●Busuu www.busuu.com/en ▼My New Channel: Let’s ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼ www.youtube.com/@letsasksekisensei Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out! ▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼ ko-fi.com/letsaskshogo The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo. ▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼ tozandoshop.com/letsaskshogo Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape! ▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼ minikatana.com/SHOGO *Get 15% OFF off all their products by purchasing through my affiliate link ▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼ A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts! Make your reservation here: www.airbnb.com/experiences/4577764?locale=en A video of me visiting this experience: ua-cam.com/video/MqBCAC42zAM/v-deo.html ▼Let's ask Shogo Merchandise Shop▼ Where you can buy t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, etc. of cute Ukiyoe animal characters and logos of Let’s ask Shogo: suzuri.jp/lets_ask_shogo ▼Who is Shogo? What is this channel about?▼ ua-cam.com/users/shortskZbyd0OfdC4 ▼Related videos on this channel▼ -Is Duolingo Really a Good Way to Study Japanese? | A Japanese Man Reacts to Duolingo ua-cam.com/video/j1fNAA8mdFY/v-deo.html -I Asked the World’s Most Renowned Polyglot How to Correctly Study Japanese ua-cam.com/video/ypo2sRfuavM/v-deo.html -Why I Couldn't Get a Full Score on JLPT | A Native Japanese Tries JLPT N5~N1 ua-cam.com/video/Lby2BUCIFt8/v-deo.html ▼MY DREAM▼ ua-cam.com/users/shortsWFF3AhN0LXE “To make every Japan lovers’ dream come true, by making Japan a more secure, comfortable, and safer place for everyone to visit, study, and live in” ▼Join our Membership▼ ua-cam.com/channels/n7DCb9ttrcw9h3vh9dfnVw.htmljoin The ticket to the front row seats to Shogo's rapid adventure to make his dream come true! Through the limited videos and live streams, your ideas and opinions will be adopted for Shogo to make the right decisions for his challenges! ●Membership benefits -Limited behind-the-scene videos every week -Limited live streams every two weeks -Priority reply to comments ▼Sub-channel: “Shogo’s Podcast”▼ ua-cam.com/channels/ZAe1VayWxp5NLO4Net78DA.html ▼Instagram▼ instagram.com/lets_ask_shogo/ *Please ask me questions through the DM here!（⚠I do not use e-mail）
I've been using Busuu for almost 2 months now (so ironically, close to when Shogo filmed this) and so far it's been much more useful to me than Duolingo with the way they structure exercises and recaps of previous lessons. Of course the machine speak isn't too useful but that's what listening to a lot of real japanese is for.
So I tried tooking at the speed setting and for some reason the menu drop down past the border of the video and I can't see it 🙃. I've only been about to slow it down more by just pressing buttons.
I moved to Busuu from Duolingo and couldn't be happier. I've made more progress in 6 months on there than 12 months on Duolingo. You haven't seen the best of it to be honest - The first few chapters seem to be super beginner friendly. I understand why you say we should learn the alphabets from the start, but having the first few lessons build our confidence makes the whole thing much less daunting, which makes it more likely that we'll continue the lessons. It might not be straight away, but pretty soon you get into hiragana/katakana only, including typing in them rather than just reading and selecting. Honestly I found that the best way. The best part for me though, is the community. Having native speakers correct your exercises and being able to comment on theirs let's everyone learn more "real life" and natural sounding language.
Duolingo's Japanese course is becoming increasingly bad as time goes. Their last update was a disaster which is why I am here looking for an alternative. Quite a shame, really, as that app had a lot of potential.
I really liked the way your language video that you posted over the weekend approached it. Hearing the language audibly and visually connecting it to the word in your own language is the best way to learn it, immersing yourself is what I call it. I learn better with the visual clues and it just clicks faster for me that way because you’re actively practicing it. Great videos!
I used the busuu app a few years ago to brush up on the little Japanese I know. Some of the premium lessons include stories with actual Japanese people voicing them! There were also prompts to write a few sentences to a paragraph in Japanese and a native Japanese Busuu member would be promoted to review it and give feedback. There were speaking exercises too which I found the most helpful. In my personal experience, the premium membership wasn't worth the price tag. Also, the beginning part where Busuu has you select why you want to learn Japanese doesn't seem to have any bearing on the lessons you're given. You can switch it at any time and the lesson order never changes. I think that's another disappointing aspect - why give the illusion that lesson plans are somewhat customizable if it's not true? Maybe that's changed though.
I agree with your sentiment that our reason behind learning matters. It seems this option was only presented as a fun personalized way to collect this piece of data from their users. That being said, it should definitely tie in with what kind of lessons we receive. For instance the "for fun and culture" option should start you off with very casual and fun conversation, then move on to food and hobbies. The "for education" option should be organized and formatted more akin to how most schools teach the language, so most students can use it to assist them with their classes. While the "for work" options should emphasize professionalism and work situations.
Enjoyed your pleasure at being right here 12:08 😂 I would like more stuff that tests particles. It’s a complicated concept to get your head round at first.
I hope you start teaching Japanese, should I (and my Japanese enthused daughter) ever need to travel to Japan it would be nice to have you as a teacher.
4:59 the thing I like about Busuu I haven’t seen in other apps is in settings there’s an option to take a placement test. They test your comprehension/knowledge and then determine where you should start your lessons
I've been studying kanji and vocabulary using Wanikani, though it's worth noting that it doesn't teach grammar points or full sentences - but it's been really helpful for remembering kanji for me. I'm curious as to your take on the accuracy of the pronunciations available in Wanikani, if you get a chance to check it out 😊
about the robot voice I think when you're starting they have to use the "babality" voice because you're supposed to be a beginner. I started to use this app myself and I found the voice pretty funny since when I hear japanese people talk they speak a lot faster but the babality voice is okay for a beginner.
I've seen others emphasize not to learn Japanese through romaji. For the "pre-beginner" Japanese lessons, you will see romaji alongside hiragana. But it's advised to learn hiragana as soon as possible. But I do see people actually typing sentences entirely in romaji later on, which is massively slowing down their learning. Also I noticed that apps like Duolingo continue to use massive sentences almost entirely in hiragana. I like your point about having spaces in sentences at this point. A major feature of kanji is to see the word boundaries when sentences don't have spaces. Another major problem I've discovered with these apps is that they introduce Japanese grammar with absolutely no explanation of the sentence structure, particles, pronunciation changes, etc. I ended up with so many unanswered questions. I like that native speakers like yourself immediately can say "this is not really how we speak" eg どうぞ よろしく.
When I was learning Japanese (college level - class credits optional), we started out with Romanji - the letters were familiar, and various books and articles about thing Japanese use Romanji to represent Japanese words - this facilitated reading, writing & speaking. In parallel, we also began learning Hiragana and Katakana to prepare for the next term. In that 2nd term, we switched to a textbook that had Kana rather than Romanji which was a relatively smooth transition. In parallel with this, we also began to learn elementary Kanji and the use of Furigana. And long with these developments, we learned some of the 'kata' of the Japanese conversational style in various social situations. I appreciated this step-by-step methodology. As an aside, outside of class, with the help of my Naginata Sensei, I created 2-sided Meishi with English on one side and Nihongo on the other - I created several for the different Budo I was studying at the time. This turned out to be very helpful when meeting new Sensei from Japan - it always made a great impression, especially when presenting it in the normal ritualized manner.
@7:07 I personally use a program called *_Memrise_* to practice my Japanese, and unironically I was taught to say 「よろしくおねがいします」as well as having two pronunciations done for you, video examples, and even short skits (in a separate section) to almost immerse yourself in some of the words you may have learned ー So perhaps it may be to your liking...? (╹ ╹ )❓ I will say it might be a *_little_* less flashy than this or Duolingo, and it is made primarily for mobile so the PC version may also not have access to certain learning features as of yet. (^ ^;)ゞ
I started using Busuu for Japanese recently. There are sections on Hiragana and Katakana before the lessons you were looking at, so students can become familiar with both systems before embarking on the A1 level. Excellent review. Thank you! :)
It's great that you're taking classes to become an instructor! I hope everything goes well! Learning Japanese from a professional would be an amazing opportunity, especially for me since I'd love to actually live in Japan.
I like pimsleur a lot It has 30 minute audio lessons for you to take daily ( your supposed to do 1 daily.) It does just feel like a recorded class in a lot of ways. It comes with flash cards after the lesson, as well as other study tools. Its biggest drawback to me is the price its quite expensive, $20 a month I think, but its worth it for me. The other possible downside for people is that its a 30 minute intensive session that might be quite daunting for a lot of people.
the blue square at the bottom of the page says "You have finished module one. Would you like get your official congratulations certificate for level one? Do you want to move on and do module two? "
I've been working on the duolingo, and enjoying it quite a bit. I like to think that I am getting it but if I understand correctly they are teaching a very familiar form. still it is a base on which to build
P.S. We do leave comments on both this and lets ask Seki Sensei. But dont think we have ever had a reply. 🤔 But no worries you must be extremely busy and you looked really tired in the teaching Japanese live stream (which we didn't see live sorry) If you over do it and don't get rest you can't help anyone. And remember you do do so much for us by bringing these channels to us. So thank you from all of us out here. Take care. Stay safe 🙏 John and Kate.
I'm using Kanshudo to reignite my study of Japanese. This site is less focused on audio, but helps with Kanji and grammar. At some point, I might actually take lessons with Shogo though.
Hey shogo! I've been using busuu to learn Japanese and there are a few lessons that have native speakers for the audio parts. I think the website is slowly updating this part.
I wonder if you chose "work" as the reason for studying, if the language would be more formal to match how you should interact with meeting a new person?
What books/mangas do you recommend for people trying to train their japanese Reading? And what about movies ? I recently have watched some 80s and 90s movies.
Hi Shogo, Been following you for a while but whenever you decide to do a full online course, id love to sign up. Ive been studying for a year seriously for a year and have gotten to a point where i am conversational, but like to eventually become fluent as i am in English and Spanish.
I am a little envious. Your ability to code switch between English and Japanese is amazing. I have a passion for languages (and how much a culture shapes), but lack any ability to retain what I've learned. How does one learn to speak a language?
Learning I kana and using the kana keyboard, from day, one is a must. Even if you spend a few hours having to constantly refer to a cheat sheet, that will actually teach you everything very quickly. An interesting point to me was that the Japanese is actually easier to read than my own native English. I think it’s because the particles help me keep track of each part of a sentence in an even more effective way than the German case system did. I am almost blind (the least qualified people in America get paid outrageous salaries to educate the disabled so not really teaching you any skills is job security), and everything I learned about English, I actually learned through learning foreign languages, so I don’t have the same hardcoded template others do. This taught me to approach every language on its own terms and focus on effective communication rather than grammatical perfection. Once you can communicate, any idea you want comfortably, it is easy to begin learning grammatical structures, because they allow you to communicate more clearly, but that’s only after you can communicate any idea you wish in a rudimentary fashion.
I feel like よろしく is the most difficult thing in these lessons. My understanding is that it has a lot of meanings depending on context but most computer lessons will only give you "nice to meet you" as a translation.
there's someone who once described it as "thanking you in advance for your future kindness" as an approximation. that works as "nice to meet you" but also when you say it to i.e. a colleague before starting a project or a customer you're working with.
i really like renshuu as a beginner app. It starts out with hiragana and katakana learning (that i mostly skipped because i already knew those) and then it's exclusively in hiragana/katakana and also some kanji with furigana so even if you don't know kanji yet you already get used to seeing them and recognising some, which i like. it also includes a dictionary and a kanji dictionary telling you stroke orders for everything and example sentences, and it has grammar lessons which especially duolingo often sorely lacks. I finished this video and could've answered all the A1 questions which highkey makes me doubt its validity.
I've been using busuu for a while now and (but I'm just lazy so I don't do it) there's some exercise where you're either typing and/or recording your voice an ask some people to correct it so it also works your prononciation so I find it very cool
3:07 yeah that was my issue with Busuu too. In high school I took Japanese class and after week 1 we stopped using romaji entirely and were forbidden from it and had already learn hiragana. But Busuu takes… a **while** to get through kana charts.
From the date of this comment being posted, here are my thoughts on having used Busuu for about 22 consecutive days for an average for 15-30min each day with absolutely no Japanese knowledge… Disclaimer: I am not paid by Busuu, nor do I pay for their app. The ads they run are really short, which I like.* 1) By the end of Chapter 5, I can read any sentence/word/or sign written in Hiragana. Not only do you learn all the characters, you learn all special characters and rules (i.e., blended sounds, long consonant/vowel sounds, etc.) I am amazed at how easy basic Japanese writing is compared to English which has MANY rules and exceptions. 2) Contrary to Shogo, I like that they don’t break up the sentences written in Hiragana. As a newbie, this causes me to pay attention more and slow down when I am reading. BUT I can read it! 😅 3) By the end of chapter 5, you figure out how to type Hiragana characters on your phone. 4) I agree with Shogo, the audio pacing/pronunciation is slow. However, I think they do this intentionally for us newbies. They don’t use the word specifically, but from the first few lessons they do emphasize “mora”, as in the pacing of pronunciation. I found this to be super helpful and did not know that about Japanese. 5) Learning to speak the language by using the app requires a lot of self-generation. There aren’t really any prompts that say something to the effect of “repeat after me”. But, like a child, I still repeat out loud to myself everything they say. Concluding thoughts, I have enjoyed the app for the grammar and reading purposes. I would like to venture into something that requires me to speak more though. Happy learning!! (My apologies for any typos)
Just got to chapter 7. Katakana is daunting @_@ I thoroughly enjoyed learning the hiragana keyboard to fill in my answers. I feel actual progress. it's empowering.
Hi shogo-san, i just finished the season 5 of Aggretsuko, is a animated japanese series and this season touched many politicals and social subjects on japan present situation, it made me think in other videos you have made and wanted to know if you were interested on watching it and commenting on it. I just would appreciate and enjoy to watch your opinion and perspective. Hope you and your loved ones are doing great, greetings from Dominican Republic.
I for his points in 2:50 I recommend Pimsleur first. Reading as a beginner is reallly counterproductive and it will really messes up your pronunciation, which is very hard to fix it later on
I'm starting to learn a little Japanese:D but I don't know much! I hope you become an official Japanese instructor!!! I'm planning on maybe traveling to Japan soon sometime but I don't know if I will!!
The best part about Busuu is the community. Some of the lessons include a practice exercise where you have to write (or speak if you want), and japanese people can correct you. My tip is to just send a friend request to every japanese person you see and when you finish an exercise, Busuu asks you to select 5 of them who will correct you. Some people give a lot of details in their correction, so you should identify those who you think are the best teachers. Along with the lessons, you have weekly exercises where you have to answer a question in japanese or describe an image Also, the higher your level is, the better the app gets. I am at B1 level, there are a lot of kanji and the lessons include actual japanese people speaking (not every time though)
I think that Busuu was useful when I was first starting Japanese, but I'm not sure it's useful beyond the Genki 1 level. I'd say that studying flashcards for a year and a half so that I had a large enough vocabulary to start reading real Japanese, was a much better use of my time. Now I learn grammar from material that I actually want to engage with. And for beginner level reading materials, I'd recommend satori reader.
😂😂😂that’s funny! Coz I just downloaded the BUSUU app to learn Japanese 😂!! However, I have found travel companies that allow you to study Japanese in Japan (Kyoto and Tokyo). So, I think that’s a better option😊
I wonder how effective Busuu is over time? I haven't tried this one yet, but I remember Duolingo started out fun and then just got worse and worse after the first chapter
I think the reason why the question about family members didn't clearly explain what it wanted is because the questions in the tests are taken from the lessons, so it probably would have been asked after the lesson explained it.
Loving your videos! If you could please review Memrise. I have been using duolingo, Busuu, and Memrise for a few months now and I see the differences in them but i would like to just pay for one. It seems like Memrise is best but i have tried that one the least out of the three as I discovered it last. It could be a case of just like the newer thing better, but I would really value your opinion. Thanks a lot
I think the slow machine way they speak is fine. I imagine it being like teaching a baby to speak or understand the words being spoken. We slow it down and exaggerate it for them to process. If they were speaking faster, it would be hard to pick up exactly what's being said. Just my opinion :) I made it to chapter 7 finally. In all honesty, this app is incredible. I learned the hiragana and it felt AMAZING to be able to read a passage and answer questions about the passage. Katakana is going to be a hard task, but I'm sticking with it :D
It’s interesting because Busus other language have native speaker speaking the audios but they were apparently not able to to that with every language they teach
I have a question, it may not get seen or answered but that's okay! I was wondering why names were changed with time with certain cities and places becoming prefectures? Hopefully this isn't a long drawn out answer. Example Heian-kyō is now Kyoto
I like that Shogo, despite being a native Japanese, still opted to take lessons first before attempting to become a teacher. UA-cam and Patreon is full of charlatans teachers. Just because you know the language doesn't mean you should/can teach, imo.
●Busuu
www.busuu.com/en
▼My New Channel: Let’s ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼
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Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out!
▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼
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The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo.
▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼
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Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape!
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Do a video about shadow fight 3 katana moves
What is the best app?
I've been using Busuu for almost 2 months now (so ironically, close to when Shogo filmed this) and so far it's been much more useful to me than Duolingo with the way they structure exercises and recaps of previous lessons. Of course the machine speak isn't too useful but that's what listening to a lot of real japanese is for.
@@aranso That's reassuring. You can control the speed of the clips, so I'll try that out.
Did you Busuu as a supplement to another form of instruction...or just the app by itself?
@@feral_shade I'm using only the app for now, to build a base of knowledge before I go deeper into more comprehensive studies.
So I tried tooking at the speed setting and for some reason the menu drop down past the border of the video and I can't see it 🙃. I've only been about to slow it down more by just pressing buttons.
What's holding me back is that… it seems paid.
I moved to Busuu from Duolingo and couldn't be happier. I've made more progress in 6 months on there than 12 months on Duolingo. You haven't seen the best of it to be honest - The first few chapters seem to be super beginner friendly. I understand why you say we should learn the alphabets from the start, but having the first few lessons build our confidence makes the whole thing much less daunting, which makes it more likely that we'll continue the lessons. It might not be straight away, but pretty soon you get into hiragana/katakana only, including typing in them rather than just reading and selecting. Honestly I found that the best way.
The best part for me though, is the community. Having native speakers correct your exercises and being able to comment on theirs let's everyone learn more "real life" and natural sounding language.
You said everything I wanted to say 🫂
Duolingo's Japanese course is becoming increasingly bad as time goes. Their last update was a disaster which is why I am here looking for an alternative. Quite a shame, really, as that app had a lot of potential.
What's your current level in Japanese?
Yeah that is what makes it way better than duolingo to me
I definitely agree with you, and I review the hiragana lessons to maintain my streak.
I love the slight surprise in his voice when he answers the questions right, even though Japanese is his first language 😂
I really liked the way your language video that you posted over the weekend approached it. Hearing the language audibly and visually connecting it to the word in your own language is the best way to learn it, immersing yourself is what I call it. I learn better with the visual clues and it just clicks faster for me that way because you’re actively practicing it. Great videos!
I used the busuu app a few years ago to brush up on the little Japanese I know. Some of the premium lessons include stories with actual Japanese people voicing them! There were also prompts to write a few sentences to a paragraph in Japanese and a native Japanese Busuu member would be promoted to review it and give feedback. There were speaking exercises too which I found the most helpful. In my personal experience, the premium membership wasn't worth the price tag. Also, the beginning part where Busuu has you select why you want to learn Japanese doesn't seem to have any bearing on the lessons you're given. You can switch it at any time and the lesson order never changes. I think that's another disappointing aspect - why give the illusion that lesson plans are somewhat customizable if it's not true? Maybe that's changed though.
The Premium update was worth it for $40 during Christmas time. Full price, maybe not.
@@Chibi1986 oh that's definitely a great price for it. The $80 when I got it definitely felt on the pricier side.
@@cai_in_the_sky2222 It goes on sale every month from what I've seen, so those sale prices are worth waiting for.
I agree with your sentiment that our reason behind learning matters.
It seems this option was only presented as a fun personalized way to collect this piece of data from their users.
That being said, it should definitely tie in with what kind of lessons we receive.
For instance the "for fun and culture" option should start you off with very casual and fun conversation, then move on to food and hobbies.
The "for education" option should be organized and formatted more akin to how most schools teach the language, so most students can use it to assist them with their classes.
While the "for work" options should emphasize professionalism and work situations.
Enjoyed your pleasure at being right here 12:08 😂
I would like more stuff that tests particles. It’s a complicated concept to get your head round at first.
I hope you start teaching Japanese, should I (and my Japanese enthused daughter) ever need to travel to Japan it would be nice to have you as a teacher.
4:59 the thing I like about Busuu I haven’t seen in other apps is in settings there’s an option to take a placement test. They test your comprehension/knowledge and then determine where you should start your lessons
thanks for the busuu review, shogo!
11:27 I was wondering this for the longest time! Thank you so much!
Very usefull topic. Wish to growing up for this channel. ありがとうございます。
I would love to see you review Memrise, which incorporates real clips of native speakers in a lot of parts!
I do like these videos. Very informative 👏
I've been studying kanji and vocabulary using Wanikani, though it's worth noting that it doesn't teach grammar points or full sentences - but it's been really helpful for remembering kanji for me. I'm curious as to your take on the accuracy of the pronunciations available in Wanikani, if you get a chance to check it out 😊
Wanikani Is very great if you have no budget for learning Japanese. Otherwise I'd recommend getting a physical kanji workbook
For myself, I see it as the best application for learning.
Thank you Shogo for an informative video
about the robot voice I think when you're starting they have to use the "babality" voice because you're supposed to be a beginner. I started to use this app myself and I found the voice pretty funny since when I hear japanese people talk they speak a lot faster but the babality voice is okay for a beginner.
Taking in person Japanese classes is definitely the way to go! I enjoy taking classes with my two friends.
I've seen others emphasize not to learn Japanese through romaji. For the "pre-beginner" Japanese lessons, you will see romaji alongside hiragana. But it's advised to learn hiragana as soon as possible. But I do see people actually typing sentences entirely in romaji later on, which is massively slowing down their learning.
Also I noticed that apps like Duolingo continue to use massive sentences almost entirely in hiragana. I like your point about having spaces in sentences at this point. A major feature of kanji is to see the word boundaries when sentences don't have spaces.
Another major problem I've discovered with these apps is that they introduce Japanese grammar with absolutely no explanation of the sentence structure, particles, pronunciation changes, etc. I ended up with so many unanswered questions.
I like that native speakers like yourself immediately can say "this is not really how we speak" eg どうぞ よろしく.
Agreed!
When I was learning Japanese (college level - class credits optional), we started out with Romanji - the letters were familiar, and various books and articles about thing Japanese use Romanji to represent Japanese words - this facilitated reading, writing & speaking. In parallel, we also began learning Hiragana and Katakana to prepare for the next term. In that 2nd term, we switched to a textbook that had Kana rather than Romanji which was a relatively smooth transition. In parallel with this, we also began to learn elementary Kanji and the use of Furigana. And long with these developments, we learned some of the 'kata' of the Japanese conversational style in various social situations. I appreciated this step-by-step methodology.
As an aside, outside of class, with the help of my Naginata Sensei, I created 2-sided Meishi with English on one side and Nihongo on the other - I created several for the different Budo I was studying at the time. This turned out to be very helpful when meeting new Sensei from Japan - it always made a great impression, especially when presenting it in the normal ritualized manner.
Try lingodeer! It helped me alot with grammar and learning the kana and also basic vocabulary
@7:07 I personally use a program called *_Memrise_* to practice my Japanese, and unironically I was taught to say 「よろしくおねがいします」as well as having two pronunciations done for you, video examples, and even short skits (in a separate section) to almost immerse yourself in some of the words you may have learned ー So perhaps it may be to your liking...? (╹ ╹ )❓
I will say it might be a *_little_* less flashy than this or Duolingo, and it is made primarily for mobile so the PC version may also not have access to certain learning features as of yet. (^ ^;)ゞ
I love your videos, Shogo 😊
These videos are my favorite.
I started using Busuu for Japanese recently. There are sections on Hiragana and Katakana before the lessons you were looking at, so students can become familiar with both systems before embarking on the A1 level. Excellent review. Thank you! :)
Hey quel niveau as tu réussi à atteindre en 3 mois grâce à Busuu
@@UniversdOsiris I didn't spend that long on it. I learned Hiragana and Katakana and a few basic phrases. But I gave up to concentrate on Italian. :)
@@enigmatist666 and for italian ?
It's great that you're taking classes to become an instructor! I hope everything goes well! Learning Japanese from a professional would be an amazing opportunity, especially for me since I'd love to actually live in Japan.
I am using Busuu for Dutch and BR Portuguese. I like it so far but haven't tried Japanese yet.
Same here for Dutch on Busuu!
I like pimsleur a lot
It has 30 minute audio lessons for you to take daily ( your supposed to do 1 daily.) It does just feel like a recorded class in a lot of ways. It comes with flash cards after the lesson, as well as other study tools.
Its biggest drawback to me is the price its quite expensive, $20 a month I think, but its worth it for me.
The other possible downside for people is that its a 30 minute intensive session that might be quite daunting for a lot of people.
the blue square at the bottom of the page says "You have finished module one. Would you like get your official congratulations certificate for level one?
Do you want to move on and do module two? "
I've been working on the duolingo, and enjoying it quite a bit. I like to think that I am getting it but if I understand correctly they are teaching a very familiar form. still it is a base on which to build
P.S. We do leave comments on both this and lets ask Seki Sensei. But dont think we have ever had a reply. 🤔 But no worries you must be extremely busy and you looked really tired in the teaching Japanese live stream (which we didn't see live sorry) If you over do it and don't get rest you can't help anyone. And remember you do do so much for us by bringing these channels to us. So thank you from all of us out here. Take care. Stay safe 🙏
John and Kate.
I like how I got an ad for this ap when I clicked the video
I'm using Kanshudo to reignite my study of Japanese. This site is less focused on audio, but helps with Kanji and grammar. At some point, I might actually take lessons with Shogo though.
Hey shogo! I've been using busuu to learn Japanese and there are a few lessons that have native speakers for the audio parts. I think the website is slowly updating this part.
I'm using it currently and can definitely tell a difference between my experience and theirs
Nice
I wonder if you chose "work" as the reason for studying, if the language would be more formal to match how you should interact with meeting a new person?
10,788 yen according to the currency converter that I checked online March 22, 2023 is about $82.000.
4:23 I’ve never seen a single ad on Busuu. I’m on mobile though. But I used to have premium and it gives you a lot more exercises and stuff like that.
13:00 I'd say for 面白い a better english translation would be "amusing".
Amusing can mean either funny *or* interesting, so it fits better.
Would you review Pimsleur?
What books/mangas do you recommend for people trying to train their japanese Reading? And what about movies ? I recently have watched some 80s and 90s movies.
Hi Shogo, Been following you for a while but whenever you decide to do a full online course, id love to sign up. Ive been studying for a year seriously for a year and have gotten to a point where i am conversational, but like to eventually become fluent as i am in English and Spanish.
On the Busuu app, on the top left of the screen, there is a button that switches the romaji to kana. Love your channel!
I'd like to see you do the Renshuu app. Apparently ad free for a free app.
Have you looked at Primsleur? If you did what was your reaction?
Hey Shogo will you be reacting to Ryu Ga Gotoku Ishin? Now that's it re-released?
I am a little envious. Your ability to code switch between English and Japanese is amazing. I have a passion for languages (and how much a culture shapes), but lack any ability to retain what I've learned. How does one learn to speak a language?
Learning I kana and using the kana keyboard, from day, one is a must. Even if you spend a few hours having to constantly refer to a cheat sheet, that will actually teach you everything very quickly. An interesting point to me was that the Japanese is actually easier to read than my own native English. I think it’s because the particles help me keep track of each part of a sentence in an even more effective way than the German case system did. I am almost blind (the least qualified people in America get paid outrageous salaries to educate the disabled so not really teaching you any skills is job security), and everything I learned about English, I actually learned through learning foreign languages, so I don’t have the same hardcoded template others do. This taught me to approach every language on its own terms and focus on effective communication rather than grammatical perfection. Once you can communicate, any idea you want comfortably, it is easy to begin learning grammatical structures, because they allow you to communicate more clearly, but that’s only after you can communicate any idea you wish in a rudimentary fashion.
I feel like よろしく is the most difficult thing in these lessons. My understanding is that it has a lot of meanings depending on context but most computer lessons will only give you "nice to meet you" as a translation.
there's someone who once described it as "thanking you in advance for your future kindness" as an approximation. that works as "nice to meet you" but also when you say it to i.e. a colleague before starting a project or a customer you're working with.
i really like renshuu as a beginner app. It starts out with hiragana and katakana learning (that i mostly skipped because i already knew those) and then it's exclusively in hiragana/katakana and also some kanji with furigana so even if you don't know kanji yet you already get used to seeing them and recognising some, which i like.
it also includes a dictionary and a kanji dictionary telling you stroke orders for everything and example sentences, and it has grammar lessons which especially duolingo often sorely lacks.
I finished this video and could've answered all the A1 questions which highkey makes me doubt its validity.
I've been using busuu for a while now and (but I'm just lazy so I don't do it) there's some exercise where you're either typing and/or recording your voice an ask some people to correct it so it also works your prononciation so I find it very cool
Please check out and review Wanikani - it's a great way to learn katagana so that you actually remember the meanings
Can you try NativShark please?
Yes, I'm very curious about it as well because it's a dedicated Japanese learning course.
I need that kimono
3:07 yeah that was my issue with Busuu too. In high school I took Japanese class and after week 1 we stopped using romaji entirely and were forbidden from it and had already learn hiragana. But Busuu takes… a **while** to get through kana charts.
From the date of this comment being posted, here are my thoughts on having used Busuu for about 22 consecutive days for an average for 15-30min each day with absolutely no Japanese knowledge…
Disclaimer: I am not paid by Busuu, nor do I pay for their app. The ads they run are really short, which I like.*
1) By the end of Chapter 5, I can read any sentence/word/or sign written in Hiragana. Not only do you learn all the characters, you learn all special characters and rules (i.e., blended sounds, long consonant/vowel sounds, etc.) I am amazed at how easy basic Japanese writing is compared to English which has MANY rules and exceptions.
2) Contrary to Shogo, I like that they don’t break up the sentences written in Hiragana. As a newbie, this causes me to pay attention more and slow down when I am reading. BUT I can read it! 😅
3) By the end of chapter 5, you figure out how to type Hiragana characters on your phone.
4) I agree with Shogo, the audio pacing/pronunciation is slow. However, I think they do this intentionally for us newbies. They don’t use the word specifically, but from the first few lessons they do emphasize “mora”, as in the pacing of pronunciation. I found this to be super helpful and did not know that about Japanese.
5) Learning to speak the language by using the app requires a lot of self-generation. There aren’t really any prompts that say something to the effect of “repeat after me”. But, like a child, I still repeat out loud to myself everything they say.
Concluding thoughts, I have enjoyed the app for the grammar and reading purposes. I would like to venture into something that requires me to speak more though.
Happy learning!! (My apologies for any typos)
Just got to chapter 7. Katakana is daunting @_@ I thoroughly enjoyed learning the hiragana keyboard to fill in my answers. I feel actual progress. it's empowering.
What app would you recommend for learning Japanese?
I've been seeing ad's for one called nativ shark, could you see if this one is accurate and will teach someone correctly?
Hi shogo-san, i just finished the season 5 of Aggretsuko, is a animated japanese series and this season touched many politicals and social subjects on japan present situation, it made me think in other videos you have made and wanted to know if you were interested on watching it and commenting on it. I just would appreciate and enjoy to watch your opinion and perspective. Hope you and your loved ones are doing great, greetings from Dominican Republic.
Dang, am digging the new intro
I’d love to see you react to “Drops”. That’s the one I use😊
Could you review the Fluyo app when the Japanese component goes live?
I for his points in 2:50 I recommend Pimsleur first. Reading as a beginner is reallly counterproductive and it will really messes up your pronunciation, which is very hard to fix it later on
I'm starting to learn a little Japanese:D but I don't know much! I hope you become an official Japanese instructor!!! I'm planning on maybe traveling to Japan soon sometime but I don't know if I will!!
I loved this review, I want to learn Japanese but first I have to learn Finnish before other languages.
The best part about Busuu is the community. Some of the lessons include a practice exercise where you have to write (or speak if you want), and japanese people can correct you. My tip is to just send a friend request to every japanese person you see and when you finish an exercise, Busuu asks you to select 5 of them who will correct you. Some people give a lot of details in their correction, so you should identify those who you think are the best teachers. Along with the lessons, you have weekly exercises where you have to answer a question in japanese or describe an image
Also, the higher your level is, the better the app gets. I am at B1 level, there are a lot of kanji and the lessons include actual japanese people speaking (not every time though)
Hallo, guten Tag
Ah, Deutsch unter einem englischsprachigen Video über einen Weg Japanisch zu lernen. Jetzt brauchen wir noch Russisch und Französisch.
@@Donnerwamp Ja
9:52 is four smirking faces, two of them with only one eye. Change my mind.
Goddamn I HAVE FOUND THE ALBERT EINSTEIN
I think that Busuu was useful when I was first starting Japanese, but I'm not sure it's useful beyond the Genki 1 level. I'd say that studying flashcards for a year and a half so that I had a large enough vocabulary to start reading real Japanese, was a much better use of my time. Now I learn grammar from material that I actually want to engage with. And for beginner level reading materials, I'd recommend satori reader.
😂😂😂that’s funny! Coz I just downloaded the BUSUU app to learn Japanese 😂!! However, I have found travel companies that allow you to study Japanese in Japan (Kyoto and Tokyo). So, I think that’s a better option😊
I wonder how effective Busuu is over time?
I haven't tried this one yet, but I remember Duolingo started out fun and then just got worse and worse after the first chapter
How do I pre-enlist for your class? 👀
What do you think about Rosetta Stone ?
Can you check Glossika next?
oooh major throwback!! i started japanese lessons on busuu almost two years ago, aaa mariko san! yes! haha xD
the very first thing id recommend a japanese beginner do is learn hiragana before doing anything else and katakana shortly after
Would you be able to do LingoDeer?
Shogo, do you know what it is called when a katana only has the wooden sheath and no guard?
Hi :) do you know the Mondly App? Can you Review it..i ve you want. Im about to learn Japanese and a bit confused wich App i should use. Thy ;)
Could you look a lingodeer and is there an app that teaches us how to speak in daily used Japanese?
6:36 pretty much all the audio in Beginner A2 is extremely slow
12:08 mf has a shelf with katanas behind him and he's surprised he got it 💀💀
You should review Kawaii Nihongo.
Babbel is a interesting place teaching different launguages
as someone who is farther in busuu, it’s literally the exact same thing ;-;
I think the reason why the question about family members didn't clearly explain what it wanted is because the questions in the tests are taken from the lessons, so it probably would have been asked after the lesson explained it.
Loving your videos! If you could please review Memrise. I have been using duolingo, Busuu, and Memrise for a few months now and I see the differences in them but i would like to just pay for one. It seems like Memrise is best but i have tried that one the least out of the three as I discovered it last. It could be a case of just like the newer thing better, but I would really value your opinion. Thanks a lot
I would love to see a review of Memrise!
What about the app mochimochi?
Having a real class or tutor is quite expensive, so i definitely like these low effort entries into a languages.
I think the slow machine way they speak is fine. I imagine it being like teaching a baby to speak or understand the words being spoken. We slow it down and exaggerate it for them to process. If they were speaking faster, it would be hard to pick up exactly what's being said. Just my opinion :) I made it to chapter 7 finally. In all honesty, this app is incredible. I learned the hiragana and it felt AMAZING to be able to read a passage and answer questions about the passage.
Katakana is going to be a hard task, but I'm sticking with it :D
It’s interesting because Busus other language have native speaker speaking the audios but they were apparently not able to to that with every language they teach
(9:24) Um espadachim sempre vai dizer que a ordem e a direção dos movimentos são importantes.
Shoutout Zen the world’s newest superstar!!
Requesting shogo to review one point english lesson 😊
ohh very interesting
How/where should I learn Japanese?
I have a question, it may not get seen or answered but that's okay! I was wondering why names were changed with time with certain cities and places becoming prefectures? Hopefully this isn't a long drawn out answer.
Example Heian-kyō is now Kyoto
I like that Shogo, despite being a native Japanese, still opted to take lessons first before attempting to become a teacher. UA-cam and Patreon is full of charlatans teachers. Just because you know the language doesn't mean you should/can teach, imo.