Find Japanese groups in Facebook.

Hi.
I'm going to write how to find Japanese groups in Facebook today.

The basic strategy is same as I wrote in my previous post.
Search with Japanese keyword which is related to yourself, such as your nationality, your profession, and so on.

For example, if you are Canadian, "カナダ" which means "Canada" in Japanese is one of the best keywords to find Japanese group where you can meet Japanese people who would be interested in you.

However, there are things to be considered to find a good Japanese group.

What you have to look for in a Japanese group is, the size and the rules of the group.

If it is a small group, then, you don't have to worry about it. Usually, the group is like a family and people get to know each other pretty soon.

The problem is, when the group has a large number of members and the rules of the group are not written in the group description. In these groups, the administrators are tend not to be engaged in the group so much, and people are enjoying their freedom. The freedom itself is OK, but it allows some people to act like a final boss. I don't want you to be in a dangerous group like that before you equip a weapon that is Japanese language in this case.

So, when you found an interesting group, I recommend you to check the description of the group. You don't have to understand everything. But if it is too simple or too short, you have to be more careful. The big green Wart might be waiting for you there.

On the other hand, when lots of rules are written in the description, you can say that the group is well-managed in general. The administrators are deeply engaged into the group, and when they find any problem, they respond as soon as possible.

Now, I would like to show you two examples of those groups.

The first one is "The Nihongo Learning Community".
About 20,000 people are learning Japanese here with more than 300 professional teachers. You can ask questions, or answer the quiz provided by their teachers. There are some Japanese people who are not professional teachers, but they are not allowed to act as teachers such as answering questions about Japanese language.

The Administrators of the group are Mr. Yoshikai and Ms. Nojima. When they find any post violating the rules, which are written to protect the learners, they boot the violator out of the group. So, I can recommend this group even to high school girls.

The second group is "海外旅行好きサークルwith国際交流".
The name of the group means "Group of people who love traveling abroad and who want to build international friendship".

In this group, people are mainly sharing the pictures they took on their trip. Some of non Japanese members share the pictures they took in their own countries. Basically they communicate only in Japanese, but you can find some pictures taken in your country even if you live in small country far from Japan. For example, there is no Japanese language class in Kosovo, but you can find some posts by whom visited there.

As I wrote in my previous post, it is essential to find somebody who would be interested in you, to learn Japanese through social media. In this sense, this group will be important to you, even though teaching language is not their primary reason to be there.

So, this is the way to find Japanese groups in Facebook. If you have any question, please ask me in the comment.

In my next post, I will write about how to read Japanese on social media. Don't miss it!