As the title says, I’m wondering whether or not I should start HelloTalk not knowing very much Japanese (to the tune of like 500 wanikani items).
It would be great if anyone could share any personal experience the had with joining and not knowing much Japanese, or advice they had about the subject.
Thanks!
Your WK level doesn’t seem all that relevant to whether you should start speaking. Speaking depends on vocab and grammar.
There is a translate button. HelloTalk is a good app.
Just started it today. And I absolutely love it. I say just try it and see how it works for you.
I overestimated how good you need to be in order to chat, so I definitely think you should give it a try to find out for yourself 
You don’t have to wait! Some of the most helpful people I’ve found on there, I became friends with them first and they push me to do more and more every day
I think you should go ahead and try it! I have made many friends through this app, i even met them when i went to Japan and a couple of them have came to my country also. So the people on it are very nice! Also the people on here can help you with your Japanese and the features on the app are pretty good
I had the same worry, but absolutely do not wait. I just started using HelloTalk and it’s already turning into an incredible resource. Think of it like Twitter but if random people regularly responded to you. I’ve been using the internet for probably 20 years now and I haven’t felt the power of the internet quite like this before.
Now I’d love to make friends on there, but even if I don’t, the ability to practice my Japanese and have natives comment on or correct it, is invaluable.
This is intriguing, maybe I’ll gather the courage to try it too!
The translation feature is really good so don’t worry about your level. The more you get exposed to trying to type and read the better! I live in a student town so I actually use it to meet up with japanese students trying to learn english - for coffees and such. My speaking ability is aweful 
I’ve tried it. But because of my japanese level, the most frequent conversation schemes were:
So you need to be ready to actually speak (and learn from the critique/corrections!) japanese if you want any profit out of HelloTalk. I’ll give it a go again pretty soon because I’ve got some grammar basis and my vocab seems to be much larger now.
I made some friends out of that app anyway. One of them helps me a lot with explaining japanese culture and answering some questions like, how much would it cost to go to japanese language school or just make a trip there.
There are also some things I dislike about HelloTalk. They limit the usage of some essential features like translating/transliterating something, unless you donate them some cash. That’s not a good approach considering there are things like HelloPal.
Yes, start now! I’ve had it for a couple days and it’s awesome.
When I got to work this morning, I realized I forgot my phone at home on the charger and my first thought was “Man, now how am I going to chat with my new friends?!”
I used HelloTalk before I ever signed up for WaniKani! Even if you’re not writing in kanji, people will still understand you. The app’s system of giving and getting corrections is absolutely great.
I downloaded it a few days ago, but I haven’t posted anything (I don’t post anything on Facebook or Twitter either, so that’s not surprising). Even so, I’ve gotten a lot out of just reading native speaker’s Japanese posts.
Has anyone actually paid for the premium service? The translation system is really limited with only 15 usages a day.
I end up copying over to google translate anyways. I’m pretty sure that’s all they are using.
Yeah, I’ve done that a few times, but it’s a pain. It would be much easier if they had a web browser version.
Has anyone ever tried Hellotalk with Bluestacks (or other alternatives)? The only thing keeping me from using is not wanting to type with my phones keyboard. I would just try it out but I don’t currently have bluestacks set up.
I have not. I also haven’t used this, but I have heard good things about it. (Had a friend who used it.)
I really liked HelloTalk when I first started using it. Was really addicting for some reason. And it pushed me to try things. I often made sentences using grammar concepts I hadn’t solidified yet and had more success in those than grammar I thought I was solid in (people corrected me on basic things :P).
I’ve stopped using it, and Japanese in general, but just making friends from Japan on there is a really kool experience, I still hop on to talk to one every now and then. Highly recommend. 
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