I love what-if situations because they
force you to be creative and see things
from a fresh perspective so when someone
recently approached me saying excuse me
but I need to become fluent at speaking
Japanese in six months what should I do
my initial response was and after this
exchange I couldn't help but think what
if that person had actually served
excuse me I need to become fluent in
speaking Japanese in six months as
you've got 10 minutes to tell me what I
need to do and the more I thought about
the whole speaking Japanese fluently the
six months think they're more I realize
that is actually technically possible
with a good strategy with a good plan
now granted it took me longer than six
months but this is because like most
learners I had no idea where to begin or
what to do now I've been fortunate to
come a long way since then culminating
last year taking part in a regional
Japanese speech contest somehow winning
and ending up in the local newspaper
looking like some kind of slightly
overweight disappointing villain so if
you have half a year to spare or you're
learning Japanese from a beginner to an
intermediate level here are six
important points for making fluency in
six months a reality or if you do lack
at the time the very least in under in
here so the aim of not being shot in
this bizarre poorly conceived
hypothetical situation here is a six
step strategy for success and speaking
Japanese fluently in six months oh I
love alliteration
so the first thing you need to become
fluent at speaking Japanese is the core
vocabulary and grammar but how much is
this well probably not as much as you
think I discovered this when I came to
Japan and befriended someone who is very
much fluent in conversation but knew
surprisingly little Japanese I won't
reveal his name or face suffice to say
his greatest quality is that he's from
Canada and so for the rest of this
audio-visual experience we'll be
referring to him as Canadian going but
Canadian guy came to Japan having
learned his Japanese from the popular
textbooks Genki won and Genki too and
then he just couldn't be bothered to
learn anything more because admittedly
he found speed Italy too he already had
enough Japanese to be able to have good
conversations with people and after I'd
finished using both books I also found I
knew enough to be able to have good
everyday conversation but how much
Japanese is that exactly and can it be
learned in six months the books take you
up to jlpt 4n4 level which is around a
thousand words and once the books do
contain big scary kanji characters they
also contain hiragana and katakana
meaning you can progress through them
without being held back by kanji and as
there are 22 chapters and 24 weeks in
which to learn them the rate of one
chapter a week is more than manageable
with two weeks left over to learn
hiragana and katakana if you need to now
at this point I expect everyone and
their cat is shouting a thousand words
suitable it simply can't be done to
which I say let's be ruthless and say we
have 1500 words to learn in five months
because you want to use the sixth month
to review the things we've learned and
enjoy muffins basic math tells us that
comes to a staggering ten words a day
but if like me you have trouble
remembering vocabulary use of
memorization website like memorize where
you can learn new vocabulary daily and
you'll find that it makes this six-month
target disgustingly achievable fluency
with just a thousand words
Robson's by it's important to remember
that the thousand most commonly used
Japanese words represent 70% of the
everyday spoken language because the
words are used that frequently of course
simply just by knowing them won't make
you fluent that's what the other five
tips are for but you can't go anywhere
without the essential so make sure you
learn them and learn them well now
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what was put to conversation fillers are
the words we use when we hesitate
mid-sentence oh no I ultimately they
have no meaning but they still play a
vital role during conversation and then
there's back-channeling which are words
that we use to show that we're listening
in during conversation uh-huh all right
yeah and you'll benefit massively from
using them when you speak Japanese
because not only will you sound more
like a native speaker but early on will
you find it difficult to recall a a word
mid-sentence or you'll be able to use
the filler to buy yourself time until
you can remember the word example
Oh
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yeah yeah right I saw her oh yeah I see
I see yeah not a woman no no hmm
what is it yeah nothing and if you
listened to a Japanese speaker you'll
especially hear the first tip we get
into the habit of using them early on
not only when you sound more like a
native speaker but you'll feel more
comfortable and natural when speaking
Japanese it's a small thing but it does
make a huge difference mmm fairly
obvious once you've started learning
Japanese naturally you want to start
practicing and using it with native
speakers of Japanese in conversation and
if you plan to be fluent in six months
you would need to speak to someone for
about one hour every week do that and
six months is completely achievable so
find a conversation partner or a
Japanese teacher and you'll be fluent in
no time at all yeah oh wait there's
literally no native speakers of Japanese
outside of Japan okay I exaggerate but
it's true if you live outside Japan
there is a noticeable absence of
Japanese people to actually speak with
in fact in the past two years I've had
more messages from people about this
problem than anything else and I can
empathize in the 22 years that I lived
in rural London I met
[Music]
two Japanese people and that was in
London one of the biggest cities in the
entire [ __ ] solar system but you and
I are very lucky because we have
something that I like to call B and
tener we don't need to let silly things
like time and space get in our way
because there already tells of awesome
Japanese people in life who will have
conversation with you or teach you
Japanese and for me the best place to be
them is I talk your website where you
can not only find Japanese conversation
partners freely but also find native
speakers who can become your personal
tutor over the internet and in fact
despite living in Japan even I use
online tutors as it's more convenient
than driving for half an hour to the
local community center sitting in a
group waiting for my term while people
practice the phrase qualia LARP ended I
can have my class anywhere I want
sitting there eating the chocolate
talking one on one to a personal tutor
over Skype and I'd like having a regular
tutor which costs literally billions of
dollars having an online teacher is
actually affordable enough to use weekly
now because I live in Japan I can
practice conversation with friends but
honestly it's still no substitute for
having an experienced teacher who can
check your pronunciation correct your
mistakes and explain sentence structures
that literally make no sense
so not only is the future already here
but it turns out it's more convenient
more flexible and actually affordable
unlike the chocolate which feels like
the posh kids standing in the corner of
the room boastfully claiming that comes
from being two bar beat upon up look at
that faint above what unlike normal
chocolate which merely goes from being
to disillusionment you've busted so
definitely check out I torque it the
link below and if you do having message
the guys there they were kind enough to
donate vouchers to anyone watching this
video which is pretty good as it's
something useful you can actually use
visit the link below sign up for free
and if you decide to book a tutor before
April 30th you'll get another lesson for
free finally that you're born Japan
channel has been nice I went to those
people that often ask me can I just
practice conversation by speaking
Japanese into Google Translate yeah just
just go
this next tip genuinely changed my
Japanese speaking life when you start
learning Japanese and indeed long after
you've started learning Japanese you'll
often find yourself not knowing a word
or how to say something a ridiculous
amount the time and nothing kills the
conversation at demos of a team or that
when this happens but the solution is
simple you need to learn 10,000 words
and 2200 kanji characters and you should
finish just in time to be dead all you
can learn how to overcome mental blocks
and explain things you don't know using
the basic grammar you've already learned
good because the keys of fluency is to
think in Japanese and to work around
these problems like you would in your
native language but you can do the exact
same thing in Japanese at a fairly early
stage having learned something called
nominalization and using concept words
like monocot or jaw thigh and top rope I
first learned this from Canadian gun
because he always appeared flirting
conversation despite his limited
knowledge and it turned out he was just
confident in using explanatory phrases
to get around difficult situations but
let's have some examples say I'm having
a really bad day
you're nice too though chill on the
waffles are nuts you know how lucky I
can i hey so let the earth on this room
oh what a sunny I need some artists are
convening it at RC mundo Keeravani
okay haha me see that also has Emile
cotton : a she's a kind of a soda thank
you Stefan tasarov
who no cuz she taught you to grow on
selected to serve on the show also to
economy dicta don't wonder not even
yourself
hello kill energy or coca-cola will be
hosting a show dog
Carrigan oh sure oh yeah calligraphy I'm
from the red cord don't worry
our conversations aren't usually that
[ __ ] change your thinking in this way
and become fluent the problem-solving
and you'll find a way to explain
anything even with a limited vocabulary
you'll find it makes a big difference to
your overall confidence and speaking
Japanese
particularly after you've been able to
describe concepts like communism having
only used words like everyone and salad
down I've got about a minute before I
get shot and I need a watch another tip
for getting around those frequent mental
blocks is synonyms early on one of my
biggest problems was if I couldn't
recall word I would spend ages trying to
recall it rather than move around it and
find a different way of saying it and
this just led to frustration and
breaking things but the trick is to get
into the habit of quickly switching and
thinking up a different way of saying it
for example if you want to say he's tall
but can't remember the phrase say got
that I switched to an alternative and
say he's big or he's not sure it takes a
few weeks of practice to become good at
this but when you get into the habit of
doing it you'll save yourself a lot of
time and stress I'm finally number six
the most important tip but probably the
most difficult early on it becomes so
easy to switch back to your native
language if you can't think of the word
or what to say and I would do this even
if I knew full well that the other
person couldn't even speak English but
this problem has continuously plagued me
that I switched back to English rather
than stick it out and use the Japanese I
know I think one of the biggest reasons
for this is that it feels like you have
to let part of your personality go
because you don't know how to say
colloquial phrases that you would say in
your own native language and it can be
really difficult especially if you're an
egotistical terrible person like I am
but if you don't get rid of this problem
early on it will always hold you back
and stand in your way rather than
thinking in Japanese you'll just give up
and revert back to your old language if
you get your native language if you
can't say in Japanese don't say it at
all just move on and conversely the more
you speak and use the Japanese you'll
know the more you'll realize that you
know a lot more than you think and
that's it six tips six months if you do
all of these things then you can be
fluent in six months whilst being able
to read write or listen to Japanese is
awesome being able to speak it with
native speakers is where the real
rewards light and if you do plan to do
this to send a message over the Facebook
pages I'm keen to hear how you get on
but thanks for watching and good luck
laughter I please finish I did a good
job
Oh lay off the fried chicken
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