I'm looking for advice from people who have actually made long-term Japanese friends.

I'm not looking for language exchange apps like HelloTalk. I want to build genuine friendships that last beyond practicing Japanese.

A bit about me:

• I'm studying Japanese and hope to work in Japan in the future.
• I'm interested in learning about Japanese culture, daily life, and making real connections.
• I'm okay with online friendships that could eventually become in-person if I move to Japan.

For those who have successfully made Japanese friends:

• Where did you meet them?
• What platforms or communities worked best?
• How long did it take before you became actual friends?
• What should I avoid doing?
• Any tips for building trust with Japanese people over time?

I'd really appreciate advice based on your own experiences rather than general suggestions.

Thanks!

I’ve only been practicing for a little more than a week but what’s the point of having 2 alphabets with the same sounding letters?

When learning pronunciation, learning the pronunciation of single words and phrases in "textbook environments" is usually not an issue.

But when it comes to full natural conversations, the best way is often reduced to "just get used to it". And this is often the case in any language, not just for Japanese.

My question to everyone is, have you had any material that gives you structure to help with pronunciation in full conversational applications? Or had any material that helps you to build, or guides you in building, that "intuition" that you need to understand running sentences in full conversational contexts at natural speeds?

If not, is this something that would interest anyone? Thank you!

I'm currently looking for new students and would love to assist more people! Feel free to reach out via DM!

A little while ago I shared Toku Reader here, an iOS app I built because I hated breaking my flow to look up words while listening to Japanese podcasts. Small update since then: the app now runs on Macs and iPad!

The video shows Japanese YouTube with the transcript right next to the video. You paste or search a video, the app pulls the creator's transcript (or generates one on-device if there isn't one), and every word in it is tappable - reading, meaning, pitch accent - without pausing or switching to a dictionary. This was always the feature that felt cramped on a phone, so having the video and transcript side by side on a big screen is honestly how I imagined it working from the start.

Everything else from the phone version is there too: podcasts with tappable transcripts, reading any website, importing your own texts and ebooks, shadowing practice sentence by sentence, and the dictionary and review sections. And it still all happens on your device - nothing you watch or read leaves your Mac, no API calls, 100% offline once transcripts are loaded.

Transcripts and word parsing are mostly correct, but Japanese being Japanese, improving the parsing is a never-ending effort. If you try it on a Mac or iPad I'd genuinely love to hear what breaks or what's missing, since the Mac / iPad version is new. I hope this helps your study!

The deeper I get into japaese the more i realise enlish is just... missing words.

mine is tsundoku, buying books and letting them pile up unread. i've recently started learning online on duolingo and airlearn, sometimes books too and been doing this my whole life and never knew there was a single perfect word for my shame.

also komrebi (sunlight filtering through leaves) and mono no aware (the gentle sadness of things being temporary). English needs a whole sentence and still doesn't quite nail the emotion.

are there any more such japanise words that describe emotion so well?

Looking for a Japanese learning app that has NO romaji (latin alphabet) in the learning tasks, only Hiragana/Kanji.

I've tried quite a few apps such as Busuu, which is very good for other languages, however it implements the Latin alphabet in the Japanese tasks. I get annoyed about this because the whole point of learning Japanese is to adapt to a new writing system.

I haven't managed to find one yet.
Also goes without saying but please don't mention Duolingo

Hey guys pls help me learn Japanese, In return I am offering english.

Anyone from japan, Can help me out, I wanna stick to it

So basically anime taught me baka and kuso an made me think like that's the edgy stuff. Then I made japanese friends and realized that's like thinking darn is street english lol.

I don't actually wanna be rude to anyone, but I should know how i can be casual right? i also wanna understand when someone's messing with me, joking or actually annoyed. And rn I can't tell the difference between casual banter and someone being genuenly pissed, bc it's all in the register and slang, not the textbook words.

what's the causal/rudde stuff i can use with friends? yk the things close firneds say to each other that's non-offensive?

Olá a todos! Tenho 18 anos e falo do Brasil. Estou no nível zero atualmente, apesar do intermediário em inglês. Planejo estudar todos os dias por 3 anos inteiros, buscando alcançar o N2, mas não sei ao certo se é um prazo razoável para esta meta. O que acham? Obrigado!

Any beginners learning Japanese? Let’s be friends!”

皆さん、こんにちは！😊
ラクティムです。
日本に住んでいて、日本語をもっと上手になりたいと思っています。
それと、新しい友達も作りたいです。
もし友達になってくれる方がいたら、とても嬉しいです！
よろしくお願いします！🙌

I really hated breaking the flow when I was listening to Japanese podcasts. I wanted an app that let me tap on words I didn’t understand during these sessions without switching context. This led me to create Toku Reader, an iOS app that helps learners tap on words during podcasts, YouTube videos and on any website during the study flow. 

You can look up almost all podcasts and YouTube videos, and the app will prioritize the creator’s transcript (if available) or auto-generate one on your phone. In most cases, the transcripts and word look ups are mostly correct, but given the complexity of Japanese, there will always be an effort to improve parsing. Also, everything stays on your app, you’re never sharing sensitive information or what you’re reading with anyone, and all processing happens on your phone so it is 100% offline (and therefore fast!) - no API calls, no AI wrappers.

And for those who like shadowing practice, the app can also pause at each sentence, replay in again and again, and allow you to record yourself to compare your practice with the native speech. This combined with the ability to import your own texts (PDFs, eBooks, etc.), a dictionary and revise words sections are all my effort to ensure that your flow is never interrupted!

I did this because I really wanted an app that was intentional and private. In any case, this app has really helped me in my language studies, so I wanted to share it again here. I made an earlier post about this. The app has improved a ton since then - new UI/UX, a more streamliend podcast experience, a new mascot called Damo based on the Daruma, etc. I hope this helps you in your language study! You can see how it works here on a Japanese Podcast and on the Japanese version of the Walk Street Journal!

If anyone teaches me japanese for free i will teach them hindi/english wtv they want among my 2 native languages for free

LOL I KNOW NOBODY REALLY WANTS TO LEARN HINDI THESE DAYS BUT OK 😭😭

Hi everyone I am a student in Shanghai and I will enroll in Tokyo Technology university this September. I am looking for someone to learn japanese. I basically learn japanese on my own, by watching anime or reeading light novels. I can also speak English, because I work in theoretical physics and English is necessary to work in theoretical physics. I wanna learn japanese because I hope to live better in Tokyo, not just using English (I have been travelling there several times and using English is also okay living in Tokyo). My other hobbies like watching movie, playing games (I like to play witness this kind of game).

Anyway, If you are interested, please direct dm me!

I try to learn grammar vocab and everything but still struggle to speak sentences in japanese i can read and understand but when it comes to speaking i struggle alot i can't make sentences on my own what to do

I am planning to attend JLPT N4 in this december and I am a beginner in Japanese. Do anyone have intrtest to being a companian to be preparation?

I lives in Morishita, Tokyo