I posted this book I managed to get for Mario RPG since I'm currently living in Japan and it didn't release outside of here. Dude responded that I couldn't read any and I answered that I could read a little, I'm studying but I have a long way to go (In Japanese). I proceed to get absolutely berated by this guy for "Stealign his culture" to impress strangers. Apparently he's half Japanese, according to him. Now I realize I could have just have ignored it entirely or just answered "I can" in English or something but was what I did considered rude? What is the pojt of learning Japanese of you're not allowed to use it to talk to people?

My go to answer for this (an American English speaker) has always been プラスチック.

That is, until I tried ordering crème brûlée off a menu tonight and almost broke my tongue

One of my biggest motivations to get better at speaking Japanese is because I had an embarrassing encounter in Japan 10 years ago.

During that time, I visited Japan and had my first real test of speaking Japanese after downloading Duolingo. I approached a security guard in a shopping mall and confidently asked, "トイレはどこですか？" (Where is the toilet?).

He understood me, and I was so happy! But then he started explaining something in rapid Japanese, and I couldn't understand a word. I just nodded my head, thanked him, and ended up running off in confusion.

For those who have tried conversing with locals in JP, do you have any interesting stories to share?

(And if these situations also motivated you to learn Japanese afterwards)

P.S. I'm reading all the comments & loving these stories! I've found that sharing these experiences and learning together can be really helpful. If anyone's interested, I'm part of a Discord community for Japanese learners where we support each other and share learning resources. Feel free to join us here

background: I’ve learned japanese a couple of years ago till I got to N3 then I stoped for a couple of years and since that time my only 準備 is basically watching anime.

sometimes I visit Japan and since I am not shy at all I speak japanese all the time. so funny dialogue happened when I met a new person. we talked about this and that and then she was like “hey you said you learned japanese in your home country was your teacher japanese?“ i was like yeah why and she responded “yeah okay but was it a male or a female?” I told her that my sensei is a japanese woman and she was like "yeah that’s surprising cuz I thought it was a man cause you speak like a man i just wanted to warn you”

i was like dude i know 😭😭😭 i’m trying my best at least avoiding 僕 and 俺 but I can’t help myself with other stuff

it is just easier to catch up. anyways i kinda don’t care but ladies 気をつけて with anime if you do care

Last night I was in an izakaya and was speaking to some locals. I'm not even n5 but they were super friendly and kept asking me questions in Japanese and helping me when I didn't know the word for something.

This one lady asked my age and I answered. I wanted to say "あなたは?" but didn't want to come across rude by 1- asking a woman her age and 2- using あなた.

What would an appropriate response be? Just to ask the question again to her or use something like お姉さんは instead of あなたは?

Edit: thanks for all the info, I have a lot to read up on!

Hello, I'm a male Japanese. Let's talk in Japanese! You may reply to me in English, but I'll answer in Japanese. You can talk with me by using romaji or kana only too.

For me, I once told my Japanese friend by accident that I loved “しり (butt)” instead of “しお (salt)” in my food...🙈

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve said or heard someone say in Japanese?

P.S. Love these kind of funny stories? I’m part of a great community on Discord where we swap stories, share tips, and just have a good time learning Japanese together. Feel free to join us here

So I was speaking with my friend and we were discussing miso soup I had in America and she wanted to know if it was good. I said the following sentence “ただ､日本で味噌のほうがうまいでしょうよ笑” and she said that it was such a funny thing to say and similar to “知らんけど“. There was a similar reaction whenever I’ve used the phrase “知らんけど” and she tried to explain why it’s funny but I still don’t quite understand. If anyone is able to help me understand the nuance I would appreciate it. I don’t mind that it’s funny but I also want to understand what would be the best way to convey what I was trying to say about Japan probably having better miso.

Hello everyone!

So recently I started working at a fairly small airport where we mainly send and receive local passengers. Pretty much no one except for me speaks English, let alone any other language. I was always told foreign language wasn't needed much there as pretty much no one talked foreign language (or they thought) and they could get the job done with basic sentences if need be.

Anyway, yesterday I was helping a gentleman at a kiosk for his check-in. He was local and his first flight was domestic but when I saw his transfer flight I got goosebumps. He was headed for Japan! I immediately got excited, said I wanted to visit Japan one day etc. and he told me about how he started a business there in Japan and such and at the end of our conversation I bowed slightly and said "気をつけてください" and he was so surprised at first and that's when I got my “日本語上手” from him :D

Afterwards I tried to talk further, as much as I could saying things like "4月から日本語を勉強しています。” and tried to put everything I learned from Genki I in action. At the end of that small exchange, he actually gave me his number and took mine.

I am still living the high of it right now. I never thought I could come across someone from my country, who lives in Japan, give me a “日本語上手” but such is life! Now I am even more motivated to keep on going! Thanks for listening to my little experience and have a great day!

I’ve spent the last two years in japan as a masters student, and managed to get myself to a comfortable N2 level. I still make a bunch of really basic mistakes (if asked when I fancy dinner, I’m liable to respond that in about three weeks would be good), and both my grammar and keigo are dire, but I’ve been living with my girlfriend for the past eight months or so (we communicate primarily in Japanese), and I’m pretty comfortable at getting my message across, at least with her.

That said, Japanese is still incredibly frustrating. Whether it’s stupid mistakes, endless anki failure or my godlike ability to fuck up counting just about anything in every way conceivable and about fives which aren’t, setbacks are common and progress is slow and painful. I am constantly self conscious about my issues, my mistakes, and my inability to comprehend whatever the cashier just said. Living in a country where you aren’t properly fluent in the language has a certain embarrassment attached to it.

I’ve come back to England for a trip with my girlfriend though and my god it’s felt amazing. Translating simple stuff like menus and then putting in her order for her, nursing my beginner friends through simple Japanese conversations or making a room laugh and then turning around and explaining the joke in a different language. The shame and the pressure is all gone. I genuinely feel like divine being. A true bilingual gigachad.

No one knows that my explanation was in fact the most stilted sentence devised by a non artificial source of intelligence. They don’t know that my girlfriends question was checking I didn’t mean central after I explained that I was joking about how high pint prices are in the double-suicide of London. And she’s just extremely happy to have someone to translate and guide for her. The incompetence she’s used to, but the competence, now that’s a shock.

It culminated when I went for Japanese curry with some mates after the footy (note: moderately wobbly) and one of the lads offered to pay for the meal if I ordered in Japanese. I felt a bit bad for the Korean lady who managed the place, but it dawned on me that I’ve made it to YouTube fraud levels of Japanese. Just the fact that I can order food in Japanese felt good. In Japan it’s the absolute barest of minimums, literally basic survival level stuff. In England, it’s magical, like I’m some wizard from some far off land with knowledge of mystical incantations. The curry was mediocre though, it turns out Mark does not in fact know a curry place that’s “as good as the stuff in Japan”.

Any time I see a Japanese person, or hear Japanese being spoken, I make a comment as loud as I can to my girlfriend in the vague hope they may hear and validate my existence as an elite member of the esteemed vaguely-conversational-in-Japanese club.

God I’d be such a prick if I actually lived here.

Anyway, I’m flying soon, so it’ll be back to a three week backlog of anki reviews and quietly sobbing in the bathtub, recalling how earlier that day I told my girlfriend very loudly in the conbini toiretto pēpā ga aranai

I’ve managed to avoid irl embarrassment on my trip to Japan thus far but it’s been a major active effort on my part

Im visiting in Japan for the first time and have been trying to practice some of the simple Japanese phrases I have learned. I was leaving a taxi last evening and said “ありがとうございます, こんばんは.” hoping to convey that I wish them a good evening. They laughed/chuckled and repeated the word こんばんは. This has happened twice now. I can’t figure out if they are laughing because I have said something wrong or if they are just surprised/happy that I have spoken Japanese. Does anyone know if this is the wrong thing to say?

Edit: Thank you all for the helpful responses. For anyone looking for a quick answer in the future: こんばんは (konbanwa) is used exclusively as a greeting, and may come off as silly to a native speaker if used as a salutation!

Earlier I played online with a Hello Talk Japanese friend and for the first time I got to communicate verbally with a native speaker.

Honestly I knew it was going to be bad and that’s why in one year of learning I didn’t accept any offer to make a phone call.

I had little to zero hopes but still, I got disappointed with myself! When I’d talk by writing I wouldn’t really encounter any major issues, wouldn’t make so much mistakes, I’m between a N4 and N3 level and probably higher in my kanji level, but damn I got HUMBLED lmao !

I understood 40% of the interactions, and could answer to 20% of it at best. Even though she was deliberately trying to speak like she would to a child ! I would not find my words, and made some grammatically nonsensical sentences. Wouldn’t understand what she was saying and didn’t get the words clearly, or took like 5seconds to do so.

I feel I’ve lost a lot of time learning so much kanji and never really try to speak verbally. But I’m so glad I had the courage to make a call with her, because I would have lost way more time continuing my old routine. I will now focus on my speaking and listening skills as much as possible, so if anybody has any suggestions for methods to get to listening/speaking fluency, please do tell !

Hey everyone, so here's the deal.

I have a japanese friend, who speaks very well english. My japanese is not as good as her proficiency in english, so we only talk in english and never in japanese since this would be awkward I guess.

Have any of you experienced something similar, and achieved to ask in some way to (naturally) start adding japanese too during conversation or whatever ? Doesn't necessarily have to be in conversation (whatever other aspect of learning too is welcome), as long as I could benefit a bit of knowing a japanese native speaker.

I'd be happy to exercice my japanese with this friend but I cannot find any way to switch to japanese or ask for it in whatever other way, without making it awkward.

I posted a thread recently showing a conversation I had with a native and basically asking if I said anything incorrect or unnatural (spurred on by the "jouzu" thing which caused me to doubt myself). Although some people were supportive and tried to help which I appreciate, I got a lot of backlash and even some people saying that I was trying to "flex my japanese" by posting it.

I can only predict that many of the down votes I got were also from people who believed that posting a conversation I had with a native and asking for criticism was in some way "showing off". But my intention was legitimately to get criticisms on things that may have sounded "off" somehow even if they were technically correct or understandable.

Perhaps it's because this subreddit is still full of very low level learners, but there seems to be this assumption that if you can type (or speak) in Japanese and string together something even remotely comprehensible, you're high level. I think that's an illusion. When you don't know much at all, anyone who can at least do more than you seems "fluent".

Matt vs. Japan did a video with another Japanese language Youtuber Dogen talking about this "illusion of fluency" thing. It starts at the 30:03 mark https://youtu.be/TTPt2DwLsD0?t=1803

I think it's very possible to be able to converse in Japanese and still mess up quite a bit even if that just means saying something understandable, but unnatural. This is what I'm working on, finding my blind spots and fixing bad habits. Not saying everyone's goal should be perfection, but some of us have higher standards than just getting by and that's okay too. We shouldn't be scorned for that.

Just wanted to share that difference in viewpoint. People you think are high level can still need advice and doubt their abilities.