I think I’m caught in the same algorithm
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Having studied six languages at this point, I can tell you it’s completely normal. Heck, you know what? I actually got thrown into a conversation with an elderly German lady on a plane once by my mother (because she knew I had studied German), and the fact is that we could understand each other pretty well, but neither of us could really express things in the other’s language. My belief regarding the reason I was stuck? Simple, I’d never really had to converse in German before, so active recall wasn’t strictly necessary. Also, let’s put it another way: what you learn in a textbook isn’t necessarily going to match the way you’d naturally say things, so you might be able to understand plenty of things just fine, but never have had to say something in Japanese before. (Case in point: I have an N1 cert – didn’t get a great score though – and can get through fairly technical news articles and anime with a bit of dictionary help, but explaining to my Japanese teacher that I had helped translate between English, Chinese, Japanese and French for a VTuber fan project while trying to avoid sounding like a crazy streamer idol otaku? Yeah, was complicated, especially because she didn’t know any of the words that are common in the Japanese streaming world. Communication is as much a matter of fluency as it is a matter of understanding whom you’re talking to – my teacher didn’t get what I was talking about until I called it ‘推し活’, which is roughly ‘fan activities in support of an artist/performer’.)
It’s also fairly clear that learning model conversations doesn’t help much with spontaneously expressing yourself in more specific situations, meaning that you shouldn’t be surprised (or frankly even worried) that this
isn’t helping you much in conversation, even though it’s very common (and I dare say very much the standard in Japan, because my friend’s French textbook in uni in Japan looked like that too). Conversely, they’re useful for conversations that match the textbook context, albeit they might actually be kinda weird at times compared to what’s common (e.g. because they can be too polite).
Anyway, regarding practical action you can take… it probably will help if you do Japanese conversation practice with someone. A tutor is an option, but you can also take a look at language exchange sites or Discord servers. The one caveat is that honestly, language exchange partners may not correct you because they’d much rather just talk, so you’ll need to do two things if you take that route:
- Ask for corrections/ask them to rephrase things and repeat them back to you so you learn how to say things more naturally
- Be observant and try to learn from them
The other thing you can also do is to ‘just’ get lots of input. Or at least, that’s what many other people like to say. I’m not a fan of the belief that ‘input is enough’, so I’d strongly suggest you also pay attention when you immerse yourself. Sure, you can also pick things up while only half-listening, especially if you hear them often enough, and you’re definitely not going to consciously remember how you learnt everything you know at the end of it all, but in my experience, the more attentive you are, and the more effort you put into getting knowledge into your head effectively (i.e. ask yourself what your learning needs are and cater to them yourself), the more you retain. Watch how people converse in anime, streams, YouTube interviews, the news etc. Sure, not all of it is going to be perfectly applicable everywhere, but you’ll start to remember common phrases over time – especially if you’re being attentive – and you’ll get a feel for how Japanese conversation flows. Also try to find Japanese content that engages you so you’re more likely to remember it afterwards. You can even memorise your favourite lines from shows so you’ll have patterns ready and waiting in your head. (Yes, ‘language hackers’ say that you can do this with typical conversations too, but I find that such knowledge is more useful at the sentence or phrase level.)
It’s still going to be easier to turn your new knowledge into your own words with practice though, so you probably want to try writing sentences on the forum (there’s this thread: Japanese Sentence a Day Challenge) or even just talking to yourself:
^This is a good example, seriously. Think about how you’d say something in Japanese, and if you get stuck, don’t just guess – go search the internet. You’ve got plenty of translated examples on https://ejje.weblio.jp, and remember that there are also plenty of Japanese people out there trying to learn English too, so results on Japanese sites like https://eikaiwa.dmm.com (where Japanese people ask the question in reverse – ‘how do I say [Japanese phrase] in English?’) can help too. Another avenue for practice and language exchange is Twitter (on #langtwt – I’m there, among other people), though I don’t know if that’s going to become harder with the upcoming changes to suggestions coming up.
Ultimately, I’m someone who’s very low-budget when it comes to language learning, so I always pick resources that have a high ROI – I favour intuitive/in-depth books and one-time purchases over lessons and subscriptions, and I only spend on things when I’m confident they’ll give me a ton of value (e.g. the only reason I have a teacher is that I can attend classes in uni – I self-studied for 3-4 years before that, and self-study is the reason I got my N1 – and I bought a newspaper subscription because news articles are how I got to C2 in French). Therefore, if you prefer methods that are a little more involved or interactive, you might not want to study the way I do, and I certainly don’t think my way is the most effective for learning to output. Also, if you’ve got more of a budget, getting a tutor specifically for conversation might be worth it, though it’s not strictly necessary.
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Oh I like this a lot! It’s really soothing and sweet. I subscribed to see more content.
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Adding to the last part: It doesn’t have to be a native speaker. I sometimes meet with someone from my Japanese class to go over what we’ve learned, and then we try to talk in Japanese and correct each other. This has definitely helped me with talking and finding ways to express what I mean even if I can’t translate the sentence in my head 1:1 (which should be the goal, thinking in Japanese, not thinking in your language and then translating)
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