but i hope this helps!
High school Japanese will not get you anywhere near college-level proficiency, but I still think you should take the Japanese classes if you’re truly interested. That said, plenty of colleges offer study-abroad programs that will allow you to study in Japan for a semester or even a full year, so keep that in mind when you start your college search (usually you should start looking during your junior year of high school, so don’t worry too much about it right now).