Some of you may have already emailed before me since I posted on here a couple weeks ago under the same name. I haven’t met anyone from here yet, but it looks like there are many good people on this site who are very serious in improving their English.

I am looking for mainly email exchange at this time since I don’t feel my japanese is strong enough to speak with anyone yet. Unless you really don’t mind speaking very slowly like a child then I won’t be able to understand you^^

So if you haven’t already then you can email me but make sure it is in hiragana and katakana. Please don’t use any Kanji because my brain hurts when i look at it~ You can write about anything but make sure its in Japanese. I really do mean anything, whatever is on your mind or what you did during the day. Then you can write the same thing in English after and i can email you back and correct any mistakes. You can also ask me any questions about English, Vancouver, advice, or about myself. But make sure those questions are asked in japanese too.

I first took a course in japanese way back in high school many years ago. We only learned a few basics. Then again in university I took another course which was a bit more advanced. I guess we learned about 300 to 500 of the more commonly used words. Along with 150 or so Kanji, (but I’m not interested in learning anymore Kanji since it doubles my study time^^) I think right now i can still recognize about 200 to 300 words. This is probably far less than 2000 or 3000 English words I’m guessing most of you have by now in your vocabularies. Since I heard they start studying English quite early on in Japan.

I almost never have any chances to use Japanese but I’m just starting again after I found out about this forum. The way I learn now is that I use a combination of sources to translate the parts of your email I don’t understand. It is fun yet challenging. I also feel I am learning more this way by doing it on my own instead of someone just telling me the answers first.

After my level of Japanese improves a bit on my own then I hope to speak with people. At first you could speak Japanese to me while I answer you back in English. Then after a while I could speak Japanese to you and you answer me back in English. If one of us doesn’t understand then don’t automatically just tell each other the answer. For example, if you are speaking to me in Japanese and i don’t understand something. And i ask you, then instead of giving me the translation in english, you should try to explain it to me by using other japanese words. This does take lots of patience and persistence but this is the only way to effectively learn by challenging our minds.

This strategy has worked for me before when I lived in another country trying to learn another language. Whenever people saw me they would try to speak English because they wanted to practice theirs. Instead of me answering them back in English (which is the easy thing to do) I would answer them back in their own language. Sometimes I pretended like i didn’t even speak english so that would force them to use their own language!

The moral of this story is, if you come all the way here to learn English, then you really have to challenge yourself. I know it is tempting to speak your native language with your other Japanese friends here, but even if they speak to you in Japanese, then answer them back in English. Pretend like you don’t even know Japanese. Even if you phone your friends back in Japan, then still speak English to them, except maybe if they’re your parents and they don’t understand^^ I know this is difficult but I have done it before and believe me it works. If life was too easy then nobody would want to do it, right?

Anyways, if you haven’t already emailed me, then please feel free to do so. I will respond to everyone. But it might take me a few days or more to get back to you.

OH I almost forgot. Please write with spaces between your words and particles when typing in the japanese alphabet to me. しごと は してます か. and not しごとはしてますか. other wise i get too confused. I hope this is not too much trouble for you!

Thanks for reading this