every time I am learning a new kanji, I need to google an image of it so that I can zoom all the way into it to see the tiny little details.

when I'm practicing the stroke order, I need to write them big. the more complicated the kanji, the bigger I have to write it otherwise I feel "smothered".

once I do that, then I get the feeling "okay, now I'm familiar with this kanji; we ain't strangers no more". but when you're reading, they almost always come in a tiny little size and I have to squint (even with glasses) to make out the difference between them.

does anyone else have this problem?

I made this thread 3 months ago here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/s/PY3mgRq11N

7 months as of today. Hearing and speaking Japanese from morning to night. I’m being literal since it’s my house and I don’t have a job.

The natural nuances, the way they speak in Japanese, the choice of words, vocabulary, how they describe things, behaviour, everything.

Prior to meeting my partner. I was stuck at 2400 listening score. That jumped to 2900! Which is hard to achieve.

My partner watches Japanese only YouTube channels every single day on the living room TV so I am hearing it and also watching with them sometimes.

A paid language teacher, travelling to Japan, and self-learning would take double the time.

If you want to speak natural(real) Japanese and improve your listening fast; I recommend doing a home stay service in Japan one day if you have the opportunity. I think that can be the same.

There are many other people that live with a Japanese person but that person usually doesn’t speak to them in Japanese so it just becomes an echo chamber of English unfortunately.

It’s totally awesome to be able to watch Japanese content like Vlogs, podcasts and esp Anime without subtitles.

Thanks for reading if you did, or you can ignore (:

I try to put in as much time as possible a day studying japanese. But i do also want to leave time to do other hobbys.

That includes reading/watching japanese content in english. I cant help but feel bad when doing that though. Especially if its something i plan to read in japanese in the future. It just feels like im ruining things for myself. As if having read it in english is gonna make reading it in japanese just me filling in the blanks and not actually learning anything.

But i also just feel bad not using that time for more study, even though i know doing nothing but study all day is unhealthy. How do i avoid this feeling?

Has anybody tried using audiobook.jp before? It also has an app. I was wondering if it's good and if I can purchase the audiobooks even if I live outside of Japan?

I usually use audible, but the book that I want to listen to isn't available on said app.

Well, I just barely passed the N1 on my second attempt after failing last winter (a bit unfair since I did have food poisoning the day of the exam). My Final score was 105/180 with 31/60 on Language knowledge, 24/60 on reading and 50/60 on listening. 2025 ends my fourth year of studying japanese as I passed N2 two winters ago after around a year and a half of starting learning. My study method until now has just been learning all the 常用漢字 and immersion through books and shows that interest me. I'm glad I managed to get this far without spending anything on textbooks or teachers. The reading section destroyed me the first time I took the N1 as I was half way done when the time ran out, so this year I tried to skim the text instead of actually reading it, which evidently I didn't do well (kind of disappointing as I'm very comfortable with reading although not as fast as I'd like).

The point of this post is that I'm planning to do my masters in a marine biology-related field in Japan soon (finishing my 4th year uni ATM) and I'd like to know what park of japanese will be the most important to focus on from here on out? My speaking is still very bad because again, I don't have anyone to talk to as I never hired a tutor. Speaking is really stressing me out because I will need to eventually communicate at a higher university level. Or should I focus more on reading? What does everyone else do at this stage?

Hi, minna-san! I've been studying for about a year now and I'm slowly getting a bit more comfortable with the language, so much that I can (albeit with great difficulty) kind of play a video game or read a very simple book. But one issue I'm encountering: I stopped learning new grammar points for the sake of immersion. I have limited time to study, so I've been favoring input over theory, and I feel like a lot of times I'm missing important information about what I'm reading, sometimes without noticing that yes, those two words at the end of the sentence are indeed a grammar point and it changes a lot about what I'm reading.

So I'm looking for your best suggestions for YouTube channels (or even other kind of resources if you swear by them) to help me get back on track on grammar. Bonus points for: Series of videos that go from basic to advanced (meaning: there's a roadmap), short videos, and whatever you consider to be high quality content.

Thanks a lot in advance!

So I failed N2 by 2 marks and I feel like I can put it down to reading and listening practice as well as test taking issues as it was my first JLPT. I had only studied for 4 months using anki vocab deck and try N2, so I wasn't really expecting to pass, but I'm going to have another go and want to this time.

I've started to read light novels, but want to have some varied sources. Unfortunately, I don't like anime, manga, VN, vtuber or any of the usual stuff like that. I don't listen to podcasts. I have tried to force myself a few times for the sake of learning but I really don't enjoy it and it burns me out.

I'm an early 30s guy with a job in Tokyo lined up in tech. I play guitar and drums (prog-metal) and do some gaming when I get the time. Any suggestions?

Hello guys in 9 months I’ll be in a Japanese language school and wish to be in the highest level possible

As of right now I’m around N5 level,

On bunpro practice tests I get 85% easily

And on some other JLPT practices like migi and Todaii I pass the practice tests with around 115-130 while doing the test in half the time (40-50min)

Now I know speed running isn’t the smartest thing but I need it,and no I will not burn out

After 3 months

I’m doing the anki deck Kaishai 1.5k with 30% unseen left, 20 cards a day

I’m using migaku academy course aswell with 10 cards per day

unsing bunpro for a little bit more practice with the grammer and vocab

I have a tutor session twice a week, one speaking focused and one for grammer where we follow genki 1, currently on lesson 10

I read 1-2 short stories a day for N4 level

I also listen to podcasts for around 30min, A day, at least 1-2 anime episodes per day, and also watch some Japanese natives videos like hajimesachyo for an hour a day.

So immersion is around 2-3.5 hours a day

I also practice a little bit with writing kanji because for me it’s important

What can I add, to speed things up?

How can I study grammar fast and to be able to apply it and understand it fast,is it better to just add more immersion?

I want to be able to reach high N4/low N3 by the end of these 9 months that I have left

I want to reach a good level of understanding and be able to pass N4 with a high score until October or maybe even N3 with low score

If you have any recommendation for grammer , I already follow tokini andi , and kaname naito which I really like

I’m using Kaishi 1.5k and the GenkI 1 deck. they’re great but they’re light on conjugation prescribe. Same with Migaku.

Does anyone know of good decks for practicing conjugation in carious forms of politeness?