Might be a bit of a hot take here, but used carefully, Instagram is a really great place for picking up some Japanese. A few months ago, I noticed my Instagram screen time was almost 2 hours a day… When they started pushing reels, I really got sucked in. I thought it might be helpful to share how I turned my explore feed into a place I feel less bad about spending time on – and one that I learned a ton of Japanese from.
**First, you need to set limits**. 2 hours a day is too much for me to be on Instagram. I added an Instagram time limit on my phone – 30 minutes a day before the app gets locked. I spend 15 minutes liking posts from friends and family and 15 minutes scrolling through reels. This time limit helped me feel a lot better about scrolling; I don’t make myself feel bad anymore since I am staying within my acceptable limits.
**Second, you need to get the algorithm to push more Japanese language content to you.** I’ll share my suggestions below – but basically, you need to follow accounts/hashtags that teach Japanese. After a few days of this, my explore feed started changing pretty dramatically to show 90% content about learning Japanese. Now, the resources find you!
**Third – keep it light and fun.** *Instagram shouldn’t be the only place you learn Japanese* if you’re really hoping to reach your language goals. Continue using the other resources you’re already using. BUT, supplement that with creators/hashtags that will expose you to more of the language. And specifically ones who make it fun (my recommendations below) – think, you’re switching from funny videos/memes to Japanese language content. You need to make it feel more fun or else you’ll just switch back to looking at memes, and the algorithm will stop showing you Japanese language vids.
**Fourth – content creators oversimplify things.** You would never see posts from a content creator who doesn’t sometimes make generalizations about Japanese – because they wouldn’t be popular. Just remember that just because some Japanese guy on Instagram said it, doesn’t mean it’s fact. Or if they teach something in one context, you can’t necessarily apply it to other contexts. I think the two accounts I suggest do a way better job than most others, but even with them, remember this!
These recommendations are just what have worked for me personally, but I think they’re pretty important if you’re going to stick with it. Now for content suggestions:
**Accounts to follow – my two favorites:**
**RiceBurger Studios** ([@riceburgerstudios](https://www.instagram.com/riceburgerstudios/)). It looks really weird – a animated Hamburger and an Onigiri talk to each other in Japanese. But of any other page I can recommend, they’re responsible for most of my social media-related Japanese language growth. Recently, their Instagram has seemed to be pushing more and more for beginners (it used to be more intermediate Japanese based) – but you can mine their story highlights (especially “Convo” and “Vocab”) for their best stuff (they also have a [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/c/RiceBurgerStudios) where they post different videos than on Insta). Here’s some highlights of what they do:
* A “[Japanese in the Street](https://www.instagram.com/p/CdGPp8XsyGc/)” series where they interview people about daily life stuff – they provide the transcripts and include audio in slow and full speed (Insta)
* “Daily Conversation” videos – conversations you could expect to have at an Izakaya ([YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1h1LTs56nE)) or in a [Taxi](https://www.instagram.com/p/CXvxyPrjn16/) (Insta).
* [Practical Japanese](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf1dqHBlZgH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) \- weekly Japanese posts that introduce 4 words (with pitch accent) and 4 example sentences (Insta)
I hate that they include romaji on most of their stuff – but this seems pretty unavoidable on Instagram accounts.
**Taka\_nihongo\_dojo** ([@taka\_nihongo\_dojo](https://www.instagram.com/taka_nihongo_dojo/)). He does a bunch of fun grammar/role play stuff, and also has a YouTube (but unlike RiceBurger, he just posts the same stuff on both YouTube and Insta). Here are some links to examples of his video types:
* Japanese grammar stuff (e.g. [different tenses](https://www.instagram.com/p/CfeMyyElsbJ/)/situations)
* Role play videos – [practice conversation](https://www.instagram.com/p/CgmE1DQFpGk/) between you and him
* Other fun stuff ([in front of/next to/behind](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cgjg0kLF0rk/) video)
He also does a daily (I think) live stream with a quiz that is kinda fun
**Hashtags to follow:**
\#japanesestudygram (my favorite – people post what they’re studying), #learnjapanese, #japaneselanguage
There are tons you can follow. Following these makes sure Japanese language posts pop up in your feed – and helps guide the algorithm to show more Japanese language stuff instead of memes or whatever you currently are consuming.
**How to take it off Instagram:**
Watching videos about how-to-cook doesn’t make you much better at cooking; you have to get out there and cook. Same thing with videos that teach Japanese. If you just want to replace your current feed with Japanese language videos and casually watch them, that’s fine! But if you’re really hoping to get something with this, you gotta spend some time working with the material. Here’s a few examples of how I do it:
RiceBurger Studios’ practical Japanese posts – I add each word and its pitch accent/definition to Anki and take note of the example sentences. I’ll try to form the same sentence in my head whenever the word comes up (if they teach “Hungry” whenever I’m hungry I’ll either think or say “I’m hungry right now” in Japanese)
RiceBurger Studios’ scripts – for $3.99 a month on their Patreon, they provide downloadable furigana scripts for every video they make. I use these (you could use the non-downloadable scripts with romaji/kanji/english that they provide freely in the video comments – I only just started paying for the downloadable ones) and mine them for useful sentences, words, or grammar points
Taka’s grammar stuff – I’ve usually reviewed these before in textbooks, but I write down his English translation and then try to translate it into Japanese myself – then compare his Japanese with mine to see how I did.
Taka’s role play videos – I use these to practice pronunciation and mine the scripts for useful phrases/words. I also shadow along with his part of the conversation.
I doubt this post will make much of a splash, but this strategy changed a lot for me. I feel more motivated to learn Japanese thanks to the fun content, I feel less bad about myself for scrolling on social media so much, and I noticed I’m really learning fast thanks to being exposed to so much Japanese stuff *in addition to my normal studies*. If anyone actually reads this mess of a post, I would love to hear if you’ve tried something similar and have any suggestions for pages or hashtags, or other strategies!
2 comments
Honestly, any form of social media consumption is a good way to learn and familiarize yourself with Japanese. It’s no different from scrolling through Reddit. In my opinion, you don’t need a step-by-step strategy in order to do this; just watch/follow things you’re interested in. I remember struggling with 木っ端微塵 in my reviews, but when I saw a meme of a character walking away from an explosion with 木っ端微塵 as the subtitle on Pinterest, it became ingrained in my memory. If you’re already wasting time on social media, you might as well spend that time watching content in your target language.
I have an account whereby all my followers/people I follower are exclusively Japanese natives, but no content creators or anything, just normal people who live in japan. I set my bio to Japanese only and only communicate in Japanese. It’s been fantastic for absorbing native Japanese lingo and writing styles, outside of formal structured learning. Everyone is so kind and informal. I’ve learned more natural phases this way and don’t feel my Japanese is so stiff anymore.