This was super helpful. I took 3 years of high school Japanese and a quarter of college Japanese and with all that, still struggled with particles and grammar. It would all get jumbled up for me. I knew about subject, object, then verb, but everything else was confusing. This explained things super easily and it clicks now.
I like the concept of easy introduction to specific language as a series. I can see this being really helpful to those who are trying to decide which language to study. I was confused about てむね part but reading some of the comments from below, I understood. Keep up your great work! Looking forward to next one!
Hi Steve, interesting introduction. Re counters, I have an example of their importance. Like you said hitotsu or ikko could be used in most situations, so you don’t need to bother with them. However, using the right word automatically makes you sound more fluent.The English parallel would be collective nouns. You could get away saying “a bunch” or “a group”. A bunch of sheep, a group of cows. But if you say flock or herd it’s better and people will probably give you way more points in the English department.
I think for me sentence structure is important in introducing a new language, for example in Arabic there's nominal and verbal sentences or in English there's the subject-verb-object order and so on
I made the mistake to realise that so many things in japanese sound similar after a few years of learning. Now my brain started to get used to question what word is meant while someone is talking, even though before that I never had that problem to get the meaning out of the context. Need to fix that additionally created problem before my japanese starts to decrease even further D:
Steve, I think you should do a comprehensive language learning video series for all language learners for sale. Which was harder for you to learn Mandarin or Japanese?
Depends heavily on your goals. Matt himself has said that MIA is for people who are striving for fluency. If you’re fine with just speaking and reading at a decent level. But not fluent. Then other methods are fine and you should definetly do those. But if you want fluency or beyond then you should do MIA.
It's not about who to follow, it's not a cult lol. Listen to tons of things you like (at least 1-3 hours a day) read things you like (and listen more than you read in the beginning). Consume a ton and in theory you'll get "good" lol. Pay for a membership to LingQ if you want to have tons of reading and listening material at your disposal. Watch anime or movies without subs, live the language depending on how fluent you want to get. If you study flashcards study sentences and not individual words. Learn for the message, not the translation. If you have questions, ask away.
I have read many comments saying that Japanese is easy, but almost everyone who said this is just a beginner. yes it is very easy to pronounce the words but there are many forms of sentences the structure will also not be the same as English, there is no verb tense in the future, particles are difficult, adjectives are conjugated, kanji is a very primitive script. THINK ABOUT Japanese is the hardest language to learn as a second language, study says. from Foreign Service Institute (FSI) U.S . in the United States, has generated a ranking of the most difficult languages to learn as a second language by estimating the number of hours of learning required for an English speaker. According to the experts responsible for creating the list, taking into account a period of 2,200 hours of learning, the greatest difficulty is with the Japanese language. English speaker could acquire command of languages such as Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Turkish, Turkish and Vietnamese. Link below,News is in Portuguese but you can find it by the institute name. noticias.universia.com.br/destaque/noticia/2013/09/02/1046345/japones-e-lingua-mais-dificil-ser-aprendida-como-segundo-idioma-aponta-estudo.html. The point is that at the beginning it's very easy, but you start to raise the level of difficulty quickly. I'm not saying it's the hardest language in the world but it's one of the hardest, if you've been studying this language for a long time and you do not agree with me maybe you've learned other languages so learning should have become easier. but to say that this is a very easy language is like spitting in the face of all the people who actually study that language. I apologize for my English, I never studied this language, I only heard music since I was little. I know some words, I hope you understood.🙂 I think Japanese and Mandarin is so primitive that's why it makes it so difficult for us.
Just one point to add: No verb tense generally make a language easier, not harder, even if this is a difference from oyur native language (Heck, English doesn't even have a true future verb tense and thus has one of the easiest "future tenses" of any language on Earth) In my experience, people tend to think in concepts, not grammar particularities, so lack of tenses is actually the more natural way to turn thoughts into words. Context or other aspects of a language always make it pretty easy to tell what time and nature of the action is meant. Consider how even someone who doesn't speak English "well" and ignores tenses yet can be easily understood just by using relative terms instead of tenses or conjugation - and that's a language where tenses are expected, yet it still works even in that case. I haven't spent much time with Japanese, but I had an interest in it when I was younger and more recently I dabbled in Mandarin which has no tenses whatsoever. The lack of tenses was glorious and it was easy to get used to imo. However, there are certainly many other very difficult aspects of Japanese but the small number of tenses is not a factor that makes it more difficult. What I have seen from people who have learned Japanese to high proficiency (as in, can live in the country and speak naturally) they seem to agree that the core aspects of the spoken language are not super hard, but the writing system, politeness rules, and multiple uses of the particles are.
It would be good if you did what you did at the end of this video for all the languages and remark on what are the harder aspects and the easier aspect. Japanese not having gender is good news for me.
Do you have any videos from you speaking japanese when you were on your best shape at the langauge, like when you were living in japan or shortly afterwards? It would be fun to watch =D
sure, until you get to something like かい 階, 回, 会, 貝, 下位, 買い, 甲斐, かい, 解, 櫂, 界, 下医, 下意, 華夷, 快, 峡, 怪, and 卵 all of which are pronounced かい jisho.org/search/kai
you just need to hear japanese for a long time to learn what word is used by context. Its not easy to tell the different just by pitch accent, as there are different ways of pitching the same word (dialect, personal feelings involved while speaking, etc)
@@Saroku1000 Agreed, it is context not the vain hope that you catch the pitch that will help you understand. If the pitch is there you will eventually start pronouncing it correctly or maybe you won't and it won't matter.
@@Thelinguist if it's important you'll notice it when speaking. the interlocutor will either correct you or you'll notice he didn't understand you. that's basically my thoughts on the issue at least
@@junkahoolik Simply not true. Lived in Japan for 9 years did business in Japanese and no one had trouble understanding me and no one corrected me/ Never paid slightest attention to pitch, didn't know it existed.
My mistake I got it confused with the Korean, something that happens to my old brain from time to time. Neurons seem to go off in whatever direction they feel like.
@@Thelinguist Don't worry, you're not the only one, and it hardly matters what "age" your brain is. I mean, I'm only 20 and I get my French and Italian mixed all the time; for example "il verra" ("he will see" in French) and "lui verrà" ("he will come" in Italian). I'm sure when I'll start learning Korean it will be even more confusing.
11:30 "Not a difficult language". It's only ranked as THE hardest language to learn for English speakers by the Defense Language Institute. Being in Category V with an asterisk signifying it's the hardest of the hard ;) Languages like French or Spanish being Category I.
@@justin02905 I'm sorry, I don't agree with that logic. It clearly states 2400 hours needed for basic proficiency. That's a crap ton of time, and even then you won't be able to read a Japanese novel. 3 years olds can't read or write at a functional level.
Re3iRtH after a year of studying a category 5 language, I read novels all the time. Their idea of proficiency is higher than you think. 2400 hours isn't that much, you can get that in 1.5 years easily just by cutting TV and social media probably
@@justin02905 That's good for you :) As a semi-busy practicing M.D. + focus on fitness, social life, and real estate investing - cannot do 2400 hours in one year. 1 hour per day is only 365 hours. If you have 7 hours per day to devote to Japanese, I commend you.
I like how he tries to put things simple. But in fact some words are not interchangeable at all. just because they are all translated to the same English word, it's a big mistakes to underestimate this. E.g. the different versions of "if" or the verbs Do make a difference actually. Needless to say that the different versions of 'i' or 'me' and 'you' are one of the most important things when It comes to respect. It's not super surviving-ish important (unless you call someone you dont know お前 (omae) lol) , but you dont want to sound like a weirdo being unrespectful neither, right? Nonetheless it's a pretty good short Intro on the Japanese language I think.
It's almost astonishing how Japanese is such a popular choice. Not that I'm complaining, but it's a little funny how almost every video here will have a comment talking about something Japanese related. In any case, what about an introduction to Indonesian? Or Icelandic?
It is not surprising. Most young people who want to learn Japanese have a strong interest in Japanese media: anime, manga, video games, or J-pop. If that media didn't exist, the interest in learning Japanese would be far, far less. Steve does not speak Indonesian or Icelandic.
I figured as much. I didn't mention it, but I know Indonesian is easy because I also know some of it already. I'll be frank and I hate to sound undermining, but Japanese's popularity overshadows other languages. Japanese can be challenging but of course there are many other languages out there, challenging or not, but don't seem nearly as popular like (in my view) Tagalog, Icelandic, Finnish, Cambodian, Mongolian to name a few.
あなた I believe is disrespectful. You would use it when speaking to a person of lower status. Brian is using it like they did 100 years ago when it wasn't derogatory. Anyone can confirm or deny?
it is kinda wrong but he's focussed on getting you started. you learn by compelling input as krashen said. he is just providing you with a understanding that will best suit your skill level. you'll acquire the rest by doing without worrying.
have you learned any languages accidently? because I havbe because I'm dutch so I had to immerse in english to acquire it. English had media and content obviously had more information than my native language especially on youtube so I slowly learned it by wanting to understand the content. If you happen to be monolingual I can understand why you'd fall into the grammar trap. (because I kinda have until know in japanese as well)
I always find it funny when Japanese is listed among the "longest" languages to learn. Outside of kanji, I can't think of an easier language for a native English speaker. We already can pronounce and hear all the sounds. There's essentially no irregularity. You don't have to worry about conjugation. You don't have to worry about articles or agreement of number/gender/etc. There's no cases. Overall, it's a very elegant and simple language. Once you have the basics of particles, you kind of only have vocabulary left.
Not really. There are many foreigners that think that way and make basic mistakes like overusing "ですね" at the end of a sentence at times where a native speaker would expect that the sentence goes further.
Depends on your language goals. If you just want to pass the test, it's fine. If you want to do something else with your Japanese, do something else. You could pass the JLPT as a "by-product" as well, at least that's what I'm aiming for. You don't need to feel pressured by a sheet of paper, it may show your progress but won't test everything you already know. So you might not be able to pass the test, but might have already achieved a certain level of fluency in an different area. So it all comes down to what you want :) Have fun and good luck!
@@victori5581 I intend to do graduate studies in Japan, and being a government funded program, JLPT 1 is actually a requirement (or atleast a requirement to this specifical program, signed between Japan and Argentina). My current level hovers around JLPT N4-N5. I still have some years to go, so time shouldn't be a problem. I'll try as many inputs as possible then, since studying only from tests and such can get boring quickly. Thanks for your advice
Apart from goals, it also depends on your personality. If you like testing, or need a pat on the back (like me) then yes. But, let me warn you, JLPT is an academic test. Up to about Level 3 is fairly practical. Then Level 2 and 1, which are basically required for entrance into the workforce and universities, pretty much flaunt all the grammar patterns you would never use unless delivering a speech with the Emperor in the audience. But again, if you’re trying to work or study in Japan, they are necessary evils
This was super helpful. I took 3 years of high school Japanese and a quarter of college Japanese and with all that, still struggled with particles and grammar. It would all get jumbled up for me. I knew about subject, object, then verb, but everything else was confusing. This explained things super easily and it clicks now.
I like the concept of easy introduction to specific language as a series. I can see this being really helpful to those who are trying to decide which language to study. I was confused about てむね part but reading some of the comments from below, I understood. Keep up your great work! Looking forward to next one!
thanks steve, i'd certainly be grateful for a set of videos like this.
Thank you Steve. Thanks to your videos and lingq my japanese improved a lot this year.
Me too same thing
Really interesting to hear about the different structure of the Japanese language - please do a similar video about the Greek language soon!
The world would love this!! Do it!
I appreciate this video very much!
I got surprised you accidentally say 때문에 instead of ために
Studying both Korean and Japanese are sometimes confusing lol
I caught that too. Lol
can we get Steve to review AJATT and MATT VS JAPAN
He already learned Japanese like more than 20 years ago I think. Anyway true, learning 2 languages at once can get really confusing.
I really like these type of videos. Very helpful!
Steve, this is great! Please do more. I'd love one for Korean!
Hi Steve, interesting introduction.
Re counters, I have an example of their importance. Like you said hitotsu or ikko could be used in most situations, so you don’t need to bother with them. However, using the right word automatically makes you sound more fluent.The English parallel would be collective nouns. You could get away saying “a bunch” or “a group”. A bunch of sheep, a group of cows. But if you say flock or herd it’s better and people will probably give you way more points in the English department.
Thank you 🙏🏼 I’m now learning Japanese and I found your video helpful I actually know a little of Japanese words by watching anime✨ شكراً لك
Fantastic idea Steve! Loved this video!
I think these 'ease introduction to...' videos are great and very helpful
I think for me sentence structure is important in introducing a new language, for example in Arabic there's nominal and verbal sentences or in English there's the subject-verb-object order and so on
these are great, please keep making them for more languages
Thank you, just started learning japanese again. This was perfect for me
The counter for books is 冊 さつ satsu
One book 一冊 いっさつ Issatsu
Two books 二冊 にさつ Nisatsu
and so on... see you poliglote friend.
I made the mistake to realise that so many things in japanese sound similar after a few years of learning. Now my brain started to get used to question what word is meant while someone is talking, even though before that I never had that problem to get the meaning out of the context. Need to fix that additionally created problem before my japanese starts to decrease even further D:
That was great. I wish you'd do more videos on Japanese, but for now I'm waiting for "Easy Introduction to Spanish" :)
¿Dónde está la biblioteca?
Steve, I think you should do a comprehensive language learning video series for all language learners for sale. Which was harder for you to learn Mandarin or Japanese?
This was very useful to me thanks!
Great advice thanks
Steve! Please review AJATT method and MATT VS JAPAN.
he has a very different approach. I need to know who to follow.
AJATT
matt is a perfectionist maybe his aproach will make you acquire quicker but dont do it if you dont li like it. the subreddit has good resources though
Depends heavily on your goals. Matt himself has said that MIA is for people who are striving for fluency. If you’re fine with just speaking and reading at a decent level. But not fluent. Then other methods are fine and you should definetly do those. But if you want fluency or beyond then you should do MIA.
It's not about who to follow, it's not a cult lol. Listen to tons of things you like (at least 1-3 hours a day) read things you like (and listen more than you read in the beginning). Consume a ton and in theory you'll get "good" lol. Pay for a membership to LingQ if you want to have tons of reading and listening material at your disposal. Watch anime or movies without subs, live the language depending on how fluent you want to get. If you study flashcards study sentences and not individual words. Learn for the message, not the translation. If you have questions, ask away.
xd@@nikonikosensei6682
Thank you so much for this video
very useful explanation just like korean
I have read many comments saying that Japanese is easy, but almost everyone who said this is just a beginner. yes it is very easy to pronounce the words but there are many forms of sentences the structure will also not be the same as English, there is no verb tense in the future, particles are difficult, adjectives are conjugated, kanji is a very primitive script.
THINK ABOUT
Japanese is the hardest language to learn as a second language, study says. from Foreign Service Institute (FSI) U.S .
in the United States, has generated a ranking of the most difficult languages to learn as a second language by estimating the number of hours of learning required for an English speaker.
According to the experts responsible for creating the list, taking into account a period of 2,200 hours of learning, the greatest difficulty is with the Japanese language. English speaker could acquire command of languages such as Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Turkish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Link below,News is in Portuguese but you can find it by the institute name.
noticias.universia.com.br/destaque/noticia/2013/09/02/1046345/japones-e-lingua-mais-dificil-ser-aprendida-como-segundo-idioma-aponta-estudo.html.
The point is that at the beginning it's very easy, but you start to raise the level of difficulty quickly. I'm not saying it's the hardest language in the world but it's one of the hardest, if you've been studying this language for a long time and you do not agree with me maybe you've learned other languages so learning should have become easier. but to say that this is a very easy language is like spitting in the face of all the people who actually study that language.
I apologize for my English, I never studied this language, I only heard music since I was little. I know some words, I hope you understood.🙂
I think Japanese and Mandarin is so primitive that's why it makes it so difficult for us.
Just one point to add:
No verb tense generally make a language easier, not harder, even if this is a difference from oyur native language (Heck, English doesn't even have a true future verb tense and thus has one of the easiest "future tenses" of any language on Earth) In my experience, people tend to think in concepts, not grammar particularities, so lack of tenses is actually the more natural way to turn thoughts into words.
Context or other aspects of a language always make it pretty easy to tell what time and nature of the action is meant. Consider how even someone who doesn't speak English "well" and ignores tenses yet can be easily understood just by using relative terms instead of tenses or conjugation - and that's a language where tenses are expected, yet it still works even in that case.
I haven't spent much time with Japanese, but I had an interest in it when I was younger and more recently I dabbled in Mandarin which has no tenses whatsoever. The lack of tenses was glorious and it was easy to get used to imo.
However, there are certainly many other very difficult aspects of Japanese but the small number of tenses is not a factor that makes it more difficult. What I have seen from people who have learned Japanese to high proficiency (as in, can live in the country and speak naturally) they seem to agree that the core aspects of the spoken language are not super hard, but the writing system, politeness rules, and multiple uses of the particles are.
Great idea for a series Steve!
It would be good if you did what you did at the end of this video for all the languages and remark on what are the harder aspects and the easier aspect. Japanese not having gender is good news for me.
Steve! Easy introduction to Czech, please!!!!!
5:38 一冊の本 さつ
Do you have any videos from you speaking japanese when you were on your best shape at the langauge, like when you were living in japan or shortly afterwards? It would be fun to watch =D
pitch accent is what's used to tell the difference between 書く and 画 when speaking
sure, until you get to something like かい
階, 回, 会, 貝, 下位, 買い, 甲斐, かい, 解, 櫂, 界, 下医, 下意, 華夷, 快, 峡, 怪, and 卵
all of which are pronounced かい
jisho.org/search/kai
you just need to hear japanese for a long time to learn what word is used by context. Its not easy to tell the different just by pitch accent, as there are different ways of pitching the same word (dialect, personal feelings involved while speaking, etc)
@@Saroku1000 Agreed, it is context not the vain hope that you catch the pitch that will help you understand. If the pitch is there you will eventually start pronouncing it correctly or maybe you won't and it won't matter.
@@Thelinguist if it's important you'll notice it when speaking. the interlocutor will either correct you or you'll notice he didn't understand you. that's basically my thoughts on the issue at least
@@junkahoolik Simply not true. Lived in Japan for 9 years did business in Japanese and no one had trouble understanding me and no one corrected me/ Never paid slightest attention to pitch, didn't know it existed.
counter for books is "satsu". example: i-satsu; ni-satsu; .....
need more video regarding japanese language
9:04 Wait, isn't it ために ? Sorry for asking, it might just be something I haven't learned yet.
My mistake I got it confused with the Korean, something that happens to my old brain from time to time. Neurons seem to go off in whatever direction they feel like.
@@Thelinguist Don't worry, you're not the only one, and it hardly matters what "age" your brain is. I mean, I'm only 20 and I get my French and Italian mixed all the time; for example "il verra" ("he will see" in French) and "lui verrà" ("he will come" in Italian). I'm sure when I'll start learning Korean it will be even more confusing.
I believe it should be たべた instead of たべった
I bet you couldn't do a video like this for Mandarin Chinese!
11:30 "Not a difficult language". It's only ranked as THE hardest language to learn for English speakers by the Defense Language Institute. Being in Category V with an asterisk signifying it's the hardest of the hard ;) Languages like French or Spanish being Category I.
He said in terms of grammar. Everything else is a struggle
Re3iRtH the hardest doesn't mean it's hard. There are 3 year olds that speak Japanese
@@justin02905 I'm sorry, I don't agree with that logic. It clearly states 2400 hours needed for basic proficiency. That's a crap ton of time, and even then you won't be able to read a Japanese novel. 3 years olds can't read or write at a functional level.
Re3iRtH after a year of studying a category 5 language, I read novels all the time. Their idea of proficiency is higher than you think. 2400 hours isn't that much, you can get that in 1.5 years easily just by cutting TV and social media probably
@@justin02905 That's good for you :) As a semi-busy practicing M.D. + focus on fitness, social life, and real estate investing - cannot do 2400 hours in one year. 1 hour per day is only 365 hours. If you have 7 hours per day to devote to Japanese, I commend you.
9:02 isn't "in order to" actually ために (tame ni)? I've never heard てむね (temu ne) 🙄
Oops. Sharp on your part. Got my Korean and Japanese confused. You are right!!
I like how he tries to put things simple. But in fact some words are not interchangeable at all. just because they are all translated to the same English word, it's a big mistakes to underestimate this. E.g. the different versions of "if" or the verbs Do make a difference actually. Needless to say that the different versions of 'i' or 'me' and 'you' are one of the most important things when It comes to respect. It's not super surviving-ish important (unless you call someone you dont know お前 (omae) lol) , but you dont want to sound like a weirdo being unrespectful neither, right? Nonetheless it's a pretty good short Intro on the Japanese language I think.
It's almost astonishing how Japanese is such a popular choice. Not that I'm complaining, but it's a little funny how almost every video here will have a comment talking about something Japanese related. In any case, what about an introduction to Indonesian? Or Icelandic?
It is not surprising. Most young people who want to learn Japanese have a strong interest in Japanese media: anime, manga, video games, or J-pop. If that media didn't exist, the interest in learning Japanese would be far, far less. Steve does not speak Indonesian or Icelandic.
I figured as much. I didn't mention it, but I know Indonesian is easy because I also know some of it already. I'll be frank and I hate to sound undermining, but Japanese's popularity overshadows other languages. Japanese can be challenging but of course there are many other languages out there, challenging or not, but don't seem nearly as popular like (in my view) Tagalog, Icelandic, Finnish, Cambodian, Mongolian to name a few.
@@zipporahthecushite7729 Me only for Anime ❤️😁
あなた I believe is disrespectful. You would use it when speaking to a person of lower status. Brian is using it like they did 100 years ago when it wasn't derogatory.
Anyone can confirm or deny?
it is kinda wrong but he's focussed on getting you started. you learn by compelling input as krashen said. he is just providing you with a understanding that will best suit your skill level. you'll acquire the rest by doing without worrying.
have you learned any languages accidently? because I havbe because I'm dutch so I had to immerse in english to acquire it. English had media and content obviously had more information than my native language especially on youtube so I slowly learned it by wanting to understand the content. If you happen to be monolingual I can understand why you'd fall into the grammar trap. (because I kinda have until know in japanese as well)
Japanese is actually easier than some bantu languages like ɓasaa.
I always find it funny when Japanese is listed among the "longest" languages to learn. Outside of kanji, I can't think of an easier language for a native English speaker. We already can pronounce and hear all the sounds. There's essentially no irregularity. You don't have to worry about conjugation. You don't have to worry about articles or agreement of number/gender/etc. There's no cases.
Overall, it's a very elegant and simple language. Once you have the basics of particles, you kind of only have vocabulary left.
Not really. There are many foreigners that think that way and make basic mistakes like overusing "ですね" at the end of a sentence at times where a native speaker would expect that the sentence goes further.
Should my study be based around JLPT tests?
Depends on your language goals. If you just want to pass the test, it's fine. If you want to do something else with your Japanese, do something else. You could pass the JLPT as a "by-product" as well, at least that's what I'm aiming for.
You don't need to feel pressured by a sheet of paper, it may show your progress but won't test everything you already know. So you might not be able to pass the test, but might have already achieved a certain level of fluency in an different area.
So it all comes down to what you want :) Have fun and good luck!
I have no idea what JLPT is I study out of interest. If you need these tests I guess you should at least look at them.
@@victori5581 I intend to do graduate studies in Japan, and being a government funded program, JLPT 1 is actually a requirement (or atleast a requirement to this specifical program, signed between Japan and Argentina). My current level hovers around JLPT N4-N5. I still have some years to go, so time shouldn't be a problem. I'll try as many inputs as possible then, since studying only from tests and such can get boring quickly. Thanks for your advice
@@Thelinguist JLPT, short for Japanese Language Proficiency Test. I study out of interest too, but also kinda out of necessity.
Apart from goals, it also depends on your personality. If you like testing, or need a pat on the back (like me) then yes. But, let me warn you, JLPT is an academic test. Up to about Level 3 is fairly practical. Then Level 2 and 1, which are basically required for entrance into the workforce and universities, pretty much flaunt all the grammar patterns you would never use unless delivering a speech with the Emperor in the audience. But again, if you’re trying to work or study in Japan, they are necessary evils
Cantonese, please
Please do Ukrainian!