Thoughts on language exchange and where to do it? | Refold – 日本語 (JA) | Page 1

alpine fulcrum Feb 1, 2023, 9:24 PM

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Hello! I am finding myself in a pretty slow/low motivation period in my japanese journey and I would like to pick up the pace again. I am not sure if this is an "intermediate plateau" because at a 2k word vocab and very poor listening skills I am not sure I am intermediate at all. Just finding it hard to get myself to immerse more and so my vocab and grammar knowledge have not grown in months now, just maintaining my SRS knowledge basically.

I'd like to try language exchange, in spite of how embarrassed I know I'd be doing it. I used to be able to talk to a japanese friend of mine but we can't do that anymore so I'm going to need to start somewhere new, maybe even make a new japanese friend.

What do you guys think abt language exchange? For me I think it'd be enough just to do it to motivate myself more and feel good having a sort of conversation with someone, even at a child's level. But I'm not sure what the best approach to that kind of thing is. Which one of the many sites do you think is the best, if you've tried any?

honest skiff Feb 1, 2023, 9:28 PM

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The general consensus among immersion learners seems to be that output practice at early stage isn't super productive but can provide motivation if you're a more extroverted learner eager to speak with and meet people.

HelloTalk and Tandem are the two language exchange apps that are most used. Both are fine, tandem has a better web application if you plan to do it from your computer a lot. Try either or both and see what works for you.
There's also iTalki where you can pay to hire a tutor to talk to you and give you feedback, and a few language exchange servers on VRChat (you don't need a VR headset to play VRChat, it has a normal desktop application).

alpine fulcrum Feb 1, 2023, 9:34 PM

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I plan to do it from my computer yea. I've heard of iTalki before but I don't want to pay for a tutor quite yet. I'm planning to do that in a later part of my journey when I can feel I've built up more knowledge and would like to start on something like pronunciation.

I think I'll try tandem then. VRChat sounds interesting but I'd like something private and afaik VRChat is open lobbies correct?

honest skiff Feb 1, 2023, 9:35 PM

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Correct, you just drop into a lobby and talk to people.

alpine fulcrum Feb 1, 2023, 9:35 PM

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yeah I think I'd die of shame right then and there

honest skiff Feb 1, 2023, 9:36 PM

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But there is a Japanese English exchange server where it'll be expected your language skills aren't great

alpine fulcrum Feb 1, 2023, 9:37 PM

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I understand and it's not a rational thing at all, I'm just like that. But the times when I was talking to my japanese friend were the times I felt the best about doing japanese because it felt "real" in a way where just me sitting at home reading an article or watching a video doesn't quite feel.

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so I'd like to try to continue doing 1 on 1 things

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hopefully I'll find someone on tandem who wants to learn english

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or romanian lol but that's unlikely

honest skiff Feb 1, 2023, 9:53 PM

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No that's understandable, output is quite a bit easier one on one
Good luck

#Thoughts on language exchange and where to do it?