I’m still fighting my way through Mr. Itoi’s book. It is packed with a lot of essays, which are sometimes abstract or use similes and metaphors, so excellent reading practice. I just have to struggle to stay focused on it after a long day at work, but I’ll get through it. Pretty interesting read overall so far.
I think the biggest thing on my mind right now (and everyone else’s) is our test results. As of this recording, JEES hasn’t announced the exact date when they will be sending out the results, but I’m guessing it will be around February 9th or so. That’s when they typically make it out to the mailbox.
For the latest details be sure to check the JEES website. They might have a more specific date by the time your reading/listening to this. At the moment, they are just reporting a tentative mid-February.
Another big goal of mine for February is to do more speaking in Japanese. I feel like my speaking skills have fallen by the wayside a bit recently and it is time to sharpen them up so I can actually, you know, use the language. I’ll be going through a couple of different activities to see what works and what is practical.
Use or Lose It
Which leads me to the topic of today’s podcast, use or lose it. Just to give you a little background. When I first came Japan millions of years ago, I had a tutor that I met with twice a week. Not a teacher, but a tutor.
We did a lot of chatting in Japanese, which was very hard at first because my Japanese was pretty bad, but gradually over time it became a lot easier to cope with. What also helped was having to ask and answer questions in Japanese and working out different situations.
If you are in Japan, I highly recommend getting a tutor. There are usually volunteers in your area that will help you learn Japanese. You just need to ask around or contact your local city hall, they will sometimes know where to go as well.
Nowadays
About 3 or so years ago though, I became a chronic workaholic. This prevented me from meeting up with a tutor or my regular exchange group that I met with on another day. So, recently, I haven’t had that much speaking practice. Only the occasional visit with in-laws and a semi-daily chat with my wife.
I do have plenty of Japanese exposure. I listen to a lot of people chatting in Japanese and read numerous emails, memos, and newsletters all in Japanese, but I don’t actually use the language. I can say that I get plenty of input, but not a lot of output experience. It’s not the end of the world, but it certainly isn’t helping things.
This has been exacerbated by the fact that over the last year, I’ve been really focusing on passing the N2. And, I’ll probably continue to focus on passing the N2 if I didn’t make it this last December. So, instead of doing any kind of speaking or writing practice, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and listening exercises in order to prep for that test.
Time to Get Back into the Groove
I’ve started going out of my way to try to strike up a conversation with people these days. Even if I know all there is to know about something in the store. I take the time to try to ask a few simple questions about it or bug a clerk to give me a few recommendations instead of meandering around the store looking for something.
The biggest thing to remember is that talk is free. You don’t have to buy anything after all, and often times clerks are pretty bored and happy to help (that is if you go when it isn’t busy).
Another big goal of mine for February is try to hunt down a good exchange partner online. Somebody I can simply chat with on a regular basis in Japanese to get my conversation ability up. I’ve always found that this alone is a big help. The person you are chatting with doesn’t have to be a full-blown Japanese teacher, just be willing to help you out and be patient.
I’ll try to report back on what I find out, or what I don’t. I’m sure there will be a lot of failings along the way. I’m sure I’ll end up learning a lot about the whole process and I’ll keep you posted on the whole thing.
How about you?
What do you do to get your fill of speaking? I’d like to especially hear from you if you live outside of Japan. How do you get your conversation practice? Let me know in the comments below.
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Music by Kevin MacLeod Photo and Bookmark available at Black Heart Letterpress
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I’m in the Midwest (USA). I’ve been doing a weekly Skype meeting with a delightful gal in Tokyo. She’s sweet and patient with my beginning Japanese, and absolutely inspiring to chat with. She and I met on Lang-8.
Good to here Amy. A lot of people have mentioned lang-8 as the place to be for language partners. I will have to check it out and see what I find. I’m sure it might be a little tricky to find a native speaker in the Midwest.
I do not live in Japan but have many Japanese people in my skype list. Most of them, I met on sites like sharedtalk or lang-8. I talk to around three of them on a regular basis, though the time difference makes it rather though.
The benefit of these talks from a language learning point of view vary a lot. My Japanese is not that good and I need the other side to be aware of this. Some of my friends do a great job in talking to me in a way that is comprehensible for me. E.g. they’d notice when I don’t understand the words they are using and would rephrase the sentence. Things like that help me a lot. I have come to realize that this by no means a given, as others would just repeat the same sentence again and again until I give up by stuttering a shy little うん and hoping I’ll eventually be able to fill the gap and grasp what they are talking about.
I am very thankful for these learning opportunities. However, I do also see it’s limitations. I don’t feel my speaking is progressing very much. Even though sometimes I’ll have my mistakes pointed out end corrected, most of the time my partners would just let me talk. While this helps to keep the conversation going on, it also strengthens the mistakes I am doing. I try to cope with that by asking myself whether or not the wording I was using was right or not and usually get quite a good feedback.
Yeah, I just want to practice the skill of speaking. I think it is important to at least do that. Having a tutor that corrects all your mistakes can be incredibly useful as well, but cuts down on your fluency/speaking speed. You really need a balance of both (fluency and accuracy) to be a good speaker.
You need to think about your goals of the conversation, do you want to be understood with some ambiguity? (fluency-focus) or do you want to sound intelligent and be clear? (accuracy-focus). Both have their purposes, but yeah I’ve also seen students that have certain mistakes that are cemented into their speaking and it’s really hard to get them to unlearn that, so I want to try to strike a balance.
I’m surprised the JLPT results haven’t been released yet in Japan. Here in Korea they were published last Thursday online. Not a happy result for me though – I scored 88 on the N1.
I can emphasise the importance of a Japanese tutor though at all levels. Using a tutor has helped improve my speaking no end and also helped me when preparing for the JLPT – especially when going over practice reading papers. I’ve found having someone explain clearly why I’ve got a question wrong to be a big help.
Yeah, here in Japan, we get paper results that have to get printed out so there is a slight delay. I just got mine on Feb. 9th, but it is dated Jan 29th. I think it was the same last year, so it looks like that is going to be the usual routine of things.
88 on N1 is still pretty good though. That’s close, I’m sure you can get it on the next test.
I also agree, it is absolutely priceless to have a Japanese tutor that can clearly explain a passage to you and explain the nuances in those tricky comprehension questions.