This is my first time to use iNatForum, I am not sure if this topic is suitable here. If there are anything not appropriate, please tell me and I will solve it by myself.
I am a Mantodea and Tettigoniidea Identifier on iNat but I am interested in many other groups. I am now studying in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. And I am learning Japanese by myself. Therefore, I want to make some young Japanese friends like me to share my ideas and joys about nature and life with them. But I don’t have twitter or Facebook. Is there anyone who can use WeChat? Please contact me and my WeChat account is l754617241(The first latter is the Lower case letters of L).
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Being a relatively regular user here it seems to me that there aren’t many people from Japan using this forum or who use wechat (though I have it and I use it), so it might be difficult to find a suitable person here. Though, it does sound like a smart idea finding a way to combine your self-learning Japanese and interest towards insects. Have you tried searching through local social networking websites, eg. Weibo, QQ, douban etc? You may have better luck there.
Hummmmm……In my view it seems that the users on those communities are mainly Chinese. So, I think in a international community it will have more chances for me to find the people I wanted.
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Here is a list of the top observers in Japan. Perhaps you could browse their profiles and see if you happen upon a person you’d like to write?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=6737&subview=table&verifiable=any&view=observers
You might also set a search filter for the type of observations that interest you more in Japan and then see who the observers are for those species.
I think it would be nice to make a connection like that on iNat.
I believe there are so many young people like me in Japan. But in China we use different communication software from other country. After I find the suitable person it might still takes me some time to reach the agreement on the chatting software with him. If we happen use the same software it would be better. But I think finding a people like that itself is not easy.
Anyway, thank you for the suggestion, I will have a try.
if your primary goal is to learn the language, you could always try something like HelloTalk or italki. you could probably find a Japanese speaker in one of those communities who is also interested in nature.
Line is going to be your best bet for a direct connection to a person in Japan, but you may or may not have access to it behind the Great Firewall. HelloTalk (based in Shenzhen) and italki (based in Hong Kong) should be broadly available in China though.
My purpose is not only to learn language, or I will find a teacher or join a class directly. I am more willing to make friends who I can talk and share with.
——Yes, I know Line. And if I can’t find any Japanese who can use WeChat, I will download Line myself
I am upset.
I tried and I found some people I am interested on the list of Japanese obserers and sent my messege to them. But it seems that many of Japanese have Social Phobia? I found they are afraid of swap their Line ID with me. I can only communicate with them by the messege function of iNat.
But the messege function is so awwwwwwwwful, indeed. Every time I send my messege there, it will cost a loooooooooooong time for me to receive the reply. Sometime I can’t even get the reply. This makes me much annoyed.
I don’t know what the social norms are in Japan, but a lot of people are going to be cautious when approached by a stranger.
If I understand correctly, you are upset because it takes a long time to get a response? That’s not because of the feature. It’s because the person responding has chosen not to answer immediately. iNat messages are more like email that way.
If you have a Feature Request, you can make one.
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Hi, I’m a Japanese iNat user mainly observing plants :)
I’ve been tried some messenger apps, but I don’t use WeChat…
I think Japanese people are often afraid of receiving sudden contact from a person unknown to them, which makes it difficult for them to reply.
I constantly check iNat messages from e-mail notify, so if you would like to contact me, please feel free.
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for what it is worth I am not Japanese and I very much feel this way too. I don’t give out my phone number because i don’t like talking on the phone, and it makes me very anxious. (There are exceptions but it’s better if I know in advance).
There may be issues with the iNat messenger, but if someone doesn’t want to provide personal information, there is not much chance pressuring them to do so will result in a healthy friendship.
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