for me.. i still have a hard time reading japanese characters and i find romaji easier to read and understand but im still in a working progress.. is hard because i live in america where i see english all the time even though i made my (computer,iphone,psp etc) in japanese language 

How to know when to use ‘wa’ and when to use ‘ga’. 
Resources for those of us who so far can only read kana, so we can still get more practice reading and understanding sentence structure, vocabulary, while we attempt to start learning some kanji.
Learning Japanese through songs of all different genres.

http://languagebymusic.blogspot.com/This is a blog that I am contributing to in the Spanish form. One way would be by translating lyrics from your native tongue to the target language, and vice versa. Best wishes!

Koichi, thanks for the post, and the Gendered language article, unfortunately, it seems to be broken, I can’t get the black kana and kanji to show up in Google Chrome. It works acceptably on Apple Safari, you should run the HTML through a validator. Keep up the good work, and thanks for the Tofugu site. I’m thinking that focusing on getting the meanings of Kanji should be a good target for “How To Guide” Imi are more important than Yomi when we’re trying to read.

I’d maybe like to see one on ‘How to find level-appropriate Japanese reading material.’   Preferably free stuff.  I played around with learning kanji in a few different orders, and right now I’m learning the kanji via Skritter in the order Japanese kids do.  I’m on grade three, woo!  Anyways, this means I’m mostly good for reading kids books/news aimed at kids, but I know lots of random bits of kanji and vocab due to the other methods I played with before.

Anyways, at virtually all levels of my study so far, I’ve noticed it’s hard to find material to practice reading.  It would be nice to see a post rounding up free online resources for different fluency levels:

If you’re a beginner try this: (link to a page with mostly hiragana, simple vocab/grammar)
Upper beginners try this: (pages with simple/common kanji, more complex grammar)
.
.
.
etc.

I’ve found a few sites that definitely help.  If you plan on making a post like this let me know and I can add some possible links!

Thanks for all this stuff, I’m always learning new things, so thank you!

Well, I had some troubles with -te form of the verbs. It has so many uses, and informal language seems to complicate things even more. I’m reading (trying, actually) some japanese manga (Doraemon, lol), and the -te form is always confusing me. In that particular manga, informal speech is often used, so a “-te form how-to-use guide” would be greatly appreciated, so we can learn both formal and informal for this case.

Again, thank you guys for all the effords!P.D.: And sorry for my english, I’m from Chile (we speak spanish). Greetings!

Masculine = tough
Feminine = whiny and little
Got it, thanks and goodbye.

I’ve looked over the placeholders on the how-to page and there are four ideas I especially like (in priority order):

1. How to learn Kanji – I think this is the most difficult part for many students.

2. Using Anki to study – I’ve set up a few decks already but somehow I never really got down to using them. Maybe if you posted some good tips that’ll make using Anki more efficient I’d finally start using it like a pro. :)

3. Using Evernote to study – since probably many of us are already using Evernote in one way or another why not use it to boost our Nihongo a bit? Also, I think that using all the tech that surrounds us everyday is obviously a good way to study. That also applies to Anki.

4. Studying with podcasts – It’s a great way to fill in the commuting time. If you’re tired in the morning or while going home and don’t really feel like busting out flashcards or textbook this is a nice alternative. Podcasts are definitely more enjoyable and not so tiring. Why not improve your vocab and listening while learning some interesting facts about Japan. I’m sure there are lots of great podcasts all over iTunes and the internet waiting to be dug out.

Thats’s it for me. Hope this helps. Thanks for making studying japanese language and culture more fun! :)

My teacher once told me: Everybody learns Japanese differently. The key to success is to utilize topics you are interested and use them to learn Japanese. For some that might be manga – you need to step up a bit at some point though and not only stick to One Piece etc.

My topics of interest are a bit unique though: Shrines, O-matsuri, Japanese customs, cuisine and traditional clothing (Kimono, Jinbei).

I would love to see you make a guide on how to learn Japanese with different interests as a base.

ををを。。。
Isn’t this what textfugu is for?
Don’t get me wrong, before I decided to sign up to textfugu I would have given anything for a quick ‘guide’ and some shortcuts (albeit there isn’t any).
I suppose if you can use this as a tool to direct people to Textfugu, then brilliant.  But nothing made me commit more to learning Japanese than actually getting a kick up the arse from Koichi’s awesome style of writing/learning.

Meh, I can see that it would draw people to the site.  Might generate business, however I believe this should be something that falls under.. paid services.

I’m not a shill I swear!

It wouldn’t be fair to completely dismiss this idea.. I guess a nice how-to for me would be ‘how to speak informal Japanese’ – Things like おっす and　じゃない – It feels a little weird (although probably completely normal) talking to people in my local Japanese shop, being overly polite with people I see/interact with every other day. (After writing this, i’ve also discovered there is a section in Textfugu re: this).

Just my thoughts, time is money (unfortunately).

This is something I find personally quite difficult. How to stop translating Japanese into English in your head. It’s an annoying problem that whenever I am speaking or listening and I hear certain words, my mind can’t help but think “Oh, tabemono… that means food!” or “mitekudesai… he wants you to look at that!” etc. It’s irritating because it pulls me out of the flow of the conversation and usually leads to me missing the reset of the sentence.

The obvious answer might be to just think in Japanese, but that’s not easy to do when you don’t have the grammar or vocabulary required to jump into the deep inner monologues and long patches of meaningless meditation which the mind tends to do when left idle.

So the question is really: How do you train your mind to treat Japanese as a native language and not a foreign one?

Also, an overview of Keigo would be nice. There are a lot of resources out there which teach it but I think that such a complex system, both grammatically and socially speaking, could really benefit from the Tofugu style.

One last thing that I still question is use of Passive form. I understand that it can be used to imply malicious action as well as simply be a more indirect way to state something. But I’ve never really understood what the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs in the passive form is. What exactly is the difference between saying “ドアが開けられます” and “ドアが開かれます”. Even if it’s a tiny little nuance difference, what is it?

I wonder though, what if someone knew something that wasn’t included in the How-To placeholders and wanted what they knew up there. Do we talk to you guys about it?

Man, Hashi’s really good at multitasking.

For me it doesn’t really matter, I’m at the point in my Japanese Learnage where I just have to spam my brain with vocab and kanji.

 I suggest either “where to start” since it seems like a good place to start (no pun intended) or “outside of the classroom learning” since most people may be learning Japanese in the classroom and then going home and doing nothing then doing homework the hour before class XP.

Also finding time to study would be a really good topic to start on because everyone always uses the “I don’t have time excuse” when most of the time they’ll spend 2-4 hours watching tv lol.

definetly
How To Learn Kanji Well & Quickly
its the queston i’m asking myself so often, and the other things dont look this difficult to me, or seem to be basicaly tutorials for programms and tools, you may also find on the web.

so i would suggest:
things like tutorials can wait, because there are other tutorials, and the search for them is easy.
more difficult things, or unique things are of bigger priority.

(well lets face it, there is no new thing in the guide area, but some of them are interessting. for example the kanji thing, there are thousand oppinions, but i am sure your opinion will help. others are not so controverse, there is basicaly no discussion on how to use google ime, theres just one way to use it)

what i really neeeeed is a dumbed-down version of Tae-Kim’s Guide, mainly conjugation. it’s a great guide with tons of good info but it’s too wordy and seems to be geared at university english majors, the average schmoe doesn’t use or care about words like “predicate” and has no idea what he’s rambling on about.  learning a second language shouldn’t mean being a total nerd regarding your first language in order to be able to follow guides.

so yeah i need an in-depth how-to conjugate in Japanese for total dummies

1. How to learn kanji – because after a year of trying to understand it and really LEARN it (mostly via textfugu) I am still struggling. I know kanji is hard in and of itself but man it seems to be the only thing that my brain rejects as illogical. The sad thing it is probably way easier than I think

2. Podcasts – I think this is necessary for all levels because if you at least get use to listening to the language you are more likely to pick up on things. Although, this is coming from someone who has been listening Japanese music at least 4 years before I decided to learn the language.

Honestly, you guys at tofugu are so great and awesome with all you already provide creating how-to-guides is like adding sprinkles to the yummy overly decorative frosting on some amazing cake. Thanks for asking us and thinking of us in your future plans

Interested in Kanji for practical purposes. I use evernote on a daily and am quite interested in how I can use for my japanese studies outside of pdfs. Also for downtime using I been listening to podcast and got into dramas, so your take on podcast and media would be very helpful.

I’d vote how to learn Kanji

hmm, well the answer to “how to think in japanese” would be using more japanese….
thinking in a foreign language comes with the time.
while learning japanese is found it usefull to just have no time translating in my mind.
for example: i watch some anime, with japanese subtutles or without subtitles, if i spend time in translating something, i will lose the thread. the show goes on while thinking, and i will miss something, so i stop overthinking.

or when reading a text, you just have to force you, to overlook the small unknown words.

i would also asume, (if you use spaced repetition) to change old cards, into japanese-japanese cards instead of japanese-english cards.

but this is advanced stuff.
if you learn a language, thinking will come sooner or later.

to the last question
i will stick to hiragana:
the first verb is: あける- to open  something
the second is: ひらく-  something opens itself

the diference between the sentences is, the first is passiv of an transitiv verb, the second is an intransitiv verb(i hope i didnt mix them up^^)

passive may be pretty similar to intransitive verbs, but it needs someone to do it.
passive is like: the door is opened by someone.
intarnsitiv is: the door opened

in every language i know, this is some really little nuance , noone seems to really understand.
i think in japanese it could (if the context is right) also mean”sadly the doar opened”
(sorry i’m gemran, i dont think this sentence is right, i want to say, the door opened, but i didnt like it)

and right now i realize, i used past tense…. well you know inyour japanese sentene its not past tense….

so thats how i understand those intransitive and passiv thingy, but if someone thinks i’m wrong, please tell me.
i’m not so sure myself.

hmm, well the answer to “how to think in japanese” would be using more japanese….
thinking in a foreign language comes with the time.
while learning japanese is found it usefull to just have no time translating in my mind.
for example: i watch some anime, with japanese subtutles or without subtitles, if i spend time in translating something, i will lose the thread. the show goes on while thinking, and i will miss something, so i stop overthinking.

or when reading a text, you just have to force you, to overlook the small unknown words.

i would also asume, (if you use spaced repetition) to change old cards, into japanese-japanese cards instead of japanese-english cards.

but this is advanced stuff.
if you learn a language, thinking will come sooner or later.

to the last question
i will stick to hiragana:
the first verb is: あける- to open  something
the second is: ひらく-  something opens itself

the diference between the sentences is, the first is passiv of an transitiv verb, the second is an intransitiv verb(i hope i didnt mix them up^^)

passive may be pretty similar to intransitive verbs, but it needs someone to do it.
passive is like: the door is opened by someone.
intarnsitiv is: the door opened

in every language i know, this is some really little nuance , noone seems to really understand.
i think in japanese it could (if the context is right) also mean”sadly the doar opened”
(sorry i’m gemran, i dont think this sentence is right, i want to say, the door opened, but i didnt like it)

and right now i realize, i used past tense…. well you know inyour japanese sentene its not past tense….

so thats how i understand those intransitive and passiv thingy, but if someone thinks i’m wrong, please tell me.
i’m not so sure myself.

I know I’m a bit late to the game here, but it took me a few days to war with my indecision over whether to be selfish or not.  I would really, really love to see some posts focusing on the more advanced learners of Japanese – the two in that section that aren’t completed seem absolutely fascinating (the Anki for Advanced Users and Japanese Media to Study).  It seems a lot of Tofugu’s content is aimed at the beginner to intermediate level, and while I love every article you right, it would be really cool to see some stuff aimed at some a slightly more advanced level as well.

The “Finding Time to Study” guide also looks like it will be really good, I’m excited for that too.

And also, since I don’t see too many people saying this – thank you.  I know how hard it is to do something like this, and I (and I’m sure the rest of your readers) really appreciate it.