For those of you fluent in Japanese, I'd like to hear your best advice on the subject. I've studied for about 4 years, and have been living in Japan for nearly a year, but despite this, achieving true "fluency" still seems like an insurmountable task. Although I am conversationally fluent, at times I become incredibly frustrated. How long do you think it takes to become fluent? And now for the oh-so-impossible question: what should I do to speed up the process? Advice, experiences, suggestions would be welcome from any students of foreign language.
posted on Feb 13, 2005 - 9 answers

If I wanted my baby to learn a second language from a family member who speaks it natively, how many hours per week minimum would they need to spend together? I know the more the better, but I am trying to figure out if four or five hours a week will do the trick if we are extremely consistent and do this for many years.
posted on Jan 20, 2005 - 12 answers