Over the years, I've downloaded and tested many apps. Though my favorite app was discontinued (I miss you, mindsnacks Japanese), there are still others that I don't think I'll be removing from my phone any time soon. In light of duolingo's horrible update causing a large migration and search for other apps, I thought I'd share some of my favorites. Also, some of these apps have websites or discords for you to interact with other users or to ask support questions.
For those who cannot use/don't like the graphics, the written out version is below the break.
Lingo Legend
RPG-based language learning game that I was a beta tester for. It also offers Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, German, Italian, and Portuguese. Uses spaced repetition.
Offers beginners, intermediate, and advanced levels.
User can jump between lessons and difficulty levels.
Available on ios and android
Manabi Reader
Caters to all JLPT levels and offers reading options on an array of topics (including news, games, reddit). Can hilight words and look up in-app. User can also paste a link within the app to read.
Companion app available (Manabi Flashcards).
Available on ios
TODAI: EASY Japanese News
Aggregates news from various sources.
Offers practice JLPT exams in-app.
Offers grammar resources and in-app dictionary that can generate flashcards from words saved in notes.
Offers audio listening, as well as videos with transcriptions.
Available on ios and android. Also has a website.
Shirabe Jisho
Offline dictionary app.
User can favorite words, make lists, take notes, make flashcards, etc.
User can search for words in kana, romaji, drawing, or through radical (or radical building).
Available on ios
Renshuu
Think quizlet, but solely for Japanese. You can create your own lists, use others, play shiritori, earn prizes and interact on forums.
You can study grammar, kanji, vocab, flashcards, learn and submit mnemonics. You can also friend people.
Available on ios and android. Also has a website (of which I am an avid user).
If you are an English speaker, you will often use pronouns to refer to yourself and other people. Sentences in English will not make sense if someone asked you, "What nationality?" and you respond, "Am American".
See what I did there? I removed the pronouns in English and it sounds pretty odd. Maybe it makes sense in context, but it's unnatural either way. In Japanese however, you will usually leave out pronouns, especially when talking about yourself. You don't want to constantly mention yourself when you are talking about your actions. Scenarios:
You hang out with a friend and say you have to go back home in the most beginner-ish way you can say it:
私は家に帰ります。
This is textbook Japanese and it sounds so odd. When you end a sentence with the standard present tense like 行く or 行きます、without a pronoun there, it automatically refers to yourself. Unless of course the subject was a question about someone. Else in the above scenario, especially when you're asked something, just omit the pronoun:
家に帰ります。
In real life situations, you also don't really want to refer to others as 彼 or 彼女。Use their name instead, since you definitely don't want to use any iteration of "you", like あなた。
Even when trying to say something like "Is this your pen?" should be rather phrased like
これはA子さんのペンですか?
Even then this sentence is a wee bit odd, I'd rather it be:
このペンはA子さんのですか?
There's also slightly different nuances to be used in formal and informal speech, but I don't have too much experience in the former.
this way of asking a question is a little more informal than desu ka. it's great to use with friends and family but you wouldn't use it at a more formal, for example, with acquaintances or coworkers.
文法:〜ては(If・Because + Bad Result/Whenever ~/Repetitive Actions)
A(て-form)+は、B。
In spoken Japanese, ては and では become the contractions ちゃ and じゃ respectively.
We’ve seen ては combine with phrases like ならない、だめ、いけない to mean something that you “must not do.” However, ては has several different uses.
If・Because + Bad Result
Aては、B。
(A[普通形]+のでは、B。)*
If/Because A, then B (Bad Result).
This is the base form for the grammars てはいけない and しなくちゃならない. ては is a conditional whose usage is very similar to ~たら, but while ~たら is neutral, ては carries a negative implication. It's used to express a negative result due to some action, or even just one's negative reaction to that action.* While it's common to see it paired with だめ・ならない・いけない like in the above grammars, it is not limited to those endings.
先輩 ついてきちゃ意味ないです[ビクッ]
Senpai, there's no point if you're just going to follow me. [Startled]
[Speaker is on an errand from Senpai to fetch a drink.]
(『月刊少女野崎くん』 Girl’s Monthly Nozaki-kun,vol. 1 by Izumi Tsubaki)
Of course, depending on the translation, these alternate endings can still carry the meaning of "that must (not) be."
未来の僕の奥さんに傷が残っちゃ大変だ
It would be a problem if my future wife were scarred. (= I can't allow my future wife to be scarred.)
(『魔法使いの嫁』 The Ancient Magus' Bride, vol. 1 by Yamazaki Kore)
Whenever ~
While て-form is used to simply connect two clauses to indicate a simple sequence of actions, ては is used to describe an action that keeps happening. In this case, ては is only formed from verbs.*
A(Verb) て、B。
When A, then B.
A(Verb) ては、B。
Whenever A, then B.
These actions are habitual, with B happening every time A occurs. This meaning is not necessarily negative, and the phrase is not repeated.* *
そっ!あの赤いの行ったとこ
世界のいろんなとこ見たくてさ
バイトで金貯めちゃ旅してんだ
Yeah! Those red pins are the places I've been.
See, I really wanna travel all over the world,
And I go on a trip whenever I save up enough money working part-time.
(『あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない。』 Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, vol. 1 by Okada Mari and Izumi Mitsu)
Repetition
ては can be used to emphasize two actions happening over and over, similar to ~たり~たりする. However, while たり gives several examples (out of many), ては really stresses the repetition.* These two actions can be completely unrelated, even opposite actions. The ては phrase can be repeated twice, or the order of the verbs even inverted to further emphasize the repetition. This form is only formed from verbs.
A(Verb) ては、B。
Do A and B repeatedly, every day, constantly, always.
A(Verb) ては、B、AてはB。
Repeatedly A-ing and B-ing, A-ing and B-ing.
A(Verb) ては、B、BてはA。
Repeatedly A-ing and B-ing, B-ing and A-ing.
When repeated twice, the two actions are opposites (ex: turn on and off, draw and erase, eat and sleep.)*
だから何度も目覚めては 確認するにゃ
So I keep opening my eyes over and over, just to check.
[To keep the cat pun, consider: "meowny times" instead of "over and over".]
(『おじさまと猫』 A Man and His Cat, vol. 1, by Sakurai Umi)
白と黒の2つの神様がいました
白の神様はみんなに喜びを与えてやりました
しかし黒の神様はそれを取り上げては悪さばかりしていました
There were two gods, one white, one black.
The white god bestowed joy upon everyone.
However, the black god constantly took that joy away, and wrought only evil.
[Language purposely elevated to keep the fairy tale/mythic feel.]
(『とつくにの少女』 The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, vol. 1 by Nagabe)
On top of the 3 usages above, Maggie-sensei lists a few more. Be sure to check out her page for more examples from a native speaker!
Advice & Suggestions
This one is another usage that is similar to ~たら, this time giving the advice a more elevated feel than the casual たら, or softens the impact of a straightforward ていただけませんか.
Aてはいかがでしょう。
Aてはいただけませんか。
Aては… [unfinished to allow listener to fill in the blanks]
Attempt with expected failure
ては is used to modify てみる when you're not optimistic about the outcome of an attempt.
Aてはみます。
I will at least give A a try...
J-Rock Examples:
山際も星も/ぼくらに気付いては/お話もした
Both the mountain ridge and the stars / Whenever they noticed us / Told us stories as well
[赤い光線 - 交信]
東京にすがりついては/泣きじゃくって 言えやしなくて
I’m always clinging to Tokyo / and crying and I just can’t say it
[関取花 - 東京]
革靴は知らぬうちに/あのリズムを奏でては列車中に空しく響く
Whenever my leather shoes unconsciously / tap out that rhythm, it echoes through the train in vain
[関取花 - 石段のワルツ]
Hi Tumblr! My fiancée (@lulifelog) said I should create a tumblr blog, so I dicided to try it out.
My name is Luã (pronounced luh-an; calling me suugakusei, rage or anything else is fine), I'm an applied mathematics major from Brazil and a japanese student, currently on the JLPT N3 grind. I love studying and playing videogames, I have a lot of interest in japanese culture and language and I intend in working in tech in a few years. Mathematics is my life, and the epiphany of solving a good problem is my favorite feeling.
This blog is where I'll share my studying process and lifestyle, as well as some thing about my daily life, all along some cute pictures I might try to take (emphasis on "try") and maybe some music recommendations. So, if you have interest in that, I'll see you on your dash :)
I would also like to get to know some japanese speakers, because immersion is everything. では、tumblrの日本語を話す人たち、よろしく!
Today I had a nice little moment of comfortable japanese study.
I'm at the end of my university's summer break, so I'm free to do whathever. I try to study as much as possible, but the thought of spending hours mashing buttons on Guilty Gear is always a tease.
Just when I decided to catch up with my vocabulary Anki deck, a light rain started to pour, which makes studying the best. So I made some coffee, lighted an incense stick, put on Lamp's album Yume, a gorgeous and somewhat-strange piece of japanese jazz-pop, and got to work.
I always try to write my kanji as beautifully as possible, and I think today I managed to draw some nice characters. Nothing like getting a kanji to look just right.
焼く (yaku), to burn
義理 (giri), honor
間違い (machigai), mistake
Japanese language students tend to dislike or even hate kanji because of the amount of work it tends to take to memorize them, including readings and stroke order. Despite that, it's my favorite aspect of the language. I just find them very beautiful and interesting, as the idea of a character that not only expresses sound but also an idea is very foreign to my strictly-phonetic mother language. Also, knowing a lot of them gives you bragging rights, which can't be bad.
As I was wrapping up the session, the Lamp album ended, so I played King Gnu's album Ceremony, which is an awesome alternative j-rock album with amazing melodies. It's also from the same band that composed one of the Jujutsu Kaizen openings, so some of you might be familiar. Their whole discography is worth checking out.
And that was all for today. I think I'll play some Persona 3 right now, even though I feel I should study more, as I always do. But I'm on my break, right? Nothing wrong with having some fun.
So if you've been doing your Genkis and whatnots you've likely come across the grammar point 「たり」, which you would use when you want to mention that you've done more than one action. Example sentence:
日曜日は買い物したり、映画を見たりした。。
"I went shopping and watched a movie on Sunday.
Okay but what if we used this grammar point of たり, and only listed one verb. Why would we do that? Let's take a look at a sentence from my last post.
「私はだれとも境遇を変えたりしないだろう」
"I won't let anyone change my circumstances."
So what is this grammar point doing here in this sentence? If we decided to remove that たりしない bit, it would turn into:
「私はだれとも境遇変えないだろう」
"I won't let anyone change my circumstances."
So this means the same thing directly translated, however the former, has a different nuance than the "standard" latter. Adding a たりしない to the sentence, emphasizes that it is very unlikely to change the circumstances in the above example.
Why could this be the case and why does it mean this? This is likely conjecture here based on some readings. Normally, when you use たり by itself, it means that aside from the singular action enlisted, other things may or may not happen. For example:
「今日は本を読んだりしたい」
"I want to read a book today"
The above sentence implies that aside from wanting to read something else, the subject would like to do other things that have not yet, if at all, been mentioned.
Using the same logic when looking at the 「私はだれとも境遇を変えたりしないだろう」 sentence, we can assume that you can't change the subject's circumstances, and nothing else can be done.
Hopefully I am correct on this, I can't find an explanation good enough for me to be 100% confident. Here's the sources (The latter was extremely useful):
Even though I only post once in a while, I now have over 5000 followers. Thank you so much!
Since I haven’t done one in years, I thought it would be a good opportunity to do a new self introduction! So,
Hello!
I’m «orange». A 30year old Norwegian that has been living in Japan for 5 years now. Previously I lived in Aichi and Nagano prefectures, but now I work in Tokyo.
The reason I started studying Japanese was for my love of novels. I read all of Haruki Murakami’s books in English and thought «I want to read these in Japanese, I wonder how different they are». Now I am enjoying other Japanese authors maybe even more than Haruki Murakami🙈
Hobbies are, as stated above as well; reading. I also often drink tea (while reading), tidy and organize (not to say that my house is always tidy and clean), write letters (I also love Japanese stamps), cook and bake, and sometimes go hiking.
Things I love; my beloved cat Darjeeling, sweets, stationery, milk tea, planners, autumn, the colour orange, crafts etc.
Things I did in 2022; got married and got my driver’s license! (I got the license all in Japanese! Please excuse my bragging just this once haha)
I want to pass the jlpt soon, mostly just to be able to get rid of all the jlpt textbooks I have. While it is not the best reason, I feel like I can’t get rid of them without having passed so.
Just one of the many ways you can use the - te iru form in japanese is for continuous actions or actions that are ongoing. It can give your sentences a softer and less definite feeling which can often be more natural :)