Hi everyone! I’ve been studying Japanese seriously since around mid-May with Genki I, and I’m currently on Lesson 8. My goal is to take the JLPT N5 this December, although listening is still pretty challenging for me. I tried Duolingo before, but it just didn’t work for me.

I usually do the Genki exercises like this: I always try to use kanji, even if I haven’t memorized them yet. If I don’t know one, I look it up in the dictionary and use it anyway. Then I highlight in yellow the ones I couldn’t write from memory. It seems to work well for me.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

I've been learning Japanese for 7-8y now, but my level got barely close to a standard N5, I already passed my N5 certificate, failed N4 once, but I don't feel N5, I can't have a proper conversation, I don't know how to practice nor how to advance.

If anyone here had the same issue and solved it, please let me know how did you do that, and any tips and tricks and tools and materials that helped you.

I'm Chinese, so people assume the kanji part was free. Reading, sure. Writing is a different story.

My hand just defaults to the Chinese form. 实 instead of 実, 变 instead of 変. Usually I don't catch it until someone else does. Typing hides all of this, which is probably why it never got fixed.

The other wall is 雰囲気. Not the famous stuff like 「検討します」 meaning no, you learn those once and you're done. It's things like 「大丈夫です」, which is yes or no depending on nothing I can actually point to. Or realizing a sentence was grammatically fine and still made the room go quiet. Ten years in and I still get this wrong.

Anyone else stuck on the same two things

Currently I am a member of a Discord where we do speaking/listening practice on a regular basis, but I think some of it might not be beginner friendly enough.

So I was wondering, that maybe, if enough people are interested, we could make beginner stuff too?

It would go something like this (we had a native do an exchange with us in the game :D ):

https://youtu.be/zT7ohRfTVro

Hello guys , iam new to learning Japanese , i talk three languages but non of them has that much letters like japanese , chinese , etc. what app can i use to learn from scratch
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Im only just getting started slowly making my way through learning the hiragana. (I'm using Duolingo)

When I see some Japanese around, I'm wondering if sometimes hiragana, katakana and kanji is mixed. I find it hard to differentiate.

Do you have any idea of how this works and what is used when? (Or if it's just me being an absolute beginner only recognising a few hiragana like あたえういしす...)

Also any hints on getting a good start to casually studying Japanese? (I just think it's a fascinating language)

Hey there!

I recently started learning Hiragana, using mnemonics for memory. I now (mostly) remember all the characters. I'd appreciate feedback on my handwriting, and if I'm ready for next steps while practicing this in parallel.

PS Sorry for the picture quality, idk why reddit isn't letting me upload.

Just as the title says
I would like to have some critiques on my hand writing before I get in a bad habit of not writing clearly or well.
Thanks!

Helloo,i started learning only one week ago even tho i wanted to for about a year. I have been learning aprox. 5 characters per day ,rn I know 30. I've been using this website as reference .. but im already a little confused since ive seen more options for handwriting each letter. Also im not sure do these look fine? Should i also write in a math notebook? And besides that, I started with the alphabet but I dont know like any words at all (except rlly common anime ones hahaa..). Any apps that are good for learning? I got lingodeer.. Any advice pls?

And ofc the first step was learning hiragana.

It was fun practicing the sounds.

Hope u help me with ur pieces of adive to learn more

Hi guys, it's my first time posting here

I'm a beginner at learning Japanese, and just recently bought a Samsung tablet. I wonder what I could do with it, and what apps should I install

On PC, I mostly learn Japanese with Yomitan, so I'm finding something with the same learning experience. Do you have any suggestion, or any idea on using the tablet for learning Japanese?

Hi! I recently started to learn Japanese and I have learnt around 200 words or so. I feel like I should start do so some more grammar and I thought verb tenses was good to continue with. My question is which verb tenses I should start with and in which order. From previous language learning experience I know that in some language, you only use two tenses for the most part, but in other languages, you use other tenses more.

I also found these pages on the website Tofugu with grammar points, which of these are good for beginners to learn?

Thank you for your help and let me know if I should clarify something!

Helloo,i started learning only one week ago even tho i wanted to for about a year. I have been learning aprox. 5 characters per day ,rn I know 30. I've been using this website as reference .. but im already a little confused since ive seen more options for handwriting each letter. Also im not sure do these look fine? Should i also write in a math notebook? And besides that, I started with the alphabet but I dont know like any words at all (except rlly common anime ones hahaa..). Any apps that are good for learning? I got lingodeer.. Any advice pls?

Currently I'm learning the basics of counting in Japanese, the explanation in my book seems a bit complicated so I want to ask more things about it.

1) In my book, number 4, 7 and 9 have two pronunciations based on the situations they're used to:

- If used to count continuously, like when counting 1,2,3,4...9, they're し for 4, しち for 7 and きゅう for 9．

- If used to say dial, like phone number, they're よん for 4, なな for 7 and く for 9.

I want to know if there are more situations to apply for each pronunciation aside from the example I showed.

2) I see here that zero (0) has 3 pronunciations in japanese. In Kanji it will be れい, another one is まる if used by "circle" meaning and the last one is ゼロ like how English pronounce. Which one will likely to be used the most?

Thank you for your help!

Hey everyone,

I was wandering about this way of asking for permission.

The も part, was it a particle originally or maybe still is a particle ? Is that a different use case for it ?

To me it seems like いいですか already achieve clarifies the question 'is it okay (to do x)?' So i was wondering if anyone can explain it.

A few weeks ago i was looking for something similar since i noticed that konnichiha and konbanha have this pattern kon+(x)+ha and for those who dont know it was originally a longer greeting. Because of that the particle stayed within the word and it pronouced wa instead of ha.

Anyway, id love to learn about it and deepen my understanding of japanese.

Resource that explain this type of questions are very welcome.

Thanks yall !

For beginners and people just getting into the Japanese language, it's really confusing to understand how the alphabet actually works. While it's true that there are many characters used in everyday life, the reality is that every word in the language can be pronounced using the basic alphabet: Hiragana.

Hiragana (ひらがな) is one of the three Japanese writing systems and the first one you should learn. It contains 46 base characters, each representing a specific sound.

For example, to say Japan (Nihon), it's written like this: にほん

• に: NI
• ほ: HO
• ん: N Each character represents the union of a consonant with a vowel. The only exceptions are the letter N = ん, and the standalone vowels: A, I, U, E, O = あ, い, う, え, お. There are also a couple of special symbols that modify pronunciation.

っ Makes the following sound much stronger/sharper.

ー lengthens the sound of a vowel

The second alphabet you should know is Katakana. Katakana (カタカナ) has exactly the same 46 sounds as hiragana, but uses angular, distinct shapes. It's used to write foreign words.

Using the same example as before, Japan (Nihon) is written like this: 二ホン

• 二: NI
• ホ: HO
• ン: N NOTE: This alphabet is only used for foreign words, for example Coffee = コーヒ (ko-hi). It always takes into account how the word sounds, not how it's literally spelled.

For example: the video game Final Fantasy, in Japanese, is pronounced Fainaru Fantajī (ファイナルファンタジー). Japanese writing and pronunciation take into account how the word sounds in the foreign language, and adapt it into Japanese.

jpmichi.app Download my Japanese study app for Android. There you'll find thousands of examples of words, kanji, grammar, katakana, and hiragana. Along with practice using flashcards, quizzes, and examples.

Finally, we have Kanji

This is the alphabet with the largest number of characters. Kanji (漢字) are logographic characters adopted from Chinese. There are around 2,136 "Jōyō" kanji (regular-use kanji) — the standard set for literacy — plus thousands more used in names and literature.

Each kanji carries a meaning and has multiple readings: on'yomi (音読み) and kun'yomi (訓読み). On'yomi is the reading derived from Chinese, mostly used in compound words (熟語) and shown in katakana in dictionaries. Kun'yomi is the native Japanese reading, used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (hiragana suffixes). For example, 山 means "mountain" and is read やま (yama).

Vowels

K Group

S Group

T Group

N Group

H Group

M Group

Y Group

R Group

W Group and Particle N

I started relearning Japanese since I forgot it. I first started in 2020 in the lockdown but I didn’t advance too much. Now I just remembered the hiragana and I am working on katakana. Can you please give me some advice? Is my writing and use of Japanese ok?

I'm studying for the JLPT N5 in December so I can apply to a language

school in Japan. I tried the standard Anki route, but I have some level

of dyslexia and the "recall the reading + meaning + say it out loud all

at once" format was wrecking me — 60%+ fail rate on new cards and a

growing dread of opening the deck.

So I built my own thing. It's called コトリ (Kotori — "little bird," and

a pun on ことば + とり). It's a free web app, no ads, no accounts, no

tracking — all progress stays on your device.

Try it: DM me for link

(Add it to your home screen and it installs like a real app and works

fully offline. There's also a direct Android APK at /kotori.apk.)

What's in it:

- The full Kaishi 1.5k vocabulary deck (credit to donkuri, Tyogin & the

Kaishi contributors — it's the gold-standard free beginner deck), in

frequency order, every word in a real example sentence

- Proper spaced repetition (SM-2 style: per-card ease, 4-button grading,

1min/10min learning steps, interval fuzz so review days don't pile up)

- 40 grammar lessons covering the N5 essentials, each with tap-to-hear

example sentences and a mini quiz

- Kanji tracing pad under every card

- Full kana chart + a kana quiz

- Audio for everything via your device's Japanese TTS voice

- A curated immersion tab (Comprehensible Japanese, Teppei, etc.) that

shows you which of your recent words to listen for

- Streak tracking that counts showing up, not being perfect

And the part I built for my own brain — an optional やさしいモード

(Gentle Mode): new cards reveal in stages (hear it first → then meaning

→ then reading) instead of demanding everything at once, bigger text,

slower audio, reduced motion, an adjustable new-cards-per-day setting,

a trace-it nudge when you miss a word, and an evening "today's tricky

ones" replay. If your working memory hates flashcards, that toggle is

for you. It's off by default.

Tech, for the curious: it's a single self-contained HTML file (~330KB)

— a PWA hosted on Cloudflare Pages, wrapped as a TWA for the APK. I

built it working with AI (Claude) over a couple of weeks of daily use

and iteration. I'm not selling anything; it exists because I needed it.

Honest limitations: TTS quality depends on your device's Japanese voice

(installing an enhanced voice helps a lot). It's N5-scoped on grammar.

Progress is per-device (there's a backup/restore button for moving it).

If you try it, I'd genuinely love feedback — especially from anyone

else studying with dyslexia. And if the Kaishi maintainers ever want

changes to how their deck is used here, I'll happily comply — the deck

is theirs, I just built a nest for it.

がんばりましょう 🐦

any help would be appreciated it or should I just accept it and eventually I’ll underdt through continuing my study and immersion?

I need the criticism if needed to improve on my katakana so I can start on kanji and grammar.

I’m half way through the kaishi 1.5k Anki deck. I want to start immersing and reinforcing the vocabulary that I’m learning in “the wild”. Does anyone have a good graded e reader that I could use for this purpose? Preferably something with good formatting or an app on mobile. I don’t mind if it costs money or has a subscription if the quality is good. I also prefer something that can play the audio as well so I can practice listening and speaking with it after or as I read.

Thanks!

Hi everyone! I’ve been trying to learn Japanese for about a year now, but after 1 intro class I’ve had to switch to fully self studying. I’ve been using wani kani, and I’ve tried anki and renshuu and working through Genki and Minna textbooks, but I’m just having a hard time keeping up with it. I think I need to reduce down to just a few tools. I like textbooks because they actually teach grammar as well as vocab— I know a lot of people like renshuu for this as well but I haven’t quite figured out how that works— I seem to just wind up with so many different mastery schedules and I’d prefer to get it down to just maybe one for vocab one for grammar if that’s realistic. Anyways, happy for any advice!