As the title suggests, I’m looking for a speaking partner. My Japanese is around N4 level (kind of) and my speaking is very bad so I need someone I can practice speaking with. If anyone is interested do let me know.
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Have you looked into applications like Hello Talk to get a native speaking partner? I feel like it would be a lot better than two less experienced learners trying to talk to each other in their TL and there’s probably more demand!
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I feel like these apps only work if you’re a 女性.
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Does it have to be out loud, or is chat fine? I don’t mind chatting on LINE if you have that or messaging on Natively, if you use the forums there (I don’t think you can dm here?)
Having used HelloTalk when my conversation skills were weaker, I would largely say the opposite
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In one of my pedagogy textbooks, it asserted that learners do not make noticeably more or less mistakes when speaking with another second language learner as opposed to speaking with a native or fluent speaker. In my opinion, the goal of speaking practice is to increase confidence in using the structures that you are already familiar with extemporaneously. So, there is still much value to practicing speaking with another person at your same level, but the only thing missing would be the capacity for confident correction. Something that shouldn’t matter too much if you are getting that type of feedback elsewhere in your study.
Just my two cents! To the point of the OP, I would search up Japanese conversation tables in your area. Often there is a nice blend of native/fluent speakers and learners at conversation tables 
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Chat is also fine, I have LINE. And no, I don’t think one can dm here.
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Are all the females just pairing with other females in your head then?
I’ve had no problem with it and I’m a male…
Maybe I was just lucky to find a few people on there.
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Rather than being a paradise for women, when I hear about bad experiences on those sites it’s almost always women saying people are trying to make it a dating site. Not to say you can’t find good use from it as a woman for sure, but it actually comes with problems to look out for.
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It’s funny you say that, because that’s exactly been my experience talking with all the women I’ve known on there. They all had horrible experiences with weirdos on there. Then I swoop in and act like a normal human and they are delighted to stay in contact. I felt like it really lowered the bar for me.
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Add LINE friend is me. Username is akatsukinoluna22, if that doesn’t work. If anyone else is interested in chatting in JP (or mixed EN & JP), feel free to add me, but plz let me know here/who are you if you msg me.
I also found a few people, but it was only after I basically made my profile “I’m a big otaku, here’s the things I like, let’s chat”, and added “I don’t accept just Hello or Wave messages” (ppl still ignored that, but I got less of them). My other issues probably largely came down to:
- I’m an introvert, would run out of energy, and not good at conversing outside my interests
- I just don’t have a lot in common with random Japanese ppl trying to learn English
- I’d lose interest
- It was too exhausting to try to say things I wanted to say back then
- There’s just too much noise on there
If I wanted to pay for premium, I’d use it to hang out in the voice chat rooms… Good listening practice. Otherwise I found that making posts was actually the most productive there, since ppl would correct things I wrote.
I have an anime character as my profile pic, and that + not responding to single line messages, waves, etc, seemed to cut out almost any of those sort of messages
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Another good option that I’ve found are groups on the MeetUp site. There are various online ones that do English/Japanese language exchanges where you’ll be put into small groups and spend half in each language.
Look around your community. There may be some surprising opportunities, and try to find local Japanese associations on social media. Today, I’m going to a Spanish-Japanese language exchange that is hosted by the local Japanese Association in Mexico City (I’m learning Spanish as well, but at a B2 level, vs. studying for the N4 Japanese).
I went once before, and it’s definitely draining because we speak in both languages I’m learning and not English, my native language. But obviously I got enough out of it to go back!