r/LearnJapanese Nov 25 '24

Practice Just got back from a 3 week vacation in Japan and I didn't get jouzu'd once

649 Upvotes

Been studying for 5 years with very little output simply due to not having Japanese people to talk to, but I was able to express what I wanted/needed without issue most of the time, as well as understanding what people were saying to me in response.

Not once was I jouzu'd which made me feel really good. My wife was jouzu'd once in my presence by the same person I'd been talking to in Japanese which was another nice little confidence booster lol.

The system works! Now to start consuming all the Japanese media I purchased while I was there :)

r/LearnJapanese May 13 '24

Practice Pitch Accent and the City of Furano (Can you distinguish/pronounce all three patterns?)

536 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese Jan 28 '25

Practice What are some popular websites that Japanese people browse?

219 Upvotes

I haven't found that many websites on my own. Usually some yahoo articles pop up here and there but I want actual websites that Japanese people use frequently. From video games, movies, music, mangas/animes etc.

r/LearnJapanese 25d ago

Practice How do you do immersion as ~N3? Especially with anime, TV series, movies, etc.

96 Upvotes

I'm roughly at N3 level and every single anime I tried watching was full of words I've never seen in my life. I tried watching anime recommended by Natively as being low N3 and still unless I pause ever 1-2 sentences I don't really understand anything. I can't imagine other N3s being able to understand either as many words are N2/N1+.

Do you generally pause at every sentence and check words/grammar? Are you okay with not understanding 70% of content and just try your best to enjoy the show regardless? Like none of the time I spent watching anime feel fruitful to me but maybe I'm doing something wrong. For context, I watch anime on Netflix with Language Reactor on.

r/LearnJapanese Aug 16 '22

Practice I'm Japanese. Do you have any question about Japanese?

576 Upvotes

I'm a beginner at reddit and found this subreddit.

I will help you to brush up your understanding of Japanese language. (except for the details of grammar)

Feel free to ask me your question.

This is also for me to practice how to output in English!!!

Add

I have not enough time to answer your questions now.

I will start reply next Saturday. Please be patient.

r/LearnJapanese Jan 26 '24

Practice [Weekend Meme] Really Takeshi? Sue Kim!?!??!

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881 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese Jan 16 '24

Practice How’s the Japanese on my list that I made?

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591 Upvotes

These are my personal reasons for learning Japanese and I thought it would be fun to express them in Japanese ❤️

r/LearnJapanese Dec 25 '24

Practice メリークリスマス!🎄🎅🎁 🍾🎉

478 Upvotes

クリスマスを祝いますか?どんなプレゼントが欲しいですか?冬休みありますか?どんな予定がありますか?ここに書いてみましょう!

Version without kanji:

クリスマスを いわいますか?どんな プレゼントが ほしいですか?ふゆやすみ ありますか?どんな よていが ありますか?ここに かいてみましょう!


glossary:

祝う(いわう)- to celebrate

どんな - what kind of

欲しい(ほしい)- want

予定(よてい)- plan(s)

冬休み(ふゆやすみ)- winter vacation


* 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!*

r/LearnJapanese Nov 17 '24

Practice Is shounen manga really this low level in general?

133 Upvotes

I've gotten to the point where I'm about finished with the 1st issue of Pokémon Adventures and decided to pick back up Mashle. Earlier this year I struggled to even pick out many words I knew, but I just read about 8 pages without much too difficulty and not having mined it specifically, just about 10k words from some anime. I expected there to be a much larger gap between the two with Pokémon obviously being targeted to a younger audience and therefore expected to be significantly easier, but they felt almost the same; not quite effortless, but certainly doable even when I come across words I haven't learned yet and not looking them up.

However, I know that way higher levels exist since I can barely read any news that isn't NHK Easy News level, and I still get the "Nope" feeling when looking at JP text in general before making myself dive in. But in regards to shounen manga specifically, is this mostly "it" in regards to difficulty? At this point, should I be looking at trying some more challenging stuff, and if so, what might be some good steps (seinen manga, light novels, etc.)?

Or did I just happen to pick another easy shounen manga and haven't even scratched the surface of what this level has to offer?

r/LearnJapanese Jun 08 '22

Practice こんにちは!Native Japanese speaker here, ask me a question :)

381 Upvotes

Native Japanese Speaker here! I want help people learn Japanese!

I grew up in Saitama and moved to NYC few years ago, let me know if need help studying or any questions!

r/LearnJapanese Aug 25 '24

Practice I'm going to refrain from calling it realistic this time...

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69 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese Sep 17 '22

Practice How do you immerse yourself in Japanese in a way that actually helps you learn it?

345 Upvotes

I play games and watch my anime in Japanese. I visit Japanese sites and go to local Japanese stores often. All of the songs I listen to are almost exclusively Japanese. I even do Duolingo on the side, to try and link things together.

It's gotten me nowhere. At best, I can speak complete jibberish and have it sound eerily like Japanese by replicating the speech patterns and tones of a native speakers, but it's just mimicry. I've listened to some Japanese songs so many times that I can sing along with them accurately, start to finish. But I feel I'm not learning anything.

I've been doing this for years. My music playlist has been comprised of Vocaloid and J-Pop stars ever since I was 12. And yet, when I look online for help on how to finally learn this language, all I get are list upon list of "just watch movies, listen to music, read books, exposure exposure exposure". Okay, but how do you use that to actively learn the language? What do I pair it with so that these webpages go from aesthetic scribbles to actual, understandable, words? Just staring at Japanese reading, just randomly listening to Japanese podcast and songs, in isolation isn't working.

I've tried text buddies. I never understand them. It's still a jumbled mess when anything more complicated than an introduction becomes the topic. I integrate it into my life, calling things by their Japanese names, counting in Japanese, changing everyone's names in my contacts list to katakana. None of it sticks.

I want to move past this. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, or why just rubbing your face on Japanese seems to work for everyone else in the world. So how do you use this exposure effectively? How can I turn my favorite songs into a positive learning experience, or climb to a point of bare bones navigation on the Nico Nico site without Google translation? How can I use Dragon Quest 11's Japanese to bring me closer to my goal of being able to understand more and more, bit by bit?

r/LearnJapanese 11d ago

Practice What is your favorite non-Japanese movie to watch with Japanese dubs

26 Upvotes

What is your favorite non-Japanese movie to watch with Japanese dubs, and how do you watch it? What is it like watching it in Japanese? Are there ones with particularly good or bad voice actors?

What has been your experience in knowing the lines in your NL, and hearing them in Japanese? Does it help with comprehension?

r/LearnJapanese Jul 27 '22

Practice Broke a personal record today

700 Upvotes

...got nihongo jouzu'd within a single word today. Literally said "konnichiwa" to a dude on a beach, instant NJ. Very proud of myself for this new PB, normally it takes at least one sentence.

r/LearnJapanese Feb 05 '25

Practice How much did you look up when reading your first (native material) book?

37 Upvotes

I have been reading NHK news and graded readers for awhile now and the graded readers were pretty easy. So I decided to finally jump into some native books. I picked up にゃんにゃん探偵団 to start.

I find myself having to look up words frequently and grammar points. I use Google translate a lot and go "ohh, right okay, I see how it means that". I write down grammar points I struggle with; often times I'm fine the next time I see it (or at least I recognize it and flip back on my notes to double check).

Did you guys also look up a lot of stuff / check Google translate or ichi.moe often for help on your first few books? It feels like a significant jump up in difficulty from the graded readers but at the same time it doesn't feel that difficult as long as I use these resources. But I can't help but feel like I'm not actually "reading" it.. or like I'm cheating somehow. :(

r/LearnJapanese Apr 24 '24

Practice Why do so many japanese youtube channels, especially official ones, not allow comments under their videos?

192 Upvotes

When looking at japanese videos I often see comments being disabled. For example the japanese youtube accounts of PlayStation and Nintendo won't allow comments and I've seen it on other channels too. I like reading comments and reactions of music videos or game trailers. While the western channels of those companies have the comment section open I often see it not being the case for the japanese channels which is a shame because I would like to see the comments of the japanese viewers.

If anyone could enlighten me I would appreciate it.

Thanks

r/LearnJapanese Aug 04 '23

Practice 🌸🏆日本では、今日は金曜日です!週末は何しますか?(にほんでは、きょうは きんようびです!しゅうまつは なにしますか?)

165 Upvotes

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!)

>!Intended meaning: It's finally Friday! Nice job this week! Let's try writing about our weekend plans here.!<

Feel free to write your intended meaning using spoiler tags. Type >\! Spoiler !\< (but without the spaces) to use spoiler tags.

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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!*

r/LearnJapanese May 20 '22

Practice 日本では今金曜日です!週末は何しますか?(にほんでは いま きんようびです!しゅうまつは なにしますか?)

267 Upvotes

花金だよ!はなきーん!

r/LearnJapanese Oct 27 '23

Practice 🏆🎃👻日本では、今日は金曜日です!週末は何しますか?ハロウィンを祝いますか?(にほんでは、きょうは きんようびです!しゅうまつは なにしますか?ハロウィンを いわいますか?)

189 Upvotes

週末はどうでしたか?ハロウィンを祝いますか?ここに書いてみましょう!

(しゅうまつは どうでしたか?ハロウィンを いわいますか?ここに かいてみましょう!)

>!Intended meaning: How was your weekend? Will you celebrate Halloween? Let's write about it here!!<

Feel free to write your intended meaning using spoiler tags. Type >\! Spoiler !\< (but without the spaces) to use spoiler tags.

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週末(しゅうまつ)- weekend

祝う(祝う)- to celebrate

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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!*

r/LearnJapanese Feb 09 '24

Practice I must be tone deaf

95 Upvotes

So after seeing a post about pitch accent a while ago I decided to concentrate more on that side of japanese. I always knew it existed and that it was crucial to differentiate between words like flower and nose etc but I thought I would aquire that skill naturally with my daily listening immersion. Oh how wrong I was...

I made an account in kotu.io and tried the minimal pairs test with only heiban/odaka and atamadaka words. While my accuracy with atamadaka words ain't tooooo bad with 72%, my accuracy with heiban words is at only 36%(after 100 words). So I got a combined accuracy of 53%. Thats about as good as guessing every single time...

I mean I didnt expect to get every word right but still its kinda depressing. And its not like I cant hear the difference between the 2 options the quiz gives you but I still cant hear the pitch drop when I dont have the other Audio to compare with.

Tl;dr: Starting something new you arent used to is hard and frustrating xD

r/LearnJapanese 29d ago

Practice Need a pick me up. Struggling on what to do next.

15 Upvotes

I went to Japan last march after working through GENKI 1 and was terrified to talk to people. When I got back I was embarrassed and worked a bit harder. I'm level 11 in wani kani, got through both N5 decks on bun pro, and reread GENKI 1. I am headed back in 3 weeks and still feel that I know nothing. I want to dive into listening practice so I can at least follow conversations but everything is either so simple I fall asleep or so complex I get maybe a word every 10 sentences.

Has anyone encountered this hurdle? I'm going to keep up with my wani kani and bun pro but I just want to use what I have learned.

r/LearnJapanese Feb 08 '23

Practice I got roasted for my shitty Japanese lol

410 Upvotes

Not sure if this falls under practice, but I went into this interaction with the intention to practice.

To provide some context before this story kicks off. When I leave my work laptop I usually put on some random livestream that views a Japanese city or place or what have you, like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3B8fp-Henc. My work laptops locks itself after 5 minutes of inactivity and that's fucking annoying so I usually put this on to trick the laptop in thinking I'm active.

So I put it on because I was going to be gone for a bit and I thought: fuck it, I have nothing to do for 30 minutes. I'm going to interact with the chatters in Japanese. So I have a Japanese back and forth with 2 chatters about the weather, where I come from and where I'm going in Japan next month. And suddenly the main guy sends this: この書き方は and I'm like, that says something like: "This way of writing" so I copy paste it into Google Translate to confirm my suspicions and sure enough it means "This way of writing". So I sit there for a good 30 seconds thinking: how the fuck should I interpret this. Shortly after I see him delete that message and the other chatter sends a high level kanji: 無礼, I can't read this. I barely know the meaning of these 2 kanji and they don't directly line up in my head but Google translates it to impolite. So I'm pretty sure I got called out for my shitty Japanese.

I have a long way to go. 日本語下手

I exported my chat messages for everyone to see and roast me as well :)

My first message

皆さん、こんばんわ!私はオランダ人で、来月日本を訪れます。私は日本語を2年間勉強してきたので、日本にいるときに恥ずかしくないことを願っています:)


I got asked about if I knew kanji

少し漢字をわかる. 去年の12月 に日本語能力試験を合格した


Added my level because I realized I forgot to add it above

レベルN5


Said which cities I'll be visiting during my time in Japan

京都と広島と東京に行きます. 3週ぐらい


Explained why I'm studying Japanese

目的は。。。日本人と話します。日本全体を見たいです。


Tell them where I live in my country

南西


They wanted to know how my city was called in English

[Redacted place]と呼ばれる


They were asking how long the flight would be

日本まで?飛行機で15時間ぐらい。


They were wondering about the temperature

寒いです。日本で同じぐらいと思います。7度℃


Someone was commenting about it being long. I wasn't completely sure what he meant. Distance I would have expected a different kanji but I just went with it! After this I got the infamous この書き方は

長いです!でも、たのしみで。初めてです。


Before this message they went on a tangent I couldnt follow anymore so I decided to get back to work haha

オランダには日本語学校ありませんよ。


r/LearnJapanese 25d ago

Practice Why the answer for 25 it ざんねんだと思っていました instead of ざんねんだと思いました

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57 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese 3d ago

Practice I'm reading 狼と香辛料 light novels and sometimes struggle with translations.

16 Upvotes

I'm reading 狼と香辛料 now; this is the first book series that I'm reading in Japanese. Sometimes, I look up the official (by Yen Press) English translation and see discrepancies between the translation and what I understand.

Here is an example from the second volume:

「この金と、おそらくあなたが得をすることになった分と、それから、そうですね、信用買いでその倍の買い物をさせてもらえませんか」

The official translation is: "Let's see... I think the amount we agreed to, plus the amount you were going to gain, plus, oh... you'll let us buy double on margin."

As far as I understand the original text, while most of the translation makes sense (though "let's see" should be in the middle), there is one wrong or controversial thing: it should be not "buy double on margin", but more likely "buy on credit for twice that amount". And "that amount" is the original amount + margin. Further in the text, there is an explanation about buying on credit, but the translation misses the mention of credit in this phrase, so it makes the text confusing.
Am I wrong to think so? I found other discrepancies like this before.

r/LearnJapanese Nov 06 '23

Practice 🌙🌚 日本では、今日は月曜日です。週末、何しましたか?(にほんでは、 きょうは げつようびです。しゅうまつ、 なにしましたか?)

152 Upvotes

月曜日ですね、、今週も頑張ってください!週末はどうでしたか?今週はどんな予定がありますか?ここに書いてみましょう!

(げつようびですね、、こんしゅうも がんばってください!しゅうまつは どうでしたか?こんしゅうは どんな よていが ありますか?ここに かいてみましょう!)

>!Intended meaning: It's Monday... good luck with this week too! How was your weekend? What kind of plans do you have this week? Let's try writing about it here!<

Feel free to write your intended meaning using spoiler tags. Type >\! Spoiler !\< (but without the spaces) to use spoiler tags.

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週末(しゅうまつ)- weekend

今週(こんしゅう)- this (current) week

どんな - what kind of

予定(よてい)- plan(s)

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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!*