Japanese learners' forums? (poll)

Japanese
1

Just out of curiosity…
Which website forums do you regularly use now?
(regularly read or participate)

  • Natively
  • Wanikani
  • Bunpro
  • LingQ
  • Japanese Stack Exchange
  • Reddit: r/Learn Japanese
  • Other? _____

0 voters

4 Likes
2

Natively and WK now; I used to browse the Bunpro and JP stack exchange fairly regularly years back, but not so much anymore. Reddit’s I’ll go to if I’m super bored, but there’s not typically anything there that holds my interest.

5 Likes
3

Reddit is good for popcorn, but I don’t contribute. Stack exchange has helped with with weird grammar questions so many times, but via one’s people asked in the past.

7 Likes
4

Yeah, there’s several sites that I end up on through a google search – reddit, stack exchange, hinative, maggiesensei – to answer some weird grammar question, but I almost never go to those directly.

I used to use Bunpro quite a bit in 2020-2021, but then either the site changed or I changed, and it didn’t fit me anymore.

It’s interesting (to me) that there’s so many people that use Wanikani. I learned a good number of kanji before I heard of Wanikani, so when I tried it, it was counterproductive to me.

5 Likes
5

I think for the poll, a lot of people might be using WK just for the forums? I know some people use the website just to participate in book clubs or discussion while they learn kanji etc elsewhere.

Outside of WK and here, the only other jp learning place I really go to is Hinative and I just use that site when there’s some sentences that completely trip me up so I need help. I also use discord and know some jp people who help me out there. I’ve been in jp learning servers before but outside of using it to find resources, I don’t browse there much.

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6

While I do have a lifetime subscription*, I never got past level 9 - but their forums are one of my favourite places on the internet right now. They are such a nice place to be. Very active, super nice community, and a ton of book clubs. (And nobody there cares whether you actually use WK.)

*) Bought years ago when it was discounted, and when I still thought that I’d like it…

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7

Yep that’s my use case. I have never had any luck on Discord - I tried 2-3 servers and it never stuck for me.

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8

I’ll also say that I don’t think this poll is representative of the broader Japanese learning community, but the Natively community specifically of course. My most successful outreach was on WaniKani, so you’ll naturally see a lot of those folks here.

I do think the WK forums are the most prominent Japanese book reading forums, make sense they a large component here. I know there are a lot of JPDB’ers here too, but that community is mostly on discord.

IIRC didn’t I bring you back to the WK forums for the Natively thread discussion and then you stuck around for the book clubs?

@cat was an OG Natively user from my reddit post nearly two years ago :smiling_face:

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9

Yup, just the forums in my case. I found WK when I was already pretty far into my learning, and the thought of starting from the beginning was depressing, haha. Thankfully, like @Legato said, I’m pretty sure no one there cares whether you’re an active user or not.

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You did! And I read the post and didn’t comment, but hey, I signed up!

Now I’m in so many book clubs… :dizzy_face:

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11

Oh! You can participate in the forums without being a WK member? That didn’t even occur to me. :sweat_smile:

Sure. Makes sense. I was just curious about this aspect of the readers’ community. This is only the 2nd forum that I’ve participated in, of any kind. :blush:

5 Likes
12

Yep! You don’t need a subscription or anything.

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13

And now that you know… maybe you would be interested in a lovely book club that starts next week. Organized by yours truly! We’ll be reading ルリドラゴン 1 | L19.

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14

Well, color me interested! :blush:

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15

I am mostly active on discord. Natively is really the only website based forum I am active in. I do sometimes browse Reddit, etc. or look up a grammar thing on stack exchange, hinative, etc. but that’s mostly because google leads me there. :sweat_smile:

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16
  • Natively, mostly for product updates/news
  • TheMoeWay discord, for motivation and resources
  • r/LearnJapanese, for when I am bored or when I want to clear my head after a difficult chapter
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I lurk WK for some of the book clubs and use Hinative for specific questions (the response rate is actually quite good, especially if you are like me and cannot help answering other people’s questions)

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18

When I first started learning I spent a lot of time chatting with people from the JapanesefromZero chatroom and discord. I had a lot of fun, but slowly all the people I liked talking to quit or moved on. Since then I had a lot of odd interactions with people online. There are a lot of instances of people just talking from their experiences and knowledge (no one in Japan says this… people will be offended if you say that) and a lot of it ends up being incorrect.

I have done a lot of language exchange events and Let’s Talk Japanese meetups/events. I really enjoy those. So even for people who don’t really like talking to people online, if you meet people in real life, it might be a much more pleasurable experience.

3 Likes
19

Yes! I’ve had a lot of fun with in-person meetups (when I can find them). :+1: :blush: