Do you also feel like a fool when reading out loud?

Japanese
#1

So I have a new sensei. She’s amazing, and our lessons are much more structured than what I’m used to, which was mostly just free conversation. She gives me short writing and grammar exercises and asks me to read them out loud, and I feel like an absolute fool doing it. And I’m not even talking about the number of words with kanji I don’t know yet (we all have to start somewhere, right?). Even if I do know the kanji, it still takes me a noticeable amount of time to parse everything together. The same goes for katakana. So the whole reading process resembles a first-grader mumbling letters to themselves before finally managing to say a word out loud. Rinse and repeat. Even though I think my speaking is okay-ish.

I guess I understand that this is part of the process, but once again, Japanese is kicking my butt in ways that other foreign languages never have, and I’m curious about your experience.

I’m prepping for N3, by the way. Also, I’ve been reading a lot of Satori Reader, so silent reading is also okay-ish. It’s just when I try to actually say the words that weird things start to happen :smiley:

2 Likes
#2

I’m n2 and yes.
My reading aloud has improved but I still misread words sometimes and read in a stilted manner when we do reading aloud. I can get the prosody okay if it’s something I’m familiar with, but a lot of the time I sound silly.

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#3

Not really, I’ve been told I’ve got good accent and reading speed compared to my overall level. However I’ve also been reading out loud a lot, for quite some time. I’m usually doing it with all my reading mode reviews, sometimes with Satori reader as well, so I’m mostly happy to see results. If you’ve not been practicing that specific skill that much it’s not too surprising that you’re not super good at it out of the blue

#4

Oh I love this topic. Thanks for posting this.

My experience is that when I was still only doing N5 and N4 material, I was quite insecure about reading out loud in the company of classmates, even though everybody in class was still getting to grips with reading and everybody found it difficult. It just felt uncomfortable to have to use 150% of my brain power and still produce something extremely amateurish.

Now that I’ve progressed a little bit, I’ve gained a lot more confidence. I feel that I’m now at a level where it is recognisable from my reading and speaking that I’ve come a long way and am very serious about studying Japanese. Actually, I think that is exactly what makes all the difference. When you can tell somebody is doing well and has reached an intermediate level, I feel it becomes more normal and easily accepted that they still struggle during reading and speaking. Everybody acknowledges that learning a new language is no simple thing. Currently, when speaking, I feel that it clearly shows my intermediate level despite still being broken Japanese. This is N3 level btw.

#5

I definitely understand feeling that way.

Just remember: you are not just learning a new language, you are learning to read all over again from scratch. So reading like a first-grader is not only normal, it’s expected. It’s the same I tell people when their kana look like chicken scratches; how did your letters look when you learned to write as a kid? About the same, right?
And just like when you were a kid, practice makes perfect. And now you’ve got the benefit of age and experience, so it’ll probably go a lot quicker - if you keep at it, at least. Your hands, ears and mouth need to get used to the new shapes and sounds, and that takes time. You’re building up muscle memory (and actual brain memory). That doesn’t happen overnight. Accept feeling foolish - even if there’s no need to - and stick with it; eventually you’ll be able to read aloud in Japanese the same way you do in your native language :slight_smile: