Communicating over Skype

I am currently teaching myself how to learn Japanese via TextFugu and RealKana. I Skyped someone who speaks Japanese but struggles with some English. At that time I knew very little about the Japanese grammar (Only knew hiragana and katakana). When I tried to immerse with him, I have no clue how I can make a conversation in Japanese and he found it not fair that we mainly conversed in English. Does anyone have tips on how I can do it in terms of how much grammar should I know to be able to do it? how can I get myself to understand what i am saying in Japanese? what vocabulary should I start off with? how can i develop a conversation in japanese without being nervous? i want to do it again, but i don't know how much japanese i need to know to be able to do it. as much as i want to learn Japanese at a college, it is hard for me to do that because the closest college that does it is 3 hours away and i live in a very small town. also, is there other resources i can use to be able to teach myself Japanese and not have to drive miles away to do that?

I would say you need the very basic sentence structure (~ha ~ desu) and probably a small amount of verbs and basic words such as colors, fruits, everyday objects, etc. to be able to have a small conversation. Are you still speaking with your partner? How about agreeing to something like, "we only speak in Japanese for 5-10 minutes. Please use the easiest sentences possible". If you don't understand something, have him message you the sentence in Japanese and study it. Maybe the first few times you will only be able to talk for a few minutes before you can't go forward with your conversation, but as you begin learning new grammar and vocabulary, you will slowly improve.

Also, I recommend getting a textbook like Genki to help with your studies. Good luck!