Do not be afraid to talk with People/Native Japanese people, even if you speak gramatically wrong…

Here is some Japanese Speaking Clip of me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOWmJAEuwwM&feature=youtu.be&ab\_channel=aesasd

Okay, so first of all, I made a post about my journey to reaching a fledged N3 level, which is detailed in this post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/16zhn96/my\_japanese\_study\_of\_1500\_hours\_so\_far/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/16zhn96/my_japanese_study_of_1500_hours_so_far/)

This post serves as a reminder that you should not be afraid to engage with a tutor, a Japanese friend, or Japanese people, or others who study/speak Japanese at a proficient level. Many are afraid to make mistakes and don’t even attempt to form sentences or speak at all. This approach will never enable you to speak without overthinking. Even if you make mistakes while talking, or don’t know how to construct basic sentences or use basic words, it’s perfectly fine. Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process, and other Japanese speakers or people will often correct you, or you can ask, “Was that correct the way I said it?” It’s okay to make mistakes, and you should not feel bad about it.

Now, let me share my recent experience:

In my original post, I mentioned that I had found a local tandem group that hosts meetups with native Japanese speakers/locals to mutually benefit each other in learning the respective language. I, along with my brother, applied and met many Japanese people, making some good friends. However, I and my brother had some decent knowledge of Japanese by that point – my brother more so than me. Regardless, as we introduced ourselves, even if I made mistakes with particles or sentence structure here and there, I continued to talk openly without fear of making mistakes. People were surprised by how well we spoke Japanese, especially me in terms of speaking. We also met with our Japanese friends outside of these tandem meetings.

Today, I went out with my Japanese friend to have a one-on-one tandem session. We spoke for 30 minutes in his learning language and 30 minutes in Japanese. I didn’t think I’d be able to hold a conversation when he spoke without adjusting to my level, but I asked him to do so. By the way, I’m still at the N3 level in terms of speaking and reading.

He did so, and I thought I’d struggle to understand anything. To my surprise, I comprehended about 80% of what he said and responded fluently. We conversed entirely in Japanese for 30 minutes. After that, we attended the local tandem meeting on the same day and continued to talk for an additional 4 hours in Japanese. I had to ask him occasionally about the meanings of specific words, but I held my own quite well, even during discussions on more advanced topics like politics, sports, or general conversation. At the tandem meeting, people were amazed at how well I could converse, especially two new Japanese women who joined the tandem that day. They said I’d be alright if I were to go to Japan now with my current knowledge. There are still many things I struggle to explain, especially on more advanced levels and particles, but I was pleasantly surprised by my performance.

Am I at a native level? Absolutely not, I’m far from it! Just a reminder: you should speak and practice speaking, whether recording yourself or whatever works for you. That’s all that matters. Also, it’s crucial to accept corrections from time to time and verify whether you used the correct definitions.”