for context: I started learning Japanese 3 months ago, began knowing Hiragana.
yesterday I went to a smash bros tournament in my city and when I got to my fourth set, my opponent could barely speak English. He was Asian and his accent sounded Japanese so I asked: “日本語 ?” to which he replied ” お、すごい !”
And I mostly spoke Japanese with him for our set. I’m glad it was a 2-1 (I lost if you were wondering) because it gave me more time to speak with him. He told me he’s learning English at the moment but goes back to Japan in June. So, I was able to speak enough Japanese to play a smash bros set, which included picking stages to ban, small talk about characters we like, and after the set we spoke briefly about where we’re from and the games we like.
When I got double eliminated I wanted to say goodbye to him, so when he finished his game I said ” すみません !” knowing he was the only person whose attention I’d get. We said goodbye to each other and that was that. I could’ve asked him for his discord or smthn else but I was too nervous. Anyways, I’m glad I got a rare chance to talk to a native speaker and I imagine he was glad to find someone he could speak to properly, which makes me glad. I also spoke to the tournament organizer for him.
It wasn’t much, he was probably just being polite when I got 日本語上手’d but at least we could understand each other. I’m now excited to think about how I’ll be able to speak when I go to Japan in January. Thanks for reading!
24 comments
Nice man! I’m in Japan now and im speaking as much as I can. You will definitely be able to excel with speaking when you come, just exert yourself loads and you will improve rapidly 💪
That’s awesome dude! Way to go!
> It wasn’t much, he was probably just being polite when I got 日本語上手’d but at least we could understand each other.
Idk if this sounds like I’m trying to put you down (that’s not the intent, for the record), but yeah. Getting 日本語上手’d means your 日本語 isn’t 上手 but they appreciate the effort.
Edit: To be clear, conversing with a native speaker after 3 months is incredible, just wanted to make OP aware of the wider 日本語上手 phenomenon.
ok
How did you Learn so much in 3 months
You started learning Japanese 3 months ago and you were able to mostly speak in Japanese in a conversation! 😱 Wow! You are definitely a genius! Well done and keep progressing! 👏👏👏👏
Man that’s awesome. Good job after only 3 months!
When you first asked him/her “日本語” during the tournament, do you mean to inquire about the language that him/her is speaking?
I just had a similar experience when I was in Japan. 😀 I met someone in the hostel I was staying in (Otsuka-san). His English was much better than my Japanese so we ended up relying on that a lot more as time went on, but I tried to stay in Japanese as I could. We both essentially were practicing each others languages, which was really cool and made things nice. We ended up going to an izakaya and drinking beer. (Yebisu is heaven by the way.. I want to move to japan just for that. lol)
I know the extent of what I was able to achieve wasn’t that impressive overall, but considering what I “felt” like I was capable of seemed way lower than what I actually was able to achieve, it felt like such a victory to me. lol
You may get mocked or dragged by some of the crowd here, but what you’re doing is the exact right approach. Jump in both feet and speak as much as you fucking can. Make mistakes and learn from them.
Did you mean to ask him 日本人 or 日本語?
Hey everyone I’m Japanese, is there anyone who wants to study Japanese?
I wanna study English too, let’s study each other!! By the way also I’m biginer🔥
Who do you main though
I also started learning japanese roughly 3mo ago.. we MUST be studying different things lmao.. im really excited for when i can have conversations though, what is it that you were studying for 3mo if you dont mind me asking? Anything in particular?
Great job dude. Don’t listen to the people not believing you or trying to make fun of you. They are mad because they keep larping and watching video about the best tools to learn Japanese instead of actually studying.
Crazy how when you put the work in you actually progress ! Keep up the good work.
Three months? This gives me hope. I tried learning in HS and college but kept falling off the wagon. Can still read kana and hiragana and a handful of kanji but dont know enough words to do anything ha
When i went to japan at least i could spot the ラメン signs and find bathrooms 😂
Good luck but keep your expectations realistic haha Japanese takes many years to be good at, I had a colleague here in japan with N2 Japanese level but even he was not understood a lot because what you learn vs how it’s spoken here in japan can be massively different.
Wholesome! It’s really these kinds of interactions that make you think that all that effort in studying is completely worth it. Many more such interactions to come!
Haha. Looks like this hit a little too close to home for a lot of people. I guess if you say something like I got 180/180 on N1, people just roll their eyes.
Someone comes in and talks about the n4/n5 Japanese they got to use at a cool event and you get the neysayers
Interesting lol
So happy for you!!
The tournament wasn’t at OS by chance, was it?
Congrats to you are able to do it if this is true but I still have doubt for myself cause japanese has a very complex particles cause it has many meanings and the grammar too.
I’m proud of the fact I can read hiragana at least.
So many salty people in this sub. Some people are just better at learning languages than others. It’s not a new thing. Lovely little story OP!