Where can I learn to speak Japanese outside of school?
Japanese is effectively the sole language of Japan, and almost all of the 128 million natives speak it. Little is known of the language’s prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial texts did not appear until the 8th century. It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family, and its relation to other languages, such as Korean, is debated. Japonic languages have been grouped with other language families such as Ainu, Austroasiatic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance. Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, a phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch accent. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) included changes in features that brought it closer to the modern language and the first appearance of European loanwords. English loanwords, in particular, have become frequent, and Japanese words from English roots have proliferated. During the Heian period (794–1185), the Chinese had considerable influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old Japanese.
Let's take a look at how you can learn Japanese outside of the classroom!
One-on-one Japanese lessons at a local language school. While some of these are costly, I believe they are the most effective way to learn the fundamentals of Japanese because you have a dedicated teacher.
Learn a language for free by using online apps such as Duolingo, Babbel, Memrise, Anki, and Multibhashi. These apps are extremely useful because you can study from them and use them whenever you want. The apps also keep you engaged in the subject by presenting you with fun quizzes.
To practise, read comic/storybooks or magazines, books, articles that interest you aloud in front of a mirror with your pet or a plant. Play video games, listen to podcasts, Spotify playlists, audiobooks, and so on to learn it in a fun way. It is not only a fun way to learn, but it also teaches you about their culture.
Find conversation partners for yourself through online language exchange programmes such as italki, Hello Learner, Tandem, and others; they will keep you motivated by challenging you every day, even if you are not motivated.
While watching a Japanese movie with English subtitles, use the shadowing technique and speak the dialogues along with the Japanese speakers.
Choosing to immerse in the Japanese environment!
You could also visit Japan or another Japanese speaking country! Once you have a basic understanding of a language, this is highly recommended. You might feel out of place at first, but it’s a great way to quickly improve your Japanese.
Take part in exchange programmes.
Find a third-party company that can help you find a Japanese host family to stay with during the holidays.
Experiment with a variety of YouTube channels, including but not limited to Learn Japanese with a variety of great channels.
Finally,
While there are many dialects and accents in Japan, experts agree that the largely monolingual status that exists here is very unusual. Most countries have many major languages that are commonly spoken within their territories. According to a 2006 Japan Foundation poll, 2.98 million people in 133 countries are learning the language at 13,639 institutions outside of Japan. This figure, which is up 26.4 per cent from the previous survey in 2003, excludes people who educate themselves or take private lessons. According to Ken Machida, a linguistics professor at Nagoya University, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 living languages in the world today, which, if equally spread, equates to around 30 per region.
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