Some thoughts about learning a new language

I have been thinking how long will it take for me to master Japanese. Come to think of it, I really admire those who can speak Japanese well. For a start, I am determined to commit to memory the 2 basic sets of the Japanese sounds, namely hiragana and katakana. As for kanji, I have no problem with the words as I have learnt Chinese before and can recognise the words. Alas, the Japanese pronounce them differently. For example 'yi' or one is pronounced as 'ichi' and 'ben' or book is utterd as 'hon'

With determination, all of us can learn a language. Constant practice should do the job. Right now, I have a lot of audio and written material which I have donwloaded from the Internet for my use. I hope to benefit from all these and make learning Japanese fun and effective.