This whole hullabaloo can end if you just typed up your replies in Chinese or post your certificates so your claims can be confirmed.
Meanwhile, these comparison of anecdotes are meaningless. It’s like trying to compare how much one can bench press over the internet; you can’t really prove or disprove anything without proof.
For the time being, I’m going to say BS.
I set low standards on all my languages and I am fluent in more languages than any one of you guys combined. Bow down to me!! >:D
I doubt that you can learn Korean in 6 months by watching TV. That would mean a lot of TV watching. I also don’t think speaking from day 1 is that important. How much are you going to speak when you don’t understand and have few words? The reason to speak is so that you can listen. The listening is the most important. You can start speaking when the speaking is relevant and meaningful.
I learned Mandarin Chinese in 9 months. After 6 months I read a novel. After 9 months I translated newspaper editorials from English to Chinese and the reverse, and could interpret in business discussions.
I spent 8 hours or more a day. 3 hours in one on one lessons with a Chinese teacher, and the rest listening and reading. Other diplomatic students also had 3 or even 5 hours a day one on one with teachers but didn’t read or listen as much as I did. Speaking outside the classroom was not really possible for me since Hong Kong was essentially not a Mandarin speaking environment in those days.
In 6 months, only at home and watching kdramas, listening to kpop, and trying to listen to whatever won’t get you fluent in the language.
Could you possibly understand a lot of it? Yes. if you put several hours a day in.
But speaking overall requires someone to communicate. Talking to yourself can only go so far.
I’ve been learning Korean for a couple months now, it is also my 6th or 7th language that I’ve studied deeply, and I can say that after 6 months, I will probably have just reached a high beginner/low intermediate stage, even spending 2-3 hours a day on it, some days more, some less.
However, I do believe it’s possible living in the country, to become conversationally fluent.
This video shows the progess of Scott H Young after his 3 month stay in Korean, going in with only a handful of hours under his belt.
I’ll ask my superiors If I can take the next few months off to dedicate myself full time to watching japanese anime, although getting the show transcripts and studying them on lingq would be better.
Aha! Clever!
Funny story.
I knew a guy who made similar claims. Lived in China, married a Chinese girl, could talk to anyone about “anything” (but really just that which was relevant to his life and not in great depth or with detailed precision).
He had enough command of the language to express himself “fluently” with simple tools and fancied himself capable of understanding “nearly everything”, but his comprehension was not as wonderful as he thought.
When the people in his neighborhood discovered that his wife was pregnant, they asked him if the baby would be “black” like him or “white” like her.
He then arrogantly laughed at them for being so stupid in thinking Chinese people are “white”!
Unfortunately for him, he was mistaken. “Black” and “white” in Chinese are also the terms for “dark” or “fair” complexion.
But he didn’t have enough experience to know multiple layers of meaning in even simple words.
Also, his sentence structure and intonation was almost entirely mirroring English.
But he was “fluent”.