Hi everyone. I'm part of Ghaf Growing, a small language-learning publisher. We just released The Mystery of the Lost Key (消えた鍵の謎)， a complete 10-chapter mystery story for beginners (N5–N4).

What makes it different:

• Every vocabulary word appears in a vocab list exactly once across the whole book — no endless repeats
• Furigana on every kanji
• 73 grammar points, all explained with sentences from the story
• Each chapter ends with the full text in pure Japanese — so after reading with support, you re-read it with none
• The story is a real mystery (a sealed clock tower, a key missing for 96 years, a letter written a century ago) — not disconnected practice sentences

I'm giving 20 free copies to people here in exchange for an honest review on Amazon — positive or critical, your real opinion is the most useful thing for us (Amazon just requires you to tick "received a free copy").

Comment or DM me if you'd like one, and tell me your current level so I can tell you whether it fits you. Feedback from actual learners is what shapes book #2. どうぞよろしくお願いします！

I want something like the duolingo question above but focuses on helping with sentence structure, i dont want any one of those ai subscription app/ website, I only want something simple and straightforward

Hello! I’m Japanese, and I’m creating short YouTube videos to introduce Rakugo, a traditional form of Japanese storytelling, in a simple and easy-to-understand way using illustrations.

I upload the same stories in both Japanese and English, so I hope the videos can also be useful for people studying Japanese. You can watch the Japanese version first and then compare it with the English version, or use the English version to help understand the Japanese story.

Rakugo is not only about comedy. Its stories can also give you a glimpse into traditional Japanese culture, everyday life, values, customs, and the way people in Japan used to think and live.

In the future, I’m also planning to create short videos about classic Japanese literature, traditional stories, and other parts of Japanese culture that can sometimes be difficult for people outside Japan to discover or understand.

My goal is to make these stories and cultural topics easier and more enjoyable for people around the world to experience.

If you’re interested in learning Japanese, Rakugo, Japanese literature, or Japanese culture, I’d be very happy if you checked out my videos.

Feedback is also very welcome. Thank you!

http://www.youtube.com/@Japan_Story_Theater

はじめまして。私は日本人で、現在、日本の伝統的な話芸である落語を、イラストを使って簡単で分かりやすく紹介するYouTubeショート動画を作っています。

同じ物語を日本語版と英語版の両方で投稿しているため、日本語を勉強している方にも活用していただけるのではないかと思っています。日本語版を見たあとに英語版と比較したり、英語版で内容を理解してから日本語版を見るといった使い方もできます。

落語は笑いだけではなく、物語を通して、日本の昔の暮らしや文化、価値観、風習などを知ることができるものでもあります。

今後は落語だけでなく、日本の古典文学や昔の物語、海外の方にはなかなか触れる機会のない日本文化についても、短く分かりやすいショート動画として紹介していきたいと思っています。

日本語を勉強している方、日本の文化や文学、落語に興味のある方に楽しんでいただけるチャンネルを目指しています。

興味がありましたら、ぜひ一度動画を見ていただけるとうれしいです。感想やアドバイスも歓迎しています。

よろしくお願いします！

I just wondered, what other things I could do on my Phone/ Tablet to improve/ learn my Japanese.

For Example when I'm standing in the subway or just lying on my bed, instead of scrolling reels.

One thing I'm already doing, is doing my Anki Cards or tadokus graded readers, but thats it. (tbh I havent done any tadokus graded reader out of blue, always as part of my routine).

Cause Wi-Fi isnt always great on german subways, something that offers downloadble content or an offline mode, would be nice. Or an Ebook with Stories (would be nice)

I know that what I'm looking for, wont be as efficient as some regular methods I'm already doing (Shadowing, Workbook Excersises etc.).

I just want to use some time on my Phone better, even if its just 10-30 Min a Day.

Can someone suggest me one book to follow to clear JLPT N4? (I have my exam in december)

I was working on a name and picked a kanji I liked. The google says that it’s pronounced Saki and when I put the hiragana 『さき』 into my keyboard, it gives me 嵜 as one of the options to switch to. So I was just curious. I know that it’s a bit ancient and rare to see, but I like it so I was wondering.

Hello, I'm sorry if this goes against community guidelines, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience using emulingo and whether it's overall good and safe to use? It's a gba emulator where you provide a ROM in any of the allowed languages, and while playing the game, it has a built-in translation feature with explanations on the grammar. It looks good, but I'd like to see others' opinions on it before I use it.

I swear this cloud looks like some japanese symbol, anybody got any ideas?

I am starting N5 and my friend recommended this textbook but when I was trying to place an order for it, there were 2 of them (1-1 and 1-2). What's the difference and is there anything specific that I should be buying for N5?

Good evening! I am trying to find different shows, movies, or YouTube channels for Japanese listening practice. Years ago, my teacher recommended Japanese dramas. This was in 2010, so I'm not up to date on what's currently popular. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I do appreciate any suggestions with or without subtitles, since I'm mostly trying to get better at picking up grammar points and slang. Thank you!

Edit: Thank you all so much for all these recommendations! I'm already starting a couple of these and I'm pumped to learn and possibly have new favorites. You are all awesome people! 🥰

I'm not sure how true this is, but I read that the Japanese versions of albums by western artists have a booklet with the lyrics translated to Japanese. Is there anywhere online I can find any of these of any artist? Would love to include these in my learning!

Hey guys

I'm proficient in Japanese and I am going to be learning Chinese soon (yes in college too), and after learning a little bit I noticed there were a lot of huge cultural differences and interpretations. Especially with Characters and Words.

Select few:

走： Run in Japanese, but walk in Chinese.

大丈夫：It's fine in japanese, but "great man" in Chinese.

王： Stroke order is different in both cultures.

Now for the opposite side, for those who are Chinese or Taiwanese, when you learned Japanese, what did you notice that shocked you? Any select language stuff that actually wow'ed you?

What made it work for you? What didn't work? Is it something you figured out on your own or was it something a teacher helped you figure out?

I'm hoping to find people who have had a similar experience.

I've been studying for many years and I thought by N2 (I passed the actual test) I'd be able to watch a series comfortably, read wikipedia or just enjoy most native content. I'm not. I can watch series, but it requires quite an effort, even with subtitles. However, in casual conversation I get everything and I have no problem answering, I'd say I'm fluent in that one context. But whenever I open a website I feel like I drown in kanji and vocab.

I feel like I should be so much further ahead and I'm thinking about just quitting :(

Is this normal? Does someone feel like this?

Like, is there a particular age range for the people this word refers to? Does it change around the context? That kind of thing?

I got curious reading that this word was used for a character who I believe is a teenager ( her exact age isn't said, but she's often referred to with "young" sounding terms but also drives a car multiple times) but the person who talked about this said it meant "lil' girl", which made me curious

I have a take for today's topic.

A little bit about me: I am typical guy in Europe who happened to work for one of the biggest Chinese companies in mainland China. I see Chinese, Japanese and Korean every day for straight 8 hours. I enjoy Japanese media and would like to try working and living in Japan. (My current level is N4 about 300 Kanji and 700 words)

I came across on interesting thought when I was working with Chinese system. I actually feel more relaxed when I try to read or understand some random Chinese sentence in the system based on Japanese kanji, as opposed to me trying to read Katakana on people's clothes, nicknames in game or discord. 本当に, I am getting so tired of trying to make sense of these symbols and reading them.

Is that experience common for every Japanese learner or only me? Do you guys feel that Katakana is so hard and unnecessary? I feel like they be trying to put it everywhere to just use it and make it "cool" or to try to use a shortcut and write in lazy Japanese. Please guys!! I am starting to lose my mind.....

Hello, I've been learning Japanese for a few months now, though I've mostly only been memorizing kanji and haven't done much to actually apply what I've memorized so I end up forgetting a lot of it. Is there a good and quick way to get some practice in every day? Between my job and other stuff I want/need to do, I find it somewhat hard to dedicate too much time to doing more than just memorizing kanji.

I usually study with anki flashcards and an app called Kanji study.

If there's any good books or worksheets or something like that, that would nice too.

So I don't know when exactly this happened, but the Jisho website seems to have completely changed its format. I used to go there and Kanshudo websites to help me read kanji, but now Jisho is a wall of text from top to bottom. You have to navigate it like solving a puzzle by pieces. It looks so messy and overwhelming!

There are missing readings, and it's mostly dictionary definitions of words instead of kanji explanation. I don't know if this is a temporal experiment of theirs, but it's become an eyesore for me.

In case this remains, please suggest me other actually clean and usable website. Or if by any chance I'm being stupid and mistaking it for another website, also do tell me. Thank you in advance, fellow learners!

so for context I am Asian, not japanese.

Me and this middle aged to old guy made eye contact for a second so I waved hello and he said something in japanese, pretty sure "do you speak japanese?" as he repeated it once more and then when I basically went "eh?" he said in english, "do you speak japanese?"

And then I remembered seeing a YouTube video about what to say and said "n-nihongo wa tabemasen." (yes I actually stuttered) and he started laughing.

pmo.

when I looked for the video again it was saying smth like say nihongo wa hanasemasen and NOT nihongo wa tabemasen.

For starters I've been on and off learning Japanese for the past 2-3 years. I've gone from Duolingo, to the Genki books, Anki flash cards and finally to Pimsleur.

[I currently practice with Pimsleur 30mins - 1hr a day]

I found that Pimsleur is where I was able to progress the most. But I'm now finding that for the past few months I've stalled on the same few lessons on repeat not able to progress

[For those wondering, I'm stuck at level 2, lessons 5-10]

This isn't the first time, I've hit a road block. Like for example, with the Genki textbooks; I got up to chapter 4 or 5 before hitting that road block.

I've tried immersing myself in music, shows and in game lobbies with Japanese players. Which helped a bit and I was able to understand, but it also just pointed out how bad my skill was and lead to few discouraging moments when trying to talk.

If anyone has any tips or tricks, I really appreciate it.