Hoping to learn to speak Japanese while you’re living in Japan? There are lots of methods you can use to help improve your abilities, but one thing’s for certain — one approach alone simply isn’t going to cut it. Hiroshima-ken JET Darren Carter weighs in on some of the methods that worked for him, and others that weren’t so helpful.

Today’s column is about learning to make “Have you ever…?” statements. This is a very simple and useful form that comes in handy when having conversations. Also, if you are a junior high school ALT, you should be coming up to this area of the English syllabus soon with your third year students, so it’ll be useful to know.

One of the telltale signs of a beginner in Japanese is the insistence on using “I” when speaking. To give a more natural sound to your speech, drop “I” and “you” wherever possible.