I like that idea
Well, I have a 4.0 in college, and I no longer drink alcohol at all, so I would say I have an above-average knack for learning. College does take up a significant amount of my time though.
It’s not so difficult to find Brazilians who are been here for more than 25 years and can’t understand basics Japanese. They just don’t bother to learn the language. Learn a difficult language like Japanese require real effort, determination, passion, etc. Just been here don’t put the language in your head.
Okay, guys. Heeding the advice of someone on this thread, I have designated 5-6PM as Japanese only time in my house. The first day went great, as we spent the entire hour talking and I learned some new words without translating, although my Japanese was horribly broken.
Japanese clicked for me when I was watching anime randomly one night. All of a sudden, I could understand Japanese perfectly, and I was able to speak it just like a native! I was so amazed at my abilities that I went to tell my girlfriend, but when I went to tell her, she screamed. I asked her what was wrong, but she just shouted out “[my real name], there’s a random Japanese person in our house, and he’s just saying ‘ogenki desuka’ or something, come quick!”. Anyway, that was when I realized that I was actually a Japanese person all along and that I had just broken into some random person’s house. And also that I couldn’t actually speak any English so everything I said was in Japanese. 初めまして。お名前は何ですか。わたしは山田です。よろしくお願いします。ごめんなさい、わたしは英語がよくわかりません。
Some great suggestions here (I’m also in the “Japanese wife, but we speak almost exclusively English at home” category), because I feel like a five year old when I speak Japanese and I also have trouble getting over the psychological hurdle. HelloTalk helps – find someone who is willing to exchange voice messages with you and correct your Japanese without being overly picky (you have to reciprocate and help with their English). As far as “clicks”, my moments are when I say something in Japanese, especially answering a question, without thinking about it in English first and translating in my head. This thread is like a little support group for intimidated beginner/intermediates – thanks to everyone providing advice.
Japanese never clicks, grammar usually clicks when I’m three drinks in. ![]()
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