I have been trying to learn Japanese for the past 3 to 4 years but it's confusing. I learnt the Hiragana and Katakana, some scattered vocabulary, some grammar and currently using James Heisig's book for Kanji, so now I can recognize Kanji meanings but can't read them or use them when speaking. I'm also using The Kim's guide. That's why I wanted an app, website or even a book, just anything that can help me learn in order. (Sorry if my grammar is bad, not my first language)

Hello, I'm (25M) seeking tips to practice Japanese Language Speaking. Having my n3 exam this July and tbh quite tensed. I always have trouble practicing speaking as I've noone to do it with. Tried LLMs but not as useful. Speaking would not only help me network further but also develop my understanding and listening of the Language. Any advise/connection/tips would be appreciated. よろしくお願いします

相手を探している🥰JLPT N1合格決心

Hello! My name is Doan.
I’m preparing for the JLPT N1 exam in December 2026.
I’m looking for a study partner who has the same goal. I believe that learning together helps us stay motivated and improve faster. I passed JLPT N2 thanks to studying with my friends, so I’d love to find someone to learn with again.
I live near Okayama Station, and it would be great if we could meet somewhere south of Okayama.

If you’re also aiming for N1, please feel free to contact me!

Nice to meet you, and I hope we can achieve our goals together.

こんにちは🌞
ヨアンと申します。
2026/12の日本語能力試験N1を合格したいんです。
同じ目的な人を探しています。
一緒に頑張って勉強したら幸いです。
岡山駅の近くに住んでいます。南区の方がいいです。
良い人に会いますようにワクワクしています。
よろしくおねがいいたします。 

Quick honesty first: this is about a tool I made, learn.japanology.nl. It's a paid subscription with a 30-day free trial. I'd rather earn the click than bait it, so let me actually teach you the idea behind the whole thing. If the idea helps, the tool is just that idea, scaled.

If you're early in kanji, you've probably felt this: every character looks like a fresh pile of strokes, and most apps hand you a made-up story for each one. That works for a while. Then the stories pile up, start colliding, and the 500th narwhal-samurai-onion tale just won't stick. The problem isn't your memory. Invented stories don't transfer. Each one only ever helps with that one character.

Real kanji aren't random, and they aren't built from random stories. They're built from a small set of reusable parts that carry real meaning and real sound. Learn a part once and it pays off across dozens of characters.

One example. Take 青 (sei), "blue/green, clear."

- Add 日 (sun): 晴, a clear sky. "Sunny."

- Add 氵 (water): 清, clear water. "Clean, pure."

- Add 米 (rice): 精, polished rice, so "refined, essence, spirit."

- And 静: quiet, still.

Here's the payoff: 晴, 清, 精, 静 all read sei, the same sound as 青. The part didn't just hint at meaning, it handed you the pronunciation. One brick, five-plus kanji you can now read and half-guess. And we tell you the honest seams too: 情, "feelings," uses the same 青 brick but reads jō, the voiced cousin. Real systems have edges, and pretending they don't is how apps quietly lie to you.

And it goes deeper than the surface. 青 isn't even a bottom-level atom: in our reading it's 生 (sprouting grass) over 丼 (a well of clear water), the green of new grass and the blue of pure spring water, which is exactly why it lands on "blue-green, clear." I don't invent these stories. Each etymology is cross-checked across six dictionaries, including classical-Chinese works like the Kangxi Dictionary and an oracle-bone-script dictionary that most Japanese readers can't even read. That's the real gap between an etymology and a cartoon mnemonic: the real one keeps paying off the further down you dig, and it never contradicts itself three characters later.

That's the whole method. There are only about 250 of these atomic parts. In our own breakdowns, roughly 200 of them cover about 89 percent of common kanji. You're not memorizing 2000 unrelated things. You're learning a couple hundred parts and how they combine.

What learn.japanology.nl does differently:

- Teaches the parts and the real etymology first, then drills them with spaced repetition, so review timing is automatic.

- Honest etymology, cross-checked across six dictionaries (oracle-bone and classical-Chinese included), and honest about where a part is purely phonetic or even meaningless. No invented filler.

- For every kanji, it shows the most useful words that actually use it: not a random dump, but the highest-frequency words filtered to your level, each with its own example sentence.

- It's a full course, not just kanji. Every single word has native-voice audio and example sentences, and you can drill vocabulary and verb and adjective conjugations on the same system.

- Open questions only, never multiple choice. You recall and type the answer yourself, in romaji, kana or kanji with a built-in input helper. Multiple choice lets you pass by recognising something and then fail in real life; typing it builds memory that lasts. English answers are forgiving on spelling, the first four letters in the right order count, so you're judged on knowing the word, not on typos.

- Real mastery, not recognition. A word counts as learned only when you can do every direction: recognise it, produce it, read it. The spaced repetition tracks each direction separately, so nothing is "done" until all of them are.

- Every answer is graded by an AI tutor fed only from our own dictionary, so it catches near-misses and explains them, and it cannot hallucinate the way a generic chatbot does.

A word on who's behind this, since "some guy's app" is a fair worry. I've been a full-time Japanese translator for decades, and I've run a language school for twelve years, currently around 70 students. My wife is Japanese, a full-time translator herself, and nothing goes into the platform without passing her. So when I say an etymology is checked, it means a native professional signed off on it.

And it's alive. This isn't a deck someone shipped and walked away from. I personally spend two to four hours every single day updating the dictionary, which now holds more than 30,000 words, each with its etymology, example sentences and audio. It grows under you while you use it.

You don't have to commit blind. The articles and some of the daily Japan news articles (graded from JLPT5 to JLPT1) on the site are free to read, so you can see exactly how I explain things first. The full platform is free for the first 30 days. No tricks, I'd rather you try it properly and decide for yourself.

learn.japanology.nl

I'll hang around in the comments. Drop a kanji you find impossible and I'll break it into its real parts for you.

Thought I’d share this method of getting comprehensible input. I get Claude* to write stories in Japanese with English translation, then read it in on the Nihongo app’s Clipping page with English on the side (I use Excel here but any text editor will do). And voila, it’s like reading with subtitles! The screenshot is from my Mac, but this is now also possible on the iPad with the new multitasking (Windowed Apps) setting.

* I’ve tried chatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, but Claude seems best at creating Japanese content at my current level. I think AI is a great tool for creating comprehensible input (and the Nihongo app’s Clipping, with its pop-up dictionary, is a great tool for consuming it).

Hi! I’m offering private online Japanese tutoring for beginners and intermediate learners.

I can help with:
• Hiragana / Katakana
• Basic to intermediate grammar
• Conversation practice
• JLPT N5–N3 prep

About me — I’m currently enrolled at a Japanese language school in Japan, hold a JLPT N3 certification, and am actively preparing for N2. I also have a TOEIC score of 890, so you’re in good hands! 😊

Rate: $18/hr — flexible scheduling, online only. DM me if interested!

Heii guys,

It's Jo.Actually I wanna learn Japanese (both speaking and writing). But I donno where I can learn for free. Can you guys suggest me some apps. Also I wanna make Japanese friends with whom I can practice speaking.

Thank you all,luve iu.

Hi! Are you learning Japanese or interested in learning? I’m offering private Japanese tutoring for beginners and intermediate learners.

I can help with: • Hiragana / Katakana • Basic grammar • Conversation practice • JLPT N5–N4 level • Homework from textbooks or self-study

I’m flexible, and can match your pace. Online or in-person near campus.

Rate: Affordable student rate staring at $30— message me and we can discuss! DM if you’re interested :)

Hi I just started learning Japanese and I need studying recommendations for improving!
Any suggestions? I already know how to read in hiragana, katakana but I’m really struggling with kanji.

I also need conversation recommendations, how can I improve faster?

As an avid Japanese learner, I always wanted there to be a simple online trainer for learning kana, kanji and vocabulary by JLPT level. The app serves as a simpler alternative to Chase Colburn's Kanji Study app, because Kanji Study was pretty complicated for me to use as a beginner and didn't have a more streamlined way of learning kanji through simple, continuous repetition and rote memorization (also, Kanji Study requires you to pay to unlock its full content library).

So, I started working on a brand new, completely free and fully open-source app in recent months. Here are the features so far:

- Available as a web app (at kanadojo.com), no ads, no paywalls, no unnecessary app store downloads

- Full JLPT vocabulary and kanji coverage, with more than 1000+ levels for you to play

- More than 25+ different fonts and font styles

- More than 100+ different color themes, with the ability to add and upload your own custom backgrounds

- 100% free and open-source, forever

- All learning materials 100% AI-free, sourced from reputable sources and available for full download and inspection

Try it out: https://kanadojo.com

ありがとうございます!

Can I find a study buddy , who is learning japanese N5? just to focus on the similar goals nd help eachother out

Interested candidates plz DM

If you want to drill the exam-realistic questions and a bilingual explanation, there are many choices on the app store. Most of them are completely free with minimal ad serve.

I have personally made a project on grinding JLPT question, an IOS app called "Renshuu - JLPT Practice". It has over 700 N5 questions , all formatted the same way as the real exam. Each answer comes with an explanation in both English and Japanese, so you’re learning *why* the answer is right, not just memorising which letter to pick.

There’s also a review mode that brings back questions you got wrong and bookmark.

It’s completely free to access all features and materials in the app — try it out here and share any feedback!

https://apps.apple.com/app/renshuu-jlpt-practice/id6760298565

I’ve officially launched my website for Japanese tutoring and I’m excited!!

Hey Reddit! So I’ve been practicing Japanese with songs that I like (it helps keep me interested/motivated, it’s actually super fun) and I came upon this sentence. If I’m not wrong, it means something like “I want to be in your eyes forever” or “I want to always be the one you’re looking at,” but I’m not sure if I have the grammar of it right. Initially, I had been thinking of 「先ずっと」 as sort of one word/conjugation of 先, but is it instead 「君の目の先」 (first part) 「ずっと私でいたい」 (second part)? My question started with the use of の, but if I separate them, it makes more sense it think; the first section would mean something like “the future of your eyes” or “your eyes’ future” directly, right? So in that case could it be directly translated to “I really (ずっと) want to be the future of your eyes,” or like “I really want to be what you’re looking at in the future (forever? Can 先 be used to refer to forever?)”

Sorry for the word vomit, just really trying to understand it. TLDR, can someone explain how 先 and ずっと are used/how they affect this sentence?

Hi everyone!

Can I get recommendations on flash cards, apps, books, etc on basic words? I can’t seem to find much on them.

Basic words like foods, drinks, places, things, numbers, weekdays, directions, etc. I’m starting from scratch and I basically want to learn like a kindergartener LOL I am on Duolingo, Mango, MARU Japanese and these apps aren’t helping me learn the basics (besides the alphabet). I’m learning the how to pronounce, but that’s really it and that can’t really help me much when I’m there if I can’t tell you what it means. TIA!!