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

[HRT Heisenberg]

Fan translation sounds very fun once it's pulled off, the more fan translators the better since official is so retarded it has its own thread. Personally I find translating directly between the two languages extremely difficult as there's almost no way to match experssions directly a lot of the time and it takes a lot of thinking, but I'm also lazy. It sounds like everyone here has a passion for the language itself and so do I which is great.

I've lived in Moonland for 15 years (12 consecutively, 'cause Covid stuff), and while I'm back in the West temporarily, I would say from personal experience that the degree to which you will be treated as an "outsider" is determined far less by your fluency in the language, but rather your integration into the culture, and that, often in ways so subtle that you yourself will be unable to quite place your finger upon.

This is something I haven't considered. Without PL'ing too much Japanese manners have been bent into me like some cultural crucible, which also helps integration more than I initially thought. Manners here are hard to explain without specific examples I think. But I do want to highlight how kind and accommodating staff are in any institute if you're not quite sure how the simplest of things work because it's your first time, as long as both of you are using Japanese. With a proper baseline of Japanese and basic manners you can get everything you need done while also strengthening manners and understanding while you're at it.

If your intention is to learn to read, learn to write.

I agree with this but I think it's vital to be corrected by someone (or at the very least receive some kind of feedback from someone, i.e like a response back to what you're writing). Otherwise you're just screaming to the void without knowing if what you're writing is completely incomprehensible. What do you think?

 

[Baraadmirer]

I'm curious, does anyone here have any goals for Japanese?

Not really. I keep it in my back pocket for whenever I want to weeb out. Sometimes I don't trust what the localisers have done for a product, and sometimes a property is too obscure for anyone to bother translating.

 

[Celestial Peace]

I'm curious, does anyone here have any goals for Japanese?

Emigrate to Japan

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Video of a Japanese person expressing how difficult English is according to them. Syntaxing with English subtitles with Japanese words when familiar with helps me reinforce that word more.

Japanese people in the comments express how much they wanted to learn English but struggle with it.

英語が違う。I cannot disagree with that statement.

I also know Spanish and Spanish is about as hard as English according to Japanese speakers.
I even watch Spanish speakers talk about the difficulty of Japanese language. So I often use Spanish to learn Japanese to language stack and retain my spanish doing so.

Emigrate to Japan

Emigrating to Japan may be a necessity for me in the near future. Considering a war may break out in my country and Japan is the nearest safe country to escape to.

 

[Lord Of Shit]

I agree with this but I think it's vital to be corrected by someone (or at the very least receive some kind of feedback from someone, i.e like a response back to what you're writing). Otherwise you're just screaming to the void without knowing if what you're writing is completely incomprehensible. What do you think?

Although producing text (what I'm typing right now) is important, what I actually meant by "If your intention is to learn to read, learn to write", was to literally write, by hand. Muscle memory is a very real thing, and the advantages in acquiring easily new vocabulary are immense, especially sino-Japanese vocab (漢語) which are otherwise more difficult to remember and use productively and with nuance (particularly because of the absurd number of perfect homonyms), than are native Japanese words.

This is just my personal experience, mind you, but that experience has made me an evangelical when it comes to advocating learning to write by hand, as archaic as it may seem. It seems to activate different parts of the brain, probably why quite a few uni professors (younger ones, even) insist their students take notes by hand.

Emigrating to Japan may be a necessity for me in the near future. Considering a war may break out in my country and Japan is the nearest safe country to escape to.

I never should have left, and I'm getting my gaijin ass back there ASAP.

 

[Celestial Peace]

Considering a war may break out in my country

What country you're from?

I never should have left, and I'm getting my gaijin ass back there ASAP.

What would've been the reason you left and the reason to return there?

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

What country you're from?

The glorious country of Canada, Though it has its problems. Trump threatening Canada has become more of a concern for me than insane house prices. For the time being. I'll remain in Canada. But Japan is my plan B if Canada ends up getting invaded.

 

[Lord Of Shit]

What country you're from?

What would've been the reason you left and the reason to return there?

Canada, which is its own shitshow right now.

Why I left? That's impossible to answer without PLing like crazy, but let's just say family-related reasons which have since resolved.

Why return? 'Cause I hate this fucking country:

Spoiler: Unhinged ranting

...the cold, the unhealthy culture, the so-called "newcomers", whom are rude, entitled, smelly ingrates. I chose to live and work in Japan because I loved the culture, the way of life, the orderliness, the professionalism, the sense of community... I did not go there to refuse to assimilate and try to replace their culture with mine.

The cost of living in Canada is four times that of Japan. The taxes are three times higher, and the level of public services maybe 50% of Japan. The place is infected, top-to-bottom, with wokism.

Our healthcare is nominally free, but inaccessible. My friend here injured her arm, causing chronic pain, in July, and she finally received her ultrasound in January. When I went to the hospital in Japan when I had an odd lump in my lower belly ― not painful, just worrisome ― I had my ultrasound in forty minutes (turned out to be nothing). Know what it cost me, out-of-pocket? 5000円, about fifty bucks.

Most importantly, my education and experience and knowledge are almost worthless here, whereas I can get a good job just about anywhere in Japan, and live a comfortable, middle-class life.

The only thing binding me here at all is that there are a small number of people here whom I care about deeply.

 

[Lord Of Shit]

The glorious country of Canada, Though it has its problems. Trump threatening Canada has become more of a concern for me than insane house prices. For the time being. I'll remain in Canada. But Japan is my plan B if Canada ends up getting invaded.

Ah, shit, fellow iceback, just saw your reply.

Trump is just shooting off his mouth again, but if he follows through on his tariff wars, it will absolutely nuke the Canadian economy. That's reason enough to have a bug-out plan. I'm leaving in any case. I'll miss the Fin Du Monde beer and Oka cheese; everything else can go hang.

 

[HRT Heisenberg]

Japanese people in the comments express how much they wanted to learn English but struggle with it.

英語が違う。I cannot disagree with that statement.

Korean is so similar to Japanese to the point where Japanese natives don't have much difficulty learning it. With that said Koreans in general have better English profeciency from what I have heard. I wonder how much is due to difficulty/difference and how much is from a lifetime of shitty teaching.

It's interesting how wages are so low in Japan and yet everyone does just fine with cost of living. Even so people here complain about cost of living. Compared to me coming from a country where people can't even get fucking housing anymore shows how detached Japan is from this issue.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Korean is so similar to Japanese to the point where Japanese natives don't have much difficulty learning it. With that said Koreans in general have better English profeciency from what I have heard. I wonder how much is due to difficulty/difference and how much is from a lifetime of shitty teaching.

It's interesting how wages are so low in Japan and yet everyone does just fine with cost of living. Even so people here complain about cost of living. Compared to me coming from a country where people can't even get fucking housing anymore shows how detached Japan is from this issue.

When I become proficient in Japanese, I'll use it to language stack Korean. (Like how I'll use Spanish to language stack Italian and Portuguese as well as Russian to language stack Ukrainian and Belarusian). Like I said before, people in Japan has access to many abandoned houses to take refuge in because of low birthrate. And even if they're small, there's not too much of a demand for them. Canada on the other hand is the exact opposite with the mass influx of migrants creating low supply and high demand for houses.

I also find that watching videos and reading books in Japanese with around 1000 - 2000 words in your vocabulary helps tremendously. Especially watching videos considering the tone helps you narrow down the definition. I used this method to study Russian and Spanish too.

 

[Celestial Peace]

The glorious country of Canada, Though it has its problems. Trump threatening Canada has become more of a concern for me than insane house prices. For the time being. I'll remain in Canada. But Japan is my plan B if Canada ends up getting invaded.

I'm not discouraging you or anything but why wouldn't you move to the US or how would your life exactly change if America annexes Canada?

I just want to know because to choose Japan you gotta have an interest in Japanese culture and people. You know, something that goes beyond anime.

Canada, which is its own shitshow right now.

Why I left? That's impossible to answer without PLing like crazy, but let's just say family-related reasons which have since resolved.

Why return? 'Cause I hate this fucking country:

Spoiler: Unhinged ranting

...the cold, the unhealthy culture, the so-called "newcomers", whom are rude, entitled, smelly ingrates. I chose to live and work in Japan because I loved the culture, the way of life, the orderliness, the professionalism, the sense of community... I did not go there to refuse to assimilate and try to replace their culture with mine.

The cost of living in Canada is four times that of Japan. The taxes are three times higher, and the level of public services maybe 50% of Japan. The place is infected, top-to-bottom, with wokism.

Our healthcare is nominally free, but inaccessible. My friend here injured her arm, causing chronic pain, in July, and she finally received her ultrasound in January. When I went to the hospital in Japan when I had an odd lump in my lower belly ― not painful, just worrisome ― I had my ultrasound in forty minutes (turned out to be nothing). Know what it cost me, out-of-pocket? 5000円, about fifty bucks.

Most importantly, my education and experience and knowledge are almost worthless here, whereas I can get a good job just about anywhere in Japan, and live a comfortable, middle-class life.

The only thing binding me here at all is that there are a small number of people here whom I care about deeply.

I can understand your feelings because I feel the same towards my own homeland which is fucking Brazil. I suppose only Venezuela or any African country would be an even worse shithole than here but it's not like it means much.

People here are fucking stupid and the culture is pure hedonism mixed with sloth and lots of crab bucket mentality. You mentioned a sense of community, right? Well Brazilians are individualism incarnate and if they're not scamming someone it's because they didn't had the opportunity yet because corruption is widespread in Brazilian society.

Not to mention the overall violence here and the entire country is dominated by cartels. We're pretty much a lusophone version of Mexico.

Has Brazil been any different? No, it never was and never will. History have always repeated itself and will do so until heat death of the Universe or until some country nukes this cesspool.

Thanks to Buddhism, martial arts, Japanese food and other aspects of Japanese culture (which include anime ofc) I intent to someday emigrate to Japan and never return to this fucking shitpit of a country.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

If you know around 500 words and you want to immerse in Japanese, this is a good way to start.

I'm not discouraging you or anything but why wouldn't you move to the US or how would your life exactly change if America annexes Canada?

I just want to know because to choose Japan you gotta have an interest in Japanese culture and people. You know, something that goes beyond anime.

I love the United States but it's not in a good situation right now. The fact Musk has had access to the treasury is pretty chilling to me. This poses insane security risks to those in the US. And the fact they want to bring this to Canada, Greenland, Panama and possibly Mexico and the rest of Latin America says something. I have actually been to Japan in May 2023. I love it's architecture, nature, way of life, foods, technology and a bunch of other stuff including it's history. Plus, I never really wanted to move anywhere. But if I had to move, Japan would probably be my best option. It's not really US annexing Canada that terrifies me. It more has to do with the fact their heads of states are egotistical enough to control us and have access to all out information. I'm not saying the democrats or Canada's government are much better or trustworthy but I feel the Trump administration seems to be power mad.

 

[Lord Of Shit]

Korean is so similar to Japanese to the point where Japanese natives don't have much difficulty learning it. With that said Koreans in general have better English profeciency from what I have heard. I wonder how much is due to difficulty/difference and how much is from a lifetime of shitty teaching.

I've been to Korea to visit a relative of mine who was teaching there at the time, and she can attest that Korean English instruction is not much different from the Japanese pedagogy.

I think the difference in proficiency is due to two factors:

1. Koreans are less reserved, more outgoing. This is a great advantage in language acquisition, as they are more willing to risk mistakes by, y'know, actually talking and practicing. The same phenomenon can be observed in microcosm in Japan between male and female students; females are less concerned about making mistakes and appearing "foolish", whereas male students are reluctant to speak unless they feel they can express themselves perfectly. There is a good reason why most Japanese teachers of English are women.

2. Korean phonology and phonotactics are much, much richer than those of Japanese.

 

[Lord Of Shit]

When I become proficient in Japanese, I'll use it to language stack Korean. (Like how I'll use Spanish to language stack Italian and Portuguese as well as Russian to language stack Ukrainian and Belarusian). Like I said before, people in Japan has access to many abandoned houses to take refuge in because of low birthrate. And even if they're small, there's not too much of a demand for them. Canada on the other hand is the exact opposite with the mass influx of migrants creating low supply and high demand for houses.

I also find that watching videos and reading books in Japanese with around 1000 - 2000 words in your vocabulary helps tremendously. Especially watching videos considering the tone helps you narrow down the definition. I used this method to study Russian and Spanish too.

Damn, son, in how many languages are you already proficient?

You can stack not only Korean on Jap (due to the similar grammar), but Chinese too, exploiting for both the huge overlap of Sinitic loanwords. Once you know that 学 is xué and 학, you can use and pronounce any word containing that morpheme in either language.

Over half of modern Korean vocab is of Chinese origin (and most dictionaries conveniently still include the hanzi for them), and Chinese grammar is stupid-simple and very similar to that of English.

So you're pretty golden.

※Edit: Sorry for the double-post; still getting used to things.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Damn, son, in how many languages are you already proficient?

You can stack not only Korean on Jap (due to the similar grammar), but Chinese too, exploiting for both the huge overlap of Sinitic loanwords. Once you know that 学 is xué and 학, you can use and pronounce any word containing that morpheme in either language.

Over half of modern Korean vocab is of Chinese origin (and most dictionaries conveniently still include the hanzi for them), and Chinese grammar is stupid-simple and very similar to that of English.

So you're pretty golden.

※Edit: Sorry for the double-post; still getting used to things.

I wished I kept my pace of studying Japanese like when I started in 2020. I only really began a more proper dedicated study since 2024. Some days I would spend 4 - 10 hours studying while on other days I study as little as 15 minutes or if at all because of my anxiety. All I had in 2020 was duolingo and that app kinda sucks. It wasn't until I picked up a Japanese learning book at the same time I picked up a Spanish learning book that I did a more dedicated study.

The Three languages I am most good at is Spanish, Japanese and Russian and that's because I did my most focus at them and when I dropped the other languages for a bit. I kept those 3 as it is too much of a sacrifice to drop those so I must continue learning them. But my Spanish is around A2 and could read at around a B1 level, and for Russian and Japanese, that's around half way to that level while I could possibly read at an A2 level. (Because learning a language usually takes 3 - 5 years). Had I continued focusing on Russian since 2018, I would already be fluent by now and maybe even be fluent in Ukrainian too.

I will return to the other languages like Finnish and Arabic when I become proficient in the languages I am focused on. I really wanted to learn the other languages but I must focus on the select few I am already good at.

 

[invisibult plus+]

I'm curious, does anyone here have any goals for Japanese? I spent most if not all my time studying alone for the fun of it so I wanna know what keeps others going. Obviously it's different living here but I studied for at least 6 years studying beforehand with no goal in mind and no plans to move so I did it for fun not it out of necessity.

Nothing specific, just understand and use more of it. I don’t want to emigrate for various reasons. However, I’ll never forget how learning the language initially felt. It was like seeing a new world for the first time.

 

[HRT Heisenberg]

Nothing specific, just understand and use more of it. I don’t want to emigrate for various reasons. However, I’ll never forget how learning the language initially felt. It was like seeing a new world for the first time.

I get what you mean, that feeling changes but it never really goes away. I hope this isn't powerleveling too much but when I first moved to Japan I spent a few months in Sendai. It really is like a small town but with some city-like areas, it was very similar to home except..Japanese. Using Japanese and being surrounded by a life that is a lot like your own but so very different and using a completely different language with no English in sight was very much like stepping into a parallel universe. Now after years of experience it doesn't feel as wondrous and new but I feel like I am living in two worlds at once; the English and the Japanese world. Japanese is such a different language to English compared to say German or French so I'm not sure if other languages closer to English have the same appeal or not.

I think regardless of your goals it will be a reward that keeps on giving the more you try, because I think the feeling is strongest when you're actually speaking I would encourage anyone to try by whatever means is available. Except maybe a beginner class in person, maybe intermediate or higher where they use only Japanese.

Edit: Actually I was thinking of the idea of starting a Japanese only thread but cannot think what a suitable topic for Kiwifarms would be..lol. Also I am not sure how many people would be willing to participate.

 

[quisquiliae]

Edit: Actually I was thinking of the idea of starting a Japanese only thread but cannot think what a suitable topic for Kiwifarms would be..lol. Also I am not sure how many people would be willing to participate.

Tangentially related there is this thread dedicated to Japanese lolcows. The thread is mostly in English, but they have links to all the related media if you want immerse by following Japanese lolcows.

 

[HRT Heisenberg]

Tangentially related there is this thread dedicated to Japanese lolcows. The thread is mostly in English, but they have links to all the related media if you want immerse by following Japanese lolcows.

Yeah, lurking that thread is how I found here. It's an interesting thread but Japanese discussion is limited because Japanese speakers here are probably like 0.1% of the userbase and there's a lot of interest from other users understandably wanting to see Japanese lolcows, which is totally fine (although there is a lot of politisperging there as well imo).

I think it would be nice to have a Japanese only thread for those who want to engage more with the language. But because we already have a Japanese lolcow thread there can't really be a central topic, and that may hurt the thread leaving it to die pretty quickly. Unless someone has a better idea than me.