43 Things

Opportunity 4 years ago

It can be really hard to find an opportunity to practice Japanese outside of Japan. That’s not surprising. But, I’ve found some native speakers online that are interested in language exchange, and I’ve even spoken to a few of them via Skype. Each conversation has been great; there’s the experimentation with using Skype and the giggles that follow, my surprise at their good Swedish pronunciation, and some general talking.

However, I haven’t had a second conversation, and I think it’s my fault. Sure, I’ve been very busy lately, since I started a new job. But even when one of my language friends are online and I want to talk, I can’t bring myself to ask if they want to talk to me. I don’t want to intrude. I tell myself that maybe they’re busy, maybe they don’t want to talk to me, maybe they’ll think I’m annoying if I ask again.

This is connected to two of my other goals: “be more social” and “think less and do more”.

Sep 23, 2005, 09:42AM PDT | 2 cheers

Comments:

heather

thank you!

there seem to be just so many places out there.. hard to know where is good. and alot of the sites seem to be geared towards match/dating, you know?

(esp western men to japanese women like at http://www.3yen.com/friends/ )

alas!

i have experience teaching english (not japanese) and i’m thinking along the lines of making little worksheets you can use for language exchange. with the necc vocabulary, practice sentences, then some prompts or games to help you produce language. something you can do with someone else via audio only- though both would need the sheets to work with.

would you be interested in testing one out? you’d have to find your own partner and test it out.

btw- anything i make will be GPL, so it’s for anyone!

Sep 26, 2005, 02:32PM PDT | Parent | Respond to this

joaquim

Awesome

That sounds like a really great initiative, I would love to help in any way I can.

It would be really neat to have web based versions of the worksheets, especially since I only meet Japanese speakers through the internet. I might be able to help set that up, as I have experience with PHP/mySQL.

You said you’ve taught English; does that mean the worksheets will be purely for teaching English? Are you working together with someone to make Japanese worksheets as well, or are you fluent enough to do them yourself?

Sep 27, 2005, 09:12AM PDT | Thread | Respond to this

heather

cool!

i just referenced my teaching experience, in that i have an understanding of language learning activities. (and i worked for a compaany making learning materials and i designed games with linguists, etc).

i’m working with my language exchange partner to make the activites (he’s an english speaker, but intermediate level japanese). and i have my japanese native language speaking tutor who is helping me with making sure the language is correct.

today, in fact we tested out the first one on ‘telling time’. i’m estimating that each activity will take about 30 mins max, and cover a very specific topic or set of structures.

i want to make something that will work for non-native speakers to practice together; as well as to practice with native speakers.

i need to polish up the sheet, and come up with some feedbaack questions so you can try it out probably next week, or whenever you have the time!

contact me here: http://japanese.nearlythere.com/contact/

Sep 29, 2005, 08:19AM PDT | Respond to this

Comments:

thank you!

Awesome

cool!

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