[help] I'm getting a japanese exchange student
 

hi , as the title says im getting an exchange student from japan. I'm *really* hyped up about it and i want to get the absolute most out of it. Meaning i want to improve my Japanese greatly in the duration there here (2 weeks). There coming in march so i was wondering if any body could direct me to a set of verbs/nouns/particles that would allow to me to hold a decent conversation. I have an ok knowledge of the language at the moment. I can put together sentences easily of basic design all i need is the verbs which im trying to learn more of everyday. My particles are a little lacking though with me only knowing the most simplest ones wa/no/wo. I no less to no counters and things like saying the time are at 0% percent. So if you could just run down a little list of stuff that would allow to me converse with her/him ill *really* appreciate it. Cos i really wanna learn and this seems like a golden opportunity. i don't mind if its a lot of stuff ill try my best to learn as much as possible ^^

thanks~

Start here.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs - Tae Kim's Japanese grammar guide

I would also suggest you start with systematic learning of Japanese through text books and instructor led classes as learning randomly is not going to get you anywhere.

Speaking to a Japanese native speaker won't help you much unless you have a foundation in Japanese grammar. This is because Japanese natives don't know how to TEACH Japanese. Even if they know their grammar, it would be totally different to western textbooks. What westerners know as type 1, 2 and 3 verbs are known as Godan(五段)、Kamiichidan(上一段)、Shimoichidan(下一段)、Sagyouhe nkaku(サ行変格) and kagyouhenkaku(カ行変格) in Japanese.

Trust me you do not want a native Japanese trying to explain grammar to you unless they are a qualified instructor.

Anyway, I guess this phrase helps.
わたしにできることがあれば、いつでも声をかけてくだ さい。
If there is anything I can do for you, please ask any time.

This is correct. My wife tried to teach me but I got confused. I am in school now.
By the way, what did you exchange for the student?:D

Keep in mind that your exchange student may be looking just as forward to using English with you. Make sure there is a balance there.

Holy words...that was my first mistake when I first started exchanging emails with a pen pal in Japan. I soon learnt that I learn better from him by seeing the way he writes and not his grammar explanations.

As someone who studied in Japan, I'd like to point out that using Japanese with your exchange student is terribly rude. The student is likely moving to Australia to learn English, not to teach Japanese. He's likely spending a huge sum of money to be there, too.

I always hated it when people would speak English with me in Japan, because I didn't go to Japan to speak English; I went to learn Japanese.

Of course, if the student is just using "learning English" as an excuse to chill in a gorgeous country for a while, then no worries, mate!

as people have said; they are there to learn English; so maybe try to work by you talking English; then they can reply in English, then again in Japanese; so you can both learn off'f each other...
just an idea; it worked fairly well when i had French exchanges (except that I'm crap at languages and i never remembered anything :rolleyes:)

Is this through a school exchange program? I had a student when I was 15 and one of the things I really enjoyed was sitting and doing our homework together. She had to write a diary in English about what she did each day and then I would check over it for her.

Perhaps you could try something like that? I only needs to be a short paragraph but it will give the student something to work with (as opposed to "teach me something"). And you will then have a hard copy to study over later.

Like others have said, the student might feel a bit jipped if they use more Japanese than English, so it's probably better to have an hour or so of dedicated language exchange time set aside and just use English the rest of the time.

I'm actually quite shocked anyone is suggesting he actually practice Japanese with the exchange student. In the US, it costs tens of thousands of dollars for a Japanese high school student to spend a year in the US. TENS OF THOUSANDS.

Do you think the student's parents want to spend over half a US worker's annual salary for their kid to go overseas and speak Japanese?

Granted, I don't know how much it costs in Australia for an exchange student at the secondary level, but the point is: speaking your native language abroad really harms your potential to pick up the new language, even if it's only an hour each day. That's almost 10% of all waking hours!