Up to this point in my studies I have only been concerned about mainly reading Japanese. I have 1300 words done in Iknow(assorted from Core 2000, and KO) and started using Anki a week ago which seems to be helping with my learning.
Today as I was waiting for my ride at work I noticed a familiar strings of words being spoken. I see 3 guys(probably 17-22) who apparently speak Japanese in front of me. I think to myself is this actually possible in my crappy small town then immediately think of something to say but aside from the tired(and probably rude) "Sumimasen, nihonjin desu ka?", "konban Jitensha de notte"? or "chikaku sunde iru?" I couldn't really think of a topic to discuss, much less with where to go after than since my vocab sucks, and being naturally silent and choosy about my words, I didn't say anything.
Seeing as how it isn't the first time I've seen them, I don't think it was a one time only thing that I'd actually get to see a Japanese person in my town, but it was kinda irritating that I couldn't think of something to talk about, and being a quiet man didn't help. Though maybe that's a GOOD thing since I didn't make a fool out of myself.
I was thinking of making an Anki deck of sentences I'd use normally, but in Japanese(with help from Denshi Jisho ofcourse). Things I'd think, things I'd talk about, think about, etc. This kind of thing help with anything towards the language? I've been studing for 3-4 years and feel like I haven't made much progress. I got to 600 frames on RTK, but cannot finish it since going back to stories instead of just learning words in Iknow and reviewing with Anki seems counter productive at this point.
I was thinking about just watching stuff as much as I can, mainly things revolving around my interests like news, weather, Discovery Channel(does Japan have something like this) and such, along with Anki reviews and my Intro to Modern Japanese text. I dunno what to focus on now, but I know I can't stop. Should I keep a list of things I do everyday in Japanese in my notebook too? I did that at work today actually and I dont see the harm in it.
I listen to my nephew and niece everyday and how their vocab and understanding of English gets stronger and wonder how I can do this for Japanese. Meh.
coverup
Member
From: 神戸
Registered: 2008-05-21
Posts: 111
I advise against you making the deck for stuff you normally say, because just finding out how to say a certain phrase doesn't give you a context of when it is appropriate to use. For example you can ask someone すみません、日本人ですか？ Excuse me, are you Japanese? as if you had no prior clues and you are inquiring specifically about their race.
You c(sh)ould have asked すみません（が）、日本の方でしょうか？ to put the nuance in there that you've watched them for a second, heard them speaking JP, and you're pretty sure you're not wrong in your guess, and you're a polite fellow who is worthy of a short, pleasant conversation. I could be wrong here, so someone correct me if I am. What you need more than a sentence deck of your favorite phrases is to see a Japanese person meet someone of another race and ask them politely where they are from. Create a scenario where this is likely to happen by watching TV or otherwise. You'll pile up these experiences as time goes on without even knowing it!
You can try to say "You're cute" by saying something phrasebookish and grammatical like あなたはかわいい but it's just going to be wrong to use it 99% of the time. First who are you calling あなた?! Are you an aged housewife? Are you my boss who calls me あなた? Did you really even need to use the second-person pronoun here? Are you talking to a boy in which case you need to use something completely different? You lose all of this extremely important, context-sensitive info when you try to make a favorite-phrase sentence deck.
Or maybe you can make the deck but just take everything with a grain of salt that it may not be right. It's not just a language you are learning, it's a way of thinking and relating to people that has its own set of values and approaches.
I once had the same idea and learned the hard way, so I apologize if I sound a little bit rough here - you will get better but my humble advice is to watch what JP people do and absorb that rather than try to bring it out from inside of you.
Last edited by coverup (2010 March 16, 1:21 am)
thurd
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2009-04-07
Posts: 756
Had a similar situation recently, talk about snowball's chance in hell. I've met a Japanese girl on a train but managed to strike up a conversation with her... in English 
We had a very nice chat with some Japanese in between (I even managed to make a simple mistake of using X月 rather than Xヶ月) and I'm very happy I didn't try to force myself into it. Language is about communication and her English was levels above my Japanese.
I still managed to utter a few words and she sometimes reversed to Japanese but overall because I didn't force anything the whole thing went smooth, was a pleasure and a good learning experience (language and otherwise, got a nice cultural lesson out of it).
As for learning methods for speaking, there is only one: speak. No amount of production from SRS or any other artificial method (shadowing etc.) will help you. Big input is there to back you up with vocabulary, grammar, speaking patterns & phrases, but it won't magically make you fluent in Japanese. This is where those mysterious 2 years of Khatzumoto went (between claiming being fluent and actually being seen fluent) and I don't think there is any way around it.
wccrawford
Member
From: FL US
Registered: 2008-03-28
Posts: 1551
I was recently approached (online) by a Japanese woman learning English. Despite the fact that I don't think I'm ready to speak yet (vocab is still way too low), I agreed to talk to her on the phone in English. She then insisted that every other conversation be in Japanese... Rather than argue, I just went along with it, figuring that if it was bad enough, she'd see the error of her ways.
Long story short, I talked for 45 minutes in Japanese to her one day, and the next conversation we had, she said my pronunciation was 'very good' and then 'perfect'. (I didn't ask, she volunteered the information.)
Even allowing for exaggeration, I'm extremely pleased that I could understand her, she could understand me, and that I could express myself well enough to have some sort of conversation.
Seriously, next time, bust out one of your supposedly lame sentences and just see what happens. Worst that can happen is that they look like you've interrupted them and ignore you. It's much more likely that they'll be interested in the guy who suddenly speaks their language.
