Long time no see <3 anyway, i have found myself with 0 lessons and 0 reviews to do, so I wanted to ask a question that’s been on my mind for a small bit. I have been working hard on my Kanji and the vocab (even using wanikani for reverse knowledge although i suck), i was wondering what methods you guys use to develop sentences etc. right now it feels like i know just a lot of individual words, verbs etc, and not how to go about using them!!!
I don’t use a textbook right now because tofugu recommends just knuckling down on wanikani until level 10 and then starting on grammar and textbooks etc.
is that the answer? should i simply be patient until level 10? or what did u guys do to learn to actually speak!
thanks for all your help friends! have a great day!!!
Do you want to get better at speaking because you feel like you need to get better at speaking, or because you want to use the language to speak?
If its the former, then don’t worry, you don’t actually need to practice speaking or learn how to speak. What I and many others do, is just focus on comprehending the language. Once you get enough input, you kinda naturally just end up able to speak. Then, when you speak, you naturally get more comfortable and better at using what you know and can get some small corrections. You don’t really need to wait till any particular level on wanikani to do anything though, and I would say to let yourself be guided more by what you want to do rather than anything else and then find the appropriate resource to use.
thank you my friend! I lived in japan for a year and i think even with no lessons i could speak more then than i can now 2 years later haha <3 i look forward to when we can converse together in japanese!
I mean you can always kick in and watch japanese contents on youtube or play games.
Or like you could play Pokemon if you want a simple game with no kanji, the older pokemon games are only in kana
Even if you cannot read or comprehend most of it, I think you can still start enjoying japanese content from day 1. Its depend on what you like. I know that as a non native english speaker ( I never really did english grammar lesson or minded them in school) I did that with gaming for learning my english and I know pleeenty of people who had the same experience for learning english and that what I do with japanese now, that and mostly youtube videos.
Imma give you a trick when I used to play english game I didnt try to translate everything I just played. Lets the brain do the work. Its a long game but it how we do
WaniKani isn’t going to teach you the most useful vocabulary early on, and it’s definitely not going to teach you grammar. Vocabulary and grammar are the most fundamental building blocks you can have for sentences - it’s much more useful to know a bunch of words and grammar but no kanji than it is to know a bunch of kanji but no gammar or words.
I’d say learn some grammar at the very least. That’ll help with comprehension as well as producing - whether it’s writing or speaking. I personally use Bunpro but the experiences with it are mixed - and not everybody likes having more than one SRS. For vocab I use Torii but the same things apply.
But do note that I’m not an expert on language learning, so this is just some Internet rando’s opinion.
One way is to start on grammar with level 0 graded readers. That will give you “grammar light” so you can start understanding how the language works in a easy success way. Then progress to the tougher graded readers, then to a basic grammar book like Genki. Also listen to podcasts like nihongoconteppei, and talk along with the podcast.
These are all easy ways to start you in the right direction.
There are some links around here for free graded readers, I can post the link later when I find it.
I would recommend playing a game with plenty of audio too if you can, I think audio is the best way to acquire the language.
Fun fact I found out recently, you probably already played Skyrim but did you know it is fully dubbed in Japanese. (There is a japanese option in steams and it has full dub)
Well I dont know any “speaking” game in itself, Skyrim is a Open World RPG that has a whole world available to explore with plenty of dialogues that can be in japanese. (Usually people play it in their language or english, but there is a japenese option on Steam you can set to that language basically)
I think when you get a good kanji level you could probably get in FF14 in japanese, joining a mmo would be a good way to interact with people, or you could go on japanese minecraft servers or a World of Warcraft have a japanese mod
But in my book, the best is to have the most audio exposed, that what Stephen Krashen teach with his input theory
Idk on Switch, since you mentionned Mario Oddysey, but I recommend buying it on PC, but you can on Switch although you might need to change your region, but I think the game is overpriced on Switch it is 2011 game. You can buy it on site like G2A and buy a steam key to play it on PC and then you can set the games option to be in Japanese, and you will have access to all the dialogues in japanese (basically all the game is dubbed / subbed)
I know a few games that aren’t from Japan that are also dubbed in Japanese. Not many are but like Bioshock (the first game) is dubbed in Japanese too. Watch Dog 1 is dubbed in japanese too
Taking any one singular source as gospel is probably not ideal, and Tofugu has some good information on the blog, but keep in mind they’re trying to sell you something - I won’t say that’s the primary reason for their claim but “plenty of beginner resources use furigana so kanji are useful but you’ll probably be okay postponing them” doesn’t sell WK subscriptions.
I can kinda see where they’re coming from with the level 10 thing though. Level 10 was just about the level where the kanji I learned from WK really started opening up a bunch for me, and that’s going strong so far. I just don’t for the life of me know how learning kanji would be a requirement for textbooks, vocab or especially grammar. If anything, already knowing some vocab helps the kanji stick. About half the kanji I’ve learned this level stuck pretty quickly because I already knew a word using them.
I think Wanikani levels for speaking are totally arbitrary but the best way to get better at speaking (if that’s your goal) is to find a language partner or do online lessons with a teacher.
I started learning the language when I moved to Japan so was lucky enough to have loads of people to practice on but when I moved back to the Channel Islands, I had 0 Japanese contacts and my speaking went downhill quickly.
Since the start of the pandemic I’ve been using italki for a weekly conversation lesson with a Japanese teacher and it has worked wonders. Absolutely recommend for beginners if you want to get confidence in speaking the language.
