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.