Speaking Japanese at Home w/ My Wife

Hi everyone,

Anyone else married to, or live with, a native Japanese speaker who’s interested in helping you learn and any tips for encouraging better discipline by both parties to speak more Japanese in daily life?

My wife and I both try to speak it to each other but quickly fall off the wagon. I’ve completed the Genki series and done additional studies for the JLPT N4. My reading and writing is getting much better but speaking and listening is still a slog. We both lose patience when using it around the house. She has to repeat herself a lot and I don’t make a lot of sense most of the time.

Interested if there’s anyone else with similar experience?

Thanks in advance. Do more reviews…

My girlfriend doesn’t speak English. So that helps. :slight_smile:

Why not start with the 挨拶(あいさつ)or greetings?

For example: tadaima, ittekimasu, itterrashai, okaeri and so on.

Then, just slip in a word or two. For example “Pass the shouyu, so I can put some on my sakana.”

My girlfriend and I live together and speak maybe 5% Japanese and the rest English. That percentage is increasing slowly as my Japanese proficiency increases.

Good luck!

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For me not personally but you should keep going even if things dont quite make sense! Maybe for words you arent sure of you can say "something like… ‘words you DO already know’. The best way to learn new words I found when i’ve talked to my native japanese friends is to describe something in a mixture of words I do know and they then usually get what I mean and correct me. Your partner might know words you don’t so you can definitely bounce ideas off of each other and any practice beyond reading and writing is always a plus.

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Thanks for the feedback! We just gotta keep at it.

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