I thought it might be a good idea to share this because it's about time I got speaking practice going. Anyhow I went with a friend and two Japanese people for sushi for a few hours and karaoke for another hour after sushi. So what exactly did I learn from this experience? I got to speak which was good but it needs work. I also read some stuff in Japanese and they were actually surprised that I could read well. As for understanding them when they spoke, I didn't have trouble actually, expect for when they started talking about events in Japan (ceremonies and stuff). I asked if them if they minded if they showed me the kanji of the event and they said it's no problem. I could recognize it in it's written form haha.

I learned that the way or pronunciations of certain things is slightly off but nothing practice can't fix. The way I talked was the always the "mainly" version of saying it. They said it's fine with friends but changing that around when you meet new people is key. I also noticed that there were a lot of words that weren't in my active vocabulary but I noticed that some things came out naturally. Sure there were some parts I lagged on but it went well.

Things I learned from that day and things I will do to improve and keep learning:
-Whenever I do an srs rep, try to get the audio of it(if possible).
-Read it out aloud and understand the meaning(all these are common sense but people tend to miss it sometimes)
-Whenever you listen to native material, take some time to replicate how they say what they are saying exactly
-Make sure to spend sometime learning about pitch accent. 箸　vs 橋. Which I could distinguish due to context.
-Learn to pronounce things well right from the beginning phases.
-Try to copy useful things as well as fun things. From anime to talk-shows and keep copying and replicate.
-You should gain an internal dialog (meaning there isn't an auto-translator going off in your head always).
Try to speak regularly, even if it's on-line(a few times a week can lead to high levels in a year or so).

I've got a couple Skype partners that speak Japanese to me, and I occasionally attempt to speak Japanese back. (lol) I think it's done wonders for my ability to understand speech, but it does it so slowly and transparently that it's hard to what really happened, or prove that it was responsible.

I recommend it for anyone, though, even the shyest people. (Like me!)

I don't live in Japan, but I still usually get between 2,5 to 4 hours every week of one-on-one conversation in Japanese only. At some point during the summer, I was getting even more, which means I've gotten several hundreds of hours speaking in the last year alone. Most of the time, though, it's the only study time I can find. I think speaking is a very important part of learning a language and I always make it my priority.

AlexandreC Wrote:I don't live in Japan, but I still usually get between 2,5 to 4 hours every week of one-on-one conversation in Japanese only. At some point during the summer, I was getting even more, which means I've gotten several hundreds of hours speaking in the last year alone. Most of the time, though, it's the only study time I can find. I think speaking is a very important part of learning a language and I always make it my priority.

You must be a smooth speaker of Japanese then, I see your in Canada. I actually live in Canada too (to be more accurate, Ontario). I am only really starting to make it a priority. I finally understand though, it's only when I got through listening and reading Japanese that speaking definitely did get easier but just like every other skill, it needs to be trained.

wccrawford Wrote:I've got a couple Skype partners that speak Japanese to me, and I occasionally attempt to speak Japanese back. (lol) I think it's done wonders for my ability to understand speech, but it does it so slowly and transparently that it's hard to what really happened, or prove that it was responsible.

I recommend it for anyone, though, even the shyest people. (Like me!)

I got to start using skype more often. I finally have a mic.

Hyperborea Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:

AlexandreC Wrote:I don't live in Japan, but I still usually get between 2,5 to 4 hours every week of one-on-one conversation in Japanese only. At some point during the summer, I was getting even more, which means I've gotten several hundreds of hours speaking in the last year alone. Most of the time, though, it's the only study time I can find. I think speaking is a very important part of learning a language and I always make it my priority.

You must be a smooth speaker of Japanese then, I see your in Canada. I actually live in Canada too (to be more accurate, Ontario). I am only really starting to make it a priority. I finally understand though, it's only when I got through listening and reading Japanese that speaking definitely did get easier but just like every other skill, it needs to be trained.

If you're in Toronto or close by then the University of Toronto has a Japanese language exchange. I know they used to and after a quick search it appears that it's still going on. It's not just for UofT students. http://jcsaonline.ca/

Oh yea I heard about this one. I definitely should try going there