こにちは皆！Konichiwa Minna! Hey Everyone!

I've been studying japanese for one year, and I know once I got really into it, I wanted to talk to japanese people so I can practice and possibly make some friends. So, since this is a site for SCANDAL, and I know theres a lot of japanese students on here that might want some friends in Japan, so I decided to make this post to show you guys this really cool site I came across a couple of months ago.

www.japan-guide.com

1) At the tip top of the page, you'll see sign in/sign up blah blah blah. Sign up.
2) Once you make your account, you'll be directed back to the site because you verified your email. At the top of the home page where all the links,subjects etc are, you'll see "Friends".
3) Click friends,(if your taken to a page that has Japan-Pen-Friend in big letters on the left side, and something big on the right side, just click Japan Pen-Friend) and you'll be taken to a page where it has all these options and stuff to find the kind of people you want to talk to. At the top of that box, you'll see " post a new ad".
4) Post your ad, introduce yourself, and people that are interested will message you on the site. You can also look at other people's introductions, and message them if your interested.


I've been on the site for a couple months now, and I've gotten plenty of replies, and I even made a really good friend named Hitomi. Remember, not everyone is going to reply to you so don't get upset or anything. Just keep sending people messages, make your ad, and the people that REALLY want to be your friend will talk to you and stay to the end. A lot of Japanese are shy with foreigners, so be patient. =)

頑張って！Ganbatte!
Well, thats about it you guys. I just wanted to share that with you.Have fun!
Thanks for reading,
Savannah <3

I can also highly recommend Japan-guide.com, I have been a member for many
years and have already told other members about it.
The good friends I have made range from a 55 year old Hospital Doctor in Aomori
to a High school student in Niigata.

But please be polite.
Mina in Niigata received on that just said ;

"Hi Jap girl, lets go to Tokyo and drink beer" !

where's the sign up tab,,,i don't see one

@billyboy
You should see it at the top left hand corner of the page where it says sign in/sign out.
It is quite small !

tonymiller wrote:

I can also highly recommend Japan-guide.com, I have been a member for many
years and have already told other members about it.
The good friends I have made range from a 55 year old Hospital Doctor in Aomori
to a High school student in Niigata.

But please be polite.
Mina in Niigata received on that just said ;

"Hi Jap girl, lets go to Tokyo and drink beer" !

Thats abit akward... just imagine if that was you... I don't what you'd feel but I certainly go WTF is wrong with this person....

since we're on the topic of getting Japanese penpals.... I'm currently trying to make an acc on that japan guide website
O tony whats your name on japan-guide.com I'm going to add you...

@bleachnlife
My name on Japan-Guide is Anthony James ( My first 2 names ) and I can see you are on there right now !

Like Savannah said you have to be patient as many Japanese people are shy with
foreigners, but really nice once you get to know them !

For the people that sign up, I hope you find some really awesome penpals and japanese buddies! It's always fun to learn about a different, culture, and lifestyle first hand.

=) If your having trouble finding the sign up thing, its at TIPPY top of the page. Like, look up until you can't look up no more. xD Have fun guys! Appreciate the comments!.

I want to sign up, but I am not sure my one semester of Japanese will allow me to communicate effectively lol. Unless they speak English. Do you have trouble understanding one another?

Totes McGoats wrote:I want to sign up, but I am not sure my one semester of Japanese will allow me to communicate effectively lol. Unless they speak English. Do you have trouble understanding one another?

Well, it all depends on the subject you talk about. I most definitely can't talk all technical and stuff, but when it comes to "chillin' with your best friend" kind of conversations, we communicate really well. There's a lot of Japanese on the site that study English, but aren't near fluent, so you will probably need a good amount of Japanese in the long run if you really wanna make friends with the people. I know me and my friend Hitomi used lots of English in the beginning, but as we got into different and non-basic convo's the English became less and less, and now our conversations are exclusively in Japanese. Practice what you know and more, be confident, and use it with confidence. You will go far if you really try. =)

@Totes McGoats
I have to disagree with my friend Savannah !
Many of my friends speak English just as good as mine and many want to use English because they want to learn it as much as we want to learn Japanese !

But with some of them I do use a strange mixture of English and Japanese, there are some Japanese words that cannot be translated into English.
Many will say how good their English is in the advert.
But if you really want to know about Japan and every day life there you will enjoy it very much !

Thanks for the site, but I can't create an account. It says:

Your internet access point cannot be used to sign up for a japan-guide.com user account. Please use the form below to submit your data.

I filled up the form and submitted my data, but still there's no mail regarding the registration. Actually I used another e-mail address but it's the same: no response.

Anyway, here's another site where you can find Japanese pen pal friends:

Hiragana Times

I found a pen pal here named Aya and we've been exchanging mails for months now.

Wah, i want a pen pal too!!

tonymiller wrote:@Totes McGoats
I have to disagree with my friend Savannah !
Many of my friends speak English just as good as mine and many want to use English because they want to learn it as much as we want to learn Japanese !

But with some of them I do use a strange mixture of English and Japanese, there are some Japanese words that cannot be translated into English.
Many will say how good their English is in the advert.
But if you really want to know about Japan and every day life there you will enjoy it very much !

Well I guess you talk to a different crowd or something because most of the people I talk to or are interested in talking to don't speak english that well. but then again, I'm pretty sure we might talk to different age groups ya know?

What I'm trying to say is that there's always going to be some really good English speakers on the site, but it all depends on the age group your going for. I'm 14, so on the site I only look for people 12-18 year olds. 20 year old's see my ad and message me and everything but I never try to get too close because of the age difference and just being safe online. None of the people I talk to are really good in English, many of them message me exclusively in Japanese right off the bat. Long story short, it all depends on who your talking to.

wow, thanks for this link! i've been taking lessons in japanese since september and have been looking for someone to help get some conversation practice in with since i started. ^^

Anytime!

Hmm well I'm 21 so maybe my chances of talking to english speakers are better. I'm going to try it and hope I can find some english speakers, at least for right now. My Japanese isn't nearly at a good enough level to maintain a conversation....YET!

exactly.....YET! lol. I wish you luck with your studies.

domo minna san. im a newbie here

welcome

Btw theres people from all over the world on there, so you can actually find people from other countries if you wanted to. ^^

I know Savannah, I have just been talking to friends in Japan on Skype, but on SH you can talk to people from all over the world !