How to learn Japanese with native materials

Japanese is a highly contextual language. To reach a high level of proficiency, we need to see a lot of Japanese in many different contexts.

Native materials give us many opportunities to see Japanese in these different contexts. They help us learners review what we already know, learn new things, and solidify our ability to understand things based on context.

When paired with a comprehensive learning-focused resource and consistency, reaching our Japanese proficiency goals is only a matter of time.

📚

This is the native materials guide!

We also have a native materials list which helps point you to level-appropriate native materials throughout your studies ^^

What are native materials?

Native materials are any piece of media designed for a native speaker of Japanese.

They include TV shows, anime, movies, books, manga, games, podcasts, streams, and much, much more.

An indespensible tool

If we want to reach a high level of Japanese proficiency, native materials are not optional.

Thankfully, native materials are often a big reason most of us begin learning, so this isn't a bad thing ^^

I (Ty) actually started learning so I could play untranslated Nintendo games and new releases before they came out in the US. Now I live in Japan and help people learn Japanese for a living, which is really surreal. This is why I say there are no silly reasons for learning Japanese

Native materials are so important because they make up one part of the three things you need to reach a high level of proficiency in Japanese.

The other two things are a comprehensive core learning-focused resource and patience/consistency.

Native materials have tons of benefits. They...

help us review words we already know
teach us new words
are fun to do
help us learn how to use context to understand new words and ideas
teach us new meanings to words we may already know
help us learn how to get back on track after not understanding something

and so much more ^^

When to start using native materials

You should start when you want to! Pick whatever catches your eye, and go with it ^^

That said, we often recommend learners start using native materials as part of their core studies around Milestone 6 or 7 in NativShark.

This is where a lot of verb conjugations start being introduced, which gives a big boost to our comprehension when using native materials.

Again, you can always start earlier than this if you find it fun or if there's something you really want to check out!

You will likely find that starting really early on is quite the task though. You'll notice that there is a lot of language you just don't understand.

This is normal! Especially when we start using native materials for the first time, all we need to worry about is understanding the gist

Any amount of understanding means you're making progress, so there's no need to worry if things are a bit difficult. We'll go over this idea in more detail soon.

Choosing native materials

There are a ton of native materials out there. Which one is right for you?

Well...

The best native material for you

...is one that you love.

What piece of media/book/etc. do you love? So much so that you've gone through it so many times that you know it by heart?

Do that in Japanese.

Any piece of media that you are highly familiar with means that you know the characters, story, and what anybody is saying at any given time.

This means that the only new variable is that it's in Japanese now.

Thanks to this familiarity, you have a huge advantage with understanding any given piece of Japanese you see.

On top of that, it's just plain fun to see how your favorite pieces of media are portrayed in Japanese! To this day, I still find myself surprised by how different a character may be in English vs Japanese. It's so much fun to find out

With the above in mind, I generally recommend that the original language be Japanese as much as possible.

Sometimes, there can be mistakes or unnatural sentences that are unlikely to pop up if it was originally written in Japanese. There are a lot of expressions and ways of expressing one's thoughts in Japanese that simply will never appear when you're using a translated material rather than it originally being made in Japanese.

However, this isn't to say that you should never use translations when learning. They still provide tons of value, so definitely use them.

Sometimes, it's better to use something that's fun over something that's natural. Enjoying your studies is often more important than the "quality" of studies. You're going to burn out if you don't enjoy them, and we want to avoid this ^^

But I recommend doing what you can to make the majority of your native materials something that was made in Japanese

Finding a balance

I have some good news

You will get consistently better at every material of the same type and genre that you try.

For example, if you play a lot of farming video games like I did, you will understand a lot of video game farm language.

If you read a lot of fantasy novels, you will get really good at reading fantasy novels.

If you watch a lot of mystery anime, you will get really good at understanding mystery anime.

With that in mind, however, it will take a long time to improve at things you don't try.

In other words, the biggest improvements to your proficiency will be directly tied to the specific things you study with.

If you're like me and study with video games that have a ton of farming language in them, you'll find it much easier to continue playing those than it is to watch an anime about music.

If you want to watch anime about music, then you need to watch anime about music.

If you want to read untranslated manga, then you need to read untranslated manga.

If you want to read Japanese news, then you have to read Japanese news.

It might help to think of your Japanese ability being separated into categories. Whenever you study Japanese, 90% of your improvements in that study session will go into that specific category. 10% will go to all other categories.

So the fastest way to improve at something is to just do that thing. A lot. ^^

If you're studying for a specific purpose, this is great news! Do your learning-focused resource and then go do the thing you love. And you're golden

However, to be as well-rounded as possible, it's vital to have a wide variety of native materials to study with. Don't be afraid to branch out!!

But! If you're feeling a bit discouraged or uncomfortable exploring, sometimes doing another native material that is very similar can be a huge help to understand the progress you're making while surrounding yourself with familiar language.

If you do this too much though, don't be surprised when someone tells you you sound like a video game character ^^ That's happened to me plenty of times along my journey, at least

Thankfully, this is something that comes out in the wash as you build up tons of exposure to natural Japanese in lots of contexts, which is why a comprehensive learning-focused resource that teaches language in context is also a vital piece of the puzzle

NativShark native materials list

Check out the NativShark native materials list here!

This is hand-made by the team with and receives periodical updates, so be sure to check back every now and then to see what's new.

How to study with native materials

We're going to get into some details of what studying with native material looks like in a second, but here is a summary/quick reference of what all the ideas in this section look like when they are applied:

An example of a potential study day with native materials:

You study for 20-30 minutes with NativShark/ your comprehensive core learning-focused resource.

Afterwards, you spend 30-40 minutes using a native material you enjoy. Let's say you love video games, and Animal Crossing is your favorite video game (good choice! You have great taste

).

You boot up Animal Crossing in Japanese and start playing. You focus on trying to understand the main gist of whatever Japanese text comes up, but you might skip a few sentences that don't feel important or are a bit difficult.

You use an Eng-JP dictionary to quickly look up words while only worrying about the gist. Finer understanding is a bonus, but not a requirement!

When you're tired, you take a short break and just enjoy the game for a few minutes before deciding it's time to go talk to another character in the game. This allows you to get passive exposure and conserve brain power until you're ready to give breaking sentences down another shot.

30 minutes in, your brain power might be reaching a low. You look up fewer words, and focus mainly on recognizing words that are familiar to you, which is still a success.

Not understanding everything perfectly doesn't bug you, because you know that learning Japanese is built on many small gains over a long period of time

After another 10 minutes, you find you're having fun just playing the game, so you continue to do so for another 20 minutes, just reading a few things here and there and maybe looking up a word or two that you've seen a few times recently and have a strong curiosity to know what it means.

You wrap up your studies for the day! You did your core studies and an extra 20 minutes on top of it.

お疲れ様です！

That's a great study day ^^

Let's break down the things that add up the example above

Approaches

Active

Actively studying with native materials means you’re looking up most unknown words, confusing grammar, and possibly even making flashcards* from those sentences.

*More info on making flashcards in a later section ^^

You are paying full or near-full attention throughout the duration, and have a dictionary by your side.

We usually lean towards this approach when we use native materials as part of our daily core studies. ("Core studies" is the combination of our comprehensive resource and using native materials!)

Pros:

You learn a lot of new words (and kanji)
You learn some new grammar**
You understand more of what you're consuming
It helps you learn lots of words related to your interests

**Unknown grammar is really hard to detect. If you've read a sentence and known all the words but still have 0 clue what it's saying, you have experienced this first-hand. Grammar is often easiest to learn when you get an introduction to it in a learning resource and then solidify it via native materials.

Cons:

It takes a ton of mental energy, especially as a beginner or when dealing with an unfamiliar topic. You'll usually only be able to study in short bursts
You progress through your native material much, much slower and therefore see less total Japanese

Personally, I did a lot of active studying with video games. I actually contribute video games to be a huge reason why I was able to pass the JLPT N2 in about 2 and a half years of study.

More importantly, it was just plain fun to learn a ton of words related to the video games I loved!

On top of that, being active in our native materials allows us to begin to specialize our Japanese. We get used to understanding and talking about topics that we love.

Since I love video games, I learned a ton of words related to video games... to the point where I could understand a conversation about slaying a dragon god threatening to end the world better than I could understand being asked to take out the trash.

Uhh... Sometimes it's good to keep in mind we'll want a balance of many different types of native materials ^^; More on this soon!

Passive

Passive studying is when you aren’t looking up unknown words, grammar, etc., and are just trying to enjoy the native material while still getting some exposure to Japanese.

Depending on what you're using, you might be paying some attention, or you might be listening in the background. It's a very casual experience, and you're definitely not worried about needing to understand everything.

Pros:

You progress through a lot of Japanese very fast
You review all the words you know in new contexts
You learn new words and new uses for known words naturally in context
You get better at using context to understand words, expressions, and situations
You lay the foundation for near-instant understanding whenever you look up various words or run into them in your core studies
You get more used to dealing with unknown variables and practice not letting them trip you up
You get more used to kanji and kana (if reading)
You get more used to the general flow of spoken Japanese across real life or media (if listening)
You can zone in and out and it doesn't really matter
It takes significantly less brain power so you can do it indefinitely

Cons:

You understand less overall, so it's easier to get lost or potentially discouraged

Wow. That's a lot of pros, right? ^^

Being passive in your studies can be pretty nice. It saves brain power while still allowing you to take steps towards your goals.

You can incorporate this approach into your core studies, but we generally recommend saving passive studies for extra or low-focus times.

In other words, maybe you watch an episode of anime after your studies just because you enjoy it. Or listen to a Japanese podcast while on a walk

Or maybe today is a bit of an off day and just completing your NativShark reviews was all you could muster. No worries, if you have a bit of brain power left for something Japanese-related, then doing some sort of passive approach is way better than nothing!

Consistency is what matters, a few low-effort days are to be expected ^^

You'll probably notice that starting studies is usually the hardest step. So sometimes it's good to tell yourself you'll just take it easy and be passive, then that can turn into being active every now and then as you get into the groove.

Let's talk about my favorite and most preferred/recommended approach though:

Active & passive

You don't have to choose to be only active or only passive during your studies. The highest-quality studies often are a pleasant mix of both active and passive approaches

This is what I almost always went for during my studies. And I recommend that you do too.

Often, I found myself being more active towards the beginning of my core studies. I looked up a lot of words that seemed useful, but I would sometimes skip sentences that didn't seem that important.

This approach would often continue for about 20 minutes or so, but then I would slowly look up fewer words as time went on. Eventually, I would stop looking up words altogether unless I feel like I've seen a certain word 6 times now and it was probably important.

This mixed approach allowed me to get the best of both worlds while reducing the cons of both active and passive studying.

I was able to study for longer, maximize understanding vs brain power available, and just let myself have a lot of fun while learning a lot of Japanese that was relevant to my hobbies and interests.

While there were plenty of times when I didn't understand something or realized I misunderstood something much later, native materials were often the source of the greatest sense of accomplishment and satisfaction I've had during my learning journey.

And these smaller misunderstandings and such aren't a big deal. They get cleared up as long you keep showing up and learning more with both your learning materials + native materials ^^

I highly recommend finding the balance that works for you on any given day! From there, it's just showing up.

Good luck!

General tips

How long to study for

This depends on your schedule!

Generally speaking, once you start getting into your full core studies* habit, it's generally helpful to aim for about 40% of your time in your comprehensive learning-focused resource, and 60% in native materials as part of your core studies.

*"Core studies" refer to your baseline Japanese studies on any given day. This consists of your learning-focused material and native materials together. We usually recommend about 30-120 minutes of core studies each day, which varies based on your goals and schedule.

Whenever you have some extra time, we recommend doing more native materials instead of spending more time in your learning-focused resource.

This is a baseline though!

You should adjust this to your schedule, but it's good to make sure your native materials time is relatively high.

Getting exposure to language in lots of different contexts is one of the best ways to improve your overall understanding of Japanese as long as you have your baseline covered with a comprehensive resource.

NativShark is designed to set you up to have the easiest transition possible ^^

Be kind to yourself

Honestly, native materials can be kind of tough. Especially when we're first starting out. There's going to be a lot that we just don't understand.

This isn't a problem. This is part of the process ^^

It's okay when you don't understand something.

All time spent in native materials is part of the journey. It's not a test. There will always be more to learn.

If something is difficult to understand, then just focus on a small part of it. Maybe learn a new word, or try to get the gist.

Any progress you make is progress toward your learning goals.

These small improvements add up to a high level of Japanese proficiency as long as you give it time and consistency.

Whenever you're feeling a bit down about your progress, go check out a native material you did more than 3-6 months ago.

As long as you've been consistent in your studies, I think you'll find that it's shockingly easier.

Custom flashcards

If you're using NativShark, you can make custom flashcards with new words you learn while using native materials.

This, however, is entirely optional.

If you want to do it, feel free! If you don't, then don't feel bad about it.

Making flashcards is a lot of effort, and generally slows down your progress with seeing lots of Japanese in lots of contexts.

You'll see many of the same words and grammar structures used over and over, especially when using similar materials. You're going to remember it whether you want to or not

If you do want to make custom flashcards, though, I recommend setting a daily limit. When I made flashcards, I would stop for the day after I made 20 cards.

That said, I often felt I needed to make flashcards to help balance out missing areas that my old learning resources weren't filling in.

If you're studying with NativShark, I would probably recommend spending the extra time enjoying native materials rather than stopping to make flashcards.

If you do want to make flashcards and are using NativShark, I might recommend your limit to be 5 or 10 per day instead of the 20 I did ^^

Use an Eng-JP dictionary

For the vast majority of words you look up, we recommend using an English-to-Japanese dictionary.

There are some cases where a Japanese-to-Japanese dictionary may be better to use, but that's usually for figuring out the difference between two words that might have the same translation in English*.

*Looking up each word in Google Images is often helpful in this regard as well (though it doesn't work as well with verbs).

Generally speaking, we don't recommend spending too much time in Japanese to Japanese dictionaries. There tends to be a lot of dictionary-specific language that takes a lot of time and effort to comprehend for minimal functional ability benefit.

For reference, I remember spending a few months learning Japanese only using Japanese definitions.

My comprehension and pace of learning plummeted.

Things really stopped making sense. When I switched back to an English-to-Japanese dictionary, I instantly understood and remembered way more.

Don't worry about switching materials

If you find yourself struggling and generally not having fun with native materials, there are two things you can do.

First, I would recommend being more lenient with yourself!

Remember that this isn't a test and it's okay to not understand everything.

Understanding the gist is the only thing you want to aim for. If you understand it deeper than that, that's just bonus points ^^

You will either learn something you don't understand later from your learning-focused resource or simply see it enough times to get a grasp of it as long as you keep progressing.

Just move on to the next sentence and go easy on yourself ^^

That said, there are cases where we simply picked something too far above our level.

In this case, you might decide to switch to a different native material that's easier to handle.

Doing so is not a defeat!

It's really fun to switch to something else and then come back a few months or even years later.

You'll notice that it's a lot easier than before as long as you've been consistent in your studies.

This is one of the easiest ways to see your progress in the long term. I would highly recommend checking out native materials you've done in the past, even if you completed them!

It's really motivating

Avoid AI and translation apps

Google Translate and AI don't understand context, or what words they're saying. Since Japanese is such a highly contextual language, this causes AI to be pretty off with its translations.

Sure, sometimes they can be accurate. But sometimes they aren't, and what's worse is that when AI is wrong, it is confidently wrong.

If we don't know the answer before we ask, we shouldn't be using AI or translation apps. We're better off relying on our own brains and thinking about who is saying something, who they're saying it to, and what the context and situation is.

Just look up each word and see if you can piece it together. If you can't, it's not a big deal ^^

Just move on and try the next sentence, or come ask in the #japanese-help channel in the NativShark community!

Use kanji from the start

If you're reading, we recommend using a material that uses kanji naturally from the start.

Doing so means that you get used to seeing natural Japanese from day one.

Seeing kanji used naturally means we get used to them faster, and kanji are incredibly helpful for looking words up, especially as a beginner. Without kanji to narrow down meanings, we might struggle to even understand where one word ends and another begins.

If we do figure that portion out, there are so many words in Japanese with the same readings that we might get lost in a definition soup.

Once you get used to kanji, you'll likely find yourself craving them ^^

Nearly all people who reach a moderate level of proficiency agree that it's way easier to understand Japanese written in kanji vs just kana. There's just too much meaning you can quickly absorb from kanji alone

Of course, if something you're interested in is only written in kana, it's not a problem to use it. But it's good to balance this out with something that does use kanji!

Many older Pokemon games use kana only and I generally feel that they're more difficult because of it. But if you enjoy them, you should still play them. My very first video game in Japanese was Pokemon Alpha Sapphire! I balanced it with Animal Crossing, which had kanji with furigana.

Also, I generally don't recommend ever reading children's books unless you write them yourself or have a kid that you read them with. It may feel like a good idea to use these as a beginner, but there are usually better options most of the time ^^

Specific strategies

Native materials are great for boosting your comprehension of Japanese. They train two skills in particular:

Reading and listening.

In the following sections, we'll go over tips and strategies for each type of native materials, and the most common mediums.

If you don't see a medium you're interested in, let us know in the NativShark community or by sending us an email at [email protected], and it might get added to this guide!

Native materials for reading

Reading-focused native materials rely on you to do the reading. There is no audio that reads aloud for you, and no characters speak aloud.

Examples of reading-focused native materials include books, manga, light novels, articles in the news or magazines, many video games, and much more.

Reading is nice because you can take all the time you need to look up things. You can also start and stop pretty easily, spreading things out over multiple days, weeks, or even months.

General reading tips

Use furigana -
Furigana makes reading and looking up kanji much faster. Even if you find your eyes going to the furigana a lot, you'll still be getting used to seeing kanji because it's right under the furigana as well.

We especially recommend this to those who are new to native materials, but they're fine to use at any level (and won't make you "bad" at reading kanji without them ^^).

Looking up kanji -
If you aren't using furigana, there are a few ways to look kanji up. You can...

take a picture of your book/screen/etc. using the Google Translate app to grab the word you want to know.
Make sure you copy and paste this to a different dictionary like Jisho.org or an app on your phone like Yomichan. Using Google Translate for any purpose other than grabbing the word from the media and bringing it to a better dictionary is likely to result in confusion.
(For newer iPhone models) take a picture on your phone, go to the picture app, then long-press the text you want to look up. This lets you copy it over to your preferred dictionary.
Use the radical search feature on an electronic dictionary such as Jisho.org.
Use the handwriting search feature on an electronic dictionary such as Jisho.org.
Piece the word together by writing out words you know contain that kanji and deleting the extra. This method works well once you're around an intermediate level and up.
Ask in the NativShark community if there's one that's really interesting to you but completely stumping you with the above methods!

Looking up vocab -
We recommend using Jisho.org or a dictionary on your phone/tablet like Yomichan.

Most dictionary apps that you can find by searching "English Japanese dictionary" will be about the same, as they tend to use the same sources for their dictionaries (usually it's JMdict).

It's mostly about what interface you prefer, so feel free to try out a bunch or just use the first one that pops up

Only aim for the gist -
You might be sick of me saying this, but I think if there was one thing I could have you remember from this guide, it might be this

No need to be perfect here.

Just focus on small improvements, and the rest comes with time.

Video games

Video games are great for a mixed passive and active approach!

They also tend to have a nice loop of gameplay → reading → gameplay that allows for short, fun breaks in between focused study.

They give you a lot of opportunities to have fun with the things you might already enjoy as well

You might find older or used games to be great study tools, as they are often less expensive.

Note: Some systems have something called "region locking", which means to play a game in Japanese on those systems, you would need a game and a system from Japan.

Be sure to check if the system you're interested in is region-locked before deciding to buy a game to study with on it!

Nintendo tends to be the most notorious for this. The 3DS, GameCube, and Wii are fully region-locked. The DS and GameBoy are not, so you can use a non-Japanese console with a Japanese game. The Switch is also not region-locked, but sometimes certain games don't have Japanese as a language option unless you buy the Japanese version specifically. Just be sure to check before you buy! (You can see it on the package or in the details section on your eShop.)

Many games also have scripts online, which greatly helps look up if the game doesn't use furigana.

Googling is the best way to find them, a good starter search might be X 会話集 where you replace X with the name of the game in Japanese.

Visual Novels can also be great for studying! But if you like visual novels, you don't need me to tell you that

These can be on the more difficult side though, as it's essentially a book with extra features. You'll want to understand as much of what's being said as possible to fully enjoy them.

This isn't a problem if you just use your favorite visual novels to start with, though ^^

My favorite video games to study with:

Beginner - Animal Crossing (3DS or Switch) (どうぶつの森もり),
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (ポケモン不思議ふしぎのダンジョン救助きゅうじょ隊たいDX)

Intermediate - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom (ゼルダの伝説　ブレスオブザワイルド、ティアーズオブザキングダム)

Advanced - Fire Emblem (Blazing Blade) (ファイアーエムブレム烈火れっかの剣けん)

Manga

Manga are a great way to get into books while still having a lot of context to help us understand things, thanks to the amount of pictures.

When starting out, using manga that has a lot of furigana can save you a lot of time when looking up words.

It's also very helpful to start slow. You might only do a sentence a day, then move onto a few panels, then a page, two pages, and so on as you become more and more comfortable.

This slow build-up really helps us build our study habit while not pushing too hard all at once and risking burnout.

Personally, I was never really huge into manga ^^; If you aren't either, you might find it a bit difficult to get into because of how slow progress can be. Be sure to pick something that interests you! Recently I found some manga that I really enjoy, and I can read it all day now.

If you do want to use manga to study with but don't know where to start, ask for suggestions for the types of stories you like in the community!

Manga I like to recommend:

Beginner - Teasing Master Takagi-san (からかい上手じょうずの高木たかぎさん),
Flying Witch (ふらいんぐうぃっち)

Intermediate - Komi Can't Communicate (古見こみさんは、コミュ症しょうです。)

Advanced - Mushishi (蟲師むしし)

Novels, light novels, nonfiction books

Novels, light novels*, and nonfiction books give you less support compared to manga due to the lack of pictures, so you have to understand the majority of the sentences to understand what is happening.

With this in mind, it's good to take these easy, especially the first time you start them.

Start with a sentence a day, move up to two, then a paragraph, two paragraphs, a page, two pages, and so forth as you become more comfortable.

Personally, I found about 1 page a day to be a nice pace once I got into the groove of reading books. I still maintain that pretty often when I have time to read. And if I'm feeling particularly motivated on any given day, then I just read more.

While books can certainly be a lot to get into, once you get used to the specific type of language they use, they become a lot easier to manage.

Just gotta not give up and keep going!^^

*Light novels are novels that have a drawing scattered every 20-60 pages or so. They're often aimed at audiences who enjoy anime/manga.

My favorite books to study with:

Beginner - Kino's Journey (キノの旅たび)

Intermediate - 伝つたえ方かたが９きゅう割わり,
ざんねんないきもの事典じてん

Advanced - 1いち日にち1いちページ、読よむだけで身みにつく日本にほんの教養きょうよう365,
1いち日にち1いちページ、読よむだけで身みにつく世界せかいの教養きょうよう365

The news

I'll be honest-- I don't enjoy reading the news

However! The news is a great way to get exposure to a lot of higher-level grammar structures and vocabulary. It's a good tool to use to ensure you have well-rounded abilities.

NHK has even made a site for learners of Japanese and kids that has furigana and simpler language if you want to get started with this on the earlier side.

The plus side is that you basically will never have to speak anything you read in the news, as people don't talk like that. Just understanding it is enough.

You're also able to easily copy and paste sentences over to your preferred dictionary, which greatly helps reduce the time you spend trying to look up words.

The news is also a great native material to use when preparing for the JLPT N2 and N1, due to the very rigid structure and highly similar style to the JLPT.

We have a guide covering this specific use case which you can check out here if you're curious.

You may find mixing the news with other materials to be really helpful.

Spend 5 to 10 minutes reading an article, then go do something fun like a video game! This allows you to get the best of both worlds.

News sites I use to study with (when I have high motivation

):

Beginner - NHK Easy

Intermediate / Advanced - NHK

Native materials for listening

Listening materials are great for passive practice, but can also be focused on for active approaches as well.

Using these, you might decide to simply listen and enjoy, take a mixed approach and rewind when something piques your curiosity, or be more active and try to rewind and rewatch things once or twice.

General listening tips

Again, these are great for passive studies.

If you want to add active approaches in, rewinding and listening to certain sentences again can be very useful.

You might also choose to listen to something the whole way through, and then listen to it again with English subtitles as a mini test.

You can also do it the other way around by listening to it first with English subtitles to understand it, then watching it again in Japanese to see what you catch.

You might also decide to use Japanese subtitles!

These really help support your comprehension. More on this in a later section where we talk about mixing reading and listening native materials

Podcasts

Podcasts are fantastic for passive input.

They can play in the background while you go on a walk, cook, do laundry, and many other daily life situations. Just have it playing, and then pay attention when you want to, and let yourself zone out when you want to as well.

Podcasts that feature two or more native speakers talking can be very helpful for getting used to what a natural Japanese conversation sounds like.

If you listen to these types, be sure to make small mental notes about when people pause, how they fill silences while thinking, and just the general flow of everything.

Note that "learning-focused" podcasts are not native materials. If it's designed specifically to teach Japanese, then the language presented might not be quite as natural as if it was something aimed for a Japanese-speaking audience.

It's fine to supplement your learning with learning-focused podcasts if you want to do so, but it isn't necessary as long as you have a comprehensive core learning-focused resource ^^

For example, JapanesePod101 is a learning-focused resource, while GOLDNRUSH PODCAST is a great example of a native material.

Some cool podcasts to study with:

Beginner - The Konnichiwa Podcast

Intermediate - やさしい民俗学みんぞくがく,

Advanced - GOLDNRUSH PODCAST, フワちゃんのオールナイトニッポン0,

YouTube

YouTube has an essentially unlimited amount of content being uploaded to it at all times. There is a nearly endless amount of Japanese content available to use for your native material studies.

Similar to podcasts, we generally recommend hunting down native materials rather than learning-focused resources ^^

Finding channels that have multiple hosts speaking in Japanese can be a really great way to build your handle on how to be natural in a conversation, including when and how to pause to think, when to use 相槌あいづち (lesson here), and so on.

You might also find some channels of Japanese people talking about their life experiences in your country to be really helpful! Often, we learners don't know how to word things until we hear someone talk about them.

Personally, I find that talking about experiences that happened in Japan to be much easier to express than my experiences in the US. So content like this can really help get us up to speed in that regard!

Many YouTubers add subtitles to their videos by default. Depending on the YouTuber, these subtitles might just be the key points being said or the word-per-word transcription.

You may also notice some YouTubers speaking in a 方言ほうげん (dialect), and the subtitles may be written in that 方言 or they might be in 標準語ひょうじゅんご (standard language). Either way, they offer a ton of great ways to practice understanding real language ^^

You might also watch streams on YouTube! More on that below.

Some YouTubers that I enjoy (in no particular order of difficulty):

Kevin's English Room

ぼくわたチャンネル

くるみ

だれウマ【料理研究家】

はるあん

大愚和尚の一問一答/Osho Taigu’s Heart of Buddha

Streams

Streams are great for passive listening.

If you like watching streams, then I would highly recommend watching the content you enjoy, just in Japanese!

For me personally, I used to watch gaming streams a lot, so I would find streamers who did that type of content in Japanese.

You can get a lot of the benefits you can get from YouTube, especially because you can tune in and out and passively pick up a lot of useful words + ways to express ideas about the things you're interested in.

I haven't watched streams in a while, but here are some that I used to watch:

兄者弟者

Aqua Ch. 湊みなとあくあ

SANNINSHOW

TV

TV is a great tool for both active and passive listening.

Similar to streams, you can put these on in the background just to get some extra exposure to Japanese, or you can actively watch things, even using subtitles if you prefer.

There is a wide variety of language available to listen to as well, depending on what you watch. If you have access to Japanese TV, the news or a comedy TV show can be a good way to get started.

TV tends to have more acting in it though, simply due to the nature of TV. So some conversations may be more dramatic or scripted, instead of the more everyday styles you can find on YouTube or streams.

That said, it can be a great tool for getting used to language that may be used on the JLPT, depending on what you watch. The news is a great go-to for practice with the higher levels of the JLPT.

Potential TV to study with:

深夜食堂しんやしょくどう

Monday Late Show 月曜げつようから夜よふかし

NHK / any news channel

Movies

Movies are great for being active. If it's your favorite movie, you might be able to watch it passively, though.

Movies can be good to rewatch passively if the movie contains natural language and pronunciation that you want to copy. It can be tough for us learners to identify what movies might be best for this purpose, however.

On a personal note, I've found that rewatching the same movie over and over in an attempt to study generally leads me to feel like I'm going to go insane, so if you're like me, don't worry about rewatching things. This applies to anime, TV, and most other things as well.

Nothing wrong with simply watching many movies and getting a lot of exposure to a lot of Japanese!

As with all media, the naturalness of the language is going to vary wildly based on the genre ^^

Some movie suggestions:

Beginner - Your Name (君きみの名なは)

Intermediate - Weathering with You (天気てんきの子こ)

Advanced - すずめの戸締とじまり

Anime

Anime is a big reason many of us begin learning Japanese, and thankfully it can be a great way to learn a lot as well ^^

When starting out, you might find that slice-of-life / more relaxed anime tend to be easier to hop into if you want to do active practice where you're looking up lots of words and trying to solidify understanding.

No worries if you're not a fan of those genres though, you can really start anywhere. Depending on the genre and your level, you might just approach shows generally more passively instead ^^

While doing so, you can use English subtitles or Japanese subtitles to support you along the way.

You can also mix in an active approach by pausing and rewinding whenever something catches your interest

My favorite anime to study with:

Beginner - Tamako Market (たまこまーけっと),
Blend S (ブレンドS),
Hibike! Euphonium (響ひびけ！ユーフォニアム)

Intermediate - March Comes In like a Lion (３月さんがつのライオン)

Advanced - Mushishi (蟲師むしし),
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (葬送そうそうのフリーレン)

The news

If you're reading articles, you'll often find videos accompanying them.

Giving these a watch before or after reading the article can be a big help for comprehension of language that tends to be stiffer and have a higher formality.

That said, I wouldn't stress about it too much if your goals are more fun-oriented.

If you're trying to have more well-rounded skills or pass the JLPT, it'll probably be good practice, though ^^;

Try these sites out:

Beginner - NHK Easy

Intermediate/Advanced - NHK

Music

Music is another great reason to get into studying!

Similar to English, however, we won't wanna speak too similarly to song lyrics, and there are quite a few words and grammar points that tend to be used only in lyrics and similar mediums.

They're still fun to dissect though.

Every month or two, I'll get into a certain mood where I just want to know the lyrics to all the songs I listen to, and will spend an hour or so looking up "[song name] 歌詞かし" on Google, then bringing things I don't understand into Jisho.

It can be pretty fun!

It also can be challenging though, due to the somewhat rare word choices. I'd focus on just having fun with this one rather than treating it as your core studies.

Unless of course, you want to write songs in Japanese or are interested in Japanese songs and want them to become your specialty. Then you should use songs to your heart's content!

My favorite artists/songs:

YOASOBI - 海のまにまに

XinU - 合図eyes合図

Eve - お気に召すまま

Ichiko Aoba - 月の丘

I also have a Spotify playlist that I try to keep up to date with all the songs I listen to in Japanese, as people ask me about that every now and then

Native materials for reading and listening

Reading and listening can be paired together sometimes, and this really helps us quickly understand language and be able to progress through a lot more Japanese with greater understanding.

These are a fantastic go-to, especially when getting your foothold in native materials. You get the best of both worlds here. Your comprehension goes up, and your speed increases

From here, it's relatively straightforward, so I'll be quick about some materials and tips we can use that have these methods!

Visual novels, games

Many visual novels and some games utilize full (or mostly full) voice acting alongside their dialogue.

Some fun VNs / games to study with:

Beginner - Let me know if you have a suggestion in the community!

Intermediate - CLANNAD (クラナド)

Advanced - Fire Emblem: Three Houses (ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月ふうかせつげつ),
Persona 5 (ペルソナ５)

YouTube (with subtitles)

Most of the time, you'll probably get these hard-coded into videos.

Take a look at the subs while you watch! It'll help support deeper comprehension.

And don't worry- this isn't "cheating". I watch most of my English media with English subtitles, and most of my Japanese media with Japanese subtitles.

In this age of tons of sound effects and volume adjustments, it helps make things so much easier to hear overall.

Many of the channels I linked in the above YouTube section have subtitles in them!

Books and audiobooks

You might find that listening to an audiobook becomes much easier if you are also holding the book in hand as well.

The main downside to this that you often have to buy two separate versions of the same book to make this work, or buy the book and have a subscription to an audiobook service, so it can easily become kind of expensive.

I'm gonna be honest and say that I haven't done this method before. If you try it, let us know how it goes in the community!

I'm very open to any suggestions! I can check them out and add them here~

The news

On some articles, there is an accompanying video.

It can be helpful to read the article first and then watch the video, or watch the video first and then read the article depending on what skill you want to develop more, or what you find more comfortable.

Experiment with this if you find the news to be a bit overwhelming!

These recs won't surprise you

Beginner - NHK Easy

Intermediate/Advanced - NHK

Anime (with subtitles)

If you have access to Japanese subtitles, these can be a fantastic support when you're watching anime.

Using Japanese subtitles makes it much easier to look up words you have trouble hearing. They generally increase your comprehension because you have the added layer of kanji to help you guess or understand the meaning of new words or words you don't hear often.

It's good to note that using subtitles like this doesn't make you "worse at listening".

Some shows are just really hard to understand due to volume, enunciation, or many other factors. Personally, I watch all my shows (English or Japanese) with subtitles of the matching language when available because of how varied the volume and clarity of speaking can be on shows nowadays.

And anyway, I'd rather spend more time having a better understanding that is supported by subs, which allows me to rewind less and makes watching anime or shows more enjoyable ^^

You may have trouble finding Japanese subtitles to do this with if you don't live in Japan. If you have a VPN, using a Japanese streaming service may be the best way to get around this, as most Japanese sites have them available.

(If you know of any legal sites that have Japanese subtitles and can be used outside of Japan, please let us know in the community!)

Check out the above anime section for recs!

FAQ

Should I use "graded readers" and/or similar resources?

You can if you want to, but when you're using a comprehensive learning-focused resource such as NativShark, these aren't necessary.

The same goes for Satori Reader or similar services ^^ While we have an integration in NativShark for Satori Reader for those who want to use it, it's not a necessary step.

We tend to find that the most important thing for learning Japanese is having fun, using some sort of comprehensive method, and staying consistent.

This is why we recommend native materials so often and so early.

It's not a big deal when we don't understand everything. Any amount of review and learning is a success. And it's only going to get easier as we continue to progress through our learning-focused resources and as we see more native materials of the same types.

It really is all about showing up

If you're struggling with feeling lost or like you're never going to learn, you're probably just being too hard on yourself.

Learning Japanese is a multiple-year journey, and it never truly ends.

Check out this article for more information!

If you find yourself with questions that aren't answered here, please feel free to ask them either in the community or by sending us an email to [email protected]!

We'll do our best to answer them, and the answer will likely be added to this guide ^^