[2023/March 19th edited] *I just made a Japanese online school and we're recruiting students until March 26th Sun 12 midnight in Japan time! There's more information in this video! ua-cam.com/video/8Ktnb4tEAg0/v-deo.html
Pues la verdad como que caí en los tres puntos y a eso le incluyo el echo de que me desmotivo muy rapido por lo cual dejo de hacer las cosas, no se si alguno le pase algo similar o si entienden XD
Translating less in your head and thinking more in the target language is definitely the way to go. It removes a lot of unnecessary processing overhead.
This is the 2nd time I've seen this advice and tbh, I just can't wrap my head around it. Be it while reading or listening, Japanese or Spanish, I feel like I just automatically see/hear the English for the content I recognize. I honestly can't imagine not doing that as I read, but if it's going to impede my road to fluency, I'm not sure what to do.
@@thedoctordb5765 It only gets easier with trying. Next time when in the shower start talking to yourself in spanish, anything that's on your mind. Could be something like 'i wanna go to x place, i feel sad, lets put on some shampoo', whatever really. And DO NOT use english for anything. Don't say uhm, say eeeh for spanish, or etooo for japanese. You gotta try to separate yourself from english
@@thedoctordb5765 Translating is something you need, to learn a new language and then you have to slowly get rid off those "training wheels". Feel hungry? Think to yourself お腹すいた. Think りんごを食べたい, when you want to eat an apple. It's a pretty good way to stay engaged: can't remember a word, look it up, etc. It will get easier over time and then someday the new language will become second nature.
@@Crackalacking_Z Would you say it's necessary to think of translating as training wheels, and that it'll be a hinderance to fluency eventually no matter what? Or as long as I can instantaneously translate it in my head and don't lose any time, is it feasible to still think about everything in English? OR... is my asking this question the biggest indicator that I'm just holding onto English as a crutch and need to ditch it lol I just honestly can't picture that end result, and maybe that's why I don't advance. Idk. I have done that exercise with smaller words and phrases before, actually (like saying おやすみ to my sister or 寝る時間 when I'm tired), but never really thought of it as a study method or something that I should do more often. But I still hear "good night" when saying the former. I will definitely try to do it more often with whatever vocab I already know, though. Appreciate the advice and new perspective. Thanks!
@@thedoctordb5765 As someone who's fluent in two languages (and a dialect) and not-so-fluent in three others, let me tell you that being able to think in your target language is definitely one of the most important steps in becoming fluent. You cannot instantaneously translate everything in your head without losing any time. There are plenty words, phrases and proverbs you won't be able to translate at all (よろしくお願いします for example, as it expresses a sentiment that simply doesn't come up in western culture - there are English phrases that come close, but there'll always be a significant difference in the nuance). And that's without even considering grammatical structures that exist in one language but not in the other, making them impossible to translate regardless of the words being used. Additionally, even if you were able to translate everything, there would always be a delay. It will never be as instantaneous as it would be if you were to think directly in the target language. So yes, if your aim is to learn Japanese, try to think in Japanese. As Crackalacking_Z said, start practicing this with single words and short phrases, for common everyday thoughts. That's a good way to start. Try to get to a point where you can process these simple thoughts in Japanese, without translating them to English. I can understand that it's hard to wrap your head around this if you've only ever learned a single language, but I would say that it's definitely a necessary step to become fluent. Think of it like this. Eventually, if you practice this enough, you'll notice that sometimes you start thinking in Japanese without making a conscious effort to do so. You might even have some thoughts in Japanese where you realize that you know what the Japanese thought means, but you don't immediately know how to translate it into English, at least in a way that sounds natural. You might hear English phrases and immediately translate them into Japanese in your head, instead of the other way around. All of those are signs that your fluency is Japanese has significantly improved.
currently im having a hard time studying. i feel like, no matter how much i study i cant progress. I feel like im stuck and looping around. i was having a really bad week and was starting to lose that 'fire' i had to study and to learn new things and progress. I found this video by accident and surprisingly was able to understand 90% of it. I enjoyed this video a lot, you cheered me up and im looking forward to watch more of your videos :) thank you.
@@Onur818 Currently living in Japan for three years, still nowhere near fluent but I can survive and communicate. you ARE improving, you just don't know it. JLPT and other language proficiency tests are usually very poor ways to judge someone's COMMUNICATIVE ability in a language. There is a reason why Japanese people are among the lowest English competent individuals even though they receive nearly 6 years of English class in school. Also, I know a few people with N1, and most of them are pretty much fluent in Japanese, however they were fluent first and then decided to try JLPT. The one acquaintance who approached it by studying rather than communicating in Japanese isn't that much more fluent than I am. So don't expect a paper from JLPT will make you good at communicating. Best of luck. Remember, YOU ARE IMPROVING!
Number 2 becomes natural to you as soon as you are not attached to any language at all at some point. For instance, when I started to learn my fifth foreign language several years ago, while living abroad, I also started to dissociate from my native language, because I was improving my skills in all the other languages during that period. At some point, sometimes I couldn't remember in which language I read an article or saw a news. It didn't matter which language I was using, they were all the same to me and I was thinking in all languages in the same way. If somebody asked me what was my native language, cause trust me, you would never guess, I would have been confused too (I grew up bilingual but with 3 languages at different times). Then I have found out there IS a way to know which language is still your best and that's those hidden words you never use in your adulthood, actually. Or the slang that is still present in your true essence. Maybe it's difficult to explain, but I don't regret anything, even though I don't feel belonging anywhere now. I just feel free and I just feel like an earthling. To me everbody is the same and I don't care about anybody's nationality, I really don't. Maybe that's a new path people should take from childhood on in order to become more tolerant and respectful of other cultures?
Welp, this is what a genius looks like guys! For normal people who don't grow up in multi-lingo environment, you can most likely become fluent at - at most - 3 languages, because language attrition is a thing. Overlapping of language will mess with your head, especially when you're an adult.
@@capslock956 it really depends on what alternate languages you choose, if you were to go from learning JP to Chinese you'd probably be perfectly fine and maybe even Korean, if your native is English then Spanish isn't all to hard to learn and from their it just kinda connects in a web, you learn one and other languages become easier to grasp with intersecting concepts like kanji
@@dragonmaster3030 Wait, but if language overlap is going to be a problem, wouldn't you be better off learning languages which are very different from one another?
I think one of the biggest mistake is not practicing speaking/writing normally at an early stage. I've "studied" Japanese for 5 years in school, only reading/writing/speaking short phrases following the textbooks. Now I'm living in Japan I realise I can't speak naturally at all! I can only speak in short phrases, totally broken Japanese. It sucks, and the sooner you start practicing speaking and writing the better you'll be in the future and set yourself up with a better foundation because you practice and correct the basics early on. Learn from my mistake folks!
I disagree tbh, it's hard to have any meaningul output if you don't know enough words. Although yeah, output *is* important eventually, but not when you're a very beginner. Remember kids spend years listening before even saying mama and papa.
@@floppyearfriend that’s a great point also. I know I’m contradicting myself since I’ve done nothing but input and now that I think about it now, there’s really no reason to do output in a language you’re learning at the beginning
one more thing: never trust google translate. i think there was a tweet from a japanese nijisanji member about a new indonesian members that went like "arent those new ID members speaking japanese too well? i might aswell stop speaking japanese", which google then turned into "the ID members arent speaking japanese well. stop speaking japanese"
I think I was lucky that I didn't really make these mistakes early on, hiragana and katakana were actually the first things I learned, so I never needed romaji. As for translating, I gave up translating whole sentences quickly because it didn't work, and although I still use English dictionary definitions when I look up words, I eventually won't even probably remember how to say it in English when I "acquire" the word, because I understand it immediately. I've been learning Japanese since August 2020, and I can say with certainty that the beginning stage is the hardest, and using ineffective methods makes it even harder. Nowadays learning new things about the language is easier, I just have to keep putting time into it and I will keep getting better, so for beginners, don't give up, it gets easier and easier, trust me.
i think japanese could be more adaptive to the international world. first of all many of them refuse to use english. when foreigners learn japanese for communicating with them. in fact they are capable to read latin characters. at least. please give it a try. not plainly escaping.
@@mishm299 i just watch a lot of stuff in Japanese and read a lot of manga, and sometimes books. If I don't know a word I look it up and put it into Anki. I've never used a textbook unless you count flipping through Tae Kim's guide a few times. I also don't do much grammar or Kanji study because Kanji I learn through words, and grammar I learn through context, but if the specific grammar point is like N1 level or something I watch a youtube video explaining it (also in Japanese, because its way easier to learn Japanese IN Japanese)
@@ntrg3248 Ahh thanks for the reply :) I started learning a month ago because I like a lot of japanese film directors, I've been watching a lot of movies in japanese over the years and finally decided it'd be cool to actually understand the language. I've been able to recognize some words and basic phrases now, but still a long way to go.. I just got my first manga so I plan to slowly go thru it and look up everything I don't know (99% of it..), should learn a lot of kanji that way i think. I'll try figuring out Anki
Uuff... what a relief that all this time I've been studying with hiragana 😅 It is true! The first thing I learned studying Japanese was to read hiragana, I remember I was nervous at first, but it turned out to be very easy to memorize! Currently I can read hiragana perfectly... although many times I don't understand the meaning of what I'm reading XD
僕も! (me too). My katakana still needs a bit of work but hiragana is fairly easy. where I still struggle is that when presented with more than just a couple words it very quickly overloads me and is hard to follow. I'm sure it's all just practice and exposure but it makes picking up reading materials quite intimidating
@@cryptic5142 yo same. months of learning... and for some reason i still can't get used to katakana. and even when i can translate, i would have hard time making up the word
@@lordofonionrings4187 What's helped me a lot with katakana is playing league of legends in Japanese and trying to parse all the champion names as they come up in the chat (ニーコ ジャックス パンティオン) It's gotten me a lot further than where i was, but it's still much slower than my hiragana and there are certain kana that very often force me to stop and think (チ、テ)(ラ、ワ、ウ)and so on
@@cryptic5142 My katakana still needs a bit of work too. I always get confused by katakana that look alike 😅 Oh! Coincidentally, the first kanji I learned to say "I" is 僕
I agree in particular about the second point. When I teach Italian I often suggest to pay attention to the "bones" of the language. How to construct and not how to translate every single word. We have no correspondence with hiragana, but I assure our verb forms are crazy. 😁
As for #3, I think one aspect of this habit (at least for me) is that sometimes, you are enjoying the feeling of progress, and aren't quite ready to have your bubble burst on what you thought you knew so well. I also get this way right before an exam for school, where sometimes I don't want to study because I don't want to find out what I don't actually know, which would give me more stress than I want at the moment. I guess this is like burying your head in the sand as they say :)
Learning Katakana isn't that hard but what I found that has helped me the most to get used to it was to search some Japanese songs that I kind of know already, put Japanese subtitles and try to sing by reading the Katakana. I tried that like 3 days ago and after the first few songs I noticed a huge improvement! Another thing I did was search gameplays of games that are dialogue heavy and have voice acting and the dialogue written at the same time. But I found that using songs was faster for me. I would recommend anyone to at least try it.
In my case learning hiragana and katakana wasn't hard but understanding kanjis pronunciation changes in different context was for me but I started using songs and breaking them down and it helped tremendously, not only with just the kanji but also on understanding root word formations and also verb conjugations big time!
I wish I had more Japanese conversation partners like you! I WANT people to tell me what I'm saying wrong and to suggest more natural things to say instead, but often the people I talk with just let me say whatever...
This is very helpful, thank you!! I definitely translate Japanese too literally and struggle to express feelings. The bit on advice is also so helpful!
I think it's really important to start on grammar as soon as you know hiragana!! I started learning Japanese in 2016 when I was 12 because of anime (lol), and I've learned hiragana, katakana, and a few kanji in all these years since then. I wasn't improving at all, but I had no motivation to cram 2000 or so kanji into my head. But then, spring of this year, I finally decided to open up a grammar guidebook (the one by Tae Kim), actually learn how sentences work, and practice outside of that, and I've had more progress in these few months than I had in 5 and a half years! (mad at myself for that 🤦♂)
It is easy to get discouraged when we feel that prick in our hearts after making a mistake and being corrected, even when we are trying to take the advice graciously. Thank you for reminding me that it is ok if the learning process stings a bit. Pain is often part of growth, even if it is unpleasant. I will keep trying!
I think the best method of learning a language is listening to content that is on your level or slightly above. You can do listening + reading at the same time like with videos and subtitles but you'll get an accent if you only read. Also try not to learn vocab separate, human mostly speak in sentences. Separate vocab is pretty useless since there is little context so there is a big change you mis interpret the meaning.
Thanks for your advice. I think in my case my stubbornness gets in the way of accepting advices and suggestions. Thank you for pointing it out!! Greetings from Colombia!! また他の面白い動画を楽しみです、よろしくおねがいします〜
I would probably add learning Katakana to the first point as that often crops up too. I think if you are in a relationship then this can be an opportunity to learn language together maybe, as I think one normal problem is trying to find someone to practice with. I have had some conversations where me and my friend used phone apps to look up difficult things which came up when talking. Also if people are nice people they will be understanding and helpful and shop assistants and waiters often will try to be very helpful
Katakana isn't that common most of the time though. So far I know Hiragana and some Kanjis but I know almost no Katakana because of how little it appears in the content I consume and as such I have hardly memorized any of them.
@@Greideren How long have you been studying Japanese? How long you’ve been studying the language, in my experience, has a huge correlation with encountering katakana. Most Japanese dictionaries use katakana to say the on’yomi (i.e. 生 - セイ). I assume that you would’ve memorised all the katakana if you’ve done quite a bit of kanji study (which isn’t always needed but most learners do it) Also, lots of immersion will definitely put katakana in the forefront if you’re looking into memorising katakana since it still is a major part of Japanese. These include: -Japanese mobile games -Manga -Japanese children’s songs -General texts Sorry for the long comment! I just have quite a few thoughts on how beginners interact with katakana.
@@Greideren Katakana are extremely important. If you say otherwise you're oblivous. They are used for emphasis and they are used instead of Kanji words in many instances.
@@m.m.2341 Never said Katakana wast important though. All I said is that they aren't as common as Hiragana and Kanji (which is true) and that I was having a bit of a hard time learning them because of it.
This was really helpful especially the second point. I know not to translate word for word but your explanation gave me a better idea of how to use vocab.ありがとう
Quizás no entiendas bien este comentario,pero me ayudas un montón con tu contenido(estudio en una escuela de lenguas extranjeras por lo tanto cometo muchos errores al practicar 5 idiomas al mismo tiempo)Ojalá algún día hablar japonés contigo
@@ugly_doll909... Тем, кого интересует затронутая в этом видео тема, пора уже понимать эти разъяснения на японском. Форма и содержание должны идти параллельно, не опережая одно другое. Ну, а субтитры могут быть, в лучшем случае, просто подстраховкой...
I am lucky I have a good teacher that focuses at least 3/4 of the lesson on conversation, it definitely makes me aware of my progress. I did also ask about something you said in a video that I couldn't seem to grasp and it was mainly because it s still difficult to get into the Japanese way of talking which is culturally completely different from the italian one. I really hope I'll get to a level where I can sound less direct talking, which is my weakness and makes me feel I might offend japanese people 😳
I took a Japanese class in college (Japanese I) my sensei told me I should continue to study and become fluent in the language because I learned quite fast. After 10 years of taking her class, here I am re-learning hiragana, Katakana, kanji and how to write sentences. I sometimes communicate with Japanese people, I might sound off or silly(I'm Hispanic) but at least I'm trying to communicate.
This is really a big help!! Hontou ni arigatou!! I am currently self-studying Japanese. So glad I started with making some word cards with in both romaji and kanji. It really helps me familiarize some Japanese words and kanji at the same time.
Simple, but on point. Thank you for sharing this. I'm a beginner in Japanese, but the first thing I recommend to people who want to learn Japanese is to start from Hiragana (and Katakana). It's really the logical thing to do, right? If you want to master a language, you should definitely master the letters, right? 🙂
this made my day. I never really tried listening comprehension, because I thought I could not understand anything, but with subtitles I can read and understand the meaning of almost every sentence, thank you for this motivation
When I use a translator it's usually a single word if I understand the structure but struggle understanding that particular word. やっぱ役に立っている動画ありがとうございます。先生
Could you kindly tell me when did you start studying japanese and how did you study? Am impressed u understood everything and I want to each that level as well...how do I study Japanese? I study on my own for now and know basic Japanese...if you could tell me how did you achieve this kind of understanding and how long it took for you to reach it, it would be really very helpful . Thank you
Wish you all the luck in your voice training! I've been wondering if you have a video where you speak in a more faster pace and casual Japanese? Or simply where you talk naturally as you do in your daily life, if there is I would really like to watch the video and if not I wish you can upload videos like that, it will be great for intermediate and advanced learners. thank you for the great content as always!
I agree with these points, though I have a caveat for number one: my undergraduate institution used the Japanese: The Spoken Language series by Jorden and Noda, and all classes were purely listening comprehension and speaking practice with a native speaker as the teacher. I had really struggled with these two aspects of learning Spanish in high school, and I think it was better for me to learn to speak the language first without getting distracted by learning to read or write. Additionally, when I and another student from my school studied abroad in Japan after two years of study, our ability to converse with others was much higher than other students with the same length of study - and we could always ask the people around us to help translate any signs we had trouble reading. [Note: The text I mention above actually uses its own phonetic romaji script, developed by linguistic experts, so it is not your standard romanization]. I will say though that once I started reading and writing in Japanese during study abroad, going back to reading romaji was not an enjoyable experience.
One thing I would recommend when learning any language is to write a short story on paper (preferably a nonsensical one), put it away and come back a month later to correct it. Just don't look at the story until one month has passed, so you can properly see how you've improved. I want to start doing this once a week with Japanese (once I'm at a higher level), since once a month already helped a lot with other languages and I badly need to practice my hiragana and Katakana.
I regconised a lot of grammar structure in here but the order still messes me up ;-; AND YES THE SECOND ADVICE IS SO ON POINT, I process really slow so i can never finish a sentence within 10 seconds if i keep translate word for word
I am starting to learn Japanese now and I can understand what you talk about, but it is not about want are you speaking, it is about your expression, you are amazing for make something like that
Okay you should follow number 2 and 3 with any language not just Japanese. As for number 1 yea, Hiragana and Katakana was the first thing I learned. In my Vocabulary book I wrote 3 column: in the first romanji in the second hiragana/katakana and in the 3rd translation. That way I would only focus on the hiragana/katakana and translation columns while learning but I still had the option to look at romanji which was pretty helpful in the beginning when I still had some problems with Hiragana/katakana. And when I had Kanji words, I would write the Kanji in the second column and instead of writing Romanji in the first, I wrote the Word in Hiragana there
i think another big piece of advise you could add here is "using" the language. I still struggle with this but many people who decide to learn a language, dont realize that application is a huge part of learning a language.
One of the biggest mistakes ive made is paying for classes in college. I had a strict communication with my teacher that would constantly correct my grammer. I guess this goes hand in hand with step 3, taking advice/critisism... But its very sad when you put in effort and get a low grade... My proffesor would give us vocabulary from a textbook, but then never use those words on an exam. His excuse was we needed to be fluid and do outside studying....while still learning basics. Studying on my own i remember far more words than in school . I think thats because i was happier to learn and try new things, than being scolded for using it wrong.
I'm only been 3 minutes into the video and I think I already found yet another sensei. I've been learning Japanese for... years, but doesn't exactly make any progress lol I mostly learn Japanese from... anime... but previously from an actual class tho but then I found out that learning on my own phase is better, but then again, I'm not making much of progress. at least with time goes, I'm getting better and better at understanding dialogues in both real world or anime. I just can't yet construct the words in my head to respond back in Japanese, or even have a conversation.
[2023/March 19th edited]
*I just made a Japanese online school and we're recruiting students until March 26th Sun 12 midnight in Japan time! There's more information in this video!
ua-cam.com/video/8Ktnb4tEAg0/v-deo.html
Pues la verdad como que caí en los tres puntos y a eso le incluyo el echo de que me desmotivo muy rapido por lo cual dejo de hacer las cosas, no se si alguno le pase algo similar o si entienden XD
Translating less in your head and thinking more in the target language is definitely the way to go. It removes a lot of unnecessary processing overhead.
This is the 2nd time I've seen this advice and tbh, I just can't wrap my head around it. Be it while reading or listening, Japanese or Spanish, I feel like I just automatically see/hear the English for the content I recognize. I honestly can't imagine not doing that as I read, but if it's going to impede my road to fluency, I'm not sure what to do.
@@thedoctordb5765 It only gets easier with trying. Next time when in the shower start talking to yourself in spanish, anything that's on your mind.
Could be something like 'i wanna go to x place, i feel sad, lets put on some shampoo', whatever really. And DO NOT use english for anything. Don't say uhm, say eeeh for spanish, or etooo for japanese.
You gotta try to separate yourself from english
@@thedoctordb5765 Translating is something you need, to learn a new language and then you have to slowly get rid off those "training wheels". Feel hungry? Think to yourself お腹すいた. Think りんごを食べたい, when you want to eat an apple. It's a pretty good way to stay engaged: can't remember a word, look it up, etc. It will get easier over time and then someday the new language will become second nature.
@@Crackalacking_Z Would you say it's necessary to think of translating as training wheels, and that it'll be a hinderance to fluency eventually no matter what? Or as long as I can instantaneously translate it in my head and don't lose any time, is it feasible to still think about everything in English? OR... is my asking this question the biggest indicator that I'm just holding onto English as a crutch and need to ditch it lol
I just honestly can't picture that end result, and maybe that's why I don't advance. Idk. I have done that exercise with smaller words and phrases before, actually (like saying おやすみ to my sister or 寝る時間 when I'm tired), but never really thought of it as a study method or something that I should do more often. But I still hear "good night" when saying the former. I will definitely try to do it more often with whatever vocab I already know, though. Appreciate the advice and new perspective. Thanks!
@@thedoctordb5765 As someone who's fluent in two languages (and a dialect) and not-so-fluent in three others, let me tell you that being able to think in your target language is definitely one of the most important steps in becoming fluent. You cannot instantaneously translate everything in your head without losing any time. There are plenty words, phrases and proverbs you won't be able to translate at all (よろしくお願いします for example, as it expresses a sentiment that simply doesn't come up in western culture - there are English phrases that come close, but there'll always be a significant difference in the nuance). And that's without even considering grammatical structures that exist in one language but not in the other, making them impossible to translate regardless of the words being used.
Additionally, even if you were able to translate everything, there would always be a delay. It will never be as instantaneous as it would be if you were to think directly in the target language. So yes, if your aim is to learn Japanese, try to think in Japanese. As Crackalacking_Z said, start practicing this with single words and short phrases, for common everyday thoughts. That's a good way to start. Try to get to a point where you can process these simple thoughts in Japanese, without translating them to English. I can understand that it's hard to wrap your head around this if you've only ever learned a single language, but I would say that it's definitely a necessary step to become fluent. Think of it like this.
Eventually, if you practice this enough, you'll notice that sometimes you start thinking in Japanese without making a conscious effort to do so. You might even have some thoughts in Japanese where you realize that you know what the Japanese thought means, but you don't immediately know how to translate it into English, at least in a way that sounds natural. You might hear English phrases and immediately translate them into Japanese in your head, instead of the other way around. All of those are signs that your fluency is Japanese has significantly improved.
currently im having a hard time studying. i feel like, no matter how much i study i cant progress. I feel like im stuck and looping around. i was having a really bad week and was starting to lose that 'fire' i had to study and to learn new things and progress. I found this video by accident and surprisingly was able to understand 90% of it. I enjoyed this video a lot, you cheered me up and im looking forward to watch more of your videos :) thank you.
We sometimes don’t realize how much we progressed but you’re moving forward step by step.
I’m happy that this video made you realize that you’re すごい😆
im gonna attend jlpt n4 1 month later and im still not 上手. i fail at probe exams thats frustrating me. I studied 1 year regularly
We are in the same situation. I have been studying for a year regularly. It made me very happy to be able to understand 90% of the video.
@@Onur818 Currently living in Japan for three years, still nowhere near fluent but I can survive and communicate. you ARE improving, you just don't know it. JLPT and other language proficiency tests are usually very poor ways to judge someone's COMMUNICATIVE ability in a language. There is a reason why Japanese people are among the lowest English competent individuals even though they receive nearly 6 years of English class in school. Also, I know a few people with N1, and most of them are pretty much fluent in Japanese, however they were fluent first and then decided to try JLPT. The one acquaintance who approached it by studying rather than communicating in Japanese isn't that much more fluent than I am. So don't expect a paper from JLPT will make you good at communicating. Best of luck. Remember, YOU ARE IMPROVING!
@@alecbarnett2759 thanks a lot for motivation.shikkari
Number 2 becomes natural to you as soon as you are not attached to any language at all at some point. For instance, when I started to learn my fifth foreign language several years ago, while living abroad, I also started to dissociate from my native language, because I was improving my skills in all the other languages during that period. At some point, sometimes I couldn't remember in which language I read an article or saw a news. It didn't matter which language I was using, they were all the same to me and I was thinking in all languages in the same way. If somebody asked me what was my native language, cause trust me, you would never guess, I would have been confused too (I grew up bilingual but with 3 languages at different times). Then I have found out there IS a way to know which language is still your best and that's those hidden words you never use in your adulthood, actually. Or the slang that is still present in your true essence. Maybe it's difficult to explain, but I don't regret anything, even though I don't feel belonging anywhere now. I just feel free and I just feel like an earthling. To me everbody is the same and I don't care about anybody's nationality, I really don't. Maybe that's a new path people should take from childhood on in order to become more tolerant and respectful of other cultures?
noice
Welp, this is what a genius looks like guys! For normal people who don't grow up in multi-lingo environment, you can most likely become fluent at - at most - 3 languages, because language attrition is a thing. Overlapping of language will mess with your head, especially when you're an adult.
Да, я думаю ты прав.
@@capslock956 it really depends on what alternate languages you choose, if you were to go from learning JP to Chinese you'd probably be perfectly fine and maybe even Korean, if your native is English then Spanish isn't all to hard to learn and from their it just kinda connects in a web, you learn one and other languages become easier to grasp with intersecting concepts like kanji
@@dragonmaster3030
Wait, but if language overlap is going to be a problem, wouldn't you be better off learning languages which are very different from one another?
I think one of the biggest mistake is not practicing speaking/writing normally at an early stage. I've "studied" Japanese for 5 years in school, only reading/writing/speaking short phrases following the textbooks. Now I'm living in Japan I realise I can't speak naturally at all! I can only speak in short phrases, totally broken Japanese. It sucks, and the sooner you start practicing speaking and writing the better you'll be in the future and set yourself up with a better foundation because you practice and correct the basics early on.
Learn from my mistake folks!
Early output is a sin
@@coral3831 it makes sense tbh but at the same time it’s hard to put in the output if you don’t know what they’re saying though listening
I disagree tbh, it's hard to have any meaningul output if you don't know enough words. Although yeah, output *is* important eventually, but not when you're a very beginner. Remember kids spend years listening before even saying mama and papa.
@@floppyearfriend that’s a great point also. I know I’m contradicting myself since I’ve done nothing but input and now that I think about it now, there’s really no reason to do output in a language you’re learning at the beginning
漢字の書き方を学ぶことはぜんぜんいらない。それは時間の無駄だ。さいきん日本に住んでる人さえほとんど手でなにも書かない。それでも一つメリットがある。よく紛らわしい漢字を頻繁に書けばすぐ見分けるようになるはず。
one more thing: never trust google translate. i think there was a tweet from a japanese nijisanji member about a new indonesian members that went like "arent those new ID members speaking japanese too well? i might aswell stop speaking japanese", which google then turned into "the ID members arent speaking japanese well. stop speaking japanese"
°x°
笑!!!!
lol yeah tbh google translate is awful at almost any east-asian language, ONLY just it as a very rough reference
Omg I remember that tweet so clearly, and was the person in the replies quickly trying to clear it up so people wouldn't trust the google tl lol
When was that? that's hilarious 😂
I think I was lucky that I didn't really make these mistakes early on, hiragana and katakana were actually the first things I learned, so I never needed romaji. As for translating, I gave up translating whole sentences quickly because it didn't work, and although I still use English dictionary definitions when I look up words, I eventually won't even probably remember how to say it in English when I "acquire" the word, because I understand it immediately. I've been learning Japanese since August 2020, and I can say with certainty that the beginning stage is the hardest, and using ineffective methods makes it even harder. Nowadays learning new things about the language is easier, I just have to keep putting time into it and I will keep getting better, so for beginners, don't give up, it gets easier and easier, trust me.
what are some of your favorite methods for learning?
i think japanese could be more adaptive to the international world. first of all many of them refuse to use english. when foreigners learn japanese for communicating with them. in fact they are capable to read latin characters. at least. please give it a try. not plainly escaping.
@@mishm299 i just watch a lot of stuff in Japanese and read a lot of manga, and sometimes books. If I don't know a word I look it up and put it into Anki. I've never used a textbook unless you count flipping through Tae Kim's guide a few times. I also don't do much grammar or Kanji study because Kanji I learn through words, and grammar I learn through context, but if the specific grammar point is like N1 level or something I watch a youtube video explaining it (also in Japanese, because its way easier to learn Japanese IN Japanese)
@@ntrg3248 Ahh thanks for the reply :) I started learning a month ago because I like a lot of japanese film directors, I've been watching a lot of movies in japanese over the years and finally decided it'd be cool to actually understand the language. I've been able to recognize some words and basic phrases now, but still a long way to go.. I just got my first manga so I plan to slowly go thru it and look up everything I don't know (99% of it..), should learn a lot of kanji that way i think. I'll try figuring out Anki
おおおお!ひときさんの歌是非聞きたいです!
😂👍
I couldn’t read the kanji but I could read the Hiragana. Even though I only knew ひときさん
@@kiyk7273 It reads 「ひときさんのうたぜひききたい」and means “I’d love to hear Hitoki’s songs” :)
@@kiyk7273 sameee!!
Uuff... what a relief that all this time I've been studying with hiragana 😅
It is true! The first thing I learned studying Japanese was to read hiragana, I remember I was nervous at first, but it turned out to be very easy to memorize!
Currently I can read hiragana perfectly... although many times I don't understand the meaning of what I'm reading XD
i hate katakana DIE KATAKANA
僕も! (me too). My katakana still needs a bit of work but hiragana is fairly easy. where I still struggle is that when presented with more than just a couple words it very quickly overloads me and is hard to follow. I'm sure it's all just practice and exposure but it makes picking up reading materials quite intimidating
@@cryptic5142 yo same. months of learning... and for some reason i still can't get used to katakana. and even when i can translate, i would have hard time making up the word
@@lordofonionrings4187 What's helped me a lot with katakana is playing league of legends in Japanese and trying to parse all the champion names as they come up in the chat (ニーコ ジャックス パンティオン) It's gotten me a lot further than where i was, but it's still much slower than my hiragana and there are certain kana that very often force me to stop and think (チ、テ)(ラ、ワ、ウ)and so on
@@cryptic5142 My katakana still needs a bit of work too. I always get confused by katakana that look alike 😅
Oh! Coincidentally, the first kanji I learned to say "I" is 僕
I agree in particular about the second point. When I teach Italian I often suggest to pay attention to the "bones" of the language. How to construct and not how to translate every single word. We have no correspondence with hiragana, but I assure our verb forms are crazy. 😁
As for #3, I think one aspect of this habit (at least for me) is that sometimes, you are enjoying the feeling of progress, and aren't quite ready to have your bubble burst on what you thought you knew so well. I also get this way right before an exam for school, where sometimes I don't want to study because I don't want to find out what I don't actually know, which would give me more stress than I want at the moment. I guess this is like burying your head in the sand as they say :)
Learning Katakana isn't that hard but what I found that has helped me the most to get used to it was to search some Japanese songs that I kind of know already, put Japanese subtitles and try to sing by reading the Katakana.
I tried that like 3 days ago and after the first few songs I noticed a huge improvement!
Another thing I did was search gameplays of games that are dialogue heavy and have voice acting and the dialogue written at the same time. But I found that using songs was faster for me.
I would recommend anyone to at least try it.
ill definitely try that to be able to read faster
In my case learning hiragana and katakana wasn't hard but understanding kanjis pronunciation changes in different context was for me but I started using songs and breaking them down and it helped tremendously, not only with just the kanji but also on understanding root word formations and also verb conjugations big time!
そうだね!今の僕の日本語はまだまだだけど確かに今まで成長できたのはこういう理由だと思ってるね~
ローマ字はひらがなとカタカナを勉強するためだけに使うべきだと思う
もう一つは日本人が自然に喋ったり使ったりしてる日本語をできるだけ読んだり聞いたりするのもめっちゃ大事だなと思う
もちろん友達と電話してるときにうまく伝えられないことがまだ多いんだけど、教科書を使ったことないのに何時間もある程度に会話できるのはずっとツイッターを使ったり、ゲームをしたり、動画を観たりしてたからだと思ってる。
今回もすごくおもろい動画ありがとう!最初から最後まで字幕を見ずにほとんど全部理解できた!オノマップさんの日本語の発音が綺麗で、喋るスピードがちょうどいいおかげで!
4:58 笑
I really appreciate that you give your lessons in Japanese and use subtitles. I learn much more that way.
I wish I had more Japanese conversation partners like you! I WANT people to tell me what I'm saying wrong and to suggest more natural things to say instead, but often the people I talk with just let me say whatever...
This is very helpful, thank you!! I definitely translate Japanese too literally and struggle to express feelings.
The bit on advice is also so helpful!
Great advice, I'll show this to my study Japanese study club - they seem reluctant to just learn hiragana before learning more Japanese. ありがとう!
I think it's really important to start on grammar as soon as you know hiragana!!
I started learning Japanese in 2016 when I was 12 because of anime (lol), and I've learned hiragana, katakana, and a few kanji in all these years since then. I wasn't improving at all, but I had no motivation to cram 2000 or so kanji into my head. But then, spring of this year, I finally decided to open up a grammar guidebook (the one by Tae Kim), actually learn how sentences work, and practice outside of that, and I've had more progress in these few months than I had in 5 and a half years! (mad at myself for that 🤦♂)
はっきり話してくれて、字幕を作ってくれてありがとうございます!
分かりやすいですね!
It is easy to get discouraged when we feel that prick in our hearts after making a mistake and being corrected, even when we are trying to take the advice graciously. Thank you for reminding me that it is ok if the learning process stings a bit. Pain is often part of growth, even if it is unpleasant. I will keep trying!
I think the best method of learning a language is listening to content that is on your level or slightly above. You can do listening + reading at the same time like with videos and subtitles but you'll get an accent if you only read. Also try not to learn vocab separate, human mostly speak in sentences. Separate vocab is pretty useless since there is little context so there is a big change you mis interpret the meaning.
but how do I know what level I'm on? I'm having that problem with english
Thanks for your advice. I think in my case my stubbornness gets in the way of accepting advices and suggestions. Thank you for pointing it out!! Greetings from Colombia!! また他の面白い動画を楽しみです、よろしくおねがいします〜
Thank you! You’re so beautiful and informative 👏🏻
I would probably add learning Katakana to the first point as that often crops up too. I think if you are in a relationship then this can be an opportunity to learn language together maybe, as I think one normal problem is trying to find someone to practice with.
I have had some conversations where me and my friend used phone apps to look up difficult things which came up when talking. Also if people are nice people they will be understanding and helpful and shop assistants and waiters often will try to be very helpful
Katakana isn't that common most of the time though.
So far I know Hiragana and some Kanjis but I know almost no Katakana because of how little it appears in the content I consume and as such I have hardly memorized any of them.
@@Greideren How long have you been studying Japanese?
How long you’ve been studying the language, in my experience, has a huge correlation with encountering katakana.
Most Japanese dictionaries use katakana to say the on’yomi (i.e. 生 - セイ).
I assume that you would’ve memorised all the katakana if you’ve done quite a bit of kanji study (which isn’t always needed but most learners do it)
Also, lots of immersion will definitely put katakana in the forefront if you’re looking into memorising katakana since it still is a major part of Japanese.
These include:
-Japanese mobile games
-Manga
-Japanese children’s songs
-General texts
Sorry for the long comment!
I just have quite a few thoughts on how beginners interact with katakana.
@@Greideren Katakana are extremely important. If you say otherwise you're oblivous.
They are used for emphasis and they are used instead of Kanji words in many instances.
@@m.m.2341 Never said Katakana wast important though. All I said is that they aren't as common as Hiragana and Kanji (which is true) and that I was having a bit of a hard time learning them because of it.
@@Greideren Then I really don't know what kind of "content" you're consuming? Maybe you don't do gaming? Because gaming is FULL of Katakana.
I watched this video without subtitles and understood everything. I am impressed.
I feel really comfortable watching your videos, you're so lovely and wise, ありがとうございます!!
ええええ~ 字幕がないまでに分かりやすかった、ありがとうね
helps to imagine your thoughts and writing them in japanese even with limited vocabulary; this helps put them in contextual form.
This was really helpful especially the second point. I know not to translate word for word but your explanation gave me a better idea of how to use vocab.ありがとう
Thank you for the tips Hitoki-san! Greetings from Brazil!
Quizás no entiendas bien este comentario,pero me ayudas un montón con tu contenido(estudio en una escuela de lenguas extranjeras por lo tanto cometo muchos errores al practicar 5 idiomas al mismo tiempo)Ojalá algún día hablar japonés contigo
I'm glad I don't make those mistakes and I can tell my japanese is getting better since I don't need the subtitles so much now!
明確とゆっくり説いてめっちゃ便利と思う! 教えてありがとう!
Спасибо за субтитры! Это так мило и приятно, когда они есть на твоём языке и ты можешь понять ту полезную информацию, что тебе так нужна!)
да да даа! Это очень классно)
@@ugly_doll909... Тем, кого интересует затронутая в этом видео тема, пора уже понимать эти разъяснения на японском. Форма и содержание должны идти параллельно, не опережая одно другое. Ну, а субтитры могут быть, в лучшем случае, просто подстраховкой...
I am lucky I have a good teacher that focuses at least 3/4 of the lesson on conversation, it definitely makes me aware of my progress. I did also ask about something you said in a video that I couldn't seem to grasp and it was mainly because it s still difficult to get into the Japanese way of talking which is culturally completely different from the italian one. I really hope I'll get to a level where I can sound less direct talking, which is my weakness and makes me feel I might offend japanese people 😳
私完全な日本人なんですけど、最近インドネシアの友達に日本語を教える機会があって、教えるのがすごく難しかったので、ひときさんの動画を見せたいと思います!とってもわかりやすいし、ネイティブは日本語を無意識に話しているところがあるので細かい文法になかなか焦点を当てない人が多いので、文法の疑問等をピックアップして動画にまとめているところがとっても尊敬できます。日本人でも確かに!と思ってしまうような内容が多いので、改めて自身の母語に触れ合う良い機会にもなりました!これからも動画投稿頑張ってください!
kyun-desu at the start made me nearly choke on water, i wheezed so hard LMAO
I took a Japanese class in college (Japanese I) my sensei told me I should continue to study and become fluent in the language because I learned quite fast.
After 10 years of taking her class, here I am re-learning hiragana, Katakana, kanji and how to write sentences.
I sometimes communicate with Japanese people, I might sound off or silly(I'm Hispanic) but at least I'm trying to communicate.
#2 helped me a lot but the whole video itself helped a lot thanks
I m in love with this guys omg
すげえ...外国人の人に分かりやすいようにめっちゃはっきり喋ってる.......
日本語勉強してるので、この動画を見てすごく分かりやすい日本語話してくれてありがとうございます。
発音すごくきれいで、字幕なくても全部聞き取れました!
アドバイスもありがとうございます。
Your new subscriber 👍🏻
ありがとうございます
It's a very good insight using the telepathy example. Not anybody noticed that when learning or teaching another language.
Thank you for this! I'm looking forward to your singing!
This is really a big help!! Hontou ni arigatou!! I am currently self-studying Japanese. So glad I started with making some word cards with in both romaji and kanji. It really helps me familiarize some Japanese words and kanji at the same time.
I would add one thing: get Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig. if you're serious about learning Japanese, it's a MUST read.
Bro, thank you for this advice, it supported me in learning Hiragana, I hope I can learn it completely soon
Simple, but on point. Thank you for sharing this. I'm a beginner in Japanese, but the first thing I recommend to people who want to learn Japanese is to start from Hiragana (and Katakana). It's really the logical thing to do, right? If you want to master a language, you should definitely master the letters, right? 🙂
楽しみ is such a cool word that you used
大きな助けになりましたありがとうございました!
韓国人です、日本語が専攻だが、あまりにも下手で悩みが多かったが、おかげで大きな助けになりました。
wow this is the first time I understood everything without stopping lol
非常に便利なビデオありがとうございました
this made my day. I never really tried listening comprehension, because I thought I could not understand anything, but with subtitles I can read and understand the meaning of almost every sentence, thank you for this motivation
When I use a translator it's usually a single word if I understand the structure but struggle understanding that particular word.
やっぱ役に立っている動画ありがとうございます。先生
なんか、めっちゃ優しいですねぇ
ありがとうございます🙇🏻♀️
歌伴奏、手伝いますよ、、、なんて笑笑
楽しかったです!勉強になります
Thank you!!
Step by step my Japanese skills are getting better and I got almost everything in this video without subtitles✌
Could you kindly tell me when did you start studying japanese and how did you study? Am impressed u understood everything and I want to each that level as well...how do I study Japanese? I study on my own for now and know basic Japanese...if you could tell me how did you achieve this kind of understanding and how long it took for you to reach it, it would be really very helpful . Thank you
im half way of the video and i felt the urge to comment that he is so funny xD GOOD GOOD id probably check your videos from now on
Wish you all the luck in your voice training!
I've been wondering if you have a video where you speak in a more faster pace and casual Japanese? Or simply where you talk naturally as you do in your daily life, if there is I would really like to watch the video and if not I wish you can upload videos like that, it will be great for intermediate and advanced learners.
thank you for the great content as always!
Thank you very much! It's very nice to listen to you! And what great advice :)
My man saved my whole life
Thank you alot.
I agree with these points, though I have a caveat for number one: my undergraduate institution used the Japanese: The Spoken Language series by Jorden and Noda, and all classes were purely listening comprehension and speaking practice with a native speaker as the teacher. I had really struggled with these two aspects of learning Spanish in high school, and I think it was better for me to learn to speak the language first without getting distracted by learning to read or write. Additionally, when I and another student from my school studied abroad in Japan after two years of study, our ability to converse with others was much higher than other students with the same length of study - and we could always ask the people around us to help translate any signs we had trouble reading. [Note: The text I mention above actually uses its own phonetic romaji script, developed by linguistic experts, so it is not your standard romanization]. I will say though that once I started reading and writing in Japanese during study abroad, going back to reading romaji was not an enjoyable experience.
I have been translating in my head this whole time. Thank you for the advice! I will try to stop doing that.
Thank you for this video!
One thing I would recommend when learning any language is to write a short story on paper (preferably a nonsensical one), put it away and come back a month later to correct it. Just don't look at the story until one month has passed, so you can properly see how you've improved. I want to start doing this once a week with Japanese (once I'm at a higher level), since once a month already helped a lot with other languages and I badly need to practice my hiragana and Katakana.
アドバイス本当にありがとうございます。
ありがとうございます✨
ひとき先生、💖
本当にありがとう御座います!アドバイスは大切ですけど、大切だけではないです。モチベーションがたくさんもらえますので、感謝の気持ちが心の中でたくさん持っています。今はロシアで大変な時代ですが、いつかこちらへ来てくれたら、話ができるかどうか、分からないですが、楽しみにしています。よろしくお願いいたします!🙏💞🇯🇵㊗️
Looking forward to your performance. It will be great!!!!
I regconised a lot of grammar structure in here but the order still messes me up ;-; AND YES THE SECOND ADVICE IS SO ON POINT, I process really slow so i can never finish a sentence within 10 seconds if i keep translate word for word
This is such a good channel
I am starting to learn Japanese now and I can understand what you talk about, but it is not about want are you speaking, it is about your expression, you are amazing for make something like that
日本語の字幕本当に助かります。ありがとうございます。
Thank you for the great video and advice!
thank you so much!
Thanks You. Your videos is so much helping to me because ı wanna go to school at Japan.
Great video. Never seen your videos before but you're a great presenter with a ton of charisma!
非常に役立つビデオ!
Really well said 💪
OMG you are so funny and positive, thank you for your videos! subscribed
HAHAH YOUR HUMOR IS SO HILARIOUS ONOMAPPU
Thanks for video :)
Great video and advice!
Hitoki-san, thank you for the advices!
I had a lot of fun just by watching you, but your lessons and advice are great too 🌟
the 2nd advice about translating word for word is something i'm guilty of. i should stop doing it 🥲 ありがとうございます!
Okay you should follow number 2 and 3 with any language not just Japanese.
As for number 1 yea, Hiragana and Katakana was the first thing I learned. In my Vocabulary book I wrote 3 column: in the first romanji in the second hiragana/katakana and in the 3rd translation. That way I would only focus on the hiragana/katakana and translation columns while learning but I still had the option to look at romanji which was pretty helpful in the beginning when I still had some problems with Hiragana/katakana.
And when I had Kanji words, I would write the Kanji in the second column and instead of writing Romanji in the first, I wrote the Word in Hiragana there
Thankyou i love your channel !
謝謝~第三點好有感😭好想被糾正,但突然被糾正又有點心梗
最近好想放棄啊啊啊
Thank you👍🏾
Thank you SO much for providing double subtitles and speaking in Japanese! 🫰🫰🫰 God bless you
ありがとうございます先生
I agree with second point. When we learn new language, it will be better to know and remember phrase by phrase.
i think another big piece of advise you could add here is "using" the language. I still struggle with this but many people who decide to learn a language, dont realize that application is a huge part of learning a language.
Thank you Onomappu this video's so helpful! ❤
Really thank you, now I study english at Canada but most of my friend is Japanese so I need to study Japanese.
Lol! “HEY! 👋 Today IS! Hello! TODAY IS to EVERY BODY!” 😂
One of the biggest mistakes ive made is paying for classes in college. I had a strict communication with my teacher that would constantly correct my grammer. I guess this goes hand in hand with step 3, taking advice/critisism... But its very sad when you put in effort and get a low grade... My proffesor would give us vocabulary from a textbook, but then never use those words on an exam. His excuse was we needed to be fluid and do outside studying....while still learning basics.
Studying on my own i remember far more words than in school . I think thats because i was happier to learn and try new things, than being scolded for using it wrong.
I'm only been 3 minutes into the video and I think I already found yet another sensei.
I've been learning Japanese for... years, but doesn't exactly make any progress lol
I mostly learn Japanese from... anime... but previously from an actual class tho
but then I found out that learning on my own phase is better, but then again, I'm not making much of progress.
at least with time goes, I'm getting better and better at understanding dialogues in both real world or anime.
I just can't yet construct the words in my head to respond back in Japanese, or even have a conversation.
すごい!そのビデオが好きだよ!日本語の勉強は難しい、でも僕は諦めない