TextFugu » Topic: Being able to use Japanese without translating from English

Being able to use Japanese without translating from English

Mark — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:43:43 +0000

So to be truely fluent in any language, you need to be able to, when someone says, for example 本屋を行きますか？You have to be able to say はい、行きます。rather than “So ikimasu is to go, and honya is a bookstore so Will you go to the bookstore. So I want to say yeah, I’ll go so hai, followed by ikimasu, はい、行きます。So if you ever want to speak with speed, you need to do this. Now I can for simple words (本、です、犬、猫、そうですか、世、根、飛行機、山　Ect.) but if someone says すしを食べるためにすし屋をいきますよ、でも酒を飲みますために（Wherever)を行きます、マークさんも？it gets confusing (well not with that sentence, because I naturally only used words I’m comfortable with, but you get the point) so my question is, does anyone else have this problem, and if you did in the past, how did you get over it?

(This ended up as just a block of jumbled up thoughts, sorry)

Reply To: Being able to use Japanese without translating from English

MisterM2402 [Michael] — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:55:07 +0000

Everyone starts that way, but as you get more comfortable with/used to the words and grammar structures you’re using, the time to translate into the language you know best decreases. Eventually, it begins to happen instantaneously (i.e. you “see” the Japanese and the English at the same time). After that, the English portion fades away until it’s pretty much just understanding the Japanese straight up. It’s a gradual process, I think. But that’s just how I see it, others may be different.

If you are going to split up a sentence into 2 clauses using a comma, you can’t use ～ます form and the sentence ender よ. You have to use plain/dictionary form, or end it with a full stop. And you have to put でも before the comma, I think. Also, I think けど or しかし might be better than でも (though I’m not too sure on how exactly to use しかし). But then… wait, could you just tell us what it was you were trying to say? :P Sorry.

Reply To: Being able to use Japanese without translating from English

Mark — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 21:24:07 +0000

I know, I broke basically every rule possible, I just wanted to make the sentence long and drawn out.
If I was trying to say that properly, I would say すしを食べるためにSushi barを行くが、酒を飲むためにPubを行く。　Or something, I dunno.

Reply To: Being able to use Japanese without translating from English

Revenant — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:35:36 +0000

Practice.
Humans are amazing, they can learn to do
the most impressive feats. But this ability
is bound to certain downsides.
Like learning to Inline-Skate or playing the Drums
our brain needs to memorize complex patterns.
Before that almost every single step uses a lot of
“processing power” of our brain (Imagine someone standing
on skates the very first tme; they also move really awkward
and slowly, because every movement is new and needs
to be processed separately).
Once we turn something into a known and familiar pattern,
the amount of processing power needed is reduced
by a huge amount.

Same goes for any language. Before long you won’t
need to think of grammar points, vocab or forms.
It just starts to come naturally and you simply
“feel” if something sounds right or wrong.

Try to think of learning something new as millions
of bits of new information. Our brain can’t handle it
and we feel overwhelmed.
Humans are extremly adaptable, but we have to pay
the price for it.

Reply To: Being able to use Japanese without translating from English

Sheepy — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:01:47 +0000

It just happens eventually. An early step is when you hear a sound you want to think of that is る or something, and not Ru. Things like that. So, don’t stress it?

Reply To: Being able to use Japanese without translating from English

irmoony — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:29:49 +0000

I know from experience if you practice reading in your target language a lot, you’ll end up just being able to understand it without translating it to your first language. I know a few years ago when I was reading something in English I would translate it into Polish in my head, but now it’s no longer neccessary. The only downside to that is that I often know what a word means in English, but when asked to translate it into Polish I can’t for the love of God find a good word (today I was asked to translate the word “to defy”, but all I could come up with was a synonym in English, for example).

So just practice. A lot. I got better at English by watching anime with English subs, reading forums, playing video games… anything works, I guess.

Reply To: Being able to use Japanese without translating from English

RavenTwoFive — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:07:49 +0000

It all comes down to how often you hear/read/write/speak it. Quite awhile back my Spanish was pretty flawless while I was studying and using it, I’ve resorted back to having to think and translate in my head because the only time I use it now is when I’m being cursed at for no reason, the hispanic women at work are pretty relentless, I get told “vete a la chingada contigo” at least once everytime I’m at work, so most of my quick knowledge is defensive retorts. But that’s just an example with a language I’ve already studied and understand. (Btw, I will not translate that statement, if you already know, then you also know why I need quick retorts.)

As for Japanese it will take quite awhile in my perspective, as I’m pretty good with language regardless (got a message on youtube in German and was able to translate it without a dictionary or any prior learning of German). But even Japanese and it’s kanji, onyomi, kunyomi, all give me a new brain tumor, (Though I learn my grammar/vocab in just a matter of days)

Practice, Practice, Practice.

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” – Mohandas Ghandi