How well do you need to know Japanese to play a Japanese game and/or watch an anime without subs?

[Flying Shogi]

So I'm taking an intro Japanese class right now and we're finishing katakana and moving onto kanji. My question is how long do I need to study Japanese to do the things mentioned in the topic title? I personally like studying Japanese so I don't mind continue doing so. I just want to know the level of proficiency I need to be at in Japanese so I can play a Japanese game and/or watch an anime without subs. I guess it varies from game to game and anime to anime but what would you say would be like a middle ground?

[Fruity Insanity]

Pretty well. I've studied Japanese for two years (although not intensively), so I can understand stray sentences or vocab here and there. (Also, the fact that I know Korean helps immensely, as the two languages are incredibly similar).

If you study at a college level, then maybe a few years?

Otherwise, maybe never. (Maybe 4 or 5, dunno.)

Rey or TheEnd should know much more about this.

[shadowofchaos]

"It's not worth it".

You need to find a reason other than anime and/or games.

But generally, games have simpler Japanese than you would need than communicating with real people.

That much was clear with the whole sprites and 2ch board thing going on.

It's generally not *TOO* much, but also not as easy as people think.

[Esau of Isaac]

About two years of hard work will generally get you to where you need to be. I as a third year can understand simpler sentences stated without using subtitles, but my listening comprehension falls apart when someone starts using complex sentence-structure or has more than light use of numbers. Longer sentences increase the chance of characters using words or grammar points that you don't know very well or at all. Everyone has a threshold at which point they'll fail to understand the rest of the sentence as they get caught trying to understand those earlier words, but it usually only takes one or two to throw people off. I know that for me when I'm listening to Japanese at full speed, missing a word will leave me with just the ability to get the gist of what they're saying, and two or more will usually make me lose the entire sentence's translation.

頑張って！日本語を勉強すればするほど面白くなりますよね！

Edit: Oh and study kanji. I'm in third year and everyone's still bitching about using words we learned in second year. Spend a week or two and commit the radicals to memory, you'll be able to learn the rest of them ten times faster and you'll be hundreds of kanji ahead of everyone else with half the effort.

Edited September 21, 2013 by Esau of Isaac

[Wist]

You're asking the wrong question. If you want to play games and watch anime in Japanese, don't wait until you've attained an arbitrarily determined level of comprehension to do so. You'd do better to ask how best to start right now, and get things moving as soon as you can. Involve those activities in your study regimen as soon as you can. Doing so will better motivate you while exposing you to Japanese relevant to these contexts in which you have a clear interest. If you were to couple radical memorization (if not Heisig) with a decent, straightforward grammar and a solid dictionary there's no reason actively engaging with native media wouldn't be anything but supremely beneficial to your studies. If you're studying Japanese to play Japanese games, then take the initiative and play Japanese games to study Japanese!

[dondon151]

after 3 years of japanese study i pretty much couldn't understand anime at all but had no problems playing games. with games it's pretty easy because you're far more likely to understand the context.

and as rey said, if all you want to do with japanese is to be a weeaboo, better pick a different language to study. i don't totally regret having learned japanese, but there were at least two other languages that i would rather have spent time on, and the fact that i graduated early meant that i couldn't even get a japanese minor.

Edited September 24, 2013 by dondon151

[Guest meibum]

I would say fluently.

My uncle lives in Japan (and has been for 10 years) and he still can't watch normal television shows there.

[Djeets]

while it takes a year or 2 to understand the main core of japanese, you still need to get used to the conversation,

considering your goal is to understand anime/game conv. fast, you'd better listen more japanese conversation than learning the words (But you still HAD to learn the kanjis a lot).. that's just a tips tho.

[TheEnd]

Do not walk the path of the weeb, young man - for waifus will be your only reward

Jokes aside, I mostly agree with what Rey and Wist said, though I'd like to add some things.

First, your motivation is as good as how far it takes you.

Most people who study Japanese for anime and games stop very early (within one year), because they figure it isn't worth the effort. As reference: when I started taking classes, there were around 20 people. One year later, we were what, six?

Even if you get past that, you'll find most games and anime use really simple Japanese, so you'll hit intermediary and think "hey, I actually understand this shit already, no need to keep on studying". And you won't be able to hold a fluent conversation.

Second, classes (disciplined self study could qualify here, but... let's face it, most people aren't able to do that) and practice go hand in hand. Neglect one and you'll go nowhere. Period.

Want to watch anime and play games? Then do that. You won't get much at the start, but you'll notice your progress when you revisit them after say, two more years of study. That feeling is wonderful.

[Flying Shogi]

About two years of hard work will generally get you to where you need to be. I as a third year can understand simpler sentences stated without using subtitles, but my listening comprehension falls apart when someone starts using complex sentence-structure or has more than light use of numbers. Longer sentences increase the chance of characters using words or grammar points that you don't know very well or at all. Everyone has a threshold at which point they'll fail to understand the rest of the sentence as they get caught trying to understand those earlier words, but it usually only takes one or two to throw people off. I know that for me when I'm listening to Japanese at full speed, missing a word will leave me with just the ability to get the gist of what they're saying, and two or more will usually make me lose the entire sentence's translation.

頑張って！日本語を勉強すればするほど面白くなりますよね！

Edit: Oh and study kanji. I'm in third year and everyone's still bitching about using words we learned in second year. Spend a week or two and commit the radicals to memory, you'll be able to learn the rest of them ten times faster and you'll be hundreds of kanji ahead of everyone else with half the effort.

Kanji shouldn't be too hard for me as I am Chinese so the words will look familiar. Some words share the same meanings so it's even easier there.

I think it's the same case for me. Once I start hearing a word or phrase I don't know I lose the remaining things that the person is saying as I focus on the said words/phrases.

For that sentence I can only guess it means something like "Good luck! Japanese is hard...." I don't enough Japanese to read the full sentence.

You're asking the wrong question. If you want to play games and watch anime in Japanese, don't wait until you've attained an arbitrarily determined level of comprehension to do so. You'd do better to ask how best to start right now, and get things moving as soon as you can. Involve those activities in your study regimen as soon as you can. Doing so will better motivate you while exposing you to Japanese relevant to these contexts in which you have a clear interest. If you were to couple radical memorization (if not Heisig) with a decent, straightforward grammar and a solid dictionary there's no reason actively engaging with native media wouldn't be anything but supremely beneficial to your studies. If you're studying Japanese to play Japanese games, then take the initiative and play Japanese games to study Japanese!

Do not walk the path of the weeb, young man - for waifus will be your only reward

Jokes aside, I mostly agree with what Rey and Wist said, though I'd like to add some things.

First, your motivation is as good as how far it takes you.

Most people who study Japanese for anime and games stop very early (within one year), because they figure it isn't worth the effort. As reference: when I started taking classes, there were around 20 people. One year later, we were what, six?

Even if you get past that, you'll find most games and anime use really simple Japanese, so you'll hit intermediary and think "hey, I actually understand this shit already, no need to keep on studying". And you won't be able to hold a fluent conversation.

Second, classes (disciplined self study could qualify here, but... let's face it, most people aren't able to do that) and practice go hand in hand. Neglect one and you'll go nowhere. Period.

Want to watch anime and play games? Then do that. You won't get much at the start, but you'll notice your progress when you revisit them after say, two more years of study. That feeling is wonderful.

I enjoy studying Japanese and getting to know more about culture. Being able to play games and watch anime in Japanese is just a plus. It's my fault for coming across that way. But thank you guys for your responses.

Though right now Japanese isn't hard. It might be an understatement to say that things will get harder very soon as things progress.

[Esau of Isaac]

Kanji shouldn't be too hard for me as I am Chinese so the words will look familiar. Some words share the same meanings so it's even easier there.

I think it's the same case for me. Once I start hearing a word or phrase I don't know I lose the remaining things that the person is saying as I focus on the said words/phrases.

For that sentence I can only guess it means something like "Good luck! Japanese is hard...." I don't enough Japanese to read the full sentence.

XばXほど=the more/less something (is done), the more/less something (is)~

Example being something like 運動すればするほど幸せになります。"The more you exercise, the happier you'll become".

Also you're soooooo lucky man. I wish I knew the kanji so I could just absorb all the verbs. As it stands I spend a massive amount of time trying to correlate meaning to them now with the words I come across, it's definitely helpful but it's so much time that could be spent elsewhere.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Esau of Isaac

[TheEnd]

I enjoy studying Japanese and getting to know more about culture. Being able to play games and watch anime in Japanese is just a plus. It's my fault for coming across that way. But thank you guys for your responses.

Though right now Japanese isn't hard. It might be an understatement to say that things will get harder very soon as things progress.

I'm not judging you, I'm just sharing what I've seen and experienced. Besides, nothing is keeping you from finding new motivations later (studying in Japan, for instance).

The hard parts of Japanese would be kanji (which you kinda got covered), nuances and context reading. It really isn't hard at all in the beginning, but then you start noticing situations where a well-placed に changes the meaning of a sentence completely, that the wrong pronoun changes a polite request into an insult, etc.