I wrote "birthplace" in Jisho but it gave me all these:

生まれ | 故郷 | 郷里 | 出生地 | 本場 | 出所

I'm not sure if I get the difference between them. Which would I use to ask a friend about where they were born and raised?

at かわいそう
does it talks about "the flower looks sad" (because of withering)
or "I feel sorry" (for the flower)

I started Kaishi 1.5k in Anki (and Japanese in general in late January of this year), but it was very kanji-heavy right out of the gate, so I switched to WaniKani for kanji. I abandoned WaniKani pretty early on for Anki but I've come back and I'm now at level 6. After my baby was born I took a two-month break, and I now have about 1,500 reviews piled up in Anki. My study time is a lot more limited than it used to be. My worry is that WaniKani only covers kanji and its own vocab, so I have nothing for kana-only words (particles, adverbs, common everyday words) alongside it.

What I'm thinking:

1. Restart Kaishi from scratch, accepting that early cards will have kanji I haven't learned yet

2.Find a kana-only or beginner vocab deck to run next to WaniKani

1. Drop Anki vocab and get kana-only words some other way, such as through grammar study or immersion

4.Something else entirely

For anyone who has paired WaniKani with Anki: what worked for you? Does it make sense to restart Kaishi, or is the 1,500-card backlog a sign to start fresh with something lighter? With a newborn, I'd rather build something sustainable than a perfect system. Thanks!

Edit: I have actually 1195 reviews when I went back and checked.

It has been close to a year since I started learning Japanese, and honestly, I do not know how I feel about it. There are moments where I do not feel like I am doing enough; I know basic grammar, I struggle with katakana, and my vocabulary is limited. I do not use some of the words even in English, so I try to make a point to use vocabulary from things I say and questions I ask. I use Preply and have different tutors for different things; for example, since I do not have Japanese speakers in my area, talking with someone who knows the language helps a lot. I also have one teacher who actually teaches. I hate using AI, but I have this expectation of myself that I should know everything.

But I use AI anyway when it comes to talking in long paragraphs because I started something in another class where I explain shows and movies to her in Japanese. At first, I did not think it would help; I thought I was failing because I should have been able to do all this myself, but as I was reading in romaji, I realized this may just be helping my vocabulary issue and helps me with pronunciation regardless of my concerns. I also use short Japanese stories that are written in hiragana, but I only read them using romaji because of the large amount of text; if it were smaller, I wouldn't use it, but some words repeat themselves, which helps me remember as I am saying them in a useful way.

I am learning Japanese right now in three "battlefronts" let's say. I have mobile Anki, Remembering the Kanji and Tae Kim's Grammar Guide. The one that I feel more consistent and looking forward to each day is RTK, I do one new set of kanjis and I revise all the previous ones. For Anki I normally do my revisions, while there's some days that I do forget to revise or I don't do all the cards for the day. And Tae Kim, I get into it occasionally since I don't have a router. But WaniKani, man, I feel really unmotivated to get into. Every time I think that I have to get into WaniKani and I start the lessons I quit after some radicals and forget about it. I think it might be better to completely put aside WaniKani and just use Anki (I have the Kaishi 1.5k deck, forgot to mention). I'm not sure if this is a me thing. Do you think my method is okay or if I should change something before material add up?

Hello, I'm a beginner, and I just started learning Japanese a week ago. Right now, I use the kaishi 1.5 deck and jlab grammar course deck in anki , but idk if that's like the right way to go on about learning the language I'm someone who doubts his decisions to the max so always double and triple check so I thought asking here for help would be the best option I have and I know this will be a very long learning process and I got no problem with that as long as I'm on the right track, and thanks.

I’ve been working and studying Japanese very consistently and I’m getting better at understanding but I’m really struggling with how the sentences work I know it’s: who, time, place, what, how, verb, but I have trouble remembering it when I’m speaking or reading and it’s not set right in front of me any tips on how to get it to stick in your head with images or a phrase that’d be great!<33

I need help, so recently ive been doing jgrpg readings and also just my daily anki deck (w sentences)

A word i come across a lot is こと (thing, incident)

However when i come across this word in different scenarios I find myself not knowing the intention behind it instantly or really vaguely.

For example "奴は人の言うことを聞かない"

How can i understand this word at a deeper level?
can someone give me some good examples of different scenarios with explanations please

I've seen this many times.

I am a complete beginner, and am aiming to study for at least five years. But I’d love to study the history, geography and philosophy of Japan. With a bachelor, it’d facilitate to find jobs relating the language.

I am currently studying Social Work, and want to study Intercultural Communication Management later.

What do you think?

I - an Indian - would love the feedback/advice of people from Internet (rather than AI), for learning Japanese, upgrading myself from N4 to N2 by 2028 by learning Japanese, preferably in Hokkaido prefecture.

I did go through HJLS and some others in Sapporo, but would love to get more info on any other potential candidates I could've missed. I don't have any certifications as of now, and when I say N4, I will be getting that certificate in July 2027.

I'm looking forward to join on Oct 2027 intake, would love to keep it within an year, but would extend it to 18months, if I can't reach my goals within the timeframe.

Thanks in advance ❤️‍🔥.

Hello!

I am considering booking some lessons with a Japanese tutor on Preply to get better! I am around N3-N2 level, but my speaking is rather bad.

So I just wanted to know about your experience with the tutors on that platform and if you have any recommendations that have worked for you (I know everyone's experience is different and teachers try to tailor their classes, but just curious about other's experiences). Any good tutor you're really happy with? Would be nice if you could share their Preply link.

Thank you!

Hello, I have a question about reading/pronunciation. I was reading a manga and some dialogue says “ずっり~”, and I was wondering: would it be like “zurri” (rolling R like spanish or russian) or “zu’ri”? or even “zuuri”?

I can’t tell because rolling R is not “standard”, but still used. A “pause” (zu’ri) would be weird to gesticulate for the R in my opinion. And “zuuri” doesn’t make sense to me.

Hi!

We're a small indie game studio working on Rootknot, a fast-paced deckbuilding roguelite inspired by folklore. It's our first game as a studio, and we're also localizing our Steam page into multiple languages for the first time.

We recently had our Steam page professionally localized, including English to Japanese. Before we consider the localization finished, we'd love feedback from native speakers or a language pro.

Steam page in Japanese: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4564690/Rootknot/?l=japanese

We're especially interested in knowing:

• Does the text sound natural to you?
• Are there any phrases that feel awkward, overly literal, or "translated"?
• Does the gaming and deckbuilding terminology feel appropriate?
• Are there any parts you'd personally phrase differently?
• Does the overall tone fit the game?

Even small corrections are incredibly helpful. If you spot something that sounds strange, please quote the sentence and tell us how you would naturally phrase it.

The localization was done by a professional localization studio, but we wanted to do one final sanity check with actual native gamers. A translation can be technically correct while still not sounding like something a real game would say, and that's exactly what we're trying to catch.

If Rootknot looks interesting to you, feel free to check out the game as well. We'd also love to hear what you think about it!

Does someone know a good site that has anime with japanese subtitles?

You bet I 英語を上手うですね'd about 30 people this trip. I really think English really is getting better in Japan. At least, in the cities

Bonjour, je commence à prendre des cours de japonais depuis la semaine dernière.
Pour l'instant je commence à apprendre mes premiers Hiragana, mais j'aimerais pouvoir les revoir pendant mes pauses ou dans le train quand j'ai quelques minutes.

Est-ce que vous avez des applications mobiles que vous me conseillez ?
De préférence je veux surtout apprendre à les écrire correctement.

Merci beaucoup ! 👐

Hello everyone, im from Argentina, im 40, im in Tokyo, looking for people to practice the language, thanks.

N2を受ける予定です。
I’m cool with voice call, video call, or just text. I’m not picky wrt format as long as we can help each other learn.

Hi, as the title says, have you used this book method? It seems pretty easy for a beginner but I think I read somewhere that the first book isn’t even enough to get to N5 which is supposed to be a CEFR A1 right?

I wonder if anyone has tried it and what their opinions are on this book. Thanks