How To Speak Japanese When You Don’t Live In Japan

This article is by That Japan Girl. She's very knowledgeable about Japan and the Japanese language. Find her links at the bottom of this article! Enjoy!

                    

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When it comes to speaking Japanese, what makes the situation difficult is exactly the thing that makes it so exciting. Another person is there, listening to you speak, and responding to what you’re saying to them. They can interrupt you whenever they want, cut you off and talk over you. They can ask you to clarify something, to repeat what you just said or to start all over from the beginning. They can talk fast or slow, shout or whisper, speak in standard Japanese or hit you with that Kansai-ben.

Bottom line is: you’ll never know what flow a conversation takes.

And that’s what makes it so exciting to speak Japanese!

Why People Stop Learning Japanese

When you first start learning Japanese it can be fun and exciting. You're on your way to learning a new language! First you learn the alphabet, then start learning useful words and phrases. There's a lot of progress in the beginning and learning Japanese looks very promising. But then you hit a wall in your learning Japanese. Whether it's conscious or not, you start to find a reason to stop learning. If you find a good enough reason, it won't look like you failed in learning Japanese.

I'm going to go through these "reasons" why people stop learning Japanese and give you realizations that it can still be done. There is sadly no good excuse for not learning Japanese. If you just want to stop that is acceptable, but don't try to use one of these excuses because it will just make you look bad in the long run.

Not so Secret Secrets of Japanese Language

Learning Japanese is already hard enough with all the vocabulary memorization, the grammar rules and the thousands of kanji characters you'll need to study. But all those things are just what's on the surface of learning Japanese. There's more to the Japanese language that some people may not realize. I'll be talking about those not-so-secret secrets you may hear about that can help you understand Japanese a little better. Many of these are well known but I'm going to talk about them for the people who are studying the language and may not know, and for those who may need a refresher, or for those of you who may know nothing about the Japanese language but are interested in learning.

Japanese Duolingo Review

Right now is the age of using the computer and phone apps. Old methods of studying are no longer practiced as much as they used to be. I'm not very fond of phone apps myself, as I get bored with them easily. I'm the kind of person that learns best using flashcards and textbooks. I used plenty of apps to try and improve my Japanese. Some work and I still fiddle with today, and some I have left behind feeling disappointed with all the hype they received. Today I'm going to be talking about a new section of a not so new language learning app called Duolingo. Duolingo has just released their Japanese course on their app which is a big deal since their only Asian language they had before was Vietnamese. I tried Duolingo out for a week straight and have overall enjoyed my experience with it. Even though I am fond of it, it still has its flaws just like every other learning app.

Survival Japanese

You don't need to know Japanese to travel in Japan, but it sure does help a lot if you do know some Japanese (and it would be appreciated by Japanese people since some are scared of foreigners due to the language barrier). Unless you are a linguistic genius, it'll usually take people years to learn Japanese.
But what if you have an opportunity to go travel in Japan soon than later? How will you be able to learn Japanese in that limited amount of time? You can't, and that's why I'm here to tell you the survival Japanese you should remember. I did a post on the Japanese you should know if you're trying to learn but this article is going to be talking specifically about Japanese that will make or break you in Japan.

Weird English in Japan

There are times when Japan intentionally tries to have English available and when they're just trying to sound cool. When it comes to English for menus and such, they typically get it right. But when English is used in fashion or advertisement it can go all wrong. Many of you may be familiar with shirts in Japan that have an English phrase on it. For the most part, you understand what they mean but it still sounds weird. I don't have photos of that because I resisted going shopping (except the Pokemon Center. Blew all my money there). I did go out to eat a lot, and that's where the funny advertisements come in. I found two signs in Japan, both outside of restaurants, that just didn't make sense to me. Maybe you'll understand what's trying to be said more than I do.