How do you guys handle learning synonyms, especially for output?

Also, anyone know if there exists a thesaurus that's in English and Japanese? http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/thsrs/ is pretty good, but no English.

The only thing I can think of at the moment would be similar to how I have been able to handle synonymous phraseology in English: reading more; increasing vocabulary; not being too afraid to sound stupid (at least in print).

Well, to tell you the truth, this http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/thsrs/ is actually pretty damn good. If you can't quite use it yet, then you probably don't need it anyway.

But in any case, check 13 Secrets For Speaking Fluent Japanese by Giles Murray, it has a nice section about synonyms.

Chapter 6
http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=_aXZV...&q&f=false

This one's my absolute favourite. http://thesaurus.weblio.jp/content/%E3%8...1%E5%8F%A3

Never heard of stuff like that with English too, though...

There is also the japanese wordnet project:
http://nlpwww.nict.go.jp/wn-ja/
(you have to click on 検索).

They are mapping the english version to the japanese language.