Native Japanese Speakers I Need Help Part 7 .

Where is the best place online to find a native Japanese speaker who can do a 7-sentence translation?

Check out Nitro, a live online translator designed for translating short texts. You can upload whatever text you want to be translated, then just press the button and get the result in a matter of hours. We have a lot of Japanese -> English and English -< Japanese translators (native speakers) there.(Disclaimer: I work at Alconost, a video production and localization company that specializes in IT.)

Why do the Japanese only look at the Japanese even if I speak perfect Japanese to them?

First of all, let me assure you that it’s not really intentional. It’s not intended to be an insult. And it’s not meant to be an indictment on your level of Japanese.In addition, I’m sure there are many people in the service industry who have had interactions with foreigners who either speak little Japanese, or who just start speaking in English.My Japanese professor called is “denial.” A Japanese person will look right at a non-Japanese person, and they cannot hear the person speaking Japanese. Japanese are taught that foreigners cannot speak and cannot learn Japanese. Notice how Japanese study English and so few achieve fluency. They think languages are just an insurmountable hurdle.A major part of communication is nonverbal. This is doubly true in Japan. No matter how many years I’m in Japan, I’ll always have round eyes. And my body language will never be 100% Japanese. In fact, I don’t want to be one of those guys who goes around bowing and trying to act Japanese.Do they mean to be malevolent? Not one bit. But is it annoying as hell? Absolutely!As others have explained very well - cognitive dissonance. It just doesn’t register. They expect you to speak English, so they don’t hear you speaking Japanese. That’s how deep beliefs can go. And if you upset that belief, it can be quite confusing for people.For those of us who grew up in a melting pot or a multi-lingual environment, the idea that someone is NOT going to try to speak the language is odd. I guess asking a Japanese person to expect me to speak Japanese is like expecting a European in NY to not speak English.Another question might be, does this happen in countries outside of Japan?My brother lives in Scandinavia, and even though he looks Scandinavian (our ancestors are Scandinavian) and he speaks the language well, people sometimes pick up his American accent and it throws the whole interaction off the rails.All he wants to do is buy his groceries and go home, but he frequently finds himself roped in to discussions about American politics or sightseeing destinations.Update: July 8, 2018. This just happened yesterday - again. I went with my wife (Japanese) to a store that I visit at least once a week. They usually treat me like a regular customer, but yesterday the cashier wouldn’t even look at me or address me. For a place that gets such high marks in manners, Japan has some odd quirks.

How should a beginner learn Japanese?

The other answers here are pretty good.Learn hiragana. Don’t try and write everything in romaji. It will slow your progress significantly.Start learning basic vocabulary, such as adjectives, names for places e.g park (こうえん) or shop (みせ).Learn the basic particles;　は、に、と、を、へ、もStart learning the basic sentence structure; subject, object, verb. Learn to make simple sentences using this structure. Get comfortable with it.Learn some basic numbers, e.g 1–20.Start learning counters, e.g how to say “3 ice creams”.Learn a few basic kanji; such as 行く (to go), 食べる (to eat) and the kanji for the numbers.All the previous steps will take a significant amount of time to master. Don’t worry if you aren’t perfect with the particles. They are very difficult to master and even people skilled at Japanese make mistakes with them.Once with you are comfortable with everything previously mentioned, learn katakana. This will allow you to say English words in Japanese, such as someone’s name or a country foreign to Japan.Just keep learning and practising everything from there. It will be a very long process. You will probably forget some of the basics and that’s to be expected. I’m good at Japanese but I’ve forgotten counters.EDIT: Also very important to listen to some spoken Japanese, e.g a text book with a listening practise CD. You want to do this early on to try and get the pronunciation right for each character or combination. Otherwise it will be harder to correct later on and people probably won’t understand your Japanese if your pronunciation is bad.Good luck.