#meownotes

Can't believe how high quality these free resources are!

Last updated: 2025-01-05

コース

Minato

Free high-quality interactive self-guided courses. It also has live courses (I haven't tried it yet).

Preview

TUFS Language Modules

From Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

The English version currently only has the pronunciation and dialog modules, so I'm studying the Traditional Chinese version.

Features

Vocabulary list by topics (Chinese)

Dialog

Pronunciation guide

辞書

Kakimashou

Features

Stroke order

Tone

Preview

Jisho

Super clean interface

Features

Tone

Has JLPT tags

Lots of sentence examples

アプリ

Miraa

The Miraa app makes it easy to listen and repeat (the shadowing/echoing technique).

It has a paid version, but I find the free version to be good enough

Features

Can directly paste links from YouTube

Can ask AI for an explanation of words/sentences you don't understand

Has search built in to search for podcasts in Japanese

renshuu

Also available as a web app

その他(た)のツール

Google - Text-to-Speech AI

Useful for reading out my transcripts. It already sounds much more natural than I do, so I can import it to Miraa and shadow my writings.

10ten Japanese Reader (Rikaichamp)

This is a Chrome extension that I use. I used to use Yomichan and then Yomitan after Yomichan sunsetted. But I personally like 10ten's UI.

Preview

And another one that is related is 目を覚ます, which means to wake up.

Experimenting with the idea of listening to different podcasts at different times of the day.

I listen on Apple Podcasts but I think all of them can also be found on Spotify.

Morning Commute - 還可中文 Haike Mandarin

Multiple hosts on the show, so it's more of a conversation and also talks about recent events. Also has some episodes dedicated to learning a new phrase.

Lunch Break - Learn Taiwanese Mandarin With Miss Lin

I really like Miss Lin's voice! Talking speed is moderate and calm. Miss Lin also has a YouTube channel.

Home Commute - 大人的 Small Talk

This podcast isn't for the purpose of learning Mandarin. The topics it discusses are around career/personal development, which gives a nice mental boost after a day in the office.

Bedtime - Ms. Chin's Bedtime Mandarin

Relatively new podcast. It's like looking into Ms. Chin's diary while she is writing it. Filled with personal thoughts which feels okay to fall asleep in the middle of it. Very calming and a nice for language immersion.

I revisited this today and I just couldn't remember the difference, so writing it down.

と会う both parties make an effort to meet

に会う only one party moves

So for example: 叔母に会う。This implies that I'm going to go to my aunt's place or somewhere that I'm the person moving.

叔母と会う。We are meeting up somewhere, where both of us needs to take action.

To expand a bit more:

✅ 車が壁にぶつかる💥。

❌ 車が壁とぶつかる。

The car crashing into the wall means only the car is taking action, so using に is more natural in this case.

I was trying to use 見てもらえる and 見かける in my diary today, as I recently just had a note on 見かける.

I was curious if I used it correctly so I asked AI for feedback and then checked with my Japanese teacher.

For my use of 見てもらえる, the feedback was 一番ぴったりです。

For 見かける, the feedback was 「見かけた（noticed/spotted）」と言うのは、過去形でバッチリです！

So I was curious what was the difference between バッチリ and ぴったり

ぴったり: Used when a word "fits" a situation perfectly. It’s all about the match.

バッチリ: Used when you "nailed it." My grammar was correct, so the result was spot on.

ぴったり is about alignment, バッチリ is about success/outcome.

ぴったり is also very common when talking about whether a physical size or space fits, for example:

Decided to summarize expressing decision making as I already know three ways to do it!

Noun/な-adj + にする

コーヒーにする。 I will have (decide on) coffee.

にしている

This infers that ongoing effort is made, for example like a preference or a habit.

部屋をきれいにしている。 I keep my room clean.

ことにする

Now we can add verb + ことにする, so I can express decisions on actions too and not just a noun.

日本に行くことにした。 (I decided that) I am going to Japan.

ことにしている

Like にしている but can use verbs.

毎朝ジョギングすることにしている。

ことになる

The nuance here is that the decision is not made you. I remember this by like なる is become, so something becomes a decision, doesn't mean that I made the decision.

日本に行くことになった。 (It has been decided, or some other external factors) I am going to Japan.

ことになっている

Usually used when it's like a policy, a rule, for example it's a company policy that every Monday there is a meeting:

Recently I found this site where you can type the Japanese lyrics for the songs. Key is to not stare at the romaji when typing, stare at either the Japanese (with Kanji) or the pure hiragana and type.

Level 1 is already pretty challenging for me:

The way I remember this (probably only works for me), was when I was watching Chobits, there was a book in the anime called 誰もいない町.

So drawing from that context:

何（なに）も + negative

何（なん）でも　+ positive

For example:

何も食べません。 I'm not eating anything.

何でも食べます。 I'll eat anything.

Other examples:

どれも選びません。 Not choosing anything.

どこも行きません。 Not going anywhere.

誰でも参加できます。 Anyone can join.

どれでも選べます。 Can choose anything.

どこでも行けます。 Can go anywhere.

Exception: どこも

When describing a state, どこも + positive is used.

どこも混んでいます。 It's crowded everywhere.

Reference

Reading this reference helps me make sense of the exception too. The grouping is like Everywhere—this place, that place, and that place—is crowded.