People who live in Japan

26 comments

1. I talk to my friends in Japanese 👍🏻

2. I think you already got the answer: You immerse in the country and culture and not just the media. You talk to people around you, you read and watch news on the language, you use the language at work, you use it with friends and family while having fun together. I’d recommend getting a native partner. It’d help a lot, at least in my case.

3. – Watch news on tv/YouTube. Usually useful news about what is happening in Japan.
   – Hang out with Japanese coworkers (lunch/nomikai)
   – Attend cultural/community events nearby. Usually I go in groups organized by volunteers at the city hall.

4. Gotta get out there and start talking. Make even casual friends with people who speak little to no English. Get in situations where you need to talk.

   For those of us living in Japan, being able to hold a conversation is far more important than studying for a grammar or kanji test. People can overlook dodgy grammar but it’s hard to get by in Japanese without confidence in speaking

5. When I lived in the US a huge part of my everyday study was input/output, especially with regard to casual conversation. Since moving to Japan, I’ve cut out that part entirely since I do it 4+ hours a day anyway (especially at night), so my study routine is mostly about vocabulary and kanji.

6. Practice in various forms.

   Watching Japanese TV. Variety shows might look like brain rot, but you get to hear a variety of speaking styles and also learn more about parts of Japanese culture.

   Speaking and listening to people on a daily basis, and trying to improve each time. Interactions like paying for groceries or at the konbini are good for listening. Saying more than はいor 大丈夫です during those interactions also helps build vocabulary. I remember when I lived in Chiba, one of the ladies at the 711 would “correct” when I said １つ or ２つ for something like bags(枚) or pieces of chicken(個). She understood what I wanted but I could tell she wanted me to know that there was a more correct way to say it. I actually miss her now lol

   Reading should be obvious. On the train? Look at those advertisements and try and read them. At a restaurant? Refuse the English menu if they offer and try and read the menu, or say your order in full Japanese instead of これ___

   I also have the fortune of dating a Japanese person, so I can do conversation “practice” at any time, so that too, become friends with someone, get a partner.

7. I speak to my wife in Japanese and my in-laws and niece as well. It’s crazy hearing all the natural Japanese compared to the stuff I learned in a classroom.

8. Watch regular broadcast TV. I recommend 月曜から夜更かし

9. Talking to other people in Japanese.

   Listening in on other conversations to see what I can understand at get the feel for the pacing.

   Translating for foreigners in the busy parts of the city.

   Watching live Japanese broadcasts of shows, where there are no subtitles and I can’t rewind.

10. I go to language school here in Kyoto, I do what they tell me to in addition to immersion

    I try to read basically everything I see around me in society and try to use Japanese as much as possible, even if I am not entirely sure what to say I still force myself and I can learn when I get corrected

11. I married a native speaker that couldn’t speak English.

12. I live in Tokyo. I wake up, go to Language School, study from 10-1. Have class from 1:30-4:45. Go to the library and study from 5:30-10. Then I go to Bars almost every night after and practice what I studied with local japanese people.

13. Join a club or group of some kind – sports, music, dance, charity, video games, etc. Having some kind of shared activity gives you more contextual hints about the Japanese being used and lets you contribute/participate beyond just your language abilities

14. When I arrived, I only had hirgana/katakana. Just speak as much as I can. In 4 month I can freely go to a hospital, city hall, interact and joke with people around. I speak much better than I know kanji. Memorizing has never been my strong skill. Cant read anything.

15. I’m assuming they learn the language like how most people learn their native language: school, people, culture and etc

16. Private lessons with a local tutor for serious studying. Otherwise talking to coworkers and friends (it helps that I don’t work in English education anymore), and joining community events or public clubs for different hobbies

    I also take Japanese Sign Language classes so I get to learn through Japanese

17. My study probably doesn’t look too much different from people living overseas. I still do Anki, I still immerse with Netflix, books, etc and I still do shadowing etc. I just also text a lot with friends, hangout at bars, talk with Japanese people a lot, and go on lots of dates lol.

    I’m about an N1 level but basically my life is consumed by Japanese. Just go out, make friends, and speak a lot but don’t forget to actually study. Studying builds the base, communication adds the polish.

18. For me, the turning point in my learning in Japan had been the moment I started an arubaito. I don’t know why you move in Japan and what you are doing there, plus if I understand well you are still at the begining of your learning, so it may not be the moment and/or something you can/want to do, but clearly working in a izakaya with no staff member talking english had been the best thing I did to learn the language. It’s horribly hard at first, but I don’t regret the efforts it cost me.

    Otherway, at the begining I remember I used to go to a kind of “language” bar in Tokyo, where some japanese were coming to talk foreign languages. At first they’re happy to try to use their english or other languages skills, but they are also very happy to talk a little bit in Japanese even if you’re a very beginer, and the fact that they can and want to talk in another language too make the conversation possible even if you only use very basic and simple japanese (you can complete with some english, and they may even tell you how to properly say that in japanese)

19. I binge random netflix shows when im home. Read the signs, listen to the sounds on trains, listen to random conversations around me. Talk to my friends. Do my daily anki and wanikani. Ask my friends to use voice messages to use voice memos when texting. A bit of everything really.

20. I guess my studying methods aren’t completely different? But, I have surges of motivation where I learn critical concepts, and then I just watch tons of media like One Piece (Super good for expanding vocabulary and hearing tons of different speaking styles, even if it’s just voice acting) drama, to reinforce what i learned and I listen to tons of japanese music as well. I frequent some of the bars nearby and talk to the locals in broken japanese, but I think the good thing about this language is that most of the time people are trying to convey their idea with the least amount of words based on the context, which is the complete opposite with English, so I find that even with me being N5 I’m able to somewhat converse kinda, it’s the particles that really get me though lol

21. I don’t live in Japan but I’m just wrapping up a ~1 month long staycation. I think my kanji knowledge and reading speed drastically increased while I was here because you’re just immersed in it, and if you are actively trying to read things as you walk around/travel, it’s easy practice. Whenever I saw any kanji that looked familiar but I couldn’t recall it correctly, I would look it up.

    Also, infinite opportunities for speaking practice! Oftentimes I’d just randomly ask people questions (if they seemed friendly/didn’t look busy) even if I didn’t actually need the answer just to practice speaking a bit. Sometimes it’d lead to a short conversation. Some interactions ended up being kind of awkward/funny but hey, learning experience lol

22. I didn’t study but worked at a hotel, bar, night club, eikaiwa, as an ALT and host bar. Went with 0 Japanese skills and Japanese did improve but for casual talk and I still couldn’t read at all cos I didn’t study. I’m studying officially now minoring Jap for my 2nd degree now.

23. I get drunk with Japanese people. When you are able to talk with the guy whose eyes cannot fix a straight point, you know you are heading the right way.

24. Sit at home like there is covid outside 👍
    I’ve been doing so for 2 and a half years now in Italy, as well as in my own country.  

25. Remember that you’re literally surrounded by Japanese all day.  Do not fall into the trap of thinking you need a teacher or someone to tell you what’s useful or not— a lot of learning advice thrown around in these subs is assuming that the only access students have to Japanese people is their teacher or random people on HelloTalk, but if you live here you’re going to know pretty quickly if a given word is used in daily conversation or not. The more Japanese you consciously put into Anki/your brain, the more free practice you’re going to get simply from walking outside.  Studies show that children in immersion programs in their own country outperform study abroad students consistently, because it’s your inner world and your personal intake of Japanese that counts moreso than the amount of Japanese that happens to be around you. This may sound contradictory to what I said above, but the point is a lot of people move here and then keep their study at the desk and then never get anywhere because they’re not actually interacting with the language around them. 

     However, do not also fall into the trap of thinking “I live here, I have to speak”— you probably already know by now that tons of people who live here suck at Japanese and live here for decades never getting above the level of a “self-assessed N3”.  I am not saying you shouldn’t talk, but take it from someone who works in Japanese and does have to talk every day and hears his own mistakes and still sucks— more than talking itself, that mindset is going to cause you to fossilize. 

    What you’re essentially saying when you say “I need to speak” is that you need the results before you put in the work.  If you start ignoring your own mistakes because you keep telling yourself”mistakes are fine but I *have* to talk”, you’re going to miss out on what Swain’s output hypothesis argues is the actual value of input to learners— the ability to test hypotheses about the language and then notice the difference between what you tried to say and what people say in subsequent input. When MattVSJapan tells people not to speak early, he almost always mentions that the benefit of speaking late is that you’ll “feel weird” when you say something wrong and then you’ll notice the correct thing later or look it up. I don’t necessarily think you have to lock yourself in a cave for three years watching anime and LNs to achieve this sense for your own mistakes, but you do at least have to make sure you aren’t actively conditioning yourself into ignoring that feeling.

      A recent study on people doing study abroad in China found that the people who forced themselves to speak as much as possible and agreed to only speak Mandarin did worse on subsequent tests and speaking tasks than students who spoke their native language and let themselves speak naturally. The takeaway of the study for my professor was that the quality of output practice you’re getting is going to be as important, if not more important, than the quantity. It was also likely that the students who allowed themselves to speak English were both able to find English speakers to go to social events (and thus meet more Chinese people) abd able to ask their Mandarin speaking partners what certain things meant or for clarification in English, making the input they were receiving more comprehensible.  

     Anyway, as long as you keep getting input and trying to understand it, the line will go up. ご健闘を祈ります！

26. I arrived in Japan with zero Japanese. I’m surprised to see so many people saying “just talk to people!” because I don’t know a single person who’s that’s worked for that didn’t have prior exposure to Japanese. Of course, not speaking at all is dumb, but just talking to people generally isn’t enough either. No one wants to talk to you if you can’t string a sentence together.   

    I self studied out of the Genki textbooks and Wanikani. I also signed up for classes at my local Kumon center (not something I’d recommend to a beginner, but I was desperate). After about 6 months, I found a Japanese class at the community center and that was a godsend. Once I finished the Genki textbooks, I moved on to the Quartet series. 

    Of course I also talked to people, but it took about a year for me to actually get to the point where I could have an actual conversation. There was about a year where just talking to the people around me was really helpful. Then I reached a point where I was able to have small talk fine, but struggled with higher level conversation, so I got a conversation tutor. Working with a tutor was super helpful for bringing my speaking up to the next level. Once I had the ability to talk about more complex things, I found that people were willing to talk to me more and about a wider variety of topics.  

    This was around the period where media started being understandable, so I started watching Youtube and tv, and tried to read some middle grade books.  

    I kept on like that and passed the N1 5 years after I first arrived in Japan