Learn to Speak Japanese Fluently
If you want to learn to speak Japanese fluently, you’ve probably heard that it will take ten or twenty years of study to get to this level or that it is just flat-out impossible. I can’t begin to tell you how wrong all of this is. It is possible for you learn to speak Japanese fluently.
Check Out This Fun Way to Learn Japanese
I’ve seen plenty of Japanese beginners learn to speak Japanese and I can usually almost instantly tell if someone will pick up the language quickly or if they are going stumble and struggle.
Firstly, people will have a hard time if they are too “stuck” on their native language. As long as you keep trying to learn Japanese from an English-speaking point of view, you will have trouble. People that are stuck on English try to pronounce Japanese words as if they were English words. They just can’t let go of the English pronunciation rules and try out the much more straightforward Japanese pronunciation. The best way to do this, it to distance yourself from English as soon as you possibly can. Learn Japanese characters like Hiragana and Katakana to help you study the language from a more Japanese point of view instead of relying on Romaji (English letters), which will only confuse your brain into thinking that you are dealing with the same pronunciation rules that come with English.
I’ve also noticed that people tend to struggle when they try to learn a language on a word-by-word basis. Basically, they just try to remember, watashi = I, suki = like, and inu = dogs. Therefore they just try to say “I like dogs” as “watashi suki inu” by directly replacing each word. Sure, this kind of thinking might work just fine for memorizing nouns, but that’s as far as it will take you. The grammar used in Japanese is so different from English that it will be very hard to get your point across. Instead try to adopt a more flexible way of thinking about the Japanese language. In order to learn to speak fluent Japanese, study your Japanese grammar lessons learn how to use verbs, particles, and everything else as a tool to convey a message. Before long you’ll be able know exactly why you should instead say “watashi wa inu ga suki desu.”
A third reason why many people can’t seem to learn to speak Japanese fluently is because they aren’t fully dedicated to it. If Japanese is something that you only work on once or twice a week, then it will be very hard for you to bring yourself up to a fluent level. I understand that you are probably very busy, but in order to really become fluent in Japanese you must surround yourself with the Japanese language and listen to native speakers every day, if possible.
This is one of the main reasons why people that go live overseas in Japan can pick up the language so quickly. They are literally surrounded by the language 24 hours a day. Their English isn’t going to get them very far, so they are forced to learn Japanese.
I know that going to live in Japan may not be practical for many people. Even so, try to watch some Japanese movies, spend time with Japanese-speaking friends, or listen to Japanese podcasts as a way to expose yourself to as much Japanese culture as you can and learn to speak Japanese fluently.
Check Out How Fun Learning Japanese Can Be