I know it's not as extreme as Japanese, but when you think about it, English also has these forms of language that are only heard in certain contexts but are understood to carry a different meaning from just the words involved. e.g. "Love thy neighbour" and "thou shalt not kill" are very different from "Be friendly to people around you" and "Don't kill people." Choosing to say one instead of the other is conveying a meaning that no high level speaker would miss.
there's also other expressions like "calm down" which can be said like "chill out" or "im about to ejaculate" which can be said like "im finna bust a nut"
English has character tropes too I am a first generation Cuban immigrant in the US and I've noticed these too. For example when somebody is hood: they be talking in a different way, you know what i mean bro? . Californian spoil girl accent is like: OMG I was like, Hello!!! Are you even paying attention to me? Then is the southerner way that for some reason is used to portray people from texas and southern places. Howdy 🤠? And so and so... There's also the classic rich boy accent in shows and cartoons. Superheroes also talk on a different way then average people and so and so
You can also think about how you can immediately recognize when someone is doing the voice of a radio DJ, or TV weatherman. Or watch an old movie, where everyone talks in the Mid Atlantic accent, which wasn't even a real accent.
@@veemon What's a good way to access them? I've been learning for 2 years now so it's time for more immersion but I don't know how to get my hands on these shows
Like Steve Kaufman says, the most important component of learning a language is doing something you enjoy because you will be more engaged and want to stick with it. If you like anime then you can expose yourself to hours and hours of Japanese and never feel like you're "studying" even though you're doing something really helpful for learning the language. Sometimes I will binge a bunch of episodes of an anime and I wind up not feeling too guilty about it because I can count it as "study time."
@@nocturnallight2640 Watame made me realise that there are ladies out there somewhere that are worth it. The exact moment was when she said 「ベテルギュースわためコンティ。。。デス」 during one of her FFIX streams. I'd link it, but the holo-caust is going on, so I can't. I started exercising after that. Imagine if I met someone like her, and I wasn't worth her. Must improve.
I'm native japanese but this video is what I wanted to see. He explains well about anime. This is good for me to learn English. This is helpful to me when I want to talk about anime to English speaker.
I first started learning Japanese from anime, but I had this idea that anime isn't good for learning Japanese, so I quickly switched to UA-cam videos. I wasn't getting a lot of exposure bc I don't really like those videos, so I quitted. This videos of learning Japanese from anime really helped me and got me motivated, thanks :) A hug from Brazil 😎🇧🇷
@@wh6153 Se descobrirem esse canal, eles vão perceber o quão descomplicado é aprender uma nova língua, aí não vai ter mais graça ser bilíngue pô kkkkkkk
It's mainly the light. I think he has recently upgraded his camera but if it looks like it's getting better every time, it'll be the positioning of his lights. You can make phones look like SLRs with good light in a video.
The human mind is horrible at being self aware about personal biases, we're an emotional species; we're at the fault of irrational thoughts and conclusions because that's just how we work.
For someone struggling with the issue about learning japanese. you Channel is Like A freaking Gold MINE for me. please keep up, for now sharing and verbally supporting is all i can do. i promise i'll fund you once i get earning.
So it's equivalent to English speakers identifying valley girl, surfer boy, cheerleader, jock stereotypical language without even being American. I'll start rewatching anime tomorrow
To be honest, I've been a big fan of your the way you're coming up with language learning technics..just awesome ☺️ it's gonna change the whole idea of language learning....
I showed your previous Japanese speaking video to my native Japanese boyfriend and he said if he closed his eyes you sounded like a Japanese guy he said it would take him a while to realize your not Japanese. He was really impressed ad shocked you learned from anime. So you must know what you're talking about! Time for me to study more anime.
I like how Joey on the trash taste podcast said learning japanese through anime was a bad idea, but didn't he say that he learned a lot of his japanese as a kid from reading manga and looking up the words in a dictionary.
Well no, not really. Joey is a native speaker. He would read manga and stuff as a kid because that was material that was available to him, but he was a nerd and would literally sit for hours just writing kanji out of a dictionary and learning proverbs, and his mother forced him to use Japanese to address her or she would ignore him. Normally bilingual raised children have a weak and a strong language, but if one of his languages is weaker than the other it really doesn't show. I think his view just comes from his perspective as one of the largest anime content creators on the platform, I'm sure he's seen his fair share of cringe and bad Japanese.
Hey Matt, I would love to see a detailed tutorial of your Netflix plugins and Integration with MIA - looks very effective if we only knew how to set it up properly! Cheers!
I'm glad Fate/Zero is difficult. I assume everything from Fate is difficult now. And that makes me glad because I started playing Fate/Extra CCC a while ago and I understand NOTHING. I'm not at a high level of japanese, by any means (god, I wish), but I started feeling like I was actually making progress until I played that game for a bit hahaha.
Well said Matt, those "standardised Japanese language" they teach in textbooks sound soooooo contrived and stiff to my native ears that I basically see them as some sort of a 役割語 that a lot of foreigners/learners of Japanese are subject to. By which I don't mean stereotypical gaijin characters' speech in anime but more like an artificial, prescriptivist language that only exists in textbooks that I assume some egghead scholars had conceived, most likely for colonial purposes when imperialism was a thing. It's not like textbook Japanese sounds archaic or overly formal or anything, it is just plain weird, albeit grammatically correct. I believe Japanese is one of those languages where there's a particularly huge discrepancy between everyday speech and written/scripted speech, kinda like French or Arabic.
Portuguese is like that too... The formal grammar is far away from the coloquial speech and even when people are performing a formal speech they don't use the most formal grammar because it is very hard to use and sounds very artificial (or "bookish")... And I see that a lot of the learning resorces for foreigners focus on the formal grammar (in a level closer to the coloquial grammar) and I see that they start teaching verb forms and sentence structures that a child (native speaker) don't know about (and even adults avoid using those in daily conversations) instead of start teaching like a native child learn the language, those textbooks just invert the learning process starting with a more complex grammar that only adults use and only when writting formally.
@@VieiraFi Sim. Eu acho que distância entre formal e informal deve ser maior no Brasil do que em Portugal. As regras da gramática informal no Brasil mudam bastante, as regras de uso do plural por exemplo seguem um padrão diferente entre formal e informal, as estruturas dos tempos verbais também, usando verbos auxiliares ao invés de conjugar o verbo principal.
As usual, I totally agree with you. I live in Japan and learning these different styles of speech have helped me so much to communicate and understand nuance, jokes, and emotions in a way that textbooks learners do not. I have often seen traditional textbook/class learners of Japanese totally missing the point of something someone said countless times.
Awesome video! As a Brazilian, I'm fluent in English, have a B2 level in French, and also speak a little Spanish just from having Portuguese as my mother tongue, so I wanted the next language that I would learn to have a different writing system. In the end, I chose Japanse precisely because I love anime and would have tons of content to immerse myself in the language while learning grammar and vocabulary.
I just wanna say how helpful it is that you summarize your video in the description, it's great to know whether or not I'll be hearing any new points before I watch. This is great!
@2:56 a b-roll clip is shown of someone holding a Genki textbook. Which I love, because it implies that Matt, a high level 2nd language Japanese learner, whose spent 1000s of hours with the language, does not posses a Japanese textbook.
A good reminder that most media, especially film & TV, is often exaggerated, linguistically! In most any language.The very best teacher would be immersion, when possible. A good, laid out,well presented explanation.
Visual novel type games are also pretty good, since you can replay the spoken audio (i.e. Persona 5, Atelier Games). Anyhow having subs is very important, it makes the process of "what did he just say" very easy. And mpv can seek to subtitles so you can move around lines very efficiently.
@@ADeeSHUPA I'm trying to learn Japanese and read the Wenobe. Trying out Animelon (outside of the usual Anki). got a daughter recently, gonna make her take JLPT N1 for / (hopefully with) me.
I have one anime that I really, really like so I rewatched the show(about 40 episodes+2hr movie) several times. Now I can watch it without subtitles and actually understand >95% of what they're saying. It's a slice of life anime so I don't think it's that unnatural as well :)
@@lapischicken How long have you been studying japanese for roughly? I've been going for nearly 4 months in total and I just wanna know how much I should expect to understand
Just started raw listening immersion, and my perfectionism voices were rising up.. And then your video silenced everything up.. Thank you as usual for being the Godfather of this gang!
Thank you for explaining yakuwarigo Matt. Its very helpful in knowing that this is meant represent different troupes. I made this face :o as every ojousama character that i've know popped up in my brain.
Glad there was a part 2 going further into the yakuwarigo and keigo nuances. I also must say I am jealous of those younger people learning Japanese as the amount of content at your fingertips compared to 20 years ago when I was hardcore studying is just amazing. I had to borrow friend's vhs tapes and dreamt of having japanese tv accessible to me to further immerse myself. Not to mention so many apps and UA-cam videos that help. (You're making me want to get back into it... May have to check out those other channels you spoke of. If nothing else just as a hobby. I miss it.)
Thank you for all you have done on UA-cam. I often get discouraged and miss a day, and for some reason your videos always make me get back to practicing.
This channel is absolutely invaluable for intermediate japanese speakers aiming for fluency. It's actually quite rare compared to the thousands of "how to learn japanese in 30 minutes" or "how to start learning japanese" videos on youtube.
Whenever I do my Anki reviews around my Japanese coworker, she always has to comment on how difficult or useless some vocab or phrase is lol, especially since I've been making cards from 幼女戦記 recently. I think you hit the nail on the head saying that anime covers the whole range of Japanese learning levels, which is really awesome for people like me. I don't know why people get so hung up on specifics when it comes to material to immerse in though, just listen to and read what you enjoy consistently and you'll get where you wanna be eventually. I live in Japan, but mostly consider my use of Anki (almost at 9k total sentence cards) and daily active immersion, outside of dancing monkey work hours, as the reasons why my comprehension has gone up as well as passing N3 last August and N2 last December without having looked at any JLPT textbooks seriously.
I'm guessing that coworker was deeming it useless in regards to conversational speech, and honestly I feel that people get hung up on the idea that if it isnt commonly used conversationally it isnt useful. If your intention for using the language is primarily to be able to digest media in its native language then whether something is conversational is irrelevant...I'm just speaking from my perspective though, some people truly only want to be conversant so in their case, it'll be understandable to avoid content that isnt relevant to that to be time efficient. Not like more information ever hurt anything, but that's besides the point.
@@nocturnallight2640 Exactly, you still want to eventually be able to at least recognize most of what you encounter, whether it's commonly used or not. Even light/mainstream movies and TV serials can throw 'uncommon' curveballs regularly.
I know almost all anime shows you used in the video lol I totally agree how anime helps learners and how sometimes it cause isunderstandings (desuwa etc.)！ Thank you for such a fun and nice video!
Matt, I haven't watched your videos in a long time and now going through your recent ones I was surprised by their improved quality, and I'm not talking about your camera only, your editing and even the way you speak to the camera have also gotten better
Definitely true that there’s something for every level in anime. I’ve been watching Pokémon a lot lately and have been feeling pretty comfortable, but then I watched Paprika last night and felt like a total noob again lol
Matt, I do not know what I would do without you, thank you so much man, you've helped me so much with learning Japanese even up to the point where it's had a profound effect on my life. Thanks so much man :)
I think visual novels are a very good addition to anime in learning japanese. Its just like reading a book but with voice acting and its even slower paced than an anime cause its always your decision when you want to click to the next line of dialogue. More and more VN also give you the option to enable the japanese text beside the english one and thats even better for learning.
It’s a spectrum. I believe podcasts and interviews(depending on their style) are probably as close as you can get to natural, everyday speech. Or at least, more natural than anime/drama.
Unscripted podcasts are generally very natural. The real line between "natural" and "unnatural" is whether the content is scripted or not. There are exceptions, but that's usually a good principle to go by.
I think he deserves success above anything else, instead of subscribers. There's not billions of people willing to get fluent in japanese. Quite the opposite.
I like how you say this applies to ALL languages - using media, anime, etc. Languages are languages. A lot of people preach as if X,Y or Z is a particular issue with a certain language.
this. people make excuses like “it’s unnatural blah blah” but would never say that about a japanese lit novel which is also very unnatural. also the people who say that usually don’t even know japanese lol. so it’s really just stigma and ignorance/people wanting to pretend they’re experts on stuff they know nothing about.
OMG in 6:12 Matt just explained why whenever someone speaks in a light novel, they don’t have the “said Person” like in English. I’ve been wondering about that for so long, it’s easier to tell when each character has a clear distinct way of speaking, but I guess that’s usually lost in translation...
I've noticed when I have read light novels translated from Korean into English that it's often hard to tell what character is saying what... so I guess Korean is probably the same.
Какаяразница Какаяразница basically whenever someone speaks in a book in English, their dialogue is in quotation marks (“.”), and after it’ll say something like ‘said Bob happily’. E.g. “I like to eat apples” said Bob happily. In Japanese they don’t have the ‘said Bob happily’ part, since you can usually tell who’s speaking by the way they speak
Came here after seeing a couple of your vids arguing with George on why Japanese learners should learn pitch accent. Dude, you really have some strong opinions when it comes to the methodology of Japanese learning. I can't agree that you should learn from anime even if you like anime. I mean how many of those anime series are set in a different time period, or based on different locations with a regional dialect? But more than that, below is a different perspective to what I don't think anybody would've told you. I'm currently enrolled in a dance/acting school in Tokyo that also has a voice acting course. The acting/VA courses share the same department, and we have quite a few mutual classes. There's a class where they have us work on our pronunciation or how we should say certain things. My classmates, who are like 98% Japanese locals and I get corrected on our pronunciation when reading scripts aloud. Not sure if it's the natural pronunciation, but when corrected, the feel of what they say sounds more dramatic. So when you hear lines in anime, or even in drama, be aware that even if it sounds natural, it might not be how locals pronounce those speeches in daily conversations. So in saying that, an alternative form of entertainment I recommend are Japanese variety shows. These show 100% real Japanese conversations, where at times, real-life people even mess up their own speeches. There are slangs, jokes, and other forms of speech that you probably wouldn't find in anime or drama. Some shows do have a script, but much like the Trash Taste podcast, they can easily go off-script into something more candid or spontaneous. I know people like Chris Broad and the boys have said that normal Japanese TV shows are a waste of time, but objectively, learning Japanese speech from real Japanese communication is a lot better than scripted communication. I know this is a pretty old video, but let me know your opinion on this.
I disagree. Just because there are different time periods and dialects doesn't mean you can't learn from it. Most anime uses the standard dialect. Unless you're going out of your to only watch things that are historical or are set in a specific region for example, you'll still be mostly exposed to the standard dialect He never says you should *only* use anime. You can still watch variety shows while watching anime. It's not one or the other I learned around 80 - 90% of my Japanese (vocabulary, grammar, etc) through anime. Did I pick up some unnatural speech patterns at first? Sure. But it only took me a few weeks of watching videos with normal people speaking to understand what's natural and what's not. The idea that once you learn an unnatural pattern or different dialect you're doomed to always speak like that and your Japanese will always be wrong it's ridiculous
@@zahraa4149 Firstly, saying you disagree is fine, but spare me what's right or wrong. These are opinions and nobody, no matter how much of an expert you think you are, can ever say that my opinion is one of them. In saying that though, the thing that you said was wrong wasn't even something that I said. I never said you will be "doomed to always speak it", but do I need to wait another few weeks like you to realize that that was unnatural? If so, I'd rather just learn from real people's conversations. I mean, If you're just picking up words here and there from anime, then that's fine. I have CC on TV partly for that reason. I just wouldn't use anime as a resource for learning speeches. Because really, if you want to learn how to speak like the locals, then listen to how the locals speak - and I mean unscripted! That's why I suggested a variety show rather than a drama. It's probably one of the best resources people living overseas have access to for hearing locals converse. Varieties might be scripted as well, but that's more to guide the direction of a show I think. A lot of it should still be spontaneous everyday dialogue, which you might learn something new about the people or current Japanese society. And if there's a mistake in what someone says, people are usually quick to point it out. So if you want to continue learning from anime, then good for you. Leave the right or wrong for anything that's explicitly said to be a fact.
@@ncx8049 you keep mentioning "right or wrong" but the only time I actually said the word wrong is when I mentioned that people learning from anime aren't doomed to speak "wrong" Japanese so I don't see why you're so hung on that What's wrong with waiting a few weeks to learn that a speech pattern isn't natural? If someone loves anime, learning those speech patterns is helpful for them to understand the material they enjoy, even if they don't end up using them in real life conversations. Language learning isn't a linear process. Plenty of people learn a new piece of grammar or vocabulary only to find out later that they've misunderstood how it's used, and that's fine. All I'm saying is, there's no reason you can't simultaneously learn from anime and and some other material that is more natural. It's not that hard to pick up and there's no reason to force yourself *not* to learn from anime if you enjoy it. I get specifically complimented on how natural my Japanese sounds, and most Japanese people assume I'm Japanese until I say otherwise. Yes, I'm bragging. But mostly to make a point that even if you mostly consume anime, you can still learn natural speech with some exposure.
@@zahraa4149 After using forums on and off since 2004, I have seen so many say opinions are wrong, so I do feel like I have to make this clear at times. But also, this time you were putting words in my mouth to say that it's wrong. That wasn't appreciated. Speaking of getting hung up on what someone says though, you really had a lot to say about my opinion, huh? You want to use anime to learn? Fine. I'd rather learn natural speech the first time rather than watch something that may not have natural dialogue first, then watch something else to learn the natural way. You can handle doing both? OK, that's your own use of your time. And I'm no linguist, but I think beginning language learning (at least) can be linear-ish depending on the methodology. Textbooks and certain sites would give a similar intro to the basics for example. You can learn the language however you want. I just don't agree with using anime. I tried, but found variety shows are better for me to learn from so I focused on those. Anime is just not my go-to learning resource for speech, hence, not recommending it. Again, If you do both, then good for you. And I only get complimented on my Japanese if I tell them I'm a foreigner. But since they already assume I'm local from my oriental looks, a few actually didn't believe me until I spoke English. Then I surprised them with some jokes from Japanese comedians. So there's just so much more to learn from variety shows. If I'm learning anything from anime, it's mainly those slice-of-life things.
I didn't really know about the immersion method when I was a beginner in Japanese, so when I watched anime in the past I always had subtitles. Your method makes a lot of sense for me since when I started to watch Japanese youtube videos without subtitles (cuz there aren't any), I feel like my comprehension improved a lot. Now I'm actually a manga/comic creator, and I tried to translate my work into Japanese once. I found it super hard to write vibrant lines, most of my lines are kinda bland. I guess it's time to dive into anime again without subtitles and learn those yakuwarigo :D
another thing that I think people should consider is that one of the main reasons a lot of folks want to learn Japanese in the first place is because they enjoy anime and manga. For most of us, we will probably never live in Japan so really the main use for learning Japanese is being able to watch and read Japanese content (anime, movies, books, manga) in its original form. If that is one of the main draws for learning Japanese then it really makes the most sense to spend most of your time learning Japanese through these sources.
It all makes sense as even in English language people in real life don't speak and behave like characters in film and TV same thing applies for anime and Jdrama. Your videos have been a great help with learning thank you 😊
I feel like UA-cam is such a good way to get truly natural speech. Not the parts where they're just talking to the camera but in vlogs when they talk to their friends and family and stuff. Like in Korean I watch a lot of what I eat in a week videos and they'll record themselves around the table sitting and eating with their families.
I could use Japanese subtitles but my kanji knowledge isn't as great as my other reading or conversation. I can pause and learn the kanji but wont know the stroke order. At least the reading/comprehension part is gonna help. I can recognize some kanji while reading way more than writing. I guess I can use this method to familiarize myself with the kanji visually while I slowly learn how to write them from the book. Your videos are inspiring to double down and focus. I was taking lessons and learning everyday but covid disrupted that and after I quit my job and currently creating a new business, all my time was put in my livelihood. Now I'm going to listen to Japanese learning videos and start using my books again while I work on emails and logistics..
@@mattvsjapan There are still harem shows that aren't isekai? Seems like poor marketing. Why not also make you the most powerful being on the planet and have a bunch of hot girls want you?
The thing is that newcomers have to start to learn somehow. My issue is how to grasp the basics. So finding a resource that teaches clearly the basics like verb conjugation or how to use particles in a sentence or even how the heck a sentence should be constructed is the main goal. Watching anime or the news won't cut it. It's unrealistic to watch shows like those and expect to learn any of the fundamentals. They do help to make yourself immersed with the language but that's it IMO. Maybe once you have under your belt basic structures of the language, they can be part of the learning experience. Thanks for the video. Subscribed!
This might be a late response, but for anyone else who happens to see this comment, look up Cure Dolly on youtube. Her videos might take some getting used to, but her way of teaching grammar and structure is absolutely top notch. Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly is her channel name.
I understand a few words in Japanese that I learned from anime and nou I just hear the words and I understand it like it's my own language so I completely understand and agree with you
Thanks for the great video Matt. As the Vice President of my schools Japanese national honor society, I’d love to show this to unmotivated members to get them to study harder at the language. Matt先生にはいくら感謝してもしきれない気持ちです。
Matt can you make a video on downloading subtitles from Netflix for Anki. This would be great for all language learners because there’s so many different language shows on Netflix.
Hi, I'm from VietNam. I have learned English for 10 years and Japanese for 4 years, and here are things that I think why Japanese is really hard for languages using the Latin alphabet. Japanese uses kanji and each kanji character has a meaning. For me when I first learning English, the words are easily written, because Vietnamese use the same Latin alphabet like English, and adding some noodle marks. But there's a problem with Kanji, if you are not familiar with the orders of writing the strokes, you can never remember them, no matter how many times you look at it. For example, if I hear or look at a word in English, I can close my eyes and rewrite it in my mind, but not for Kanji in the beginning. Secondly, each English word has its own meaning, and when I am familiar to its meaning, it will just shine forth when I read or hear the words. But Kanji has meanings not just separately, but also when they are standing together. So if I don't know the meaning of each Kanji, it's hard to understand the compound ones. Therefore, I have written a lot of Kanji characters using Anki, to remember their meanings, but most important, remember the orders of their strokes. So they can be familiar. To the point that when I look at a Kanji character, I can close my eyes and rewrite it in my head. So knowing Kanji's meanings help a lot for reading. For listening, there's really no shortcut, but there are some tips to optimize the progress. I always prefer listening to English audio or video with a subtitle, so I can have something to check if the words I was hearing are confusing. Our brain works like machine learning (you give the machine some practice data, and answer, then let the machine guess the practice data. If it's correct you give it a thumb up.If it's incorrect, you let it try again), so I train the brain like that to let it fail the guess and then let it try again. Now listening and reading are important to practice as well as knowing grammar. If listening and reading are keys then grammar is the treasure chest. The reward is decided by the knowledge of grammar. It's not good to have a golden key and a wooden chest or vice versa. And last but not least, you need to have faith in learning anything new. Because you will have failure and frustration along the way, and if you don't have faith in your capability to transform and learn then there won't be any courage in you to bear the challenges ahead. If you have read to this point, I hope you a good day and just keep swimming, keep going forward.
I liked you already, but now I love you now that I know you like Akira the film, and Yu Yu Hakusho the anime 🤣😎 You should have so many more subs, love your content. Keep killing it brotha 👌🏼
There's also the very complicated military 役割語 where they say things like 御意, call each other using military ranks like 少将, 中尉, 提督, etc; and use quite elaborated kanji words that are difficult to grasp from the audio alone.
I have learned English by immersing in English content. What i mean by these is. I started with games, then added tv series, news, movies, etc that i lied and it helped me a lot. And of course i was learning english in school but i give more credit to games and other media than to school. School was jus punishing me for not perfecting english and creating the barrier of fear when it comes to talking to other English speaking ppl. I know that my grammar is probably bad, but hey i can easily communicate with ppl without thinking what word i want to use. :D I need to give japanese a go.
I've started using Japanese video games first and anime second and keeping more traditional "study" stuff as a supplement to that. But I'm finding that even though having English subtitles is said to seriously reduce comprehension ability of the target language, as a beginner it's what keeps me most engaged and I get too frustrated without it. I'm finding that knowing romagi, I can keep two browser tabs open on my phone, a romagi dictionary and google translate, and if I hear something regularly or a phrase I want to learn, try to figure it out by ear and with my phone (which oftentimes I can't), so this might work for anyone who has the basic step of learning romagi. Listening is important for language learning and my amount of listening has been terrible since I've tried lots of different things except the content that engages me most because it was "the way to study"-- so I'm starting to believe in the idea of breaking rules everywhere if it maximizes engagement in language learning and learning in general.
Generally the reason why using English subtitles and Romaji are bad for learning Japanese is due to the crutch that it establishes. Unfortunately, Japanese simply isnt written that way and you need to learn the Kana system and Kanji. On top of that, you are likely spending more time reading and clicking over to a different browser to learn a new word or sentence...instead of listening to the content. The thing is that you appear to be retaining more information, but in reality you are likely not. I stopped using subs when actively learning and man can I tell you it's a hella of a difference. Sure I'm generally confused and dont understand much of anything, but when I do it the process is super natural and stays stuck in my head. If learning new words is a problem, try using Anki, Mermise and a good Kanj book.
@@dominiquehudson8077 Do you know any legal way to get Japanese subtitles on anime? Like the video said, the most efficient way to learn is with audio and subtitles in the target language.
@@dominiquehudson8077 i agree that romaji can help only first week (maybe first month) of learnig. After that, it just disturbs you. 'cos our western brain will allways automaticaly look for the simplest way to read. And if you have a text with romaji next to kana and kanji no matter how you try to ignore those latin letters your eyes gonna read romaji at first. So you need to reaplace it completely by a furigana.
Anime at: 3:51 and 4:06, please. The one at 4:06: isn't that the one about a skipping student falling in love with a skipping teacher? And so he draws her foot.
Would be nice with a list of references to all the media used in this video. Would have liked to know the name of the series for a lot of these. Like, what is the name of the series at 15:50?
This video was really helpful, I really thought through what I’ve seen that isnt good to learn japanese through anime but the reality isn’t that black and white. Srry about my English I still learning though.
When is Matt vs. Japan the Anime coming out?
Could be soon, esp considering the SBSP anime just premiered last week
Matt vs Japanime
+KoreKara Podcast
I imagine Matt like an sort of Astro Boy type, fighting Godzilla manga hahaha.
I know it's not as extreme as Japanese, but when you think about it, English also has these forms of language that are only heard in certain contexts but are understood to carry a different meaning from just the words involved.
e.g. "Love thy neighbour" and "thou shalt not kill" are very different from "Be friendly to people around you" and "Don't kill people." Choosing to say one instead of the other is conveying a meaning that no high level speaker would miss.
there's also other expressions like "calm down" which can be said like "chill out" or "im about to ejaculate" which can be said like "im finna bust a nut"
English has character tropes too I am a first generation Cuban immigrant in the US and I've noticed these too. For example when somebody is hood: they be talking in a different way, you know what i mean bro? . Californian spoil girl accent is like: OMG I was like, Hello!!! Are you even paying attention to me?
Then is the southerner way that for some reason is used to portray people from texas and southern places. Howdy 🤠?
And so and so... There's also the classic rich boy accent in shows and cartoons. Superheroes also talk on a different way then average people and so and so
Also the difference is that english there's people that do speak like that although they aren't that common.
Register. There are some poetic masters of it, particularly Irish.
You can also think about how you can immediately recognize when someone is doing the voice of a radio DJ, or TV weatherman. Or watch an old movie, where everyone talks in the Mid Atlantic accent, which wasn't even a real accent.
I cant really imagine myself watching 2 hours of japanese news everyday lol, anime is a blessing
There's an abundance of tv shows and movies as well...
Let's not limit ourselves.
@@veemon What's a good way to access them?
I've been learning for 2 years now so it's time for more immersion but I don't know how to get my hands on these shows
@@zaptheporcupine1578 on UA-cam you'll find a lot of long clips of TV shows or radio TV ecc.
could not even do it in my native language lol
Imagine watching two hours of news a day anyway. I'd be so jaded XD
Like Steve Kaufman says, the most important component of learning a language is doing something you enjoy because you will be more engaged and want to stick with it. If you like anime then you can expose yourself to hours and hours of Japanese and never feel like you're "studying" even though you're doing something really helpful for learning the language. Sometimes I will binge a bunch of episodes of an anime and I wind up not feeling too guilty about it because I can count it as "study time."
"Hey guys, what's up? Matt here."
Oh no, he's becoming a youtuber!
Oh YES
There's only one person I dont mind hearing "hey guys" from. Lol I'll give a hint: 神
@@nocturnallight2640 わため has started saying it now too, occasionally. She's my favourite.
@@Asdayasman I dont watch watame too often, but I like her content as well.
@@nocturnallight2640 Watame made me realise that there are ladies out there somewhere that are worth it. The exact moment was when she said 「ベテルギュースわためコンティ。。。デス」 during one of her FFIX streams. I'd link it, but the holo-caust is going on, so I can't.
I started exercising after that. Imagine if I met someone like her, and I wasn't worth her. Must improve.
I'm native japanese but this video is what I wanted to see. He explains well about anime. This is good for me to learn English. This is helpful to me when I want to talk about anime to English speaker.
Hey ! Youre doing great in English. Keep going
yeah, good luck to us both!
英語上手
but japanese heard in anime is different
@@maegalroammis6020 Stop spamming.
I first started learning Japanese from anime, but I had this idea that anime isn't good for learning Japanese, so I quickly switched to UA-cam videos. I wasn't getting a lot of exposure bc I don't really like those videos, so I quitted.
This videos of learning Japanese from anime really helped me and got me motivated, thanks :)
A hug from Brazil 😎🇧🇷
@今すぐ子供を作りたい como é que tá, meu parceiro, tudo bem? 😎👍
Salve meu bom
Porra, Br até aqui kkkkkkkkk
@@Lucas-ht6vq vms dominar o mundo pô 😎👍
@@wh6153 Se descobrirem esse canal, eles vão perceber o quão descomplicado é aprender uma nova língua, aí não vai ter mais graça ser bilíngue pô kkkkkkk
Jesus, this camera quality keeps getting better and better.
I think he’s learning to use the camera better, as well as different lenses.
oh good, I thought it was weird that this was the FIRST thing I noticed Lol 😂
Which camera do u use matt? Thank u.
Too better
It's mainly the light. I think he has recently upgraded his camera but if it looks like it's getting better every time, it'll be the positioning of his lights. You can make phones look like SLRs with good light in a video.
The quality of this video is just incredible... it’s wonderful to see the growth of this channel
And what amazes me even more is that I'm growing along with the channel regarding language learning
Learning Japanese from news, and nobody bats an eye. Learning it from anime and everyone loses their minds!
The news uses highly formal language that most native speakers don't use to communicate in their daily lives.
The human mind is horrible at being self aware about personal biases, we're an emotional species; we're at the fault of irrational thoughts and conclusions because that's just how we work.
For someone struggling with the issue about learning japanese.
you Channel is Like A freaking Gold MINE for me. please keep up, for now sharing and verbally supporting is all i can do.
i promise i'll fund you once i get earning.
Loving the increase in production value. Thumbnails, editing all gotten so much better.
Thanks for the inspiring videos as always
Finding this channel has been a blessing.
So it's equivalent to English speakers identifying valley girl, surfer boy, cheerleader, jock stereotypical language without even being American.
I'll start rewatching anime tomorrow
exactly! great comparison
So did y’all get far?
@@ouvs.I didn't restart anime but the stereotypes are still in shows and movies 😆
To be honest, I've been a big fan of your the way you're coming up with language learning technics..just awesome ☺️ it's gonna change the whole idea of language learning....
I showed your previous Japanese speaking video to my native Japanese boyfriend and he said if he closed his eyes you sounded like a Japanese guy he said it would take him a while to realize your not Japanese. He was really impressed ad shocked you learned from anime. So you must know what you're talking about! Time for me to study more anime.
Am I really going to slack off work to watch another video from Matt...
You bet, my boss ain't anywhere near me.
5:11 Matt speaking feminine Japanese is something I never knew I needed in my life
素敵ですわね❣
@@jordanrodrigues8265 Are You A 日本方
Omg I would watch a 10 hour video of that
Oh no he's becoming a femboy
@@cutecommie *oh yes
Recently I've been having a break with Japanese because lack of motivation. Your video brought me my motivation back! Thank you!
Sussy baka
The clarity of your explanations and thoughts about how to learn the language is a real help and motivation to go on, thanks for what you're doing.
Thank you Matt for making your channel and giving us all this crucial information for free.
I like how Joey on the trash taste podcast said learning japanese through anime was a bad idea, but didn't he say that he learned a lot of his japanese as a kid from reading manga and looking up the words in a dictionary.
Lol😂
smh and manga is literally just anime on paper. that was hypocritical of him
Well... He's stupid.
Well no, not really. Joey is a native speaker. He would read manga and stuff as a kid because that was material that was available to him, but he was a nerd and would literally sit for hours just writing kanji out of a dictionary and learning proverbs, and his mother forced him to use Japanese to address her or she would ignore him. Normally bilingual raised children have a weak and a strong language, but if one of his languages is weaker than the other it really doesn't show. I think his view just comes from his perspective as one of the largest anime content creators on the platform, I'm sure he's seen his fair share of cringe and bad Japanese.
@@mistersadaimusic he's not a "native speaker" technically, he didn't grow up in japan.
Hey Matt, I would love to see a detailed tutorial of your Netflix plugins and Integration with MIA - looks very effective if we only knew how to set it up properly! Cheers!
Seconded!
I think he has it on the MIA website.
Me: * Has Fate Zero in my list on Netflix *
Matt: * Says Fate Zero is _wicked_ difficult *
Me: Oh look Toradora is right next to it
@LIMITLESS - POSITIVITY, PASSION, POWER hH
But who was Shiro Kuma Cafe tho.. (seriously has to be the easiest anime for a beginner)
I’ve watched most all of the Fate series because you can follow along without understanding much anyway. Plus they have epic fight scenes
I watched steins;gate even though I'm pretty much a beginner. Its not that hard.
I'm glad Fate/Zero is difficult. I assume everything from Fate is difficult now.
And that makes me glad because I started playing Fate/Extra CCC a while ago and I understand NOTHING.
I'm not at a high level of japanese, by any means (god, I wish), but I started feeling like I was actually making progress until I played that game for a bit hahaha.
Well said Matt, those "standardised Japanese language" they teach in textbooks sound soooooo contrived and stiff to my native ears that I basically see them as some sort of a 役割語 that a lot of foreigners/learners of Japanese are subject to. By which I don't mean stereotypical gaijin characters' speech in anime but more like an artificial, prescriptivist language that only exists in textbooks that I assume some egghead scholars had conceived, most likely for colonial purposes when imperialism was a thing. It's not like textbook Japanese sounds archaic or overly formal or anything, it is just plain weird, albeit grammatically correct.
I believe Japanese is one of those languages where there's a particularly huge discrepancy between everyday speech and written/scripted speech, kinda like French or Arabic.
Portuguese is like that too... The formal grammar is far away from the coloquial speech and even when people are performing a formal speech they don't use the most formal grammar because it is very hard to use and sounds very artificial (or "bookish")... And I see that a lot of the learning resorces for foreigners focus on the formal grammar (in a level closer to the coloquial grammar) and I see that they start teaching verb forms and sentence structures that a child (native speaker) don't know about (and even adults avoid using those in daily conversations) instead of start teaching like a native child learn the language, those textbooks just invert the learning process starting with a more complex grammar that only adults use and only when writting formally.
@@MCA0090 Você é brasileiro? Acho que o português "de livro" que você fala ainda é relativamente próximo do falado em Portugal.
@@VieiraFi Sim. Eu acho que distância entre formal e informal deve ser maior no Brasil do que em Portugal. As regras da gramática informal no Brasil mudam bastante, as regras de uso do plural por exemplo seguem um padrão diferente entre formal e informal, as estruturas dos tempos verbais também, usando verbos auxiliares ao invés de conjugar o verbo principal.
As usual, I totally agree with you. I live in Japan and learning these different styles of speech have helped me so much to communicate and understand nuance, jokes, and emotions in a way that textbooks learners do not. I have often seen traditional textbook/class learners of Japanese totally missing the point of something someone said countless times.
Awesome video! As a Brazilian, I'm fluent in English, have a B2 level in French, and also speak a little Spanish just from having Portuguese as my mother tongue, so I wanted the next language that I would learn to have a different writing system. In the end, I chose Japanse precisely because I love anime and would have tons of content to immerse myself in the language while learning grammar and vocabulary.
I just wanna say how helpful it is that you summarize your video in the description, it's great to know whether or not I'll be hearing any new points before I watch. This is great!
This guy is the best explaining everything I love the way he talkes and explains things.
This is the most important channel for me right now.
The Yakuwarigo is a little bit annoying when I try to find the translation of something and I don't know that Yakuwarigo is being used.
Great video 👍🏽
Grateful for this video Matt! I’ve been resisting watching anime that interested me because I feared I would learn to speak unrealistically - WHEW!
Or there's an abundance of dramas, tv shows, and movies that are readily available with the click of a mouse as well...
@@veemon They are also unrealistic. There is no realistic. Keep up.
@2:56 a b-roll clip is shown of someone holding a Genki textbook. Which I love, because it implies that Matt, a high level 2nd language Japanese learner, whose spent 1000s of hours with the language, does not posses a Japanese textbook.
A good reminder that most media, especially film & TV, is often exaggerated, linguistically! In most any language.The very best teacher would be immersion, when possible. A good, laid out,well presented explanation.
Visual novel type games are also pretty good, since you can replay the spoken audio (i.e. Persona 5, Atelier Games). Anyhow having subs is very important, it makes the process of "what did he just say" very easy. And mpv can seek to subtitles so you can move around lines very efficiently.
The thumbnail basically shows the reverse: anime characters watching matt.
@@brokensubaru4502 uP
@@brokensubaru4502 cheer up, broken subaru, Rem will heal your heart
@@brokensubaru4502 oh, then echidona's body fluids will
@@ADeeSHUPA I'm trying to learn Japanese and read the Wenobe. Trying out Animelon (outside of the usual Anki). got a daughter recently, gonna make her take JLPT N1 for / (hopefully with) me.
@@brokensubaru4502 then Emilia tan will
I have one anime that I really, really like so I rewatched the show(about 40 episodes+2hr movie) several times. Now I can watch it without subtitles and actually understand >95% of what they're saying. It's a slice of life anime so I don't think it's that unnatural as well :)
Yep.. just finished the video and it appeared after I commented haha ^^
Thank you so much Matt. Great video as always.
Which one? Can you tell us please
which anime?
It's K-On :)
@@lapischicken How long have you been studying japanese for roughly? I've been going for nearly 4 months in total and I just wanna know how much I should expect to understand
Thanks to share m8, here come a new subscriber!
Just started raw listening immersion, and my perfectionism voices were rising up.. And then your video silenced everything up..
Thank you as usual for being the Godfather of this gang!
Thank you for explaining yakuwarigo Matt. Its very helpful in knowing that this is meant represent different troupes. I made this face :o as every ojousama character that i've know popped up in my brain.
Glad there was a part 2 going further into the yakuwarigo and keigo nuances. I also must say I am jealous of those younger people learning Japanese as the amount of content at your fingertips compared to 20 years ago when I was hardcore studying is just amazing. I had to borrow friend's vhs tapes and dreamt of having japanese tv accessible to me to further immerse myself. Not to mention so many apps and UA-cam videos that help. (You're making me want to get back into it... May have to check out those other channels you spoke of. If nothing else just as a hobby. I miss it.)
Thank you for all you have done on UA-cam. I often get discouraged and miss a day, and for some reason your videos always make me get back to practicing.
This channel is absolutely invaluable for intermediate japanese speakers aiming for fluency. It's actually quite rare compared to the thousands of "how to learn japanese in 30 minutes" or "how to start learning japanese" videos on youtube.
Really liked what Matt wanted to say with this video. And also, the anime transitions throughout the video were on point 👌
Whenever I do my Anki reviews around my Japanese coworker, she always has to comment on how difficult or useless some vocab or phrase is lol, especially since I've been making cards from 幼女戦記 recently. I think you hit the nail on the head saying that anime covers the whole range of Japanese learning levels, which is really awesome for people like me.
I don't know why people get so hung up on specifics when it comes to material to immerse in though, just listen to and read what you enjoy consistently and you'll get where you wanna be eventually. I live in Japan, but mostly consider my use of Anki (almost at 9k total sentence cards) and daily active immersion, outside of dancing monkey work hours, as the reasons why my comprehension has gone up as well as passing N3 last August and N2 last December without having looked at any JLPT textbooks seriously.
I'm guessing that coworker was deeming it useless in regards to conversational speech, and honestly I feel that people get hung up on the idea that if it isnt commonly used conversationally it isnt useful. If your intention for using the language is primarily to be able to digest media in its native language then whether something is conversational is irrelevant...I'm just speaking from my perspective though, some people truly only want to be conversant so in their case, it'll be understandable to avoid content that isnt relevant to that to be time efficient. Not like more information ever hurt anything, but that's besides the point.
@@nocturnallight2640 Exactly, you still want to eventually be able to at least recognize most of what you encounter, whether it's commonly used or not. Even light/mainstream movies and TV serials can throw 'uncommon' curveballs regularly.
I know almost all anime shows you used in the video lol I totally agree how anime helps learners and how sometimes it cause isunderstandings (desuwa etc.)！
Thank you for such a fun and nice video!
Matt, I haven't watched your videos in a long time and now going through your recent ones I was surprised by their improved quality, and I'm not talking about your camera only, your editing and even the way you speak to the camera have also gotten better
Definitely true that there’s something for every level in anime. I’ve been watching Pokémon a lot lately and have been feeling pretty comfortable, but then I watched Paprika last night and felt like a total noob again lol
These videos are always so laid back, yet super professional
The quality of the content you put up has to be some of the best on UA-cam you deserve so many more subscribers
Thanks for giving examples of the different levels of anime, I think it will help me decide what to watch :)
Glad this video went in depth after the last one. Great video!
Matt, I do not know what I would do without you, thank you so much man, you've helped me so much with learning Japanese even up to the point where it's had a profound effect on my life. Thanks so much man :)
マットさん、こんにちは！五万人の加入者おめでとうございます！
I think visual novels are a very good addition to anime in learning japanese. Its just like reading a book but with voice acting and its even slower paced than an anime cause its always your decision when you want to click to the next line of dialogue. More and more VN also give you the option to enable the japanese text beside the english one and thats even better for learning.
I am so happy to watch this
I’m a Japanese university student learning English. From my perspective, his opinion totally makes sense.
Does this also mean that the version of the language spoken in podcasts and interviews is not fully natural too?
It’s a spectrum. I believe podcasts and interviews(depending on their style) are probably as close as you can get to natural, everyday speech. Or at least, more natural than anime/drama.
@@fangornthewise Just watch Japanese youtubers talking to each other
Unscripted podcasts are generally very natural. The real line between "natural" and "unnatural" is whether the content is scripted or not. There are exceptions, but that's usually a good principle to go by.
Matt vs. Japan I listen to Pop Life: the Podcast with 三原勇希 and 田中宗一郎 (on spotify) and from my experience at least it sounds very natural
Not talking about japanese but, is the Joe Rogan Experience natural?
Ooo. I’ve been waiting for thisss!!!
You deserve so much more subs reallllyyy
I think he deserves success above anything else, instead of subscribers. There's not billions of people willing to get fluent in japanese. Quite the opposite.
I like how you say this applies to ALL languages - using media, anime, etc. Languages are languages. A lot of people preach as if X,Y or Z is a particular issue with a certain language.
I feel like a lot of bias around anime is just because of the partial stigma in association with otaku
this. people make excuses like “it’s unnatural blah blah” but would never say that about a japanese lit novel which is also very unnatural. also the people who say that usually don’t even know japanese lol. so it’s really just stigma and ignorance/people wanting to pretend they’re experts on stuff they know nothing about.
@@babygorl9541 based department is calling
OMG in 6:12 Matt just explained why whenever someone speaks in a light novel, they don’t have the “said Person” like in English. I’ve been wondering about that for so long, it’s easier to tell when each character has a clear distinct way of speaking, but I guess that’s usually lost in translation...
I've noticed when I have read light novels translated from Korean into English that it's often hard to tell what character is saying what... so I guess Korean is probably the same.
English is not my native labguage so can you explain this "said person" thing?🤔 I didn't quite get that
Какаяразница Какаяразница basically whenever someone speaks in a book in English, their dialogue is in quotation marks (“.”), and after it’ll say something like ‘said Bob happily’. E.g. “I like to eat apples” said Bob happily. In Japanese they don’t have the ‘said Bob happily’ part, since you can usually tell who’s speaking by the way they speak
@@leonardchung3825 thank you man ;) that helped me a lot. Cheers
Came here after seeing a couple of your vids arguing with George on why Japanese learners should learn pitch accent. Dude, you really have some strong opinions when it comes to the methodology of Japanese learning. I can't agree that you should learn from anime even if you like anime. I mean how many of those anime series are set in a different time period, or based on different locations with a regional dialect? But more than that, below is a different perspective to what I don't think anybody would've told you.
I'm currently enrolled in a dance/acting school in Tokyo that also has a voice acting course. The acting/VA courses share the same department, and we have quite a few mutual classes. There's a class where they have us work on our pronunciation or how we should say certain things. My classmates, who are like 98% Japanese locals and I get corrected on our pronunciation when reading scripts aloud. Not sure if it's the natural pronunciation, but when corrected, the feel of what they say sounds more dramatic. So when you hear lines in anime, or even in drama, be aware that even if it sounds natural, it might not be how locals pronounce those speeches in daily conversations.
So in saying that, an alternative form of entertainment I recommend are Japanese variety shows. These show 100% real Japanese conversations, where at times, real-life people even mess up their own speeches. There are slangs, jokes, and other forms of speech that you probably wouldn't find in anime or drama. Some shows do have a script, but much like the Trash Taste podcast, they can easily go off-script into something more candid or spontaneous. I know people like Chris Broad and the boys have said that normal Japanese TV shows are a waste of time, but objectively, learning Japanese speech from real Japanese communication is a lot better than scripted communication.
I know this is a pretty old video, but let me know your opinion on this.
I disagree. Just because there are different time periods and dialects doesn't mean you can't learn from it. Most anime uses the standard dialect. Unless you're going out of your to only watch things that are historical or are set in a specific region for example, you'll still be mostly exposed to the standard dialect
He never says you should *only* use anime. You can still watch variety shows while watching anime. It's not one or the other
I learned around 80 - 90% of my Japanese (vocabulary, grammar, etc) through anime. Did I pick up some unnatural speech patterns at first? Sure. But it only took me a few weeks of watching videos with normal people speaking to understand what's natural and what's not. The idea that once you learn an unnatural pattern or different dialect you're doomed to always speak like that and your Japanese will always be wrong it's ridiculous
@@zahraa4149 Firstly, saying you disagree is fine, but spare me what's right or wrong. These are opinions and nobody, no matter how much of an expert you think you are, can ever say that my opinion is one of them. In saying that though, the thing that you said was wrong wasn't even something that I said.
I never said you will be "doomed to always speak it", but do I need to wait another few weeks like you to realize that that was unnatural? If so, I'd rather just learn from real people's conversations. I mean, If you're just picking up words here and there from anime, then that's fine. I have CC on TV partly for that reason. I just wouldn't use anime as a resource for learning speeches. Because really, if you want to learn how to speak like the locals, then listen to how the locals speak - and I mean unscripted! That's why I suggested a variety show rather than a drama. It's probably one of the best resources people living overseas have access to for hearing locals converse. Varieties might be scripted as well, but that's more to guide the direction of a show I think. A lot of it should still be spontaneous everyday dialogue, which you might learn something new about the people or current Japanese society. And if there's a mistake in what someone says, people are usually quick to point it out.
So if you want to continue learning from anime, then good for you. Leave the right or wrong for anything that's explicitly said to be a fact.
@@ncx8049 you keep mentioning "right or wrong" but the only time I actually said the word wrong is when I mentioned that people learning from anime aren't doomed to speak "wrong" Japanese so I don't see why you're so hung on that
What's wrong with waiting a few weeks to learn that a speech pattern isn't natural? If someone loves anime, learning those speech patterns is helpful for them to understand the material they enjoy, even if they don't end up using them in real life conversations. Language learning isn't a linear process.
Plenty of people learn a new piece of grammar or vocabulary only to find out later that they've misunderstood how it's used, and that's fine.
All I'm saying is, there's no reason you can't simultaneously learn from anime and and some other material that is more natural. It's not that hard to pick up and there's no reason to force yourself *not* to learn from anime if you enjoy it. I get specifically complimented on how natural my Japanese sounds, and most Japanese people assume I'm Japanese until I say otherwise. Yes, I'm bragging. But mostly to make a point that even if you mostly consume anime, you can still learn natural speech with some exposure.
@@zahraa4149 After using forums on and off since 2004, I have seen so many say opinions are wrong, so I do feel like I have to make this clear at times. But also, this time you were putting words in my mouth to say that it's wrong. That wasn't appreciated.
Speaking of getting hung up on what someone says though, you really had a lot to say about my opinion, huh? You want to use anime to learn? Fine. I'd rather learn natural speech the first time rather than watch something that may not have natural dialogue first, then watch something else to learn the natural way. You can handle doing both? OK, that's your own use of your time.
And I'm no linguist, but I think beginning language learning (at least) can be linear-ish depending on the methodology. Textbooks and certain sites would give a similar intro to the basics for example.
You can learn the language however you want. I just don't agree with using anime. I tried, but found variety shows are better for me to learn from so I focused on those. Anime is just not my go-to learning resource for speech, hence, not recommending it. Again, If you do both, then good for you.
And I only get complimented on my Japanese if I tell them I'm a foreigner. But since they already assume I'm local from my oriental looks, a few actually didn't believe me until I spoke English. Then I surprised them with some jokes from Japanese comedians. So there's just so much more to learn from variety shows. If I'm learning anything from anime, it's mainly those slice-of-life things.
I didn't really know about the immersion method when I was a beginner in Japanese, so when I watched anime in the past I always had subtitles. Your method makes a lot of sense for me since when I started to watch Japanese youtube videos without subtitles (cuz there aren't any), I feel like my comprehension improved a lot.
Now I'm actually a manga/comic creator, and I tried to translate my work into Japanese once. I found it super hard to write vibrant lines, most of my lines are kinda bland. I guess it's time to dive into anime again without subtitles and learn those yakuwarigo :D
another thing that I think people should consider is that one of the main reasons a lot of folks want to learn Japanese in the first place is because they enjoy anime and manga. For most of us, we will probably never live in Japan so really the main use for learning Japanese is being able to watch and read Japanese content (anime, movies, books, manga) in its original form. If that is one of the main draws for learning Japanese then it really makes the most sense to spend most of your time learning Japanese through these sources.
It all makes sense as even in English language people in real life don't speak and behave like characters in film and TV same thing applies for anime and Jdrama. Your videos have been a great help with learning thank you 😊
I can't believe how good your new videos are!
I feel like UA-cam is such a good way to get truly natural speech. Not the parts where they're just talking to the camera but in vlogs when they talk to their friends and family and stuff. Like in Korean I watch a lot of what I eat in a week videos and they'll record themselves around the table sitting and eating with their families.
I could use Japanese subtitles but my kanji knowledge isn't as great as my other reading or conversation. I can pause and learn the kanji but wont know the stroke order. At least the reading/comprehension part is gonna help. I can recognize some kanji while reading way more than writing.
I guess I can use this method to familiarize myself with the kanji visually while I slowly learn how to write them from the book.
Your videos are inspiring to double down and focus. I was taking lessons and learning everyday but covid disrupted that and after I quit my job and currently creating a new business, all my time was put in my livelihood. Now I'm going to listen to Japanese learning videos and start using my books again while I work on emails and logistics..
Oh man, that edit at 12:09 with all the anime flashing. Serious nostalgia for an anime fan.
I didn't feel it because I don't know them. I'm young btw, so it's probably old anime.
Always the best and most applicable advice, and my target language isn't even Japanese!
13:39 Matt, these are the same shows. Name one modern isekai anime that isn't also a harem anime.
lol well, most isekai may also be a harem show, but there are many harem shows that aren't isekai. square is also a rectangle type deal.
@@mattvsjapan There are still harem shows that aren't isekai? Seems like poor marketing. Why not also make you the most powerful being on the planet and have a bunch of hot girls want you?
Grimgar of fantasy and ash. A really refreshing isekai
@@ThinkBeforeYouSleepYT' Sage's magic power of omnipotent' is a reverse harem
If that helps
A shit ton of isekai... Seems you're not well knowledged in this aspect.
5:09
Ojou-sama Matt got me feeling things I shouldn't be feeling lmao
lmao
@@aanyel hH
Same lmao
i've just let out the ugliest laugh at 「お前の父はワシだ！」
sometimes, translation is more funny than a real thing
The thing is that newcomers have to start to learn somehow. My issue is how to grasp the basics. So finding a resource that teaches clearly the basics like verb conjugation or how to use particles in a sentence or even how the heck a sentence should be constructed is the main goal. Watching anime or the news won't cut it. It's unrealistic to watch shows like those and expect to learn any of the fundamentals. They do help to make yourself immersed with the language but that's it IMO. Maybe once you have under your belt basic structures of the language, they can be part of the learning experience. Thanks for the video. Subscribed!
This might be a late response, but for anyone else who happens to see this comment, look up Cure Dolly on youtube. Her videos might take some getting used to, but her way of teaching grammar and structure is absolutely top notch. Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly is her channel name.
I understand a few words in Japanese that I learned from anime and nou I just hear the words and I understand it like it's my own language so I completely understand and agree with you
Thanks for the great video Matt. As the Vice President of my schools Japanese national honor society, I’d love to show this to unmotivated members to get them to study harder at the language. Matt先生にはいくら感謝してもしきれない気持ちです。
Matt can you make a video on downloading subtitles from Netflix for Anki. This would be great for all language learners because there’s so many different language shows on Netflix.
Hi, I'm from VietNam. I have learned English for 10 years and Japanese for 4 years, and here are things that I think why Japanese is really hard for languages using the Latin alphabet.
Japanese uses kanji and each kanji character has a meaning. For me when I first learning English, the words are easily written, because Vietnamese use the same Latin alphabet like English, and adding some noodle marks. But there's a problem with Kanji, if you are not familiar with the orders of writing the strokes, you can never remember them, no matter how many times you look at it.
For example, if I hear or look at a word in English, I can close my eyes and rewrite it in my mind, but not for Kanji in the beginning. Secondly, each English word has its own meaning, and when I am familiar to its meaning, it will just shine forth when I read or hear the words. But Kanji has meanings not just separately, but also when they are standing together. So if I don't know the meaning of each Kanji, it's hard to understand the compound ones. Therefore, I have written a lot of Kanji characters using Anki, to remember their meanings, but most important, remember the orders of their strokes. So they can be familiar. To the point that when I look at a Kanji character, I can close my eyes and rewrite it in my head. So knowing Kanji's meanings help a lot for reading.
For listening, there's really no shortcut, but there are some tips to optimize the progress. I always prefer listening to English audio or video with a subtitle, so I can have something to check if the words I was hearing are confusing. Our brain works like machine learning (you give the machine some practice data, and answer, then let the machine guess the practice data. If it's correct you give it a thumb up.If it's incorrect, you let it try again), so I train the brain like that to let it fail the guess and then let it try again.
Now listening and reading are important to practice as well as knowing grammar. If listening and reading are keys then grammar is the treasure chest. The reward is decided by the knowledge of grammar. It's not good to have a golden key and a wooden chest or vice versa.
And last but not least, you need to have faith in learning anything new. Because you will have failure and frustration along the way, and if you don't have faith in your capability to transform and learn then there won't be any courage in you to bear the challenges ahead. If you have read to this point, I hope you a good day and just keep swimming, keep going forward.
I liked you already, but now I love you now that I know you like Akira the film, and Yu Yu Hakusho the anime 🤣😎 You should have so many more subs, love your content. Keep killing it brotha 👌🏼
There's also the very complicated military 役割語 where they say things like 御意, call each other using military ranks like 少将, 中尉, 提督, etc; and use quite elaborated kanji words that are difficult to grasp from the audio alone.
YEEEES!!! This is the video I was hoping to find!!! This subtitle programm you are using in the video is that an Anki addon?
At 15:42, you mentioned Slice of Life anime shows, and what's the other one called?
"Moe" it's basically cute girls doing cute things
Man, you are an awesome teacher. ✌️
Amazing video as always, the world of language learning will never be the same.
haven't been here in a while and the production quality really wen tup!!
I actually learned a few things from anime just by paying attention to what words they use and in what context.
Great video
I have learned English by immersing in English content. What i mean by these is. I started with games, then added tv series, news, movies, etc that i lied and it helped me a lot. And of course i was learning english in school but i give more credit to games and other media than to school. School was jus punishing me for not perfecting english and creating the barrier of fear when it comes to talking to other English speaking ppl. I know that my grammar is probably bad, but hey i can easily communicate with ppl without thinking what word i want to use. :D I need to give japanese a go.
I've started using Japanese video games first and anime second and keeping more traditional "study" stuff as a supplement to that. But I'm finding that even though having English subtitles is said to seriously reduce comprehension ability of the target language, as a beginner it's what keeps me most engaged and I get too frustrated without it. I'm finding that knowing romagi, I can keep two browser tabs open on my phone, a romagi dictionary and google translate, and if I hear something regularly or a phrase I want to learn, try to figure it out by ear and with my phone (which oftentimes I can't), so this might work for anyone who has the basic step of learning romagi.
Listening is important for language learning and my amount of listening has been terrible since I've tried lots of different things except the content that engages me most because it was "the way to study"-- so I'm starting to believe in the idea of breaking rules everywhere if it maximizes engagement in language learning and learning in general.
1. What is "romagi"?
2. How much kanji do you need to know before you can effectively play video games in Japanese?
@@kingchickenwing4887 romaji, maybe?
Generally the reason why using English subtitles and Romaji are bad for learning Japanese is due to the crutch that it establishes. Unfortunately, Japanese simply isnt written that way and you need to learn the Kana system and Kanji. On top of that, you are likely spending more time reading and clicking over to a different browser to learn a new word or sentence...instead of listening to the content.
The thing is that you appear to be retaining more information, but in reality you are likely not. I stopped using subs when actively learning and man can I tell you it's a hella of a difference. Sure I'm generally confused and dont understand much of anything, but when I do it the process is super natural and stays stuck in my head.
If learning new words is a problem, try using Anki, Mermise and a good Kanj book.
@@dominiquehudson8077 Do you know any legal way to get Japanese subtitles on anime? Like the video said, the most efficient way to learn is with audio and subtitles in the target language.
@@dominiquehudson8077 i agree that romaji can help only first week (maybe first month) of learnig. After that, it just disturbs you. 'cos our western brain will allways automaticaly look for the simplest way to read. And if you have a text with romaji next to kana and kanji no matter how you try to ignore those latin letters your eyes gonna read romaji at first. So you need to reaplace it completely by a furigana.
Amazing video!
Anime at: 3:51 and 4:06, please.
The one at 4:06: isn't that the one about a skipping student falling in love with a skipping teacher? And so he draws her foot.
Matt, did you upgrade your camera and lighting? Lookin awesome.
Just made a few tweaks; using all the same gear as the last few vids
Would be nice with a list of references to all the media used in this video. Would have liked to know the name of the series for a lot of these. Like, what is the name of the series at 15:50?
Very good point!
Awesome video
Thank you ! omg you've just saved my soul !
Anyone know the music used from 15:29 till 17:02 ? I can’t find it anywhere and would love to know what it is!
Same
@@JosephvsJapan DUDES I FOUND IT!!!
It's Your Lie in April - Again (Kayou. Remix)
This video was really helpful, I really thought through what I’ve seen that isnt good to learn japanese through anime but the reality isn’t that black and white. Srry about my English I still learning though.