Places to practice your Japanese

Places to practice your Japanese - Printable Version

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Places to practice your Japanese - Sebastian - 2013-04-22

There's been some controversy about the use of Japanese on this forum, since some people think this is not the appropriate place for practicing Japanese, so I thought it would be nice having a list of places were everybody agrees it's appropriate to practice.

Let's share ideas for places (either in the internet or real, physical places) were practicing Japanese at different levels.

日本語中級会話 (Japanese Only): Let's start by this very same forum. As the title states, this thread is supposed to be a place for intermediate learners.

Lang-8: By creating an account here you can practice writing in the languages you're learning, and get corrections by native speakers. At the same time, you can correct texts written by learners of your native language. There are also communities were you can talk to people with similar interests. Since it's a site directed to learners where you get feedback from native users, you can use it at any stage of your learning.

大手小町 > 発言小町: This is a Japanese forum pertaining to the Yomiuri Shinbun. This is the most similar place to the kind of forums that one is used to see in English (AFAIK). This is a forum made by Japanese people for Japanese people, so it will be most useful for learners at an intermediate or advanced level. It covers a broad range of topics, like human relationships, daily life, work, learning, etc, so it can give you some insight into life in Japan and the points of view of Japanese people about different topics.

2 channel: This is a very famous forum that covers a wildly wide range of topics. It's format sucks and it's a pain to read it as it is, but there are programs to make it more legible.

I'm sure there must be many more places like these. What's been your experience with writing Japanese online?

It's important to note that if you want to be good at speaking or writing, it's important for you to listen/read before you speak/write. Fortunately with internet there are lot's of spaces where you can do that before going to far from your comfort zone.

If people contribute with more references, we could compile them and create a list at Reviewing the Kanji's Wiki

Places to practice your Japanese - howtwosavealif3 - 2013-04-22

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=9606

Places to practice your Japanese - gdaxeman - 2013-04-22

Quote:If people contribute with more references, we could compile them and create a list at Reviewing the Kanji's Wiki

I think this is a great idea, so to get started I created a page with the content you just posted—here it is:
→ RtKWiki - Places to practice your Japanese

Waiting for more suggestions in case people here have any. Think of it as a starting point for those who still don't have a particular place of their choice to practice.

Places to practice your Japanese - Tzadeck - 2013-04-22

Sebastian Wrote:日本語中級会話 (Japanese Only): Let's start by this very same forum. As the title states, this thread is supposed to be a place for intermediate learners.

I feel like it would be useful to make Japanese-only threads with topics. A lot of posts in this thread where just kind of random, because it wasn't really decided what everyone should be dicussing. So, for example, if you made a thread like "Introduce Yourself in Japanese (Japanese only)", or about a current event in Japan, etc., I think it would make for some better threads in Japanese.

Also, it would be nice if there was a system where people who welcome corrections could say so. For example, by writing (corrections appreciated) at the bottom of posts.

Places to practice your Japanese - Javizy - 2013-04-22

http://www.sharedtalk.com/
http://atskype.jp/ (watch out for ニート and メンヘラ)

Places to practice your Japanese - uisukii - 2013-04-23

Javizy Wrote:(watch out for ニート and メンヘラ)

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by the caution?

Places to practice your Japanese - vix86 - 2013-04-23

uisukii Wrote:
Javizy Wrote:(watch out for ニート and メンヘラ)
Out of curiosity, what do you mean by the caution?

Trolls

Places to practice your Japanese - uisukii - 2013-04-23

As in Neets and mentally handicapped?

Places to practice your Japanese - Stian - 2013-04-23

I don't think メンヘラ mean "mentally handicapped" but rather people with stuff like bipolar disorder, etc.

Places to practice your Japanese - partner55083777 - 2013-04-23

There's also Chaberi:

http://www.chaberi.com/

It's a chat room that gets posted on here every once in a while. Most people are just chatting about everyday stuff. A lot of slang is used.

Places to practice your Japanese - Javizy - 2013-04-23

Stian Wrote:I don't think メンヘラ mean "mentally handicapped" but rather people with stuff like bipolar disorder, etc.

It comes from メンタルヘルス as far as I know. I'm not sure how the ラ ended up in there though. As an example, I had a woman tell me about how she hated her ex and had an abortion within about 10-minutes of chatting.

Places to practice your Japanese - Ash_S - 2013-04-24

メンヘラ is メンタルヘルス + 'er... a Mental-healther lol.
Javizy's example above is a good example of what you would call メンヘラ.

Places to practice your Japanese - sherlock - 2013-04-26

I love Lang-8 too. Whenever I post something, I don't even have to waith 15 minutes for someone to correct it. Big Grin

I've made a few friends there who I chat with or exchange emails with. The problem with that is my emails/chats never get corrected for errors Tongue

So I have to make sure that I keep on posting something in Japanese.

Places to practice your Japanese - jimmyellinger - 2013-04-30

Well, since no else is mentioning it, I'd say try a dating site aimed at meeting Japanese people (generally speaking, you'll have better luck conversing with the opposite sex). I had been telling myself for couple of years that I would try Lang-8, but never really pushed myself to do it. On the other, when on a whim I laid down $30 for a membership at japancupid.com, I was working hard to make sure I got a return on my investment. I will say that at first some of the conversations I had with women were pretty shallow, but I have actually found a great exchange partner now. We have even done video chatting, so actual practice speaking Japanese.

Places to practice your Japanese - visual_jei - 2013-05-04

I've been able to have quite a few conversations through the Japan Skype Forum.

There are a ton of people listing that they want to have conversations. If you're specific about what you want (like setting up a time to talk, and requesting like 20 mins in Japanese and reciprocating 20 min in English) instead of just posting to add friends, you can get something out of it.

Places to practice your Japanese - pauro02 - 2013-05-05

http://www.jlptstudy.net/forum/index.php This is a nice site as well, especially if you are into taking any JLPT exams.