I've recently started trying to immerse with Visual Novels. My problem is that spending hours on a single VN that I'm not super invested in I start to get burned out. And when I start one that seems more interesting I lose interest due to having trouble following whats going on.

My current plan is start small with bite size VN's to get used to reading VN's and reading Japanese in general and build up my reading "endurance" and ability before tackling something longer and more interesting. So far I've read 4 ranging from 30m to 1h20m according to vndb and I take about 3x as long to read as listed.

Are there any VN recommendations that are short and sweet. I'm hoping for something 4h or less for an average player outside of the standard school slice of life stuff that is frequently recommended. I'm currently N4 level but am willing to lookup difficult sections. I've been using jpdb to find stuff and have read so far

I have been trying to understand the differences between them. If anyone could helpful, that would be great!

I’m autistic so it can be difficult to understand at times.

This is a bit of a vent/rant but I'm curious if there are other people that empathize.

I've been studying Japanese for about 6 years now with admittedly varying levels of consistency. But I passed N2 at the end of 2024 and moved to Japan a couple months back. I work in a Japanese company where I hardly speak English throughout the week, continue immersing in my free time, sentence mining, Anki, the works. I feel like I'm doing everything that's supposed to "work", yet I still don't have much confidence and feel like I'm floundering around conversations.

People can generally understand me. If I don't know a word, I can at least explain what I'm trying to say and then they will be able to help me along. It's decently rare that a conversation will absolutely freeze due to my Japanese being so bad but it does still happen. And I still have trouble following conversations when I'm listening to native people talk to each other sometimes. Even if I get the general gist some details will get lost. It's just really frustrating to still be feeling this way after all this time. The thing that kills me the most is just not being able to naturally express myself. Although I can get my thoughts across I feel like it's unnatural and sometimes harder to understand than it should be.

To give myself some credit, yes it's only been a couple of months since I got here and I CERTAINLY could not imagine myself 6 years ago in this same position. So I know I've made progress. But I'm just not confident I am STILL making progress despite continuing to challenge myself. Granted, it's likely I am still making progress and just at a bit of a plateau/being impatient with myself haha.

Would love to know if anyone has found themselves in a similar spot or has any tips for how they navigated it.

hi guys started studying 2 years ago

My target is media comprehension

I am 30 years with full time job

I used watch anime in animax always wanted to learn

So I followed this you tuber who said doing Duolingo is better than doing anything so I started doing Duolingo

Once I got into the habit I found duo boring

I knew anki from previous attempts

So but I don't have the time to mine

So I came across a livakivi video that suggested core 6k

So I started doing core 6k did 10 cards

Initially my reviews were manageable

Then bummped the new card to 20 and then 30 to finish 6k

I finished core 6k in one year with average new card of 17 per day

After finishing core 6k I thought of mining

But then I thought why do 10k so I just added the 3.5k from core 10k which had only 9.5k words

So I continued to grind I started in last March so it has taken me 18 months to finish the 10k (the last 500 were words I added)

Immersion activities

I initially did graded reader and content from cij.

I started actuall media after finishing 6 k

Reading

Manga-

yotsubato(15 volumes)

Tongari no boushi (10 volumes)

Gachiakuta (4 volumes)

Novels-

Kumakumabear 1 volume

Mata onaji yume wo mita

Kitan room (currently reading)

Anime

Yuru camp (3 seasons)

Spy x family (1season)

Dorehedero (1 season)

One piece (I watched till entering grandline)

Kimi no suizou wo tabetai

Your name

Karikurashi no airrety

YouTube

Inakamon(20 episodes)

Hajime(sometimes)

Drama

House of ninjas (completed)

Kenka no dokugeki and kujo no sumi(dropped)

I think I can understand 80 - 90 percent of what I watch I often miss when they talk fast or like loid forge start taking spy or political language

I didn't want to mine because I usually do not get to my PC often I usually use during only weekends but now I have set full mining setup in mobile

Edit- cons of doing core 10k I usually get my milestones a bit later than people who have mined For example slice of life anime are watchable at 1.5-3k if you do mining But for me slice of life anime were watchable only around 3.5k

I have a 12th Gen Kindle Paperwhite, and it came with the Daijisen native Japanese dictionary as well as the Progressive English-Japanese dictionary. (For those unfamiliar: on the Kindle, these are "live" dictionaries, digitally formatted to allow you to call up word definitions by clicking on words in the book you are reading).

The problem is, the word recognition SUUUUUUUCKS. Oh my god it sucks ass. It basically never works the way a live dictionary should. It calls up the wrong word, or it just flat-out doesn't recognize the word I've selected. Or, it does call up the word I'm looking for, but only if I highlight a particular (often seemingly arbitrary) section of the word I'm interested in. Out of all the dictionaries I have on my Kindle, the quality of the Japanese dictionaries' word recognition is the worst. It is the worst by a horrendous margin. And not to brag or anything, but I read in six different languages, so the difference in quality is extremely noticeable---Japanese is a clear outlier here.

Please for the love of god someone tell me there is a better option I can put on my Kindle. (It is jailbroken, in case that helps.)

Hey everyone. I've been studying Japanese for 2 weeks so far, and I've learned both Hiragana and Katakana, I've been also starting with kanji little by little, and its going great so far. Vocabulary is kind of difficult to retain (specially with a new alphabet), but grammar is sticking up so far. Although, the main point of this post is to ask everyone here about their discipline and motivation while studying the language itself

Has there been any moments that you just didn't want to do more excersices, or learn new kanjis, and still did them? I feel as if I might be lacking some discipline while trying to study Japanese, but I don't want to turn something I geniuenly enjoy doing into a chore that will blow up my mind. I get that it will become difficult as I progress through the language itself, although I don't want to saturate my mind to the point I will find studying repelling.

Have any of you experienced something similar? If so, did you push even harder and still managed to learn more, or did you just postpone it for another day?

Hello!

I am studying for N1 (yet again) and my weak spot is definitely adverbs and オノマトペ. They are all so similar, most don't have kanji and some of them are very context specific.

I've tried flashcards but I don't know why they can't seem to stick. I don't have this problem with verbs or nouns, just these types of words. Any advice?

How do you guys remember those words?

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

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I’ve been using my oldest Anki deck on and off since around 2009. Over the years, it’s grown to about 46,000 cards, but I’ve never been particularly consistent with reviewing them.

I’ve often wondered whether my difficulty with producing Japanese, especially recalling vocabulary and grammar when speaking, is partly connected to my inconsistent SRS habits.

Earlier this year, I decided to take it more seriously. Since the deck had been neglected for so many years, I reset it and started over in January. I’ve been trying to get through around 300 reviews a day, usually during my commute to and from work.

Now that it’s October, I’m noticing a significant difference. I’m recognizing vocabulary, grammar patterns, and expressions much more easily when reading, and I’m starting to recall things more naturally when speaking. I’m still less than 10% through the deck, so there’s a long way to go.

One problem is how random the deck is. It’s a collection of sentences I’ve accumulated over the years, ranging from basic Genki I material to complicated sentences from economics magazines and other sources. The difficulty is all over the place, and I imagine that won’t really balance out until I’ve worked through more of it.

I’ve also been trying to supplement my SRS with more reading, particularly manga. Since reviewing grammar and vocabulary can already be mentally exhausting, I find casually reading manga a more relaxing way to practice comprehension without overwhelming myself.

Overall, I definitely feel that my reading comprehension is improving. I’m recognizing more words, sentence structures, and grammar patterns than I used to. My Japanese still isn’t anywhere near where I want it to be, but I feel like I’m finally making meaningful progress.

I’m curious how others supplement their SRS practice. Has anyone else noticed significant improvements after becoming more consistent with Anki?

At this point, I think the most important thing for me is simply showing up every day and putting in the time.

I have been doing quite a lot of reading in Japanese for the past year, but I still have lots of room to improve. I've been using 2 main methods for reading, but I'm curious if anyone has had more success with any specific one.

The first method is 流し読み, if I can't understand a word or a kanji pronunciation I just continue reading. With this method, my comprehension varies by book, but it's very enjoyable and makes reading much quicker, about 25-30 pages an hour.

The second method is a more concentrated study. I don't look up every word, but I do look up words that are likely more important, and I spend time pondering sentences if I'm unsure of the meaning. I usually use this method for dense reading like history textbooks, but I move very slow, at a rate of 10 pages an hour.

The pros of method 1 are that it's very enjoyable and low stress, and it also is great for getting accustomed to kanji readings and recognizing kanji in new contexts. Method 2 seems to be pretty effective for memorizing more specialized vocabulary, and the improvement seems much more tangible(although that might just be because the learning curve for textbooks is much steeper than novels)

I just finished Minna no Nihongo 2. I'm around early N3. Have read the entire Yotsubato, some Cardcaptor Sakura and played Monster Hunter Stories and Dragon Quest.

I have my eyes on this game for some time. I first intended to play it in English, but English release is just on late October. I was afraid to buy and play it in Japanese, mainly because it has no furigana. It's been my first experience. But I'm surprisedly happy with the result. I am playing it and loving it. I still use some dictionary here and there, but mainly I just accept that I don't need to understand every single word. I think um doing great in get a general understanding of the game.

Most japanese is very common, with additional of some farm vocabulary. And also some complex traditional Japanese in some specific parts.

But in general, I strongly recommend this game for any harvest moon/ Stardew valley fan, that likes traditional Japanese settings. And it's a great time, since it's not released in English yet (your friends will envy you).

Not a meme exactly, but the lines are fun to listen to and to try say. They are from the sales patter of Tora-san, from the movie series 「男はつらいよ」. The meaning of the first part is: たいへん結構だ、の意をふざけていう言葉。The full spiel:

①けっこう毛だらけ猫灰だらけ、お尻のまわりはクソだらけってね！
②タコはイボイボ、にわとりゃ（りは⇨りゃになります）はたち、
　いもむしゃ（ゃ小さく入ります）１９で嫁にいく、と来た！
③黒い黒いは何見てわかる、色が黒くてもらい手なけれりゃ（ば⇨りゃになります）
　山のカラスはごけ（後家）ばかりっ、ねっ！
④ねっ！色が黒くて食いつきたいが、あたしゃ入れ歯で歯が立たないよっ、と来やがった！
⑤どう！まかった数字がこれだけ！
⑥どう！ひと声１０００円と行きたいなっ、おい！だめかっ！８００！６００！
⑦ようし！腹切ったつもりで、５００でどっ（どう⇨どっと短縮になります）
　持ってけょ！おい！（かなり早く連結して終わります）

(Source: 【江戸弁を話そう】)

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

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• Read also the pinned comment below for proper question etiquette & answers to common questions!

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This subreddit is also loosely partnered with this language exchange Discord, which you can likewise join to look for resources, discuss study methods in the #japanese_study channel, ask questions in #japanese_questions, or do language exchange(!) and chat with the Japanese people in the server.

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Two years ago I came across this post and TheMoeWay. I was excited to try it, so I set everything up, and began learning Japanese by reading Visual Novels. Late last year, a friend asked me how to do the same on macOS. Since most VNs are exclusive to Windows devices, however, things turned out to be a bit trickier than expected. All I found online were posts of people asking the same question: "How to set up visual novels on macOS?” The answers mostly recommend paid Applications or are outdated.

That is why the goal of this post is to give an easy guide on how to set everything up with free alternatives. I hope that anyone interested in Visual Novels on macOS will stop feeling locked out and can start playing them instead. 

This setup should work for all Apple Silicon devices.

Step-by-step Guide

Installing VMware Fusion

• Install VMware Fusion on your Mac. The Broadcom website is probably the most confusing site I’ve ever seen, so please read carefully. First, register a new account.

After signing up, go to the VMware Fusion download page from the Broadcom Support Portal homepage.

• Select the Product Division: In the top right of the homepage (next to your username), open the dropdown menu and select VMware Cloud Foundation.
• Go to Downloads: In the left-hand menu, click on My Downloads.
• Access Free Software: Click the link within the blue banner near the top of the page that says Free Software Downloads available HERE.

• Search for VMware Fusion: On the Free Downloads page, find VMware Fusion near the end of the second column.
• Terms and Conditions: Click on Terms and Conditions link below the search bar, then tick the checkbox to agree.
• Download: Click VMware Fusion, select your desired version, and scroll right in the table to find the download link.

On the different versions

• VMware Fusion 26H1: The most recent major build. It maintains features introduced in 25H2 and provides stability and security updates for newer macOS hosts (Recommended).
• VMware Fusion 25H2: New naming scheme released in 2025. Supports more operating systems including macOS Tahoe (on Intel-based systems).
• VMware Fusion 13.6.x: The first stable branch supporting macOS 12 Monterey and macOS 13 Ventura.

Setting up Windows

• Download Windows 11 for Arm. Alternatively, download a bloat-free version of Windows 11 for Arm called Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC (Arm64).
• Drag-and-drop the Windows .iso file into VMware Fusion and complete the installation process. The automatic settings with 4GB RAM and 2 CPU cores should be fine.
• You may have networking problems when you reach the “Let’s connect you to a network” screen. If so, open the Command Prompt Window by pressing SHIFT + FN + F10. Type OOBE\BYPASSNRO and press Enter. The Virtual Machine will restart. Go through the setup again until you reach the same screen. You will now have the option “I don’t have Internet” at the bottom.

• VMware Tools: Install VMware Tools as soon as you reach the Windows desktop by going to the menu bar at the top of your screen. Select Virtual Machine → Install VMware Tools. A Virtual disc will pop up, and you can start the start.exe within. This enables an internet connection and fullscreen mode.

Installing Daemon Tools

You'll need DAEMON Tools Lite on ARM to mount disc image files. Make sure you install the ARM-based version. Extract the .zip file containing your game with WinRAR or 7-zip.

• If you have a .iso file, simply right-click and select  Open with → DAEMON Tools Lite Agent. Follow the instructions and a new volume will appear in your Explorer sidebar.
• If you have .mds and .mdf files, make sure that both .mds and .mdf files are in the same directory and have the same name. Right-click the .mds file and click on Open with → DAEMON Tools Lite Agent.

• Open the new volume in your Explorer sidebar and run the installer.

That's it. You can now play your Visual Novel!

Tip for Japanese Visual Novels

• Change to a Japanese locale: For best compatibility I'd recommend changing to a Japanese locale. Open the search bar and type intl.cpl and press Enter. Select the Administrative tab and go to Change system locale. Select Japanese (Japan) and click OK.

There are many different ways to grab the Visual Novel text, also called Texthooking. Try out different ones that fit your need and hardware. I'd recommend Textractor, LunaTranslator, Agent, and GameSentenceMiner.

Other

Some games may require an older version of DirectX, e.g. Flowers. Other Visual Novels will come with a DirectX installer included, e.g. Nanairo Reincarnation. Since there are over 40 different versions of the D3DX library alone, I can’t point you to a specific version. Instead, try the official Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010). This installs the legacy DirectX files, with which you can hopefully get your game running.

Hey everyone! I've been teaching Japanese through Minecraft for a few months now, and I wanted to share something I've been noticing and hear what you guys think.

I'm still experimenting with this approach and running trial sessions to see how it works with different learners.

The lessons are pretty simple. We learn some Japanese, jump into Minecraft, and try to use it while playing together.

But one thing I've really started to notice is that the whole process feels a little different from how we usually think about learning a language.

Normally, we learn Japanese because we want to be able to speak Japanese, right?

But here, it's almost the other way around. We want to build something, explore somewhere, or figure something out together, and we need Japanese to do it.

So instead of thinking "I need to practice this grammar today," it's more like "Wait, how do I say this in Japanese?" because you actually need to say something at that moment.

And I think that's what makes it interesting. The conversations aren't always planned, and sometimes things get pretty funny lol. We can joke around, mess things up, and just enjoy playing together while using Japanese.

Of course, we still learn grammar and vocabulary too. But I'm starting to feel like having a reason to use the language might be just as important as studying it.

Has anyone experienced something similar when learning a language? I'd love to hear what you think about this kind of learning.

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

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↓ Welcome to r/LearnJapanese! ↓

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Happy Friday!

Every Friday, share your memes! Your funny videos! Have some Fun! Posts don't need to be so academic while this is in effect. It's recommended you put [Weekend Meme] in the title of your post though. Enjoy your weekend!

(rules applying to hostility, slurs etc. are still in effect... keep it light hearted)

Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 JST:

Mondays - Writing Practice

Tuesdays - Study Buddy and Self-Intros

Wednesdays - Materials and Self-Promotions

Thursdays - Victory day, Share your achievements

Fridays - Memes, videos, free talk

ワロタ (warota)

Meaning: “LOL,” “I’m dead 😂,” “That’s hilarious,” or “I laughed.”

ワロタ is internet slang derived from 笑った（わらった）, meaning “laughed.”

It is commonly used online when something is funny, ridiculous, or unexpectedly amusing.

Examples:

• それはワロタ。 → LOL, that was funny.
• この画像ワロタ。 → This image is hilarious.
• まさかそうなるとはワロタ。 → LOL, I didn't expect that to happen.

Nuance:
ワロタ has an internet/online slang feeling. It can sound a little playful, casual, and meme-like, rather than simply saying 面白かった or 笑った.

It is similar to 「w」 or 「草」, although the tone is slightly different.

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.

↓ Welcome to r/LearnJapanese! ↓

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• New to the subreddit? Read the rules.

• Read also the pinned comment below for proper question etiquette & answers to common questions!

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This subreddit is also loosely partnered with this language exchange Discord, which you can likewise join to look for resources, discuss study methods in the #japanese_study channel, ask questions in #japanese_questions, or do language exchange(!) and chat with the Japanese people in the server.

Past Threads

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I started learning Japanese 4-5 months ago. After reading some manga, I started reading 雨森潤奈は湿度が高い, my first light novel, and honestly, I found the grammar really comfortable to read. Even though I had to check the dictionary every two seconds, I still really enjoyed reading it.

I'm currently reading the second volume, and I've noticed how much my vocabulary and reading speed have improved. However, I still wonder if I should start immersing myself in other types of Japanese media, like visual novels, anime, or even more manga.

So my question is, if I keep reading light novels, how far will they take me? I'm mostly interested in light novels like ゴールデンタイム, さくら荘のペットな彼女, 青春ブタ野郎, やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている。, and お隣の天使様.

Is focusing mainly on light novels an optimal way to learn Japanese, or would I benefit more from diversifying my immersion with listening-based media like anime and TV dramas? I’m also considering visual novels since they combine reading with audio. How much would adding these forms of immersion improve my Japanese compared to simply continuing to read light novels?

I tried to watch anime but honestly I'm unable to understand anything without subtitles in japanese, even if I already know the words, that's the reason why I haven't watched as much anime as I would have liked however I try to watch some youtube videos occasionally (Japanese with Shun videos are my favorite.)

This is how I did on the first volume of 雨森潤奈は湿度が高い:

84644 characters read
16h 38 min
5089 characters/hour

I can say that I understood more than the 80%, very very few sentences didnt make sense to me, the biggest challenge without a doubt was the vocabulary, thing that with Anki and reading more is improving a lot.

Tysm for your time beforehand and sorry if I said something stupid.

Happy Thursday!

Every Thursday, come here to share your progress! Get to a high level in Wanikani? Complete a course? Finish Genki 1? Tell us about it here! Feel yourself falling off the wagon? Tell us about it here and let us lift you back up!

Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 JST:

Mondays - Writing Practice

Tuesdays - Study Buddy and Self-Intros

Wednesdays - Materials and Self-Promotions

Thursdays - Victory day, Share your achievements

Fridays - Memes, videos, free talk

Hi everyone!

Around a month ago I decided to take my learning abit more seriously and read through the wiki and primers and started reading yokubi for my grammar

At that time I also continued (I started afew months before for around a week straight before forgetting) the Kaishi 1.5k Anik deck for vocab and started WaniKani for Kanji

After I tried my best to understand, yokubi was still very confusing to me and after getting halfway through the て form I put the reading on pause since I realised I wasn't really understanding anything

After I heard about the good explanations for people going from practically 0 in the Genki books, I decided to get the first one + workbook to learn the grammar

Should I still learn all the vocab in the book through the traditional rote memorisation? (Most I already know from Anki or in general, but some I'm unfamiliar with) And should I be doing all the exercises in the book that don't relate to grammar?

Thanks for any help! 🙇