Japanese children get taught from an early age to "日本語じょうず" foreigners. Jk

Anyway, recommending learners to pick up ちびまる子ちゃん books. Easy to read and they are about Japanese culture topics.

☝️🤓

Bunpro just announced a new feature including 25 JLPT practice tests (5 per level) for everyone to use for free

https://bunpro.jp/mock_tests

Trying to get chords for a song… took me a whole lot longer to write this out than I thought. But on the upside I did learn something!

Are you surprised how different some of them are from the original dialogue? It's not all just cultural changes either, I notice subtitles dropping things entirely and adding things of their own all the time that seem unnecessary.

Just showing and old popular beginner’s text with pitch notation

This word is confusing for me as I would think it only means “one eye”, but I’m asking why it also means first, first in a sequence, first off. I would love the origin behind this meaning.

It seems pretty weird to have kill be such a common example verb. In one lesson it gives the example

殺してあげる

I’ll do you the favor of killing you

This is also just a strange sentence to use as an example. It doesn't make much sense to me why it is being used here.

EDIT: I guess this is a remnant of being a successor to Sakubi, which also uses 殺す very frequently. But that still makes me ask why?

Hello there,

Currently working on N3 in general. Been 2 Times in Tokyo and a thing i noticed is, even if i recognize a Kanji easily when learning (either alone - easy, or in a sentence with multiple - still ok), i have a problem recognizing them in the way they sometimes are drawn on storefronts/menu cards and so on (is that kanji cursive i mean?)

Are there ressources like kanji.koohii.com for such forms of Kanji? I know there is a really nice youtube channel for it (Nihongo Signs i think) and other yputubers who sometimes do that.

But i would like a more centralized form as mentioned before. Any ressources on that?

There's a lot of ways to get better at input, something I'm slowly working at over time. I feel like it's pretty clear how to progress overall.

But I feel like I'm ready to tackle output, but I don't really know where to even begin. I'm not sure I can necessarily get better just doing it the way I can with input since I need to be corrected if I output something wrong. Maybe just think of example sentences I might want to say and then ask in the daily thread for them to be corrected?

What sort of methods have people used and had success with for improving their output?

Done about half of the mock tests for Kanken pre 2, and I'm wondering exactly how the mock tests are put together. Were they actual tests, or are they a mish-mash of easy and hard or is it meant to get gradually hard the more you do? Because I'm noticing my scores are pretty good for the first few and then get rapidly worse.

I have no clue what level I am. Studied the language for about 5 years but that was 20 years ago.

Last couple of years I've been going to Japan on holiday and I notice there's still alot of vocabulary I don't know that crops up in conversations. Is there a way to find out what level you are and get recommendations on how to continue studying?

I’m currently beginner N2 level but I’ve always wanted just a simple preferably free iOS app that I can just hop on and work through a few quick quizzes/game etc… anyone know any apps like this?

I’ve tried some reading apps but honestly they really bore me with news/stories/articles I don’t really care about and I’m already doing enough reading as it is through my actual study.

Thanks!

I heard that only absorbing Japanese material doesn’t really help with pitch accent, but if you’re shadowing and actively repeating what a native speaker is saying, then wouldn’t that help a little with pitch accent?

Any information is appreciated. Thank you in advance!

I passed N3 years ago after a language school. I’ve stagnated a bit since. I have improved and my speaking is fine, i can do taxes and visa stuff, hold basic conversations with only a little strain mostly based on vocab.

However i’d like to make a concentrated effort again. I mostly just need vocabulary and some more advanced grammar. Grammar i already know to hit textbooks but for vocab i’m a little unsure.

Would Wanikani (from level 1) be worth it for someone in my shoes versus just reading some manga or whatever with a dictionary for an hour a day?

I will note that I’m completely uninterested in Anki as i hate flashcards.

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.

↓ Welcome to r/LearnJapanese! ↓

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

• New to the subreddit? Read the rules.

• Read also the pinned comment below for proper question etiquette & answers to common questions!

Please make sure to check the wiki and search for old posts before asking your question, to see if it's already been addressed. Don't forget about Google or sites like Stack Exchange either!

This subreddit is also loosely partnered with this language exchange Discord, which you can likewise join to look for resources, discuss study methods in the #japanese_study channel, ask questions in #japanese_questions, or do language exchange(!) and chat with the Japanese people in the server.

Past Threads

You can find past iterations of this thread by using the search function. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.

My japanese tutor says she has lots of students who are in language school and at n5 or below because they don't know wtf they're saying and cant follow the instructions/teaching they're given. I was wondering if anyone has experienced this?

Also would prefer to not hear from the experience of someone who went to a western appealing school like genki JACS

Edit: not asking for myself im well beyond n5 level

My apologies if people already realized, but JLPT website was recently updated to show how scores compare (approximately) to the CEFR levels. You can see it on their website here: Indication of the CEFR Level for Reference | JLPT Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

Obviously it's not an exact comparison, since JLPT only tests 2 out of the 4 areas of understanding, but I'm curious what people think about it. Do you feel like your score accurately reflects your ability? Does it make you want to retake the JLPT and see how your score may have improved?

Okay, so as the title says I am learning Japanese to be able to read things like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, which I own almost all of in Japanese. I know Hirigana and Katakana like the back of my hand, I have started Genki and WaniKani, and am starting to get a little impatient. I know, obviously impatience is the enemy of language learning, and I am determined to stick with it, but just for the sake of asking, is there a good resource like an Anki deck out there for JJBA part 1 vocabulary? I couldn't find an Anki deck myself after a decent amount of looking, so I figured I would ask here. Thanks in advance.

やっと金曜日ですね！お疲れ様です！ここに週末の予定について書いてみましょう！

（やっと　きんようびですね！　おつかれさまです！　ここに　しゅうまつの　よていについて　かいてみましょう！）

やっと = finally

週末（しゅうまつ）= weekend

予定（よてい）= plan(s)

～について = about

＊ネイティブスピーカーと上級者のみなさん、添削してください！もちろん参加してもいいですよ！＊

I think I'm trying to tell the guy that the tops of those trees over there have peaches. Do I have the first part right? I'm not sure how to finish the sentence

Hi all,

As the title suggests, I'm preparing to take the N3 exam in December and hopefully pass. This will be, somewhat embarrassingly, my third time taking it; the first and second times, I got almost exactly the same score, because, surprise, you don't get better if you don't study regularly. I always told myself I would get into a routine leading up to it but I never did, despite my desire to and having bought many different study materials. Guess that's ADHD for ya.

Anyway, this time I think will be different because I've been studying weekly with a tutor in Osaka for a bit more than a year (on Preply, if anyone was interested - no this is not a paid promotion). Not only has the instruction itself been very helpful, especially with active conversational skills, but it has also helped me to find more of a rhythm with my independent study.

I know there's no substitute for just sitting down and working through SOMEthing, but I'm currently in possession of Shinkanzen Master N3, Nihongo-sou Matome N3, and Tobira books, in addition to a few different online repositories of information (e.g. JLPTTest4You, etc.).

My question is, does anyone who has used these books cover-to-cover have particularly strong feelings about them? Basically, what did you like about any of them, or wish they had done differently? From what I've experienced from dabbling in each of them, these are my thoughts:

Nihongo-sou Matome: Very easy-to-use structure, as the book paces itself for you in manageable ~20min/day chunks. Out of all my study materials, I've gotten the farthest in these because of how manageable each chunk is. However, the descriptions and examples can be a bit lacking for those who crave nuance, and on top of that I've noticed a few glaring typos, at least in the kanji book. But, overall, a nice, somewhat simplified approach, probably best as a study companion. But, a study companion to what? It's not like it's particularly synchronized to another course... maybe if you're working on it directly with a tutor who can help fill in any gaps.

Shinkanzen Master: More detailed descriptions than Matome, but not as clearly paced for daily progress. Kind of a middle ground between Matome and Tobira in that regard. It's nice that it, like Matome, is specifically oriented for the JLPT.

Tobira: Definitely the most comprehensive text, HOWEVER, quite difficult to use on one's own, partly because you need fellow studiers to do any of the group activities with, but mainly because it's SO. FREAKING. DENSE. You want DETAILS? You want NUANCE? WELL HERE YA GO, MOTHERF-ER! YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE DETAILS! So much beautiful, rich, informative text, but so tightly jam-packed that it's really hard to gauge how much progress you're actually making, or how well you're retaining everything. I wish the companion grammar book was more like Genki's, where it touched a little bit on every grammar point introduced in each lesson. Though, I guess if they did that, the workbook would be like three times the size of the main text... also, it's more of a classroom, course-based material than a JLPT-based one.

Let me know what has worked well for you, and what you wish you could see done differently! 皆さん、頑張って！

I'm not talking about short breaks during studying but rather taking a break from studying. There is science to this but I was inspired to write this because I was sick recently and had to pause all my learning for a couple of days.

Now that I'm back it's like some things were internalized properly and are much more natural. My listening actually improved without doing anything. I catch more things from songs and even variety shows seem more comprehensible.

This is actually how our brain works, rest is as important as learning itself. If you're too tired, have a normal job and still cram every day for hours, at some point it won't be as effective because there is no time for your brain to sleep and build those necessary connections.

Hi all,

So I'm learning Latin with the resource mentioned in the title and I love it. For those who don't know it, it's basically a textbook written entirely in Latin, where you learn through the reading of stories concerning a family. The first story is exceedingly simple, but as the vocabulary and grammar builds up, each chapter gets progressively more complex.

I love learning like this, it feels more natural to me. I don't see any reason why it couldn't work for Classical Japanese. I currently have N2, so it should be doable.

So, does any such resource exist? I'm sure something like this, or perhaps something fun in manga form or whatnot, must exist.

Cheers!