Getting better at speaking? Practice suggestions?

Japanese
#1

So, I’ve been learning Japanese for the last seven months or so, using all the tools that are frequently discussed here - Bunpro (obviously), immersion by listening and reading, some kanji practice using Anki. Standard stuff. But I’m taking the family to Japan over the summer, and I would love to have at least some ability to speak.

Problem is…I can’t. I’m fairly solid with N5 and a little N4 vocab and grammar when I read and do exercises and listen. But I’m getting very frustrated that I can’t seem to turn that into speech. I’m taking iTalki lessons with a Japanese tutor (Rei-sensei is amazing!), but even when covering things that I know I know (“I like Japanese food,” “I eat breakfast at 7:00”), I struggle to talk. The reason I’m using iTalki is to get some practice in conversation, but so far I’m struggling so much that we can’t even have the simplest of conversations.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for tools or exercises for practicing speaking? I live in Miami, so I don’t really have any local options for speaking with people in person. I’ve started reading all my Bunpro sentences aloud so I can practice pronunciation, since some words get a little tongue twisty (“It was warm at 7:00” is not easy to say!) - but I think my real problem is with real-time recall. Any tips?

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#2

Shadowing is really great in my experience. It gets you used to saying common phrases, so you have a better muscle memory. There are loads of resources on Youtube etc, Pimsleur can be good for situational recall… but yeah, practicing output is key.

My little tip that for tongue twisters - since Japanese is (theoretically) evenly spaced syllables, try tapping a beat as you speak the words slowly. This really helps me get my tongue around certain conjugations.

Edit: it might seem like I am ignoring your point about recall, but I genuinely think not having to give mental effort to sentence creation allows you to respond more reflexively.

3 Likes
#3

Using this app a bit to get more practice. The lessons are good. The free talk (aka community driven roleplay scenarios) is better.

edit: is a paid for app

#4

Thanks, alismith - I’ll try some shadowing exercises. I’ve been trying to incorporate a more “just keep speaking” to all my reading, so that will help.

jrmr50 - I had downloaded Speak and went through the handful of lessons that were outside the paywall, and I thought it was helpful. But I was a little hesitant to keep going once I got passed the free content. It’s not cheap, and I couldn’t find any reviews on the Japanese content. How have you found the Japanese? Some of the review of the app noted that it was very solid for English and Spanish, but less so for other languages - so I didn’t want to shell out for a paid version if the Japanese wasn’t fully built out yet…

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#5

One of the things that helped me most when I first went is to study and memorize typical conversation patterns you’ll get a lot. As an example I once googled the best way to get help when you’re looking for something and found なになにをさがしているんですがー (I’m looking for X but…) and I’ve never forgotten it because I used it all the time. Similar for when I learned to order at Starbucks the first time.

This goes for regular conversations too. Japanese people will often ask you the same questions so get ready to be able to say things like where you’re from, what you’re doing in Japan, things you like in Japan, how you learned Japanese.

This is one of those situations that ChatGPT comes in handy. I recently asked “give me a sample conversation between a host and a Japanese family that just arrived in the airport” and I could understand the natural phrases that are used in that scenario.

TL;DR - target learn some expected conversations using AI or online blogs

#6

7 bucks a month for AI data harvesting voices? sign me up!

JKin, actually not a bad price considering voice processing and the AI tokens used probably means their margins are quite low. (or they do the gym method of praying 1,000 people sign up but only like 10 people actually go) it appears to have a week trial too. I may give it a go.

As for the main topic, I unashamedly used Rosetta Stone for my break through into speech. Admittedly, it’s very archaic nowadays what with AI and stuff, but it gets you speaking with a “good enough” pronunciation. Only times it directly says I’m bad is with られる (passive) forms because as a certain Knox from Dr. Seuss would say “I can’t blab that blither blather, sir. it makes my tongue quite lame, sir.” I’d recommend it if you already have Rosetta Stone, but if not it’s probably not worth the price of even a month.

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#7

People have already mentioned some things, the Italki is probably helping but also if you got discord/pc try hopping into Japanese servers. Im in a Jap/Eng exchange one and sometimes when I remember Ill lurk and have small talk.

Also, keep a journal. One thing about language is your memories are in a language, since you live in Miami(Im sorry btw, Stain on Florida) I assume you speak natively English and Spanish. So you gotta translate memories and experiences too which makes it hard. So write down basic shit about your day and thatll get into your head as well how to form sentences about daily activities. Start simple, and slowly work your way up from there.

Output is a whole ass skill of its own that takes practice and is the biggest pain because of course in your native language youre smart but then suddenly you feel stupid and it is difficult. Keep it up man

#8

My library has copies of Pimsleur and other conversation audiobooks through Libby, so maybe OP should check out if their local library has a similar offering. They tend to be pretty popular, though, so you’d have to place them on hold for a while.

Also, maybe my experience as an ethnically East-Asian person will differ from OP’s, but at least in Tokyo, most people didn’t really want to chat with me (in Japanese) once they found out I wasn’t Japanese :confused: Outside of Tokyo folks were a lot friendlier, so maybe it is a big city thing.