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.

Words about language, in Japanese.

言語 げんご language

外国語 がいこくご foreign language

母国語 ぼこくご mother tongue (native language)

文字 もじ letter (or character)

名詞 めいし noun

動詞 どうし verb

副詞 ふくし adverb

修飾副詞 しゅうしょくふくし modifying adverb

形容詞 けいようし adjective

限定的用法の形容詞 げんていてきようほうのけいようし qualifying adjective

言葉 ことば word

since @onigiriforears さん's seitokai bookclub will be reading 光が死んだ夏 for spooky season, i thought i'd do an introductory post on 関西弁! hikaru is definitely tricky if you don't know any 関西弁, so i hope this will be a helpful intro for anyone reading/watching the series for the first time. ほんじゃ、行くで〜！

n.b.: i think the manga uses 三重弁, and i know more about 和歌山弁 and 大阪弁, so forgive me if anything isn't exactly representative of how they talk in hikaru!

「関西弁」って知っとるん？

in japanese class, we generally learn standard japanese, or 標準語(ひょうじゅんご), which is spoken in tokyo and in higher social registers, like at work. kansai japanese is spoken locally in kansai! the kansai region is on the island of 本州 (honshu) and is usually said to contain these prefectures:

hyogo 兵庫県

kyoto* 京都府

mie 三重県

nara 奈良県

osaka* 大阪府

shiga 滋賀県

wakayama 和歌山県

these prefectures all use a noticeably similar variety, aka 方言/"dialect", of japanese, though there are definitely differences across the region.

just to cover my linguistic bases: "dialect" can be a charged or derogatory term in english. when i use the word "dialect", i use it as a neutral synonym for "variety", meaning a type of some given language (including a regional type, a social type, a historical type, etc.). for this reason, i use "variety" much more often, but 方言 in japanese does literally translate to "dialect". no linguistic variety has any inherent moral, societal, or scientific worth.

as with any non-standard variety/方言, usage of 関西弁 tends to be heavily context-dependent. for example, teachers in the region may use 関西弁 with each other in the staff room but 標準語 during class with older students. similarly, someone using 敬語 (honorific language) will probably not combine it with 方言. if you speak a non-standard variety of any language, you have probably had similar experiences.

anyway, let's finally get into some of the concrete differences between 標準語 and 関西弁!

*kyoto and osaka here refer to the prefectures (= 府 "borough"), not the cities, which of course are contained in their respective prefectures.

vocab items

関西弁 is famous for certain vocab items (kind of like how "pop" is considered a great lakes regionalism in the us). some words from 標準語 are just entirely different words in 関西弁:

だめ → あかん

本当 → ほんま

some words are pronounced differently, or are old-fashioned:

いい → ええ

そう → せ (sometimes)

言う → ゆう*

いる → おる** (including in the 〜て form)

or, some words are frequently abbreviated:

違う → ちゃう

よく → よう

難しい → むずい

おもしろい → おもろい

not all of these are 関西弁-exclusive, but they're all very common in 関西弁!

*remember, 方言 doesn't usually get combined with 敬語 or 丁寧語, so forms like ゆう tend to show up only in the plain form, like 言った → ゆった, but not 言いました → ✕ゆいました.

**eagle-eyed readers may notice おる is the equivalent of いる in 謙譲語 (humble language). as it turns out, おる is just the old-fashioned version of いる which, in other places in the country, only stuck around as a hyper-formal form. neat!

sentence-final particles

conversational (i.e., non-grammatical*) particles may be different, too!

よ → で、ねん

ね → な

じゃない？ → ちゃう？

じゃん** → やん、やんか、やんけ (rough)

の？ → ん？ (pronunciation allowing, e.g. ✕ 知らんん？)

these particles are all optional, but they're some of the most noticeable things about 関西弁 in my mind. when you're listening to/reading them all the time, you can get used to them really quickly!

*though many varieties of japanese differ in their usage of grammatical particles as well, e.g., の as が and vice-versa.

**see below for more details on what happens to the copula!

lots of grammatical forms

famously, there are lots of negative verb endings in 関西弁. in 標準語 we learn the 〜ない form (and the 〜ず form, which used to be a fully independent verb form!), but in 関西弁, the most common negative is famously 〜へん.

but there are others! the following are just some possible negatives!

わからない → わからん、わからへん

わからなかった → わからんかった、わからへんかった

見ない → 見やん

見ないで → 見やんといて*

しない → せへん

しないで → せん、せんといて*

also, conditional forms from 標準語 often get abbreviated:

こけたら → こけた

こけた帰るわ = if i fall over, i'm going home (real quote from my co-teacher having sat on a broken chair)

守らなければ → 守らな

交通ルールを守らなあかん = we have to obey traffic laws

走っては → 走った (cf. standard 走っちゃ)

走ったあかん = no running

and as stated above, the 〜ている form uses おる instead:

知ってる → 知っとる

よう知っとるな = you really know your stuff

the 〜てしまう form also gets abbreviated, kind of like 〜ちゃう in 標準語:

行っちゃう → 行ってまう

行っちゃった → 行ってまった、行っちまった、行ってもうた

lastly, the negative い-adjective form (including the declined 〜たい form, etc.) is also frequently abbreviated by deleting the く:

暑くない → 暑ない

早くない → 早ない

行きたくない → 行きたない

*eagle-eyed readers may notice that the 〜といて ending looks like a conjugation of 〜ておく, and they're right! the 〜ておく form is used very liberally in 関西弁, including in the negative command form as above, but also just all over the place in regular speech.

the copula

the term "copula" refers to だ in 標準語, but in 関西弁, the copula is や! this even affects copula contractions such as (what would be) じゃん*.

そうだね → せやな

そうだろう → せやろう

そうだったんだ → そうやったんや

決まってるじゃん → 決まっとるやん

because of the types of consonants that だ and や are,** i sometimes find myself using the や forms just because they're quicker/easier to say!

*just in case you needed a refresher, じゃない comes from ではない, where で is a copular form.

**specifically, plosive vs. glide. the closure for a plosive requires more work from your articulators.

pitch accent

the pitch accent in tokyo is famously very "flat", but in kansai, it's much more "musical". in particular, most* words in 標準語 start on a low pitch and go up (＿↑), but in 関西弁, it's much more common to start on a high pitch and go down (＿↓).

こ↑んにちは → こ↓んにち↑は

あ↑り↓がとう → あ↓りが↑と↓う

サ↑ーシャ → サ↓ーシャ (my name lol)

now, my personal opinion is that the best way to learn pitch accent is to actually hear and reproduce it, so if these janky arrows don't make any sense to you, please feel free to ignore them! but if you're comfortable with dissecting pitch accent, be sure to pay attention when you next listen to speech in 関西弁.

fun phrases

here are some common phrases you hear a lot in 関西弁!

知らんけど = not sure though

行けたら行く = i'll go if i can (but i don't really want to/probably won't)

まあええわ = まあいいよ

ちゃうわ = 違うよ

ヤや = いやだ

ほんじゃ = じゃあ、それじゃ／それでは

like with the vocab items, these are not necessarily 関西弁-exclusive, but they show up very frequently or are associated with the region.

簡単やん！

楽(たの)しいんちゃう？そんなにむずないやろう？みんなが「なんだか聞いたことある」とでも思ってくれたかな。関西弁の面白い点がこの他に山ほどあるから、これからよう聞き取ったり読み取ったりしてみてよう！

lastly, if i can, i'd love to be a point-person for fielding 関西弁 questions while the bookclub reads this series, so please reach out to me with any questions! if i can't provide help/answers just from experience, i'll definitely try and look up all the 細かい (nitty-gritty) details. ほんじゃ、またな！

文芸(ぶんげい) - (art and) literature

読書(どくしょ) - reading (books)

ページを捲る（。めく。）- to turn (e.g. the page)

飛ばし読み＋する（と。よ。）- skimming the pages, skipping words, reading quickly (literally “jump reading”)

読書家(どくしょか) - great reader

書店(しょてん) - bookshop, bookstore

書架(しょか) - bookshelf

執筆(しっぴつ) - writing(e.g. as a profession)

書籍(しょせき) - publication, book

出版(しゅっぱん) - publication

出版物(しゅっぱんぶつ) - publication(s)

出版する(しゅっぱん。) - to publish

購読(こうどく) - subscription (e.g. of a magazine)

編集(へんしゅう) - editing, editorial, compilation

営業(えいぎょう) - business, sales, trade 

販売(はんばい) - sales, selling

企画(きかく) - project

*営業企画（えいぎょうきかく）- sales/ operation project

促進(そくしん) - promotion, marketing

児童書(じどうしょ) - children’s book(s)

雑誌(ざっし) - magazine

百科事典（ひゃっかじてん）- encyclopedia

随筆(ずいひつ) - essay, miscellaneous writings, literary jottings

索引(さくいん) - index, indices

目次(もくじ) - table of contents

解説(かいせつ) - explanation, commentary

粗筋(あらすじ) - outline, summary

台詞(せりふ)—>セリフ- one’s line, speech, dialogue in writing (normally written in katakana)

評論(ひょうろん) - criticism, critique

評判(ひょうばん) - fame

傑作(けっさく) - masterpiece

名作(めいさく) - famous piece of work/art

無名(むめい) - unsigned, anonymous; unpopular

Essential verbs:

読む（よ。）- to read

書く（か。）- to write

売る（う。）- to sell

If, like me, you love old Japanese movies, here are two YouTube channels with subtitled vintage movies:

NipponKino

Subtitle option through YouTube’s settings (easy to toggle on/off)

Some European and Chinese films also available

1920s-1950s movies

Cinema Japan Retrospective

Subtitles are encoded into the videos. This was a passion project, so some subtitles may not be 100% accurate

To communicate with my parents and extended family. At age 1 I started to feel a bit hungry and decided I should start speaking so that my parents would feed me.

Hey Japan - comes with a cute shiba inu bc fuck that aggressive owl. its basically duolingo made specifically for japanese and much better at teaching you HOW the language works.

Kanji Study - its the grey one, made by one person. it covers the first 80 kanji plus the main radicals that make kanji up, PLUS hiragana and katakana FOR FREE. you can practice by drawing, flash cards, multiple choice, and you can decide whether you read or select the romanji/character/meaning. i learned hiragana in 5 days using this. the upgraded version (one time payment) with higher level kanji goes on sale a few times a year, consider supporting the app if you find it useful

Todai - more advanced but good for reading comprehension. japanese news in... japanese. highlights which JLPT level words are and gives percentages of each level for each article. has inbuilt dictionary to check words you dont know.

Takoboto - my preferred japanese dictionary but there are loads out there. i like it bc i can search in english, romanji, kana, or kanji and it breaks down kanji compounds into individual characters. it also shows different conjugations eg: to eat, eating, ate, to be able to eat, etc

those are just the phone apps i use, there are so many other resources out there that are free and not pulling bullshit like skipping one of the 3 'alphabets' of a language

*to be clear the reason i think duolingo is shit for japanese is that it doesnt follow the JLPT pathway. which... you dont NEED exactly, but i think the country that had to make a new, easier language profiency test bc not enough people were passing the existing one will know how to build courses that teach their language. plus duolingo is doing *gestures* whatever shit that is up top.

if you seriously want to learn japanese, memorise your kana (drop romanji asap or youll forever struggle and I'll come to kick your shins) and find the ebook of genki 1 that someone uploaded, or some other JLPT N5 course. but NOT duolingo.

Some more apps I recommend:

Renshuu (quizzes, a dictionary, shiritori, crossword puzzles and forums all in one app!) I believe this does have other language options too? But I tried it with Swedish and it just used a mix of English and Swedish, which made it more confusing lol

Irodori (kinda simiar to Duolingo but more flexible and made specifically for Japanese)

Migii JLPT (if you wanna follow the JLPT structure - a certain amount is free and you can pay to unlock extras)

Kanji Dojo (for learning kanji)

Pibo (for reading practice)

Snortle!

i use the app version of this which is useful, but jotoba also has a website version and the only notable difference is that it makes the pitch accent info more visible.

and honestly you can stop reading here, those two are probably all you really need if you just need a good dictionary. im going to throw in some more useful resources in case you (or anyone else reading this) are interested

weblio (the english-japanese dictionary) is extremely useful for example sentences and looking up phrases.

weblio (again, but this time the japanese-only dictionary) is also very useful if youre more advanced and can read definitions for japanese words in japanese.

コトバンク (kotobank) is probably the best and most popular online japanese dictionary, but only also if you're able to read japanese definitions.

kanjialive is a useful kanji dictionary that is meant for english speakers to understand.

漢字ペディア (kanjipedia) is the best kanji dictionary that native speakers use, but you also need to be able to read some japanese to understand it.

I know most of you never thought about that, but… GUYS.

“What Can I Do” [wɒt kæn aɪ duː] sounds awfully like “водки найду” [vɒtki naɪduː], which means “I’m gonna find some vodka”.

“Can’t Buy Me Love” [kɑːnt baɪ miː lʌv] is another gem, because I know a whole bunch of people who sing along to that with the phrase “кинь бабе лом” [kɪŋˈbɑːbi lom], which means “throw a crowbar to that [tough] woman”.

Don’t be alarmed, that’s just the way we hear things. 

“I wanna love you” sounds like “Agua en el hoyo” (water in the hole) and a lot of people sing it that way instead.

I need to make another example: “Let’s twist again, like we did last summer”, the “ like we did last summer” is often sung like, “и трусы с лавсаном (and the underpants with lavsan)”. I’ve seen people singing that in karaoke. As you might have guessed, that… amplifies the fun a bit.

“Eeuwen geleden                                      (Centuries ago)

Ik kom met het zout”                                  (I come with the salt)

大 means 'big.' It's used as the place name for Omiya station.

犬 the extra stroke exactly where the crow is standing changes the meaning to 'dog.' So now it's dog-o-miya station.