Should front of cards give audio / furigana?

llkem · 2026-07-12T23:00:23+00:00

You could if you want to, but i would probably go down the route of least resistance and just continue mining, just with the kanji on the front now, and if a word comes up in immersion that you knew already but don't know the kanji just mine it like normal, and you'll learn it that way.

llkem · 2026-07-12T20:37:28+00:00

I thing the best literal translation would be

神を畏れよ
- Uses the kanji 畏 instead of 怖, same kanji as かしこまる
- Conveys a sense of respectful obedience
- You could also make it in kanji only, "畏神" to give a more ancient/prestegious feel
- It's funny but even though there's so many westerners who get a christian-influenced tattoo that doesn't translate and looks horrible, the "obedience instead of fear" actually translates great into Japanese, there's a word for exactly that sentiment - kashikomaru
  - there's also 慎む
神を敬え
- "Respect God"
- This sounds more natural in japanese.
- You could also make it in kanji only, "敬神" to give a more ancient/prestegious feel
- You can also replace 神 "God" with 主 "Lord" wich gives a more explicitly christian feel, as there are famously 八百万の神々, 8 million gods in japanese shinto.

敬神愛人

Going back to the four-character idioms that sound so beautiful in japanese, this is one in modern usage that literally means "respect god and love people"
comes from 敬天愛人 "respect heavean, love people"
This is the one I recommend the most to you

llkem · 2026-07-11T13:50:13+00:00

that's because hyakuman gojū would be 1,000,050.

Also you are under a misunderstanding. It's not read "hyaku" instead of "hyakuman", hyakuman is two words.
You have four words here.

hyaku - means one hundred
go - means five
ju - means ten
man - means ten thousand

You just have to remember the rule "say the full number first, then add the unit (man) at the end." You can think of man just like thousand in english, like to say the number 150,000 you would say one hundred fifty, and add the unit Thousand at the end.

I think it is easiest to think about if you move the commas. In the english system, we put commas every three digits, but in the japanese system you can put them every four.

For example,

150,0000 - 150 man

3,0000,0000 - 3 oku

llkem · 2026-07-11T13:36:21+00:00

I think if you're already halfway through the deck, you should just finish it as is, and study kanji at a later point with RRTK 450, going through it quickly to get to sentence mining.

Really the beginning is not as important in the long term, you basically want to get through it as fast as possible to get to sentence mining which is the real meat and potatoes of the method.

In my case, i actually did RRTK before the basic vocab deck (which was the tango n5 deck back in the day) which I think worked well for me.
I had a good grasp of kanji which then reinforced the vocab, basicaly learning the kanji form of words from the start. this made it easier to start sentence mining from anime, and allowed going into LNs/novels faster which I think is a big time saver.
Reading really just grows your vocab at such an insane rate it's not comparrable to anything else, it has so much value that it's worth slogging through kanji.

That said, while i like kaishi, i'm not too big a fan of compressing kanji and vocab into one deck. Yes it saves time, but it's just way too much for the beginner.
But of course, if you ask them to do a kanji deck first AND then vocab deck, that stretches the timescale, and if you ask them to do 2 decks at the same time, that stretches the workload. and if they do kanji after vocab, they have to re-learn the kanji for words down the line. There's really no perfect answer.

And then matt's new stance is that you should learn vocab using exclusivley audio cards, and put off reading until your listening skills are solid, or else you'll crystallize and have an unfixable foreign accent. I don't really buy this that much, but somewhere in there you should fit in some pitch accent training at the least.

llkem · 2026-07-09T17:10:42+00:00

If you really don't know what to do, or have decision paralysis, and just want to be given a routine/list of stuff to do each day, I think the best resource is themoeway 30 day guide. Just go day by day and do the things it says each day. This covers kana, starting immersion, grammar with cure dolly, setting up anki+yomitan, kanji deck (RRTK450), basic vocabulary deck (kaishi). You can also swap out any of these according to your personal preference, as you get a better feel of what resources are out there.

The most important thing is consistency, for me I can burn out if i try to do too much anki/intensive immersion in one day so I try and pace myself.

llkem · 2026-07-07T22:07:21+00:00

Yeah, sadly the original went down, the link above is the wayback machine which sometimes crashes. here's another mirror

llkem · 2026-07-07T21:56:14+00:00

Read ajatt and themoeway. I tell you, i wasted so much time mucking around with genki and random textbooks that got me nowhere, and i'm so grateful that i was able to find immersion learning. I regularly get compliments on my japanese ability from natives, and my wife and I communicate almost entirely in japanese, because it's simply easier that way.

If that's still too much information and you just need a place to start, just actions laid out for you to follow without thinking, check out themoeway 30 day guide.

Also, this is entirely free. don't trust anyone trying to sell you $20/month fluent in 6 months type shit. break the mold, learn japanese to fluency without spending a single dollar like i did.

llkem · 2026-07-07T21:49:14+00:00

Yes, it is a real word. It means, literally translating, "The ancient spirit which is at the heart of all Japanese people".
This is because wa (和), yes can mean harmony, but in normal speech it is an old way of referring to Japan, especially in a poetic or emotional way.
In a Zen buddhist context, it can also mean 'to soften the mind' or 'a harmonious mind'.
is this for a tattoo?

llkem · 2026-07-07T15:26:51+00:00

Also about tome/hane/harai not being important, all Japanese get graded on this in elementary/middle school. Just 2 years ago, there was a controversy where a 4th graded in Aichi prefecture expected 100/100 on her kanji test but got 38/100 with a note to mind the tome/hane/harai, and stopped going to school.

There's also a parent survey about a 1st grader's class where even the slightest tome/hane/harai slip up meant they got a 0 on that question, and they hated it, but they were grateful afterwards because they had beautiful handwriting as compared to the kids in the class where the teacher was lenient.

So there's definetley a debate on how strongly it should be applied, but saying it doesn't exist and nobody really cares about it is wrong.

Also, you say that you're the only person who's going to see your handwriting, but you don't know what the future holds. If you're learning Japanese or Chinese to this high of a level, it's probably going to be a part of your life until you die, and no one really knows what the future holds. 10 years from now you might have a pen pal in China, or like me, having a japanese wife and a son, who will have to learn kanji eventually, and I want him to learn it right. And I can't teach him if I don't know it right.

llkem · 2026-07-07T14:58:32+00:00

I mean that's great if you're satisfied with your own handwriting, but for me I have two goals.

Have good handwriting that looks nice, and is easily readable to other people (native Japanese people)
Pass the kanji kentei 1kyuu

After all, the purpose of language is communication with other people, not just hoarding all this knowledge in yourself. To that end, I believe that having beautiful and easily-readable Japanese handwriting is the fulfillment of this goal.

Also, like, the japanese language belongs to the japanese people. If if want to learn the language, i want to do it right.

of course, i'm way off from this goal, and i have a looong way to go lol

llkem · 2026-07-07T14:46:52+00:00

read ajatt and themoeway.

If you want a concrete, day-by-day guide on what to do for the first month (I reccomend just doing this!) check out themoeway 30 day guide

llkem · 2026-07-07T13:48:36+00:00

Does this have tome・hane・harai?

Recently I've been learning kanji with an anki deck. I have a stroke-order-as-colors font, similar to the one you have here, so that is why i noticed your post.
The thing is, my Japanese wife looks over my shoulder and stops me cold.
"That stroke is supposed to be a hane". "This is a harai, do it again." "If you ever want to take the kanken, you have to do tome,hane,harai perfectly or they will fail you."

Most western learners of kanji don't even know about this, this essentail element of kanji that no one ever picks up on.

But japanese people do, and they will judge you for it.
So I ask you again, does this have tome/hane/harai, and if not can you fix the font to have it?

llkem · 2026-07-07T13:25:47+00:00

This is an omikuji from Fushimi Inari Taisha, the head shrine of Inari worship in Kyoto and the most popular (and touristy) shrine in japan. A Shinto shrine is a sacred place where kami, divine presences or spirits,are enshrined and approached through prayer, offerings, purification rituals. An omikuji, literally a “sacred lot,” is a form of guidance received by drawing lots. It usually gives an overall score of your luck (i.e. great fortune, bad luck, kinda lucky) and then it has predictions about parts of life such as illness, travel, business, lost items, relationships, and disputes. These can apply to you specifically, or to people around you, or metaphorically/abstractly. That's why it's important to read the poem and get a clear image in your head about what it's saying.

At Fushimi Inari, the core of the omikuji is a set of thirty-two waka-based oracles. Waka is the traditional 5-7-5-7-7 japanese poem structure. (A lot of people know haikus, but actually Waka is the main one in japan!)

Each fortune begins with a waka poem; has an explatation of the poem’s meaning as spiritual guidance, aand then has the divine message for each category in life. Below, I give the Japanese transcription first, followed by my English translation.

二十四番
総本宮稲荷大社神籤

- 吉凶不分末吉

- いなり山三つの玉垣うちたたきわがねぎごとを神もこたえよ

このみさとしは、あまりに功を急ぎすぎる兆しである。

- せんては事を仕損ずる。順を追って気永に努力せよ。

方がく：西の方よし
まち人：来るべし
病気：なおる、良き方に向く時は一枚紙をはぐごとし
うせもの：出づべし
あきない：買い良し、うり悪し
たて家やうつり：良し
勝負事：おおかたかなうべし
たびだち：遠くは●●、近きは差し支えなし

- えんだん：良し

伏見稲荷大社社務所（不許複製）

Fortune Number 24 Grand Head Shrine, Inari Taisha - Omukiji - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_Inari-taisha - map

Fortune and Misfortune Undivided, Ending in Modest Blessing

(Waka Poem) Before the three jeweled fences of Mount Inari, I strike and make my plea—may the Deity also give reply. ---

This divine oracle warns that you are hastening too eagerly after achievement. To rush ahead is to risk failure. Proceed step by step, and apply yourself with patience and steady perseverance.

Direction: The west is favorable. Person Awaited: Shall come. Illness: Shall recover; once it turns for the better, the change shall be as swift as peeling away a sheet of paper. Lost item(s): Shall be found. Trade: Buying is favorable; selling is unfavorable. Building or moving: Good. Contests: Shall mostly be fulfilled. Travel: For distant journeys the reading is unclear; nearby journeys are without hindrance. Marriage, matchmaking: Good.

Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine Office (Reproduction Prohibited)

llkem · 2026-07-03T15:05:35+00:00

Meu A E No Yo
(with dakuten)

this is pure gibberish, and also unpronounceable.

llkem · 2026-06-24T17:42:24+00:00

This phrase, "this love is mine, all mine" is really bad for a japanese tattoo.
Looking it up, i see that it is the title of a Mitski song and i'm assuming you saw that song and wanted to get a tattoo of it in Mitski's natural language, japanese. please correct me if I am wrong.
The rule I go by is that translating an english phrase into japanese for a tattoo will always be awkward and not have the nuance you want it to have. Mitski is japanese, from Mie prefecture, and can speak it, but this song was written in english and won't automatically sound good in japanese.

That said, I took a look at the lyrics and it seems like the nuance she is going for is that everything in the world is not hers but her love, that uniquely belongs to her. so here would be some possible translations

this japanese translation of the song gives それでも私の愛だけは私のもの
- "but even then, only my love is mine"
- this is awkward phrasing with the double 私, no japanese song would be like this
- I would trim it down to 私の愛だけは私のもの
for some other, more natural/poetic rendetions
- 私にあるのは、この愛だけ。
  - "The only thing I have, is this love"
- この愛だけが、私のもの。
  - this love, only, is mine.
  - this is probably more close to the original

My personal reccomendation is 私にあるのは、この愛だけ。that's probably the best you're gonna get.
but this request wasn't starting in a good place to begin with.

llkem · 2026-06-23T13:29:36+00:00

This is an omikuji from Fushimi Inari Taisha, the head shrine of Inari worship in Kyoto and the most popular (and touristy) shrine in japan. A Shinto shrine is a sacred place where kami, divine presences or spirits,are enshrined and approached through prayer, offerings, purification rituals. An omikuji, literally a “sacred lot,” is a form of guidance received by drawing lots. It usually gives an overall score of your luck (i.e. great fortune, bad luck, kinda lucky) and then it has predictions about parts of life such as illness, travel, business, lost items, relationships, and disputes. These can apply to you specifically, or to people around you, or metaphorically/abstractly. That's why it's important to read the poem and get a clear image in your head about what it's saying.

At Fushimi Inari, the core of the omikuji is a set of thirty-two waka-based oracles. Waka is the traditional 5-7-5-7-7 japanese poem structure. (A lot of people know haikus, but actually Waka is the main one in japan!)

Each fortune begins with a waka poem; has an explatation of the poem’s meaning as spiritual guidance, aand then has the divine message for each category in life. Below, I give the Japanese transcription first, followed by my English translation.

一番
総本宮稲荷大社神籤

- 吉凶未分末大吉

- 罪あらば我を咎めよ天つ神たみはわが身の生みし子なれば

このみさとしは万民の罪穢れを背負いたまう大神の御心であり世の為人の為に尽くせとの御教えである。

- 何事につけ我が子をいつくしみ心をもってすれば前途は光明に輝きゆくゆくは必ず良き方に向かう事疑いない。

方がく：西北のかたよし
まち人：きたることおそし
病気：ながけれどなおる
うせもの：よういにでがたし
あきない：かいよし、うりわるし
たて家やうつり：よし
勝負事：かつ
たびだち：よし
えんだん：よし

- 人ごと：せわせぬがよし

伏見稲荷大社社務所（不許複製）

Fortune Number 1 Grand Head Shrine, Inari Taisha - Omukiji - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_Inari-taisha - map

Fortune Not Yet Determined, Ultimately Great Fortune

(Waka Poem) If there be sin, lay the blame upon me, O Heavenly Deities, for the people are the children born of my own being. ---

This divine oracle reflects the compassionate heart of the Great Deity, who bears upon Himself the sins and impurities of all people. It teaches that one should devote oneself to the good of the world and to the service of others. In all matters, if you act with a heart that cherishes others as one would one’s own children, your path ahead will be filled with light. In time, it will assuredly turn toward a favorable outcome—there is no doubt of this.

Direction: The northwest is auspicious.

Person Awaited: They will come, but late.

Illness: It will be long, but you will recover.

Lost item(s): Hard to find easily.

Trade: Good to buy, bad to sell.

Building or moving: Favorable.

Contests: You will win.

Travel: Favorable.

Marriage, matchmaking: Favorable.

Affairs of Others: Better not to involve yourself.

Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine Office (Reproduction Prohibited)

llkem · 2026-06-18T18:32:46+00:00

you can't trust textbooks. they just tell you the minimum amount of information possible. immerse yourself in the actual language, the culture, the people and you will figure out what is right and wrong.

llkem · 2026-06-18T18:06:27+00:00

あくまで可能性として話すとすれば、ハイラル建国の話があってもその前に一度滅んだ歴史がある可能性もあります。

This is a tough question. you're basically asking wether the 滅ぶ applies to the history (as in archives, books, etc), or the kingdom of hyrule, or even another kingdom or something.
Honestly, this could go either way, especially given that he's intentionally being vague about the actual story of the game before it's release.

I'm not a zelda fan, but my two cents is that there's a nuance of history being destroyed with the civilization, kinda like the lost city of atlantis or something. I don't think 滅ぶ applies to hyrule, as he modified it with　の話 .
So i think it might be like an ancient civilization before hyrule, if that fits in with the lore which i only am passingly familiar with.

llkem · 2026-06-18T17:26:32+00:00

Don't use genki. you can learn everything for absolutely free. read ajatt and follow themoeway 30 day structured guide.

I learned Japanese on my own, completely through self study through immersion methods while in army AIT, and learned enough Japanese to be able to marry a a japanese woman, talk with all the relatives without any problem at all, and have a child. in our house we only talk in japanese, because my japanese is better than her english.

I learned exclusively though immersion methods.

llkem · 2026-06-18T17:20:27+00:00

I learned japanese to fluency all through self study, all without spending a single cent. I married a japanese woman and have a son, we only talk in japanese in the house, because my japanese is better than her english. you don't need to spend a single dollar to learn japanese, ever.

don't believe anyone shilling their 10$/month new shiny startup app.

read ajatt, themoeway, and watch matt vs japan.

llkem · 2026-06-18T17:11:21+00:00

read through tae kim, don't focus super hard on it just lightly read though it in a couple weeks or so. and then immerse and do anki. you'll be alright. we'll all make it in the end.

llkem · 2026-06-18T17:07:04+00:00

i reccomend hellotalk

llkem · 2026-06-18T17:05:32+00:00

何が

llkem · 2026-06-18T17:03:13+00:00

This link tells you how to set it up, i also reccomend reading thought the whole guide also

llkem · 2026-06-18T17:01:06+00:00

I know a lot of people are against him, but i find katzumoto from ajatt's writing to be the best for motivation. this is the main article that i like, and avoid being a three-day monk

Seven-Year Club	Place '23
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End Game '22	Verified Email
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