Getting conversational

The secret to learning a new language is one we already know. We need to start talking. To people. Having real conversations.

But, if you’re not in Japan, how can you talk to a live Japanese people?

There’s a couple options.

  1. Try the university and put up a poster to see if you can find a language partner.
  2. Find out who’s teaching language courses in your city and see if you can get private one on one lessons with the instructor focusing solely on conversation.
  3. Use an online service like The Mixxer to connect with locals through skype.
  4. Go to your library and see what’s going on in your community. There’s probably a Japanese get together or something that you could go to.
  5. Try the asian grocery store, the sushi restaurant, talk to the owners and see if they can help you out, or maybe they’ll let you put up a poster saying that you’re looking for people to talk with.

There’s a lot of options out there and not being in Japan, or not knowing ‘enough’ is no excuse. You’ll never know enough until you start making some mistakes outside of the textbook conversations.