Hi! Here from the Japanese post
It’s a great guide when it comes to being able to read but I read somewhere that that’s only about a fourth of being fluent (with the other skills being writing, speaking, and listening). I was wondering if you had any tips or resources when it comes to things like grammar or places to practice conversation? I’m sure a portion of it just comes naturally after learning to read so if those skills don’t need to be practiced individually in your opinion that’s also ok.
Hi! Thanks for reaching out. Funny story, I typed all of this and then Tumblr decided it didn't want to send my answer... so this is my second go x_x first of all want to clarify my post is a pretty cursory primer that just kind of escaped my circle, it's definitely skewed towards reading because that's what I've personally noticed a lot of people are interested in doing (but struggle with) but I do personally believe the skills you're describing often come naturally as a consequence of learning how to read... not because they're all one collective language "stat" but because knowing words, sentence structure, usage etc definitely aids your overall comprehension
That said, I do have some resources for you if you're interested in focusing on one thing, if you notice yourself falling behind in something, or if you're just plain curious. Note that I recommend many of these on a consultation basis (eg looking something up when you're unsure of what it is in context/need more clarification) but do what works for you!
Grammar: Cure Dolly (youtuber who makes quick grammar lessons; a lot of people recommend doing 3 of these a day and taking notes, but do what works for you) + Cure Dolly transcript (functions like a textbook, good for quick lookups if you've forgotten something) Yokubi (condensed vers. of Tae Kim grammar guide), Tae Kim grammar guide (good for looking something up if you're confused), Imabi (another grammar guide, good for looking things up quickly), bunpro (English articles that help you remember grammar points/how they're used), NihongoKyoshi (Anki deck; grammar flashcards w/ japanese definitions only), Japanese ammo (quick grammar grinding videos)
Listening/speaking/pitch accent: kotu.io (pitch accent game to train accent recognition, plays audio and you pick a choice), Usagi-chan pronunciation guide. Supernative (trains reading, hearing and speaking), delvinlanguage. A lot of people train listening with podcasts, radio shows, vtubers, youtube videos by Japanese creators, etc. To be fully candid I'm an anime otaku and I/my peers have had a lot of success with visual novels (full sentences, fully voiced by native speakers, lots of text, you get to see/hear grammar and vocab in context rather than isolated in a textbook/dictionary) and things like Tokimeki Memorial or other easy Japanese games with voice acting.
The act of using the Japanese you've acquired is called "output", and a lot of people struggle to find good places to do this (it's hard when you live outside Japan); I recommend joining Discord servers for Japanese learners. Some of these Discord servers have "writing clubs" that host events where you can practice writing in Japanese, but many also simply have output channels to practice forming sentences. There's an app called hellotalk where you can speak to natives in Japanese, but a lot of them are on there to practice their english (and some people may be too polite to correct you if your Japanese isn't correct); I haven't had much success with this but you may find it useful.
Also: Massif.la has example sentences so you can look up if a word/phrasing is correct. A lot of these are sourced from isekai light novels, so if you're writing something more scientific it may not be the best resource, but it is still pretty good. HiNative is a forum like Stack Exchange where people ask native speakers questions about the language.
This got pretty lengthy, sorry, but if you have any more questions, let me know. I hope you find some of this useful. Again, I really recommend immersing in the language (through things like reading and playing video games in the native language) as soon as you're comfortable doing so, but there are definitely things you can do to reinforce your learning outside of that.
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