Hi, everybody! Out of the blue I was offered the chance to travel to Japan in October to attend a conference, as part of my PhD. So… YAYYYYYY!!!
After the obligatory childish squeaking and crazy happy dance, I realized I actually still feel like I know very little Japanese, and would like to improve it before my trip, so as to be able to actually speak in Japanese in real-life situations and not have to resort to English all the time.
So… here I am, begging you wise wizards for recommendations and advice. I think I need two things: to improve my grammar (as I never formally learned any, just inferred the rules intuitively) and to find a good source of comprehensible input, so I can grow my vocabulary without boring myself to death going through vocabulary lists.
Are there any good apps or websites where you can read easy texts in Japanese, and that let you click on the words to get their translations? Or something similar? I love reading but hate having to pause every two seconds to look up a word.
Thanks a lot, and have a great day everyone!
**Edit:** I forgot to add my approximate level of Japanese, sorry guys. According to the sample tests, I can comfortably pass N5, not so much N4 (I would probably fail because I’m still terrible at listening and have limited vocabulary). I love kanji and know about 1500 of them. I’m finishing the Duolingo Japanese course and halfway through a grammar and vocabulary book called Japanese Tutor, that’s designed for self-learning. But I still feel very insecure and like I know very little.
by IronFeather101
5 comments
What is your level of japanese?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fluencytool
If you’re on Android, this is a free app and goes straight for high volume speaking at any level from CEFR A1 – B2. It isn’t for total beginners though. You’d need to at least know hiragana to get the most benefit.
Satori Reader is exactly what you’re looking for
I usually use a Rikaikun chrome extension to get the translation on words
There is a chrome extension called rikaikun that will show you kanji readings and translation when you hover over text on a website. With this you can read pretty much anything online and its also instant, so much easier to get through text without spending ages in a dictionary.