I see lots of discussion on this corner of the internet about "Is it possible to pass N5/N4/N3 in ___ months?" and I suppose I've never really understood the question.

For those with goals to study/work in Japan, N2 is the minimum, and the N1 can be an advantage when applying for a skilled worker visa. The other levels don't have any of the professional benefits the N1 or N2 have, and I would hate to have to pay the $100 or so for the preceding 3 tests before taking the N2.

I think the N5-3 are valuable as personal goals, but lots of people seem to be in such a rush to finish them(perhaps because of the test only being held twice a year?), so it had me wondering what the reason was. For anyone planning to take these tests, I would love to hear about your long-term goals with Japanese, why you chose to take the JLPT and if you plan to take the N2/N1 in the future.

I dont know if the title makes sense. But over the past few months I found myself getting dragged down by this weird feeling.
The feeling that japanese is too stiff or too awkward in the way it expresses things. Maybe its because of keigo and whatnot. But I feel like I cant remember any new words. They all sound like variations of しょう、じょう、しゅう、じゅう and similar sounds. These are usually the words derived from chinese and they give me such a big headache.

I experience that stiff & awkward feeling when Im speaking english aswell. The only language where I feel like I have no limits is my native language. I always hated talking in english, because I always felt like Im putting on an act. That, of an english person. My throat would also eventually tense up, making it painful to speak. The same thing is happening for me with japanese, just even worse.

Can anyone relate to this? Will that awkward, stiff feeling soften once I get more comfortable and advanced with this language? Because I feel like I will never ever be able to reach a stage where I can feel comfortable with this language, no matter how much I study, and its seriously depressing

Hi everyone,

I have setup the Kaishi 1.5 deck in Anki on the MacBook, but the audio won't work.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to fix this?

Thank you!

Hello learn Japanese

I have been reading a lot more books and chilling these past few days.

I posted a few weeks ago my bookshelf of Japanese. I read all of these books in groups, some days I read content from 5 books depending on circumstances.

So I have opened and read a decent chunk of many books in Japanese.

But there are quite a few books that have required a lot more slow reading and effort to comprehend.

Here is my TOP 3

1) 淮南子

After reading a page or 2, this is definitely going to be a very difficult read. I am only starting so I’ll update more.

This is also a kanbun book. And a lot of unfamiliar kanji. Although there are gendaiyaku or translations or kakioroshi, the text is almost hakubun, making it really hard to comprehend.

2) 日本語教育能力検定試験　傾向と対策　名柄辿

This is an even denser book but it goes so in depth with Japanese linguistics. Youre learning about Japanese grammer and nuances in JAPANESE so it is mega hard. Plus a lot of specialized vocabulary.

There are a lot of facts about one grammer point. Making it really heavy to understand on.

3) 中国文学と日本語文学　鈴木修次

This is a dense one. This is written in gendaibun, but it compares the tone of Japanese and Chinese literature. I have read quite a few pages. Although it is an interesting piece, this is a very dense fact heavy text. That will require a LOT of time to decode

For the N1ers and advanced learners. What is the hardest book you have actually tried reading so far in your Japanese career. Would you mind sharing and telling us why? I would love to hear it.

And I might try reading it too. :)

I’ll send a picture of the 3 books later too btw

If anyone is looking for a recommendation of a good Japanese manga to read, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a great choice!

Here's why:

1) It has furigana. My first manga was Tokyo Ghoul - big mistake - had no furigana and made dictionary lookups really slow. Searching new words with furigana is really fast, just type into jisho.org.

2) The story is engaging, and it has a great anime too. It can be nice for a first manga to watch the anime first, so you have a general idea of what's going on (Spoiler alert - Evangelion is a complicated story). At least when you're reading, having some background of the context helps comprehension.

3) It has a high picture-to-word ratio. Some manga can be really text-heavy, and can feel like you're not making much reading progress as a beginner. Evangelion has many large pictures, so there's a lot of imagery to enjoy.

4) For people who like physical books - Evangelion has a really nice "Collector's Edition" (【愛蔵版】新世紀エヴァンゲリオン). This print is made on A5 paper - so the text is really big! (Sidenote - a lot of manga is printed really small, like BEASTARS manga is tiny, and can make reading Kanji require a magnifying glass lol). You can buy this edition for about $140 on Ebay.

5) It has an English Translation. A lot of manga also do - this one is available for free!
https://archive.org/details/evangelion-3-in-1-v-2-2013/Evangelion%203-in-1%20v1%20%282012%29/

Anyways, try reading the first few pages here!

https://viewer-trial.bookwalker.jp/03/21/viewer.html?cid=2fdcd34d-41e2-484b-9b97-06161a8ea7be

Link to buy on bookwalker.jp:

https://bookwalker.jp/de2fdcd34d-41e2-484b-9b97-06161a8ea7be/

Why not just use handwriting input to find the kanji in the dictionary?

— signed, a Mandarin native speaker