How To Speak Japanese With Confidence (Tips for Beginners)

Speaking in Japanese is one of the areas that beginners find extremely difficult and I want to go through some tips here that should help you boost your confidence when you do try and speak

It is normal to find speaking in Japanese hard, but it is a skill you can get better at and you can feel more confident, so let’s go through some ways we can do this. 

Don’t Worry About Messing Up

Probably one the best way to boost your confidence is to just remember that you are a learner. You are going to mess up and you are going to make silly mistakes …and that is okay.

You wouldn’t be angry if you seen anyone else making a mistake while learning something new, you would probably think “good on them, they have nearly mastered it, they just need to practice it a little more”   …but for some reason, when it comes to language learning, and yourself, the opposite is true.

We tend to think everything needs to be perfect and if we can’t do this, we have failed. I like that we all have the desire to reach such a high standard, but we also must take a step back and accept we are just learners.

Any Japanese person is going to have their mind blown if you can say one word of Japanese. They are not expecting perfection from a learner and neither should you, it’s okay to not be great, you are trying to get better and you will get there eventually.

(You can read more about – How To Improve Speaking In Japanese)

Keep Things Simple

When you are first starting out with speaking in Japanese, try and keep things simple. I know you want to be able to communicate at the same level you can in English, but you are not there yet, so just keep things simple.

Try and speak in small sentences, or even just single words. Your goal is to get your message across and communicate with whoever you are speaking to. If this means you need to speak more like a small child, then so be it.

Simple conversations are going to boost your confidence. You are going to walk away thinking that you could get a message across, and more importantly the person you where speaking to understood.

These small victories are huge for building confidence and while it may not have been the most in depth conversation, it will make you smile and it will make you want to do it again. 

If you try and make things too complicated you get the opposite effect, you feel overwhelmed, embarrassed, awkward and generally never want to talk ever again …keeping things simple will keep you going.

Focus On Pronunciation

When it comes to speaking, pronunciation is really important and if you can get this right, you will sound awesome.

It can take a lot of practice to really nail your pronunciation, but it is worth it. You will feel like you are doing things properly, even if your overall level in the language isn’t as good as you want it to be yet.

You are going to feel more confident if you can just sound the part and this is why it is worth spending time on your pronunciation. It is only going to help your progress.  

(You can read more about – Why Is Japanese Pronunciation Difficult)

Don’t Get Too Caught Up On The Formal Language

When it comes to whole formal and informal language it can be really stressful as a leaner. We want to do things correctly and we don’t want to be rude and this can lead us to get so nervous we don’t want to speak.

The reality is that we are going to get things wrong, and that is okay. Even if we end up sounding rude when speaking to native Japanese speaker, they are going to let it slide. You are going to get a Gaijin pass (foreigner pass) so don’t worry about it.

Just try and speak as much as you can, with practice you will get better at knowing when you are sounding rude or not.

Think about anyone who is learning English they often appear really rude as they are super direct and short, but the reality is that they just don’t know enough English to dance around things in a polite way like a native can. We can instantly tell they are not being rude, they just lack vocabulary, and we don’t think twice about it.

The same thing will happen with the Japanese natives, so don’t get to caught up with all this.  

Loan Words Are Your Friend

Loan words are English words that have been taken in by the Japanese and these are always going to help you when it comes to speaking.

Over the last few decades there has been a rise in the number of loan words and if you ever get stuck, you can try and basically take an English word, and say it in a Japanese style …this doesn’t work every time, but in a lot of cases you will be surprised how close you end up sounding to the actual word and the Japanese person will most likely know what you are trying to say.

This is kind of a secret weapon and while it’s not perfect, having this can give you a bit of confidence that you can basically be understood, even if you don’t have the words you need.

The next time you are listening to Japanese, just try and look out for how often these types of words are used, there can be a lot.

Practice Speaking A Lot

If you are lacking confidence in your Japanese speaking abilities, this is usually because you are lacking experience with actually speaking.

If you start practicing a lot more, you are going to start getting more comfortable with doing it, and in turn more confident. Really the secret to feeling confident is to just do more speaking. You have to fight through those first few awkward conversations, but really the speaking you can do, the less stressed out you will feel.

It really is worth putting the effort in, you will feel much better for doing it.   

Do Shadowing

Shadowing is a really good way of training your speaking skills and to do this you just need to get some audio and copy it exactly.

You can sit at home and practice sounding exactly like the speaker you are listening to, trying to get every little detail correct. This is just really good practice for your mouth and gets you used to making the correct sounds and the fact you are copying a native speaker too, also means you should be doing things correctly.

When you do actually go to speak to someone, the time spend shadowing is going to help you feel more confident, the words will just feel more natural coming out of your mouth. 

Use A Tutor

Hiring a tutor is also another very good way to build you confidence as well as your overall skills in Japanese.

You can spend time with a tutor online and they will help you work on the areas you are struggling with. They are not going to judge you and are one of the few people who are going to give you legitimate feedback as well as a plan of action on how to make things better.

You will need to pay for this, but it can be money very well spent and if you do what they suggest you are only going to improve and be more confident.

Keep Listening To A Lot Of Japanese

The more you listen to Japanese, the more confident you will feel about speaking it. If you are doing a lot of immersion you are going to get very comfortable with how Japanese should sound and generally how the language should be used.

You will reach a point where you go beyond just understanding and will start to want using the language yourself. Of course you will need to practice using it, but all that listening will have given you a lot more confidence compared to someone who has not listened.

Don’t skip your immersion, it is important for everything, including your speaking.

(You can read more about – How To Create An Immersive Japanese Language Environment At Home)

Conclusion

Hopefully you find these tips useful and you can work on improving your speaking and generally get more confident in Japanese.

It will take time and practice, but just keep working on things and slowly you will feel stronger and don’t worry about not being the best yet, you are still learning and every day you are adding a little more to that, so be proud and keep practicing.