Hi,

if everything works out as planned, I'm going to Japan for 6 months, starting in april. I am currently an M.S. student and it is planned that I do some sort of a research project in a grad school (just for fun/experience), so that would be my normal environment.
I am learning Japanese for around a year and i would say its still far from usable... currently I do the last third of Ko2001 and written Japanese starts to make really sense.

So, as stated in the title I have 3 months left. First, my plan was to finish KO and train my listening skills with boring Japanese TV and so on. Japan would be the best place to learn how to actually speak, when I am there. But now, I am a little bit afraid that I wouldn't dare to say anything with my not existing speaking abilities... so I could never learn anything.
Perhaps it would be better to stop my Kanji/Vocabulary learning for now and concentrate on everyday sentences... speech patterns and so on (perhaps JPod or so). I even thought about finding some sort of tandem partner but I have my doubt if its that effective. Most Japanese want to learn english anyway, so I would have to find someone who wants to learn German and is able to help someone who never spoke Japanese.
Actually i did some pimsleur some time ago and it was surely helpful to get a feeling of how to start saying things... but its not that much and I am not going on a business trip.

So what do you think would be the best thing to prepare me for Japan, language wise? Any ideas?
I know there are people here like "KO is nothing, i did it a week so it shouldn't be a problem for you".. assume I am not such a person. Thank you.

If I were in the same situation, this is what I'd do:

Study a phrasebook with an SRS, doing as much as you can in 3 months. Listen to as much as you can; maybe get a little TV or second computer monitor for video immersion. Fun, not boring. Children's anime is good if you like it. Dorama is good if you like it. Dubbed Hollywood films? Only if you like them. Maybe Japanesepod, though I personally dislike it.

(I haven't listened to it yet. The aggressive advertisement put me off before I even listened to one.)

Speaking will emerge once you're there as long as you have the listening skill to back it up. Most language learning is listening and reading--you do not have to speak before you start speaking. (Otherwise, no one would speak!)

いつでも聞いて、気に入れば喋て。

Honestly, I don't know if that's right. I don't produce much yet. But, I do know if the passive knowledge is mature enough, you have a chance to speak, and get lucky enough that what you know matches what you want to say, it happens automatically--maybe not 100% correct, but so easy it's surprising.

SRS'ing a phrase book will put your survival Japanese through the roof so you at least know you won't be lost for words in a crucial situation. Your understanding of the reply is up to how much you've learned so far.

KO is a rather big beast and it's a fairly trying experience to get it done in a short time. Vocab is the main barrier to understanding any language really so it's an important part of study.

Language is quite different to other areas of study. If you're a doctor and you're medical knowledge is "alright" you'll be a crap doctor whom no one would trust. If you're a mechanic and you know "some stuff about cars" you won't be a very good mechanic who can fix any problem he comes across. In language however, even if you only know the noun for something or a can put together a very badly constructed sentence from which someone can understand what you mean all of a sudden the world can open up to you. To put it simply "language is the only thing worth know even badly".

Nothing prepares you for speaking Japanese. I say just watch dramas or TV if you want to work on your listening or just keep studying academically. You'll pick it up really fast once you arrive as long as you try to immerse yourself intentionally.

Trying to learn enough to talk to someone is pointless because you will not understand the response you get with only three months of study. Learn some survival Kanji from signs you will encounter:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/japanesepod101/

Hire a tutor. Put an ad up in your local Japanese marketplace or newspaper and get a tutor. But not really a tutor, rather, a speaking partner, and only over the phone. You pay them to call you and talk to you for X amount of time (at least 1 hour every other day), and have conversations with them only in Japanese. Someone in your age range and of the opposite sex is the best. You may be out a few hundred bucks before you go, but i guarantee you'll be speaking.

stehr, I've considered doing something like this before, but I always decide not to. Instead I try to find a Japanese potential friend who has absolutely terrible English (very important) and so has to speak Japanese to me. It'll be free too =D! I haven't had any luck yet though...

Surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, but...

When you watch the dramas, listen to the mp3 stuff, whatever before going, try REPEATING what you hear, AGAIN and AGAIN! Even if it goes to fast for you, repeat what you can catch. When reading passages or even just example sentences, read them ALOUD! Try memorizing short passages, poems, catch phrases, whatever and recite them ALOUD! I can't tell you how much this will unconsciously prepare you for the actual action of speaking. Your pronunciation will improve, your intonation will improve, your speaking and responding speeds will increase- even though you are essentially talking to yourself.

Of course, there is no substitute to speaking with a real person, and *everyone* is slow in responding and formulating sentences at first (or even when they've been away from Japan for a few months). But this will warm up your brain and not make it such a shock. A Japanese professor that I work for over here learned English *on his own* without ever leaving Japan or taking lessons from a Native speaker. And unlike many Japanese wannabe English speakers, he's VERY good. His secret is listening and repeating day after day. It works, and at least will get you revved up and ready to go before coming here.

Think of it like trying to practice giving a speech before the speech day. The more that you practice speaking, the easier it will flow when it's show time. 頑張れ〜

wildweathel Wrote:If I were in the same situation, this is what I'd do:

Study a phrasebook with an SRS, doing as much as you can in 3 months. Listen to as much as you can; maybe get a little TV or second computer monitor for video immersion. Fun, not boring. Children's anime is good if you like it. Dorama is good if you like it. Dubbed Hollywood films? Only if you like them. Maybe Japanesepod, though I personally dislike it.

Any ideas for a good phrase book? Actually I do have a second monitor I use to watch Japanese TV... but despite all that "immersion" talk, its really going on my nerves when I have to work and it seems to help me only when I watch it actively . And.. it has to be boring to be fun, I cant stand watching interesting things when I don't understand everything. If it wouldn't be for Japanese I wouldn't watch TV anyway.

@mezbup/welldone101
Thanks... this makes me a little bit more optimistic.

bodhisamaya Wrote:Trying to learn enough to talk to someone is pointless because you will not understand the response you get with only three months of study.

My understanding shouldn't be as bad as my speaking... I am not able to understand everything I can read but I think this should be the most easiest transition.

stehr Wrote:Hire a tutor. Put an ad up in your local Japanese marketplace or newspaper and get a tutor. But not really a tutor, rather, a speaking partner, and only over the phone. You pay them to call you and talk to you for X amount of time (at least 1 hour every other day), and have conversations with them only in Japanese. Someone in your age range and of the opposite sex is the best. You may be out a few hundred bucks before you go, but i guarantee you'll be speaking.

Sounds like the best way but even without paying a tutor, Japan is going to be really costly.

zohar Wrote:When you watch the dramas, listen to the mp3 stuff, whatever before going, try REPEATING what you hear, AGAIN and AGAIN!

This is more a general recommendation.. now i just need the right material for 3 months.

You could always use skype with a penfriend to save getting a tutor. Currently I just IM with mine, but that's still helpful until I go visit in March as well.

thorstenu,

NHK has these dramas called Asadora. NHK is kind of like PBS in America (the channel that shows "Sesame Street"). It's the most tame, family friendly TV dramas you'll ever see. These dramas are almost always in the countryside or "inaka" as they say in Japanese (is that boring enough for you?).

But the best part is that each episode is only 15 minutes long. So it's really easy to sneak an episode or two here and there... :-)

The current NHK Asadora for this season is called Welkame.

Here is a plot summary:
The 81st NHK Asadora is Welkame. The story revolves around a young woman named Nami, who was born and raised in a minshuku (a type of inn). She leaves for Tokyo to work for a magazine publisher, but is soon laid off. She winds up returning to her hometown, where she has to once again deal with her family and former acquaintances. --Tokyograph

I'd memorize my address (reading and writing), read up about what's in the area I'm about to live in, buy some probiotic pills for when I arrive, study more Japanese words and phrases, and try to save up enough to make a return trip back home in case everything doesn't pan out.