Female language exchange partner?

[Stellaria1995]

Hello! I am a female currently living in America, I moved here from Yokosuka, I am looking for female Japanese speakers who I can have conversations with in Japanese so I can learn better

[Haruka Flores]

Hello Stellaria1995! I'm currently learning Japanese for free in a sim called Nihongo Tea Room, created by Cypris Japan. Every Saturday 11pm JST (7am PDT/6am PST), a couple of Japanese volunteers guides us through Genki 1 Elementary Japanese Textbook 2nd Edition (which is free via Internet Archive), with light homework / revisions to discuss the next Saturday.

We’re encouraged to speak mostly in Japanese to each other (so having a decent mic & headphones are a must if you want to join in the practice) and the relaxed atmosphere makes it feel like we’re at home, rather than in a classroom. In fact, they rather not call it a school because the setting is more casual. I was astonished that they don’t charge at all, where locally (I'm from Malaysia) it would be hard to find such an interesting Japanese learning experience, especially with a native Japanese teacher too.

So far we have classmates from Australia, America, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Spain. This also makes it an interesting place to learn about other cultures from different countries while speaking Japanese.

We’re in Lesson 10 now, so if you don’t mind jumping in midway into the lesson, you’re more than welcome to join us. But don’t be taken aback by the Lesson 10 mark because in the previous sessions, I still struggle to describe Sailormoon to everyone in Japanese（つきのうさぎはどの人ですか). Furthermore, last weekend we had another new classmate who just started learning Japanese too, so our teacher, Yoshi-san is happy enough to drill the basics again for us regulars.

Speaking of Yoshi-san, he is the main person who is teaching us Japanese at the moment. Since you're looking for female Japanese native speakers to have conversations with, Cypris Japan founder Mystie-san regularly observe the class every Saturday as she helps Yoshi-san, translating English queries from attendees to Japanese (Yoshi-san's English is quite basic but that made us learn Japanese much better, in my opinion).

During other weekly events in Cypris Japan, there are also several other female Japanese native speakers that you can meet to have a chat in Japanese or English because they are mostly there to brush up their English. Perhaps a less-structured Japanese learning via Shiritori might interest you more in a form of Japanese and English Language Exchange. For that particular event, it's every Friday at 10.30pm JST (6.30am PDT/5.30am PST).

As for the location, type ‘Cypris Japan’ in the Search section of your viewer and you'll get a Teleporter to ‘Nihongo Tea Room’. If everything still seems too confusing, feel free to IM me and I’ll do my best to help explain things in more detail. Below are snapshots from some of our Saturday sessions (photo credit to Mystie-san).

Looking forward to welcoming you to our Japanese learning community.

よろしくお願いします。

Edited November 2, 2020 by Haruka Flores
Added more pictures :)

[Haruka Flores]

Second Life clock has moved 1 hour backwards and that means so does the Beginner Japanese lessons in Cypris Japan on Saturdays, plus the other weekly events there. Here's the updated time:

BEGINNER JAPANESE

土曜日 午後10時(JST) / 10 PM (JST)

SATURDAY, 5:00 AM (PST)

You may check Cypris Japan events board if you need more details. Sorry for any inconvenience from my late update.