🇨🇳 → 🇯🇵
Your native language (简体中文) quietly pushes you into specific Japanese errors. Here are the ones to watch — and the fix for each. This is exactly how WordSlick coaches you, every day.
See my full report & start free →Same characters, different meanings: 手紙 = letter (not toilet paper!), 勉強 = study (not reluctant), 娘 = daughter (not mother), 汽車 = steam train (not car). Verify compounds instead of trusting the hanzi meaning.
Mandarin words never change form; Japanese verbs AND i-adjectives inflect for tense, negation and politeness (食べる→食べない→食べました; 高い→高くない→高かった). This is your core new skill — no 了-style particle will substitute.
Mandarin marks roles by position; Japanese marks them with particles after the noun (が/を/に/で), which frees the word order but makes every particle load-bearing. Your topic-comment instinct DOES help with は.
Unlike hanzi’s mostly one reading, each kanji has on-readings (from Chinese — often recognisable: 山 サン≈shān) plus native kun-readings (やま). Learn readings per word, and use the on-reading to guess new compounds.
Mandarin politeness is word choice (您, 请); Japanese builds it into every verb ending (plain vs です/ます) plus honorific/humble verb swaps. Decide the register before the sentence, not after.
Particles mark grammatical role — choosing は vs が and を vs に is the core challenge.
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