I am back (and I want to update Jref on my experiences)

[mdchachi]

The only benefits I have a use for is health insurance and I won't be using it anymore.

Your anecdotes demonstrate how critically important health insurance is in the U.S. Sometimes you actually need to go to the doctor.
Sometimes you don't have a choice. (Like what if you have an accident and are unconscious and somebody calls the ambulance.)

My dad actually works as a car insurance customer service representative, and basically, I think he said that I have to be registered as a driver if I use their car, which is insured by their insurance. The insurance company won't want someone with my demographics driving their car which is insured at a better rate, so of course, they will jack the rate because someone under 21 is driving as well. The rate could increase by as much as +$400/month. I'm pretty sure it's also illegal to drive a car that you aren't registered to drive, if you know what I mean.

That's what I said. "as long as you're not an assigned driver." So you can get your license and not drive. But at least you'll have it. And like I said, it may help you later in Japan.

I'm pretty sure it's also illegal to drive a car that you aren't registered to drive, if you know what I mean.

This is definitely not true. There is some risk though as a little bit of Googling reveals. Anyway my point was that you can get your license without causing insurance rates to go up as long as you don't drive. Then you can become a ペーパードライバー like many Japanese people are.

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

Your anecdotes demonstrate how critically important health insurance is in the U.S. Sometimes you actually need to go to the doctor.
Sometimes you don't have a choice. (Like what if you have an accident and are unconscious and somebody calls the ambulance.)

Maybe so, but at least per my personal wishes, I won't be willingly going in any ambulance or ER anymore. It's not truly proving to be worth the money :/

That's what I said. "as long as you're not an assigned driver." So you can get your license and not drive. But at least you'll have it. And like I said, it may help you later in Japan.

I would love to do that, but like I previously said in the other message I sent (I think), this is one of the reasons they'll consider me weird. They don't want me to get my license if I won't be driving cause it doesn't make sense to them. I already tried to tell my mom knowing that she wouldn't get it and of course she said there's no point in getting my license if I'm not gonna drive. I myself don't believe that, since I could even get a job that involves driving a work car if the company pays (even partially) for the insurance (seems to be common), but it doesn't matter if I want to get it because they'll want me to drive. They already want me to drive now and I do, so they basically don't want to make it so I can't drive myself to work.

This is definitely not true. There is some risk though as a little bit of Googling reveals. Anyway my point was that you can get your license without causing insurance rates to go up as long as you don't drive. Then you can become a ペーパードライバー like many Japanese people are.

I see, well I would truly love to get my license now... Maybe I'll have to just get it in secret somehow eventually

 

[Buntaro]

I still have yet to find a Japanese person that speaks english that I can actually talk to one on one in a VC...

You need to start doing official online language exchanges instead of doing 'unofficial' language exchanges. Set it up where you help someone with their English for, say, 20 minutes, and then have them help you with your Japanese for 20 minutes. If you need help setting up a language exchange, please do not hesitate to ask.

 

[mdchachi]

While I'm not confident your dreams will work out exactly as you hope, based on everything you've said so far I think a move to Japan will really help you move forward in a positive direction in life. So just take things one step at a time and we'll help with whatever advice we can...

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

You need to start doing official online language exchanges instead of doing 'unofficial' language exchanges. Set it up where you help someone with their English for, say, 20 minutes, and then have them help you with your Japanese for 20 minutes. If you need help setting up a language exchange, please do not hesitate to ask.

I see... I never realized before that there was an official way to do it, and I always assumed "language exchange" meant someone helps the other learn their native language and vice versa by practicing conversation in each and correcting, etc.
It makes more sense for it to be done in sectional sessions, although I still don't know where I'll find someone that would agree to spend a dedicated portion of time with me Most of the people I talk to now just reply whenever they can which can be hours or days or weeks. Also, same goes for me since I spend more time awake at work than at home. I'll see if I can find any on reddit or discord or something first, then if I can't, I will depend on you guys for help setting it up
ありがとうございます

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

While I'm not confident your dreams will work out exactly as you hope, based on everything you've said so far I think a move to Japan will really help you move forward in a positive direction in life. So just take things one step at a time and we'll help with whatever advice we can...

I appreciate your help and patience with me It would definitely be beneficial, and I won't give up hope yet until the very end, but if a certain threshold passes, then I'll eventually have no choice but to alter my plans to fit the situation. I just hope that overall I could make the right choices in order to get me to the place I belong, as soon as possible.
ありがとうございます

 

[Buntaro]

Most of the people I talk to now just reply whenever they can which can be hours or days or weeks.

One of the big problems with doing a language exchange online is the time difference. On week nights, most people want to do an exchange at 7pm. But 7pm in Tokyo is 6am in Florida! Do you think you can work out a time to be online that is convenient for people in Japan?

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

One of the big problems with doing a language exchange online is the time difference. On week nights, most people want to do an exchange at 7pm. But 7pm in Tokyo is 6am in Florida! Do you think you can work out a time to be online that is convenient for people in Japan?

Luckily, I am actually mostly awake during Japanese daytime you could say my circadian rhythm is synchronized with the rising sun it won't be a problem for me, but the amount of work I do might be a problem, since I barely have time for myself I guess I could replace a moment that I would be learning more Japanese with a language exchange session, but I don't really have a set schedule for any of the stuff I do at all, since everything is constantly changing and a set schedule would quickly be destroyed however, I think whenever I would be joining a voice chat on discord to listen to Japanese people talking about music and life, I could be doing a 1 on 1 exchange during that time, so if there's people that will be fine with the fact that I can't have a set schedule, it shouldn't be too difficult to overcome I'll just tell them when I'm available and they could do the same?

 

[Buntaro]

渦巻さん、

In my city, McDonald's is hiring graveyard workers at $14.50 an hour, and the job sounds like it it less strenuous that what you are doing now. Is this something you would consider?

I can't have a set schedule,

Doing an online exchange is not like having a class -- you can do it anytime with anyone. You just have to agree with the person as to the next time the two of you can meet online. No problem.

The next step is for you to find an exchange partner online. There are a number of places online for this. Have you tried setting up a language exchange with someone on Discord?

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

In my city, McDonald's is hiring graveyard workers at $14.50 an hour, and the job sounds like it it less strenuous that what you are doing now. Is this something you would consider?

Thanks for the suggestion; I previously applied to McDonald's 5+ over the course of a few years and only the last time got an interview, but I wasn't hired. Even so, in my city, McDonald's starts at around $10.50-$11.50 per hour, and the work has been said to be extremely fast paced and strenuous... I wouldn't mind if I was getting paid $14.50, but $11 just won't do especially now that I've worked for a year and have truly seen what an intense job can do to your body I am honestly glad I didn't get hired there!!

Doing an online exchange is not like having a class -- you can do it anytime with anyone. You just have to agree with the person as to the next time the two of you can meet online. No problem.

The next step is for you to find an exchange partner online. There are a number of places online for this. Have you tried setting up a language exchange with someone on Discord?

That's great to hear that'll be much better than what I thought it would be then!
I haven't yet tried to set up a language exchange on discord since I was worried I would be bothering/burdening them too much (I feel like most would rather not do it this way), but maybe someone is looking for this type of language exchange on discord too I have attempted to use an app called "Tandem" which didn't yield much of a good result, but I did meet one person that does continually respond to me whenever possible, and lets me use Japanese whenever I can reply in Japanese, and will respond to me back in japanese until I can't reply in Japanese (and also uses the correction feature and explains the new words she used if I don't understand them). I still feel like I am taking more than I'm giving since her English is already pretty good though... I do correct the few mistakes she makes but it still feels like I'm not really helping that much because we're mainly having a friendly conversation and I'm not truly teaching her stuff about English... I guess that's just an internal thing maybe that I need to work on, I just feel extra guilty for it, ya know?
Anyway, I've interestingly ran into a couple people by fate on Discord who are Japanese natives (one guy found me because he was recommended to my music channel by YouTube, which is great to hear because it means my channel is reaching the Japanese audience!) and although our conversations already ended, maybe I'll muster up the courage to ask them to do a language exchange with me one day

 

[Buntaro]

I was worried I would be bothering/burdening them too much

The way to solve the problem is to set up an official language exchange. Before the session even starts, you set it up so that both of you agree to spend, say, 20 minutes on you helping her with her English, then spend 20 minutes where she helps you with your Japanese. This way no one gets taken advantage of and everyone is happy.

I want to point out that there are thousands of people in Japan who would love to do a language exchange with you online. A lot of people in Japan pay money to talk to foreigners online and you being willing to do it for free is very enticing for them.

If you are not sure what to talk about, please do not hesitate to ask for ideas. I have lots of ideas on what to talk about, and I am sure plenty of other people on this forum do too.

I do correct the few mistakes she makes but it still feels like I'm not really helping that much because we're mainly having a friendly conversation and I'm not truly teaching her stuff about English

Trust me, most Japanese people would rather just have a conversation than having you stop the flow of thought every once in a while to point out a mistake. She probably thinks, the less you interrupt her by pointing out her mistakes and "just let her talk", the better.

I have attempted to use an app called "Tandem"

How does that work? Is it mainly text messaging? Does it translate your text messages into Japanese? Is it like doing a phone call? Or is it more like video conferencing, where you can see and hear the other person? Is there some kind of 'electronic chalkboard' where you can write stuff down and the other person can see it? (I have done language exchanges before, but always in person, never over the Internet.)

I did meet one person that does continually respond to me whenever possible,

You need to get a hold of this person and start doing languages together on a 'regular basis' as soon as possible. Go for it.

By the way, I recently lived in China and I would set up languages exchanges with Chinese people, so I could learn Chinese. But I have learned that most people only want to do an exchange once a week. I, of course, wanted to do exchanges everyday, so I had to find seven different people and set up seven different exchanges, one for each day of the week. It was kind of めんどくさい (mendokusai) ("a hassle"), but it was definitely worth it.

One more thing, if you are able to set up an exchange with some kind of 'electronic chalkboard' to write stuff down on, do not even think of writing Japanese words in romaji (ABC's), write everything in hiragana and katakana. (When Japanese people try to read Japanese words written in romaji, they get all messed up and they do not like it.)

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

I want to point out that there are thousands of people in Japan who would love to do a language exchange with you online. A lot of people in Japan pay money to talk to foreigners online and you being willing to do it for free is very enticing for them.

If you say so it just always felt like the demand for English speakers learning Japanese is seemingly larger than Japanese speakers learning English, but I believe you if you say this is true

The way to solve the problem is to set up an official language exchange. Before the session even starts, you set it up so that both of you agree to spend, say, 20 minutes on you helping her with her English, then spend 20 minutes where she helps you with your Japanese. This way no one gets taken advantage of and everyone is happy.

Working on it next time she responds, I will have it set up, but if she doesn't respond within the week, I will try and contact the discord friends to set up official language exchanges with!

If you are not sure what to talk about, please do not hesitate to ask for ideas. I have lots of ideas on what to talk about, and I am sure plenty of other people on this forum do too.

Thanks! Actually, the funny thing is I have too much to talk about ... The Japanese are usually reserved people and they don't send a lot of messages, but I tend to reply with triple or quadruple the amount of text that was sent to me... Bad habit I just talk way too much honestly and I'm all about details

Trust me, most Japanese people would rather just have a conversation than having you stop the flow of thought every once in a while to point out a mistake. She probably thinks, the less you interrupt her by pointing out her mistakes and "just let her talk", the better.

Well she seemed to be thankful for the corrections, and also you get to set the level of corrections you want from your tandem partner (only correct major issues, don't correct anything, or correct anything and everything) and hers was at the highest setting (at least from the graphics, I believe it was, but my phone is in Japanese so admittedly I wasn't 100% sure) but if it wasn't, she would probably tell me. I'll make sure to check again so I can confirm she wants to be corrected, but I'm pretty sure she does. The app has it set up in a way that doesn't take away from the conversation too much.

How does that work? Is it mainly text messaging? Does it translate your text messages into Japanese? Is it like doing a phone call? Or is it more like video conferencing, where you can see and hear the other person? Is there some kind of 'electronic chalkboard' where you can write stuff down and the other person can see it? (I have done language exchanges before, but always in person, never over the Internet.)

It's text messaging, but also optionally audio calls or even video chats. There's no chalkboard I'm aware of though. You get to choose what you're comfortable with, and it shows on your profile. I'll show you a few pictures! For me, I have it set to text and audio messages only, because I'm not ready to go on a phone call with someone (not even in my own language ) and people will quickly find I'm quite boring in real life, because my fingers know what to say better than my mouth does

You need to get a hold of this person and start doing languages together on a 'regular basis' as soon as possible. Go for it.

頑張ります～

One more thing, if you are able to set up an exchange with some kind of 'electronic chalkboard' to write stuff down on, do not even think of writing Japanese words in romaji (ABC's), write everything in hiragana and katakana. (When Japanese people try to read Japanese words written in romaji, they get all messed up and they do not like it.)

Don't worry, it wouldn't cross my mind anyway. I write pretty much exclusively with kana and kanji when talking to Japanese people that primarily speak Japanese. I'm also aware that they don't even use the Hepburn style romaji (except I've seen both Hepburn and 日本式 in anime titles on Spotify and stuff)
I'm adept enough with kana that I don't need romaji at all except with English speakers.

 

[Buntaro]

渦巻さん、

I have to admit, I am surprised by what you wrote in your last post. I had no idea that you (and many other other people) are doing language exchanges by sending and receiving text messages only. I feel that language is first and foremost a verbal activity. It has been said that, when we talk to someone, 80% to 90% of how we communicate is not by what we say, it is by body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions that we communicate. None of this is possible when people only communicate by text messages.

Many people in Japan can write English quite well, but cannot speak English at all. Not at all! This may be a surprise for you, and it was quite a surprise for me as well. I have actually had discussions with people in Japan where the Japanese person cannot speak English, so we get out paper and pencil, I write a statement or a question, and the Japanese person writes an answer or response, and we can only communicate in this way. This is just how things are for most people in Japan. This is why there are so many 英会話 (えいかいわ) (eikaiwa) (English conversation) schools in Japan, where the only goal is to give Japanese people a chance to practice speaking English. I spent years in Japan and the only job I ever had was being an Eikaiwa teacher. (If you ever go to Japan, there is a very good chance the only job you will be able to find in the beginning is being an Eikaiwa teacher.)

You mentioned how it seems to you that there are fewer Japanese people online looking to practice speaking English than English speakers looking to practice speaking Japanese, and this makes sense to me. As you have mentioned, many Japanese people are reserved (and many of them are downright shy). It is for this reason I think many of them are very adverse to doing a video chat and practicing speaking English with someone face to face. You have mentioned how you feel uncomfortable doing so and I think a lot of Japanese people feel more uncomfortable than you do.

The point I am trying to make here is, you really need to start doing video chat, where you try to communicate with a Japanese person in Japanese. I need to convince you of the need to do this, but I am not sure how to go about doing this.

You mentioned that you sometimes send more texts than the other person sends. When I am giving a Japanese person a chance to practice speaking English, I always try to make it where the Japanese person is speaking at least half of the time. I hope that, when you start having video conferencing chats with Japanese people, you can get them to speak English at least half of the time too.

Now you can see why I asked if you were using some king of 'electronic chalkboard' because I assumed you were doing video chat. If you are only doing text messaging, there is no need for an additional chalkboard, the text platform is the chalkboard.

You do not need to be worried about being boring. Once a topic has been decided, the two of you talk about the topic, and being boring does not become a problem.

 

[日本語 Class]

I want to point out that there are thousands of people in Japan who would love to do a language exchange with you online. A lot of people in Japan pay money to talk to foreigners online and you being willing to do it for free is very enticing for them.

You mentioned how it seems to you that there are fewer Japanese people online looking to practice speaking English than English speakers looking to practice speaking Japanese, and this makes sense to me. As you have mentioned, many Japanese people are reserved (and many of them are downright shy). It is for this reason I think many of them are very adverse to doing a video chat and practicing speaking English with someone face to face. You have mentioned how you feel uncomfortable doing so and I think a lot of Japanese people feel more uncomfortable than you do.

Where are these people though, how can they be found?? Im interested on it but I havent found much except for random casual talks, without it being set up or official the way you always say.

My next place to look for is Discord, but as some already had the experience here, it seems many Japanese are in the same casual talks and mostly by text, so how can all these thousands Japanese be found then?

 

[Buntaro]

This thread has been an eye-opener for me. I know there are thousands of people in Japan who would love to do a language exchange with English speakers because I worked in the 英会話 (えいかいわ) (eikaiwa) (English conversation) industry for years. One of the problems is that finding the right app or webpage on the Internet to do language exchanges on is very difficult. Then there is the worry of getting into a face-to-face video chat with someone we don't know and might be a bad match for us — a worry for all of us, but especially for Japanese who are reserved and do not like the idea of jumping into a face-to-face video chat with a total stranger. (One of the aspects of Japanese culture is that most Japanese people will not talk to a stranger unless the two of them are properly introduced, a social rule that is completely thrown out the window when starting a language exchange with a total stranger on the Internet). Then there is the problem of signing up for and then 'getting lost' inside a huge app. (Some of these language exchange apps have millions of members.) Then there is the problem that many Japanese people write English well but are terrible at speaking English (and do not want to get into a language exchange where their lack of English fluency would shock English speakers and would be very embarrassing to the Japanese person). Then there is the problem that many people only exchange text messages on the Internet when what they should be doing is speaking with real human beings in real-time video chats. Then there is a problem of the time difference.

But I am taking on the challenge. I have decided to start a new thread and find places and partners on the Internet for people who want to do language exchanges. Challenge accepted!

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

Sorry for the late reply @Buntaro !
I took a leap of faith and joined VR Chat (not with a VR headset though) for the first time yesterday. I went in with the intention of, at the very least, listening to Japanese people speak casually (I already do this on Discord sometimes, but I wanted to experience it differently)
I joined the common world most people join called "Japan Shrine" but there were almost no Japanese people in it, instead full of foreigners (not even any americans) speaking english or their own language, even heard some chinese in there I eventually left that world because there weren't any Japan regional servers open for it, only US servers. I eventually found two other worlds which had Japanese servers. The first one was easy to join, because it was meant to be study practice for english speakers trying to learn japanese, and oddly, there were only japanese people in there. I say oddly because those kinds of servers are usually where Japanese people would avoid, but I guess maybe they were there to meet foreigners and help them. I just listened to what they were saying till they all disappeared back to reality. I left and went to another world, but this time it was a chat room meant for japanese speakers only. They had a test on the wall meant to deter non-speakers from entering the lobby (which I later found out to be a common thing). Of course, I didn't really have the skill to pass the test, so I cheated, with the intention to just listen and bother nobody.
There was a well similar to one you'd find next to a shrine for purifying your body to prepare yourself to stand before it or pray, with the ladles and everything (mostly decoration but I was able to pick the ladles up and pretend). Then I went ahead inside and there was a piano and a strange person walking sideways. I decided to play chopsticks on the piano since that's all I know how to play it seemed like they were watching and enjoyed the performance, but they didn't say anything and of course, neither did I. Then I walked into a room and that's where I found a whole bunch of people talking together. I went near them so I could just listen, but they started trying to talk to me my heart was already beating hard enough from being there in front of them, even as just avatars in a game. I tried to use the text box to avoid speaking and said things like 日本語を聞きたい because I only wanted to listen, but they pretty much got me to speak eventually... one of them asked me questions like if my main language was english (in english), and I kept nodding to answer yes or no. It was difficult to communicate like that so I eventually mustered up the courage to answer them (you have to understand, even if we were just going to be talking only in english, I would feel like this)
They basically told me that they wanted me to change my avatar because they wanted everyone to have "loli" avatars, and since I was new it was difficult but I eventually figured out how to change it! They were patient with me in helping me do it, and I used Japanese whenever I could think straight (1% of the time)... all my pronunciation skills went out the window of course, half the time I had an accent so hard even I noticed it I had such terrible anxiousness from the encounter that I couldn't even properly speak in my native language... It was worth it though, even though I could barely breathe because at least I made a couple friends
Anyway, my point of this story is just to reinforce the reason I don't do calls I wouldn't say it's scary, but it makes me have very strange feelings that make my heart beat like crazy, makes it hard to breathe and think straight, almost social anxiety but maybe it's not that... (メンヘラじゃなくてですよ!!) anyway, imagine what would happen if I did a video chat with someone I would practically have a heart attack! Besides, other than at work, I don't even speak english either cause I still never know what to say even in English and I don't really have people to talk to like that, not that I want to anymore... Even in English I pretty much exclusively use text messaging. However, I do feel more comfortable with a regular voice chat and someone is interested in talking to me on Discord. I'm just worried that I won't be able to keep the conversation going, and I'll have to be using a translator way too much. Luckily he understands English, he just can't speak it (and I'm not surprised by the way, I know another language that I pretty much 100% understand but I can't speak/have never spoken before, so I know the feeling). I just hope it won't make it too difficult to communicate. I'm also one that likes to ask a lot of questions so I can understand "why" for everything, and since google usually can't answer my most peculiar questions, I'd have to deal with not knowing/learning a lot of the things I wanted to learn. I guess that's okay though since over time if I get more practice I'll be able to realize those memories from my past experiences and put the pieces together to understand it in the future.
I'm thankful that you're making a thread for finding partners to practice language exchange with!

 

[Buntaro]

even if we were just going to be talking only in english, I would feel like this)

Your biggest problem is not your level of Japanese, it is your lack of self-confidence. What you need to do is build up your self-confidence and your experience of going online and having video chats. Here is what you need to do. Go online and have video chats but only do them in English. No Japanese. Just talk to someone. I know there is the problem of not knowing what to talk about, so here is what you do. Say, "Let's talk about something. Which topic would you like to discuss?" Then discuss that topic. Once you wear out that topic, say, "Okay, I think we have finished that topic. Time for a new topic. Let's talk about xxx."

Here is a list of topics. Once a topic has been agreed upon, one person says a little bit on the topic, then the other person asks LOTS of questions on the topic. I know you will feel awkward in the beginning, everyone does, but after you have done this five or six times you will get used to it, even enjoy doing it.

Self-intro
Family
Friends
My house-apartment
My dorm
My dream house
Shopping
Cooking
Eating out
Getting sick
Getting injured
A friend or family member being hospitalized
Hanging out – free time
Typical day, typical weekend
Chores, cleaning, laundry, etc.
Sports
- playing sports
- watching sports (watching on TV)
- watching sports (going to a professional sports event)
- Sports Day at a school in Japan (a very popular event in Japan)
Exercising
- riding a bike
- going jogging
- working out
Music
– listening to music
- playing a musical instrument
Watching movies
Watching TV
Traveling in Japan
Traveling to foreign countries
Transportation (bus, train, etc.)
Getting a train pass
Car
Money
Weather
Pets
Animals
National holidays (New Years is the biggest national holiday in Japan.)
My life story (especially elementary school and high school life)
My favorite class
My most-hated class (physics?)
After-school clubs (very big in Japan)
College life
Geting into college
College entrance exams (a big headache for many Japanese students)
Going to a juku (after-school cram school)
Studying English
Work
My life plan
My career
Fashion
Getting my hair cut/done
Generation gap
Japanese culture
- Food
- Language
- Chinese characters
- Japanese art and paintings
- Japanese dance
- Games
– cards, Go (囲碁) (いご）, Shogi, etc.
- Japanese history
Air pollution
- Bus exhaust
- Water pollution
- Supermarket plastic bags – good or bad?
- My hometown's environment
Religion
- Shinto
- Buddhism
British vs. American English

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

Your biggest problem is not your level of Japanese, it is your lack of self-confidence. What you need to do is build up your self-confidence and your experience of going online and having video chats. Here is what you need to do. Go online and have video chats but only do them in English. No Japanese. Just talk to someone. I know there is the problem of not knowing what to talk about, so here is what you do. Say, "Let's talk about something. Which topic would you like to discuss?" Then discuss that topic. Once you wear out that topic, say, "Okay, I think we have finished that topic. Time for a new topic. Let's talk about xxx."

Here is a list of topics. Once a topic has been agreed upon, one person says a little bit on the topic, then the other person asks LOTS of questions on the topic. I know you will feel awkward in the beginning, everyone does, but after you have done this five or six times you will get used to it, even enjoy doing it.

Self-intro
Family
Friends
My house-apartment
My dorm
My dream house
Shopping
Cooking
Eating out
Getting sick
Getting injured
A friend or family member being hospitalized
Hanging out – free time
Typical day, typical weekend
Chores, cleaning, laundry, etc.
Sports
- playing sports
- watching sports (watching on TV)
- watching sports (going to a professional sports event)
- Sports Day at a school in Japan (a very popular event in Japan)
Exercising
- riding a bike
- going jogging
- working out
Music
– listening to music
- playing a musical instrument
Watching movies
Watching TV
Traveling in Japan
Traveling to foreign countries
Transportation (bus, train, etc.)
Getting a train pass
Car
Money
Weather
Pets
Animals
National holidays (New Years is the biggest national holiday in Japan.)
My life story (especially elementary school and high school life)
My favorite class
My most-hated class (physics?)
After-school clubs (very big in Japan)
College life
Geting into college
College entrance exams (a big headache for many Japanese students)
Going to a juku (after-school cram school)
Studying English
Work
My life plan
My career
Fashion
Getting my hair cut/done
Generation gap
Japanese culture
- Food
- Language
- Chinese characters
- Japanese art and paintings
- Japanese dance
- Games
– cards, Go (囲碁) (いご）, Shogi, etc.
- Japanese history
Air pollution
- Bus exhaust
- Water pollution
- Supermarket plastic bags – good or bad?
- My hometown's environment
Religion
- Shinto
- Buddhism
British vs. American English

I appreciate your help with topics... I'll try to get comfortable with video chats, but i've only ever done them during the pandemic when we had to use zoom for school... even when i only had to record videos of myself for an assignment (also had to do this to get hired to my job) it made me feel very uncomfortable It's possible that I could do this in a regular call to make use of these topics, but right now I don't see myself anytime soon willingly joining a video chat anywhere...