5 RULES should be followed when LEARNING HOW TO SPEAK JAPANESE

5 RULES should be followed when LEARNING HOW TO SPEAK JAPANESE

Learning Japanese is a hard process indeed, and learning how to speak Japanese probably harder since it is a whole new kind of speaking language we are talking about. So to help you prepare for your Japanese speaking, here are the 5 RULES should be followed when learning how to speak Japanese.

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1 - Avoid focusing too much on grammar...

Normally when we learn a new language, we will have to learn grammar, its basic structure, so that when we speak, listeners can understand what are we talking about. However, many people are stuck in a trap which is focusing too much on grammar. Speaking and Grammar can be drastically different and Japanese is no exception. When focusing too much on grammar, you can be in a situation in which you confuse yourself and you don’t know how you should respond to a conversation. Also your talk can be “rigid” as you tend to try talking as close as the grammar structure you have learnt. And this is really bad! Really! Since what is the point of learning how to speak Japanese when you cannot actually make a proper real-life conversation? So instead of digesting tons of grammar structure, you should try different approach, it should be more effective.

2 - ...But don’t forget to grasp the basic grammar.

Yeah, we know this may sound contradict to what we told earlier, but wait, this is different. Yes learning “too much” about grammar is bad, but if we don’t understand the basic concepts of the language so how can we suppose to speak properly? That being said, although Japanese grammar is different from other language, for example English which is pretty popular nowadays, the grammar rules are not that hard to learn and it only takes small amount of time to get hold of it. For example, in English we have to change the verb based on the subject (human, living being, or lifeless object), gender, and the number of subject, but that rule is not applied in Japanese. OR, in English we have the basic Simple Present structure: Subject - Verb - Object, on the other hand, in Japanese it looks like: Subject - Object - Verb. Lets take a look at the example below:

• English: I study in University.

• Japanese: 私は大学で勉強します (Watashi wa daigaku de benkyō shimasu) - literally means I in University study

So as you learn Japanese, if you understand the basic grammar, it will be easier for you to speak Japanese.

3 - Try to practice listening skill.

Remember when we said “try different approach”? This is exactly the different approach we are talking about. In an conversation, you do not only speak, you also have to response, so how can you response? You will have to listen. As the result, practice listening Japanese is an important part when learning how to speak Japanese. First of all, you have to listen to understand what other people say, and second, from what people say, you should be able to learn something from their speaking Japanese. Try to listen as much as you can, and then gradually you will be able to get used to Japanese speaking accent, the way Japanese people speak. From that, you will have a good foundation for your own Japanese speaking.

4 - Try to use realistic speaking or listening materials.

In truth, this rule is not an absolute rule you have to follow since each person have different preferences. However, there is a reason behind it. When you search for speaking and listening materials, surely you will look for Japanese materials, one of them is probably manga, anime, stories, books, .etc… The thing is, all these kind of materials range from “fantasy” genre to “slice of life” genre. “Slice of life” genre, which focuses on daily life, is good for your process of learning how to speak Japanese of course. But other types like “fantasy” stuffs, the way characters speak is pretty exaggerated or dramatized and you may accidentally follow that weird way of speaking (according to real-life conversation standard) and it can push you into funny situations. Don’t get it wrong, you can watch and read fantasy manga, anime, movies, films, books, .etc… in your leisure time, but when you learn to speak Japanese, try to choose materials which related to real-life.

5 - Don’t try translating Japanese to English or mother-tongue all the time.

Looking at this rule and many people may think: “weird… if I don’t translate the meaning so how can I understand what I’m learning?”. They have a point, but the downside of that thinking is this is not grammar learning. Speaking Japanese means using Japanese in real conversation, it equals to using Japanese culture. In many cases, the meaning of a word in Japanese is not the same as English or your mother-tougue, translating will lead to downfall of your learning to speak Japanese efforts. Not to mention that Japanese grammar structure is different from your mother-tongue or English grammar structure (check the example from rule nr2), so when you translate, the process will stop your fluency as you need to take time to translate. In the funnier case, you will stuck in situation where you use both Japanese and English, for example at the same time. Imagine like: “日本語のべんきょうは hard けど interesting です” (Nihongo no benkyou wa “hard” kedo “interesting” - Learning Japanese is hard but interesting). Sounds weird isn’t it?

After all, learning to speak Japanese is a long progress and it needs patient. If you want to have guidance in this difficult but fun journey, why not check out the link below to see what we have to offer!