For the longest time, i was sooo afraid of speaking Japanese, for fear of making mistakes, but after seeing Benny Lewis(Fluent in 3 months) horribly stumble through his Japanese,It made me less afraid to speak, and so yesterday after a few years i spoke to someone in Japanese on Skype! I've got to say it wasn't that bad really. I made a lot of mistakes, but so what? Also I've gotta say i was better than i thought i was( lots of room for improvement though). So i'm definitely gonna be doing it again. The point i'm trying to make is don't be afraid to speak, even if you make a lot of mistakes, because the time you spend being afraid is time you could be using to get better.

Nice work cae99v, I'm proud of you! <3

edit: tone

Thanks a lot! Also, @tashippy i read your last reply, don't worry, i wasn't offended at all.

Good work!

I've held off as long as I could, but I do think you mean "formerly" rather than "formally".

Congrats. Fear not mistakes, while they are embarrassing at the time, they quickly become stories to tell later on (Such as when I said that people in Nagano are vegetables, 野菜 instead of 優しい) or even a minor catchphrase, in-joke, teaching example (焼き猫).

液体 and 体液　are dangerous

Opps! Yeah i did mean "formerly" Thanks!

ktcgx Wrote:Good work!

I've held off as long as I could, but I do think you mean "formerly" rather than "formally".

cae99v Wrote:Opps! Yeah i did mean "formerly" Thanks!

ktcgx Wrote:Good work!

I've held off as long as I could, but I do think you mean "formerly" rather than "formally".

As I tell my students regularly, you should not only be unafraid of making mistakes, but you absolutely MUST make mistakes to learn a foreign language. It's impossible to learn a language without making mistakes. The more you make, the quicker you'll learn. Seriously. Get as many language exchange partners as you can and speak terrible, mistake-ridden, broken Japanese for a few months, and you will see your speaking ability sky-rocket.

JusenkyoGuide Wrote:Congrats. Fear not mistakes, while they are embarrassing at the time, they quickly become stories to tell later on (Such as when I said that people in Nagano are vegetables, 野菜 instead of 優しい) or even a minor catchphrase, in-joke, teaching example (焼き猫).

I'd love to hear more such mishaps. Is there a thread for that? I probably said things without realizing it. I went to Japan for a week or two when I spoke but a few words and people would say 'jouzu' and I had never learned that word so I thought it was a synonym for 'hanasu', so I was like 'uh, yeah chotto jouzu'. That's less a word mixup than a lack of cultural awareness/modesty mistake.
OP, I'm sure Philadelphians have thick skin, I felt like my post was sort of advocating stalking strangers.

ashman63 Wrote:As I tell my students regularly, you should not only be unafraid of making mistakes, but you absolutely MUST make mistakes to learn a foreign language. It's impossible to learn a language without making mistakes. The more you make, the quicker you'll learn. Seriously. Get as many language exchange partners as you can and speak terrible, mistake-riddled, broken Japanese for a few months, and you will see your speaking ability sky-rocket.

Same here, and it's so true... I like to think that hearing all my mistakes everyday in Japanese helps them to realise that it's not the end of the world if they make one...

My problem would be what do I talk about? I can only say the most basic things but I would sound robotic and boring.

learningkanji Wrote:My problem would be what do I talk about? I can only say the most basic things but I would sound robotic and boring.

Find a language exchange partner who can speak a bit of English (and wants to speak English). Use your limited Japanese to attempt to say more complex things. When you don't know how to say a word, or formulate a particular sentence, say the bits you don't know in English. Then ask your exchange partner how to say it in Japanese. Write it down, and say it a few times in different sentences....making a bunch of mistakes as you go, and eventually you'll learn those new words and they'll be relevant vocab to what you want to talk about.

learningkanji Wrote:My problem would be what do I talk about? I can only say the most basic things but I would sound robotic and boring.

I started off with アイスクリームが好きです.

Communication comes from need. I've gotten a lot better because I am formally studying now, but I still managed to get to a daily living level just because of need. Because I teach in a Japanese school, my vocab includes a lot of educational terms, again because of need. If you need to communicate it, you'll start to work out how to say it.