In all seriousness I can never remember these, how do y'all memorise these?
To clarify I don't mean that I have trouble reading them, more writing from memory. I'm just wondering if people have some ways of memorising like ロ is like a RObot head and ネ is like a NEcktie.
Like the title says, I need help with sentence intonation, id like help with what resources i could use to help me understand it better, i saw Campanas de Japanese's videos but still dont quite understand and im not sure what the best resources are.
(Im sorry if this post is so long but it's been a while since I started having doubts)
Hello, I've been learning japanese for 4 months at that point, and so far I've been following an online course widely known in the french speaking learners I guess. The learning course is divided in 3 chapters :
- the first covering a lot of things about how writing systems work (from basics of hiragana and katakana, to actual kanji rules and all that stuff).
- the second one covers basics of grammar (such as particles and some of their usage, adverbs, adjexctive, etc)
- the third one as far as I understood is about verbs.
- (plus all of these come with vocab lessons each one covering a theme, around 20 words per lesson)
I finished the first one, and am currently in the middle of the second one (grammar) and, as every learner does at some point, I styart struggling with making sentences. I know this is normal, aand this language is so different from european languages that it takes time to get used to it and to even be able to speak about basic topics. However recently I started pointing out a few problems and I've been kinda lost cuz it's my first time learning a language from scratch without getting basics by school so :
- if we put all verb rules apart, I'm pretty sure I can make simple sentences, as I studied enough basic things to make some, but I have a lack of vocab, in fact I have a lack of useful vocab, as the lessons are about various vocab (some words being very complex like for example neighbourhood 隣 (となり), a word that I'll most likely never use lol. So I wonder what I should do to get useful vocab, I downloaded some anki decks about these, but they seem pretty confusing and I can't memorize them.
- about grammar, I feel like I would need more exercises to understand sentence structure (some people don't like studying like in school, but this method really worked for me with other languages, and I think it's very important in the begginer stage of learning a language). I triex asking the ai to create exercises, but they are too easy or use complex things even tho I tell it not to. So yeah I wonder also if you knew resources or anything to practice grammar in a not useless way.
- last thing finally, I wonder if it's a good idea to go towards native speakers at that stage, because I can barely make sentences. But I've heard a lot of people saying it was worth it even when you can't properly speak. So I don't know if I should or not at this stage.
Sorry if it was this long (supposing you read up until here lol), but I feel like I need someone's look from the outside. Learning japanese is something I started to kill time during holidays, but it has turned into something I actually enjoy, and I love challenges, so I think this is the right thing.
I'd be glad to hear your journey through learning japanese as well. Have a nice day and thanks to thew time you'd put in reading this !
ソ is shorter than ン
- ソ: ShOrt (SO)
- ン: Nagai (N). Nagai = Long
I've been starting to seriously practice reading and writing both hiragana and katakana since august, i've been doing 5 of each by week, i'm working and don't think exactly that wanting to learn them all in a week is a good thing.
I recognise most of them up to は or ま line. But writing ? Don't ask me to go further than S line by head. It's not exactly a complain, i don't write every day on paper but do it every week, sometimes at lunch break or before going to bed. The thing is you can't practice every characters when you have a limited time, it's impossible in short public transports as well imo, apps doesn't help...
sometimes i don't remember which characters should i practice, i'm like, do i need to train this line more, or this one that i just learnt ? Can you share the experience you had with the writing learning of kana ?
I want to share a method I've used through 8 years of learning Japanese, and hear what you all think.
Whenever I hit a katakana word that comes from English, I switch it back to the original English word, while the grammar and everything else stay Japanese. I call this "Enpanese" (English + Japanese). Here's a short news snippet as an example:
> Normal: 元女子レスリング日本代表の浜口京子さんが、Xに新しい私服写真を投稿しました。いつものスポーツ姿とはまったく違うファッションが、SNSで大きな話題になっています。黒いトップスとワイドパンツを合わせ、胸元の大きな黄色いリボンがアクセントになっています。 > > Enpanese: 元女子wrestling日本代表の浜口京子さんが、Xに新しい私服写真を投稿しました。いつものsports姿とはまったく違うfashionが、SNSで大きな話題になっています。黒いtopとwide pantsを合わせ、胸元の大きな黄色いribbonがaccentになっています。
For me it makes learning way easier and takes a huge load off my brain, with almost no mental resistance.
I think it works because of "scaffolding," a well-known idea in language learning. When you build a house, you put up scaffolding first and take it down once the structure can stand on its own. The English words act as that scaffolding: familiar anchor points all through the text that help you keep going and actually reach the end.
It also makes Japanese feel friendly. Spotting words you already know is like changing schools and finding a few old friends there: suddenly it's not so scary. I suspect that's a big part of why Chinese speakers find Japanese less intimidating, since kanji feel familiar.
I know the obvious objection: won't this stop you from learning katakana words properly? My take is that it's a stage, not a replacement. Once reading stops feeling like a wall, the katakana versions come naturally, the same way scaffolding comes down once the building can stand.
When you see a katakana loanword, does your brain jump to the English word, or do you think of it in Japanese first?
I actually built a website around this method. Every day it posts about 10 fresh, interesting Japanese articles, including the latest news and posts that went viral on social media, all written in Enpanese. If you're interested, leave a comment and I'm happy to share it!
しんどい is a common Japanese expression meaning “exhausting,” “tough,” or “I'm struggling.”
It describes a situation where you feel physically tired, mentally drained, or emotionally overwhelmed. Depending on the context, it can also mean that something is difficult to deal with.
Unlike simply saying “tired,” しんどい often conveys a stronger feeling of being worn out or having a hard time.
今日、仕事が忙しすぎてしんどい。 → Work was so busy today. I'm exhausted.
毎日勉強するの、しんどいな。 → Studying every day is tough.
人間関係ってしんどいよね。 → Relationships can be emotionally exhausting, can't they?
もう歩くのしんどい。 → I can't walk anymore. I'm exhausted.
この展開、しんどすぎる…… → This storyline is too much emotionally...
しんどい can describe both physical and emotional exhaustion. In casual conversation, people often use it to express that they are struggling with something or that something feels like too much to handle.
It is especially common in everyday conversation, among friends, and on social media.
Similar expressions:
Remember: しんどい is not just about being tired. It often means that something is taking more energy—physically or emotionally—than you feel you can comfortably handle.
A combination of that you asserting your opinion (yo) while simultaneously seeking agreement (ne). It shows a higher level of conversational nuance. Something like that. Who is agree that Japanese strange but cool?
I'm especially uncertain with the sentence arranging section.
I live in Tokyo with my Japanese wife and family, but I speak very little Japanese. I work for myself on Eastern Time, so I actually have a lot of free time during the day to study.
I realize I'm extremely fortunate to actually live in Japan and have Japanese around me every day. That's partly why it's so frustrating. I feel as though I have every opportunity to make progress, yet no matter how much I try, I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere.
I spent a few months at a language school, but unfortunately it wasn’t very good and I left after the first semester along with most of the other students. I’m now studying on my own and hoping to take N5 next summer.
I’m working through Daichi and generally understand the grammar, but I’m struggling badly with vocabulary retention and kanji.
My biggest problem is that I keep switching methods. I’ll use Quizlet, then Anki, then Bunpro, then WaniKani, then read another Reddit recommendation and change again. I feel like I’m spreading myself so thin that I’m not really progressing with anything.
My wife helps where she can, but she has a busy job and family life and I don’t want to turn her into my Japanese teacher.
So I suppose my question is:
If you were starting more or less from scratch, had several hours available every weekday, lived in Japan, and wanted to pass N5 next summer, what would your daily/weekly study structure actually look like?
I’m not really looking for a huge list of apps and books. I think what I need is one simple blueprint I can commit to for the next 6–9 months.
I'd love a fairly simple blueprint: do this textbook, use this method for vocabulary, do this for kanji, spend this much time listening, practise this way, and stick with it.
I'd particularly love to hear from anyone who also went through a stage where they felt overwhelmed by all the different resources and eventually found a simple routine that worked.
At this point I think what I need more than anything is one structure that I can commit to for the next 6–9 months without constantly questioning whether I should be doing something else.
I've found this community incredibly helpful already, so I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.
Any advice from people who have felt similarly overwhelmed would be hugely appreciated.
I like Japanese and I'm trying to learn by reading online,
but every time I hit a word I don't know, I have to stop and look it up, which takes forever,
So I built a chrome extension that puts English meaning right above each word. It's called Ruby, and It works on any site. It also supports furigana, has a bunch of settings and runs offline. No login, no ads, and I'm not planning to charge for it.
Thanks for reading !
Your suggestions are very welcome (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧
and 頑張って！🔻
I wanted to play Pokémon FireRed in Japanese as reading practice, with the vocabulary arriving in Anki in the same order as it arrives in the game, so I built a deck that does that. This includes not only the story/dialogue vocab, but also all menus, UIs, etc.
The deck
- 11,236 cards, added in the order you meet the text when you play: the opening, Pallet Town, Route 1, and on.
- One card per word *form*: つかまえた, つかまえて and つかまえられる are three cards, each on the sentence where the game first uses that form. I know some people are gonna be mad about it, but I'm a total beginner when it comes to Japanese and it helps me. Shouldn't be hard to modify the code to make a version where these are combined into a single card.
- A second, optional deck of 925 names (Pokémon, places, moves, items).
The card
Front, exactly as the game shows the line (the game is written almost entirely in kana), with one word highlighted:
グリーンは すでに ポケモンを つかまえて ずかんの ページを ふやしている そうじゃ！
Back:
- the sentence in romaji
- つかまえて → つかまえる 捕まえる (捕 つか), and the same in romaji
- what it means here ("catching, and"), the literal meaning, and the dictionary sense that applies
- how the form is built: つかまえ + て (te-form)
- the sentence in kanji and in English
- collapsed sections: two more sentences with the same form, the whole message, all dictionary senses
- location and message ID in small print
Anki design choices
- Notes are added in story order, so it only works with Insertion order set to Sequential. Non-dialogue text (menus, battle messages, item descriptions) is spread through the chapter where you first see it, so it never arrives as a block of 500 menu cards.
- Every card is tagged with its location (Pewter_City_Gym). Sound words are tagged onomatopoeia, stammers and broken speech fragment, and cards the analysis was unsure about low-confidence, so you can suspend a whole kind in the browser.
- HTML and CSS only, with <details> for the collapsed parts and styles for light and night mode.
- The stretch up to the first gym is the biggest, about 2,500 cards, because that is where the menus and most basic vocabulary first appear. I tried to weave the menu cards with dialogue cards throughout the road to the first gym.
Get it
source: https://github.com/mkusm/pokemon-firered-jp-anki
deck download: https://github.com/mkusm/pokemon-firered-jp-anki/releases/download/v1.1/firered_jp.apkg
It's free. If a card is wrong or the template breaks on your setup, let me know.
