The Inku Blog

Romaji helps you start and then quietly holds you back. Here is the honest case for using it briefly and dropping it fast.

Anime is a real listening tool and a real trap. Here is what it is good for, what it teaches wrong, and how to use it without sounding strange.

Two kana scripts, same sounds, different jobs. Here is when Japanese uses hiragana, when it uses katakana, and which to learn first.

Japanese has a reputation for being impossible. Here is what is genuinely hard, what is easier than you expect, and how long it really takes.

Japanese uses different counters for flat things, long things, people, and animals. Here are the ones worth learning first and how to drill them.

The difference between は and が in plain English, with a simple mental model and many real examples so it finally clicks.

The te-form is the one conjugation that unlocks requests, linked actions, and the progressive. Here is how to form it and when to use it.

What changes when you move from JLPT N5 to N4, how many words to expect, and how to study the next set without burning out.

A clear guide to Japanese colors, with the i-adjective vs noun rule explained. Six colors can modify a noun directly; the rest, including midori and murasaki, need の.

The 100 most common Japanese words for beginners, grouped into greetings, family, food, time, travel, body, weather, numbers, verbs, and adjectives. Each shows kana, romaji, and English.

Which anime Japanese phrases are safe to say in real life and which are rude. Two clear tables, the polite default to use instead, and why pronouns are the trap.

How to say sorry in Japanese: sumimasen, gomennasai, and mōshiwake arimasen compared by register, plus shitsurei shimasu and the gomen kudasai false friend.

How to say thank you in Japanese, from casual to very formal: arigatou, arigatou gozaimasu, the gozaimasu vs gozaimashita nuance, sumimasen as thanks, and when to use each.

Is Anki good for Japanese? An honest breakdown: the pros (free, customizable, huge deck library, FSRS support) and the cons (setup friction, variable deck quality, rough default audio). Who it fits and who should pick something simpler.

About 800 words is the commonly cited count for JLPT N5, but it is an estimate, not an official figure. Here is what the number means, why a high-frequency core matters more, and what else N5 tests.

A realistic estimate of how long it takes to pass JLPT N5: about 150 to 300 study hours, or three to six months at 30 minutes a day. Plus the real pass marks and the variables that change the timeline.

A calm, research-backed way to stay consistent with Japanese without streak pressure: set a tiny daily minimum, make returning shameless, and protect the habit, not the number.

FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler) predicts the moment you are about to forget a card and schedules the review for then. A plain-English explanation, and how it compares to SM-2.

Yes — for kana and vocabulary, Japanese flashcards are one of the most efficient tools there is, when you use active recall and spaced repetition. Here is what they are good at, what they are not, and how to use them right.

How to conjugate the polite masu form of Japanese verbs: the three verb groups, the u-verb sound shift, the two irregulars, and the four masu endings.

The seven days of the week and twelve months in Japanese, plus the irregular days of the month, with kanji, kana, and romaji and the patterns that make them easier.

The Japanese greetings worth learning first, from ohayou gozaimasu to itadakimasu, with when to use each and the casual and polite forms.

A simple way to tell whether your Japanese app is helping you learn or just helping you come back.

Why small review sets make Japanese easier to start, easier to finish, and easier to remember.

A short launch note about why Inku exists: Japanese that sticks, without a phone that yells at you.

Radicals, stories, writing practice, and the one strategy nobody recommends but everybody needs.

Pitch accent is Japanese's invisible grammar. Here is when to study it, when to ignore it, and how to hear it for the first time.

A schedule, a method, and a set of guardrails against the mistakes that cost most people a week.

Working adults, be warned. Here is a realistic month-by-month plan from zero to conversational Japanese.

Anki works. It is also a blank sheet of graph paper. After three years, here is why I stopped opening it.

The real story behind もしもし, where it came from, and the ghost-related reason it sticks around.

Why マンション (manshon) means apartment, not mansion. A tour through the English words Japan quietly rewrote.

Most people set up SRS wrong on day one. Here is the fix that took my retention from 60 percent to 94 percent.

A journal, a scoreboard, and a reckoning. Ninety-eight green owls later, what actually stuck.

A brutally honest answer to the question every language app dodges. With real numbers from six months of self-logging.