(On mobile!)
Three years ago I posted on this sub that I was about N4 and struggling to be understood by natives and to speak about anything.
Since then I finished all semesters of Japanese at my college and did a semester of intensive study abroad while living with a host family, and speaking has become so comfortable. I'm low N2 now, and while I can't talk about more complex things like politics or specific scientific fields, I know enough to navigate every day life (had to get help in Japan after losing my backpack on a Tokyo train, that was a mess). I don't have to think and translate the way I used to and as someone with only one native language, it's kind of bizarre (in a good way) when I think too much about it—not really sure how to explain how I do it.
The semester before I left, I took a Japanese course that was heavily conversation focused. Every week involved writing about your opinion on a subject and then we would discuss it, and let me tell you, this did more for me than any other methods I'd tried and set me up well for living with a non-English speaking host family. For me, opinions ended up being great conversation focuses as they naturally facilitate back and forth discussion, as opposed to just talking about myself and no one having anything to comment.
Not sure if I really have a point to this other than being excited to share my progress! I'm so proud of my acomplishments and hope that maybe this makes even one person feel better about finding a light at the end of the tunnel. And thank you to everyone who was so encouraging on my post from before, I was in a rough place and really needed that 🙂
by ravioli-are-poptarts