Hello,

I just read the "Dont repeat my mistakes" thread, and I noticed the phrase 'start talking/conversating very early' come up often.

That said.. how do I start, and what do I start with?
Talking via (text) chat.. it's pretty damn scary, but I can get past that. (any good sites for this?)

Actually (vocally) talking though, my hairs stand on end.. not quite daring.

Uh, so, yeah. Any advice on how I can start some "output" practicing? (3/4th RTK, 8 years of anime listening, and the occasional karaoke without knowing what I'm saying!)

Starting out with text chat is the best I think, since you have time to think out your responses and reread what the other person said, but maybe that's what you meant.

Facebook groups are a good way. You can also make Japanese friends from there.

Facebook groups, interesting. How do I find said groups?

I was able to find some nice Japanese people on interpals.net. Most of them just want to learn English, but after a little bit of searching, you can easily find people who will kindly speak to you in Japanese.
But I don't know if it's really a good idea to start speaking with Japanese people before you have a good amount of vocabulary and a good grasp on grammar. Of course speaking (or writing in this case) could help you tremendously. But don't make it a torture for them deciphering what you just wrote (as I do now with my terrible English grammar ). Also, if you don't have a nice vocabulary, will you be able to not bore that Japanese person to death with your messages? If you were in his place, would it be fun to get messages like ぼくのおなまえはAudriusです。僕はコンピュータゲームが好きです。日本語が下手です。日本語が上手になりたい。
I would suggest to just learn as much vocab as you can (at least 20 a day or as many as you can), read as much as you can (begin with something like http://hukumusume.com/douwa/betu/index.html), listen to things like japanesepod101.com and THEN start speaking. But of course, you can try and see, maybe I'm wrong and you'll find some people who will help you and be interested to read your messages.

don't forget to talk to yourself.

Fragas Wrote:If you were in his place, would it be fun to get messages like ぼくのおなまえはAudriusです。僕はコンピュータゲームが好きです。日本語が下手です。日本語が上手になりたい。

apparently if you say you like computer games in japan, you're more or less saying that you like visual-novel/hentai games.

it might be fun to get messages like that.

kainzero Wrote:

Fragas Wrote:If you were in his place, would it be fun to get messages like ぼくのおなまえはAudriusです。僕はコンピュータゲームが好きです。日本語が下手です。日本語が上手になりたい。

apparently if you say you like computer games in japan, you're more or less saying that you like visual-novel/hentai games.

I don't think so...

dizmox Wrote:I don't think so...

I don't think so either, although that is a large chunk of 'computer' games as such. Some people might make that assumption I suppose. If you mean console video games (PS3,Xbox,etc.) you can say テレビゲーム ; not that there aren't エロゲーム and ビジュアルノベル on consoles, but I think action games are the primary association with テレビゲーム.

If you want to learn a bunch of polite phrases for evading the topic and saying nothing at all, you can directly ask newly met Japanese people how to say that you like computer games without anybody thinking you mean erotic games.

Sometimes beginner conversations can be amusing though, I had a chat once with someone who said... erm... 'the Liberty Goddess' or something similar for 'the Statue of Liberty', from a too literal interpretation of the Japanese name for the Statue of Liberty. I'm sure many English->Japanese mistakes are also amusing to Japanese native speakers.

I wouldn't worry about being boring, though. If you want to do language exchange, there are many, many native Japanese speakers that want to learn English.

Haha, that would be an interesting conversation indeed. I'm not confident enough in my vocabulary, so I'll wait till I SRS a sentence or a thousand. Language exchange sites sound interesting though, I think that'll be my next best stop.

I barely have any ideas for lang8-entries, so I think I'll keep quite for a while. However, my English speaking skills are horrible (not the Chinese exchange student kind of horrible, but not good either) mostly because I didn't really speak English that much outside English classes - I don't really see many tourists around here on the Norwegian countryside.
Thus, I should consider doing skype exchanges in the forseeable future...

(Also, the Statue of Liberty is called "Frihetsgudinnen" (The Goddess of Freedom) in Norwegian.)

Before moving to Japan, I used to talk with people via Skype through a site called The Mixxer ( http://www.language-exchanges.org/ ). That was a good way to get into the language, and I made a number of friends, some of whom I later met in real life.

Personally, though, I think the best way is to look for real, live Japanese people, if there are any in your area. Talk to them. Smile a lot.

I started speaking from Day One, and I don't feel it was a mistake at all. If anything, it underscores the fact that Japanese is a useful language spoken by real people, often in ways that vary widely from media representations. The only mistake is to neglect learning to read. As long as you're progressing in your reading skills, I'd say try to put your knowledge to use as much as possible.

There's a Japanese Language Meetup in the Netherlands.
http://www.meetup.com/japanesesalonamsterdam/

Taelia Wrote:Facebook groups, interesting. How do I find said groups?

TBH I'm not sure how many Japanese learners groups with Japanese natives there is. A friend invited me to a small group for language exchange, and I find it a good way to make some friends and use the language.
Maybe try to search for them on Facebook, join multiple ones and decide which are worth keeping.