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Post by Jembru on Oct 25, 2013 16:56:35 GMT
Okay, so Bokusenou gave a cool tip to click on the title bar at the top of the chat page, and this reloads it in another window and seems to fix my issue of only seeing a section of the text! Anyway, I'm pottering around doing housework (story of my life ^^) and making my bento for work, but I'm in chat now if anyone wants to chat (ideally in Japanese please, but I'd rather chat in English than not at all!). I'm going to be in skype for a while too, for those who have me on there! Ah yeah, I think I asked this when we chatted in Japanese some time, but I don't think you answered (or I missed your reply, which I tend to do if I'm off on a tangent. How to you write your name in kana bokusenou? Is it ボクセンオウ or ボクせノウ?Or should I just call you リン? Jade: I've seen your reply on skype, but I keep logging in at the same time and I'm worried I'll wake you if I reply. I'm not ignoring you, I just have no sense of time zone difference! (also.. I'm starting to think it is signing into skype that makes my connection start cutting out. I don't know how, considering Anna and I voice chatted for 2 hours without a single disconnection, but this week, every time I've thought my connection was good so signed in, it's started cutting out within minutes of signing in
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Post by Bokusenou on Oct 25, 2013 22:28:28 GMT
I never get to practice Japanese. It's no wonder I don't really get any better. Looks like I'm doomed to a lifetime of failure and perpetual noobness... ^^ Sharedtalk.com and chatpad.jp are good for that sort of thing, as you can find Japanese people who are on and ready to chat at whatever moment you visit the site.
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Post by Jembru on Oct 25, 2013 22:55:21 GMT
Sounds awesome, but I don't think you realise quite how shy I am. I can bearly speak to you guys never mind strangers. In fact, I never speak to strangers if I can avoid it. I guess I could ask my offline Japanese friends to chat with me on skype sometimes (come to think of it, I actually don't know anyone Japanese, who I didn't first meet face to face.. I guess it would be cool to meet some Japanese people via the net. ^^
In the meantime, I'm sitting at work watching annoying Westerners acting like anime characters in their Jvlogs that are 100 times better than anything I could ever make... おまけに、皆あたしより美しくて、髪形がよくて、プルプル肌をしているし。。。フェアじゃないわよ!この世界の万事が大嫌い!!ケーキがたくさん必要としてきちゃった。。。
Ah, glad I got that off my chest (lol). I do love to moan and cry while doing jack about it ^^
Well, as I can't use chat at work, I guess I'll get all my jobs out of the way and then sit and do speaking practise. Who cares if someone wakes up and finds me talking to myself ^^ (and then I'll do nothing for 3 days again, because I'm hopeless).
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Post by Bokusenou on Oct 26, 2013 0:52:15 GMT
Sounds awesome, but I don't think you realise quite how shy I am. I can bearly speak to you guys never mind strangers. In fact, I never speak to strangers if I can avoid it. I guess I could ask my offline Japanese friends to chat with me on skype sometimes (come to think of it, I actually don't know anyone Japanese, who I didn't first meet face to face.. I guess it would be cool to meet some Japanese people via the net. ^^ In the meantime, I'm sitting at work watching annoying Westerners acting like anime characters in their Jvlogs that are 100 times better than anything I could ever make... おまけに、皆あたしより美しくて、髪形がよくて、プルプル肌をしているし。。。フェアじゃないわよ!この世界の万事が大嫌い!!ケーキがたくさん必要としてきちゃった。。。 Ah, glad I got that off my chest (lol). I do love to moan and cry while doing jack about it ^^ Well, as I can't use chat at work, I guess I'll get all my jobs out of the way and then sit and do speaking practise. Who cares if someone wakes up and finds me talking to myself ^^ (and then I'll do nothing for 3 days again, because I'm hopeless). I used to be like that with writing, and trying to get past it with speaking. The conversations I usually have on those sites ask the same sorts of questions over and over though. You could almost write most of the answers beforehand and be fine: Good afternoon~ Good afternoon Where are you from? I'm from [country]. Where are you from? I'm from [country]. What are your hobbies? My hobbies are [hobby 1, hobby 2, hobby 3]. What are your hobbies? [hobby 2] seems really cool/fun! My hobbies are [hobby 1, hobby 2, hobby 3]. [hobby 3] seems really cool/fun! Have to go. Goodbye! Goodbye! Especially on sharedtalk I have to specifically try if I want to break out of the standard "first conversation with someone" pattern (usually by asking more questions about their hobbies until we hit upon one we both like), but there's no pressure to break out of it. Also, there's always the option to switch to English, unless their English is super basic. Unless you choose to (applies to sharedtalk) you'll probably never talk to that person again, and they likely won't think of you again, which is kind of freeing for me. I understand the fear of chatting with people, though if you can slowly make steps toward overcoming it, it can help improve your Japanese by increasing how much you write it. If not, you could try chatting with people you've met offline, like you said. EDIT: そして、そういうことは大体どのぐらい 一連の技術に努力をささげるほど次第、あとはポットショップでどのぐらい加工する次第だから、 気を落とさないで!
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Post by Jembru on Oct 26, 2013 1:18:57 GMT
Oh do you mean text chatting? Oh I don't mind text chatting with strangers! In that case, I will definitely check it out!
The 'same thing all the time' issue is one I have with my journals actually. I tend to go 3-5 days in a row making one 5-15 minute video, but then I'll be too tired, or too busy or too [insert excuse here], to make one. As soon as I skip one day, that's it and I may not make another for over a week. So the first video is always.. 'oh no, my Japanese is all crappy again, I haven't made a video in days... I must try harder.. blah, blah, blah', day two is 'well I seem to be just about where I was before the break, so I just have to keep this up and I'll surely start improving...' day three is usually something much along the lines of.. 'waaaaa... I look so old, what's with these dark circles, why won't they go away... I need to eat healthier/drink less/excersise more...I'm so ugly...'
... then there'll be a week long break and the cycle begins again!
The result is that to me, I seem to be getting better because my videos seem smoother and smoother and my fluency is starting to develop. However, what's really happening is I'm getting well-versed in moaning about how crap I am in Japanese, but can't talk about much else. So when I come to have an actual face-to-face conversation, I stumble over my words and lack the verbal flexibility to express myself properly.
I think I undervalue text chat. I don't write Japanese as much as I should, so need practice with that anyway, but also, it kinda IS still beneficial to developing conversation skills. I mean, having more time to think before I say something, means I can practice using expressions that wouldn't roll off my tongue naturally, and get used to them so that when I DO speak, I start using them. It may be that text chat is the missing link in my development, and I'm trying to skip ahead and so failing!
I may have just had a breakthrough here! Thanks for that! Okay.. I'm gonna start trying to text-chat then. I can do this almost any time I am awake (and not at work). I'll start logging into skype on Saturdays and Sundays even though JP will be around. I don't mind typing in front of him, I just feel weird making a call in front of him (not least of all because I know he understands enough of what I'm saying in Japanese, to be able to butt-in and correct me ^^).
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Post by Bokusenou on Oct 26, 2013 2:41:49 GMT
Glad it helped! I find writing much easier than speaking because I can copy words they use and look them up if I need to, as well as look up words for the response if need be, and as time goes by I remember words from past look ups and don't need to look up things as much. Also, as you said, even in a live chat, you can get away with having a little more time to think of a response than speaking.
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Post by Jembru on Oct 26, 2013 4:01:52 GMT
Glad it helped! I find writing much easier than speaking because I can copy words they use and look them up if I need to, as well as look up words for the response if need be, and as time goes by I remember words from past look ups and don't need to look up things as much. Also, as you said, even in a live chat, you can get away with having a little more time to think of a response than speaking. I've been thinking about it since I last posted, and I'm annoyed it has taken me until now to work this out. I compare myself so much to my former students, forgetting that most of them studied English at school, so even though they struggled verbally, they usually had a lot of writing practice behind them. I've been treating myself the same as I would have a student, but never considered that I had this massive disadvantage compared to my students. Besides this forum and chats with members, have written a few posts on another forum I belong to that has some Japanese threads, some comments on Abby's channel, 2 posts on jpod101 and a single lang-8 post. That is the extent of my writing experience. Honestly, that's it! As for chatting.. I've done a rough count and think I've had fewer than 10 conversations in written Japanese either in chat or Skype. I chat with one of my Japanese friends who can't remember English (she claims), on Facebook, now and then, and until I accidentally deleted my input system, I used to text my local friends on my phone... But really, this is all pathetically little experience. I'm going to stop trying to find voicechat partners, and get some writing practice for a while first. I think this I exactly what I need to be doing right now!!
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Post by Bokusenou on Oct 26, 2013 22:55:04 GMT
Ah yeah, I think I asked this when we chatted in Japanese some time, but I don't think you answered (or I missed your reply, which I tend to do if I'm off on a tangent. How to you write your name in kana bokusenou? Is it ボクセンオウ or ボクせノウ?Or should I just call you リン? Sorry, somehow missed this. The second one is correct but Rin is fine too. The main reason I picked bokusenou anyway is because when I first started using the internet, I couldn't find a username which I wouldn't need to put a bunch of numbers after, so I picked an obscure character from Inuyasha (which I was really into at the time), who I thought was kind of cool and which I was sure wouldn't be taken. Feel free to use Rin if you like, since, it's shorter.
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Post by Bokusenou on Oct 26, 2013 23:07:28 GMT
Glad it helped! I find writing much easier than speaking because I can copy words they use and look them up if I need to, as well as look up words for the response if need be, and as time goes by I remember words from past look ups and don't need to look up things as much. Also, as you said, even in a live chat, you can get away with having a little more time to think of a response than speaking. I've been thinking about it since I last posted, and I'm annoyed it has taken me until now to work this out. I compare myself so much to my former students, forgetting that most of them studied English at school, so even though they struggled verbally, they usually had a lot of writing practice behind them. I've been treating myself the same as I would have a student, but never considered that I had this massive disadvantage compared to my students. Besides this forum and chats with members, have written a few posts on another forum I belong to that has some Japanese threads, some comments on Abby's channel, 2 posts on jpod101 and a single lang-8 post. That is the extent of my writing experience. Honestly, that's it! As for chatting.. I've done a rough count and think I've had fewer than 10 conversations in written Japanese either in chat or Skype. I chat with one of my Japanese friends who can't remember English (she claims), on Facebook, now and then, and until I accidentally deleted my input system, I used to text my local friends on my phone... But really, this is all pathetically little experience. I'm going to stop trying to find voicechat partners, and get some writing practice for a while first. I think this I exactly what I need to be doing right now!! Awesome! Glad to see you fired up!
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Post by Jembru on Oct 27, 2013 0:29:05 GMT
Awesome! Glad to see you fired up! Oh I didn't notice this had been moved.. okay, moving my reply.. I am, I am!!! You may have noticed, but my moods are naturally irratic. In extreme cases, I can be super-hyper as though drunk one moment, and then crash into an almost depression-like state an hour later. I realise it sounds a bit like I am bi-polar, and I've had doctors suggest this to me, but I don't get suicidal or act in a way that could cause harm to myself or others, so I don't think this is the case. I work with people with quite serious mental health problems and this has led I think that in some cases, what is abnormal for one person, isn't neccessarily abnormal for another. My baseline 'normal' mood, is just quite up and down compared to some people. So yeah, I often go from thinking I'm the worst Japanese student in the universe, to getting all pro-active and driven about it! It's just the way I am. Oh I just thought of something.. I'd written a reply to you in chat, but chat won't load on the work laptop, so if there's a lot of chatting tonight, I may not get to see if you replied. I'd suggested I maybe started a thread, or wrote an article about tips for making language exchange work. Let me know if you think that could be helpful or not. I started jotting down some ideas just in case.
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Post by Bokusenou on Oct 27, 2013 0:53:25 GMT
JembruYeah, I think we all have times when we feel better than others. I try toavoid the internet when I'm in a bad mood, otherwise I end up saying something I regret later.^^; My reply from chat: "@jemma Really? That would be awesome! Whichever you think would work better. "
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Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 27, 2013 20:21:47 GMT
I just started trying out Chatpad.jp, and I love it! Yesterday I was seeing how long it would take for them to ask if I was a foreigner, and my record was like 20 minutes of conversation on a rather specific topic.
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Post by Bokusenou on Oct 28, 2013 23:15:44 GMT
I just started trying out Chatpad.jp, and I love it! Yesterday I was seeing how long it would take for them to ask if I was a foreigner, and my record was like 20 minutes of conversation on a rather specific topic. Yeah, isn't it great? I love to treat it like a game and keep track of my "high scores" for passing as a Japanese person. XD
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Post by Jembru on Oct 29, 2013 5:52:37 GMT
So it's not FOR language exchange? I don't think I like the sound of it then. There's a reason mixi tightened its rules to keep the foreigners out. The Japanese don't always appreciate being randomly approached by some gaijin looking for language practice. Sounds a bit 'chat roulette' to me. I think I'll stick to my actual Japanese friends. And you guys of course.
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Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 29, 2013 19:50:01 GMT
Jembruyeah, it's just for casual conversation. Like chat roulette but no video or picture or voice or anything. Most Japanese people go there just to have conversation about interesting topics with people and to hear people's opinions. I don't go on there and go "hey I'm a foreigner I would like to practice my Japanese', in fact usually I see how long the conversation gets before they figure it out. And they usually still are fine with it (the 10 or so chat conversations or so I've had have been this way) since I wasn't all pushy about practicing or just talking about my language study. We talk about normal topics often related to current events in Japan, pop culture, etc.
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