There are some reasons why you should talk with non-native Japanese speakers.
Non-native speakers are often better at teaching than natives.
As native speakers have never struggled with own language, non-natives know the difference between their languages and Japanese.
Therefore, non-natives know what the most difficult part and could gave you hints to understand Japanese better.
2. Natives don’t speak standard language
I worked with several non-native Japanese interpreters from Korea, China, Indonesia, India and Finland. Every time I spoke Japanese with Kansai dialect, no one understood smoothly.
On the other hand, when non-native speakers speak Japanese they understood each other very well. Among them I was the worst Japanese speaker, I am the native Japanese speaker though!!
It happened to an American lady in Zambia. While she made a presentation as a Peace Corp member at a local school, all local teachers were just nodding.
My English level was very poor at that time so I couldn’t understand what she was saying and even read her hand writing because I was not used to it yet (maybe even now).
After her presentation, local teachers came to ask me what American lady had explained!!
I thought they absolutely understood as they showed great nodding, however, they said they were just being polite towards her.
And when locals made some questions to American lady after the presentation, she seemed to struggle with getting what locals was trying to say, meanwhile, I fully understood them.
It’s better for beginners to practice with non-natives who tend to speak standard language as you hear from Japanese practice audio. Those dialect, slang and saying are not necessarily.
I learned English from Zambians. It was mix of African local languages and old British English, now learning Global English from people all over the world which natives may have problems to understand.
I have never learned English from natives but it’s possible to communicate with English speakers. The most important thing is to understand each other, not to speak perfectly including dialect, saying and slang.
Language is like sports.
Shadowing is good practice to make your tongue get used to other language. You need to train your tongue to adapt new accents. Japanese is flat and slow language compared to English, that’s why speaking Japanese skill goes quicker than you think.
If you have Japanese audio, play it on speed control app for shadowing. You can start with slow speed and gradually you speed up. Repeat the same sentences until your tongue gets used to, even if you don’t know the meaning exactly it’s OK. The main purpose of shadowing is to train your tongue like a workout. Also, I recommend NHK app for shadowing. You can read Japanese news in Hiragana with audio.
If you want to practice reading hiragana, this site “NEW WEB EASY” by NHK is good for it. If you are completely beginner, this page “Easy Japanese” by NKH written in English should be checked.
Next Page: How to memorize Kanji
View Comments