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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/Kooky_Community_228 on 2024-04-09 16:55:40.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/neworleans- on 2024-04-09 09:12:14.

Original Title: [JLPT N4] Ans: 1. (I chose 3). After looking up おれい and analysing, I'm still not sure. Can someone explain why 1 is better than 3? Is おれい something you say to someone, and not buy? Otherwise, is おれい more related to souvenirs, rather than birthdays?

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/Octopusnoodlearms on 2024-04-09 05:39:21.

So I have a somewhat long commute to college 5 days a week, and usually in that time I just listen to music, but it feels like a lot of wasted time where I could be doing something productive. Is there anything on YouTube or something I could listen to that would teach me some vocabulary or grammar rules or something without having to watch it? I know some people may suggest just listening to a Japanese audiobook or podcast, but I don’t think I know enough Japanese yet for that to be effective while I’m driving.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/tesseracts on 2024-04-09 02:28:02.

Basically, I have done some research and reached out to Go! Go! Nihon but I still need to make up my mind about what I actually want. They asked me some questions like if I am planning to live there "long term" which I don't really know at this point.

I’m in my 30s, I have visited Japan but never lived there, I’m studying Japanese in college and independently, and I’m below N5 level. I'm also interested in doing a homestay at some point.

Here are my questions about language schools:

• There are schools like GenkiJACS marketed as “good for Western students.” I’m American but, is this really necessary? As far as I can tell the only difference is they focus more on kanji. (Also, according to a post I found here, sometimes the difference is they get away with charging Westerners more for the same product.) Personally, I have no background in Chinese characters or Asian culture but kanji is not a problem for me, I happen to have a good visual memory. If schools like this offer additional support in regards to translation, finding a job, or whatever, that might be useful though.
• From what I understand there are 3 types of language schools: ones focused on the JLPT, ones focused on preparing you for university, and business oriented schools. I’m having trouble deciding which type of school I should choose. I’m unsure if I want to live in Japan long term, but I would like to be fluent, and I am interested in working in manga. I have an art background. I have no degree so working toward a BA in Japan is a possible option, and/or vocational school.
• Is it even worth it to do this trip at the beginner level? I will probably learn more if I do it at the intermediate level.
• How easy are the “easy” schools? How hard are the “hard” schools? I don’t want to be working 24/7 but I want to make use of my time.
• Is it best to stay in a large city like Tokyo or a small city like Fukuoka? Tokyo is obviously more expensive with a more complex commute, but it might be easier for me to make friends in an area where I can find more people with my interests. I know people say to avoid English speakers but I wouldn’t mind making expat friends. There would also be more tourist stuff to do. However a small city might get me closer to the local community and I might make friends more easily there, I don’t know.
• I was considering going this summer, but the summer semester is short. I can get 3 months as a tourist. However I was thinking, how much can I really learn in 1 or 2 months? Is this even worth the effort or should I just go for a full fall semester instead? It's also April already so I'm not sure I can get in for summer anyway.
• How annoying is it to get a student visa?

So any advice would be appreciated.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/New-Temperature9095 on 2024-04-08 22:49:57.

Hi, guys!

I’d like to ask you guys about how often you guys study Japanese.

If you can share your study routine and materials, I really appreciate your answers!

You can answer either Japanese or English. I’ll reply you in your comment! Thank you!

こんにちは！ 日本語学習者のみなさんが、どのくらいの頻度で日本語を勉強しているのかを知りたいです。 もしよかったら、みなさんの勉強頻度や勉強方法を教えてくれませんか？

日本語でも英語でもかまいません。お返事書きます！ ありがとうございます😊

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/urgod42069 on 2024-04-08 19:46:06.

I learned that unfortunately 「しゃせい」 can be spelled like 「写生」 to mean “sketching; drawing from nature; portrayal; description“, but also be spelled like 「射精」, to mean ”ejaculation”.

I know there’s active discourse here about the importance (or lack thereof) of “pitch accent” because of context clues while speaking, but out of all the words I’ve encountered so far, this particular homophone seems most likely to be an issue if there is any confusion…

(In art class… 「しゃせいを終わりました！」 💀)

Is one of them like 「しゃ⬆️せい⬇️」and then the other is like 「しゃ⬇️せい⬆️」? Please tell me they don’t sound THAT close 😭

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/MysticalDragoneer on 2024-04-08 14:08:26.

Kanji Look up app is amazing but it does not conjugations or sentences. I am a beginner so parsing a sentence is sometimes tricky.

I need something i can use while reading

EDIT: handwriting recognition should be the default/ or should be very good

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/EvilChoppedWalnuts on 2024-04-08 15:39:18.

North America will see a solar eclipse today, April 8, 2024. I found some Eclipse Day vocab and wanted to share it for anyone else interested.

太陽 (たいよう、taiyou) - sun

月 (つき、tsuki) - moon

地球 (ちきゅう、chikyuu) - earth

光球 (こうきゅう、koukyuu) - photosphere (bright, visible surface of the sun)

食年 (しょくねん、shokunen) - eclipse year

金環食 (きんかんしょく、kinkanshoku) - annular (solar) eclipse

食の季節 (しょくのきせつ、shoku no kisetsu) - eclipse season

食 (しょく、shoku) - eclipse

日食 (にっしょく、nisshoku) - solar eclipse

月食 (げっしょく、gesshoku) - lunar eclipse

皆既 (かいき、kaiki) - totality, where the sun is covered by the moon (solar eclipse) or the moon is in the earth’s shadow (lunar eclipse)

皆既食 (かいきしょく、kaikishoku) - total eclipse

部分食 (ぶぶんしょく、bubunshoku) - partial eclipse

To be more specific, the previous two can also become 皆既日食 (total solar eclipse), 皆既月食 (total lunar eclipse), 部分日食 (partial solar eclipse), 部分月食 (partial lunar eclipse).

隠す (かくす、kakusu) - to hide

皆既帯 (かいきおび、kaikiobi) - path of totality (the path the moon’s shadow travels the earth during an eclipse).

光環 (こうかん、koukan) - corona

軌道 (きどう、kidou) - orbit

本影 (ほんえい、hon’ei) - umbra (a complete shadow)

半影 (はんえい、han’ei) - penumbra (part of a shadow)

疑本影 (ぎほんえい、gihon’ei) - antumbra (part of the moon’s shadow that extends beyond umbra)

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/lifeofideas on 2024-04-08 02:08:51.

Advanced students will roll their eyes at the obviousness of this grammar point, but for beginners and intermediate students, the confusion caused by Japanese not only omitting subjects, but also switching implied subjects can be maddening.

Example sentence: 「たとえ台風が上陸しようが、仕事を休むわけには いかない。」

Translation: “Even if the typhoon arrives, there is no way I(←omitted subject) can miss work.”

This may seem easy, because typhoons don’t have jobs, so clearly it is not the typhoon missing work. Although we can’t be sure who is missing work without more context. Absent more context, it would be the speaker who cannot miss work. Not so hard, right?

But slightly change the sentence and the confusion sets in.

「鈴木さんの誕生日であっても、仕事を休むわけにはいかない。」

Translation: “Even if it is Mr. Suzuki’s birthday, there’s no way I (*or maybe HE?) can miss work.”

Or, if someone is talking to Mr. Suzuki, it might mean “Even if it is your birthday, you can’t just take the day off.”

This unclear subject is a common thing in Japanese, and sometimes the various phrases within a sentence can have different subjects. I am still uncertain how native Japanese speakers sort this out.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/kugkfokj on 2024-04-07 12:05:17.

I needs good setup:

• Buy most books on Amazon.co.jp.
• Read on both PC (80%) and iOS mobile (20%).
• Need to look up words relatively often still.
• Doesn't need to export data or anything.
• As hassle-free as possible.

I tried to use a Kindle Paperwhite but the dictionary takes 2-3 seconds to come up and the experience is just painful. I tried Kindle on PC but the UI is pretty terrible, selecting words hard and copy-paste annoying (the built-in dictionaries don't have conjugated words).

Is there a better setup?

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/konomu on 2024-04-07 06:29:44.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/ABCox99 on 2024-04-06 23:50:29.

I'm a big "Furuhata Ninzaburō" fan. For those who don't know, "Furuhata Ninzaburō" (古畑 任三郎) is a Japanese homage to the American serie Columbo. Though very different in style from Columbo, Furuhata's episodes are full of creativity and great writing - obviously, since they are all written by Kōki Mitani, one of the best Japanese director of the 90s-2000s (unfortunately mostly unknown in the West).

You can watch "Furuhata Ninzaburō" at this link: . It has English subtitles (I've yet to find the Japanese ones... sad).

I'm talking about this because this YouTuber has made some his own "Furuhata Ninzaburō" episodes, practically shooting everything in his apartment with him doing all the characters. He's really good at it, both as an actor and as a director!

He speaks with a clear voice and he's starting to put in captions too.

I really recommend it for anyone who wants to challenge their listening skills.

Have a great night

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/Cyglml on 2024-04-06 19:58:15.

The University of Hawaiʻi Outreach College offers non-credit low-cost Conversational Japanese Classes via Zoom. The best part about the classes is that it has one hour of conversation practice time with Japanese speakers during the last hour of the class. When the classes were in person, Japanese people in Hawaii were volunteering, but with the move to Zoom we now have mostly volunteers from Japan.

Each term is 10-weeks with three terms a year (fall, spring, summer) and classes are on Saturdays from 9am-11:45am HST. The Summer 2024 term will be from June 1st to August 10th (no class the 4th of July weekend, 7/6). Early bird registration, which ends on May 11th, is $25 off the regular tuition price, and even at the regular price tuition comes out to less than $8 an hour. There is a late fee of $25 that will be applied from May 24th to May 30th.

There are 8 classes/levels to choose from and students can change levels if the one they chose was too easy/advanced for them, up until the 3rd week of class. The Elementary classes focus more on speaking instead of reading hiragana/katakana/kanji, but they are introduced. Hiragana/katakana knowledge is highly recommended for the Intermediate levels since the textbook that the course (loosely) follows does not have romaji at that level. There is no textbook for the Advanced level, and it’s mostly focused on topics and grammar that comes up in JLPT N1/N2. In terms of JLPT level, while we do not teach to the test, the Elementary 1~Intermediate 1 levels cover N5 content, Intermediate 2 covers N5/N4 content, Intermediate 3 covers N4/N3 content, High Intermediate is aimed at those who have N3 level knowledge, and Advanced covers N1/N2 content.

Link to the classes with additional details are here. Feel free to message me or comment if you have any questions.

We also have a 6-week "Intro to Kanji" class starting this month, aimed at those who do not have any kanji knowledge or who are intimidated by kanji. This class starts at 6:30PM HST on Wednesdays, so it might not be suitable depending on your timezone.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/DelicateJohnson on 2024-04-06 09:49:18.

I was speaking with a friend of mine from Osaka who I went to college with, and he was telling me this. Other than the few handwritten notes and writing addresses, after school most adults forget/get out of practice handwriting kanji, beyond the most common kanji. I found that really interesting. I have been telling myself how crucial it was for me to get stroke order down perfectly or else I will be judged.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/theincredulousbulk on 2024-04-06 02:43:48.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/methanalmkay on 2024-04-05 23:48:29.

Not sure if the title is clear, but for example:

In one piece "grand line" is written as 偉大なる航路 and the furigana says グランドライン.

Or "one piece" is written as ひとつなぎの大秘宝 and the furigana says ワンピース.

Just wondering why don't they just use the katakana?

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/DelicateJohnson on 2024-04-05 14:44:23.

Many times I find when I do all at once often I can remember the English word for the Kanji but not the Japanese pronunciation, and I feel like perhaps it'd be better if I get the English to Japanese translation down before tackling Kanji.

What are other's experiences with it?

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/Kairi911 on 2024-04-05 03:24:08.

I don't like Anki and instead have always used a copy-cat version called Ankiapp.

When studying for N1 last year I realised studying from flash cards is crazy effective and want to continue using them, though they recently changed the format of the Ankiapp app and it's awful now.

Can anyone recommend a good flashcard app?

Looking for something VERY simple, just make cards front and back with an option to review them in a random sequence and a grade being saved to them referencing how well you know them.

Thank you!

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/SNRNXS on 2024-04-04 19:20:14.

I’m really only learning it because I want to, not that I have any need. To my knowledge there aren’t any Japanese communities nearby, or if there are I hardly ever interact with them. I see more Koreans than I do Chinese or Japanese here, and even then there’s not that many.

I’m not really anywhere beyond having the ability to do a very simple conversation, even if that with my current knowledge of Japanese. Pretty much I know everything in Genki 1 and a little extra, that’s it.

I’m very good with vocab. When speaking I need a few seconds to think sometimes. With kanji I can read it better than I can write it. I may know the vocab, and if I see the kanji I’ll recognize it, but sometimes I just blank on actually knowing how to write it.

I wish I had more in-person interactions with Japanese (at least with those patient enough to bear with me) because I feel like it would help a ton. Online isn’t as good imo because typing on a keyboard isn’t the same as writing or actually speaking.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/Altruistic-Mammoth on 2024-04-04 16:44:29.

Do you think it's worth it to handwrite out answers to Recall cards in Anki? It's almost twice as hard and takes twice as long to write it out that simply say the answer out loud or subvocalize it. And that's time spent that I can't dedicate to listening practice, speaking practice, etc.

But I really like writing out the words. And maybe I'll get faster.

I used to think this wasn't useful, but I started language school (in Tokyo) today and on the placement test they had us write out answers - a Kana table and simple short-form reading comprehension answers (most of the answers were pre-populated, you had to select or "rearrange" them).

I think I would have done worse if I hadn't started writing practice. Then again, I hear that most people don't write today and just type to communicate, and that it seems to be common advice from successful Japanese learners that if they could do it again, they wouldn't learn how to write Kanji, i.e. learning the stroke orders and writing them out.

Curious what folks think.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/investoroma on 2024-04-04 02:02:16.

I've been in Japan the last several weeks (Onomichi->Kyoto->Tokyo) and it's been more diverse and yet the same than I ever imagined. I've been studying Japanese the last two years and so I can get by mostly okay with some English help but I think studying the language caused me to build up a lot of stereotypes in my head.

In truth, I've encountered all sorts of people from overly helpful hotel staff, izakaya waitresses that don't give a crap, a small Ramen shop owner who loves his craft yet is short with customers, a street beatboxer, a super chill Hawaiian sandwich shop owner, a woman dancing in front of the beer cooler at a 7-11, and a man who refused me entry into his onsen...

Some service people say "arigatou gozaimashita" with long drawn out tones while others just stare at you until you leave. Some people are willing to be patient through your slow Japanese while others tell you "there's a restaurant across the street" and ignore your Japanese completely. Some people bow constantly while others just don't. Some people say "daijoubu" while others like "okay desu". Some people use a quiet "sumimasen" while others will clap right in your face.

Japan is an incredibly diverse country and I know it sounds stupid that I should have realized this sooner but I think I got sucked into too many stereotypes about "Japanese people do this, Japanese people do that..." during my language studies in learning how to behave and act in a foreign country. In actuality, people here are like everywhere else, so similar to people back in the U.S., yet culturally different because of the thousands of years of this country's history.

It's like the culture is different but personal motivations, wants, and needs are the same as anyone else. People are just trying to get by. Some are wonderful intelligent caring human beings while others are closed minded jerks.

Anyway, i don't have a strong point to this post. I just wanted to share this feeling ive been having. If anyone has experienced a similar adjustment please share.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/EpsilonX on 2024-04-04 01:04:17.

This is just something I want to express....after being depressed and directionless for years, with no motivation to continue studying Japanese...I finally kicked myself in the ass and got things into gear. Now I work at a Japanese company in Los Angeles where I hear and actually can use Japanese on a daily basis and have met a number of cool people who work in the Japanese media industry here. In addition, I finally got over my Kanji block through WaniKani, and I also just learned about the Quartet books that came out a few years ago, which seem like the obvious next step for me after Genki (something I wasn't too sure about, as both Integrated Approach and Tobiro had big pros and cons)

So between these things, my motivation to learn Japanese is at an all-time high. I've decided I'm going to sign up for either N4 or N3 this year, depending on how much progress I make between now and registration day (provided that I am able to register before it fills up)

It's nice to feel like the path you've set yourself on is no longer insurmountable, and actually, dare I say it, realistic with a bit of effort.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/urgod42069 on 2024-04-03 22:08:50.

For context, I’ve been learning for 2 years and am currently at an intermediate level. So I feel like this really shouldn’t happen, but it does… I feel like my brain is going to explode every time I see a number with 万 attached to the end of it. I know it means [insert number] x 10,000. But I’m not used to every number I see everywhere (hyperbole for dramatic effect) divided by 10,000, and having to multiply it to get it back to something I can recognize. I switched the language of my YouTube app to Japanese and now it takes me like 10+ seconds to figure out how many views a video has / how many subscribers a channel has.

Is this just another thing I’ll absolutely get used to the more I see / read / learn that just feels impossible at the start, or do I seriously have to consider doing mental math drills because I’m 23 years old and can’t do basic multiplication (because it won’t become automatically easier just by improving my knowledge of this language)?

I’d feel validated by seeing that other people have this issue or have had this issue in the past. For me it’s legitimately one of the biggest deterrents for me to switch language settings to 日本語 on a bunch more websites.

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/Swiftierest on 2024-04-03 22:07:42.

I've been scrolling Reddit on my phone as I normally do and I saw a JP Writer app promoted to me several times over the past few days. It has sections for basic kana as well as JLPT 1 to 5 and it gamifies the learning/study activity. Since gamified learning is popular and gets results, I thought I'd try it.

I'm just hopping in to tell anyone else here that may have been interested, to not bother with it. It seems to be fairly new, and as with most new language learning apps, it has issues. The one I noticed immediately was that the main method of learning, a draw the kana as it falls on your screen style game (makes me think of Kana Invaders). It doesn't always display the correct character. I thought this might be a challenge thing at first, but after playing more I came to realize that it's simply a bug. I have notified the email left in the "contact us" section and we'll see if they fix it.

I took some screenshots and uploaded them as proof.

That is all. よいいちにちをすごしください

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The original was posted on /r/learnjapanese by /u/No_Cherry2477 on 2024-04-03 17:32:14.

I swear, a few people on Reddit actually try to fit that profile of hardcore learner. I think of those types as the "more fanatical than thou" Japanese learners.

Any other fun caricatures you've come across in your Japanese study adventures?