I'm looking for ways to systematically train my speaking. Does anybody have any good input about how to go about it? With reading, writing and listening I have some methods that I use, but I relly don't have so for speaking.

Generally I find speaking to be my weakest skill. Not only have I got little chance to talk with people, but I also find that I make a lot of mistakes and even though I sense I do something wrong I can't correct it in the heat of the moment. I reckon I could get a tutor or a language exhange partner to help me, but I wonder what the most effective way to go about it would be? Just having a free conversation and be corrected? Or go through some patterns and excercises? Hopefully somebody can give some good input

There is really no substitute for talking to other people. There are some services out there where people can hook up for some conversation. I can't recommend any, but I have heard of italki.
As for how to go about it... I guess you could probably ask them to correct you. But it might be better to just don't worry if you are 100% as long as your message gets across. I think the more important part is just thinking on your feet. Accuracy will probably follow with practice.

[Zgarbas]

I used japonin and it helped me loads.
Then I came to Japan and English was so troublesome that despite my many mistakes I just spoke Japanese to everyone.
I had done a bit of shadowing, reading out and thinking to myself in Japanese before that, but I can't say they helped me much.

What I've seen a lot of people do is v-log. I haven't tried it with other languages, but I might with Japanese once I get good enough (I wanna be able to watch it, and catch my own mistakes, otherwise I don't think the whole exercise would be very useful).

Basically, you get some notes together (like a script, but not a full blown script, just some bullet points to go off of), gather your thoughts, speak into the mic for a while, and upload it for everyone to smugly comment on. And if you can get anyone who's not a douche to watch it, they might even correct you in the comments.

You don't have to actually be on camera, by the way. You can get some video, and comment about it. That's probably the easiest way to get followers too, since you can pick something people are interested in. It's unlikely that you will find people interested in just watching you talk.

My favorites are people who do e-sports commentary, on youtube. Most of them aren't language learners, but some are. And you can really see the progress, as they do more and more videos.

Stansfield123 Wrote:What I've seen a lot of people do is v-log. I haven't tried it with other languages, but I might with Japanese once I get good enough (I wanna be able to watch it, and catch my own mistakes, otherwise I don't think the whole exercise would be very useful).

Basically, you get some notes together (like a script, but not a full blown script, just some bullet points to go off of), gather your thoughts, speak into the mic for a while, and upload it for everyone to smugly comment on. And if you can get anyone who's not a douche to watch it, they might even correct you in the comments.

You don't have to actually be on camera, by the way. You can get some video, and comment about it. That's probably the easiest way to get followers too, since you can pick something people are interested in. It's unlikely that you will find people interested in just watching you talk.

My favorites are people who do e-sports commentary, on youtube. Most of them aren't language learners, but some are. And you can really see the progress, as they do more and more videos.

I was thinking about trying this. Might follow through if I get some ideas together that would be good. I don't really know how to edit or have software (can always "get" some) but if I do it well enough, editing may not be necessary.