Learning to Speak Japanese

Japanese had always sounded like a difficult language to learn but I was intrigued by its “strange” looking characters and the sound of the words. When I found myself on a visit to Japan several years ago, I marveled at non-Japanese who felt so at ease conversing with the Japanese (in Japanese!) and wondered if I too would be able to do so in the future. Though I secretly longed to speak Japanese and to understand the sea of voices around me the possibility seemed remote.

After living in Japan for three months I was no closer to responding to even the simplest of expressions. I relied tremendously on a Brazilian friend who relished speaking Japanese and showing off his skills at every opportunity. At those times when I found myself alone in a shop or at a train station, I felt totally at a loss. I resolved to remedy the situation by enrolling in a Japanese language course.

On my first day in school, I expected the teacher to begin with some English explanations. No such luck. The class comprised English, Korean, Chinese, and Bahasa Indonesia speakers. From the get-go we were supposed to communicate in Japanese. The first few lessons were easy enough as the teacher pointed to various objects and indicated their Japanese names. Soon enough I had learned the names of half a dozen Japanese objects: takushi, naifu, konbini (convenience shop).

Learning to write was another matter altogether. The Japanese hiragana and katakana are not all that difficult to learn and yet I found myself putting it off for weeks. Eventually, I succumbed as I realized that I was in danger of being at the bottom of the class.

Within a matter of months some of my classmates had begun to make long-winded sentences in Japanese. I could only look at them with mouth agape. The Japanese course was not exactly cheap; unable to join in the conversations of my fellow classmates, I began to think that I was throwing good money away.

Six months passed.

One day, as I got on the train, I noticed one of my school mates, a tall, slender Korean girl, standing next to me. As I stole glances at her, she turned her gaze towards me and asked, Doko ni ikun desu ka? (Where are you going?) My mind raced a mile a minute…but in less than a minute I was able to respond that I was going to Koiwa station. Her face lit up. She was going to the same station. She seemed to be in a mood for conversation or maybe she had taken a secret shine to me. Whatever it was, there was no escape for me. I could not speak Korean and she could not speak English. She asked me another question. And another.

The train lurched from time to time but I stood my ground. By the time we got to Koiwa, fifty minutes had passed and we had been conversing amiably all along. Then it dawned on me: I too could speak Japanese.

Between the station and my home, my feet never touched the ground!

(Excerpt from Guaranteed Formula for Writing Success by Everett Ofori)