You have heard that Japanese language is especially difficult to learn. Especially from your Caucasian friends. They find anything difficult to learn. It will be better to take advice from me, who lived there for 6 years, passed the Japanese Proficiency highest test Level 1 in about 3 years. A word of warning to you readers. I have never considered myself excellent in languages. I lived in Chennai for a year, learnt 1 word – word for water. Lived in Bombay (now Mumbai) for 7 years. Learnt almost no Marathi. Lived in W. Bengal for 16 years. Went to Bengali medium school in Ichapore. Has become quite good. Could read the language in my 4th grade. Spoken Bengali was good too. Then came the fall. Can understand, but cannot speak and cannot read, except a bit.
So quite pathetic.
However I passed the highest level Japanese Proficiency test with 77%, got a 99% on GMAT verbal, got a 98% on GRE verbal. (My dot com site have them, link from bottom of front page.)
In paper I look excellent but spoken language is a problem. I learn using my mind, which is quite good.
I didn’t have any problems with languages and their syntax, which were easy to learn, spoken language is my weak point.
Keep these in mind before you explore my experience with Japanese language – in second part – coming up very soon, probably today.