#Certificate Course in Japanese Language

[gallapiech]

weekly tag wednesday

Thank you for the questions @jrooc and for the tags @kiennilove @energievie

today we're gonna be talkin' ragrets. All those shoulda, woulda and coulda's!

First.. the basics:

Name: Pie

Popular music/band/artist while you were in highschool: I'm not sure... I was listening to vocaloid... One Direction?

Okay.. let's get into it...

What's one thing you wish you'd known when you were younger? How to invest in bitcoin

What is a course or certification you wish you'd done? Maybe I shoulda pursued art school?

What's a style you wish you'd never rocked? Majority of my clothing used to be hand me downs so, i dont know lool!

What's a style you totally killed? thongs

Do you still wear it? ;)

Favorite pair of shoes you've ever owned: omg im so not knowledgable on shoes. i like my current ones cuz they feel comfortable? LOL

Have you ever worn heels? Do you regret it? Do you wish you had tried to wear heels? Do you think heels are the devil? What are heels--I think we get it, Jess: Never worn heels but I think I could do it with the help of some secret talents I possess.

Name one bucket list item? See the aurora borealis

What's something you would do if you could step outside all your insecurities/fears today? So. Much!!!

Is there another language you wish you learnt? Papiamento or Japanese.

What's something you've done to your hair that you look back on and cringe? That's a secret I will not tell.... Lets just say some people called me slim shady...

Okay last one.. what's a real regret? ██████ █ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███████... Hmm classified I guess. *shrug*

@deedala @michellemisfit @spookygingerr @lingy910y

@ian-galagher @creepkinginc @transmurderbug @stocious @runawaybrainsc

@blue-disco-lights @roryonic @romidoes @fireballazalea @geonbaeeeesblog

@kowhaifairy @runninonemptyy @echotrees @nozenfordaddy @sam-loves-seb

@samantitheos @deathclassic @lazystargazy @gallavich-annise @femboymilkovich

@spacerockwriting @mmmichyyy @spoonfulstar @darlingian @burninface

@rereadanon @thepupperino @suzy-queued @palepinkgoat @look-i-love-u

@callivich @sgtmickeyslaughter @heymrspatel @whatthebodygraspsnot @kiennilove

@solitarycreaturesthey @doshiart @guinguin1984 @mybrainismelted @crossmydna

fully stole this tag list from jess because im feeling extra lazy today.

[lesbianashleywilliams]

So those of you who have been following me may have noticed that I all but disappeared for about three months...well, that's because I've been planning to go to Japanese language school, and the wheels have really begun to start turning!!!!!!

I have been given the opportunity of my lifetime to be able to attend a Japanese language course at the International Study Institute in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. The course runs for a year, with the opportunity to extend it to two years, if my grades and money are sound [insert sound of children cheering here].

Being able to study Japanese locally and long-term has been a life goal of mine since I was fourteen. Though I'll probably never be able to fulfill my teenage dream of being an interpreter/translator for expats, this feels like the next best thing. Due to suffering from several comorbid chronic conditions that have majorly altered my life, most notably the beast known as systemic lupus erythematosus, I will probably never be able to seize another chance like this ever again. I won't be going in as a total novice, as I was able to take a year's worth of 1000-level Japanese language courses in college…before I had to drop out…… Since then I've been self-studying and using language exchange apps for practice, but nothing will beat the experience of using it in the day-to-day.

At this point in time (January 2024), my first six months of tuition have already been paid for. I am currently in a quiet waiting period while I wait to get to the next steps of the Certificate of Eligibility/Student Visa process. Before that, though, I need to secure my flight and housing. For the sake of my health, safety, privacy and comfort, a sharehouse will not be an option; I will have to seek a private apartment. I am here today to request assistance with the aforementioned flight and initial housing costs. It's still too early to commit to either of those, but:

The average cost of flexible one-way flights from where I am to either of the two Tokyo metro airports (Haneda and Narita) is running around $1200

I am doing some preliminary apartment scouting and am hoping not to exceed $800 per month (I will be traveling with suitcases and will need to properly store them). The apartments I am looking at do not require a security deposit or key money, but will probably come with a guarantor fee.

Now because I'm not going over there through one of the more common avenues - through a university or a job - I have to do it myself. Real life has meant that I've had to dig into my bank balance a bit, and after paying for the first six months I'm a little under the 2 million yen (~$14k) threshold that Immigration likes to see for a year's study. I'm lucky enough in that I will at least have a regular source of (unearned) income, as well as a financial sponsor; it's just the bank balance, flight, and accommodation that are hanging me up. Right now I am setting the initial goal at $3000, but I expect to move those goalposts at least once. Any extra will go towards a flight home for the Christmas holidays in December. After that, it'll go towards paying down my credit cards as much as I can prior to leaving the United States.

I can provide my conditional letter of acceptance from ISI, as well as the school invoice and receipt of the bank transfer for the first six months of tuition upon request (identifying information redacted, of course).

Because there's still a couple of months until I'm set to fly out I put together a GoFundMe (now that's a name I haven't used in a while) to idly collect whatever help I can. At the very least I just need this post to circulate enough to eventually cast a wider net outside of Tungle.hell.

GoFundMe

If you can't use GFM, V3nmo and P4ypal are also options:

V3nmo: @/venus3palette

P4ypal: @/fantasytheater

Again: I'm not in that much of a hurry, and the situation isn't dire! Thank you for combing my wall of text!!!!

[aliceslanguagediaries]

List of my main tags & introduction

❁ Japanese

Japanese resources

Kanji of the day *

❁ Bangla

Bangla vocabulary of the day

Bangla resources

❁Irish

Irish resources

❁French

French resources

❁General

Poll

*I use both kanji textbooks (I alternate between a few but please ask if you would like recommendations!) and the Renshuu app as resources for kanji of the day posts. All of the kanji are N1 level, and I hope to have covered them all by December to help me revise for the exam :)

❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫･━━━━━━ ❜

Introduction post 🤍 (feel free to ask me any questions)

❁ Name: Alice

❁ Main blog: @opheliasrue7

❁ Age: 20

❁ Area of study: Applied language and translation studies in French and Japanese

❁ Why I started this blog: To motivate myself to and hold myself accountable for studying my languages every day , and to connect with other language learners and share useful resources!

❁ My background in language learning: I was monolingual until I was seventeen, and was entirely self-taught in all of my languages for three years before I began my current university course. I was also homeschooled for my final years of school, so I learned my languages alongside teaching myself my other school subjects!

❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫･━━━━━━ ❜

❁ Languages I speak and why:

1. English, my native language

2. Bengali/Bangla 🇧🇩/🇮🇳: Bangla is my fiancé’s native language, I’m learning it because I love him very much (and also to communicate with his family, which I hope will become mine too). I started learning 11 months ago, and my progress has been slower than usual due to a lack of resources ): but it is a truly beautiful language and I love studying it. I am unsure of my level but I understand the majority of conversational language, though I lack confidence in speaking.

My goal for Bangla in 2025: Gain more confidence in speaking, improve my pronunciation and expand my vocabulary. I would like to be able to communicate fluently enough by the end of the year!

3.Irish/Gaeilge 🇮🇪: I am Irish, and began to learn some basics in school, but ended up forgetting the majority of it and had to relearn. I’ve been studying Irish seriously for three years, and I believe my language level is around C1. I received a H1 grade (96%) in my leaving certificate Irish exam, and while I did not continue with Irish at third level, I take a lot of pride in my language and I’m trying my best to maintain it!

My goal for Irish in 2025: maintain my current level

4. Japanese 🇯🇵: I started learning Japanese in late 2021 due to my interest in Japanese literature and manga. I studied mainly with a focus on JLPT, but I also sat the Japanese leaving certificate exam (H1, 100%). I’ve been trying to sit the N1 exam for two years (we only have the December exam here in Ireland, and it keeps clashing with my Christmas exams ): ) but I hope that this will be the year! I also study Japanese at university, so I now receive much more opportunities to participate in extra-curricular events relating to Japanese.

My goal for Japanese in 2025: Unfortunately my language level has not improved much at all in the last year or two, so other than passing the N1 my goal is also to change that. Also, I can read far more kanji than I can remember how to write as I focused on study for the JLPT, but I need to be able to write 2,000 kanji for my degree so kanji writing is a huge focus this year!

5. French 🇫🇷: My father is ethnically French but I unfortunately did not grow up speaking it. I learned some basic words and phrases when I was very young, but started studying seriously in 2022. I have a C1 level and also received a H1 (100%) grade in the leaving certificate. I now study French in university.

My goal for French in 2025: I do not really actively study French outside of my assignments anymore, but I would like to read more novels and improve my vocabulary! I have no real plans to study for the C2 exam yet

6. Hindi 🇮🇳: I studied the basics of Hindi (A1 level) last summer, but unfortunately entirely fell out of practice since I started uni in September ): I sadly still don’t have much time to give to it and have mostly forgotten the little I learned, but I do plan to pick it back up this year!

❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫･━━━━━━ ❜

❁ Some other facts about me:

Other than language learning, I love reading (mainly classics, occasionally literary fiction and poetry), writing, and spending time in nature.

I’m very happily engaged :)

I’m a Christian; I was raised Catholic but converted to Orthodoxy

I suffer from chronic pain and commute 3h a day to university, which I struggle with and can make it difficult to keep up all of my languages

Despite studying languages at uni and despite language learning being my main hobby, I am actually really shy when it comes to speaking. I worry constantly about making mistakes, my pronunciation, stuttering etc. I much prefer written and aural exams for this reason.

Other than tumblr, I do not really like social media anymore, but my goodreads and pinterest are linked on my main blog!

I’ve had my main blog for a year but I’m still not great at using this app …

[benny-the-spaceman]

DO YOU HAVE ANY LEGO MOVIE 1&2 CHARACTER HEADCANONS!?

HI ANON. YES. YES I DO.

A LOT ACTUALLY. I'll leave it the characters I do the most with for now BUT YES ANON I HAVE MANY HEADCANONS

Emmet:

Wasian (specifically japanese and white [totes not projecting])

Everything he likes is the most average response possible (basically canon) and people do use this constantly. If you want to know the most basic, agreeable sandwich to buy for someone you don't know, ask Emmet.

After TLM2, Emmet takes up gardening as a hobby. Of course he always had planty, but now he has an entire front garden. His favorite flowers are sunflowers and daisies.

Emmet is a surprisingly good singer! He doesn't sing much unless someone asks him too though. He was definitely in choir during high school.

Speaking of high school, Emmet was on the wrestling team. He never medalled or anything, but he was there.

Emmet has tried to learn other languages. That's the end of that conversation. He's monolingual.

The type of guy to make the most awkward jokes. Not in a weird way, just in an unfunny way. He tells those rly boring jokes that u at most half chuckle at but otherwise u just kinda stand there awkwardly and the conversation falls flat.

This isn't to say he *isn't* funny, he's just not funny when it comes to jokes. When he's just naturally speaking he's very entertaining to have conversations with.

Emmet is the master of pointless small talk.

Emmet's favorite food is waffles with whip cream and strawberries!

He secretly doesn't have his ACI certification but still handles concrete anyway. Tsk tsk

He's been in charge of a lot of reconstruction efforts after armamageddeon, really putting that construction background to use.

Emmet is wicked good at monopoly and uno but no one knows why.

He's tall and buff. this man is like pushing 6'7" and is jacked, that's hidden under a bit of chub though.

Emmet is a heavyweight drinker. No one knows why this is either. He can keep going for ages and he'll still act completely sober. Doesn't really like drinking though.

Benny:

Vietnamese

Youngest sibling haha, point and laugh

Not young though, this guy is like in his 50's

I am a firm believer in non-conventionally attractive Benny. Hair's a tangled mess, horrible fashion sense, you name it. Also he smells bad. No one has or probably will dissuade me from this. Sorry to mars specifically

Often spends days at a time working on projects, often with little to no sleep. When he focuses he *focuses*. This ties back to the previous statement about him.

Absolutely stacked education. Phd in aerospace engineering and a certified welder, mahcinist, pilot, and avionic technician. He does it all.

He may be smart but he is not a good cook. If he serves you glop do not eat it you will get the worst food poisoning of your life, Lord knows how he survives.

Has a pet miniature automated mirror cart named Castor. This is how he gets food and drink during his several day work periods.

Metalbeard is his best friend! They have Tuesday draft reviewing sessions where they show their latest ideas and critique each other. Despite the major differences in what they do, these critique sessions help both of them improve.

They also have tea parties with Unikitty. Unikitty tends to convince Metalbeard to participate in shenanigans and Metalbeard tends to force Benny into those same shenanigans. When those 3 are together it's an omen.

Metalbeard:

He's my favorite. The URL wouldn't make you think so but he is.

Wicked good dancer. The robotic body does not hinder his ability to do a fun little jig.

Metalbeard has had 3 ships, his parent's old ship, the first ship he built himself, and the sea cow.

He's stubborn as a mule. Once his head is set on something you will not convince him out of it.

Does not have any official education. He's a 15th century pirate for crying out loud.

Swears...Surprisingly little? He's a pirate so you'd expect him to have a pretty bad sailor mouth but no. He's pretty tame in that regard.

His favorite food is pineapple

Not a big risk-taker. Firm believer of calculated decision making. I mean it's in the rules of the sea: Always abandon a lost cause. He isn't looking for fights all willy nilly.

Old as shit. I covered it in my thread on Metalbeard's ship but based on the age of it he's several centuries old.

Unlike Benny, Metalbeard is quite good with and also quite likes newer technology. His 15th century currack has a steampipe coming out of it for a reason.

Knows Spanish and Portuguese.

When he was younger, he used to go fishing with his parents very often. He doesn't get to go as much now, but he tries to go fishing with them at least a couple times a year.

The one thing he misses the most about having his limbs is swimming. His present-day body being made of wood and metal doesn't it make it very amicable to swimming. He'd kill to paddle around in the ocean again.

Unikitty:

Incredibly mischievous. Has a habit of roping people into little pranks or games.

Eats mostly sugar

Misses her homeland often. She doesn't talk about it much, but she wishes constantly to have Cloud Cuckooland back. As much as she tries not to hold it against GCBC and Lord Business, she does.

Surprisingly strong. She can lift Metalbeard in his full robotic body like it's nothing.

Impromptu cuddles are her jam. If Unikitty is rushing towards you, it's a 50/50 shot of whether if she wants a hug or if she wants to tackle you like a linebacker.

Has a diary that she does not let anyone touch. Except Wyldstyle.

Her, Wyldstyle, and Mayhem have girls nights where they mostly just hang out build stuff together. They more or less are used for talking about their feelings, Wyldstyle started them after she realized none of them had particularly good outlets for their emotions.

Unikitty's tail is edible.

Sometimes Unikitty will glow if she's having a good day.

Unikitty can speak every language. She was just born that way.

Sometimes Unikitty feels as if people don't take her seriously, mostly on account of being a cat. This does bug her a lot but she tries not to let it get to her.

Unikitty's favorite thing to do is make people happy (:

She gives Benny haircare tips constantly and he ignores most of them much to her dismay.

Business:

Mr. Money Launderer

Wears really stupid graphic t-shirts with dad or golfing or fishing jokes on them.

His first name is Jolly! (I stole this one from superpeeboy, lol)

Cares A LOT about his appearance and is very meticulous. Wakes up at least an hour early to get ready.

OCD king. He really should do ERP therapy but he won't because there's absolutely nothing wrong with him how could you dare imply that.

Cheats at golf.

Gets all of his clothes ironed and drycleaned.

Absolutely not gay. Never. He'd never be gay. He doesn't know what you're talking about. He's normal. Not to say being gay isn't normal but he's not that. Totally. 100%. He isn't in denial

Does the white mom thing when they go to a restaurant and are like yknow what? I'm gonna be *bad* today.

Says he's 50 years young (I also stole this from superpeeboy)

Picky ass eater. Doesn't like spice and also really likes how mayo tastes but don't put too much mayo and his sandwich shouldn't have too much bread and why is the steak cooked so little and why does the meal have flavor but also why doesn't the meal have flavor.

Also here's some other posts of mine related to hcs I have. I really like. making headcanons.

How Masterbuilders Draft

Emmet Construction Certifications

One of My Favorite Post Chains Ever Please Look at All the Reblogs on This

Metalbeard's Ship

Emmet's Internal Clock

.

[rigelmejo]

Really basic study tips. As in, you have no idea where to start, or you've been floundering for X period of time not making progress.

Total beginner?

Go to a search engine site. Whatever one you want Google.com, duckduckgo.com, or a searx.space site will work (I like search.hbubli.cc a lot). I think a non-google search engine will give you less ads and more specific results though so keep that in mind.

As a total beginner, search for some articles and advice to help you start planning HOW you are going to study a language. Search things like "how to learn X" where X is the language, "how i learned X," "guide to learn X." Ignore the product endorsement pages as best you can, you're looking for personal blogs and posts on learner forums like chinese-forums.com and forum.language-learners.org. After reading a few of these, come up with a list of general things you need to learn. This list will generally be: to read, to listen, to write, to speak. The articles/advice you find will likely mention Specific Study Activities people did to learn each of those skills - write them down! You might not do all those study activities yourself. But its good to know what possible study activities will help build each of the 4 skills.

Now get more specific. Think about your long term goals for this language. Be as SPECIFIC as possible. Things like "I want to pass the B2 exam in French" (and knowing what CEFR levels are), or "I want to watch History 3 Trapped in chinese with chinese subtitles" or "I want to read Mo Dao Zu Shi in chinese" or "I want to play Final Fantasy 16 in japanese" or "I want to make friends with spanish speakers and be able to talk about my hobbies in depth, and understand their comments on that subject and be able to ask what they mean if I get confused." Truly be as specific as possible. Ideally make more than one long term goal like this. And then specify EVEN MORE. So you want to "pass the B2 exam in French" - why? What real world application will you use those skills for. A possible answer: to work in a French office job in engineering. Great! Now you know very specifically what to look up for what you Need to actually study: you need to look up business appropriate writing examples, grammar for emails, engineering technical vocabulary, IN addition to everything required on the B2 exam. Your goal is to read mdzs in chinese? Lets get more specific: how many unique words are in mdzs (maybe you want to study ALL of them), how much do you wish to understand? 100% or is just understanding the main idea, or main idea and some details, good enough? Do you want to learn by Doing (reading and looking up things you don't know) or by studying ahead of time first (like studying vocabulary lists). Im getting into the weeds.

My point is: once you have a Very Specific Long Term Goal you can look up how to study to accomplish that very specific goal. If you want to get a B2 certificate there's courses and textbooks and classes and free materials that match 100% the material on the B2 test, so you can prioritize studying those materials. If your goal is to READ novels, you'll likely be looking for "how to read X" advice articles and then studying based on that advice (which is often "learn a few thousand frequent words, study a grammar resource, use graded reader material at your reading level, extensively and intensively read, look up unknown words either constantly or occasionally as desired when reading new material, and continue picking more difficult material with new unknown words"). Whatever your specific goal, you will go to a search engine and look up how people have accomplished THAT specific goal. Those study activities they did will be things you can do that you know worked for someone. If you get lucky, someone might suggest ALL the resources and study activities you need to accomplish your specific goal. Or they will know of a textbook/course/site that provides everything you need so you can just go do it. I'll use a reading goal example because its a specific goal i've had. I'd have the goal "read X book in chinese" so I'd look up "how to read chinese" "how to learn to read chinese novels" "how i read chinese webnovels" and similar search terms. I found suggestions like these on articles I found written by people who managed to learn to read chinese webnovels: Ben Whatley's strategy had been learn 2000 common words on memrise (he made a deck and shared it), read a characters guide (he linked the article he read), use graded readers (he linked Mandarin Companion), use Pleco app and read inside it (he linked Pleco) and in 6 months he was reading novels using Pleco for unknown words. I copied most of what he did, and did some of my own other study activities for theother 3 listening speaking writing skills. And in 6 months I was also reading webnovels in Pleco. Another article was by Readibu app creator, who read webnovels in chinese just looking up TONS of words till they learned (real brute force method). But it worked! They learned. So copying them by using Readibu app ans brute force reading MANY novels would work. Another good article is on HeavenlyPath.notion.site, they have articles on specifically what materials to study to learn to read - their article suggestions are similar to the process I went through in studying and Im confident if you follow their advice you'll be reading chinese in 1 year or less. (I saw one person who was reading webnovels within 3 months of following the Heavenly Path's guide plan). LOOK UP your specific long term goal, and write down specific activities people did to learn how to do that long term goal. Ideally: you will have some

SHORT TERM GOALS: you will not accomplish your long term language goal for 1 year or more. Probably not for many years. So make some short and medium term goals to guide you through studying and keep you on track. These can be any goals you want, that are stepping stones to the specific long term goals you set. So for the "read mdzs in chinese" long term goal, short and medium term goals might be the following: short term: learn 10 common words a week (through SRS like anki or a vocabulary list), study 100 common hanzi this month (using a book reference or SRS or a site), read 1 chapter of a grammar guide a week (a site or textbook or reference book), medium term: read a graded reader with 100 unique words once I have studied 300 words (like Mandarin Companion books or Pleco graded readers for sale), read a 500 unique word graded reader once I have studied 600 words, read 秃秃大王 and look up words I don't know once I have studied 1500 words (read in Pleco or Readibu or using any click-translator tool or translator/dictionary app), read another chinese novel with 1500 unique words, read a 30,000 word chinese 2 hours a day until I finish it, read another 30,000 word novel and see if I can finish it in less time, read a 60,000 word novel, read a 120,000 word novel, read a novel extensively without looking any words up and practice reading skills of relying on context clues (pick a novel with lower unique word count), read a novel a little above your reading level (a 2000 unique word count if say you only know 1700 words), go to a reading difficulty list and pick some novels easier than mdzs to read but harder than novels you've already read (Readibu ranks novels by HSK level, Heavenly Path ranks novel difficulty, if you search online you'll find other reading difficulty lists and sites). Those shorter term goals will give you things to work for this week, this month, this year. An example of study goals and activities might be: study all vocabulary, hanzi, grammar in 1 textbook chapter a week (lets say 20 new words/10-20 new hanzi,1-5 new grammar points - or alternatively you have 3 SRS anki decks for vocab, hanzi, grammar) along with read and look up unknown key words for 30 minutes a day (at first you may read graded readers then move onto novels). Those are short term goals you can ensure you meet weekly, and they also contribute to being able to read better gradually each month until you hit long term goals.

If you are very bad at making your own schedule and study plans: look for a good premade study material and just follow it. A good study material will: teach reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, all the way to intermediate level. You may need to find multiple premade resources, such as 1 resource for writing/reading (many textbooks that teach 2000+ words and basic grammar will suffice) and 1 for speaking/listening (perhaps a good podcast, glossika, a tutor). Ideally formal classes will teach all 4 skills to intermediate level if you take 4 semesters of classes as an adult (beginner 1, beginner 2, intermediate 1, intermediate 2). Especially if the classes teach in accordance with trying to match you to expected defined language level skills (so formal classes that have syllabus goals that align with HSK, CEFR, or national standards of X level of fluency). So formal classes are an option. The same tips as above apply: make short term goals do do X a week, like study 30 minutes to 2 hours a day, to learn 10 new words a week, to get through X chapters a month, to practice speaking/reading/writing/reading oriented activities to some degree.

My short advice for picking a premade resource if totally lost: pick a starting material that covers 2000 words, basic grammar, and has dialogues if you don't know where to start. That will be enough to cover roughly beginner level language skills. I suggest you study by: studying the vocabulary and grammar of each chapter, listen to the dialogue with and without translation repeatedly until you understand it (listening skills), read the dialogue with and without translation (reading skills), write out example sentences using the new vocabulary and grammar (writing skills, the textbook exercises usually ask you to do this), speak your example sentences out loud (speaking practice), record yourself saying the dialogue and compare it to the dialogue audio - repeat this exercise until you sound similar in pronunciation to dialogue (speaking exercise - shadowing). Most decent textbooks will allow you to come up with similar activities to those listed above, to study some writing reading speaking listening. I like the Teach Yourself books as an example of the most basic version of what you need. Many languages have much better specific textbooks of that language. But if you're totally lost, get a Teach Yourself book and audio free from a library or for 10 dollars (or ANY equivalent book that teaches at least 2000 words and grammar) and go through it. If you buy a language specific textbook: keep working through the series until you've learned 2000 words and covered all basic grammar. For example Genk 1 and 2 cover 1700 words so you would want to work all the way through Genki 2 and ger near 2000 words before branching off to a textbook for intermediate students, or into native speaker materials. (Another example is I found a chinese textbook once that only taught 200 words... as a beginner you would not find that book as useful as one with more vocabulary)

Another adequate premade resource option: if you lile SRS tools like anki, look up premade decks that teach what you need to learn as a beginner. For Japanese you might look up "common words japanese anki deck" (Japanese core deck with 2k or more words is likely an option you'll see), "japanese grammar anki deck" (Tae Kin grammar deck is an option that covers common grammar), "JLPT kanji deck" or "kanji anki deck" or "kanji with mnemonics anki deck" (to study kanji). Ideally you study vocabulary, vocabulary, kanji, and ideally some of these anki decks will have audio and sentence examples for reading practice. Like with a textbook, you would attempt to do exercises which cover reading writing speaking listening. For reading and writing you may read sentences on anki cards, and write or type example sentences in a journal with new words you study and new grammar points. For listening you will play the sentence audio of a card with eyes closed until you hear the words clearly and recognize them, and for speaking you'll speak out the sentences and compare what you say to the audio on the card.

Keep in mind your specific long term goals! If your goal is speak to friend about hobby, you may follow a textbook and still need to ALSO make yourself practice talking weekly (on a language exchange app, with a tutor, with yourself, shadowing dialogues, looking up specific words you wish to discuss). If your goal is to read novels, you will likely need to seek out graded readers OUTSIDE your textbook and practice reading gradually harder material weekly. If your goal is listening to audio dramas, you will want an outside podcast resource likely starting with a Learner Podcast (chinese101, slow chinese, comprehensible chinese youtube channel) then move into graded reader audiobooks, then listen to audio dramas with transcripts, then just listen and look words up.

Once you hit lower intermediate: I'm defining that here as roughly you have studied 2000+ words, are familiar with basic grammar and comfortable looking up more specialized grammar information, and if you used a premade material then you have finished the beginner level material. If you desire to stay on a premade route then pick new resources made for intermediate learners. Do not dwell in the beginner material forever once you've studied it, continue to challenge yourself and learn new things regularly. (No matter what, continue to learn new things regularly, if you do that then every few hundred hours of study you WILL make significant progress toward your goals). Once you have hit intermediate it is also time to start adding activities that work toward your Very Specific Long Term goals now if you didn't already start. If you want to watch shows one day, this is when you start TRYING and get an idea of how much you understand versus how much you need to learn and WHAT you need to learn to do your goal well. If you want to read novels then start graded readers NOW if you havent already and progress to more difficult reading eventually into reading novels for native speakers. If you want to talk to people, start chatting regularly. If you want to take a B2 test, start studying language test specific study materials, practice doing the tasks you must be able to do to pass the test (so you can see what you need to learn and gauge progress over time), take practice tests. Intermediate level is when SOME stuff for native speakers will be at least understandable enough you can follow the main idea. Or at least, if you look up some key words you'll be able to grasp the main idea. Start engaging with stuff in the language now. For several reasons. 1. You need to practice Understanding all the basics you studied. Just because you studied it doesnt mean you can understand it immediately yet, you have to practice being in situations that require you to understand what you studied. 2. You also need to gauge where you are versus where you want to be, in order to set new short term goals. Once you do things in the language, you will see what specifically you need to study more. 3. By doing the activity you wish to do, you will get better at doing it. This is also a good time to mention that: if you wish to get better at speaking or writing now is the time to practice more. Just like listening and reading, you'll have to Do it more to improve.

The leap from using materials for beginners to materials for intermediate learners is harsh. It just is. The first 3 to 6 months you may feel drained, like you didn't learn much after all, annoyed its so much harder than the beginner material catered usually specifically to a learner's language level. Push through. I suggest goals like "listen to french 30 minutes a day" or "read 1 japanese news article a day" or "chat with someone for 1 hour total a week" or "watch 20 minutes of a show a day" or "write 1 page a day" and look up words you dont know but need to understand something or communicate to someone. Do X for X time period or X length of a chapter/episode type goals may be easiest to stick to during this period. Gradually, the time spent doing activities will add up and it will suddenly feel EASIER. Usually around the time you start understanding quicker and recalling quicker what you studied as a beginner. Then it keeps improving, as you gradually learn more and more. At first, picking the easiest content for your study activity will make the transition to intermediate stuff slightly less drastic. Easier content includes: conversations on daily life that only gradually add more specific topics (so you can lean on the beginner daily life function vocabulary), podcasts for learners entirely in target language and podcasts with transcripts, novels with low unique word counts (ideally 2000 unique words or less until your vocabulary gets bigger), shows you've watched before in a language you know (so you can guess more unknown words and follow the plot even when you don't understand the target language words), video game lets plays (ideally with captions) of video games you've played before, playing video games you already have played before and know the story for, reading summaries before starting new shows or books so you know what the general story is, reading books that have translations to a language you know (so you can read the translation then original or vice versa for additional context). Using any tools available (dictionary apps, translation apps like Pleco and Google Translate and click-translate web browser tools, Edge Read Aloud tool, reader apps like Kindle and Readibu, apps like Netflix dual subitles stuff).

Last mention: check in with your goals every so often. You might check in every 3 months, and say you notice you never manage to study daily (if that was your short term goal). That could be a sign it might be better to change your study schedule to study a couple hours on the days your life schedule is less busy, and skip study on busy days. Or it may be a sign the study activity you're trying to do daily is Very Hard for you to stick to, and maybe you should switch to a different study activity. (Example would be: I can't do SRS flashcards consistently, so when I got tired of SRS anki after a few months as a beginner, I switched to reading graded readers daily to learn new vocabulary then reading novels and looking up words. Another example: I love Listening Reading Method but could never do it as it was designed, so after a month of only doing 15 hours of it instead of the 100 hours the method intended at minimum in that time, I decided to modify that study activity into something I could get myself to do daily and enjoy more).

And, of course, its okay if what works for one person doesn't work for you. Everyone's different. As long as you are regularly studying some new things, and practicing understanding things you've studied before, you will make progress as the study hours add up. It may take hundreds of hours to see significant progress, but you Will see some progress every few hundreds of hours of study. I made the quick start suggestions for beginners above, because I have seen some people (including me) get lost at the start with no idea what a good resource looks like and no idea what to study, or how to determine goals and progress on those goals.

[vroerry]

Berliner Mauer

Michael Kaiser x Fem reader

tw: mentions of abuse, sex, controlling, gaslighting i think

Clopp. Clopp. The raindrops fell on the window. The sun has already set, as you were packing your suitcase and sorting things into boxes.

Why did you agree to this? How could you agree to this? You can still leave. There's still some time before he comes home. You can make a run for it. You can quietly get on a bus, go to a random location and start a new life. Without him. Without any of this.

You stared at your carefully folded clothes in the suitcase. Then you looked around the seemingly empty room. The only things that were left were the mattress, the closet and the huge pile of personal belongings you had to go through in the next six hours. You glanced at the backpack you've already packed.

Your heart sank. You don't want to leave. You can't leave.

As you opened the bag the trigger of the night fell out.

Certificate of attainment of successful language exam.

language: German

level: b2

Goethe Institut Tokyo

Tears started to roll down your cheeks faster than ever. Your throat tightened as you gasped for air. You can't do this. No. It's impossible.

What's a Japanese girl to do in Germany of all places?

It was his demand. One day he just came home. Handed you a book with a phone number. Learn german. Make it quick. Get at least a b2 in four months. We're moving to Berlin.

You sobbed as the memories resurfaced. His blue eyes darting through you. His knuckles clenched as you stuttered your concerns out before he hit you for the first (but not the last)

Michael Kaiser. Football prodigy and toxic boyfriend.

Michael Kaiser the man who's ruining your life yet again. As you sobbed through the events of the past months you heard the front door creaking open.

He finished practice early.

"Liebe! Ich bin zu Hause angekommen! Liebe? Wo bist du?"

"Don't speak German, I beg of you" you started to sob even more. You heard his footsteps coming closer and closer before he entered the room.

"Oh Liebe... Are you sad about having to leave? It's going to be okay my. dear you speak German good. You'll be able to make it!" he tried to brush it off.

"No" you continued with the tears. "You're so cold with me. German sucks. I'm an Asian girl, not knowing shit about Europe. I'll have to marry you for a visa. I don't want to be there"

"Oh, Liebe.." he kneeled next to you. "You'll be okay. I understand it is hard to... Leave your home but I promise you'll love Berlin. It's similar... to Tokyo"

"Really?" your eyes sparked up.

"Of course! and don't forget that you can already speak so much German and your degree also uncommon and looked for in Germany."

"I-i understand but still... It's.. still scary"

"You'll be fine" he started to lose his temper.

"But... what if..."

"Shut the fuck up!" he suddenly yelled and shoved you before standing up. "Listen I can't listen to your sorry ass! Uuu, just a Japanese little girl, nobody fucking cares! You should've achieved a better level, you should've picked an actual degree so you wouldn't have to rely on me! So continue packing your shit! We're getting on that dang plane. Now if you excuse me. One of us here is actually earning money and paying all your expenses. And he'd like to have a shower before I show you mein Schwanz one last time in your fucked up country! Before we leave for the paradise. " he hurried off immediately.

Your sobs took up again as the incident of the wall of Berlin came to your head. You'll be trapped in the part of Berlin Michael wants you to see. The life he wants you to live. Saying no? Not an option.

Maybe it's going to work out. You thought.

Will it?

.

.

.

[lokijiro]

I wonder how many languages Sherlock knows.

I hc that he's very fluent in French. Yeah, he only says one phrase in French in the entire show (and has Mycroft say almost the same one in his dream) so we can't know for sure, but I feel that he should have mastered at least one foreign language, so I'll pick French. Btw I can easily picture Sherlock as a child being obsessed with The Count of Monte Cristo, and reading it in its original language. And given that there's a connection with Mycroft, I like the idea of the Holmes brothers occasionally saying French phrases to each other when they don't want to be understood by the people around them. (A more obscure language would be better for that purpose, but Sherlock hasn't mastered any.)

He knows enough Chinese to understand "spider", which shows that he has a grasp of the language that goes beyond "hello" and "thank you".

We see in the first two episodes that he knows a bit of German, but judging from how he speaks to the German tourist he's not fluent.

He hangs a martial art certificate written in Japanese above his bed, so I like to interpret this as Sherlock knowing at least some Japanese.

He does know some Latin (as we see in TST, and of course he would be familiar with scientific terminology), so maybe we can speculate that he also has a smattering of Italian and Spanish (and possibly other Romance Languages).

Given the fact that Sherlock "deletes" certain things from his brain to concentrate on what matters, I feel that Sherlock would be excellent at grammar and spelling in his native tongue, and would be very very good at one foreign language, but would not have mastered many other languages.

[tryingdoesnthurt]

guess who just downloaded pdfs resources for five different languages course ! i did

so uh question ! i wanna try and give myself a small goal for studying, like twenty minutes / half an hour a day (i am still unsure but i don't wanna overwork myself so i'll start small) of one or max two languages ... i am already planning on getting back into Japanese, even just with kanji or vocabulary, since those are my weakest points and i really wanna learn more vocabs, even just the pronunciation, but i really wanna try and see how learning a whole new language would be (if i like it, if it's complex or simpler...)

so! i wanted to ask !

For reference: my mother tongue is Italian. I have at least a B2 in English (maybe C1? i don't have certifications :( i wanna work on getting one tho) and I would learn all these languages with the base of English grammar/vocab/ecc, apart from Romanian, if I find an actual textbook or something in Ita...

anyone can vote randomly tbh, I wanna learn all of these at some point so I (or you all) just gotta throw a dart randomly and i'll see which one to try with first loll

[foxxyrola]

Step 0: Learning to Learn

The biggest challenge in my self improvement journey begins with a question: "How in the nine hells am I supposed to sit my ass down and learn anything? My body just keeps pacing around, looking for yet another distraction. iwi"

Don't get me wrong, I desperately want to apply myself, just struggle in the initiation. And the follow through. I would take a few lessons in learning Godot for game making, then move on to something else, new and shiny. I'd learn all the Hiragana, but then not touch the Japanese language for weeks. All ambition, no action, or something like that.

Being fed up with this, I do get moments where honestly I sometimes just have to, well... Do things! Anything. I'm desperate for the dopamine hit of accomplishing something non vidya gayme related. I have to plant my ass in a chair (even if it takes an hour of pacing before I can even settle down), and give myself something to focus on as if it's life or death. I'd journal when I can. Watch some informative videos without absorbing much of it. Get stuck passively on self help YouTube and all that.

Well... It seems I got something out of it. Lately been looking into Cybersecurity (just a surface dive, like most of my dives are) and in addition to learning a little about certifications and stuff, I discovered that Coursera is a good place to find some lessons (for free too mind you, as long as you don't need their certificates or whatevs) not just for coding, but for many other things.

This is one of these (free) courses that I found: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

Yup, learning how to learn. Seems cheesy. Almost blew it off and didn't take it. But hey, night shifts give me a bit of free time each night, so chooms, I jumped in about a week ago and without a doubt, I certainly do not regret it.

So far in the first week of the course I watched all the necessary videos, and passed the simple quizzes for week 1. The course establishes two modes of thinking every human uses: focused and diffuse. Focused being when you think deeply on something you know how to solve already, following established prestructured neural pathways. Diffuse on the other hand being that abstract association you get when you passively sift through your brain, in sleep and relaxing, and when you're not actively looking for a concrete solution but rather let your mind wander and put things together.

Now, I've heard about routine and pomodoro techniques and taking breaks to space out learning, but it seems that with this course, something clicked. Applying the things I learned by taking personal summary notes afterwards and both actively and passively thinking about what I've just absorbed, I suddenly felt fulfilled.

I started a self care routine (nothing super much yet, just 2 hours of unwinding and exercise and meditating before bed among other things) by setting up a schedule in an app I found called RoutineFlow. Yeah, I'm not getting it consistently yet, but every day I try to at least take a step to do what I gotta do, that little push that'll help me work through stuff. I just want to get myself to do the basics so that I can grow from there.

Then I encountered my first obstacle: taking notes. The Learning to Learn course has optional materials: readings, interviews, all that fun scop. I go through fairly passively til I encounter one material. A short paper with notes on note taking from Harvard. Some 30 pages. I know I need this, I know I need to sit down and do this as it'll help.

But I couldn't do it. One day, then another day, then the weekend passes, and now I'm back at work again on Monday. My legs are restless, can't seem to sit down and do things.

So I start writing this blog. Immediately afterwards... I still can't do it.

I walk around, pace, try and sit down... Another 30 minutes passes before I open things up and begin taking notes. I literally force myself to sit, set a 25 minute pomodoro... Ok now just gotta focus in this time. Come on I can do it...!

Oh hey I'm doing it! I'm actually doing it! I start learning the material, taking some Cornell Notes on it(a good way to review notes and test yourself die to its structure) as soon as the time'l ran up, I take a break. Wow! That actually wasn't so hard. The hardest part was just sitting down and telling myself that this is what I wanna learn.

So over my free time at work over a few 25 min sessions, I learnt the importance of taking notes in my own words, reviewing them often but not cramming all at once, and testing myself on my knowledge.

It was just that first step. But hey, the more I do this, the easier it gets! Consistency, that's the name of the game. I may not have learned any new coding skills or any new words or anything, but the experience has been a most important one.

Anyways, as I finish this up, it is now time for my morning self care routine. Feeling accomplished, I think things can only get easier if I keep setting aside the time and rewarding myself consistently.

Just gotta put my ass in the chair.

[helenstudies]

I hope I'm not being rude but how did you have the time to do everything on your bio when you're only 24? Can you share how you learnt a lot of languages?

It's fine. Believe it or not, people ask me that A LOT.

I'm born in Myanmar and only spoke Burmese until I was 10 and my mom decided her children should be able to speak English. She sent me and my sibling to an English Summer School and then started speaking English at home. I've been bilingual since then. Burmese people are very good at English (read: we were colonized by the British) I started learning Chinese at age 12, I think. Then at age 14 and 15, while writing novels and fanfictions, I taught myself how to read hanguel (korean script) and hiragana/katakana (japanese script) then started studying formally after graduating highschool.

In Myanmar, until a few years ago, high school students used to graduate at age 16 and go to the university. So when I graduated high school, I went the distance education route in University and became a freelance translator and interpreter. I also did some transcribing and content writing. Then I went to Korea and studied in a language program. I came back after nine months and at age 19 I just started taking things seriously and self studied everything to pass all the language certification exams.

In 2021, because of the military coup, I dropped out of high school, realized my freelance translator job is not really going well due to the dictatorship, so I started to branch out. Now I read tarot and interpret astrological birth charts, teach classes and tutor people, sell books and ebooks. That's just how freelancing is. I think.

Anyways, all these things seem a lot until you realize I just spent a decade of my life just doing things I want. A lot of people tried discouraging me of course They're always like "choose a language!" "choose a path!" but I just don't like to listen to people. Hopefully, a few more decades and I might become a jack of all trades. And learn a few more languages. And read a few more books. And get into a few more hobbies. Yeah.

[fuck--notagain]

Cheers for the tag @creepkinginc

Write lyrics tadaaaa

Name: Jay

popular music/band/artist while you were in highschool: linkin park

what's one thing you wish you'd known when you were younger? You don't owe people shit.

what is a course or certification you wish you'd done? Wish I did something more arty

what's a style you wish you'd never rocked? I don't have one tbh

what's a style you totally killed? Funky shirts dad style

do you still wear it? All the live long day

favourite pair of shoes you've ever owned: my new rocks

have you ever worn heels? do you regret it? do you wish you had tried to wear heels? do you think heels are the devil? Yes, no and no. Platform heels only tho.

name one bucket list item? Bungie jump

what's something you would do if you could step outside all your insecurities/fears today? I would do more things that bring me joy, just me without worrying about other people

is there another language you wish you learnt? Japanese

what's something you've done to your hair that you look back on and cringe? Keeping it long for as long as I did

okay last one.. what's a real regret? I should have recorded the old man's stories. Hearing the same ones over and over and now never hearing them again is a pain unlike anything

And now picrew that is so inaccurate it's crazy

And done

Bye 👋

[pearlkestis]

Weekly tag Wednesday but I'm late so Thursday ۶ৎ

First time doing this and I'm so late already sigh... thanks for the tag @lazystargazy :**

Name: Pearl, Nene is fine too

Popular music/artist while you were in highschool: Honestly don't know, never cared about it too much, but I remember the heavy Billie Eilish phase every girl in my class had

I had my metal phase then 🤡

What's one thing you wish you'd known when you were younger? Embarrassment is temporary, same with fame

What is a course or certification you wish you'd done? I wish I had finished my medic (EMT? Something like that) course

What's a style you wish you'd never rocked? The ripped thighs under shorts.

What's a style you totally killed? Flared jeans and high boots, with a big big belt

Do you still wear it? Always

Favorite pair of shoes you've ever owned: my cowboy like heeled boots

Have you ever worn heels? Do you regret it? Do you wish you had tried to wear heels? Do you think heels are the devil? What are heels-okaaay, I wear heels but only on special occasions. I don't have many of them

Name one bucket list item? Eat the biggest pain au chocolat on earth in Paris

What's something you would do if you could step outside all your insecurities/fears today? Everything, like so many things, but first make friends

Is there another language you wish you learnt? I wish I learnt Japanese when I was younger and stayed consistent

What's something you've done to your hair that you look back on and cringe? Cut my hair in a way it looked like a helmet. (I'm sorry, 6th grade me)

Okay last one.. what's a real regret? Wouldn't you like to know weather boy?

Okay let me tag some people, if you did this - don't 🙋‍♀️

@fireballazalea @deedala @gustarrunz @milkovski @firendeavor @burninface @martzyink @matt404b andddd idk I'm running out of ideas

[kitakataramen]

Hi!! Just stumbled into your blog and I love it 🥺 may I ask since when and how you were able to go to Japan? (If you're comfortable answering of course!) Plus, how is life in Japan for a N4? Do you find it difficult to live in or do you get the grasp of things pretty quickly?

I know it's something personal and that may change from individual to individual but I just wanted to know your experience if you're willing to share! I'd like to move to Japan and I have a lot of questions and curiosity about it. Every time I see someone on Tumblr living there I ask tons of questions 😅 sorry! Have a great day!! またねぇ～

Hi there, thanks for the message! Glad to hear you're enjoying my blog!

Great questions! So as for coming to Japan, the main ways to get here are through study abroad and working holiday programs. These are great if you are at university age. However, I didn't come to Japan until after I graduated university, so I actually came here as an English teacher! There are many companies and programs you can apply with to get a teaching position, with the best one being the JET program.

I came over with Interac, and I believe there are some other programs you can do. You'll need an undergraduate degree of some kind in order to be eligible, and a TESOL certificate will really help your chances.

If you're planning on living in Japan then it's advisable to start studying Japanese as soon as possible! I didn't and it really made things difficult because I was dispatched to a rural area in Tohoku where almost nobody can speak English- that said, it is possible to get by using basic Japanese and gestures at first, so don't let fluency (or lack thereof) stop you from coming! You will pick up the language out of necessity, believe me 😂

N4(ish) level is good for most interactions like eating out, shopping, having casual conversations, etc. I would like to point out that the JLPT levels are only one method of assessment for where your ability is, so don't get too caught up in that as a measurement. For example, I'm saying I'm at N4 because I've studied N5 and N4 books, but once I got to Japan I also started studying Japanese the way Japanese children do using children's books and kanji drills. Japanese kids learn kanji and vocab in a totally different order than the JLPT presents it in, so I know a lot of kanji from all over the different JLPT levels. Right now I usually study using 3rd and 4th grade elementary books. I just picked up some 4th grade level novels (some of my favourites, including The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Anne of Green Gables) from a second-hand shop- they're great because they use relatively simple sentences and the kanji have furigana readings next to them. So yeah, while I say I'm around JLPT N4 level, I don't think that's really an accurate measurement of my skills. You can use those levels to give you some guidance on what to study and it's possible you may want the certificate to put on your resume, but I've never done a JLPT exam because I hate tests. My advice is to learn Japanese in a way that works for you, by doing something you enjoy in Japanese (reading, cooking, YouTube, music, games, etc.)

[rigelmejo]

Okay, after looking a LOT up: Pimsleur said on their official subreddit, that Japanese levels 1-5 have 2500 unique words. I also confused myself a bit earlier today, mixing up Pimsleur with Glossika. Pimsleur lessons generally have LESS vocabulary than some alternatives. Glossika generally has more vocabulary taught than Pimsleur. I am actually using the glossika audio files currently, NOT pimsleur.

My usual conclusions on pimsleur stand though: based on what other pimsleur users said (that the whole course only covers the material Genki 1 has), and that it has around 20 words taught each lesson, with around 2500 words if you do ALL lessons, then its not the particular program i'd choose. Its good if youre a beginner, and intend to do all 5 levels. If you are not a beginner, it may only review words you know. If you're learning on your own, consider how much you study: if you want to learn 2500 words within a certain time frame (like a year) then make sure you complete pimsleur lessons frequently enough to finish the lessons in a year (or whatever your goal is). 2500 words, or Genki 1 and 2 book's 1700 total words (which pimsleur was compared to by a pimsleur user), are useful. But they arent intermediate, theyre words you'll want to learn as a beginner and then PROGRESS TO NEW MATERIAL. Do not dwell on pimsleur for 4 years, if your goal was to learn beginner words in 1-2 years and then move on to intermediate material (but if you are okay with it taking 4 years then of course go through lessons at the pace that works for your goals).

Some information on Glossika Japanese: the current 2024 course has around 6,400 sentences and teaches a bit over 5,000 words. I had this information given to me by an official glossika representative. Unfortunately, they did not know how much vocabulary was taught in the original audio-only Japanese glossika course, which was around half as big. Their current course seems to teach to N4 (maybe N3), as the representative felt a learner could go from the modern course glossika to simple anime like Shirokuma Cafe and learn words from immersion onward. The representative also stated glossika doesnt explicitly explain grammar, so if you are NOT a complete beginner then you'll have more success. Alternatively, if you are a complete beginner, reference a Grammar Guide (tae kims grammar guide, imabi.com, Genki textbooks etc) or use another source for beginner lessons like japanesepod101.com which has explanations. My rough guess would be that old glossika audio lessons taught between 2000-3000 words, because all old courses used the same base english sentences translated, and I remember for most languages that resulted in around 3000 unique words used. So old audio lessons Glossika will teach a bit more vocabulary than pimsleur, and significantly more than pimsleur by around 2000 additional words if you use the new glossika online courses. Increased vocabulary is a plus, but the end result will still be upper beginner/lower intermediate knowledge when you're done. I'd recommend glossika over pimsleur because more vocabulary is great in a language learning product.

FREE OPTIONS:

These are what I actually recommend a learner start with. Because they're free. And they work.

Go on the Hoopla library app, or install Hoopla if you don't have the app yet. Register with one of your library memberships on Hoopla, it will give you access to tons of ebooks and audiobooks to check out. Now find: Japanese 1 Innovative Language. I personally found the audiobooks, Innovative Language has at least 9 levels of lessons from beginner to advanced. Unfortunately, I am having difficulty finding how much vocabulary all their lessons combined teaches. (A lot of language programs call some lessons Advanced when really you're only learning say the 1000-1500 most common words in them, which is still beginner level in terms of knowledge being studied or if you compare to textbook levels or language certification test levels). I am not sure if these lessons are the same as japanesepod101.com, but these lessons are similar, and they have a good amount of explanations so you can get grammar and cultural information as well as vocabulary - this means the course is more in depth than glossika or pimsleur, but it does teach a bit slower as there's more time that english is spoken. If you're a total beginner, or a beginner/lower intermediate learner who is looking for audio lessons with explanations, I recommend these. Theyre free! Theres a ton! Innovative Language also has a TON of lessons in multiple languages on Hoopla app, so browse.

Go to jaoaneseaudiolessons.com. Download the free 36 lessons, the free grammar guide, and the free transcripts. These lessons are FREE, they are made by people who have used stuff like Berlitz and Pimsleur and wanted to improve the method into something they'd find more useful. This site introduced me to the idea of "audio flashcards" audio of english then target language sentences. These lessons arent doing anything wild or new: what they are doing, is lessons like Glossika but with MORE explanation than glossika, and yet less english and less time wasting than stuff like Innovative Language. The biggest pro of this resource: they MADE a grammar guide you can use, they made a transcript so you can have your first reading material, and they made free audio. Ive used their audio lessons: they worked great for me. They worked better for me than Genki did (however Genki remains great for the speaking/writing skills i practiced with it), and helped pull me back into studying japanese. I am not sure how many words it teaches, a detail i wish ALL LANGUAGE LESSONS HAD TO MENTION. But my guess would be at least 1500 words. Their transcript book is 1075 pages, they usually introduce 1-7 new words per page, so on average 4 words, so the upper guess is they teach potentually 4,300 words in the 36 audio lessons. How is that for efficient? Even if these lessons only teach 1500 words (and i suspect the real words taught is probably the normal 2000-3000 of most beginner courses made well), at 36 lessons their lessons clock in as WAY less than Pimsleur or Glossika. These lessons recommend you listen to each lesson 5 times. So each lesson is 30-40 minutes (lets use 40 minutes per lesson), so 36 lessoms is 24 hours of listening material. Listen to each lesson 5 times, and you'll spend 120 hours on these lessons, not including time spent on the grammar guide or transcript. There is another reason i love japaneseaudiolessons.com: they wrote books that teach kanji with 1. Premade mnemonic stories (remember the heisig book expects you to make up your own stories which i found hard) 2. Mnemonic stories for meaning AND pronunciation (many premade mnemonic story resources like anki decks tend to only help with remembering definitions, not pronunciations), 3. Sentence examples to help you remember words, practice seeing them in context, and practice reading. Their books are by FAR my favorite kanji learning books. The kanji learning books do cost money, but i've found them useful and i was glad they existed. You do not need to buy the books, japaneseaudiolessons.com has a TON of free material that should get you through beginner level stuff. But if you, like me, like premade mnemonic stories including remembering pronunciations and example words in sentences, you may find checking out their kanji books is useful.

[rottenbrainstuff]

Hm hey so I know everyone says how shit Duolingo is and I won’t deny it’s not the best, but even so, I do still use it for Japanese. I just find that when I need to do some studying or review, the format of doing a lot of little quizzes on my phone is easier for me than sitting down and rereading my textbooks. I don’t know. I use it.

Recently they did a massive update to the Japanese course and at first I was extremely cranky, they totally, totally restructured the lessons and the vocab is all different and I’m in a totally different unit now than I was before. Extremely disruptive. I heard someone say it was something to do with a partnership with crunchy roll? I don’t know anything about that.

As I’m doing some new units after this update though… I’m noticing… guys do you think they overhauled the Japanese course so that it matches the standardized textbooks and language tests now? Like when I did my Japanese classes we used the marugoto textbook, which was made by the Japanese government specifically to match the standard language certification levels, and as I’m doing these new duolingo units, it’s all extremely familiar and they’re using some very specific vocab and unit structure and it’s basically like. Oh this is a review of x chapter in my textbook, this is a review of y chapter.

I’m still a bit cranky to have the course so disruptively and completely changed, but I dunno. It’s maybe a good thing if it now reflects a standard textbook, and kind of neat if I can do direct review of my textbooks through duolingo, which I never could before. It kicked me back to a much simpler unit and I suppose I could challenge to jump ahead but honestly doing some review may not be a bad idea.

But I wonder if random users who have never used textbooks based on the verification tests will be extremely frustrated with the changes and not understand why.

[bhumi1066]

Master the Language: Expert-Approved Japanese Learning Tips

Learning Japanese can be both exciting and demanding, especially for English speakers. With its distinct scripts, unique sentence structures, and unfamiliar sounds, mastering Japanese takes strategy and discipline. To help you navigate your language journey with confidence, here are expert-approved Japanese learning tips that offer both structure and flexibility—perfect for beginners, self-learners, or even those returning to study.

At Study Japanese Language, we understand that every learner is different. That’s why we focus on proven methods that cater to real-life goals like conversational fluency, academic success, or JLPT certification.

1. Build a Strong Foundation with Hiragana and Katakana

Your first step should be to master the two phonetic alphabets—Hiragana and Katakana. These scripts are essential for pronunciation, reading, and even typing in Japanese. Don’t rush this phase; write them daily and practice reading them in basic words and phrases.

2. Immerse Yourself in Native Content

Exposure is key. Begin watching Japanese TV shows, listening to anime soundtracks, and following Japanese podcasts—even if you don’t understand everything at first. This passive exposure helps train your ears to recognize common words and sentence rhythms.

3. Learn Vocabulary in Context

Instead of memorizing isolated words, try learning vocabulary through sentences and real-life usage. This helps you remember not just the word, but also how and when to use it. Keep a personal notebook or use apps like Anki for sentence-based flashcards.

4. Practice Speaking and Shadowing Techniques

One of the most powerful Japanese learning tips is speaking aloud. Use language shadowing—repeat after a native speaker in real time. This technique improves pronunciation, rhythm, and fluidity, especially when paired with audio materials.

5. Follow a Structured Curriculum

Self-learners often struggle with what to study next. Enroll in a structured course like those offered at Study Japanese Language, where lessons are designed to build naturally from beginner to advanced levels with a focus on grammar, conversation, and kanji recognition.

6. Review Regularly with Spaced Repetition

Memory fades without review. Incorporate spaced repetition systems (SRS) into your routine to retain kanji, vocabulary, and grammar effectively. Studying smart is just as important as studying hard.

Conclusion

Becoming fluent in Japanese isn’t about cramming—it’s about consistency, smart strategies, and active engagement. By following these expert-backed Japanese learning tips, and with guidance from Study Japanese Language, you’ll make steady, confident progress toward mastering this beautiful language.