Ask any exchange student (or my now quad-lingual Sweedish friend): the best way to learn a language is to TALK.. You need to practice putting thoughts in your head into words. (not matter what the result is!) It is proof of what you are really retaining/can use on the fly.
At the beginning of my stay in Japan, I tried the input-before-output method (I thought the same: If I can think things in Japanese, I will definitely be able to say them later!), and it failed miserably (MISERABLY!!!). I only began becoming fluent when I made daily efforts to produce sentences and messages. So what if my grammar was a little off? I was always monitoring what I was hearing and saying, and listening to how native speakers word their sentences and use certain words. It didn’t take longer than a week for me to be able to fix a mistake I had been making for the past few months.

I don’t speak English perfectly some of the time (everyone makes mistakes; even after being immersed in perfect English nearly my entire life), and I speak Japanese perfectly much less than that; but the point is I am making an effort and in turn making an improvement.

ps. I learned the kana before the kanji, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. There will always be more kanji to learn, but being able to write in kana is a giant step towards being able to fully immerse yourself in Japanese. (being able to write the words you don’t know)

Hey, I don’t know the kanji yet, but I have this question about sentences…
STOP. Learn the kanji first. Kanji first. KANJI FIRST. KANJI FIRRRRRRST!!!!!! I’m not even talking to you any more until you learn the kanji. Go…No, go. Go, and come back when you know them. Listen to and read (look at) as much Japanese as you want, but don’t do sentences until yer dun with ye kanjees.

Point taken. I’m at 200 now, so it’s just a matter of time

Where do you find a good bilingual source for sentences? I saw you recommended a Japanese-English dictionary, but won’t that just have translations of individual words? I can’t really get them from my music, as the romaji lyrics are everywhere, but there’s none with Japanese script. and I take it, for a beginner, converting romaji into Japanese script would be a bit ****? Same goes for anime, apart from where you posted the script to GitS, which I will devour

And, if I were to get the sentences from some source other than audio/video, would it not be dangerous to go around pronouncing it, without hearing a native speaker say it? I don’t have a native Japanese speaker to check all the sentences I’d need to input, so what’s the best course to chart?

Also, for a beginner, I take it running through an anime series with subs on is OK, then rewatching without subs?

Cheers for any help! And thanks for making the site, it’s complete win.

I’ve actually learned how to speak all the Japanese I know from watching Japanese shows and listening to Japanese music.

It’s like that.

So keep patiently inputting. Output will come. And give yourself some credit — you understand Japanese, dude! You’ll have plenty of time and opportunity to speak once you’re able. Until then, just enjoy your input. Remember, that you’re still a baby, Japanesewise. No one takes an x-month old baby and goes: “why aren’t you speaking yet? you need to earn your keep!!”, and neither should you to yourself.

But…I don’t think I’ve read that much code thus far . Not consciously, anyway.

I’d been living in Japan for about a year at the point when I found this and all I could think was “oh my god I’m screwed!” because I’d been speaking since about October. Since I’ve started doing this though and getting into the repetitions I’m finding I hear a lot of words/sentence structures (like 。。。親切かどうか。。。) that I would be amazed if people hadn’t been saying the whole time and I just hadn’t heard them. But along with that I’m finding that the way I’m saying things is changing with the repetitions. The kids where I work used to make fun of me because I always, always say/said (sentence…（だ）から） but now I’m learning a lot of other things. The point of my post is: I’m not sure the damage is irreparable like I first though, so don’t get all frustrated (I did) and think you’re doomed.

I know what you mean about the politeness thing. Spanish obviously doesn’t have it to the extent that Japanese does, but I always am confused about whether or not to speak politely to Spanish-speaking people I meet in the factory I work in. Like I just met a guy and he was like 10 years older than me at most. I didn’t know whether to address him as an elder or just as a friend/person my age. Other than that I live in a very very white community so there’s almost no one of a different race here. It’s kinda sad.

>Do you like Sergent Garcia?
I had not heard of him (embarrassingly after I just said I like Spanish music) until you just mentioned it, but with a quick Google search I found a snippet of a song. Sounds good, I’ll have to check him (them?) out more. The name sounds French, and a lot of info I found was in French and Spanish. Is it a French person? I have to admit by saying I like Spanish music I have tried to find music that is more “rocky” and some rap, too, not so much the traditional-style Spanish music. I honestly don’t care for the music that they play on the local radio stations (3 radio stations in my area and they all play the exact same music). I don’t even know exactly what the genre is called, but it all sounds pretty much the same to me!

Absolutely. That is what I’m saying.
The one thing I did rack my brain about a lot when I first come here was what “register” to use. I found myself speaking to (older) people too politely. But that’s a sociocultural thing rather than a linguistic thing. It’s a matter of “how do I behave”?, and not “how should I say it?”.

>I like Spanish music a lot
Do you like Sergent Garcia?