Should I Learn To Speak Or Write Japanese First

How to Speak Japanese: The Faster Way to Learn Japanese

So you desire to learn how to speak Japanese? If y'all're an English speaker, you may exist intimidated by the "number of hours" it takes to learn Japanese.

You may as well want to know how to acquire the Japanese language faster.

Tin it be washed? The brusk answer is: yes.

Learning Japanese has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. Since learning Japanese, I have a deeper passion and appreciation for Japanese culture. Understanding the linguistic communication has allowed me to explore the culture in means I wouldn't take been able to otherwise.

Now hither'southward the thing. Japanese is considered one of the virtually difficult languages to learn. It has a different writing system than English, a completely dissimilar grammar construction, and relies heavily on cultural context and understanding.

That said, you lot tin can hands learn the Japanese language – including context clues – with the post-obit steps. This is the best way to learn Japanese if you're serious about speaking Japanese now.

I've outlined seven steps so you'll know how to learn Japanese without all the trial and mistake many language learners experience. No more "Japanese takes two,000 hours before you lot can use information technology in the real globe."

Yous can speak Japanese sooner than y'all imagined.

Hither are all the steps for learning Japanese for beginners.

Stride ane: Find Your Passion for Learning Japanese

I'1000 going to be honest with you lot here. Are you passionate about learning Japanese? Do you have a solid reason "why" y'all're learning information technology?

Without this, when the going gets tough, yous won't know why yous should stick with information technology.

Starting now, set your intention for learning Japanese. Figure out why you're passionate about Japanese specifically.

Are you learning Japanese because…

…you desire to travel to Japan and enjoy the civilisation on a deeper level?
…you take family who speaks Japanese and y'all want to have conversations with them?
…you lot want to make Japanese friends?
…y'all want to detect a job or study abroad in Japan?
…you desire to enjoy and appreciate Japanese amusement, art, and literature in its original language?

Maybe your reason is you love anime and want to finish watching poorly dubbed versions and soak in the original Japanese testify. Maybe your dream is to get to Nippon and gild ramen from all effectually the country, trying every region'south multifariousness. (That's seriously my dream.)

Whatever your reason, detect your "why" and write it downwards. Surroundings yourself in your why. Change your phone and laptop background to a picture of a big basin of ramen. Add information technology to your vision board.

Any y'all have to exercise to meet it every single twenty-four hours and think why yous started, do it.

Step 2: Immerse Yourself in Japanese at Home — Create Your Own Little Tokyo

You don't need to motion to Japan to learn Japanese. Y'all do, however, have to surround yourself in it. The best way to do this for whatever language is to create a domicile immersion environment where you lot tin't help simply exist exposed to the language at every turn.

While it can exist hard to figure out how to exercise this at first. It gets easier in one case you know what resources to use and what to do.

Here are some tips:

Make your smartphone work for y'all. Switch the language settings to Japanese. Yous tin practise this on your computer, as well. If that'due south too hard for you to practice at this level now, that's okay! Download Japanese linguistic communication apps, games, etc., so yous're exposed to it. Facebook is a great app for the initial switch because information technology's withal easy to navigate while having bilingual exposure.
Start watching Japanese shows, movies, anime, documentaries, etc. Netflix has tons of Japanese shows at present, so it's a dandy identify to start. My favorite show to kickoff with? Terrace House.
Listen to Japanese podcasts, music, and radio stations. You lot tin listen to Japanese NHK News, for example. Or, try a fantastic linguistic communication learning podcast like JapanesePod101. Japanese music artists like One Ok Rock and Utada Hikaru tin can now exist streamed on many platforms. YouTube is some other great pick for finding something to listen to! You lot too might like to read Japanese articles using a tool such equally LingQ.
Observe Japanese speakers where you live — information technology's easier than you think. You may exist surprised that, even in relatively small towns, you tin detect Japanese communities. If y'all accept a Japanese-owned company or factory well-nigh yous — like Toyota — chances are, there are at least a handful of Japanese native speakers you could see.

Step three: Find Native Speakers and Speak from Day One

As I mentioned earlier, at that place may exist a community of Japanese speakers in your area that you don't even know about. You need to notice someone who yous can talk to in Japanese, and speak from day one. This is the most of import, productive language learning step you lot can take to accomplish fluency. Without really speaking Japanese, you won't get very far in your studies. Trust me — I know from years of studying yet existence likewise agape to speak Japanese.

Even if you can't find a language substitution partner in your expanse, don't let that stop you from speaking. There are tons of means you can notice native Japanese speakers to chat with:

italki is a linguistic communication exchange platform, where you can find Japanese speakers looking to learn English and have turns practicing with each other. They also accept reasonably-priced tutors, and then yous can pay for lessons as well.
HelloTalk is another gratuitous platform to look for Japanese speakers for language exchanges.
Meetup.com or CouchSurfing work well if yous live in a relatively large metropolis.
Tandem. This is some other online, costless platform y'all tin can utilize to find linguistic communication exchanges. When I was looking for a language exchange partner, Tandem initially gave me the all-time/fastest response from active Japanese users.
Hop on social media! Yep, that'southward right. Social media tin be a great way to larn a linguistic communication. There may be Facebook groups for your area, or you tin employ Japanese hashtags on Instagram to notice users in Nihon. Read their Japanese captions for practice, and reply dorsum with what you know.

Stride 4: Use Language Hacks to Larn Japanese Fast

Benny Lewis, the founder of Fluent in three Months, has tons of amazing language hacks. Here are a few that piece of work best for Japanese:

Use a Spaced Repetition Organization (SRS), like Anki. Anki is hands-down my favorite considering you tin can find pre-made Japanese decks, or create your own with the vocabulary you're learning. I highly recommend the NihongoShark Kanji Deck and NihongoShark Japanese Core 2000 Master Deck.
Focus on the 80/20 rule. The 80/twenty rule says y'all'll get 80% of your results from 20% of your efforts. What that means is yous need to focus on the 20% of the language (vocab, grammar, etc) that you'll employ the well-nigh to yield 80% of your speaking. The best way to do this? Start with the 101 core Japanese words and work from at that place.
Use mnemonics. Because Japanese is so different in many ways than English language, this is crucial. Coming up with associations to remember the words and meanings will help speed up your learning time.
Utilize the Pomodoro Technique to study in small chunks of time for ameliorate focus.
Tell yourself: "Just 15 minutes." If you lot're struggling to motivate yourself to study, tell yourself "I'll but report for 15 minutes." This little hack works great. Y'all're not committing yourself to a ton of time, so you'll be more probable to button yourself to do information technology. And once you get started, you'll usually find a groove and go along working anyway. Even if you don't… you nonetheless studied for 15 minutes! Consistency is primal.
Bring together Add1. If you're someone who needs community and accountability to stick to your studies — and let'due south face it, most of us need that fifty-fifty if we don't want to acknowledge information technology — and then consider joining Add1. It'll button you to stay committed and achieve your Japanese language goals in merely 90 days. Don't believe me? Cheque out my own story of leveling up my Japanese with Add1 and see how far I've come up.

Step 5: Use Conversational Connectors and Fillers to Add Fluidity to Your Speech

We employ conversational connectors all the time in English. It makes our speech sound more natural and fluid. Yet, they're an oft-overlooked area in language learning.

Conversational connectors are phrases like "And yous?" that deflect the conversation dorsum to the speaker. They're besides phrases similar "actually," "thank you for request," "to be honest," "if I'm being frank," etc.

Every language has its own unique version of these besides. For instance, in Japanese, one of the most common conversational connectors is その時 (sono toki) which means "At that time." It's not really a phrase we use oftentimes in English, merely it's used as a connector when telling a story or explaining a situation.

You can likewise make use of filler words to sound natural and buy y'all fourth dimension as y'all retrieve of how to say something. In English, nosotros say "um," "well," etc. In Japanese, you lot tin can use あの。。。 (ano…, "um"), なんか。。。(nanka, "what was it…"), and じゃあ (jaa, "well then"). Those are just a few examples. See if you can choice upward more when listening to your favorite Japanese dramas!

Stride half-dozen: Focus on the Like shooting fish in a barrel Parts of Japanese Outset

So many people think Japanese is incredibly hard, but the honest truth is, you already know some Japanese.

You lot probably already know Japanese greetings like konnichiwa and sayonara. Y'all also probably already know seismic sea wave, karaoke, sake, samurai, and more. Retrieve virtually that: you've already been speaking Japanese without trying!

Japanese is actually like shooting fish in a barrel to learn because:

Japanese has no gendered words! Unlike Spanish and other similar languages, Japanese words never have a gender.
Kanji really help you when you're stuck. Kanji represent whole words in English. (For example, 水 is the kanji for "water.") How does that aid? Well, even if you don't know how to read the kanji, because yous recognize it's English language significant you'll have a contextual clue for agreement the unabridged discussion.
Japanese kana is always read exactly the same way. There are no exceptions. Once yous acquire how to read the kana, they are always pronounced the same.
Japanese contains tons — and I hateful tons — of loan words. They're easily spotted because they'll exist written in katakana, the writing organization used primarily for foreign words adjusted for Japanese. Words like ピンク (pinku, "pinkish"), ビール (bi-ru, "beer"), and インターネット (inta-netto, "cyberspace"). So you already know even more words than you think you practise.
Japanese isn't tonal. Dissimilar Chinese, you will rarely utilise pitch to differentiate a word. It makes information technology then much easier to pick up proper pronunciation and understand others when listening.
Japanese grammar is relatively straight-forrad. Although it's pretty different from English language, it has fewer exceptions to the rules. When you lot learn how a grammar blueprint works, information technology will well-nigh probable ever be that way.
Verbs don't have to hold with the bailiwick and there are only two irregular verbs. That'due south right — once you larn to cohabit, there are only two verbs you take to sentinel out for. Those are する (suru, "to exercise") and 来る (kuru, "to come"). And they're so oft used that you'll master those irregularities fast.

That's simply touching the surface. So don't be fooled that Japanese is likewise hard!

Footstep 7: Don't Avoid Kana and Kanji

The last advice I have for you: don't avoid the writing systems. Yes, there are 3 (hiragana, katakana, and kanji). Yes, there are ii,000 "essential" kanji and they accept time to learn. But hiragana and katakana are easy to choice up — you could main them in a 24-hour interval. They're just the Japanese alphabet and each ane represents a syllable.

And as for kanji, focus on the language hacks nosotros mentioned! Acquire the kanji that go with your fourscore/twenty core vocabulary first. That's nearly 100 kanji, considered enough to pass the beginner level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Examination. And so, utilise Anki to learn the rest as you become.

I know, I know. I told y'all to focus on speaking from day ane. And you should. Just considering Japanese has a different writing system, it's hard to immerse yourself and learn proper pronunciation without at least learning the kana and about 100 kanji. And like I said in the last step, kanji actually assist yous identify the pregnant of words when you get stuck.

Have the time to learn the basics. It'll help you get further, farther, faster. (Think like Captain Marvel!)

Become Confident in Japanese, Fast

At that place you have it! The all-time way to speak Japanese, right now. If you follow these steps, you'll exist having conversations in Japanese in no fourth dimension. You'll wow everyone with how fast you've picked upwards the "hardest" language!

Keep a positive, open mindset that Japanese is easy and yous tin can do this, and y'all will. You lot got this. ファイト! (Faito, "Fight!" or "Do your best!")

Finally, if y'all're looking for a place to commencement studying Japanese, check out JapanesePod101. They have courses ranging from absolute beginner to advanced, with lots of fun topics and lessons.

What other tips exercise you have for learning Japanese fast? Share them in the comments!

Caitlin Sacasas

Content Writer, Fluent in 3 Months

Caitlin is a content creator, fitness trainer, zero waster, language lover, and Star Wars nerd. She blogs about fitness and sustainability at Rebel Heart Beauty.

Speaks: English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish

View all posts by Caitlin Sacasas