So I made this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/5tak5i/passed_n1_in_a_little_over_2_years/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) many years ago when I was around 23, and I am now 29. I just wanted to give a little update for you guys and maybe some inspiration. I still haven’t been to Japan (lol I know). But I’ve tried my hardest with the tools and resources I found here and other places, and nowadays the first thing Japanese people ask me when we meet after the standard よろしくお願いします is “Where in Japan did you grow up?”. Even today, meeting a new Japanese person with my friends, she heard my voice before she saw me, and she told me she thought I was Japanese before she turned around.
I focused a lot on speaking, but obviously to pass N1 I had to know reading and listening right? In my opinion, the best way to learn all three (手書きは今まで自分の名前くらいしかできない笑) is, after completing a textbook or college course, read as much as you can. Anything you can get your hands on. Painstakingly look up every new word you don’t know and then go back over the sentence you just read. Especially by reading 大人向け小説, you’ll go from 30~60 minutes a page at the beginning of your first book to 10~20 by the end of it. And now you’re thinking, **“How is that gonna help me with listening and speaking?”** Well, just remember all of your reading drills from primary school. Read out loud to yourself. Watch videos of Japanese people talking and mimic them. I promise you, it is not racist to mimic native speakers of a language. My dad did his best to copy an American accent when he moved here and people just thought he was from the south even though he moved to America at 19 to Pennsylvania. If he didn’t make a conscious effort he still sounded foreign.
The beauty of Japanese grammar for a native or proficient English speaking learner is, for the most part you can just think of it as Yoda speak to decipher whatever you’re reading/hearing. お寿司を食べます。Sushi, I will eat. Easy peasy レモンサワー. Kinda contradictory from my first paragraph, but don’t be worried about sounding like a native speaker at all. Languages are about communicating your thoughts and feelings and hearing others’ thoughts and feelings too. If you have good grammar and poor vocab, you’re leagues ahead of someone that knows a bunch of obscure words but can’t piece them together coherently. I will update this with more info and answer questions tomorrow. I just wanted to share that it is hard to learn Japanese (or any language), but if you have a set goal in mind for why you’re learning, maybe some of my bragging will help or motivate you.
12 comments
That point about Yoda opened my eyes… I never realised. Thanks!
You accidentally made part of that code.
If you start a line with four blanks
like this
it ends up looking weird.
TIL that practicing a language by imitating its speakers might be perceived as “racist” somehow
Thank you for pointing out the importance of reading. Too many focus on listening ang speaking and think they only need to do just that and not that reading will also help you speak and listen. Of course you still have to know the right pronunciation…but being able to read opens up more ways for us to learn.
I am glad I’m not the only one to internalize the grammar structure as being like Yoda-speak. I’m only a little over a month into my journey and have been trying to use small mnemonics like that to help it make sense. I also assume that, like everything, there is a general level of nuance but it has helped make things click.
わたしのぼうしとくつはしろいです！
Great post! Question: If you had to ball park, how much did you do traditional study everyday (Assuming if it was everyday) such as reading grammar book/watching grammar video, drilling Anki/flashcards. And how much did you engage in native content such as reading novels, watching shows or other native content.
Also, additional question, at what point in time did you feel you weren’t super restricted in your speaking? I’ve been speaking for about 11 months and my main restriction is the classic not knowing how to convey thoughts as well as lack of words, which I hope further reading over the next year or so will assist with…. and listening comprehension is a problem too. But I’ve come a long way since I started, in the beginning I could only say “I’m looking for xyz” now I can do compound sentences rather easiily. 🙂
I feel I’ve made good progress over the past 2 years, but always like hearing other peoples overall Journey as I believe its the little additions you do everyday that get you there.
As someone who comes across as a native speaker (you, not me, lol), something I’ve been grappling for a long time is the feeling that speaking another language can feel like cosplay. I practice a lot of output (possibly more than I should), but being able to communicate complex thoughts accurately is only half the battle as using overly idiosyncratic ways of expression may harm communication.
Yet while stringing together idiomatic statements and more native-like expressions might possibly make one more comprehensible and feel less like a language butcher, it also feels a bit like cosplay. My English expresses my true thoughts, individuality, and identity, while my Japanese feels like a mask I wear to perform the function of my identity.
I definitely don’t think there’s anything racist with imitating native speakers, but the tension between wanting native-like performance and expressing one’s genuine true self is something that weighs on me.
Is this something you think about?
Did you find Anki useful?
wait so you don’t have an accent?
What were your means for practicing speaking?
I wonder if Yoda in the Japanese version puts the verb as SVO.
its a bit frustrating tho… I have bean learning for aproximatly 4 years and I have read 54 novels (I will finish my 55th tomorrow) but its frustarting because there are still many words to learn and when I listen to native stuff (youtube ,podcasts etc) its like another new language..so do you suggest that I continue reading and listening to native stuff? how many books that I should aim for(100? or more?)…thanks