I speak Japanese. My wife is Japanese. I've translated live on stage. Why did I only find this out NOW??

Pretty much every instance I came upon the prefix 'sui', it meant 'water'. Suiyoubi (水曜日). Suidou (水道). Suiei (水泳). Suigen (水源).

...but for watermelon, it does NOT mean water!! 'Suika' comes from the Chinese word Xigua (西瓜), which translates to western melon, as you can see from the Kanji 西. So in Asia, its western melon, not water melon. Oof.

I'm sorry if this was obvious to everyone except me, but I had to sit down when I learned this after years of studying Japanese...

Sidenote: the 'sui' in the 'Suica' card comes from the onomatopeia suisui, meaning 'swift, smooth unhindered (movements)', referring to the ease of use at turnstiles. So neither west nor water! :)

Technically, it's not the official exam, just mock ones. However, I still feel proud of myself. Even if its only 115 I passed. Since december 2023 (almost a year and three months) I've been studying japanese by myself with textbooks, videos and explanations on the net. It's a hard road and there is still a lot to learn, but until now I have been having a lot of fun with it! What are your sucess stories regarding japanese? I would love to know! :)

Does this make sense, or this is just a direct translation ?

I just finished watching Liverleaf (about 2 hours) entirely in Japanese with Japanese subtitles.It’s my first time doing this with a full movie.

In total, I looked up 62 words. Most of them weren’t completely new, just words I couldn’t recall in the moment. Aside from that, I was able to understand most of the dialogue and grammar.

I’m planning to take the JLPT N2 this December, so I’m trying to figure out where I stand. Does this seem like a good starting point for a first movie without English subtitles, or am I behind where I should be?

In 1984, there is a character called "Big Brother". Did they translate it as "Onii-chan" or is there any other way of saying big brother?

Nobody talks about how long it actually takes to get anywhere with this language. You see posts on TikTok about people reaching conversational level in a year and it creates this completely unrealistic picture of what the process looks like for most people.

The truth is Japanese is hard and the early stages are slow and kind of thankless. Hiragana, katakana, then kanji on top of that, then grammar that works nothing like English. There’s no shortcut through that part and pretending otherwise is lying to beginners.

I spent time trying to skip ahead, convincing myself that Genki was too slow and that I’d just pick things up naturally and I didn’t. Going back and actually finishing Genki I and II properly and then working through Tobira was what made everything else start to make sense.

And on the app side, Duolingo is not it. It feels productive because it’s fun and it gives you streaks and little animations but you can do it for a year and still not be able to form a basic sentence. The apps that actually helped were the ones that treated me like I was serious about learning. Wanikani for kanji, Bunpo for grammar, actually sitting down with those instead of looking for something that felt easier.

The people who make fast progress aren’t skipping the fundamentals, they’re just doing them consistently without making a big deal out of it. Nobody talks about that part because it’s boring.

It’s a long road and that’s fine. Wishing someone had told me that earlier instead of letting me waste time chasing a faster route that doesn’t exist.

Hope y'all don't get fed up with my silly jokes lmao ごめんね 皆さん 🙏🏻(⁠ ⁠･ั⁠﹏⁠･ั⁠)