Japanese Online Lessons using SKYPE

I would like to improve my Japanese conversation skills, do you have any advice?

February 2, 2022

First, let’s think about what exactly is needed to be a good conversationalist of Japanese.
(1) Accurately understand the Japanese that the other person speaks.
(2) Answer in appropriate Japanese.
(3) Develop the conversation.
(4) Make the person think, “I want to talk to you again.

(1) and (2) are mainly Japanese language skills, and (3) and (4) are mainly communication skills. In other words, becoming a good conversationalist is a highly challenging mission that requires both comprehensive Japanese language skills and communication skills.

Next, let’s consider how to deal with each of these items.
For (1) and (2), you can “strengthen your listening skills,” “increase the number of sentence patterns you can use,” and “strengthen your pronunciation. I think you have already tried various study methods for them, but it takes time before you see results. Therefore, I would like to share with you the tips for (3) and (4), which are relatively quick to produce results.

Imagine that you are asked by Tanaka-san, “Do you like Japanese food? Then look at the following four responses.

A: Yes, I like it.
B: Yes, I like it. I like sushi.
C: Yes, I like it. I like sushi and I want to catch a tuna someday.
D: Yes, I like it. I like sushi and I want to catch a tuna someday. Where can I go in Japan to catch tuna?

You can see that the conversation is developing in the order of A<B<C<D. In order to develop a conversation, it is effective to "dig into the topic," "broaden the topic," and "ask the other person questions.

In the case of above “D”, if Tanaka-san is interested in fishing, you can move on to the topic of fishing and get the conversation going. (This is an example of digging into the topic.) If Tanaka-san is not interested in fishing, you can ask about his/her hobbies and how he/she spends his/her days off. (This is an example of broadening the topic.)

In addition, if you try to be cheerful, fun, positive, and provide useful and informative information to the other person as much as possible, you will increase the probability that he or she will want to talk to you again.

I think, even in your native language, some are fun to talk but others are not. And I am sure that the former people have these characteristics.

My advice to you is to improve both your Japanese language skills and your communication skills.