In a Japanese pickle ...

[megumi.katsuragi_498241]

Hi All,

After some debate I decided to just put my question here so I could get the option of fellow Japanese language students. I have been studying Japanese for three years now in the form of a weekly hour long Skype lesson with my Japanese teacher. I have battled my way though book 1 of Minna no Nihongo and currently studying Minna no Nihongo book 2.

You would expect that by now I can string a decent Japanese sentence together? Wrong... my speech is reduced to baby Japanese and most of my sentence start with 'Watashi wa..." I simply don't know what to do and panic.
Give me a Japanese exam and I'll pass it, let me write an essay and I'll give you one - but ask me how to ask if there is a 'Kisaten' in the area and I just stammer something random and see the disappointed look on my teachers face. Trust me, it is all in my head but it won't come out in times of need.

So any tips, suggestions or just encouragement are welcomed. I know that I don't want to give up learning Japanese ... I'm way to stubborn

Thanks!

[community.japanese]

megumi.katsuragi　さん、
I really understand your frustration.
Even though I studied English for 8 years at school in Japan, I could not speak it well before. It’s better now.
What I did for my improving is dictation.
I listened to dialogues and monologues, wrote the sentences exactly same as I listened and checked the sentences again and again, and I also created my own dialogues which I would have in my real life even possible questions and responses from others.
I think you have a lot of input however, you need to have opportunities for output.
You don’t need to care about your teacher’s facial expression. Lessons are for yourself so you have to concentrate on yourself, you don’t need to worry about your mistakes or making pauses. They are normal, right? If you forget what you want to speak, just go back to your notes.
I don’t criticise your teacher however, teachers must understand the difficulties for studying languages. Leaning languages is not so easy…
Regarding tests, have you ever taken JLPT?
It doesn’t include a speaking exam however, you can check what you memorise completely.
If you have questions, please feel free to ask us again.
Ganbatte kudasai.
Yuki　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[KingDog]

Totally understand your frustration. I suffer with this all the time. My best advice would be to keep at it. We seem to learn with peaks and plateaus. You'll feel like your going nowhere for the longest time, and then you'll hit a learning peak where things seem to slide into place. Of course after that you'll be on the plateau again, but keep pushing through till your next peak

I would also recommend mixing things up and adding more learning tools than just a weekly live session. I like to build vocabulary with a service like iKnow. I also use a flashcard system like Anki along with good old fashion paper flash cards. Add in JapanesePod101 listening, book and live learning, and you have an interesting mix going on.

I wrote a post about 4 years ago on battling Japanese language learning depression that may help you out as well - http://www.iheartjapan.ca/2010/04/5-way ... epression/

Whenever I start feeling down and feel like I'm wasting my time and not learning anything, I go over the reasons why I started and how far I've come. Even if you struggle to put together a Japanese sentence, think about how you probably didn't even know a single Japanese word 3 years ago. Learning a language is a journey and not just a destination.

Recently while travelling I was able to ask some Japanese travellers in front of me if the machine they had been using was available and then ask them where they were from. My sentence was far from perfect but they understood what I was saying and we were able to have a short, basic conversation. I couldn't have done that 5 years ago, and for that I'm very thankful that I decided to start learning a new language rather than just sit around the rest of my life and have regrets about it. You can do it. Keep at it and keep push through those plateaus

[megumi.katsuragi_498241]

Yuki さん & KingDog,

Thank you both for your suggestions and encouragement.
I just felt so annoyed with myself yesterday that I wasn't able to just make that simple sentence, especially since I'm working towards my JLPT exam. I think Yuki さん idea of making your own dialogues is very helpful and I will certainly try that.

@ KingDog, your article was very insightful. And you are right - my Japanese is a 100 times better than it was three years ago. I think an added difficulty is that I am studying Japanese in English which isn't my native language - which meant I had to quickly get up to speed with the English grammar whilst learning about the Japanese. Adding variety to my learning tools is one of the reasons I signed up for JapanesePod101 and I will look at your other suggestions.

Thank you both for your reply!

[community.japanese]

KingDog san,
Thank you for sharing your study tips.

Megumi.katsuragi san,
You are welcome.
If you have questions, please feel free to ask us anytime.
Ganbatte kudasai.

Yuki 　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com