To explain futher on the title. I’m ハーフ, born in Matsumoto and grew up there for a bit before moving all over North America. Because of this, I’m in a weird situation with my Japanese where I can understand most of what’s being said to me in Japanese (mom, anime, etc.) but when it comes to speaking I totally suck, thankfully my pronunciation is good though, and for reading, writing I’m good with hiragana and katakana but with kanji I only know the super basic ones (thank you furigana). Does anyone have any resources/tips for being in this situation?
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Language recognition and language production are done in different parts of the brain. I’m in a similar situation with my own heritage language, and the best thing I’ve found you can do is practice as much as possible. If you can’t remember how to say something, ask your mom or look it up etc., just the act of doing that helps that thing stay in your mind.
As for kanji, you’ll probably have to learn it the way most foreigners learn it, but it’ll be easier since you’ll already recognise the words they’re used in. I don’t have much advice for this though
Also half, similar situation. I found, you just have to do what everyone else does to learn the language. For me, ideally I would like to find a private tutor. There are online japanese tutors you can find, which would directly help you with speaking. I think italki?
Practice speaking and writing. Try speaking to your Japanese mom in Japanese all the time (though you might end up speaking like a middle aged woman)
This is a common problem immigration children have. Speaking and listing are 2 seperate skills you have to train. I would say to get some simpler text with full furigana and to read to your mom. Or read alongside an audiobook. Or you can try some of the material aimed at second language learner like YUYUの日本語Podcast or similar and repeat what is said out loud. That way you train reading too and then you can be more free flow after you have gotten used to speaking.