日本語を勉強しよう! Let's Learn Japanese! - Everything and anything that can help with learning Japanese language

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Ms. Dia Gnosis

Ms. Dia Gnosis

Cosmic Horror
kiwifarms.net
Joined
May 30, 2024
Due to a popular demand and a slight derailment of the Japanese lolcow thread, I've decided to make this thread.
I know that there's a different language learning thread, but I'd prefer to have the authority over the first post to update resources periodically.

The goal of this thread is to help everybody who has any questions regarding Japanese grammar, practice our Japanese skills and compile useful resources in one place.
Please don't use this thread as a diary to just talk about your learning progress. I'd like this thread to be more practical.
Ask questions, write in Japanese if you want, help another farmer out if you can answer their questions, share learning resources that helped you get better at Japanese.
I would also like to propose translation exercises if enough people express interest in this thread. My idea was to have a text to translate from JP to EN and vice versa and then discuss possible mistakes in grammar to further improve our understanding of it. Maybe even give shiritori a try in Japanese only. Or maybe have a Japanese-only day where people have to write ONLY in Japanese. Tell me if those ideas are too gay.

Some resources to get us started:
[dictionaries]

[learning]
Basic Japanese
Verb Conjugation Flow Chart
Japanese Verbs
https://takoboto.jp/bunpo/Resources
http://kanji.koohii.com/
https://jpdb.io
は vs が
Japanese subs
Tatsumoto Ren resources // Guide
Alison's Japanese Course//Diploma
How to Keigo

[extensions]
Furiganator (add furigana in chrome)
Furiganaizer (add furigana in firefox)
Rikaichamp (dictionary for firefox, hover over words to read)
Rikaikun (same-ish dictionary for Chrome)

[listening]
Japanese Audiobook - Dogra Magra (playlist with english subs)
Breaking into Japanese Literature // Direct Soundcloud Link
Michel Thomas Spoken Japanese // Internet Archive

[reading]
Breaking Into Japanese
Kodansha's Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms
News site with furigana
The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation//EPUB
Making Sense of Japanese//PDF

[apps]
Kanji Dojo
Kakugo



Here's a cute little question to get things rolling. Does anybody know what △ after a name means? For example, Dia△ (it's not a nazi thing btw)
Please don't delete this thread without a warning.
 
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Neat thread. I'm on my journey now. I learned Chinese in middle/high school so I'm coming in with the advantage of the skills needed to learn kanji and a language that is totally foreign to me.
I personally do better with full immersion, so I turned to using video games. If you have a 3ds and an SD card I recommend installing custom firm ware (its really easy) to download whatever game you want. A friend recommended me to play Tomodachi Life in Japanese since there's furigana and it teaches you names for common items. So I grabbed an Japanese/English dictionary and started. It's a bit difficult but it makes learning fun.

The dictionary that I have is pocket sized and it's not rigorous enough. Recommendations for printed dictionaries would be amazing
 
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1440p Curved Monitor said:
Neat thread. I'm on my journey now. I learned Chinese in middle/high school so I'm coming in with the advantage of the skills needed to learn kanji and a language that is totally foreign to me.
I personally do better with full immersion, so I turned to using video games. If you have a 3ds and an SD card I recommend installing custom firm ware (its really easy) to download whatever game you want. A friend recommended me to play Tomodachi Life in Japanese since there's furigana and it teaches you names for common items. So I grabbed an Japanese/English dictionary and started. It's a bit difficult but it makes learning fun.

The dictionary that I have is pocket sized and it's not rigorous enough. Recommendations for printed dictionaries would be amazing
Click to expand...

I've heard that gamefication of the learning process aids with learning a lot. This is a silly RPG that I personally like because it's fun and I like that they also repeat Kanji you've already learned https://store.steampowered.com/app/759440/Learn_Japanese_To_Survive_Kanji_Combat/

I don't use printed dictionaries but I've heard that this is pretty good https://smile.amazon.com/Kodanshas-Furigana-Japanese-Dictionary-Dictionaries/dp/1568364571/

Actually, this reminds me, I should add Furiganaizer to the OP. It's an extension that adds furigana to any kanji text. Very useful when you want to practice reading.
 
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~nogger~ said:
Very clear enunciation. Good listening exercise, I think. Don't understand much as of now tho. And it's a whole genre, obviously.
Proper Japanese sounds so incredibly goood.
Click to expand...

Oh, I like that! Very good videos.

I also added a japanese audio book playlist in the OP. i found this guy a while ago and really liked his audio books.
 
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The Michel Thomas Spoken Japanese course is excellent. Of course you aren't learning the language properly, but it gets you most of the way to understand most common spoken Japanese. I've been able to watch anime without subs using this. You can get the course for free on Internet Archive.
 
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Keep in mind that the most common word order in Japanese is SOV (Subject - Object - Verb) compared to English's SVO (Subject Verb Object). That's one of the most important steps to learn Japanese.

Example.
SVO
I + Eat + Fish

SOV
Watashi wa Sakana o Tabemasu
I + Fish + Eat

Japanese has over 100 particles however, here are the important ones to start with. This may sound intimidating but in reality you'll memorize it before you know it.
1724506865847.png
I also own a Kanji Workbook and Textbook I use to memorize the Kanji while writing them, it helps me fairly well.
 
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~nogger~ said:
More listening:
Breaking into Japense Literature
Direct Soundcloud Link
This is really neat and well produced. I'm sure you can find the book as warez somewhere or just buy it or just try to only listen.
Click to expand...

Added this along with the book.

残念。 said:
Here's a great resource for learning Japanese:


For an alternative to anki, jpdb.io works well. You can compare your SRS cards to built in decks to identify media you know most words of to help find comprehensible input.
Click to expand...
Added this too.

Also, I didn't know about jpdb so thanks for the new resource.
~nogger~ said:
I use these two:
Kanji Dojo
Kakuga
Click to expand...

Also added those. It's so hard to find a good learning app because they all become paywalled soon along the way...

BrodyDaMan said:
The Michel Thomas Spoken Japanese course is excellent. Of course you aren't learning the language properly, but it gets you most of the way to understand most common spoken Japanese. I've been able to watch anime without subs using this. You can get the course for free on Internet Archive.
Click to expand...
Added this too, but both links lead to the same page. Not sure if that's what you meant to do.
-----

Might as well answer my own question.
Somebody's name + △ in slang means that X is cool.
△ is sankakukei or sometimes also pronounced as sankakkei, which in turn sounds like san + kakkē (slang for kakkoii)

Does anybody know a good short and easy stories to read? I usually read light novels with some extra help, but would love to get into proper Japanese literature.
 
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BrodyDaMan said:
I'm sorry, here's the internet archive link so you can update the OP. I'll update my post too.

Click to expand...

All good now.

Also added kodansha's idiom dictionary

残念。 said:
に is my favorite particle. It's so easy, just visualize it as a big fat arrow pointing at the object/concept before it and you're good to go.
Click to expand...
Wait, this is actually genius.

I personally had a very hard time understanding the contextual differences between wa and ga because they seemed the same. This article helped though.
 
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は and が aren't too bad, it just takes a lot of time to get used to.

I do like coming up with visual representations of grammar I had a hard time with. より was one I didn't like because it felt backwards. With that one I just imagine a hand pushing the word back out of the spotlight to make room for the more important one in the comparison. You got より stuck to you? Get out of the way, this other one is more.

I think trying to visualize things like that instead of internally trying to explain it to yourself in your native language makes you understand it as Japanese faster.
 
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日本語 is hard 🤔

  • 3 levels of politeness: casual, normal, and keigo (formal)
  • 3 different writing scripts, and one of them has multiple readings for 1000s of characters

(at least pronunciation is easy and isn't tonal unlike with 中文)
 
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I took 4 years of Japanese and my comprehension is questionable.
I can understand the basic jist of spoken Japanese, I can speak very basic Japanese, I can BARELY read it and I lost the ability to write it.
One of the best channels for learning Japanese is Kaname Naito, the man speaks fluent English.
Another channel I'd recommend is NiHongoDekita with Sayaka (also helps shes S-tier waifu material)
Dogen is good when it comes to hearing spoken Japanese, but he's moved away from teaching the language to now talking about how Japan is imploding.
 
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As someone with basic familiarity with multiple languages and writing systems, here's my standard advice:

The easiest way to learn any language, Japanese included, is the way children do: exposure and association. I don't mean just watching anime until you understand the language, because that's not how children learn (until they're school aged anyway).

Children's songs are a great place to start. You'll have to look up an accurate translation to make the connection, but it helps a lot. Half the Japanese I know is because of this. To this day I can still remember exactly where I know certain words from.

Exposure and association also help things stick. Learning words from flash cards is hard because it has zero emotional connection. Every word runs together because you're basically trying to learn the way a robot learns. Human memory relies on emotion to work properly. If someone were to slap you in the face, yell "KABAN MEANS BAG", and then run away, you'd remember the word "kaban" forever. Hell, you might have just learned that word by reading this, because it gave you a Sensible Chuckle. Next time you have to remember what "bag" is, you may think back to this post. That's how learning a language works.

The biggest piece of advice I have specific to Japanese (and Chinese): don't bother with kanji until you're, at the very least, conversational. Unironically 99% of the effort in learning Japanese is in learning kanji. Learn all the kana, become fluent enough to keep up with a six year old, then worry about kanji. Even Japanese people are still borderline illiterate until partway through middle school because it takes so much fucking effort to learn kanji. If you start off trying to learn kanji, even in tandem with the spoken language, you're going to burn out. Japanese people do it out of necessity. Unless you plan on moving there, you'll quickly realize the futility of trying to speedrun 12 years of intensive Japanese schooling for no good reason.
 
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Depends on your goals. I started learning specifically so I could read it. In cases like that, you should learn kanji (not necessarily in isolation), otherwise you're not going anywhere.

Writing on the other hand, no so helpful.

But yeah flash cards along with goofy stories and what not work. I always remember 退く because I got annoyed with not remembering it so I thought who always retreats? The 尻族. The butt people always retreat.
 
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