Has anyone “given up” on output, and just focus on input? I feel a little guilty about it.

29 comments

1. You definitely shouldn’t stress out about output. Output will come to you naturally once you’ve had enough input.

2. there’s nothing wrong with just learning to understand what you hear and such and starting there can actually you know make learning to speak more natural because you’re so used to hearing it and knowing what it means. the hardest part that I find is hearing comprehension not speaking I’m very good at speaking and forming proper sentences. so when I try to talk to people it’s incredibly stressful and embarrassing and I stumble all over the place because I’m having a hard time following their sentences.

3. I haven’t “given up” on it, I just haven’t started yet because I don’t care right now. I have no one to talk to and I don’t know enough words or grammar to say anything worthwhile anyways. Eventually I’ll get to it. But there isn’t some law that says in order to learn a language you have to learn all aspects equally. I think it’s totally valid just to learn to read or listen if that’s all you want to do.

4. Its such a nightmare on apps to find a good partner or good chatrooms for speaking.

   I usually just resort to reading things outloud or talking to my cat/self. It does help to get your brain and mouth used to makin sounds and stuff. I also shadow various things.

   I still jump on voice chatrooms and hope theres a good one for having a conversation though.

5. Personally, I think writing in Japanese (typing) is a better way to transition, especially for those of us who are anxious about it. It should also be noted that your ability to output is secretly working in the background, and in fact, just reading Japanese will aid your speaking/pronunciation skills, by way of your inner voice (unless you are some of the unlucky few who somehow do not have an inner voice).

   I wouldn’t stress about it, it’s not like you’ll have to start entirely from 0 when you do start. The biggest thing for new speakers is generating confidence and building muscle memory. Starting with writing can help alleviate that in a more controlled environment.

6. You don’t get good at writing by not writing. Even with tons of input you still need to practice writing at some point, which helps easing into speaking.

   At an early stage of learning I prefer purely input as I find it to be a more effiicient use of my time. When the amount of knowledge I have is lacking, the sentences I would construct wouldn’t be very good anyway.

   r/WriteStreakJP If you do want to practice output, you can check this subreddit out. Japanese people often come and correct your writing. You just need to force yourself to write a bit everyday.

7. tbh i dont even bother looking for that in chatting apps. Just get one through your hobby, mine is MMOs, and now I got lots of friends I output with.

8. >Rather than stressing out over my output, should I just make that decision that it is lower priority and spend my time on input instead?

   That’s what I did. Don’t stress and think about why you’re really learning Japanese.

   I’m in a similar situation as you describe. Input, input, input. I’ve gotten pretty decent at reading native materials and am relying on the dictionary less and less. Mostly reading, but listening is also improving. My “theory” is that with enough input the output will come eventually.

   Similarly, I had a nephew that said hardly nothing until he was about five years old. Everyone was worried, but he came around. Now he’s a normal kid.

   A few years ago, I was in NYC. I had a few gin and tonics in me and went to a jazz club. It turns out there was a Japanese guy there who spoke little English and we ended up talking for about 45 minutes in Japanese. All sorts of stuff was coming out of my mouth that I didn’t quite realize I was able to speak. It was eye-opening to me, but since then I have hear similar stories from others.

   Best of luck with your studies.

9. Yes, it’s me.

   I had tried to move into Japan, but was told on job interviews that my Japanese sucks, despite having passed N1, because I spoke too slow and with many errors. I’m too introverted to make Japanese friends, and Japanese people are introverted too, which makes it even harder.

   When I was studying abroad my spoken Japanese DID become better, but then I return to my country and lose it again. So it’s basically useless for me. I tried to spoke with myself, but quickly became bored.

   If I ever want to repeat my relocation attempt, looks like it much more beneficial just to concentrate on my IT skills, than try to impress interviewers with my Japanese anyway. Then, if I live there, my spoken Japanese will become better naturally.

10. I found that every JLPT I took my output lagged about one level lower. Understanding *what* the grammar means takes an afternoon and a textbook. Understanding *how* and *where* the grammar is used (and where it isn’t) takes encountering heaps of real-world examples over time. That’s the key to output.

    Don’t try to use what you’ve just learned. Try to use what comes to the surface naturally -stuff you’ve learned weeks ago and seen around the place since.

11. Do what suits for your wants & needs. If u plan to speak at minimum, I think its ok to prioritize speaking skill lower.

    English is my second language. I couldn’t output english (both writing & speaking) very well. I understand English just fine, could watch movies & youtubes with ease. I self-taught programming from English materials. My current environment needs very little english speaking ability, thats why I never make efforts for output ability.

    私にとって日本語も同じぐらいだよ。日本語を学んだ本来の目的としては日本語のエンタメを楽しむだけだし、今の日本語レベルには映画見る時とか、ネットに情報を探すときとかにあまり問題がないです。だから今はそのまま満足です。でも将来（今から3，4年）に日本に生活する予定があるからこそアウトプットの部分にきちゃんと練習しようと思う。

    Another thing to consider is speaking can make u remember words better. Speaking regulary could shorten your spending time reviewing tango.

    [This guy](https://youtu.be/zRTgpy9UDlQ) started outputing after learning about 20k words. N1 has upper limit of around 10k words.

12. Depends on what you want to do with your Japanese right?

    I’m learning as a hobby to consume Japanese language media so I specifically have not bothered working on output by design because my goal is input.

    That said, it is kind of vexing that I can understand quite a bit of slice of life anime now but I would not be able to string together two sentences if I ever had to talk to a Japanese person, although the odds of me ever running into a Japanese person is quite low (I live in southeast Alaska).

13. VRchat, there are a lot of japanese speakers. Look for rooms written in Hiragana and join and listen around. I made some friends there and had a lot of conversations. Also there are Japanese learning rooms (they say worlds) where other Japanese learners are hanging out. Sure the last step is to activate your mic and say something but it is easier than in reallife.

14. I have only recently started to learn japanese again, but i’ve been doing this for years with korean. i have no intention to go there or to speak, so knowing to speak korean would not be much more than a party trick for me. but I do often narrate things to myself or have dialogues in my head when i go for a walk, simply to refresh vocabulary or to internalize grammar structures in order to understand it quicker.

15. For your case, it wouldn’t make sense to spend that much resources being good on output. You’re just there for a few days and you’re not gonna need to speak much outside of basic needs and the sentences you do need to say in Japanese come easily packaged. In my case tho, I’m working with a Japanese client so I need to be good with output.

16. I won’t ever give up on output, even if it’s very minimal. Speaking or writing my own sentences in Japanese helps me improve so much each and every time. Even just shadowing whole conversations to get a feel for what speaking is like at time really helps as well.
    I primarily do it all to get a much deeper understanding of the language and be able to learn a lot faster. One of the most useful parts is being able to spot where you struggle, so you know what to focus on next.

17. I can imagine it tough if you don’t live in Japan or have a partner

18. I can understand the feeling of wanting to give up after multiple occasions of things not working out, and in the end you’re learning Japanese for your own enjoyment, so there’s no point in forcing yourself to do something you don’t wanna do. However, if you do actually wanna get better at the output part as well, I think it’s a good idea to persevere. For me it was a mixture of putting extra effort into studying temporarily (brushing up on vocab and grammar as I prepared for JLPT N2) and finding a patient and cool teacher who helped me build confidence when speaking Japanese. I just got back from a trip to Japan and having been able to connect with some people (of course, not everyone) and being able to express myself in Japanese felt so awesome. I think when it comes to Japanese, it takes a lot more luck and work to find the right people who can help you build the language skills and confidence necessary to actually enjoy speaking, but if it’s something you wanna do, it’s worth the trouble!

19. Getting a teacher or speaking partner is helpful not only for spoken output, but also written output since they will help you iron out what’s natural Japanese and what’s not. Same goes for input, since not all content in Japanese, like games or novels was originally in Japanese.

20. Yes you probably should focus on more commonly used phrases which suits your needs. If you’re not looking to work there nor make any friends, chances are you probably only need to learn give or take 10% of japanese. Speaking to retail staff on the other hand is a different matter, ive been to japan before, though i can translate most sentences in my mind into japanese, i can barely do japanese –> english. In other words, they can understand me, but i dont understand them well. Actually, just speaking english alone will be able to get you through pretty well (depending on where you visit), if your intention of learning japanese is for holidays. But you should take a little more consideration : How often, and how long will you visit japan ; If you plan to be making yearly, bi-yearly visits for over a week each, you might wanna learn it thoroughly, because you might turn tail and decide to live there for longer durations etc.

    I studied on my own through the internet, never spoken a single word out loud nor consumed much japanese media, but when i went there, i was able to communicate in understand-able sentences by the 2nd day. I couldnt understand some difficult keigo/formal sentences, but nonetheless able to enjoy my trip without much stress on communication ; It took me 2 years just to reach this baby steps, but i enjoy it, because i treat the language as a form of entertainment. I study japanese more than i read manga/watch anime these days even 😀

21. I’m just starting my journey, but from my experience learning Spanish earlier in life, do yourself a favor and at the minimum speak aloud to yourself and at least try to type out the language. You’ll thank yourself later

22. I’ve never talked to a native speaker, but I have a study group (over discord) where we do very simple japanese conversations. We’re working through genki which has a lot of group activities where you talk to each other.

    I also do pimsleur, which has you speaking a lot. I think it really helps to lower that speech barrier.

    You could also keep a diary, or a video/audio diary, or just talk to yourself in japanese about whatever you want.

    So, don’t stress about it, I’m sure you’ll be fine on your visit even if you just get a lot of input. But if you do want to get more output, there’s lots of ways for us introverts that are way less stressful than going on one of those language partner apps 🙂

23. Yeah, if you don’t have a real pressing reason to do so, go for it.

    It might help maintain your interest sticking to whatever aspects you do use.

    Plus you’ll still be acquiring new grammar, vocab, etc through constant exposure to native material.

24. I’m not sure if you’re into gaming but can I suggest Twitch if so? I follow some Japanese gamers on there & just participate in their chat and Discord. They do all the speaking in the main, but it’s good for getting to grips with hearing people

25. not me 😭 my output skills are way better than my input so im just trying to absorb

26. Opposite for me. Can’t listen or read for shit, but can have a semi-decent rambling conversation if I completely ignore what you are saying.

27. I have been studying Japanese off and on for years. I have been improving dramatically now that I’ve finally focused on output. I had avoided output and it definitely stunted my growth. This is just one man’s experience of course.

28. Was the same as you. Studied Japanese as a hobby for 8 years, and spoke the language for the first time a few months ago. And… It’s so much fun! I have an italki tutor that I speak with regularly. We just talk about whatever we feel like, and there are no goals other than practicing speaking. Wish I had begun sooner, but I was scared. Now I remember words much better, because I actually use the language actively.

    But if it’s a hobby – do whatever you want! There’s no ‘correct’ path. Just enjoy yourself.

29. Seeing as my only goals are to enjoy video games, manga, novels, and other Japanese media….I never focused on output. I will likely never travel to Japan. I’m doing this for me.