Secret to speaking Japanese fluently?

Skullcrushergurl · 12 Jan 2008

Is there a secret to speaking fluently? I mean speaking Japanese fast like a native. I speak kind of slowly and it looks really bad. It's like a tongue twister trying to speak so fast but I don't wanna be like an outsider. Anyway how can I speed up without slipping on pronounciation?

Soloistic · 12 Jan 2008

As lame as it sounds, practice makes perfect. The more comfortable you become with what your saying the easier it comes out. Rule of thumb; if your not translating what you hear or want to say from English to Japanese (and vise-versa) in your head before understanding/speaking then your doing good. Else, that may be something you want to work on.

yumeitsumo · 12 Jan 2008

Soloistic said:
As lame as it sounds, practice makes perfect. The more comfortable you become with what your saying the easier it comes out. Rule of thumb; if your not translating what you hear or want to say from English to Japanese (and vise-versa) in your head before understanding/speaking then your doing good. Else, that may be something you want to work on.

I agree. Practice does make perfect. From experience I know that repeating things a thousand times... and using them in your daily language helps too.

Nall-ohki · 12 Jan 2008

Disclaimer: I'm far from a perfect speaker, but I have pretty good speaking and listening ability.

One of the habits I have that I think has helped tremendously is the fact that I have a habit of rehearsing potential conversations, especially important ones, before they happen. This not only gets me familiar with the appropriate words or phrases, but exercises language generation and flexibility.

Like people say above, with familiarity comes speed.

nice gaijin · 12 Jan 2008

There are a lot of set phrases in Japanese, so you can always practice those to increase your speaking speed and what I call "apparent fluency," the impression that you are proficient in a language. There are tricks like this, but there's no such thing as a shortcut to proficiency, other than good study habits and lots of practice.

The moment I began to really make progress in the language was when I stopped worrying about making mistakes and just began expressing myself with reckless abandon. To my surprise, I made fewer mistakes and felt more comfortable speaking Japanese than ever before.

Haruspex · 12 Jan 2008

Burn it all into your brain, thats the only way. If you just look at your knowledge yeah? You can remember the things you learnt early on, like a few fixed phrases, basic questions, answers. It takes time before everything becomes that natural, you can't help it, there's no a secret, it all depends on the time you spend on it, and your willpower.

orochi · 12 Jan 2008

Practice practice practice.

Try shadowing. Listen to recorded audio or watch TV and follow along with whoever is speaking. Always be just a word or two behind (might take time to reach this speed). Doing this with the news or a documentary can be helpful. Or even an anime or drama you are familiar with.

And also keep in mind that fast does not equal fluent. Everybody speaks at their own pace with their own quirks. Nothing wrong with speaking "slow".

Mike Cash · 12 Jan 2008

Don't lose sight of the fact that it is far preferable to be able to speak well rather than fast.

I have taught Japanese students of English who had the same priority and while their pronunciation and speed was a sight to behold they had neglected syntactical accuracy almost entirely. Broken English fast is just fast broken English. Ditto for Japanese.

kameron · 12 Jan 2008

Brain transplant.

But on a serious note I'd say immersion. Go to Japan, live there for a year or two if you're serious about learning the language as fast as possible. Make lots of Japanese friends, which isn't too hard if you're not afraid of taking risks. If you can't afford to go to Japan yet, try to organise a language exchange with Japanese people staying in your city if possible, this works really well!

NOTHING is more useful to your speaking confidence than human interaction.

Edit: I said live in Japan, but it's probably better to study in Japan or go there for a holiday if you're not too confident with your level of Japanese.

Secret to speaking Japanese fluently?

Skullcrushergurl

後輩

Soloistic

後輩

yumeitsumo

Sempai

Nall-ohki

先輩

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

Haruspex

先輩

orochi

便利屋

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

kameron

かめです

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