Japanese Language

Hey guys, I made that post about teaching Japanese by playing games together about a month ago. I have one Lemmy user who is available today. It's super short notice but we'll be playing in about an hour (9pm Japan time). I'm not sure which platform that bought the game on, but it's probably going to be either Switch or PC. Feel free to join us if you're available as I think the game allows for 4 players simultaneously. Thanks!

Edit: lots of typos

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41198718

Kakizome, the tradition of the first calligraphy of the year. Well, it's my first Japanese calligraphy of the year as I have already practised my regular business hand. You're supposed to just write a single kanji or sentence, but I did a page like my normal practice routine. Technically the right most one is thus the real kakizome.

I did a practice run of a variety of kana shoudo styles and finished it with the kanji and romaji in a business hand. I haven't been practising often lately so I have to do some more this year. Actually writing Japanese on paper is one of the least focused-on areas compared to listening, reading and talking. Even in the digital age handwritten work maintains its cultural and artistic significance. Consider giving it a try, even if it's just with a pencil.

And of course, 明けましておめでとうございます!

Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in learning Japanese while they played games with me starting in January. I'm a Japanese-English interpreter living in Japan, and I wanted to start a streaming channel in which I would teach Japanese as I play games. The problem is, my rusty old brain isn't used to playing and talking, so I need someone to rejuvenate my brain.

I won't be recording or streaming our sessions, and I'm not asking for money. I just need to get my brain used to doing more than one thing at a time. Oh and if you could help me improve my Smash skills, that would be a plus.

DM me if you're interested. I have a Switch 2 and a somewhat outdated PC. I can get a copy of whatever game you might be interested in playing together if I don't already own it.

Apparently the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation decides one of these every year.

This year, 熊 (kuma) was selected, meaning bear. For whatever reason, Japan has had a bunch of bear issues lately.

I'm regularly reading Gigazine for general news articles, the Japanese Wikipedia page, and Sorae for pictures and news about space, but I'm looking to broaden my light reading sources. What are your go-to or favorite websites?

I'm lerning kanji using WaniKani and a set of cards for Ankidroid for offline use. They are giving these weird names to kanji and radicals and I was wondering if those were correct? I feel like I'm learning the wrong names for these characters or their meaning... This is just one example. I came across another one called "mohawk". That doesn't make sense to me. Or am I missing something? Is it a learning technique?

As a long time Japanese learner, I always wanted there to be a simple online trainer for learning kana, Kanji and vocabulary - like Anki, but for the web. Originally, I created the website for personal use simply as a better alternative to kana pro and realkana, and as an alternative to Chase Colburn's Kanji Study app, because Kanji Study was pretty complicated for me to use as a beginner and didn't have a simpler way of just grinding Kanji like you can grind the kana on kana pro.

I'm doing this because I grew tired of all the subscriptions and paywalls. I want to make the most user-friendly, customizable, aesthetic and fun platform for learning Japanese currently available. Accessible to all, fully open-source and free forever - and driven not by profit, but made by the community, for the community.

We already have more than 30+ active contributors from all over the world, and we really want to make the first definitive 100% free, open-source platform for learning Japanese - in contrast to most other apps for learning Japanese, which are often paid and monetized aggressively.

If you're interested, you can check it out here: https://kanadojo.com/ ^ ^

GitHub if you're a dev and interested in contributing: https://github.com/lingdojo/kana-dojo

The app is still in its early alpha stages - but with your help, we can make it even better and give the Japanese learning community its first completely free, open-source and community-driven learning platform! どうもありがとうございます!

кросс-пост из: https://thelemmy.club/post/37869292

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/63695737 i really wanna find a japanese speaker who can quickly translate these manga because these text detectors and translators are NOT accurate and do not make sense

This is a collection of Japanese lessons that don't rely on translation. Instead, it shows a picture to establish a concept, then builds on that.

It's based on the ideas behind Lingue Latina Per Se Illustrata (LLPSI).

I don't know how useful this is compared to other methods, but I think it's a neat thing to check out.

ついにごっかんつかめちゃうんだな!

カードイーリーダーって、新登場なのだ!

おなじみのキャラクターが大集合! (0

ハムタロウカードイーリーダーからできるオリジナルゲームが盛りだくさん!

キャラクターのプロフィールも調べられるよ!

3つマップにセットすれば、 素敵なアルバムに大変身でしょ!

カードイーリーダーに通せば、もっと楽しめる!

ハムタロウカードイー

みんな、集めるのだ!

Once again google has cooked up a new keyboard design

to catch up those who aren't aware, the overwhelming majority of native Japanese speakers use 12-key flick input to type on smartphones, as it evolved from the input on flip phone (garakei) hardware keypads. it also requires less keystrokes => faster than typing romaji, once accustomed.

for context, the most widely recommended Japanese keyboard on android has been Google Gboard, MS Swiftkey, etc. tbh, these are very good as a keyboard, but unfortunately also great at collecting personal private data. the previous open source choice Mozc (created by a Google from a gentler timeline) has been outdated since before the pandemic.

thankfully, now there are at least ~~3~~4 open source projects working on east Asian language (primarily Japanese) flick keyboards for mobile devices:

スミレ (thanks to stanman for the link) is privacy-respecting and has the essential features one would expect. also available via play store if you prefer.

FCITX, is presumably working on it.

FUTO keyboard, and Florisboard

~~so far, i think FUTO seems the furthest along, with ~~ For FUTO fans, there's a nightly build for android available already. if you try this, remember to import the kanji conversion dictionary file linked in this comment since it was excluded from the apk to reduce file size.

this is very exciting, as only a year ago, there was hardly any mention of work being done. the only solution i could find for modern smartphones was by a Graphene OS forum user who had recompiled the latest binary of Mozc (from 2019!) while splicing in modern components for those that had become outdated. the result was janky to say the least.

edit: updated courtesy of stanman

if anyone knows other open source Japanese keyboards (that are up to date, i.e. not original Mozc, and privacy-respecting, i.e. not Gboard), especially with 12-key flick, please share!

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/46133193

Happy Casual Tuesday!

彁 is a Japanese "ghost character". Its meaning is unknown and it doesn't appear in the famous 18th century Kangxi Dictionary of Chinese characters. It was most likely just created by mistake during the process of computerizing Japanese writing.

Guys. Why are numbers so god damn complicated in Japanese? lo!!!

Ok ok in English and other languages we have different names for numbers whether it's one, two, three, or first, second, third, etc. But, that's about it. In Japanese you have to pronounce numbers in so many different ways!

I need help! How do I remember what to use? Heck, I don't even know what the other numbers are! Ok so I know the regular numbers, plus N-ばん for number one, number two, etc. But what's "first", "second", "third" etc?

And what about dates? Age? Inanimate things? Things that are alive, whether they are small or big?

What are some good resources or good mnemonics that you use to remember all of that?

こんにちは！

私はカナダ人です。

１月から、私は日本語をべんきょうしています。すぐ日本へいくつもりですから。

このコミュニティでしつもんしなもいいですか。

私はことばとかんじをべんきょうしなければいけません。たすけがひつようです。

よろしくおねがいします。

Arcadia was a Japanese magazine covering arcade games. All of the issues are available now on archive.org.