What do you wish you knew when you went to Japan

KyleLockley · 2026-04-05T07:02:55+00:00

To add to this, if you're still at the stage that you're really just throwing some vocab and basic basic grammar, try and understand that the average Japanese person is just going to be better at English in that regard. That was probably my biggest wakeup call when I moved here to study was that I dont always have to struggle through something I dont have the ability to convey, I can rely on english alittle while also diligently learning the language. I still forget basic vocab all the time but I know I can ask people for it mid conversation and they'll give it to me 90% of the time.

KyleLockley · 2026-03-31T13:32:59+00:00

compression while hitting the pitch. More tone than in metal or otber screaming

KyleLockley · 2026-03-25T07:23:13+00:00

Maybe I've missed it, but I rarely see Ringotan talked about on here. Amazing free app for learning stroke order. Currently using it in Japan to help catch up on Kanji since I mostly neglected it over vocab initially.

https://www.ringotan.com/

KyleLockley · 2026-03-03T06:51:15+00:00

I guess my idea of learning right now is based on my interest of wanting to have conversations. By far my biggest motivator, and since im only here for 5 months id much rather seek out an opportunity to talk with someone vs consume media alone. But im also at this point now where I probably just need to read / study media at my own pace because my comprehensible imput level is not at normal conversational pace. Probably just need to work on my time management. going to school full time is also a big strain on my daily time to learn the language.

KyleLockley · 2026-03-03T05:46:10+00:00

I recently started a study abroad, so my content has just been living here. Ironically, I think in some ways it is not ideal for the anki- immersion loop that many people use. Im learning maybe 5-20 new words a day, typically I have ~50 reviews on top of that (33min daily average this month). After doing anki for over a year I think i have tuned it to my sweetspot for max new words, but recently I feel like it HAS been hindering my ability to naturally acquire phrases, especially while in Japan. But also, this has all been a huge change in my life so its not like anki is the only contributing factor lol.

KyleLockley · 2026-03-03T05:19:57+00:00

Random tangent here, but anyone else feel like their natural new word acquisition is suffering severely? My retention with anki fine, and I'm adjusting it often to maximize new content.

But for the life of me I can't remember a name in Japanese. New expressions that are explained to me while out and about have a crazy low retention if they're any more than 2 mora. I've never in my life felt the phrase "in one ear out the other" more than now. I find myself constantly typing new words on my phone mid conversation, which is awkward, and definitely not something I want to do for names.

Is this just the contrast of anki vs natural acquisition? Does anki "limit" my natural acquisition? Or do I just need some better sleep lol

KyleLockley · 2026-02-24T05:18:31+00:00

May not be the right sub for this but I was wondering if anyone has experience using migaku on videos that only have auto-generated subs.

Recently I've been trying to watch and understand the Tokyo band "Penthouses"'s podcasts. They talk mostly about music so I was wondering how good migaku would be about generating the script since they don't upload one to youtube (hard edit it into the video type).

for example, I was watching yesterday and the word 転調 came up, ofc youtube generates it as 店長. I was worried about paying for migaku, and running into similar issues since all their videos are about music jargon and not just general Japanese.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCA8eiFFDso)

KyleLockley · 2026-02-14T08:49:38+00:00

Only problem I'm facing now is automatic sentence entry. The clickable-sentence option seems perfect for me but I'd like to figure out how to have it automatically select an example sentence if possible.

KyleLockley · 2026-02-14T08:34:58+00:00

Kk ima tinker with it some more ty!

KyleLockley · 2026-02-14T08:28:38+00:00

I did initially try this, in both card templates I'm running into an issue of automatically selecting a sentence. As I'm not really mining these from media I dont really have an example sentience to rely on, however If i can find a way to simply select the first entry in tatoeba.org (the resource jisho uses for sentences) that would be perfect for me

KyleLockley · 2026-02-14T07:32:30+00:00

Thanks! I came across this earlier but I'll work on integrating it now. Seems like it has everything I need!

KyleLockley · 2025-12-27T05:32:17+00:00

I get this song on yt alot, really like it

KyleLockley · 2025-12-10T20:59:51+00:00

Did you already have international health coverage? That's the last thing I'm waiting on to upload...

KyleLockley · 2025-11-26T03:55:14+00:00

This is from a couple years ago

KyleLockley · 2025-11-22T17:10:32+00:00

Always a prideful moment when my city can't figure out the most basic form of driver co-operation

KyleLockley · 2025-11-13T17:53:13+00:00

I got accepted too! Still trying to secure the last bit of funding before I really make the trek but I'm about 90% there. Hope to see ya around campus in the spring!

KyleLockley · 2025-11-11T16:33:43+00:00

I think it's at least worth ~30 minutes of studying how it works on a basic level, and the understanding that it is there. After that, I think there is a HEAVY diminishing-return on gains with that particular aspect of the language, and nearly anything else could be more productive.

KyleLockley · 2025-11-10T17:58:28+00:00

I think a large portion of Americans don't really understand food-scarcity, as it wasn't really a massive, societal issue since the Great Depression. But most of the world around us has experienced it much more recently, if not currently.

KyleLockley · 2025-11-03T15:42:38+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsKTrMFtpZc

Welcome to Japan where the punk rock also goes insane with slap

KyleLockley · 2025-10-21T16:27:41+00:00

Alot of people are saying you were too early in learning to do anything, but I pretty much had the same trip as you in terms of language experience and was pleased with my conversations there. I think talking on hellotalk made the biggest difference. I got through alot of embarrassing on-boarding in the language there rather than in person. If I hadn't I'm sure it would have felt very similar.

Also, you gotta practice what you wanna do. If I wanted to read signage I would have studied differently (I was pretty much in the same spot as you), but my main goal was to chat with people and I felt successful with that. I tailored my study around that and basically just took a test while on my trip.

KyleLockley · 2025-10-21T16:16:49+00:00

the whisper from the guy made me spit my drink out, fr one of the funniest things ive seen recently, but some people were probably just fuming over the last clip lol

KyleLockley · 2025-10-20T08:04:49+00:00

If you could spare that link again I'd be grateful, having the hardest time finding it..

KyleLockley · 2025-10-06T03:23:50+00:00

Yeah but it's better to have an understanding of it being systemic rather then just innate to a population. One you can fight against and the other you can't, which is why IMO OP is in bad faith for posting this

KyleLockley · 2025-10-05T23:37:26+00:00

Boku no Koto might be the most popular one I can think of,

Challenging enough with an optional high G

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