NOTIFICATION SQUAD: Good to be back! I've been quietly working on a ton of videos since the cycle last month. Looking forward to sharing them with you all in the coming days!
Congrats! I still remember the time I realised I'd been chatting with Natsuki in Japanese for half an hour without using English. Was the greatest feeling in the world (after a year of relentless study).
That's seriously impressive! You must have had a great teacher and put in a ton of hard work. I just finished a semester myself and absolutely could not go for 10 minutes.
When I was in Japan last year, my Coworker/friend and I were traveling and we had just ran out of laundry so we had to resort to wearing his two Hawaiian shirts he brought with him 😂. We ended up in Iwasehama, and things were closing cuz it was a small local town and it was getting"late" (8pm) and we were so happy to find a restaurant open- that denied us. They didn't flat out deny us, they loopholed it, "we are closed" even though they were SUPER energetic as the door was opening until they saw my tan skin and our western eyes lol. I'm glad they did. We found a place down the street (Gejo sushi, the best meal I've had in my life- 12+ countries and counting and the BEST MEAL OF MY LIFE) that was kind, respectful, and even though we looked like douchebag.exe Americans from our Hawaiian shirts they provided an incredible experience. Moral of the story? If someone is going to judge you- HELP THEM by removing yourself from the equation. Someone judges your house? Help them by not making them come over again. Someone judges your speaking/behavior? Help them by never interacting with them again. Someone judges you based on race (I legit speak Japanese so it was just a race thing) good. Help them. Help them by never making them deal with you again. Good for them. Better for you.
People feel entitled to going anywhere they want and getting anything they want. No idea why you’d want to force someone to make you food. So much they can do to it.
Yea, I understand the idea of not letting foreigners in due to language barrier, but it gets strange when you realize they would not get that same treatment abroad
Very true! The Japanese people who say "I speak English when I go abroad, tourists should speak Japanese here!" annoy me. Yeah they speak English, but even in non English speaking countries. They seem to forget that most people also learn English as a second or third language, like they do. Why should we learn Japanese and not speak English but they are allowed to speak English wherever they go ?
Living in Las Vegas I can tell you we get *ALOT* of Japanese tourists here and pretty much none of them speak any english or at least feel comfortable enough speaking it. Every group seems to have one designated person who acts as a translator and knows enough english to get around and every conversation goes through them. It's never seen as a problem though, everyone involved usually figures everything out in the end and it's smiles all around.
I actually find that rather sad. According to the data (if I remember correctly) 17% of japanese people can speak english. Their unwillingness to make mistakes while learning is why most of the 83% cant speak it. You know Ive spoken english since I was 6, and I didnt learn the difference between condem and condone till I was like 19, and I am not at all embaressed at how many times I must have said the wrong one.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 i can speak 4 languages and i still make plenty of mistakes in all 4 including my native language who fucking cares lmao like who cares if some guy comes to you and is like "me want to go center me where tell station??" or he comes in perfect shakespearean english you still understand what he wants.
@@PitH0und Actually, it's a politeness thing. Source: met an English student through PSS back on Pokemon Y. TL;DR first: Japanese is a hardass about tone policing and using the wrong level of formality and casualness is basically telling someone to go eff themselves; most Japanese people are being POLITE when they're avoiding English because they're that scared to accidentally insult you or make you laugh at them. The long version of my story: Dude was very, very embarrassed about his english until I said that I was French and english was my second language, and it was only then that he was comfortable enough to use voice chat to talk with me and to help me practice the starts of being able to muddle through japanese with a lot of dictionary usage. He said that it was rude to speak a language you don't know well enough to be sure you aren't offensive in without permission from the other person. He also helped me understand where I need to put a "desu" to make my sentences sound less brash and informal for strangers, though he had troubles explaining why the "desu" was required other than "it's polite". I only understood later that there's polite and informal ways to talk, as well as formal and casual forms, and Japanese people consider it a VERY BIG insult to use the wrong kind of tone with the wrong person. He was teaching me how to make my sentences polite but casual by insisting I should use "desu" at the end of my statements, and he DID try to explain why it was that way though he had trouble explaining the social rules to someone who DOESN'T have as big of a politeness system baked-in with the language. To illustrate the levels of using the wrong form of politeness and formality in Japanese language: Using your first name instead of your last name is equivalent to basically calling someone asshole, and using someone's last name when you should be using their first name basically says you think they're trash. If you use an informal friendly form in a sentence toward an acquaintance, you might as well have said "HEY YOU MOTHER-EFFER" before the rest of it. Now imagine if you're THAT used to such a rigid linguistic system that you have troubles explaining the levels of politeness to someone else you're trying to help learn your language; wouldn't you also rather let the person who seems to know how to communicate "with the correct tone" and seems to have enough skill to show the correct amount of respect do the talking for you? It's for a similar reason that when I go to english places I warn people I'm French/from Quebec; so they don't think I'm being disrespectful when I go all Megamind and say a word very very wrong because I wasn't taught how it sounds correctly, only how it's spelled or I was taught by someone whose english pronunciation is usually worse than mine somehow.
I mean tbh, I'm not sure there's anyone in Vegas that feels that strongly about respecting their local culture over money, but I could be wrong if someone wants to correct me. Maybe far off the strip somewhere.
@@Noobzlikeu XDDDD fuck, im spanish speaker and sometimes i have problems with the have had had been tempo XDDDDDDD but i fucked that in spanish too XDDDD
People always talk about efficiency with language learning, needing to learn as fast as possible, but what good is speed if you run out of gas halfway around the track and never want to get behind the wheel again. Learn to enjoy the views along the way and you won't damn well care how long it takes you to get to your destination. You might not even realize you've reached it. Find what works for you, I promise it's worth the effort.
I think people want to be super efficient, because learning a new language is kind of boring and sucks, at the start(though it gets a lot better when you can understand some things). So I think they sort of want to brute force their way in. it does lead to a lot of burn, but I can sort of understand why people try that.
I’ve really enjoyed adding Japanese study to my pre-existing anime hobby, and not stressing too hard about the pace. I’m still a few years away from my ultimate goals, but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve gained over the last year.
I’ve been learning Japanese at my own pace for half a year and I can barely remember all the basic hiragana and their pronunciations. It’s a marathon, not a sprint when learning a different language, especially if that language doesn’t use English letters in their words. Like Italian, Spanish, French, German, etc, all spell their words with the same letters as the english language but they have different accents on letters and pronunciations. Most Asian languages have a completely different written language which also makes it 100x harder
@@Lilitha11 it creates this shitty rat race attitude where people are highly competitive and elitist for some reason about something that should be broadly encouraged. I swear sometimes the Japanese learning community specifically enjoys talking about learning the language and shitting on people learning it wrong than they do sitting down and studying themselves. I truly think the online culture is a big contributing factor to the obsession with learning quickly, because people feel the pressure to prove themselves in the face of a hyper competitive community.
@@cronotriggered4314 I am not sure it is really the online community specifically. I agree, but I think it is a larger problem with people in general these days, always trying to power through everything.
Fun extra challenge particularly for non-native English speakers: The expectation was, that reading Katakana was easy, since it's mostly English words and you already know the vocabulary from at least your school English. Then you realize, that the English written in Katakana is SPOKEN English, so you're sitting there, reading out loud to yourself quietly, trying to figure out what a "Baagaa" is.
Sorry for english speakers, but english written is a Nightmare. For example knight and night are pronounced the same; here and w-here are pronounced very different...
As rude as it sounds I think the Japanese people who support the language barrier while saying "when we go abroad we speak English" must be quite slow on the head. Most countries don't speak English as their main language they just use English for foreigners to understand... So while they are saying "they learnt English so the tourists should learn Japanese" they don't even understand the use of the English language
Yea I whent on a road rip in Estonia last year speaking only english, yet ofcourse estonian is the native langauge of the estonians. I myself am a latvietis who predictably speaks latviski to his own people, yet if any ourlanders come asking for anything Ill gladly answer in english. Ive been to a natively english speaking country for about 3 hours in my life total, it was in Manchester and Luton airports waiting for my flight to Spain/to Latviju. English is the international language spoken by people everywhere, for the pragmatic purpose of international comunication.
The bigger problem is that the culture is so self-absorbed that many Japanese people develop a sense of superiority. What applies for thee does not for me, so to speak. This is ESPECIALLY true with boomer men, who often have this belief that it was them and them alone who made Japan rich and that everyone should cowtow to them because of it.
@@Kagemusha08 Americans share equal creddit for Japan being rich, in the sense that they let it be. If it had been under soviet occupation it would be as poor as any other country which suffered soviet occupation.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714well we shouldn’t worry Japan will be broke again soon enough when they go through one of the worst population crashes to ever occur and their already stagnant economy fetsnworse
I always found quite interesting how it works. When sufficient level of mastery is achieved, it's like a switch in your head that flips every time you change language. But before that, sometimes it was like a wall of text that I'm reading out loud that's visualized in my head, and sometimes when I think of a word, a picture or sort of a short video pops up in my head to help me contextualize what I'm thinking about. It makes me think that a certain amount of vocabulary must be attained before that happens, or maybe it's just how I process information in a language that's not mine. Well, either way, brains work in interesting ways, you know, like a tech, which you can still use even if you don't understand how it works.
Same with any language learning. English natives just dont know any other languages, so it seems new to them. Granted, Japanese is still the toughest language and probably not worth the effort to learn if you dont live there.
From my anecdotal experience I see native English speakers struggling the most with learning a language. Like they're so used to the world catering to them. lol Maybe it's because people will probably switch to (broken) English to be polite.
Been doing that for 20+ years and now i often switch 3 languages in my head mid-sentence because I just can't pick a word in my language to express what I need to express. Shit's wild. ^^^^^^^^^^^ Actually this is one of the phrases LOL
I agree about how bullocks those viral views of Mt Fuji are. Those trending reels and tik toks telling you the Lawson and foot bridge view are the "absolute best places to see Mt Fuji" are bs. People, Fuji is FUCKIN MASSIVE. You can literally go anywhere within the area and still manage to find an amazing and even better shot than those trending spots.
I've lived in Japan for years and I have been kicked out of restaurants/businesses before they could even check that I could order in Japanese. I know non-Japanese people who were born and raised in Japan and were fluent in the language who were rejected from these businesses on sight. It isnt super common, but "Japanese only" businesses have a "whites only" vibe in how they kick people out purely based on race.
Sounds like bad buisness. Im literally a europian supremicist and for the right price I will sell my wears and services to customers of any race. We latvieši are a pragmatic people.
I've been studying Japanese recently and I've been tormenting my girlfriend by writing it and saying far too many times. I had to pause and screenshot it's appearance here.
Nah this is a phrase that's been used in Japanese textbooks since at least the 60s. It's more of a Japanese learning meme than it is a reference to some Japanese Covid propaganda.
It may seem like a minor detail, but I believe that the key to learning Japanese or any other skill in life is not just motivation. I see motivation as something that fluctuates over time. In my opinion, discipline is the crucial factor, especially on tough days when you feel demotivated. It is discipline that will drive you to continue learning even when things get challenging.
But again, discipline comes from motivation. You actually have to want to do it. It is hard to keep the motivation when you know the skill will have no use for you or give you any joy. That is why I mostly end up going back to practicing skills that I enjoy or are useful to me.
@@Deso4life To add to it, importance of motivation is that you get engagement from it, forcing yourself could lead to stress which only can hinder the learning
@@myblaonga Exactly. I was shit in school because, not only was I ostracized and treated awfully by my fellow students and the teachers (literally got in trouble for stuff I didn't do, and no one ever stepped in when my peers bullied me), but my own "parents" beat it into me from day one that nothing I did would matter. They weren't going to support or help me fulfill my dreams. I also hated being told what I had to learn, how I had to learn it, and when I had to learn it. My brain just isn't capable of learning in that manner, and instead of people working with me to help me find a learning method that worked, they treated me like I was stupid and a lost cause. I ended up skipping so much school because I hated it that I was failing every class (except the one I liked, English), and I ended up leaving at the end of my junior year. It took probably 10 years for me to finally get the chance to get my diploma, and when I started preparing for the test, I was far more successful at learning when I did it on my own time and in my own way, away from toxic people. I was literally the first person dismissed from having to take prep classes and I passed the test and got my diploma with no problem. It hasn't done me any good, as I got more job opportunities before I had my diploma, but at least I do have it. TLDR: I hated school and wasn't motivated to do it because I hated it and saw no point in it, but when I did it on my own time without the pressure and expectations of others, I was able to find the motivation to get my diploma.
Discipline is a bit of a psychological myth as well though. It's not about forcing yourself over and over; research often finds that the key factor is setting up well-designed and realistic habits so it becomes automatic. Designing a good habit consists of choosing the right context (time, place etc.), reducing friction (things that will stop you from doing it), repetition (but not any magical number like 28 consecutive days), and reward. Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood is a great read.
That Fuji/Everest comparison is actually true for mastering most skills. The biggest hurdles are getting over the initial learning curve and then sticking to it to master it after knowing the basics, at which point improvements are only gradual.
I think all languages have a similarly-shaped overall learning curve - you can get to basic communication with a bit of effort, but true mastery is a never-ending process. My Spanish-speaking friends often compliment my Spanish, but I always tell them it's like a slice of Swiss cheese; it looks like it covers a decent area but it's actually full of holes.
Yeah but Spanish is simple because they use so much English in their language and the roman alphabet. Japanese everything is different the only good thing it has going for it is its phonetic alphabets. 3-5 years is the average time to reach a decent level while Spanish is about a year
@@southcoastinventors6583 reading Spanish is one thing…Speaking it full of tricks and niches that only native speakers will pick up on. As a native speaker myself, I too stumble on some elements of the language…particularly when chatting with people from the motherland. But hey, that’s what makes language learning fun.
@@Sodapopper100 This video is about learning a language to hold a conversation not mastery. So while Latin Spanish is different from Spain you can easily order from a menu or have a basic conversion with anyone regardless of regional differences. Same can be said for American versus British English
I can understand the sentiment, but it's also not very practical. Like can you imagine a Japanese person studying French for six months, going to Montreal and being unable to understand literally anything the locals say because the dialect is completely different from what they learned? Should we deny them the poutine they traveled halfway across the world to eat? Seems unfair.
Unfortunately japan doesnt care. They are a very strict country that goes off of hard work, respect and being QUIET. And ive heard that many of japanese youth have been taught about the 2 bombs the US dropped on them that likely killed a majority of that areas ancestors… i understand why they might be a little bias towards us Dont make it right but
@@antonslavik4907 No? the vast majority of americans alive were not involved in the bomb droppings. Why punish people for something their great grandparents did? that would be like blaming someone because their sibling was a murderer (which is common in japan)
@Tarextherex How much French do you know? Because I can tell you from experience that Québécois and European French have a very hard time understanding each other and that's when it's both our first language. It's closer to you trying to understand English from several hundred years ago when people still used the letter Thorn.
Before the pandemic, I was studying Japanese at the YMCA in Kobe. I was highly motivated, worked hard every day. Before I could finish level 2, I had to go back to the states to help my mom with a return ticket of April 2, 2020. Japan closed April 1, 2020. I've not been motivated at all since then and decided that New Zealand was "good enough" in place of Japan.
One recommendation I like to give is to play "Jeopardy" to yourself for vocab and conversation. Look around your room or walk around a town and remember the vocab for something like humidifier (加湿器) , but then think about how you would ask someone what that is or "where do you put a humidifier in a room"? Even if it's simple or straight forward questions, it helps keeps things fresh in your head after you learn them keeps the flow of how to ask.
It's fun to have a favorite word or a word of the week like that. I learned the word "oritatami" from the anime "Long Riders!" in reference to a folding bicycle. It stuck in my head because I ride them, and then the next day I used it with a Japanese person. They corrected me - I had forgotten the final "-mi" - then I applied it to a folding music stand. It's my new favorite word. If someone invents a folding tatami mat, would it be an "oritatami tatami"?
These types of situations always make me scratch my head awkwardly because, realistically, there’s always an aspect of xenophobia involved, even if it’s not the main issue. The fact that restaurant owner went after the people leaving negative reviews really does make me think their unwillingness to communicate with foreign customers is born out of malice rather than pragmatism. Edit: Wow, this really offended a lot of chuds. French people don’t be embarrassing challenge (impossible).
@@chickfilaemployee6149 lol we also have some french vlogers whining about denied access in Japan. One was an overweighted young lady in a lycra dress with open underarm. On a summer day. LMAO 😂 h
The reason this is allowed is Japan has no anti discrimination laws for non Nationals. But it’s part of a broader xenophobia that both Japan and Korea seem comfortable with. China operates on this for entirely different reasons, ie to promote Han Chauvinism per CCP government propaganda. Japan has enjoyed treating migrant workers especially from the Philippines India etc…like subhuman garbage for years. Japan sadly enjoys erasing its war crimes and playing victim of WW2. Both Japan and Korea share military occupation from the USA (doesn’t have a great track record sadly) which becomes anecdotal proof to justify this behavior.
I'd like to add that while studying any language, the motivation/goal why you do it can change over time -- and that's ok. I've been studying Japanese for 4/5 years now, and I still dont feel fluent enough. What started as a naïve hope that I could maybe one day watch anime without subs now turned into a love for translating literature. Both kinds of motivations will get you somewhere. Maybe anime didn't make me fluent but it motivated me to try something new.
I started "learning" Japanese because I wanted to see how far I could go. I was learning (and still am) from just listening to music. It's surprisingly easy when you mold your brain into the right shape. Then I fell down the Vocaloid rabbit hole and found obscure songs that I'd listen to as a kid and be saddened to see that no one has translated them. I also fell in love with the language and people at one point. Now my motivation is a mix of all three
I started learning Japanese because...... My uni offered a free course for beginners ahahaha. I started about a month ago, so I'm just starting but it seems fun (and difficult) I don't study anything related to languages so studying another language is super cool and could open up a lot of possibilities. And maybe I can watch anime without subtitles in 5 years
what would you say is your current japanese level with 4/5 years of learning? and how consistent were you? Currently about to hit my 1 year mark, but I was only motivated for the first 2 months, and motivation came back for the last 2 months too in my case
about your yoda point: As far as I heard some time ago, that's basically what happened. They asked a hungarian tech to 'backtranslate' into english, keeping the structure. And as Hungarian is agglutinative, like Japanese is, the 'japanese pattern' came out.
@@tovarishchfeixiao Yeah I thought it was from German? It does a similar word order flip, with the verb going to the end (generally depending on the tense). That makes more sense too since Darth Vader is just "Dark Father". Note: Just Googled it and the name translates more smoothly from Dutch. So not too far off.
@@StarSpliter ... German, Dutch, Italian, French and English are all branched off of Latin and are based off of regional philosophy after Rome stomped on them. If you base your education on Movies and what Google is willing to share, you will never understand why Hungarians resisted placing Man at the Center of the Universe, like the Christian Conquerors insisted. It is the influence of the Eastern Languages they were in contact with that kept their philosophy of Humans as PART of the universe. One of those philosophies allows people to exterminate any species they find a nuisance. One allows man to own parts of Earth. One calls more honorable species beasts and savage. Edited to Correct Autocorrect
Just so people know if a restaurant in North America had a "English speakers only" sign there would be an international incident. Probably would get shut down and sued immediately.
It does happen much more often in European countries and Usa, but its more like someones ethnicity is wrong rather than using the wrong language, along with other things like gender identity and many other markers
It would be, but I give Japan a pass. People like the aspect of Japan they unconsciously want to change the most, which is how Japanese Japan is. The bar needs to be raised and we need to do better, respect the culture, and help preserve what they have, respectfully and with humility. The West is incredibly culturally diverse and people like us for it, but the last 50 years have degraded our shared culture to the point where pajamas in public are seen as commonplace as are kids that run around barefoot in places of business and the average IQ is room temperature.
The learning the languge if the country you're going to live seems so sensible. It goes for everywhere including people moving to English speaking countries.
The book recommendation is gold. The idea of just learning the meaning of the kanji without readings attached to them seems so dumb at the start, but then you realize that you don't need more than the meaning to recombine and read them in your head! Naturally, you should learn how to phonetically speak them out eventually, but this book is so clever. I'll report back to this comment in 1 month exactly and will tell you how many Kanji I learned and can *actually* remember. See you on 06/25!
@@Freezorgium i just furiously kept speaking and writing to people i met at university who are native speakers until it stopped being borderline insulting to read or hear my japanese.
not to defend rude tourists with bad banners but blaming tourists for trash problem is crazy like there were news about how the tokyo streets were flooded with trash after halloween
I found your channel 7 years ago when i first started dabbling in japanese studying and fell in love with it. Sprinkling in a video every now and then about learning the language is very nice and i loved this
self learning Japanese over here. getting close on a year (July 2nd will be 12 month) of Duolingo+Anki+Graded readers+JPDB+Renshuu(Shiritori cat only)+anime/manga in Japanese. 2-5 hours every day. I'd say i am way pas the first mountain and committed to the grind. mainly because when i started i looked at realistic numbers and thought to myself "ok, it will take 4-5 years, let's just roll with it and see how it goes". Naturally i suffer from lack of practice and full blown immersion. but when someone in discord drops a random screenshot from twitter and asks someone to translate it - and you see that you can actually do it (admittedly with 20 minutes of looking up kanji that i do not remeber) - it is still good motivating feeling.
@@Exorion1er Completely? not even close. i can see general idea or theme of the conversation usually but it's hard to get full picture. especially if we go into different settings. since you will need for example all the magical terminology in fantasy. i can see the text, i can see the grammar and how words connect to each other, but i do not have enough confident vocab to read easily. So each page is constant dictionary browsing. Watching anime is kinda easier - but again depends on the setting. daily conversations are rather easy - but get into specific areas and its' suddenly full stop. anyways as i said - i am going into it hoping that i can read more or less by the year 3. So for now it is just full grind to get more vocab. Actually i was just taking a break from my JPDB deck as i noticed this ping =) so grind never stops.
You're certainly an inspiration to us all (or at least me), @@Istalior ! I'm taking tutor lessons on the preply app. But I'm realizing a lot of it, especially in the beginning, you need to dedicate a lot of time to memorization... But I've got several methods. Despite my learning disorder, i will continue to learn at my brains pace and just enjoy the ride. I'm trying to look at it as a "fun hobby" and not just a class that i might fail. I find that when i have this approach, I do enjoy the learning process much more, and have higher retention.
Oh a Japanese Learning video, right when I was rewatching some old videos. That's so nostalgic, I really missed these. I'm Glad they are back to the table
This has the energy of your early video's, but has the maturity and skill that you've gained over the years. Excited for this new 'era'. Also really good job taking a more down to earth approach to this 'issue' that was overblown.
FWIW, this is the best video you've done in a while. Not intended as a slam; I really enjoy your videos, Chris. But this felt novel and authentic in a way that was really refreshing.
This is another gem of a video! Can really tell of the extra editing and work on this video. Back to your old awesome video style and can tell this was your own video too.
The Lawson thing is still so wild to me. The most compelling shot I've seen of that Lawson with Mt. Fuji behind it and a schoolkid in the foreground was because of how simultaneously grand and mundane it is, and how distant the shot is as well. It's just a normal street, with a normal store, with a normal girl on her way home from school. With a backdrop as majestic as Fuji in the background, because a normal afternoon in a place like that can just look that nice. There's no recreating that shot again, nor is there a need to. It's one beautifully normal moment in time. Outside of that, what's the point of going there just to take a picture of a Lawson with Mt. Fuji in the back when it's also swarmed by other tourists doing the same thing? Why POSE there and get in the way of people just trying to go about their business? There's not even any novelty to have there now because there never was before that one shot got popular.
Don't use cameras, ever, visit public landmarks that are overrun by day during the night for no crowds, remain polite and take home as many gashapons as you can fit in a trolley! Happy trails!
@@klappstuhl4370 Thank you very much! We are very much enjoying our trip here. The food is amazing here and I am enjoying using the public transportation.
This concept always felt so weird. I lived in sichuan provice in central china for a while. Half the people there didnt even speak mandarin chinese and i couldn't read at the time. I still had a good time ordering food pointing and very respectful. Sometimes even using google translate questions and everyone was super accomodating. Same with Thailand and me not speaking a single word of thai in the non tourist areas. It just feels disrespectful that they arent even trying. Like its ok to tell them sorry i dont understand or cant help you but at least try
Watching this from Nagoya, Japan, after having studied for just over 2 years, I 1000% feel every point you made. The hurtle of getting over Mt. Fuji is real, but one you do, it is so rewarding. Even though my Japanese is so broken, I've found great success in my speaking and comprehension due to the years I dedicated before coming here. While I can't read a lot of things due to not knowing the Kanji, I can feel comfortable working around that through speaking to locals. Love your advice and entertainment! Also, I introduced my hostmother to your channel and she loves it, especially hearing what you have to say about your perspective of Japan.😊
Currently studying Japanese in a small town in Japan, and it's in a large part thanks to your content that I've found the motivation to keep on going these past 2 years. Thanks!
Bro I'm stuck with writing hiragana and katakana, like I can read it and my brain recognizes it but if you told me to write for example "Asakusa" in hiragana I'd die
@@pancakes_go2940 being able to read them is pretty good for now. You should be able to follow your own road to whatever your goals are. Wanna be friends? I'd be happy to help.
Yeah, Chris is a pro. Demonetized, I'm sure for language, and no sponsers and he is honest about all our cultures- Japanese, UK, US, no bias from his love or hate of any culture. That's kind of rare.
I do not enjoy social media in general or TH-cam. But, I have joined TH-cam just to watch Abroad in Japan and your separate Abroad in Japan podcast. Both are well produced and the content is fun and engaging. Im sure we all appreciate your assistance on how to learn Japanese. I've only been learning for a year and have barely scratched the surface. I need all the help I can get. I have watched your videos for years and hope you continue making much more content in years to come.
I'd be very interested to see what happens if the likes of the USA or the UK or any western country in general had signs banning Japanese tourists in their bars, resteraunts etc. Imagine the uproar. Seems to be a bit unfair for the Japanese to refuse foreigners into their businesses but they don't face the same prejudice when visiting western countries.
For reason number 3, I spent probably 10 years learning hirigana and katakana. My motivation has been a genuine love for Japanese traditional and pop culture. Plus, each new piece of vocabulary and kanji I learn feels like opening a Legend of Zelda treasure chest: incredible hype for only 5 rupees. It's been such a great and rewarding journey, but it sure ain't been an easy one. I 100% recommend studying vocabulary and grammar written in Romanji while using something like Anki to drill Katakana and Hiragana on the side while you're getting rolling so that you get the dopamine reward of language learning, without spending years of unrewarded suffering just trying to learn the writing system.
This is a great video on learning Japanese. You're exactly right about the last point - that is absolutely the key. I liked the Fuji / Everest analogy. too. Realistically I'm rolling around somewhere in the valley between them, but nothing like a good "nihongo jouzu" from the Starbucks barista to make me feel like I'm on Everest's peak.
I moved to Japan during COVID. At that time there were very little foreigners and no tourists. My Japanese ability was pretty nonexistant at the beginning but I was able to practice a lot because in most cases Japanese expected me to speak Japanese (in Japan, crazy right?!) This actually made it more comfortable for me as I could plan on Japanese being the language spoken. Transactions went smoothly and if there were any hiccups, I knew it was my fault and that gave me a learning experience and something to practice and work on. Recently it has become harder for me to communicate. Now most of all my interactions at restaurants and stores with staff are initially met with a look of fear and absolute bewilderment as I approach. They maybe expect and fear I don't speak Japanese. The broken English and the hand gestures begin. Do I reply in English? Do I reply in Japanese? A mix of both? Do I really look that American? Anyways I always just smile and don't take it the wrong way, I know I am a foreigner and I will always look and be a foreigner and I know there's no ill will or bad intention its just a little uncomfortable and can be frustrating.
"Japanese expected me to speak Japanese (in Japan, crazy right?!)" Speaking Japanese isn't the hard part - reading that nightmare fuel of a written text is the problem.
@@_sparrowhawk I taught myself the basics of the Thai writing system in a few weeks, from books and cassette tapes (it was the 1980's). Even if I was still that young and motivated, that would be impossible with Japanese. But other people do it, so I keep trying. I learn a little bit each day, and recognize more and more...and still can't read a simple kid's comic book.
honestly you, tokyolens and a few others got me interested in learning the language. so far I'm chugging along the fuji route but no interest in stopping. picked it up as a hobby and I'm having fun learning it. but it is tough.
Your explanation about the complexities of mastering the Japanese language and the dedication it requires is excellent. It's important to respect local culture and make an effort to integrate, but it's equally key to be realistic about what can be achieved as a tourist.
exactly, why even bother with tourism if you dont even try to make it a little more accesable for tourists. A tourist is just someone who emporarily visits, where would we be if we demanded every visitor to learn the language of the visitied country.
So many japanophiles defending these xenophobic restaurants. Saying things like “ the owner gets stressed if they see a non japanese,” tourists should learn katakana and also n1 level japanese… smh
I never really had any interest in Japan until I was about 19 or 20 when I stumbled across this channel almost 10 years ago. Through yours and other TH-cam channels, I fell in love with the countryside, a place I have never been to or never really thought about until I watched your videos. These videos ultimately pushed me to go back to college/university and begin my journey on learning the culture and language. I decided when I re-enrolled after the pandemic that I would earn a degree in culture and literature as I learned through my job at the time that I enjoyed teaching (my job had me do this from time to time, but it was not my actual job). I chose this degree path as I felt it would be best for my future students as I would be diving deeper into the English language. As graduation comes closer, now just two quarters away, I find myself getting my gear (photography and journals), passport, and luggage ready as I will be attending a two-week study abroad in Matsuyama (松山) in September. Once I graduate, I will be just a few months away from my 29th birthday so hopefully that does not pose any issue when it comes time to apply for the JET Program. With all of that being said, anyone have any tips to solidify memorization of て form? For some reason I find it easier to memorize new kanji but years into learning the language and I still have to sometimes think about which form to use, is this something everyone struggles with or am I missing something? Thank you for the videos, they helped a bunch during the pandemic when I was originally planning to visit Japan. As morbid as it sounds without the pandemic, I don't think I would have ever found what I really enjoyed.
There is a て-form song on TH-cam that I unironically listened to on repeat for like an hour until I had the song so stuck in my head that I could recite it anytime I forgot. After that, it just becomes solidified in your brain through the huge amount of grammar structures that utilize て-form. Eventually you will get to the point where most of the verbs you are learning are just noun+する and at that point it’s just して for everything. A little side note for formal readings is that you might see a nominalized verb + する in the て-form such as 食べることをして or 食べるのをして. Might be a little too much info but yeah, I recommend the te form song if you are struggling but practical usage in te form grammar constructs will quickly build your functional memory.
@@flytelp Thats the thing, I had to memorize my own version of a て form song. I think that I am overthinking it sometimes, with most its natural and I don't have to think about it, but with some I have to go through the different forms in my head before arriving at the right one. what it comes down to is I just need more practice, time to recite the て form song some more. 🤣
@@zacharylanoux う つ る て、む ぶ ぬ んで、 く いてーー、ぐ いでーー. す して、 する して、来る きて、て-form 👏 There’s also the second verse that puts some basic verbs into their te forms so that kind of helped me memorize the uncommon verb endings you don’t see often like つ in 待つ going to 待って which everyone has heard.
In my opinion, since て form is the form you encounter a verb the most in, just listening to and reading a lot of Japanese will get you to know them subconciously. For example, I know many beginners of Japanese who don't know most verbs in the dictionary or ます form, but know a lot of verb in their て form because they are used that often in anime, games, books, movies etc.
Thought I was gonna watch a long podcast about "Japan doesn't like foreigners," but I ended up learning a lot 😅. Also nice throwback to your older videos.
I met a Japanese man in his 60s in Oregon and asked him how he could read all those characters in his japanese book. He said japanese cant even do it they have to figure out what the signs mean as they go by the context around it.
There's videos on YT where Japanese on the street are asked about certain kanji, and a lot of times, they have no idea what a character, out of context, means.
I got to talking with a chef at a local restaurant. He'd been to Europe so he knew some English. He told me that he seldom reads because it is too difficult.
@@thomasbecker9676 That itself isn't surprising though. You can do that with any language, just pick correct words. In that (or similar vid if not that one) they had differetn difficulties and as the difficulty went up less and less people knew. But the same thing can be done in English or any other language ;-).
i visited friends who live in kawaguchiko and the crowds around that lawson and train crossing just behind it make getting to the station unbarable... literally every road there has amazing views of fuji, spread out and find your own unique photo opertunity.
I can imagine. I completely understand the decision. Japan's society functions by (mostly) everyone following (most of) the rules (most of the time). It doesn't seem like a big deal if one person crosses the street in the wrong place, but when hundreds of tourists are doing that every day it has an impact.
@@nerdygem8620 yeah, although i feel like a better solution would have been to just add a large curtain on top of lawson that could be raised and lowered so locals could still enjoy the view during quiet periods.
The good thing about 99.9 per cent of tourists is that they don't spread out. You often times literally just have to go one street over and all the tourists have dissappeared. That makes it easier to escape them when you're a tourist and find quite streets and restaurants.
Chris, i am coming to the end of June travelling around Japan solo (i am female). This is my first time travelling without a guide or carrier. Your videos gave me the courage to come to Japan. I followed your 14 day itinerary and enjoyed it so much. It eas incredible!! I added some more time in Osaka and decided to spend an additional 7 days in Shinjuku! (21 days in Japan) Thank you Chris and you should be proud that your videos have changed the lives of people like me who were too scared to come! (I'm writing this while enjoying cans of strong zero and im going to be learning Japanese)
There are actually a lot of nighttime photos of Japanese cityscapes. I love them and have a lot of Displates of such scenes. One thing I love about Asian cities, Japanese cities in particular, is that they always feel very lived in and have a strong personality. You can feel the weight of all of the people and consciences that had moved through the area, even when there aren't people in the photo. It's not something I get very often from cities in the US as it feels very sterile in a lot of areas here. In other areas, it feels fake and artificial as people try to make it feel like it on purpose and it doesn't quite come off as authentic. I still have very fond memories of walking through some of the alleys of Ogikubo area in Tokyo next to my grandma's house at night and how alive the old shopping center felt after generations of folks had been living in and around the area. I remember when people were wondering why all of the push-back when replacing another neighborhood shopping center with a newer multi-level mega-department store. It's now that I'm older I understand the soul of these quaint small alleys or shopping centers of small businesses and their appeal. You feel like you're in a welcoming home and less like wandering a large financial transaction. It's why small towns in the US have such a strong appeal to people as they get older. You can feel and sense the soul of the people living their lives and that location is a part of their lives.
hahaha when I was in college taking Japanese courses for my scholarship, I figured out quickly the sentence structure by thinking to myself "How would Yoda say it?" It worked wonderfully haha.
I'm 'forcing' myself to learn Japanese because I by purposely didn't take an exam that would give me exempt me from a university language requirement. Now I'm required to take 2 more semesters of Japanese at least. But, I really enjoy it so I see it as a positive.
I have 2 months of studying Japanese about 2 hours a day, and about 15 months before I go. Here's is hoping my two hours a day of study will get me in one Japanese language only restaurant. That's my goal.
I work in an upscale restaurant in the Netherlands. When German tourists (of the older generations) visit us, they all assume we speak German and will not ask if we do in fact speak their language. I consider this extremely rude. If I were to try this in their country they would think I was insane. I in fact DO speak enough German (and French) to get by but I will refuse to do so if the tourist does not first ask if I do, and I will use English.
That's super fair honestly, entitled people need to be called out. I always ask people if they speak English and try to supplement with the local language, if I know any of it. Or I just do the good old "point at what I want and hold out fingers to show how many I want".
dang this is some old school abroad in japan video, reminded me why i felt in love with the channel with my first video learning japanese, that "it looks like a tree" part made me laugh hahahaha
Agree with your motivation part! I studied for a few years coz I love anime/manga and Japan. Many years on it’s diminished and I can’t remember a tonne of kanji, grammar and other things but can still figure out some of the basics. Really requires long term motivation and drive.
As a Chinese speaker, I feel a certain sympathy for Japanese learners who are trying to learn kanji when so many kanji are phonosemantic (meaning based radical + sound based body), which means they’re basically written to fit Chinese pronunciations, some of which aren’t even in use today! But in any case, ganbatte to everyone climbing the mountain 🫡🗻
The best trick is: Go to a place where not many tourists are. And that does not even have to be a less visited city or town, in can just be a less visited area. People are usually very nice and courteous, if you don't speak japanese, because they are not annoyed by dozens or hundrets of tourists every day. It is usefull to at least know some basic phrases and vocabulary since they often can't speak english, but usually you can make it work with gestures alone.
I lived in several tourist towns in the US. Mexico, Japan or Scotland I found being the opposite of the tourists I hated (American not foreign) worked almost everywhere. And a Japanese friend told me many restaurants in Japan are not only "No foreigner" but even Japanese need a formal introduction by a regular and heaven help you if your etiquette is not up to snuff, your introducer will be mad at you.
@@angelachouinard4581 I have not lived in japan, but I have been there multiple times. From my experience the "no foreigner" restaurants are only in areas that are overrun by tourists like asakusa. And restaurants for which you need a regular to invite you are very rare. They are usually restaurants that are very renoun and very small at the same time. I know that they exists, but I have never personally seen such a restaurant and as a foreigner I never had problems finding restaurants in japan. Even in tourist areas 9/10 restaurants are open to foreigners, but also maybe 6/10 are tourist traps, so I try to find restaurants that are primarily visted by locals. Most will have an english menue or at least pictures on the menue, but I try to avoid restaurants that advertise with an english menue, because they are often tourist traps.
@@angelachouinard4581 And about etiquette: You should know the basics of japanese etiquette, but usually noone will be mad if you are respectful and try your best. I've had people come to me to show me how to eat something correctly, but I have never had someone beeing mad at me for doing it wrong.
@@ragsdale710 If someone approaches you on the street and starts speaking english with you, they might want to practice english, but I have had multiple situations where people tried to communicate with me that could speak just as good english as I spoke japanese, which is just a few words and phrases and we communicated with single words and gestures. For example in Kyoto I went to a neighborhood sento and "spoke" with an elderly man and in Takayama I went to a restaurant outside of the touristy area and "talked" to the lady who ran the place (she did the cooking and serving by herself).
I got over Fuji and now I have Everest to go over. Well here goes! 私は日本語を話すことができますだから私は子供のように話します。Yes I typed that all out without google translate or any dictionary.
NOTIFICATION SQUAD: Good to be back! I've been quietly working on a ton of videos since the cycle last month. Looking forward to sharing them with you all in the coming days!
Welcome back!
Amazing.
I love you
Gotta save the video for later😊
Welcome back Chris
Just finished a semester of Japanese at uni and had a ten minute conversation for my final! I can’t believe I did it!
よくできた！
Good job! I wish I can do that!
Congrats! I still remember the time I realised I'd been chatting with Natsuki in Japanese for half an hour without using English. Was the greatest feeling in the world (after a year of relentless study).
よくやった。練習を続けると、すぐに第二の天性になります。
That's seriously impressive! You must have had a great teacher and put in a ton of hard work. I just finished a semester myself and absolutely could not go for 10 minutes.
Before dying, my father told me: "If someone isn't willing to accept your money, don't make efforts to give it to them".
When I was in Japan last year, my Coworker/friend and I were traveling and we had just ran out of laundry so we had to resort to wearing his two Hawaiian shirts he brought with him 😂. We ended up in Iwasehama, and things were closing cuz it was a small local town and it was getting"late" (8pm) and we were so happy to find a restaurant open- that denied us. They didn't flat out deny us, they loopholed it, "we are closed" even though they were SUPER energetic as the door was opening until they saw my tan skin and our western eyes lol.
I'm glad they did.
We found a place down the street (Gejo sushi, the best meal I've had in my life- 12+ countries and counting and the BEST MEAL OF MY LIFE) that was kind, respectful, and even though we looked like douchebag.exe Americans from our Hawaiian shirts they provided an incredible experience. Moral of the story?
If someone is going to judge you- HELP THEM by removing yourself from the equation. Someone judges your house? Help them by not making them come over again. Someone judges your speaking/behavior? Help them by never interacting with them again. Someone judges you based on race (I legit speak Japanese so it was just a race thing) good. Help them. Help them by never making them deal with you again.
Good for them.
Better for you.
Like on his deathbed or?
@@saal0 before that
People feel entitled to going anywhere they want and getting anything they want.
No idea why you’d want to force someone to make you food. So much they can do to it.
This principle makes sense, so as long as you're respectful
So far none of the Japanese tourists I've met have spoken Finnish.
Ahtiis ku aattellee mite hyö atavoivat: "etse höperö iletä ku et kielt ees ponimaijjaa". Sitte häköläine härskyy vaik o mukamas rattiij.
Yea, I understand the idea of not letting foreigners in due to language barrier, but it gets strange when you realize they would not get that same treatment abroad
Not even hei or kiitos? I at least used them many times when I visited Finland.
Nobody speaks Finnish. You lot just made up those words to confuse the rest of Europe!
Very true! The Japanese people who say "I speak English when I go abroad, tourists should speak Japanese here!" annoy me. Yeah they speak English, but even in non English speaking countries. They seem to forget that most people also learn English as a second or third language, like they do. Why should we learn Japanese and not speak English but they are allowed to speak English wherever they go ?
Living in Las Vegas I can tell you we get *ALOT* of Japanese tourists here and pretty much none of them speak any english or at least feel comfortable enough speaking it. Every group seems to have one designated person who acts as a translator and knows enough english to get around and every conversation goes through them. It's never seen as a problem though, everyone involved usually figures everything out in the end and it's smiles all around.
Because the Japanese believe their culture is to be respected, but ours is something you can visit for a week and do whatever you want.
I actually find that rather sad. According to the data (if I remember correctly) 17% of japanese people can speak english. Their unwillingness to make mistakes while learning is why most of the 83% cant speak it. You know Ive spoken english since I was 6, and I didnt learn the difference between condem and condone till I was like 19, and I am not at all embaressed at how many times I must have said the wrong one.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 i can speak 4 languages and i still make plenty of mistakes in all 4 including my native language who fucking cares lmao like who cares if some guy comes to you and is like "me want to go center me where tell station??" or he comes in perfect shakespearean english you still understand what he wants.
@@PitH0und Actually, it's a politeness thing. Source: met an English student through PSS back on Pokemon Y.
TL;DR first: Japanese is a hardass about tone policing and using the wrong level of formality and casualness is basically telling someone to go eff themselves; most Japanese people are being POLITE when they're avoiding English because they're that scared to accidentally insult you or make you laugh at them.
The long version of my story:
Dude was very, very embarrassed about his english until I said that I was French and english was my second language, and it was only then that he was comfortable enough to use voice chat to talk with me and to help me practice the starts of being able to muddle through japanese with a lot of dictionary usage.
He said that it was rude to speak a language you don't know well enough to be sure you aren't offensive in without permission from the other person.
He also helped me understand where I need to put a "desu" to make my sentences sound less brash and informal for strangers, though he had troubles explaining why the "desu" was required other than "it's polite". I only understood later that there's polite and informal ways to talk, as well as formal and casual forms, and Japanese people consider it a VERY BIG insult to use the wrong kind of tone with the wrong person. He was teaching me how to make my sentences polite but casual by insisting I should use "desu" at the end of my statements, and he DID try to explain why it was that way though he had trouble explaining the social rules to someone who DOESN'T have as big of a politeness system baked-in with the language.
To illustrate the levels of using the wrong form of politeness and formality in Japanese language: Using your first name instead of your last name is equivalent to basically calling someone asshole, and using someone's last name when you should be using their first name basically says you think they're trash. If you use an informal friendly form in a sentence toward an acquaintance, you might as well have said "HEY YOU MOTHER-EFFER" before the rest of it.
Now imagine if you're THAT used to such a rigid linguistic system that you have troubles explaining the levels of politeness to someone else you're trying to help learn your language; wouldn't you also rather let the person who seems to know how to communicate "with the correct tone" and seems to have enough skill to show the correct amount of respect do the talking for you?
It's for a similar reason that when I go to english places I warn people I'm French/from Quebec; so they don't think I'm being disrespectful when I go all Megamind and say a word very very wrong because I wasn't taught how it sounds correctly, only how it's spelled or I was taught by someone whose english pronunciation is usually worse than mine somehow.
I mean tbh, I'm not sure there's anyone in Vegas that feels that strongly about respecting their local culture over money, but I could be wrong if someone wants to correct me. Maybe far off the strip somewhere.
I remember talking to a fellow Spanish learner. She forgot sunrise and went with "when the sun takes off". Beautiful!
that's when you're getting fluent in a lingo. You can substitute the words you don't know yet.
@@Laffkin I'll never forget when my Chinese friend called a zebra a "punk rock horse" because he didn't know what it was called in English.
@@Noobzlikeu XDDDD fuck, im spanish speaker and sometimes i have problems with the have had had been tempo XDDDDDDD but i fucked that in spanish too XDDDD
In latviešu langauge saullēkts is literally sunjump.
Id like to see how she said that in spanish
People always talk about efficiency with language learning, needing to learn as fast as possible, but what good is speed if you run out of gas halfway around the track and never want to get behind the wheel again. Learn to enjoy the views along the way and you won't damn well care how long it takes you to get to your destination. You might not even realize you've reached it. Find what works for you, I promise it's worth the effort.
I think people want to be super efficient, because learning a new language is kind of boring and sucks, at the start(though it gets a lot better when you can understand some things). So I think they sort of want to brute force their way in. it does lead to a lot of burn, but I can sort of understand why people try that.
I’ve really enjoyed adding Japanese study to my pre-existing anime hobby, and not stressing too hard about the pace. I’m still a few years away from my ultimate goals, but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve gained over the last year.
I’ve been learning Japanese at my own pace for half a year and I can barely remember all the basic hiragana and their pronunciations. It’s a marathon, not a sprint when learning a different language, especially if that language doesn’t use English letters in their words. Like Italian, Spanish, French, German, etc, all spell their words with the same letters as the english language but they have different accents on letters and pronunciations. Most Asian languages have a completely different written language which also makes it 100x harder
@@Lilitha11 it creates this shitty rat race attitude where people are highly competitive and elitist for some reason about something that should be broadly encouraged. I swear sometimes the Japanese learning community specifically enjoys talking about learning the language and shitting on people learning it wrong than they do sitting down and studying themselves. I truly think the online culture is a big contributing factor to the obsession with learning quickly, because people feel the pressure to prove themselves in the face of a hyper competitive community.
@@cronotriggered4314 I am not sure it is really the online community specifically. I agree, but I think it is a larger problem with people in general these days, always trying to power through everything.
Fun extra challenge particularly for non-native English speakers: The expectation was, that reading Katakana was easy, since it's mostly English words and you already know the vocabulary from at least your school English. Then you realize, that the English written in Katakana is SPOKEN English, so you're sitting there, reading out loud to yourself quietly, trying to figure out what a "Baagaa" is.
Well what else would it be? How could it be “written” English considering katakana is a syllabary? That makes no sense
..... don't leave us hanging! What's a baagaa??
@@inspiteofshame I’d assume it means Burger, try saying it out loud
One of the worst things was in that tokyo olympic song where they use that kind of english.
I am still haunted in my dreams by the word "Bareboru".
Sorry for english speakers, but english written is a Nightmare. For example knight and night are pronounced the same; here and w-here are pronounced very different...
As rude as it sounds I think the Japanese people who support the language barrier while saying "when we go abroad we speak English" must be quite slow on the head. Most countries don't speak English as their main language they just use English for foreigners to understand... So while they are saying "they learnt English so the tourists should learn Japanese" they don't even understand the use of the English language
Yea I whent on a road rip in Estonia last year speaking only english, yet ofcourse estonian is the native langauge of the estonians. I myself am a latvietis who predictably speaks latviski to his own people, yet if any ourlanders come asking for anything Ill gladly answer in english. Ive been to a natively english speaking country for about 3 hours in my life total, it was in Manchester and Luton airports waiting for my flight to Spain/to Latviju. English is the international language spoken by people everywhere, for the pragmatic purpose of international comunication.
The bigger problem is that the culture is so self-absorbed that many Japanese people develop a sense of superiority. What applies for thee does not for me, so to speak. This is ESPECIALLY true with boomer men, who often have this belief that it was them and them alone who made Japan rich and that everyone should cowtow to them because of it.
@@Kagemusha08 Americans share equal creddit for Japan being rich, in the sense that they let it be. If it had been under soviet occupation it would be as poor as any other country which suffered soviet occupation.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714well we shouldn’t worry Japan will be broke again soon enough when they go through one of the worst population crashes to ever occur and their already stagnant economy fetsnworse
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714*sweats in polish*
Language teacher here. Glad you mentioned that thinking in the language helps with acquisition - absolutely it does!
I always found quite interesting how it works. When sufficient level of mastery is achieved, it's like a switch in your head that flips every time you change language. But before that, sometimes it was like a wall of text that I'm reading out loud that's visualized in my head, and sometimes when I think of a word, a picture or sort of a short video pops up in my head to help me contextualize what I'm thinking about. It makes me think that a certain amount of vocabulary must be attained before that happens, or maybe it's just how I process information in a language that's not mine. Well, either way, brains work in interesting ways, you know, like a tech, which you can still use even if you don't understand how it works.
Same with any language learning. English natives just dont know any other languages, so it seems new to them. Granted, Japanese is still the toughest language and probably not worth the effort to learn if you dont live there.
Yeah , I’m learning Japanese and it’s much more than just learning words and grammar . It’s learning a new thought process .
From my anecdotal experience I see native English speakers struggling the most with learning a language. Like they're so used to the world catering to them. lol Maybe it's because people will probably switch to (broken) English to be polite.
Been doing that for 20+ years and now i often switch 3 languages in my head mid-sentence because I just can't pick a word in my language to express what I need to express.
Shit's wild.
^^^^^^^^^^^
Actually this is one of the phrases LOL
I agree about how bullocks those viral views of Mt Fuji are. Those trending reels and tik toks telling you the Lawson and foot bridge view are the "absolute best places to see Mt Fuji" are bs. People, Fuji is FUCKIN MASSIVE. You can literally go anywhere within the area and still manage to find an amazing and even better shot than those trending spots.
Exactly. It’s like saying “ the best place to see the sun in Tokyo.” Ridiculous.
I think those are only trending among japanese which is hilarious. I doubt any foreigners (maybe chinese) are going there
It makes the actually good spots all the better lmao
Shizuoka city have some great views!
Most people are like sheep who have to be told what to do, how to act and what to think.
That Ace of Base song was so out of left field, but totally had me rolling 🤣🤣
Money well spent!
First X-Men, and now Abroad in Japan. Ace of Base are back!
@@AbroadinJapanit's going to be in my head for weeks
@@AbroadinJapan the license pays for itself. *slaps video* you can fit so many riffs with this song clip.
So brilliant 🤣🤣🤣
I've lived in Japan for years and I have been kicked out of restaurants/businesses before they could even check that I could order in Japanese.
I know non-Japanese people who were born and raised in Japan and were fluent in the language who were rejected from these businesses on sight.
It isnt super common, but "Japanese only" businesses have a "whites only" vibe in how they kick people out purely based on race.
So it is (mostly)
Sounds like bad buisness. Im literally a europian supremicist and for the right price I will sell my wears and services to customers of any race. We latvieši are a pragmatic people.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 I can respect that.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 weird flex but ok
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 the entire population of Latvia fits in my pocket, it's not like you have any choice but to sell yourselves to me.
Honestly, the best part of this video was how much Chris put in that Ace of Bass song. It's a great song.
How much longer until catchy 90s songs are public domain? 😭
@@klappstuhl4370 if music label companies can help it, somewhere around never.
When ever I hear the song, I always think of that one episode of South Park
It’s actually a terrible song.
@@Mind-your-own-beeswax But life *is* demanding without understanding!
“kore wa pen desu” at 1:32 is a proper lockdown refrance
I’m so glad someone else noticed
THIS IS A…. PEN!!!!
I've been studying Japanese recently and I've been tormenting my girlfriend by writing it and saying far too many times. I had to pause and screenshot it's appearance here.
Duolingo tier of Japanese
Nah this is a phrase that's been used in Japanese textbooks since at least the 60s. It's more of a Japanese learning meme than it is a reference to some Japanese Covid propaganda.
It may seem like a minor detail, but I believe that the key to learning Japanese or any other skill in life is not just motivation. I see motivation as something that fluctuates over time. In my opinion, discipline is the crucial factor, especially on tough days when you feel demotivated. It is discipline that will drive you to continue learning even when things get challenging.
But again, discipline comes from motivation. You actually have to want to do it. It is hard to keep the motivation when you know the skill will have no use for you or give you any joy. That is why I mostly end up going back to practicing skills that I enjoy or are useful to me.
@@orroz1 I agree 100%.
@@Deso4life To add to it, importance of motivation is that you get engagement from it, forcing yourself could lead to stress which only can hinder the learning
@@myblaonga Exactly. I was shit in school because, not only was I ostracized and treated awfully by my fellow students and the teachers (literally got in trouble for stuff I didn't do, and no one ever stepped in when my peers bullied me), but my own "parents" beat it into me from day one that nothing I did would matter. They weren't going to support or help me fulfill my dreams. I also hated being told what I had to learn, how I had to learn it, and when I had to learn it. My brain just isn't capable of learning in that manner, and instead of people working with me to help me find a learning method that worked, they treated me like I was stupid and a lost cause. I ended up skipping so much school because I hated it that I was failing every class (except the one I liked, English), and I ended up leaving at the end of my junior year. It took probably 10 years for me to finally get the chance to get my diploma, and when I started preparing for the test, I was far more successful at learning when I did it on my own time and in my own way, away from toxic people. I was literally the first person dismissed from having to take prep classes and I passed the test and got my diploma with no problem. It hasn't done me any good, as I got more job opportunities before I had my diploma, but at least I do have it.
TLDR: I hated school and wasn't motivated to do it because I hated it and saw no point in it, but when I did it on my own time without the pressure and expectations of others, I was able to find the motivation to get my diploma.
Discipline is a bit of a psychological myth as well though. It's not about forcing yourself over and over; research often finds that the key factor is setting up well-designed and realistic habits so it becomes automatic. Designing a good habit consists of choosing the right context (time, place etc.), reducing friction (things that will stop you from doing it), repetition (but not any magical number like 28 consecutive days), and reward. Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood is a great read.
That Fuji/Everest comparison is actually true for mastering most skills. The biggest hurdles are getting over the initial learning curve and then sticking to it to master it after knowing the basics, at which point improvements are only gradual.
The random Conner dig had my snort chuckle. Love the friendly banter between Chris and Connor.
Connor and IronRat need to apologize for cheating against Anny and the Swarm.
who? and who?
Imagine a U.S. restaurant that had a sign “English Speakers Only”! It would make the National News!
@@astralclub5964that’s pretty sad
Man licensed ace of base and then used it every 30 seconds.
I mean wouldn't you if you got to license a very popular song
All that he wanted was another baby a yer yerda da da da daaa
I enjoyed. Ace of Base reminds me of getting scammed into 12 CDs for 99 cents in the 90s. And loving every minute of that debt.
it's actually refreshing to hear that song, instead of the generic youtube free music every single creator uses in all their videos.
@@murry001 Ace of Base is the definition of generic 90s pop.
I think all languages have a similarly-shaped overall learning curve - you can get to basic communication with a bit of effort, but true mastery is a never-ending process. My Spanish-speaking friends often compliment my Spanish, but I always tell them it's like a slice of Swiss cheese; it looks like it covers a decent area but it's actually full of holes.
Yeah but Spanish is simple because they use so much English in their language and the roman alphabet. Japanese everything is different the only good thing it has going for it is its phonetic alphabets. 3-5 years is the average time to reach a decent level while Spanish is about a year
Ah yes, getting "Supengo Jozued" by your friends is also a good one lol.
@@southcoastinventors6583 reading Spanish is one thing…Speaking it full of tricks and niches that only native speakers will pick up on. As a native speaker myself, I too stumble on some elements of the language…particularly when chatting with people from the motherland. But hey, that’s what makes language learning fun.
@@Sodapopper100 This video is about learning a language to hold a conversation not mastery. So while Latin Spanish is different from Spain you can easily order from a menu or have a basic conversion with anyone regardless of regional differences. Same can be said for American versus British English
Just think about how much one has to learn about their native language
I can understand the sentiment, but it's also not very practical. Like can you imagine a Japanese person studying French for six months, going to Montreal and being unable to understand literally anything the locals say because the dialect is completely different from what they learned? Should we deny them the poutine they traveled halfway across the world to eat? Seems unfair.
Unfortunately japan doesnt care. They are a very strict country that goes off of hard work, respect and being QUIET. And ive heard that many of japanese youth have been taught about the 2 bombs the US dropped on them that likely killed a majority of that areas ancestors… i understand why they might be a little bias towards us
Dont make it right but
@@TheOnlyDTM It DOES make it right
@@antonslavik4907 No? the vast majority of americans alive were not involved in the bomb droppings. Why punish people for something their great grandparents did? that would be like blaming someone because their sibling was a murderer (which is common in japan)
“Dialect” It’s just different expressions and a different accent. It’s no more different than American vs British English, stop the nonsense
@Tarextherex How much French do you know? Because I can tell you from experience that Québécois and European French have a very hard time understanding each other and that's when it's both our first language. It's closer to you trying to understand English from several hundred years ago when people still used the letter Thorn.
Before the pandemic, I was studying Japanese at the YMCA in Kobe. I was highly motivated, worked hard every day. Before I could finish level 2, I had to go back to the states to help my mom with a return ticket of April 2, 2020. Japan closed April 1, 2020. I've not been motivated at all since then and decided that New Zealand was "good enough" in place of Japan.
New Zealand is also my secondary goal if not Japan, so: good taste! Beautiful countries.😊
@@Orionhart Adern is a terrible leader.
You can go to any south east Asian country instead of NZ and live like a king
NZ is only worth it if you are top 10% rich
@diegosilang4823 and yet she's been out of power for a while now, and the three headed monster is ruining the country now.
Thailand is my second choice for... reasons.
One recommendation I like to give is to play "Jeopardy" to yourself for vocab and conversation. Look around your room or walk around a town and remember the vocab for something like humidifier (加湿器) , but then think about how you would ask someone what that is or "where do you put a humidifier in a room"?
Even if it's simple or straight forward questions, it helps keeps things fresh in your head after you learn them keeps the flow of how to ask.
It's fun to have a favorite word or a word of the week like that. I learned the word "oritatami" from the anime "Long Riders!" in reference to a folding bicycle. It stuck in my head because I ride them, and then the next day I used it with a Japanese person. They corrected me - I had forgotten the final "-mi" - then I applied it to a folding music stand. It's my new favorite word. If someone invents a folding tatami mat, would it be an "oritatami tatami"?
Good to see you looking so well Chris. Not dropped in for a while. Quality content as always.
Your editing is so top tier
Glad we got a video of Chris just talking to the camera missed these.
These types of situations always make me scratch my head awkwardly because, realistically, there’s always an aspect of xenophobia involved, even if it’s not the main issue. The fact that restaurant owner went after the people leaving negative reviews really does make me think their unwillingness to communicate with foreign customers is born out of malice rather than pragmatism.
Edit: Wow, this really offended a lot of chuds. French people don’t be embarrassing challenge (impossible).
bla-bla-bla. Espace privé, ils font ce qu ils veulent. Entre soi et isolation, c'est mal? flocon de neige😂
@@abfab2517oh god it’s a French person oh god oh my god oh my god 😰
@@chickfilaemployee6149 lol we also have some french vlogers whining about denied access in Japan. One was an overweighted young lady in a lycra dress with open underarm. On a summer day. LMAO 😂 h
The reason this is allowed is Japan has no anti discrimination laws for non Nationals.
But it’s part of a broader xenophobia that both Japan and Korea seem comfortable with.
China operates on this for entirely different reasons, ie to promote Han Chauvinism per CCP government propaganda.
Japan has enjoyed treating migrant workers especially from the Philippines India etc…like subhuman garbage for years.
Japan sadly enjoys erasing its war crimes and playing victim of WW2. Both Japan and Korea share military occupation from the USA (doesn’t have a great track record sadly) which becomes anecdotal proof to justify this behavior.
@@abfab2517remember if you complain about discrimination you are a snowflake according to this Americanized Frenchman
I lived in Japan from 1980 to 1983. Nothing changed. It was that way then too.
I was in Japan in the late 80's and lived on the Midway, we corrected that kind of disrespectful behavior by remodeling the establishment.
@@colonelangus8247you tore up a place you were a GUEST at?
@@WestZ I wasn't a guest, we were there to civilize them.
conservative to the extreme
I'd like to add that while studying any language, the motivation/goal why you do it can change over time -- and that's ok.
I've been studying Japanese for 4/5 years now, and I still dont feel fluent enough.
What started as a naïve hope that I could maybe one day watch anime without subs now turned into a love for translating literature.
Both kinds of motivations will get you somewhere. Maybe anime didn't make me fluent but it motivated me to try something new.
I started "learning" Japanese because I wanted to see how far I could go. I was learning (and still am) from just listening to music. It's surprisingly easy when you mold your brain into the right shape. Then I fell down the Vocaloid rabbit hole and found obscure songs that I'd listen to as a kid and be saddened to see that no one has translated them. I also fell in love with the language and people at one point. Now my motivation is a mix of all three
I started learning Japanese because...... My uni offered a free course for beginners ahahaha.
I started about a month ago, so I'm just starting but it seems fun (and difficult)
I don't study anything related to languages so studying another language is super cool and could open up a lot of possibilities.
And maybe I can watch anime without subtitles in 5 years
what would you say is your current japanese level with 4/5 years of learning? and how consistent were you? Currently about to hit my 1 year mark, but I was only motivated for the first 2 months, and motivation came back for the last 2 months too in my case
@@Twiddle_things that's an awesome journey.
Thats a wonderful story! We can find new passions in unexpected places
about your yoda point: As far as I heard some time ago, that's basically what happened. They asked a hungarian tech to 'backtranslate' into english, keeping the structure. And as Hungarian is agglutinative, like Japanese is, the 'japanese pattern' came out.
Wait... I didn't know that the infamous Yoda way of speaking came from us Hungarians. o.o
@@tovarishchfeixiao Yeah I thought it was from German? It does a similar word order flip, with the verb going to the end (generally depending on the tense). That makes more sense too since Darth Vader is just "Dark Father".
Note: Just Googled it and the name translates more smoothly from Dutch. So not too far off.
@@tovarishchfeixiao it is just a story. it might be true, and it might not be. Frank Oz said he came up with it himself I believe.
@@tovarishchfeixiao Hmmm... indeed... surprised we are, effect on the world a lot we have. :)
@@StarSpliter ... German, Dutch, Italian, French and English are all branched off of Latin and are based off of regional philosophy after Rome stomped on them.
If you base your education on Movies and what Google is willing to share, you will never understand why Hungarians resisted placing Man at the Center of the Universe, like the Christian Conquerors insisted.
It is the influence of the Eastern Languages they were in contact with that kept their philosophy of Humans as PART of the universe.
One of those philosophies allows people to exterminate any species they find a nuisance.
One allows man to own parts of Earth.
One calls more honorable species beasts and savage.
Edited to Correct Autocorrect
Just so people know if a restaurant in North America had a "English speakers only" sign there would be an international incident. Probably would get shut down and sued immediately.
Imagine this to happen in. a German restaurant with our past....
It does happen much more often in European countries and Usa, but its more like someones ethnicity is wrong rather than using the wrong language, along with other things like gender identity and many other markers
It would be, but I give Japan a pass. People like the aspect of Japan they unconsciously want to change the most, which is how Japanese Japan is. The bar needs to be raised and we need to do better, respect the culture, and help preserve what they have, respectfully and with humility. The West is incredibly culturally diverse and people like us for it, but the last 50 years have degraded our shared culture to the point where pajamas in public are seen as commonplace as are kids that run around barefoot in places of business and the average IQ is room temperature.
Just shows what cattle slaves the corporate owners consider us peasants
I don't think it would be an issue if the US was homogenous
The learning the languge if the country you're going to live seems so sensible. It goes for everywhere including people moving to English speaking countries.
Yay Chris is back
I love the way this video was edited! It’s so funny! you can really see Chris’s sense of humor.
The book recommendation is gold. The idea of just learning the meaning of the kanji without readings attached to them seems so dumb at the start, but then you realize that you don't need more than the meaning to recombine and read them in your head! Naturally, you should learn how to phonetically speak them out eventually, but this book is so clever. I'll report back to this comment in 1 month exactly and will tell you how many Kanji I learned and can *actually* remember. See you on 06/25!
I'd just recommend Wanikani honestly.
@@Freezorgium i just furiously kept speaking and writing to people i met at university who are native speakers until it stopped being borderline insulting to read or hear my japanese.
I'll leave a comment so I get notified when you return :D
@@alexeyeliseev6322same
boop
not to defend rude tourists with bad banners but blaming tourists for trash problem is crazy like there were news about how the tokyo streets were flooded with trash after halloween
I found your channel 7 years ago when i first started dabbling in japanese studying and fell in love with it. Sprinkling in a video every now and then about learning the language is very nice and i loved this
self learning Japanese over here. getting close on a year (July 2nd will be 12 month) of Duolingo+Anki+Graded readers+JPDB+Renshuu(Shiritori cat only)+anime/manga in Japanese. 2-5 hours every day. I'd say i am way pas the first mountain and committed to the grind. mainly because when i started i looked at realistic numbers and thought to myself "ok, it will take 4-5 years, let's just roll with it and see how it goes". Naturally i suffer from lack of practice and full blown immersion. but when someone in discord drops a random screenshot from twitter and asks someone to translate it - and you see that you can actually do it (admittedly with 20 minutes of looking up kanji that i do not remeber) - it is still good motivating feeling.
That's freaking fantastic!!! I've studied Japanese for 2 years myself!
@@princessthyemis Nice, how's your progress in those 2 years?
That's cool ! And how's the progress on watching/reading anime/manga in Japanese ? Can you fully comprehend them already ?
@@Exorion1er Completely? not even close. i can see general idea or theme of the conversation usually but it's hard to get full picture. especially if we go into different settings. since you will need for example all the magical terminology in fantasy. i can see the text, i can see the grammar and how words connect to each other, but i do not have enough confident vocab to read easily. So each page is constant dictionary browsing. Watching anime is kinda easier - but again depends on the setting. daily conversations are rather easy - but get into specific areas and its' suddenly full stop. anyways as i said - i am going into it hoping that i can read more or less by the year 3. So for now it is just full grind to get more vocab. Actually i was just taking a break from my JPDB deck as i noticed this ping =) so grind never stops.
You're certainly an inspiration to us all (or at least me), @@Istalior ! I'm taking tutor lessons on the preply app. But I'm realizing a lot of it, especially in the beginning, you need to dedicate a lot of time to memorization... But I've got several methods. Despite my learning disorder, i will continue to learn at my brains pace and just enjoy the ride. I'm trying to look at it as a "fun hobby" and not just a class that i might fail. I find that when i have this approach, I do enjoy the learning process much more, and have higher retention.
Oh a Japanese Learning video, right when I was rewatching some old videos. That's so nostalgic, I really missed these. I'm Glad they are back to the table
This has the energy of your early video's, but has the maturity and skill that you've gained over the years. Excited for this new 'era'. Also really good job taking a more down to earth approach to this 'issue' that was overblown.
The reviews had me ROLLING! Great informative video chris!
FWIW, this is the best video you've done in a while. Not intended as a slam; I really enjoy your videos, Chris. But this felt novel and authentic in a way that was really refreshing.
folga wooga imoga womp
Agreed tbh, been watching for like 9 years lol, this feels a lot like an early vid
This is another gem of a video! Can really tell of the extra editing and work on this video. Back to your old awesome video style and can tell this was your own video too.
The Lawson thing is still so wild to me. The most compelling shot I've seen of that Lawson with Mt. Fuji behind it and a schoolkid in the foreground was because of how simultaneously grand and mundane it is, and how distant the shot is as well. It's just a normal street, with a normal store, with a normal girl on her way home from school. With a backdrop as majestic as Fuji in the background, because a normal afternoon in a place like that can just look that nice. There's no recreating that shot again, nor is there a need to. It's one beautifully normal moment in time. Outside of that, what's the point of going there just to take a picture of a Lawson with Mt. Fuji in the back when it's also swarmed by other tourists doing the same thing? Why POSE there and get in the way of people just trying to go about their business? There's not even any novelty to have there now because there never was before that one shot got popular.
Currently on a flight to Haneda airport and taking a week trip in Tokyo… Thanks for the positive attitude Chris 🤣
Enjoy it. Tokyo is amazing
Don't use cameras, ever, visit public landmarks that are overrun by day during the night for no crowds, remain polite and take home as many gashapons as you can fit in a trolley! Happy trails!
@@klappstuhl4370 Thank you very much! We are very much enjoying our trip here. The food is amazing here and I am enjoying using the public transportation.
@@klappstuhl4370Not sure I really understand your first tip if I am being honest. What's wrong with taking pictures?
Good shit homie! Laughed out loud at the John "Cdawg" Blackthorn bit.
I've been on an Ace of Base streak recently so I appreciate your choice of soundtrack.
This concept always felt so weird. I lived in sichuan provice in central china for a while. Half the people there didnt even speak mandarin chinese and i couldn't read at the time.
I still had a good time ordering food pointing and very respectful. Sometimes even using google translate questions and everyone was super accomodating. Same with Thailand and me not speaking a single word of thai in the non tourist areas.
It just feels disrespectful that they arent even trying. Like its ok to tell them sorry i dont understand or cant help you but at least try
3:58 😂 called the shopowner a caveman... savage customers indeed 😂
Very savage indeed, didn’t expect it from normally very polite Japanese.
@@hortehighwind8651 You should see 2ch sometime. Anonymity allows people to be their truest selves.
This absolutely sent me, there were tears. Imagine being so mad you go online and insult someone’s head 😂😂😂😂
@@hortehighwind8651 The internet is anonymous everywhere, which gives lots of freedom to be brutal! :)
Probably Natsuki...😅
Watching this from Nagoya, Japan, after having studied for just over 2 years, I 1000% feel every point you made. The hurtle of getting over Mt. Fuji is real, but one you do, it is so rewarding. Even though my Japanese is so broken, I've found great success in my speaking and comprehension due to the years I dedicated before coming here. While I can't read a lot of things due to not knowing the Kanji, I can feel comfortable working around that through speaking to locals. Love your advice and entertainment!
Also, I introduced my hostmother to your channel and she loves it, especially hearing what you have to say about your perspective of Japan.😊
Currently studying Japanese in a small town in Japan, and it's in a large part thanks to your content that I've found the motivation to keep on going these past 2 years. Thanks!
Bro I'm stuck with writing hiragana and katakana, like I can read it and my brain recognizes it but if you told me to write for example "Asakusa" in hiragana I'd die
I can type though lol
@@pancakes_go2940 being able to read them is pretty good for now. You should be able to follow your own road to whatever your goals are. Wanna be friends? I'd be happy to help.
Chris... I think this might be the peak of your career. I reckon this is your funniest video yet! ^^
Chris I really like this video, it is informational and has your iconic humor. It doesn’t feel click bait-y. Thank you.
The editing and humor in this one was incredible!!!! ❤
Yeah, Chris is a pro. Demonetized, I'm sure for language, and no sponsers and he is honest about all our cultures- Japanese, UK, US, no bias from his love or hate of any culture. That's kind of rare.
I do not enjoy social media in general or TH-cam. But, I have joined TH-cam just to watch Abroad in Japan and your separate Abroad in Japan podcast. Both are well produced and the content is fun and engaging. Im sure we all appreciate your assistance on how to learn Japanese. I've only been learning for a year and have barely scratched the surface. I need all the help I can get. I have watched your videos for years and hope you continue making much more content in years to come.
There are lots of high quality channels just like this one on YT. It’s just a matter of filtering out the dross.
I'd be very interested to see what happens if the likes of the USA or the UK or any western country in general had signs banning Japanese tourists in their bars, resteraunts etc. Imagine the uproar. Seems to be a bit unfair for the Japanese to refuse foreigners into their businesses but they don't face the same prejudice when visiting western countries.
Thank you, Chris. As an ESL lecturer, I stand by everything you said in this video. ❤ Applicable to learning English as well as any other language.
I think the idea behind the Lawson/Mt. Fuji pictures is to capture the contrast between civilization and natural beauty.
Thanks for being so honest about the difficulty of this Chris
For reason number 3, I spent probably 10 years learning hirigana and katakana. My motivation has been a genuine love for Japanese traditional and pop culture. Plus, each new piece of vocabulary and kanji I learn feels like opening a Legend of Zelda treasure chest: incredible hype for only 5 rupees.
It's been such a great and rewarding journey, but it sure ain't been an easy one.
I 100% recommend studying vocabulary and grammar written in Romanji while using something like Anki to drill Katakana and Hiragana on the side while you're getting rolling so that you get the dopamine reward of language learning, without spending years of unrewarded suffering just trying to learn the writing system.
I like how you are challenging a bit Japanese point of view in a smart way, as usual! Keep going !!
Hilarious and informative as always dude, can never get enough of your content
This is a great video on learning Japanese. You're exactly right about the last point - that is absolutely the key. I liked the Fuji / Everest analogy. too. Realistically I'm rolling around somewhere in the valley between them, but nothing like a good "nihongo jouzu" from the Starbucks barista to make me feel like I'm on Everest's peak.
Only reason I can see people taking a picture of the familymart with Mt. Fuji in the back is for the retrowave aesthetics
I moved to Japan during COVID. At that time there were very little foreigners and no tourists. My Japanese ability was pretty nonexistant at the beginning but I was able to practice a lot because in most cases Japanese expected me to speak Japanese (in Japan, crazy right?!) This actually made it more comfortable for me as I could plan on Japanese being the language spoken. Transactions went smoothly and if there were any hiccups, I knew it was my fault and that gave me a learning experience and something to practice and work on. Recently it has become harder for me to communicate. Now most of all my interactions at restaurants and stores with staff are initially met with a look of fear and absolute bewilderment as I approach. They maybe expect and fear I don't speak Japanese. The broken English and the hand gestures begin. Do I reply in English? Do I reply in Japanese? A mix of both? Do I really look that American? Anyways I always just smile and don't take it the wrong way, I know I am a foreigner and I will always look and be a foreigner and I know there's no ill will or bad intention its just a little uncomfortable and can be frustrating.
"Japanese expected me to speak Japanese (in Japan, crazy right?!)" Speaking Japanese isn't the hard part - reading that nightmare fuel of a written text is the problem.
@@_sparrowhawk I taught myself the basics of the Thai writing system in a few weeks, from books and cassette tapes (it was the 1980's). Even if I was still that young and motivated, that would be impossible with Japanese. But other people do it, so I keep trying. I learn a little bit each day, and recognize more and more...and still can't read a simple kid's comic book.
あなたはとても努力しているようでとても立派だと思います。しかし、私が職場でいらっしゃいませ・こんにちわと言っても、開口一番Helloと言ってくる外国人がほとんどです。日本語が話せるあなたから日本人に話しかける場合は「あのー」とかこんにちはとか、真っ先に日本語で話しかけてほしいです。
@@abc-bo3lbYeah the person overcomplicated things and put too much importance in every interaction
Every country operates the same yet when it happens in Japan everyone is tip-toeing around it.
I'm currently reading your book and it's fun to hear you talking about your language progress as you did in the book :)
Amazing. Came for the drama, felt inspired to learn more about the language afterward.
Xenophobia is ugly no matter who's doing it, or where it's happening.
Curious because I perceive it as righteous.
@@Beleidigen-ist-Pflicht ouch!
honestly you, tokyolens and a few others got me interested in learning the language. so far I'm chugging along the fuji route but no interest in stopping. picked it up as a hobby and I'm having fun learning it. but it is tough.
Your explanation about the complexities of mastering the Japanese language and the dedication it requires is excellent. It's important to respect local culture and make an effort to integrate, but it's equally key to be realistic about what can be achieved as a tourist.
exactly, why even bother with tourism if you dont even try to make it a little more accesable for tourists. A tourist is just someone who emporarily visits, where would we be if we demanded every visitor to learn the language of the visitied country.
So many japanophiles defending these xenophobic restaurants. Saying things like “ the owner gets stressed if they see a non japanese,” tourists should learn katakana and also n1 level japanese… smh
I never really had any interest in Japan until I was about 19 or 20 when I stumbled across this channel almost 10 years ago. Through yours and other TH-cam channels, I fell in love with the countryside, a place I have never been to or never really thought about until I watched your videos. These videos ultimately pushed me to go back to college/university and begin my journey on learning the culture and language. I decided when I re-enrolled after the pandemic that I would earn a degree in culture and literature as I learned through my job at the time that I enjoyed teaching (my job had me do this from time to time, but it was not my actual job). I chose this degree path as I felt it would be best for my future students as I would be diving deeper into the English language. As graduation comes closer, now just two quarters away, I find myself getting my gear (photography and journals), passport, and luggage ready as I will be attending a two-week study abroad in Matsuyama (松山) in September. Once I graduate, I will be just a few months away from my 29th birthday so hopefully that does not pose any issue when it comes time to apply for the JET Program.
With all of that being said, anyone have any tips to solidify memorization of て form? For some reason I find it easier to memorize new kanji but years into learning the language and I still have to sometimes think about which form to use, is this something everyone struggles with or am I missing something?
Thank you for the videos, they helped a bunch during the pandemic when I was originally planning to visit Japan. As morbid as it sounds without the pandemic, I don't think I would have ever found what I really enjoyed.
There is a て-form song on TH-cam that I unironically listened to on repeat for like an hour until I had the song so stuck in my head that I could recite it anytime I forgot. After that, it just becomes solidified in your brain through the huge amount of grammar structures that utilize て-form.
Eventually you will get to the point where most of the verbs you are learning are just noun+する and at that point it’s just して for everything. A little side note for formal readings is that you might see a nominalized verb + する in the て-form such as 食べることをして or 食べるのをして.
Might be a little too much info but yeah, I recommend the te form song if you are struggling but practical usage in te form grammar constructs will quickly build your functional memory.
Amazing story, thanks for sharing and best of luck to you :)
@@flytelp Thats the thing, I had to memorize my own version of a て form song. I think that I am overthinking it sometimes, with most its natural and I don't have to think about it, but with some I have to go through the different forms in my head before arriving at the right one.
what it comes down to is I just need more practice, time to recite the て form song some more. 🤣
@@zacharylanoux う つ る て、む ぶ ぬ んで、 く いてーー、ぐ いでーー. す して、 する して、来る きて、て-form 👏
There’s also the second verse that puts some basic verbs into their te forms so that kind of helped me memorize the uncommon verb endings you don’t see often like つ in 待つ going to 待って which everyone has heard.
In my opinion, since て form is the form you encounter a verb the most in, just listening to and reading a lot of Japanese will get you to know them subconciously. For example, I know many beginners of Japanese who don't know most verbs in the dictionary or ます form, but know a lot of verb in their て form because they are used that often in anime, games, books, movies etc.
Thought I was gonna watch a long podcast about "Japan doesn't like foreigners," but I ended up learning a lot 😅. Also nice throwback to your older videos.
I met a Japanese man in his 60s in Oregon and asked him how he could read all those characters in his japanese book. He said japanese cant even do it they have to figure out what the signs mean as they go by the context around it.
There's videos on YT where Japanese on the street are asked about certain kanji, and a lot of times, they have no idea what a character, out of context, means.
I got to talking with a chef at a local restaurant. He'd been to Europe so he knew some English. He told me that he seldom reads because it is too difficult.
I think this is why studying menus should be part of the curriculum of learning Japanese
@@thomasbecker9676 That itself isn't surprising though. You can do that with any language, just pick correct words. In that (or similar vid if not that one) they had differetn difficulties and as the difficulty went up less and less people knew. But the same thing can be done in English or any other language ;-).
isn't that also why furigana are a thing anyway?
i visited friends who live in kawaguchiko and the crowds around that lawson and train crossing just behind it make getting to the station unbarable... literally every road there has amazing views of fuji, spread out and find your own unique photo opertunity.
Both tourists and TikTok (trends) can be awful. When combined.....
Lemmings.
I can imagine. I completely understand the decision. Japan's society functions by (mostly) everyone following (most of) the rules (most of the time). It doesn't seem like a big deal if one person crosses the street in the wrong place, but when hundreds of tourists are doing that every day it has an impact.
@@nerdygem8620 yeah, although i feel like a better solution would have been to just add a large curtain on top of lawson that could be raised and lowered so locals could still enjoy the view during quiet periods.
The good thing about 99.9 per cent of tourists is that they don't spread out. You often times literally just have to go one street over and all the tourists have dissappeared. That makes it easier to escape them when you're a tourist and find quite streets and restaurants.
Chris this brilliant! You haven’t lost a single step. Welcome back
Chris, i am coming to the end of June travelling around Japan solo (i am female). This is my first time travelling without a guide or carrier.
Your videos gave me the courage to come to Japan. I followed your 14 day itinerary and enjoyed it so much. It eas incredible!!
I added some more time in Osaka and decided to spend an additional 7 days in Shinjuku! (21 days in Japan)
Thank you Chris and you should be proud that your videos have changed the lives of people like me who were too scared to come!
(I'm writing this while enjoying cans of strong zero and im going to be learning Japanese)
2:16 this scene is so beautiful that I had to replay it a few times
What beautiful lighting!!
There are actually a lot of nighttime photos of Japanese cityscapes. I love them and have a lot of Displates of such scenes. One thing I love about Asian cities, Japanese cities in particular, is that they always feel very lived in and have a strong personality. You can feel the weight of all of the people and consciences that had moved through the area, even when there aren't people in the photo. It's not something I get very often from cities in the US as it feels very sterile in a lot of areas here. In other areas, it feels fake and artificial as people try to make it feel like it on purpose and it doesn't quite come off as authentic. I still have very fond memories of walking through some of the alleys of Ogikubo area in Tokyo next to my grandma's house at night and how alive the old shopping center felt after generations of folks had been living in and around the area. I remember when people were wondering why all of the push-back when replacing another neighborhood shopping center with a newer multi-level mega-department store. It's now that I'm older I understand the soul of these quaint small alleys or shopping centers of small businesses and their appeal. You feel like you're in a welcoming home and less like wandering a large financial transaction. It's why small towns in the US have such a strong appeal to people as they get older. You can feel and sense the soul of the people living their lives and that location is a part of their lives.
Incredible editing and pace
hahaha when I was in college taking Japanese courses for my scholarship, I figured out quickly the sentence structure by thinking to myself "How would Yoda say it?" It worked wonderfully haha.
I applaud you for the accuracy of the nearby conbinis or lack there of (golden temple) to get angles of while making a joke.
All the solid tips mentioned aside, just gotta say this video is top tier! So fun and engaging 🤩
The wall across the street from the Mt. Fuji Lawson is already up!
NAUGHTY TOURIST!! STOP TRYING TO STEAL MT FUJI SOUL BY LOOKING AT IT!
Thought they would buid it on the Lawson's roof.
@@mhx47 Probably couldn't cause code violations or something.
With any luck, someone will paint Mt. Fuji on it. xD
The wall that Trump could wish for 😂
I have been waiting for your next upload!🎉
Wow the famous Japanese friendliness on full display 😂😂😂 (which for the record never existed)
Looking good Chris. 👍
Love you debunking the headlines like this and educating us Gaijin about the nuances of Japan
I'm 'forcing' myself to learn Japanese because I by purposely didn't take an exam that would give me exempt me from a university language requirement. Now I'm required to take 2 more semesters of Japanese at least. But, I really enjoy it so I see it as a positive.
I was literally googling abroad in japan a few minutes ago cause I hadn't noticed a video in a long time LOL
I have 2 months of studying Japanese about 2 hours a day, and about 15 months before I go.
Here's is hoping my two hours a day of study will get me in one Japanese language only restaurant.
That's my goal.
Awesome. Another item to add to my fail list.
Beat me to it 😂
Kinda like an inverted bucket list
@@Ash_Wen-li SAME
: ((
😂😂😂
Awesome to see you back again. Loving the book btw 💜
Thank you Chris!! Its been a while since were gotten a video on learning Japanese! Great video as always man 🎉 keep up the incredible work!
Refreshing! Really good! Rarely see anybody call out Japan who live there. Bravo.
I work in an upscale restaurant in the Netherlands. When German tourists (of the older generations) visit us, they all assume we speak German and will not ask if we do in fact speak their language. I consider this extremely rude. If I were to try this in their country they would think I was insane. I in fact DO speak enough German (and French) to get by but I will refuse to do so if the tourist does not first ask if I do, and I will use English.
That's super fair honestly, entitled people need to be called out. I always ask people if they speak English and try to supplement with the local language, if I know any of it. Or I just do the good old "point at what I want and hold out fingers to show how many I want".
Your English is excellent as well.
@@DxxxLxxxxx-iw1ox Thank you very much!
I did for when I was in Belgium on vacation, but I swear it wasnt intended to be malice it was just a silly goof
dang this is some old school abroad in japan video, reminded me why i felt in love with the channel with my first video learning japanese, that "it looks like a tree" part made me laugh hahahaha
Agree with your motivation part! I studied for a few years coz I love anime/manga and Japan. Many years on it’s diminished and I can’t remember a tonne of kanji, grammar and other things but can still figure out some of the basics. Really requires long term motivation and drive.
Ay Chris I will ALWAYS love your voice over narration. Thank you for making my day.
As a Chinese speaker, I feel a certain sympathy for Japanese learners who are trying to learn kanji when so many kanji are phonosemantic (meaning based radical + sound based body), which means they’re basically written to fit Chinese pronunciations, some of which aren’t even in use today!
But in any case, ganbatte to everyone climbing the mountain 🫡🗻
Oof
君英語本当上手
@@user-cs9by8jd6l 英語上手ってまじで言ってるの？w
@@じゅげむ-s6b 偽中国語やぞ
@@user-cs9by8jd6l "lord, english, book, wtf is 当 in english, overhand" i see
The best trick is: Go to a place where not many tourists are. And that does not even have to be a less visited city or town, in can just be a less visited area. People are usually very nice and courteous, if you don't speak japanese, because they are not annoyed by dozens or hundrets of tourists every day. It is usefull to at least know some basic phrases and vocabulary since they often can't speak english, but usually you can make it work with gestures alone.
I lived in several tourist towns in the US. Mexico, Japan or Scotland I found being the opposite of the tourists I hated (American not foreign) worked almost everywhere. And a Japanese friend told me many restaurants in Japan are not only "No foreigner" but even Japanese need a formal introduction by a regular and heaven help you if your etiquette is not up to snuff, your introducer will be mad at you.
@@angelachouinard4581 I have not lived in japan, but I have been there multiple times. From my experience the "no foreigner" restaurants are only in areas that are overrun by tourists like asakusa. And restaurants for which you need a regular to invite you are very rare. They are usually restaurants that are very renoun and very small at the same time. I know that they exists, but I have never personally seen such a restaurant and as a foreigner I never had problems finding restaurants in japan. Even in tourist areas 9/10 restaurants are open to foreigners, but also maybe 6/10 are tourist traps, so I try to find restaurants that are primarily visted by locals. Most will have an english menue or at least pictures on the menue, but I try to avoid restaurants that advertise with an english menue, because they are often tourist traps.
@@angelachouinard4581 And about etiquette: You should know the basics of japanese etiquette, but usually noone will be mad if you are respectful and try your best. I've had people come to me to show me how to eat something correctly, but I have never had someone beeing mad at me for doing it wrong.
People normally don't speak to strangers in Japan and the ones that do want to practice English
@@ragsdale710 If someone approaches you on the street and starts speaking english with you, they might want to practice english, but I have had multiple situations where people tried to communicate with me that could speak just as good english as I spoke japanese, which is just a few words and phrases and we communicated with single words and gestures. For example in Kyoto I went to a neighborhood sento and "spoke" with an elderly man and in Takayama I went to a restaurant outside of the touristy area and "talked" to the lady who ran the place (she did the cooking and serving by herself).
Always a good day when Mr Affable posts! :)
I got over Fuji and now I have Everest to go over. Well here goes!
私は日本語を話すことができますだから私は子供のように話します。Yes I typed that all out without google translate or any dictionary.
👏👏👏👏
Certified jozu moment
A 上手瞬間 if you will
@@Dankyjrthethird ありがとございます！