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i know a small bit of Japanese from back in high school but stopped when it
was never made clear that Japanese went for 2 semesters instead of 1 and by
the time they told me about it (even though i was the first to submit my class
registration papers) it was full, i have picked up some more from playing
Visual Novels with voices and unofficial English Translations (Fate/Stay
Night, Kamidori Alchemy Miester, Sono Hanabira)

there are naturally hundred of resources saying that they will teach Japanese
fast but i want to know how long on average it would take

The level I'm hoping to reach is to the point where I can understand text in
video games so that way i can play them while at the same time being fully
immersed in the story (which is why I can just keep looking to a dictionary
every time I see a word).

I want to reach this level because I'm tired of having to wait to see if games
get to be localized, even though i don't care if they get dubbed or not
(Agarest: Generations of War is an example of a game that wasn't dubbed) and
waiting forever for them to come out, even if they come out the limited
edition items that originally was with the Japanese sales don't show up in the
west a lot of the time.

Money isn't a problem as I know it will benefit me greatly in the long term.
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learning
How long would it take on average to learn Japanese
Just for the record before this gets closed, the US State Department
classifies (classified?) Japanese as an "exceptionally difficult" language for
native English speakers, and at least in their programs recommends 88 weeks of
study at 2200 class hours, half of which are spent in Japan. Not sure how out
of date this document is but it might be as close to an authoritative answer
on this as you'll get. "Understanding video games" can be extremely difficult
depending on the game, so we'll just say you need to be near fluent to get by
without a dictionary.

<http://web.archive.org/web/20071014005901/http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/learningExpectations.html>

I can say that if you're not working on learning Japanese as a full time job
88 weeks seems extraordinarily unlikely for a high level of proficiency. Note
2200 hours in 88 weeks works out to 25 hours of study per week.
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This question is generally not something we consider on-topic, but I'll give
you my honest advise anyway.

**The Short Answer** :

A long time. A really really long time. Your mileage may vary, but expect it
to take several years.

**The Long Answer** :

**"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"**

I would say in my own opinion that you're going to want near-fluent levels to
understand games. If you memorize 100 words from one game, that's all well and
good but you may never see any of those 100 in any other given game. A hurdle
in your way is that there isn't any program to learn slangy, video-game type
language to the point of fluency without also having to pick up standard
Japanese (and I would not recommend trying to do so).

Any program telling you you can "Learn Japanese Fast!" isn't telling you the
whole truth. Programs like Rosetta Stone will only help you _so far_. My
personal (limited) experience with Rosetta Stone are that you'll learn some
vocabulary and be able to recognize words and sentences, but you won't be
able, say, understand a TV show.

The good news is that you _want_ to learn Japanese. But! Video games are fun,
and understanding video games will feel fantastic. Learning Japanese to
fluency will take a lot of hard work and effort, and you're not going to be
able to pop in a brand new Japanese video game and understand it perfectly for
years. It's really hard to stay dedicated to something without that instant
gratification, and that's the same for everyone. You have to keep at it,
because it takes time.

It's good that you're willing to spend money on materials. I'm a pretty frugal
person so I thought for the longest time I would not spend money to learn
Japanese as there are plenty of free resources on-line. I ended up changing my
mind on that point because when you buy materials you're paying money for
something that someone was paid to make so that you can learn. You're paying
for their quality (and compensated) work. Free and open information that
people want to share with the world is absolutely amazing and there's no
reason not to use it as a tool, but paying for textbooks/workbooks etc is a
good base for your studies. (As an added bonus, actually spending money on
something makes me personally want to actually use it to get my money's
worth.)

A third group of learning materials is native sources (newspapers, TV
shows/movies, video games, books/comics, etc). Get and use these sources as
much as you can handle and more. For me, this is where what I was talking
about instant gratification comes in to play. When I do flashcards, that's all
find and dandy, and I "sure, I learned that word enough to get the flashcard
right", but when I hear/see a word in a drama or book, I think "Yes! I know
that word! I'm so smart!" (or sometimes just seeing the word in context makes
remembering it so much easier the next time it comes around on the flashcard
program). There's also a bizarre phenomenon where you're likely to come across
by happenstance a new word you just learned in a completely unrelated context
_that day_ (I'm sure it has a name). Those words get jammed in your memory,
but if you don't have Japanese coming at you regularly, the chances that
you'll see those kinds of words diminishes.

All in all, it's going to take months and months and years and years to
achieve near-native fluency. Maybe less if you live in Japan or don't have a
job. The tricky part is learning a language isn't about just one aspect; you
can't just memorize a stack of kanji and be done. One day work on this aspect,
the next, that aspect. Look at your weaknesses and attack those points. Don't
worry if it seems like you're at a brick wall, or worse, a plateau, because
this too shall pass as long as you keep at it.

Some final points of advice:

Do a little every day (within reason...sometime real life happens and that's
okay).

Don't judge your success or lack thereof based on what others have
accomplished or failed to do.

Focus on _why you want to learn Japanese_ , not how cool it would be to be
able to speak it.

**"A year from now you may wish you had started today"**
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