Hello!

It has always seemed like a dream to me, that I could have a Japanese friend to talk to.


/BACKGROUND/(you can skip if you want)

A month ago I still hadn´t talked yet to a japanese person, besides my japanese sensei from when I still took classes

I have transformed my life to japanese: during school recesses (during some classes too) I listen every available minute to japanese music, podcasts, watch j-drama, vocab videos, etc from my ipod. I study only kanji atm.

So after months of hardcore AJATT-ing, it seems that mother nature has hmm...blessed me? with some real life japanese friends. I have already given up all my other hobbies for the sake of japanese, so it seems like a good award. Sometimes seems like mother nature loves courage and detemination, so it seems like she understood my wishes to have japanese friends.

/EXCHANGE STUDENTS/

I´m 18 and I became friends with 3 japanese women, they are about 25-29 years old. They are in my country until July, so that makes about 6 months from now. recently I met a 16-year-old Japanese girl who lives here in my city with her mom. Seems like she has moved here so i guess she will be living here for long.

So the exchange students are very cool people and we always speak in japanese. One of them really helps me when I mess up and corrects me. They are helpful and always wait as I construct my sentences slowly.

/MY STUDYING METHOD & QUESTIONS/:

What I came up is that I will just keep hanging out with them and only speak to them in japanese. They dont demand me speaking in English for them, so thats cool. I heard that some japanese want to practice their English on Europeans.

I thought that adding the words I didnt know while talking to them to ANKI would be a good idea to study.(and also copying some stuff from Gtalk to anki)

*What I thought is that it would be better for me to use the simplest language I can not to mess up often, or should I try some more difficult stuff?

*Do you have any good ideas about how to learn more from hanging out with them, or any good ideas on what to do together, so that I can learn japanese from it? (dont want to be egoistic and just use them...) we usually get together with other japanese learners and the japanese, and watch movies together or make sushi or something.

This week we are having a birthday party with 2 of the japanese. Turned out my birthday date was the same as one of the japanese. And the other Japanese exchange students´ birthdays close. so the three of us are celebrating together!

Sorry for such a long post!

Rene ^^

I think you should use simple language. Not as simple as you can, but put it at a comfortable level, don't push your level beyond what you're comfortable with. As you talk more, your level of comfort will increase automatically, so it's better to speak easy but correct Japanese and work your way up.

Don't be surprised if your japanese friends want a little more than just english lessons.....haha.... :-)

Don't be afraid to make mistakes and at time when you know you can't say what you want just try and afterward ask the correct way to say it. I find that helps me a lot.

As always, do what you are comfortable with. You'll find that will find your own limits, and you will push them just enough to learn from, but not enough to die of mortal fright.

Bring a little pocket notebook around and write stuff down that you didn't know, and review it later. I find it helps, and its also good for random non Japanese related stuff you want to remember.

Advice: Turn them into friends, not language exchange partners. You'll get way more out of the former, including but not limited to language practice. In other words, don't constantly bombard them with Japanese questions or EVER sit down with a JP book.

Jarvik7 Wrote:sit down with a JP book.

ahahahahah
I can see it now...
"You're really nice to be helping me... now let's GET TO WORK!!!"

Most Japanese people I've met can't really teach or explain Japanese well. Not surprising, as I can't exactly explain English grammar either (One of them asked me the difference between "I went to France" and "I've been to France"..totally had me stumped..). Also as someone has said, continuous probing questions about Japan can get really tiresome. I find the idea of carrying a notebook or portable computer and writing down words a bit weird..maybe helpful but you'll look like a total ヲタ。。

Really you should just use this opportunity to practise speaking and listening. Do not go for super-advanced grammar and vocab; just pretend you're a 5 year old and reply with one word sentences if you have to! Otherwise just treat them like normal friends..cos that's what they are at the end of the day..

Thanks for replying!

After meeting them I usually type all the words i didnt know in my mobile and save them. That way i wont look strange as like when writing words in my notebook when having a conversation. I think it does well.

Being friends surely works better than language exchange partners, i´d be bored probably, the other person also..

mezbup Wrote:Don't be afraid to make mistakes and at time when you know you can't say what you want just try and afterward ask the correct way to say it. I find that helps me a lot.

Didn´t come up with this, sounds a good idea!
I have found that I can only use informal japanese with them, I just cant add these masus and desu-s even if I try, formal seems strange. And sadly sometimes I know a certain form of a word only in formal language and start thinking. My formal is so bad that when we went to eat at a 16-year-old japanesese girl´s home, I couldnt really speak with her okaasan in formal japanese

haha i have to agree. It's weird explaining english grammar.

Are you guys able to explain Japanese grammar?

I personally cannot explain English or Japanese grammar at all. I can't even point out subjects/objects in a sentence. At least I think I can identify nouns, adjectives, and verbs... but I don't know the subcategories. In either language.

I've been meaning to pick up an English textbook (for Japanese) so I can learn to explain things in Japanese instead of just giving rough translations. As anybody else tried this?

Sorry for going off-topic.

aphasiac Wrote:(One of them asked me the difference between "I went to France" and "I've been to France"..totally had me stumped..)

Whenever people say things like this on a forum I have to engage in a small war with myself not to post some big long explanation based purely on my own musings.

Grrkk