Q&A Practice Zone for all levels! Speaking Edition

[Bokusenou]

I was thinking about how a big problem among Japanese learners is that they want to practice speaking, but don't know what to talk about. I thought back onto Jemma's Q&A practice thread, and realized that it would be perfect for speaking practice with a few adjustments.

Here's the rules from the original thread:

It is simple, you answer the question of the previous poster, then post a question for the next poster to answer. Answers can be as long or short, complex or simple as you like, because it doesn't really matter if the next poster can't follow everything you've written. So long as they understand your question, they can still join in! For this reason, please at least include an English translation of your question.

Sometimes people might forget to ask a question after they answer, if this happens, just answer the same question they did, to keep the flow going. It's only for fun!

So its..

1) Answer the question set by the previous poster in as many or few words as you wish.
2) Ask a question for the next person to answer.


日本語の説明：このページは日本語の練習のためです。質問と答え練習です。
誰かが質問を投稿します。例えば”好きな食べ物は何ですか。”この質問に答えて、次の質問を聞いてください。
みんなで質問と答えで練習しましょう！

Here is the added rule:

 The answer must be either in audio or video form.


Here are some places to store audio files:

soundcloud.com
www.chirbit.com
www.vocaroo.com


First question:
昨日,何をしましたか?
きのう、なにをしましたか？
What did you do yesterday?

[Jembru]

Oh Rin I could kiss you!! I was really excited when I saw this so decided to make a video response, like I wanted to start doing on the old forum. Please forgive the way I look.. no makeup, in my PJ's and general tired look (it was 4am!!).
What a fantastic way to practice our speaking! 



(I can't remember how to embed so this could take a few edits!) 

Not my best Japanese, but at least it's natural and unrehearsed. I'm cringing so much now because I wish I'd tried a bit harder to use flashier Japanese.  I might do a few rehearsed responses when I'm not so insanely busy.  This though, is basically how I speak in a usual conversation.. just simple sentences and frequent slips. 

For those who missed it, my next question is.. 

お気に入りポケモンはだれ？
okiniiri pokemon wa dare?
Who is your favourite pokemon?

[Jembru]

No one?? Shall I make a new one and ask a more sensible question? I'll smarten myself up too, but no promises about the quality of my Japanese! Haha.

BTW, I realise that video made me look really fat. Those who have me on FB will know this, but I swear I'm not overweight. I weigh like, 97lb which is right for my height, although I'm currently on a diet to make room for the binging I'll do over Christmas, lol! I just have a chubby face due to heavy bone structure, and my camera widens things if they're too close up for some reason.

I won't take this down (unless you do want me to make a new one), but I wish I'd prepared rather than just making a video in such a frenzied rush.

[Bokusenou]

Ah, ごめん! I kind of forgot about this thread.
I'm glad it's helpful! You had the main idea for it though, I just tweaked it to work better with speaking.^^ I know what I'm going to answer for the Pokemon question, I just need to get the courage to do it...also I haven't been feeling too great lately. I really want to give it a try though. (of course if anyone else wants to have a go at it, then I'll be glad to start with the next question instead)

[Jembru]

Why don't you write it down and just record a voice clip of you reading it back? I mean, if you're shy.

I totally know how you feel. As you can see, I can shamelessly share my videos (only with this forum mind you.. I wouldn't vlog openly on YouTube even my Japanese was 3 times my current level), but this is still very hard for me. I know people will be judging me and comparing my Japanese to theirs.. I also know some will assume their own Japanese is better than mine, even if it isn't (because that's what I was like before last January when I realised how hard speaking outloud to yourself actually is). So I try not to give a crap what people think and just be proud that I can turn a camera on myself and just start speaking.

I understand that speaking is a different process to simply knowing words and grammar and won't naturally develop just because you memorise information from a textbook. You can know more Japanese words than the average Japanese person, and have such good grammar that you can notice mistakes in magazines, but if you've never practiced speaking, you'll still sound like a beginner when you start trying. 

It was really hard at first, when I started trying to push myself to speak. I had to really force myself and my mistakes were cringe-worthy and I usually just wanted the ground to swallow me up. Now though, I don't find it embarrassing in the slightest to speak, and I know that if I do this often enough, my mistakes will become fewer and my speaking fluency will become greater. If I kept avoiding speaking, like I used to, because I knew I'd falter and make mistakes, I'd have continued to get better and better at reading and writing, and remained forever unable to verbalise my Japanese.

The other major push that made me want to share my unpolished Japanese so openly, was that I whole-heartedly intend to skype call with members of Gaiwa (and already have with two!! ^^). I'd hate the idea that people here will assume I can speak like I can type only to then skype with me and be horrified at how poor I really am. I'd much rather prepare people for the worst only to pleasently surprise them.. It takes all pressure off me.  Otherwise, I'd just always make excuses and never actually speak to anyone.

So if people judge me, I couldn't care less, because I'm confident that I'm going in the right direction and developing very rapidly. I've no doubt your spoken Japanese is considerably better than mine anyway, but even if you struggle, because you're shy or not used to speaking out loud, you can rest assured I would never judge you. I already know how well you read and write! This goes for anyone btw.. please just join in. I'd like to do a few polished performances, but if you want, I'll keep talking ad-hock so my Japanese doesn't sound so good (I sound considerably more fluent if I practice 5 or 6 times first, or if I'm talking about a topic I frequently talk about, because most of my issue isn't not knowing words or grammar: my vocabulary is fine.. it's not being able to recall things quickly enough).  

[魔]

link
orz
I don't think it could get much worse.
My question would be, What's your least favourite pokemon?(but I don't know how to say least favourite)
何をポケモンはお気に入りじゃない？

[Jembru]

Actually, I wouldn't know how to say 'least favourite' either. I'd have to say (sorry, even google translate won't let me type Japanese at work now!!) 'ichiban suki janai pokemon', to ask that. I won't answer though, because I want to let Rin have a turn first.

Another tip everyone, would be maybe to make 2 sound clips or videos if you're not used to speaking. You can answer the question in one, then ask another in the other. I find that the longer I continue to speak, the harder it gets, but if I'm able to take short rests, it's much easier.

[Bokusenou]

@Jembru, That's a good idea! I think I'll try that. It'll make it more like singing, just reading lines.

[Jembru]

You could always sing your answer. Haha. I don't think it could be as beautiful as my rendition of the tetris theme was though. I know, I know, you're all wondering why I'm working with disabled people for £8 an hour when I could be touring Japan, doing concerts where I just hum famous videogame tunes. I could sell out Tokyo Dome for a month! lol

What you could do, is read it out a few times until you get a take you like, then have a go of saying it without the lines in front of you, with absolutely no intention of sharing it. You'll more than likely not stick exactly to what you'd written and you might make a slip here and there, but it would be good practice and you never know, you might like it so much that you decide to share THAT version instead! That's similar to the method I used back in September, that got me speaking much more freely than I could before, so I'm an advocate of that kind speaking practice!

[Bokusenou]

Thanks for the advice!

vocaroo.com/i/s1EdFKfoVTEg

My phone mic is sort of LQ, but I couldn't find anything else to use. Haven't watched the pokemon anime in years, so keep in mind my pokemon knowledge is probably very out of date, not that it matters very much here, it was great practice though^^

Next question:
世界の神となったらどうしますか。
Sekai no kami to nattara dou shimasu ka.
If you became God of the world, what would you do?

[Jembru]

Wow! That was great Rin. You weren't reading that the whole time, were you? I might be wrong, but it sounded more like you were referring to notes but otherwise free-speaking. Either way I'm so proud of you for finding the courage to do that!

I'm busy on skype right now and.. you know, in my PJ's lol. So I won't reply right away. I have to wait at my mum's for a darlek (you get to say such weird things in December...), so it might not even be today, but I'll reply eventually if no one else does (I'll put some clothes and makeup on next time!).

[Bokusenou]

Thanks! Your advice helped a lot!
I had a basic outline in front of me, as well as a list of the Japanese pokemon names I wanted to mention (Turns out I had forgotten even the English names of all the pokemon I wanted to talk about, excluding Meowth, so since they were all used by team rocket, so I searched for something like "team rocket list of pokemon" and found them that way XD). Mostly I just glanced at it once in a while, which is why you can hear so much あいづち..I wish my speaking was as good as my reading or writing ability...

Oh, and don't feel like you have to dress up for the videos or anything. I mean, unless you want to. It's just speaking practice after all^^

[Jembru]

Dec 20, 2013 22:15:54 GMT Bokusenou said:

I wish my speaking was as good as my reading or writing ability...

You and me both! I wish I could go back in time and scream at myself to prioritize speaking practice more. My only goal in Japanese was to be able to converse in the language, so I managed my study the worst way I could have for that. I fully intend to keep on and on at beginners about speaking, so they don't become like me down thus line!

It is happening far too late, but at least the gap has closed considerably since the end of September. If I allow for the fact I reword my writing and look up words before I share, my speaking and writing are more similar now. I'd love to be able to speak like I write when I have time to think about my writing. I speak just about how I write when I IM though. The only difference being that when I speak, you hear me correct my grammar, but when I IM, I usually do that before clicking 'send'.

I speak more freely than I could before at least, so I'm trying to focus on making more complex structures roll off my tongue and hopefully make fewer careless slips. I know it will take time, but I'll keep at it!

[Bokusenou]

Jembru
Really? Well it sounds like you're improving, so that's a good sign!
My main motivation in Japanese learning was to understand spoken and written Japanese, coupled with the general lack of Japanese people in most places I've lived, and I guess I've let speaking fall by the wayside, now that my listening, reading, and writing are pretty decent, I feel like I should work on speaking more. Hopefully it'll get easier with more practice.

[Jembru]

Hey, I totally forgot to upload my video. I made it from work on Saturday night, but couldn't upload from work. I was just deleting my journal videos from my phone and came across it. I couldn't make several takes like I hoped and I used my usual childish Japanese, but I at least watched the one I'd made at my mum's place (her 'ie', not her 'ue' as I mistakenly call it in the video ^^), so it is better than it would have been if the words and phrases weren't fresh in my mind.

This might be the last one I'll upload until the New Year though. I just don't have time for doing much more than anki at the moment.


EDIT: Video removed because of the location. Sound version pending.. Please be patient.

My next question is: What are your plans for Christmas?