How to Speak, Write, Read, Listen and Understand in Japanese

Learning the Japanese grammar, forms, vocabularies and other common expressions just by finding on the web does not help you to fully become able to S.W.R.L(Speak, Write, Read, Listen) and understand in Japanese. You have to get a hands on. In order to S.W.R.L and understand in Japanese, get started learning with hiragana and katakana and then follow by grammar and vocabularies.

Reading and understanding in Japanese

In the beginning of learning Japanese, most Japanese learners learn how to read in Japanese. Reading Japanese can be accomplish easily. All thanks to hiragana and katakana readings . You need to be able to read and identify hiragana and katakana readings first. That is one of the most important foundations to becoming able to read in Japanese. Once you have mastered reading and identify hiragana and katakana sounds. Your speed to learning Japanese will increase 10 folds. Just simply look at the kana and read.

But do you understand? Learning the vocabulary is another important area that you have to do. Each Japanese vocabulary lets you understand the meaning of each word in a sentence. Being able to remember them is good, but how do you remember them? That is to get a hands on. Practice each word by reading them aloud and writing them down on paper. Every time you read them aloud or write them down, you will remember better. The best method is to use it together with a real native Japanese or someone who is really good in Japanese.

Listening in Japanese

Ok, so now you know how to read and understand Japanese sentences. What about listening? If you are studying alone without any CDs to help you, listening can be a problem. So you might need to go purchase some basic Japanese CDs? Well…maybe not necessary. I think most of you might have come across this site called Japanese pod101.com For those who have not, this site provide excellent listening materials from beginners to upper intermediate levels. You can simply download the conversation into your iPod or any other music devices and listen while you are out. You get to listen to a conversation among 3 people. As you go along the interesting conversation, you get to learn many useful words and expressions. Highly recommended!

Speaking in Japanese

Aright, since you can understand, read and listen in Japanese already, what about speaking in Japanese? Ah hah! This can be a big problem for many people. So how do you form your own structure in Japanese and speak at your own will? Even myself also encounter such a problem when I first started learning Japanese in the beginning. Now, you need to remember this, I’ve probably mention this many times in my other posts, Japanese sentence structures are post-position. Let me explain further on how to actually become able to speak and form your own Japanese.

In the beginning, not just Japanese learners, but I’m sure other language learners tend to think of forming sentences in the English structure way. Even me too think in English before saying out in Japanese. That is normal though. After you have form the sentence in English, make sure you form everything backwards. Here is an example

In English:

John goes to school by bus everyday.

(If it’s backwards)

Everyday, bus by school to goes John <- This is purely 100% backwards. 

(John wa) mainichi, basu de gakkou ni ikimasu <-When you change it all to Japanese, this is what you get.

（ジョンは）まいにち、バス　で　がっこう　に　いきます <- Can you see it?! It makes sense in Japanese! 

（ジョンは）毎日、　バス　で　学校　に　行きます　<- In case you wanna see how it is written with kanji.

John is an important matter in the structure, therefore it is place first and marked using the topic marker, “wa”, But “John wa” can be omitted if the listen knows who is it referring to.

The above example is just to show you how you can actually start thinking in Japanese structure and not think in English structure, take note that not all English sentences can be applied the same way as the example shown above. You need to start practicing all kinds of Japanese structure you can think of. With hands on practice, you get a huge boost in your ability to learn Japanese.

Writing in Japanese

Writing in Japanese can be pretty easy once you are able to speak Japanese on your own. If you just wanna be able to watch anime or Japanese dramas without subtitle, or speak Japanese with that cute looking Japanese guy or a beautiful Japanese lady that you’ve been eyeing on, it may not be that important to learn how to write. But if you want to work in a corporate Japanese firm, then being able to S.W.R.L in Japanese is a requirement.

For a start, learn how to write essays in Japanese. What kind of essays did you wrote during your elementary school days? Most the time like “About my Family” or “Places that I love” You can write a simple essay about it and then submit it over to me and I’ll correct it for you.  Or you can simply submit it in the comment area for others to see and anyone can help you with any mistakes.

Recognizing Kanji is a big problem for none Asians. The only way to study kanji is to keep writing it and using it. More topics on kanji in later posts.

Have fun and don’t stress yourself while learning Japanese!