Wanna learn how to speak Japanese? Well, first of all, it is not easy unless you have a great teacher who is honest enough to teach you how Japanese do speak instead of text book nonsense. Learning how to speak Japanese is basically learning how to become Japanese. If you want to speak like a native you need to learn how Japanese behave. You ‘ll need to adopt many Japanese customs and mimic Japanese behaviour as well.
Most students learn Japanese the wrong way for several months or even years. Text book lessons at school and university can only give you a basic understanding of the Japanese language – grammar structure, vocabulary, the kana syllabaries and maybe a few hundred kanji. Learning how to speak Japanese involves a lot of cultural understanding and social conformity.
Japanese use very few words to express their thoughts and feelings. You’ll hear Japanese say the same things all the time. More often than not Japanese express interest, surprise, happiness and other emotions with only a few quirky phrases and sometimes with wordless cries and grunts. If you watch a game show you’ll audiences scream out the same wordless expression in unison when something shocking is presented to them. Very bizarre.
You’ll discover that for the most of their time Japanese don’t speak politely at all. For example, Japanese has no equivalent for “Pardon”. Instead when something is misunderstood in a conversation the confused listener will just blurt out “Ha!”. Sometimes my wife speaks to me and I have to control myself from feeling a little abused or offended. She’ll “rudely” blurt out one word and expect me to understand whatever it is she is trying to tell me. I used to get home from work and the first thing she would say to me as I walked in the door would be an aggressive “Gohan ha?”. This basically means something like “Do you want dinner?” or “Have you had dinner?”. However, if you translated the expression it would be just “Dinner!!?” . It would often give me the impression that my wife wasn’t happy to see me return home and that getting dinner was something she wanted to get quickly out of the way.
To be Japanese you got to do what everyone else does. I am often amazed at how easily Japanese can be assimilated and culturally conditioned. The peace sign is a classical example of this. Every time a Japanese has a photo taken of themselves they will do the peace sign. I found this to be extremely frustrating when having photos taken with Japanese. I went to great lengths to prevent my 4 year old son from being peace sign brain washed while he attend kindergarten in Japan.
How To Speak Japanese Like a Native
To speak Japanese like a native you’ll need to have a split personality. You can be yourself for most of the time, but when you meet acquaintances or work colleagues you will have to put on a bit of an act and meet certain social criteria – being polite or ass kissing.
And finally speaking Japanese will mean you won’t be able to say what you feel or believe for part of the time. The worst thing you can do is cause any kind of conflict or trouble for anyone. So you have to learn to hold back your real thoughts and bite your tongue. So the challenge for speaking Japanese is learning who Japanese are and how they behave. Accepting the culture and learning not to be always yourself is what it takes to be a good speaker of the Japanese language.
Japanese conversations are very different to Western conversations. In this post we are going to look at a short Japanese conversation. Imgaine you are on the train on your way to Shibuya in Tokyo. A man sitting next to you asks you questions about where you are from and what you do.
Japanese Conversation Example
A: あの、アメリカじんですか
B： はい。そうです。
A: しゅっしん は どこですか
B: ニュウヨーク です
A: りゅうがくせいですか
B: はい。
A: にほんはどうですか
B: だいすきです。
The first question is something I am asked all the time in Japan despite the fact that I am not American. Japanese are generally ignorant of the other countries. They assume most white foreigners in Japan are American.
アメリカじんですか – Are you American? じん means person or people. Adding じん to a country name gives you the nationality.
The reply はい。 そうです means “Yes. I am.”
The next question is asking where your place of birth or hometown is. しゅっしん means hometown. どこですか is the question phrase “Where is..? You reply dropping the subject and just stating New York with です。
The third question りゅうがくせいですか is asking if you are an overseas student. がくせい means student. Adding りゅう can mean exchange, overseas or international student.
Finally the last question is asking your opinion of Japan. どうでか basically means “What do you think of……? So にほんはどうですか translates to “What do you think of Japan?”
You love Japan so your answer is だいすきです. Notice again how you don’t need to state the subject which in this case is Japan.
Also notice how each line of this conversation ends with either です or ですか
Here is the conversation in English
A: あの、アメリカじんですか
B： はい。そうです。
A: しゅっしん は どこですか
B: ニュウヨーク です
A: りゅうがくせいですか
B: はい。
A: にほんはどうですか
B: だいすきです。
A: Um…… Are you American?
B: Yes. I am.
A: Where is your hometown?
B: New York
A: What do you think of Japan
B: I love (Japan)
To speak Japanese fluently is usually the ultimate goal of anyone studying the Japanese language. To reach the level where you can speak Japanese fluently can become quite a time consuming challenge. Not because the language is so difficult, but because most of the methods people use to learn or study Japanese are unproductive and too confusing.
In my experience the best foreign speakers of Japanese are usually people who have taken no formal Japanese classes, can’t read or write hiragana or katakana, don’t know any kanji and don’t have a clue about Japanese grammar. They are also usually non-English speakers as well. How are they able to speak the language so well? They are forced to because of there job. Due to their environment or situation they have no option but to speak Japanese.
Why English Teachers Living In Japan Can’t Speak Japanese Fluently
When living in Japan I met hundreds of English teachers who could speak Japanese, but never at a fluent level. They were taking classes, studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and investing quite a lot of money on text books and audio programs. They studied hard but just couldn’t get to a fluent level. Then occasionally I would met someone from Turkey or India. They would speak the language like a native. Yet, they had taken no classes or purchased little in the way of study material.
These speakers of Japanese wouldn’t learn or study the language in the traditional sense. They wouldn’t spend time learning hiragana or katakana. They certainly wouldn’t learn kanji or study grammar. In fact they would no nothing about the language except they could speak fluently. They would just soak up and use the language from their environment. They learnt the language from example and experience. The fastest and most effective way to study anything, especially a language.
Learn To Speak Japanese Fluently
In order to speak Japanese fluently you need to surround yourself with Japanese speakers and also not speak your native language. If you put yourself in a situation where you are forced to speak the language daily your Japanese will improve in leaps and bounds. If you spend too much time on rules about the language you will become knowledgeable about the structure of language and whatnot, but your speak ability will progress very slowly.
To develop the ability to speak you must observe how Japanese interact and then basically model what you see over and over. You have to become a bit of a actor and become Japanese. Japanese has to become a part or most of your life. Now, the problem is not many of us can just drop what we are doing and fly of to Japan.
So how can you learn to speak Japanese without studying the language?
Surround yourself with as much Japanese as possible. Immerse yourself in real language as much as possible. This means making Japanese friends, getting a Japanese girlfriend or boy friend, watching Japanese television and listening to Japanese radio. You need to listen to Japanese speaking the real thing. Don’t listen to podcasts that are designed to teach you Japanese. There is too much in the way of explanation and unrealistic examples. Most of what is taught is too formalized anyway.
Focus your life on mimicking Japanese. Speak to yourself in Japanese. So now you know what you need to do if you want to speak Japanese fluently. If you follow my advice you end up saving yourself a whole lot of time and money.
If you are not living in Japan or have no Japanese friends learning how to converse in Japanese is quite a challenge. It is quite easy to learn how to read and write kana and kanji, to study grammar and to learn lots of words by yourself. Conversation is different – you need a Japanese person to speak to. In this post we will do some Japanese conversation practice. Hopefully you will learn something new.
A Typical Japanese Conversation
Imagine you are at a train station wanting to go to Shibuya. You have forgotten your watch. You ask a stranger for the time and the time of the next train.
A: すみません。 いま なんじですか。
B: じゅういちじはんです。
A: すぎのでんしゃ なにじに きますか
B: ごふんにきます
A: ありがとう ございます
B: いいえ
In the above conversation すみません is said to get the strangers attention. Remember すみません can also mean “Thank you” or “I’m sorry” depending on context. In this case it means “Excuse me”.
To ask for the time in Japanese the set phrase なんじですか is used.
なん (what) じ (time) ですか (question particle). いま means “now”.
If you have studied Japanese numbers you will know that じゅういち is 11. So じゅういちじ means 11 o’clock. はん means half past. So じゅういちじはんです means “It is 11:30”. です is just the sentence ending particle. Depending on context it can mean “It is”, “They are” and so on.
Let’s have a look at the next line, すぎのでんしゃ なんじに きますか. Again this is a time question
すぎ のでんしゃ – means next train. The のis just the possessive particle.
なんじに – What time…
きますか – Come? Here we have the ますform of the plain verb くる, which means “come”. By adding か the sentence becomes a question..
What time does the next train come? – すぎのでんしゃ なにじに きますか
Now, for the answer; ごふんにきます. As both the speaker and listener know the subject (the next train) it doesn’t need to be stated in the reply. This is very typical of Japanese. So the answer is something like this – (the train) comes in 5 minutes.
ごふん meaning 5 minutes and the verb きます meaning come.
ごふんにきます - It comes in 5 minutes
ありがとう ございます of course means “thank you” and いいえ means “Don’t mention it.”
Here is the conversation in English
A: すみません。 いま なんじですか。
B: じゅういちじはんです。
A: すぎのでんしゃ なにじに きますか
B: ごふんにきます
A: ありがとう ございます
B: いいえ
A: Excuse me. What time is it?
B: It is 11.30
A: What time does the next train come?
B: In 5 minutes
A: Thank you
B: You’re welcome
Getting Japanese Conversation Practice
If you are in the unfortunate situation where you can’t find a native Japanese speaker to help you with your studies there is one alternative – Japanese TV, particularly dramas. Watching Japanese television dramas is an excellent way to pick up words and learn Japanese conversation dynamics. Japanese converse very differently to westerners. If you watch dramas you can see how Japanese converse in fairly natural every speech. Movies are usually too difficult and the story lines unrealistic. So buy some drama sets on e-bay or get on to youtube and start watching dramas.
When learning a language you often find yourself perplexed with what to learn. The Japanese language in particular often overwhelms students – kanji, hiragana, katakana, idioms, dialects and polite language such as keigo. With the prospect of so much to learn most students give up learning Japanese as it seems just too difficult and time consuming. You could spend decades studying the Japanese language. However, it doesn’t take years and years to become proficient in spoken Japanese. If you have a clear focus and good study habits you can speak Japanese with only a year of study.
What should on study first? This a difficult question to answer as will depend on your own goals. However, once you have the basic greetings and some vocabulary under your belt you should start learning questions. Understanding questions is paramount in any language. If you visit Japan you will no doubt attract attention and be asked questions. Most conversation begin with questions so it is important to develop an understanding of sentence structure. So before you begin to consider learning polite Japanese, Kanji, idioms and Japanese dialects spend plenty of time learning questions.
Here are ten questions on the subject of food. I have provided English translations. Try to memorize all ten and use them the next time you met a Japanese person. Click on the audio player and repeat after Kaoru Sensei.
Audio Lesson – Question On Food
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すきなたべものはなんですか
きらいなたべものはだんですか
くだものはなにがすきですか
りょうりはできますか
とくいりょうりはなんですか
きょうのあさはなにをたべまいしたか
きのうのよるごはんはなんでしたか
コンビニでたべものをどれくらいよくかいますか
エスニック料理はすきですか
いままでたべたなかでいちばんかわったものはなんですか
What foods do you like?
What foods do you hate?
What’s a fruit you like?
Can you cook?
What’s something you can make/cook well?
What did you eat for breakfast today?
What did you eat for dinner yestartday?
How often do you buy food at a convenience store?
Do you like ethnic food?
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
