At what point can I start practicing in real conversations?

[canning865005]

Hi,

How would I know when I am ready to start practicing conversations with people in Japanese? Say I want chat with a native Japanese person over skype... at what point in my learning should I attempt this?

Thanks,
Chris

[thegooseking]

Chris-san,

I can only give you my philosophy on it, which is that if you're ready, you don't need to practice! Or, to put it another way, you should just try practicing whether you're ready or not. You'll make mistakes, of course, but learning from those mistakes is the main reason for practicing in the first place.

I know where you're coming from, since I have a tendency to worry whether or not I'm ready for things myself, but this is something I've consciously tried to avoid while learning Japanese, and I've found it very helpful.

Regards,
小狼

[community.japanese]

Chris-san, 小狼さん、
Kon'nichiwa!

Wow, that's a perfect advice, 子狼san, thank you!
Chris-san, I'd say you can start practicing when you learn the first word or expression
I completely understand if you are hesitating to start chatting in Japanese with anyone because
you think you might not be able to make converstaions.
Like many other people in the world, I was also like that. I probably still am.

There are thousands of people who want to practice the languages they're learning and yet they don't have
opportunities. If your situation or need is not too urgent serious one, language exchange would be a good start.
This way, you both are learning and wanting to practice; no one will make fun of you. You both understand each
other very well.

I've been communicating with people from different countries in, most cases, English.
This experience in my life made me feel really strongly that the most important thing in conversation
and communication is NOT speaking grammatically correct, but trying to communicate even with many
mistakes. As long as such mistakes don't make serious problems, it's not important.
And of course, like 子狼san wrote, learning from mistakes is the very (probably the most) important thing.
If you make mistakes, you'll learn and remember about it more strongly and for sure, than you just
master that without making mistakes.

If you have questions prior to use any expressions, please feel free to ask!
We're happy to make sure you know the right expression
This is also important! Good luck

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com