敬語 is something even Japanese natives need to learn, and only get used to using once out in the working world, and many people even make mistakes in it (eg 二重敬語).
It's relatively easy to understand since it's just like learning new vocab, but actually using it yourself is a complete different story.
You need to be able to separate 謙譲語 and 尊敬語 and have equivalent phrasing to casual speech in your mind at all times when using it.
I mean it still sounds just like learning new vocab as I've written it here, but the hard part is getting a chance to get comfortable using it.
It's almost like an artificial style of speaking, only used in the professional world, so it's hard to get opportunities to practice it if you don't have that kind of job, or if you don't even live in Japan.
Me personally I'm at the stage I can understand any 敬語, and I can tell if some 敬語 is written wrongly (wrong register, or 二重敬語 etc.), but I rarely am confident in knowing the correct way to phrase something.
So I'm wondering if anyone figured out some good ways to practice 敬語 outside of Japan
by hyouganofukurou