Pen Pal

[Trav_man]

I recently tried the Guided Learning Premium Package and it was great. Really helped my Japanese. The only downside is that the sessions are 15 minutes and Yuki-sensei's schedule was pretty packed which didn't leave much time for chit chat. So I was curious if anyone out there who's fluent in Japanese would like a pen pal? Just one person, please (I've got 3 kids who keep my hands full so I wouldn't have a tremendous amount of time). Preferrably someone who lives in Japan and could talk on Skype. Shucks, your english can stink, too! That would help me and you learn our languages more quickly.
Later.

P.S. My employer needs to know if I'm having regular contact with any foreign nationals. Not a big deal. I'd just need some info like your name and address. Sorry, they want to make sure I'm not being seduced by a spy or something.

[Psy]

I've recently signed up on a site called SharedTalk, and found that, surprisingly, there are often natives there willing to exchange. Most of the users there also use skype, so if you hit it off with someone you should be able to move your practice sessions there. The time difference between the US and Japan can make it difficult sometimes, however.

Good luck!

[Trav_man]

I had to have my guided learning sessions at 10:00 PM, Mountain time, which for me worked out well but the kicker was that it was at 1:00 PM the next day in Japan.
Thanks for the site reference. I'll check it out.

[Neil53]

Try this site as well:

http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/

[Neil53]

This is the site I have used with very good success:

http://www.language-exchanges.org/

[Javizy]

Definitely try talking to a Japanese native. Unless the person is excellent at Japanese, you're going to be exposed to botched pronunciation/usage if you speak to foreigners, and if you hear something enough, it's going to sink in.

Ever since I got into the habit of repeating everything in my head, hearing foreigners has become a bit of a minefield I think I used the second site Neil posted when I was looking for a language-exchange friend.

[Trav_man]

Doumo Arigatou, Neil-san. Exactly what I was looking for. Very much appreciated.