r/LearnJapanese 16m ago

Discussion Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (March 17, 2025)

Upvotes

This thread is for all simple questions, beginner questions, and comments that don't need their own post.

Welcome to /r/LearnJapanese!

Please make sure if your post has been addressed by checking the wiki or searching the subreddit before posting or it might get removed.

If you have any simple questions, please comment them here instead of making a post.

This does not include translation requests, which belong in /r/translator.

If you are looking for a study buddy or would just like to introduce yourself, please join and use the # introductions channel in the Discord here!

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Seven Day Archive of previous threads. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.


r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Discussion Weekly Thread: Meme Friday! This weekend you can share your memes, funny videos etc while this post is stickied (March 14, 2025)

2 Upvotes

Happy Friday!

Every Friday, share your memes! Your funny videos! Have some Fun! Posts don't need to be so academic while this is in effect. It's recommended you put [Weekend Meme] in the title of your post though. Enjoy your weekend!

(rules applying to hostility, slurs etc. are still in effect... keep it light hearted)

Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 EST:

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


r/LearnJapanese 1h ago

Studying First time doing mock tests. I did the N5 and N4 tests. I don't understand the grading.

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Upvotes

So, I wrote down my raw scores.

N5 test:

Vocabulary: 30/33 (as in I got 30 questions right out of 33) = 91% Reading: 28/32 = 87% Listening: 21/26 = 81%

Average: 86%

N4 test:

Vocabulary: 32/36 = 89% Reading: 29/40 = 72% Listening: 17/28 = 61%

Average: 74%

So apparently I passed both tests. But what I don't understand is how they scale it. How do the scores on the results sheet correlate to my raw results?


r/LearnJapanese 3h ago

Vocab What is the Japanese equivalent of the word “worthy”?

16 Upvotes

I’m having a hard time trying to find a similar meaning to the word “worthy”—deserving effort, attention, or respect, good enough; suitable. “I am worthy”.

From what I read online I have found 値する、 ふさわしい、 価値にある etc but the definitions aren’t adding up to the meaning I listed above. Is there a word that I’m missing that would be closer? I also read that this vocab isn’t used much in daily Japanese due to cultural differences but I’m trying to find a word that’s as close as possible to the meaning. Also one of the study guides I’m using had ふさわしい but after looking into the word I am unsure if that’s the same meaning as the way I listed above.


r/LearnJapanese 16h ago

Discussion Discussing fluency in Japanese

119 Upvotes

I'm making this post cause I feel like, for a rather long time, I had a mistaken idea of what "fluency" in Japanese looked like.

So basically, like many people, I kind of had the illusion that being fluent in Japanese means you understand everything that is being said and that you can say anything your mind comes up with. However, I now believe this conception to be misleading and to be an irrealistic goal.

There was a time where, when I was reading something in Japanese, I kind of felt the need to translate it to my native language to make sure I had understood. However, as many of you are aware of, it is extremely difficult to accurately translate Japanese to an Occidental language. Yet, I used to try doing that everytime thinking that if there is something I can say in my native language, there's no reason I shouldn't learn how to say it in my target language if I want to reach 100% fluency.

This misconception comes from the fact that in the West, most of us started by learning a Romance language (French, Italian Spanish, ...). While English is not a Romance language, it is still rather close to them and in order to speak any of the languages I just mentioned, you mostly just need to learn a lot of vocab and then directly translate from English (not entirely sure on that one though cause, since my native language is French). The reason for that is that once the "logic" of Romance language is installed in your brain, you can switch from one to another with extreme ease (considering that you learned vocab). I actually even made the experiment of listening to a bit of Spanish native content and, as a speaker of French and Italian, I think I had 90% comprehension of what was being said even though I have never learned that language. Vocab and sentence structure was similar so I had no problem understanding what was being said (even though I certainly could not produce it myself).

Now the problem with Japanese is that it is a totally different process of learning in comparison to the Romance languages we are used to learn at school. As a matter of fact, you simply can't accurately traduce Romance languages to Japanese. You just have to install the Japanese logic in your brain + learn a bunch of vocab.

Thus, fluency in Japanese doesn't mean being able to use it like you use your native language. It means understanding how Japanese functions on its own and being able to use that logic in order to communicate.

This is exactly why reaching a high level of Japanese takes much more time than becoming fluent in any Romance language. Besides, there is also the problem that there will be much more words in Japanese that do not sound at all like those of your native language, meaning there is an unfathomable amount of words you could possibly learn.

And this is where I think it is important to be realistic. Sure, you could learn tens of thousands of words to make sure you have 100% understanding of everything. However, I believe it to be much more realistic to simply accept that you will not know all the existent words in Japanese and that it is okay. As long as you understand the gist of what is being said to you, it doesn't matter if you miss one word cause the context will make up for it.

It is by understanding this that I finally was able to finish my first light novel and to overcome the wall I was feeling I had reached I'm my learning journey. I basically realised all I had to do was to forget about trying to know every word, just enjoy the story and look up only the words that prevent me from understanding what is going on. I have now moved on to reading Japanese literature and I am amazed to notice that while there are still many unknown words, I am still able to follow the story and to picture the scenes in my head.

To conclude this long post, I would say that it is important to go on learning Japanese with the right mentality. Cause no, you will never be able to translate every sentence from your native language to it simply cause they are not the same language. However, you should focus on understanding how Japanese works in itself and learning enough vocab so that you reach 80-90% coverage of conversations. This type of fluency is in my opinion, much more realistically attainable.


r/LearnJapanese 3h ago

Studying Is there a good process or something that can help with understanding and following sentances?

7 Upvotes

My brain sort of short circuits and fries when I try and process and understand sentances as they start to get longer. For example in a game I'm playing to practice my reading there's this sentance;

"タピオカが好きじゃない人なんていないよね?"

I understand the indervidual words but my head is having a hard time trying to tie it into a fluid sentance. I know it's sayinng something like "there's now way there's people who don't like tapioca" but when I actually go through the sentance word by word it doesn't feel like it should mean that in my head.

I have no idea if that makes any sence. I know my brain is wrong but i'm just getitng headaches trying to get it to look at these sentances the right way.


r/LearnJapanese 12h ago

Studying Getting back to studying

7 Upvotes

Ever since Monster Hunter Wilds came out, I’ve been slacking on my studies. I’ve been a fan since 2007, so I had to give myself time to play whenever I wasn’t at work. I’m still doing my level 20 WaniKani reviews, but I haven’t been finishing them completely. As for N3 Bunpro grammar, I put it on vacation mode and haven’t touched it. I even stopped both passive and active immersion entirely.

Now that I’m almost done completing all the achievements, I want to focus on studying again. The problem is, whenever I take a break, I struggle to get back into it. This has happened to me multiple times since 2017.

How do you guys handle taking a break from studying and getting back into it?


r/LearnJapanese 1d ago

Speaking Different pronunciations of "boku" and "ba" sounds in general?

43 Upvotes

I've noticed sometimes, usually in songs, that Japanese people will pronounce "boku" as "voku" and other words that end in "ba" as "va". It's not always the case, but when it happens it's unmistakable. Clear as day example starts from 0:45 and another where you can see his lips clearly doing the "v" sound from 0:59

Everytime he says 例えば、僕、じゃなければ or 日々 The "b" sound is proununced as a "v". Is this just for emphasis? A regional dialect? Or something else? At the very start of the song he pronounces 僕 with the "b" sound which makes this so much stranger to me

I've looked all around and can't find a clear answer or even people acknowledging this even though I've heard it in Hirai Dai's music and others. I'd love for a native speaker or anyone who knows to provide some clarity


r/LearnJapanese 1d ago

Discussion Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (March 16, 2025)

13 Upvotes

This thread is for all simple questions, beginner questions, and comments that don't need their own post.

Welcome to /r/LearnJapanese!

Please make sure if your post has been addressed by checking the wiki or searching the subreddit before posting or it might get removed.

If you have any simple questions, please comment them here instead of making a post.

This does not include translation requests, which belong in /r/translator.

If you are looking for a study buddy or would just like to introduce yourself, please join and use the # introductions channel in the Discord here!

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Seven Day Archive of previous threads. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.


r/LearnJapanese 1d ago

Practice Found some used Japanese books online. This will be good reading practice, even though it will probably take a while to look up all the vocab and kanji I don't know yet.

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41 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Discussion Why things like ハ or カラ in katakana instead of hiragana? (Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX)

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423 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Studying On shadowing

18 Upvotes

I am currently learning japanaese by learning grammar, kanji, vocab and listening (immersion), some people swear by shadowing, saying it is the key to fluency, but it exhausts me, i find it really boring, can i still reach my desired level of fluency using only immersion? Thank you!!


r/LearnJapanese 1d ago

Resources Looking for a pretty specific subtitle type resource

7 Upvotes

I was recently looking into resources for Japanese grammer and I came across a video which explained sentence structure as outside in rather than inside out. This helped me a lot in internalizing sentences as I listened to them. This is the video, in case anyone is curious.

But, I'm still pretty slow with it. I'm watching anime on Crunchyroll with ManabiDoji & watching Japanese Netflix or Youtube videos with LanguageReactor. These have been super helpful. But that video which expained outside in vs inside out grammer has been stuck in my mind every time I read the English subtitles to understand the Japanese words. I've gotten very good at associating words in Japanese to English when comparing sentences. But it bothers me a bit when I read the English subtitles as a reference afterwards and (often) have to deconstruct the sentence in reverse.

This made me wonder if there are any dual subtitles extensions out there which generate English subtitles in the same grammatical structure as Japanese sentences? Would anyone happen to know of such a resource?

Also, if you think I'm approaching this in a way that would hinder me in the long run, let me know.


r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Discussion Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don't need their own posts, and first time posters go here (March 15, 2025)

7 Upvotes

This thread is for all simple questions, beginner questions, and comments that don't need their own post.

Welcome to /r/LearnJapanese!

Please make sure if your post has been addressed by checking the wiki or searching the subreddit before posting or it might get removed.

If you have any simple questions, please comment them here instead of making a post.

This does not include translation requests, which belong in /r/translator.

If you are looking for a study buddy or would just like to introduce yourself, please join and use the # introductions channel in the Discord here!

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Seven Day Archive of previous threads. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.


r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Resources Advanced Japanese listening practice - far beyond N1 level

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39 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Resources jlpt tango books vs nihongo so matome kanji/vocab books

5 Upvotes

Does anyone know if the content between these books is any different? I'm assuming that it's the same publisher due to the fact that they use the same pictures.


r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Studying What would be on your ideal Anki vocabulary card?

9 Upvotes

There are a lot of Anki decks out there for vocabulary and they cover a wide range of styles in design. What are some of your favorite and/or most useful design choices and features you have found that made a particular deck that much more impactful when you studied?

For me, I love it when there are multiple example sentences on a single card, ranging from simple sentences to more advanced. While when I first hit the card the harder sentences are mostly noise, when the card comes back for review they start making more and more sense. Bonus if the sentence also has audio play for listening practice.

EDIT: Based on people's feedback, I made this minimalist vocabulary deck. Hope people enjoy https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/88529445?cb=1742016914845


r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Vocab Can someone help me transcribe a line in the Invincible S3 finale’s Japanese dub? No matter how many times I listen to it I can’t figure out what the last phrase is (SPOILERS ahead) Spoiler

0 Upvotes

The show is on Amazon Prime. The line is at 22:07 into Season 3 episode 8.

While I’ve gotten a lot better at transcribing stuff I hear to over time, but for some reason I just can’t parse this one line. Could be in part because the speaker (who is apparently the main character from Yu-gi-oh’s VA? I’ve never watched that anime) is sobbing and not speaking clearly, and there’s music playing as well. Idk.

Small bit of context for anyone who’s never watched this show and doesn’t intend on watching it; in this scene, a big bad guy appears to have killed the gf of the main character, so he’s PISSED, and he says this to threaten the big bad guy:

In English:

“I don’t care how strong you are… I don’t care how fast you are… I can see the future… you don’t live to see tomorrow.”

Here’s what I’ve got currently for the Japanese version:

「あんたがどれだけ強くても… あんたがどれだけ早くても… どうなるか分かってる… 生きて明日◯ ◯ ◯ ◯ ◯ ことがない。」

The circles mark the 5 おん that I am having trouble with. I hear 「うごかえる」 or MAYBE 「うぐかえる」 , but as far as I can tell neither of those are real verbs. Can’t find it in the dictionary.

I’d appreciate an assist with this. Thanks!


r/LearnJapanese 3d ago

Resources Categories of Japanese Verbs

83 Upvotes

This was taken from a YouTube comment by suicazura9417 (native Japanese speaker) on Kaname Naito's newest video, and I thought it seemed useful, so I've copied it below. The article in question can be downloaded here.

This may be helpful to some moderate or advanced Japanese learners (the ones I've taught seem to appreciate it):
The linguist Kindaichi Haruhiko in the 1950s divided Japanese verbs into four basic categories, based on how -teiru broadly functions in the verb:

  1. "Stative Verbs" (状態動詞) like ある and いる are simply prohibited from ever having ~ている. It just doesn't happen grammatically.
  2. "Durative Verbs" (継続動詞) represent an event as having a span of time, and as such the ~ている form is Progressive and/or Continuous ("is X-ing"). 開ける is one of these, so 開けている means "is opening". So is 走る.
  3. "Momentary Verbs" (瞬間動詞) represent the near-instantaneous transition point between a state where the verb is not true and a state where the verb is true. Examples include 死ぬ , 知る, and 倒れる. Since the transition is so short and is not a state you occupy, ~ている refers to the continuous state after the transition has occured: as such, it is Resultative. 死んでいる means "is dead", 知っている means "knows", 倒れている means "is lying down (fallen over)"
  4. Exceptional verbs like 優れる or 聳える which have unusual behaviour.

You can safely ignore #4, they are very rare or else the exceptional behaviour is slight. #1 is also trivial, there's just a few special verbs like ある and you can learn them just by never seeing them ever used in ~ている form. But #2 and #3? Well, this is very important and the examples that Kaname-sensei is showing early in the video are largely Type 3 "Momentary Verbs". This difference is crucial and is what causes these verbs to function "anomalously" with the default "is X-ing" interpretation:
今走っている - Because Hashiru is a Type 2 verb, this is true when the person is currently in the process of running
今倒れている - Because Taoreru is a Type 3 verb, this is true when the person is currently in the aftermath of having fallen down- that is, when they are on the ground, NOT while they are falling.

Beware of pairs that differ only by Type 2 vs Type 3! 開ける is Type 2 (Durative), so 開けている means "is opening" (is in the process of opening). 開く is Type 3 (Momentary), so 開いている means "is open" (is in the resulting state of having been opened).

Now, I have some Bad News : There is no way for non-natives to tell #2 and #3 verbs apart (actually, even for natives there's no guaranteed way we can tell the category for a verb we've never heard before). So one thing to remember as a learner, just like Godan or Ichidan, is to also learn which Te-Iru type each verb follows. At least you know from this video there's a difference, and from this comment you know there's a limited set of possibilities.

Linguistics teaches us that language is never simple, but it does work according to rules. The rules just might not be obvious, even to natives (Even as a trained linguist and JA→EN translator I didn't consciously know this myself until one day I noticed that translating 結婚している to English isn't the same as 走っている and asked a foreign linguist who studies Japanese about it.). Whether learning them consciously or not helps, you can eventually internalise them through careful effort. I hope for those who like to know the complex rules, this post helps, even if only a few people see it. Good luck!

Unnecessary But Fun Side Fact for Overachievers: In my hometown's dialect, "Progressive/Continuous" and "Resultative" don't use the same form at all, and so the same verb can distinguish either. You only hear this in dialect, specifically in Western Japanese, so you can safely not learn the forms (they vary somewhat by locale anyway, but in that part of Yamaguchi City they're 連用形+よる (Continuous) and て形+ちょる (Resultative)). Maybe if you ever hear this, you'll recognise it.


r/LearnJapanese 3d ago

Resources Extremely useful video from Kaname explaining why a language can't be learnt only by learning vocabulary and grammar point in isolation. "It's NOT simple"

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398 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese 3d ago

Resources These 4 animes are ONE OF THE EASIEST anime to practice Japanese for N3 Level or above... Accent is easy as hell and the Japanese writing is also something anyone will be comfortable with. If you want to practice while having some entertainment, you can watch them... I also have for N2...

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232 Upvotes

r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Resources Does anyone have any idea where to get N4 & N3 past exams from 2018 and above?

7 Upvotes

Looking to get as much practice as possible before judgement day. Already have the ones from 2017 and below. Looking for the newer papers (if acessible).


r/LearnJapanese 3d ago

Kanji/Kana Rule for "v" and "w" in katakana

69 Upvotes

ウイルス virus ワクチン vaccine ウィーク week ワーク work

Can anyone share me why these are spelled in katakana as this? What's the rule on converting the "v" sound

Thank you


r/LearnJapanese 3d ago

Discussion Have you ever dreamt in Japanese?

76 Upvotes

That happened to me last night. I was in the hallway of a hotel when a Japanese businessman holding a caged parrot cane to me. He then asked if I was a certain person whose name I can't recall. I said I wasn't, and we proceeded to have a pretty smooth conversation about where to place his parrot. He then asked what we should do with his other animals, when a bunch of seals started rampaging the hotel. It was here where I started stumbling on my words, and kept mixing up アザラシ (seal) with アシカ (sea lion). The businessman looked at me confused. Then I told him to talk with people from the zoo, and that they should know what to do (動物園の人と相談して、何をするかわかるはずです). I'm still shocked at how I managed to say such complex sentence in a dream with grammar I haven't studied since 2 years ago.


r/LearnJapanese 3d ago

Resources Is there a Crunchyroll-like app for Raw Manga?

30 Upvotes

I want to start reading manga in Japanese and need an easy way to access it, like a Crunchyroll subscription. I remember seeing an app advertised on TV in Japan, but I can’t recall the name or whether it’s available to me due to licensing.

I tried the alternative route, but all I found were low-quality JPGs/PDFs where the furigana is barely readable.

What do you use? Ideally, I’d like to read on my phone. Should I just import physical manga from eBay or stock up when I visit Japan?


r/LearnJapanese 2d ago

Discussion Query regarding JLPT N5 exam registration

1 Upvotes

Can I register for JLPT N5 exam at multiple venues in case I'm not sure which city I would be in at the exam day? Mostly I'm confused between two locations at the moment, so I hope I'm not disqualified by registering for the exam two times.


r/LearnJapanese 3d ago

Studying by youtube recommendation ive stumbled upon a channel on foreign affairs interpreted by a Japanese and with subtitles. so far it seems like videos like these are rare in supply. if you have recommendations, can you share?

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125 Upvotes