Hi, I am currently studying Japanese but I’ve been getting into a problem lately. I use Minna no Nihongo and I learn vocab and grammar through it. But whenever I read the grammar notes I understand it, but actually using the grammar myself is quite hard for me. How do you practice with the grammar so you can actually use and understand it very clearly, is my question.
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>but actually using the grammar myself is quite hard for me
What aspect of using new grammar do you find hard?
When this happens to me I set myself a challenge to make sentences using the new grammar. For example with なので、I made 10 sentences using it. I have the benefit of a regular tutor to check me on the practice sentences I do. Google can also correct you on the use of it if you do it in Google Docs or Gmail, and you can also check with youglish (https://youglish.com/japanese) to see if the sentence you crafted has been used anywhere across YouTube.
Time and exposure. You need more exposure, just studying from a textbook informs you of how the language can be used but it doesn’t mean you have acquired it. In a similar vein if you were to study how to play basketball, watch videos, read books about it. It doesn’t equate to you actually shooting the ball and making it in. That only comes when you physically play basketball and practice shooting. This takes a lot of time, a lot of time.
The same case is here, you need to listen and hear the grammar being used in context, not just sentences. In TV shows, books, manga, and other mediums where there’s lots of context surrounding it. That exposure is when it clicks, then you practice and keep exposing yourself until it’s acquired.
It takes practice. Workbook practice, writing practice, speaking practice… the more you use it the more automatic it becomes.
The brain gets used to grammar through context. When you learn how a grammar point functions, you only have a piece of the puzzle. It’s a lot harder to use something not solidified yet. Through reading Japanese content you will run across plenty of the grammar points you studied and will make the connection through context plus what you previously learned about the grammar point.
Are you doing the exercises?
If I don’t do well on the exercises I redo them until I get through with no mistakes
Read, the more exposure you get to written (audible too) content the more exposure you’ll get to grammar constructs, multiple meanings to words, characters (what does a baby sound like to a Japanese ear? An old man? A rich person? A foreigner?) Which leads us into understanding the cultural mindset and the translation begins to stop when you stop wondering, “what is X in Japanese?” And instead reawaken and improve your radar for discovering meaning.
No amount of learning resources will ever be able to take you to the level where you can just understand content in your target language. You need to practice listening to and reading loads of content if you want to be able to consume content.
By necessity this means a large part (the first several months to years) of the learning process at the start is listening to a lot of what sounds like gibberish to you. There is no way around this and trying to avoid it by simply not consuming content thinking that what you need to do is consume one more grammar book or set of flashcards is the worst possible thing you can do for yourself.
Edit: also don’t worry about “using” grammar. Just get fluent in comprehension asap and the rest will follow along. If you live in Japan and have a legitimate reason to need to be speaking and practicing speaking all of the time this may be a bit different though. Give us some info on your goals/needs and maybe we can try and accommodate you.
Pimsleur
Reading よつばと, nhk website, listening to podcasts, watching ちびまる子ちゃん, Peppa pig, paying for tutorship. And I still don’t understand more than half the time. Definitely gets better every month, but it’s slow progress. I have about a 1000 hours in kanji as well, so can often read beyond my comprehension and just need to check grammar points. I’m also using 皆んなの日本語 and am working though the second book. I’ve been learning 4 years, but only took it seriously last year at some point.
For ref, it’s the first language I’ve tried to learn and I’m basically the best part of 40. I passed GCSE french in the UK with a C, and I don’t know how…
I watch anime. Yeah, low-brow, some would claim. That, and Tokyo-no-Jo, who delights me each and every time. (If you have French in you somewhere, or hey, even if you don’t, take a peek his way. *chef’s kiss*)
Between the two of them, I pick up words. Recently I noticed that the word, “Run/to Run” is now a part of what I can ‘hear’ now. Same with “Fly/to Fly”. It’s super exciting to just suddenly KNOW another word.
My mother tongue is English, and my second language is French, but even so – it’s the same. Suddenly, through repeated exposure, I have a new word in one of my ‘native’ tongues.
>But whenever I read the grammar notes I understand it, but actually using the grammar myself is quite hard for me.
This is probably because you don’t really have enough grammar and/or vocabulary knowledge to compose the complex sentences you normally could in English.
To help solidify your understanding of the grammar, you should write out practice sentences. But since you are starting out, you’re only going to be able to compose a bunch of extremely simple sentences using the limited grammar and vocabulary that you have.
As you learn more grammar, vocab, and get more exposure to the language, your practice sentences can get more complex/creative. Eventually, you’ll find that you can actually express yourself properly. But it’s can be a while before you get to that point.
If you find yourself unable to write even simple sentences with the grammar you have learned, then you probably just need to be exposed to more examples of the grammar in action.
Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
and
[https://www.imabi.net/tableofcontents.htm](https://www.imabi.net/tableofcontents.htm)
Both have a ton of example sentences for each grammar point which should help you get through that weird phase between understanding the grammar explanation and not yet being able to use it.
Are you practicing with other people? If not I would suggest it if you can. Don’t have to be native speakers. Took classes in other languages, big part of it was practicing short dialogues repeatedly with people in your class.
Time and exposure to the language. Trust me, the more time you spend with the language, the more that same word/phrase is gonna show up
For me, at first one writes sentences “robotically”. One does not have any feel for what is grammatical and what is not, one simply applies the rules one has learned. Since these rules are not exhaustive there will be many mistakes. Often interacting with more proficient speakers will result into their rephrasing your sentences.
Having done it long enough makes it second nature, the process of writing those sentences goes faster and faster until it goes on feeling.
Indeed, though simple sentences nowadays go automatically and on feeling for me, more complex grammar I still need to write “robotically”, consciously thinking about it, after having done it enough it too will go on feeling I suppose. And I don’t believe the line between “robotically” and “on feeling” is all that clear. It simply becomes easier and easier to do so.
Reviewing grammar notes has never been useful for me. I find it much more useful to read the grammar notes, put as many example sentences of it as I can into my SRS (I’m using Tae Kim so usually 3-8), and review the sentences.
Obviously you run the risk this way of eventually memorizing the whole sentence as a unit. That’s why it’s important to keep exposing yourself to new material. If you’re working through the book consistently, this shouldn’t be a major issue, but you’ll still get a lot more out of moving on to other materials as early as you’re able (while still reading the grammar text if you’re finding it helpful).
100% exposure. I think my ability to understand Japanese jumped orders of magnitudes higher just by being in Japan for a couple weeks. I can’t imagine what a couple months or years could do
> I use Minna no Nihongo
Found your problem.
You need “Anki and Reading”
that’s the neat part! You don’t!
Immersion. You HAVE to be surrounded by the language for a long time. There are things like Anki, textbooks out there, but they will only prepare your mind for speaking and listening to the language and anything you learn will be forgotten if you don’t hear it in the middle of some type of immersion where a native speaker is talking about the thing you learned.
Thorough movies and music I’m able to understand certain phrases and recognise some phrases which I have already learned
Are you using the additional workbooks for Minna No Nihongo or just the main book (plus translation)? It really changed for me when I started using the workbooks as well. I’ve gone through the entire series, currently on chapter 19 of Intermediate II, and can now happily read novels in Japanese. It really works if you stick with it.
Listen more first. Read more first. Inputs should come first.
Comprehensible input, bro. [Here’s](https://youtu.be/VR5cF7PGHec) a taste. Also, you might wanna give http://www.watanoc.com a look. It’s a gold mine.
Can we get some moderators in this sub because I’m getting so tired of these posts……
In any language it is hard to create phrases when starting. The usual think to do is consume a lot of content so you get to learn the patterns and get more familiarized. It is ok to experiment with the new knowledge but trying too hard to use the grammar can lead too frustation.