Hi all,
Looking to get some thoughts from people that have achieved relatively fluent speech. I'm studying for N1 and feel somewhat comfortable with my level of understanding of Japanese, but I am a bit unhappy with my level of spoken Japanese. I'm conversational and get the typical ”日本語上手い” ”どのくらい日本” etc, but frequently find myself making stupid mistakes still like forgetting a word, messing up/using the incorrect conjugation, and often have a difficult time phrasing my thoughts naturally or want to discuss a topic more deeply but find myself unable to. To clarify, not talking about pitch accent.
What I am wondering is if this will improve if I just continue to overall improve my Japanese and focus on improving my vocabulary (rn about 11k-12k words if I had to guess) and general level of understanding and comfort with thinking in the language. Or rather, should I shift to more of a focus on dedicated speaking studying/shadowing/lessons. This may seem like a silly question but if I can't think fluently in Japanese it seems as if I may be putting the cart before the horse in trying to speak fluently.
Thanks for any ideas or personal experiences!
by dz0id