Micro-Practice: Counting at the Gas Pump, Cash Register, Car Milage

Yesterday I shared that I had successfully counted to 99,999,999. One of the micro-practices I have been doing is to read numbers in Japanese whenever I can. As an example, yesterday I was filling up my gas tank and I was alternating between counting the total sales amount and the number of gallons.

The Pimsleur lessons provide lessons on filling up your tank at a gas station.

満タンにしてください。

Is basically "fill 'er up, please." Japan, like most other countries in the world, uses the metric system. So instead of gallons, practice saying リットル instead.

Filling up on gas is a perfect time to practice counting and a bit of conversation. If you are lucky enough to be alone at the pump, you can count the numbers out loud, ask the pump to fill your tank, and thank the pump. If there are others around and you don't want to appear like crazy person talking to yourself and a gas pump (what fun is it if people don't think you are crazy??), you can simply practice in your head.

I make a mini-game out of seeing how fast I can keep up with the scrolling numbers. It's a decent challenge.

You can also practice reading the numbers on the cash register or translating what the cashier says is your total. I really recommend doing math completely in Japanese for your totals and change. I'm pretty strong in math, but doing it in another language was difficult at first. Having done it for a few weeks now, I feel it has definitely contributed to my confidence in Japanese number. It is definitely easier than translating the numbers in your head, doing the math, and then translating the answer back.

To practice counting large numbers, you can count your mileage. My car happens to have over 150,000 miles so that is a conveniently high number to work with right now.

From this, hopefully you can see where practicing numbers can be done in other similar situations.