Japanese people are generally quite encouraging when you try and speak a little bit of Japanese. Get your please and thank you’s right and you’ll be told that you are jyouzu (fluent).
It might seem a little patronising to be told you are fluent when all you can see is a few phrases but there’s actually a grain of truth in what they say. If you can complete a few sentences in well pronounced Japanese you are more fluent than billions of other people worldwide.
Billions.
Alright there are over a 100 million natives that are better then you but you’ve already made great progress.
I decided recently that I would try and actually see how far I had come rather than worry about how far I have yet to go, so I recorded my self speaking Japanese.
I didn’t do any preparation for this “interview”, I wanted to see how much I could remember off the top of my head.
Answer: Not much.
On a positive note I had almost no problems understanding the questions but I was completely stumped when it came to actually speaking an answer. I found myself trying to remember a particular word and failing.
But now at least I have a starting point.
Every month from now on I’m going to record myself and hopefully I’ll be able to see improvement every time.
I intended to upload the video here so you could see and hear how bad / good my Japanese is but it’s full of lengthy pauses and embarassing looks of confusion so I’m trying to do some crap-ectomy surgery before anyone sees it.
Big pauses before a one word answer of はい makes Declan look like a dull boy.
Here are the questions that were prepared for me. My interviewer said that these are the kind of questions that are given to Irish Leaving Cert students in their oral exams. ( at the end of 2 years high school study )
- お名前は何ですか。
- どこで生まれましたか。
- 今どこに住んでいますか。
- ダブリンには何年くらい住んでいますか。
- ティッペラリーにはご家族が住んでいますか。ご家族は何人ですか。
- ティッペラリーにごよく帰りますか。
- ティッペラリーに帰ったら何をしますか。
- ティッペラリーとダブリンはどちらが好きですか。どうしてですか。
- デクランさんは何をしていますか。／仕事は何ですか。
- その仕事について教えてください。
- いつからその仕事をしていますか。
- その仕事は難しいですか。
- 将来、どんな仕事がしたいですか。
- 休みの日には何をしますか。／趣味は何ですか。
- 最近、旅行に行きましたか。どこに行きましたか。
- 次はどこに行きたいですか。
- デクランさんはいつから日本語を勉強していますか。
- どうして日本語を勉強しているのですか。
- 日本に行ったことはありますか。
- いつ行きましたか。誰と行きましたか。
- 日本で何をしましたか。
- 何が一番面白かったですか。
- 次はいつ日本に行くつもりですか。何をしたいですか。
I didn’t have any problem understanding these questions verbally ( except 23 ) but I do find reading them quite a struggle, especially the kanji.
The Next Step
I want to catch up on what I should know already while continuing to study the kanji.
What’s your Japanese like? Are you happy with your progress or have you forgotten some of the things you have studied?