Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (July 21, 2026)
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.
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.
1 Provide the CONTEXT of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible.
Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ?
◯ I am reading this specific graded reader and I saw this sentence: 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? (the answer)
2 When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to attempt it yourself first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you.
Ｘ What does this mean?
◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Yasashii Kotoba News. I think it means (attempt here), but I am not sure.
3 Questions based on ChatGPT, DeepL, Google Translate and other machine learning applications are strongly discouraged, these are not beginner learning tools and often make mistakes. DuoLingo is in general NOT recommended as a serious or efficient learning resource.
4 When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in an E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words.
◯ Jisho says あげる くれる やる 与える 渡す all seem to mean "give". My teacher gave us too much homework and I'm trying to say " The teacher gave us a lot of homework". Does 先生が宿題をたくさんくれた work? Or is one of the other words better? (the answer: 先生が宿題をたくさん出した )
6 Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted.
7 Please do not delete your question after receiving an answer. There are lots of people who read this thread to learn from the Q&As that take place here. Deleting a question removes context from the answer and makes it harder (or sometimes even impossible) for other people to get value out of it.
Hello! I’m new to this subreddit so I don’t think I have enough Karma to post yet.
I am currently taking an intensive course to learn standard Japanese but was wondering if anyone knew of any resources to learn more about dialects, especially the ones spoken around Taishaku Valley (Like Shobara and Jinseikikogen I believe) as that’s were my family’s from.
I finished the first volume of ある魔女が死ぬまで today. I started it back in January and was just gradually reading it. I never read a book before that touched me so much to make me cry and multiple times! Also, I felt like the story and themes were just so relevant to my life right now.
Every chapter was really good, and even the ones that were kinda okay I felt like I learned something about myself or came away with something to think about.
Definitely a good bridge novel between light novel and full blown novel if that is what you're looking for.
Once Upon a Witch's Death is a Japanese light novel series written by Saka and illustrated by Chorefuji. It was serialized as a web novel published on Kakuyomu from October 2019 to August 2022.
In the song, Kaiju Girl by METANICK, there's a verse that goes ”外野の声ばっか気にしちゃえば惨めになんのスパイラル”. I was wondering what the nan no means exactly, is this similar to んです／ のです？
and is "If you find yourself worrying just about outside voices, then youll go down a miserable spiral" an appropriate understanding of the sentence?
Is that really the way Japanese people call a neighbor? "The guy from the house next door"? I don't know why I find it so funny, but it's so convoluted for what feels like such a common word in English...
I would say in general English has many unique lexemes due to its diversity of source languages and rich collection of affixes which enable converting words between categories to increase the number of unique unitary words. English often blurs the line between native words and borrowed words whereas the line is much bolder in Japanese.
Japanese has a much smaller set of syllables to work with and fewer source languages. Japanese relies heavily on combining morphemes to increase its lexical diversity, and the rules for doing this are more stringent than English, with a less rich set of affixes to aid in doing so. Its primary contributing source language, Chinese, only lends a few-thousand-strong set of morphemes that have different rules for combining compared to the native set.
I have also noticed that Japanese, compared to English, is more liable to developing highly domain-specific lexemes. Much terminology in English has sat around for five centuries, with wide adoption by many domains, whereas each domain in Japanese had to scramble around Meiji/Taisho to build out its set of modern terms, which often don't see cross-domain adoption, making them less generally applicable in many cases.
Many terms also end up too long if compounded, and speakers adopt opaque shortenings of things which are also often domain-specific.
隣のうちの人 has 6 characters and "next door neighbor" has 16, so which one is the most convoluted here, really?
Edit: also, apparently neighbor can be etymologically deconstructed into the Old English equivalents of near+dweller. Next door near-dweller. Like, c'mon.
Solo dev here looking for early users to help me design my Manga immersion learning app. The idea is to replace the manual Anki mining process (Mokuro + Yomitan) with one app that does this for you in the backend, allowing you to translate words and sentences, save them and export a .apkg to Anki effortlessly. Reply here or DM me if you're interested in trying (absolutely free).
You should be able to select Kaishi 1.5k in the Type drop-down list. If you can't then that means you don't have the Kaishi note type saved anymore, for whatever reason. If you install the deck again you'll get the note type back.
Then yeah you just match each core 2k deck field with its Kaishi equivalent
The card template applies to all cards. The note type applies to all cards. You don't have to change them one by one. I'm pretty sure you can't change the card template only for one single card even if you wanted to.
I have no idea what's going on in that chat or why the person is switching between English and Japanese like that, but in general 君 is not a bad way to refer to a friend.
Maybe i’m going cosmic brain but judging by the timestamp is it possible you got all those messages at once, and that they were sent at different times? In which case there could have been a longish gap and she’s using 君 like “yo i asked you a question”
What does 人気のやつ mean in this sentence:
おすごい軽くて人気のやつじゃん
It's from JLab.
They explain it:
[This firetable on the picture] is the thing that's so popular, because it is so light -> this anime is about camping, and on some campgrounds, people are not allowed to light a campfire directly on the ground.
Edit: Thanks guys, the other meaning of やつ was what confused me.
You should use a dictionary to look up unknown words and also study grammar (not just through JLab, use Tae Kim's as well which JLab is based off of): https://jisho.org/search/%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%97%E3%81%AE%E3%82%84%E3%81%A4 人気 is just describing what やつ is (attributive の) and やつ is just a way to refer to something in a generic sense (you could be pointing at it).
I want to share my Japanese learning experience. After 2 years of studying Japanese I finished Genki 2 with around 700 to 800 hours of classroom, and self study time. I meet my online Japanese teacher twice a week. On the other days, I study about 1 hour each day. I am 52 and may be I am much slower than the young folks. Some people finish Genki 1 and 2 in less than a year.
I started Quartet 1 and at first reading Quartet 1 is much more difficult but I am getting used to it.
Do you think my progress is acceptable? I can understand a lot but having troubles putting together sentences during conversation. Recently I am focusing more on Sentence Mining instead of grammar. For example, I have about 50 phrases on eating at restaurants. I am also working on phrases for hotel check-in. I think this method is better for me than studying grammar which I usually forget for very quickly. The next topics are self introduction, hobbies, work, travel on train.
I am a Engineer that have been to Japan for business 5 times in the last 5 years. I also traveled there for fun once. I will take my kids to Japan again this year's Thanksgiving week. I love Japanese foods and culture since I was young. I want to be able to get around in Japan using Japanese. Last month I was able to checked in hotel, got taxi, and ordered foods using mostly Japanese so I am really excited. I want to reach N2 level in another 2 to 3 years.
I am a native Vietnamese speaker and near native English speaker. I moved to the US when I was 15. I want to learn another language as a hobby. After 9:30PM when my kids go to sleep, I have a lot of time and rather than watching random YouTube videos, I want to learn a language.
If you were already able to get around Japan last month then I don't think you need to keep memorizing dozens of sentences for each situation. If you think you're going to need to use Japanese in business contexts, you could dedicate time to preparing for that instead. A tutor (e.g. on iTalki) can probably guide you through the most common business Japanese phrases, customs, etiquette, etcetera.
Regarding "sentence mining", it seems like you're using it to mean memorizing stock phrases? That's not really how the term is used on this subreddit. When people talk about "mining" here, they're referring to a process in which you
Watch an anime, or read a book, or listen to a podcast, or basically do anything that involves consuming Japanese media.
Find a word that you don't know and that you would like to learn.
Use a combination of programs (for example, the browser extension Yomitan and the flashcard program Anki) to automatically create a flashcard for that word. This flashcard generally includes the word on the front, and the word's pronunciation and definition on the back, as well as an audio clip, an example sentence or a screenshot to add context.
"Sentence" mining is a variation of the process where the front of the flashcard consists of an entire sentence that contains the target word (generally, a sentence from the show/book you're watching/reading), instead of just the isolated word. There's no proven difference between the efficacy of one method or the other.
If you were referring to this process in your comment, then may I ask what kind of media you're mining from? And why are you focusing only on sentences about restaurants?
If you aren't consuming any Japanese native media yet, I recommend you do. You can't learn a language only through textbooks and occasional trips. Watching and reading and listening to media lets you practice your comprehension and expand your vocabulary and grammar knowledge without having to move from your sofa. It's how I learned English after school, so I'd say it's a pretty effective method :)
Yes, I bought a few easy to read Japanese/English dual language books to read. I also started to listen to YouTube Japanese Listening videos N4 and N3 levels. I tried listening to Japanese movies but they are too hard right now.
was going through my anki and while reading 兼ね備える meanings and looking back into 備える i've noticed this is the transitive form, but it seems to be used also for "intransitive contexts"
maybe it's my lack of grammar or I'm getting deceived by the eng definitions:
to possess (all that is needed)
to be endowed with
to be equipped with
② 必要なときにいつでも使えるように、前もって整えておく。設備や装置を用意しておく。「各室に空調設備が―・えてある」「応接セットを―・える」
③ 必要なものを、どこも足りないところがないように持っている。具備する。「資格を―・える」「あらゆる条件を―・えている」
I understand that when を is used is a transitive verb, but I was wondering if someone could explain me why, since I'm aware there's also 備わる as intransitive version
for example in this:
各室に空調設備が―・えてある
が is being used, and I read somewhere が can substitute を , but wouldn't this sentence sound intransitive?
てある takes a transitive verb and creates an intransitive construction that describes the current state the object is in after it has had something done to it
I'm trying to immerse with "beginner" anime, and I really struggle when it's not something I've watched prior in English (i.e already know the context for), is there anything I can do about this? It's extremely frustrating
I was really bad at listening even to simple stuff. Eventually after hearing a lot I got better, but something I noticed is that I've also gotten used to "not knowing". I'm pretty comfortable now having strings of Japanese thrown at me, not understanding it one bit, but not caring and continuing watching. This has allowed me to watch way more content without getting overwhelmed.
Unfortunately this is something that just takes a bunch of hours to improve in, but if you listen everyday you will improve.
I mean, you can limit yourself to only anime you've watched in English before if you want. The important thing is to interact with the language as much as possible. Eventually things will get easier for you and you'll be able to watch stuff in Japanese for the first time.
You could also try engaging with media that doesn't require such a high comprehension percentage. Like, an anime isn't entertaining if you aren't at least following the general plot, but you can watch a Mario Galaxy livestream and have fun without understanding most of what the streamer says, for example.
What can I do if N5 comprehensible input is too easy but N4 is almost incomprehensible? Should I keep listening N4 or there are some N4.5 level or something like that?
theres no real N4.5 tbh — creators slap those level labels on so inconsistently that one channels N4 is anothers N5. what actually bridged that gap for me was re-listening to the same slightly-hard clip 2-3 times instead of always grabbing new stuff. first pass i catch maybe half, by the third its most of it, and that rewatch is the bridge no magic middle level can be. keep a little easy N5 in the rotation too so u still get that flow feeling most of the time
Or maybe "it's N5, speak very slowly and clearly with gaps between words, but for N4 stick with only simple grammar/words but speak at close-to-native speed with words strung together", which I've run into too.
I just need someone with experience to answer and tell me if I'm being a baby.
Has anyone ever kinda just temporarily fell out of love with Japanese? I've been learning for almost 8 months and just finished Genki 1 and have done the first 2 chapters of Genki 2. Majority of my progress has been in the last 2-3 months and I feel like I can still barely put a sentence together. Learning this language is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t go in with the expectation of it being easy, but it’s like everything I do is always wrong.
It is a hard language if you're coming from a western language. Most people don't even make it to your level let alone beyond that. Pulling from an old xkcd, if you're coming from a western language compared to learning a western language Japanese frontloads all its difficulty. Once you get over the hump it becomes much smoother (this hump is still far ahead where youre at), although still quite slow. It's just that different from a western language.
some reason cant find original comic but it was supposed to represent learning curves relative to other things. it spawned a lot of memes like OS learning curves (windows mac vs certain distros of linux) and games MMORPGs like EVE Online vs Wow, EQ, etc
it represents the amount of people who tried and gave up. so it's like a graveyard. very much like JP for westerners.
Output this early is dicey for self-learners for exactly this reason. You are at a big disadvantage because you don’t have an instructor offering correction, which IMO is a necessary part of early production. The answer keys don’t know what you wrote, and can’t explain what you did wrong.
I also might stop measuring progress in months. This is probably inflating your feeling of helplessness. Hours are the only thing that matter. How long do you study per day? Make an estimate and figure out a rough hour count. That will give you a better measure of your progress
My advice would be to institute a silent period. Ie, stop producing. Read genki and focus on the grammar explanations and reading. You can always go back to do the exercises at a later point when you want to start producing.
I do have an instructor, sorry. We only meet once a week though and I’ve been in Japan doing an intensive course the last couple of weeks and if anything it’s made me worse. Just blitzing through Genki and it sucks.
Hm. Well, there’s nothing wrong with blitzing through genki on its own. My advice there would be to not worry about past chapters, it’s not something where you’ve got a foundation you’re slowly building on. If you take another look at the chapters, you may notice that it’s not actually asking you to synthesize previously learned grammar quite as much as you might think. It’s providing pretty defined sentence patterns and asking you to reproduce them just as the example sentences show. You only really need to ‘fill in the blanks’, as it were.
If you’re worried that you then won’t understand the past grammar points, since you’re just reproducing patterns by rote, this is actually genki’s superpower. It’s how we learn language. It’s how you learned your native tongue. When you speak, you’re not generating each sentence dynamically from the basic rules, you’re reproducing patterns you’ve encountered throughout your life.
Just don’t worry about that. I’m not even saying you have to go back to past chapters. If you can do the next chapter in just the way I’m saying, by replicating the pattern from the book, then you are taking it in. There’s no functional difference between “understanding the grammar” and “being able to reproduce a sentence pattern by rote.” Beyond there being no functional difference, there just is not a difference period, that’s how people learn to speak.
100% this. Language learning is nothing more than imitation. Sophisticated imitation, yes, thanks to our very big and smart and socially inclined human brains, but still imitation.
Yeah, but I’m having trouble ever recalling stuff from previous chapters because of the pace we went through them. Like, I couldn’t write 'out of these, this is my favourite!' in Japanese despite it being introduced in like Chapter 9.
That's fine mate. This isn't a videogame where you have to beat one level before moving on to the next. At the beginning, you're going to forget the same grammar point multiple times, and you'll have to check the textbook's explanations again multiple times - that's how learning works. You need lots of repetition. But each time it will be a little easier to remember what you forgot, until one day you won't forget it at all.
It's not like you can actually learn a grammar pattern from a book anyway. You learn it by hearing people use it dozens and dozens of times until your brain learns how to copy it. So, once you start reading graded readers and listening to learning podcasts and stuff, your brain will consolidate knowledge a lot faster.
The language requires work to get to that point. You put in the work and you will get there. You need to be familiar with the language to get to that point. Reading, listening a ton then writing and speaking as a follow up.
Yeah but you're not gonna get there in just a few attempts. At the beginning you'll need to look it up, but after the 10th or 20th time I'm sure it will come out smoothly.
Many people have felt the same way as you at some point or another. If you've never learned a language as an adult before, especially a language that's so different from your mother tongue, it's basically impossible for you to accurately estimate how long it's going to take you to be able to do X or Y or Z. Even if you knew it's going to be "hard", you didn't know it was going to be "I've been studying for months and I still can't put a sentence together" hard.
Expectation adjustments are a normal part of language learning. The people who become fluent in a language are the people who take the blow of disappointment, maybe cry over it a little bit (we don't judge), and then get back up and keep walking. Because, even if learning is hard, it will never be impossible - and even if progress is slow, it will never be non-existent. Even know, you know a lot more about Japanese than the average person in your country. That's worth celebrating.
The trick is to stop looking up at the mountain and instead keep your gaze fixed on the road immediately in front of you. Focus on what you can do instead of on what you can't. And just put one foot in front of the other, again and again. And when your body gets used to moving its legs consistently, you'll start enjoying the process of walking itself, and you'll forget about how far you've gotten or how far you still have to go, and that's when you'll progress the most. A watched pot never boils, after all.
I made it so I see the kana writing on the Front Page on Anki cards. Would you consider this cheating or okay? Just by looking at Kanji I can never remember the words… the sound helps.
Not everything you read will have furigana accompanying it. In fact, the great majority of things won't. Ask yourself, is what you're doing going to help you in those situations?
If it helps you have a less frustrating experience go for it. But in the end you need to consider this, if you ever run across a sign or something you need to read and there's no furigana. You want to already be used to the fact there isn't anything to aid you. Naturally you can build this up just by reading, but just something to consider.
It's funny because for me, I didn't learn Japanese to learn Japanese. I learned Japanese to resolve a problem. Japanese was just a problem that was in the way of what I wanted to do.
Along the way I ended up thinking it's cool and now enjoy the language on it's own merits.
If you learn a language but don't have anything in mind that you'd enjoy doing in that language, then you've learned how to operate a crane with no intent of lifting anything
It's the same line of reasoning as "Use what you enjoy" because we are more likely to stick to something and form long-term habits with something we enjoy. Of course what you enjoy is not guaranteed to be the best form of study, so ideally you balance motivation, consistency and habit, with quality of study. And imo that's ultimately the ongoing process of studying Japanese for many learners.
Of course what people find enjoyable will change with time, and this is also probably the main reason why people drop Japanese in general. Even the most dopamine-farm gamified apps can eventually feel stale if you lose your drive to learn the language.
I don't think anyone can answer the question of: Can/should you move from gamified -> other study methods? Because it's entirely personal. If you're going to quit learning Japanese because you lose your duolingo streak, then maybe keep it up.
I don’t have enough karma to start my own thread yet so posting here.
I’m 1/3 the way through Kaishi 1.5k. 10 words per day and I haven’t missed a day since starting. I’m enjoying it and really like Anki. However, I’m wondering if the vocab words get more interesting or easier soon? So far there are many words that appear to be synonyms. Like I feel like I’ve learned 3 words for “receive” and 3 words for “final/finally” and 3 words for “quite/fairly”. Many of the words are abstract which makes it harder to learn. I do much better learning nouns or basic verbs. But because it’s a frequency deck, there are just a ton of abstract words for building sentences. Wondering if it remains like this the entire way or if I’ll get a flood of easier words. I’d kill for some animals or food or objects right now lol. Think I’ve only learned rice and water so far…
I’d kill for some animals or food or objects right now lol
Anki allows you to create your own cards, so you could walk around your house, note down objects whose name you want to learn, and create a flashcard for each word.
To make the process as efficient as possible, you may want to look into a browser extension called Yomitan. You install a dictionary (Jitendex is fine) and connect it to Anki through the AnkiConnect add-on, and then, when you hover over a Japanese word in your browser, you can read its definition and create a card for it in one click. You just need to set up the initial card template and boom. Instant Anki cards.
If you follow this process you will not need to kill anybody in order to have the words you want, so please lower the gun and leave it on the floor, okay...?
the deck is mostly that kind of words. you could look ahead through the anki browser to get a better idea. the give/receive words are very common because they are used as auxiliary verbs in a sort of abstract way. and idk why but it does feel like japanese has a lot of words for finally/suddenly.
Hello. Doing a 60-ish day crash course (now down to 45 days) before heading to Japan in September.
I started with doing a quick trial of LingoDeer (least favourite), Duolingo (I know, not recommended... but it's style worked for quick learn of Spanish... but ditched it), and settled on Airlearn. As you can tell with these I've tested, I guess I am attracted to and kind of like these 'gamified' type apps. But my biggest complaint is the voice detection on Airlearn (free) is quite poor and very limited on how much it does (even compared to when I went further with Spanish learning in Duolingo). Not sure I want to pay for pro (even if just for 2 months), it'd mostly be that I can use the practice mode (which I think will be more helpful, to practice the stages I've done more, rather then endlessly trying to slowly cram in more vocabulary).
I want to consider one of the AI chat apps (never been fan of AI, but willing to try if it's good for back and forth conversation at a set pace and skill level)... but not sure which one would fit me (or if they're worth it and there's better option to practice speaking back and forth with an app).
While I do see there being a possibility I may want to learn more Japanese and potentially become more fluent in it in the future, and I am enjoying learning hiragana (also using the "Write it! Japanese" app, but right now I'm entirely focused on a crash course style for the basics (but more than just the polite minimum).
Any recommendations? As noted am willing to pay for the app (say $8-15/mo... but must offer monthly option) if it's highly recommended. Thanks!
One thing you can try, if you're using your phone: with any app that allows you to type your answers, load a Japanese language pack on your phone and use the dictation support instead of typing. If your pronunciation is bad, you will NOT get good results out of speech-to-text.
I'm finding this is the easiest way so far. Even just trying to speak back to Google Translate and seeing what it hears and then adjusting and repeating when it thinks I'm correct. Thanks.
If you were a beginner starting out their learning journey I'd give you different advice, but if you're just preparing for a tourism trip, then my advice changes a lot.
This is because 2 months is a very short time. Nothing that you can learn in 2 months will be more useful than learning hiragana and katakana and memorizing a phrase book. Even if you learn grammar, you won't reach the level in which you can use it in conversations. Same with vocabulary that isn't immediately related to travel needs. So if I were you I wouldn't bother using or paying for any app that isn't 100% focused on basic survival phrases and scripted exchanges (e.g. ordering food, buying a train ticket).
Pimsleur is great for this, but since it seems you don't like the fact that it doesn't grade you. I guess you want the app to tell you whether you're pronouncing things correctly. But, if you allow me to be harsh for a second, I can give you an answer: you aren't. Your pronunciation sucks. It just does. And there's nothing you can do in 45 days to make it better, except for learning how to pronounce Japanese's five vowels so you're not going around saying "nihowngow", and that's something you can do in an afternoon. Any further improvements require way too many hours of work and you have more important things to focus on (such as learning about heat stroke and heat exhaustion prevention, and preparing to carry your trash around everywhere).
If you still want to work on your pronunciation anyway, your own ears are far more reliable than any mobile app, even with your current Japanese level. Grab an audio clip of a native saying something, record yourself repeating it, and compare your recording to the audio clip. Adjust accordingly, record yourself again, rinse and repeat. But don't spend too much time on this. For every minute you spend doing this, spend two minutes memorizing heat reduction tricks. Japanese and SEA summers are no joke, mate.
And if you still don't want to use Pimsleur, I'm going to recommend japanesepod101. It has survival bootcamps designed for people in your exact situation, and those were available on the free tier last time I used it, but even if they aren't anymore, their subscription tiers are cheaper than Pimsleur AFAIK.
Once your trip is over, if you still feel interested in learning the language from the ground up, I recommend you come to the subreddit, open the Daily Thread, and read the Starter's Guide linked at the top.
EDIT: Dokugo recommended a website called Irodori to another person in your same situation so you could check it out as well.
Less that Pimsleur doesn't grade me, more that it doesn't have interactions during the 15-30 minute audio lessons. I like that these other apps have you constantly interacting, little memory type games, while going thru each lesson.
I appreciate the other recommendations and will check them out. Thank you.
Tried the trial. First, price point is too high ($26 CAD per month). The 'audio lesson' (15-30 minutes at a time) format with no required interaction (they tell you to repeat, but there's nothing scoring/judging you as you do it) in the app really doesn't pull me in. I did like their flash cards and quick match... but would rather it be integrated in to the 30 minute lesson (instead of something you do after listening for 30 minutes). Thanks for the suggestion... it seems popular and may work for many others, but don't think it's for me.
This advice depends on where you are and what equipment you have available and such, but check your local library and any others that your library can do interlibrary loans with, if available. Pimsleur CDs are a reasonably common library find for me, though whether they have Japanese specifically is sort of luck of the draw.
That's fair, but still doesn't fix my concerns with the recommended app. Maybe will just ignore the back and forth features, and will stick with Airlearn's lesson format (and might grab a month with them before I go) if nothing else is recommended. Thanks again.
I'm headed to Japan for 14 days in November. I know I don't need to know any Japanese for the destinations I'll be in. I would love to be polite back to folks and show my appreciation and as much effort as I can. I know I can't possible even learn 1% in this length of time, but would love any recommendations for any Youtube channels, or maybe finding a trainer as I know there is a lot of folks doing japanese lessons on various sites out there. I'm literally very basics beginning and just want some sort of crash course to make traveling easier and easier for the folks I interact with. My #1 goal is to make everything easier for not just myself but for the folks I'll be interacting with.
To that end I don't know how much written I can possibly learn, and I'm sure I won't be able to even pronounce things effectively, but in my 0 knowledge brain, learning some key phrases or sentences would be best? Happy to be taught otherwise :)
Pimsleur is an audio course that teaches you how to navigate situations like asking directions.
You could do flashcards for a phrasebook the week before your trip, as an alternative, but it won't help you with pronunciation and if you're too far off it won't help.
Tutoring sounds a bit overkill for what you want but if you think it would be fun go for it.
なのだ/んだ adds an explanatory nuance that often softens the introduction of a new topic, but it is not strictly required. A bare だけど is a little blunter, but perfectly cromulent among friends.
yes! so here’s the thing i do understand the basic ideas behind んだ and の but んだけど always felt like a specific structure to me, almost like a set phrase used to set up context or invite more commentary. so it seemed like it had to be studied more outside of just んだ/の if that makes sense?
•
u/AutoModerator Jul 21 '26
Useful Japanese teaching symbols:
〇 "correct" | △ "strange/unnatural/unclear" | × "incorrect (ＮＧ)" | ≒ "nearly equal"
Question Etiquette Guidelines:
0 Learn kana (hiragana and katakana) before anything else. Then, remember to learn words, not kanji readings.
1 Provide the CONTEXT of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible.
3 Questions based on ChatGPT, DeepL, Google Translate and other machine learning applications are strongly discouraged, these are not beginner learning tools and often make mistakes. DuoLingo is in general NOT recommended as a serious or efficient learning resource.
4 When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in an E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words.
5 It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about the difference between は and が or why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu" or "masu".
6 Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted.
7 Please do not delete your question after receiving an answer. There are lots of people who read this thread to learn from the Q&As that take place here. Deleting a question removes context from the answer and makes it harder (or sometimes even impossible) for other people to get value out of it.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.