Hello hello! Im new to reddit, I've heard its a great place to interact with people in different niches and stuff. I've been LOVING this community omg.

I've been studying Japanese for the last 13 years, and I have been living in Japan for 7 years (gosh, writing it out makes me realize how insane that is).

What are some things you're struggling with when it comes to Japanese? Speaking? Listening?

Mine is vocabulary. While I do have an extensive vocabulary, I find that my confidence is lacking, and that is hindering my ability to actually use different vocabulary I've learned in conversations.... It's so upsetting cause I've memorized a lot of difficult words yet I just don't have the confidence to actually say them lol I think its cause I need more exposure/context to the words so I can grasp the full picture.

Anyways, よろしくお願いします！

Hi! I think I've started my study for Japanese about 2 years ago. I seriously started studying it by participating in a Japanese class that was offered by my uni. Even now the hardest part for me is the speaking. Unlike grammar and reading, speaking needs other people to practice 😭. But to combat that I've been writing my journal in Japanese because my theory is that speaking is just how fast you can make a sentence in Japanese.

Knowing you have studied the language for a long time, do you have recommendation for me to practice my speaking? Oh yeah and another thing, I will be going to Japan go work by April next year. So your input is greatly appreciated. ありがとう！

Hello!
Ive been studying Japanese for the last 2 years and im planning on studying then living in japan in 2 years.
Random question but,
What was it that got you to move to japan? And how was the transition?

Anyway, welcome!

I'm always surprised at the ways that natives choose to phrase things! I can hear them and understand perfectly, but if I was given the same concept to produce with my own Japanese, I would do it in a very different, often less efficient way

Started studying a month ago by using Renshuu. Got my hands on Genki yesterday. Exciting times ahead!

ばんざい！

Hello there! Ahhh you're at the beginning!! You're gonna love the language the more you study it 😭😭

The best tip I have for speaking is practice with people who are also studying Japanese, AKA, you're friends!! If you could get together a group of friends who are studying Japanese, and also possibly a native in the group, that would be PERFECT for you. That really helped me boost my confidence when speaking. I also used Hellotalk (it was a completely different app back then, actually used for language studying, not dates 😭😂), and that helped me with speaking as well. I did a lot of voice recording and shadowing.

Forget about speed, that is your enemy!! Try to focus on what you want to talk about, and what direction you want your sentence to go in. I know we all have those "wait, idk where I was going with this" moments in our native language, but everything we speak our mother tongue we know almost exactly what we're trying to convey. Keep that in mind when speaking Japanese, that will help you stay on track.

Find what works for you, but I really do recommend trying to find people who are also studying Japanese, and have little conversations with them!

Nice!! 頑張ってねー！

I moved to Japan because I studied abroad here, and fell in love with the beauty and nature of it all. It's sooooo beautiful here. Not easy to live in at all though once you've experienced working here. It's VERY TOUGH. lol but yeah I'm just kinda surviving😭😭

Ahhh good luck out there!!! I can answer any questions you have hehe I loooovvveee grammar

I can relate to the part about vocabulary! Although my vocab bank is not relatively as big, I feel much more limited when I get into a conversation. By the way, do you do a lot of reading practice? (currently on the hunt for some nice books to practice on)

Yes exactly i notice this for me as well...Just shows how fundamentally different grammar is in japanese from English and also how less contextual it is

I'm in the exact same boat with outputting as you. Anyways, 頑張ろう！

Hello! I'm new to Japanese but not reddit, welcome to reddit!

"I've memorized a lot of difficult words yet I just don't have the confidence to actually say them"

That's me in English and I'm a native English speaker