Learn Japanese FAQ

Q: Hi Richard. Recently when I was in Japan, I had trouble trying trying to understand Japanese people as they spoke too fast. How would you recommend I overcome this problem, so that I can understand people speaking Japanese fast, and so that I no longer need to ask them to slow down? Jacob

A: Hi Jacob.   The key here is simply to practice listening to fast Japanese.  A lot of textbooks and teachers slow things down too much, which means that you only get used to slow Japanese.  So just get some real youtube videos ( and of course the GenkiJapan.net songs!) and just do lots of fast listening practice.  It doesn’t take long to get up to speed.

Be genki,

Richard