Arashu

Yes and no. People tend to be split regarding this question, either people absolutely trash the idea of learning japanese from anime or people are strong proponents of it. My opinion is that the truth is somewhere in the middle. It really depends on when and how you incorporate watching anime or reading manga into your japanese learning process. Right off the bat, I would say don’t use anime as a learning tool in the beginning. You really need a solid foundation before you start consuming media and learning by context. So at the very least, you should have studied both genki books or both minna no nihongo books and be at JLPT 4 level or higher.

If you start relying on anime from the get go you will start using lingo in the wrong context without knowing it. The japanese you hear from anime shows is very informal and can be perceived as rude. As a beginner you won’t be able to differiate between proper and inproper langugae. Not only that, it’s hard to actually pick up vocabulary when you don’t have a basis in the language. There have been studies on this topic, generally you need to know a few thousand words before you will start picking up the language by context.

Use anime and manga as a supplement not as a main learning resource

There are some that swear by just using japanese immersion to learn and completely staying away from formal education. One example that is often used is to watch anime and read manga and you will be able to pick up the language. I strongly disagree, only watching anime on its own is not enough. There might some extreme statistical anomalies who learned japanese from only watching japanese anime and never picked up text book but for the most part I call bullshit on these claims and I’ve yet to actually meet anyone in real life who learned japanese this way. However, i’m not disagreeing that you can use it as a learning tool.

The opportunity cost of watching anime or reading manga

Assume you have the basics down, you will definitely benefit from watching anime but as most things in life you should always take opportunity cost into consideration. Watching anime or reading manga is just not nearly as effective as plain studying. 10 hours spent watching anime will yield in a lot less new vocabularly than studying japanese from textbooks. Watching anime however doesn’t require as much mental energy. If you’re anyway going to watch anime because you enjoy it then it’s a double win. You will learn new stuff while enjoying yourself but if the sole purpose of consuming anime or manga is to learn japanese I would advise against it – not because you won’t learn anything but because pretty much any other learning method is going to give you more return on your time.

The advantages of learning japanese via anime and manga

With manga you will get a nice repeition on the japanese writing system. If you’re reading manga targeting children, you will repeat katakana and hiragana and if you’re reading more mature manga you will get used to reading kanji over and over again solidifying them into your memory. With anime you will get used to hearing japanese and this is very important especially if you’re learning japanese outside of Japan. One of the main struggles with learners outside of Japan is that they almost always seem to lack in the hearing department. The hearing section on the JLPT test is usually the hardest one for learners outside Japan, so watching anime might be a good supplement when you want to do light studying.

How to benefit from it

Ideally you should watch anime with english subtitles if your japanese isn’t up to par. If your japanese is decent, then using original japanese subtitles is more effective as you will also pick up the kanji. Now, luckily it’s far easier to follow an anime than a regular TV drama. The language used in animes tend to be a bit easier and the same vocabularly gets repeated often. I would avoid watching anime that you don’t really like as you will quickly get bored, I would say have to mindset of enjoying yourself rather than “I’m studying”. The latter will quickly turn into grind and you will start loathing it in no time.

So the final verdict is that yes you can learn japanese from watching anime or reading manga but it doesn’t have the highest return on your time. It’s a fun way to relax and still learn something but it should never be your main way of learning.

Find yourself to the stary rynek, the main square and from there you will see plenty of bars and clubs nearby. Poznan is a rather small student town so beware that the nightlife really dies down during summer. To be completely honest, I would avoid the nightlife completely during the summer unless you’re on the older side(30+). The average age of the nightlife crowds goes up significantly during the summer because the student population is gone but that’s not the issue, I don’t age discriminate… the crowds get far smaller, it really does feel like you’re in a small town. With cities like Wroclaw, Krakow and Warsaw offering way more life than Poznan during the summer, I don’t see the reason why you would not take trip to the other polish cities for partying.

However, during school semesters the nightlife in Poznan is very alive and crowded. What I like the most is the friendly attitude. You don’t get the stuck up big city vibe in this place. Though I would say Poland in general, even in the bigger cities(some people will disagree with me)have surprsingly friendly attitudes. There is something about the friendly and warm culture of poles.

What also makes Poznan great is that crowded with tourists in the same way more popular european destinations are so locals are still patient and friendly with tourists. The clubs and bars are still majority polish unlike the clubs in prague where some nights you think there less czech people than tourists.

Dragon Bar

My first recommendation is a laid back bar, even though you might not expect from a club in smallish Poznan it does get crowded thoughout the week. Friendly staff and friendly guests. Easy to talk to people.

Pacha Poznań

Nyet, nyet, nyet. Didn’t like this club attitude maybe I was unlucky but was greeted by some really rude bouncers and staff seemed annoyed with the customers. It’s a shame since the venue was pretty decent and it’s super close to stary rynek.

Cuba Libre

Young crowd, especially on mondays when it’s something kind of student deal I guess. Gets extremely crowded to the point that I see it as a negative rather than a positive. Could barely move when I was there monday night. However, the average age goes up rest of the week. As the name suggests, they play latin musc here. Liked the atmosphere, friendly and easy to connect with people so if you don’t might the crowds and not being able to move you will probably like it here. Even though I hate it when it’s too crowded I would still rate this as my favorite club in Poznan.

You can’t talk about european nightlife without mentioning Berlin. The hype is real, berlin’s nightlife is actually really f-cking awesome. Doesn’t matter what your crowd is, metal, goth, hiphop, some obscure subculture, you will find your type of bar or club here.

The general rule is, techno is the choice of music here and the clubs stay open very late. There’s an open minded attitude towards hooking up. The demographics of Berlin can be summed up in one word “foreign”. You will often see the crowds being up to 50% non-german. There are significant amount of russians, poles, turks living in Berlin and on top of that Berlin attracts a lot of tourists and artistic types from all over europé, Berlin is in other words the most ungerman german city you will find.

Biggest advantage is the laidback nature of Berliners, I’m not a fan of stuck up/snobbish nightlife and thank god there is very little of that in  Berlin. Of course, you can still get denied entry in to clubs if you dress wrong and show up in big groups so don’t go wearing flip flops and expecting to get in.

Tresor Night Club

A massive underground techno club that stays open until 6 AM on the weekdays. Very touristic crowd, I actually think tourists outnumber locals during high season but they still have humane prices. Tresor is one of the better techno clubs(would not rank it #1 though, keep Reading and you will see my top pick) you will find in Berlin. Typical age is all over the place, early 20s to 40s. You will neither feel too young or too old no matter what age you are unless you’re 60. If you’re a tourist in Berlin, Tresor might be your best choice. Also, if happen to be in town not on a weekend, don’t worry Tresor is an excellent club for a wednesday night out.

Watergate

Two story club playing techno Music as well. The crowd here is definitely younger(mostly early 20s with a few people in their 30s thrown in) than Tresor and overall I would say it’s easy to get in just like in Tresor. Watergate is located in Kreuzberg.

Berghain

A very friggin awesome club. My main choice for clubbing in Berlin. Massive space and massive crowds. It’s actually not that easy to get in, Berghain has sligthly stricter door policy than the other main stream clubs in Berlin. If you get in, you will not be disappointed. Famous DJs playing here regularly.  Heck, I would most argue that this might be nightclub in europé. Certainly, in my opinion the best techno club in Berlin.

Club Der Visionäre

Nice chill place by the river. If you’re not looking for crazy party but just having a few beers with your friends then this is ideal club for you. Even though it’s a place people show up in groups to sit down and talk it still gets crowded. They usually play techno music(surprise surprise)

Sisyphos

Electric music! Ok, I know i’m being silly by mentioning yet again that they play techno since every single club reviewed so far in this article has been techno but that’s Berlin in a nutshell. Sisyphos is located in the deeps of east Berlin. Beware, they can be somewhat strict at this club so show up looking like you belong there otherwise you might turned away at the door.

My take on this club is – somewhat mixed. It’s good but I wouldn’t say it’s one of the top clubs in Berlin and given the logistics(depending on where you’re staying in the city, Sisyphos can be far, it isn’t exactly convienently located) I would say if you’re close to the club, give it a shoot but I would travel all the way from the west side of Berlin to visit this club when you have Tresor, Berghain and Watergate closer to you. It’s also a small negative given their strict door policy but… this could be viewed as a positive depending on who you are.

I was listening to the JRE the other day, and Matthew Walker the sleep diplomat was on(I strongly recommend listening to the podcast). He’s a professor of neuroscience and psychology. The podcast was an eye opener. According to him six hours is not enough sleep for the vast majority people. People who can make it on 5 hours of sleep or less without any negative symptoms is only a fraction of a percent.

If you’re reading this and thinking you’re one of those exceptions well you’re probably wrong. Walker mentioned that people are horrendous at self diagnosing. You might think you’re okay but you’re actually not operating at 100% and you won’t even know it. Kind of like how some people say they can drink without getting drunk, they think their drunkness isn’t visible to others but everyone can see it except themselves. When you lack sleep the syptoms besides the obvious one of being less energetic you will be more easily irritated, you have a harder time learning, focusing and your cardio suffer. It’s especially important to get atleast 7 hours of sleep if you’re doing anything physically demanding or intellectually demanding. Apparently people short on sleep could suffer from a 30% lower performance on cardio activities.

Matthew also brought up what happens to people who go on long stretches of staying awake, hallucination starts to kick in. Something I’ve heard many people say when they haven’t sleeped for days.

So what is the ideal amount of sleep that is recommended? 7-9 hours of sleep(yes, there are individual differences). I recommend listening to the whole podcast but gist of it is, you’re probably not a person who can function on six hours or less.