Summary of state-of-being (plain form)

Positive

学生（だ） Is student

学生だった Was student

Negative

学生じゃない Is not student

学生じゃなかった Was not student

*Theい is replaced with かった

単語 (たんご) Frequency Adverbs

not much 余り (あまり)

not at all 全然 (ぜんぜん)

usually 大抵 (たいてい)

sometimes 時々 (ときどき)

often; much よく (良く)

at about… ぐらい

Frequency Adverb Grammar

Frequency adverbs are added to a sentence to describe how often you do something.

I sometimes go to a coffee shop.

私はときどききっさてんに行きます。

Negative frequency adverbs anticipate a negative verb form at the end of the sentence. Therefore, you cannot use ぜんぜん or あまり with a positive verb form such as ます to communicate their meanings here. They would have to be used with ません!!

Ie. 私は全然テレビを見ません。

I do not watch TV at all.

Casual reminder to LISTEN.

YOU GOTTA LISTEN. Listen to your favorite shows, to podcasts, to vlogs, to music, to anything—as long as it’s made by native speakers. The textbook isn’t enough. Get serious about immersing yourself in the language as much as possible.

Why? Because you need to get a feel for common phrases and vocabulary, for context, for intonation and pitch, for pronunciation, to train your ear to make out the sounds better, etc…. It’s not about understanding everything, it’s about getting a feel for the language and its patterns.

So yeah. Stop neglecting it. Like now. Because grammar rules help, but they will never get you to fluency. A shit ton of input will take you much further (eapecially input that you can comprehend, which the grammar rules will help with). That’s all ^-^

Genki I Vocabulary

postcardはがき

small小さい

disgusted with; to dislike きらい

beautiful; clean きれい

quietしずか

fond of; to like すき

to hate 大きらい

very fond of; to love 大すき

livelyにぎやか

not busy; to have a lot of free time ひま

to swim 泳ぐ(およぐ)

kind (person); easy (problem) やさしい

inexpensive; cheap 安い(やすい)

the day before yesterday おととい

This one is really な-adjective heavy! That wasn’t on purpose Cx The blue ones are the ones I had a harder time memorizing. It’s been a while since I created this list, so I actually already know all of these now! Yay

My new learning system ~

Hiii, here’s how I have been learning Japanese these past couple of weeks!

I have been learning my kanji with The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course. I learn 2+ kanji a day, along with a corresponding vocabulary word for each one. I think this is nice because I am killing two birds with one stone by learning a reading of the kanji and the vocabulary word at once!

First, I review the previous day’s kanji by writing it down. I will review up to a week’s worth of kanji sometimes.

Then, I write down the new kanji I learn at the back of my notebook. I will include the words and stroke order beside them.

The next day, IN A DIFFERENT NOTEBOOK, I write the previous day’s vocabulary words (which are made up of the kanji) review. The second day notebook is what I use as a “I should probably know this or at least be somewhat familiar with this” kind of thing. Side note: If I learn 2 kanji a day, I should be able to finish the book (and learn a lot of vocabulary!) in under 10 months.

I have also been using WaniKani. I don’t know how to feel about it yet. I have however been taking words I struggle to remember and putting them on sticky notes and placing them on what I call my “focus wall” beside my desk. None of those words should be lying dormant on the wall for more than a week. I add them to a corresponding “focus” flashcard set on the Shirabe Jisho app to give them extra attention

I use the Shirabe Dictionary app for a lot of things, but mostly last minute kanji and vocabulary refreshers. It’s PACKED with value because it offers example sentences, stroke order, built in flash card sets (and an SRS system for them), word lists and kanji lists, etc. You can customize your own sets too if you want. The only thing is, don’t rely on the audio for the vocabulary. It’s not great. Still, I’m shocked that it’s free.

I’ve also been using HelloTalk. I actually quite love the listening they offer on there because it isn’t too difficult for beginners but there are intermediate options as well. They offer vocabulary and grammar explanations with listening that is suited for my level, which I really found most other podcasts to be lacking. Note: Another fun thing is just texting native Japanese speakers on there. It’s rly useful for learning their common phrases, especially because there’s a translation feature. It also kind of has the same features as HiNative, so I find it to be better in my opinion.

I found that I struggle with reading enough example sentences, so I scurried to my genki textbook to look at the fundamentals. I also use Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication. I like it, but the Romaji is quite annoying. Other than that, I find the example sentences to be pretty extensive!

Any other grammar I’m learning comes from a mixture of Cure Dolly (don’t binge her videos after the 4th episode, you will quickly regret it. It adds up too fast. Try to supplement her videos with beginner articles or other videos on the topic, then PRACTICE and EXERCISE making sentences before moving on), various blog articles (Ie. Tofugu) and my textbook (Genki).

So yeah. I also sometimes practice reading with the book Japanese Short Stories for Beginners by LingoMastery. I really like it, especially because it also includes vocabulary to learn with the stories. It’s written pretty formally so it will complement the traditional western learning style textbooks nicely.

Anyway, that’s how I’m studying lately. For me, I find the Kanji and their vocabulary to be daily, listening practice to be almost daily, and WaniKani almost daily. My weakness is reading and speaking. I usually speak when i’m imitating native speakers or the lessons from HelloTalk, but I’m not quite good enough to actually talk to native speakers yet.

Anyway, I’m off to sleep. Hope this helped! お休みなさい！

peisuri:

-relative time vocab -

the day before yesterday 一昨日・おととい

yesterday 昨日・きのう

today 今日・きょう

tomorrow 明日・あした

the day after tomorrow 明後日・あさって

12日目単語リスト

- weekly relative time vocab -

two weeks ago 二週間前・にしゅうかんまえ

last week 先週・せんしゅう

this week 今週・こんしゅう

next week 来週・らいしゅう

the week after next 再来週・さらいしゅう

- monthly relative time vocab -

two months ago 二か月前・にかげつまえ

last month 先月・せんげつ

this month 今月・こんげつ

next month 来月・らいげつ

the month after next 再来月・さらいげつ

- yearly relative time vocab -

the year before last おととし

last year 去年・きょねん

this year 今年・ことし

next year・来年・らいねん

the year after next 再来年・さらいねん

11日目単語リスト

Here’s a list out of the first chapter of a book I’m reading:

違う(ちがう) different

少ない(すくない) not many

不思議に思う(ふしぎにおもう) to wonder

もうすぐ just around the corner, soon

目の前 in front

一緒に(いっしょに) together

眺める(ながめる) to look, to stare

前に before

一生懸命(いっしょうけんめい) to try very hard

降りる(おりる) to get off (ie. train)

急いで(いそいで) hurriedly

声(こえ) voice

がっかりする to be disappointed

着く(つく) to arrive

字幕(じまく) subtitles

耳が不自由(みみがふじゆう) deaf

Ahhhhhh so many words but I already feel familiar with a lot of them so it’s okay. I’m gonna do a mass vocab review tonight! Then write down my journal corrections and watch grammar videos :) ^-^

Language Exchange Discord: UPDATE #3

I spent probably 6 hours trying to get native speakers to join and one said he would another time. Ah, what a productive way to spend my day.

I can’t continue on like this, so I hope I can find a more efficient way of getting native speakers to join :/.

Other than that, I set up the english rules, did bot config, reaction roles etc. I even found my first learning assistant!

Please join if you guys are interested :). It’s for anyone who is learning english and/or japanese. I’m giving out special roles to people who are qualified to answer linguistic questions and to people who can get a certain number of members to join :)

This server isn’t a school server. We don’t offer classes or tutoring. It’s for language immersion. This is why i’m frustrated that Japanese people don’t want to join They will eventually dw about it cmon :3

https://discord.gg/4eJQtq8uqn

Join the イマージョンプログラム Discord Server!

10日目の単語

Hi guys! I am really going all over the place with this vocabulary, but I decided that I want to start learning the vocabulary for the podcast “Let’s Learn Japanese from Small Talk!” so I can listen more easily :) I will be making my vocabulary lists based off of textbook words, JLPT words, conjunctions, and the wordlists from the podcast!

addiction中毒(ちゅうどく)

self-introduction自己紹介(じこしょうかい)

program演目(えんもく)

last month 先月(せんげつ)

so, thereforeだから・なので

by the way ところで

for example 例えば(たとえば)

because何故なら(なぜなら)

butけど・けれども

disgusted with; to dislike 嫌い(きらい)

quiet静か(しずか)

very fond of; to love 大好き(だいすき)

livelyにぎやか

To really solidify my learning, I’m gonna take the words from these lists and make them into a big flashcard set with the Shirabe Jisho dictionary app! I’ll study it today too of course :)

I’m frustrated because I’m not learning my textbook words fast enough but we r trying… I’m gonna take a break to work on my new server :3

sloppy 3am notes

9日目の単語

十一月十八日水曜日

Back to getting through my textbook vocabulary!

to ask (person に) 聞く(きく)

to ride; to board(~に) 乗る(のる)

to do; to perform (を) やる

to go out 出かける(でかける)

together一緒に(いっしょに)

extremelyすごく

homework宿題(しゅくだい)

butけど

butけれども

I’ll be doing more connector words tomorrow! :)

8日目の単語のリスト

Adversative Conjunctions:

But:

しかし、

が、

けど

けれども

なのに

でも

However:

しかしながら

ところが

Despite:

にもかかわらず

Conclusive Conjunctions

So:

それで、

なので

And then:

それから、

その後

Therefore:　

それゆえに、

だから、

したがって

Thus:

ゆえに、

したがって

I’m doing something a bit different today because I now realize that adverbs and conjunctions are actually very valuable in verbally expressing thoughts more fluently.

Soooo words like these are what I’ll be drilling for the next few days before reverting back to my path of textbook words and then JLPT words. However, my perspective has changed a bit, and I feel slightly less of a need to spend hours memorizing them. This is because words are probably the most easily retained part of a language, directly before phrases and grammar patterns. Soooo I actually would like to work on using the language I know and getting more of a feel for the patterns in grammar and how they’re used in every day speech rather than learning tiny bits of information that I can’t actually put together. But that’s just me ‍♀️ I’ll still learn new words every day though because it hasn’t proven itself as too challenging so far.

7日目の単語 (なのかめのたんご) Day 7 Vocabulary

十一月十六日月曜日 (じゅういちがつ　じゅうろくにち　げつようび) Just saying the date!

—The challenge where I force myself to memorize an entire vocabulary list a day—

So we just started a new chapter and I don’t have the vocabulary memorized, so I’ll have to halt the video once again and get these textbook words out of the way. But like I said, I have to learn them all anyway, so I’m not too concerned!

postal stamps 切手(きって)

birthday誕生日(たんじょうび)

ticketきっぷ

airplane飛行機(ひこうき)

holiday; day off; absence 休み(やすみ)

travel旅行(りょこう)

large大きい(おおきい)

interesting; funny 面白い(おもしろい)

good-lookingかっこいい

cold weather 寒い(さむい)

fun楽しい(たのしい)

boringつまらない

old item (inanimate) 古い(ふるい)

difficult難しい(むずかしい)

kind (person); easy (problem) やさしい

inexpensive; cheap (item) 安い(やすい)

I have a lot for this list because I learned some of these a while back and I’m only relearning them, which should be a lot faster and easier than seeing them for the first time. I also rly need to get these out of the way so I can go back to finishing the JLPT N5 Vocab video, soo yah lol

Let’s make a langblr chain!

Reblog this with the languages you speak and the languages you’re learning :) Follow the ppl in the chain who share the same interests as u !

My native language is English and I’m learning Japanese. That’s abt it for me (lol).

Feel free to say more stuff abt urself too,, ie. I’m 18 and struggling at life :,) Ur turn!

#langblr chain

単語(たんご)(Vocabulary) 6日目(むいかめ)(Day 6) •Days of the Month •

I’ll be focusing on the special ones that are bolded in pink!

1日・ついたち

2日・ふつか

3日・みっか

4日・よっか

5日・いつか

6日・むいか

7日・なのか

8日・ようか

9日・ここのか

10日・とおか

11日・じゅういちにち

12日・じゅうににち

13日・じゅうさんにち

14日・じゅうよっか

15日・じゅうごにち

16日・じゅうろくにち

17日・じゅうしちにち

18日・じゅうはちにち

19日・じゅうくにち

20日・はつか

21日・にじゅういちにち

22日・にじゅうににち

23日・にじゅうさんにち

24日・にじゅうよっか

25日・にじゅうごにち

26日・にじゅうろくにち

27日・にじゅうしちにち

28日・にじゅうはちにち

29日・にじゅうくにち

30日・さんじゅうにち

31日・さんじゅういちにち

Attention langblrs (especially Japanese), like this so I can check out ur page pls! (*´꒳`*)

11-14-20 Update

I’ve been grinding rly hard for this past week.

- watching my missed lectures + taking notes

- re-memorizing rusty kana

- studying rusty vocabulary

- learning 5+ new words a day

- I started a notebook that is entirely dedicated to my Japanese studies

- created a study schedule (which seems like it will be a game changer for me, but we’ll see! I’ll share my current schedule and let you guys know how it works out.)

Breakthroughs

- I finally formed a sentence that actually expressed what I wanted to say!! (It went something like… 私は日本語の本があります。。。今日はこれを読みます。I then read like one paragraph out loud to the camera and posted it to my snapchat! lol)

- developed a new notebook system for studying vocabulary that seems to work really well

FuturePlans

- I have soooo many posts coming your way (vocab, grammar, study methods, shoutouts) so stay tuned

- I plan to take my giant wall of sticky note vocabulary down and redo it with new words soon!

- I may or may not be starting a blog (rebelpicnic.com) even though I have no idea what it’s about, I know for a fact that I will be posting about my Japanese learning journey there as well! It’s not open yet but beware it will probably be about a lot of things before I can make up my mind Cx

Goals and Aspirations

- maybe someday I can write diary entrees in Japanese. I would love it if I could find a native speaker to critique them!

- I can’t wait to confuse my friends and family :,3

- the glorious fluency will feel so good rolling off of my tongue (cringe explanation) :,,,333

- understanding Japanese media? um? yes?

- flexing on ppl constantly?

Current Weekly Schedule

I’m currently doing a vocabulary challenge, so vocab is 毎日！(まいにち)(Every day!)

月曜日(げつようび) Monday

Vocabulary and reading

火曜日(かようび) Tuesday

Vocabulary and writing

水曜日(すいようび) Wednesday

Vocabulary — learn less words + catch up on rusty material

木曜日(もくようび) Thursday

Vocabulary and listening

金曜日(きんようび) Friday

Vocabulary

土曜日(どようび) Saturday

Vocabulary and grammar

日曜日(にちようび) Sunday

Vocabulary

A side note that I do take a class for Japanese so I have homework too. This is just what I will be doing on top of my classwork. I may even do more, but I consider this schedule the bare minimum/requirement. It basically helps to guarantee that I’m studying everything with some level of proportion!

a message to u

langblrs hmu and I’ll check out ur page! I’ve been really busy lately but I usually go thru all the pages of my new followers in one sitting cus I can manage my time better that way >< and let me know what you would like to see more of on here :,) love uuuu!

Daily Vocab Day 5

十二月　十四日　土曜日

—The challenge where I force myself to memorize 5-10 words a day from the complete JLPT N5 list until I know all 800—

busy いそがしい

painful; sore いたい

once いちど

the best いちばん

the 5th day of the month いつか (五日)

together いっしょ(に)

always いつも

meaning いみ

disagreeable; unpleasant いや

entrance 入口 (いりぐち)

to be needed/wanted いる (要る)

I got a lil carried away and did 11 because I’m like half familiar with almost every word so I thought it might be easier to remember more this time!

Word count: 66/800

Daily Vocab Day 4: Relative Location

Hey guys, because I’m still a little behind in class, I’m actually going to list the words from the textbook for now. (I’m sure these are required for JLPT N5 anyway so I’m not too concerned!)

right 右・みぎ

left 左・ひだり

front 前・まえ

back 後ろ・うしろ

inside 中・なか

on 上・うえ

under 下・した

near; nearby 近く・ちかく

next 隣・となり

Relative Location Grammar — Describing Location of X

Xはどこですか。(Where is x?)

Xはplaceのlocationです/にあります/にいます(Xはplaceの<location word (ie. in front of)>です)

Examples:

じてんしゃはどこですか。(Where is the bike?)

じてんしゃはとしょかんのまえです。(The bike is in front of the library.)

Orじてんしゃはとしょかんのまえにあります。(Lit.As forthebike,it exists atthelibrary’sfront)

Still working on this Refrain from reblogs until I finish pls Please let me know if there are any mistakes!

Daily Vocab Day 3

11/12/20

Just to clarify, this challenge is basically me forcing myself to memorize at least 5-10 words (depending on difficulty) a day until I know all 800 words of JLPT N5. I will be posting the words I must memorize every day! I might end up skipping a day here and there but the goal is to know all 800 in 3 months (._.)

that…~ あの

to take (a shower) あびる

dangerous あぶない

not much… あまり

to wash あらう

to walk 歩く・あるく

to say, to tell 言う・いう

how many, how old いくつ

pond いけ

word count: 45/800

another clarification: I know way more than 45 words, but I am using a complete JLPT N5 vocabulary youtube video and i’m just going through them chronologically. I skip over the ones I already know and count it as a word learned! I will probably end up learning about 500 words from the video but there are 800 in total.

If you would like to see all my JLPT N5 vocab lists up to date, just search up “peisuri vocab”

Daily Vocab Day 2

11/11/20

- head あたま

- over there (from from both the speaker and listener) あちら

- new 新しい・あたらしい

- hot; thick あつい

- afterwards あと(で)・後(で)

- (my) older brother 兄・あに

- (my) older sister 姉・あね

Tbh I’m still trying to memorize yesterday’s vocab lol we’ll see how easily I fail this C,x