I’ve recently arrived in Japan and am now living here. One thing I have noticed is that before coming to Japan I was absolutely terrified of speaking and had barely had conversations with people in Japanese. Though ever since arriving I’ve refrained completely from using English and have only used Japanese which is surprising to me. I’m not sure why I’m no longer afraid of speaking but I’m very glad this is the case. I wonder if anyone else in here has had a similar experience perhaps?
I’m unsure of my Japanese level yet, but I can understand most of what is said in all of the conversations and interactions I’ve had. I’ll admit though my speaking is a bit below my listening abilities. Though with me speaking Japanese everyday along with my studies it’ll surely give quite a boost in regards to my speaking abilities in the near future.
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> I’m not sure why I’m no longer afraid of speaking
Because you’re constantly exposing your brain to the sensation of speaking Japanese and it learns that speaking Japanese is not as scary as it had once assumed. It’s just a matter of expanding your comfort zone, and it applies to pretty much any activity you can think of.
> I wonder if anyone else in here has had a similar experience perhaps?
Absolutely. It took a couple weeks of being in Japan, but it definitely helped being in school where only japanese was spoken, and having to speak lots of japanese every day.
It also certainly helped that my peers were also learning Japanese (everyone at quite different levels), but the fear of making mistakes vanished because everyone made mistakes.
Are you in school or work? I wonder if the effect still happens if you’re not doing either of those, i.e. working remotely for an english-speaking company, or just travelling.
Yep! I had a similar thing when I studied abroad in Spain. I was terrified of speaking Spanish before I arrived, but my program was super immersive and encouraged us to speak Spanish as much as possible, even to each other. The people on my program were super nice and proactive about using Spanish, so I got over my fear of speaking pretty quickly after arrival
Recently was on exchange, and my usage of Japanese went from only using it for formalities because I was scared to engage in conversation, to always default to Japanese when talking with locals.
You just became more confident, so now ride that wave
You might even start dreaming in the foreign language (e.g. your parents speak to you in Japanese) after living in the country for a couple of months.
It’s very common, people who study the language outside of Japan tend to treat it as an academic subject that they can “pass” or “fail”, when really it’s just a communication tool that anyone can use at their current skill level.
It’s like any other tool; you might not be a master carpenter, but you can swing a hammer if you have to fix a shelf. It won’t be perfect and you might get some sore thumbs, but you’ll probably manage to at least make a temporary fix.
Most of the time I tell my students that speaking ability is really not about how much knowledge you have, but your comfort level and willingness to just try using all the words you know.
Congrats on the move, enjoy watching your language ability grow!
That’s actually awesome
My first day in Japan (I was like advanced beginner language level), a fellow exchange student lost their phone and was having a panic attack about it (which I would have been as well), so I went with her to the koban next to our building to put in an inquiry and then went to a store she went to earlier, and I asked the staff and they had it set aside!
After that, I wasn’t afraid anymore – it helped to be doing something for someone else, that was unavoidable, and to successfully accomplish the task. I still get anxious about saying things correctly, especially if I know I don’t have the right vocab, but my general speaking confidence has been quite high since then. Living there helped my language skills so much! Now I can just throw words out there and hope for the best, but that’s how we all learn in the beginning right? 🙂
Grats OP I’m proud of you