please help me structure my language exchanges better

[pattiewack]

Hi everyone,

I have been studying Japanese for about 3 months now.

I am just about to complete Pimsleur Japanese Unit III and I am really happy with where I am now as opposed to before I started studying but, obviously, by no means am I fluent yet. I actually speak much better then I understand but even then I can't remember everything without a bit of a prompt.
I plan to do the entire course again so I can really get the basics stuck in my brain.

I googled for stories of people who were in the same position as me and the next step (aside from learning Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana) seems to be to start up some language exchanges and gain some conversational experience

I had my first one on Friday night and my second today and I am just really lucky that my very patient language exchange partners could speak English much much better than I can Japanese.

I found that I kept needing to ask what words meant but when I was told the meanings, I would remember that I had already learned it... I just forgot it.

It was quite frustrating but it's not all a loss as it is still experience (I guess we all need to start somewhere) and it gives my partners better lessons as they get more English practice.

What I am wanting to ask about is the structure of our conversations for the English part and My Japanese part.

Does anyone have an suggestions or experiences that they would like to share so that I can maximize the effectiveness of our language exchanges.

I can't talk about the same thing in English every day/week or we will both get bored and as for the Japanese I need something that is not too complex to ease me into understanding it being spoken before I can engage in full conversations.

Any suggestions to help me with any of this will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[RickOShay]

Originally Posted by pattiewack

Hi everyone,

I have been studying Japanese for about 3 months now.

I am just about to complete Pimsleur Japanese Unit III and I am really happy with where I am now as opposed to before I started studying but, obviously, by no means am I fluent yet. I actually speak much better then I understand but even then I can't remember everything without a bit of a prompt.
I plan to do the entire course again so I can really get the basics stuck in my brain.

I googled for stories of people who were in the same position as me and the next step (aside from learning Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana) seems to be to start up some language exchanges and gain some conversational experience

I had my first one on Friday night and my second today and I am just really lucky that my very patient language exchange partners could speak English much much better than I can Japanese.

I found that I kept needing to ask what words meant but when I was told the meanings, I would remember that I had already learned it... I just forgot it.

It was quite frustrating but it's not all a loss as it is still experience (I guess we all need to start somewhere) and it gives my partners better lessons as they get more English practice.

What I am wanting to ask about is the structure of our conversations for the English part and My Japanese part.

Does anyone have an suggestions or experiences that they would like to share so that I can maximize the effectiveness of our language exchanges.

I can't talk about the same thing in English every day/week or we will both get bored and as for the Japanese I need something that is not too complex to ease me into understanding it being spoken before I can engage in full conversations.

Any suggestions to help me with any of this will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

As far as being able to remember words goes, I say flashcards, flashcards, flashcards. There are many sites/apps online that you can create your own and refer to them whenever you want. Make cards, and spend 20 minutes with them each day, and I think your issue with remembering will get resolved much more quickly.

It is hard to suggest conversation structures for you, since I have no idea what you know how to use. But basically I would just take like maybe 1-2 grammar points/new words and try using them in your conversation. Your partner can then correct and tutor you.

[pattiewack]

thanks for the advice.

that sounds like a good idea with the flash cards.

I think a good approach for me might be to work my way through pimsleur again with my language partner starting from lesson 1.

I thought I might give him the PDF that contains the notes that accompany the course, then, each week ask him to stick to the subject being spoken in say, 5 consecutive units at a time.

This might make it a bit easier to ease my self into getting used to understanding conversation.