Hi everyone!
I'm currently mining some really hard stuff, and need help. Even though this forum is awesome, with a whole lot of helpful users, I would love to find a web-site or something where I can get fast answers from Japanese natives.
I'm looking for forums, chat-rooms etc.
I've tried lang-8, but it takes 3-4 days to get answers, at least for me. I would love a place, like a chat-room or forum, where I could get instant answers.
Do you guys have any recommendations?

Thanks!
Z..

http://www.sharedtalk.com

Quite a few Japanese on there looking for language exchanges.

Or you can try the 2chan chat rooms. Speciflcally the '#Japanese' room.

http://irc.2ch.net/

Also the Japanese version of yahoo messenger lets you connect to a whole, whole, bunch of chat rooms. There are 英会話 rooms you can connect to and find some people willing to help you out.

http://www.yahoo.co.jp

sharedtalk.com is highly recommended. You can do simultanious voice and text chat on there as well, and chat in groups or 1-on-1.

Doesn't seem to be all that many natives in the Japanese channel on the 2ch IRC. Seems to be mostly complete beginners speaking in English with eachtother. Like this forum, but WAY less focus on the actual language.

I don't know anything about that room, but it might be worth noting that it's 2 AM in Japan at the moment.

QuackingShoe Wrote:I don't know anything about that room, but it might be worth noting that it's 2 AM in Japan at the moment.

Yeah, but I was on early this morning (when it was 8PM in Japan) and there were still no Japanese being talked.

Hello,

I was gonna say what IceCream said. Try making a friend and add it in your MSN or skype friend list.

lang 8 is a great place to find friends to do that, why is everyone so nice on that site?!

isnt　ｉｔ　ｂｅｃａｕｓｅ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　ＩＭＥ　ｉｓ　ｓｗｉｔｃｈｅｄ　ｏｎ，　ｉｃｅｃｒｅａｍ？　ｊｕｓｔ　ａｌｔ　ｓｈｉｆｔ　ａｎｄ　ｉｔ　ｓｈｏｕｌｄ　ｇｏ．

ｐｓ．　ｔｈａｎｋｓ　ｆｏｒ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｒｅｐｌｙ　ｏｎ　ｕｓｅｒ　ｍｅｔｈｏｄｓ．

It's giving me headaches

Try this site http://www.language-exchanges.org/ Write your profile in Japanese and you should get a bunch of friend requests like I did, and naturally you can make some of your own requests. Once you get a few people added to Skype, you'll be set. I managed to make friends with a group of people who like having group chats, and for some reason completely avoid speaking English, so it's been really beneficial for my Japanese.

IceCream Wrote:ｙｅａｈ，　ｂｕｔ　ｕｓｕａｌｌｙ　ｉｔｓ　ｎｏｒｍａｌ　ｗｒｉｔｉｎｇ　ｅｖｅｎ　ｗｈｅｎ　ｍｙ　ｉｍｅ’ｓ　ｏｎ！　ｏｈ　ｗｅｌｌ，　ｔｈｉｓ　ｗｒｉｔｉｎｇｓ　ｐｒｅｔｔｙ　ｃｏｏｌ　ｔｏｏ．．．

Your IME should have an option/mode somewhere for whether you want full-width or half-width ASCII, and you've got it in full-width mode. Take it out again, it's really ugly :-)

When I type in the IME, English looks like this, until I ｈｉｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｏーｍａｊｉ　ｋｅｙ。

Thank you guys! =)
I guess I'll have to get into lang-8 some more then... But man, that yahoo messenger thing was a GREAT tip! It's insane in there though, but I got a lot of help. Some dude dissed my Japanese, and the whole chat-room went insane, protecting me, since they didn't want the one 外人 to leave (they really wanted to talk about the Norwegian Fjords. I don't understand why, but..) Therefore I got a lot of sympathy-help. And that's the best kind of help, if you ask me.

PS: Thank you for fixing your IME, Icecream. I'm still dizzy...

I can't find the JP Yahoo Messenger chat rooms. Where are they located?

TheVinster Wrote:I can't find the JP Yahoo Messenger chat rooms. Where are they located?

Just install the messenger and log in. At the bottom half, there's a chatbutton. Press it and you get a folderlike system of finding it, press the 学校blabla thing and you'll see some rooms to the right, one being 英会話.

I think Lang-8 is as good as it's going to get.
I hang out at #japanese on rizon time to time to get answers on Japanese, but there's usually only natives on there when I'm asleep. You can try that 英会話 chatroom on yahoo, but Japanese people may/probably will choose to ignore you or give you an answer you can't understand.

What are the kind of problems exactly? Maybe a good reference like どんなときどう使う would be a better option. It's not like natives necessarily know what they're talking about after all.