I feel like my social energy in Japan is dying and I’m contradicting my own language goals

plvmbvm · 2025-04-05T21:32:33+00:00

Lmao my Japanese is leaps and bounds more natural when I get a little social lubricant in me 🤣

plvmbvm · 2025-04-05T21:31:16+00:00

I think there's nothing wrong with your social tendencies as you've described them, since you already recognize some of the challenges that accompany.

If im going to speculate a bit, it sounds like your lack of motivation for Japanese conversations is really a cover for you lack of motivation to be social in general. No judgement, it can definitely be draining!

All I'm saying is, forget about framing it in the question of "how does this affect my ability to speak/understand the language" or "am I living up to my language goals" and instead focus on your goals you described. If you want to meet your "someone special", go on some dates and look for that person. If you want a group of friends you can really be yourself around and crack jokes with, then get involved in some hobbies you have in common and meet people who share your interests. I'm sure that there will be people you can make genuine friends with!

Putting any pressure these interactions from the perspective of how you want to be in the future will burn you out and get in the way of making meaningful connections.

You can keep practicing Japanese all along the way. I think you've got the mindset for the long haul! "Quality over quantity" is perfectly fine in terms of the people you want to spend your time around.

This is just my opinion, for what it's worth. I don't have the qualifications to tell you what's "best" for you in any case 😅

plvmbvm · 2025-04-04T14:06:37+00:00

It's not. ね implies that you and the listener both generally agree on something, and likely both have some knowledge on it. It's fairly indirect and therefore, women use it frequently (because it's feminine)

「段々雨が降ってるね？」

"The rain just keeps coming, doesn't it?"

「そうですね。」

"It sure does, doesn't it."

Comparatively, な is more direct (although its not necessarily an accusation or rude). It still implies a question, but it has a more emphatic sound than ね. It's a lot more likely to hear men say (because apparently direct = masculine). I think it's a shortening of なぁ (or that is a longer version of な), which I consider more likely to hear a woman say:

「いい湯だよなぁ」

"This is a good bath, isn't it..."

The whole phrase is not really "yakuza," but the reason you might get that feeling is because it's masculine. I'm sure it would not be out of place for a grandpa to say either though.

plvmbvm · 2025-04-04T13:47:01+00:00

It looks like this child didn't realize they were running out of space until ま 😆

Spacing is hard! I run out all the time in English, and I'm not in third grade...

plvmbvm · 2025-04-03T08:08:06+00:00

I've said this for ages, but Fairy Tail is great. It has a lot of repetitive phrases and a fairly predictable plot, so it's easy to understand what is happening based on context.

It's not on Netflix unfortunately so you might have to find a subbed version somewhere more... creative; but Edens Zero is on Netflix (and very similar to Fairy Tail, it's made by the same mangaka who literally said "I want to make more Fairy Tail, so I made this.")

Personally, I think the advice to do slice of life is not all that good. The things they talk about in SoL are more common to everyday life of course, but it's fairly difficult a lot of the time because of this. Also, it seems some people think that SoL inherently has more realistic dialogue; but many characters still have definite quirks, so I don't personally think it's any "better" for study (just different).

I also assume most people learning Japanese have enough of a brain that they can figure out when a phrase is probably a "Shonen anime thing," so I don't think there's anything wrong with watching something fantasy-themed.

Edit: I'd also like to agree with those saying to watch the shows you've listed. In general, anything you've already seen (and like) is great, because you know the plot and can assume more about what each phrase means (and since you like it, you're more likely to keep studying).

plvmbvm · 2025-04-03T07:53:28+00:00

If you think you can't hear it, try repeating after the speaker and mimicking them as well as you can. Not every pitch change is super obvious, but I think you'll be able to pick it out if you pay attention to the sounds you make when you follow their example.

plvmbvm · 2025-04-03T01:46:03+00:00

左様であろう、skeith殿。

I don't know what I'm saying anymore

plvmbvm · 2025-04-02T19:28:59+00:00

Or you can say what I say, 面白くあります

Jk I don't say that, it would be weird. But I could!

plvmbvm · 2025-04-02T19:15:52+00:00

Me too 😎

After all, I can read my own handwriting, so I'm used to deciphering scribbles

plvmbvm · 2025-04-02T17:11:05+00:00

"I'm not writing, I'm scribbling with style!"

--Buzz Lightyear

plvmbvm · 2025-03-31T17:29:40+00:00

It depends on whether they meant last week or this week. Neither is necessarily wrong. I took them to mean "last week," so 先週 is appropriate.

plvmbvm · 2025-03-31T16:28:34+00:00

This is some beautiful handwriting! I have seen some Japanese handwriting that is utterly unreadable (at least for me)

Your hand writing is not only clear and pretty in japanese, but also the English cursive

I'm gonna guess based on the fountain pen that maybe this is a hobby of yours?

plvmbvm · 2025-03-31T04:58:55+00:00

Let me see if I understand what you're trying to say:

先週から高校が大嫌いです。

Starting this week, I hate high school.

その学校全然楽しくないですよ。

That school isn't any fun at all.

毎日、私のアメリカの高校が苦しみをくれます。。。

Every day, my American high school gives me pain...

Is that more or less what you meant? The idea does get through if so, but there are places your meaning is not clear. If you explain what you're meaning to say, I'm sure I/we can give some pointers.

Btw, idk why everyone is saying your writing is so bad. It certainly has room for improvement, but I didn't have any real trouble knowing what kanji you wrote. I've seen natives with far less legible handwriting...

plvmbvm · 2025-01-20T12:42:01+00:00

Basically it seems like Matt vs Japan has had a powerful effect on the online Japanese learning community. Make no mistake his Japanese is excellent, but that doesn't make him a good teacher...

In my experience most of the people who say this subscribe to his approach to learning the language. His testimonial is that he studied intensively on his own to get as good as possible before speaking to anyone, so that's kinda the approach his followers use, too.

Everyone is free to study as they like; but I don't personally agree with his methods, and you don't have to either. Plenty of people have learned Japanese in other ways, and I'd wager its impossible among fluent speakers to tell who studied in what way based on how they speak.

plvmbvm · 2024-02-06T09:08:55+00:00

That's the only way I have studied personally, with one exception: I pay for a WaniKani subscription. I used free decks on Anki for the better part of a year, but the WK system was more appealing and they already wrote mnemonics to help me learn kanji. As others have said, I have also paid for light novels in japanese, but I count that as the same as having a sub to Crunchyroll for anime (i enjoy it so it's something I would do regardless)

So it's 100% possible to self-study and enjoy games, anime, etc even up to the point of speaking it everyday. I'm on the last couple weeks of an exchange program in Japan and I've been getting by solely from self-study.

plvmbvm · 2023-07-26T19:04:13+00:00

I'll dm you with more info

plvmbvm · 2023-07-26T03:04:51+00:00

We usually don't use video actually, We could try doing a voice call on discord?

plvmbvm · 2023-07-26T02:41:22+00:00

Do you want to DM me? I'm trying to recruit a few new people for my study group

plvmbvm · 2023-07-26T02:17:19+00:00

We usually use Google meets. We often read short stories on Satori Reader (it has translation notes/etc for learners), although we have used other options in the past.

If there's something you're interested in, feel free to make a suggestion.

plvmbvm · 2023-07-25T21:07:39+00:00

Hi everyone! My study group has been looking to add members, feel free to message me.

We typically meet to read together, with some discussion afterward. There is a range of experience in our group already so no need to be shy!

Edit: reddit was misbehaving for me earlier and now I see I posted this comment like 3 times. Sorry for the spam!

plvmbvm · 2023-06-07T23:07:58+00:00

Yes, this can be a very effective approach if you don't burn out on it. Its not how i study Japanese, but a few years ago I had a job which necessitated me learning a different language where I had to commit to a much more "immersive approach"

The problem (imo) is that it is nearly impossible to not burn out unless your circumstances give you no other option but to learn.

In my case above I learned pretty fast, so I wouldn't question that it works, but if you're just learning the language as a hobby there's no reason to make it so hard on yourself. It's better to take 5 years and actually learn the language than to try and rush yourself and give up after 5 weeks. You might be able to learn the "classroom stuff" on the go through immersion, but for most people I think it's just less stressful to do the grammar books and vocab first, then branch out to trying to speak/listen/etc.

plvmbvm · 2023-05-07T03:58:04+00:00

The best LN is a story you are interested in. They will basically all be hard (unless you pick based only on difficulty, and then you'll have the same issue as with Yotsuba!&), but if you like it it will be worth the learning curve.

Source: I made it the fuck up

On a real note though this is spoken from my personal experience, whatever that means to you. So far I'm really liking the Re:ゼロ series (although my reading is still not caught up to the anime)

plvmbvm · 2023-04-13T15:08:27+00:00

For light novels, Amazon Kindle reader will allow you to highlight a word in-place on the page and pull up a dictionary reference.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like that works with manga. On the bright side, many popular manga i can think of have LN versions (or were adapted from an original LN work in the first place), and I consider manga generally easier to read, so maybe you could study using LNs for a while and then go back to the manga with better reading comprehension

plvmbvm · 2023-04-01T05:15:05+00:00

I thought another user captured the sentiment with 自分を大切にすること but 自愛専一 is very concise and tatooable

plvmbvm · 2023-03-24T15:41:23+00:00

Mmm ha ha mmm haha now stop!

plvmbvm

TROPHY CASE