Hi there!

So I'm currently in Japan visiting my relatives (brazilian-japanese) and will use the time to visit some Japanese Language Schools in Tokyo if possible. I'm actually in Yamanashi right now cause of my brother who works here (I'm staying at his place), but my 2 uncles and 1 aunt reside in Tokyo, while another aunt is in Saitama.

Since I'll visit my aunt in Tokyo later this month and stay there for a week or so, I'm seeing if I can schedule a visitation to some schools.

The thing though, is that I'll have to save enough money in 6 months more or less (normally the time needed to get the Student Visa) to at least pay most of the course fees and housing, and it's basically certain I'll also go after part-time jobs. There's a possibility I could stay with my aunt, but I don't want to bother them for months.

In theory, Italki could be enough and I'm at around N3, but being here for over a month (77 days in total), the Full immersion aspect is what I'm after. Especially since I want to work with art in Japan (professional artist for over 10 years, although broken as of now - hence why I'll do my best to gather the money in 6 or so months and prepare a new portfolio just in case).

So far, the ones I'm interested at are Naganuma, Coto Academy, Kai, ISI, saw some recommending Genki or Akamonkai, etc. The issue is time available cause of the Arubaito.

I'm willing to study as hard as I can, even perhaps sacrificing my art in the meantime I'm focusing on honning my japanese.

I could of course try to look for art jobs in Japan that require N3 or even English, but I doubt it. And from the little I gathered, working online for foreign studios/clients while in Japan is complex cause of Taxing.

Anyways, thanks in advance!

TL;DR: I'm in doubt between Full-Time or Part-Time Japanese launguage schools cause I want to work part-time at least, while still going after great schools. I could try to find a job with art since I'm an artist myself, but I doubt it since I only have N3.

Doing a presentation in language school talking about our home country's school rules. I wanted to mention that in the US, we were often made to say the pledge of allegiance.

However all my dictionaries are failing me atm. Anyone have any idea?

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Seven Day Archive of previous threads. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.

So I love reading. I’m a huge fantasy fan and I spent a lot of time reading before starting to learn Japanese. I now spend almost all of my free time learning Japanese. It’s been almost 10 months. I know 500 kanji and probably 2000-3000 words, so I’m not able to read much of anything substantial in Japanese. I’m itching to read and it feels very far away at my current level. Should I just carve out time to read in English? Were you guys able to make low-level reading enjoyable?

I started playing switch games in Japanese on my computer (using a cheap $15 video converter) but was struggling with a good solution for looking up words on the fly.

Yomininja is hands down the best solution I have tried.

It creates an overlay on top of the screen - and has yomitan support built in.

Highly recommend.

Hi everyone,

I'd like to start using a monolingual dictionary, but I'm quite intimidated by what seems like a rough transition away from J - E definitions.

Do you have any specific title recommendation for first time attempts at using J - J dictionaries?

I'm not picky, so long as it can be used with GoldenDict-NG

• The time that I can study is limited, so in order to make good use of my time, I make sure to make a plan before I start studying.

I get the first ように in this sentence as "in order to" (right?), but could someone please explain what meaning the 2nd ように is adding?

I want to read my first Japanese book and I was wondering if there are any recommendations. I currently learned 740 Kanji JLPT order and 8000words. I like anime and I'm generally open for everything. And since I'm in tokyo tomorrow I would be able to buy a book. I'm also not that good in reading also on reading most of my words I learned since learn 3k words without paying a lot attention to the Kanji since I didn't know them. Thank you🙏

I've been watching Slam Dunk. There's a character who previously was a basketball star but had to quit due to injury, and in his depression fell from grace and became a gang leader. He's now returned to basketball and is a star once more, but he runs into a prominent member of his old gang that he hasn't seen in a long time. They have a moment, then before the gang member is about to ride off, he looks back at the character to say goodbye.

It's been a while so I don't remember the line exactly, but he says basically "see you around, スポーツマン."

Now, yes, "sportsman" is totally an English word, but it's pretty archaic, nobody uses it anymore, so when he said that, ngl I burst out laughing. It's just such a funny old term to hear in this otherwise very dramatic, very genuine moment from this super tough dude. "Sportsman."

Anybody else have a favorite loan word that makes them smile?

頭の中にあることを伝えようとしたら、こだわり過ぎて複雑な言い方しか出てこないんです。英語でも同じ問題がありますけど、やはり日本語が第二言語として特に大変です。話すスピードや分かりやすさに悪くて自信も経てしまいます。 単語の量と文法の理解力はまだまだだと思いますけど、普通に話せるためには十分なのに自分で選んでしまう言い方で日本語での会話が限られてる感じがします。どうしような、、

This is a follow-up post to my Two Year Update and One Year Update. For those who haven’t read it here’s a short summary of my first 2 Years

• First Month: Learning Kana with Apps like Duolingo and some basic vocab/grammar and figuring out if I actually like learning Japanese
• Month 2-3: Doing RRTK and watching Cure Dolly for Grammar on the Side
• Month 3-4: Core Anki Decks for Basic Vocab (Tango N5, Core Anime Deck)
• Month 4-6: Reading and Sentence Mining Satori Reader with extra cards from Anime via Morphman
• Month 6-9: Finished Satori Reader and moved on to Anime with Japanese Subtitles + Sentence Mining
• Month 9-12: Added Reading Novels to my Routine for about 1h a day. Continued with Anime for the rest of the time
• Month 13-24: Continued my Routine of reading books + watching Anime and doing Sentence Mining with Anki. I increased my reading to about 2-3h a day for a while and cut back on Anime

Stats

• 2646 Anime Episodes Watched (Year 1: 715, Year 2: 1428, Year 3: 503)
• 68 Movies Watched (Year 1: 19, Year 2: 28, Year 3: 21)
• 115 Novels Read (Year 1: 6, Year 2: 64, Year 3: 45)
• 20000 Anki Vocab Cards (Year 1: 6517 , Year 2: 8664, Year 3: 4819)
• 27520 Morphs (Year 1: 8204 , Year 2: 13650, Year 3: 5666)

I am not as diligent with tracking anymore, so some of it might be missing. My Anime watched and Books read has gone down quite a bit from last year, but I also played some Games in Japanese this year and watched a lot more Youtube/Variety Content. Although I didn’t track it, generally my daily time spent has gone down from 3-4h daily to around 2-3h nowadays.

#Current Daily Routine My Routine has not changed much from my second year, but I tried exploring more genres and media. With better comprehension and less reliance on lookups (thanks to Anki), I am able to enjoy media without subtitles or games where lookups are a bit more annoying, much more than before. I still aim for 2-3 hours of immersion daily, with books remaining the backbone of my immersion since I enjoy them the most. Recently, I’ve replaced my before-bed anime watching with reading books accompanied by audiobooks, thanks to tools like Jidoujisho and Kanjieaters’s SubsPlease tool for syncing audiobooks with books. I’ve also played more games in Japanese, a big highlight being the Metal Gear Solid Series. I’ve also watched more Youtube and Variety Shows as filler content.

In terms of Anki usage, my daily time has tapered off to around 10-15 minutes, primarily because I don’t find many new words anymore. Nowadays, around 90% of my new cards come from reading. When I’m reading challenging books, this number can jump up to around ~20 new cards, but on average, it hovers around 6.

Very recently I’ve also added about 5-10 mins of Minimal Pairs Pitch Training on the コツ Site to my Routine. I’ve only been doing this for about 2 Weeks, and I’m already noticing a big improvement in my Pitch perception. I still don’t have any ambitions regarding Output, but feel like being able to recognize Pitch unlocks a new way of perceiving the language, which I find fascinating.

#What my Comprehension feels like ##Reading Books While my reading speed hasn't changed drastically, improving from about 12k chars/hour to around 13-14k chars/hour, the range of variation has decreased significantly. A year ago, my speed could drop to 9k chars/hour with difficult books; now, 12k chars/hour is more of a baseline for me. But my comprehension is where I feel the most improvement, I don’t need to check DeepL at all anymore, if I don’t understand a sentence, I can most of the time understand it when I read it again. And there are a lot more nuances, I now notice which I didn’t before. I noticed this the most in my reread of また同じ夢を見ていた which was my first book I read in Japanese, after rereading it, ~100 books later, I noticed a lot of new nuances, subtext and word play.

I also started using more Audiobooks, in combination with SubsPlease and Jidoujisho to get a synced Subtitle file with the Audiobook. I read along while listening, and my comprehension got fast enough that I generally can just let it play, only occasionally needing to relisten to a line. Even for more difficult books, like 鹿の王 which I recently read. I also read a physical Book this year. If the book is not too hard, I’m now comfortable reading it without a dictionary. The one I read had about 20 words I didn't know, but I only felt the need to look up 2-3. I was able to get the meaning from the others based on context and kanji.

##Watching Content with Japanese Subtitles I felt pretty strong in this area a year ago already, but it has definitely improved a lot also. I noticed this the most when I played the Metal Gear Solid Series. All dialogue does have subtitles, but the content is quite difficult both on a vocabulary level and also on a meaning level, since they are dealing with deep themes a lot of the time. But I was able to play it mostly free flow, only needing to look up a word here or there, getting most of the meaning from the kanji if I didn’t know a word.

##Watching Content without Japanese Subtitles Ironically even though I never intentionally did pure listening practice, always using Japanese subtitles if they were available, I’m noticing the most progress in this area. A year ago, I was not comfortable with most non-subtitled content. Nowadays I would say, easier content like most youtube videos or variety shows, I’m quite comfortable with, although I definitely still miss much more compared to using subtitles. But with Anime or Movies in general, where I’m also much more picky in my comprehension, since I don’t want to miss anything, I’m still not comfortable watching without subtitles I feel like in scripted content people are more likely to use rare words, and even if I technically “know” them, it's still often hard for me to recall them without seeing the characters. But as with all things, that will work itself out with more input. I’m glad my theory from my 1 Year Update, that doing pure listening practice is not needed and using subtitles does not impede progress in listening, turned out true for me.

#Closing Thoughts Although I was able to do all the things I can do now a year ago, I feel like I can do them much more effortlessly. Consuming Japanese is now much closer to English or my native language German, although it’s still not quite there. Both in terms of listening, I usually listen to Youtube videos in English at 2.5x speed, that's not possible for me in Japanese at the moment. Similarly, despite doing a lot of reading, there’s still a lot of room to improve to reach native-level speed.

But it doesn’t feel like learning anymore; it’s more about enjoying the exploration of a new culture through its media. I still love learning new things, which is why I started focusing more on pitch, even though I still have no plans for output.

Adding to my Closing Thoughts from my 2 Year Update, I still feel like this hobby has been the most enriching thing I’ve ever done. Being able to get better at something, feeling the progress gradually, while exploring new ways of thinking, not just through the language itself, but also the vastly different media compared to western media, really broadened my horizon. I feel like learning to appreciate and understand what the media is trying to say is also in a way like learning a language. It got me to read books or try out new genres I probably would have never considered otherwise. For example the Metal Gear Series got me interested in history, which I didn't think I liked before. I also learned a lot about learning new things. I think I can apply all the techniques I discovered learning Japanese to any other skill I want to learn in the future. Being consistent on a daily basis and always practising the same way you would in a real scenario would be the biggest factors for me. (For example, no JLPT grammar questions, rather seeing, looking up and understanding the grammar in native content)

I very much look forward to how my Journey will continue in my 4th year. Thank you for reading!

Happy Thursday!

Every Thursday, come here to share your progress! Get to a high level in Wanikani? Complete a course? Finish Genki 1? Tell us about it here! Feel yourself falling off the wagon? Tell us about it here and let us lift you back up!

Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 EST:

Mondays - Writing Practice

Tuesdays - Study Buddy and Self-Intros

Wednesdays - Materials and Self-Promotions

Thursdays - Victory day, Share your achievements

Fridays - Memes, videos, free talk

I recently saw the post about the joke from 君の名前は and quite liked that bit, so I want more.

Source - A sample of the opinion of 2024 exam takers can be found here. As the person who mooted the poll, I want create a part 2 post. To gather hard truths/good tips for these two that struck out to me, being burnt out, and being feeling inadequate/deciding to take a later exam than sooner.

JLPT alumni, any tips?

Opinion #1: N3 but Burnt Out
N3. Got burned out from studying hard for N4 last December and now I just don’t have enough gas in my tank for taking N3 this July. Am worried about every part of the exam (vocab, grammar, listening, reading). I think I’m gonna fail and will have to take N3 again this December (sigh).

Opinion #2: N1. Quite worried.
I'm somewhat sure I could pass N2, so it seems like a waste not to take the leap and go for N1. Points of worry are 語彙 (specifically 問題4) and 聴解. 読解 and 文法 could be exceptionally hard and trip me, but if they're on the same level as the mock tests I've been taking, it should be okay.

https://preview.redd.it/k2uraaw0nq0d1.png?width=451&format=png&auto=webp&s=7271d74af912823bc1d27dd21259ef6cd028499a

This thread is for all simple questions, beginner questions, and comments that don't need their own post.

Welcome to /r/LearnJapanese!

• New to Japanese? Read our Starter's Guide and FAQ

• New to the subreddit? Read the rules!

Please make sure if your post has been addressed by checking the wiki or searching the subreddit before posting or it might get removed.

If you have any simple questions, please comment them here instead of making a post.

This does not include translation requests, which belong in /r/translator.

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Seven Day Archive of previous threads. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.

Considering two kanjis that can be used in the same situation, can they convey different styles of writing, one more formal and one more informal, or are they completely the same? (I know sometimes they can convey slightly different meanings, but it's not quite what I'm referring to).

The doubt came up when I wrote 才 instead of 歳 in a sentence, but I'd like to know in general, thanks.

I thought it would be a lot of fun to watch the movie in Japanese, but it seems like this version wasn't ever released in the US? So I assume my only avenue is to buy the movie from a Japanese website. I don't really have a blu-ray player or anything so I'm trying to find an easy way to buy a digital version. Something I could maybe watch on my Smart TV or my PC.

On the off chance someone here has bought the movie themselves, what site should I use? Can I use USD or will I need to somehow convert to Yen first? Is it possible to download the movie after purchase or can I only stream it? I'm still inexperienced with Japanese and am having a hard time trying to figure this out by myself.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

On my path towards fluency I encountered the next boss: Understanding natural Japanese dialogues.

After having finished my very first manga (ハピネス) I was pretty eager to continue. Reading this wasn't that hard. For the most part the biggest enemy was blurred fonts. Next thing I am trying is ルリドラゴン, and things don't go as smooth as I expected - it is much more dialogue heavy. I really cant put my finger on what is so much harder. Somehow the dialogues (despite me knowing all the words and all the grammar ) cannot be parsed correctly.

I am stuck on chapter 10 and super demotivated. Cannot move an inch, without looking at translation. Half of sentences become super-obvious after knowing the translation, the rest is "how the hell did they get that?". And this is only 3 levels higher on learnnatively, barely out of N4!

Do you have any tricks or learning activities to perform? Maybe you tried some secret technique? What worked for you?

• Maybe putting entire sentences onto flashcards would make eventually recognize them better?
• Maybe I should avoid translation, just read whatever I can and move on, even barely understanding some parts?
• Maybe I should re-read each chapter several times, in order to get as much as possible?
• Maybe I should read entire thing translated till the end, before even starting the Japanese version?
• Maybe I should just face the reality and go back couple of levels to get more fluent on easier/curated content?

For those of you who use a sentence mining SRS setup with an immersion-heavy comprehensible input approach to studying, how do you make use of your SRS study time?

I'm at a level where I consume only native content, and for the most part I can at least get the gist of just about anything I read. I make sure to spend some time doing both extensive and intensive reading. When doing intensive reading, I do a haphazard mix of sentence mining with Yomitan + Anki, and custom decks on jpdb.io.

However, a lot of words I know are such that I know what it means in context, but I often forget it out of context, and rarely can actively recall it as my own output. I feel like a large amount of my vocab is stuck in this state even though they're showing up in my SRS every few days. I'm also inconsistent about whether some of these deserve the "Again" button versus the "Good" button.

The only words that truly "graduate" from this stage are the ones I happen to encounter in a new context out in the wild, like through some other book I'm reading or in conversation with my friends.

Is this fine? Is there a more efficient approach to this? Will this sort itself out as I continue to do more extensive reading/listening/taking in input?

Please tell me about your upper-level vocab building tips, tricks, experiences, etc!

Hello friends,

Came across the かけ lesson on Bunpro (n3 lesson 9, 9/22) and at the end it marks the exceptional case where if used with ongoing actions, it means 'in the process of' rather than 'halfway, about to...etc'

The example provided: 終わりかけだからちょっと待まって。I'm in the process of finishing, so can you wait a little.

I guess my question is how would you then say 'I'm halfway finished'? Or am I being too specific / nitpicking?

Happy Wednesday!

Every Wednesday, share your favorite resources or ones you made yourself! Tell us what your resource an do for us learners!

Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 EST:

Mondays - Writing Practice

Tuesdays - Study Buddy and Self-Intros

Wednesdays - Materials and Self-Promotions

Thursdays - Victory day, Share your achievements

Fridays - Memes, videos, free talk

This thread is for all simple questions, beginner questions, and comments that don't need their own post.

Welcome to /r/LearnJapanese!

• New to Japanese? Read our Starter's Guide and FAQ

• New to the subreddit? Read the rules!

Please make sure if your post has been addressed by checking the wiki or searching the subreddit before posting or it might get removed.

If you have any simple questions, please comment them here instead of making a post.

This does not include translation requests, which belong in /r/translator.

If you are looking for a study buddy or would just like to introduce yourself, please join and use the # introductions channel in the Discord here!

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Seven Day Archive of previous threads. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.

Reading an article on Todaii about ChatGPT and came across the following sentence:

ChatGPTは、質問すると人のように答えるAIです。

I understand the sentence, but I’m unsure of how と is functioning. I have learned it as “and” between nouns, as a quotation marker, and as “with”, but none of those scenarios seem to apply here.

First of all, my bad if this has been asked before, I searched the sub and found similar questions but nothing that covered this specifically; if this has been answered before, please link me to it and I'll remove this post.

But here's my stupidly basic question: why add the のこと？is it necessary for the statement to be grammatically correct? Or is it, as I have seen one dude say on google, a sort of intensifier? Or is it something else entirely? Needless to say, I've been learning for only a few months so I'm beginner level, and I'm trying to give these kinds of things that don't really have a direct english equivalent some extra attention to make sure I'm really grasping everything. Any help is appreciated!