I want to improve my japanese speaking. I tried those apps where you exchange languages but it felt really formal and people were there for the sole purpose just speaking and then logging out. I want to have meaningful conversations and make online friends who speak Japanese. Does not have to be Japanese, can be people from anywhere who speaks it.
How do you guys make online friends who speak Japanese? I tried VRchat before and had a lot of meaningful conversations but recently that platform is going downhill and is not what it used to be before. I have a lot of online friends for English and German (mostly through video games and discord) but have not had the same level of success with Japanese.
8 comments
By playing games
As you seem to like games, why not FFXIV? It’s super popular in Japan, and people talk/roleplay there.
Never tried it myself because I’m barely N5 though, but I’d like to one day. When I was learning English I entered a Destiny 2 clan and it worked great to make friends and practice.
From my experience, most social-media connected Japanese people use Twitter and LINE.
r/language_exchange
What’s happening with VRChat? I found that to be the best place still but haven’t tried recently
Have had great experiences with Hello Talk which sounds like one of the apps you’re describing that people were formal on. I had heaps of phone calls and made a bunch of friends, one who I met up with when so went to Japan. Just gotta talk to lots of people and have good tamego
Try video games I know monster hunter is really popular there and I played a couple of times and all the users names are in Japanese
Also vr chat have worlds you can join that has alot of Japanese people and the conversations are pretty fun and non formal at all.
Be careful what you wish for! I went on a language exchange app and met a Japanese girl that was local to where I live.
It started with just a few exchanges and then I asked her if she would be ok doing zoom calls to practice listening and speaking. She was totally down with it. First conversations were a little awkward but after a while we became very comfortable. We have very good platonic chemistry and guess what? She introduced me to all of her friends (mostly Japanese). Now I have a whole squad of Japanese friends that are mostly pretty girls that are very considerate and kind. Over the years we’ve become very close friends.
My fiancé (non-Japanese) befriended a few of them and they will be attending our wedding in a few weeks. So…friends for her too even though she has no interest in learning Japanese.
My original warning is of course a joke in that once you befriend one you will blink and know 10.
This all depends on how you go about interacting. I never set out on one of those apps to make friends…it was just to practice. Keep your scope and intention small and you will organically connect with people that would be happy to become more personal friends later on. But it doesn’t start there.