After spending a great amount of time studying Japanese grammar and vocabulary, but still don’t know how to speak Japanese? No worries! Because I have six simple tips that will work!
So you’ve already learned the basics of the Japanese language. Japanese writing systems, hiragana, katakana, and the basic Japanese words. Now, it’s time to use your knowledge to speak Japanese! But I know it’s not that simple.
For me, learning Japanese was fun until I realized I had to speak at some point and use it for real-life communication. I knew Japanese grammar and a bunch of vocabulary but didn’t know how to speak Japanese. That was when I stopped studying grammar and started to try different ways to focus on speaking Japanese.
In this blog post, I’ll share the top six tips I found helpful in practicing my speaking skills. So, if you’re afraid of speaking Japanese, struggling, and don’t know where to start, you can follow these tips to learn how to speak Japanese or any other new language you’re picking up.
Page Contents:
- Remember Why You Started
- Make Sure You Know The Basics
- Immerse Yourself In Japanese At Home
- Learn To Use Japanese Fillers To Sound More Fluent
- Record Yourself Speaking Japanese
- Don’t Hesitate To Talk To Native Speakers
- Or… Practice Japanese Conversations With Ling!
Hacks On How To Speak Japanese
1. Remember Why You Started
Remind yourself of the reason why you want to learn Japanese. Are you passionate about learning Japanese? Do you want to travel to Japan alone or with a new Japanese friend? Are you eager to know how to speak Japanese? If yes, tell me why! Because if you forget why you started, it gets harder to stick to it.
My first introduction to the Japanese language was through anime – Naruto, the first anime I watched – back in high school. As the number of animes I watched increased, so did my interest in Japanese culture. And finally, I fell in love with Japan and dreamed about traveling there one day.
Well, that’s the story of how I started learning Japanese. I sincerely want to hear about your own stories, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment after reading this blog post!
2. Make Sure You Know The Basics
Before you wear yourself out trying to speak Japanese, ensure you’ve nailed the basics. Some Japanese learners find the Japanese writing system intimidating and thus skip studying kanji. If you’re one of them, you miss out on a significant part of the language.
Using the Ling app is an excellent way to start if you’re thinking about mastering the basics, starting from the Japanese alphabet to Japanese grammar!
3. Immerse Yourself In Japanese At Home
Now, it’s time we get to the nitty-gritty part. I’m sure you’ve heard the immersion method a million times before, but it’s nothing overrated. Immersion is the best-proven way of language learning.
If you can afford to stay in Japan for a while, go for it! And if you can’t afford it, like me, surround yourself with Japanese as much as possible and expose yourself to Japanese whenever possible.
I want you to see Japanese words and hear Japanese sounds in every corner you turn to as if you are in Japan. Let me explain how you can do this by changing small things in your daily life.
4. Watch Japanese Shows
You should make a habit of watching Japanese movies, shows, or anime; not like a kind of addiction, but it’s better to watch regularly. Nowadays, Netflix offers many Japanese shows; go check them out now!
As an anime lover, I highly recommend you start watching anime if you still haven’t. It depends on what genres you like, but Death Note would be a good starter for a newbie. No dubbing, of course! However, I see no harm in watching with English subtitles but get rid of them once you feel confident enough.
5. Listen To Japanese Music And Enjoy
Listen to Japanese singers or bands like One Ok Rock to get used to hearing Japanese and improve your listening skills while enjoying a good Japanese song. To make it more effective, look up the lyrics and try to match the words with the sounds you hear.
Or you can go for Japanese podcasts. But I think Japanese music is more appealing, at least for me, because I quickly get bored listening to someone speak without any visuals or video.
6. Open An Instagram Account For Only Japanese
I know you spend a lot of time on Instagram scrolling through countless reels. I’m not saying that you should stop using social media, but what if you use it for language learning?
I have a separate Instagram account where I only follow Japanese influencers, Japanese language learners, and everything related to Japan. Once I log into that account, all captions I see are written in Japanese. During my time there, I was exposed to real-life Japanese content created by native speakers.
On the other hand, I try to do everything in Japanese. Like writing comments in Japanese and sharing mini vlogs while speaking in Japanese. The best part is you can get surprising feedback or comments from Japanese people. Now, that is real communication.
7. Learn To Use Japanese Fillers To Sound More Fluent
Every language has its own fillers, transition phrases, and connectors. In Japanese, one of the most common connectors is その時 (sono toki), which means “at that time.” It’s used as a connector when telling a story or explaining a situation.
You can also use Japanese filler words to sound natural and save time as you shape your sentences in your head. In English, we say “um,” “well,” etc. In Japanese, you can use あの。。。 (ano…) for “um,” and じゃあ (jaa) for “well then.” These tricks can help you speak Japanese fluently.
If you want to get to know more about this amazing language, just grab your iOS or Android device right now and head to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store to download it.
8. Record Yourself Speaking Japanese
Recording and listening to yourself can help you compare your Japanese pronunciation and toning to native speakers. You can adjust your speech to sound more natural if it doesn’t feel right.
9. Don’t Hesitate To Talk To Native Japanese Speakers
It would help if you found someone you could speak to in Japanese from day one. This is the most essential and efficient language learning hack for you to speak Japanese fluently.
I know it is not like you’re going to bump into someone Japanese. But perhaps there is a community of Japanese speakers in your city that you haven’t heard of. If you can’t find native speakers near you, you can always use social media, connect with an online Japanese teacher or other online language exchange platforms!
Or… Practice Japanese Conversations With Ling!
Now that you’ve learned how to speak Japanese through these nine reasons, you should take action! If you want to learn the Japanese language, the Ling app is here for you!
The Ling app provides tons of Japanese vocabulary that you can learn at your own pace. Bit-sized lessons, puzzles, and AI chatbots to practice real-life conversations are just some of the interactive activities of Ling.
Many Japanese learners use Ling to improve their language skills, so why not join them? Download the Ling app, and get ready to speak Japanese soon! There is more to learn with the 60+ languages offered in the app, so you can also switch between without losing your progress.
Plus, don’t forget to visit our Japanese blog weekly to learn more about Japanese culture and language!
Until next time, じゃあまたね!
