These are namely people that I work with, so what I do is answer in Japanese.

@JunePin Haha you think you figured it out? Some Japanese still talk to me in their ばらばら English (which they have been studying since elementary school) even after I have delivered decent speeches during 朝礼 or shown to be able to hold at least 日常会話.

Last edited by Growl (2013 March 11, 6:55 pm)

I only have 2 years learning Japanese though

Anyway, I think this is a valid topic. Many of us learners here in Japan experience something like this all the time. I can't help feeling a bit irritated when I'm only spoken to in English but that's not anyone's fault as everyone is trying to improve their own skills.

Anyway, よろしければ, let's stay on topic.

Last edited by Growl (2013 March 11, 7:12 pm)

if they are people who you actually want to talk with, and they insist on speaking english with you then let them speak in English. You can always reply in Japanese if you want. But at the end of the day, i think unless your japanese is clearly better than their english many discussions will probably tend towards english unless you're really persistent about it but then you're the one being annoying.

I found at some point my japanese became good enough, and at that point the only japanese people who it makes any sense speaking english with are people who are bilingual (returnees etc). Eventually, as you meet new people, some of them will only ever have known you as a fluent japanese speaker and they'll tend to only (or mostly) speak japanese with you.

It all depends on where you are living.

A lot of Japanese go to English-speaking countries to learn the language. Just try to put your feet in their shoes, i.e., making the trip to Japan and have people trying to speak English to you the whole entire time.

If you are in Japan, the problem can be easily solved by making friends with Japanese who can't speak English at all. I have friends who study English intensively, so we end up talking to each other in English. I have other friends who have no interest in studying/using English, so the language choice is obviously Japanese.

Growl wrote:

It's annoying because I live in Japan.

EDIT: How do you make "friends" with no-English-speaking Japanese people?

With people you don't work with or do not know you from a bar of soap, you could always simply not speak English around them, or say that you can't speak English. *shrugs* Fake it till you make it. How good is your Japanese? Could you function in it without having to use English at all?

128 million Japanese in Japan.
2 million foreigners in Japan.

You have more opportunity to speak Japanese than they do to speak English. Why not just cut 'em some slack and let them be happy.

We decided to speak E on Mon and J on Thu. The problem there is also Tue and we said we would just go with the flow, which probably means she will speak only English and I only Japanese, but at least that's something.

nadiatims wrote:

Just to get an idea of your level, can you follow the plot of a movie without subtitles? can you read a novel?

I can follow some dramas 'more or less' (more more) without subs 泣くな、はるちゃん for example, but I find it much harder for others like とんび. Of course, Japanese subtitles, I don't use English subs.

I haven't read a novel yet, but I have read parts of one and parts of books that are not novels and almost completely read a Reader's Digest like family/housewife magazine.

Last edited by Growl (2013 March 12, 9:17 am)

I've never had a problem with getting Japanese friends to use Japanese. Then again, they live here in the UK, and most of them find relief in being able to use Japanese for a while. I spent the whole day with a bunch of Japanese people on Sunday, and they only used English with me until they found out I spoke Japanese, then it was Japanese for the rest of the day. I kept using English occasionally but they would just reply in Japanese. Maybe they were tired of using English for once. But if it's a language partner, or someone you see regularly, it may be a good idea to offer to say, have half an hour in English, then half an hour in Japanese? Find a balance.

perhaps hang out with multiple people instead of 1 on 1... japanese ppl won't speak english in a group of japanese just because you're present...

This Japanese girl really drives a hard bargain, we went from what I said before to Mon and Tues → English and Japanese only on Thu. wtf? I'm happy though, today she was true to the word and stuck to Japanese no matter what, I feel like someone has done me right for the first time in a few years.

No, but maybe it's turning into that かな. She's the assistant for foreigner teachers in my juku. I'm a 'foreigner' / non-Japanese organism.

More seriously, why you ask?