This is just a feeling good story from me. The situation gave me great confidence, so maybe it could do the same for others. Sorry for the wall of text.
The past few weeks have been particularly rough with learning Japanese. I found myself not using anki every day anymore, and on days I'm not working, I'd usually study for 4-5 hours in the library with my textbook. That also started dropping to 2-3 hours. I wasn't blind to it. I knew that a break was almost certainly coming, which isn't great since it's literally a hobby I enjoy doing.
The at the end of last week I received a message from a Japanese girl, Rio on a language exchange app I use. Simply saying she's in my area for a month and wants to make a new friend. The only problem is that she doesn't speak English. She's very much beginner level, so I knew I'd have to speak only Japanese which I am definitely not ready for. In terms of reading and writing I'd say I'm somewhere around lower N3 level, but my speaking is around N5. It's terrible. Every Tuesday night I have a 'language exchange' with a Japanese friend on line, though we basically just talk English the whole time. When I try to talk in Japanese I takes me so long to even say anything. I have to think what I'll say in English, translate in my head then try speak it in Japanese. It's not good for a conversation.
But anyway, I already agreed to meet Rio and didn't want to back out. The actual thought of having to use only Japanese for a bit was actually making me nervous for a couple of days that I think I actually caught a cold from the stress. It will be my first time having to have a proper conversation in real time. When I met her I just went for it. Started with the most basic things I can say. My name is… How long have you been here so far etc. We just chilled in a coffee shop and then went to an art gallery. The whole time lasted 4 hours. We talked about many subjects such as movies/shows we like, characters within the show, places we travelled to etc etc. I can't believe I managed to use only Japanese for that long. To be honest I still can't believe it. The Japanese I used was basic phrases, and the more complicated ones I tried to use were definitely not perfect, but still decent enough that she still understood what I was trying to say anyway.
I went home feeling incredibly proud of myself. Strangely I noted that this was the first time ever that I've technically spoken more Japanese in a day than I had English. This has now became a major milestone in my learning. That night, because it happened to be a Tuesday, I still had my talk with my other Japanese friend. My mind was still very much in Japanese mode so I tried to use as much as possible with her. At the end of the call she told me that she was surprised that my Japanese improved so much. Those words really hit me hard.
I kept telling myself I can't do it. I'm not ready. Our brains don't like stress, so we will default to our native language if we know the person knows both. Being forced into a situation where I have no choice but to use it; our brains go into survival mode and try to force it. So Rio knowing no English was what I needed. Even though I told myself I wasn't ready, I was. And I managed to actually keep it going for 4 hours. This is the motivation I needed. Im going to the library to study in a few hours and I'll definitely be going back to the 4-5 hours again. I can't wait for the next opportunity to use it.
by Link2212