Speaking Japanese in public help

6 comments

1. Not sure if I can comment but I can’t really speak either since I never used Japanese outside of the classroom so I can just do grammar/listening/reading although I studied till university (I’m not actively studying Japanese now).

   What I learned from studying Korean for the last few years on my own is that you have focus on learning how conversations naturally flow, and you will feel more comfortable responding. It might also help to learn how to tell the other person you don’t understand or ask them to repeat/clarify. I’m not fluent in Korean either, but I didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes as I did for Japanese so I focused a lot on learning words useful for conversations. Japanese and Korean are somewhat languages compared to English.

   Do you have Japanese friends? With friends you can comfortably talk about anything, so it can help you to get used to speaking.

   The last thing I can say is that we need to try to be confident and not be afraid to make mistakes, I also struggle with this.

   I’m not sure if any of this is helpful, but wish you the best of luck.

2. Maybe try the desensitization method, **such as going on a date**…I’m semi serious.

   ​

   >I can’t remember any of the words I know

   if that’s the case you’d feel a lot better. How can anyone feel so much anxiety over something they don’t actually remember? My deduction is that the situation was more like you have a concept in your mind, you knew you have once learned how to express it, and you felt frustrated when it didn’t come out as planned.

   look on the bright side – at least you have learned it already, which already put you leaps and bounds ahead of countless amateurs. And you are blessed to be immersed in the native environment (while some people over here think they speak perfectly knowing nothing more than ‘konnichiwa“. cant blame them since their environment dictates there’s no humbling experiences like the ones you’ve ran into)

   here are my suggestions corresponding to your post in the same bullet point order.

   1. Sometimes instead of fixating on “recalling” existing knowledge, try learning new things from scratch. If there’s a word you think you know the meaning but cannot produce it at the moment, just treat it as a new word and ask the native what it means. We both know you have money in the bank, but when you forgot your wallet isnt it just convenient to ask your friend to loan you some change?
   2. after they finish talking, ask them nicely to repeat it for you (もう一回お願いします). When you are more comfortable after the second or third time, repeat what they were saying to confirm what it means (〇〇のことですね)
   3. ask them to repeat more times. Also it helps to carry a 📝 memo pad with you so you can take notes during the conversation & pick it up right where you had left it. You can even hand it to them to draw things on it.

   ​

   here’s an example.

   A: すみません、図書館に行きたいのですが。

   B (native): 〇〇が右に見えるまでまっすぐ行ってください。

   A: ありがとうございます。念のためもう一回、ゆっくり教えていただければ。

   B: 〇〇が右に見えるまでまっすぐ行ってください。

   A: 〇〇が右に見えるまでまっすぐ行けばいいとのことですね。

   B: そうですよ。

   A：ありがとうございます！助かりました。

   Per my personal experience local people are very patient and ready to help. They are genuinely happy when they see you happy. and just like us, they don’t want to be misunderstood and are willing to go at lengths to avoid miscommunication.
   So don’t worry too much if asking them words or asking them to repeat things will upset them or cause people to alienate you because the majority of times it never happens. Show that you are trying your best to understand them and that‘s great. (try to avoid just freezing up and act frustrated/frazzled, some natives might wonder if they had upset you and feel bad)

   and the last tip would be to practice with your teacher. After each “defeat” (if you insist things are that bad), describe the situation to your teacher and ask him/her to practice useful dialogs in that scenario. At the city hall / at the hospital / picking up a phone, etc. Even if you didn’t get it back then, you are sure to be able to do better the next time.

   hope this helps, and best of luck!

3. Are you too stressed when you are out and about?

   Do you grasp the gist of the conversation or do you force yourself to hear for every word in the sentence?

4. Idk if this helps but I have been learning Spanish about 3 years-ish and have found it’s best to just talk to a group of friends first outside of school and all. It has help my Spanish a lot. If you have any friends who’re okay with it then ask emo

5. Go to a bar alone, get drunk and try to talk about anything with strangers.

6. My listening comprehension skyrocketed when I started doing subs2srs with Anki.

   Also, writing out what I *would have said* in a conversation, and then practicing it with an iTalki tutor has helped immensely.

   I’m very far from having even “good” listening comprehension, so def listen to other responses, but these things took me from bashing my head against a plateau to finally being able to have conversations in a surprisingly short time.