Ryotsu 両津
@Ashiba_Ryotsu
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Helping busy people learn to read manga in Japanese.
Joined December 2021
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Just a reminder that learning Japanese is not easy.
So please be kind to yourself.
It’s ok if it takes longer than you expect.
It’s ok if you take a break.
The language will always be there.
Learning should be a joy, not a burden.
So don’t beat yourself up.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that you don’t need a “good” reason to learn a language.
Learning because you’re curious or “just because” is perfectly fine.
Language learning is a marathon, not a sprint.
And more often than not, “good” reasons aren’t enough to sustain the journey.
#langtwt
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If your looking for a way to learn basic Japanese grammar, the Genki textbooks are great for self study.
Not sure how to self study?
No worries! I’ve put together a study plan for each lesson.
Happy studying!
#langtwt
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When you are learning a language it’s important to learn set phrases.
Set phrases are not just common and useful—their meaning often is distinct from their constituent components.
Knowing the words won’t help.
Good luck guessing what “hit the road” means from the words alone.
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Just a reminder that you don’t need to learn reading, writing, listening, and speaking all at once.
If you’re overwhelmed with language learning, focus on the one or two skills that you’re most interested in developing.
You can always work on the other ones later.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that it’s ok to look things up when you’re reading in your target language.
In fact, it’s the best way to learn.
Native materials provide far more context than textbooks or dictionaries.
So you’ll get a more nuanced understanding.
It’s more fun too.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that formal study is not the endgame of language learning.
The goal is not to jump from textbook to textbook or stay in courses forever.
The goal is to be able to experience a different language and culture.
All you need is basic grammar.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that there are many ways to learn a language.
So when you are taking any language learning advice from anyone—including me—be sure to consider:
1) what skill—reading, writing, listening, or speaking—is the focus?
2) am I in a similar situation?
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that your study of grammar should not be comprehensive.
Learn the basics so you can start exploring.
You’ll pick up the edge cases later.
And you’ll understand them better because you learned them naturally.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that your language-learning goals should drive how you learn a language.
Learning kanji radicals, stroke order, and mnemonics are great if you want to write Japanese by hand.
But not if your goal is merely reading Japanese.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that the reason to learn basic grammar is to allow you to engage with native materials.
Grammar gives you the foothold to understand.
But it is only a model for how a language actually works.
And like all models, grammar only approximates reality.
#langtwt
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After spending all that time learning the かな, you might if there was any benefit in learning ヲ is the カタカナ for を.
But sometimes ヲ is used instead of オ for stylistic reasons.
Take カナヲ from
#DemonSlayer
Any guess why カナヲ has her name written this way?
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If you want to read manga in Japanese you’ll need to study Japanese grammar.
The best textbook for self-studying grammar is Genki.
To get started you’ll need to know the kana and have a study plan.
Learn the Kana:
Study plan:
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It’s always best to be specific and narrow when you’re trying to learn something new.
It’s much easier to grasp a concept through example problems than just reading about the theory.
You don’t learn to cook by reading recipes.
The same is true for language learning.
#langtwt
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Sometimes Japanese words can be written using a less common and (often) more complex kanji.
Take 虫【むし】 which means “bug” or “insect.”
虫 can also be written as 蟲.
蟲sometimes shows up when むし is used in a title, like 蟲柱【むしばしら】 — the Insect Hashira.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that if you have time to scroll through Twitter you have the time to learn a new language.
A 15 minute commitment each day will lead to serious progress over a months or years.
And everyone has 15 minutes to spend.
#langtwt
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Not sure why X is pushing the polyglot community on my feed all the time. Is everyone on
#langtwt
an aspiring polyglot?
Where are the people interested in going super deep on just one target language (#日本語)?
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@Dogen
In case you’re curious — jigoh jitoku:
自業自得【じごうじとく】
Def:
自分のおこないの結果を自分が受けること。一般には悪い報いを受けることにいう。「―だからやむを得まい」
Ex:
▸ 彼はよく勉強せずに悪い成績をとった. 自業自得さ
He didn't study hard and got bad grades―he asked for it
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@jespow
Anime creates the nerds.
Watch too much anime and you start believing that your life should follow the hero’s journey.
That leads to building and striving to do something meaningful in life.
And it’s not just limited to nerds—many top athletes also watched anime.
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I’ve been building the Ashiba app () to be an Anki/WaniKani alternative that incorporates my strong views on flashcard study as hard-coded immutable defaults.
Yeah I’m paternalistic. But I’m a dad, so it can’t be helped.
But I’ve been considering making
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Just a reminder that improving your listening comprehension in Japanese requires more than passive input.
When you’re starting out, having podcasts, anime, pop songs, or the news on in the background won’t help you much beyond familiarizing you with the sound of Japanese.
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Take reading.
You’ll learn much more by sticking to one manga when you’re starting out.
Sure you’ll learn specialized vocab and sentence patterns.
But the repeated words and familiar writing style will allow you to focus on what you don’t know.
And learn faster.
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Fear is the most common reason people quit—or don’t even start—learning languages.
Fear is the factory of limiting beliefs.
—I don’t have enough time
—I’m too old
—I’ve studied for years but haven’t reached my goal
—I’ve lost my streak
—I’ve forgotten too much
#langtwt
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You might be familiar with 住む【すむ】, which means “to live.”
But what about 棲む【すむ】?
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If all you’ve learned is textbook Japanese, you’ll be surprised when you start reading 本物のJapanese.
Sometimes words are written entirely in カタカナ to express the lack of comprehension of the speaker.
Here, Tanjiro doesn’t know what 継子 means, so he repeats it as ツグコ.
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ことわざ of the day:
二束三文【にそくさんもん】
Meaning:
数が多くても値段がごく安いこと。
The price is **very** low even though multiple are being sold.
The expression implies low quality.
#langtwt
#DemonSlayer
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In case you need 1 more reason to start reading manga in Japanese, here’s another:
You’ll pick up on extra nuance, meaning, and even humor that is lost in translation.
Consider this scene from 鬼滅の刃 【きめつのやいば】where 愈史郎 【ゆしろう】calls 禰󠄀豆子 【ねずこ】a しこめ
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If you’ve studied the 常用漢字【じょうようかんじ】 you’ll know there is more than one way to write 一, 二, and 三:
壱 —> 一
弐 —> 二
参 —> 三
But there’s actually alternatives for each of the numbers 1 through 10, as shown by the clock from
#DemonSlayer
below
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Sometimes you’ll come across common words that use uncommon kanji while reading manga.
Like 蹲る【うずくまる】 - to crouch
Don’t be surprised or disappointed when you run into these kanji.
Just pick up the word and the kanji together and keep on reading.
#langtwt
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After learning 2000 words with an SRS it is better to start reading and pick up new words naturally.
This way your vocabulary study will be more than an exercise in abstract memorization.
And it’s more fun.
Too many flashcards can kill the joy of language learning.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that the hardest part of learning Japanese is getting a foundation (equivalent to N3 level).
After that, you’ll be learning new grammar and vocabulary by reading things that genuinely interest you.
And when learning is fun, you’ve already won.
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毛 is a 常用漢字 with keywords “hair” or “fur.”
毛【け/げ】 used as a suffix specifies the type of “fur” or “hair.”Just use 毛 after the kanji for an animal to make the word for its fur.
猪 = 🐗
鹿 = 🦌
熊 = 🐻
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Ever wonder what these dots on the side of the text are are when reading manga?
They’re called 傍点【ぼうてん】 and are used to draw your attention to a particular word or phrase.
Think of them like bold, italic,
or underlined text.
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If you want to start learning Japanese, the first step is to learn the kana.
And there’s a lot of great free resources you can use to master the kana.
You’ll start with hiragana (ひらがな) then move to katakana (カタカナ)
Get started here:
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Just a reminder that when you reach N3 level of Japanese proficiency, you have the tools you need to really start reading 本物のJapanese.
N2 and N1 require more vocab and kanji knowledge, but you’ll get that just by exposure and experience with the language.
#langtwt
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Just a reminder that you don’t need to know kanji to start reading interesting manga in Japanese.
Even some of the most popular manga—jujutsu kaisen, demon slayer, chainsaw man, and more—use furigana.
All you need are the kana, basic grammar, a jisho, and a growth mindset.
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So don't wait to start inputting the real language.
It won't be easy.
But it will get easier.
And easier.
And easier.
And it's the whole reason you started learning the language in the first place.
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If all you know is textbook Japanese, you’ll be in for a shock when you see かな and kanji used in new ways
Sometimes creatures speak entirely in カタカナ (even the ふりがな!), like the crow in
#DemonSlayer
The crow’s voice is jarring, which the sharp angles of カタカナ convey
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Do you like your kanji with a side of kanji?
Then you’ll love it when the furigana for a word uses kanji.
把握【はあく】 means “grasp”
But the furigana (if you can read it) in the panel is 呪い【のろい】, which means “curse.”
So what’s going on here?
#langtwt
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カナヲ struggles to make decisions, requiring the toss of a coin to make even the simplest of choices.
So the stylistic writing of カナヲ provides a foreshadowing that she is strange.
And it also reminds you every time you read her name that she is a bit quirky.
#langtwt
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You might be familiar with the pronouns 私【わたし】、僕【ぼく】、俺【おれ】、and 儂【わし】
But what about 小生【しょうせい】？
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Take this video by
@VaughnGenee
Lots of insights and useful tips on here but
1) the focus is on learning to speak
2) the method here assumes a substantial amount of free time
So good to view the advice through this lens.
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Another reason to study kanji is that knowing keywords makes it easier to remember new words.
And this is the case even when kanji keywords can’t help you guess the meaning of a word.
Take 宿敵, which means ずっと以前からの敵 and often translates as “old enemy” or “arch-enemy.”
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When you start reading manga for the first time, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of new words that show up.
But if you’ve studied kanji, you can often guess the meaning of words and avoid having to open a dictionary.
Take 後遺症【こういしょう】 for example.
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敵 has keyword“enemy,” which makes sense.
But 宿 has keyword “stay.”
You might not guess “stay” + “enemy” = arch-enemy.
But once you know the meaning of 宿敵, the kanji keywords make it easy to remember:
An arch-enemy is an enemy that stays, lodging itself in your life.
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Japanese words can sometimes be written with different 漢字【かんじ】
If you’ve only learned to recognize one reading, discovering a second can surprise (and discourage!) you.
For example, 収集【しゅうしゅう】 which means “to gather”or “to collect,”can also be written 蒐集.
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If you’ve studied the 常用漢字【じょうようかんじ】and think that means you’ll be able to recognize all the kanji used in common Japanese, get ready for a surprise.
Lots of common words use uncommon kanji.
Take 馴れ馴れしい【なれなれしい】
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And of course this helps foreshadow the creepy crawly (気持ち悪い) nature of the 鬼 spider family that 炭治郎【たんじろう】, 伊之助【いのすけ】, and 善逸 【ぜんいつ】soon encounter.
#DemonSlayer
#鬼滅の刃
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And set phrases are very common in日本語.
You can learn 無念【むねん】 (regret) and you can learn 晴らす【はらす】 (to dispel).
But better to just learn 無念を晴らす (to avenge; to settle a score) as a set phrase.
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If you want to learn to read manga in Japanese, I‘ve put together a guide to help you get there as soon as possible, even if you’ve never studied #日本語 【にほんご】before.
The link to the guide is below. Happy reading!
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You might be familiar with 尋ねる【たずねる】, which means “to ask.”
But what about 訊ねる【たずねる】 ?
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カタカナ in general can give off vibes that something is a little abnormal, robotic even.
And ヲ can emphasize abnormality. It’s why you see sometimes see otaku written as ヲタク.
カナヲ is a little strange, and the writing of her name is the first hint.
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After that, you have the tools to go exploring.
Sure it will be tough leaving the artificial confines of textbook sentence structures.
But part of the fun is figuring out how the language works in real life, not just in theory.
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Remember: It’s fine to have multiple language goals.
But often focus is key to sustaining a language learning habit.
We all typically have one language skill that we want to develop more than the other.
So be sure to keep that in mind when taking advice!
#langtwt
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Make sure you don’t split these phrases into their words when you review them.
Think of them as chunks of meaning—dissolving them changes their form.
And don’t worry about picking up the words alone.
Just keep reading and you’ll encounter them in isolation soon enough.
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So make your language learning habit as convenient as checking social media.
If you can’t do it on your phone, it’s still not convenient enough.
Not sure how?
Learn Kana
Learn Grammar
Learn Kanji/Vocab
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Using a flashcard app to learn common words is worth the effort when it reinforces grammar points, makes reading native materials bearable, and gives you the confidence that you can figure out even complex sentences.
But this is true only for the most common ~2000 words.
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醜女【しこめ】 combines the kanji for ugly - 醜い and woman - 女 and means “ugly woman.”
This is another instance where kanji can help you understand the meaning of a word.
Here 醜女has been translated as “eyesore,” but “hag” is also appropriate.
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Here’s just one more example of how studying kanji can help you learn uncommon words like 傍点
傍 = beside, by
点 = point
So 傍点 are just points placed beside the normal text.
Even if you didn’t guess the meaning of 傍点 from the kanji, they definitely help you remember it!
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And of course, if you’re ready to read manga in Japanese, the official publishers give you plenty of chapters that are free to read online.
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@ThatYuta
Recognizing the sheer amount of input required to achieve language mastery is key to forming successful learning habits — if you don’t inherently enjoy the input, you’ll run out of motivation long before you reach your goal.
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And the reward is well worth it—allowing you to listen and understand the stories that motivated you to learn Japanese in the first place.
So what’s stopping you from reading?
It shouldn’t be kanji—you can often get a version with furigana.
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If a kanji is not commonly used, it won’t show up in many common words.
In fact, it might normally show up only in the word you’re trying to learn.
So just learn that word and you’ll learn to recognize the uncommon kanji that come along with it.
#langtwt
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Did you know that you can read the first chapters of most manga in Japanese or English for free?
Try reading a chapter for fun and reference the English if you get stuck.
I’ve put links to most popular manga below. Happy reading!
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And if you’re ready to try out reading manga today, here’s the link to Chapter 1 and 第一話 of
#DemonSlayer
日本語:
英語:
Try reading the Japanese and reference the English translation when you get stuck. You can do it!
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The primary benefit of Anki and other SRS flashcard apps is reducing the amount of time you have to reference a dictionary when inputting Japanese.
This makes inputting easier and more enjoyable.
This of course is more of a problem when you’re starting out.
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So don't fret if you're still learning the かな or working through Genki. It gets better!
And if you need some advice on how to get a foundation with a busy schedule, check out the guide below, which will get you a foundation in 4 steps.
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Sometimes 漢字 are used for effect. One of the benefits of reading 日本語 is that 漢字 can add layers of meaning or stylistic flair.
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4 pages into the first chapter of デスノート you will come across a relatively uncommon word written in even less common 漢字.
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So the word 醜女 originally referred to ugly female demons. And that’s what makes 愈史郎‘s comment a fun play on words:
He’s saying isn’t that woman (Nezuko) a demon? And what’s more, she’s the ugly kind of female demon.
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If you want to learn
#Japanese
and plan on self-studying the Genki I and Genki II textbooks, I’ve put together an email course and study plan that gives you 4 assignments per week. Happy studying!
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If it’s finding manga, I’ve got you covered:
And in case you didn’t know, anime frequently lifts dialogue from manga wholesale, so there is no need to read anime transcripts.
Just enjoy the manga.
See the comparison from
#DemonSlayer
below
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If you study kanji you might have guessed this was the case from context.
The keyword for the kanji imply that 継子 are learning to take over someone’s role:
継 —> succeed [take over]
子 —> child
Like a parent to a child, Hashira are training 継子 to carry on their legacy.
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Drilling grammar and vocab can help when you’re first learning how sentences are put together.
But make no mistake — it's work.
And too much work can make you forget the joy and reason you started learning a language in the first place.
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Instead appreciate that every new thing you learn brings you closer to your goal—understanding Japanese as a native speaker would.
This is much easier to do when you enjoy what you’re reading, and is another reason to try out manga once you’re past the Genki textbooks.
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Today’s fun fact 1️⃣: there’s a Marvel collaboration with ジャンプ to create a Deadpool manga called デッドプール：SAMURAI
Today’s fun fact 2️⃣: Deadpool refers to himself as 俺ちゃん 【おれちゃん】throughout the manga.
The 漫画家 understood the assignment.
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While input in your target language is important, passive immersion has limited benefits.
Unless you are actively trying to understand what you are listening to or reading, you aren’t really “inputting” the language.
So make sure you are using that 辞書!
#langtwt
#日本語
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To improve you’ll need to actively listen and try to understand—this is active input.
Active input works.
But it often feels like work too.
Because unless you’re listening to something comprehensible at your level, it’s exhausting just trying to pick out a word or phrase.
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It was just another peaceful day.
You were feeling good because you had finally studied all of the 常用漢字
So you casually decided to try reading 鬼滅の刃
And then a few pages in you saw『くび』written as『頸』instead of『首』
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If you’re having fun inputting Japanese, you’re going to end up reading more than you planned because it’s enjoyable.
But studying is just work. So there’s no incentive to put in bonus time.
This is why just reading fiction always beats “serious” study.
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#日本語 word of the day:
生き甲斐【いきがい 】
Def:
生きるに値するだけの価値。生きていることの喜びや幸福感。
Ex:
私たちは何か生きがいを持たなければならない。
We must have something to live for.
#learnjapanese
#langtwt
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Remember: your goal with studying Japanese is to learn enough that you can enjoy it.
It’s great to have goals like passing N1.
But don’t be fooled—the fastest way to get there is by having fun.
So drop the textbook and pick up manga.
You’ll thank yourself for doing so.
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Right now many of the chapters are free to read on the ジャンプ＋app as a promotional for the
#DeadpoolandWolverineMovie
You can also read the first chapter here:
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Sure it may be a while before you understand >90% of what you read or listen to without referencing a dictionary.
But if you’re having fun reading, you’ll progress quickly and won’t even notice how long it takes.
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No matter how much prep you do, taking the leap to engaging with the real language will be tough.
So you might as well do it sooner than later.
Because even though it will be hard when you start, it’s rewarding and fun.
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Do you think it’s important to study #漢字 if you are trying to
#LearnJapanese
?
And if so, why? Knowing 漢字 is not strictly necessary to start reading 日本語—you could just start with texts that always have 振り仮名.
I’ve got thoughts but am curious about yours.
#langtwt
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Despite the tremendous increase in the availability of content and stories in 日本語 outside of Japan, it seems like the number of 外国人 that really
#LearnJapanese
outside of Japan is still absurdly small.
#langtwt
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