I’ve heard that in order to enhance your speaking skills in any language, you have to immerse yourself by thinking in the language, but how do I do that?
In my experience with English it happens after speaking it for about 2 years so is not something you have to consciously train besides practicing a lot
It might depend on how you actually… think. Some people think all in words. Some people think all visually/spatially. Some people think in a mix. I lean heavy to the “spatial” thinking, so it would be silly to replace the English in my head with Japanese because there isn’t a lot of it to begin with.
Like, say you’re sitting on the couch and decide to go to the kitchen. If the words “I’m going to the kitchen”, go through your head, then try and rephrase it into Japanese.
If that doesn’t happen to you much, then just use your daily life to inspire you to ask yourself, “how would I talk about this in Japanese?”
I literally try not thinking while speaking, or I’m not conscious of it. Usually when I start thinking is when I start breaking down.
I do think I’m Japanese sometimes especially if I’m in Japanese mode, or while teaching/tutoring.
Just get a ton of input (as much as you get in your native language or more) and unless you resist it’ll eventually start to happen automatically, no speaking required
That’s how it worked for me with English, and also what’s starting to happen more and more in Japanese since maybe a year after I started learning it (currently at a bit more than 2 years). I’d guess the majority of my thoughts (at least the ones that are actually in any language) are in English rather than my native language
Come up with a sentence in English. Then reduce the sentence to its core parts and thoughts. So the sentence could be “Hi, I’m servious, and I was wondering if you had any PS5s in stock.”
This sentence has 2 core parts: introducing yourself and finding out if they have PS5s. Breaking your thoughts down into intentions and goals instead of complete English sentences will allow your thinking to be more flexible and help you use Japanese sentence structure.
I speak a few languages, try to speak as fast as you can so you do not “think” otherwise you will start translating from the language you feel more comfortable with. For me dreaming in a language is a sign that you are “thinking” in that language.
Literally just do it. Assuming you have an inner dialog (not everyone can hear their voice in their own head). Just attempt to say things in your head in Japanese. If you get stuck then write it down and look it up later. You’ll get stuck a lot. That’s fine.
I haven’t been able to make the jump yet, but I’ve been told by native speakers that a good place for me to start would be to do a few things (which I personally find difficult and almost impossible:
* When learning kanji, stop thinking about the meanings in English. Almost every English speaker I know who learns kanji needs to begin this way, but there will be a point in time when the learner should focus less on the English translation and more on the readings. * Using a J-J dictionary like Weblio or Goo, and not an E-J dictionary like Jisho unless necessary. * Look up grammar points in Japanese (like Kokugo Bunpou). They’ll usually give you a perspective of Japanese grammar from a Japanese speaker’s perspective, rather than a “teaching a foreigner Japanese grammar” perspective. This is one of the reasons why [people can write long (but helpful!) guides in English about は vs. が](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wa-and-ga/), and yet [this nifty Japanese guide](https://taketakechop.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/07/22/064500) sums it up in a few charts and supporting examples.
Once you start to acquire kanji and vocabulary in Japanese, you’ll begin to think more in Japanese terms rather than English terms. If you are able to do this, congratulations — please let me know how I can begin to let go of English.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34M-\_tPcZ\_c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34M-_tPcZ_c) Accidentally found this video of someone making puns for literally 3 minutes straight. See if you can…
8 comments
In my experience with English it happens after speaking it for about 2 years so is not something you have to consciously train besides practicing a lot
It might depend on how you actually… think. Some people think all in words. Some people think all visually/spatially. Some people think in a mix. I lean heavy to the “spatial” thinking, so it would be silly to replace the English in my head with Japanese because there isn’t a lot of it to begin with.
Like, say you’re sitting on the couch and decide to go to the kitchen. If the words “I’m going to the kitchen”, go through your head, then try and rephrase it into Japanese.
If that doesn’t happen to you much, then just use your daily life to inspire you to ask yourself, “how would I talk about this in Japanese?”
I literally try not thinking while speaking, or I’m not conscious of it. Usually when I start thinking is when I start breaking down.
I do think I’m Japanese sometimes especially if I’m in Japanese mode, or while teaching/tutoring.
Just get a ton of input (as much as you get in your native language or more) and unless you resist it’ll eventually start to happen automatically, no speaking required
That’s how it worked for me with English, and also what’s starting to happen more and more in Japanese since maybe a year after I started learning it (currently at a bit more than 2 years). I’d guess the majority of my thoughts (at least the ones that are actually in any language) are in English rather than my native language
Come up with a sentence in English. Then reduce the sentence to its core parts and thoughts. So the sentence could be “Hi, I’m servious, and I was wondering if you had any PS5s in stock.”
This sentence has 2 core parts: introducing yourself and finding out if they have PS5s. Breaking your thoughts down into intentions and goals instead of complete English sentences will allow your thinking to be more flexible and help you use Japanese sentence structure.
I speak a few languages, try to speak as fast as you can so you do not “think” otherwise you will start translating from the language you feel more comfortable with. For me dreaming in a language is a sign that you are “thinking” in that language.
Literally just do it. Assuming you have an inner dialog (not everyone can hear their voice in their own head). Just attempt to say things in your head in Japanese. If you get stuck then write it down and look it up later. You’ll get stuck a lot. That’s fine.
I haven’t been able to make the jump yet, but I’ve been told by native speakers that a good place for me to start would be to do a few things (which I personally find difficult and almost impossible:
* When learning kanji, stop thinking about the meanings in English. Almost every English speaker I know who learns kanji needs to begin this way, but there will be a point in time when the learner should focus less on the English translation and more on the readings.
* Using a J-J dictionary like Weblio or Goo, and not an E-J dictionary like Jisho unless necessary.
* Look up grammar points in Japanese (like Kokugo Bunpou). They’ll usually give you a perspective of Japanese grammar from a Japanese speaker’s perspective, rather than a “teaching a foreigner Japanese grammar” perspective. This is one of the reasons why [people can write long (but helpful!) guides in English about は vs. が](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wa-and-ga/), and yet [this nifty Japanese guide](https://taketakechop.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/07/22/064500) sums it up in a few charts and supporting examples.
Once you start to acquire kanji and vocabulary in Japanese, you’ll begin to think more in Japanese terms rather than English terms. If you are able to do this, congratulations — please let me know how I can begin to let go of English.