I want some guidance on how speaking practice went for you guys who are now fluent. I am currently in Japan and I have mostly no issues understanding what people say to me. For context I have studied japanese for 10 years, but lived in a place farrrrr from any possible Japanese in person interaction. My current issue is when i'm in a convo and I want to say something I kind of struggle and my Japanese just comes out poorer than I know i am capable of doing. Like on my own, I will go over a convo in my head and all the best ways of saying what I had wanted to say just flow forth and come to me. But in the moment I speak very jutteringly. I dont use all the grammar tools I already know and settle for the most basic ones… Interestingly as a side note, I also noticed that as I get tired/the day gets late my Japanese degrades a bit.
My problem here is I feel most people are going to respond that "practice makes perfect bro!". But I am not so sure… if i constantly fall into broken Japanese where I force out the essence of what I want to say and batter out some not so suitable grammar that maybe works, making the listener have to think but eventually get what i mean. My biggest fear is that, that is what I will be practicing.. broken Japanese… How can I get myself to say what i can think up in my head … is there no more efficient way or just some way to get my brain working?
by ReLisK