Daily lessons · Day 29 of 90
You finished this day
Putting it together: a day in Tokyo
One long day using everything so far
No new grammar today. Instead, one ordinary day in Tokyo from waking up to saying goodnight, built only from things you have already met. The point is to see how little you need. Count the different words as you go: a whole day of getting around, eating and shopping runs on about thirty of them, used again and again.
Morning: getting out of the door
Station Japanese is short and fixed. You are choosing lines, not composing them:
Every one of these is a noun phrase with a fixed ending glued on. Nobody at a ticket window is admiring your grammar, and staff hear the same four sentences all day, so the safest thing you can do is use the standard version rather than an original one. Fluency in a station is a matter of speed, not creativity.
Midday: lunch and a coffee
Ordering needs no verb at all:
Notice the shape: a thing, を, a number, おねがいします. You are not conjugating anything. This is why food is the easiest thing to do in Japanese early on, and why it is worth eating out often in your first weeks. Every meal is free speaking practice with a guaranteed result.
Evening: a shop, then a plan
The only part of the day that needs full sentences:
Look back over the three sections and count the grammar: です, を, に, まで, a counter, a past adjective and one invitation pattern. That is the whole day. People who feel stuck at this stage usually think they need more words, when what they need is these few patterns coming out faster.
Carry over, from earlier days
Check yourself
8 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.