I’ve been studying Japanese for about half a year now and am a bit over N5 level.
Today I was going around to various bookstores and noticed a small bookstore that had Japanese books advertised and decided to stop by. When I walked in the owner greeted me and I started browsing the shelves. After checking out the inventory for a few minutes I made my way back to the front of the store with a book and noticed that the owner was reading a book in Japanese so I asked them if they were from Japan. He said he grew up in Tokyo and eventually ended up in the states. We chatted a bit in Japanese (I naturally got 上手’d after the first sentence despite speaking REALLY bad Japanese) and exchanged names. He said I could come back every once in a while to practice my Japanese and I certainly plan on doing so.
My biggest take away from this experience was how exhilarating it was speaking with someone in their native language. Despite my Japanese being really poor it felt rewarding having that small conversation. It has also renewed my interest in the language and I’m studying with more vigor now. All of you out there who are beginners like myself, don’t be afraid to try out your Japanese–even if you suck it should be a great learning experience and hopefully rewarding.
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Back in 2013, after a year or so of studies, I took a 3-week trip to Japan. Mostly Kyushu and western Honshu, including several small towns. I had a rule of only speaking Japanese to anyone who spoke it. My spoken Japanese wasn’t great, but it was good enough that on three separate occasions, a local decided to spend the day with me.
As you say, it was exhilarating. I’m sure I got flustered some, but it was amazing to actually be able to speak a completely different language. I had to stop learning shortly after that trip for personal reasons, but I always wanted to get back to it. I’m now 9 months into this attempt, and have made much more progress than last time, especially on grammar. I just started regularly reading annotated stories, and hope to take another long trip in a year. Speaking another language almost seems like magic, especially one as different, musical, and nuanced as Japanese. I’m glad you’re getting the same experience!
Ah, I love stories like this. I really feel like learning another language and actually getting the chance to use it feels like…building a rocket ship yourself, and actually getting to fly it. There’s that sense of “holy shit, it’s actually working,” and the moment you get to the ground again—the moment your language encounter ends—you’ve got a list of things to improve while waiting excitedly for the next opportunity to fly.
Rock on, man.
My tutor makes effort to only talk to me in Japanese unless she has to explain a new concept. This includes emailing homework, texting for communication/scheduling, etc.
If I ever send her a message I try and include little convo snippets and try and practice my vocab. I always get so excited when I can send a full text message of stuff or read all of her response even if it takes me a little while.
I love how being praised is seen as an insult by some… Insecure much?
Good job op, keep it up!
I wanna get over N5 too and go back to that neat Japanese store downtown and talk to them a bit! That sounds like such a rewarding experience (after all that hard work, am I right?).
Congratulations! Having a conversation with a native speaker is such a significant milestone in language learning.
Thank you for teaching me the word exhilarating. My English has just got a bit 上手er.
> I naturally got 上手’d after the first sentence despite speaking REALLY bad Japanese
And it seem like it worked.
What worked, you may ask?
In Japanese culture, they will readily compliment someone trying something new to motivate them to continue trying by positive reinforcement. The fact that you made this post is proof that he did well. I’m sure he’s proud! 頑張ってね！
I’m currently typing this while on break from studying my basic hiragana!! I’m still practising my ka ki ku ke ko and I hope one day I can hold at least a small japanese spoken chat 😅 but this is hard… 😭😭
Pretty cool. My Japanese class’s professor said that to me. I didn’t think much of it but I guess that’s a pretty cool milestone to reach. I wish I took her second course. I liked her
You’re having conversations after studying for half a year? 上手indeed
日本人と話ししたい!! Fellow N5 here
ほかの人と練習すべきです。
Yup, those couple first conversations in Japanese with natives were pretty nerve-wracking for me 😂.
But now when I come to my local Japanese shop to pick up another second-hand book, the owners seem to recognize me as this weird dude who keeps buying stacks of books.
Nice, and yes appealing with native people will greatly improve your language skills. Also try to speak or think in Japanese in your daily life, that will help to strengthen the foundation and make you fluent too.
I kinda gave up on progressing but I learned how to play Japanese Mahjong when I was procrastinating. I got pretty 上手 on that lmao.
i know being jouzu’d by natives is a very great feeling, but my friends broke it early to me that being jouzu’d is like a praise so you can keep up on studying.. they said if my japanese was really good, natives will either say nothing about it or just ask how long you are living in japan lol
Feels great when you get it the first time, not so much when you’ve been studying Japanese for several years and are fairly proficient with the language.
something similar happened to me in a sushi shop i regular at. our waitress was speaking japanese to the chef, and i noticed and ordered in japanese. she was surprised, since we live in tennessee. it was a fun experience, and now everytime i see her she speaks in japanese to me.
That sounds like a great interaction.
Every 上手 experience was positive for me. I don’t recall any negative undertones from that expression, ever.
For reference, my Tokyo neighbor spoke Japanese with native fluency and “no accent; he got 上手 in person all the time too.
I am a little under n5 level but am kinda waiting for the same opportunity without being cringe. I am going to do n5 this year and then I will make myself go to language extange place for Japanese in Perth and make myself talk to people.
I got 上手’d once, but it was because she saw I knew I was making an absolute shit show of it and she wanted to be nice lol.
Thank you, random Starbucks barrista, I understood what you said to me but man I screwed up what I was trying to say to you.
Haha congrats on your rite of passage of getting 上手’d, おめでとう!
I haven’t lived in Japan for 2 years so whenever I come across a poor Japanese speaker I bombard them with my entire life story. It’s really fun, especially when it’s in a place they never expected anyone to know the language.
> how exhilarating it was speaking with someone in their native language.
I’ve been studying Japanese for 7-8 years and living in Japan for 6 and I still feel this way every single time. Understanding. Being understood. It’s just awesome.
(Also the flip side of that is the infuriating feeling of inadequacy when this is not accomplished. Heh)
That’s nice, I’m also a beginner and I’m kind of afraid to speak with natives at the moment.😆😆
You shouldn’t take that as a compliment, in fact, 99% of the time when sb says your Japanese is good it’s nothing more than 社交辞令. You should feel flattered when you manage to have a proper conversation in Japanese with someone WITHOUT them complimenting your Japanese.
One time I was doing door dash delivery for some money and I got an order from a Japanese restaurant which this one actually had Japanese staff which is unusual for my area, anyways I heard the staff speaking Japanese so I greeted them and then asked for my order in Japanese and the host lady with a pale face just stood there and said 日本語喋りますか？！ And they way she said it was hilarious. She was soo shocked and it made me feel amazing, then she 日本語上手’d me and I left lol.