掲示板 Forums - Does anyone else feel they struggle to create sentences on the fly?

This is very normal. When you're on Renshuu (or any similar app), your experience is very "structured" - you have time to think, limited answers, fixed context, low pressure, etc.

The only way to get better at speaking is by actually speaking. Preferably with native speakers.

"How did you guys overcome this?" I still haven't... I don't get enough speaking practice, so my conversational skills are always lagging behind.

A bit about speaking and conversation: In my mind there's always a trade-off between flow and accuracy, and it's better to focus on flow. As long as you're understood, it doesn't matter if you mess up grammar or use the wrong particle. People care more about the conversation moving than perfect grammar. Accuracy is something you naturally develop over time.

I'm level 1000+ and still struggle to create sentences on the fly at times. Ofc simple things I can without issues, but more complex ones I still need to do a process in my mind, I can't output everything as natural as english. For reference I've been studying for over 2 years every single day but output will always be something harder for us learners. Only remedy to this is by speaking more.

Output is significantly harder than input. Especially if you're an absolute beginner, I wouldn't even worry about output at all at this stage.

When reading/listening, you'll come across words you might not be 100% on, but encountering it in context will refresh your memory. Or even words you don't know at all, but you can infer what they probably mean from context clues. But when speaking, you have to know every word you need off the top of your head or else you'll just get stuck.

And grammar is obviously much easier to understand than to construct - you don't need to perfectly know it just to get the general idea, in fact as long as you understand the words you can often follow along even when you don't know grammar. But any mistakes in output will be apparent - you might still be understood, but you might also feel embarassed as hell at not being perfect.

About pronunciation: That's only a problem if you practise speaking alone without actually hearing Japanese. If you're listening to natives regularly, your brain eventually re-aligns your output. The more you speak, the better your pronunciation gets. Don't worry about making mistakes, they aren't permanent. If you can't find natives to talk to, the next best thing is shadowing.

Bad habits only really lock in when you have no exposure and keep repeating errors in a vacuum.

About grammar: Same thing. You just develop grammar intuition naturally with exposure. People who consume more Japanese tend to speak more fluidly, even if they can't name all of the exact grammar points and rules.

What I meant by "trade-off between flow and accuracy" was that for an intermediate learner it's better to make mistakes than spend 5-10 seconds in awkward silence trying to figure out the correct grammar.

PS: I know this works, because that's how I learned English :)

Often I got stuck trying to translate in my brain before speaking it out.

One way is to skip trasnlation in the brain and just speak out loud what is suppose to be.

Make mistakes. In public (or even better with a small group of friends).
Because, unless you managed to find a way to download the entirety of the Japanese already, you probably not even aware of the mistakes you're currently doing. And that precisely why you should make mistakes in public. Because if you're not aware and nobody notice it for you, then you may keep those habits with you for years.

At the same time, don't worry too much. Even natives can forget their mothertongues if they lived for too long in another country. So it's completely erasable. Also, Japanese's pronunciation is not that important. Context is far more important. It's only a problem when you say short sentences or single words.

Like one time, I wanted to say "I don't have a car because I live in a big city and it's easier to just use public transport". But at that time, I was still not good enought to use some pattern. So I said:

「としだから」(roughly "because city")
I wanted to shorten my sentence like native japanese but because the context was lacking AND my pronunciation was wrong, I ended up saying "Because I'm old" :v
都市 (city) and 年 (year, age but also old age/past one's prime) only differ by their pitch accent...
But that the only case where I was really misunderstood. And I've been talking to japanese at least once a week if not everyday except for few break (for 3 years more or less). My pronunciation and pitch accent is still not perfect but I never had another problem like that.
Also I never forgot about that because my japanese's "friends" laughed at me for a good 5 minutes non stop... But that's how you learn. And it's not that bad. Sure, you may want to hide in a hole at that time but that exactly why you won't make the same mistake again and won't develop bad habits. That's also how native kids learn their mothertongues. By teasing each other.

As long as it's with nice people. If they are harsh while correcting you, don't take your level into account, give too complicated grammar explanation, etc, just avoid them. For pronunciation specifically, it's simply not possible to fix that most of the time because if you're not from a tonal language, you'll simply not be able to even perceive the difference at first. So beyond the basics, that kind of explanation is often more useless than anything. Except to make you feel bad, like you're not good at japanese. But that's not the case. It just takes time. Oh, and a few days ago, I talk about that anecdote with some japanese that I met not too long ago. And I was able to pronunce 都市 and 年 correctly this time =p

Everyone gave great advice here but sometimes you don't have the opportunity and/or the time to speak with someone / practice with a teacher. It is the best but if you're not there yet for any reason, I found that journaling is very useful.

By journaling I mean that everyday I write what I did, how I'm feeling, what I have to do tomorrow, etc. I write short sentences (for now) and I only use words and grammar I (think I) know. I don't think about how I write, I don't search for anything, I just write. Once I'm done, I do the check up with my manuals (or even chatgpt, which can be useful as a tutor).

I know I can't be perfect after only 9 months of learning japanese on my own. I can't take classes for now because it's expansive so I try to find other ways. ;-) Nevertheless, journaling won't help with pitch accent, pronunciation, etc. Shadowing can help but it doesn't work for me. :'(