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Have you traveled to any other countries?

What's your favourite thing about Japan and being Japanese?
I have a life goal of watching anime without subtitles.
I have not started learning yet, but do you have any advice on how I could start? (methods, techniques, books?)

What's your favorite food?

Do you have a job? If so what is it?
Where did you learn English
Original post by girl_in_black
Have you traveled to any other countries?

What's your favourite thing about Japan and being Japanese?


I've traveled to other countries such as the UK, the States, and Europe. My favourite thing about Japan is my family.
Have you visited any other places in Japan, and if so, which were your favourites?

Do you follow any Japanese sports teams?

I'm a huge fan of a the nation so it's nice to see an AMA on this :smile:
Original post by Contributer
Hi. I’m from Tokyo, Japan. I’m fluent in English. I like playing the piano and painting. I’m male. Ask me anything.


Hey! What area of Tokyo do you live in and what is your job? Is Tokyo your hometown or did you move there? How did you become fluent in English?

I studied at Sophia University (上智大学) in Yotsuya as an exchange student for one year from 2015 to 2016. I used to live in Mejiro by the Yamanote Line. After I graduated from university, I worked for a year in Ochanomizu.

I really miss Tokyo. I really miss eating abura soba (油そば) with my friends in Waseda. I also really miss eating tempura. :frown:

Right now I'm back home in Edinburgh, Scotland but I'm planning to move to Japan again someday soon.
(edited 5 years ago)
Who reported meeee! I was only joking when I made that post, it wasn't racial hatred :rolleyes::cry2:
Reply 8
When are you gonna post more piano videos? I like those, always good.
Original post by kurro
I have a life goal of watching anime without subtitles.
I have not started learning yet, but do you have any advice on how I could start? (methods, techniques, books?)

What's your favorite food?

Do you have a job? If so what is it?


Hey, feel free to message me about studying Japanese. I did a degree in it and often advise/help friends who are in the process of self-learning it.
Hello :smile:
Do you have any advice for learning Japanese, especially memorising verb endings, and intransitive and transitive verbs?
Do you know of any Japanese websites that I can use to improve my knowledge of everyday and colloquial language (like Aozora Bunko and DMM.com)?
Original post by MrDystopia
Have you visited any other places in Japan, and if so, which were your favourites?

Do you follow any Japanese sports teams?

I'm a huge fan of a the nation so it's nice to see an AMA on this :smile:


I have visited some other place in Japan, the countryside. My favourite is Awaji island because it's wonderful place to visit. I can't explain. There's my grandmother in Awaji island and my father lives there because of his work. Currently, I live with my mother in my house in Tokyo. I don't follow any Japanese sports teams.
Original post by kurro
I have a life goal of watching anime without subtitles.
I have not started learning yet, but do you have any advice on how I could start? (methods, techniques, books?)

What's your favorite food?

Do you have a job? If so what is it?

Not the original poster but current student of Japanese here. Number one thing to note for learning Japanese is motivation. Although anime is awesome do you feel it is strong enough to keep you motivated to study every day?
The drop out rate of language learners is huge, learning a language is all about keeping yourself studying, even if it’s only in small bits.

Ramble over, now onto my tips!
First, before anything else, you’ll need to learn the Japanese kana. These are two alphabets. Sounds bad right? Nah, they both have exactly the same sounds, but one (hiragana) is for Japanese words and names and the other (katakana) is for foreign words and names.
I suggest using tofugu’s hiragana and katakana guide

After you have both of those locked down, you’re ready for a Japanese textbook. My uni class used Japanese for busy people (kana edition, NOT romanji) , but I personally suggest genki because it introduces you to the third alphabet, kanji. Those are the chinese characters. If you use jfbp then you should look up the kanji for all the words you come across in it.

Secondly, you will need a revision method! I use anki app. Which is a free srs flash card computer program and paid phone app. They both link together so you can do flash cards on the go. You basically use it to make your own flash cards. You can import pre made card decks from all popular Japanese textbooks but I find it’s easier to learn if you make them yourself.

Now for kanji. Kanji can be quite daunting, especially the more complicated ones. There are several methods people use to help. One is “remembering the kanji”. Which is essentially a method of looking at a kanji and turning it into something memorable. So person sort of looks like two legs, so a person walking.
My method is breaking down the kanji into its components and making a memonic out of it. So mathematics (study of) is 数学, which is made up of 米女攵 and 学.
Other methods include apps like scritter or WaniKani (srs learning system. Scritter lets you write them too but I don’t like it.).
Whatever the method, learn in small, related groups. So like 10 animals a day or 12 furniture items a day.

Seriously though, my top tip is to just keep going. Even if you feel you can’t. Just keep learning. If you don’t want to do anymore kanji for a day, go over some grammar or words you already know. It’s all about retaining what you’ve learnt.

Extra stuff: practise saying the sounds to yourself. Especially the r sounds. Look up a YouTube video on them. It’s quite hard to get right on the first go for a British person.

When watching anime, try and listen for words you already know. Watch anime and films too!

There’s a really good website called the Japanese foundation. It has tons of gcse Japanese resources on there and they list events. They did a Japanese film week in my town a few weeks ago :smile:

That’s all I have to say. Maybe find someone interested in learning with you. Having someone to compete with always keeps me motivated to learn more, but that’s just me X3 pm me if you need any more help.
Original post by Quick-use
Hey! What area of Tokyo do you live in and what is your job? Is Tokyo your hometown or did you move there? How did you become fluent in English?

I studied at Sophia University (上智大学) in Yotsuya as an exchange student for one year from 2015 to 2016. I used to live in Mejiro by the Yamanote Line. After I graduated from university, I worked for a year in Ochanomizu.

I really miss Tokyo. I really miss eating abura soba (油そば) with my friends in Waseda. I also really miss eating tempura. :frown:

Right now I'm back home in Edinburgh, Scotland but I'm planning to move to Japan again someday soon.


I live in Shibuya city. It's sort of posh town. Tokyo is my hometown. I home stayed in Tennessee and studied abroard in the States and the UK. That's how I became fluent in English.
Original post by kurro
I have a life goal of watching anime without subtitles.
I have not started learning yet, but do you have any advice on how I could start? (methods, techniques, books?)

What's your favorite food?

Do you have a job? If so what is it?


Subtitles? I even watch English films with their Japanese subtitles. I think it's good fun. Passion is my advice on how you could start learning Japanese. My favorite food is Tempura.
Original post by JaJa18796
Where did you learn English


The States and the UK.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by gjd800
When are you gonna post more piano videos? I like those, always good.

Sometime.
What are some popular foods here that you don't like?
What foods should be more popular, but aren't?
Original post by ZZMoopies9
Not the original poster but current student of Japanese here. Number one thing to note for learning Japanese is motivation. Although anime is awesome do you feel it is strong enough to keep you motivated to study every day?
The drop out rate of language learners is huge, learning a language is all about keeping yourself studying, even if it’s only in small bits.

Ramble over, now onto my tips!
First, before anything else, you’ll need to learn the Japanese kana. These are two alphabets. Sounds bad right? Nah, they both have exactly the same sounds, but one (hiragana) is for Japanese words and names and the other (katakana) is for foreign words and names.
I suggest using tofugu’s hiragana and katakana guide

After you have both of those locked down, you’re ready for a Japanese textbook. My uni class used Japanese for busy people (kana edition, NOT romanji) , but I personally suggest genki because it introduces you to the third alphabet, kanji. Those are the chinese characters. If you use jfbp then you should look up the kanji for all the words you come across in it.

Secondly, you will need a revision method! I use anki app. Which is a free srs flash card computer program and paid phone app. They both link together so you can do flash cards on the go. You basically use it to make your own flash cards. You can import pre made card decks from all popular Japanese textbooks but I find it’s easier to learn if you make them yourself.

Now for kanji. Kanji can be quite daunting, especially the more complicated ones. There are several methods people use to help. One is “remembering the kanji”. Which is essentially a method of looking at a kanji and turning it into something memorable. So person sort of looks like two legs, so a person walking.
My method is breaking down the kanji into its components and making a memonic out of it. So mathematics (study of) is 数学, which is made up of 米女攵 and 学.
Other methods include apps like scritter or WaniKani (srs learning system. Scritter lets you write them too but I don’t like it.).
Whatever the method, learn in small, related groups. So like 10 animals a day or 12 furniture items a day.

Seriously though, my top tip is to just keep going. Even if you feel you can’t. Just keep learning. If you don’t want to do anymore kanji for a day, go over some grammar or words you already know. It’s all about retaining what you’ve learnt.

Extra stuff: practise saying the sounds to yourself. Especially the r sounds. Look up a YouTube video on them. It’s quite hard to get right on the first go for a British person.

When watching anime, try and listen for words you already know. Watch anime and films too!

There’s a really good website called the Japanese foundation. It has tons of gcse Japanese resources on there and they list events. They did a Japanese film week in my town a few weeks ago :smile:

That’s all I have to say. Maybe find someone interested in learning with you. Having someone to compete with always keeps me motivated to learn more, but that’s just me X3 pm me if you need any more help.


What university are you studying Japanese at? How are you finding the course?
Original post by TheCyborg
What are some popular foods here that you don't like?
What foods should be more popular, but aren't?

None. I like any food. Kaiseki is Japanese formal courses people should try. Teppan-yaki should be more popular.

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