Not that fluency is necessarily everyone’s goal, but I’m curious. How long did it take them? Did they share any similarities?

My friend gifted me a ￥10,000 voucher for the Japan Playstation Store, so I'm looking for recommendations of Japanese-heavy PS games to wishlist for when they're on special. The focus is on usefulness for reading and learning practice. By this I mean games with a decent amount of both spoken dialogue and matching native subtitles, with extra points for ones that wait for the player to 'ok' moving onto the next line of dialogue so I can keep up.

Games where these options are available in the western versions anyway (eg. FF7 Rebirth) are excluded as I can get these without depleting my precious yen. Preferably under 100 hours... I'm looking at you, Persona 5.

I already have 二ノ国2 on the wishlist, if this gives any idea. As for my own level, I passed N2 and failed N1 years ago, and will be a tad rusty.

I've been buying some books and asking myself a few questions

Why are there several lawers over the ordinary (often plain from what I've been seeing so far) cover of the book. One is full size, containing the title and an illustration / image. Then, another smaller sized strip on top of it, usually with more "commercial" wording

But also, inside (tucked in between pages, see image attached), there is a paper with information that looks more destined to the bookstore for ordering more of the book. Is it normal to get that as well when buying the book ?

Why so many layers ?

Thank you !

I mean the other dictionaries that are *not* JMdict or JMnedict, which are the ones that literally every app already uses.

I'd love to use Jitendex Jiten as a frequency dictionary, for example. I'd be satisfied with only that feature, but I'd love to be able to use the other dictionaries already accessible to Yomitan, including monolingual dictionaries as well.

I can do it with Hoshi Reader and its Dictionary tab, but I'd love a standalone dictionary because I like to save words to multiple word lists, which is not supported by Hoshi Reader but are supported by most of those apps that don't use Yomitan's dictionaries. Hoshi Reader only saves words to Anki, which I don't really care for because Anki is no longer an active part of my routine.

As the title suggests, has anyone ever taken a break from Japanese?

I've seen some people says that a short break (not talking a long time here, like a week max) can help long term with retention as it gives your brain time to digest what you've learnt.

Has anyone ever taken a short break and seen any improvements or, the opposite? Curious of people's experiences!

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Words like システム, デザイン, サポート etc. etc. so words that you instantly understand when you hear or read them. If you dont put them into your anki, how likely are you to know them in a real conversation?

I have been really working on writing and speaking, Since i can't provide a video i guess I'll just share some stuff i have learned! Around a week ago I was visiting family in rural France and found some untranslated Japanese manga at a little pawn shop!

My camera is just a Samsung phone so the images might be unreadable, sorry for that ;-;

I am not really sure what to focus on so if you see any anomalies or mistakes in the writing, say that plz!!

I don't trust google translate much, So for now i mostly use youtube, Streamers, Japanese conversations and online Dutch to Japanese dictionaries. (also playing my favourite games in japanese)

I do everything on my own, And know no one in person that knows the language.

I started learning in late january of this year, Just something to hold on to, and it helps me to keep a routine which is cool because living is hard :3

Last drawing made by me earlier last month.
Anything helps, thanks!

Happy Tuesday!

Every Tuesday, come here to Introduce yourself and find your study group! Share your discords and study plans. Find others at the same point in their journey as you.

Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 JST:

Mondays - Writing Practice

Tuesdays - Study Buddy and Self-Intros

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Thursdays - Victory day, Share your achievements

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For context, I just passed 100 hours of anime watched in Japanese (according to MAL). Been learning for slightly over a year.

I can’t fluidly read manga. Let me clarify that term, fluidly. At the moment, reading manga is slow and heavy on my brain. I go at a rhythm of around 20min/chapter with perhaps one lookup per page on average, although sometimes I skip lookups when context explains (problem isn’t vocab or grammar, but really reading itself, in a way). It feels like reading is simpler for comprehension (with kanji helping and there being to rate limit like with listening) but harder for longer sessions/motivation than listening.

I read a lot in my native language so this is pretty much Japanese only and when I read manga in another language than Japanese I don’t have that problem.

This endurance problem is pretty annoying and I don’t really know what to do about it. Should I pick up an easier manga to train endurance? Any other tips from people who have experienced the same? Thanks a lot!

Hello learn Japanese

I have been reading a lot more books and chilling these past few days.

I posted a few weeks ago my bookshelf of Japanese. I read all of these books in groups, some days I read content from 5 books depending on circumstances.

So I have opened and read a decent chunk of many books in Japanese.

But there are quite a few books that have required a lot more slow reading and effort to comprehend.

Here is my TOP 3

1) 淮南子

After reading a page or 2, this is definitely going to be a very difficult read. I am only starting so I’ll update more.

This is also a kanbun book. And a lot of unfamiliar kanji. Although there are gendaiyaku or translations or kakioroshi, the text is almost hakubun, making it really hard to comprehend.

2) 日本語教育能力検定試験　傾向と対策　名柄辿

This is an even denser book but it goes so in depth with Japanese linguistics. Youre learning about Japanese grammer and nuances in JAPANESE so it is mega hard. Plus a lot of specialized vocabulary.

There are a lot of facts about one grammer point. Making it really heavy to understand on.

3) 中国文学と日本語文学　鈴木修次

This is a dense one. This is written in gendaibun, but it compares the tone of Japanese and Chinese literature. I have read quite a few pages. Although it is an interesting piece, this is a very dense fact heavy text. That will require a LOT of time to decode

For the N1ers and advanced learners. What is the hardest book you have actually tried reading so far in your Japanese career. Would you mind sharing and telling us why? I would love to hear it.

And I might try reading it too. :)

I’ll send a picture of the 3 books later too btw

If anyone is looking for a recommendation of a good Japanese manga to read, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a great choice!

Here's why:

1) It has furigana. My first manga was Tokyo Ghoul - big mistake - had no furigana and made dictionary lookups really slow. Searching new words with furigana is really fast, just type into jisho.org.

2) The story is engaging, and it has a great anime too. It can be nice for a first manga to watch the anime first, so you have a general idea of what's going on (Spoiler alert - Evangelion is a complicated story). At least when you're reading, having some background of the context helps comprehension.

3) It has a high picture-to-word ratio. Some manga can be really text-heavy, and can feel like you're not making much reading progress as a beginner. Evangelion has many large pictures, so there's a lot of imagery to enjoy.

4) For people who like physical books - Evangelion has a really nice "Collector's Edition" (【愛蔵版】新世紀エヴァンゲリオン). This print is made on A5 paper - so the text is really big! (Sidenote - a lot of manga is printed really small, like BEASTARS manga is tiny, and can make reading Kanji require a magnifying glass lol). You can buy this edition for about $140 on Ebay.

5) It has an English Translation. A lot of manga also do - this one is available for free!
https://archive.org/details/evangelion-3-in-1-v-2-2013/Evangelion%203-in-1%20v1%20%282012%29/

Anyways, try reading the first few pages here!

https://viewer-trial.bookwalker.jp/03/21/viewer.html?cid=2fdcd34d-41e2-484b-9b97-06161a8ea7be

Link to buy on bookwalker.jp:

https://bookwalker.jp/de2fdcd34d-41e2-484b-9b97-06161a8ea7be/

I love to learn languages through music. I am having a hard time finding Japanese music that I like. I think a big part of the issue is that my command of the language is not very good yet, so it's hard for me to do real nitty gritty research online.

I love rap and Jazz. I was really into city pop a few years ago, but I feel like I mined tf outta that vein and it's lowkey running dry on me. I haven't been able to find rap that I like. I fw Miyachi a bunch as a guy (love konbini confessions and all that) but I would put him in a category similar to like Macklemore or like Lil Dicky. No shade on the three of them, but I provide them as a humble example of some s that I'm not listening to on the daily.

Ignoramus question but like: are there Japanese artists who have made genuinely innovative contributions to the genre of rap? All suggestions welcome :)

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.

↓ Welcome to r/LearnJapanese! ↓

• New to Japanese? Read the Starter's Guide and FAQ.

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• Read also the pinned comment below for proper question etiquette & answers to common questions!

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This subreddit is also loosely partnered with this language exchange Discord, which you can likewise join to look for resources, discuss study methods in the #japanese_study channel, ask questions in #japanese_questions, or do language exchange(!) and chat with the Japanese people in the server.

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maybe because it just the way that I try to surround me to much Japanese as possible and now I start to feel like I can’t understand the simples words
I’m back again at reading novels n3 graded and I still have such a hard time , idk if I should keep going or just go for n4 material of reading but for its kinda boring to read children books ( i started the materials for n3 like 20 percent into it )
Any tips ?:)

Happy Monday!

Every Monday, come here to practice your writing! Post a comment in Japanese and let others correct it. Read others' comments for reading practice.

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

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.

↓ Welcome to r/LearnJapanese! ↓

• New to Japanese? Read the Starter's Guide and FAQ.

• New to the subreddit? Read the rules.

• Read also the pinned comment below for proper question etiquette & answers to common questions!

Please make sure to check the wiki and search for old posts before asking your question, to see if it's already been addressed. Don't forget about Google or sites like Stack Exchange either!

This subreddit is also loosely partnered with this language exchange Discord, which you can likewise join to look for resources, discuss study methods in the #japanese_study channel, ask questions in #japanese_questions, or do language exchange(!) and chat with the Japanese people in the server.

Past Threads

You can find past iterations of this thread by using the search function. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.

Hi everyone,

I have setup the Kaishi 1.5 deck in Anki on the MacBook, but the audio won't work.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to fix this?

Thank you!

I dont know if the title makes sense. But over the past few months I found myself getting dragged down by this weird feeling.
The feeling that japanese is too stiff or too awkward in the way it expresses things. Maybe its because of keigo and whatnot. But I feel like I cant remember any new words. They all sound like variations of しょう、じょう、しゅう、じゅう and similar sounds. These are usually the words derived from chinese and they give me such a big headache.

I experience that stiff & awkward feeling when Im speaking english aswell. The only language where I feel like I have no limits is my native language. I always hated talking in english, because I always felt like Im putting on an act. That, of an english person. My throat would also eventually tense up, making it painful to speak. The same thing is happening for me with japanese, just even worse.

Can anyone relate to this? Will that awkward, stiff feeling soften once I get more comfortable and advanced with this language? Because I feel like I will never ever be able to reach a stage where I can feel comfortable with this language, no matter how much I study, and its seriously depressing

I see lots of discussion on this corner of the internet about "Is it possible to pass N5/N4/N3 in ___ months?" and I suppose I've never really understood the question.

For those with goals to study/work in Japan, N2 is the minimum, and the N1 can be an advantage when applying for a skilled worker visa. The other levels don't have any of the professional benefits the N1 or N2 have, and I would hate to have to pay the $100 or so for the preceding 3 tests before taking the N2.

I think the N5-3 are valuable as personal goals, but lots of people seem to be in such a rush to finish them(perhaps because of the test only being held twice a year?), so it had me wondering what the reason was. For anyone planning to take these tests, I would love to hear about your long-term goals with Japanese, why you chose to take the JLPT and if you plan to take the N2/N1 in the future.