How To Think In Japanese

When you start learning Japanese you will probably think “one day I will be so good I will just think in Japanese” and while this is true …the truth is that to get to this point, you need to start working on it today.

I will go through what this is all about and how you can start thinking in Japanese, and how you can start doing it today!

What Is “Thinking”?

It’s probably sensible to define what “thinking” means when we are talking about learning a language as it can mean a few different things, all of which are actually correct. You can see it as a spectrum, where different things can all happen at once.

Usually when you mention “thinking” people will associate this with talking in your head, like your internal voice. This is certainly part of it, but it’s not everything.

A large part of thinking is really just being able to understand something, without translating it. If I say something to you in English, you just understand it. You might feel like you did nothing, but you did. This is probably because this style of thinking is done at a subconscious level, but it is still thinking.

You could also argue that replying is done subconsciously too. If I ask you a question …you don’t really need to think about a reply, it just kind of automatic, but you did think about something inside your brain on some level       

When it comes to learning Japanese, this whole process will feel very clunky and slow and English will be there getting the middle. The goal of “thinking in Japanese” is basically to make this process automatic and to also get English out of the way.

The End Goal of “Thinking”

Ultimately you want to reach a point where you will hear or read something in Japanese and you just understand it, you don’t need to tell yourself what it means, or translate it …it just has meaning already.

You then also want to be able to produce a reply fairly automatically too, again you don’t need to spend a lot of time processing or evolving English, you just say what you want to say.

If you can do this, you will find that you can speak to yourself inside your head as such, and do this more active style of thinking, but the goal is to be able to do all these things with ease, and you can reach this level.   

It Will Take Time

It is important to realise that trying to think in Japanese is going to take time to master. If you are just starting out with the language, you can’t expect much right away …but you can start doing little bits and you will build up your ability, it just takes time.

Really it is going to take a very long time before you can do this to the same level as your native language, but you can get there. You might also find your native language is always stronger, but that isn’t a problem, you can still get incredibly strong at thinking in Japanese.

Build This Up Slowly

The reality is that you are going to have to build this skill up slowly. Reaching that end goal of have everything occur automatically isn’t going to happen overnight, it is going to be something you slowly build. 

You are going to have to start by just thinking about singular words, and slowly build up to small phrases and then full sentences. This will also be quite forced at the start, as you will have to actively do it, but the more you practice, the more automatic it will become.

You will also find things are staggered, you might feel very “automatic” with some words, while others feel like they need more active processing, this is totally normal just based on how big the language is and  how many words there are.

Eventually most of the Japanese words you know will just flow through your head, in the same way English does, and maybe occasionally a word here and there may need more active thought, but you will improve with time.

It is slow process to train this, which is why we have to build it up slowly over time.

How To Actively Try and Think In Japanese

The secret to “thinking” is to just try and actively do it. It sounds too easy to be true, but really you will only get to this automatic state of thinking once your brain is very comfortable with things …and the only way to get comfortable is to do a lot of studying.

A lot of people just start thinking in Japanese by accident. They set out learning the language and over time they reach a point where it happens automatically due to the how much practice they have done and how comfortable they have got with the language.

If you are making a conscious effort to practice a lot, you should hopefully see results faster.

Talk To Yourself

One of the best things you can do to help your thinking skills is to talk to yourself. This can either be internally, or actually out loud.

This is also something you can do today, even if you only know a few words, say them inside your head whenever it is relevant. If you are going to get a drink, say “nomu” (drink) and “mizu” (water) and while might not  seem impressive, or “thinking” it is getting your brain use to hearing these words and more importantly recalling them.

If you just do to this for a few days, it won’t take you too long to just start calling water “Mizu” automatically …and now you are thinking in Japanese.

Yes, it’s only one word, but this is where we start, and we build form here. Today it is one word … in a few months, or years…how many will be it? If you do this enough you will reach a critical mass and you will be feeling like you are actually fully “thinking” in Japanese.

Add More Japanese Into Your Life

In order to actively think more in Japanese, we need more Japanese in our life. Right now we do not know a lot of Japanese and we don’t know how it should sound or be put together in sentences …we can’t expect our minds to think in Japanese if we don’t know enough Japanese.

Adding more Japanese means doing more immersion, and getting more input. This means watching and listening to more Japanese and also reading more too. The more we absorb Japanese, the more we will understand and then the more we can try and force ourselves to think in the language.    

We can also add more Japanese into our life by also doing more output, which really means talking to people. This is going to get us to produce the language, which will be hard at first by as we do more and more, it will get easier …and become automatic and it will start to feel more natural.  

Use Japanese To Learn New Things

As your skills develop and you can start to understand things, you need to start using Japanese as a language. This means you need to try and learn new things, using Japanese.

This might sound a little strange, but it is a very good way to help your thinking ability. Leaning something new usually comes with a lot of new terminology and phrasing and just general new vocabulary.

Just think about any hobby or interest you have, there will be certain ways to say things and this means if you learn something new like this through Japanese …you only know the Japanese version.

If you try to explain this new topic to someone, even in English …you only know how to describe it with Japanese words, your whole understanding of this topic is in Japanese …this is a form of thinking in Japanese and while you need to be a little more advanced in the language to do this, it is very powerful.

Actually Try and Do It

Really if you want to think in Japanese, you need to actually try and do it. You need to do the small things I have discussed above and slowly build on these.

You will not magically just start thinking in the whole language; you have to make it happen, slowly over time.

Too many people give up too almost right away as it seems too hard …and it is hard, but it is also possible, you just need to actually start doing it and it will get easier and you will be able to do more and more.

All the little steps will add up and one day you will stop and realise “I’m thinking in Japanese” and that does start by just trying to do it with one word. I don’t know how long it will take you, but the more you try, the faster you will start seeing progress.

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can understand how you can start “thinking” in Japanese. It might not seem exciting only to be able to think one word, but this is where you start.

You will need a lot of time and effort to make this happen, but trust the process and you will get there, you will be able to fully think in Japanese eventually so long as you keep working on it.   

(If you are looking to learn Japanese, you can follow my plan – Learn Japanese – The Plan For A Complete Beginner)