Folks,

some of you may find this odd, because you are speaking Japanese all the time already or it simply is somewhat normal to do so, but today I was really keen, and finally tried it. I called a friend of mine I had been staying in contact already ever since June 2010 and we skyped. It was simply a good feeling finally seeing how much I grew in Japanese already and where I still lacked in skills and what needs improvement. (I was lucky my partner was fluent in English, too, and we constantly mixed languages for the first, which was both funny and relaxing me somewhat, as I was nervous as *hell*)

This is supposed to be more of an encouraging post than anything else. I'm feeling very happy right now and wanted to share this with you all!! Go out and try it! :D

Good work! Keep it up and you'll be talking like a pro in no time

Awesome!

This was most definitely not my first conversation in Japanese, but it felt like it. I visited a Japanese speaking table yesterday for the "Japanese community" at my school, and I was really nervous. For a while I just sat back and listened to everyone, because I was too scared to talk, but when I finally spoke it I found I did rather well. The native speakers were also really patient and helpful and seemed happy to talk to me

The more we practice the better we get! 頑張ってね！

It's amazing how fast you improve when you just start talking. I stayed with my Japanese friends for a weekend last year, and my speaking just shot through the roof. It's the best feeling the world.

@Zorlee: Thank you :) I'm more confident about it right now, as I experienced it. I have absolutely no.. troubles or reservations about pronouncing or talking, because I did a few recordings of me reading Japanese texts, uploaded it and got a - surprisingly - positive feedback from my friend. That took a lot of.. anxiousness off my chest.

@DevvaR: It's really incredible! It was the *same* feeling you are talking about and I just talked to her like 40 minutes!! What definitely helps is using あのさ・・・／えっと I realised lol It gives you time forming the sentence. What I realised all in all is that you do not pay attention so much to this はｘが thing while talking. It just 'works' seemingly, but I have to see further.

Today is a good day!! :D

おめでとうございます。

鳥くん、これからもがんばってね

はからずも駄洒落も口に出してしまったよ。

「横浜市にはドイツ人が多いし、・・」って言いたかったんだけど、その代わりに残念ながら、「ドイツ人が美味しい」になってしまったのさｗ 発音に気をつけなくちゃねぇ。

Congrats! But remember, this is just the beginning

えええ、そうですね、ん～、あの～、Some of the common fillers I use and I really drag them while I come up with the next 4 to 5 sentences that I will probably say.

The trick is to build up the how the conversation might flow in Japanese, in your head while you are using these "fillers". Even if the conversation takes an unexpected turn, the trick is use the fillers to drag it out while you build up a new set of possible things that you might say and the other person might say.

Trust me, you get really tired by the end of the day because no matter how good you are in Japanese, its still not your Native language.

Tori-kun Wrote:美味しい

That. I consulted my jisho and おいしい is spelled as おいしい (ie. no kanji version). OTOH, 美味[な] does have a meaning of "delicious" but 1) it's a na adjective, 2) the synonyms provided are 非常にうまい、とてもおいしい.

Care to explain?

美味しい and 美味い both come up in the dictionaries I use. You can use hiragana or kanji.

@pudding cat
Interesting, just double checked mine (wordtank V823) and the only place 美味しい appears in kanji form is in Japanese-Chinese section. Neither スーパー大辞林(v3.0) nor 新明解 have 美味しい. What dictionary are you using?

I looked at goo.ne.jp and on my electronic dictionary I have スーパー大辞林３.０ so you should have it too. Under おいしい it says （形）［形容詞「いしい」に接頭語「お」の付いたもの。「美味しい」とも書く］

Thanks for that. Indeed it's there. I looked only at the list of entries so didn't notice.

It's not odd at all. We all had our first conversation in Japanese at some point!
Well done!! Keep it up!

Good to hear Tori-kun, you will notice the more immersion you get, the more you read and having some speaking practice will equal amazing results.

ta12121 Wrote:Good to hear Tori-kun, you will notice the more immersion you get, the more you read and having some speaking practice will equal amazing results.

Did the website come up to your mind again you had been talking yesterday about, ta? Could find anything that would really interest me on TBS or so besides usual everyday political-related stuff...

I find it good to keep this thread alive somehow, so....

Well, I was feeling pretty down today and I was very happy and lucky that today was Friday, which I have almost forgotten and actually today was a day I was looking forward to, as I had a skype appointment with a good friend from lang8. So, basically, my first conversation I had told you about still had a lot of English in it, as my exchange partner was better in english than I was in Japanese, however, this time, it seems that my Japanese seemed better than her English and we comfortably stayed in Japanese for like 40 minutes!! She was so kind even introducing her whole family to me and her daughter is just すごくかわいい～w (Nevermind, she's 3 years old )

It was fun, because she can speak Kansai-ben, too. But I guess in the end I insulted her, making a comment about her lively/vivid daughter still not sleeping, and she said: 寝かせていくわ、またこんど～ w

After that conversation, I had another one with a guy I barely had contact with on Lang8 and we had fun 50 minutes even developing our running gag.

I'm pretty sure, I will not need to worry where to stay in Japan lol At least "he" took my offer that I make 料理・掃除 and stay for free gratefully

超嬉しい！！！