Brief Introduction-
I’ve been studying Japanese for a while now and the aspect that I find I need to strengthen the most would have to be writing (well perhaps just writing with the opportunity to practice new and more complex grammar, as I write all the time otherwise). Quite luckily for me I work in a Japanese company in London, so it’s rather easy to practice speaking on a daily basis. However much like when foreigners speak English, it’s not commonplace for you to correct their grammar mistakes if you can understand what they’re attempting to say. So while my colleagues do correct me every now and then it’s not that often. This is the Japanese plateau I’ve been stuck on for rather a while. While I can make myself understood, it’s pretty hard to advance past that as I don’t have a frame of reference of when I’m using a grammar point correctly (when I’m speaking or writing off of the top of my head, so to speak).
I heard about lang-8 a while ago and thought it sounded absolutely perfect, however they currently aren’t accepting new users unfortunately, and are only promoting their app HiNative (which while good, is far from being the same sort of resource). Does anyone know of any useful software, online programs or such that are similar? Or perhaps a way around lang-8’s new user block?
I’d be very much obliged to any insight anyone may have. I would point out though I’ve used apps like HelloTalk and Tandem etc and I really can’t stand them. With huge time differences and busy lives conversations on their are repetitive and slow and tend to wither easily (however that’s just my experience). I have plenty of Japanese friends around the UK and in Japan so I’m not really looking for anything to find language exchange friends. More something where I can practice writing and have it critiqued and corrected.
Thank you in advance.