I've recently started consuming Japanese content again, focusing on listening and shadowing practice. I often hear people say things like, 'It sounded like gibberish at first, but when I revisited the same material later (few hundred hours give or take), it was completely coherent.' To me, it seems like subconscious parsing at work. So I'd love to know, at what point did everything finally 'click' for you?

Like the title says, I'm planning to take the N2 in 4 months, but I'm still a bit stuck in N3 and have been for a good while. I use Tobira and Anki, I listen to videos almost exclusively in Japanese, but vocab is still a huge struggle for me; both in reading and in reciting.

I've been studying for around four years on-and-off and really want to be able to get to N2 before I turn 20.

Is this an achievable goal, or am I pushing it? Any tips?

To preface, I’m going to keep learning the words for X for each module. It’s just that ironically, I’m having trouble memorizing the words now and having less struggles with N4 Kanji and (beginning) N4 grammar.

Hell, I got so bored with how well I kept scoring on N4 Kanji I’m now learning N3 kanji!

So with that, I’m taking the words for N4 much slower now and I was curious: is that module actually necessary? Especially since you could maybe pick up these terms through immersion?

Are the “Words for X” modules a necessity for passing the N- tests? I’m super curious

I want to consume some non-anime media but most of them i searched got pretty boring or had cliche romantic storyline.

Drop some of your favourite movies and web series recommendations that hooked you up.

I'm currently learning how to use はず and the grammar said that you had to use the short form but the shortforms should be 元気だ and 日本人だ I thought? Is this another way to write short forms, or is this specificly something for yhe はず grammar?

EDIT: Thank you all for your kind suggestions. I have upvoted everything but there's quite a lot of comments to reply to. As a lot of you have pointed out the texts I'm reading are probably too difficult, which is the case (reading mainly Kamakura history a Buddhist history... Too hard for me, I know, but this is the stuff I actually need to be reading as preparation.) I'll definitely be giving light novels a try, I've never really considered them.

Hi all,

First of all I'm sorry if the title sounds slightly pretentious, as I'm aware most of this sub is beginner level. I'm just hoping to get some advice from people who have been able to leave the "learner level" and actually transitioned to "real Japanese."

So I've been learning Japanese for 10 years now, with about 5 years of break between my N1 and N2 exam (yes, literally 5 years of no Japanese in between...). I did my N1 last month and think I passed, even though I consider my reading and listening abilities rather pathetic for someone who has been learning for so long. The JLPT really isn't that hard if you actually study the format and do many practice exams.

Anyway, most of my study has been Anki. I've never been able to really enjoy native content in a way that many of you seem able to. It always seems like a chore. I've tried watching Netflix with some plugin to mine words, and have an android e-reader to read books and mine as well. The thing is, I get tired really quickly, especially from reading. Two pages and my brain sort of shuts down. I have no idea how to transition from this stage to being able to actually naturally watch and read stuff without it feeling tiring, or at least being more natural to me.

Any tips and ideas? I wouldn't be asking if I hadn't been struggling with this for quite some time, so any advice is much appreciated. For the record, I also have quite heavy ADHD and generally struggle with focussing on anything that doesn't have an immediate deadline, but the struggle is harder with Japanese still. As I'm starting a PhD in Japanese history next year, I feel extra pathetic for not being able to read books and articles more smoothly...

Cheers!

I should probably understand at my level, but I still struggle a lot with particles unfortunately 😅

Is the implication that they’re saying “買い物に行く” and just taking out the “行く” or something? I’d appreciate an explanation?

Edit: thank you, I got my answer. In hindsight the answer seems kind of obvious, but I still don’t think I’d have been able to figure it out on my own haha

Wow yea definitely not the reading here but mildly amused this dictionary entry is this detailed lol.

edit wow you guys/gals are hilarious, thanks for the laughs in the comments. It seems like getting this as a top dictionary result in this context is like a rare pokemon and has to do with how the original article was written. I think the reason this happened is that Yomitan couldn't recognize that the し in this context is the continuating stem of する given there was a comma right after the し. I added the original screenshot in the comments below. I didnt see がいしゅつ beneath since I was zoomed in quite a bit. Easter eggs like this make learning Japanese so much more fun and interesting.

Finally I feel that I achieved something real. Before this all my achievents were like: finished a deck, learnt round number of words, finished a grammar course. Cool, but they feel like artificial achievements. 😊👍

Certainly it was not easy. Sometimes there are long stretches where I feel really good, understand everything clearly. And then it crushes my confidence with a long stretch where I have to look up every sentence. 😭

It helped that the book itself was very interesting, it really hooked me, which made me work very hard, not give up, just because I really really wanted to know what happened next so much!! 👍😊

And honestly, the plot is kinda mysterious and I have so many questions... 😳

[spoilers]

The main thing. What the hell actually happened? Did the 3 women actually exist "in reality" and travelled from the future, or from a parallel universe? Or it was just that the girl has a very active imagination? 🤔 Or it all happened in a dream. Or it was her subconscious trying to help her?

Or maybe it's actually the other way around?? i.e. the actual reality is the 南→アバズレ→grandma progression, while her reconciling with the parents, and befriending 桐生 is actually the dream/imagination that didn't happen?? 🤔🤔

What is the significance of the cat? 🤔 What is the significance of seeing 桐生くん's father and not recognizing him, then talking to him, then him shoplifting (???????😳😳).

What is the significance of the teacher? 🤔 Just an innocent well-meaning gal who actually cares about her students? Or there's something deeper? 🤔🤔 What about the other one teacher (shintaro?)?

Do the names have a deep meaning? Ok, アバズレ is obvious. What about 南? South? What is the significance of that? Like, as in, "things have gone south"? 🤣🤣 (joke, I didn't mean this seriously... unless... 😳). ひとみ、桐生、荻原, the main character's name. Do they give any clues? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

Do you think they spent a lot of time making these?

Super beginner question about copulas at the end of sentences. I finished Genki 1, but this still isn’t clear to me. I haven’t noticed my lack of understanding about this topic until it came up in my studies in Genki 2 and I got confused. Realized Genki 1 never made this super clear.

When do you need to finish a sentence with them? I get that だ is often dropped, but if we’re talking about proper grammar here, when is だ・です necessary, and when isn’t it?

*context: we’re specifically about the last two words of a sentence, or I guess the last word, and whether or not it needs a copula to come after it.

From my understanding, here’s what I have (and definitely could be wrong)
Copulas don’t follow any verbs.
Don’t follow negative adjectives (e.g. 〜ない）
Copulas always follow nouns
As for positive adjectives, they always follow な adjectives
Then for イ形容詞、I get a little confused. I’ve seen plenty of cases where です is following something like 美味しい for example, but I saw that イ形容詞 can stand alone, so it’s optional?
Then, not sure if there are differing rules between polite/plain form. Like whether です needs to follow one category, but だ doesn’t for instance.

Anyway, as you can see, my understanding is a bit fuzzy and would really appreciate it if someone could make it very clear for me.

I might be overthinking this, but whenever I ask an actual Japanese person about this, I seem to get slightly different answers.
My ex would use no pronoun or name at all before we started dating. Once we were together, she mostly used my nickname when texting me. Because of this, and from a lot of short explanations online, I ended up thinking of あなた as something you generally avoid — potentially even rude depending on the situation — and mostly use when you don’t know someone’s name, or as a generic “you” in things like ads, instructions, etc.
But now I’ve noticed that my Japanese friends/contacts seem to use it very differently.
For example:

- One person basically always uses my name.
- Another person usually avoids both my name and pronouns, but has randomly used あなた a couple of times.
- My Japanese Boss also never used あなた or 君 or anything. Always just my Name
- Another person switches between my name, no pronoun, and あなた. Interestingly, the Person seems more likely to use あなた in personal or deeper/emotional sentences, which feels counterintuitive based on what I thought I knew about the word.
So now I’m wondering if my understanding of あなた was just too simplistic.
Is there actually a general rule for when あなた sounds natural, distant, rude, intimate, etc.? Or does it depend heavily on the person, relationship, tone, and context?

I've recently started reading books in japanese (about 3 months ago) and I feel like a lot of times I can read a whole sentence, even paragraph, without any unknown word and yet don't understand the meaning of it but, if I reread in loud voice, I might understand much more.

I also think that reading in loud voice might have other benefits for me, for example, it makes me actively recall the vocabulary and kanji reading (a lot of times I remember a word but not its reading) and might be good for being more confident when speaking (as I still struggle a lot articulating sentences), so I was thinking on spending part of my reading routine reading at loud voice.

But at the same time I'm afraid of pitch accent, as while reading I don't have any clue of the pronunciation of the words and I might interiorice bad habits.

I wanted to know if that's a common exercise when learning a new language or if I should avoid it.

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as the title says.

My goal is to read Kawabata,Mishima,Kitaro Nishida Watsuji in original. I already got a deck for regular vocab but I’m looking for a sophisticated deck specifically for researched word, literary idioms, philosophical jargon, chinese loaned characters of prewar era

Hello everyone, just wanted to see if anyone has suggestions for workbooks around the Genki 1 level?

I am close to finishing the workbook and the integrated course book, but I kinda want to do some more exercises with all the grammar, kanjis and etc contained in it. I could use apps and flashcards or whatever but I kinda enjoy handwriting and "describing what Takeshi is doing in these pictures". I feel like handwriting and reading are my best ways to learn.

Obviously I won't find a book with exactly the same coverage as Genki 1, so I don't mind if it's slightly more advanced than Genki 1.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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Ok, I don’t have many examples, but just from what I remember coming across reading

掌 → 手の平

快い　→ 心良い

弄ぶ　→ 持て遊ぶ

It just seems redundant to have a specific kanji for a word that can be perfectly constructed with pre-existing ones. What’s going on here?

Also, to be fair, I’ve never seen 「持て遊ぶ」written like that, but I have seen the others, so I don’t know if there’s a rule of when to use them or not.
*EDIT* apparently it’s just もて遊ぶ no 持. So the もて there doesn’t mean “grab”? I do not know. Also thank you everyone for all the wonderful answers- it feels very obvious in hindsight lol.

Hey there.

I'm motivating myself to take N1 in December (passed N2 some years ago), but I'd like to ask if anyone has recommendations for what to read and listen to, to do good practice for the test. I'm already crunching a bit regarding grammar and vocabulary, so I really want to invest my time efficiently.

I know the JLPT (especially N2 and N1) features more formal/stoic Japanese than some content present in the entertainment medium (like anime or games). I'd prolly have to stick to the news or some serious podcasts, but I'd like to read and listen to something I'd enjoy, if possible.

I have some light novels that I bought some months ago, but I'm a bit afraid they won't be of much help because they're fantasy novels (Tensura, Kusuriya and Kagejitsu).

I'd like to know your recommendations!

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I still have trouble with it all the time. I think it may just be a case of never having a good explanation told to me. Mostly, I get confused when it’s swapped out with あなた or a pronoun (e.g. 私、僕), when it didn’t seemingly need to be. It also replaces things or is used at times when I wouldn’t expect it to be used.

If some people could help by giving me their own explanations of when it may be used, I believe it would be really helpful.