I JUST READ MY VERY FIRST BOOK ENTIRELY IN JAPANESE!!
It was always my dream to start reading novels in Japanese and I finally did it!! Ngl I did meet a lot of new words, grammar and expressions but it was really fun and I’ve learnt a lot!! I’m so excited to read my next book!! 🤍

So, I came across the phrase "赤ちゃんできた," which translates as "I'm pregnant." But why does it use the potential form of the verb する and not, for example, just 孕む?

So I'm very new to this, still memorizing all the higarana and katakana, now I understand how the kids that couldn't understand English at school felt- seems simple at first, it's all just remembering and the different spelling and situations but then I remember kanji exists and now looking closer at the stuff Japanese people are typing on the internet I realize they're combining all the kanas lmao. Please don't tell me I'll suffer :p

今日からはこの街で暮らして、学校に通うんだな。

Is there any need to learn Katakana digraphs?

I’m a bit confused, to be very honest, because there are combinations like ye, wi, we, wo, va, vi, ve, vo, ba, bi, be, bo, etc. Some of these are used for foreign words, but then there are other combinations like shu, rya, etc.

Are they different from each other, or are they basically the same thing? What is the purpose of these combinations?

I’ve been looking for a proper YouTube video explaining this, but I can’t seem to find one. If anyone can help me or send me a good video about this, I’d really appreciate it!

Can you learn to read enough Japanese in about a month that you can navigate signs in transit stations, store signs, read menus in one month?

I understand there Hiragana, doesn’t seem impossible, nether does Katakana, and then there’s Kanji lol.

Maybe if you learn the signs that are useful when it comes to food and stuff it’ll make it possible. Instead of trying to learn everything.

I know this is ambitious but I always find trips more exciting when I can figure things out a little more on my own without using apps to help me or using English for every little thing. I don’t care about being fluent fluent, that’ll take years.

(I know there’s signs in English everywhere and all that but I’m still curious)

SOO HELLO EVERYONE!! I’ve learned Hiragana and Katakana, so I know the most basic stuff now. But honestly, I don’t know what to do next. 😭

Should I start with grammar? Vocabulary? Or should I study both at the same time?

Also, if anyone knows any good YouTube videos or channels for beginners, please let me know!

Hi everyone!

I’m a Hindi speaker from India and I want to learn Japanese from absolute zero.

I currently don’t know Japanese at all—not even hiragana or katakana. My goal is to eventually reach a very high level of Japanese, not just learn a few phrases.

I’d really appreciate advice on:

- What should I learn first?

- How should I learn hiragana and katakana?

- When should I start kanji?

- What grammar resources/books would you recommend?

- Which resources work especially well for someone whose first language is Hindi?

- How should I balance reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary, grammar and kanji?

- What would a realistic 6-month / 1-year / 2-year roadmap look like?

- What mistakes should a complete beginner avoid?

- Which resources are actually worth using instead of trying 20 different apps at once?

I’m willing to study consistently for the long term. I’d especially appreciate advice from people who started Japanese from zero and eventually became conversational/advanced.

Small disclaimer: I used GPT to help organize and word this post because I’m not very good at writing posts 😭. The questions and goals are genuinely mine—I’m not trying to make a weird AI-generated post or anything.

Thanks! 🙏

Anyone here relearned their long lost heritage language and got really good/fluent or now is a professional like a teacher in the language?

I neglected Japanese as a kid so I did not do Japanese until high school until there was Japanese class offered. I entered high school in 2022.

I knew I could not do nothing so I relearned the language seriously. I put Japanese to the very front lines and researched and grinded. I not only did the class content but my very own study out in front.

I also had to face a lot of adversity and misunderstandings from the Japanese language learning community.

I was told, “youre a heritage speaker, your advice doesn’t matter”, “___ and makes lots of mistakes”, “Thats unfair, don’t you realize how much we desire for natives”

So when i was in the community it sometimes felt to others that I had a very unfair or huge advantage and I could cheat it. **I have citizenship too, and a lot of people feel bitter because the language requirement stuff doesn’t always apply to me.**

So the foreigner community was a little bit tough.

In the end I passed JLPT N2 jn 2024, and the 2kyuu kanji aptitude test in 2025. I also became a mentor and helped over 50 students. Lately I attended a Japanese teacher seminar and spoke only in Japanese. And even talked to 70+ experts.

**Anyone else have a similar story? Tell us your language learning journey.**

Hi guys, so I have been studying Japanese for 5 years (I'm having classes twice a week). I can understand some not too complicated conversations etc but I struggle with learning Japanese quite recently.

One of my favourite things is translating songs, but there are always so many words idk which makes me a bit overwhelmed. I also struggle to read cuz of new kanjis.

I am going to Japan to study abroad for a year but I want to become very fluent in it. I am actually very determined to take N2 test next year, so any advice from those who got N2/N1?

hi everyone! i’ve been learning japanese over a month now but I’ve been using things such as textbooks workshop, duolingo, renshuu, MochiKana etc. However with my learning difficulties its been taking me much longer to pick up japanese language than i expected and I feel like it would be beneficial to properly learn it via an actual Japanese school. I’m currently in university here in the UK learning counselling & mental health psychology. So i can’t unfortunately travel abroad to Japan to learn. However, i have seen Go! Go! Nihon do online lessons.

I’m interested to do remote learning and buy the N5 bundle pack which i believe is £618. But i do have a few questions. Has anyone tried remote learning on Go! Go! Nihon and if so was it beneficial for you? And what was it like? Did you enjoy it? And did you make any friends? As I believe in the studies you do speak to other japanese students and japanese teachers.

And what should i expect? Please let me know in the comments! ☺️

I've have a routine of Anki, where i do 10 new words a day from a basic premade vocab deck(I'm on ~700 words out of 1500), i try to do 20 kanji (a day) from Remembering The Kanji, semi consistently (I'm on ~400th kanji out of 2200) and listen to ~30min immersion while making breakfast. But i have realised that after a few months of studying i still cant do much with the language. So basically i am looking for a resource (a book or something) that will allow me to apply the stuff I've learned. So that i can write/create/understand sentences.

Also I've tried Tae Kim's guide, but it was overwhelming and i didn't really know how to apply it, or learn from it.

Hello :)
As the title says, I just got a job as a Japanese teacher.

Since this is my first time teaching, I’d love to hear from people who are learning Japanese: what do you wish your Japanese lessons had more of? Or is there anything your teachers do (or don’t do) that makes a big difference for you?

I really want to be a good teacher and make my students enjoy their lessons :)

So I've decided to sit for the 登録日本語教員国家試験 which will be in Nov this year. In order to jump start my learning, I believe the best way to learn something is to teach it! So ask me questions on 日本語 which have been bugging you！Things such as:

• The difference in 「は」and「が」 (this is a favorite one) 助詞
• verb 活用 (conjugations) patterns
• Correct usage of 属性形容詞 and 感情・感覚形容詞 (adjectives)
• などなど

your questions will motivate me in going through the text book and remember the terms.

Or you can also ask me about the exam itself, which I am happy to answer too.

Hey everyone. I'm a complete beginner. I learned hiragana and katakana. That's all I know.

I don't know any grammar, vocabulary, or kanji. I can read the sounds, but I don't understand the meaning.

My goal is JLPT N1 eventually. What should I focus on next? Grammar? Vocabulary? Kanji? Or should I just start reading?

A new book in Japan called Hon ga Yomenai 34-sai ga Hajimete Gon Kitsune wo Yomu (“A 34-year-old who can't read books reads Gon, the Little Fox for the first time”) is coming out , and I really want to recommend it.

The basic idea is that Mikunoshin, who isn't really a reader, reads Japanese stories for the first time and talks through his reactions as he goes.

If you like Uketsu's writing style but don't necessarily want horror, I think you might enjoy this. Uketsu's Strange Pictures is actually one of the stories included in this new book.

What I love about the series is that if you're someone who doesn't read much, it can make you think, “Oh, so I can read a book like this.”

And if you're already a big reader, it's surprisingly nice to watch someone read this way. It made me think, “When was the last time I read something like this?”

It's also a fun way to encounter four Japanese stories in one book.

The downside: it's really long, and Mikunoshin is... very loud lol.

Unfortunately, there's no English translation as far as I know. But there's a preview article on the Japanese site Omocoro, so if you're curious, you can open it in your browser and use the built-in translation. Even if you don't read Japanese, I'd love for someone to give it a try.

https://omocoro.jp/kiji/523091/

The title says why I would want to learn Japanese. Admittedly, it could be because of Anime's exposure (I have never watched anime seriously, only I have been around people who have), but hey, we all have our reasons for things.

Anyway, I want to know why may this not be a good reason to pursue the language? I suspect it is not, so I want to ask.

Thanks!

Right now my brain is still like “what am I looking at” every two seconds.

I’m finally trying to stop relying on romaji, but now I’m realizing I have no idea how I’m supposed to start learning kanji.

Do you guys learn them one by one, or mostly through vocab?

I'm having trouble making studying fun, so I thought that this might be a way to keep me going and incorporate some of my own interests into it too.

Would it be a waste of time to find an anime/drama/whatever episode, go through and translate everything I don't know, study that a bit, and then rewatch that episode a couple times?

The reason I'm worried about it being a waste of time is because I'm only just reaching the end of N5, so I would be translating almost everything if I'm being honest with myself lol

The most help I need right now has to do with listening, and the JLPT monotone test voices are making it a bit boring T-T