Learning the Japanese Language for a Tokyo Trip
Japan has been on our list of countries to travel to for quite a while. So, when circumstances aligned, we booked a trip to Japan. Our trip was during Golden Week in 2025. What did I do as preparation before going to Japan besides researching the itinerary? I wanted to do something meaningful that could add value to the trip and my life overall, so I decided to pick up some Japanese. I studied basic Japanese with a good friend two months before the trip. The others in my group have their own roles, and I volunteered to study the language.
Was it necessary? No, but I did it for my own sake, to create a deeper appreciation for the culture and to fulfil my passion for language. It was to be my research, and who knows, it would probably lead to a passion project someday (to become fluent in Japanese). Studying the culture of a country you are about to visit can leave a lasting impression on the trip. What better way to gain insight into the culture than by studying its language? By learning the basics of the language, you get to absorb the nuances of the culture and learn about its people.
To get started on this project, I read a book titled ‘Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It’ by Gabriel Wyner. From the book and my experience, I picked up several gems of advice in learning languages.
Focus on aural skills
Aural skills involve your hearing. In order to say anything, you must learn how it sounds first. That is how babies learn to talk. They start by listening, and they imitate what they hear. Start learning the language with proper native pronunciation so that you don’t pick up bad habits of wrong pronunciation. There is nothing wrong with your natural accent, but being able to say things as close as you can to native pronunciation can boost your confidence and make your speech easier to comprehend.
How did I go about learning the pronunciation? I used a digital flashcard app called Anki and, of course, Google Translate with the help of my tutor friend to confirm pronunciations.
Use Spaced Repetition with Flash Cards
The Anki app is widely used as a flashcard system. You can also use the more traditional physical flashcards to collect vocabulary lists. The idea is for you to actively and regularly create your own vocabulary flashcards (images, target language with no translation, pronunciation). The objective is to get you thinking in your target language by associating the image, pronunciation and word without referring to any translation. This will create a more direct pathway in your mind without having to go through the filter of your comfort language or native language.
The process of creating your own flashcards is the key to actively engaging with the content. You have to choose a word, search for or draw your own image, find out the correct pronunciation and record it. It sounds tedious, but the deeper process means that it can be a more efficient way of retaining the content.
Build Confidence Through Practice
I find that having the confidence to actually speak the language does not really correlate with how deeply you know the language. That’s why even with more than four years of French lessons, I could only respond with ‘Je ne parle pas Francais (I don’t speak French)’ when someone conversed with me in French when I traveled to Paris way back in 2015. The truth was that I was severely out of practise and felt embarrassed to make mistakes. Being confident to speak the language has a lot to do with practicing the language, especially if you get regular speaking practice with natives of the language. With more practice, you get regular positive feedback when your conversational partner understands what you say. This creates a confidence loop that is important in language learning.
When I was in Tokyo, I tried to use the basic Japanese that I learned. The first day in Japan, I went into the Seven Eleven beside my Airbnb and was totally lost. Absolutely everything was in full Japanese. There was a polite older Japanese holding the door for me while saying ‘Douzo’ and I just smiled and froze, not knowing how to respond even with the basic Japanese that I learned. I found my brain overthinking ‘What is appropriate to say in this specific situation’. It was fear of making mistakes. Luckily, my tutor friend guided me through Whatsapp so that I regained the confidence to say the appropriate Japanese for specific situations.
I managed to request a vegetarian option sandwich from a coffee shop, a vegetarian option frozen food at a grocery store. I said sorry to passengers on the train, I asked for the prices of various items in various shops. I requested to buy a postage stamp for my postcard. I did all these in Japanese with the help of my friend. I was on a roll! At that point, I felt like I could’ve been fluent if only I stayed for longer!
It feels like I played my role as an ambassador for my own country in showing my respect to the host country by making an effort to speak the language.
Embrace Forced Immersion
In Japan, you have little choice but to make an effort to learn the language if you plan to stay longer. You must be immersed in the language unless you want to be fully dependent on translation devices. This is especially true if you plan for an extended stay. Japan is a conducive space to learn the language because Japanese people speak Japanese by default, even to tourists and foreigners. Even the remote was written in full Japanese writing. We had to use Google Translate Lens to use the washing machine. That was how fully forced the immersion into Japanese was.
The cashiers greet you in Japanese, and they respond to you in Japanese even though you are obviously foreign. As politeness is part of the customer service culture, they appreciate your effort to speak it, even if you struggle.
Being afraid to speak is normal in the first few stages, but as you collect more experience, the fear dissipates. Just start collecting vocabulary, word by word. With the massive amount of vocabulary available in every language, how do you decide on which ones to collect?
Prioritize High-Frequency Words
Languages have a large body of vocabulary, but know that not all the words are equally used frequently. Get a list of words that are frequently used, and you can reduce the time you spend on your journey towards language mastery. Focus on the frequently used words first, and then slowly amass your collection. If you keep consistent at this, you can only win in language mastery. How do you keep consistent?
Discover Your Big WHY
Learning a language is hard work and takes commitment. To persevere, you have to understand the big WHY of your journey.
Why did I want to learn Japanese? I’ve always been curious about languages, and this was the golden time for me to immerse myself in the culture through learning its language. It was also an opportunity for me to explore how languages work, in line with my linguistics career path as a writer and Malay translator.
When you know why you are doing what you do, the path becomes clearer, and challenges appear more meaningful. Would I explore Japan more as a culture and its language? Who knows what the future holds? But I know that whatever I gained from the lessons become a significant part of my life. My effort in respecting the Japanese culture by learning the language will always remain a cherished experience–one that I will keep on revisiting. It will remind me of that phase when I followed my curiosity: Passion in language.
