How to practice Japanese?

Japanese is effectively the sole language of Japan, and almost all of the 128 million natives speak it. Although there are a number of dialects and accents around Japan, the essentially monolingual status that prevails here is quite rare, experts say. Several principal languages are widely spoken within the borders of most countries. Japanese is a mora-timed agglutinative language with straightforward phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and lexically important pitch-accent. Word order is usually subject–object–verb, with particles indicating grammatical function, and sentence structure is a topic–comment. Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic effects, as well as to ask questions. In addition to kanji, the Japanese writing system mainly employs two syllabic (or moraic) scripts, hiragana and katakana. Latin script is used sparingly, such as for imported acronyms, and the numeral system mostly employs Arabic numerals alongside conventional Chinese numerals.

Play games – There are numerous fantastic ways to learn a foreign language through media, including watching movies, listening to music, and even reading foreign magazines. Most people, however, will agree that playing games are by far one of the best ways to learn a new language.

Take free vocabulary tests or quizzes – A great way to test your knowledge and comprehension of several languages is by taking interesting tests and quizzes for self-assessment.

Anki/Memrise – The SRS (Spaced Repetition System) method brings up a piece of information before a learner can forget it and keeps it constantly fresh in your mind. So, you might see a word a few minutes after seeing it the first time, then a few days later, then a few weeks later, and so on, always at the time you need to see it the most to keep it fresh in your mind.

Record and playback for yourself – Recording yourself is a powerful tool for identifying your language skills and weak points. This is especially true when you’re trying to figure out which sounds you still have trouble with, as well as noticing intonation differences between yourself and a native speaker saying the same phrase.

Sing songs – Learning a language through music is an excellent way to learn. It has a nice ring to it. It’s highly addictive and fun. Songs are fantastic learning tools; because they are repetition, invite participation, help you learn vocabulary and perfect your pronunciation, allow you to sneak in more language practice under the guise of recreation!

Conversation with natives – Conversation with natives can provide many of the same benefits as practising a language. Native speakers are excellent because they can provide model language in its natural context. They speak the language, so they are well-versed in it. They can tell you if something sounds strange or if there are better ways to express yourself. Speaking with them will also help you develop speaking confidence, will give your brain practise formulating sentences using words and grammar, and will give your mouth muscles practise pronouncing the right words.

Reading in front of the mirror pet plant – If you pretend to be someone else in front of the mirror, a plant or your beloved pet, and talk, you will improve your speaking skills, eliminate problems such as stammering, mid-ordination of thoughts, and dialectical influence, and develop unexpected confidence that will help you in other activities.

Video and audio with Transcript – Audios and Videos Make the Lessons Memorable. They have been found to have positive effects on medium and long term memory. Videos add visual context to lessons, allowing students to see not only what the teacher or native speakers look like, but also their facial expressions, animated gestures, and even their fashion sense and audios help a learner focus on their listening skills. Little visual cues add up to give the student a more complete picture of the culture. Listen to videos and audios multiple times to get a hang of the accent, speech speed, intonation then look through the transcript to see how well your listening was and then finally, see/ hear them again with the transcript to correct misunderstood words.

Shadowing – Shadowing is a language learning technique in which the student listens to a recording of target language audio/ video while simultaneously echoing what they hear. Shadowing is intended to force you to concentrate on the sounds of your target language and develop pronunciation that is similar to that of a native speaker.

Assess your understanding of Japanese movies by watching in English reading captions – You may not have handy subtitles to guide you through life, but you can use subtitles to help you understand what you’re watching and improve your language skills when you’re watching your favourite videos. It’s an immersive learning option that doesn’t require you to travel abroad to enjoy!

According to Nagoya University linguistics professor Ken Machida, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 living languages in the world today, which, if evenly distributed, would break down to about 30 per country. Outside of Japan, 2.98 million people in 133 countries are studying the language at 13,639 institutions, according to a 2006 survey by the Japan Foundation. This number, up 26.4 percent from the previous survey in 2003, does not include people teaching themselves or taking private lessons. According to Nagoya University linguistics professor Ken Machida, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 living languages in the world today, which, if evenly distributed, would break down to about 30 per country. Outside of Japan, 2.98 million people in 133 countries are studying the language at 13,639 institutions, according to a 2006 survey by the Japan Foundation. This number, up 26.4 percent from the previous survey in 2003, does not include people teaching themselves or taking private lessons. 

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