Thread:Nep-Nep/@comment-26913812-20151014193423/@comment-24978536-20151018121607

Nope. Or well, I did join the only Japanese course we had on our high school, but ended up quitting it after three classes for... reasons. Well, it was only the most basic of basics really, and there were no other courses after that one.

Almost all of my knowledge comes from around 10 years of experience watching anime and playing Japanese games. With enough time, you begin to recognize speech patterns and spoken words to a good enough degree to even be able to listen to audio dramas while understanding almost everything of them. Of course without proper studying I do missunderstand some lines every now and then, and there is the occasional rarely used word I don't understand. Also, I do tend to have some difficulty understanding Japanese in actual real life speech, because normal speech is usually not as clear as recorded lines in anime and games... I have the same problem when it comes to English too though, as I have difficulty perfectly understanding many British programs for example, where the speech is not always very clear.

However, even if I can understand spoken Japanese, it is not like I have a clear understanding of the language itself. Aside from some lines I've heard many times and memorized, I can only form some basic Japanese sentences myself. For anyone older than a baby who has already learned his/her first language, learning a secondary language requires at least some amount of studying or actual practice in trying to speak the language.

Haha, I don't know of I have a gift or not, but people who know me tend to say I have a good head for languages. I do admit, I do like words and writing, and I'd like to be able to speak a variety of different languages.