Conversation practise in unfamiliar topics

After living in Tokyo for 2 years I’ve found myself exceedingly good at conversations around a very small number of topics, and by that I mean, “Where are you from; self introduction”-esque conversations only haha. Not only is this obviously limiting, it also means my vocabulary remains limited too.

I had an idea where we could discuss/converse about a predefined topic (i.e. a news article) and just have a conversation about it, in Japanese. It would force us to look up new words, and look outside of the vocabulary we are comfortable with using etc. Is this something that is already done somewhere (between learners, I mean)? If it is please point me to it! If not, where would be best to set something like this up? Here on the forum?

Sounds like you need to meet some more long term friends (who don’t speak your native language or English) where you can have deeper conversations. People usually recommend HelloTalk to meet new people, but another way I found was really effective is joining an activity and sticking with it for a while (e.g., activities that are typically offered at the community center you live closest to) I’ve met people where I’ve been able to maintain contact beyond basic communication. It does take a while to meet people this way, but if it is indeed something you’re interested in, then seeing the same people over time will become easier because they’ll at least share that interest as a starting point. Please forgive me if my assumption is grossly incorrect.

As for WK there is the Japanese Only section where Japanese natives regularly post topics about a variety of topics.

Hopefully that helps a bit!

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