March 2, 2021

Your Help Means a Lot

╰(*´︶`*)╯

In our community, we exchange language practice, and support each other.

Your little kindness help your Japanese friends.

Please help Japanese friends learning English if they have English question post.

If other members ask for your study tools or materials, recommendation, then share them!


We, the management team loves to see members support each other and learn together 🙂

Timeline

1. Click on "Menu".

Search "Blue House Okinawa" and open it on web.

2. Click on "Living Room".

3. Click on Timeline.

4. Click on Menu.

5. Click on ALL MEMBERS to see other members' post.

6. Browse other members' post and please help them learn or give them advice if you can.

That would be great if you can help them in both Japanese and English but help only in English is very helpful too!

Notifications

You can check notifications on Timeline and My Page.
Keep checking up on them and reply them if you can.

Thank you for all your help and kindness.

Oh please let us know if you have any suggestions, requests or questions! We’re working on our community to make it better everyday. We’d love to hear from you 🙂

March 2, 2021

Let's do the

Zoom
Language Exchange！

Now let's make the most of the Zoom Language Exchange!

Zoom

Start a Zoom meeting!

Start a Zoom Language Exchange

Go ahead and start off with introducing yourself and ask your Zoom Language Exchange buddies to introduce themselves if you guys are meeting for the first time.

Then, explain what practice you'd like to do and ask them what practice would they like.

You can refer to your post that you posted to find your Zoom Language Exchange buddies.

Enjoy the Language Exchange!

Close the Session

After the practice, tell you Japanese friends "thank you".

And if you'd like to have another session with them, ask them if they can have it with you again.

If they're willing to join your session again then go ahead and set up a schedule too.

Posting to find your Zoom Language Exchange buddies,
waiting for the comments, scheduling the session,
creating the group message and communicating with them until the session
are a lot of work!

You can save up so much time if you can schedule another session in the session while you're running it.

We recommend to keep looking for new Zoom Language Exchange buddies, and at the same time, schedule the session repeatedly with same buddies that way you can practice your Japanese as much as you'd like.

We never know who can be your lifetime study buddy until you get to know them deeply and truly 🙂

Share

Please share your experience in Zoom Language Exchange group after your Zoom Language Exchange.

What practice did you guy do?
What worked? And what not?

What tools did you guys use?
What tools do you recommend?

Your advice will help a lot of other members 🙂

Next,

12. Help your Japanese friends.

March 2, 2021

Prepare for
the Zoom Language Exchange

So you found your Zoom Language Exchange buddies!
Congratulations!

Are you excited?
Or are you little nervous?

Let's prepare for it to make the most of it.

Our Recommendation

We recommend to use Zoom and our worksheets for the Language Exchange but you can use any other tools if you’d like.

 

 

Just keep it mind that we only have tutorials for Zoom and our worksheets in Japanese for Japanese members.

They might know how to use Zoom and worksheets but might not know about any other tools.

 

So if you decide to use any other tools, then you might need to explain your buddies how to use them before the session or during the session.

 

 

Our recommendations is to use any kind of flashcards/textbook pdf/vides/audios that has both Japanese and English on your screen to share with your buddies.

 

 

That way you and your buddies don’t have to have the awkward moments like:

“I don’t know what to talk…”

“I’m out of topics…”

 

Or after the session:

“It was a good session! But I don’t remember what I learned…”

“I talked a lot but I didn’t learn anything new…”

 

 

So prepare your Japanese study materials, questions that you guys can work on and don’t forget to study it beforehand.

 

 

Your preparation will make the session smooth for you and your buddies 🙂

 

 

 

“By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

-Benjamin Franklin

 

Set Up Zoom

Let’s set up your Zoom account if you don’t have one.

To create your account, please visit their website here.

Open the Worksheets

Open up Study Room > your course > your lesson > worksheets PDF.

Run a Test

Now Zoom is set up and your worksheets is ready, so let's run a test!

Go ahead and start the Zoom meeting on your own and check your microphone, camera, background and try sharing your screen.

Oh, don't forget to allow participants to share their screen.


Or if you'd like to share any other Japanese study materials or questions on your screen, go ahead and share them as a test.


Everything works good?
Great job!

Let's go next!

Send Zoom Invitation


Send your buddies the Zoom invitation via comment or direct message at least a couple days prior.

As you're excited to meet them over Zoom, they're also excited!

But people forget things in this super busy days so send them the Zoom invitation to remind them that you guys have the Zoom Language Exchange 🙂

Next,

11. Let’s Do the Zoom Language Exchange.

March 2, 2021

Let's Find Your

Zoom Language
Exchange Buddies

We call a member to member session where members exchange speaking practice over Zoom, "Zoom Language Exchange."

You can have it as many as you'd like on your own as long as your Japanese friends are available.

Here, we'll go through how to find your Zoom Language Exchange buddies.

Goals of Zoom Language Exchange

*To see if you remember what you've learned.

*To see if your Japanese friends understand your Japanese.

*To listen to native Japanese speakers Japanese pronunciation.

*To learn how native Japanese speakers use Japanese.

*To understand what your Japanese friends think, how they look at things, and how they express their feeling.

*To understand Japanese culture deeply.

Post

1. Click on "Menu".

Search "Blue House Okinawa" and open it on web.

2. Click on "Living Room".

3. Click on Find Study Buddies.

4. In the group, we'll post to find your Zoom Language Exchange buddies.

5. Read Description to understand how to find your Zoom Language Exchange buddies better.

You can even copy and paste the description and post too!

6. Write about all the information the description mentions, and make it easy for Japanese people to check their schedule, understand your needs, and join your Zoom Language Exchange session.

Check Your Post

1. Come back to your post and check if anyone comments on your post.
To check your post, you can go to Find Study Buddies.

2. Check your post and see if anyone commented on your post.
If you do have any comments then you can reply to the person on the post or you can start a chat/direct message.

Check Other Members Post too!

See other members' post and join their Zoom Language Exchange if you can.
Your little help means a lot to your Japanese friends 🙂

Next, we’ll

10. Prepare for a Zoom Language Exchange.

March 2, 2021

Send a Message

to Your Japanese Friend

You'd like to send a thank you message to your friend directly?

Here is how to send a message to your Japanese friend.

Messages

1. Click on "Menu".

Search "Blue House Okinawa" and open it on web.

2. Click on "Living Room".

3. Click on Messages.

4. Click on "+" in the message box to start a chat.

5. Start a chat!

Please fill the information below:

① Recipient(s)

② Subject/Group Name

③ Message

④ Attachement

⑤ Send

⑥ Close Message

6. Close the message and go back to message box.
See if the chat you just started displays.
If it does then, you're all set.

Wait for reply from your friend!

Come back and check your message box to see if you have a reply!

Next,

9. Let’s Find Zoom Language Exchange Buddies!

March 2, 2021

"Is my Japanese ok?"

How to Ask a Japanese Question.

You might have a moment wondering,

"Is this right to say it?"
"How would I say that?"

And give up on posting or replying because you don't want be rude or you don't want to write something that you're not sure.

But you can always ask Japanese friends about Japanese!

Ask them to check your Japanese,
Ask them what's the better way to say it!

「にほんごを、おしえてください。」
Please teach me Japanese.

1. Click on "Menu".

Search "Blue House Okinawa" and open it on web.

2. Click on "Living Room".

3. Click on Ask Questions about Japanese.

3. In the group, you can post a Japanese question.

"Please check
my Japanese"
= わたしの　にほんごを
チェック　してください。

"Please teach me a better way
/right way to say."
= もっと、よいひょうげん、
ただしい　ひょうげんを　おしえてください。

You can use phrases above and ask for help.

4. Click on post and post your question!

Please join "English Help Wanted" group and help Japanese people learn English too!

If you can answer the question in both Japanese and English that would be great but answer only in English is also very helpful to other Japanese members.

Your small help means a lot to your Japanese friends 🙂

Next, we’ll

8. Send a Message to Your Friend.

March 1, 2021

More

Japanese Practice!

Let's practice even more!
Check on Timeline and join the conversations 🙂

Please write post or comment in both Japanese and English.

Sometimes, it's hard for us to help members when they only write in one language and we can't understand what they trying to say.

Please help us understand what you're trying to say easier in both Japanese and English so that we can suggest a correction or better way to say.

Timeline

1. Click on Timeline under Living Room.

Search "Blue House Okinawa" and open it on web.

2. Click on "Living Room".

3. Click on Timeline.

4. On Timeline, you can see:

① Who's online
② Notifications

and you can see other members' post.

5. With the filter, you can see,

① All members' post
② Your friends' post
③ Your groups' post.

6. You can start a conversation simply by posting.

7. Click on photo when you post photos.

8. Click on Slideshow when you make slideshow.

9. Click on Quote when you post any quotes.

10. Click on GIF when you post with GIF.

11. You can upload files by clicking File too.

12. Click on Video to upload videos.
*You can only upload mp4, ogg, ogv, 
webm files.

13. Click on Audio for audio files.

14. Click on Links for posting links.

Try different types post and enjoy!

Editing Post

1. Click on the top right corner TWICE.

2. Click on the green icon.

3. Edit your post and click on "SAVE CHANGES".
And you're all set!

Comment

1. Please comment in both Japanese and English here too.
Click on Comment.

2. Write a comment and hit "Return" on your keyboard.
It'll automatically post your comment.

3. Click on file icon to upload a photo/video/file.

3. Click on photo icon to post GIF.

Next, we’ll

7. How to Ask Japanese Question.

March 1, 2021

Now

Let's Practice Japanese!

You have set up your profile picture, cover picture, About me, Skills and Portfolio.

You also sent friend requests.

Now you're all set to start practicing your Japanese!

Let's start off practicing Japanese in groups.

There are groups based on the topics so that you can practice Japanese easily without feeling of "I don't know what to talk..."

The groups are ran by the management team based on certain number of request from members.

Let us know if you have an idea of a group.
We'll start one when we have enough number of request!

Groups

1. Click on "Menu".

Search "Blue House Okinawa" and open it on web.

2. Click on "Living Room".

3. Click on Groups.

4. Here you can see all the groups that the management team runs.

Let's look into one of the groups.
Click on the icon.

5. In the group page, you can see the information about the group and posts of other members.

6. Read description about the team and see if you want to join it.

7. To join the group, you can simply click on "Join Group".

8. Once you join the group,

go ahead and introduce yourself and post in both Japanese and English just like you did when you send messages to other members.


Write about:
your name,
where you're from,

why you're learning Japanese,
what are you learning Japanese goals,
what is your dream,

what kind of help you can offer.

You can refer to your profile page, About me, Skills if you'd like.

9. Made a good self-introduction?
Post it!

10. Go back to Groups and keep looking for the groups you want to join.

When Joining the Group

It'll change it to "Leave Group" and it means that you're in the group.

Next,

6. Practice Even More!

March 1, 2021

How to Send

A Friend Request!

Now, let's browse the members' profile pages and send friend requests.

Members

1. Click on "Menu".

Search "Blue House Okinawa" and open it on web.

2. Click on "Living Room".

3. Click on Members.

4. On the member cards, you can:
① Send a friend request
② Send a direct message

But now, let's click on icon and look at the member's profile page.

5. On the member's profile page,
you can see their post and their profile.

6. Let's look at the About me, Skills and Portfolio sections.

7. Find him/her interesting?

Let's send a direct message first and introduce yourself first.

Click on Message.

8. Write about:
you name,
where you're from,

why you're learning Japanese,
what are your goals of learning Japanese,

what kind of help can you offer,
like English conversation practice,
pronunciation practice,
etc...

And send it by clicking "send" button.

9. Close the message by clicking the cross.

10. Go back to Members and keep looking for your new friends 🙂

When Click on "Add Friend"

It'll change it to "Cancel Request" on member's card, and it means it's waiting for the member to accept your friend request.

When you become friends

It'll change it to "Unfriend" on member's card, and it means that you and the member are now friend.

Next,

5. Let’s Practice Japanese!