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My boyfriend and I are trying to save up so we can rent a new place and get married, so we have been working hard on a new project: Japanese Learning Printables, which we’re selling on Etsy. He’s a professional graphic designer and I have been teaching languages since 2003, so we decided to put our professional skills together and design some products that we hope Japanese learners will find useful. Here’s a brief overview of what we’ve made so far: Language Study Printables Pack 1

This bundle contains eight different printables in PDF format, both in A4 and letter size. Colour and black and white versions are included.

There are New Kanji blank sheets for you to practice kanji, with spaces for mnemonics, stroke order, on’yomi and kun’yomi, example sentences and more. Language Exchange sheets allow you to document new vocabulary and phrases, as well as cultural points as you participate in language exchange, meaning you get more out of your experience and can review afterwards. There’s also space for feedback for your partner and goal tracking. 

To increase productivity you can track your reading and study hours with these Reading Log and Study Log pages.

To keep track of new words or compounds you can use our New Vocabulary sheet, with space for readings, example sentences, so you can lean in context, and review tracking included. Learning in real-life context is particularly difficult for self-studiers, so with this in mind we designed  this Grocery List printable, which you prepare at home, as you would a normal list, then take shopping so that you can use Japanese in context, even if you’re in a non-Japanese environment.  Also included in the Language Study Printables Pack 1 are Anime Log and Drama Log trackers, where you can note down examples of words in context you encounter when watching Japanese TV, track where and when you heard them and monitor your reviews.

Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Journal Prompt Printables There are three different levels available individually, or you can buy the bundle and get all three at a discount.  Again the printables come in PDF format, including both A4 and letter size versions. Designed with self-studiers in mind, these packs cover basic to advanced Japanese, including topics on your interests, memories, goals, as well as your opinions on a variety of current events, cultural points and social issues. Each pack contains 31 unique language prompts, one for every day of the month.

Beginners Journal Prompts should be good for self-studiers who are at around JLPT N5/N4 level, or who are working through Genki I and II. Topics include writing about your environment and interests, whilst giving you opportunities to use beginner level grammar and vocabulary. An English translation cheat sheet is included to help you if you get lost. 

Intermediate Journal Prompts would best suit those at about JLPT N3/N2, or working through a textbook like Tobira.  Topics include writing for different purposes, talking about culture, re-telling anecdotes and expressing your opinions. An English translation cheat sheet is included to help you if you get lost.

Advanced Journal Prompts are designed for those at N2/N1 JLPT level, or beyond. They are written by a native Japanese speaker and are designed to help you create independent texts on engaging and relevant topics, whilst using advanced language skills such as persuasion, criticism, and expressing nuanced opinions that often appears at this level.

Oh god I am so sorry because this is actually the worst question for me to answer, and I’ve gotten it a few times. My process is one of two things:

or

HOLY FUCK 

japanese-revision:

Textbooks:

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar

A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar

Read Real Japanese Fiction

GENKI: Integrated Elementary Japanese I and II [beginners]

An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese

Basic Connections: Making Your Japanese Flow

Tobira (Gateway to advanced Japanese)

TextFugu [an online textbook]

Heisig’s Remembering Kanji

Basic Kanji Book Vol.1

Kanji in Context

Shadowing: Let’s Speak Japanese! (Beginner to Intermediate Level)

Japanese The Manga Way

Making Out in Japanese [for informal/vulgar language]

Minimum Essential Politeness: Japanese Honorific

Online and Phone Dictionaries:

ALC (I use this everyday) →Expression encyclopaedia

Goo dictionary

Weblio

WWWJDIC (with audio clips) + for Android phones (incl. handwriting)

JWPce (downloadable dictionary for Windows)

JEDict (downloadable for Mac users)

Idiomatic Expressions

Idioms dictionary [Japanese only]

Counters dictionary

Hovering dictionaries:  →Rikaikun for Chrome →Rikaichan for Firefox →Floating Dictionary for Mac

Current Affairs dictionary

Tangorin

Imiwa? (a dictionary for the iPhone)

Tagaini Jisho (downloadable for Windows, Mac and Linux)

Nihongodict (also an app. for iPhone and Android phones)

For kanji.

Jisho (I use this for spelling kanji for if I can’t read it)

Yamasa (I use this for learning to write)

A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters

Associative Kanji Learning (stroke orders)

Handwritten kanji search

WaniKani (reviewed and explained here)

Online reading:

Hukumusume Fairytales

竹取（Bamboo-Cutting） (vertical writing)

吉田秀幸の日記（Hideyuki Yoshida’s Diary） (recipes)

Chokochoko’s reading texts to help with JLPT

TED Talks (with Japanese subtitles and transcripts)

Learning through Films [Japanese subtitles/scripts]

Blue Sky Library (public domain books, explained here)

Manga.

Free online manga

Vomic (free online manga with voice actors)

Sound Effects (in manga, etc)

Improving your speaking:

Japanese pronunciation guide

Interactive Hiragana Pronounciation table

Topics for Language Exchanges.

Bubbly (a Twitter-like app where you can record yourself)

Audioboo (similar to Bubbly, but also a website)

My Language Exchange [to find a language partner]

Japanese Kana (Chrome app)

Listening:

“Real World” Japanese

My Kikitori

Reading & Writing practice:

Lang-8

Japan-Guide [for getting Japanese penpals]

Read, Write, Learn: Macaronics

原稿用紙の使い方 (How to write an essay with Japanese writing paper)

Shiritori (Japanese word-chain game)

iTalki [similar to Lang-8]

手書きブログ (Blogging by hand)

ChatPad (Japanese chatroom site)

Real Kana practice

News:

NewsWeb Easy

NHK News (audio news with speed controls)

Mainichi Primary School student Newspaper

Podcasts and radio:

JOQR (Cultural Broadcasting)

TBS Radio’s Junk

TOKYO FM

CSRA fm(+ App for Android)

JIN Radio (bilingual)

Radio dramas

Medicine in Times of Tears

My Home, My Life

The Infirmary for 17-year-olds

YouTube:

Afternoon Hirusagari

Jet Daisuke

バイリンガール英会話

Analog TV Forever (collections of adverts)

Real Japanese Studio

Japancast

Tofugu

Japanese Let’s Play gamers

サイエンスチャネル

TheWannabeBC

Gaijin Goombah

Genki Lessons

Japanese sign language.

Heartful Power Hideo

Shuwa Island

TV:

Japanese subtitles for anime

KeyHole TV (to stream Japanese TV and radio)

風雲LIVE日本語（Feng Yun LIVE Japanese） (to stream TV)

映画で学ぶ実践英会話

Tumblr:

Kanji-a-Day

Holy crap Japanese

Nihongo ga Suki

Jumpstart Japanese

Nihongolog

Japanese Idioms

Nadine Nihongo

That Japan Addict

ChilliMuffin

Japanese through Fandom

F-Yeah Native Japanese

J-Vocab of the Day

ぶらりめし [Japanese only]

Peaceful Chef [Japanese only]

Kumako365jp

Japanese Revision (my blog for intermediates)

Those who are studying in Japan

My Japan Travels (Yokohama National University)

Mechakuchajan (Osaka University)

Hola-Itza (Meiji Gakuin)

The Disaster Chronicles (Toyo University) [wordpress]

Welcome to Moonside (University of Kitakyushu)

2012 - 2013 exchange students

Japanicking in Yamanashi (at Yamanashi University)

Samxuel (at Kyushu Sangyo)

Katy in Japan Town (at NUFS)

Chocotastie (at Seinan Gakuin)

Kim in Sapporo (at Hokkaido University)

Yeonhwa Japan (Chuo University)

Mago Mago (Ritsumeikan University)

Marta in Japan (Waseda University)

Working as part of the JET Programme

A Girl in Japan

Ramandab in Sapporo-shi

Ikemasu

Boukendan desu

Blogging:

Yaplog

Ameba

Learning websites:

JapaneseClass.jp

The Japanese Page

JapanesePod101

Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese

Erin’s Challenge (with listening and reading practice)

Maggie Sensei

Tofugu

All Japanese All The Time

Japanese Level Up

Learning Japanese with Lingualift

JPLang

Yes Japan!

Marugoto: Japanese Language & Culture

Other resources:

Lots of threads with a variety of resources for Japanese learning

JLPT Resources

Top 100 learning resources via Lingualift

Anki (flashcards for your computer, phone and online) →Yomichan (plug-in for Anki)

Common things said by cashiers

Quizlet (flashcards)

DJT and Okra’s pastebins (lots of resources and textbooks for download, etc)

Japanese.Livejournal (including tips on using IME)

Human Japanese (for PC and phones, excl. Linux)

Study Groups

Help with Japanese via StackExchange

This also translates into:

“Why am I so motivated when it’s really late?”

“The best time to make ideas is through sleep deprivation!”

“I want to do so much more right before bed and I don’t understand why!”

etc.

So basically when you stay up way too late it effects your problem solving ability and your ability to make decisions. [1]

Do you want to know a possible reason as to why that “I stayed up really late and now I feel so creative and willing to draw!” feeling happens?  Because your self-critique center is shutting down because you’ve been awake for too long.

You are always as creative and able to do things as you were when you were awake.  That potential doesn’t just disappear.

Difference is– when you’re wide awake you have a stronger problem-solving and decision-making center, which is obviously related to self-critique.  Being tired doesn’t necessarily make you more creative and motivated, being tired forces you to quiet that part of yourself that holds you back.

How I Studied Japanese | learnjp Hey guys, so I’ve received a couple of questions asking me how I studied Japanese in the beginning (and how I still study it to this day). So I wanted to make a post on the topic, to hopefully answer some of your questions and to give you guys an idea of what I did. Now, I’m not fluent in Japanese and I still struggle with a lot regarding the language, so this is in no way me saying this is how you should study Japanese - this is just what I did. I really didn’t study that much and actually wish I tried harder and studied more because I could be a lot better than what I am now if I had only tried more. This is my old study routine, which will definitely change up this year as I think I will be travelling to Japan for a month at the end of the year to meet my boyfriends family, so I really want to improve in order to be able to have natural and easy conversations with his family. It’s also my final year at university and we will not be using the Genki textbooks in class this year, so I will update you guys on my new routine once I have found one that I am comfortable with!

Using my Genki Textbook.

This is how I studied each chapter by myself, using my Genki textbook. 1. Vocab I think it’s important to study vocab first. I spent about two days memorising the vocab in each chapter. I did this by writing out the words into my notebook, along with an example sentence. Writing things out by hand is the most efficient way for me to memorise something. I also liked using flashcards and apps such as Anki decks, Memrise courses, or Quizlet flashcards that focused on the vocab for each chapter. 2. Reading Once I had memorised the vocab I then did the reading practices at the beginning of each chapter. There’s English translations there if you don’t understand the meaning of the text / or for you to use to check if you translated the sentences correctly. 3. Grammar There’s usually about 5 - 6 grammar points in each chapter, so personally I liked to focus on about 2 - 3 grammar points each study session so as to not overload my brain with information. Each study session, I focused on the first 2 - 3 grammar points by reading their meanings and then rewriting them in my own words into my notebook, then going to the practice section of the chapter and answering the questions. Then the next time I studied, the first thing I did was use the separate Genki workbook to answer the questions regarding the grammar points that I had previously learned. This showed me if I truly understood and had memorised the previous grammar points, or if I needed to continue studying them some more. 4. Kanji After I had learned all the grammar points for the chapter, I would then focus on the kanji at the back of the book. Studying kanji is different for everyone - everyone has a different method that works best for them but I cannot stress enough how important learning the correct stroke order is. It really helps you to memorise the kanji easier, and makes the character easier to write. I usually rewrote the kanji and its meaning a couple of times into my notebook, as well as an example sentence I found online, and my own example sentence that I created. In the separate workbook they have a section at the back of the book for you to practice writing the kanji, which I also found useful. It’s important to keep reviewing the material in order to actually learn it, because if you only look at it once you will forget it. So I would come back to each chapter a couple of times to review it, especially when I had exams, quizzes, or oral tests coming up. I had two 3 hour lessons of Japanese a week - so 6 hours of Japanese a week (however 2 of these hours a week were for my “advanced” class where we did not use the Genki textbook) and we usually spent about 5 lessons on a chapter (we would spend 1 hour in the fifth lesson on the chapter, and then spend the 2nd hour of that lesson working on the next chapter), so that basically means 3 weeks on a chapter. If you’re self studying you might finish a chapter faster than this, but it doesn’t really matter how long you spend on something so long as you understand it completely and can confidentially move onto the next chapter.

Japanese Test 4 You

This website was particularly useful for me (and still is), as they categorise their content into the JLPT levels. They have an abundance of vocab, grammar, kanji, reading, and listening tests and exercises for each level, as well as a section where you can learn Japanese from different mangas. I started from N5 and worked my way through all the different tests and exercises until I could get 100% on everything. Personally, I struggle a lot with listening so I always paid particular attention to the listening exercises.

Media

I love watching Japanese dramas and movies, so I would generally watch a drama and write down phrases that I thought seemed really useful or important and would look them up later to get an idea of how to use those words/phrases naturally. I also follow a bunch of native Japanese people on Twitter and Instagram and find reading their tweets and captions really informative and fun. I like to save certain tweets or captions that I think are really useful and something I could say later on. That’s about all the major things I did to study Japanese. A few other things include;

Using flashcard apps for memorising vocab, grammar, and kanji (I personally use Memrise and Quizlet).

Using dictionary apps to look up stuff that I don’t know (I personally use Shirabe Jisho).

Reading easy manga and comics in Japanese online and trying to translate the sentences myself.

Browsing /LearnJapanese on Reddit and taking notes of the stuff I found important or useful.

Talking to my boyfriend in Japanese / asking him to give me examples of how to say something in Japanese and making note of it for future reference.

Hanging out with Japanese people and listening to them talk. This was particularly useful in terms of pronunciation and intonations, as well as learning new vocab, and hearing informal and formal Japanese in action. 

Believe In Yourself

Wake up early, start the day with a smile, do what you have to do, complain less, ignore people’s opinions, don’t apologize for being positive, and believe in yourself.

The curly and cute little hair that Meph has on the top of his head is almost the same as a cat’s whiskers.

So, if someone cuts it, he becomes very disoriented and easily loses his balance.

His space-manipulation magic also loses accuracy. For instance, if he wants to travel to the next city using his magic powers, he could end up in a different continent instead.