r/LearnJapanese

So what do i do now? I've worked my vocabulary to about 4000 words all together, I can understand what I hear, but it's not forming into anything between the ears. So, what do i do now? I assumed once I was able to hear it comprehension would be automatic, and that is not the case, so.... what now?

Noticed that japanese conversation are shortcuts compared to narrations or talking to one's self. Is my observation correct that in anime, conversations are even more in shortcut forms in in structure than daily conversation or japanese drama

I wanted to reach N1 by 3 years. I am behind schedule.

December would be about 2.5-3 years. Next July would be closer to 3.5 years.

I’m at around N2 level. I’m relatively confident I can do N2 by December. For that reason, I don’t really want to take N2. How much reading and effort would be required to reach N1 assuming I’m at N2?

I know for sure it would be a stretch, especially considering I anticipate my life to get way busier in the next few months. I’d like to get an idea and advice from others who have done it. Any insight is appreciated.

I'm gonna be going to ISI for a year- will I be studying in the morning or the afternoon?

Their site said that it depends on your level, which there will be a test for upon arrival, but I don't remember if it said something like "N5-N3 morning N2-N0 afternoon" or what. Can anyone who's gone to the school give me some insight? It's a bit hard trying to plan a schedule without knowing when my classes are gonna be.

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！）

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やっと = finally

週末（しゅうまつ）= weekend

予定（よてい）= plan(s)

～について = about

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＊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 first noticed this while playing Terranigma in Japanese, where some Chinese characters use endings like ～アル, ～アルネ, and ～アルヨ.

Now I’m playing the Super Famicom RPG G.O.D: Mezame yo to Yobu Koe ga Kikoe, and I’m noticing the exact same speech pattern again with Chinese characters.

Does anyone know more about where this stereotype came from and how ～アル developed into the standard “Chinese character” speech pattern?

Also, one thing I’m finding really interesting about G.O.D is that it uses a lot of different regional and foreign speech patterns as you travel around the world. Different characters seem to have noticeably different ways of speaking depending on where they’re from. It’s been pretty interesting to encounter these while playing the game in Japanese.

I've made a free guide for my students that covers:

• Dates of the month (the tricky ones as well)
• Days of the week & Clock times
• Essential phrases for scheduling/canceling

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hqxr9033zj2V6MDGh3OSvE3tX3atsiAI/view?usp=sharing

Along with the content mentioned above, it also has example sentences, questions and answer keys included.

You will be able to effectively build sentences that can schedule, cancel or reschedule along with proper dates and time.

Feel free to DM if you have any questions

Thank you so much for all the support lately.

I'm compiling pronunciations for different counters, and I've run into a few counter readings where dictionaries / TTS rules disagree. I'm mainly interested in what you would actually say naturally.

• 3袋
• 10袋
• 1玉（うどん）
• 1箱（ティッシュ）
• 3箱
• 3件（問い合わせ）
• 4泊

The specific readings I'm unsure about:

• 3袋 / 10袋
  • さんぶくろ or さんふくろ?
  • じゅっぷくろ or じゅっふくろ?
• 1玉
  • ひとたま seems natural to me. Is いったま ever used?
• 1箱 / 3箱
  • ひとはこ or いっぱこ?
  • さんばこ or さんはこ?
  • Does it depend on what kind of “box” you're counting?
• 3件
  • さんけん or さんげん? I've always heard さんけん.
• 4泊
  • よんぱく or よんはく?

Regional differences would also be interesting.

For context, I've been comparing Open JTalk's counter rules with デジタル大辞泉, NHK放送文化研究所, 国立国語研究所（窪薗晴夫）, and 飯田朝子『数え方の辞典』. They agree on most counters, but these are the ones where I'm still getting conflicting answers.

i'm interested in starting to talk to natives online so i can get more opportunities to practice my output, what's a good app for this? i know a lot of people recommend hellotalk but i've had a hard time finding like minded people there

i've joined some japanese discord servers for some of my hobbies but i'd like to know if there are any other apps you'd recommend! personally i would like to avoid vrchat because posts on my japanese TL make it sound like only weirdos are on there, but maybe its just 偏見?

Hi everyone,

I've been studying Japanese since March 2025. I did about a year of 1-on-1 lessons, and I've been using WaniKani since November. I haven't missed a single day of WK so far.

I'm currently level 9, doing 4 new lessons a day and keeping up with my reviews.

My stats:

- 267 kanji / 673 vocab

- 90% overall accuracy

- 85.7% reading accuracy

- ~33 days per level

I've also covered some N5/N4 grammar.

I've managed to build a pretty consistent habit, but lately I'm finding it harder to stay motivated. I work full time, so I don't really want to add a lot more studying or end up with huge review sessions every day.

My main goal is to read manga and watch anime in Japanese (Japanese subs are fine).

For people who were around this stage after 1–2 years of studying, what changes actually helped you stay motivated and start making noticeable progress with native manga/anime?

I'm wondering whether I should focus more on immersion, grammar, change my WaniKani routine, or do something completely different.

When I look at samui in OJAD, it gives two pronunciations for samukatta - SAmukatta and saMUkatta - and lists them in that order, which I understand to mean that SAmukatta is the standard one in tokyo dialect.

I found the source files for AJATT's NHK 2016 audio, which I presume (perhaps incorrectly?) is the actual audio for the NHK 2016 pronunciation dictionary. That has two audio files for samukatta with pronunciation SAmukatta coming first, and saMUkatta second, consistent with what I saw in OJAD.

However, my girlfriend is Japanese (but has been living in the UK since about 2000) and says that SAmukatta sounds wrong to her, which would suggest that if it is standard, it has become standard recently. She is fine with saMUkatta.

Also, when I ask google gemini (I know, I know), it says that "In standard Tokyo Japanese, the accent (the "drop" in pitch) happens immediately after the "mu". Younger generations in Tokyo sometimes shift the accent to the ka (sa-MU-KA-t-ta), but the accent never falls on the sa."

So I see some conflicting information. Can anyone help?

Many thanks!

I keep seeing loanwords everywhere, even when there is a japanese word for the thing (like committee, edition, etc.). What is up with that? Is it for like... dramatic effect? Are japanese people supposed to just know English to a degree?

It used to be, when I was looking back at my Japanese progress, I could say things like "I learned 2000 words this past year and I now know 6,000 total words!" This felt like a concrete testament to my progress.

Now, after having stopped flashcards for about a year, "How's my progress doing" feels much more vague.

I could say things like:
- I read 15 volumes of manga this past year
- Reading native stuff feels a little bit easier
But all of these answers feel kind of nebulous anyways.

I guess at some point, Japanese is just something that you do for fun, and that's about it. There's no clear "milestones" at a certain point.

Did anyone else experience this transition? Did you feel a little more "lost" after quitting flashcards?

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 JST:

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

Happy Wednesday!

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

Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 JST:

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've recently started consuming Japanese content again, focusing on listening and shadowing practice. I often hear people say things like, 'It sounded like gibberish at first, but when I revisited the same material later (few hundred hours give or take), it was completely coherent.' To me, it seems like subconscious parsing at work. So I'd love to know, at what point did everything finally 'click' for you?

Like the title says, I'm planning to take the N2 in 4 months, but I'm still a bit stuck in N3 and have been for a good while. I use Tobira and Anki, I listen to videos almost exclusively in Japanese, but vocab is still a huge struggle for me; both in reading and in reciting.

I've been studying for around four years on-and-off and really want to be able to get to N2 before I turn 20.

Is this an achievable goal, or am I pushing it? Any tips?

I want to consume some non-anime media but most of them i searched got pretty boring or had cliche romantic storyline.

Drop some of your favourite movies and web series recommendations that hooked you up.

To preface, I’m going to keep learning the words for X for each module. It’s just that ironically, I’m having trouble memorizing the words now and having less struggles with N4 Kanji and (beginning) N4 grammar.

Hell, I got so bored with how well I kept scoring on N4 Kanji I’m now learning N3 kanji!

So with that, I’m taking the words for N4 much slower now and I was curious: is that module actually necessary? Especially since you could maybe pick up these terms through immersion?

Are the “Words for X” modules a necessity for passing the N- tests? I’m super curious