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Learning languages is SO FUN right up until you need to learn conjugation and then suddenly it turns sour real fucking fast
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I actually really like the thing when you're starting to get the hang of a new language, enough to understand and say simple sentences but you gotta get creative to get more complex thoughts across, like a puzzle. I remember a time in the restortation school when a classmate who wasn't natively finnish and did her best anyway dropped something and sighed, telling me "every day is monday this week. I have had four mondays this week." And I understood.
I don't think I speak much of spanish anymore, but in the nursing school training period I did there, I did manage to get by with making weird Tarzan sentences. I got a nosebleed at some point and startled another nurse. Not knowing the words "humidity" or "stress", I managed to string together: "This is ok. It is hot, it is cold, I have a bad day, I am sad, I have blood. This is normal for me." And she understood.
And sometimes you just say things weird, but it's better than not saying it. One time, I was stuck in a narrow hallway behind someone walking really slowly with a walker, and he apologised for being in the way. I was not in any hurry, but didn't know the spanish word for "hurry", but I did know enough words to try to circumvent it by borrowing the english "I have all the time in the world."
The man burst into one of those cackling old man laughters that they do when something in this world still manages to surprise them. He had to be somewhere between 70 and a 100 years old, and I guess if there was one thing he wasn't expecting to hear today, it would be a random blond vaguely baltic-looking fuck casually announce that he is the sole owner and keeper of the very concept of time.
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ULTIMATE Japanese Language Learning Resources List

Symbol Guide:
✅All levels 🛠Tool ⏫Advanced 📚Textbook 🔼Intermediate 🗞️Newspaper ⬇️Beginner 🖥️Website ⏬Absolute Beginner 🎮Interactive/Game 📱Mobile Application
HIRAGANA & KATAKANA
⏬🛠Hiragana Mnemonics Chart ⏬🛠Giant List of Mnemonics Charts ⏬🛠English to Katakana Converter ⏬🎮Kana Invaders ⏬🎮Realkana ⏬🎮Hiragana Practice ⏬🎮Katakana Practice ⏬🎮Hiragana and Katakana Practice ⏬🖥️Learn Katakana: The Ultimate Guide ⏬🖥️Learn Hiragana and Katakana on YouTube ⏬📱Learn Hiragana and Katakana ⏬📱iKana
KANJI
✅🛠Self-Study Kanji Flashcards ✅🛠Suiren ✅🛠Stroke Order ✅🛠Kanji Radicals and their Meanings ✅🛠 iKanji ✅🛠How to find the Kanji Radical ✅🖥️Kanji Damage ✅🖥️WaniKani ✅🖥️Memrise ✅🖥️Kanji Kentei ✅🖥️The Kanji Map ✅📱Skritter ⏫🖥️4-Kanji Vocabulary (Yojijukugo) 🔼📚Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese ⬇️🖥️Renshuu ⬇️🖥️Nimonikku ⏬📚Kanji Look and Learn ⏬📚Kodansha Kanji Learning Course
VOCABULARY
✅🛠Language Pal Pack: Questions to Kickstart Conversation ✅🛠Suiren ✅🖥️Memrise ✅🖥️WordReference Forums ✅🎮iKnow! Japanese Core Vocabulary Decks ⏫🖥️4-Kanji Vocabulary (Yojijukugo) 🔼🖥️Japanese Onomatopoeia 🔼🛠Keigo Cheatsheet 🔼📚Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese 🔼📚Common Japanese Collocations 🔼📚Speed Master Series ⬇️🖥️Renshuu ⏬🖥️6000 most used words ⏬🖥️1000 Basic Words ⏬📚Elementary School Dictionary
GRAMMAR
✅🛠All Verb Conjugations Cheatsheet ✅🖥️Tatoeba ✅🖥️JGram ✅🖥️MaggieSensei ✅🖥️Bunpro ✅📚Dictionary of Japanese Grammar and Verbs ✅📚Donna Toki, Dou Tsukau ⏫📚A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar ⏫📚Nihongo Bunkei Jiten 🔼📚A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar 🔼📚Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese ⬇️📚A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar ⬇️🖥️Nihongo Resources ⬇️🖥️Renshuu ⏬🖥️TaeKim’s Guide to Japanese ⏬🖥️Learn Japanese with Erin ⏬📚All about Particles ⏬📚Genki Series ⏬📚Japanese from Zero
READING
✅🛠Japanese.io ✅🛠Read More Or Die ✅🛠Text Analysis ✅🛠Tenjin Reader ✅🖥️Satori Reader ✅🖥️Reajer ⏫🗞️NHK News ⏫🗞️Yomiuri Newspaper ⏫🗞️Nikkan Gendai ⏫🖥️ Read Manga Online 🔼🗞️High School Newspaper 🔼🗞️Kodomo Asahi (Kid’s Asahi News) 🔼🖥️Japanese Subreddits 🔼🖥️The Great ChokoChoko Library ⬇️🖥️Japanese Reading Practice For Beginners ⬇️🖥️Real World Japanese ⬇️🗞️NHK Easy News ⬇️🗞️NHK Easier
WRITING
✅🖥️Lang 8 ✅🛠All Verb Conjugations Cheatsheet ✅🛠How to write on Japanese essay paper (Genkouyoushi) ✅🛠Japanese Journal Writing Beginners to Advanced ⏫🛠Phrases for report writing
LISTENING
✅🛠Language Pal Pack: Questions to Kickstart Conversation ✅🖥️RhinoSpike ✅🖥️NHK WORLD TV ✅🖥️Documentaries About Japan You Can Watch For Free ✅🖥️Top 5 Japanese Dramas ⏫🛠Japanese Audiobooks List ⏫🛠Japanese Audiobooks 2 ⏫🖥️Bilingual News 🔼🖥️TBS News 🔼🛠Japanese Drama Subtitles 🔼🛠Japanese Drama Subtitles 2 ⬇️🗞️NHK Easy News ⬇️🗞️NHK Easier ⬇️🖥️Learn Japanese Pod ⬇️🖥️Erin’s Challenge! ⬇️🖥️Nihongo de Kurasou
SPEAKING
✅🛠Language Pal Pack: Questions to Kickstart Conversation ✅🖥️Make Language Pals ✅🖥️RhinoSpike ✅📱HelloTalk ✅🎮Rosetta Stone Japanese ✅📚Japanese Accent Dictionary ✅🛠Japanese Accent Guide
DICTIONARIES/TRANSLATION TOOLS
✅🛠Kotobank ✅🛠Tangorin ✅🛠Weblio ✅🛠Jisho.org ✅🛠ALC ✅🛠Ninjal-LWP ✅🛠WWWJDIC ✅📚Dictionary of Japanese Grammar and Verbs ✅📚Japanese Accent Dictionary ⏫📚A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar 🔼📚A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar ⬇️📚A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar ⏬📚Elementary School Dictionary ⏬📚All about Particles
JLPT
✅🖥️JLPT Website ✅🖥️TANOS ✅🖥️JLPT Study Plan ✅🖥️Last Minute Resources ✅🖥️Sample Practice Tests ✅📚Nihongo So Matome ✅📚Donna Toki, Dou Tsukau ✅📚New Kanzen Master 🔼📚Speed Master Series
SOFTWARE & APPS
✅📱Anki SRS ✅📱Japanese ✅📱HelloTalk ✅📱Skritter ✅🛠Rikaichan (Firefox) ✅🛠Rikaikun (Chrome) ✅🛠 iKanji ✅🎮Rosetta Stone Japanese
TEXTBOOKS
✅📚Nihongo So Matome ✅📚Donna Toki, Dou Tsukau ✅📚Dictionary of Japanese Grammar and Verbs ✅📚New Kanzen Master ⏫📚A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar ⏫📚Nihongo Bunkei Jiten 🔼📚A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar 🔼📚Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese ⬇️📚A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar ⏬📚Elementary School Dictionary ⏬📚All about Particles ⏬📚Genki Series ⏬📚Japanese from Zero
More resources available here.
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Notes on ひらがな 📚✨️
Disclaimer: I haven't been posting a lot lately (life's been hectic) so I decided to start sharing some of my notes. These were taken a while back, based on Tae Kim's grammar guide.
Japanese consists of two phonetic scripts (Hiragana and Katakana, referred to as kana), with a little less than 50 characters each. Today we'll study Hiragana!
Hiragana (ひらがな) is used for a couple of reasons:
• Grammatical purposes;
• Words with really difficult/rare Kanji;
• Colloquial expressions;
• Onomatopoeias;
• Or by beginner students and children, in place of unfamiliar Kanji;
Every character in Hiragana corresponds to a [vowel] or [consonant + vowel] syllable sound, with the exception of [ん].
When practicing by hand, it's extremely important to remember that stroke order and the direction of strokes matter a lot! You don’t want to end up with the writing skills of a clumsy toddler.
(the chart bellow has hiragana and katakana btw, the hiragana characters are on the left side)

source: r/japaneseresources on reddit
Thought learning all the characters was hard enough? Fear not, there's additional sounds for you to learn.
📚 The Muddied Sounds 📚
There are five more consonant sounds that are written by affixing two tiny lines (dakuten) or a tiny circle (handakuten) to a character. This creates a less clipped version of the consonants, as you can see bellow:

source: japanistry.com
📚 The Small [や], [ゆ] and [よ] 📚
We can combine a consonant with a / ya / yu / yo sound by attaching a small [や], [ゆ] or [よ] to the /i/ vowel character of each consonant.

source: guidetojapanese.org
📚 The Small [つ] 📚
A small [つ] is inserted between characters to carry the consonant sound of the second character to the end of the first.
Note that when you encounter a small [つ] between characters, there's almost always a clipping sound to the pronounciation! You gotta make sure to clip the right consonant (the consonant of the second character).
Example: ざっし (zas-shi / magazine)
📚 The Long Vowel Sound 📚
You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding [あ], [い] or [う] to them. See the chart bellow:

source: guidetojapanese.org
Example: to create a extended vowel sound from [か], we add a [あ] to create [かあ].
Remember to actually hold your vowels long enough, or you'll end up saying stuff like [ここ - here] instead of [こうこう - highschool].
Lastly, there are a few exceptions where and /e/ vowel is extended by adding [え] or and /o/ vowel is extended by adding [お], but those are few and far between, so pay attention but don't worry too much about it.
Example: おねえさん (older sister)
See you next time! 💌
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learning the basics 📚
(yet again)
(this time i won't abandon the language istg 🥲)
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One of my favourite finnish expressions to use in every possible opportunity
"In year _ and _" using any random filler word. Alternatively "in time of _". This is to express something happened in indefinable but long time ago
In year sword and axe
In year sausage and mashed potatoes
In year one and two
In time of Moses/Jesus
This is perfect because it allows you to use any kind of words on the whim while everyone still understands what you're going for. Best when used with random and funny words
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‘Kill two birds with one stone’ in European languages.
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I meant to make this meme ages ago when pride month was still on but yeah gé (pronounced gay) is the Irish for a goose.
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I have discovered the word for "zoo" in Irish.
It's so tiny and adorable and I just feel all warm inside when I see it.
Ready?
Zú
Look at it. So many modern Irish words keep similar sounds but give it a Gaelige spelling. Zú. Omg.
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this is a niche one but instead of "they would not fuckin say that" it's "they would not fucking use American sign language".
ASL is not the only sign language. two british characters in your fanfiction would not be using ASL. England in fact has its own kind of sign language, BSL, that forms a sign family with many other sign languages around the world.
ASL isn't even the original member of its sign family, it comes from french sign language. do you know sign languages aren't related to spoken languages? that's an important one! it's not a direct 1:1 with people speaking English around the world. people in other countries don't learn ASL just in case they run into an usamerican or Canadian (who do often use it)
i know the entire world is the USA or whatever and sign languages do sometimes borrow from ASL for signs they don't have, but please be aware that there are other sign languages and families in the world that are not in fact ASL.
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i love it actually when nonnative speakers make mistakes that reveal how their native languages work.
lots of koreans online say they "eat" drinks which would assume they only have one word which covers the concept of consumption.
arabic immigrants in sweden (my mother included) have a hard time differentiating between "i think/i believe/my opinion is" which suggests that in arabic these different modalities of speaker agency is treated as one or at least interchangeable.
swedish speakers in english will use should/shall/have to/must with much higher nuance precision than native english speakers, to the point where they sound well awkward, because the distinction between these commands in swedish is much clearer than in english. i make mistakes between is/am/are and has/have constantly because swedish only has one pronoun covering all grammatical persons.
i've heard speakers of languages without gendered pronouns (finnish, the chinese dialects, and a tonne more) make he/she mistakes because it's hard(!!) to learn two or more gendered pronouns and when to use them correctly.
how neat is that?! it add a charm to international english usage in particular and make our appreciation of both our native languages and our learnt ones stronger...!!
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"that language is useless!" "but everyone speaks english!" "you'll never use that language, why are you even learning it?" "it's pointless learning new languages" shut up shut up shut up
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I haven't slept and I'm filled with rage. I hate that stupid green owl. Heres some resources for beginner language learners
1. Install anki. It's a flash card program that uses spaced repetition. Essentially, it optimizes study by showing cards you struggle with more frequently while showing easy cards less frequently. It's amazing for learning vocab. It's web and computer versions are free, the iphone version costs 25$ but there are alternatives. There is also an android version made by a 3rd party thats free.
2. Find a deck. There are plenty of free shared decks on ankiweb. Ive also heard good things about Xefjord's Complete Language Series which features over 100 different languages. Refolds premium decks cost money, but they are high quality. It can take time to find a deck that works best for you and I highly reccomend switching to a deck that you made yourself eventually. I highly encourage picking a deck with native audio if you can.
3. Grammar. Here is a collection of resources for a variety of languages. Here is another one that has more on linguistics.
4. Misc resources.
this is a site that let's you listen to radio stations around the world
this let's you make anki cards from TV and movies in your target language
this is a list of easy to comprehend materials in various languages
There's tons of great language specific resources out there you just have to find them. Here's one specifically for Japanese learners.
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