hi anon sorry i didn't see this until now! i am not fluent in japanese haha i am like a very low intermediate at best 😂 i'm better at listening/speaking than i am at reading (kanji kicks my ass). i learned a lot of it myself simply by watching a LOT of anime and listening to japanese music in high school and then continuing that but also watching j-dramas and j-variety shows in college. i only ever took 1 full year of japanese in college (which helped me learn a lot of the basics).

there was a big stretch after i graduated where i wasn't really practicing it much aside from continuing to listen/watch japanese media. then 2 years ago i started tutoring online. i met a tutor through the site italki (we don't use the site anymore, just meet up on our own on teams). i wanted to be able to build up on my speaking because i wasn't using my japanese at all and she's helped me soo much, just being able to talk to someone else in japanese on a weekly basis has made it stay fresh in my mind and i felt way more comfortable talking with people in japan when i visited at the end of 2024.

so one of my main suggestions is to try to immerse yourself in japanese as much as u can through listening to music and watching shows in japanese (anime or otherwise, netflix has some good jdramas!) aside from that, there are a bunch of apps these days that can help you learn too! i'd avoid duolingo but i've used bunpo, busuu, and kanji quizzer and i think they're good. a lot of people like the website wanikani for learning japanese too (it's not really for me, but u might like it more!)

and if u don't want to pay for the full features of an app or buy a language learning book, u can learn a lot simply by making ur own flashcards to learn hiragana/katakana and then adding kanji! i hope u give it a try and some of this helps u out anon!! if u have any other questions about it i'd be happy to help if i can!! good luck!! 🩷🫡 💪