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Apps for learning Kanji

Japanese kanji study - 漢字学習  

This app is great for learning kanji. You will learn the meaning, reading, different vocabulary, sentences, and my favorite feature of all: stroke order! You can also take a quiz by using this app (^_-)

 Take note that if you want to access all JLPT level, you have to purchase it. The price is cheaper compared to buying books (but I think it depends on country. Here in the Philippines, Kanji practice books are expensive.) 

NHK Japanese - Easy learner 

I use this app to practice my reading skills . It contains articles that are easy to read and understand. You can set your article to show 振りがな (ふりがな - kana over kanji to indicate pronunciation). When you click the kanji, it will show its meaning

You can play the audio, so you can imitate the pronunciation of each word. You can also download the article to read/listen offline.

NHK News Reader

Another app that I use to practice my reading skills, but this contains difficult article.

The same as the previous app, you can set it to show furigana, and you can click the kanji to read its meaning

Takaboto: Japanese Dictionary This is an offline dictionary. I really love this app because you can also learn each kanji used on the word, and also their stroke order.

I always use this app whenever I use the previous NHK app. This helps me to understand the meaning more. 

You can also learn how the word can be used on sentence by clicking the phrase tab.

I hope this will help for those who plan to study Kanji. 

Art journal details (Flatsound - We’re Fighting Again)

my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

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[transcript under the cut]

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How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

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Active Revision Tips

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Bizarre study tips #32

You know what many top students do differently? They don’t solve all the problems/questions once. They do it again and again.

So now if you have a question set, solve it as many times as possible and you’ll be surprised to find how automated your hand moves during the exam this time!

my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

[click images for high quality]

[transcript under the cut]

Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Stop Procrastinating

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Unusual Study Tips

How To Do Uni Readings

Active Revision Tips

How to Focus in Online Classes

Keep reading

How do you take your picture? Like they are very aesthetic and the lightning is just really good adhfkgkjkgk !!!! Can you tell me any tips for the lightning ??? Thanks so much !!!

ahh thank you so much! currently i take all my photos using my dying iphone 6s! real talk tho, i’m terrible at editing pictures consistently :( i’m still learning and trying to nail down an aesthetic BUT!! i do have a few tips that i’ve picked up! 

natural light is your best friend! i try and take all of my journal photos on the same white table i have set up next to bedroom window. i also usually take them somewhere between 9-10 am, which gives me slightly more consistent lighting that isn’t as harsh. experiment to find the best lighting of the day where you are!

move to the light! is your desk too far from your window? or is the best light somewhere else in the house? no problem, just pick up a sheet or something you can lay out as your backdrop and arrange your supplies wherever the light is best, whether that’s the living room by the french doors, your brother’s huge desk that he only uses for gaming, the dining room table…wherever dude! a white pillowcase is mobile and you can even carry your stuff in it lol.

edit brightness using the app snapseed! i upload the raw photo with no filters or edits to snapseed first, and i usually just let the curves tool do the lightening of the shadows in my photos for me. i think it washes out the whole photo less than just upping the overall brightness in like vsco or something.

only apply filters/color edits after you’ve adjusted your brightness! a lot of preset filters on apps like snapseed or vsco are going to automatically adjust the contrast, shadows, highlights, and temperature of your photo. you don’t want to spend time on an edit only to discover that when you change the brightness it suddenly looks funky. not fun :( also, always edit with your screen at max brightness so you can see clearly what you’re doing!

hopefully that was helpful, but i’m still learning as well! best of luck friend!

my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

[click images for high quality]

Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Stop Procrastinating

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

My Experiences With GCSEs

The last few weeks have just been working, drinking coffee, rushing to catch lectures and then studying until late. On repeat. It has been so long since I’ve needed to study this much; but I can feel my french getting better everyday, so the hard work has been worth it ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Choose your academia!

Beginner Japanese Resources

I’ve seen quite a lot of these going around, and have definitely taken quite a few pages out of their books, but I thought I had some bookmarks I’d like everyone to know more about, even if they already did. ^^ If you think something is wrong, or know something is wrong, then please tell me!

g r a m m a r 

Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese Grammar (easy acquaintance with grammar, but not much in-depth)

IMABI (best free grammar resource but too much information for beginners, or so it’s said. still very helpful.)

Tim’s Takamatsu/ Tim Sensei’s Corner (also good. i heard of someone who printed out the older website and got fluent in Japanese with this, so it’s probably worth checking out)

Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar (hands down the best grammar resource, bit pricey or you could just download these PDFs).

Bunpro (good for interactive grammar studies, free until may 10 and there’s a one month free trial for subscription after that)

g r a m m a r / b l o g s

Japanese Ammo (native speaker and tutor’s blog, she also has a Youtube channel here)

Maggie-Sensei (grammar articles are a bit mismatched but good for little references)

Tofugu (probably the best culture and resources blog I’ve come across. a must.)

Romy-sensei (Japanese teacher, blog is VERY helpful)

DJT Guide (for a beginner outlook on how to start and where, named because of the daily japanese thread that I don’t have too much information on but it’s a daily thread where people learning japanese shared resources/ progress/ motivational whatevers)

i n t e r a c t i v e  l e a r n i n g

Delvin Language (shows clips and asks you to identify what’s spoken. Very good for listening and you can slow them down, though use that sparingly. kinda spammy tho.)

Japanese Class (found this a few years ago, but it’s a gamified site that helps you learn vocabulary with regular exposure. recommended.)

Japanese in Anime and Manga (for fellow otakus. a bit hard for me to navigate, but it’s along a similar vein as the above site. offered in spanish, chinese, korean and french, besides english.)

Erin’s Challenge (recommended for upper beginners, or lower intermediates, but there’s a lot to do now as well! very good for listening and reading- with transcripts and subtitles- in the form of a school life role-play. offered in quite a few other languages.)

Duolingo (not a lot of information, nor is it very in-depth. good for dabbling in, maybe. try the website, not the app, if you really want to use it.)

LingoDeer (BEST app for learning the language. You could do a lot on it alone, and it can probably take you up to a little above N5, but don’t keep using it standalone for long! also offers chinese, korean and now vietnamese!)

t e x t b o o k s

TextFugu (tofugu’s online textbook, made specifically for self-study, though it works good in conjunction with classes and tuition)

Genki (widely used, most recommended by people)

Minna no Nihongo (also very popular. some consider it better than genki.)

Japanese for Busy People (especially if you’re a little short on time)

Japanese for Everyone (generally good reviews, with a lot of vocabulary - an estimated 2500 maybe? convert djvu to pdf to use.)

k a n j i (course books)

Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course aka KKLC (a kanji learning course with vocabulary in it.)

Remembering the Kanji (aka the acclaimed ‘Japanese learner’s beginning holy grail’. but it totally depends upon what you’d prefer tbh. can make you recognise kanji and what they could stand for, but that’s about it.)

Kanji Damage (aka remember 1700 Kanji with offensive yo mama jokes. ridiculous? hilariously, it does work for some.)

WaniKani (people swear by this. you can try out the first three levels to see the magic, even if you don’t think it’s your style.)

l i s t e n i n g

mykikitori (for Genki 1 apparently)

Japanese Pod 101 (a good online course in itself, but the podcasts are the most helpful of the lot. @lovelybluepanda has made them available here.)

o t h e r s

DJT Resources (sub-link of DJT Guide but probably has all the Japanese resources you could ever want!)

Nihongo e Na (more resources, probably worth checking out)

Nihongo Resources (along a similar vein with the purpose in its name)

Jakka (the site is entirely in Japanese, but it has kanji for grade school, broken up appropriately)

Happy Lilac (kind of the same as above with kanji stroke order practice material, meant for Japanese children)

This may be repeated, because similar, if not the exact same, resources in DJT are categorised neatly here. @lovelybluepanda again.

check more masterposts, some of which have been compiled here by @languagesandshootingstars

日本語の森 (Nihongo no Mori) (Good Youtube videos for beginners and advanced learners alike! They even have their lessons separated by JLPT levels!)

While that’s it for all the Japanese resources I feel do not go around a lot now, I did compile some points Japanese beginners might be doubtful in and what I had found from my own research. 

Genki or Minna no Nihongo?

Minna no Nihongo has more vocabulary (2100-2200 for 初級 levels i.e. the beginner books) while Genki boasts a little lesser (1700 for genki 1+2). Minna no Nihongo has allegedly more grammar coverage ( 〜ように、〜ために- used in native speech). However, the book is entirely in Japanese (there is a separate book for English explanations) and there is a separate book for Kanji too. The Answer Key is at the back of the book, unlike Genki which has a separate Answer Key. 

Genki is said to be more beginner-friendly than Minna no Nihongo, but if you put your mind to it, you can do either tbh. Just choose any book and stick with it!

** If you’re planning to study in Japan anytime, remember that Japanese teachers usually use Minna no Nihongo. But better do your research as well. 

Kanji?

Everyone can put in all the work they like in Kanji, but at the end of the day, Kanji is not the only thing about Japanese. You can totally use Anki or Quizlet or Memrise to drill it in, maybe even make your own flashcards and put in extra work! But to really get fluent in the language, talking to native speakers (helpful guide by @jibunstudies) is very important. Even if you don’t fully understand what they’re saying, you acquire more vocabulary and will get the nuance of basic sentences! And you get friends too, if you’re lucky!

Just for reference and no pressure, here’s the general requirement to pass JLPT levels, if you’re ever planning to take them!

Level  Kanji Vocabulary  Listening               Hours of Study N5     ~100   ~800         Beginner                 150 (estimated) N4     ~300   ~1,500        Basic                     300 (estimated) N3     ~650   ~3,750     Lower Intermediate 450 (estimated) N2     ~1000 ~6,000     Intermediate           600 (estimated) N1     ~2000 ~10,000   Advanced               900 (estimated)

(… yeah, that looks way better on a computer ok.) Remember, estimated doesn’t mean it will take you that much time exactly. Everyone learns differently! And ‘talent’ can be overcome by enough hard work so  ファイト!

頑張れ !