夏子光 @natsukohikari - Tumblr Blog

I'm really interested in learning Japanese but I'm not really sure where to start with it.

It’s amazing how someone can teach themselves a whole new language by themselves. I self-studied Japanese and never used a textbook. There are so many resources for learning, online and free. You can learn just using the online or free resources listed here and beyond. But where do you start?

First, start with hiragana. There are many ways to learn it.

flashcards, or use quizlet to drill it into your head

Dr. Moku app ( has one for katakana too) I highly recommend this but $

hiragana quiz

hiragana alphabet game

hiragana writing sheet

tofugu hiragana

videos:

hiragana song

The Easiest Way To Learn Hiragana

Next, learn Katakana

Dr. Moku katakana app

katakana alphabet game

katakana writing sheet

tofugu katakana

videos:

Japanese Alphabet Song - Study Hiragana katakana Chart - Learn to read japanese alphabet table

Learn ALL Katakana in 1 Hour - How to Write and Read Japanese

Next understand more about hiragana like long vowel sounds, muddied sounds, The Small や、ゆ、and よ, the small つ、the long vowel sound with Tae Kim.

Then more with katakana. Learn the long vowel sound and the small アイウエオ with Tae Kim again.

Then additional sounds using whatever method helped you learn hiragana and katakana.

Done with all that? Now, drop romaji. It’s dead to you. A little reluctant? Practice more.

Learn grammar next with vocab and kanji on the side. It’s hard to learn grammar without vocab and it’s hard to learn words without understanding some kanji. I know it’s tough but once you ride it out through grammar learning Japanese becomes much smoother and easier. It’s not as frustrating. It’s so fun.

Grammar

Tae Kims Guide to Learning Japanese

imabi

http://maggiesensei.com/

Vocab

memrise

JLPT N5 vocab list ( recommend learning other JLPT vocab later too)

learn the words in the grammar lessons too!

Write down new vocab you come across and make flash cards or quizlets to learn them

kanji

get a Japanese kanji book

tanoshiijapanese kanji lessons

my post on how I learn kanji

Tae kim’s kanji explanation

Dictionaries

Dictionaries are helpful for vocab and kanji.

imiwa?

jisho

Japanese ( This is my main dictionary)

Download Japanese dictionary and Japanese-English dictionary on iPhone in settings, go to dictionary on settings

After all that just keep practicing. Go to your best free resource, your public library and find books in your level, watch videos in Japanese, read manga, watch a film in Japanese etc.

Also, here’s a good masterpost that also lists other good masterposts and more.

Here’s some miscellaneous advice I want to give beforehand I really hope you'll take:

Try using the Japanese dictionary the most, not the Japanese-English one but the completely in Japanese definitions of words one. Use Japanese-English when you can’t understand the Japanese definition to help yourself. I found English words given to define Japanese words seem to be similar words or/and words the Japanese word is usually translated in. It’s hard to really understand the word exactly. To really understand the word I find myself having to read the Japanese definitions. This is literally what I give the most credit for my progress in Japanese. ( some good ones are kotobank and goo辞書 as well as the iPhone one.)

Learn loan words. Sometimes they aren’t used like the language it originally came from uses it.

Understand what radicals are so you use them to look up kanji. Lots of Japanese dictionaries let you look up by radical.

Practice stroke order. I mean my handwriting is messy but a least it’s legible and not as messy as it could be.

learn Dialects!

Some words use a couple different kanjis. Learn the nuances of using those different kanjis in the word.

Read news in Japanese

learn the culture. It’s impossible to learn Japanese without understanding the culture.

learn kanji by learning how its used and vocab. Here’s a post I made about that. It’s the same one above.

Change your phone into Japanese.

follow Japanese people’s accounts on social media, whether that’s here on Tumblr, Twitter or Instagram.

And lastly, Don’t lose yourself to discouragement. Keep going. I can’t tell you how good it felt to watch Jdrama completely in Japanese or read a whole adult novel in Japanese. I could see anyone getting there too. It takes time but it’s very possible.

Followers, feel free to recommend any resource in the notes:)

がんばって！

hare-bluend-deactivated20190410

銘の鎖

zixxta

真剣乱舞祭2018

kso08

kamidukki

I love how special Mikazuki is, like he’s not the main character (be it in Hanamaru, Katsugeki, or even in both Touken Ranbu Stage Play and Musicals) yet he’s always got a special position that attracts audience’s attention. Mikazuki’s so popular and ridiculously beautiful that even Touken Ranbu uses him as their mascot (? or logo? icon?) so he’s basically everywhere. Old man, I love how you’re not the main character in every show, or even second or third main character. You’re just a special someone that every saniwa needs in their citadel. Like a person whom everyone needs by simply being there because of their calming, soothing presence.

anonymousintp

Apps that Help You Cheat at Productivity

I’m always looking for apps that help you cheat at life make your life easier.

1. Done

As a born-procrastinator, I went through soooo many task management/to-do list/scheduling apps. I’ve never been able to stick with one for more than a month. I can’t manage myself the way SJs or Te users do, and I find most of those apps too restricting.

But guess what? This one app has been working well for me for almost a year. If it works for an INTP (probably the laziest MBTI type) sp-blind (the instinctual variant with zero life-management skills), then it surely would work for any of you.

This is a simple habit tracker. Add something you want to do, how many times you want to do it per day/week/month/year, and set a reminder. You can choose to show your streak or count down from the amount that’s your goal to 0 (like I’m doing below). If you complete a task on that day, it turns colorful. You can also track habits you want to quit.

Yes, I need to pay my water bill…

2. Grammarly

A real life-saver. I’ve heard of this app for years but didn’t start using it until a few months ago. I thought it was just a grammar-correction app, but holy crap, it’s SO much more.

It spellchecks, corrects grammar (tense, sentence structure, proposition), and makes suggestions for better word choice and sentence structure.

The free version is already pretty good. I have the premium version, which customizes suggestions based on your writing goals and gives you document insights.

Writing an essay? Cut that proofreading time in half. Writing a resume? You definitely won’t lose the job because of that spelling mistake. Writing an email to a client? No worries, you’ll always sound professional af.

3. Boomerang

This app has a lot of useful features for email management, but I use this mainly to…appear like a normal, responsible human.

If you’re like me, and you often suddenly remember that you have to send an important email at 4:07 AM. But you don’t wanna send it at 4:07 AM because your client/boss/teacher will know that you’re a lazy ditz with a non-existent sleep schedule.

Just use this app to schedule the email to send at 8 AM. Now you seem like an accountable, mature adult who wakes up early and gets on top of important tasks first thing in the morning. Mission accomplished.

There are other ones that I use a lot, but most people are probably already using too. Just in case:

Evernote: Take notes & organize them. You can add pictures, voice messages, etc.

Trello: Project management (solo & team). Great for brainstorming, assigning tasks/todo-list to people, keeping track of progress.

LastPass: Password manager. It generates strong passwords & saves all your login info in one place. It’s very secure and has very good encryption (it’s been hacked a few years ago but the hackers couldn’t get anything useful out of the data because of the encryption)

-eilamona

[ 🎁MBTI Merch | Unusual Career/Life Journey Podcast ]

blackpowwer-blog

REBLOG: go to your blog and click the egg to see what hatches

jinglepancakebells

I got Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic the fucking Hedgehog.

Maybe I cracked the egg too fast.

crystalmikii-deactivated0417201

I got Rogue Titan gettin’ krunk. I was not disappointed.

shirtnapkin

OH MY GOD I GOD EREN IN TITAN FORM TWERKING

prince-bat

aHHHHH THIS IS WHAT I GOT IM sO HAPPY

blueberrykatca-deactivated20170

Ok I will see

erendummy

captaingoddamnlevireconcorps

What did you get mon amour

kitty

sixthrock

the little claw marks on the ice omg

godofavengers

It’s all fun and games falling in love with fictional characters until you can not find a single X Reader fic about them.

catchymemes

Artist is @super_lightweight_industries on Instagram

kaashuus

Shinken Ranbu Sai 2017 outfits ~Kashuu Kiyomitsu ver.~ (video source: ayanamiars)

cryptanth

ni orang kok cantik ya jadi Kiyomitsu.

fuusenchan

looook at Kiyomitsu without his coat

hail-to-prince-scourgie

Tumblr Project! :D

PLEASE REBLOG IF YOU’VE NEVER SENT ANON HATE

Whoever reblogs this I will write there URL on a stick note and stick in to a tumblr poster board.

This poster board will be against anon hate and will be hung on my wall. I will take a picture of it as it progresses :)

SPREAD THIS PLEASE :D

wlwgang

So my dad took away my laptop because I wouldn’t give him the password. I wasn’t even allowed to type it in, he demanded to know the password to my personal computer because he thinks I’m “ doing things I’m not supposed to do. ” My sister is not, and never has been, held to the same standard when it came to passwords on her own phone etc. But my parents always suspect me of being “up to something” and will randomly ask to use my computer/ know the password, and when I say no, they get mad at me. In the past, they have taken away my devices and looked through them, which cased me a lot of anxiety and is part of the reason I don’t like it when people use my computer or go through the camera roll on my phone. Even as I type this, I’m being asked what I’m doing. If you think parents demanding to know the passwords to their child’s personal devices is a breach of privacy please reblog

scoopstrooptv

my parents do the same thing it’s torture

eviltessmacher

As a parent, you don’t get privacy until you are on your own. My house, my rules, my money, my decision.

Don’t like it?

Too bad.

I am the parent here. I’m not your friend. I’m your father.

justfunnyreblogs-deactivated201

Literally kids are not your prisoner??? There’s a difference between being protective and being controlling.

a-kir-a-deactivated20191025

“You don’t get privacy until you’re an adult” like what the fuck. You’re one of those piece of shit parents that thinks taking away bedroom doors and making their kids hold sandwich board signs on busy roads is appropriate punishment aren’t you? Children and teens are still fucking people and still deserve respect. If you can’t even respect your child how do you expect to teach them to respect others?

jewishwitch-deactivated20150710

AS A PARENT YOU DON’T GET PRIVACY UNTIL YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. If I suspect you’re doing drugs or talking to someone way older than you or sneaking out at night, your privacy becomes my business. You’re living under MY roof, and I bought that computer, that phone, and pay for the service that runs it. Sorry, Charlie. It’s my job as a parent to make sure you’re safe and I will exercise the UNALIENABLE right to invade your privacy.

florafen

The mindset parents have of “my house my rules / I bought you that phonecomputertabletetc so I can go through it” is a huge contributer to anxiety, depression, self harm, and suicide in kids and teens and if anyone is defending, condoning, or practicing that behavior I hope to god they get their kids taken away from them. Nobody deserves to grow up under an iron fist of emotional abuse.

sleepwalk-living

dude it’s one thing to be looking out for your kid and another to be like “privacy doesn’t exist because you are vulnerable and i am in a position of power.

being overprotective of your kid is NOT going to help them. it’s fucking savage.

my mom let my sisters and i do whatever we wanted [obvs within reason] and punished us when we did bad shit and we came out just fine. we’re honest people and nothing fucked us up. my friend with overprotective and invasive parents? she sneaks out for a social life. she can’t let people touch her things without almost crying because her dad would confiscate her things as she was using them to make sure she wasn’t selling drugs or sexting. sometimes she compulsively lies about small things and admits to lying later because she knows it’s was stupid to do it in the first place and she developed OCD from her father reprimanding her for not being clean enough [even though she’s a spotless person] she will have anxiety attacks over being in a messy environment because of the panic her dad put into her while growing up. she’s almost twenty and you know what she did? she asked me to cover for her so she could go on a date. SHE IS TWENTY NEXT MONTH AND ASKED ME TO LIE TO HER PARENTS IF THEY ASKED ME WHERE SHE WAS. she was on a date!! dating! because she was afraid her dad would fucking ground her. the sad part is, he probably would have if he found out! they created an environment of distrust and she has to fight it to be able to hang out with people who weren’t even gonna get her in trouble.

yall wanna be like “privacy doesn’t exist for children and teens. no teens can be trusted.” but fact is, you’re gonna force your kid into being untrustworthy because you think it’s healthy to be controlling.

sorry. you’re a shitty parent. unless you have proof or grounds for violating privacy in order to keep your kid safe, you are abusive and controlling and a sack of shit for having 0 respect for your children.

ghostedarmy-deactivated-deactiv

My dad threatens to take my door away from me for having it closed. I’m a seventeen year old female, and he has threatened to take away my door.

2oulle22-lover

when i was a teenager, i wasn’t allowed to have a cellphone, so my father would hand me a little bag of change and force me to call home from a payphone every single time i left somewhere and again when i arrived at the next place. that means if i went to the mall, i called when i got there. then if i wanted to go across the street to the Walmart i had to call and tell him so. then i had to call again when i got to the Walmart! if i had a bunch of stuff to do, i could go through the entire bag of change in one weekend - if i could even find enough payphones to call him from. his explanation for this lunacy was that he wanted to be able to find me anytime, anywhere. he also liked to randomly show up at my job to make sure i was there, and the first time i spent the night at my best friend’s after i got a car, he drove past the house no less than eight times, and called no less than four times. one of those calls was to ask where i was because my car wasn’t visible from the road - and when i explained the turnaround i was parked in was behind the house, he told me we’d “better not go anywhere or have friends over”. like, what the hell were we going to do? have a drunken orgy while my friend’s grandma was sitting in the next room? we ended up playing chess in the front parlor all night with all the lights on and the curtains open so he could see us if he drove by.

and what, exactly, did i do to deserve this? not a fucking thing. i didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t sneak out, didn’t do drugs, didn’t skip school, nothing. in 13 years of public school, i had one detention - for being late too many times. that’s it. i never did a single thing to make him think i was untrustworthy and i got stalked for it.

when i graduated high school, my father told me if i was going to go to art college on his dime, he was going to have a say in the classes i took and what i did with my free time - he even went so far as to tell me if he ever dropped by the campus, i’d better be in my dorm doing homework or in class, and if i got a grade he didn’t like, he was going to pull me out of school, bring me home, and basically keep me a prisoner with no phone, no tv, no visits with friends until i graduated from the local community college. faced with another four years of stalking and abuse, i moved out and worked in a factory until i could be considered an independent student, then went to the art college i’d always wanted to - on my terms.

my father died last May and i hadn’t talked to him for a year, hadn’t seen him for two, and before that i hadn’t had any communication with him at all for four.

the moral of the story for you “my house, my rules, you don’t get any rights” parents is: stop treating your children like shit or you’re going to die alone, and you’ll deserve it.

cirro-stratus

It’s not about safety, it’s about exercising power, and the parents that posted in this thread trying to defend the invasion of privacy? Proves my point.

smoekje

My step mom is a absolute cunt if I don’t do what she asks me she threatens to take my stuff away EVEN if that’s something I bought and she has no business with. But she never holds her son (she had a son before meeting my dad) to the same standards as me she’s also bipolar and I have severe depressive disorder and generalised anxiety but she is allowed to stay home if needed but if I would ever ask to even stay home for a day she would say I’m not really sick. The amount of times that I needed to go home early is ridiculous but I would always ask them to call my mom because my step mom would never pick me and because I went home so much my parents needed to sign some papers so that the school could prove that I they sent me home and i asked her and my dad to sign them and the wouldn’t because “I wasn’t really sick” as soon as I have the money I’m getting out i fucking swear

constellations-and-energy

CHILDREN ARE NOT THEIR PARENTS’ PROPERTY. THEY ARE HUMAN FUCKING BEINGS AND THEIR AUTONOMY IS MORE SACRED AND IMPORTANT THAN YOUR POWER TRIP.

smileeveryday423

All of you sound like bratty little ass hats. It’s not your computer / electronic device. Seriously, spoiled fucks. I lived under this rule and I’m fine and I appreciated it. You all took one fucking rule and then paired it with abusive parenting. I mean, whatever, but you sound so whiney and stupid. I wish you could read this 10 years later and see how out of context you took it.

t-witch-y

If that’s your opinion don’t interact with my blog again.

itsme98z

“I lived under this rule and I’m fine and I appreciated it.” This sounds like “I ate today so world hunger doesn’t exist.” or “It was chilly today so global warming isn’t real.”

It’s great that you turned out fine. But for most people that shit sticks with them. Not giving your kids their privacy is abuse. ABUSE. It’s one of the most common signs hat someone is abusive. I hide everything because I’m scared my parents will find things. And they aren’t even bad, but they make everything ten times worse than they are and make problems out of nothing. Just because they are not adults does not mean they aren’t human. They are human and you need to treat them as such.

love-couldbe-my-weakness

my brother has to hide out in my room if he ever wants privacy. and even then we are still checked up on every ten minutes or so we werent allowed to have a Flip phone till i was in seventh grade and even then i barely used it. however my mom still wanted to look through all the messages. i live with overprotective parents and my mom naggs on me about my weight now i am l l this close to having an eating disorder and i hide practically everything from my parents.

icecoldparadise

Child and Adolescent Development Major here!

This shit will fuck up your relationship with your children. It proves to them that no matter what they do, they cannot trust you as a parent and will be more likely to hide things than anything.

Teen crime rates are DOWN and DECREASING, not just the past few years but currently. Making your child feel smothered and unable to open up to you as a parent on their own term alienates them and makes them desperate to find sources of comfort- that generally aren’t healthy.

Yes, it IS your house, and yes you DID buy those things. But if you didn’t think you could trust your kid with it, why the hell did you buy it for them in the first place? If you can’t trust your child who has done nothing wrong, you might want to evaluate yourself and your mind state. I mean that with the utmost respect. Paranoia WILL lead to more problems than it will solve, and you will ultimately end up alone as your children find their “escape” and never return.