🌐 Japanese Language Club

[Usseewa ✾ She♡Her ✾]

So let's see how this goes, idk.

 

This is for talking about all things Japan(ese), but mainly the language. There's already an anime club, lol. Also, I am interested in potentially creating a vocaloid song in the future (in English and/or Japanese). If people know a fair amount of Japanese, we could use this thread to help each other with lyrics or translations (for vocaloid or just in general!)

I'm learning Japanese (not that far along), and would be interested in seeing if anyone else is, too! Not sure if this'll turn into anything but yeah.

 

What I know:

The Hiragana, some of the Katakana, and a few basic words lol.

 

I love J-Pop/Japanese Music, Anime. It's really cool to be listening to a song and then recognize a word/phrase (even something like watashi lol).

 

Is anyone else learning Japanese, know Japanese, or are interesting in learning it?

 

Btw rules:

• Be respectful! This goes with everything, but yeah.
• Be nice and patient and stuff. Idk.
• Try not do things just for the sake of "showing off" or confusing others. You can share your progress and stuff, but not if you're just trying to farm aura (lol, sorry). I say this because it's something I'm likely to do but I don't really think it's in the spirit of stuff. If you disagree, feel free to let me know lol. I can get rid of this rule if it's bad.

 

Japanese typing info (for anyone who doesn't know)

Basically, for most devices just go to settings, then look for a languages or keyboards option, and add the Japanese one. You'll then be able to switch between Japanese and the other language(s) you use easily. Ask me or others for help if needed. Or look find a tutorial online or smth.

Also, (depending on your keyboard style), the typing may be "weird." A few years back I knew nothing about Japanese and tried out the keyboard and was confused why it sometimes typed the latin/roman alphabet (A-Z) and other times randomly replaced these letters with Japanese characters. This is because you are typing using Romaji (roman/latin representation of the Japanese syllables and sounds), basically. If you're here, you may already know Japanese and know this, but yeah. So, if you type "a", it turns into "あ". Typing "ka" turns into "か". This happens automatically. You may have some trouble, especially when combining "n" (ん) and the vowels (a, i, u, e, o). For instance, when typing Konnichiwa (こんにちわ), you need to type "konnnichiwa" (note the triple 'n'). Because it sees ko, turns it into こ, then nn ん, then i い, chi ち, and finally wa わ. This is incorrect, however. It should be ni (に), not i (い). Thus, 'n' (ん) can be typed as 'nn' (ん). Yeah lol... idk why I did that.

 

But anyway, resources:

https://kana-quiz.tofugu.com/ - You can follow the Hiragana Guide linked at the top of that page for a nice way to learn the Hiragana. Then, the Katakana Guide linked there too. It's pretty simple in my experience, and I'm fairly confident in all the Hiragana after like a few days. It may take you less time or more time to learn/memorize them, but the mnemonics are very helpful, even if you don't end up using them as much as they get more ingrained.

Anki - this is basically for flashcards or smth. I don't feel like going over it, but you need to make an account at https://ankiweb.net/, then download the app at https://apps.ankiweb.net/#downloads and sign in on the app, then you can download a deck like this: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1196762551 (I didn't make it) and import it using the app. Then you can like sync it and it shows up on the web version too. Or just use the app to study, like me.

 

Note that I basically got all this info from watching YouTube videos lol. This guy is pretty good, I think (he's the one I watched): https://www.youtube.com/@トレントン

 

UHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah?

Was that lame of me to say all that

Idk

 

If anyone else is more knowing in Japanese, should I learn some Kanji?

Edited May 1 by Usseewa

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

1 hour ago, Usseewa said:

If anyone else is more knowing in Japanese, should I learn some Kanji?

It kinda depends on your goals. Most people don't need to learn to write kanji, unless you're just a nerd and want to, like me xD I'd recommend not trying to learn individual kanji, but instead just learn individual vocab words, which will contain kanji. That's gonna be much more efficient and make more sense for the average language learner. 

If you know all the 2136 common use kanji and their meanings, it can def make learning vocab easier, since a lot of words' kanji make logical sense. For instance, 誕生日 is birthday. 誕=birth, 生= life, and 日=day. If you know those three, then it's super easy to remember how to read 誕生日 whenever you see it again. But learning those 2136 kanji is a butt ton of work on the front end, which probably isn't worth it if you don't care about being able to hand-write the language.

Also @Through The Living Grub

[Usseewa ✾ She♡Her ✾]

3 minutes ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

It kinda depends on your goals. Most people don't need to learn to write kanji, unless you're just a nerd and want to, like me xD I'd recommend not trying to learn individual kanji, but instead just learn individual vocab words, which will contain kanji. That's gonna be much more efficient and make more sense for the average language learner. 

If you know all the 2136 common use kanji and their meanings, it can def make learning vocab easier, since a lot of words' kanji make logical sense. For instance, 誕生日 is birthday. 誕=birth, 生= life, and 日=day. If you know those three, then it's super easy to remember how to read 誕生日 whenever you see it again. But learning those 2136 kanji is a butt ton of work on the front end, which probably isn't worth it if you don't care about being able to hand-write the language.

Also @Through The Living Grub

Okay so...

Take this example:

Spoiler

I can read the hiragana (in a letter-by-letter type way, sounding it out lol)

a no [kanji] wo do ko ni (?) [kanji] sa ma shi ta ka.

I think all the stuff after the kanji in blue are mainly for like changing the word a bit or whatever,

But how do I remember the kanji itself? Like, I used mnemonics/images for the hiragana/katakana, but how do I remember "a bunch of lines"?

 

edit: also I probably wanna be able to write them out eventually cuz I, too, am a very nerd

Edited May 1 by Usseewa

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

2 minutes ago, Usseewa said:

Okay so...

Take this example:

  Hide contents

I can read the hiragana (in a letter-by-letter type way, sounding it out lol)

a no [kanji] wo do ko ni (?) [kanji] sa ma shi ta ka.

I think all the stuff after the kanji in blue are mainly for like changing the word a bit or whatever,

But how do I remember the kanji itself? Like, I used mnemonics/images for the hiragana/katakana, but how do I remember "a bunch of lines"?

 

edit: also I probably wanna be able to write them out eventually cuz I, too, am a very nerd

Yeah it is mostly just brute force memory. Mnemonics help a lot if you can think of them, and writing them also helps. The book I use for individual kanji is called Remembering the Kanji, and it uses mnemonics to teach you the first thousand kanji or so, then guides you through making your own mnemonics for the other thousand. It's very good, but it teaches you the kanji in the order best for learning all of them over time, not in order of usefulness. For instance, I know the kanji for gall bladder and legitimate wife but not the kanji for pretty. So it's not good for learning some useful kanji fast, only for if you're serious about learning all 2136.

5 minutes ago, Usseewa said:

a no [kanji] wo do ko ni (?) [kanji] sa ma shi ta ka.

I think all the stuff after the kanji in blue are mainly for like changing the word a bit or whatever,

ano hon = that book, doko ni = where. The mashita after the verb oku is the conjugation, in this case polite past tense. Regular polite is おきます, and past tense you change the す to した. か is the question particle, and turns it into a question. So "Where did you put that book?"

[Usseewa ✾ She♡Her ✾]

8 minutes ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

Yeah it is mostly just brute force memory. Mnemonics help a lot if you can think of them, and writing them also helps. The book I use for individual kanji is called Remembering the Kanji, and it uses mnemonics to teach you the first thousand kanji or so, then guides you through making your own mnemonics for the other thousand. It's very good, but it teaches you the kanji in the order best for learning all of them over time, not in order of usefulness. For instance, I know the kanji for gall bladder and legitimate wife but not the kanji for pretty. So it's not good for learning some useful kanji fast, only for if you're serious about learning all 2136.

ano hon = that book, doko ni = where. The mashita after the verb oku is the conjugation, in this case polite past tense. Regular polite is おきます, and past tense you change the す to した. か is the question particle, and turns it into a question. So "Where did you put that book?"

Oh, should I review Japanese grammar?

To get a basic overview?

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

56 minutes ago, Usseewa said:

Oh, should I review Japanese grammar?

To get a basic overview?

Definitely at least the basics yeah, there's plenty of youtube vids out there. Game Gengo has some good deeper dive grammar videos too

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

Huh. I’ve been summoned.

I have around a year and half. I can read hiragana relatively well, most katakana too with a few ones that I get confused with, and me no like kanji.

3 hours ago, Usseewa said:

But how do I remember the kanji itself? Like, I used mnemonics/images for the hiragana/katakana, but how do I remember "a bunch of lines"?

I agree with Taln on this, it’s rote memorization. Or context clues, like when he said something in the counting thread I kinda guessed that two really complicated kanji were the work study but I was not 100% sure.

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

Today’s edition of confusing Japanese things:

風=かぜ

風邪=かぜ

風 means wind (like kamikaze = divine wind)

風邪 means a cold, like the sickness (literally, wind + wicked)

[TheJ.R.Douglas he/him]

If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, Duolingo has a pretty good system for practicing Kanji. Even if you don’t vibe with the regular lessons, the Kanji practice is pretty solid. You get to read, listen, and practice writing them.

Another small point, because Japanese uses particles, you can mess with the structure of sentences ever so slightly. But that can get confusing because of how we structure sentences in English. I found it fascinating when I first started taking Japanese classes.

Bah, but anyway, I’ll be following this thread now. I love Japanese, language and culture both.

[Usseewa ✾ She♡Her ✾]

On 5/2/2026 at 11:48 AM, #1 Taln Fan said:

Today’s edition of confusing Japanese things:

風=かぜ

風邪=かぜ

風 means wind (like kamikaze = divine wind)

風邪 means a cold, like the sickness (literally, wind + wicked)

why is the wind kanji plus the other kanji still kaze (かぜ)? Did u forget the other one or.. idk?

21 hours ago, TheJ.R.Douglas said:

If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, Duolingo has a pretty good system for practicing Kanji. Even if you don’t vibe with the regular lessons, the Kanji practice is pretty solid. You get to read, listen, and practice writing them.

Another small point, because Japanese uses particles, you can mess with the structure of sentences ever so slightly. But that can get confusing because of how we structure sentences in English. I found it fascinating when I first started taking Japanese classes.

Bah, but anyway, I’ll be following this thread now. I love Japanese, language and culture both.

Oh, neat, I might check 'em out.

I forgot to do Anki yesterday, I think. And the day before maybe? Or was that the one where I did do them? I lose track of days lol.

I don't know much about particles, but from what I do they seem interesting.

Welcome

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

1 hour ago, Usseewa said:

why is the wind kanji plus the other kanji still kaze (かぜ)? Did u forget the other one or.. idk?

22 hours ago, TheJ.R.Douglas said:

They’re both kaze xD The kanji 風 is read か in 風邪, but as かぜ in 風。 it’s a bit confusing lol

[Usseewa ✾ She♡Her ✾]

27 minutes ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

They’re both kaze xD The kanji 風 is read か in 風邪, but as かぜ in 風。 it’s a bit confusing lol

Lol weird/cool

 

side note: is the shard laggy for anyone else

on both my phone and computer. And other websites aren't.

It's, like, never this bad tho

 

edit: ...I guess it's working normally now?

Edited May 3 by Usseewa

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

8 minutes ago, Usseewa said:

Lol weird/cool

 

side note: is the shard laggy for anyone else

on both my phone and computer. And other websites aren't.

It's, like, never this bad tho

I opened it up just now to check notifications, and it took a while.

Also, my brother taught be a funny joke a while ago! Let's see if I can remember it right:

Spoiler

1:わたしは、なにをあしたがありますか？

2:にほんです。

1:はい、わたしたにほんじん！

 

[TheJ.R.Douglas he/him]

45 minutes ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

They’re both kaze xD The kanji 風 is read か in 風邪, but as かぜ in 風。 it’s a bit confusing lol

For whatever reason, I guess it’s tangentially related, this reminded me that PPAP exists

Pen Pineapple Apple Pen, for anyone reading this who doesn’t know, is a song about how the Japanese just be shunting words together to make up new words

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

Friendly reminder to not get behind on flashcards lol. Had almost 300 cards today after skipping 3 days on my vocab 

[Usseewa ✾ She♡Her ✾]

On 5/18/2026 at 2:37 PM, #1 Taln Fan said:

Friendly reminder to not get behind on flashcards lol. Had almost 300 cards today after skipping 3 days on my vocab 

I don't wanna check how many I have due after skipping several weeks

which I couldn't really have not

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

10 minutes ago, Usseewa said:

I don't wanna check how many I have due after skipping several weeks

which I couldn't really have not

Yeah a few weeks might be rough, though if you do want to get back into it, you can make your daily max review limit lower on anki so you don’t have as many per day