Are you like me, and your listening comprehension goes out the window as soon as you hear a number greater than 10, or do you struggle to remember which counters change on which number? the Numbiro app is great for this!

10 comments

1. Exactly :’D

   I don’t have any idea why this happens in Japanese since the number system is pretty easy, English is my second language and I never had any problems. I already have the app and it’s pretty helpful, I still haven’t gone beyond 2 digits, they’re a problem, but definitely useful.

2. This is so fun to practice listening to numbers! Thanks.

3. 3-digit numbers, i can kind of ace. Soon as I go to 4 digits on Numbiro, 2s, 3s, if I get lucky 4-5. Why this so hard?

4. Many beginners probably heavily overestimate how soon they are going to actually need to know large numbers or specific counters, because beginner textbooks love front-loading list after list of these things for no good reason. Especially if you learn mainly via popular media, you might be surprised by how rarely you are going to need this. Writers basically use: 1, 2, “a few”, and “many”. The chances of you ever hearing anyone say “17 trees” is ridiculously tiny. IMO only spend time on this when you are sure you will actually use it.

5. I found that the only way I can understand numbers is to repeat them. Every time the teacher says a page number I gotta quietly repeat it in order to process it haha

6. Yeah numbers are a nightmare but it doesn’t help that I hate numbers, time and dates in general and that I also have time blindness. It means I have very little interest in actually practicing it. Thanks for the link.

7. App is useful but the amount of ads youre fed is demoralising

8. A good web alternative – https://langpractice.com/japanese/

9. Hey, just wanted to say thanks so much for creating this post! It’s actually really heartening to see people are so enthuastic about the app, it motives me to keep going despite the amount of effort it’s taken 😊

10. So something I’m forcing myself to do is to think of the zeroes and not think of what it would be in English. Numbers are the most abstract and conceptual thing I feel our brain has to deal with and the words we make are to help us visualise the position the main 1-9 numbers sit in the chains. So I’ve been retraining myself to:

    10 じゅう (1 zero)

    100 ひゃく (2 zeroes)

    1000 せん (3 zeroes)

    10000 まん

    10,0000 じゅうまん

    100,0000 ひゃくまん

    1000,0000 せんまん

    10000,0000 おく

    I feel that if you can do this then when you hear いちまん you are primed for 4 slots of numbers after it and can then listen for what’s in the slots.