Hi,

1. I want to know that is it possible to go from n3 to n2 within 6 month of study in japan.

2. How is tokyo international university? Is it good? i heard they are average and on par with toyo university.
I really want to study university in japan and it seems like there only 2 universities available for me ( Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and Tokyo International University), which offer courses that i want to study in english; business. Is there more? if so can you please tell me.
From what i heard APU is a good uni, but it's way to far from the city. Plus it is in Oita, not even in Fukuoka.

Last question is it true that some uni only required n2 to enter and study courses in japanese and admission for foreginer is a lot easier than the native?

As for Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, I actually had a campus tour there when I studied abroad last year. It seemed really lively, dorms were really nice. If I remember the dorms were all single rooms however. The city was indeed really far away, but it was a beautiful drive. You literally drive up a huge mountain just to get to the school. Since it is a big international school, I saw a lot of Koreans and Chinese going there. As for Americans, not so many.

My general goal for this year is N3 to N2 in your time frame, but it's a ton of work. In addition to slamming vocab lists (Core or otherwise), you will also need to find time for grammar, reading, and listening. I'm lucky to live here and get my listening/speaking practice for free at work. I'm also pretty tenacious and spend 4-6 hours a day studying on top of that. Sure, you can do it, but whether or not you'll want to (or have time to) is another question.

While on this topic, how long would you said it takes to get to each level?

N5-N4, N4-N3, N3-N2, N2-N1

While this doesn't really say anything about actual effort, I passed N2 after a bit less than 3 years of studying Japanese pretty seriously. Didn't take any of the other tests.

I passed N1 after 3 years, but I'm pretty fanatic. I don't think it's the same for everyone. Some people have more time or more passion or more talent. I think in my case, it was motivation.

About halfway between N3 and N2 after 9-10 months, but I lived in Japan for a year before I started studying. Living here did nothing really for my vocab (I knew next to nothing even after a year of being immersed, which says something about the whole comprehensible input thing), but I'm sure it helped familiarize me with the flow and sound of the language (which can't really be understated).

apirx Wrote:While this doesn't really say anything about actual effort, I passed N2 after a bit less than 3 years of studying Japanese pretty seriously. Didn't take any of the other tests.

i'm not sure because i haven't actually take any jlpt test yet, but i guess it's fast. i have been studying japanese for about a year and i'm pretty sure i could pass N3 in this coming july. I can do about 70-80% of the practice test.

What about tokyo international university? Does anyone know anything about the uni?
And also i just found ICU but it's kind of confusing. They said they provide college of liberal art but when I look into the courses there business major for me to take. Can someone with knowledge of this uni explain to me about their courses. What is it like. I'm confused.

afterglowefx Wrote:About halfway between N3 and N2 after 9-10 months, but I lived in Japan for a year before I started studying. Living here did nothing really for my vocab (I knew next to nothing even after a year of being immersed, which says something about the whole comprehensible input thing), but I'm sure it helped familiarize me with the flow and sound of the language (which can't really be understated).

If you didn't understand anything, how is it related to comprehensible input? Or do you mean the lack of it?

andikaze Wrote:

afterglowefx Wrote:About halfway between N3 and N2 after 9-10 months, but I lived in Japan for a year before I started studying. Living here did nothing really for my vocab (I knew next to nothing even after a year of being immersed, which says something about the whole comprehensible input thing), but I'm sure it helped familiarize me with the flow and sound of the language (which can't really be understated).

If you didn't understand anything, how is it related to comprehensible input? Or do you mean the lack of it?

A lot of people (including myself at the time) seem to believe that simple immersion is enough--that somehow just by being surrounded by a language is enough to absorb it. However, because I had literally nothing to build off of, none of the input was comprehensible and so an entire year of immersion amounted to absolutely nothing as far as improving my communication. That for me highlights the importance of comprehensible input.