The expat bubble is real thing, and many english speaking people, (american, euros, anglos, etc) will stick in there and use google translate for most daily shit. When I talk to them, it's mainly because they're more interested in making money and drinking than culture learning. Knowing a languge doesn't pay the bills and allow you to pay your cheap hookers after all.
Still, I have a feeling many people here severely underestimate how hard it is for unilingual Americans to learn Japanese. I mean it's not "
put in some initiative and study a bit" like you said. Even with all the immersion you can get, let's look at some facts.
This is one of the most serious language institues there is.
Look at that goddamn curriculum. 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, and from what I've heard, it gives lots of homework. (+30 hours of actual study time). I lasts 1 year and half if you start with zero knowledge. Many Medicine universities have less hours. Another source for an intensive course. This time an interview with a dude who did the army Japanese language course. (11 minute mark)
16 month duration with almost 8 hours of classes per day (!) plus homework, he said, to be able at the end to skim through a japanese newspaper.
Let's also think. Without teachers, you are basically doubling/tripling your workload. You not only have to learn, but have to investigate on what to learn and how to advance so as not to stagnate and also correct your mistakes. That's much more work. And your time will be a lot less productive.
Let's say you self study 2 hours a day (reasonable pace) People in the equivalent intensive courses are doing 6 a day WITH teachers to guide them. And it still takes about a year and a half to be able to read well. So yeah, it's not an "easy" task to learn a foreign language. Especially on your own. Especially as a previous unilingual. I don't think Mori is lazy. It's just that the task is very hard. I'd say as a
serious self-study goal, 5-6 years for an N2 is pretty reasonable.
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