*CORRECTION:* Nick actually belongs to *Sun Music Productions* , not Yoshimoto Kogyo!! Not sure how I managed to mess that up! Really sorry!! Skip to 24:14 for an explanation of what Manzai actually is! You can watch some of Nick’s Japanese comedy by searching “タイムボム”, which is the of the Manzai duo that he’s in! Just caught an error in the English subs at the beginning of the video. At 00:38, the subtitle should say “And the good thing about Japanese language schools is”. Sorry, I had been up for over 24 hours when I made the intro for this video; maybe you can tell I don’t look so great in the clip lol 😅
Hey Matt, I’ve got a little Japanese problem that I need your help for. I’m relatively new to Japanese, and one of my biggest problems is processing. I can hear the words I know, but it takes me about 2 seconds to process what that means. How can I fix this?
So many differences man. Nick had a lot of different experiences than me being a comedian in japan but he nailed a lot of the points for sure. I sometimes dive into different aspects on my channel though.
As usual, Matt hits the nail with his questions. I found this interview, as the one you made with the Shakuhachi player, to be profoundly interesting despite having no significant interest in both their areas of expertise. Good job and please keep these coming 👍
This was a really good interview. Thank you nick. I learned a lot from him and I think he has a super interesting perspective. I'd definitively want to see a part 2.
"I would definitely recommend to people who wanna learn the language, to think about how they wanna use that in the future." I don't think anyone really considers this starting out, for me anyway I just ended up learning Japanese and now I have to figure out how to make the most of it.
...time to start thinking. I'm learning it at university just because I was going to learn the language anyway, so I may as well get a degree out of it.
Um. In my case I'm super interested in a lot of japanese media (i mean, games, anime, novels) and at some point, not being able to understand japanese became a barrier. I'm still trying to overcome that language though hahaha Maybe someday.
Wow. I never comment on things on UA-cam, but this was a phenomenal interview. Well done, Matt, and your guest was extremely engaging in his own right. Would definitely watch a part 2.
Really interesting how everyone you interview have a completely different perspective of Japan. In Justin's interview, he said that you can "become" Japanese if you wanted to, and how everyone should try to reach that level of cultural understanding. In this one Nick says that Japanese people can't really ever get past your "gaijinness". I wonder how much of that is a difference in the different industries that they are in. Looking forward to part 2!
As a person who been to japan a few times due to having a Japanese girlfriend i can tell you it will never happen in this century. They would always ask me if it's my first time and why im there. They can't understand someone is living there, for them all the white people are English teachers or tourists. Im not even american, im russian.
ive seen that even if you are born in a certain country and live exactly like a person in that country, if you look "foreign" you will never be consider a local.
I think they're talking about slightly different things. The public is limited in how they can know famous gaijin, so they will just perceive them in the stereotypical way, and Nick had to deal with that. Justin, however, was talking about his experience working in the finance industry and how his coworkers began treating him over time. By demonstrating competency and dependability in that corporate environment, he lost his privileges as a foreigner in that context and would get in trouble for making a mistake that a Japanese person would never have made (due to cultural/linguistic misunderstandings). Why exactly he lost this privilege, and what exactly it means in terms of "becoming" Japanese is up to speculation, but it's definitely meaningful.
This guy is the fucking GOAT dude. He's the epitome my dreams, fucking got his own band in Japan, he's broken the barrier and became a comedian making people laugh in a totally different culture, just wow man. I'd kill to have a beer with this dude. If he's ever on again ask him about his band life and how that whole experience is!!
Great insights from this guest. You can really tell that he's really passionate and has thought a lot about what he does from the interesting points he makes.
He made a point that I really want to emphasize. Build a skill stack. If you have a strong skill alone, that's not spectacular, but if you have a bunch of complimentary peripheral and parallel skills, you create a skill stack, which essentially makes you someone that people can't ignore. You can fill positions that nobody else is uniquely qualified for.
Two intelligent bilingual people talking about comedy. Epic!!! I was a huge fan of manzai in 80s and now standup after I left Japan. Right up my alley. Thank you so much.
ニックやーん！！笑 I’m Japanese and learning English but your videos and tips are so helpful!:) and I completely agree with your ways of learning foreign languages! I wasn’t able to verbalize my thoughts on language learning, but your amazing videos did exactly what I was thinking! I wasn’t sure about my way of learning English and I was worried if I’m learning English in the right direction, but you gave me confidence! I wasn’t wrong!:) Actually I just found your UA-cam channel a few days ago but I’ve binge watched lol Thank you so much Matt! Keep up the great work😆✨ 応援してますがんばってください♪
This is such a great video. I've seen clips of Nick's performance online when I was a college student, like 4 years ago, and at that moment I thought he was like half-Japanese and half-American... I didn't know he's an American until today so it's a little bit shocking to me. But as a Chinese person who's interested in Japanese culture and went to college in the States, I can understand a lot of things Nick said in this interview. Being a foreigner in Japan is difficult. Respect.
really enjoyed this the whole way through. i've enjoyed watching nick on atsueigo's channel before but i had no idea nick was a comedian. hearing him talk about it has got me really interested in japanese comedy now. i hope you guys get to talk again soon I just went back to watch nick on atsu's channel and on a vid called 使うだけで頭が良く聞こえる英単語３つ, his third english word is ostentatious, really funny to me that he uses it in this video 36:06
37:36 That's so interesting. Even though I'm Polish and have always lived in Poland I find it "easier" to have a conversation in English, even a job interview. What I mean is that I'm more relaxed and open in English. I take on a different personality. Maybe because the person/foreigner I'm speaking to is inherently more interesting to me or maybe because Americans are just more open and friendly so I'm used to expressing oneself more freely in that language.
I have the same thing with my native language as opposed to English language interaction. My theory has always been that this discrepancy is because of negative associations I may have with my native language while English is a language that I have learned but never had those inherent painful childhood moments with so my associations with English is actually rather positive while my native tongue has the full weight of my background and upbringing behind it. My associations with English on the other hand are the music, movies and games that made life fun. Another factor may be that if you learned most of your English from media, all your teaching material was cool and relaxed people because movies and music are like that.
@@Ironborn4 That's really interesting, I've always wondered why I'm slightly more comfortable giving a presentation in English rather than my native tongue. That could pretty much explain it.
@@essennagerry Uhmm if you spoke Bulgarian while growing up in Bulgaria you have had bad experiences in Bulgarian. Everyone grows up with bad experiences. Non-native English speakers go through it in their native languages so their associations with the native languages could be negative. That is what I meant. Not whether you have had any particular language related experiences.
At 48:25, or around there, Nick says people aren't watching this interview for him, and I have to say I actually am watching this video because of you. I saw your interview with Takashii from Japan, and I really dug your vibe and when I found out you were a celebrity I figured I'd check you out. You're cool man.
Awesome interview, I saw Nick on the youtube video that was included as a clip here as well, seems like a really nice dude. Getting a unique look into the 芸能界 is really special, would happily see a part 2!
Great interview, also big fan of Bilingual News, I would recommend it to anyone who is studying Japanese. I actually started reading 革命のファンファーレ recently based on Nick's recommendation on the podcast a few weeks back. Pretty interesting read.
Can we still get part 2? Please? 😀 I really like your interviews, in fact this channel for me is all about the interviews and semi-interview collabs, like the one with Dogen or the debate with George Trombley; I'm not even sure I want to learn Japanese (in fact I have a dumber issue: I'm suffering from analysis paralysis about which Asian language to learn). But anyways, I think this guy has a lot to say and your questions are really good. I've learned quite a lot from all the content on this channel already. You're like a Zach Sang for interesting gaijin. So, in short, I hope you make a part 2. And just a lot more interviews. With any kinda people.
Hey Matt, I don't know if you'll see this or not, but you're the only reliable person online that I know who might be able to answer this question: Do you have any books that discuss the cultural differences between Japan and Western culture? At around 18:00 Nick talks a little bit about how different the culture is. I have already read books like Into the Japanese Mind and Etiquette in Japan. I feel they weren't quite what I was looking for... I'm in the unfortunate scenario of being an ALT at a school where no one will tell me ANYTHING. So if I do something strange or wrong, no one will react at all. And my Japanese is no where near good enough to even begin to ask or be around a Japanese person long enough to figure it out.
This was an unexpected crossover, I'm used to seeing Nick on Atsueigo. By the way Matt, I critiqued one of your other videos some time ago about how you talked over your interviewee a lot and gave too much personal input, but this time it was perfect. The content was great, but more than that you asked all the right questions at the right times and it just flowed well. It was clear you cared about what he had to say. Great improvement!
4:30 So he studied Japanese at university for 4 years (with an unknown level of Japanese knowledge beforehand). And at 5:33 , he says he needed to study really hard to learn the Kanji when he was at a language school in Japan for 6 months. Surely he already could understand the vast majority of the 常用漢字? Was this a very high level course?
Fascinating interview! "Slow learner?" Really? He became highly fluent in Japanese in his early 20's! I would really like to know more about how many years he actively spent learning before he became fluent enough to attend comedy school. It's totally amazing.
According to Nick when he was interviewed by Atsu, he took a huge risk and attended manzai school before he became fully fluent in Japanese. That's why he calls himself a slow learner, though that's obviously debatable. Clearly, though, that self-forcing and extreme immersion is the thing that pushed his Japanese ability over the edge.
Rewatching this now after having seen the season of Terrace House with the bassist from ゲスの極み乙女 I made the connection between that incident and what Nick says at 51:00
This was a really fascinating and deep discussion. Great interview! One thing I've long thought is that the rise of reality shows also coincides with the rise of more realistic acting across all genres. If you watch movies, it feels more like they recorded a play, and the actors seem to be putting on a production. The older the movie, the more obvious it is. Of course there is still the occasional sort of slapstick physical comedy here and there that kind of hearken back to the style popular 80's and 90's, but they're widely panned by critics now. Nowadays it's more about the witty banter and clever wordplay delivered (mostly) realistically, as if recorded from a hidden camera. I'm sure I'm not the only one that thought that, but it occurred to me when you were talking about western comedy. It's kinda like this shift toward realism just hasn't happened in Japan. Ironically, these days, reality TV shows are more apparently fake than fiction shows.
From Joe Rogan I remember hearing of a comedian that used to be super popular like in the 80s or something, and the whole point was that the audience would repeat his jokes with him and still laugh. So I think somehow repetition is not a Japanese-only thing, since this guy's audience all knew the jokes and would repeat it to him out loud all the punchlines and still laugh.
People do the same thing to Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan and Bert Kreischer. If a bit gets popular a lot of audiences will call for it (even stupidly right in the middle of new material ).
I wish I could go back in time and change my major to Japanese. Being able to dedicate that time purely to language study would have been invaluable. Trying to balance study with a job and girlfriend isn't easy. I really wonder if it would be worth leaving work for a year and studying all out.
@@nikkuniisan Thanks, Nick. Seems like a pipe dream for me at the moment, but in the future I might be able to pass the info on to a fellow weeb and change their life.
The Sci Fi channel was my first ever exposure to anime. I remember seeing the last 30 minutes or so of Akira and a few other really "adult" anime and I was pretty blown away. Also got into Akira Kurosawa movies through my high school friends so this guy's introduction to Japanese culture sounds really similar to my own ^__^
Terrific interview guys. I live in Tokyo myself for 3 years, kind of jealous of your level of understanding language 😁 But true is I didn’t have any prior knowledge of Japanese behind こんにちは😃 I am big fan of US stand up so great to hear opinion from professional 👍
What he said at the end about geniuses being kinda bad teachers. Soooo true. My math teacher and french teacher in senior high school. They just didn't understand how some(actually, most) of us students didn't understand/really get the topic/subject. And my French teacher was so smart. Sheesh, it made you wonder what the heck he was doing teaching. Plus he was kinda bad at teaching(as stated) and didn't exactly enjoy it.
*CORRECTION:*
Nick actually belongs to *Sun Music Productions* , not Yoshimoto Kogyo!! Not sure how I managed to mess that up! Really sorry!!
Skip to 24:14 for an explanation of what Manzai actually is!
You can watch some of Nick’s Japanese comedy by searching “タイムボム”, which is the of the Manzai duo that he’s in!
Just caught an error in the English subs at the beginning of the video. At 00:38, the subtitle should say “And the good thing about Japanese language schools is”. Sorry, I had been up for over 24 hours when I made the intro for this video; maybe you can tell I don’t look so great in the clip lol 😅
Cool
Why would we skip? the beginning is interesting . Don't listen to matt guys! don't skip !!!
Hey Matt, I’ve got a little Japanese problem that I need your help for. I’m relatively new to Japanese, and one of my biggest problems is processing. I can hear the words I know, but it takes me about 2 seconds to process what that means. How can I fix this?
Do you know HighGai?
You do seem tired in the intro. I respect your dedication. Now get some rest!
This is my favorite interview on your channel so far, Matt. I love the riffing on cultural differences with comedy in Japan vs the west.
So many differences man. Nick had a lot of different experiences than me being a comedian in japan but he nailed a lot of the points for sure. I sometimes dive into different aspects on my channel though.
Dude sick interview! Keep up the great content
33? the guy looks like a teenager dude
I thought he was around 17 lol
The "Asian effect"
That is the youngest looking 33 year old white dude I've ever seen lol I'm younger than him and I look 10 years older than he does...
As he said, he became an adult in Japan, and in a safe country like Japan you don't age as fast as in the US, for example
@@wanderingdoc5075 their diet is the carry
Matt has a really good ability for interviewing people. Can't wait for more.
But he didn't know Arrested Development
part way through I noticed his hat looked like a mini pope hat and I couldn't unsee it.
me too hahahahaha
Oh no, why did you do this to me.
I can't unsee that now.
oh god man....
As usual, Matt hits the nail with his questions. I found this interview, as the one you made with the Shakuhachi player, to be profoundly interesting despite having no significant interest in both their areas of expertise.
Good job and please keep these coming 👍
This was a really good interview. Thank you nick. I learned a lot from him and I think he has a super interesting perspective.
I'd definitively want to see a part 2.
"I would definitely recommend to people who wanna learn the language, to think about how they wanna use that in the future." I don't think anyone really considers this starting out, for me anyway I just ended up learning Japanese and now I have to figure out how to make the most of it.
Hitting on girls was my primary objective, but then I realized if you can't do it in your native language, you can't do it in Japanese too ahah
...time to start thinking. I'm learning it at university just because I was going to learn the language anyway, so I may as well get a degree out of it.
KGB 48 Lmaooo
@@iliaantipin9919 Lol
Um. In my case I'm super interested in a lot of japanese media (i mean, games, anime, novels) and at some point, not being able to understand japanese became a barrier. I'm still trying to overcome that language though hahaha
Maybe someday.
Really interesting talk, especially the part about well known and famous people. Thanks!
Wow. I never comment on things on UA-cam, but this was a phenomenal interview. Well done, Matt, and your guest was extremely engaging in his own right. Would definitely watch a part 2.
Do a part 2! I really enjoyed learning about his experience and the Japanese comedy world
This was my favorite interview yet, can't wait for pt 2!
Really interesting how everyone you interview have a completely different perspective of Japan. In Justin's interview, he said that you can "become" Japanese if you wanted to, and how everyone should try to reach that level of cultural understanding. In this one Nick says that Japanese people can't really ever get past your "gaijinness". I wonder how much of that is a difference in the different industries that they are in. Looking forward to part 2!
As a person who been to japan a few times due to having a Japanese girlfriend i can tell you it will never happen in this century.
They would always ask me if it's my first time and why im there. They can't understand someone is living there, for them all the white people are English teachers or tourists.
Im not even american, im russian.
Which interview was Justin's?
ive seen that even if you are born in a certain country and live exactly like a person in that country, if you look "foreign" you will never be consider a local.
I think they're talking about slightly different things. The public is limited in how they can know famous gaijin, so they will just perceive them in the stereotypical way, and Nick had to deal with that. Justin, however, was talking about his experience working in the finance industry and how his coworkers began treating him over time. By demonstrating competency and dependability in that corporate environment, he lost his privileges as a foreigner in that context and would get in trouble for making a mistake that a Japanese person would never have made (due to cultural/linguistic misunderstandings). Why exactly he lost this privilege, and what exactly it means in terms of "becoming" Japanese is up to speculation, but it's definitely meaningful.
Does Matt have any good videos from his "hate Japan culture disillusionment stage??"
Couldn't stop listening to this interview. Super interesting guest. Nick seems to be very down to earth.
These are my favorite videos. Super relaxed podcast vibes
This guy is the fucking GOAT dude. He's the epitome my dreams, fucking got his own band in Japan, he's broken the barrier and became a comedian making people laugh in a totally different culture, just wow man. I'd kill to have a beer with this dude.
If he's ever on again ask him about his band life and how that whole experience is!!
This is the best interview so far on this channel! So interesting and would love a part 2 to hear more about the 芸能界
Great insights from this guest.
You can really tell that he's really passionate and has thought a lot about what he does from the interesting points he makes.
This is great. I think a lot of people learning Japanese would've loved to see this interview in Japanese with some subtitles.
He made a point that I really want to emphasize. Build a skill stack. If you have a strong skill alone, that's not spectacular, but if you have a bunch of complimentary peripheral and parallel skills, you create a skill stack, which essentially makes you someone that people can't ignore. You can fill positions that nobody else is uniquely qualified for.
Amazing interview! Thanks
Loved this interview and enjoy all your content, Matt!!
Two intelligent bilingual people talking about comedy. Epic!!! I was a huge fan of manzai in 80s and now standup after I left Japan. Right up my alley. Thank you so much.
ニックやーん！！笑
I’m Japanese and learning English but your videos and tips are so helpful!:) and I completely agree with your ways of learning foreign languages!
I wasn’t able to verbalize my thoughts on language learning, but your amazing videos did exactly what I was thinking!
I wasn’t sure about my way of learning English and I was worried if I’m learning English in the right direction, but you gave me confidence! I wasn’t wrong!:)
Actually I just found your UA-cam channel a few days ago but I’ve binge watched lol
Thank you so much Matt!
Keep up the great work😆✨
応援してますがんばってください♪
This was such an insightful interview! Thanks for doing this
This is such a great video. I've seen clips of Nick's performance online when I was a college student, like 4 years ago, and at that moment I thought he was like half-Japanese and half-American... I didn't know he's an American until today so it's a little bit shocking to me. But as a Chinese person who's interested in Japanese culture and went to college in the States, I can understand a lot of things Nick said in this interview. Being a foreigner in Japan is difficult. Respect.
Awesome video! I’ve been watching nick for a while so this is amazing to see.
really enjoyed this the whole way through. i've enjoyed watching nick on atsueigo's channel before but i had no idea nick was a comedian. hearing him talk about it has got me really interested in japanese comedy now. i hope you guys get to talk again soon
I just went back to watch nick on atsu's channel and on a vid called 使うだけで頭が良く聞こえる英単語３つ, his third english word is ostentatious, really funny to me that he uses it in this video 36:06
This interview is amazing!
37:36 That's so interesting. Even though I'm Polish and have always lived in Poland I find it "easier" to have a conversation in English, even a job interview. What I mean is that I'm more relaxed and open in English. I take on a different personality. Maybe because the person/foreigner I'm speaking to is inherently more interesting to me or maybe because Americans are just more open and friendly so I'm used to expressing oneself more freely in that language.
I have the same thing with my native language as opposed to English language interaction. My theory has always been that this discrepancy is because of negative associations I may have with my native language while English is a language that I have learned but never had those inherent painful childhood moments with so my associations with English is actually rather positive while my native tongue has the full weight of my background and upbringing behind it. My associations with English on the other hand are the music, movies and games that made life fun.
Another factor may be that if you learned most of your English from media, all your teaching material was cool and relaxed people because movies and music are like that.
@@Ironborn4 That's really interesting, I've always wondered why I'm slightly more comfortable giving a presentation in English rather than my native tongue. That could pretty much explain it.
@@MrSarky1992 it's just a theory based on personal observation though
@@Ironborn4 I think it's one that might just have a lot of truth behind it. What's your native language if I may ask?
@@essennagerry Uhmm if you spoke Bulgarian while growing up in Bulgaria you have had bad experiences in Bulgarian. Everyone grows up with bad experiences. Non-native English speakers go through it in their native languages so their associations with the native languages could be negative. That is what I meant. Not whether you have had any particular language related experiences.
At 48:25, or around there, Nick says people aren't watching this interview for him, and I have to say I actually am watching this video because of you. I saw your interview with Takashii from Japan, and I really dug your vibe and when I found out you were a celebrity I figured I'd check you out. You're cool man.
Great interview!
Really nice interview, and really cool guy! Would definitely enjoy a part 2.
ドンドン、ドンキ、ドンキ、ホーテ🎵
最高の組み合わせです♡
This is awesome Matt. Looking forward for Part 2.
Very deep and rich conversation for personal Growth. I really like how you go deeper in the topics and not stay only in the shallow
Hits the nail with questions on all topics relevant to language learning.. thanks..
You two talk really well together… was really cool to watch this. Learned a lot.
By far my favorite interview so far. Very interesting topics and insight on the entertainment industry. Can't wait for more like these.
Super interesting and insightful interview. Great job and thank you for doing this!
Wow. This was great. I will absolutely watch pt2. Thanks to you both.
Very enjoyable interview with a very interesting guest.
Awesome interview, I saw Nick on the youtube video that was included as a clip here as well, seems like a really nice dude. Getting a unique look into the 芸能界 is really special, would happily see a part 2!
One of the best videos on your channel for sure - such an interesting story and personality!
I'm really loving your recent interviews. You have interesting guests and you are a great interviewer.
Timeless commune. I became a big fan of you both with this 🤗
Great interview, also big fan of Bilingual News, I would recommend it to anyone who is studying Japanese. I actually started reading 革命のファンファーレ recently based on Nick's recommendation on the podcast a few weeks back. Pretty interesting read.
Looking forward to seeing this Part 2 with Nick!
Thanks for this interview!
That was a great interview! What an interesting guy with some unique experiences and insight.
50:50 からの話、ベッキーと川谷絵音だな笑
Awesome interview! Love hearing these conversations with different types of people.
This was such a great video! Great perspectives and insights from both sides - thanks for making this video!
Such a great interview!! Well done Matt!
I’ve been using MIA Anki for one week now. The progress is amazing.
what is this
@@younlok1081 mass immersion approach. Anki is a program for spaced rep. Watch the vids on this channel.
@@elless9730 k ty
@ريان مروة pick sentences you almost understand except for 1 word / grammar point. Then learn it and put it in anki for revision
nice video Matt, its these types of videos that keep me motivated with my studies
Thank you for content, Matt
Such a great conversation. Both intelligent and insightful individuals!
Once you hit play on a Matt video, there's no going back. Amazing content.
this interviewee seems to be very humble, glad to listen to him
Great interview! Very interesting!
This is such good content, love it. So interesting.
Good interview!
Can we still get part 2? Please? 😀
I really like your interviews, in fact this channel for me is all about the interviews and semi-interview collabs, like the one with Dogen or the debate with George Trombley; I'm not even sure I want to learn Japanese (in fact I have a dumber issue: I'm suffering from analysis paralysis about which Asian language to learn). But anyways, I think this guy has a lot to say and your questions are really good. I've learned quite a lot from all the content on this channel already. You're like a Zach Sang for interesting gaijin. So, in short, I hope you make a part 2. And just a lot more interviews. With any kinda people.
Is that a cheeky anki reference I see on 39:50, even if it wasn't it would fit pretty good. Good vid as always!
Matt heard "immerse" and probably had flashbacks 9 layers deep
Oh my god he's the guy from Nogizaka Eigo!!! Great interview omg
Very interesting watch
I'd love to read the dissertation
Hoping for another episode
This is awesome, Matt!
such good energy this guy
Wow. this is so amazing. Both of you!
Hey Matt, I don't know if you'll see this or not, but you're the only reliable person online that I know who might be able to answer this question:
Do you have any books that discuss the cultural differences between Japan and Western culture? At around 18:00 Nick talks a little bit about how different the culture is. I have already read books like Into the Japanese Mind and Etiquette in Japan. I feel they weren't quite what I was looking for... I'm in the unfortunate scenario of being an ALT at a school where no one will tell me ANYTHING. So if I do something strange or wrong, no one will react at all. And my Japanese is no where near good enough to even begin to ask or be around a Japanese person long enough to figure it out.
Great interview
You ask great questions. Thanks for this insight interview.
This was an unexpected crossover, I'm used to seeing Nick on Atsueigo. By the way Matt, I critiqued one of your other videos some time ago about how you talked over your interviewee a lot and gave too much personal input, but this time it was perfect. The content was great, but more than that you asked all the right questions at the right times and it just flowed well. It was clear you cared about what he had to say. Great improvement!
How much good is Atsu's English？
@@coconutpineapple2489
I speak American English not Australian, but it seems really good.
DefNotHanzo
Thank you. (^^)
4:30 So he studied Japanese at university for 4 years (with an unknown level of Japanese knowledge beforehand).
And at 5:33 , he says he needed to study really hard to learn the Kanji when he was at a language school in Japan for 6 months. Surely he already could understand the vast majority of the 常用漢字? Was this a very high level course?
I could read everyday Kanji, like emails and messages. I was not a beginner.
おもしろかったです！
I don't know any word to describe Nick's personality other than beautiful. Totally impressed.
Fascinating interview! "Slow learner?" Really? He became highly fluent in Japanese in his early 20's! I would really like to know more about how many years he actively spent learning before he became fluent enough to attend comedy school. It's totally amazing.
According to Nick when he was interviewed by Atsu, he took a huge risk and attended manzai school before he became fully fluent in Japanese. That's why he calls himself a slow learner, though that's obviously debatable. Clearly, though, that self-forcing and extreme immersion is the thing that pushed his Japanese ability over the edge.
This was super interesting, Thx
すごかった
ありがとう!
Thanks for this
Rewatching this now after having seen the season of Terrace House with the bassist from ゲスの極み乙女 I made the connection between that incident and what Nick says at 51:00
This was a really fascinating and deep discussion. Great interview!
One thing I've long thought is that the rise of reality shows also coincides with the rise of more realistic acting across all genres. If you watch movies, it feels more like they recorded a play, and the actors seem to be putting on a production. The older the movie, the more obvious it is. Of course there is still the occasional sort of slapstick physical comedy here and there that kind of hearken back to the style popular 80's and 90's, but they're widely panned by critics now. Nowadays it's more about the witty banter and clever wordplay delivered (mostly) realistically, as if recorded from a hidden camera. I'm sure I'm not the only one that thought that, but it occurred to me when you were talking about western comedy. It's kinda like this shift toward realism just hasn't happened in Japan.
Ironically, these days, reality TV shows are more apparently fake than fiction shows.
From Joe Rogan I remember hearing of a comedian that used to be super popular like in the 80s or something, and the whole point was that the audience would repeat his jokes with him and still laugh. So I think somehow repetition is not a Japanese-only thing, since this guy's audience all knew the jokes and would repeat it to him out loud all the punchlines and still laugh.
People do the same thing to Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan and Bert Kreischer. If a bit gets popular a lot of audiences will call for it (even stupidly right in the middle of new material ).
I wish I could go back in time and change my major to Japanese. Being able to dedicate that time purely to language study would have been invaluable. Trying to balance study with a job and girlfriend isn't easy. I really wonder if it would be worth leaving work for a year and studying all out.
Enjoyed this interview and would love to see a part 2.
Any more info on what school Nick went to?
I went to Toho Gakuen’s Announce Gakuen!
-Nick
@@nikkuniisan Thanks, Nick. Seems like a pipe dream for me at the moment, but in the future I might be able to pass the info on to a fellow weeb and change their life.
no way! nick was the guy who did the vice mini-documentary on the Japanese dance dance revolution scene! cool to see him here!
The Sci Fi channel was my first ever exposure to anime. I remember seeing the last 30 minutes or so of Akira and a few other really "adult" anime and I was pretty blown away. Also got into Akira Kurosawa movies through my high school friends so this guy's introduction to Japanese culture sounds really similar to my own ^__^
Really interesting. A little insight into Japanese comedy. Nick is inspiring!
Thanks!
Part 2 would be awesome
Great questions!
really great stuff
ＮICK, YOU REALLY PUT YOUR SOUL IN THIS INTERVIEW. THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR OPINION
I feel like I’ve looked 30 since I was 15 - this man looks 22 at the oldest 😭
Bro I’m 17 n ppl usually think I’m 21-27 I was thinking the same thing the entire time this dudes a vampire
Terrific interview guys. I live in Tokyo myself for 3 years, kind of jealous of your level of understanding language 😁 But true is I didn’t have any prior knowledge of Japanese behind こんにちは😃 I am big fan of US stand up so great to hear opinion from professional 👍
What he said at the end about geniuses being kinda bad teachers. Soooo true.
My math teacher and french teacher in senior high school.
They just didn't understand how some(actually, most) of us students didn't understand/really get the topic/subject.
And my French teacher was so smart. Sheesh, it made you wonder what the heck he was doing teaching. Plus he was kinda bad at teaching(as stated) and didn't exactly enjoy it.
Atsuさんのビデオから流れてこちらのビデオを見ました。Mattさん日本語上手すぎるけど、Mattさんの英語を聞いたら、綺麗で早口な英語を喋ると思いました。やっぱり母国語を早口に綺麗に話せる人は外国語も上達が早いのかもしれませんね。ただ単にMattさんが優秀なだけなのかもしれませんが。Mattさんの声は日本語も英語も聞いてて心地良いです。😄 Mattさん、日本語完璧! Nickイケメン可愛いわ〜。
ニックさんめっちゃ面白いですよね