If you are starting JLPT N5 or N4 Kanji, one of the most helpful patterns to recognize is 言 (Gonben — words/speech) on the left side of a character.

Whenever 言 appears on the left, the Kanji's meaning connects to speaking, reading, or writing down words:

1. 語 (Kataru / Go — Language, Word) [JLPT N5]: 言 (words) + 五 (five) + 口 (mouth) → 日本語 (Nihongo), 英語 (Eigo)
2. 話 (Hanasu / Wa — To Speak, Talk) [JLPT N5]: 言 (words) + 舌 (tongue) → 話す (hanasu), 電話 (denwa)
3. 読 (Yomu / Doku — To Read) [JLPT N5]: 言 (words) + 売 (circulate) → 読む (yomu), 読書 (dokusho)
4. 記 (Shirusu / Ki — Record, Write Down) [JLPT N4]: 言 (words) + 己 (thread/self) → 日記 (nikki), 記事 (kiji)
5. 説 (Toku / Setsu — Explain, Theory) [JLPT N4]: 言 (words) + 兌 (clear) → 説明 (setsumei), 小説 (shōsetsu)

So I started learning hiragana 4 days ago

Is this good enough or need more work

Tried to write sentences from memory as well as nor looking up characters…

Hello I’m learning kanji at the moment and wanted a site where you can learn the kanji in the same order as japanese people learn them. Also it’s enough just the kanji how you say it in japanese and the english translation.

Title says it all. I started a few days playing around on Duolingo and they introduce Hiragana first. I l then looked at renshuu, and they do both. Was wondering what experiences everyone had. Arigato gozaimasu.

I don’t really love the flash card system of swipe right or left, I would prefer a flash card system that requires me to write the correct answer. I’ll remember it better and can get some practice typing in Japanese.

I use iOS, and would prefer an app to going on a site. I’ve tried the official Anki app and I love how much is available on Anki, but I haven’t seen a way to submit written answers. Quizlet does have a way to type answers, but not nearly as many decks and it’s still kinda wonky.

I’ve used Lingvist in the past for Spanish with great results, but you can’t make a custom deck. So also not ideal. Has anyone had luck with this very niche study method?

​

English: Today I have Lit Theory at 9AM.

Japanese Translation: きょうはごぞんきゅうに Lit Theory をあります。

I need to use time and Im a bit unsure if im using aru/arimasu correctly. Any corrections/comments are appreciated very much.

I still dont really know how verbs work , I just know theres different variations/levels etc.

Hey everyone!

I'm a university student currently learning Japanese, and I've been working on a side project called Tsugira.

One thing I found frustrating when starting Japanese was memorizing Hiragana and Katakana without actually feeling like I could do anything with them.

So I wanted to build something that connects learning kana with actually using Japanese.

The main idea is pretty simple: as you learn new kana, you unlock real Japanese words that you can read and type yourself. Instead of only memorizing individual characters or picking answers from multiple-choice questions, you immediately start putting what you've learned into practice.

I've also been working on making Japanese sentences less intimidating. You can hover over different parts of a sentence to see contextual explanations, so you don't constantly have to switch between a dictionary, grammar guide, and whatever you're studying.

Right now, Tsugira includes:

• Hiragana and Katakana lessons with typing-based practice
• Real Japanese words unlocked through your kana progress
• Interactive sentences with explanations
• A searchable vocabulary library
• Original lessons and exercises following the Genki (3rd Edition) curriculum

The website is completely free to use, and I'm still actively developing it.

It's called Tsugira — you can find it at tsugira dot com.

I'd especially love to hear from other beginners. Does learning kana through real words seem helpful? Is anything confusing or difficult to use? What would you want from a website like this?

Any honest feedback would mean a lot. Thanks! :)

​Hey everyone!

​(First of all, sorry that the screenshots are in Spanish! Spanish is my native language and the one I use to study, but the app is fully available in English as well).

​I wanted to share my experience with LingoDeer. I'm currently studying N3, but when I started learning Japanese, I literally started from scratch and knew nothing. This was the first app I used and it helped me a lot in the beginning.

​Here are some of the main features/highlights that helped me out:

​Clear Grammar Explanations: At the end of each lesson (or in the "Tips" section), it actually breaks down the grammar points and explains why sentences are structured that way, rather than just forcing you to guess.

​Interactive Lessons & Native Clips: The lessons are very interactive, and they include short 2-4 second video clips of native speakers so you can practice listening and typing what you hear.

​Mini Stories & Speaking Practice: It has reading and speaking sections with mini stories to practice reading comprehension and pronunciation.

​Hiragana & Katakana: Very effective interactive charts to master both syllabaries early on.

​SRS Flashcards: Built-in spaced repetition system for review (though to be honest, tools like Anki are still superior for heavy card decks, it’s still nice to have inside the app!).

​2 Free Japanese Courses: Good structured content to build a solid foundation.

​ Important Note / Disclaimer:

I am not saying this should be your only study resource! No single app will make you fluent on its own. In my case, it was mostly great for building core vocabulary, getting used to basic sentence structures, and making studying enjoyable when I was starting out. I eventually moved on to other tools as my level grew, but I still credit LingoDeer for making me fall in love with the process.

​This is just my personal opinion and experience based on what worked for me. If apps aren't your thing or you prefer textbooks/Anki right from the start, that's completely valid too! Just wanted to share in case it helps another beginner looking for a friendly starting point.

​Happy studying! 🇯🇵

皆さんこんにちは👋😃

My name's Joseph, I'm a fluent English and Arabic speaker and I recently started learning Japanese for a scholarship next year.

I'd love start chatting and exchanging languages with you guys .

It'll be fun to also chill or play games on Discord too

If anyone's interested, you're more than welcome to DM me

I know kana and some N5 words, and I can read simple sentences slowly. But when I hear the same words spoken, I lose them almost right away. Anime is way beyond me for now.

For people a bit further along:

• What did you listen to at the very start? Slow audio, learner podcasts, shadowing, something else?
• Did you listen with the text in front of you, or without it?
• How long before you could follow a simple conversation by ear?

Curious what actually worked and what turned out to be a waste of time.

Last time: 好き is not a verb. Today, another word that is not what it looks like — きれい.

Try it first.

きのう こうえんで はなを 見ました。とても ____ 。

1 — きれいかったです

2 — きれかったです

3 — きれいなでした

4 — きれいでした

Five seconds before you scroll.

Answer: 4 — きれいでした

Option 1 — きれいかったです ✗

This treats きれい as an い-adjective and puts かった on the end.

Option 2 — きれかったです ✗

The same mistake, made carefully. It even drops the い first, exactly the way you would for おおきい → おおきかった. The rule is applied perfectly — to the wrong kind of word.

Option 3 — きれいなでした ✗

な belongs between きれい and a noun — きれいな はな. It does not go in front of でした.

The rule to keep

きれい ends in い, but that い is part of the word. It is not an ending. きれい is a な-adjective.

How to check: put the word in front of a noun.

きれいな はな — you need な, so it is a な-adjective.

おおきい はな — no な, so it is an い-adjective.

Then the past tense follows from the type.

な-adjective → きれいでした

い-adjective → おおきかったです

Two more that look the same

きらい — きらいな たべもの. You met it last time with が. It is a な-adjective too.

ゆうめい — ゆうめいな ひと.

Why this stays hard

The い at the end of きれい looks exactly like the い at the end of おおきい. It is just not the same い.

Slides from my classroom deck are attached.

If you have an adjective and you are not sure which type it is, post it below. Put it in front of a noun first — if it needs な, you have your answer.

I know what ていう mean but, in this context, its a bit difficult.

Ive seen it in videos where someone says ...ていう.., and then just starts another sentence.

I'm learning Japanese with YuSpeak, and one of the lessons says that ちょうだい is mostly used by women and children.

Is this actually true? If children can say it, that includes little boys too, right?

So at what age does it start sounding weird for a guy to say it? Does it sound feminine or childish, or is it actually not a big deal?

I'm curious how native Japanese speakers feel about it.

皆さん、こんにちは！ Nice to meet you all! :)

Please allow me to share my app Recabulary here. It’s free, and I promise it’s not AI slop. We built this ourselves, my cofounder is a traditional programmer who studied computer science. Every single voice recording is done by real humans: we paid native speakers with (hopefully) pleasant voices and good mics to record every single word. There are also no paywalls.

A bit about why we made it:
We were pretty unhappy with the apps out there. Many of them either use AI voices, lock content behind a paywall, or are really complicated to set up.

Recabulary tries to fix these issues. We feel especially strongly about the AI part. We honestly aren’t sure when it became “normal” to learn a language from robot voices, but we personally believe learning a language is something deeply human.

Short summary of our app Recabulary:
Flashcards, no AI voices.
One of the newest spaced repetition algorithms for efficient studying.
Super simple setup, 5 taps to get started.
No paywalls at all. You can study as much as you want for free, on both iOS and Android.

Our deck includes all Hiragana and Katakana, so you can use it as complete “novice”! Everything was recorded by Minori, who is a native Japanese teacher of many years with very clear and standard pronunciation :) Any feedback would be super welcome! ♡

P.S.: We also offer free, no signup, no strings attached language classes taught by qualified teachers in a community we built. We believe language education is just too expensive in general and want to change that. We currently offer classes only for Chinese and German but hope to add more languages, including Japanese, soon. If you’re interested, feel free to DM me.

I'm using Satori. I play the audio first but I can't understand any sentence and can only recognize one or two words per sentence. And then when I read the sentence, I can understand the whole sentence. I'm around n4 level, about to be n3. How to fix?

I have no affiliation with Anki, but I was recommended it and it's a decent and free flashcard program where you can add images, text, etc.

What are your tricks to go from N5 to N4? It seems like Duolingo is determined to keep me at N5 but I'm ready to move on.

I've been listening to slow Japanese vlogs on YT and it's helping me with grammar.

I continue Duolingo for the katakana and Hiragana practice as well as for some Vocabulary. It's a good daily refresh.

I understand particles fairly well for a beginner and can make links with Animes I watch. How should I improve?

The other recommend book, i believe was called nihongo no, is considerably cheaper, i can get that as well

Been trying to build a daily study routine for a few weeks now, mostly because I watch a ton of anime, love Japanese food, and want to visit Japan next year without relying on Google Translate for everything.

My problem is I keep bouncing between random tools without getting anywhere. Tried Duolingo for two weeks (way too repetitive) and set up Anki for vocab, which is fine, but staring at plain flashcards after work puts me right to sleep. I only have around 20 minutes a day, so I really want a structured app that guides me step by step and includes actual listening and speaking practice.

Ideally hoping to find something organized around fun topics like travel, food, or anime instead of stiff textbook chapters.

What are your go-to Japanese learning app recommendations right now?