What’s the best way to learn to speak Japanese?

Japanese, 日本語 “Nihon-go” in Japanese, is the official language of Japan, in East Asia. Japanese belongs to the Japonic language family, which also includes the endangered Ryukyuan languages. One theory says Japanese and Korean are related, but most linguists no longer think so. Other theories about the origin of Japanese are that it related to the Austronesian languages, the Dravidian languages, or the controversial Altaic language family. Interestingly, a different term is used for Japanese as a course of study by citizens: it is “kokugo” (国語), which means national language. Nonetheless, Japanese is still referred to as 日本語 by the Japanese.

Japanese uses three separate writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The first two are phonetic systems and so show the pronunciation of Japanese words, and kanji is the Japanese variation of Chinese characters and show the meaning of Japanese words. The three systems are used interchangeably, and all three systems can often be found in the same sentence. The three systems are each reserved for different purposes.

Step 1: Find Your Passion for Learning Japanese

I’m going, to be honest with you here. Are you passionate about learning Japanese? Do you have a solid reason “why” you’re learning it?

Without this, when the going gets tough, you won’t know why you should stick with it.

Starting now, set your intention for learning Japanese. Figure out why you’re passionate about Japanese specifically.

Are you learning Japanese because…

…you want to travel to Japan and enjoy the culture on a deeper level?

…you have family who speaks Japanese and you want to have conversations with them?

…you want to make Japanese friends?

…you want to find a job or study abroad in Japan?

…you want to enjoy and appreciate Japanese entertainment, art, and literature in its original language?

Step 2: Immerse Yourself in Japanese at Home — Create Your Own Little Tokyo

You don’t need to move to Japan to learn Japanese. You do, however, have to surround yourself in it. The best way to do this for any language is to create a home immersion environment where you can’t help but be exposed to the language at every turn.

While it can be hard to figure out how to do this at first. It gets easier once you know what resources to use and what to do.

Step 3: Find Native Speakers and Speak from Day One

As I mentioned earlier, there may be a community of Japanese speakers in your area that you don’t even know about. You need to find someone who you can talk to in Japanese, and speak from day one. This is the most important, productive language learning step you can take to reach fluency. Without actually speaking Japanese, you won’t get very far in your studies. Trust me — I know from years of studying yet being too afraid to speak Japanese.

Step 4: Use Language Hacks to Learn Japanese Fast

Benny Lewis, the founder of Fluent in 3 Months, has tons of amazing language hacks. Here are a few that work best for Japanese:

Use a Spaced Repetition System (SRS), like Anki. Anki is hands-down my favorite because you can find pre-made Japanese decks, or create your own with the vocabulary you’re learning. I highly recommend the NihongoShark Kanji Deck and NihongoShark Japanese Core 2000 Master Deck.

Focus on the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule says you’ll get 80% of your results from 20% of your efforts. What that means is you need to focus on the 20% of the language (vocab, grammar, etc) that you’ll use the most to yield 80% of your speaking. The best way to do this? Start with the 101 core Japanese words and work from there.

Step 5: Use Conversational Connectors and Fillers to Add Fluidity to Your Speech

We use conversational connectors all the time in English. It makes our speech sound more natural and fluid. Yet, they’re an oft-overlooked area in language learning.

Every language has its own unique version of these as well. For instance, in Japanese, one of the most common conversational connectors is その時 (sono toki) which means “At that time.” It’s not really a phrase we use often in English, but it’s used as a connector when telling a story or explaining a situation.

You can also make use of filler words to sound natural and buy you time as you think of how to say something. In English, we say “um,” “well,” etc. In Japanese, you can use あの。。。 (ano…, “um”), なんか。。。(nanka, “what was it…”), and じゃあ (jaa, “well then”). Those are just a few examples. See if you can pick up more when listening to your favorite Japanese dramas.

There are so many people who struggle to learn languages or who just progress too slowly. One of the key factors that defines people’s slow progress. is their passion for language learning, which is low! Maybe they are keen, but their experience just keeps turning them off.  What many people don’t realise is that you are more likely to get to your goal easier and faster if you have a passion for learning the language.

The bulk of energy in our life comes from our emotions and feelings, not from our intellect.  Just compare the energy you had when you met “the love of your life”, versus being with someone you find somewhat attractive – that is not going to give you much energy at all.  It’s exactly the same in learning a language. Passion will give you the energy to get to where you want to be and make you do things that otherwise you wouldn’t do. With all areas where people become outrageously successful, passion was identified as a key ingredient.

Struggling to express yourself in a second language is for most people something that does not come naturally!  It will take some time before you can express yourself as easily in a second language as in the first.  It’s the passion that will keep you going in a way that will keep you focused and positive. But I recommend you stay strong, stay determined and keep learning!