How do you practice speaking?

Japanese
#1

Hi y’all. I am hoping to get some advice from other community members since I am (extremely) weak in the speaking department.

  1. How do you compare your speaking ability to your reading/writing/listening ability?
  2. What kind of things do you do to practice? I don’t care if they’re conventional or unconventional practices. Are you able to utilize Bunpro for speaking practice?
  3. If applicable, how long did it take you to see real results/progress while conversing with native speakers?
  4. Do you have any general advice to overcome speaking anxiety?

I am especially interested in hearing about people that were once very anxious to speak and have found a way to overcome that hurdle.

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#2

Shadowing to start for sure. There is a podcast I use called “Japanese with Kanako” where she does specific Grammer shadowing, following the Genki books. I love it because as I study the Grammer, I get to turn around and shadow using it. And if I think I’m struggling with a point, I can go back and listen to it.

Otherwise, I actually try to talk to myself in japanese. I already do it in my native language, but if I’m out and about shopping, I will mutter to myself about liking the color of something, or if its a little expensive ECT.

Now, I currently have the advantage of living in Japan, and go to a weekly meeting to practice speaking. However, I’ve been adopting a mannerism of intentionally trying to change my voice into one that I perceive as more confident. That alone is difficult because it counter to how I try to act in japanese(insert study about personality changes when speaking a second language). But yea, its been fun to sound like a JoJo villain and I think it does help me a little because I drop trying to sound correct and focus entirely on ensuring the communication happens.

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#3

I took the easy route. Married a Japanese person.

However, when I first started, I did Rosetta Stone. While not perfect, the speaking sections did help me get confident enough to actually try to speak to other people. (Just beware the single syllable practice is horrible and you won’t learn anything. Especially cause ひ is pronounced like english “he” whenever it’s supposed to be a slightly different pronunciation, like in 人) However the full words are good.

Speaking in front of more than a few people, that’s a different story. That requires alcohol. But I have spoken at a few events despite my N3 level speaking skills. lol

For anxiety, just remember you’re new, you will get emberassed. often. It’s part of learning. It’s good to learn to laugh at your own mistakes instead of dreading them.

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#4

Try downloading HelloTalk and jump into the public voicechats, or start your own! Theres always at least a few going on and in my experience I’m almost always invited to the stage. Its a good way to kind of put yourself under the pressure to communicate because people are expecting it of you. The community is very patient with new learners

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#5

I second the suggestion of trying out HelloTalk. I’m a pretty introverted person so I started out with text-only conversations with Japanese people looking to learn English and made some good friends fairly quickly. I eventually started doing one-on-one voice calls with some of them, and it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience so far.

I’ve also joined a Discord server called “Language Exchange with Topictionary” where I’ve also met and spoken with very nice and helpful people. Don’t get discouraged by the voice channels sometimes being empty. The admins have built a Voice Chat Ping feature and my experience has been that almost any time of day or night someone will join you if you ping either for a group chat or one-on-one channel.

2 Likes
#6

Language exchange. That also keeps my motivation strong. Haven’t gotten over myself to speak to AI. That would also kind of destroy the point. You learn language to talk to PEOPLE…
Edit: will try to answer some of the op questions.

How do you compare your speaking ability to your reading/writing/listening ability?
I personally don’t. No stats, no counters, no analytics. Just not into that kind of stuff.

What kind of things do you do to practice? I don’t care if they’re conventional or unconventional practices. Are you able to utilize Bunpro for speaking practice?
Just speak with language exchange partners. Don’t use Bunpro for speaking practice, but it’s immensely useful. Maybe not for cramming advanced grammar while you’re still a beginner, but rather for using as a reference as you’re moving along.

If applicable, how long did it take you to see real results/progress while conversing with native speakers?
Over half a year. Only get to speak about an hour a week though. Recently started to listen a lot, even without looking up unknown words, just to get into the rhythm. Immensely helpful. Usually I listen to Emma Japanese:) and Nihongo Jam on YouTube, right about where I am right now, if not a bit above. Certainly Haruna’s diary here as well.

Do you have any general advice to overcome speaking anxiety?
Everybody starts as a beginner and goes exactly through the same hardships. The main purpose of language is to convey a thought, with or without mistakes. They are to be polished later.

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#7

Thanks for the input everyone! Unfortunately it seems as though everyone offers the same advice across the board (as in, these strategies have already been suggested to me).

I am not that new to studying Japanese. I’ve been studying for roughly two years now and I live in Japan. I just have extreme language anxiety to the point where even greetings send my heart rate. I feel like crying even when I hire a tutor and have to answer simple questions in Japanese. I just really don’t know how to deal with this. :sweat:

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#8

How are you with public speaking in your native language? If you’re really bad, it may be worth taking a public speaking course in your native language. They teach you how to be more sociable even if you’re shy.

#9

I’m completely fine in my native language. I’ve never considered myself a full introvert.

1 Like
#10

You could try full The Sims mode and just speak to a mirror repeatedly to increase your charisma skill.

Honestly just sounds like you need to be more brave and think less. You are probably overthinking things, if you’re fine in your native language. Just remember speaking and introducing youself or even small talk is a skill on it’s own. I suck at starting conversations in any language, but once the ball gets rolling (so long as the other party is also willing to continue talking) it gets easier. A common business charisma plan is to practice what’s called an elevator pitch. Why not give that a try?

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#11

Is it possible to find any group classes? You may be able to see other people speaking, empathize with their mistakes, and speak with other (equally weak) students. It might make you less conscious of your shortcomings.

#12

“The Sims” mode cannot be an advice someone gave you before :rofl:

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#14

Yeah, that’s definitely a new one. :sweat_smile:

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#15

What is it you do out of curiosity. 2 years and still getting nervous sounds wildin to me.

Any japanese speaking friends, native or not? Practice with them. Start going to a bar and become a regular? That’s what I do and it helps.

First time I’ve heard the Sims method but I’m willing to bet it helps. You say no problem in your native language, is it English? If not, Can you speak a English and or a second language with no problem and it’s just japanese?

1 Like
#16

Perhaps you could start by talking to an AI?

I wouldn’t normally recommend AI, especially for language learning. However, if you’ve been studying for 2 years and are specifically only suffering with speaking to people, then it may help you get used to speaking aloud. Character AI has a language learning section that lets you make “phone calls”.

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#17

As others have said, slow down the audio and do shadowing. That greatly helped me unclench the jawbone.
After that, I would recommend Italki. You can find teachers there for all possible teaching techniques. When you sign up for the free 30 min trial lesson, they’ll send you a message asking for information about what you’re looking for.
If you don’t feel like you got what you wanted out of the lesson, simply didn’t book another lesson with the same teacher. I am sure that you’ll eventually find a calm, understanding teacher, and after that it’s just a question of investing the time.

#18

I do italki lessons. But here’s the thing, it depends on the person you’re speaking to. Even after a lot of hours doing speaking practice, to the point I can hold an hour long conversation, I still experience stress if the other person react’s strongly to my mistakes. I’ve done conversation practice with maybe, 20 or so different people, italki, a few real life conversations etc, and with some people it clicks and I relax and it flows. Other times, I feel uncomfortable, get stressed and clam up.
So may advice is to keep trying different things until you find someone you feel comfortable talking to.

@Haruna has done language exchanges in Japan, I intend to check those out should I ever get to Japan, but I’m sure you’d find some good practice partners there.

#19

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the method where you speak on camera, then rewatch, notice mistakes, correct them, add them to anki deck, repeat.

It’s probably the most efficient free way.

#20

Hello i am interested about the discord server but i cant find any way to get there

#21

Fellow Japan-living-er who can’t speak well at all. My input is decent, I can understand probably 80% of what is said to me and in a conversation around me, but I can not for the life of me actually produce Japanese myself on the spot. I have a Japanese boyfriend, and I’m so scared of speaking Japanese with him because I feel like I should be much better than I am, which just turns into an evil cycle. I have no tips to offer you, but just want to let you know there’s 0 judgement, and I know multiple people just like you and me. Start slowly and get confident with the greetings and small talk maybe, and challenge yourself by going to stores and asking super basic questions to get more comfortable? I used to be scared of those, but now they’re okay, so there’s hope! Don’t give up.

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