Is it true that Americans who don 't travel ever, can never get good at Japanese?

Question

Koreans can and i've chatted with lots of them in voice chat.Many of theem speak like native Japanese. But Americans who dont travel really don't have much of a chance to use it or speak with natives so we're stuck just trying to learn by ourselves. Well i'm speaking for myself cause i never ever get a chance to meet Japanese here, and have put ads and stuff online to see if i can meet some Japanese person living here and i never get any responses.

Anyways, is this a fact for most Americans who study japanese? They will never be able to gain fluency unless they are travelers who often travel to Japan or live there?

Answer 1

You can still become fluent. You just have to seek out your own opportunities.

1. Watch Japanese tv every day. TV Japan (NHK) is available by special request from Cablevision and Dish Network. Other providers probably have it, too. I pay $15 a month. The more you watch the more you retain. Plus the shows are fun.

2. Subscribe to a magazine in a subject that you like in Japanese. I get Japanese Vogue and Hiragana Times. Set aside time every week to sit down and read it.

3. Voicechat every week. No matter how bad you are, struggle through at least an hour's worth of conversation a week.

4. Start searching the web in Japanese. Use Yahoo Japan or get addicted to Mixi. Whenever possible, make yourself go to the Japanese version of a website.

5. Start doing karaoke to Japanese songs and really concentrate on understanding the lyrics.

This is all that I do these days, and when I go to Japan this fall I'm confident that I will have no problems communicating.

Answer 2

That happens with every single language. If you don't get the chance to practice a language you've just learned, you'll never get fluent on it. It's not the same to listen to your teacher or some recording that don't speak too fast compared to listening to a fluent speaker who will not slow down or care so much about the pronunciation when speaks to you.
I've learned how to speak 3 different languages besides the one I already spoke because I was moving to those countries. However, one thing was to talk fluently with people in a classroom and another was to be out there in the street having to speak with people who only speak that language.
My advice, keep looking for those Japanese speakers. Good luck.

Answer 3

You don't have to travel to learn how to speak a language. You can learn japanese perfectly well talking to gifted teachers and reading books. But the japanese you speak will be rather formal. You don't learn slang words or little nuances like that.
Travelling helps you to open up towards other cultures and
It is a fact that it's easier to learn to speak a language fluently when you can talk to native speakers...

Have you tried contacting japanese people on MySpace?

Answer 4

The fact is that finding out is an innate first-rate that varies founded at the character. You could also be probably in a position of finding out a lot more approximately the arena with out visiting very a lot whilst others with much less inclination in the direction of such finding out expertise could journey the arena and in no way obtain the equal degree of comprehension of the arena. I do consider that if you happen to have been to position in combination 2 corporations of individuals with an identical bodily and intellectual stipulations wherein one institution stayed neighborhood and the the opposite traveled plenty that the institution that traveled plenty might achieve views the opposite institution might now not from the direct interplay in their 5 senses with the atmosphere they enjoy on their travels

Answer 5

Well I like never travel and I speak Japanese and German pretty good.

Answer 6

I travel a lot and I dunno any Japanese. But I know Arabic, French and German. It depends on where you go and what languages you need. Koreans know Japanse maybe coz they are closer and they might know Chinese or Vietnamese, for us in the West it's like PotAtoes and POtaTOes