Finding My French

****If there are corrections or additions I should make to this list, please send me a message!****

So I just started using HelloTalk for Japanese, and found out pretty quickly that asking people to help you IN Japanese gets you MUCH better answers so long as you’re up to the challenge of figuring out slightly more complicated explanations! Here are some ways to do that:

THINGS TO ASK

Can I ask you a question?

ちょっと質問していいですか？

How do you say “_____” in Japanese?

「＿＿＿」は日本語で何と言いますか？

日本語で「＿＿＿」はどうやって言いますか？

What does “_____” mean?

「＿＿＿」の意味はなんですか？

「＿＿＿」って、どういう意味ですか？

Could you please correct my sentences/check them for errors?

文章を直してください/くれませんか/もらえませんか

間違いがあるかどうかチェックしてもらえますか？

What is the difference between “__” and “__”?

「＿＿」と「＿＿」の違いは何ですか？

Which one sounds more natural?

どちらがもっと自然に聞こえますか？

どちらの方が自然ですか？

What kind of situation should I use it in?

どんな場合に使いますか？

Is there another way to say it?

日本語で同じような言い回しがありますか？

How would you say it?

___さんなら、これを何と言いますか？

Do people normally use this word/phrase?

このフレーズ/言葉を普段使いますか？

How do I use (this word/phrase)

「＿＿＿」をどうやって使いますか？

Is it similar to/Is it like “_____,” for example?

「＿＿＿」という事ですか？

「＿＿＿」と同じような意味ですか？

AND IF U DIDNT REALLY GET THEIR CORRECTIONS/COMMENTS:

I’m sorry, I didn’t really understand “_____.” Could you explain it to me?

（すみません、「＿＿＿」はよく分からなくて）、ちょっと説明してもらえませんか？

I’m sorry, would you mind explaining your corrections?

すみません、訂正を説明してもらえませんか？

OTHER TIPS

Say thank you afterward!

The sentences above are mostly starting points. The more you talk to people, the more you’ll notice how people ask things like “Oh, can you explain that thing on the bottom?” or “So it’s okay if I say this instead of this?” etc. etc. But these sentences will help you get on your feet!

What I sometimes like to do if they’re using really complicated Japanese to explain to me, it try to explain it in my own words and then add っていうことですか？ to find out if I’m understanding right!

Challenge yourself by answering Japanese-speakers’s questions in Japanese! You’d be surprised how much you can learn about explaining just by reading explanations!

Good luck! Please let me know if you have any questions! <3 頑張ってください！皆さん何か聞きたいことがあったら、何でも聞いてくださいね！<3

hello friends!!! i’m a language enthusiast (+ a language minor in college hehe). originally i was gonna make a post of all languages, but that already exists + i don’t want to reiterate + i have SO many french resources and that’s my second primary language so i thought i’d focus on that??? 

general language

big subject masterpost by @chemlstry

how to learn a new language by @studiyng

learning languages without actually studying them by @insomniac-arrest

things i learnt regarding learning languages by @star-study

100 perfect songs for traveling from around the world by @polyglottraveler

ap exams masterpost by @sootudying

tips to learn a new language by @darasteine

learning a language on your own by @sootudying

links for improving your vocabulary by @portiastudies

grammar resources yay! by @giuliaslangblr

speaking up more in class by @emmastudies

tips for foreign language writing assessments by @moonstruckstudies

helpful books to learn languages by @les-langues-sont-ma-vie

linguti by @teacupful-of-languages

general french

folder w/ beginner’s courses, grammar, etc. by @lovelybluepanda

french tips for beginners by @studyspirits

everything i use to make learning french fun by @jeparletoutesleslangues

a french masterpost by @organisaticns

how to sound more natural in french by @crookedlanguagestudent

learning french on your own by @wonderful-language-sounds

speaking on the AP french exam by @ap-french

lesser seen french tips by @francetrash

random little french facts

french resources masterpost by @highschoolering

studying/learning a foreign language by @emmastudies

french resources masterpost by @nathalliastudies

french masterpost by @bonbonlanguage

dear french community, listen up! by @studyblr-bri

french resources list by @openstudynotes

french writing and speaking cheat sheet by @hstudies

verb conjugation sheets by @apamexico

french vocab

vegetables in french by @goldstueck

everyday activities by @language-minded

back-to-school by yours truly @phctcsynthesis

when things are pointless by @lucylangblr

mental health by @lemonadeandlanguages

unrequited love by @word-stuck

ways to say yes by @language2go

langblr french masterpost (vocab only) by @study-katherine

french idiom masterpost by @revisionandtea

la rentree du petit nicolas by @frenchaise

describing your place by @pancake-studying

french tenses

the french imperative by @bonbonlanguage

top 100 most common french verbs by @colonelstudy​

french verb masterpost by @studypuddles

french verbs by @languageramblings

the verb penser by @all-things-francais

subjunctive or indicative? by @language-renard​

the verb ‘to return’ by @bonjourfrench

the french conditional by @languesetmoi

commonly used reflexive verbs by @bonjourfrench

le conjugueur by @jaimetalangue

verbs taking à, de, or no preposition by @bonjourfrench

the future proche by @futurefrenchprof

the subjunctive by @futurefrenchprof

participes passés by @anonimasulsublime

conjugating the subjunctive by @whosaprettypolyglot

using the passé simple by @crookedlanguagestudent

french grammar

french linking words by @frenchaise

french punctuation by @ladybaguette

variations in french pronunciation by @maptitude1

teen french expressions by @studyingharder

how to guess the gender of most french nouns by @frenchaise

asking questions in french by @frenchaise

relative pronouns by @kalenaslangblr

essay phrases by @llenguas

french homophones and how to tell them apart by @lemonadeandlanguages

writing essays in french part 1 by @french-ement-votre

french literature, film, + music

french women write classics, too by @antigonick

french animation recommendations

the classics by @ap-french

french book PDFs by @lovelybluepanda

easy french reading by @ap-french

francophone comic books by @languagesarebeautiful

french youtubers + singers/songs by @theperksofbeingstudying

french music recommendations by @seriouslystudying

french music by @studyplants

french music you should listen to by @teabeforeten

french listening by @ap-french

Hi everyone! I just finished the 100 Days Of Languages challenge and I wanted to do something new afterwards, so I came up with a challenge of my own! I’m calling this the Checkerboard Challenge because it’s an 8x8 grid. Along the top there are eight language-related skills, and on the side there are eight modes of learning, so each box contains a way to study a particular skill using a particular mode. I wanted to do that because exposing yourself to the same information in different contexts is so helpful for learning and I wanted to apply that to how I study Portuguese. The result is a list of 64 different ways to study languages, 71 if you include the alternate options listed below, each one versatile enough to be repeated as often as you want using different topics or resources and hopefully interesting and useful for your learning.

Ways To Use This Challenge

Complete all of the challenges on the table, in whatever order you want.

Choose a particular skill you’d like to work on. Complete all of the challenges in that column.

Choose a particular method of learning that works well for you. Complete all of the challenges in that row.

Use dice or a random number generator to pick a challenge to do every day, and see how long it takes you to get bingo or connect four or something.

Choose whichever of the challenges sound useful to you and incorporate them into your regular studying routine.

There’s no obligation to post anything you make; even when I say to record yourself doing something, that can just be for your own future reference. (It’s recommended for the collaborative tasks that focus on creating resources that would be useful to other learners or interacting on social media, but even then you can just write the posts/comments and not post them if you prefer) However, I would love to see anything you do want to share, or any updates on your progress, so you can post anything like that with the tag “checkerboard challenge” which is also where I will be posting the tasks I complete.

The tasks are listed below, with more detail than what would fit in the boxes.

Reading

(Visual) Read a comic book, comic strip, or webcomic in your target language. Depending on your skill level and  the amount of time you have, you can choose anything from a single strip of a  newspaper comic to a full-length graphic novel

(Auditory) Read along with a chapter of an audiobook, or another piece of writing with accompanying audio. Some language learning websites have articles with recordings of native speakers  reading them. If you want, or if you can’t find anything else, you could even  use a song and its lyrics.

(Hands-On) Option 1: Play a video game in your target language. This can be a computer or console game, or an app on your phone or even a  little browser game. Check the language options on games you already have to  see if your target language is available, or if not, many free games have lots of language options. / Option 2: Read and follow a recipe or another  set  of instructions, such as an art/craft tutorial, the rules to a board or card game, a DIY project or a magic trick.

(Logical) Solve  riddles or logic puzzles in your target language. (Alternate:  Read a short mystery story such as a minute mystery (or something longer if  you prefer) and see if you can solve it before the characters do.)

(Collaborative) Talk by text chat with someone else learning your target language, or a native speaker learning your language.

(Read/Write) Read an article or a chapter of a book  (or the whole thing) in your target language. It can be about any topic, and can be a children’s or adult’s book depending on your skill level and preference.

(Personal) Find and read a translation of a piece of writing that’s important to you, such as your favorite book as a kid that you feel nostalgic for, or a poem  that resonates with you.

(Creative) Read story in your target language and illustrate what happens. The quality of the drawing isn’t important unless you want it to be; the important thing is to help you process what you’re reading.

Writing

(Visual) Choose a photo, either at random from a  generator or by choice on a website like Unsplash, and describe it in as much detail as  you can. Your description can focus just on describing literal details in the image, or you can make up contexts for and stories around the things you see, whichever you prefer. (Alternate: Do this with a physical object nearby instead of a photo.)

(Auditory) Try writing simple poems, focusing on the auditory features of what you’re writing such as rhyme and rhythm. You can use a rhyme dictionary to expand your vocabulary in an interesting  way while you’re working on this. It’s not necessary to worry too much about  the artistic quality of the poems unless you want to.

(Hands-On) Write instructions for how to do something you know how to do, such as recipe, a life skill, a game  or sport, an art of craft project, or even your method of language learning.

(Logical) Create a persuasive piece of writing that logically argues a point. It doesn’t have to be about a serious or controversial topic. For example, you can defend your prediction for the next season of your favorite show, or what would happen if some fantasy or sci-fi concept were real (maybe a good  way to practice the conditional tense if you’re studying a language that has one), or why your best friend is awesome.

(Collaborative) Use  a language learning social media app like HelloTalk. Comment on posts and  make your own.

(Read/Write) Write a summary of something you’ve read in your target language. You can either read in your native language and summarize in your target language, or do both parts in your target language.

(Personal) Write a journal entry in your target language, talking about how your day or week has been or what you are thinking and feeling. (Alternate: Write about one of your memories.)

(Creative) Write a small story in your target language. It can be about whatever you want, and it doesn’t have to be very long or detailed. You can (option 1) write it as prose, which could be better to practice description and narration or to focus on a particular verb tense, or in (option 2) a script style which could be better to practice conversational language.

Listening

(Visual) Watch a video with narration that describes it, such as a nature documentary, an instructional  video such as a cooking video, or a video reviewing something.

(Auditory) Find an online stream of a radio station. Pay attention to both the music and what the announcers say.

(Hands-On) Watch a video demonstrating a craft project, recipe or other task and follow the instructions.

(Logical) Watch or listen to a mystery story and try to solve it before the characters do. This can be a whole movie or novel-length audiobook if you want, but it doesn’t have to be; even an  episode of something like Scooby Doo should work.

(Collaborative) Exchange audio with someone else learning your target language, or a native speaker learning your language.

(Read/Write) Watch a video or listen to a piece of audio and take notes on what you learn.

(Personal) Watch a dub of a piece of media you are familiar with, such as your favorite childhood movie.

(Creative) Option 1: Listen to a story or other piece of audio and  illustrate it. / Option 2: Listen to a song and make up a new verse.

Speaking

(Visual) Make a video of yourself showing something and talking about it, for  example a tour of your home or neighborhood, a review of something, or a video about your pet.

(Auditory) Listen to a piece of audio and try to repeat what you hear. You don’t have to pause  after every word and repeat it, it’s probably better to go at least sentence  by sentence or with parts even longer so you can keep things in context.

(Hands-On) Explain to someone, or record yourself explaining, how to do something, possibly while demonstrating.

(Logical) Record  yourself explaining, and possibly demonstrating, how something works, such as a science concept.

(Collaborative) Record yourself explaining a concept you’re learning, like a grammar topic or how to use a particular word.

(Read/Write) Read out loud and record yourself.

(Personal) Make a recording of yourself talking about something that’s important to you  or a memory or anecdote you have. (Alternate: Make a vlog entry (even if you don’t have a vlog to put it on) talking about your day.)

(Creative) Record yourself telling a story, or tell one in person to someone.

Vocabulary (Most of these, with the exception of the first two, can be done with any vocabulary list you want.)

(Visual) Choose a page from a visual dictionary to study. One way you can do this is by studying the words and then covering  the labels with sticky notes or whiting them out on a copy and trying to fill in the blanks.

(Auditory) Choose  a song in your target language, and look up and study any unfamiliar words in it.

(Hands-On) Option 1: Use your vocabulary list as a scavenger hunt list. This works well if you have a lot of nouns and adjectives on the list. For everyday household items, you can look for the literal items on the list, while if they’re more obscure you can look for pictures or other representations of them. / Option 2: Act out the words on your list. This works well for verbs and adverbs, as well as more abstract  nouns or adjectives like emotions. You can record video of yourself doing this and later look back at the video to try to guess the words.

(Logical) Option 1: Make a crossword puzzle using your vocab list. If you write the words and clues, there are tools online that will build the puzzle itself for you, or you can do that by hand on graph paper if you prefer. You can either wait a while and then solve your own puzzle to see how much you remember, or give it to another language learner to solve an ask them to make one for you to solve. / Option 2: Look into the etymological history of the words to find out why they mean what they mean and whether they have any connections to words in your own language.

(Collaborative) Create a vocab list post around a theme, including words you are studying as well as any related words you already know. Include any resources that you think  would be useful to someone using the list, such as sample sentences, pictures, or whatever else you want.

(Read/Write) Try to write a small story or other piece of writing using as many of your vocab words as you can.

(Personal) Write  a sentence about what you think of each thing on your vocabulary list.

(Creative) Try to write an interesting sentence using each word on your vocabulary list. (Alternate: Illustrate each word on your vocabulary list. You can do this on index cards if you want, to make illustrated flash cards.)

Grammar

(Visual) Create a color or shape coded system to classify a concept like verb tenses or noun gender. For example, you can read  through a piece of text and highlight all of the verbs using a different color for each tense, or you can make flash cards with your vocabulary words and mark them with different symbols depending on the gender.

(Auditory) Grammar is a common topic for educational songs. Find a one intended for kids who speak your target language.

(Hands-On) Using words on sticky notes or index cards, build sentences that demonstrate grammatical concepts. If you have access to some of those little word magnets in your target language, those would probably work great for this, but if not (and I know I don’t) you can write various words, suffixes, etc. on index cards or sticky notes, or use your existing flashcards if you have them.

(Logical) Create a table, chart, or diagram of a grammatical concept you’re studying.

(Collaborative) Write a post explaining a grammar topic you are learning.

(Read/Write) Read through a text, to find (and maybe highlight, circle, etc.) examples of a grammatical concept, then write more examples.

(Personal) Write about a part of your life that corresponds to the grammar topic you are studying. For example, for the future  tense, you can write about your plans or hopes.

(Creative) Write a small story relying on the grammatical concept you’re studying.

Pronunciation

(Visual) Look up diagrams of how to pronounce sounds you struggle with. These can be found as images or in an animated form in YouTube videos, and usually show what your tongue, teeth, etc. are supposed to be doing when you pronounce the sound.

(Auditory) Find a recording of a native speaker, record yourself saying the same thing, and listen for differences.

(Hands-On) Try to pronounce some tongue twisters or other pronunciation-based challenges.

(Logical) Try  learning the linguistic names of sounds you work with, and look into how they  compare to other sounds. Wikipedia has articles about the different sounds that can exist in languages and tables showing how they are used in various languages.

(Collaborative) Record yourself reading something that contains sounds you struggle with and post it for feedback, possibly on an app like HelloTalk.

(Read/Write) Look  at the written IPA pronunciations (these can be found on Wiktionary) of words you learn and look up what the symbols mean.

(Personal) Sing along to songs you like in the language, especially (for the personal category) nostalgic ones or ones meaningful to you.

(Creative) Write a tongue twister using words that are difficult for you to pronounce and practice saying it.

Cultural Context

(Visual) Explore a museum website in your target language. The museum should be located somewhere where your target language is spoken, but it up to you whether you want to look at an art museum, a science or history museum, or something else. Look at the exhibits and read the descriptions.

(Auditory) Create a playlist with traditional, classic and modern songs in various genres that either were invented in or popular in a place where your target language is spoken. Ideally using resources in your  target language, learn about the songs and genres.

(Hands-On) Using  resources in your target language, learn how to do or make something from a culture that speaks it. For example, you can look up a recipe, a tutorial for a dance style, the rules to a game, or how to make an art or craft project. (Make sure the thing you pick is being openly shared by  members of the culture it came from.)

(Logical) In your target language, learn about a scientist / inventor / etc. from somewhere the language is  spoken. Learn about their work, with explanations of what they invented or discovered, and if you want, find out other information about their life too.

(Collaborative) Comment  on or otherwise interact with the blog/YouTube channel/etc. of a native speaker,  after you read or watch it, of course. (You don’t need to receive a reply to check off this box, because that part is not under your control.)

(Read/Write) Try reading a significant work of (children’s or adult) literature in your target language.

(Personal) Learn about something relevant to your job/hobby from where your target language is spoken, using resources in the language.

(Creative) Read  about artistic or literary themes,  movements or eras where the language is spoken, and  create something (it can be something  simple) using those concepts.

As requested by @polyglot-oneday, here goes a list of Italian filler words, together with their meaning, pronunciation (albeit a bit robotic, sorry about that but these were the only ones I could find) and examples of their usage. This is by no means comprehensive and additions are always welcomed, but I tried to include as many as I could. Don’t hesitate to ask if you want to know more and my little explanations weren’t clear!

1) Allora – So [🔊]

Might also mean “[back] then”, especially when opposed (directly or implicitly) to “adesso (now)”. Usually employed at the beginning of a sentence, especially when introducing a new subject.

Ex. Allora, com’è andata? – So, how did that go?

2) Appunto – Indeed / Precisely / That’s right [🔊]

Basically an intensifier for both negations and affirmations. Can also be thrown around randomly but I can’t quite think of an example for that, hahaha.

Ex.  A: Marco non è ancora qui. – Marco isn’t here yet.

B: Non aveva detto che sarebbe stato a casa per le sei? – Didn’t he say he would be home by six?

A: Sì, appunto. Sono un po’ preoccupato. – Yes, he did. I am a little worried.

3) Be’ – Well [🔊]

Truncation of “bene”. The spelling “beh” is also acceptable.

Ex. Be’, non direi. – Well, I wouldn’t say so.

4) Cioè – That is / Actually [🔊]

Be careful with abusing this one, it can get obnoxious (as most fillers, but this is particularly the case). You might also hear it pronounced as “c’è”.

Ex. Sì… cioè, non so. – Yes… that is, I don’t know.

5) Comunque – However / Anyway [🔊]

I noticed I use this quite a lot, mostly when I want to drive the conversation somewhere else (though the proper use would probably be saying it when bringing it up something that had been previously discussed).

Ex. Comunque, alla fine ci ho parlato. – Anyway, I did speak to him in the end.

6) Dai – Come on / Sure (literally “give”) [🔊]

To be honest, this one has a lot of meanings. You could use it either to encourage someone or to reproach them, to intensify your agreement or your disagreement.

Ex. Va bene, dai. – Alright, sure.

Dai, andiamo. – Come on, let’s go.

7) Diciamo – Let’s say  [🔊]

When you don’t want to be too straightforward, or you’re phrasing something in an unconventional way.

Ex. Mi ha preso un po’ alla sprovvista, diciamo. – Let’s say that I was caught a little unawares.

8) Ecco – There/ Here / I mean [🔊]

Let me expand a little on the concept of “there/here”: when you get a sudden realization, you may say “Ecco, ho trovato!” (”Here, I got it!”), or if you want to agree with someone, you could go like “Ecco, esatto!” (”There, that’s right!”).

Ex. Ecco… Non sono sicuro di voler andare alla cena. – I mean… I’m not really sure I want to go to the dinner.

9) Eh – Got it? / Alright / Uh [🔊]

Primarily the Italian “thinking sound” (that one phoneme you emit when you’re thinking of what to say, but please try not to overuse it), but it could mean literally anything depending on the intonation.

Ex. Mi raccomando, eh? – Make sure [you do it], alright?

Eh, non lo so. – Uh, I don’t know.

10) Guarda – Look [🔊]

You are directly addressing someone; usually carries a nuance of either uncertainty or polemic.

Ex. A: Hai per caso visto la mia borsa? – Do you happen to have seen my bag?

B: Guarda, mi pare che sia sulla scrivania, ma non potrei giurarci. – Look, I think it’s on the desk, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

11) Insomma – So / In other words / In short [🔊]

This is usually the meaning when it’s used as a filler. When employed alone, its sense is very similar to that of “so so”.

Ex. A: Insomma, ti è piaciuto il film? – So, did you like the movie?

B: Insomma… – So so…

12) In teoria/teoricamente – Theoretically [🔊]

…But the thing you’re talking about doesn’t really need to be theoretical. It’s mostly a way to attenuate a concept.

Ex. Dovrebbero essere già qui, teoricamente. – They’re supposed to be here already.

13) Ma – But [🔊]

No real opposition needed here, though; usually used to emphasize. Not to be confused with “mah”.

Ex. Ma no, ma cosa fai! – [But] no, what are you doing?

14) Mah – Who knows / Well / *shrugging* / * expression of disapproval/skepticism* [🔊]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Usually an expression of doubt or disapproval.

Ex. Mah, mi sembra strano. – Well, it seems odd to me.

E così alla fine ha cambiato idea. Mah, chi lo capisce è bravo! – So he changed his mind in the end. Work that one out if you can!

15) Nel senso [che] – I mean [🔊] [🔊] [🔊]

I tend to say it without ‘che’ a lot and completely at random but it might be just me.

Ex. Mi sono trovata molto bene, nel senso… Sono stati davvero gentili. – I really felt at ease, I mean… They’ve been very nice.

16) Niente – Nothing / Well [🔊]

Doesn’t really add much meaning-wise. You might say it when you don’t know what to say, or to end a conversation.

Ex. E niente, è finita così. – Well, it was what it was.

17) Ora – Now [🔊]

Ex. Ora, ti sembra l’ora di rientrare? – Now, what time is this to come back home?

18) Praticamente – Essentially / Pretty much / More or less [🔊]

Pretty similar in usage to “teoricamente”, but meaning “in practice”.

Ex. L’acqua era finita, praticamente. – There was almost no water left.

19) Quindi – So [🔊]

Ex. E quindi, ho imparato una nuova parola. – And so, I learned a new word.

20) Sai – You know [🔊]

Usage is pretty much the same as in English.

Ex. Sai, non sempre si può fare quello che si vuole. – You can’t always do what you want, you know.

21) Senti – Listen [🔊]

Doesn’t have to be polemical (and depends highly on intonation), but there’s a chance it could be.

Ex. Senti, non mi fare arrabbiare. – Listen, don’t mess with me.

22) Tipo – Like [🔊]

One of the most overused (if not the most overused) terms in the Italian vocabulary. An extensive use is frowned upon in formal settings (and can get a little annoying in real life), so really, it works almost like “like”.

Ex. Era alto così, tipo, e aveva i capelli scuri. – He was, like, this tall, and had dark hair.

23) Vabbe’ – No big deal / That’s okay [🔊]

Contraction of “va” and “bene”. The spellings “va beh” and “va be’ “ are also accepted (you’ll probably see it written down as “vabbè”, although it’s actually incorrect). It can hint a little dissatisfaction with the actual situation (in a shrugging, “suit yourself” kind of way).

Ex. Oggi non ti va di andare al cinema? Vabbe’, andremo domani. – So you don’t want to go to the movies today? That’s okay, we’ll go tomorrow.

24) Vediamo [un po’] – Let’s see [🔊]

Get to French conjunctions

Guess what

me:

Saluuuut well the only way is

« vous tous » basically « all of you »

I’d like to briefly (turns out I lied, it’s fairly detailed) explain how I got to the point where Japanese grammar patterns are just part of life and I don’t really think about them. The most straightforward guides are Kanzen Master and Tae Kim. 

That being said most Japanese textbooks will probably cover most of the grammar from N4&5. Everyone seems to like Genki, I’ve never touched it but it’s probably good.

Kanzen Master　新完全マスター

That’s it, really. My Japanese teacher at my language school in Japan literally photocopies pages out of these books. 

Make your flashcards as you read the book and do practice questions. Go to Google, type the grammar pattern + grammar and japanesetest4you will come up. Read those sentences, make your own and get them checked by someone (post them somewhere like HelloTalk) and then realise how pointless every grammar pattern past N3 really is when they tell you a more natural way of not using that grammar pattern.

Also, get some Anki decks.

Pay close attention to how things connect. 

What verb conjugation has to come before? Can nouns connect? How to change words? Does nominalisation occur? What does 普通形 mean?

The first question in each multiple choice section in Kanzen Master tests your 繋がり so it’s probably important. Sentences often give away what grammar patterns they will use. 

For example, if I gave you the question「お前しか____だろう」

わかる

わからない

わかろう

You know it’s gotta be ⑵ because ない always comes after しか。In pretty much every grammar guide these will be written down so get those highlighter engines running!

So that’s basically how you pass N1.

Pay attention to what kind of nuance the grammar has

Some grammar points can only be used when something happens due to the speaker’s intent（意志的行為）, some can only be used when things happen of their own accord（自発）. Some can’t be used when the speaker and the agent are the same and so on. Kanzen Master has these nuances written down below so again, get those highlighters going!

Make it easy for yourself

Kanzen master is written in Japanese so learning the words that are used to explain other words is a good move. For example, “verb, negative form” would look like 「ない形」or 「否定形」and then instead of “ない but without ない,” you could just say 「未然形」now learning is slightly more convenient and your notes will be cleaner.

There are a lot of grammar patterns that use the same words, 「わけ」「限り」「こと」「もの」「よう」など are the common enemies. Make sure you can easily tell the difference. Take your time and really learn these. As a test, try to explain them to someone else. Try to pick up on the commonly used phrases within each of those widely used words. That helps heaps.

Use SRS! Programs like Anki and WaniKani will do this for you. Now you take way less time to learn a lot more!

書き・硬い言葉　vs　話し言葉

Some grammar patterns are really useful in real life but sound odd if you were to write them in an essay

In witness whereof the parties hereunto have set their hands to these presents as a deed on the day month and year hereinbefore mentioned. 

If anyone said this to you, you’d probably think it’s a joke. 

The grammar patterns that are only used in either context will be marked as 硬い or 話し言葉. Similarly, there are some patterns that you would only use in certain contexts. Political speeches, advertisements, Japanese customer relations. This will be written as a warning but in fine texts at the bottom of each grammar pattern. You know the drill, highlighters! Maybe a different colour this time.

Be aware of what is not used in real life

When you try out your cool new grammar patterns in real life and people don’t react, that’s when you know you’ve got it right. That, or people won’t tell you when you’re wrong. Both are equally likely.

If you’re not sure, ask your friendly resident Japanese person if it’s 言うed. This’ll be edging more into speaking territory but be aware of how Japanese people use (or not use) the grammar that you’ve learned.

People love studying grammar - my thoughts

I get it, there’s formulas and you’re either right or you’re wrong. It’s easy to measure progress cause last week you were on ２課 and now you’re on ４課. And fair enough, the bulk of what you need for JLPT is grammar patterns. 

However, if your goal is to pass the JLPT then maybe consider adding another goal but if not, then sure, stick to grammar. 

If you wanna do uni in Japan then you’ll need N1

If your goal is to get better at Japanese, then put more time into something like learning 敬語 (respectful language) or making friends with Japanese people. I recommend, for starters, learning the N5 and N4 (I’m not sure but Genki probably covers most of these?) grammar patterns as fast as you can and then allot more of that energy into human connections while studying N3 grammar. Don’t rush into N2 grammar, they’re not used enough to warrant going in head on. 

Bonjour mamman! Tu pourrais m'expliquer quand est-ce qu'on utilise “lorsque” et “pendant”, s'il te plaît? Y a-t-il des différences? PS: J'adore ton blog 😘

Lorsque :

is a conjunction and can be used as : 

‘when’, ‘at the moment where’ (ex : Lorsqu’il arrivera, tu devras partir)

‘by the time’ (ex : C’est seulement lorsque tu auras réussi ton exercice que tu pourras aller jouer)

Pendant :

is a preposition and is used as :

‘during’ (Ex : C’est pendant l’été qu’ils peuvent se retrouver)

Hope this helps! x