I have a 2.5 year old coming into preschool this year. He is already so young for this group but we have special circumstances that he is in our care. I’m looking for resources or Japanese words that are essential for supporting this child with toileting and in general 🙏
I’m doing my best with my own searches but struggling and I’m not sure if Google Translate is giving me words the child would actually know

This update is mainly a complete overhaul on Jiwami's UI and design, but it also has major vocabulary extraction improvements, proper Settings customization, huge Manga accuracy and speed improvements, and a lot of smaller fixes and optimizations across Jiwami.

Complete UI and design overhaul

Complete overhaul to all the Screens.

Home:

Home screen

Archive:

Archive screen

Settings:

Settings

Result Screen cards show all the definitions for the overview. Recent history is now synced with Archive, and Archive entries open in the full custom screen.

Result:

Result screen

Archived:

Archived screen

Long file names now move to be readable instead of clipping.

Slide

Source rows, text sizes, spacing, icons, and metadata were cleaned up across the whole interface. Window sizes also got improvments and more flexability.

Settings presets and customization

You can now make proper Settings presets for Anime, Manga, Novels, or whatever workflow you want. Give them any name and color you want, select them later, update them, or make a new one from your current Settings. The selected one has its own animated color effect so you can tell what you are using immediately.

https://reddit.com/link/1vs2qyz/video/e2tyhc0y67kh1/player

If you change Settings without using a preset, you can just apply them normally. If you are editing a preset, you can update it. There is also a proper color picker now for presets, pitch accents, and target-word highlighting instead of being locked to a few colors.

More card control

Context furigana can now be shown on the front, back, both, or neither. The target word itself has a separate furigana setting, so you can show furigana for the whole context but hide it only for the mined word, or do the opposite.

ON

Off

Target-word highlighting can now be turned on or off, and you can choose its color. English definitions can now be turned off completely if you rather use the monolingual dictionaries only, or limited from 1 to 10 meanings if you do not want a card filled with too much English.

Vocabulary extraction improvement

Jiwami is now much better at handling dialectal, archaic, variant, and longer chain-heavy forms, with around 32% fewer measured errors.

Speed improvments are also a big part of this update. As i said before, extraction is done mainly with GPU. CPU also works, but it'll always be much slower. In my testing with a 667-line subtitle file, both the GPU and CPU gave the exact same final result: 656 Unique vocabulary.

My RTX 3060 Ti took 2 minutes, while the i5-12600 took 27 minutes, which is around 92% less time on the GPU for the same result. Of course this is one test on my own hardware, so do not take it as a universal number, and better hardware means even faster speeds.

Manga accuracy improvements

Manga text recognition now reaches 100% accuracy across 100 complex-layout Berserk pages. Berserk has very busy layouts, so this was not easy. Most of the text was already correct; the biggest improvements were punctuation and all the small details around it, bringing the number of mistakes down from 312 to 0 across these pages.

Manga speed improvements

The same 100 difficult Berserk pages used to take 28 minutes and 42 seconds. They now take 4 minutes and 48 seconds, which is around 83% less time or almost 6x faster while keeping 100% accuracy across the same pages.

Like always these numbers are from my own PC with these exact 100 pages, so they are not universal. Better hardware will be faster, but the same improvements are there for everyone.

For additional info, see the Jiwami changelog.

I’m currently trying to start learning Japanese but I’m not sure where the best place is to start- I’ve moved from Duolingo to Busuu but I’m wondering what other methods there are? Especially for a beginner in a language with a new alphabet as well as vocab

So, for context, I started self studying back in 2020 having very little Japanese knowledge before that except of some kanji, previously learned Hiragana and some basic words.

I was studying from JFZ, then switched to Genki which didn’t work for me at the time (I became stuck about 2/3 of the way through) so I switched to MNN which seemed to work better and help improve my reading/ recognition. I struggled with furthering my knowledge through textbooks so switched to tutor led studying, free talking and reading (I binged Tadoku free readers across 2 days before switching to other graded readers, short stories for language learners and other learner based recommendations).

I burnt out a few years back after switching to proper novels (キノの旅 and Zoo book 1). I then found it extremely difficult to re motivate myself into proper studying of grammar to help improve my understanding and ability to use Japanese.

Since then I have managed to spend at least half the year each time reading through multiple manga (104 volumes of manga some read multiple times) and children’s novels/ easier light novels or short stories (26 books) but I still struggle with grammar and feel like I’ve never recovered from the burn out.

Online tests show me at around N3 level though I feel like I’m much lower than this and I know my vocabulary isn’t that level for sure. My tutor currently has me going through できる日本語 intermediate book but I feel like I’m still missing a lot of the foundational stuff that I should know.

I have completed Genki 1 & 2, and MNN red and blue series but I don’t feel like a lot of it has stuck and I’m floundering a bit with できる日本語 but don’t want to get the tutor to go back to Genki or to dumb things down for me.

I can’t stick to anki though I do Wanikani and Bunpro, except Bunpro has been neglected for the last few months as I was starting to burn out again. I do try to read or listen to something in Japanese every day even if that’s just a short article, a page of an easier book, a podcast, anime episode, game voice over or part of an audiobook I’m familiar with.

I do find that listening to something repeatedly does help me to embed it into my memory as did writing stuff out but I kind of want to get all the gaps in my understanding fixed by the end of the year and I’ve no idea how to do so except by re-reading through the textbooks which I’ve tried before but ended up just making me start to burn out again.

I do work full time hours but have up to 3 days off per week and I do at least 2 hours with a tutor and language exchange partner every week in addition to anything else I do in Japanese. It’s not lack of trying, I think I just don’t know how to progress and going to a class isn’t an option for me.

Not counting tutor lessons or language exchange hours, I have completed 500 hours of Japanese study this year including 204 hours of reading, 154 hours of listening/ watching, 15 hours of reading while listening along (trying to improve my listening comprehension), 70 hours of grammar study through Bunpro flash cards (approx 10 hours per month), 40 hours on Wanikani and the rest split between textbook study, Kanji writing and JLPT practice tests.

I need something to help keep me consistent but that works both on good days and bad days, something that isn’t going to burn me back out but still helps me to see improvements over time.

Does anyone have any suggestions that might help or anything they tried that helped them identify gaps and work on them without burning out?

I figured out I want to learn japanese because I’m a weeb and I want a girlfriend. more seriously I want to explore their culture and maybe live there, I’ve heard that the working cultures unstable but honestl, the u.s fucking sucks. Ive heard Duolingo and anime is not the way, but I don’t have any textbooks and Im too scared to ask my parents to buy me one. I’ve seen the infamous kanji alphabet, which I’m pretty sure I have to be an artist to write it.

I have no idea where to start and it all seems overwhelming. I want some advice from some Japanese learners and people about what to do and how they would/did start.

I’m trying to start learning Japanese because I’m a huge anime fan. Is there anyone here who can help me get started? Please comment if you have any tips or recommendations!

So, with my goal being to move to Japan in 4 years, I have been studying for about a year give or take. Formally my level is hard to place, my listening skill is naturally better than my reading, as I've taken an immersion heavy approach. Regardless, this is my current routine:

1. Wanikani - 3x day ish, currently at level 5 as after a long break I took a reset, only introduced WaniKani into my routine recently. Main SRS, noticing noteable gains from WaniKani, material there actually sticks
2. Renshuu - 20 new words per day + 5 Kanji - Yeah, 2 SRS for kanji sounds like overkill, but WK doesn't cover it all, plus Renshuu contains stroke order for Kanji, which I like personally. Also read many people agreeing on WK not being great for vocab either as it focuses on words matching the Kanji.

Then, there is ofcourse immersion/listening. I travel around 2 ish hours per day for work, which also includes time walking, which is also where I do my daily Renshuu. But I also do the following:

1. 2 anime episodes per day, japanese audio no subs. Currently watching Pokemon. Sometimes I up the amount, but 2 is the minimum
2. Half a hour grammar study. Currently watching Game Gengo's grammar videos for this part.
3. Hour of Japanese gaming. Some relaxation will also interacting with the language. Currently playing Wagotabi, not sure yet what after. Probably Yakuza.
4. Remaining time on either Podcasts while playing low concentration game/going for a walk, or YT content. Mostly gaming let's plays in Japanese atm.

The only thing I feel I lack atm is reading, which is kinda keeping my level back.. but I feel like that's okay? I don't do much reading in my native tongue or English either, so sticking to what feels natural makes.. more sense? Once my Kanji knowledge is higher, I might start picking up more reading.. which I might mostly do via VNs or games like Pokemon.

But yeah... what do you all think of this balance? Anything I should change? Hardest thing is finding something that is easy to stick to, and this mostly works for me so far.

Hello! My names Logan (30M), I’ve been loosely learning Japanese now for almost a year, I say loosely because I’ll have crazy motivation for like a few weeks, then it’ll just sizzle out. It’s hard for me to stay motivated I think because I have doubts all the time on if I can even accomplish my goal of learning the Japanese language. But my goal still remains the same, I want to be able to speak at an N4 level (at minimum) before I visit Japan in November next year.

With learning a new language, I feel I’d be more motivated if I were able to speak with somebody often who is also learning/speaks Japanese, even though I’m not really at a level where I can speak Japanese on my own without Google Translate lol. But I’ve come to realize that meeting people who speak Japanese, is really tough. I’ve tried apps like HelloTalk, but it hasn’t worked out for me. I have a Japanese tutor too, and they say I can message anytime for practice, but they’re super busy which is understandable.

So really I’m just hoping to meet somebody that I can communicate with in Japanese, whether it be somebody who’s still learning like me or a native speaker.

I started a podcast for people who want to hear real, everyday Japanese 🇯🇵

Hi everyone! I’m a native Japanese speaker, and I’ve been making a podcast where three Japanese people just talk about everyday life, travel, random topics, and things we normally talk about with friends.

The goal is simple: real Japanese, not textbook Japanese.

🎧 Listen while commuting, doing chores, taking a break, or whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

ありがとう～！

hi so ive been studying japanese on and off for about 6 years now and i feel like ive made little to no progress. recently i got a job so ive been paying for a wanikani subscription which has helped a lot for reading kanji but i still feel like my japanese speaking and writing has gotten nowhere. i used the genki textbooks for a while and ive tried so many others but its just not sticking. ive also tried learning apps like hellotalk, renshuu and migaku but again nothing has helped. im going to japan in about a year or so, so i do have time to study. i also just wanna be fluent, but i know thatll take much longer. i would really appreciate advice for self studying since its gotten to a point where i just dont understand the content at all.

So basically I need a solid recommendation based on experience for a real learning experience at a Japanese school whether online or on-Site, Many schools have wasted my time and money and I can not speak the language till now, I know that self study is crucial but I need a school that pushes me hard.
Everyday presentations, Kanji reading tests, mean teachers who correct your 発音, so that when the course is finished I could actually speak and interact in real world.

I am currently a student at Toyo language school At the N2 level 3 month class and I already feel I wasted 200,000 yen and my time, there are no homework and barely 2 presentations in 1 month!! This is bullshit! There is no book except for listening and they use their own made worksheet for grammar, there is no kanji workbook and 0 speaking practices !! What kind of shit this is!

I need hardcore language school that prepare me for the real business world in this country not some visa sponsoring foreigners pampering school.

I have been trying to learn for more than 5 months, but somehow I can't improve because I can't do it without focus and motivation. That's why, I'm looking for that I can learn Japanese with. I'll give all of effort, if I know someone is with me. So, if you're kind enough to help this pitiful boy, please Dm me.

I understand that you must start with Hirigana and Katakana, but there's a lot I don't get. I've seen some charts that only show hirigana, but both hirigana and katakana have 46 characters, so do you only need to know one. Furthermore, everyoone says not to rely on romanji, but how? Does the need for Romanji disappear over time. I also feel like there's things that aren't talked about but are important, like dakutan and handakutan.

There's probably way more that I am missing, but with all of this where do you start? It seems incredibly overwhelming and causes analysis paralysis.