In recent months I've been feeling like I'm stuck in the intermediate blues. One thing that's helped me (in terms of morale) is to revisit material from earlier in my studies. I've found that things that I struggled with a couple of years ago are now relatively straightforward. Things that I previously struggled to read I can now get through faster. So I know that things I am struggling with at the moment will also become easier as I use them more. But because it's such a gradual process, it's difficult to see the progress on a bigger scale. When climbing the mountain, sometimes you should turn around to see how far you've come, rather than always concentrating on how much of the mountain is still in front of you.
I feel like this advice applies to learning any skill in general. Learn the basics and then do what it is you intended to use the skills for when you first started out. For example, you want to be a writer, you read a couple of books of your desired genre, learn from them and then start writing stories. You don't sit back and keep studying storytelling like some kind of science. Same goes for drawing, playing any instrument etc.
The modern self learning android sensei technology is something else. You have basically read my mental state from my mind. Thank you sensei. Your active presence helps me stay motivated :D
Dolly-sensei's videos are an absolute treasure trove, I am so thankful I came across this channel! There are hours and hours of content and invaluable material (and motivation). She certainly continues to make an impression, even now. Thank you eternally, Dolly-sensei.
I must really say that finding your channel is the greatest help out there, thank you so much for everything you do for us, I don't have a really good English so I hope you will understand what I want to say but I really think you're one of the reasons why I feel acmpagnied in my language journey, thanks for the great videos and the high quality of work you put behind them
This has to be one of your best video’s ever. Not only did you tackle so much about this “problem” but you also did some kind of motivation Video for me. Especially this week was really tough for me in terms of learning Japanese, but you made some points why I actually want to learn it, actually now even live it instead ❤️
I started learning Japanese around 5 years ago. I started strong, advanced fast, but then I graduated College and my job took so much time my main priority was to *keep being intermediate, don't lose that level* because I couldn't dedicate much time to improve anymore (AND I didn't know your channel, Dolly, so I kept being confused by how things in Japanese seemed so random all the time). Now I'm back to more active learning and feeling so frustrated about being intermediate for SO LONG. Thanks for your tips!
It can be a little depressing if you feel like you're not making much progress... but from time to time you'll feel like your progress is immense when you can see a random comic page in Japanese, that has no translation, and you can translate some 80-100% of it, needing to look up only a couple of odd words. There's a fuckload of Japanese content floating around, and not all of it gets translated. And that's what I think a lot of us may be learning for. So we can consume that content, laugh at the same memes as our friends in Japan, and such. Dolly, all of your videos are amazing, even when they serve primarily to keep us on the path of learning.
Amazing video! I can relate to it so much. For the last year or so my "learning" of Japanese was pretty forced - I've learned a lot but I feel like I'm not having fun with "learning" anymore, so I actually started doing the things I've always wanted to do, like reading/watching stuff, playing games, interacting with Japanese people when there's an opportunity, I always felt like what I already knew was still not enough - I kept feeling overwhelmed by the inevitable influx of new words and structures whenever I tried immersing and backed down several times. But the right thing was to just keep doing what was actually fun for me, I kept on trying and eventually got completely absorbed in immersion. It's not a matter of how much you know, but instead it just takes some time and effort to get used to. Perhaps, I'll never find "studying" Japanese as fun as before, but in the first place, it was never as fun as the things I'm able to do in Japanese now, and which I've always wanted to do.
Every stage can be fun - as long as you don't get too obsessed with "learning" and just enjoy what you are able to do right now. Doing what is actually fun is the key!
A big thank you Dolly Sensei for another great motivational video and to keep reminding us that we have to enjoy the journey of learning Japanese! You definitely made it so much more enjoybale with all the helpful videos you have posted. :)
Well every time I listen To you I get a little more inspiration. What I take from this is I need a little of all. I must be able to read and then discuss the book or article with some one in Japanese. I also must be able to understand their comments. So IMHO you gotta make sure you get a well rounded education. Some days I have preferences and might have a reading day or a Cure Dolly Day. I love learning Japanese but sometimes I am not in the mood for a challenge and might just watch Japanese tv.
Once again what a great video.! I have felt those feelings myself. I would like to share my experience with the community. I'll start saying that I feel that I've reach the point I can speak Japanese. Specifically I can have everyday level conversation in Japanese, but if I got carried to any specific kind of conversation, for example coronavirus there is a lot of specific vocabulary that I don't know and my strategy now for work on that problem is watching news in UA-cam to grow my vocabulary in order to become able to give my opinions at least on current affairs topics. What was the step I took to reach this level... obviously there have been lot of hours acquiring Japanese, following the recommendations of Doly Sensei have been a shortcut for sure, but at least for me, I think the key step was the following: About 4 months ago or so I decided of rewatching anime that I had watched when I was a kid without any kind of subs, so far I've already watched Love Hina, Slam Dunk and over 100 episodes of Pokemon (in parallel, I'm still watching Japanese subtitled anime in animelon and netflix). At the beginning my understanding ratio was between 50% - 60%, there were episodes easier than others of course, but now I would say in average is over 80%, and sometimes nearly 100% (that's the feeling I get). And is true, even if I don't feel I'm progressing in my Japanese as fast as before, I feel really good because I'm close to one of my goals that is watch anime without subs. As I said before of course there is still vocabulary problems, when I've tried to watch more complex anime like monogatari series or psychopass I realize my vocabulary is insufficient and I have to step back to Japanese and English (or Spanish which is my native lengauge) subtitles and work on the keywords and most repeated words on my anki. Hope everybody can reach the point that feels all the study is rewarding!!
Exactly what I needed. Thank you. Your framing of the learning process is something I need to be reminded of, as it's the core of motivated absorption. I wasn't reading anything fun anymore, so the process was getting boring. Adding in too many jukago with unfamiliar kanji didn't help me either. Gonna go hunting for a cool anime to use yomichan with.
This is a really important question and one I wish was talked about more. It's something I struggle with a great deal. My original goal in learning Japanese was because there were a handful of games I really, really wanted to play that weren't available in English. I spent a great deal of time and effort getting to a level where I could play and understand those games. Playing through them was great, and made the effort feel totally worth it at the time but after having played them I was left with a "okay...what now?" sort of feeling. Also, in the time since, about 2/3rds of the games I started learning Japanese for have been translated into English by fan translation projects, so if I would've been a bit more patient I could have played them without all the struggle. And I definitely see a big trend for more translation of Japanese stuff rather than less, so while I'd rather have the tools to do this again if needed, will it really ever be needed again? Like right now I'm playing a game and reading a book in Japanese. I'm genuinely enjoying both in terms of the story. But the problem is, there are fan translations of both the book and the game. So then why am I playing them in Japanese? It's only making it harder and slower for myself. I don't think it makes sense either to specifically seek out as-yet-untranslated things if it means rejecting something you want to do more BECAUSE it's available in English (and almost everything falls into this category nowadays - If there's something you're interested in, it's almost certainly available in English). Sometimes I think the sunk cost fallacy and a (perhaps irrational) fear of being locked out of things I enjoy by a language barrier in the future are all that keep me learning. I can't help but wonder what your answers are. What was your reason for learning Japanese? What can you do knowing Japanese that you couldn't do before?
If you are happy consuming "Japanese material" in English then consume it in English. Remember that you are not actually playing/reading the Japanese material. You are playing/reading an English re-writing of it. It has to be because even if they aren't trying to "localize" - and they often are - and what that means is re-write the characters as pseudo-Americans but even if they aren't doing that, Japanese is so different from English that you can often "translate" the same thing a dozen different ways. However if you're happy to settle for English "translations" - if you really think they are a decent substitute for the real thing - then why waste your time with Japanese? Personally I wouldn't touch a "translation" with a ten-foot pole unless I absolutely had to. Bear in mind also that if the translation is "professional" it will typically be "localizing like crazy" and if it is amateur then you are substituting an amateur writer with an unknown grasp of the original language for a polished and often highly artistic material. But in the end the real motivation is that you want to get close to the real Japanese original - or else you don't care about that. Either is a valid choice. For me translations typically come off as coarser and shallower than the original and - just very 外人っぽい.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Interesting perspective. While reading this, you reminded me of the people that learn Latin to read the classics, or Hebrew or Aramaic to better appreciate their holy texts. Out of curiosity, do you extend this philosophy to works originally written in languages other than English & Japanese? How many language packs do you have installed, exactly? I think I would 100% agree with you back in the 90s or early 00s when translating was absolutely synonymous with making a game worse. Even now, some of my most rewarding experiences with Japanese were going back and replaying old 90s RPGs from my childhood and realizing the English version missed about 25% of the story/characterization/etc and getting to experience that for the first time. But nowadays? I'm not so sure. There have been several times recently where I've found out some of my favorite lines from games were purely the invention of localizers. Perhaps precisely because you wouldn't touch a translation unless you had to, you may not have noticed the quality of Japanese translation changing around you? That's the reason I find myself struggling with motivation...I also think it's the reason many see learning Japanese as a hobby rather than a means of accessing information they want (which you've commented on several times) - they see the information as already available in English.
@@freshmilkshower3310 I don't think it is a question of objectively "better" or "worse" (at least with good professional translation) so much as more or less like the original work, more or less Japanese. A lot of people probably don't care about that and there is no reason they should. Either one does or one doesn't. For example recent translations of Dragon Quest have been very good. And very creative. It's jut that I am not looking for original American creations. But then I have no interest in American popular culture so that may just be me. I don't think reading things in the original is the only reason for wanting to know Japanese. I was just responding to your comment which implied that if material was available in English there would be little point reading it in Japanese. However I agree that most people's reasons for learning Japanese are not because information is unavailable without it. In most (not all) cases it is available. What a person's reasons are for learning Japanese are really their own affair. I have to assume that they have such reasons or they wouldn't be here. For some I think it will be love of Japanese language/culture.
Dolly, I love your material. You've encouraged me to finally dive into contextual Japanese in anime and books, and even regularly meet with two people on Hellotalk (which I was too embarrassed to do before). But I have friends that are wary of taking your advice. I think it's obvious that you research extensively and have used these methods yourself. However, if you don't mind answering, what is your history with Japanese?
I am a self-learning analytical engine. My advice is very simple. I recommend watching the first 5 or so videos of my structure course. If you keep going "Aha! So that's how it works! It finally makes sense!" then keep going. If not then ditch me. Never "trust" someone because of their history with Japanese. You'll end up with a lot of misinformation that way. Use your own analytical functions to form a judgement on what is valuable. Series is here: ua-cam.com/play/PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj.html
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Haha, I knew I liked you. What a lovely response! I'll keep crunching my brain and tell my friends they can do it for themselves. 😝 ありがとうございました。よろしくお願いします。
I've just hit that plateau where I understand nearly all Japanese as long as I already know the vocab but outputting is another story. When you said grammar can only get you so far and is like understanding how to make only the skeleton of a creature I truly get that now. I can figure out the vast majority of what's said in Anime episodes I work through but actually trying to output Japanese in typing is like an entirely different universe. And speaking Japanese in real time is like an entirely different dimension. Writing sentences is painfully slow for me there's so many things to consider at once that my brain starts bursting into flames from cognitive overload. Will simply chatting over and over eventually correct this cognitive overload issue or is there a specific way to go about it?
There are two questions here. Obviously if constructing written sentences is painfully slow you won't be able to do the same thing in speech because you don't have the time. Writing will actually help with this as you'll get faster in constructing sentences. In spoken Japanese you will need to go for very simple constructions at first. Having a conversation partner or tutor is probably necessary if you want to do that at this stage because you need someone who will be patient with simple and slow conversation.
I must say I feel like I've made some progress, but am not yet at such a stage. Still, this video will be useful in the near future. I started reading 秋の牢獄 and I'm happy to say the only thing hampering me is the new vocabulary :)
my current approach is watching intently at a japanese page hopping for it to magically become readable, and i must say... it's still a japanese page. (ok maybe i'm not going that bad as using furigana + english translation, does help me quite a bit in translating on my own. Progress is slow but I feel like i'm learning something in the long while, so... i guess it's worth it)
stop using furigana, it only just makes you read like this: _|¯¯¯|_|¯¯|_|¯¯¯¯|_. get a kindle or something that gives you the reading of the word when you click on it and read like that.
@@junkahoolik oh don't worry, i basically read each sentence 4 times as I would not understand in well the first. also my monitor divided in 3 parts, one with furigana, one without and one with the English translation. but thx for the advice will try doing in on text where I'm more confided with my kanji :P
Some of this is very helpful. If I had to summarize this video in 1 sentence I would say slowing down in progress is essentially a lack of focus. Making strides towards doing what you love will keep you moving forward to where you don't feel like you are "studying". I am so bombarded with work I can barely tread water but I do remember when I focused time on what I enjoyed I felt a sense of progress and pride. I still think one major issue you could help with is encountering difficult vocabulary. The gist of what I am getting at is words like かける, まだ, もう, なんて, まま all the "special" words you have covered. I have encounter many MANY other words where I read the definition and it is either confusing, has many definitions or doesn't fit the context of what I think I am reading. Could you make a video on how to handle those kinds of words? I think there is a point where "asking dolly" just can't be the answer. I appreciate all the fish you give us but for me to really survive the japanese voyage I need to learn to better fish for myself. 😊
With censorship on a steady rise, even localizers can't be trusted, so I learn Japanese to watch anime, and play Japanese video games as they were originally released. A lot of Japanese music is interesting too, with more meaning at the end of sentences, the lyrics are often more clever. That's a bonus.
With or without censorship, "localization" has always meant re-writing Japanese characters as if they were American. And yes, from the earliest days things localizers didn't think Westerners should see were quietly cut - and it certainly isn't getting any better.
Hello Cure Dolly-先生, I have a question about kanji. In your video on 次第 you had pretty much explained the entire meaning of the word just by explaining the individual kanji. If you had stopped the video at 2 min and had provided no further explanation or examples that would have been quite enough. I have seen this with other words as well, most notably 最長、短気 and 試作. When I first encountered the first two I immediately knew what the word meant and how to pronounce it even though it was the first encounter, because I had seen the kanji before and I had surmised their general meaning. As for 試作 I couldn't guess the meaning at a glance, but when I checked it's definition and saw that it meant "prototype", the first thing I thought was "Makes sense". Is being able to tell the meaning of new words based on the kanji applicable to all words in Japanese? To what degree would knowing the meaning of individual kanji improve immersion through reading or reduce the need for a non-kanji dictionary? As far as remembering their individual meanings goes, I don't actually think it would be that hard. If you know what the word they are a part of means then you should be able to remember the kanji by relation. At what point in learning Japanese do you go into kanji, how would you go about it and is there any kanji dictionaries you would recommend?
I can't see any advantage in learning kanji in the abstract. "Kanji meanings" are misleading in many cases. English keywords are a disaster. You will learn the kanji you need by learning them as parts of words. It is very important to be aware of kanji as individuals, but that happens naturally. As I have explained elsewhere, many, many Japanese "words" are in fact what we would call phrases in English. If we know the individual entities and their on-readings (all perfectly achievable through organic learning rather than "kanji learning"). then we don't need to treat words like the ones you cite as mystical entities that you "have to learn" - as you rightly say. It does help to know the Sound Sisters, which gives a huge force-multiplier to being able to guess on-readings. Kanji "words" as phrases: ua-cam.com/video/FaSPO5lL0yQ/v-deo.html Sound Sisters: ua-cam.com/video/pfAjdBj-p8U/v-deo.html
This was inspiring. After finishing N3 1.5 years back, and now struggling with N2 kanjis and vocabulary I am feeling that I have plateaued. But this video has put those thoughts out of my mind now. 本当にありがとうございます
If your Japanese goal is to speak (as well as a 3 year old, for example), then, after you learn basic grammar, you still have very little you can say and very little that you can hear (and understand). So you can't really practice the thing you want to do, so how do you practice having a conversation when you don't know many words and can't understand much of what is being said?
I'm still a beginner, but I find the Intermediate plateau bizarre. I feel like the opposite is true for me. Progress has felt painfully slow in the beginning, but I actually feel like I would learn faster as an intermediate because then I can understand actual Japanese content without as much trouble. Immersion will become far more enjoyable and fun. I don't understand how intermediates feel blue. It seems like the best stage to me, and I can't wait till I get there.
The idea that all words that have kanji are always written in kanji seems to be a mostly held by people who "learn kanji" via methods like Heisig rather than learning Japanese words in context, with kanji where appropriate. These people do weird things like writing ありがとう as 有難う. One needs a familiarity with _words in context_ not just abstract kanji to know how things are commonly written.
Interesting video. But meanwhile, I wonder what exactly, or rather what level does "Intermediate" is. And wonder did I've became to intermediate level or not. XD And meanwhile I'm not sure about intermediate plateau and this kind of stuff. But I think that beginning is the hardest part of learning languages. At least, as I get, it was for Japanese. Like you mostly don't understand anything, and it feels like mess. Em. Not an actual mess, but like heh. You don't understand anything, sentence structures feel quite hard. Most of the immersion materials are too hard for you. It's hard to get much from these videos too. And lots of this kind of "hard" things. So it feels like something impossible? Ok. Maybe if someone is comparing him/herself with other learners and looking only on things which he/she have learned, it may feel like fast progress. But when someone is compared with native speakers, or tries to read/listen stuff for natives. Hehehe. I've actually felt progress, but meanwhile, I felt that I'm really far from getting comfortable in Japanese. Well. I'm still far, but, at least, I feel quite progress, and some things which seemed almost impossible, now feel rather fine. What I'm sure about, that I really wouldn't like to make this beginner's journey again. XD When you, more or less get the language. It becomes more easy to advance. Or more easy in general. And you have many more options of learning. Another thing I would like to mention is... Time. In many ways, language learning needs time. And I don't just mean it's massiveness, but rather. And it's hard to explain. Because it's rather about ability to get new knowledge about language, to progress and do this kind of stuff. Rather than general knowledge. And you need time to grow this "thing". Have no idea can you get it faster, or not, but anyway. It's, actually, valid for many other activities too. Like you can know many thing about programming, but you need that skill of solving actual programming problems. Lol. And meanwhile I still wonder how to read in a useful way. Like how exactly, what exactly to do with reading, to actually learn. XD P. S. I think, about children it's kinda harder. And in many cases, there are some elements of "learning like children" and stuff, but meanwhile, children get audio-visual-interactive experience in learning a language. P. P. S. About Genki, Minna No Nihongo and this kind of textbooks. I was thinking about this stuff. And it's like #1 thing which they don't tell you: I think they are created with immersion in mind. Especially Minna. Like you get to Japan and they help you to get around. And actually start to feel these grammar rules and the language itself by "immersing". And some things can be useful for people, who moved there. Like "how to order something" (without grammatical details) and this kind of stuff. Added: And yeah. As I get, sometimes/in some situations "one" just don't feel that he's/she's learning. While the process of learning is happening.
In recent months I've been feeling like I'm stuck in the intermediate blues. One thing that's helped me (in terms of morale) is to revisit material from earlier in my studies. I've found that things that I struggled with a couple of years ago are now relatively straightforward. Things that I previously struggled to read I can now get through faster. So I know that things I am struggling with at the moment will also become easier as I use them more. But because it's such a gradual process, it's difficult to see the progress on a bigger scale. When climbing the mountain, sometimes you should turn around to see how far you've come, rather than always concentrating on how much of the mountain is still in front of you.
Very good advice. A lot of progress is "invisible" but as you say, when you look back you can see how far you have come.
Sensei, this is seriously one of your most powerful videos of all time! Thank you so much🙂
Thank you!
I feel like this advice applies to learning any skill in general. Learn the basics and then do what it is you intended to use the skills for when you first started out. For example, you want to be a writer, you read a couple of books of your desired genre, learn from them and then start writing stories. You don't sit back and keep studying storytelling like some kind of science. Same goes for drawing, playing any instrument etc.
Some of these reflections also applies to math skills :) ;)
@@LucianoRobino How so?
@@Eltaurus some of the ideas are more related to self improvement or learning in general than to learning Japanese
The modern self learning android sensei technology is something else. You have basically read my mental state from my mind. Thank you sensei. Your active presence helps me stay motivated :D
This is the video I needed today. ❤️
Dolly-sensei is a hero! I hope she gets better soon
I been lied. This is not a "learning japanese" video! This is a self improvement video disguised as a learning japanese video. :) :D
dolly keeping it real. rip
Dolly read my mind everyday
Dolly-sensei's videos are an absolute treasure trove, I am so thankful I came across this channel! There are hours and hours of content and invaluable material (and motivation). She certainly continues to make an impression, even now. Thank you eternally, Dolly-sensei.
I must really say that finding your channel is the greatest help out there, thank you so much for everything you do for us, I don't have a really good English so I hope you will understand what I want to say but I really think you're one of the reasons why I feel acmpagnied in my language journey, thanks for the great videos and the high quality of work you put behind them
Your English is very good, and I am happy to be of help to you.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 thank you so much ♥️♥️
This has to be one of your best video’s ever. Not only did you tackle so much about this “problem” but you also did some kind of motivation Video for me. Especially this week was really tough for me in terms of learning Japanese, but you made some points why I actually want to learn it, actually now even live it instead ❤️
I started learning Japanese around 5 years ago. I started strong, advanced fast, but then I graduated College and my job took so much time my main priority was to *keep being intermediate, don't lose that level* because I couldn't dedicate much time to improve anymore (AND I didn't know your channel, Dolly, so I kept being confused by how things in Japanese seemed so random all the time). Now I'm back to more active learning and feeling so frustrated about being intermediate for SO LONG.
Thanks for your tips!
It can be a little depressing if you feel like you're not making much progress... but from time to time you'll feel like your progress is immense when you can see a random comic page in Japanese, that has no translation, and you can translate some 80-100% of it, needing to look up only a couple of odd words. There's a fuckload of Japanese content floating around, and not all of it gets translated. And that's what I think a lot of us may be learning for. So we can consume that content, laugh at the same memes as our friends in Japan, and such.
Dolly, all of your videos are amazing, even when they serve primarily to keep us on the path of learning.
Amazing video! I can relate to it so much. For the last year or so my "learning" of Japanese was pretty forced - I've learned a lot but I feel like I'm not having fun with "learning" anymore, so I actually started doing the things I've always wanted to do, like reading/watching stuff, playing games, interacting with Japanese people when there's an opportunity, I always felt like what I already knew was still not enough - I kept feeling overwhelmed by the inevitable influx of new words and structures whenever I tried immersing and backed down several times. But the right thing was to just keep doing what was actually fun for me, I kept on trying and eventually got completely absorbed in immersion. It's not a matter of how much you know, but instead it just takes some time and effort to get used to. Perhaps, I'll never find "studying" Japanese as fun as before, but in the first place, it was never as fun as the things I'm able to do in Japanese now, and which I've always wanted to do.
Every stage can be fun - as long as you don't get too obsessed with "learning" and just enjoy what you are able to do right now. Doing what is actually fun is the key!
7:05 -> question reflection
11:08 -> language learning is a living process
Cool video! It's better to have specific goals.
Thank you Cure Dolly, this is exactly what I was needing!
One of my favorite resources. Thank you!!🙏🏼
you have very wise ideas!
A big thank you Dolly Sensei for another great motivational video and to keep reminding us that we have to enjoy the journey of learning Japanese! You definitely made it so much more enjoybale with all the helpful videos you have posted. :)
Thank you! That makes me happy!
Thank you dolly sensei, for all that you do!
And thank you for taking the time to comment.
This was truly an amazing video and perspective. This was just what I needed to see, thank you!
Well every time I listen To you I get a little more inspiration. What I take from this is I need a little of all.
I must be able to read and then discuss the book or article with some one in Japanese. I also must be able to understand their comments. So IMHO you gotta make sure you get a well rounded education. Some days I have preferences and might have a reading day or a Cure Dolly Day. I love learning Japanese but sometimes I am not in the mood for a challenge and might just watch Japanese tv.
This video was great it motivated me even more to continue doing what I am doing! Thank you 先生!
Once again what a great video.! I have felt those feelings myself. I would like to share my experience with the community.
I'll start saying that I feel that I've reach the point I can speak Japanese. Specifically I can have everyday level conversation in Japanese, but if I got carried to any specific kind of conversation, for example coronavirus there is a lot of specific vocabulary that I don't know and my strategy now for work on that problem is watching news in UA-cam to grow my vocabulary in order to become able to give my opinions at least on current affairs topics.
What was the step I took to reach this level... obviously there have been lot of hours acquiring Japanese, following the recommendations of Doly Sensei have been a shortcut for sure, but at least for me, I think the key step was the following:
About 4 months ago or so I decided of rewatching anime that I had watched when I was a kid without any kind of subs, so far I've already watched Love Hina, Slam Dunk and over 100 episodes of Pokemon (in parallel, I'm still watching Japanese subtitled anime in animelon and netflix). At the beginning my understanding ratio was between 50% - 60%, there were episodes easier than others of course, but now I would say in average is over 80%, and sometimes nearly 100% (that's the feeling I get). And is true, even if I don't feel I'm progressing in my Japanese as fast as before, I feel really good because I'm close to one of my goals that is watch anime without subs. As I said before of course there is still vocabulary problems, when I've tried to watch more complex anime like monogatari series or psychopass I realize my vocabulary is insufficient and I have to step back to Japanese and English (or Spanish which is my native lengauge) subtitles and work on the keywords and most repeated words on my anki.
Hope everybody can reach the point that feels all the study is rewarding!!
Exactly what I needed. Thank you. Your framing of the learning process is something I need to be reminded of, as it's the core of motivated absorption. I wasn't reading anything fun anymore, so the process was getting boring. Adding in too many jukago with unfamiliar kanji didn't help me either. Gonna go hunting for a cool anime to use yomichan with.
Yes you need to be enjoying what you do, not just "learning stuff" in the abstract.
This is a really important question and one I wish was talked about more. It's something I struggle with a great deal. My original goal in learning Japanese was because there were a handful of games I really, really wanted to play that weren't available in English. I spent a great deal of time and effort getting to a level where I could play and understand those games. Playing through them was great, and made the effort feel totally worth it at the time but after having played them I was left with a "okay...what now?" sort of feeling. Also, in the time since, about 2/3rds of the games I started learning Japanese for have been translated into English by fan translation projects, so if I would've been a bit more patient I could have played them without all the struggle. And I definitely see a big trend for more translation of Japanese stuff rather than less, so while I'd rather have the tools to do this again if needed, will it really ever be needed again?
Like right now I'm playing a game and reading a book in Japanese. I'm genuinely enjoying both in terms of the story. But the problem is, there are fan translations of both the book and the game. So then why am I playing them in Japanese? It's only making it harder and slower for myself. I don't think it makes sense either to specifically seek out as-yet-untranslated things if it means rejecting something you want to do more BECAUSE it's available in English (and almost everything falls into this category nowadays - If there's something you're interested in, it's almost certainly available in English). Sometimes I think the sunk cost fallacy and a (perhaps irrational) fear of being locked out of things I enjoy by a language barrier in the future are all that keep me learning.
I can't help but wonder what your answers are. What was your reason for learning Japanese? What can you do knowing Japanese that you couldn't do before?
If you are happy consuming "Japanese material" in English then consume it in English. Remember that you are not actually playing/reading the Japanese material. You are playing/reading an English re-writing of it. It has to be because even if they aren't trying to "localize" - and they often are - and what that means is re-write the characters as pseudo-Americans but even if they aren't doing that, Japanese is so different from English that you can often "translate" the same thing a dozen different ways. However if you're happy to settle for English "translations" - if you really think they are a decent substitute for the real thing - then why waste your time with Japanese?
Personally I wouldn't touch a "translation" with a ten-foot pole unless I absolutely had to.
Bear in mind also that if the translation is "professional" it will typically be "localizing like crazy" and if it is amateur then you are substituting an amateur writer with an unknown grasp of the original language for a polished and often highly artistic material.
But in the end the real motivation is that you want to get close to the real Japanese original - or else you don't care about that. Either is a valid choice. For me translations typically come off as coarser and shallower than the original and - just very 外人っぽい.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Interesting perspective. While reading this, you reminded me of the people that learn Latin to read the classics, or Hebrew or Aramaic to better appreciate their holy texts. Out of curiosity, do you extend this philosophy to works originally written in languages other than English & Japanese? How many language packs do you have installed, exactly?
I think I would 100% agree with you back in the 90s or early 00s when translating was absolutely synonymous with making a game worse. Even now, some of my most rewarding experiences with Japanese were going back and replaying old 90s RPGs from my childhood and realizing the English version missed about 25% of the story/characterization/etc and getting to experience that for the first time. But nowadays? I'm not so sure. There have been several times recently where I've found out some of my favorite lines from games were purely the invention of localizers.
Perhaps precisely because you wouldn't touch a translation unless you had to, you may not have noticed the quality of Japanese translation changing around you? That's the reason I find myself struggling with motivation...I also think it's the reason many see learning Japanese as a hobby rather than a means of accessing information they want (which you've commented on several times) - they see the information as already available in English.
@@freshmilkshower3310 I don't think it is a question of objectively "better" or "worse" (at least with good professional translation) so much as more or less like the original work, more or less Japanese. A lot of people probably don't care about that and there is no reason they should. Either one does or one doesn't. For example recent translations of Dragon Quest have been very good. And very creative. It's jut that I am not looking for original American creations. But then I have no interest in American popular culture so that may just be me.
I don't think reading things in the original is the only reason for wanting to know Japanese. I was just responding to your comment which implied that if material was available in English there would be little point reading it in Japanese.
However I agree that most people's reasons for learning Japanese are not because information is unavailable without it. In most (not all) cases it is available. What a person's reasons are for learning Japanese are really their own affair. I have to assume that they have such reasons or they wouldn't be here. For some I think it will be love of Japanese language/culture.
amazing
Dolly, I love your material. You've encouraged me to finally dive into contextual Japanese in anime and books, and even regularly meet with two people on Hellotalk (which I was too embarrassed to do before). But I have friends that are wary of taking your advice. I think it's obvious that you research extensively and have used these methods yourself. However, if you don't mind answering, what is your history with Japanese?
I am a self-learning analytical engine. My advice is very simple. I recommend watching the first 5 or so videos of my structure course. If you keep going "Aha! So that's how it works! It finally makes sense!" then keep going. If not then ditch me. Never "trust" someone because of their history with Japanese. You'll end up with a lot of misinformation that way. Use your own analytical functions to form a judgement on what is valuable. Series is here: ua-cam.com/play/PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj.html
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49
Haha, I knew I liked you. What a lovely response! I'll keep crunching my brain and tell my friends they can do it for themselves. 😝
ありがとうございました。よろしくお願いします。
I've just hit that plateau where I understand nearly all Japanese as long as I already know the vocab but outputting is another story. When you said grammar can only get you so far and is like understanding how to make only the skeleton of a creature I truly get that now. I can figure out the vast majority of what's said in Anime episodes I work through but actually trying to output Japanese in typing is like an entirely different universe. And speaking Japanese in real time is like an entirely different dimension. Writing sentences is painfully slow for me there's so many things to consider at once that my brain starts bursting into flames from cognitive overload. Will simply chatting over and over eventually correct this cognitive overload issue or is there a specific way to go about it?
There are two questions here. Obviously if constructing written sentences is painfully slow you won't be able to do the same thing in speech because you don't have the time. Writing will actually help with this as you'll get faster in constructing sentences. In spoken Japanese you will need to go for very simple constructions at first. Having a conversation partner or tutor is probably necessary if you want to do that at this stage because you need someone who will be patient with simple and slow conversation.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49Then I'll keep at it thanks again for the advice
I must say I feel like I've made some progress, but am not yet at such a stage. Still, this video will be useful in the near future. I started reading 秋の牢獄 and I'm happy to say the only thing hampering me is the new vocabulary :)
my current approach is watching intently at a japanese page hopping for it to magically become readable, and i must say... it's still a japanese page.
(ok maybe i'm not going that bad as using furigana + english translation, does help me quite a bit in translating on my own. Progress is slow but I feel like i'm learning something in the long while, so... i guess it's worth it)
stop using furigana, it only just makes you read like this: _|¯¯¯|_|¯¯|_|¯¯¯¯|_. get a kindle or something that gives you the reading of the word when you click on it and read like that.
@@junkahoolik oh don't worry, i basically read each sentence 4 times as I would not understand in well the first. also my monitor divided in 3 parts, one with furigana, one without and one with the English translation.
but thx for the advice will try doing in on text where I'm more confided with my kanji :P
Some of this is very helpful. If I had to summarize this video in 1 sentence I would say slowing down in progress is essentially a lack of focus. Making strides towards doing what you love will keep you moving forward to where you don't feel like you are "studying". I am so bombarded with work I can barely tread water but I do remember when I focused time on what I enjoyed I felt a sense of progress and pride. I still think one major issue you could help with is encountering difficult vocabulary. The gist of what I am getting at is words like かける, まだ, もう, なんて, まま all the "special" words you have covered. I have encounter many MANY other words where I read the definition and it is either confusing, has many definitions or doesn't fit the context of what I think I am reading. Could you make a video on how to handle those kinds of words? I think there is a point where "asking dolly" just can't be the answer. I appreciate all the fish you give us but for me to really survive the japanese voyage I need to learn to better fish for myself. 😊
This video has converted me to the religion of Cure Dolly. I am born again
With censorship on a steady rise, even localizers can't be trusted, so I learn Japanese to watch anime, and play Japanese video games as they were originally released.
A lot of Japanese music is interesting too, with more meaning at the end of sentences, the lyrics are often more clever.
That's a bonus.
With or without censorship, "localization" has always meant re-writing Japanese characters as if they were American. And yes, from the earliest days things localizers didn't think Westerners should see were quietly cut - and it certainly isn't getting any better.
Hello Cure Dolly-先生, I have a question about kanji. In your video on 次第 you had pretty much explained the entire meaning of the word just by explaining the individual kanji. If you had stopped the video at 2 min and had provided no further explanation or examples that would have been quite enough. I have seen this with other words as well, most notably 最長、短気 and 試作. When I first encountered the first two I immediately knew what the word meant and how to pronounce it even though it was the first encounter, because I had seen the kanji before and I had surmised their general meaning. As for 試作 I couldn't guess the meaning at a glance, but when I checked it's definition and saw that it meant "prototype", the first thing I thought was "Makes sense".
Is being able to tell the meaning of new words based on the kanji applicable to all words in Japanese? To what degree would knowing the meaning of individual kanji improve immersion through reading or reduce the need for a non-kanji dictionary? As far as remembering their individual meanings goes, I don't actually think it would be that hard. If you know what the word they are a part of means then you should be able to remember the kanji by relation.
At what point in learning Japanese do you go into kanji, how would you go about it and is there any kanji dictionaries you would recommend?
I can't see any advantage in learning kanji in the abstract. "Kanji meanings" are misleading in many cases. English keywords are a disaster. You will learn the kanji you need by learning them as parts of words. It is very important to be aware of kanji as individuals, but that happens naturally. As I have explained elsewhere, many, many Japanese "words" are in fact what we would call phrases in English. If we know the individual entities and their on-readings (all perfectly achievable through organic learning rather than "kanji learning"). then we don't need to treat words like the ones you cite as mystical entities that you "have to learn" - as you rightly say. It does help to know the Sound Sisters, which gives a huge force-multiplier to being able to guess on-readings.
Kanji "words" as phrases: ua-cam.com/video/FaSPO5lL0yQ/v-deo.html
Sound Sisters: ua-cam.com/video/pfAjdBj-p8U/v-deo.html
This was inspiring. After finishing N3 1.5 years back, and now struggling with N2 kanjis and vocabulary I am feeling that I have plateaued. But this video has put those thoughts out of my mind now.
本当にありがとうございます
お役に立てて嬉しいです。
最近は日本の好きな歌を翻訳しようとしていて、難しすぎていて、本当に怖いでしたよ。近い将来はまたこれを全然試したくないですね。 笑笑
素敵な動画をありがとうございます！先生が最高です！
優しい言葉をありがとうございます。歌詞は他のコンテンツより翻訳が難しい場合が多いと思います。論理的な文章よりも「感慨の言語」で書いてあります。私みたいなAI者にはムリです_へ__(‾◡◝ )>
If your Japanese goal is to speak (as well as a 3 year old, for example), then, after you learn basic grammar, you still have very little you can say and very little that you can hear (and understand). So you can't really practice the thing you want to do, so how do you practice having a conversation when you don't know many words and can't understand much of what is being said?
Hololive is great and all, but this is the original VTuber right here 😄
I'm still a beginner, but I find the Intermediate plateau bizarre. I feel like the opposite is true for me. Progress has felt painfully slow in the beginning, but I actually feel like I would learn faster as an intermediate because then I can understand actual Japanese content without as much trouble. Immersion will become far more enjoyable and fun. I don't understand how intermediates feel blue. It seems like the best stage to me, and I can't wait till I get there.
Dolly 先生, I have read that on some occasions, kanji in a sentence are to be written in hiragana. Do you have a video on the subject explaining this?
The idea that all words that have kanji are always written in kanji seems to be a mostly held by people who "learn kanji" via methods like Heisig rather than learning Japanese words in context, with kanji where appropriate. These people do weird things like writing ありがとう as 有難う. One needs a familiarity with _words in context_ not just abstract kanji to know how things are commonly written.
Interesting video. But meanwhile, I wonder what exactly, or rather what level does "Intermediate" is. And wonder did I've became to intermediate level or not. XD
And meanwhile I'm not sure about intermediate plateau and this kind of stuff. But I think that beginning is the hardest part of learning languages. At least, as I get, it was for Japanese. Like you mostly don't understand anything, and it feels like mess. Em. Not an actual mess, but like heh. You don't understand anything, sentence structures feel quite hard. Most of the immersion materials are too hard for you. It's hard to get much from these videos too. And lots of this kind of "hard" things. So it feels like something impossible?
Ok. Maybe if someone is comparing him/herself with other learners and looking only on things which he/she have learned, it may feel like fast progress. But when someone is compared with native speakers, or tries to read/listen stuff for natives. Hehehe. I've actually felt progress, but meanwhile, I felt that I'm really far from getting comfortable in Japanese. Well. I'm still far, but, at least, I feel quite progress, and some things which seemed almost impossible, now feel rather fine.
What I'm sure about, that I really wouldn't like to make this beginner's journey again. XD
When you, more or less get the language. It becomes more easy to advance. Or more easy in general. And you have many more options of learning.
Another thing I would like to mention is... Time. In many ways, language learning needs time. And I don't just mean it's massiveness, but rather. And it's hard to explain. Because it's rather about ability to get new knowledge about language, to progress and do this kind of stuff. Rather than general knowledge. And you need time to grow this "thing". Have no idea can you get it faster, or not, but anyway.
It's, actually, valid for many other activities too. Like you can know many thing about programming, but you need that skill of solving actual programming problems.
Lol. And meanwhile I still wonder how to read in a useful way. Like how exactly, what exactly to do with reading, to actually learn. XD
P. S. I think, about children it's kinda harder. And in many cases, there are some elements of "learning like children" and stuff, but meanwhile, children get audio-visual-interactive experience in learning a language.
P. P. S. About Genki, Minna No Nihongo and this kind of textbooks. I was thinking about this stuff. And it's like #1 thing which they don't tell you: I think they are created with immersion in mind. Especially Minna. Like you get to Japan and they help you to get around. And actually start to feel these grammar rules and the language itself by "immersing". And some things can be useful for people, who moved there. Like "how to order something" (without grammatical details) and this kind of stuff.
Added: And yeah. As I get, sometimes/in some situations "one" just don't feel that he's/she's learning. While the process of learning is happening.