"How to speak Japanese" is always a difficult task for learners, especially one come from Western countries with the totally different alphabet system. When someone studying Japanese tells you that one day they woke up and sudden they can speak the language fluently. Don't buy it so quickly. I don't say they're lying, they're just saying the truth with a little exaggeration. Actually, they're telling the result and forget to tell the process. Learning to speak Japanese may be a battle but you can always find the way to win with only 7 simple principles.
Principle 1: Always learn and revise word phrases, not individual words
Never learn a separate word. When catching one new word, make sure you write down its word groups for its usages. Do the same thing when you give it a look back as revision. Word phrases, not individuals.
Collecting word groups: your grammar and speaking skill will be from 6 to 8 times superior. Never either learn a single word or write a separate word into your notebook, always remember to write and learn words in phrases.
Principle 2: No grammar learning
Do not learn grammar right now. Push grammar books far away. Grammar rules only teach you how to think about Japanese. If you want to speak Japanese naturally without pondering a lot, try to learn to speak Japanese without grammar and then you will sound natural. I am sure you have spent much of your time studying the language grammar but still are not able to know how to speak Japanese fluently.
Principle 3: Listen first
What is the most important? It’s simple, the answer is listening. It’s necessary that you listen to Japanese every day. Do not read books. Listening to Japanese is the key to Japanese speaking success. Let’s start practicing listening to Japanese daily.
Study with your ears, not with your eyes. You learn Japanese with your eyes in schools, you read books and grasp grammar rules. By following Effortless Japanese method, you’ll learn Japanese through your ears, not your eyes. Try to spend from 2 to 3 hours each day listening to Japanese. Investing time for Japanese listening is investing for your excellent Japanese speaking skill.
Principle 4: Low and thorough learning is the best
How to speak Japanese fast and automatically? Learning too many vocabularies does not pay off because it is lessons’ quality and learning time count but not word quantity that decides your progress. The secret for speaking easily is to learn words and word phrases in extreme detail. It is not enough to just remember words’ meanings for exams but you are highly recommended to bear them in mind carefully. Plus, repetition each lesson many times is needed as well.
How studying thoroughly makes easy speaking? You just need to repeat lessons or listening files again and again. For example, if you own a speaking book, listen the first chapter for 20 times before moving on. You can listen that chapter for 3 times every day within 10 days
Principle 5: Make use of short stories
This is an effective way to learn and use Japanese automatically. Read Japanese short stories and learn grammar by listening to authentic Japanese. The optimally suggested way is to listen the same story in different tenses: past, present, future.
Principle 6: Only use authentic learning materials
You have to learn real Japanese if you want to speak well and be able to understand native Japanese speakers. Daily magazines, sound topics, TV programs, films, presentations or talks on radio or speaking book are best sources for your studying. Learn Japanese form reality, not from books.
Principle 7: Listen and answer questions instead of listening and repeating
In short stories, speakers often ask simple questions. For each time you listen to a question, pause for awhile and answer it. Try to train yourself in answering quickly without thinking. It is this easy reactive learning that forms a new language interaction for learners and brings a surprising result. This principle is also radically employed in the well-known English speaking method Crazy English.
With these above 7 principles of how to learn to speak Japanese, I hope I have helped you imagine an innovative learning approach which is totally superior than the old ones with its considerably higher efficiency