Why doesn't NativShark use English-to-Japanese flashcards?

Every Japanese sentence taught in NativShark comes with a literal and natural translation to help support understanding of the Japanese being examined.

During reviews, learners are asked to look at various Japanese sentences they've seen up to that point in their studies, and then asked to "rate" the sentence based on how comfortable they feel with it, or how well they understand it.

However, NativShark does not present English sentences and ask learners to produce Japanese translations for those sentences.

Why not?

Using Japanese-to-English flashcards helps us to understand the gist of the Japanese we see before we rely on the English translation.

It helps us reach the point where we stop translating Japanese in our heads when we're using it, allowing us to process and use Japanese faster and more proficiently.

However, English-to-Japanese flashcards train the ability to translate Japanese, which is an entirely different skill than being able to use the language proficiently.

Avoid translating English

There are no one-to-one translations between English and Japanese. All translations are approximations.

How you would express any given idea in either language will depend heavily on context, and the ways to express them vary significantly between English and Japanese.

As learners, we can rarely look up a word in a dictionary and immediately be able to use it in a way that makes us readily understood.

Additionally, drilling the same English sentences with the same Japanese translations can make us learners get the false idea that there is a single "correct" translation for a piece of English, and other translations are wrong.

As a native speaker of English (or anything other than Korean) learning Japanese, it's nearly impossible to know how to express an idea naturally in Japanese if we haven't seen it expressed by a native speaker (or a highly proficient speaker) in an appropriate context before.

To combat this, we need to get a lot of exposure to a lot of natural Japanese as used in real contexts and situations.

This allows us to build up a feel for what is natural to use, and when is best to use it.

This is usually easiest to achieve via a quality comprehensive resource alongside native materials, which results in lots of exposure to Japanese.

However, practicing turning English sentences into Japanese means we aren't doing the above. Instead, we're training our ability to translate.

So just show up, hit Study Now, and go enjoy native materials! Your brain will solidify what sounds natural and what to use with time, consistency, and enough input of language in context. You just have to give it the right fuel

Anyway, with the above said, this question usually seems to stem from a more fundamental question, so let's talk about that as well:

How do I practice production/speaking?

Thankfully, there are many quite productive ways to do this! ^^

Going from the simplest to achieve up to the one that takes the most effort to work out...

Thinking about how you might say something

This is often overlooked but adds the most value for the least amount of extra steps.

Thinking about how you form sentences is most of the legwork when we're speaking, and this increases the speed at which you can produce Japanese.

This is great to practice while doing reviews as well.

Every couple of reviews (or whatever number works best for you), try to think about what sentences may have become before a sentence you see, or think about how you might respond to it if someone said it to you.

While doing this prepares your brain for speaking, it doesn't train your tongue to keep up, so...

Shadowing

Copying the audio you hear in NativShark out loud is a good way to train your tongue and increase the bank of natural sentences you can readily pull from your brain.

Feel free to do this any number of times per study session, and just focus on 1% improvements because those add up over time ^^

If you want to really go crazy with the bonus points, try recording yourself and comparing your sentences with the native audio.

(Personally, I [Ty] have recorded myself before but I don't make a habit out of it because it's so much effort. It's fun to play with sometimes though.)

Speaking

This one can be difficult depending on your situation, but it's where the above two parts come together.

Find a friend, language partner, or tutor and just give it a shot. It's okay if it's tough

That said, I know the feeling of not living near any native speakers, and know it can be tough to find a language partner. And tutors cost money.

On top of that, either of those things might be so terrifying that you simply can't do them.

That's okay ^^ Go at your own pace and do the things you enjoy. Do the things that keep you learning this fascinating language.

If you're consistent, study with a quality comprehensive resource, and dive into native materials often enough, then things come out in the wash.

And you can always practice certain skills later when you feel like you want to. For better or worse, I didn't speak much for my first 5 years of Japanese study. I just played a ton of video games instead.

My reading skills were great... but my speaking skills needed love. After a year or so of focusing on it and speaking with lots of people, it caught up though ^^