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POV: You're having fun and it no longer feels like a punishment

“When I was a child, it was clear to me that life was not worth living if we did not know love. I wish I could testify that I came to this awareness because of the love I felt in my life. But it was love’s absence that let me know how much love mattered.” —Bell Hooks

How to practice speaking in a foreign language

Hi! I’m learning many languages, including French and Spanish, and I wanted to perhaps share some advice for practicing speaking, because it can be a very daunting task.

Listen! I know I sound like a broken record saying this, but input is everything. Listen to podcasts and watch TV shows and youtube videos. Listen as often as you can, and if you have a conversation coming up with a native speaker, then try and listen to your target language for half an hour or so before.

Shadow! This means listen to a recording of a native speaker, and repeat what they say after they say it. You could try using Easy Languages videos, as they usually have subtitles.

Keep on working on your vocabulary and grammar! For this, an extra tip would be to focus on your weak areas. For vocabulary, immerse, and look up words that you don’t understand, and maybe put it in a flashcard app if you think that it would be useful. Grammar-wise, just drill the rules into your head, and say correct sentences out loud. Try to understand them rather than just memorise them.

Make a native speaker friend! This is the best advice I can give. You can find a buddy on language discords, or apps like HelloTalk and Tandem. If you are a beginner to intermediate student, then just talk about whatever comes up. If you’re an upper intermediate or advanced student, then make an active choice to speak about difficult subjects like literature, music or politics. Make sure to look words up as you go!

Speak to yourself all the time! Narrate your actions, and try describing what is going on around you. You can also just talk about your thoughts and feelings about things.

Keep a notebook of words you don’t know when practicing, and look them up later! This is pretty self-explanatory. If you are speaking and forget the word for ‘toaster’, then write it down and look up the meaning later on.

Learn set phrases and fillers! This is very important if you are learning a language for an exam, because then you can find ways to use advanced phrases above your level. Try lifting them out of books, conversations, podcasts and TV shows, and put them in a flashcard app like Quizlet or Anki to memorise.

Avoid your native language! Using your native language as a crutch won’t serve you, as much as it will make things easier in the short term. Try to speak around words, using the words that you already know. You could say “a place where you do exercise” instead of “gym” if you forgot the word for it. Try doing stuff like that and eventually your speaking will become more fluid.

Be brave! People aren’t as judgmental as you might think, so put yourself out there!

Thank you for reading this post! I hope it was useful to you!

new list of video essays i adore <3

her: longing to connect in the 21st century

the intimacy of everyday objects

the soul of a library

the green knight and david lowery's unique obsession with myth

minari: the beautiful tragedy

hayao miyazaki | the mind of a master

andrei tarkovsky - poetic harmony

the visual architecture of parasite

the most disturbing painting

in the mood for love: frames within frames

interstellar - humanity, love & fate

the magical realism genre in movies

entropy in storytelling

Beginner Japanese Resources

I’ve seen quite a lot of these going around, and have definitely taken quite a few pages out of their books, but I thought I had some bookmarks I’d like everyone to know more about, even if they already did. ^^ If you think something is wrong, or know something is wrong, then please tell me!

g r a m m a r 

Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese Grammar (easy acquaintance with grammar, but not much in-depth)

IMABI (best free grammar resource but too much information for beginners, or so it’s said. still very helpful.)

Tim’s Takamatsu/ Tim Sensei’s Corner (also good. i heard of someone who printed out the older website and got fluent in Japanese with this, so it’s probably worth checking out)

Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar (hands down the best grammar resource, bit pricey or you could just download these PDFs).

Bunpro (good for interactive grammar studies, free until may 10 and there’s a one month free trial for subscription after that)

g r a m m a r / b l o g s

Japanese Ammo (native speaker and tutor’s blog, she also has a Youtube channel here)

Maggie-Sensei (grammar articles are a bit mismatched but good for little references)

Tofugu (probably the best culture and resources blog I’ve come across. a must.)

Romy-sensei (Japanese teacher, blog is VERY helpful)

DJT Guide (for a beginner outlook on how to start and where, named because of the daily japanese thread that I don’t have too much information on but it’s a daily thread where people learning japanese shared resources/ progress/ motivational whatevers)

i n t e r a c t i v e  l e a r n i n g

Delvin Language (shows clips and asks you to identify what’s spoken. Very good for listening and you can slow them down, though use that sparingly. kinda spammy tho.)

Japanese Class (found this a few years ago, but it’s a gamified site that helps you learn vocabulary with regular exposure. recommended.)

Japanese in Anime and Manga (for fellow otakus. a bit hard for me to navigate, but it’s along a similar vein as the above site. offered in spanish, chinese, korean and french, besides english.)

Erin’s Challenge (recommended for upper beginners, or lower intermediates, but there’s a lot to do now as well! very good for listening and reading- with transcripts and subtitles- in the form of a school life role-play. offered in quite a few other languages.)

Duolingo (not a lot of information, nor is it very in-depth. good for dabbling in, maybe. try the website, not the app, if you really want to use it.)

LingoDeer (BEST app for learning the language. You could do a lot on it alone, and it can probably take you up to a little above N5, but don’t keep using it standalone for long! also offers chinese, korean and now vietnamese!)

t e x t b o o k s

TextFugu (tofugu’s online textbook, made specifically for self-study, though it works good in conjunction with classes and tuition)

Genki (widely used, most recommended by people)

Minna no Nihongo (also very popular. some consider it better than genki.)

Japanese for Busy People (especially if you’re a little short on time)

Japanese for Everyone (generally good reviews, with a lot of vocabulary - an estimated 2500 maybe? convert djvu to pdf to use.)

k a n j i (course books)

Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course aka KKLC (a kanji learning course with vocabulary in it.)

Remembering the Kanji (aka the acclaimed ‘Japanese learner’s beginning holy grail’. but it totally depends upon what you’d prefer tbh. can make you recognise kanji and what they could stand for, but that’s about it.)

Kanji Damage (aka remember 1700 Kanji with offensive yo mama jokes. ridiculous? hilariously, it does work for some.)

WaniKani (people swear by this. you can try out the first three levels to see the magic, even if you don’t think it’s your style.)

l i s t e n i n g

mykikitori (for Genki 1 apparently)

Japanese Pod 101 (a good online course in itself, but the podcasts are the most helpful of the lot. @lovelybluepanda has made them available here.)

o t h e r s

DJT Resources (sub-link of DJT Guide but probably has all the Japanese resources you could ever want!)

Nihongo e Na (more resources, probably worth checking out)

Nihongo Resources (along a similar vein with the purpose in its name)

Jakka (the site is entirely in Japanese, but it has kanji for grade school, broken up appropriately)

Happy Lilac (kind of the same as above with kanji stroke order practice material, meant for Japanese children)

This may be repeated, because similar, if not the exact same, resources in DJT are categorised neatly here. @lovelybluepanda again.

check more masterposts, some of which have been compiled here by @languagesandshootingstars

日本語の森 (Nihongo no Mori) (Good Youtube videos for beginners and advanced learners alike! They even have their lessons separated by JLPT levels!)

While that’s it for all the Japanese resources I feel do not go around a lot now, I did compile some points Japanese beginners might be doubtful in and what I had found from my own research. 

Genki or Minna no Nihongo?

Minna no Nihongo has more vocabulary (2100-2200 for 初級 levels i.e. the beginner books) while Genki boasts a little lesser (1700 for genki 1+2). Minna no Nihongo has allegedly more grammar coverage ( 〜ように、〜ために- used in native speech). However, the book is entirely in Japanese (there is a separate book for English explanations) and there is a separate book for Kanji too. The Answer Key is at the back of the book, unlike Genki which has a separate Answer Key. 

Genki is said to be more beginner-friendly than Minna no Nihongo, but if you put your mind to it, you can do either tbh. Just choose any book and stick with it!

** If you’re planning to study in Japan anytime, remember that Japanese teachers usually use Minna no Nihongo. But better do your research as well. 

Kanji?

Everyone can put in all the work they like in Kanji, but at the end of the day, Kanji is not the only thing about Japanese. You can totally use Anki or Quizlet or Memrise to drill it in, maybe even make your own flashcards and put in extra work! But to really get fluent in the language, talking to native speakers (helpful guide by @jibunstudies) is very important. Even if you don’t fully understand what they’re saying, you acquire more vocabulary and will get the nuance of basic sentences! And you get friends too, if you’re lucky!

Just for reference and no pressure, here’s the general requirement to pass JLPT levels, if you’re ever planning to take them!

Level  Kanji Vocabulary  Listening               Hours of Study N5     ~100   ~800         Beginner                 150 (estimated) N4     ~300   ~1,500        Basic                     300 (estimated) N3     ~650   ~3,750     Lower Intermediate 450 (estimated) N2     ~1000 ~6,000     Intermediate           600 (estimated) N1     ~2000 ~10,000   Advanced               900 (estimated)

(… yeah, that looks way better on a computer ok.) Remember, estimated doesn’t mean it will take you that much time exactly. Everyone learns differently! And ‘talent’ can be overcome by enough hard work so  ファイト!

頑張れ !

Have you tried studying with Korean study streamers? Search up 실시간 공부방송 or 같이 공부해요. They stream live, study about 10~13 hours a day (Korean time zone). If you have webcam, you can join them too.

omg this is something i didn’t know i needed until right this second?!?? thank you for the rec!

The last few weeks have just been working, drinking coffee, rushing to catch lectures and then studying until late. On repeat. It has been so long since I’ve needed to study this much; but I can feel my french getting better everyday, so the hard work has been worth it ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

thank god for muji

instagram / youtube

some personal goals for everyone to try!! below are some thoughts to remember (that i came up w at 4am bc i was sad lol):

• the future should be all about positive thinking and mindsets. destroy your negative thoughts, stay focused, and remember to take care of yourself.

• remember that no one is perfect and that your mistakes will make you stronger.

• take out negative people, thoughts, things, anything bad from your life and watch how you improve. it won’t happen overnight, but time is on your side.

apple pals 🍎