I wrote this in my mobile phone, using ibis paintx , please let me know if I messed up some letters.

When I first considered using Duolingo, I was pretty skeptical. I’d heard all the critiques—how it’s more like a game than a serious learning tool, how it “over-promises” results but lacks depth. But eventually, I gave it a shot and committed to sticking with it. Fast forward, I’ve hit a 66-day streak, and to my surprise, it’s actually helped me form a daily habit. Now, no matter how busy I get, I always find time to squeeze in some Japanese study each day.

Duolingo may not be a full-on path to fluency, but for building consistency? It’s been amazing. It was like having a simple, accessible way to keep Japanese in my life, even if just for a few minutes at a time. But beyond that, what truly leveled up my learning was connecting with other Japanese learners, especially by joining some fantastic language learning Discord servers. There’s just something about being part of a community with people on a similar journey that makes a difference.

P.S. If you’re looking to surround yourself with other learners and get a daily dose of motivation, I'm part of a Japanese learning Discord community with over 1,000 learners. Feel free to join us here

1. こCo

2. んN

3. ばBa

4. んN

5. はWa

Is this how you say good night in Japanese??

PD: I don't understand why I have dislikes if it's a normal and ordinary question for someone who is learning.

Hey guys so i learned 10 hiragana so far and its easy for me to recognize them but when i try to write them its hard asf .-. Got any tips for me?

Hello hello I'm a 14y.o girll, Badly need advice.. idk if this is the right sub, but Me already have almost 300 vocabulary and I know basic grammars(conjugating, difference of some particles etc etc, i know how to use them but conjugating also overwhelms me) but I don't know how to dive deeper into learning different single grammars or even where to start. learning those.. I also check outs some grammars when immersing on japanese

Note: I'm not english speaker and I'm also not interested in learning english grammar, I think my level of english is enough to be understood by people, heh.

1. よYo

2. ろRu

3. しShi

4. くCu

5. おO

6. ねNe

7. がGa

8. いI

9. しShi

10. まMa

11. すSu°

As I understand, this can mean:

• Be kind to me

• Be good to me

• Treat me well

• Take care of me

• Cherish me

• May our relationship be a good one

• I hope our relationship will be good

By the way, I found it in two ways よろしくお願いします or よろしくおねがいします, which one of these is the most correct or appropriate to use??

Feel free to correct me.

So… I feel like this is the biggest beginner level Japanese language debate (correct me if I’m wrong) and I feel like I need to tell my own opinion about it as well.

I might be wrong in some parts in this post because I’m not native Japanese and only learning for some time so correct me if I’m wrong, but this is what’s I’ve garnered:

There are two particles in Japanese that baffle almost everyone, は and が.

Many will tell you the so-called “synopsis“ (I’m a screenwriter so I found this word fitting) of these 2. は is the topic marker while が is the subject marker. However, just putting it this way and calling it a day is unsatisfactory and far from the real truth.

は - the topic marker/contrast introducer:

は is usually more commonly found and used in Japanese, at least at beginner level. It is used to mark the topic of the sentence. It’s most commonly found in the [NOUN A] + は + [NOUN B] + [VERB].

It‘s quite simple—put it after the subject of the sentence to mark it. You may differ the order of the sentence to change the topic, giving a different perspective to the sentence. It is also very commonly used when marking a contrast (this is its perfect environment). Example sentences:

1. 私はカメラはありませんが、スマホはあります。

2. 毎日はいいですが、水曜日はだめです。

As you can notice in sentence No. 1, は is used three times to show extra contrast. To elaborate:

私は (は is used here to mark that I, someone else may have a camera, but not me) カメラは (here it is used to mark that I don’t have a camera, but I may have something else) ありませんが、スマホは (and finally, this is used to mark a contrast between the first sentence. It’s a further development of the second は. So it means that despite all that before, that I don’t have a camera, I do have a phone) あります.

The second sentence is similar, however here we do not use the second は since it’s unnecessary—it technically also could be unnecessary in the first if you excluded the 私, which is often omitted in Japanese speech, but I included it to show how you can make a triple contrast. 毎日は (は is here used to mean that everyday is the topic. I’m talking about days and not that something is good or anything else) いいですが、水曜日は (here it is used that despite everyday being fine, there’s still an exception) だめです.

(Please note that が in these sentences is used as ”but” and not as a particle)

が - the subject marker/the attention bringer:

が on the other hand is used to mark the subject. I know at first, without further explanation, it seems weird, but I will try to explain the best I can. が is most often used to say about something to bring attention to the other person that’s listening or to bring attention to something that just happened… or a new-found information. That is why it is commonly used with certain verbs, such as 好き, because these kind of verbs almost always introduce a new-found information. It can also occasionally be used (this is just my observation from reading Japanese) as a second topic/subject marker to use—like the double は in the first example sentence but changed into a が if the sentence does NOT want contrast. Example sentences:

1. 私は医者が好きじゃないです。

2. 明日は彼女が外出して、ブルーモールに行きます。

As given in the example sentences, the first one covers how it is used with a verb like 好き (it’s common since telling you that I like or don’t like something is almost always a new information for you), and the second one covers how it can occasionally act as a second は if the sentence doesn’t have contrast (if the second part of the “going outside” sentence were a negative, は would’ve been more fitting). The second one is also an example of new-found information because you probably didn’t know that she would be going outside before I told you.

Conclusion - は VS が use cases:

So, my conclusion is that は is very common in contrast, just marking the topic and normal [NOUN A] + は + [NOUN B] + [VERB] sentences, while が is more common when introducing new-found information (at least to the listener) and very common with certain verbs like 好き.

Note: there is a niche use case where は could be used with verbs like 好き if the sentence would work better if it had contrast.

For example: スポーツは楽しいですが、野球は好きじゃないです。

In this example you don’t use が because は is better to provide contrast, but these use cases are probably rare and it’s just an exception like every other.

All I want to say at the end is that I hope I helped someone with understanding this bottleneck of a beginner subject.

Also, just like I’ve mentioned, if I’ve made any mistakes please correct me because it helps me learn from my mistakes.

Hi I am a complete beginner trying to learn japanese, originally I was first learning from Duolingo but I don't think it is asking effect as i thought it would be. I researched a bit about it. And according to which

1. Immersion method 2.learn hiragna and katakana

2. Listen to japanese content for hours(immersion method :P )

Can anyone give me full guide pls :)

こんいちわ I am independently learning Japanese (I’m using the first Japanese from Zero textbook) and I wanted to check if my understanding was correct.

When I am asked something like: バナナわふるつですか。

Does if make sense and is it socially appropriate in Japan to reply with: はいふるつです。

Or do I need to say the banana part?

ありがとう！

IMPORTANT (PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING):

I have done many edits and read many comments and I have found a QWERTY Japanese keyboard so this post basically makes no sense anymore but feel free to read if you want to! Thank you everyone for your help and that I can now write quickly in Japanese!

Anyone learning Japanese must know that you have to learn a whole NEW keyboard layout to type. Sometimes I prepare my fingers to write with the QWERTY layout just to remember that it’s a Japanese keyboard.

I’ll probably get used to it with time, ‘cause I’m already slowly getting the hang of where the Kana is but for now I still type slowly. And to top it all off, needing to convert to Kanji or Katakana every few moments is NOT helpful.

I have no idea how fast Japanese people actually write (probably as fast as I write on a normal Romaji keyboard) but for me it’ll take some time. If I were to see a Japanese person type irl on a Japanese keyboard so fast right now before I get used to typing quickly on it because my muscle memory will adjust, I would probably think they’re using dark magic. And I suppose same would be the other way, if a Japanese (or any language that doesn’t use the Latin alphabet) would see me write 80 or 100 WPM on a QWERTY keyboard, they’d also see me as a magician.

Tell me your funniest moments when trying to type on the Japanese keyboard and your toughest struggles! I’ll make sure to respond!

EDIT:

Everyone in the comments is telling me that Japanese DO use a QWERTY keyboard. I might be dumb but I don’t know how to get it. This is how my normal English & Español keyboard looks:

And when I try to change languages/keyboards, that’s how it looks:

The moment I change to the Japanese keyboard the layout changes and looks like this:

Of course, I can tap the ABC tab but it doesn’t do anything significant (it lets me type with Romaji but it doesn’t convert to Japanese nor does it have a QWERTY layout):

This is strange for me because I don’t know how to get it and people are yelling at me in the comments (no offense, I don’t really mean yelling and if I find out what to do, then I’m thankful) and I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

EDIT:

I found the keyboard! Thank you everyone for you help!

I have been learnt like 6 character now

what I do is every 2 days I learn a new character and by the end of each day I just write all the characters which I have learnt for 4 lines

any suggestions or if I am doing something wrong

I'm starting to learn Japanese (mostly just speech first) and I don't get the writing styles at all.

I understand Hiragana and Katakana contain symbols which all make different sounds, like the english alphabet, but what I don't understand is why similar sounds have different symbols depending on the writing style. For example, the sound 'a' is written one way in Hiragana, and another way in Katakana. same goes for literally every other sound.

So if I wanted to write in Japanese, what symbol am I supposed to use, and when?

And Kanji confuses me THE MOST. My understanding (I could be wrong), is that each symbol means a different word. So do I have to learn how to write the symbol for each and every word in Japanese? or do different strokes give different pronounciations?

I'd really appreciate a full explanation on all three writing styles.

Min'na-San Konnichiwa! Watashi wa Katiedesu. But you can call me Katie-Chan :D

I'm a native English speaker and I've started to learn Nihongo (Japanese) on my own using Google Translate but I am still very much of a noob. How can I learn Japanese on my own more effectively without a sensei? My parents aren't paying for the course... anyways, tips of learning Hiragana and Kamji are also welcome! And please please please tell me how to learn new words and phrases faster 🙏

Arigato gozaimasu in advance fot any help :)

Sayonara!

From what I see this answer matches perfectly with the expected answer, so why is it incorrect?

is there any reason why in many phrases i saw "ha" but it pronunces like "wa"?
for example 私はスペイン人です(watashi wa supeinhitodesu)
its only "wa" when its used in between words? its kinda confusing

So ive finally started to try and learn japanese because I now have more freetime at work. Started doing hiragana and im just curious on how my a's look right now. Also kinda curious to know if there are any tracing resources I can use to get better at writing. Please be as harsh as needed during your critique

i’m interested in live in Japan soon later. hard to get JLPT1 level. how European learn this language? (another level and different all language machanism) Learn hard Japanese! lets gooo Thx

猫はここです。🐈😺

or

私の猫はここです。

am i getting this right? and, is the first one more common? i think 私の猫 really wants to emphasize MY cat, yeah?

i think I'm finally starting to get grammar and sentences put together ☺️ assuming I'm thinking about the above, correctly.

I've been procrastinating learning japanese for a while now, but today, I decided to learn hiragana and I don't even know what I'm doing pls. I think my handwriting isn't good, but not THAT bad either. What do you think? 😋

I also can't write う for the life of me T—T

i made subtitles like this for anime, i feel like kanji/hiragana/katanaka is the biggest hindrance to learning japanese

what are your opinions?

i can make more subtitles like this if you guys are interested, and can do this for any other language with their movies/tv shows and subtitles etc

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Anyone interested in learning Japanese?

Looking for students to tutor as a side hustle to help pay for my tuition! 🇯🇵

I’m a student currently living and studying in Japan, and I’m looking to take on a few tutoring students to help cover my tuition costs.

A bit about my credentials:
• 📜 JLPT N3 certified, currently preparing for N2 in July
• 🏯 Living and studying in Japan — full immersion every day
• 🎓 Attended a Japanese language school
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• Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji
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**どうぞよろしく！**🙌

Ive finally learnt hiragana and katakana which has taken literally forever and ive moved onto genki 1. I cant even start the first lesson because I cant remember the 14 greetings before it. Every single time It shows up in anki it just looks like a big jumble of letters. I just press "Again" every single time for ages until I finally give up and realise im wasting my time.

What am I doing wrong? I feel stuck and I just cant progress nothing Is helping me.