4 Steps to Fluent Japanese | How I Self Studied Japanese to N1 Level without Boring Textbooks
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- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
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Hi everyone, I'm Audrey. I started self study Japanese when I was a university student and passed JLPT N1 level five years after that. I've been running a language school in Singapore specializing in teaching Japanese and Mandarin Chinese since 2012. I'm very excited today to share some of my Japanese study tips with you. These self study tips will definitely save you a lot of time and make your Japanese self study not only effective and efficient but also fun and enjoyable.
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Watch sample lessons:
Lesson 1 - Introducing Yourself • Video
Lesson 2 - Frequently Used Phrases • Video
Lesson 3 - Asking Someone Out • Video
Fancy some online video conferencing lessons with Janus Academy? Check out our courses on the website:
janus.edu.sg/courses/japanese/
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The drama scenes are take from
「逃げるのが恥だが役に立つ」
ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/逃げるは恥...
「凪のお暇」
ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/凪のお暇
How to Self Study Japanese Effectively with Japanese dramas & 10 BEST JAPANESE DRAMAS IN 1990-2020
• How to Self Study Japa...
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1) listening
2) mimicking
3) reading
4) writing
👍👍👍
@Steven_ Guido すごいです！4ヶ月で日本語もタイピングできるのはすばらしいです😊 頑張ってください❣️
arigato dattebayo!
@@kiavra1789 「４月」is April and 「4ヶ月」is 4 months (duration) 😊
@@kiavra1789 いえいえ😊 どういたしまして❣️
I learned English on accident, thank you Netflix
Haha 👍
i learnt english by watching gaming videos lmao
i learned english from cartoons growing up lol
I Learned english from cartoons and my family-
I learned english by studying, commoner blood runs through my veins
"How are you?"
(Stares...)
"How are you?"
(Smiles) "This is a chair!"
😂😂😂
my japanese friend: "この日は晴れです。" Me: '' Kore wa pen desu "
@@8L0ND1E_WOLF Today it's a pen
@@holo6883 今日はペンです
@@holo6883 lol
This video has really good information:
1) enjoy learning (listening),
2) focus on vocabulary and learn grammar later,
3) mimic body language,
4) don't use English letters to learn Japanese,
5) reading and typing will be easier than writing.
Thank you so much :D
Thank you for your comment! 😇
@Lovely Aquarium from the things you watch, listen and read, keep a notebook or use digital tools such as Anki or quizlet 😊
Yep! Instead Use the hiragana and Romaji so it sticks better in your head.
100% language :
60% listen
20% speak
20% read
20% write
its 120% lol😭
😂😂😂
120% 😂
maybe 40% listening
that might do some justice to your comment 😃
Math 100
Everytime I feel like I'm not progressing in learning Japanese, i force myself to go back to before I started studying then I realize how far I've come.
Haha yup same here 😊 it takes time for languages to "sink in"
This is actually helpful... Thank you
yeah same for me, i always have to come to that realization.
Same :'))
"do i need to study hiragana & katakana??"
*laughing in kanji* ,but im crying for it. Like, hiragana and katakana is the easy two untill you meet kanji reading😭
Just do it
Unrelated to learning Japanese but I love how she radiates so much energy & positivity
Thank you ☺️☺️
This video is amazing. I've been learning basic Japanese for years now yet when I talk to a Japanese person, the words and sentences I used just came out naturally. I never realized that simply mimicking how someone talks in their language could help me out in the long run. Thank you so much for this informative video! ありがとうございます!
Wow that's wonderful! いえいえ😊 どういたしまして！
I know I'm not the only one here who wants to learn japanese because of anime
Meee
🙌🙌
For me, it's manga. I love the art and I want to be able to understand the humor in the original language.
I wanna learn so I can watch anime without having to read the sub titles.
99% of people want to learn Japanese because of anime
But if all you want to do is watch anime without subtitles, just write down the vocabulary and meaning from anime subtitles in latin alphabets. No need to learn proper Japanese if all you want to do is watch anime because of subtitles.
Having all the 漢字 memorized already really helps N1. I met plenty of Chinese who couldn’t speak Japanese but can read and comprehend with basic grammar skills. The N1 isn’t a production test, only worries about comprehension.
Haha that's true to some extent 😊 Chinese and Japanese language have a lot of common kanji words, but they are quite different in terms of grammar structure (e.g. Japanese verb conjugation is complicated but Chinese doesn't conjugate its verbs)
I agree that JLPT is not the most comprehensive test of language as there's no speaking test involved, people can just cram and pass it without even speaking the language.
I was lucky enough to practice speaking with my native Japanese friends in university, and later with my Japanese students at my academy. I think speaking the language out loud with natives or Teachers and get corrected on the spot is the fastest way to improve 😊
I speak spanish and my dream is to speak english, japanese and french...
You inspired me...
Thanks a lot 💕💕
Aww.. thanks for making my day 🥰❣️
i’m learning spanish and japanese right now!
@@xwash2406 So cool...
If you want, you can ask me about spanish ^^
I'm learning Spanish then I'll go back to learning Japanese :3
@King Sama oh same. I'm fluent in Spanish if you need help with it, i'm here.
I'm practicing my listening skill right now by listening to a podcast on spotify called "Let's learn japanese from small talk" just like the name, basicaly it's just 2 woman having a Conversation in Japanese about the culture or their experience on something. And Even though i only understand like 20% of it, i still loves to hear what they said. But sometimes i also pick up some new words too (≧▽≦)
That's great!! Keep it going 😊❣️
Your dp character is from "Watamote anime" right ?
Also, I reccomend you the podcast ききみみ日本語
Thanks for the recommendation!
i understand like 5% of it lmao😭 but i think it makes my pronounciation better since i hear them and make me pick up words better and faster
already started self-studying nihongo and here i am finding my motivation in every japanese study vlog 😭
Ganbatte！every minute of effort counts!
same
頑張ってください
I am an English teacher and this is exactly how I learnt English, just like a baby. I always advise my students to stop thinking in their native language and think as if they're babies. It really helps! Thank you for the solid advice!
Thanks for watching too! And thanks for validating the method 😊 I wish my English teacher could tell me that too!
Tip: watch Japanese drama not anime to learn Japanese. Anime characters don't speak like natives at all lol
true. dou i watch a lot of anime i watch stuff like terrace house and so to get to listen native ppl speacking th language.
@@dmonki6585 yup terrace house is brilliant!
Totally agree, anime is another parallel world to the reality 😆
Actually, it's ok !
Eventually if you learn for long enough you'll also pick up on the correct way to speak:DD...
If you wanna learn Japanese to watch anime to watch without subs, absolutely watch anime to learn!!! :D
i agree that you shouldn’t only watch anime for listening practice, but i mean, it’s not like anime characters are speaking a totally different language. so if anime is a motivator for you, go for it! just keep it balanced.
About ten years ago (I was 10 btw) I started learning english by an accident too. I used to watch covers of my favorite songs on youtube and there were bloopers after it. I watched it all, even though I didnt understand a single thing and no subtitles were available. Some day, things started to click. Now I'm quite confident when chatting and talking to native english speakers.
Wow that's wonderful! Thank you for sharing!😊❣️
Ah yes, the internet.
I love your emphasis on learning Japanese through fun means.
Language learning is such a huuuge journey and the most important part of staying motivated is to enjoy the process! As long as you keep going, you will eventually get there.
Great video!
Thank you so much for watching! Exactly! We need everlasting motivation to keep us going 😊
Hiragana and Katakana aren’t that hard to learn, as far as I know the longest it takes to learn both is 1-2 months, and that’s if you learn in school. Self study can be a matter of days
はい、あなたは正しいです、ひらがなとカタカナは楽です
I learned hiragana in 2-3 days
@@slushie8066 good for you
@@slushie8066 what?! How LMAO😭
@@slushie8066 ひらがなを覚えるのに1日かかりましたが、カタカナを覚えるのに1ヶ月かかりました。
the giggly laugh sound effect throughout this video is absolutely terrifying
Hahaha I won't use it in future ones 🤣
@@JanusAcademy dont stop it lightens the mood lol
@@callumrandle9799 I’m terrified of it
This is exactly what I tell everyone! But they say it’s impossible and called me crazy. this is how i learn all my languages! I knew I wasn’t crazy haha lol
Of course you are not! Ask them how they learned their native language 😆
My mind just doesn't want to accept it. Like how. We're not babies anymore. I feel like I need to know the definition of a word. How does listening tell me what they're saying. It blows my mind
Righttt some people overcomplicate learning a language too much and I did too, at first I thought this method was a bunch of bs but then I realised it was how I polished up my English skills. :) Just acquire a language like how a baby does it!
@@sephe8192 yup totally 👍 we'll only believe it when it worked for ourselves 😊
@@sephe8192 yup totally, we'd only believe it when it actually works for ourselves :)
These steps are actually really helpful, i can definitely relate to when i started learning Korean and French. Thanks for the video :)
Thanks for the comment too! Wow impressive, two foreign languages !
Oh i speak French, quite fluent. Not a native speaker but still sound like it
I love how gently you speak and yet you’re loaded with sense of humor!
Haha thank you for getting the humour 😆
I have been an ESL teacher for almost half a decade now.
But when I started studying Japanese, all these theories
I learned about learning a second language just went flying out the window.
Glad to be reminded of these😅😄
ありがとうございます。😘🥰
How to self-study Japanese language
Me : Watch a bunch of animes
Haha 👍
I wish, the only challenge with that is that characters all speak differently and very...animated you could say XD. Some are great though, like Kaguya-sama. It's good for keigo and casual conversation because Shinomiya speaks keigo and the president speak casual
Just get rid of the subtitles and that's it. Just watch like 30 animes and you somehow will know Japanese to a low-intermediate level (surpassing the majority of people who has been "learning" Japanese for 1 year or more)
i think it isnt really relevant since some of the character speak in their own made up language like dattebayo and shannaro
Dumb ass UA-cam username
This is exactly what I have been doing to learn English and Mandarin. And that's really helpful.
That’s excellent!!! 😊
I'm also self studying japanese, this video really encouraged me to keep going, thank you!
I've had to slowly learn all of these lessons and I've been on and off for about 14 years.
Thank you for sharing a very concise way of doing this! I hadn't thought about using manga and adding the other tips to my advantage. THANK YOU!
Wow 14 years! Sugoi desune☺️ thank you for watching and sharing your learning story too!
@@JanusAcademy 感謝しにありがとうございます！
Listening really does help, I’ve been listening to many videos in Japanese and since some don’t have eng-subs i remember quite a few things
Haha yes! I picked up some phrases like this and decided to self study after that! 😃
how do you know what phrases they are saying though?
I've been studying Japanese casually for about a year now, I wouldn't even say I'm at the baby beginner stage yet. But something funny happened yesterday when I started playing a JRPG with Japanese audio (and English subtitles). A few words and phrases started coming through where I sort of understood what was being said without needing the subtitles. Greetings, commonly used words, etc. Very, very basic stuff. But still, felt proud. So yeah, definitely giving Listening a go more often if JP media is available in the West with the original audio track.
That's great! Yup the limitation of availability of Japanese shows is such a shame
its great to watch this and realize im already doing all the steps yay :D
Thank you for validating my chosen learning path. And I can confirm it works. When I visited Japan in 2013 I had a good grasp of hiragana and katakana so taking the shinkansen or other public transportation was very easy!
So happy to hear it. Thank you very much for the comment!!
How nostalgic. Been interested with Japanese culture since I was around 7 years old(I am 28 now btw) as I had an aunt residing in JP and we got lots of Japanese stuff that made me want to understand what were written on them. It was then when I found a Japanese grammar book and from there I learned a few basics. From my 6th grade till the end of my high school I have taken the self-learning a lil bit more serious using that old grammar book plus another book which includes Japanese alphabet lesson(kana). I also got into anime which helped me a lot on the listening and mimicking part. Singing the anime theme songs in the opening and ending credits with lyrics(esp with furigana) helped me a lot on the reading part. My alternative now is listening and singing along Japanese songs thru Spotify(as it has lyrics feature but no furigana, sadly)
As of now I can read and write hiragana and katakana. As for kanji characters, I am able to read some of them. Writing them is another thing tho 🤣
Watching this video motivated me into learning the Japanese language more and to try taking the language exams in the near future. Thank you! 😊
Thank you for sharing your learning experience too! 頑張りましょう！
i can only read/write hiragana and katakana on keyboard
Being Japanese, born in Japan and raised in Japan. 100% Fluent Japanese 😭
Thank you Audrey! It's very helpful! For me, the first point that listening to the massive amount of audios is extremely important. I want to share this video with my Japanese learing friends. Thank you!!!
Thank you so much Yoshi san!!! 😃
@Janus Academy - Learn Japanese / Chinese Yes, Audrey. As for me, I have been learning Thai, Viet, Taiwan Chinese in Japan. Recently I have been concentrating onlly on Thai. But you made me awakened that I need more listening. I will follow up with your new videos. じゃあ、このチャンネル頑張ってください〜😀👍
@@yoshih1234 ありがとうございます😊 うれしいです❣️頑張ります👍
@@yoshih1234 forgot to say: so many languages!!!
It's a really great channel! I'm ready to perform Japanese Language "home study" more efficiently!
Haha thanks for the compliment! Glad to be of help! 😊
thank you sensei - brilliant teaching : )
Thank you for watching too! 😊
Love this video. I love watching anime and reading manga, and your methods are suitable for me ^^ Liked and subscribed!
Thank you so much 😊❤️
Thank you very much. I'm improving my English and I'll start learning Japanese next month. I'm so excited. 🤗🤗 Hugs from Honduras 🇭🇳
Thanks for the comment too! A new language for the new year! Exciting indeed! 頑張ってください❣️
Love how articulate this lady is. Such a helpful video.🐿
Thank you 😊❣️
I loved your video.
Thanks😁
Thank you for the warm message too! ❤️
I started learn japanese for music in specific Morning musume and I like doramas too. Im spanish speaker.
Hihi Granos, glad to hear that! Music is a very good way to learn! You can learn language as well as culture from Doramas ☺️
this was amazing and your voice is so soothing!
Thank you for watching! 😊
These tips are so much useful than some people I used to watch on UA-cam, your tips are nice and easy to follow. ありがとうございます
こちらこそ、コメントありがとうございますMy pleasure❣️ if learning is fun, nobody would stop or struggle 😆
My brain that might know all Hiragana and katakana in 1 year:ok are you ready to learn Kanji?
Me: の
bるh
はははｈ
you can learn kana in a month be braveeee
@@funicon3689 one week, learned it with an app, both kana
@@funicon3689 realistically 1 month, people have lives they can't dedicate their every waking our to it
I didn't even tried to study Japanese at all, but watching too many anime and listening a lot of Japanese music for years, later on I realized that "God I am way too familiar with Japanese, learnt all these words, phrases etc accidently". I had to start learning it 😂
Gerçekten mi 😨😨
ありがと！
i'm actually planning to start again tomorrow. i already made my baby steps last year and i think i can go back now. i wanna learn again. :)))
Thank you for the helpful tips!!
Also NHK news or programs are really nice for listening comprehension & culture lessons!
Yes totally agree!! 😊
Thank you so much, i´m brasilian and in the quarentine I focus in my language studies, english and japanese, I love your advice, ありがとうございます from Brazil!!
いえいえ😊 どういたしまして
Oi como estão os estudos? Também estudo japones ,passei na JLPT5 ano passado , aceitaria uma parceira d estudos?
@@wisteria6656 pagou quanto pra fazer o N5?
@@axellyann5085 uns 300 pila, era bem caro!
Really helpful tips! ありがとう! Some people tend to give up after seeing kanji. However, there are useful books that will help you to write them properly and memorize))) for instance, kanji plus🐱.
Yup! WaniKani is great, I’ve been using it for about 3 and a half months and I’ve learned almost 500 kanji and 1500 or so associated vocabulary.
@@furricoat6739 cool!
Thank you for your video! I too started to learn Japanese because of Takuya. I loved all his shows; I just watched PG BodyGuard this weekend.
Wow, it's always nice to meet another Takuya fan ☺️
This is actually so accurate. Im doing alot of listening and 30 minutes of reading a day. Need to speak more to my self though, thanks for making me realize! writing too hard atm
omg i really thouth you are japanese i feel stupid 😂
i'm french and i learn english and japanese so your videos help me for both of it ^^ i love you advice thank you for this video !! do you have any free app where we can read manga with furigana ?
Flo potato haha thanks a lot for the comment! I was trying to learn French but I couldn't find enough shows to practise my natural approach, so my French still stays at "Bonjour", "Merci" stage 😂 I bought paperback mangas (sorry I'm old) last time and usually they have furikana for difficult words. Now I read manga from cmoa.jp
@@JanusAcademy yeah it's hard to found french show it's not really a thing we do in France😂 okay thank you ! I will maybe try to buy a paper manga ^^
here is a really good beginner manga i started! the text is also able to be selected so you can copy and paste it into a dictionary like jisho.org
bilingualmanga.com/manga/yotsubato/chapter-1/5-2
日本人の一人として歓迎するよ。
フランス人って日本のアニメを好きになる人が多いよね。
私は今あなたの国の言葉を学んでいるよ。
私にとっては結構むつかしい。
書く時には、アクサンの入力方法がわからないので、google traduction に音声認識させている。
お互いに頑張りましょう。
Je te souhaite la bienvenue comme l'un des Japonais.
Beaucoup de Français aiment les animé. N'est-ce pas?
J'apprends la langue de ton pays maintenant.
C'est assez difficile pour moi.
Lors de l'écriture, je ne sais pas comment saisir les accents, alors je laisse google traduction me reconnaître la voix.
Continuons notre bon apprentissage.
Shonen Jump has Furigana, maybe you can get the Japanese app for it, but maybe you need to live in Japan, it might just force you into a translated one.
Haha After learning English on my own, I thought it'd be easier to learn any language all by myself... well, I got a bit disappointed, but I'm happy I didn't give into the difficulty and kept on learning, but thank you for sharing a bit of your experience, I forgot about my own experience, so, it was helpful
Thank you for the comment too! Yes, I had days when I felt like giving up too and I'm glad that I didn't! There's always light at the end of the tunnel 💡
Congrats on learning on your own!! 👍🏾
I just finished pimsler's Japanese five and was looking for some additional study resources. Thanks for making this video. Going to focus on hiragana and katakana next! 🙏
OMG. After watching step 4, I installed the Kana/Romaji keyboard on my iPhone and started typing. I was impressed how much I was able to instantly recognize or figure out this way. The way the keyboard "forces" you to type is actually REALLY intuitive and reinforces your knowledge (In ma case at least). Also installed it on my computer. I'm not fluent yet but that's a great step forward in my journey. ありがとございます.
That's great!
When you get started, how do you know when you're ready to move to the next phase?
Well, it's like at first when you open up a novel, nothing makes sense to you. Then when you open up the same novel some time later, suddenly you can understand bits and pieces! This means you are ready to read longer and more difficult passages
Same for listening, writing and speaking 😊
@@JanusAcademy that's very helpful! Thank you!!
That's my secret captain- I don't
"go back yo your baby stage"
MA! MA! get the bottle!
Just starting, definitely using you as help thank u :)
Great tips. I have been self-learning for a few years and it's always nice to be reminded of good learning techniques..
Thank you 😁
Do I need to study hiragana and katakana?
Oh, you asking if you need to study the just *_2 basic writing systems that possibly are needed to not only study, but comunicate via texts?_* I would say, yes.
Best part of the video 8:05
Also, my new fav channel, I accidentally started learning Mandarin in high school because I didn’t want to take Spanish and I want to get better and also learn Japanese 谢谢你
Thank you so much! I’ll continue making great quality videos for you 😄
@@JanusAcademy thank you 😊
@@Mika-oi1se 不客气😊❣️
Omg UA-cam suddenly recommended ur video 💖 Aaa i had been just watching anime for 2 years!!! And it's been a week I'm learning Japanese the way u showed in ur video! I have learned all hiragana letters yesterday. I'm studying in a school since its it's quarantine time i got a lot time to learn it. it's really enjoyable to learn Japanese 😊💖
That's great! Thanks for sharing your learning story with us too 😊❣️ がんばってください❣️
thank you so much I'm planning on going to Japan when all of this is over in 4 years and this really helped me!❤❤❤
So happy to hear that! 😄
Watch something interest you.
Me: attack on titans yeah
Me: Hentai yeah
Sasageyo! Sasageyo!!!
@@riasgremory994 お兄ちゃん大好き
Tatakae
@@MuxuAnimation shinzou wo sasageyo
Funny, I learn most of my english this way, too. After I understand them enough, then I study its gramma.
So I could confirm this works to some degree.
Thanks for sharing your learning story too! 😊❣️
Totally agree. Thanks for sharing.
I agree 100% with studying things like sentence patterns vs studying the grammar. I did it the other way around, but even when I taught English in schools, I noticed that teaching the kids patterns vs the grammar helped them be able to get the "grammar points" better. Great video :)
ありがとうございます😊 yes indeed! Patterns and structures definitely work better than rigid grammar rules.
I totally agree with this! This is how I learned japanese too. My friends and colleagues are always surprised when they ask me how did I learn Japanese. When I try to tell them this way, they give me weird looks. Im glad Im not the only one who learned this way.
Hahaha yes indeed! I got those looks too, some even think I'm selfish and don't want to share my "real method" 😭
@@JanusAcademy Do you know the Heisig book? In the introduction to that the guy says he learned kanji really fast, and his teachers all thought he'd "cheated" and "didn't really" know them.
Though to be fair, Heisig doesn't teach readings. In the Japanese class I went to one girl was going "yuki wa... white... desu"
What’s crazy is I have just fallen into this process. I’ve been focusing less on “learning” Japanese. And I’ve instead, just been listening to Japanese music exclusively. So far I feel like I’m picking up a lot more than If I was using flash cards and whatnot.
Haha so happy for you! Keep it going 😊❣️
Thank you a lot!
I’m learning Japanese now and these tips are very useful for me)
My pleasure! So glad you find it useful. 😊
Wowww
This is the best and the most inspiring advice/tips I ever watched here in UA-cam regarding learning Nihongo..I’ve been studying (inconsistently) the language for years (maybe 10years??) and so far knows the basic and Hiragana & Katakana (tho still quite confused sometimes)..I’ve never been so focused and because I never tried (because got no time) to attend a language school (which is very helpful in learning the language faster)
But now I found a great motivation to really get me going - playing a Japanese otome game..
I really agree with the 1st one, my ears got used to it and sometimes I don’t need google translate to know the meaning of what they are saying based on what I heard, also already tried mimicking them by reading aloud the texts..the only thing left is to write those difficult Kanji
Thank you so much! Now I know it really is possible to be fluent in a language by self-studying
Just really need a whole lot of determination
Thank you so much for the warm message too! Yes, just need to move on to reading, speaking and writing after your ears are trained 😊 ganbatte kudasai!
I wanna go to Japan for college when I grow up, I have like, 6 years to learn Japanese.
I learned katakana in a day because I went online and took a test over and over until I had it memorized now I just have to do katakana😁
Wow that's hard work paid off! Way to go 😊💪
me too haha I started learning japanese around 6 days ago and i already have learned hiragana and katakana, i found it really fun actually. i think actually learning the alphabet/writing system gives you a lot more motivation and a step ahead
@@zimitraa totally agree!! 😊
You're good in teaching. simple and easy to understand. So i subsribed just now 😁😊
Thanks a lot! 😊❣️
This is so refreshing to watch. Your method of how you learnt Japanese resonates really well with me.
My native language is Swedish, and I'm fluent in English. Never studied the grammars in neither language.
(The following sentences will be in Swedish. Google translate if you are curious).
Faktum är att provresultaten när jag skrev test i skolan, när vi har haft grammatik på temat, har varit fullkomligt urusla. Har till och med hamnat i trubbel med lärare då jag stått på mig, om att det är fullständigt meningslöst i min mening att traggla den skiten. Man får ju grammatiken på köpet ändå när man tillexempel läser böcker! Vilket dessutom är betydligt roligare. Överlag har det inte dragit ner mina betyg, då jag fått så höga poäng inom alla andra områden som ingått i Svenska och Engelska undervisningen.
(I mainly learnt English through reading books and watching shows on tv. In my country we don't really dub shows/movies, which is fortunate as I'm 33, so didn't grow up with Netflix and UA-cam around. And later on in my teens I began playing mmorpg's and naturally had contact with the English language via that too on a daily basis). Immersion in the language is highly important!
Started to learn Hiragana and Katakana just recently, and am learning it in such a way that I won't have to translate back and forth - I do not intend to rely on romaji. I want to THINK in Japanese, just as I am thinking in English whenever I form sentences in that language, as I am doing right this moment.
It's not like I read a sentence in English and then translates it into Swedish in order to understand what was written, that's not how it works.
So when I decided to go forward with this, learning Japanese, I identified that it is of utter importance to learn Hiragana and katakana, as that will unlock the possibility to start using Japanese captions and also start reading some materials.
Meanwhile I am watching Japanese shows and is actively listening, getting my ears familiarized with listening to to language being spoken by natives. I try to pick out words even if I don't know exactly what they mean or represent. For now I use subtitles, but plan to revisit these shows once I got the Hiragana and Katakana down. I can then start shadowing the sentences.
I figured I am going to treat Japanese the exact same way I am treating learning my own native language and English, I didn't come out of the womb perfectly fluent in Swedish after all ;)
Whenever I encounter a Swedish word I am unsure or unfamiliar with I look it up in an Swedish dictionary.
Whenever I encounter an English word I am unsure or unfamiliar with I look it up in an English dictionary.
I'd like to get to the same level with the Japanese eventually, and initially I will have to translate. But! You don't really need to know several thousand words in order to start seeking the answers to your questions in the language you are learning. Same goes for being able to start thinking in the language by the way.
Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts 😊
"When they see the romaji they will think in English"
*Laughs in French*
Wow all of the methods you mention here is what I did 10 years ago. My cousin from Japan gave his heroin magazine collection. Out of curiosity I printed kana chart just to know what does the magazine actually said. It took me 2 weeks and I memorized the entire kana chart. I rede all of those magazine without understanding so that I started to Japanese on my own and read untranslated manga as much as possible.
Thanks for sharing your learning story too! 🥰
This actually helping me to learn japanese again, i want to self study japanese but after i watch a lot of how to learn japanese language for beginners video i felt like its just to much and almost give up on learning it cuz i dont like writing a note in a book,or try memorize a lot of sentence, when i learn english i think that help me alot is actually watching a lot of video that using english language, now that i know i can learn japanese the way i want to like this and you're a proof that its working, thank you...
Thanks for watching! Interest and passion are the best motivation 😊👍
Just discovered your channel. I enjoyed the content very much. Wish i wouldve found this enjoyable content when I tried learning japanese few years back. But I am glad to be here now.
Thank you for watching! Haha you can start again by watching something interest you first! 😊
I already watch anime and have a grasp of basic things like greeting someone, introducing oneself,keigo and non keigo speech
I am currently learning Hiragana and studying particles in grammar
Any tips for me
I also have a book regarding Japanese onomatopoeia and a phrase book
Anime Atheist that's really good! You can continue to watch shows you like, find those with Japanese subtitles if possible. Also, Japanese has a lot of good radio program.
Use listening and mimicking at first to build a foundation before reading, writing and grammar study 😊
@@JanusAcademy Thanks a lot
Can you please link me a good radio show
@@JanusAcademy can you recommend some listening material?
Thank God it's just typing and not writing traditionally with a pen and paper 🗿😭 I can type kanji because I recognize them but I can't write them since I didn't learn stroke order😫 anyways ありがとうございます
Haha and luckily JLPT doesn't test on writing on paper either! Thanks for watching too! 😊
Oh this sounds useful. I've tried learning Japanese many times already and I ended up giving up. I'll try your approach this time. 😊😊😊
I took Japanese in High School for 3 years but still want to continue learning so I can speak fluently, so thank you for the advice of how to continue.
Thank you for watching too! All the best! 😊
Picking a sentence you're familiar with, & changing out words with ones you're learneing is a great idea, & made me think of the first sentence I ever learned
多重影分身の術！• たじゅうかげぶんしんのじゅつ！• Tajuu kagebunshin no jyutsu!
(Multiple shadow clone technique)
Though, I'm not sure how useful/versatile it'll be in learning new words
Haha すごいですね😆 ○○の術❣️
Japanese level 1:
りんご
かわいい
おいしい
Ｔシャツ
Japanese level 100:
運動量空間
論理合成
労働者災害補償保険
会期不継続の原則
怪しい
Such a wonderful video and tips for self-studying not only Japanese but also other languages. I'm Japanese and currently study Portuguese as l live there for studying.
Good to know different perspectives cause l don't know how to learn Japanese so it really helps me to understand the way people, who study Japanese, would usually take.
I'll share this video with a my teacher's friend who studies Japanese.
Thanks for making this video !
Thanks so much for the comment! Wow studying Portuguese, that’s amazing!👍👍👍
Awesome advice, thank you!
Thank you for watching too! 😊
Me: alright! I can read Japanese now! (Only Hiragana and Katakana)
*Kanji has entered the chat*
That’s a good start! Keep going!!! 😁
I would add two things to the list:
1. Find yourself a Japanese friend (or a native of whatever language you are learning). I find that it's an easier way to learn to speak and listen because you are much more relaxed with a friend than you would be with for example a teacher. It's also a good way to learn vocabulary for things that interest you (assuming that you and your friend have the same interests and hobbies).
2. Karaoke. Even if it's only you by yourself at home, I find that it's a good way to practice if you look up the lyrics to a song you like and try to read or sing along to it. You can also look up whatever words you don't understand online and that way you will get some repetition whenever you listen to the same song on the bus or whatever. For Japanese songs I'd recommend JpopAsia.com . You can find most popular Japanese songs there, both written completely in Japanese, in roman letters as well as the translation of the lyrics.
I first studied Japanese at language school a couple of years ago and found that it was a great way to learn the basics, but now I learn mostly through talking with my Japanese friends and karaoke. It's a fun way to practice without feeling like you're studying.
Thanks for the tips! Totally agree 😊 a native friend is much better than a stack of books for spoken language. And karaoke is a great way to enjoy learning too!
LOL! I wanted the part wherein you talk about forgetting about grammar! I like it! :DDD. Your type of learning is more of a conversational. I like this since you don't limit yourself too much in terms about structure and how sentences works.
Haha yup it's like liberating your brain from the textbooks 😄
@@JanusAcademy Exactly! I've watched this particular video and everything have sense.
I'm just happy to see someone else showing another way to learn Japanese without diving into a 400 page textbook on conjugates, particles, predicates and so on. I'm not going to attend a japanese university so I am fine not knowing the dynamic structure of that level. Thank you so much for the video.
Haha yea, the alternative ways do exist and do work! Thanks for watching too! 😊
its actually not that hard for chinese people since their 漢字 kanji is common , and they already know how to write it since their childhood and also both come from same language family ...
That’s true. 😁
her voice is so satisfying
Haha thanks 😊
I agreee 💛
your english is also extremely good, comes off natural, pitches and all. impressive to have natives wondering like that in different languages (assuming youre not native english, here 😅)
Thank you for your video, very helpful ❤️❤️❤️
You didn't speak a lot of Japanese but you seem to have a nice pronunciation. I studied Japanese so hard but when I went there people sometimes couldn't understand my accent. My foreign friend from Afghanistan actually had to repeat what I said (he could understand me fine) so that Japanese people could understand. So embarrassing. I started learning at 34 and I think pronunciation gets harder as you get older.
Haha thanks for the comment 😊 I only started in university and I believe pitch accent can be trained, people just need to know the right technique (shape of the mouth, tongue position, pitch of voice). I have students who started learning Japanese and Chinese at 40+ and they can still have good pronunciation ❣️
@@JanusAcademy pitch accent is a whole different animal. It was the actual sounds coming out of my mouth. For some reason りょ is hard for me. I think we had a share house person whose name was りょうちゃん or something like that. This (super beautiful) Japanese girl just had no idea I was saying this persons name. I was so embarrassed 😞
@@paulwalther5237 haha I can imagine the awkwardness 😆 りょ try to pronounce lee-oh together quickly, or try to pronounce "Leo" quickly
Pronunciation may get a bit harder to master as you get older, but you definitely can still achieve a decent (I'd even claim near-native) pronunciation at any age. The key is given in this very video and the problem is that most adult learners are impatient. What's crucial for a good pronunciation is tons and tons of (listening) input first before output. A baby listens for about half a year before producing the first sounds(!), not words, of the language and close to a year before producing the first words. That's time its brain uses to recognize the correct sound patterns. Adult learners are usually too impatient and want to speak right away without spending much time on specific pronunciation training. What happens is they use sounds of their native language that are approximates of the target language and by getting the feedback of patient teachers or natives that they are somewhat understood what they want to say, those approximates become your go-to and are fossilized in your brain and you'll stick with this incorrect pronunciation. Once those incorrect sounds are fossilized, it will be very hard to correct them because your brain will prefer to use the neuronal connections that "somewhat" work instead of destroying them and build new ones.
So the key is to listen listen listen, then listen and mimic, before producing words on your own. In the listening and mimicking phase, you can use so-called minimal pairs (that's pairs of two words that are almost identical and differ only in one specific sound like i.e. 'bad' and 'bat' or 'bed' and 'bet'. Listen carefully to them and record yourself mimicking them. Try to hear whether you can make the correct distinction and let some native speakers also listen to your recordings. Later, you can go on and record yourself mimicking full sentences to check whether you get the correct speaking melody.
@@angelsjoker8190 thank you so much for the detailed comment! Totally agree with the impatience of adults and trying to produce similar sounds to one's native language! The "baby stage" is really to listen to the sounds and rhythm of the language and learn everything from a "clean slate", the lesser interference (especially pronunciation) from native language the better 😊
I learned English by watching a lot of Anime and UA-cam videos in English
This is definitely worth a sub🔥🔥🔥
You have helped me take that next step to learning my Hiragana im stook using romanji, Arigato gozaimasu
Thanks for watching 😊