Hi there,
How has your Japanese learning experience been so far?
Are you still finding it difficult to initiate a great conversation or even each a level of fluency despite all your dedication and hard work? Well, there’s no need to panic or feel obnoxious about it anymore because you are not the only one still doubting if you will ever get a to a level of fluency.
What then is the level of proficiency you need to attain before you can be considered fluent? I know this is a bit confusing for you and that’s why I’ve put this article in place to help you learn how to become fluent in the Japanese language.
Reaching a level of fluency in the Japanese language isn’t an easy task neither is it a day job. With Japanese being considered as one of the most difficult languages to learn, It almost seems like an impossible thing to reach fluency and so, in order to break free from this ‘impossibility’ mindset, you’ll need to put in all the hard work and practice you can.
Here are a few how-to guides to help you reach fluency in the Japanese language.
Set goals
Your goals should be the first thing you put into consideration when you think about how fluent you want your Japanese to be. Until these goals are in place and you follow the rules guiding them accordingly, there’s no guarantee that your Japanese skills will improve in any way.
Also, don’t just imagine these goals in your head, write them down and place it where you can see it. This will keep you accountable and help you work hard towards achieving these goals. For example, you can set goals like this; ” I want to be able to order my food in a Japanese restaurant in 2 months’ time” or “I want to be able to write and read 2000 kanji in the next 3 months”. Your set goals are a driving force that moves you towards achieving your desired results.
Pay attention to your grammar
Both katakana and hiragana are the basic Japanese alphabets that have the same sound but are written with different characters. While hiragana is the general alphabet, Katakana is used for writing foreign-borrowed words. Take your time to study each alphabet and character individually, and learn how and when to use them in grammar. Learn to correctly pronounce their sounds as well because it will help you get right the pronunciation of words wherever it is required.
Start to memorize each character slowly and when you become familiar with them, you can try to read them out as fast as you can. Also, read a lot of Japanese text written in kana (hiragana and katakana) as often as you can. The more you do so, the better your skills get, and the more your chance of becoming fluent.
Don’t leave out kanji
When learning the Japanese language, kanji usually comes after you have learned the basic kana characters. Each kanji character represents words borrowed from Chinese vocabulary. they are used in names, In grammatical functions, and specialized vocabulary and also to distinguish between homonyms and synonyms.
To learn and become familiar with kanji, you can either use the rote memorization method or real-life experiences.
The rote memorization method involves cramming and accumulating so much information and repeating them continuously until you can memorize them without having to stress your brain. A good example of the rote memorization method is the use of flashcards.
Although rote memorization has proven to be effective, it is still not enough to make you fluent.
Join a formal Japanese language class
Studying alone may not give you your desired result because you may find it difficult staying dedicated to your study time and goals. Hence, a physical or online class will do the trick. What better way to improve your fluency than have a native speaker or teacher guide you through your learning process. A formal Japanese class is necessary for you if you intend to improve your study hours and keep up your motivation, get help in areas where you are struggling, or even brush up on your reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.
A physical Japanese class also has other students who aim at accomplishing fluency in the Japanese language. Hence, this is a perfect environment to help you achieve your set goals.
Form a habit of listening to Japanese daily.
Don’t just concentrate on developing your reading and writing skills alone, build on your listening and speaking skills too. Watch as many Japanese movies and tv shows as possible. You can also source for Japanese podcasts online and listen to them. Take note of every intonation, pronunciation, speed and the situations in which certain words are used. Sometimes, listening may not be enough, you need to repeat the words you hear, pronounce them just the way you heard them and speak at the same speed with which the words were spoken.
Utilize every opportunity to learn from natives
To achieve complete fluency, you need to live in Japan for a while. If you decide to travel to Japan for some time in order to improve your Japanese language proficiency, well that’s great! But for those who can’t, the online language exchange program is the best way to can learn directly from a native.
Take a Japanese proficiency test (JLPT)
This will definitely reveal your strong and weak points in the Japanese language, hence giving you an opportunity to know the areas to improve on.
To conclude, it is really important that you don’t learn one part of the Japanese language at the expense of others. Although developing your listening and speaking skills might seem more important to you, but achieving your fluency goals requires that you know more than an average of every aspect of the Japanese language. Therefore, fluency requires hard work, consistent practice, and dedication. Mistakes are also allowed because if you don’t fail, you won’t try again and the more you try, the better you become.