Funny When Japanese Try to Speak English Like a Native Xd
In that location are sure aspects of the linguistic communication that that are of import to understand if you desire to speak Japanese like a native. I've nerveless some of the most important ones and laid them out below into vii individual steps.
These are the things that I've learned from others who have impeccable Japanese, things that I've observed in my years of study, and the elements that I've focused on improving myself to become a amend speaker.
Some of the ideas volition be obvious, only others are often ignored. Take a wait through the list and run into what you're already strong at and where you could put some extra attention.
Mimic The Sounds
This get-go step is right in line with this purpose of this complimentary form yous're going through hither on this blog.
Mimicking the sounds of Japanese is really a two-fold procedure. First y'all have to learn what the right sounds are, and then you have to larn how to make them yourself.
Learning the sounds of Japanese involves actively studying the sounds and then listening to lots of examples. After that, the best recommendation is to listen to a lot of natives speaking in a variety of situations and flood your brain with the language.
Listen to a narrator reading through a story in audio book format. Then heed to a couple of friends having a conversation. Then listen to someone engaging in a monologue. Then heed to a couple of people arguing.
By doing both of these things you get the benefits of both top-downwardly, and bottom-up approaches to learning.
Making the sounds of Japanese involves speaking do at the sound level, give-and-take level, and and so sentence level.
It'south practiced to practice common words and phrases on your ain, but in that location are some other strategies that tin assistance also.
Try talking to other people in Japanese either online or in person. It can be a with a tutor and so that y'all tin can get corrections, or simply a normal person with the intention of advice.
Equally you railroad train the muscles in your mouth to make the correct sounds, it will begin to experience natural and you won't take to brand as much witting try as before.
How do you know if you lot're making the right sounds? The all-time fashion to tell is also the hardest.
You lot have to record yourself speaking and so listen to it.
I don't call up I've ever met anyone who enjoyed listening to a recording of themselves speak, but past listening to what you actually said and comparing it with a native you tin quickly run into which sounds you made correctly and which ones still need some work.
Focus On Prosody
I'm going to throw out a couple of weird words in this post, but I'll give the definition of each i and explain why I think they are of import.
There are several definitions of prosody, but the one that I feel all-time explains what I desire to talk nigh is "the patterns of rhythm and sound" when it comes to the style people talk.
This actually ties in pretty well with the last lesson that we went over considering it is about how an overall sentence sounds.
If you've ever listened to a text-to-voice communication tool read out a page of a digital volume or the contents of a website's commodity, then you've probably noticed that fifty-fifty nowadays they tend to sound a fiddling robotic.
Whereas when a native reads the same passage, they audio natural and fluid.
That's considering the machine is focused on speaking each separate word, whereas the human is focused on the entire sentence as if it were a unmarried entity.
Here is a picture that illustrates what I mean.
It is a graph that shows sound, and in this detail case each blue audio wave represents a word in Japanese.
They are また あいて うれしい です よ。
What if instead of focusing on the private words, we instead focused on the overall sentence?
Information technology would await more like the beneath picture.
Observe how even though these two examples are technically comprised of the verbal same elements, the sound waves are quite different from ane another.
In the same way, by focusing on speaking Japanese in complete sentences every bit if each sentence were a single item, y'all can begin to audio more than similar a native and less like someone who is learning a foreign language.
This of course take a lot of exposure and exercise, but the tip is to treat total sentences as one complete thought, instead of many individual words that just happen to be strung together.
Practice Fast Japanese
Calling information technology "Fast Japanese" is actually a bit of a misnomer considering information technology but sounds fast to people who are learning the language.
To natives, it simply sounds normal.
I similar calling it this however, because almost people who start learning Japanese apply materials where the speaker talks slowly and clearly.
This is so that the student can fully hear and comprehend what they are listening to.
I call up that this is a great fashion to get started, but at some point it is important to stop listening to this slowed down audio and instead start listening to natives speak naturally.
Of course, this will audio really, actually fast at first!
You might even think it'southward besides fast.
Simply the trick is to stick with information technology until you just, sort of get used to it. I ever found that the sweet spot was around the two-week mark any time I tried to take myself up to the side by side level like this.
That doesn't mean I mastered it in ii weeks (far from information technology!), just that was virtually the fourth dimension that it started to feel manageable.
Another play a trick on to getting meliorate at using the language at faster speeds is to actually take phrases downwards. If you've heard and practiced introducing yourself dozens of times, then y'all can practice it at a native speed.
When the words and phrases start functioning at a subconscious level (you lot don't take to think about them) then you tin can use them just as fast every bit a native does.
Get Used To Collocations
Alright, time for some other linguistic term. The bodily definition for "collocation" wasn't as clear or helpful as I would take liked it to be, so I'll paraphrase it myself. It basically means that "certain words tend to appear together in sentences."
Here are two example sentences with the collocations underlined.
- I drive my car everyday.
- I operate a forklift everyday.
Technically, yous could say that you "operate a car" and people would know what yous mean, but information technology just doesn't sound natural because native English language speakers nearly always use the verb drive with the substantive car.
This same thing happens in Japanese, where certain words typically announced with one another in natural sounding sentences.
If yous construct your own Japanese sentences past looking up individual words in a dictionary, you run the risk of pairing a substantive with a verb that might make sense, merely doesn't actually sound natural.
One of the best means to overcome this problem is to read and listen to a lot of Japanese. This gives you a lot of cloth to eat and make notes from on which words should go together.
Learn To Love Syntax
I retrieve this is the concluding new word I'm using, so thanks for bearing with me! (ᵔᴥᵔ)
This fourth dimension the definition is pretty good. It says that syntax is "the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a linguistic communication."
The fundamental discussion here is "arrangement" and information technology tin have a big bear upon on how your communication sounds.
This is specially true for English natives learning Japanese because many of the things that are necessary to include in English can be omitted in Japanese.
This will probably make more sense with an example.
Permit's take a simple sentence in English and do a rather literal translation into Japanese. Then let'south have away the unnecessary parts of the Japanese sentence so that it sounds more in line with something a native would say.
- Do you like sushi?
- あなたは すしが すき ですか。
- すしが すき ですか。
- すしが すき？
While the total translation listed in #2 above makes sense, it sounds as well wordy for natural Japanese. The reason is considering the context of the situation provides information, so you don't demand to literally say something that everyone knows.
If you were talking to i person, then y'all could omit the あなた (y'all) since they know that you are talking directly to them.
We could also leave out the ですか (do you?) part if the situation is casual and we used a rising intonation at the terminate of すき (like) to make it a question.
In English language the question "similar sushi?" sounds a little weird because it is missing some necessary pieces. In Japanese, it sounds normal considering that's how the structure of the linguistic communication works.
Much like the last section on collocations, the all-time style to acquire Japanese syntax is to get a lot of exposure to it through reading and listening so to use it yourself.
Of course I also recommend that you expect up new grammar patterns that you run into and don't understand.
Since the rules are a lot looser in spoken chat than they are in written communication, it would exist ideal to report dialog and focus on the significant backside the words while observing how the sentences are formed.
A general rule of pollex is that if you hear a native say something, so yous can say it too equally long as yous find yourself in a like situation.
Imitate Communicative Behavior
One matter that has a big touch on on how native you sound is non what you communicate, just how you lot communicate.
This is like the invisible side of communication since most people aren't aware of the bear on that a person's civilisation has on the way they talk to others.
America is considered to be a depression-context culture. This basically means that when we talk to people, we tend to be direct and explicit. We do not await other people to know what we are thinking.
Japan is considered to be a high-context civilization. It'due south basically the opposite of America!
What this means is that in that location are a lot of unspoken rules in Japanese civilization that anybody is supposed to know and bide by. This allows for people to actually know what the other is thinking, since they are both operating from the same rule volume.
What that means for non-Japanese people is that they will need to larn and use this "hidden rule volume" for communicating in Japanese in lodge to blend in with natives and sound like one of them.
This may be the hardest function of sounding Japanese since y'all will have to put aside your beliefs on how people should talk to one another and instead adopt the way that they do it in Japan.
Does it bother you when people don't requite yous a straight answer? I hope non, because it's actually pretty rare to go a direct "no" from the Japanese.
Instead they will say things like:
- That might be hard.
- I'chiliad not sure I can.
- Hmm…
All of which are subtle Japanese ways of turning down a asking or invitation. They are polite, indirect ways to say "no" in their culture.
Think Of Yourself As Japanese
I didn't really requite yous a good way to piece of work on #half-dozen above, did I?
The reason is because the respond is establish hither in #7 which is to remember of yourself as a Japanese person.
There'due south no demand to change your name to たなか and kickoff eating Japanese food for every repast, but when it comes to learning and using the language, you lot should think of yourself as an insider.
You should think, "Japanese is my language."
Pretend to be Japanese and then that you can say the things that they would say, and do information technology in the way that they would do it.
I like using the word "pretend" because we've all done it before and information technology doesn't attack our egos or personal identities.
Now yous have all seven steps to sounding like a native when speaking Japanese.
The side by side lesson is the final i and we volition talk virtually ane last thing when it comes to the sounds of Japanese. I will besides requite yous some recommendations and ideas on what to practise adjacent in order to keep your language learning journey.
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Source: https://japanesetactics.com/speak-japanese-like-a-native