IGCSE Japanese | IB Japanese | Japanese Speaking | Public Speaking
How to Speak Japanese Fluently: 10 Tips and Tricks
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4 minutes read
Dear parents, if you are here, I believe you must be looking for ways to help you or your children to speak Japanese fluently, confidently and naturally.
Most of us are not native Japanese speakers, nor use Japanese as the main communication medium at home, so it is normal that we find it hard to speak proper Japanese.
Depending on your mother tongue, learning to speak Japanese fluently is not an impossible task.
There is no magic recipe, course, video, or secret shortcut that will give you the perfect accent. However, there are a few methods that will undoubtedly help you enhance your spoken Japanese. You’ll probably enjoy hearing yourself talk after implementing these suggestions.
Two Common Japanese Speaking Problems that Most People Face
Accent Problem
Try using a vocal learning strategy like as reading aloud or singing
Lack of Vocabulary
Read a lot and listen to Japanese audios to expand your vocabulary and get acquainted to the language you want to learn
It is definitely not a single day’s work for a new language to become fully embedded in your brain.
But, hundreds of thousands of individuals do it every year, and you can too if you and your children work hard enough! Here are our 10 ultimate tips on learning how to speak Japanese.
10 Tips to Speak Japanese Fluently
Click to navigate to each tip.
1.Start speaking Japanese as frequently as possible.
2. Interact with Japanese every single day
3. Embrace the awkwardness when speaking Japanese
4. Get an Japanese private tutor
5. Use the right Japanese material that suit your current fluency
6. Practise your Japanese pronunciation
7. Learn frequently used phrases
8. Plan and Practise your conversations ahead
1.Start speaking Japanese as frequently as possible.
The one thing you must do in order to speak Japanese well is to increase your speaking practise. Almost all advice on how to achieve your fluency objectives boils down to this. Nothing else you can do will achieve similar impact and effectiveness.
Finding opportunities to practise Japanese in Malaysia where Japanese is not widely spoken might be tough. Take a look at some of these ideas:
- Make a friend with a fluent Japanese speaker who is also learning your native tongue. Try Tandem, Speaky, or HelloTalk, where you can find a native Japanese speaker who wishes to learn your mother tongue.
- Use speech recognition software in conjunction with language learning apps. Try Mondly or Babbel. They have a feature where you can ask an Japanese speaking robot simple questions and get a response.
- Find a private Japanese tutor, online 1-on-1 Japanese teacher or home tutor to improve your speaking skills with GoLearn.
- Attend Japanese-language webinars or online lessons when you have the free time.
2. Interact with Japanese every single day
It is important to gain as much Japanese exposure as possible. Even if you aren’t actively learning the language, you should do something related to Japanese every day. For example:
- Change the language on your phone or social media to Japanese.
- By default, your radio plays an Japanese station.
- Listen to Japanese song and understand the lyrics
- Read Japanese Newspapers.
- Make a goal to watch 50% of your television episodes and movies in Japanese.
3. Embrace the awkwardness when speaking Japanese
For nearly everyone, learning a new language is challenging. This is very normal and the uncomfortable feeling tells you that you are no longer in your comfort zone.
Most of us know how our mother tongue expresses ideas, how to employ sarcasm and comedy, and how word stress can alter the meaning of what you’re saying.
Learning to speak in a new language, on the other hand, feels like wielding a large blunt axe. You are unable to express exactly what you mean. You could insult someone or embarrass yourself. You won’t appear to be as intelligent as you are. It’s intimidating and sometimes pulls you back.
Everyone who has gone through the learning process knows the feeling.
When you overcome the shame of putting yourself in Japanese-speaking settings and allow yourself to make mistakes, you will make real progress.
4. Get a Japanese private tutor
Invest in a personal language coach if you are serious about learning speaking. Even once a week, speaking with a professional Japanese tutor will help you make significant progress. You’ll be able to ask any language-related questions, learn more about vocabulary, and get immediate feedback on your Japanese conversation abilities. It’s a quick way to learn a language.
Start now by getting a professional Japanese tutor in Malaysia at a reasonable price. If you hire an online Japanese tutor, you can learn Japanese speaking anytime anywhere from your kitchen table, to your bed.
If you have a 9 to 5 business commitment, we have Japanese teachers available at all hours of the day and night because we have Japanese tutors from different domains. You may also determine what you can afford to pay based on our tutor’s qualification and experience.
Finally, keep to a regular learning schedule.
You won’t just have a guide when you study with a tutor; you’ll also have a mentor to encourage you to do better!
5. Use the right Japanese material that suit your current fluency
It can be tempting to skip over materials for intermediate-level Japanese learners and move right into stuff for proficient Japanese speakers. Some ambitious language learner has done this, but the reality is that if you use the right Japanese resources tailored to your level, you’ll learn faster and save your study time.
Try viewing an episode of an Japanese-language children’s show without subtitles instead of watching the latest blockbuster with subtitles in your own language.
You will understand your current level and how much more you need to pick up.
You’re not sure what level of Japanese you’re at right now? Get a trial class now.
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6. Practise your Japanese pronunciation
If another Japanese speaker has difficulty understanding your accent, they may underestimate your degree of fluency, which may be incredibly frustrating.
Native Mandarin speakers claim that speaking Japanese for hours causes their jaws to hurt.
If you have no basics at all, start with the fundamental Japanese.
7. Learn frequently used phrases.
If you translate every sentence from your native tongue into Japanese, word for word, it will be difficult not to pause before speaking. Another better option is to learn new words as part of a frequent phrase. This will reduce mental strain when speaking.
To give you an example, if you’re studying the word “beautiful,” it’s a good idea to learn the entire phrase “… look beautiful.” This way, when you need to use the adjective to describe something, your brain already has part of the answer prepared, so you don’t have to stop and think about constructing a new sentence.
This technique by learning lists of phrases is a proven effective approach to master Foreign language speaking. This skill also helps you to memorise more vocabulary and grammar.
8. Plan and Practise your conversations ahead
If you’re going to an event where you’ll be able to practise your Japanese, think about what small talk you’ll make ahead of time. Are you going to talk about your kids? What is the common interest among the participants? What is the nature of everyone’s work? While it may seem foolish, having some conversation rehearsal might help you boost your confidence. This way, you won’t feel stressed out to come up with any topic on the spot.
After all, fluency is about being able to speak freely about whatever you want! This may appear to be a foolish idea but as long as it can help in your speaking, why not.
9. Grammar is important, but don’t focus too much on it
Japanese grammar is important in Japanese and anyone who learns Japanese should know. Grammar is taught in school. However, they should be significantly lower on your priority list than practising your speaking skills. Even if your grammar isn’t correct, your audience will understand them most of the time. Start with the basic and previous tips, and after a while, your Japanese grammar will improve.
Don’t be surprised that native speakers also constantly make grammar errors when it comes to speaking.
10. Leverage on technology
If you are here, that means you know how to Google. You can find a lot of Japanese learning platforms and apps, self-learning or guided by a Japanese tutor, free or paid. You should feel fortunate to have everything digitized.
Make sure you make use of these tools to assist you in learning Japanese Speaking.
YouTube is always the No.1 learning resource. On YouTube, you can easily find expert advice, more than any Japanese lesson you could attend in a lifetime. The best thing is that you get subtitles for every video and functions like video speed adjustment, paused, and replayed. You fully utilize this to comprehend a video at your own capability.
What are you still waiting for?
Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that not every learning trick will work for you. So, you have to find out for yourself the ways that work the best for you.
Able to speak Japanese fluently is not a one day’s effort, but a continuous process. It will require practise to retain your Japanese skills .
So, start now!
If you are looking to get a professional Japanese tutor to teach you or your children to speak Japanese fluently, try GoLearn . We are a professional agency that finds the best Japanese Speaking tutor in Malaysia for you for FREE.
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