Can’t speak japanese

13 comments

1. I guess give up because if you truly love Japanese you wouldn’t even consider giving up.

   And you seem afraid of failure. Maybe you’ve got an ego. Or lacking confidence. All that does is prevent you from progressing. Maybe find another hobby like gardening.

   Do you ever ask questions like “I suck at video games. Should I just quit playing them?”

   Of course not. It’s silly. Japanese is a hobby. If you enjoy Japanese then do it, otherwise don’t. There’s nothing deep about this

2. It sounds like nervousness and lack of practice are your blockers, not skill. It’s totally normal to have a hard time holding a conversation in your first year of study, and there’s plenty of us who get nervous about it. But you won’t get better without practice, and that means actually doing it.

   As an intermediate step, have you tried talking out loud to yourself? Narrating your own actions or telling yourself stories will help you notice gaps in your knowledge. [This video](https://youtu.be/hin1HGhbGdo) goes into some ideas for doing this.

3. As someone who finds listening and speaking by far the hardest part of the Japanese language all I can say is がんばって.

4. That’s up to you of course. It’s hard to learn Japanese. You shouldn’t let a stutter stop you if you really love it! If people are rude to you about your stuttering that’s their problem- not yours.

   I agree with Quilltips, talking out loud to yourself might really help your confidence.

5. I think you need to tackle some of your more important issues as learning Japanese isn’t really going to “fix” your life. Need to figure out what you want to do in life and get rid of anything negative that is holding you back including gaming, drugs, smoking, and porn. Have you tried exercising or weightlifting?

6. what are you learning japanese for? do you stutter in your native language? are you able to have conversation in your native language?

7. This might be better suited for r/confidence or r/inspiration. Just practice.

8. Even if you never get able to speak Japanese, can you still enjoy learning it? Can you still have fun reading manga or novels? Can you still enjoy watching anime? Can you still get a kick out of hearing people and realizing you can actually understand them? Could you still make some Japanese internet friends to chat with?

   Yes, languages are usually for interacting with people but…that interaction doesn’t have to be through speaking. So unless having a conversation is literally your sole goal, then I don’t see why not being able to talk would stop you if you like the other parts (and have the time and energy).

   Besides, I think you can get over it eventually, so even if it seems impossible now, it might still happen.

9. Studying for almost two years and in the same boat… I can write and read enough to get by, but I’ve literally never once had a verbal conversation with anyone other than myself.

10. Just talk to someone.

11. This might sound silly, but you can always talk to yourself.

    Yeah, you might sound like a crazy person to anyone spectating, but you will develop the brain and muscle connection if you have conversations with yourself. Even starting with describing what you are doing, or explaining how your day went. Maybe even in the future you can converse IRL, but until then, you won’t judge you too harshly (Theoretically.)

    Thanks to George Trombly for this bit of advice.

12. I have studied for 10 years and still can’t speak Japanese lol

13. I’ve been studying for 7 years still haven’t had an opportunity to speak japanese in person 🙁