Learning new things at least I try

Today I made the mistake of using を with について: 最近、AIについてをたくさん投稿している。

を is not needed as について already acts as the bridge to the verb, so it should be: 最近、AIについてたくさん投稿している。

So here's a quick refresh of how to use について:

Noun + についての + Noun

[Noun] about/regarding [noun]

AIについての投稿。 A post about AI.

Noun + について + Verb

Do [verb] about [noun]

AIについて投稿する。 Post about AI.

All linked from this reddit post made by redditor AdrixG.

My List (a ton of youtubers are on this list)

Some lists by other users linked on that post:

Japanese Media Recommendation List

Migaku's Spreadsheet

Podcast collection (also has learners podcasts)

❁連覇　（れんぱ）：successive championships  この試合で優勝したら３連覇になる

❁補足　（ほそく）：supplementary  授業の最後に補足説明をする

❁意向　（いこう）：intention   意向を表明する

❁加入する　（かにゅうする）：to join, sign up to   保険を加入する

❁過疎　（かそ）：underpopulation 

❁完備する　（かんびする）：fully equip, fully furnish  この部屋はエアコンを完備しております。

❁断言する　（だんげんする）：assert, declare   彼は自分が正しいと断言した。

❁断念する　（だんねんする）：to give up    計画を断念する。

❁断面　（だんめん）：cross section (of something cut)

❁返却　（へんきゃく）：return of something borrowed   本を図書館に返却する。

🇲🇽 Spanish Phrase Guide - Ya Lo Chupó El Diablo

Ya Lo Chupó El Diablo - The Devil Already Licked It

• Don’t eat that candy. It fell on the floor and the devil already licked it.

• No te comas ese dulce. Se cayó al piso y ya lo chupó el diablo.

Explanation: In Mexico when food is dropped on the ground and someone picks it up to eat it, you will hear someone say “no! ya lo chupó el diablo!” which basically means “don’t eat that because it’s dirty!”

It is often a phrase used by parents to teach their children not to eat dropped food.

Tumblr's layout is hell for explaining grammar so here is my notion page where all the grammar from my blog is put into one page with a decent layout.

First I will give you a translation and an explanation of the kanji as this can help with memorization and understanding the difference between those verbs.

Verbs = 動詞（どうし） 　　　*動 = move, motion / 詞 = part of speech, words Intransitive verbs = 自動詞（じどうし） 　　　*自 = oneself/self- Transitive verbs = 他動詞（たどうし） 　　　*他 = other, another

Can you guess what the difference is based off the kanji?

春について単語 - Spring Themed Vocabulary

Nouns:

- 春 (はる) - Spring

- 桜 (さくら) - Cherry blossom

- 花 (はな) - Flower

- 花粉症 (かふんしょう) - Hay fever (allergies)

- 花見 (はなみ) - Cherry blossom viewing

- 散歩 (さんぽ) - A walk

- 開花予想 (かいかよそう) - Cherry blossom forecast

- 満開 (まんかい) - Full bloom

Adjectives:

- 綺麗な (きれいな) - Beautiful

- 暖かい (あたたかい) - Warm

- 新しい (あたらしい) - New

- 柔らかい (やわらかい) - Soft

- 甘い (あまい) - Sweet

- 眩しい (まぶしい) - Bright (almost too bright)

- 明るい (あかるい) - Bright

Verbs:

- 咲く (さく) - To bloom

- 植える (うえる) - To plant

- 見る (みる) - To see

- 楽しむ (たのしむ) - To enjoy

- 散る (ちる) - To scatter

I've had to pick up a great deal of vocabulary as we start the search for a place to live in Germany. Here are just some useful words, plus abbreviations used in housing listings.

深成岩　「しんせいがん」　plutonic rock

かんらん岩　「かんらんがん」　peridotite

花崗岩　「かこうがん」　granite

火山岩　「かざんがん」　volcanic rock

露頭　「ろとう」　outcrop

サンゴ礁　「サンゴしょう」　coral reef

nouns:

寂しがり屋（さびしがりや） = person who is often lonely and craves company

子（こ） = child; young person; anything affectionately ascribed a personality (e.g., pet, houseplant, etc.)

橙色（だいだいいろ） = orange (color) (uncommon)

弥生（やよい） = march (obsolete)

葉月（はづき） = august (obsolete)

せせらぎ = small stream; murmuring of a small stream

眼差し（まなざし） = a glance, look

ご無沙汰（ごぶさた） = neglecting to write, call, etc.

真似（まね） = mimicking, copying; behavior, conduct

ふり = pretense, pretending; behavior, appearance

八つ当たり（やつあたり） = taking out one's anger

空回り（からまわり） = spinning one's wheels, going nowhere

verbs:

くっつく = to cling to; to keep close to; to be thick (as thieves) with

逸らす（そらす） = to turn away, avert; to evade (e.g., the subject)

ずれる = to slip off, get dislocated, be out of alignment; to be out of sync, be slightly off

どく = to get out of the way, make way

去る（さる） = to leave, go away (usu. high register or literary)

脱ぎ散らかす（ぬぎちらかす） = to strip clothes off and leave them lying everywhere

紛らわす（まぎらわす） = to divert, distract (from), relieve (e.g., boredom, sadness, etc.); to evade (e.g., the subject)

遭う（あう） = to meet with (some incident), have a bad experience

千切る（ちぎる） = to tear to pieces

契る（ちぎる） = to pledge, vow, promise

adjectives:

無口（むくち）な = taciturn

苦手（にがて）な = can't handle, not suited for (e.g., of one's preferences)

マシな = preferable, least worst

薄暗い（うすぐらい） = dim, gloomy (lit. "thinly dark")

淡い（あわい） = light, faint, fleeting

ややこしい = complicated, difficult, tricky

人恋しい（ひとこいしい） = longing for others, wanting company

図々しい（ずうずうしい） = shameless, brazen

惜しい（おしい） = close (but no cigar) (e.g., of a guess)

愛おしい（いとおしい） = beloved, darling, dearest

メロい = lovable, captivating, swoon-worthy (slang)

adverbs/onomatopoeiae:

てっきり = surely but mistakenly (e.g., of some assumption)

むっつり = sullenly; taciturn person (as noun)

くっきり = clearly, in sharp relief (i.e., visually)

ずるずる = dragging (gradually)

ゾッコン = head over heels, completely in love

expressions:

めでたしめでたし = and they all lived happily ever after

わけがわからない = incomprehensible, baffling, meaningless

見て見ぬ（みてみぬ）ふり = turning a blind eye, pretending not to notice

ニコイチ = making a functioning machine out of broken parts from other machines; two people who are so close as to be treated as one unit

中途半端（ちゅうとはんぱ） = half-assed, incomplete

間（ま）に合う（あう） = to make it in time

晶晶（しょうしょう）glittering, shining

液晶（えきしょう）liquid crystal

氷晶（ひょうしょう）ice crystals

黒水晶（くろすいしょう）black quartz

罪人 zuìrén = sinner; convict; guilty person

下一秒 xià yī miǎo = the next second; in a moment

媒体大肆报道 méitǐ dàsì bàodào = the media gave extensive coverage; the media sensationalized

陷害 xiànhài = to frame (someone); to set up

红了 hóng le = became popular; became famous; went viral

赔偿 péicháng = compensation; to compensate; damages

综艺 zōngyì = variety show

全新 quánxīn = brand new

都小事啦 dōu xiǎoshì la = It's no big deal; It's nothing

宣传 xuānchuán = to promote; publicity; propaganda

变态 biàntài = pervert; abnormal; freak

背地里却是个变态 bèidìlǐ què shì gè biàntài = behind the scenes/behind people's backs, (he) is actually a pervert

恶心 ěxin = disgusting; nauseating; to disgust

粉丝吃点好的吧 fěnsī chī diǎn hǎo de ba = Fans, you deserve better (content/celebrities) / literally: "Fans, eat something better."

骚扰电话 sāorǎo diànhuà = harassing phone calls; spam calls

要不然 yàobùrán = otherwise; or else

哥们儿 gēmenr = bro; buddy; dude

1. Drill yourself on hiragana and katakana. These are the phonetic building blocks of Japanese, think of them as equivalent to english letters. This site is a good resource in general. Once you have a solid grasp on this, DO NOT LINGER HERE; move to step 2. You will master kana later.

2. Download Anki. This is a flashcard service. They have a paid app if you’re willing to invest for it, but if not, they have a mobile website (create an account and sync it with your computer).

This is the deck you’re going to download. Import it to Anki and do this every day. I have learned the hard way (twice) that skipping this is bad. If you become overwhelmed, you can change the number of new cards and reviews by clicking the cog next to the name of the deck!

3. Cure Dolly (Youtube, grammar) + transcript. She has kind of a posh accent, you might want to turn subtitles on. Watch a few videos when you feel like it but most importantly set up 4 and 5 as soon as possible

4. Yomitan (must have) is a browser extension that functions as a pop-up dictionary. you need to install dictionaries for it to work. here are some dictionaries you can use with yomitan and explanations of what they do

5. READ. DO NOT LET YOURSELF GET STUCK BEFORE THIS STEP. JUST READ!!!! Most people who fail to learn Japanese do so because they are afraid of not being ready to move on, which is counterproductive. Just read. When you were a child did you spend years on vocab and grammar before reading? No I bet you did not. Pick something to read and learn what you don’t already know by reading in Japanese.

Jiten.moe has a list of novels and visual novels that you can read on your computer sorted by difficulty. So does jpdb. There’s also this document. There’s also this document. Hey look this website is cool too

For visual novels: download LunaHook. It “hooks” to your VN and allows you to use Yomitan on words you don’t know. Turn off the translation feature, it does nothing to help you learn

For literary texts: ttsu e-reader supports epub and htmlz files.

You can also learn Japanese by watching anime, but it’s a little more convoluted and requires a lot more patience.

For manga, utilize Mangatan, but I don’t recommend this right out the gate because when you’re first learning sentence structure you’ll want something with complete sentences.

Set your computer up for mining vocab before you start reading. Once you finish your kaishi deck, you can drill your mining cards (I didn’t do mine until after finishing kaishi because it was too much).

Most importantly: reading is going to be hard at first. It is going to piss you off. You need to muscle through with this because this is where the bulk of your learning will happen. After a while you will just feel like reading because you love reading! Try not to pick something too hard for your first read, but if you’re interested in the story you might be able to muscle through something a little tougher.

はそん

damage; breakage

ご注文の品が破損していたとのことで、お詫び申し上げます。 ごちゅうもん の しな が はそん して いた との こと で、おわび もし あげます。 We are very sorry that your order was damaged.

Polyglots will do anything to sell you something, so here’s the fastest and most basic technique based on my research.

—

Step 1 – Getting the Absolute Basics In

This is where most people already get lost. If you search social media for how to start, the advice isn’t necessarily bad, but it often makes you dependent on a single resource, usually an app that will eventually try to charge you. Duolingo, for example, has turned into a mega-corporation that perfected gamification to keep you on the app.

Remember: free apps make money by keeping you on their platform, not by helping you become fluent.

At this stage, the goal is not to gain conversational skills but to avoid overwhelming yourself and get a feel for what you’re actually getting into. All my recommended resources are free because I believe learning a language should be a basic right. I wouldn’t advise spending any money until you’re sure you’ll stick with it. Otherwise, it can turn into a toxic “but I paid for this, so I have to keep going” mindset that drains all the fun out of learning.

• Language Transfer – Highly recommended for Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, German, Greek, Italian, Swahili, and French.

• Textbooks – Simply search for [language] textbook PDF, or check LibGen and the Internet Archive. Don’t overthink which book to choose—it doesn’t matter much.

• Podcasts – Coffee Break is a solid choice for many languages.

• YouTube Channels – Join r/Learn[language] on Reddit and find recommendations.

—

Step 2 – The 20/80 Principle

The idea is that 20% of words make up 80% of everyday speech.

What you’re going to do:

Search “Most common words [language] PDF”.

This list is now your best friend

For flashcards, I highly recommend AnkiPro. It lets you import pre-made lists for Anki/Quizlet and has an archive where you’ll definitely find the most common words. But it lacks audio. The real Anki program has it, but only on PC (unless you’re willing to pay $30 for the mobile app). Use AnkiPro for now—we’ll come back to repeating phrases later. In the meantime, find a YouTube video with the most common words pronounced, or use Google Translate for audio.

(Knowt is a free alternative for Quizlet if you prefer that)

These lists will spare you from learning unnecessary vocabulary at this stage. Spaced repetition (which Anki uses) can take longer, but it’s worth it because you want these words to stick. Anki will only introduce a small number of new words per day. Once you start new words, write phrases using them. Doesn’t matter if they’re random just try to use them.

—

Step 3 – The First Breakup With the Language

This isn’t really a step, but I have to mention it. For me (and for other language learners I’ve talked to) this is where motivation crashes.

The dopamine rush is over. Your ego boost is gone. You’re stuck understanding just enough to notice how much you don’t understand, and topics are getting more complex. Everything feels overwhelming, and motivation drops.

This is normal. You have to push through it.

I’ll write a separate post on how I manage this phase, but for now:

• Take a step back and make sure you understand the basics.

• Find something that keeps you motivated.

• Consistency is key. Even if it’s just five minutes a day, do it. (Edit: You can search online for inspiration on scheduled plans. I found one that organizes language exercises into different categories based on how much time you have each day, which seems helpful. https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/s/sSGUtORurM

Personally, I used AI to create a weekly plan kind of as a last resort before giving up on the language, but try looking for pre-made ones first.)

I personally enjoyed story learning during this phase. And don’t forget the frequency lists are still your best friend. For story learning check out Olly Richards books!

—

Step 4 – Immersion

Your brain needs active and passive immersion. The earlier steps were mostly active, and now you’ll start the fun part.

How to Immerse Yourself:

1. Join some kind of community.

• I enjoy Reddit/ r/lean[Language]. Do this in your target language, but also in the language you already speak. Post that you’re looking for a chat partner in your target language. The most people are nice, and the mean ones will just ghost you anyway.

2. Watch shows.

• Subtitles only in your target language or drop English subtitles ASAP.

3. Listen to podcasts.

4. Read

I personally dislike media made for kids (except on low-energy days). For real immersion, pick something for adults.

5. Translate, write, and speak.

Before this, you wrote simple sentences using vocabulary. Now, put them to work:

• Translate texts.

• Keep a diary.

• Write short stories.

• Complain about the language in the language.

It doesn’t matter, just use it.

—

Step 5 – Speaking

Start speaking earlier than you think you’re ready. Trust me. This is probably where most people disagree with me. I do think you should start by focusing on input, but the importance of output isn’t talked about enough.

Now, the real Anki (or any program with phrases + audio) comes into play. At lower levels, it doesn’t make sense to just start talking, since you wouldn’t even be able to recognize your mistakes. Here’s what you’ll do:

1. Repeat phrases out loud.

2. Record yourself speaking.

3. Compare your recording to the original audio and adjust your pronunciation.

If it’s a tonal language (or if you struggle with accents), start this even earlier.

Other Speaking Strategies:

• Shadowing – Repeat after native speakers.

• Reading aloud – Your own texts, books, anything.

• Talking to yourself.

• Talking to natives (if you’re brave).

I’m not here to fix social anxiety, but I am here to help with language learning, so just speak.

—

Final Thoughts

• These steps overlap, and that’s fine.

• This is supposed to be fun. Learning just because you’re “too deep in” or because of school won’t cut it.

• If you’re lost, take a step back.

• I’m not a professional. I just think a straight answer is way too hard to find.

—

秋 (qiū) - autumn, fall

愁 chóu to worry about, to be anxious, stressed 发愁 (fāchóu) - to worry about 愁苦 (chóukǔ) - to feel sorrowful, sad 愁云惨雾 （chóuyúncǎnwù) - gloomy and miserable

啾 (jiū) - to chirp 啾啾 (jiūjiū) - onomatopeia for bird or insect chirping

揪 (jiū) - to grasp, sieze 揪住 (jiū zhù) - to grab something

煍 (jiǎo) - to color by smoke (e.g. when cooking, the food changes color because of the smoke)

锹 (qiāo) - a shovel, spade 铁锹 (tiěqiāo) - shovel

鍫 (qiāo) - also means shovel, but not very widely used, primarily in old texts

鍬 qiāo - another word for shovel, but also not as commonly used (it's interesting to see how many words for shovel there are with this radical)

瞅 (chǒu) - to gaze, look at 瞅见 (chǒujiàn) - to see 瞅睬 (chǒucǎi) - to pay attention to 不瞅不睬 (bù chǒu bù cǎi) - to ignore

矁 (chǒu) - also means to look at but it's not as widely used

愀 (qiǎo) - sorrowful, sad looking 愀然 (qiǎorán) - sorrowful, sad looking

萩 (qiū) - used as a character in some plant names, but it's not very widely used outside of Classical Texts apparently

媝 qiū - as it turns out this character is considered to be obsolete but at one point was used in ancient Chinese women's names