Earlier I played online with a Hello Talk Japanese friend and for the first time I got to communicate verbally with a native speaker.
Honestly I knew it was going to be bad and that’s why in one year of learning I didn’t accept any offer to make a phone call.
I had little to zero hopes but still, I got disappointed with myself! When I’d talk by writing I wouldn’t really encounter any major issues, wouldn’t make so much mistakes, I’m between a N4 and N3 level and probably higher in my kanji level, but damn I got HUMBLED lmao !
I understood 40% of the interactions, and could answer to 20% of it at best. Even though she was deliberately trying to speak like she would to a child ! I would not find my words, and made some grammatically nonsensical sentences. Wouldn’t understand what she was saying and didn’t get the words clearly, or took like 5seconds to do so.
I feel I’ve lost a lot of time learning so much kanji and never really try to speak verbally.
But I’m so glad I had the courage to make a call with her, because I would have lost way more time continuing my old routine.
I will now focus on my speaking and listening skills as much as possible, so if anybody has any suggestions for methods to get to listening/speaking fluency, please do tell !
by Next-Young-685