{"id":106755,"date":"2023-11-30T23:17:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T04:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/how-to-think-in-japanese\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T11:19:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:19:44","slug":"how-to-think-in-japanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/japanese\/how-to-think-in-japanese\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn How to Think in Japanese [Tips, Tricks and Translation Ideas]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your thoughts make you who you are. Of course, thinking in a foreign language isn’t natural for most new language learners<\/a>. You tend to process your thoughts in your native tongue because it’s what you’re used to, and habits are powerful things.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean you can’t learn to think in Japanese, and in this post, you’ll learn exactly how to start thinking in Japanese step-by-step.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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1. Use Real or Imaginary Stories and Conversations<\/h2>\n

Take note of small interactions throughout the day<\/h3>\n

On any given day, you’re likely to talk to at least one person. Maybe a few, right?<\/p>\n

I don’t mean deep or complicated interactions, either.<\/p>\n

Think of any conversation you had today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 30-second snippet with the cashier down the street or the guidelines you received for a project at work would be fine fodder. In fact, the more common the conversations you choose, the stronger your everyday Japanese vocabulary will become.<\/p>\n

Keep snippets of that conversation in your mind for later translation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps pretend to have that conversation again and act it out.<\/p>\n

By moving words back and forth in context, you’ll create stronger connections with those words and help your brain put the vocabulary to active use.<\/p>\n

Narrate your morning routine<\/h3>\n

If you’re not into chatting or you have a bad memory, don’t fret.<\/p>\n

You can use the things in your home and your everyday routine to help.<\/p>\n

Let’s say you get up in the morning and you head to the bathroom. As you get up to go get your toothbrush, start talking to yourself about your day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can talk about all of the things you’re going to do in Japanese.<\/p>\n

Since you use these words daily, it’s easy to see how you’ll get more and more comfortable with them.<\/p>\n

Make up your own stories<\/h3>\n

If you’re feeling more creative or looking to stretch your vocabulary, then you could make up a story<\/a> about your toothbrush.<\/p>\n

What’s he going to do today when you’re gone?<\/p>\n

Will he save the soap from the perils of your faucet?<\/p>\n

Romance the floss?<\/p>\n

Or try to avoid the fate of accidentally falling on the floor?<\/p>\n

Every story, day after day, that you tell yourself in Japanese will help you think more in the language. Plus, your morning routine will be a lot less boring!<\/p>\n

2. Translate and Practice Monologues in Japanese<\/h2>\n

When you first begin to think in a different language, you’re translating, translating, translating.<\/p>\n

Until one day, the word or phrase you’re looking for doesn’t pop up in your native language first\u2014it begins to immediately occur in Japanese.<\/p>\n

But you’ll need to take your translation skills to the next level and purposefully include new vocabulary. That’s where monologues come in.<\/p>\n

Unless you were into drama class in school, you probably haven’t spent a lot of time in the land of monologues.<\/p>\n

That’s a shame\u2014they’re valuable tools in learning to think in Japanese. They’re also great for introverts since all you need is yourself and some basic tools.<\/p>\n

First, get a camera or audio recorder.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of us have apps for that built into our smartphones and tablets for this already, so check before you download.<\/p>\n

Then, follow these steps:<\/p>\n

Pick your passage<\/h3>\n

Pick a favorite passage from a book or a movie that you love.<\/p>\n

It could be anything from Shakespeare<\/a> to “Star Wars.”<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’re more web-inclined, you could choose your favorite fan fic <\/a>or Creepypasta<\/a> to begin translating.<\/p>\n

Just don’t pick something that’s already in Japanese, for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

You could choose a subtitled anime<\/a> or a translated manga<\/a> if you like. If you’re the creative type you could even write your own story for source material.<\/p>\n

Translate the text<\/h3>\n

Next, translate it into Japanese.<\/p>\n

Try to do this from memory as much as possible, but don’t be afraid to look up words when you need to.<\/p>\n

Just don’t auto-translate the whole thing at once. It’s tempting to get it done as quickly as possible, but the process is what matters here.<\/p>\n

Now, start the recorder and begin talking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you have your translation of the piece recorded, play it back.<\/p>\n

Listen to what you said and translate it to your native language in your own mind.<\/p>\n

This type of back-and-forth translation helps you take advantage of your existing pathways, and it holds your interest because of the material.<\/p>\n

Keep it short to start<\/h3>\n

Try to keep paragraphs\/recordings under five minutes to begin.<\/p>\n

You’ll be surprised how far you can get in that little bit of time.<\/p>\n

Then as you find the translations are getting easier, you can move onto longer and more complex passages. Remember it’s a process, not an end goal.<\/p>\n

3. Dive into Complete and Total Japanese Immersion<\/h2>\n

Immersion is about making the language a part of your everyday life.<\/p>\n

You can do this in several ways.<\/p>\n

One of the more common ways is to read news<\/a> or entertainment sites in Japanese. This will not only help you think more in the language but also create a better ear for it in real life.<\/p>\n

Here are a few more simple steps to create an immersive Japanese environment.<\/p>\n

Change up the settings on your devices<\/h3>\n

Another option would be to change your social media<\/a> or phone language.<\/p>\n

If you’re at a place where you can read Japanese with some basic skills, then consider changing over one of your social media sites (or your phone if you’re feeling bold) to show you text in Japanese.<\/p>\n

With the variety of things that people post, you’re likely to get some great conversational practice and add to your vocabulary swiftly.<\/p>\n

If you’re feeling really adventurous, then change your whole browser.<\/p>\n

Binge-watch Japanese content<\/h3>\n

Watch YouTube<\/a>, movies or TV in Japanese.<\/p>\n

Choose your favorite YouTuber from this list of the top 250 from Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Be sure to put the captions on in your native tongue.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This will allow you to hear the words in Japanese and attach them to your English thoughts.<\/p>\n

In time, you’ll realize that you no longer need the subtitles, and your brain begins to think of what it hears as the natural language of the media you’re consuming.<\/p>\n

Seeing both English and Japanese subtitles simultaneously can also help you form stronger connections between the two languages, ultimately improving your ability to think in Japanese.<\/p>\n

Dual-language interactive captions are available on FluentU<\/a>, a website and app that also has a diverse collection of Japanese videos.

FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n

P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)<\/a><\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \"FluentU\r\n

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