noun, na-adjective
poor conversationalist; bad at talking
Describes a person who is unskilled at conversation or storytelling; often used self-deprecatingly. The antonym is 話し上手.
Antonyms: 話し上手
私は話し下手で、人と話すのが苦手です。
I'm a poor conversationalist and not good at talking with people.
彼は話し下手だけど、聞き上手だ。
He's bad at talking, but he's a good listener.
Compound of 話し (hanashi, 'talking') + 下手 (heta, 'unskillful'). The exact historical derivation is straightforward; the spelling 話下手 is a variant without okurigana.