General Discussion

Hey there, everyone. I saw a language thread and, noticing several folks studying Japanese, figured I'd make one specifically for Japanese. I'm a beginner myself and thought it would be nice to meet other folks interested in the language like I am.

This thread is for:

- People of any language level.
- Sharing learning resources and tips.
- Discussions of Japanese media.
- Crying over kanji.

I'm currently using the Renshuu app as my main source of knowledge. It teaches grammar, vocab, and kanji. You also get a cute as hell virtual friend and a garden to decorate.

I’m learning on Duolingo (only resource available on my school chromebook) and learning Hiragana on it. Help I really don’t like Hiragana. I’m almost done the Hiragana lessons and starting Katakana, but Hiragana is gonna haunt me. I can’t even imagine Kanji yet, I heard it has tough to learn characters. :/
I wish you luck with Kanji though!

[quote name="Ritodragon" date="2025-02-19 03:49:22" ] I’m learning on Duolingo (only resource available on my school chromebook) and learning Hiragana on it. Help I really don’t like Hiragana. I’m almost done the Hiragana lessons and starting Katakana, but Hiragana is gonna haunt me. I can’t even imagine Kanji yet, I heard it has tough to learn characters. :/ I wish you luck with Kanji though! [/quote] I thought I'd never get hiragana or katakana when I started but now I read them no problem. What you should do is look up graded readers or children's books with hiragana to practice reading. Even if you don't understand what's being said it's still great practice. [quote name="Spaxx" date="2025-02-19 04:11:30" ] I recommend the rururu song (rururu no uta) if you want to learn some ru-verbs. There are multiple episodes but I'll link to my favorite, it's such a fun way to learn lol Click here to watch! [/quote] Okay but that's my new favourite song. It's catchy, educational, and a little bit eerie. Probably would've creeped me out as a kid. And to everyone trying to find manga in Japanese to read then I have just discovered [url]https://mangakakalot.to/[/url] has a ton. On most sites you have download the manga so finding such a large catalogue you can read on the site no download needed is nice.

I've been learning Japanese with my brother for the last little while. We use a combination of Duolingo and Youtube. He also takes lessons so he is quite a lot ahead of me in his learning, which means I get the benefit of his knowledge through his lessons.

But we've both been enjoying Satori Reader for reading comprehension. I don't know if this would work for everyone since even the beginner stories do require quite a bit of vocabulary. But it's been a really great way for us to learn reading comprehension. When we come across new grammar points, he helps me understand them. (requires subscription)

Wanikani is a really good resource for learning kanji. I haven't gotten far in it and was kinda skeptical of it at first but I find it's been more helpful then I ever expected! (free for the first several lessons and then requires a subscription. Often has big discounts in the new years.

Been using Duolingo for the 'habit' building and it's been helpful for learning hiragana and just slowly building on basics.

I've also had Fluency Tool (phone app) recommended but I haven't tried it yet myself so I can't really recommend it.


If anyone has any good ideas or resources for expanding vocabulary, I'd love to hear them. I've used Anki Deck flash cards but honestly, flash cards make me wish for death. I don't know if there IS any better way to learn vocab through.

Has anyone tried the steam game 'Learn Japanese RPG: Hiragana Forbidden Speech' ? I've got it favourites on steam and was thinking about trying it out but haven't been sure yet.

I used to learn Japanese but, unfortunately, I never made it past N5. Regardless, if you're learning katakana/hiragana a great game to help supplement it is You Can Kana on steam!

Renshuu is also a great flashcard type of app that you can customize quite a bit, even as a free member.

I'm learning Japanese at college, but I'm still only at the elementary (baby) levels lol. I'm gonna have to try out the Renshuu app! It sounds so cute and hopefully it can help. I've basically mastered Hiragana and Katakana but Kanji is a whole threat.

I've got an almost-BA in East Asian Studies with Japan Studies as a major, but I've been out of the loop for so long (mental/ADHD reasons) that I forgot like 90% :')

I do still have a tip, though this one is more general: Find your learning type! I had so much trouble at first because I tried mostly visual learning (flashcards, reading etc.), but I'm very much a writing type. The only way I really got those kanji into my head was by writing them over and over again.

If you're looking for a good online dictionary, I mainly used jisho.org. Especially the search by radicals and the stroke order shown with each kanji helped me immensely. There might be better ones out there by now, no idea.

I just finished a university course of basic Japanese. Six months of education and it feels like just the tip of the iceberg! It's nice to be able to understand even a little of what the characters in my tokusatsu shows are saying.

I use Renshuu as well, I particularly enjoy playing shiritori on there. I'm considering buying a kanji drill workbook, like for kids to practice writing.

Now that I'm not at uni anymore it'll be a challenge to keep progressing, but I feel pretty motivated right now.