Most of my Japanese I've picked up simply from talking to native speakers in Japanese. Asking them to repeat themselves a few hundred times, texting on "LINE":http://line.me/en/ and using my favorite iPhone Japanese Dictionary "imiwa?":https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imiwa-japanese-dictionary/id288499125?mt=8.
One thing I picked up rather quickly was the use of くらい or ぐらい, which means "about" as in an approximation. For example if I was talking to a friend about going to the mall or a movie and they asked me how far it is I could tell them,
bq. 車で１５分ぐらい。
"By car, about 15 minutes.""
For a while I was also misusing くらい or ぐらい when telling that something will happen at _around_ a certain time. For example if someone asked:
bq. パーティーは何時ですか？
"What time is the party?"
I might answer:
bq. 午後８時ぐらい。
"Around 8PM"
Finally corrected me and told me that ぐらい or くらい with a specific time is a no-no. Instead I should use ころ or ごろ in the same way, but I was understood.
So when a friend asks
bq. イベントは何時？
"What time is the event?"
You should answer with ころ・ごろ:
bq. ８時ごろ
h2. Conclusion
Even though I was understood using the wrong word, it's probably a better idea to get it straight in my head. So you can use this small cheat sheet to help:
|_.日本語|_.When to use|_.Example|
|ころ・ごろ|use with specific time|パーティー何時ですか？
*８時ごろです*|
|くらい・ぐらい|use with a _duration_ of time.|日本語はどのくらい勉強しますか？
*２年くらい*|
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