Been here for nearly a year and my language abilities are lacking. Colleagues speak to me in English, and I cannot understand them well if they use technical Japanese, so to save time we use English.
N3 (passed) /N2 (failed) level.
How did you improve your language abilities and what would be good to spend the entire day using Japanese?
13 comments
I struggled with that problem myself. Study Japanese online, watch Japanese TV shows and movies, get involved in your local community and make some Japanese friends.
Morning: head to cafe or library, read/study a newspaper.
Lunch: at home, watching the news.
Afternoon: browse a bookstore or head to manga cafe, read some comics or play a game in Japanese
Dinner: local ramen shop or izakaya with a friendly atmosphere
Evening: find a bar (preferably not a typical gaijin bar), sit at the counter and chat with locals
Repeat?
Call up customer support for every device that you own and service that you subscribe to. I’m kidding, but talking on the phone in general makes speaking properly feel all the more pressing.
Find a 24hr izakaya. Start drinking from 9am. Go home in the wee hours with a host of new friends and pera pera Japanese.
Private lessons are the way to go. I never would have advanced in my studies without my tutor!
I think you should spend your time doing at least an hour of proper studying, like with a textbook or flashcards or whatever, but then at least a couple hours doing hobbies or fun stuff in Japanese (passive studying). Literally anything you do here can be done in Japanese instead of English
Not for GW but in general, I also recommend checking our your city’s PR magazines (called Koho, åºƒå ±) and finding random events to sign up for. 9/10 times (at least in my experience), you’re the only foreigner there participating, and since it isn’t an international thing, you’re less likely to run into English speaking participants, so people will have to talk to you in Japanese
Golden Week is for fun! So get up and go to breakfast, preferably at a popular spot with a line. Talk to people on either side of you. Safe topics: weather, breakfast foods. Give yourself one point for each question and two points for each answer. Ask the server questions about the menu. Not too many, because they are probably slammed with customers. But it’s an easy six points right there. Eat hearty. You are going to skip lunch.
Go to a museum, and ask about future exhibits. Ask other people about the display tags (only one question per person!). Grab a brochure to translate at home on another day.
In advance, set up a language date for mid-afternoon. Order something that needs customizing, like tea with lemon. Grab yourself a snack, too. Rack up mega points with language partner.
Movie time! A Japanese one. Ask about coming attractions, and be sure to use your best Japanese at the concession stand. After the movie, write down every word you remember being used in the movie. Double points for writing them in kanji.
Izakaya time! Preferably with a Japanese friend who knows your language goals. One point for every minute you don’t use Japanese (can’t control what they do). Bonus five million points if you stay in Japanese the whole time.
Roll home stuffed and satisfied. Do your normal daily study, then Treat Your Self! Bath, podcast, chocolate — whatever you like.
If you can sneak an hour of karaoke into the day, do that two. Practice your songs beforehand!
And of course, during the lead up to the big day, talk to your colleagues as much as possible about your plans for Golden Week (get recommendations, find out about special deals) and ask about what they are planning for Golden Week. (Who, what, when, where, how and maybe why if they are friendly and open.)
Good luck, and most of all, make it fun!
I already had some decent conversational ability from doing a silly amount of iTalki lessons before moving here last spring, but I get big gains in comfort and confidence from local bars. I’m a regular at quite a few places, so I can pop in and talk to an acquaintance pretty much anytime.
The point is regularity. GW is a not an ideal time, since a lot of locals will be gone, but get to know your immediate community. Even if you’re not a bar person, find some kind of establishment where people converse and go often. Don’t get discouraged when you get totally lost in a bunch of unknown vocab or slurred hayaguchi. Just keep at it everyday.
Read technical textbooks in Japanese.
If you are into anything artistic, Comitia 144 falls on Friday the 5th of May. You can stroll around and chat with people on their booths about their work; there’s illustrators, painters, comic artists, custom clothing, games, photographers– anything original and artistic, is there.
I table at this events very often and people (including myself of course) are more than willing to have a chat about art! Even if you don’t end up buying something at a booth, just some nice words about their work will brighten up their day 🙂
That’s my plan for Golden Week at least lol
Usually in the mornings I used to do some basic Japanese drilling or read some conversations etc and then forced myself to hang out with people the whole time.
Playing a whole game in Japanese is a big booster too. I played Dragon quest and Persona 5 which boosted my Japanese a shit ton. Tho it’s painful at the start to pause every dialogue and search the meaning, it’s definitely worth it in the long run.
Head to the hub every night and talk to as many Hanakos as possible
There are too many to reply to, so thanks for your tips!
If you don’t understand specialized technical Japanese, study specialized technical Japanese.
First, it’s not about browsing a bit and learning bit by bit. You’re in the N3 -> N2 valley where many people get stuck in because here you need to start immersing yourself and build proper learning and study methods.
Second, this technical jargon doesn’t stick if you’re not constantly applying it. Just like Japanese. It’s not about, “How much can I cram in one day?” but, “How much can I prepare for studying in one day?”
My suggestion: Find some full resource on whatever technical shit you need to study. If you’re a programmer, find a full resource on whatever base language you know well in Japanese. Take your day and go through it. Copy sentences from it into an Anki deck. Sentences with no reading on the front of the cards, highlight the unknown words and provide their definition on the back side. Make hundreds of these cards. Then, study a few cards everyday from then on, always tackling reviews everyday. Read them out-loud and maybe practice writing the kanji to help you remember them.