10 Japanese Language Tips That Will Make You Sound Fluent

Here you are: you have been studying the Japanese language for some time and are ready to have conversations with Japanese people. However, the Japanese language learned from a textbook or in the classroom can be quite different from the Japanese language people actually speak!

Here are some tips to make your Japanese sound more natural, especially in casual conversations.

1. Stop using “watashi wa” (私は)

This is the most surprising fact for Japanese language learners, but also the biggest clue that will immediately tell your Japanese counterparts that you are still a beginner in the language. As you may have heard before, the Japanese language is highly contextual, which means that any element that can be implied by the context will be erased from the conversation.

Japanese people will not say “watashi wa” (私は) unless the context is unclear enough to wonder who you are talking about.
Let’s say you would like to say, “I am from the USA,” you have probably learned to say:

私はアメリカ人です。

Watashi wa Amerikajin desu.

Instead, just say:

アメリカ人です。

Amerikajin desu.