As you said in another video, for some people Japanese is like their entire personality. It seems like they're trying to impress someone in order to boost their ego. As a result they build a toxic self-referential community around them, made of people who idolatrize them and get very protective about the method. I don't think it's a good idea to get advices from people like that. I think that's a childish way of approach language learning. On the other hand, the way you put it just makes sense.
I think this is the best way it could be worded, I don’t want people to get so caught up in sounding perfect that they forget to actually learn the language for its real use, and not for their ego. Method aside, I think there’s multiple ways to get to the goal, as long as practicality and a good mindset is kept in mind. I met SO many people in Japan who sounded near native in basic conversation but after that, they couldn’t use the language much, If I can get others to avoid that, then that’s a victory imo. I’m gonna pin this 👌
so to summarize: -learn the basics of gramar (utilize chat gpt) -learn 2000-4000 of the most commonly utilized vocabulary (use mnemonic association to help remember) -use the sentence structures you have learned and utilize the vocabulary you know Listen and repeat with native speakers to learn proper context. Make a list of +100 sentences for every category of your life and drill those sentences to become fluent in topics that matter to you. (utilize chat gpt) The goal of this method is to reach subconcious verbal fluency, being able to utilize your target language like your native language. Perfect gramar is overrated, use what you know, people will get it. For japanese specifically: learning hiragana and katakana will get you very far, learn kanji once you're able to speak. As somebody who's at a beginning conversational level of fluency in japanese - this video is very helpful and emphasizes a lot of the most important points I've found in language learning myself. I'll definitely try out making extensive lists of sentences on topics I will use japanese in! My go to has been "shower talks" where I just have a made up conversation with myself. But like you said at the beginning: I need to seek more discomfort in my practice.
Yeah there’s a time for more relaxed shower talk like you said but the discomfort during practice is one of the best things to go for 👌, really leads to good changes. And thanks for the summary! Edit: make sure you all still watch the video though. Not for my sake but for yours, or you will miss out on things that will save you a lot of time.
Thank you. But what a shame, I won't use chat gpt nor support it in any way shape or form. Sure there's very little we can do to be completely ethical in life, but that's an easy one to just not use generative AI.
I have an example of this from learning English - I am Brazilian. When I was 14 years old I started playing Grand Theft Auto. I had no clue what they were saying. I asked my mother to buy me a dictionary. I started writing down the sentences in the game, replacing some words with new words and I completed the game understanding everything. I continued to do it for other games and music, singing in English as well. Fast forward 2 years, I was working on a clothing store when some Australian tourists arrived. I was in a really small city back then and everyone (including vendors in other shops) was panicking because they couldn't communicate. I stepped in - this was my first time ever speaking English outside of my own house and to myself - and very naturally, with no difficulties, helped the tourists find everything they wanted, asked them about their trip and wished them well. I didn't even have internet (poverty) so I definitely didn't even know what pitch accent even means. But they understood me flawless, there was little to no repetition, and I did not feel scared or concerned at any point. It was truly magical and today I can confidently say my English level resembles that of a native speaker - and it all started with little grammar, just a few sentences and imitation.
I am a Canadian learning Quebec French right now and this story is so good it almost reads like a copypasta lol. Hopefully I can be fluent in French someday, my goal is to be able to speak it with Quebecois that come to the music festival every year on some level. I got further in swedish but never got to use it with anyoen in my small hick town.
Australian tourist: "Excuse me, do you speak English?" Brazilian shop assistant: "Sup, dawg, whatchu want?" Australian tourist: "I'd like to buy a bottle of water please." Brazilian shop assistant: "Hell, yeah. I'm down with that, homie."
Thank you! I hope others can use this advice to learn the languages they want. & I’ll continue to improve. Edit: I may also do a video completely in Japanese to help English learners.
For romance language speakers, agglutinative languages like Japanese and Turkish are the easiest to learn, they are technically much less complex so its easy to learn basic structure quickly then just build up vocab. Its MUCH harder for a native agglutinative language speaker to learn Romance languages
I don't speak Japanese but actually feel I wouldn't struggle with it. Perhaps due to the fact that there are some Japanese words that are similar to my language Setswana. Also has similiraties with Kalanga which is spoken in the northern part of my country
@@thejasonrk I am a native Spanish/English speaker (stronger in English though). It is insane how casually I encounter Japanese but end up feeling like I pick up words and structures here and there without having tried. I might attempt to learn it soon with all this fantastic information I keep coming across.
I am learning Japanese in my high school and this video legitimately helped me learn faster. Thank you for your great content and hope you have a great day!
You sound amazing!!! I’m Japanese, and my American husband is having a hard time learning the language even though I never asked him to do. I will show him this video and hopefully, he can learn Japanese better and quicker. Thank you so much!
Thank you! 🙏 I admittedly don’t care about my accent much because I was getting paid so well in Japan Lol, but I’m glad to help! This is indeed a very fast way to learn any language 👌
This is one of the best videos about language learning I have ever seen in my life. Your video is packed with a ton of great tips and advice. Thanks. I want to add that part of your success is the result of your character. Piano, Gym, etc, so you are proud of yourself, and you like challenges. You don't seem to feel the pain. Probably, you follow the idea behind the motto: no pain, no gain. Unfortunately, not so many people are ready to follow your advice. Anyway, thanks again. I'll apply your suggestions to improve my Japanese and German as well.
Thank you! 🙏 And yeah I can be a bit extreme Lol, but as long as people can take the concepts and cater their own approach to it, that’s just as good. The deliberate practice is all I want to push.
As a speech language pathologist, it is so refreshing to hear you speak about language acquisition this way! Deliberate practice is key for adults! For people with weak auditory processing skills (like myself) kanji at the beginning is helping me make sense of the language much faster BUT I am also supplementing with visual novels so I can have a visual and verbal model to practice along with the vocab knowledge I am practicing daily! Such a wonderful video, I will certainly look into chat gpt!
@@morganrowland377 I’ll talk more about Kanji in the next video, I mostly go off my exp but I see a lot of others saying it’s useful for them to learn vocab. So in that case I support the basic Kanji for sure! And yes, deliberate practice is key!
KANJI is a form of EMOJI for native speakers. "EMOJI (絵文字)" literally means "picture & text/script." A native child in Japan would absorb the language in a similar manner as you mentioned. We look at an 絵本 and our parents would often read it for us before bed. TV programs for children also combine visual and hearing, which I presume is the same in most cultures. So I'd always recommend watching TV programs or reading books for children to absorb a new language, to mimic the learning process of a native child. Japanese education system is highly centralized, so Ministry of Education has a list of KANJI to learn for each grade. It's called 『学年別漢字配当表』, and 1st grade is 80 KANJI, 2nd grade is 160 KANJI, 3rd and 4th grade is 200 KANJI respectively...and we learn a total of 1,000 KANJI up to 6th grade (or 12 years old). So text books for each grade only contain KANJI for that grade and below. Mandatory education up to 9th grade (or 3rd year of junior-high school) would expose us to nearly 2,000 KANJI, which is known as 常用漢字. Japanese newspapers, government documents, or school textbooks will not deviate from the 2,000 KANJI (although there are many more but the usage is less frequent in daily life). KANJI learning gets increasingly easier as many KANJI are a combination or derivative of basic ones. The reason why KANJI education is essential in Japan is because we cannot understand the cognate of many Japanese words without understanding the meaning of KANJI. The word for contradiction 矛盾 (むじゅん) is a classic example. Contradiction is written as 矛 (SPEAR) & 盾 (SHIELD) because it's based on a story about a merchant who claimed he's selling the strongest spear that can pierce anything as well as the strongest shield that can block anything. (It's from a Chinese tale from 2,000-2,500 years ago.)
@@yo2trader539 That last example you brought up - of the origin of the meaning of "contradiction" - is truly fascinating. Thank you for your enlightening comment.
I think the only beef I have with the video is recommending romaji. Relative to the amount of work learning Japanese actually takes, learning Hiragana and Katakana is a breeze. There’s really no excuse to not be using their writing system, ESPECIALLY as an English speaker who will instantly understand like 20% of the random stuff written around town once you know Katakana. Then for kanji, I’d say to each their own. It is a lot of work, but depending on your goals with the language (primarily reading / primarily listening / making Japanese friends) and how visual your natural language acquisition system is, it might even be faster to learn because your brain will make those “mnemonics” much more easily. Writing is a scam unless you find it interesting and have lots of time to sink into it. 😂
I enjoyed your video a lot. I came to Japan in my 30's. I am married to a Japanese man and we raised 4 sons here. We moved here with a 2 1/2 yr. old toddler. We came in January and our 2nd son was born in March, and the next year our 3rd son was born in April and then there was a gap of a couple of years and the 4th son was born. I was busy, busy, busy....no time or energy for study. I had to work to help make ends meet, too. My husband was not a salary man or anything. He quit his work in the US to move here, also in his 30's and we had to start from zero. I could not always have my husband around to translate so I was really desperate to be able to communicate with nursery school teachers, then elementary school and junior high school and high school teachers. I was desperate to communicate with people at the supermarket and anywhere else I went. So it took about 3 years to make a foundation to be able to communicate in Japanese, then I had some kind of breakthrough and could become pretty fluent. I have been living here since before we had computers in our home. We moved here in 1987 and there were not many non-Japanese in our area. We live in a small town in Okayama Prefecture. I am only semi-literate. I basically don't study Kanji....I can read more than I can write though. But hiragana was the first thing I memorized and then katakana....I am 69 years old now, in a couple of months I will turn 70. None of our kids are bi-lingual, they speak, read and write Japanese. In my personal experience, if you need the language to survive and function, you will learn it. For me, the key was NECESSITY. I didn't have people around who were fluent in English to communicate with. I didn't have money for international phone calls, I didn't have internet and a pc, it was too hard to go to the post office to mail things, and it was really financially hard so I couldn't spare the cost of postage anyways. I had to make due with what I had and challenge myself to be grateful rather than complaining. I am so grateful for all the challenges I had to digest while raising a family here. Those things pushed me to learn to communicate in Japanese. I could not not be a passive learner, but I also could not have study time....I had to practice within my own family with my kids and with the people nearby. My oldest son spoke only English when we came here. He went to nursery school and within 6 months, he was speaking Japanese. I think urging people to find a NEED for learning could be very helpful. You, yourself experienced that when you worked hard to gain the language skills you needed for that gym job in just two weeks. A friend of mine from America came here with 6 kids ( and her husband) and lived in our area but it was so very hard for her and after a year and a half, they moved back to the States. I think you did a great job. My acquaintances thought we were crazy to move here since I had zero skills with Japanese. But we needed to be here for my husband's parents. I found that even the smallest efforts at leaning and communicating in Japanese brought kindness, encouragement and generosity from the people around me.
A Need will definitely outweigh something that's a hobby that's for sure. No denying that. I don't think it is the only choice however if someone wants to see drastic results. Just a reason in general for learning and a day by day approach is all we need. Good insight too!
Less than 5 mins in, stopped to write this. I’ve always been wary of how to learn Japanese videos made by non-natives, but this is the best video I’ve seen. Makes so much sense
thank you! I think the power of repetition and deliberate practice is the most underrated thing in language learning. After all , that is how we learned our Native Language.
Great video! I was learning Japanese in the 80’s with a native speaker in Australia. I loved learning and being able to have a conversation with Japanese tourists. I have never been to Japan. Later I moved to French Polynesia so I needed to learn French and Tahitian. Learning Japanese helped a lot to pronounce Tahitian(it is similar) Growing up in a musical family, I learnt to play guitar by ear, I believe having a good ear also helps to learn language and to have a good accent. People usually like it when you take an interest in their language and even a few words is greatly appreciated, I have friends from all different countries here in the UK. As another person with too many interests, I will be watching your other videos too. I’m nearly 60 now and it is never too late to learn new things, lots of love. 👍🏻😊❤️
Thanks for mentioning my channel! Good video and excellent advice in general. Happy to see I'm not the only one recommending mnemonic associations and deliberate practice instead of just "immersion".
I’ve lived in Japan for over 33 years now. I’m 70 years old and recently retired as of April 1st. My wife is Japanese. I only spoke English at home as I wanted our sons to be bilingual. I was teaching English every morning, afternoon and night. I taught from early morning to late night 6 days a week (plus half a day on Sundays for the first 8 years or so). During and after the pandemic I lost most of my work. Things slowed down quite a bit. I always speak Japanese when I encounter Japanese outside of teaching. However, it’s just basic everyday Japanese. Now that I’m retired, I’m looking forward to traveling a lot around Japan. I want to be able to become fluent enough to have deeper conversations with Japanese I meet during my travels. I want to learn more quickly as I’m old and have no idea when I’m going to croak. I’m mostly interested in speaking and understanding what I hear. I understand more than I can speak. My hobby is bird photography and I’ve learned the names of birds first in Japanese from other birders. Most birders have no desire to speak English. Over the years it’s given me a chance to practice Japanese with them. Thanks for your video and your advice, much appreciated.
Really cool to hear. You got it 👌, Older Japanese people are typically always looking for someone to talk to, so you’ll have plenty of time to practice.
As an ESL Instructor it's great to see someone speaking on acquisition, as we all acquire our native language this way, in a functional way. I teach my students exactly like this. I add some other or different details but what you're saying is GOLD for any language learner. ✨
I am Turk living in Japan. I have just stumbled upon this video meeting with you channel for the first time. I was already hooked from the intro and wanted to have a quick look into your channel and as a gym enthusiast guitar player that suffers from having too much interests as well I was shook. And the moment you started giving a Turkish example I literally lost it. Kudos man
I seldom leave a comment but I really want to leave my compliments and gratitude to you. You have brilliant ideas and are down to earth at the same time. Your presentation is well structured and it comes with the right amount of examples without being distracting. The most important thing is that you genuinely want to share the best ideas and experience with the audience without any unnecessary tricks and exaggerations, and we can feel it. The fact that you made a half-hour video just sitting there shows your style and the value of your content. Thank you bro ❤
I watched your whole video, and by the time it was finished, I felt that it was almost possible that I could do "the impossible"and learn a second language. Now that your video is over, this 60 year old English speaker feels it's impossible again. It doesn't necessarily have to be Japanese, but I did get the essence of your learning style. I applaud you for your eloquence, but your you can do it calmness which actually left me feeling it was possible. I've always wanted to learn another language since it seems to help welcome you into a whole other culture. Thank you.
You are dead on bro. Been learning Korean for a little bit now and everything you said fits perfectly. Well done and congratulations on learning a language thats harder than Korean. 😁
Thanks for using visual prompts along with the verbal. I find my brain grabs info better in this way. I improved my vocabulary in Spanish by reading the Spanish version of a book I already love and read in English. I used a Spanish-English dictionary while reading it and took it everywhere with me. I began to compose simple notes and listening to native Spanish speakers I began to think in Spanish. For the most part having a large vocabulary helped me to communicate ideas even though my Spanish is not conversational. I like this method. It's helpful to have friends that are willing to correct you as your speak.
Awesome video! I have been studying Japanese for the past few months and this has been one of the best learning processes I've found on TH-cam. Thank you!
I just started learning Japanese, and I'm using Duolingo for the basics. Of course, it's not going to be the only learning resource I'm going to use. I've got an Assimil course which is in French, but it's the second foreign language I learned. That's cool you play guitar. I played for a long time. One of my favorite players nowadays is Michel Oliveira from Brazil. In "Green Esperanza" he does a Hendrix riff and ends it with some jazz chord voicings. There are a lot of ethnic Japanese people in Sao Paulo city and state, and many of them speak Japanese.
Man, what a great dude. Very insightful, and consciously aware of the fluidity of life. Aside from the content purpose, it felt like I was listening to/having a conversation with a trusted friend.
Vaughn, the fact that you play instruments, tells me you are just gifted. Playing an instrument is certainly another language also. But you do motivate me thats for sure.
Thank you! I simply think the skills I built learning music carry over to language well. Someone in the comments actually pointed out that my preference for deliberate practice could stem from music, which makes sense to me.
I really admire you, brother. I am half-Japanese and have been trying to become fluent for the longest time. I am conversational in Korean and can speak on a fundamental level in Japanese, but I really want to get to the point you've achieved... that is, speaking without thinking. That's the goal! Plus, you're a musician! I play bass! I feel a cosmic connection. Ha, ha! Seriously, thank you for sharing your experience. I will be trying your method and seeing how it goes. Wish me luck! And all the best to you!
Yeah you got it. Just like playing bass for you, the stuff that used to feel weird, you can do without thinking about it. Language is the exact same way. After so many repetitions and frameworks, your brain will just take care of the rest naturally. Language learners just neglect the power of repetition in most cases. If you play a B Major scale 1000 times or something, you can pretty much do it in your sleep at that point. th-cam.com/video/gJwdKgDe_ws/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZS92jfUWQHcpfXyu Here is part 2 for a bit more info also.
I must've watched a thousand videos on different ways of becoming fluent in another language and not only do you exactly describe my personal way of learning languages, but you've also taught me ways to do it better! The vocabulary part is what I always put off too long but you've invented a way to make it fun! And you're one of the first videos I've seen where you focus on learning the general grammar traits of a language through AI first and learn some grammar points. It's like these language content creators don't realize some people actually enjoy studying grammar.
Thanks! glad it resonates! I find that language unfortunately has been sold as a passive and suboptimal path these days, which just does not unlock subconscious use at all. Having a baseline Idea of grammar then building practice off that is far better.
I watched this entire video and I honestly feel like the way you’re saying to do it is the way I do most things. If I can understand the skeleton of the situation (context), I don’t necessarily need to know every word I hear atleast not at the start. The goal is to get a basic understanding first and I’m really determined as it is one of my dreams in this lifetime to go to Japan and maybe even live there but this is the start to something so much bigger. Also like you said, it may not feel fun in the moment but maybe i can make achieving my goal the fun. The destination wouldn’t mean anything without the journey. Thank you for this video :)
Exactly, practically over perfection any day. Even in our Native language we don’t pick apart every word (or even speak it correctly tbh Lol), So it’s best to do the same in a target language, or anything else. 👌
So true, I'm an Italian 15 year-old, During the last year I focused so much on getting the C1 In English, and I DID IT🥹 now I started studying Japanese and after three months I'm able to listen to simple podcast and understand the most!
@@vaughngene oh my God 頑張ってよ! Italian might be a bit tricky with all the irregular verbs and tenses It has but you can do It, the pronunciation is also very similar to the Japanese one
Hey Vaughn! I just want to say thank you for your videos, they've helped me so much! Your hobby videos really got me to settle in with not overwhelming myself with hobbies, and I've been making significant and steady progress in Chinese. This video is so helpful, thank you so much for producing such good quality content!
I downloaded Duolingo 3 days ago and started learning Japanese, but I skipped a day yesterday. After watching this video, I feel super motivated again! Seeing how you taught yourself Japanese is really inspiring, and now I’m pumped to keep going and not fall behind.
I’m Japanese but English is mostly my first language and had to relearn Japanese as a youngster. I also picked up Spanish as well. I fully agree with everything you say on how to learn a new language in a short time. When people ask me to teach them English I basically tell them to do pretty much all of the mentioned things such as learning basic structure but a heavier focus on vocab of popular words and mimicking tv, movies and songs to get the sounds similar enough to where it’s understandable. For anyone who wants to learn a new language this is a great way to do so.
Yep practice is key. Sadly a lot of things 'feel' like practice in the language learning space but they are a complete waste of time. Nothing beats real practice though.
This topic you've made is the most advance effective and accurate in terms of language learning or I should say acquiring the Japanese in fastest way. I'm on my 3 year mark of benkyou and I say I'm 85% fluent now in nihongo as per as speaking, reading (hiragana/katakana) 30% basic kanji readings like you've said there is furigana I can say that your method really works I've been doing this for about 3 years now, it's just my own realization to do like the way you are doing it. Acquiring a lot thousands of vocabs is the real deal. And memorising hundreds of common phrases sentences, grammars and in no time you will woke up one day you are able to speak like a native Japanese and can understand very well.. And also take note I am not an American I am a Filipino and my native language is tagalog. By using English to translate into Japanese I also become fluent in English as well so 2 birds in one stone, 2 languages I acquired in 3 years how cool is that? hell yeah \m/
You vid just popped up on my recommended Wanted to chime in and say this is 100000% the way to do it and I've been saying the same thing!! I studied Japanese for years before moving there and was very slow at speaking and comprehension. It wasn't until I met my now wife that I was forced into a situation of just using the vocabulary i knew in thrown together sentences that I realised just how fast you improve. You learn to navigate the language in your own way and things just start to come together. The turning point is realising you are no longer trying to make sentences in your head and then say them, you're just saying them without thinking!
EXACTLY! That’s the feeling I want a lot of other people to get. The deliberate practice is hard, but it’s so much more worth it than the typical passive methods.
This video is absolute GOLD! 🙌 Language learning is one thing, but explaining it so clearly and putting it together in such an engaging way is a whole other level-and you totally nailed it! Thanks so much man, your video seriously got me hyped to start learning Japanese!!
Someone learning Norwegian here. I know myself, I know that simply forcing myself to watch Peppa Pig in norwegian is not gonna work out to build familiarity with words. I love how you began with learning 2000 - 4000 words so we can watch any content we want in our new language and immerse ourselves profously. I'll try this method, thanks man.
@@gat0anonimo Lol the peppa pig reference is funny. That’s awesome to hear though, I think easy approaches are pushed because people are too afraid to say what I am saying (naturally it won’t get as much clicks as the “easy actually” nonsense.). But I find this works, and it really sticks.
DUDE YOU ARE A GENIUS. I can't believe you just gave me the answer to all of my questions. Now I'll go and try to write some storys in japanese (The active practice is what I was missing. So simple but so effective)
The advice to memorize vocabulary here really works. I initially thought the mental imagery and mnemonics were a lot of overhead to memorize a word, but if you give it a shot it's really quite incredible how well it works. To this day I remember the associations I made for words that I created years ago and only revisit about once a year. A bit of advice based on my experience. I first try to memorize the word without getting too fancy, basically just rote to see if I do remember it. If I can't recall it when I'm doing my flashcards, that's when I take the time to figure out how I can remember it better. I usually attach a photo or write a description of a scene that helps me remember. I'm currently studying Portuguese so there's a lot of words that look/sound like their meaning. Your milage might vary depending on your native and target languages.
The upfront work really pays off. Especially as you start to consume content and the time gap shortens for recall. You just cut out months of study time.
I love how you said “rest of the fretboard” instead of language 😂 my husband is a guitarist so if you didn’t correct yourself I totally would have went with it because it made complete sense to me even though that was music and not language. Same, same! Music is a language in itself so it works! Thank you for this video! As a bilingual English/Spanish speaker struggling to get into the vocab learning of Japanese, I’m sure your tips are going to really help get me back into the groove of learning it so thank you, ありがとう ございます
I often mix language and music a lot funny enough Lol. I think the same principles apply to both. Especially at a subconscious level (Repetition until you can do it without thinking much). And no problem!
Greetings from me, David,Malaysia.Will be 72 next month and way back in 1975 Sept, I went to Japan and had a 5-weeks Romaji -based Japanese Language Orientation. After that, I did self-study and thankfully,due to me working with Toyota,I had numerous trips to Japan for technical training and I used those opportunities to learn and practise Japanese as best as I can. In 1985 when I was 33 yrs old, I started to learn Kendo in Malaysia and that, also served as a good platform to improve my japanese proficiency as all instructions at the dojo,were in Japanese. Glad to make it to 4th dan during the 10 World Kendo Championship in 1997.The dan grading exam was held in Kyoto.After working 46 yrs in the automotive industry, I resigned and moved to an 'inaka-small town' where the cost of living is lower than the crazy capital city of Kuala Lumpur where I had spent many years there. I appreciate your unselfish sharing of your approach towards learning Japanese. Thank you very much. Will follow your advice as best as I can.
I am trying to learn Korean and I get really frustrated with a lot of the youtube videos they have out now because I find them boring. The amount of grammar every one throws out there is crazy. I always get unmotivated and do not really try because of it. Luckily you posted this at the right time. This will probably change the way I look at things and I hope I can improve since I want to talk to my wife in her native language. You earned yourself another subscriber!!
I'm about to go on a 14 hour flight soon and I literally came to your channel to download some of your videos for the journey! I really connect with your channel as a Japanese/Korean language learner who is balancing multiple interests in reading, creative writing, marine biology, and more lol you offer such thoughtful and engaging videos. Thank you!
This is hands down the best video to approach a new language. I’ve watched many.. I was learning Spanish but ultimately decided to pay homage to my mother and learn Tagalog so when I am around Filipinos, I can communicate with them. It’s been tough. You explained everything so well, that I actually feel a bit more confident to keep going. (I keep quitting when it gets too hard!). Thank you for sharing your tips with us and your Japanese sounds awesome too.
Nice! wish you the best with it! It's a brutal approach but I find that it's easier to do since the results come faster than most methods. Just balance it with less intense days here and there for consistency.
Thank you so much for this video! All of this is so true. I’ve been living in Japan for the past three years and I’ve found that active immersion is much quicker than passive. People are allergic to hard work. Keep putting videos like this out here! Blessings to you!
Yeah it helps a lot! I think the hand holding clickbait content has kinda ruined people's ability to work but hopefully we can get all that out of here someday.
This is by far the most helpful video I've seen on learning a language in a long time! It makes it seem possible and not out of reach. Thank you so much for this, I can't wait to start implementing! 🙏
Your ability to hyper focus is simply incredible. That willpower and discipline pushing you daily is more than just motivation. It's a part of who you are. Learning the Japanese has always been not just a goal for me but a lot of their culture is similar to the structure I had growing up. Learning their methods in motorsports help further my driving skills, engine/transmission, suspension repair etc. At this part of my life it's only right for me to dedicate my focus to learning all I can and believe your method suits me best. Thank you.
One day at a time has really gotten me far as my ability to push myself. Maybe that will help others too. I'll talk about it in a video sometime for sure. And there's a LOT of Japanese content on that kind of thing so you will have plenty of content to look though. The car and bike communities are very strong in Japan.
I'm already decently fluent in Japanese but every once in a while i'll watch videos like this to see if I might be able to improve my method. I swear by reading more and Anki for vocab, and listening in my free time. I started reading when I got like 1.2k vocab size, just suffered my way through and grew my vocab that way. I actually think passive listening is good, at least for me, walking around campus while listening to podcasts does help with my listening skills and getting myself to think in Japanese. Took a few stuff here that i'll try to use, especially the AI stuff. Keep it up man! Your channel resonates a lot with me, idk man. Your interest in languages, music, weeb shit and just having a shit ton of interest... like fam, that's me. Wait you're in soft eng, lmao. YT algorithm is crazy.
Nice! Yeah as long as you are getting the results you want that’s what matters. I think some people mistake what I say for “ONLY DO THIS” but I just kinda showcase my own exp. I think many things have their place for sure though! And yeah I have a lot more to share so thanks! 💪 Will do.
Loved this. This is essentially _spaced repetition_ and _active recall;_ the most effective way to learn new content, scientifically proven. I used it for my medical studies in the form of a flash card program which focused on the cards I struggled with until they were all effectively ticked green. This makes it so that information comes to mind second-nature instead of having to back-track and sort through tons of memories to find what you're trying to remember. Edit: I also used it to learn fluent French & German! But despite having this knowledge, I always felt apprehensive about learning an Asian language because I felt overwhelmed at the thought of learning all the new symbols that come with it. This video is what I needed to go ahead and give Mandarin a shot as my 4th language!
Nice! Mandarin is popular too so you'll have plenty of things to use for that. And yeah I'm going to discuss Active Recall vs Recognition in terms of learning and when when to use each. Active Recall has definitely been the most useful for me overall. Just very humbling because you quickly realize how much you really don't know Lol
I'm not so sure on the other elements of what you said but your comments on vocabulary are spot on - the moment you know that word, you actually start to hear it. It's a linguistic case of frequency illusion - "a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it". I certainly do agree on the "learn grammar through context" though formal grammar training can go a long way for intermediate/advanced - it explains things you've seen a couple of times but couldn't understand.
Thank you! This came up in my feed & it’s the best training ever!! I’ve never thought about using AI and learning 4k vocable words & the sentences . Thank you! Honest excellent content
This actually so awesome! I've heard many things about these methods but this was the best explanation of it I've seen so far! I have to move to Japan soon and I've mostly been learning basic grammar and some random vocab words. I decided to write a little story in Japanese though i had to search up many words. However, I was really surprised when i was able to read the story without translating it into English. Like, the meaning just came to me. And some of the words i accidentally used mnemonics for and I remembered them so easily! Like めざめる (I think) means wake up and I remembered it because it sounds like mesmerized! I was so proud of myself. Tysm for this video.
*looks for pinned comment then relaizes this was 2hrs ago* THE KING POSTED... I SWEAR YOURE IN MY MIND EVERY SINGLE TIME YOUR VIDEOS POP UP WTH..... (ily bro)
As a native Turkish who has been mastered in mnemonics, I found your exemplification highly valuable and accurate. You are so right, I have used mnemonics in programming, language and music theory learning etc. good work
Ultimately speaking, synthesis and comprehensible input is how you learn a language, as you said. How you fill in the blanks is largely up to how much time and effort you want to put in. Excellent soundtrack by the way, love that soft chime melody Passive immersion doesn't have to be passive. I listen to Chinese podcasts while I'm doing other things and I make sure to pay some attention to every word, repeat interesting sentences and synthesise my own answers when the hosts ask questions, I suppose that makes it 'not just listening' but my point is there are many ways to immerse actively.
I’ll add a part two next week if I can, maybe mostly in Japanese. To address some other stuff. (Partially doing it in Japanese because the annoying comments from people who don’t wanna watch my shorts or other videos Lol).
As a Special-ed teacher and being mixed with Japanese, I truly agree in your guidelines and principles in learning another language. This is a great video and very informative!
Great video. I have started learning Japanese in a University (college) language course, but I find myself in a weird position. I'm German and have learned English to the point of speaking and understanding it intuitively (I'm certified to speak at C1 level and I believe I understand english at a near native level). I learned English back in school and from different forms of media (eg. movies, shows, TH-cam, and gaming for spoken English). The problem is I dont know anymore how I did it and how I became fluent. So I'm now learning Japanese from scratch and don't really have a good strategy besides following the university course (we use the book みんなの日本語). I find your video very interesting and will try to implement some of your strategy into my Japanese learning journey. Especially what you mentioned about learning 2000 - 4000 words early on. I have been aware that that is what holds me back the most. Just knowing a lot of vocabulary would be a huge step towards understanding and being able to speak more Japanese. Thank you again for sharing your strategy :)
Vocabulary really is the gatekeeper, Another reason it’s good is because you can just practice speaking anytime you want. In the shower. In the car, anywhere. But without vocab there is a lot of blanks you will draw.
Thank you! Glad it helps! I have a few other videos that kind of help the process (some in Japanese), but this one is the main idea of language learning in my experience.
@@sfrezo Because too many exceptions in rules. When I started learning English at the age of 10, I found it easy. I've been living and working in England and Canada more than 20 years, but I find leaning English difficult and still studying it.
your comments on immersion are absolutely right, as adults the brains are less plastic and so we do require stronger activation (which is the active effort you mentioned) to force the brain to adapt
I’m glad I found this. Instantly subscribed. A few years back I traveled and lived in Brazil for half a year. I did exactly this, but not to the extent before I landed. Had simple sentences, numbers 1-1000, days, months, and verbs on a sheet and would just practice and speak them. This helped immensely with speaking Portuguese while I was there. I’ve been wanting to practice and learn other languages and am glad I found this as I agree this method is the best way of quickly learning to understand the language.
Incredibly helpful and to the point unlike many other videos on the internet about this same subject. I’ve been studying Japanese seriously for about 6 months and my input is great but my output is horrible. I can understand 50% of most causal conversations but forming a simple sentence is so difficult for me. I will follow your steps - thank you so much.
Both are good yeah, speed wise, active is better. But like I said, passive here and there is perfect too. I think a mix of both, opting for more active, will give the same returns in the long run.
@@theadoniscast I’m not saying it’s completely ineffective, don’t take it that way. (As a beginner though yeah I think it’s trash.) But maybe very effective when you have a base. This point of view I have is from my experience. But I also do 20 things in a day so I literally have NO time for passive anything. So I have a heavy bias. If passive listening helps you speak and understand better though then I’m all for it 👌.
This is really awesome advice. I appreciate your candor and realistic expectations. I'm a result of exactly what you explained later in the video - I've heard Spanish passively all my life, know some vocab and could read/write some (through school, my mom using words around the house, etc), but I can't hold a (very long or detailed) conversation at the age of 29, and struggle or freeze when trying to get concepts out because I'm still translating in my head, very slowly 🤦🏽♀️ as an adult, I'm finally getting more muscle memory and learning more through that comprehensible input method you mentioned (listening/ watching Spanish content and reading Spanish subtitles, rather than English), and listening to native speakers, including from different countries since Spanish is spoken differently all over the world. But your advice is pretty solid, so thanks for sharing your experience and methods. It's my dream to become fluent in both Spanish and Japanese before I die, and be able to travel to these countries and speak and learn from native speakers. And speak with my mom in her first language, since she shared with me that she thinks in Spanish and sometimes dreams in Spanish too 😊
Love this video! Thanks ! Love the fact that in this AI area, people are still encouraging others to learn languages ~ probably gonna try your method to get back on my Japanese!
This video is totally spot on. People have different learning objectives but my goal is to comprehend written and spoken Japanese, and that requires lots of input: vocabulary and in context grammar . I know this because that's how I learned English. I can understand pretty much anything in English. My output is not that good because I never practice it, but that's the easy part when you completely understand the language. The same applies to Japanese, if your goal is to understand, you are wasting time trying to output, memorize grammar or use textbooks. If down the road you decide you want to take the JLPT then you can use textbooks and memorize grammar rules and that will take no time and will be a breeze, because you already understand the language. If your primary goal is to pass the JLPT then maybe it's more efficient to start with textbooks from the beginning.
Yeah definitely goal dependent! I’ll probably make a video for people who just want to understand the language, rather than use it to speak. And funny thing about JLPT is that a lot of them actually can’t speak Japanese Lol. Even N1. But I don’t want to sound rude. Many of them use it as a flex. But countless times in person I have seen them fall apart in conversations. This is why I like the more deliberate approach. It just works.
@@vaughngene Yeah, you are on point. You are not rude at all, that’s just the reality. I can write and speak in English, just not very well lol, but that was never my objective. This year I want to get the C1 Cambridge certificate so I will need to practice a lot. The thing is that I’m very satisfied with my level because the goal was comprehension of English content, so with Japanese I will take the same approach.
You are right about the grammar thing. Ive been watching anime for like 15 years and unknowingly picked up the sentence structures and thousands of words of vocabulary.
7 mins into this video and tbh its great to hear all the things I've been saying from someone way more advanced than me. I've been explicitly aiming for 2000 words with an Anki deck for Japanese and watching youtube videos that are at/slightly above my level and I've seen big improvements in comprehension. I'm only about 6 months into doing this seriously but even with the limited time I have to study its been very effective. I've also found it useful to gradually pick up more complex grammar concepts, but I dont study those hard. They are useful for speeding up comprehension by giving small clues on what to look for though.
Kudos Vaughn, you’ve hit a nerve in your videos for those of us who have the shiny object syndrome and jump from video to video adding too much useless and unimplementable information . I’m definitely a subscriber and commend you on sharing your experience and lessons on learning Japanese and things in general. You truly have a gift of demystifying and simplifying learning in a very realistic matter-of-fact style which is very appealing to folks that actually want results. I am going to use your approach in learning another language as I have unfortunately wasted a lot of time accumulating different books on the language and multiple language courses with no results.
Thank you! appreciate that. And yeah it's really never too late to just take a lot more action. I find that many of us have enough resources to be very advanced, just comes down to the practice at that point.
I’m so glad I found your channel. Your videos have been so very helpful. Good, clear actionable things I can employ to learn Japanese. I’ve wanted to learn since I was a young girl, but became overwhelmed every time. 👏🏾 Thank you!
I’m so proud of you man! Although I’m fluent too and been using Japanese more than half my life, it’s always so awesome seeing others who made it there too or even have more solid methods than me with how they study languages. This is so good for so many people! Although I’ve done a lot of those things, only recently I started really learning new languages so this really helps a ton for them! Great job! 👏 💮 Again, really solid video lmao❤
Damn. I needed this video. I’ve been “trying” to learn japanese without results for a year now- studying at work, listening without much comprehension, scared of messing up pronunciation and grammar. This video was exactly the honest facts I needed to hear as I refocus and fix my strategy. It makes total sense why I can’t speak. I wont be as fast, but i’m never giving up!! 本当にありがとうございます！
Yeah mistakes and language insecurities are apart of the game, the more you make honestly, the better you'll get. So it's good to just get them out of the way Lol.
4:35 Exactly bro. What's the point of learning all that vocab if you can't actually use it in a conversation, you NEED the most used and fundamental vocab first
This is pretty much how my Japanese has gone. I spent a few days (like 3 or 4) reading through a grammer app. I decided to skip genki for an app called "Human Japanese" which honestly is a great fast grammar resource for starting out. I spent two months grinding out vocabulary and listening to podcasts or watching TH-cam while really paying attention and repeating everything and it helped a lot. I'm fortunate to have some native Japanese family that live in Osaka and I was able to understand nearly everything that people said to me. My speaking sucked because I had only been studying for like two months, but hell, I was able to get my point across.
I have a fluent friend who started with Human Japanese just like you, the iPhone app. and he said it was a HUGE help to him. And that’s awesome! Seems like you were doing this approach the best way possible right away. Speaking is just a form of muscle memory at the end of the day, but since you have a base, that’s literally only a matter of repetition. Then it will stick just fine.
YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!! You basically just taught (those who are watching and really listening and paying attention), a method of how to learn as many languages as you want!!!! DUDE!!!! Who are YOU!!!! And to think, you have this to us all for FREE !!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, my brother 100 billon times over!!! MAY GOD BLESS YOU EVERYDAY AND FOREVER!!!
I learn from the best (many people I met in Japan) so It's the least I can do for TH-cam. Especially since the language learning space is cooked Lol. Glad it helps though!
Bravo. Finally, not some git pushing some learn in 30 hours app, nor I've been in Japan for 10 minutes, but I know what's going on vid. Subbed in the first minute.
Thank you! I think this approach is demanding but it's the most efficient imo. Especially if you have more to do in your day than sit around and study a language.
I’ve been studying Korean on and off for a decade and I forgot how well mnemonic devices work. I think it works best for those of us who are naturally creative. Visualizing and making unusual connections comes easily to us and gives that dopamine hit, and I think that helps cement the information in our minds.
Yeah it’s a lot easier to attach new ideas to older ones I find! Maybe some people do it better than other like you mentioned with creativity but I think everyone has it in some way 👌
Tremendous video. I speak Spanish, French and Portuguese and I'm now on to Serbo-Croat as I just moved to Belgrade a week ago. Using a more 'guerilla' active style approach for the new language as I don't have even the option of formal classes. I hadn't even thought of using ChatGPT so cheers suggesting that.
Most of your advice aligns with what I also believe is best-focused, intense learning for specific contexts. For example, when I had to do a Japanese interview, I spent a few days beforehand learning work-related Japanese sentences. It was fast, intense, and very useful. I also agree that ChatGPT is often underutilized. The approach is simple: live your life, and when you find yourself unable to say something in Japanese, give ChatGPT a prompt based on what you want to express, with the right context, and then learn that sentence. Rinse and repeat. I think one major factor that will greatly improve the learning process is when we have advanced AI conversation partners capable of handling multiple languages like a native speaker. We're getting close to that point.
As you said in another video, for some people Japanese is like their entire personality. It seems like they're trying to impress someone in order to boost their ego. As a result they build a toxic self-referential community around them, made of people who idolatrize them and get very protective about the method. I don't think it's a good idea to get advices from people like that. I think that's a childish way of approach language learning. On the other hand, the way you put it just makes sense.
I think this is the best way it could be worded,
I don’t want people to get so caught up in sounding perfect that they forget to actually learn the language for its real use, and not for their ego.
Method aside, I think there’s multiple ways to get to the goal, as long as practicality and a good mindset is kept in mind.
I met SO many people in Japan who sounded near native in basic conversation but after that,
they couldn’t use the language much,
If I can get others to avoid that, then that’s a victory imo.
I’m gonna pin this 👌
@@vaughngene hi mate! Great video, I really like the way you present the topic! Well done!
so to summarize:
-learn the basics of gramar (utilize chat gpt)
-learn 2000-4000 of the most commonly utilized vocabulary (use mnemonic association to help remember)
-use the sentence structures you have learned and utilize the vocabulary you know
Listen and repeat with native speakers to learn proper context.
Make a list of +100 sentences for every category of your life and drill those sentences to become fluent in topics that matter to you. (utilize chat gpt)
The goal of this method is to reach subconcious verbal fluency, being able to utilize your target language like your native language. Perfect gramar is overrated, use what you know, people will get it. For japanese specifically: learning hiragana and katakana will get you very far, learn kanji once you're able to speak.
As somebody who's at a beginning conversational level of fluency in japanese - this video is very helpful and emphasizes a lot of the most important points I've found in language learning myself. I'll definitely try out making extensive lists of sentences on topics I will use japanese in! My go to has been "shower talks" where I just have a made up conversation with myself. But like you said at the beginning: I need to seek more discomfort in my practice.
Thx
Yeah there’s a time for more relaxed shower talk like you said but the discomfort during practice is one of the best things to go for 👌, really leads to good changes.
And thanks for the summary!
Edit: make sure you all still watch the video though. Not for my sake but for yours,
or you will miss out on things that will save you a lot of time.
I’m doing it as if I was a child, children’s videos and books and progressing as I learn
The 100 sentences is a great tip. That allowed me to become conversational in Korean very quickly
Thank you. But what a shame, I won't use chat gpt nor support it in any way shape or form. Sure there's very little we can do to be completely ethical in life, but that's an easy one to just not use generative AI.
I have an example of this from learning English - I am Brazilian.
When I was 14 years old I started playing Grand Theft Auto. I had no clue what they were saying. I asked my mother to buy me a dictionary. I started writing down the sentences in the game, replacing some words with new words and I completed the game understanding everything. I continued to do it for other games and music, singing in English as well.
Fast forward 2 years, I was working on a clothing store when some Australian tourists arrived. I was in a really small city back then and everyone (including vendors in other shops) was panicking because they couldn't communicate. I stepped in - this was my first time ever speaking English outside of my own house and to myself - and very naturally, with no difficulties, helped the tourists find everything they wanted, asked them about their trip and wished them well.
I didn't even have internet (poverty) so I definitely didn't even know what pitch accent even means. But they understood me flawless, there was little to no repetition, and I did not feel scared or concerned at any point. It was truly magical and today I can confidently say my English level resembles that of a native speaker - and it all started with little grammar, just a few sentences and imitation.
I am a Canadian learning Quebec French right now and this story is so good it almost reads like a copypasta lol. Hopefully I can be fluent in French someday, my goal is to be able to speak it with Quebecois that come to the music festival every year on some level. I got further in swedish but never got to use it with anyoen in my small hick town.
@@AmazingRebel23 I'm sure if you love the language and follow the tips, you'll get it in no time! Ganbatte :) I am now learning Japanese 🤞🏻
Australian tourist: "Excuse me, do you speak English?"
Brazilian shop assistant: "Sup, dawg, whatchu want?"
Australian tourist: "I'd like to buy a bottle of water please."
Brazilian shop assistant: "Hell, yeah. I'm down with that, homie."
@@atomicdancer 😂
Nice! Practicing alone really does transfer to real life almost immediately. Glad you had that experience too
hi im Japanese. I think learning Japanese is very difficult but your Japanese is almost perfect. I'm so impressed!!
Thank you! I hope others can use this advice to learn the languages they want.
& I’ll continue to improve.
Edit: I may also do a video completely in Japanese to help English learners.
@@vaughngene please do! I have no Japanese people I can converse with and I've been trying to learn. It's so difficult!
For romance language speakers, agglutinative languages like Japanese and Turkish are the easiest to learn, they are technically much less complex so its easy to learn basic structure quickly then just build up vocab. Its MUCH harder for a native agglutinative language speaker to learn Romance languages
I don't speak Japanese but actually feel I wouldn't struggle with it. Perhaps due to the fact that there are some Japanese words that are similar to my language Setswana. Also has similiraties with Kalanga which is spoken in the northern part of my country
@@thejasonrk I am a native Spanish/English speaker (stronger in English though). It is insane how casually I encounter Japanese but end up feeling like I pick up words and structures here and there without having tried. I might attempt to learn it soon with all this fantastic information I keep coming across.
I am learning Japanese in my high school and this video legitimately helped me learn faster. Thank you for your great content and hope you have a great day!
You sound amazing!!! I’m Japanese, and my American husband is having a hard time learning the language even though I never asked him to do. I will show him this video and hopefully, he can learn Japanese better and quicker. Thank you so much!
Thank you! 🙏 I admittedly don’t care about my accent much because I was getting paid so well in Japan Lol, but I’m glad to help!
This is indeed a very fast way to learn any language 👌
Thanks for the great video! I’m in Japan right now learning Japanese and it’s hard and yet really fun.
passport bro
This is one of the best videos about language learning I have ever seen in my life. Your video is packed with a ton of great tips and advice. Thanks.
I want to add that part of your success is the result of your character. Piano, Gym, etc, so you are proud of yourself, and you like challenges. You don't seem to feel the pain. Probably, you follow the idea behind the motto: no pain, no gain. Unfortunately, not so many people are ready to follow your advice. Anyway, thanks again. I'll apply your suggestions to improve my Japanese and German as well.
Thank you! 🙏 And yeah I can be a bit extreme Lol, but as long as people can take the concepts and cater their own approach to it, that’s just as good.
The deliberate practice is all I want to push.
As a speech language pathologist, it is so refreshing to hear you speak about language acquisition this way! Deliberate practice is key for adults! For people with weak auditory processing skills (like myself) kanji at the beginning is helping me make sense of the language much faster BUT I am also supplementing with visual novels so I can have a visual and verbal model to practice along with the vocab knowledge I am practicing daily! Such a wonderful video, I will certainly look into chat gpt!
@@morganrowland377 I’ll talk more about Kanji in the next video,
I mostly go off my exp but I see a lot of others saying it’s useful for them to learn vocab.
So in that case I support the basic Kanji for sure!
And yes, deliberate practice is key!
I’m a speech pathologist too and I’ve found kanji to be immensely helpful in learning vocabulary! Nice to see another speechie in in the comments 😂
KANJI is a form of EMOJI for native speakers. "EMOJI (絵文字)" literally means "picture & text/script." A native child in Japan would absorb the language in a similar manner as you mentioned. We look at an 絵本 and our parents would often read it for us before bed.
TV programs for children also combine visual and hearing, which I presume is the same in most cultures. So I'd always recommend watching TV programs or reading books for children to absorb a new language, to mimic the learning process of a native child.
Japanese education system is highly centralized, so Ministry of Education has a list of KANJI to learn for each grade. It's called 『学年別漢字配当表』, and 1st grade is 80 KANJI, 2nd grade is 160 KANJI, 3rd and 4th grade is 200 KANJI respectively...and we learn a total of 1,000 KANJI up to 6th grade (or 12 years old). So text books for each grade only contain KANJI for that grade and below. Mandatory education up to 9th grade (or 3rd year of junior-high school) would expose us to nearly 2,000 KANJI, which is known as 常用漢字. Japanese newspapers, government documents, or school textbooks will not deviate from the 2,000 KANJI (although there are many more but the usage is less frequent in daily life). KANJI learning gets increasingly easier as many KANJI are a combination or derivative of basic ones.
The reason why KANJI education is essential in Japan is because we cannot understand the cognate of many Japanese words without understanding the meaning of KANJI. The word for contradiction 矛盾 (むじゅん) is a classic example. Contradiction is written as 矛 (SPEAR) & 盾 (SHIELD) because it's based on a story about a merchant who claimed he's selling the strongest spear that can pierce anything as well as the strongest shield that can block anything. (It's from a Chinese tale from 2,000-2,500 years ago.)
@@yo2trader539 That last example you brought up - of the origin of the meaning of "contradiction" - is truly fascinating. Thank you for your enlightening comment.
I think the only beef I have with the video is recommending romaji. Relative to the amount of work learning Japanese actually takes, learning Hiragana and Katakana is a breeze. There’s really no excuse to not be using their writing system, ESPECIALLY as an English speaker who will instantly understand like 20% of the random stuff written around town once you know Katakana.
Then for kanji, I’d say to each their own. It is a lot of work, but depending on your goals with the language (primarily reading / primarily listening / making Japanese friends) and how visual your natural language acquisition system is, it might even be faster to learn because your brain will make those “mnemonics” much more easily.
Writing is a scam unless you find it interesting and have lots of time to sink into it. 😂
I enjoyed your video a lot. I came to Japan in my 30's. I am married to a Japanese man and we raised 4 sons here. We moved here with a 2 1/2 yr. old toddler. We came in January and our 2nd son was born in March, and the next year our 3rd son was born in April and then there was a gap of a couple of years and the 4th son was born. I was busy, busy, busy....no time or energy for study. I had to work to help make ends meet, too. My husband was not a salary man or anything. He quit his work in the US to move here, also in his 30's and we had to start from zero. I could not always have my husband around to translate so I was really desperate to be able to communicate with nursery school teachers, then elementary school and junior high school and high school teachers. I was desperate to communicate with people at the supermarket and anywhere else I went. So it took about 3 years to make a foundation to be able to communicate in Japanese, then I had some kind of breakthrough and could become pretty fluent. I have been living here since before we had computers in our home. We moved here in 1987 and there were not many non-Japanese in our area. We live in a small town in Okayama Prefecture. I am only semi-literate. I basically don't study Kanji....I can read more than I can write though. But hiragana was the first thing I memorized and then katakana....I am 69 years old now, in a couple of months I will turn 70. None of our kids are bi-lingual, they speak, read and write Japanese. In my personal experience, if you need the language to survive and function, you will learn it. For me, the key was NECESSITY. I didn't have people around who were fluent in English to communicate with. I didn't have money for international phone calls, I didn't have internet and a pc, it was too hard to go to the post office to mail things, and it was really financially hard so I couldn't spare the cost of postage anyways. I had to make due with what I had and challenge myself to be grateful rather than complaining. I am so grateful for all the challenges I had to digest while raising a family here. Those things pushed me to learn to communicate in Japanese. I could not not be a passive learner, but I also could not have study time....I had to practice within my own family with my kids and with the people nearby. My oldest son spoke only English when we came here. He went to nursery school and within 6 months, he was speaking Japanese. I think urging people to find a NEED for learning could be very helpful. You, yourself experienced that when you worked hard to gain the language skills you needed for that gym job in just two weeks. A friend of mine from America came here with 6 kids ( and her husband) and lived in our area but it was so very hard for her and after a year and a half, they moved back to the States. I think you did a great job. My acquaintances thought we were crazy to move here since I had zero skills with Japanese. But we needed to be here for my husband's parents. I found that even the smallest efforts at leaning and communicating in Japanese brought kindness, encouragement and generosity from the people around me.
A Need will definitely outweigh something that's a hobby that's for sure. No denying that.
I don't think it is the only choice however if someone wants to see drastic results.
Just a reason in general for learning and a day by day approach is all we need.
Good insight too!
Less than 5 mins in, stopped to write this.
I’ve always been wary of how to learn Japanese videos made by non-natives, but this is the best video I’ve seen.
Makes so much sense
thank you! I think the power of repetition and deliberate practice is the most underrated thing in language learning. After all , that is how we learned our Native Language.
Great video! I was learning Japanese in the 80’s with a native speaker in Australia. I loved learning and being able to have a conversation with Japanese tourists. I have never been to Japan. Later I moved to French Polynesia so I needed to learn French and Tahitian. Learning Japanese helped a lot to pronounce Tahitian(it is similar) Growing up in a musical family, I learnt to play guitar by ear, I believe having a good ear also helps to learn language and to have a good accent. People usually like it when you take an interest in their language and even a few words is greatly appreciated, I have friends from all different countries here in the UK. As another person with too many interests, I will be watching your other videos too. I’m nearly 60 now and it is never too late to learn new things, lots of love. 👍🏻😊❤️
Thanks for mentioning my channel!
Good video and excellent advice in general. Happy to see I'm not the only one recommending mnemonic associations and deliberate practice instead of just "immersion".
@@NaturalLanguageLearning I’ll be sending more people your way!
I think more language learners need to know what actually works.
Great content! 🙌
I’ve lived in Japan for over 33 years now. I’m 70 years old and recently retired as of April 1st. My wife is Japanese. I only spoke English at home as I wanted our sons to be bilingual. I was teaching English every morning, afternoon and night. I taught from early morning to late night 6 days a week (plus half a day on Sundays for the first 8 years or so). During and after the pandemic I lost most of my work. Things slowed down quite a bit. I always speak Japanese when I encounter Japanese outside of teaching. However, it’s just basic everyday Japanese.
Now that I’m retired, I’m looking forward to traveling a lot around Japan. I want to be able to become fluent enough to have deeper conversations with Japanese I meet during my travels. I want to learn more quickly as I’m old and have no idea when I’m going to croak. I’m mostly interested in speaking and understanding what I hear. I understand more than I can speak. My hobby is bird photography and I’ve learned the names of birds first in Japanese from other birders. Most birders have no desire to speak English. Over the years it’s given me a chance to practice Japanese with them.
Thanks for your video and your advice, much appreciated.
Bless your soul
Really cool to hear. You got it 👌,
Older Japanese people are typically always looking for someone to talk to, so you’ll have plenty of time to practice.
@@vaughngeneThanks, much appreciated.
日本在住で既にリタイアされて時間があるようでしたら、住んでいる市区町村で行われている英語を日本人に教えるヴォランティアの集まりを探してみてはどうでしょうか。
英語を喋りたいけど喋れない日本人は沢山います。長年日本に住まわれているなら、是非日本人の考えていることも直接日本人と会話して理解して頂けると有難いです。英会話ができないコンプレックスを持っている沢山の日本人側にとっても有難いことです。
Ooh hapa kids! Or hafu. The most attractive
Most chill and based language learning guide so far on youtube. Great advices, right to the point! Great content, man!
🙏 thank you! It’s definitely a demanding process but it’s given me the absolute best results. And not only in Japanese either.
As an ESL Instructor it's great to see someone speaking on acquisition, as we all acquire our native language this way, in a functional way.
I teach my students exactly like this. I add some other or different details but what you're saying is GOLD for any language learner. ✨
I am Turk living in Japan. I have just stumbled upon this video meeting with you channel for the first time. I was already hooked from the intro and wanted to have a quick look into your channel and as a gym enthusiast guitar player that suffers from having too much interests as well I was shook. And the moment you started giving a Turkish example I literally lost it. Kudos man
Thank you! 🙌 I try to do what I can with the time I have, so I'm glad it helps!
This is hands down some of the best advice for language learning on the internet
Thank you! I think it will take a while for people to wake up and not doubt it, but I humbly agree.
It’s fast, effective, and makes it flow.
i like your aura! and the idea with making a soundtrack for the video yourself is so cool!
Thank you 🙏, it’s a neat way to kind of practice two things at once so thanks!
I seldom leave a comment but I really want to leave my compliments and gratitude to you. You have brilliant ideas and are down to earth at the same time. Your presentation is well structured and it comes with the right amount of examples without being distracting. The most important thing is that you genuinely want to share the best ideas and experience with the audience without any unnecessary tricks and exaggerations, and we can feel it. The fact that you made a half-hour video just sitting there shows your style and the value of your content. Thank you bro ❤
Thank you! Means a lot. That’s the vibe I look to give.
Something like you would get if you saw me in person.
Glad the info helps!
I watched your whole video, and by the time it was finished, I felt that it was almost possible that I could do "the impossible"and learn a second language. Now that your video is over, this 60 year old English speaker feels it's impossible again. It doesn't necessarily have to be Japanese, but I did get the essence of your learning style. I applaud you for your eloquence, but your you can do it calmness which actually left me feeling it was possible. I've always wanted to learn another language since it seems to help welcome you into a whole other culture. Thank you.
Glad it helps. It becomes more realistic the more you practice.
You are dead on bro. Been learning Korean for a little bit now and everything you said fits perfectly. Well done and congratulations on learning a language thats harder than Korean. 😁
Thank you! and nice, within a year or so you can be quite advanced if not fluent.
Best video I've come across today, as i am learning Japanese.
ありがとうございます！
Thanks for using visual prompts along with the verbal. I find my brain grabs info better in this way. I improved my vocabulary in Spanish by reading the Spanish version of a book I already love and read in English. I used a Spanish-English dictionary while reading it and took it everywhere with me. I began to compose simple notes and listening to native Spanish speakers I began to think in Spanish. For the most part having a large vocabulary helped me to communicate ideas even though my Spanish is not conversational. I like this method. It's helpful to have friends that are willing to correct you as your speak.
Well said!
Awesome video! I have been studying Japanese for the past few months and this has been one of the best learning processes I've found on TH-cam. Thank you!
Glad to hear 🙌, and thank you!
I’ll have more on this eventually as well.
ひらがなとカタカナを覚えたばかりの人には、幼児のための絵本を勧めます。マンガを読んで日本語を覚えたい人には、「ドラえもん」などの児童マンガや学習マンガを勧めます。「ドラゴンボール」などの少年マンガは勧めません。
ありがとうございます！
幼児向けの絵本は意外と難しい。オノマトペや日常会話に出てこない言葉(「おてんとうさま」とか)が多くて、つまずくポイントが見た目以上に多い。
@@ABC-jq7ve 私も絵本で日本語やオノマトペを覚えました。たとえば「お天道さま」（おてんとうさま）や「お姫さま」（おひめさま）で名詞に付ける接頭辞「お」と敬称「さま」を覚えました。大きな桃が川を浮き沈みしながら流れている絵で「どんぶらこ」というオノマトペを覚えました。
I just started learning Japanese, and I'm using Duolingo for the basics. Of course, it's not going to be the only learning resource I'm going to use. I've got an Assimil course which is in French, but it's the second foreign language I learned. That's cool you play guitar. I played for a long time. One of my favorite players nowadays is Michel Oliveira from Brazil. In "Green Esperanza" he does a Hendrix riff and ends it with some jazz chord voicings. There are a lot of ethnic Japanese people in Sao Paulo city and state, and many of them speak Japanese.
I basically played Yakuza trilogy saga to learn Japanese
Man, what a great dude. Very insightful, and consciously aware of the fluidity of life. Aside from the content purpose, it felt like I was listening to/having a conversation with a trusted friend.
That's the vibe I want here so thanks! I can't stand all that zooming and swiping and b roll nonsense. So I want none of that here.
💯
Vaughn, the fact that you play instruments, tells me you are just gifted. Playing an instrument is certainly another language also. But you do motivate me thats for sure.
Thank you! I simply think the skills I built learning music carry over to language well. Someone in the comments actually pointed out that my preference for deliberate practice could stem from music, which makes sense to me.
Love seeing fellow language learners. Another brother in the language world.
🙌
I really admire you, brother. I am half-Japanese and have been trying to become fluent for the longest time. I am conversational in Korean and can speak on a fundamental level in Japanese, but I really want to get to the point you've achieved... that is, speaking without thinking. That's the goal! Plus, you're a musician! I play bass! I feel a cosmic connection. Ha, ha! Seriously, thank you for sharing your experience. I will be trying your method and seeing how it goes. Wish me luck! And all the best to you!
Yeah you got it.
Just like playing bass for you, the stuff that used to feel weird, you can do without thinking about it.
Language is the exact same way. After so many repetitions and frameworks, your brain will just take care of the rest naturally.
Language learners just neglect the power of repetition in most cases.
If you play a B Major scale 1000 times or something, you can pretty much do it in your sleep at that point.
th-cam.com/video/gJwdKgDe_ws/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZS92jfUWQHcpfXyu
Here is part 2 for a bit more info also.
@@vaughngene Gonna give it a try. Thanks for the encouragement, and sharing your experience and wisdom. Keep up the great work!!
I must've watched a thousand videos on different ways of becoming fluent in another language and not only do you exactly describe my personal way of learning languages, but you've also taught me ways to do it better! The vocabulary part is what I always put off too long but you've invented a way to make it fun! And you're one of the first videos I've seen where you focus on learning the general grammar traits of a language through AI first and learn some grammar points. It's like these language content creators don't realize some people actually enjoy studying grammar.
Thanks! glad it resonates! I find that language unfortunately has been sold as a passive and suboptimal path these days,
which just does not unlock subconscious use at all.
Having a baseline Idea of grammar then building practice off that is far better.
I watched this entire video and I honestly feel like the way you’re saying to do it is the way I do most things. If I can understand the skeleton of the situation (context), I don’t necessarily need to know every word I hear atleast not at the start. The goal is to get a basic understanding first and I’m really determined as it is one of my dreams in this lifetime to go to Japan and maybe even live there but this is the start to something so much bigger. Also like you said, it may not feel fun in the moment but maybe i can make achieving my goal the fun. The destination wouldn’t mean anything without the journey. Thank you for this video :)
Exactly, practically over perfection any day.
Even in our Native language we don’t pick apart every word (or even speak it correctly tbh Lol),
So it’s best to do the same in a target language, or anything else. 👌
So true, I'm an Italian 15 year-old, During the last year I focused so much on getting the C1 In English, and I DID IT🥹 now I started studying Japanese and after three months I'm able to listen to simple podcast and understand the most!
😅
Awesome! Congrats! English is difficult so I admire that.
I’ll be speaking your language on this channel soon btw 👌
That is impressive for an 15 years old dude. Congrats👏🏻, enjoy the process btw
Thank you so much
@@vaughngene oh my God 頑張ってよ!
Italian might be a bit tricky with all the irregular verbs and tenses It has but you can do It, the pronunciation is also very similar to the Japanese one
Hey Vaughn! I just want to say thank you for your videos, they've helped me so much! Your hobby videos really got me to settle in with not overwhelming myself with hobbies, and I've been making significant and steady progress in Chinese. This video is so helpful, thank you so much for producing such good quality content!
Hey that’s awesome to hear! I think a realistic approach is the best way to get results overall.
And thank you 🙏,
I'm on the right path, but what you just gave me here, dude... pure gold. Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯
🙌
I downloaded Duolingo 3 days ago and started learning Japanese, but I skipped a day yesterday. After watching this video, I feel super motivated again! Seeing how you taught yourself Japanese is really inspiring, and now I’m pumped to keep going and not fall behind.
I’m Japanese but English is mostly my first language and had to relearn Japanese as a youngster. I also picked up Spanish as well. I fully agree with everything you say on how to learn a new language in a short time.
When people ask me to teach them English I basically tell them to do pretty much all of the mentioned things such as learning basic structure but a heavier focus on vocab of popular words and mimicking tv, movies and songs to get the sounds similar enough to where it’s understandable.
For anyone who wants to learn a new language this is a great way to do so.
Yep practice is key. Sadly a lot of things 'feel' like practice in the language learning space but they are a complete waste of time. Nothing beats real practice though.
One of the best videos on TH-cam today about language learning.
🙌 thank you! I think so too humbly speaking Lol.
I really think it’s made my results so much more useable.
That was the best video I've ever seen since I started to learn english, thank you so much
This topic you've made is the most advance effective and accurate in terms of language learning or I should say acquiring the Japanese in fastest way. I'm on my 3 year mark of benkyou and I say I'm 85% fluent now in nihongo as per as speaking, reading (hiragana/katakana) 30% basic kanji readings like you've said there is furigana I can say that your method really works I've been doing this for about 3 years now, it's just my own realization to do like the way you are doing it. Acquiring a lot thousands of vocabs is the real deal. And memorising hundreds of common phrases sentences, grammars and in no time you will woke up one day you are able to speak like a native Japanese and can understand very well.. And also take note I am not an American I am a Filipino and my native language is tagalog. By using English to translate into Japanese I also become fluent in English as well so 2 birds in one stone, 2 languages I acquired in 3 years how cool is that? hell yeah \m/
Nice! Very nice! It definitely works when you take an intentional approach.
You vid just popped up on my recommended
Wanted to chime in and say this is 100000% the way to do it and I've been saying the same thing!!
I studied Japanese for years before moving there and was very slow at speaking and comprehension. It wasn't until I met my now wife that I was forced into a situation of just using the vocabulary i knew in thrown together sentences that I realised just how fast you improve. You learn to navigate the language in your own way and things just start to come together.
The turning point is realising you are no longer trying to make sentences in your head and then say them, you're just saying them without thinking!
EXACTLY! That’s the feeling I want a lot of other people to get.
The deliberate practice is hard, but it’s so much more worth it than the typical passive methods.
This video is absolute GOLD! 🙌 Language learning is one thing, but explaining it so clearly and putting it together in such an engaging way is a whole other level-and you totally nailed it! Thanks so much man, your video seriously got me hyped to start learning Japanese!!
🙏 Glad it helps! I think fluency is attainable for anyone with the right approach.
Someone learning Norwegian here. I know myself, I know that simply forcing myself to watch Peppa Pig in norwegian is not gonna work out to build familiarity with words. I love how you began with learning 2000 - 4000 words so we can watch any content we want in our new language and immerse ourselves profously. I'll try this method, thanks man.
@@gat0anonimo Lol the peppa pig reference is funny. That’s awesome to hear though,
I think easy approaches are pushed because people are too afraid to say what I am saying (naturally it won’t get as much clicks as the “easy actually” nonsense.).
But I find this works, and it really sticks.
DUDE YOU ARE A GENIUS. I can't believe you just gave me the answer to all of my questions. Now I'll go and try to write some storys in japanese (The active practice is what I was missing. So simple but so effective)
Yeah you are going to notice how well it translates to real life!
Almost instantly tbh.
Thank you for all of your excellent language learning tips. I'm totally subscribing to your channel right now.
The advice to memorize vocabulary here really works. I initially thought the mental imagery and mnemonics were a lot of overhead to memorize a word, but if you give it a shot it's really quite incredible how well it works. To this day I remember the associations I made for words that I created years ago and only revisit about once a year.
A bit of advice based on my experience. I first try to memorize the word without getting too fancy, basically just rote to see if I do remember it. If I can't recall it when I'm doing my flashcards, that's when I take the time to figure out how I can remember it better. I usually attach a photo or write a description of a scene that helps me remember. I'm currently studying Portuguese so there's a lot of words that look/sound like their meaning. Your milage might vary depending on your native and target languages.
The upfront work really pays off. Especially as you start to consume content and the time gap shortens for recall. You just cut out months of study time.
I love how you said “rest of the fretboard” instead of language 😂 my husband is a guitarist so if you didn’t correct yourself I totally would have went with it because it made complete sense to me even though that was music and not language. Same, same! Music is a language in itself so it works! Thank you for this video! As a bilingual English/Spanish speaker struggling to get into the vocab learning of Japanese, I’m sure your tips are going to really help get me back into the groove of learning it so thank you, ありがとう ございます
I often mix language and music a lot funny enough Lol. I think the same principles apply to both. Especially at a subconscious level (Repetition until you can do it without thinking much).
And no problem!
Greetings from me, David,Malaysia.Will be 72 next month and way back in 1975 Sept, I went to Japan and had a 5-weeks Romaji -based Japanese Language Orientation. After that, I did self-study and thankfully,due to me working with Toyota,I had numerous trips to Japan for technical training and I used those opportunities to learn and practise Japanese as best as I can. In 1985 when I was 33 yrs old, I started to learn Kendo in Malaysia and that, also served as a good platform to improve my japanese proficiency as all instructions at the dojo,were in Japanese. Glad to make it to 4th dan during the 10 World Kendo Championship in 1997.The dan grading exam was held in Kyoto.After working 46 yrs in the automotive industry, I resigned and moved to an 'inaka-small town' where the cost of living is lower than the crazy capital city of Kuala Lumpur where I had spent many years there. I appreciate your unselfish sharing of your approach towards learning Japanese. Thank you very much. Will follow your advice as best as I can.
Man that is awesome, what a cool journey so far.
And no problem! I have more in the next video coming up!
I am trying to learn Korean and I get really frustrated with a lot of the youtube videos they have out now because I find them boring. The amount of grammar every one throws out there is crazy. I always get unmotivated and do not really try because of it. Luckily you posted this at the right time. This will probably change the way I look at things and I hope I can improve since I want to talk to my wife in her native language. You earned yourself another subscriber!!
It’s a “strange” process but I find that it really makes the language feel natural.
And even when you make mistakes it will be easily understood!
My experience is that if you immerse yourself and get your vocabulary built up, the grammar will come intuitively. After a while it just clicks.
@@BigLikeDaNose how are you doing so far ?
I'm about to go on a 14 hour flight soon and I literally came to your channel to download some of your videos for the journey! I really connect with your channel as a Japanese/Korean language learner who is balancing multiple interests in reading, creative writing, marine biology, and more lol you offer such thoughtful and engaging videos. Thank you!
Nice! hope they help!
Mnemonic associations are so useful! Thank you so much!!
This is hands down the best video to approach a new language. I’ve watched many.. I was learning Spanish but ultimately decided to pay homage to my mother and learn Tagalog so when I am around Filipinos, I can communicate with them. It’s been tough. You explained everything so well, that I actually feel a bit more confident to keep going. (I keep quitting when it gets too hard!). Thank you for sharing your tips with us and your Japanese sounds awesome too.
Nice! wish you the best with it! It's a brutal approach but I find that it's easier to do since the results come faster than most methods.
Just balance it with less intense days here and there for consistency.
This is terrific, subscribed 7 min in, no BS and insightful!
🙌
Thank you so much for this video! All of this is so true. I’ve been living in Japan for the past three years and I’ve found that active immersion is much quicker than passive. People are allergic to hard work. Keep putting videos like this out here! Blessings to you!
Yeah it helps a lot! I think the hand holding clickbait content has kinda ruined people's ability to work but hopefully we can get all that out of here someday.
This is by far the most helpful video I've seen on learning a language in a long time! It makes it seem possible and not out of reach. Thank you so much for this, I can't wait to start implementing! 🙏
Glad it helps!
Your ability to hyper focus is simply incredible. That willpower and discipline pushing you daily is more than just motivation. It's a part of who you are. Learning the Japanese has always been not just a goal for me but a lot of their culture is similar to the structure I had growing up. Learning their methods in motorsports help further my driving skills, engine/transmission, suspension repair etc. At this part of my life it's only right for me to dedicate my focus to learning all I can and believe your method suits me best. Thank you.
One day at a time has really gotten me far as my ability to push myself. Maybe that will help others too.
I'll talk about it in a video sometime for sure.
And there's a LOT of Japanese content on that kind of thing so you will have plenty of content to look though. The car and bike communities are very strong in Japan.
I'm already decently fluent in Japanese but every once in a while i'll watch videos like this to see if I might be able to improve my method. I swear by reading more and Anki for vocab, and listening in my free time. I started reading when I got like 1.2k vocab size, just suffered my way through and grew my vocab that way. I actually think passive listening is good, at least for me, walking around campus while listening to podcasts does help with my listening skills and getting myself to think in Japanese.
Took a few stuff here that i'll try to use, especially the AI stuff. Keep it up man! Your channel resonates a lot with me, idk man. Your interest in languages, music, weeb shit and just having a shit ton of interest... like fam, that's me. Wait you're in soft eng, lmao. YT algorithm is crazy.
Nice! Yeah as long as you are getting the results you want that’s what matters.
I think some people mistake what I say for “ONLY DO THIS” but I just kinda showcase my own exp.
I think many things have their place for sure though!
And yeah I have a lot more to share so thanks! 💪
Will do.
Loved this. This is essentially _spaced repetition_ and _active recall;_ the most effective way to learn new content, scientifically proven.
I used it for my medical studies in the form of a flash card program which focused on the cards I struggled with until they were all effectively ticked green. This makes it so that information comes to mind second-nature instead of having to back-track and sort through tons of memories to find what you're trying to remember.
Edit: I also used it to learn fluent French & German! But despite having this knowledge, I always felt apprehensive about learning an Asian language because I felt overwhelmed at the thought of learning all the new symbols that come with it. This video is what I needed to go ahead and give Mandarin a shot as my 4th language!
Nice! Mandarin is popular too so you'll have plenty of things to use for that.
And yeah I'm going to discuss Active Recall vs Recognition in terms of learning and when when to use each.
Active Recall has definitely been the most useful for me overall. Just very humbling because you quickly realize how much you really don't know Lol
Bro made my thoughts on learning languages practical ! And even with an actual syllabus !!
That’s a treasure !
I try, especially in todays world of clickbait and not actually caring about viewers
I'm not so sure on the other elements of what you said but your comments on vocabulary are spot on - the moment you know that word, you actually start to hear it. It's a linguistic case of frequency illusion - "a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it". I certainly do agree on the "learn grammar through context" though formal grammar training can go a long way for intermediate/advanced - it explains things you've seen a couple of times but couldn't understand.
Thank you! This came up in my feed & it’s the best training ever!! I’ve never thought about using AI and learning 4k vocable words & the sentences . Thank you! Honest excellent content
This actually so awesome! I've heard many things about these methods but this was the best explanation of it I've seen so far! I have to move to Japan soon and I've mostly been learning basic grammar and some random vocab words. I decided to write a little story in Japanese though i had to search up many words. However, I was really surprised when i was able to read the story without translating it into English. Like, the meaning just came to me. And some of the words i accidentally used mnemonics for and I remembered them so easily! Like めざめる (I think) means wake up and I remembered it because it sounds like mesmerized! I was so proud of myself. Tysm for this video.
Hey glad it helps!
I think with an optimized routine, someone can really be fluent in less than a year.
Like actually fluent.
*looks for pinned comment then relaizes this was 2hrs ago*
THE KING POSTED... I SWEAR YOURE IN MY MIND EVERY SINGLE TIME YOUR VIDEOS POP UP WTH..... (ily bro)
🙌 I’ll be working on the discord tomorrow unless something comes up.
Ayo sweet🙏 Goodluck on making it
@@Jerry.drove_carsomething came up 😂, eventually though.
As a native Turkish who has been mastered in mnemonics, I found your exemplification highly valuable and accurate. You are so right, I have used mnemonics in programming, language and music theory learning etc. good work
Nice! It’s cool that you were already doing it for several things.
And thank you! 🙏
Ultimately speaking, synthesis and comprehensible input is how you learn a language, as you said. How you fill in the blanks is largely up to how much time and effort you want to put in.
Excellent soundtrack by the way, love that soft chime melody
Passive immersion doesn't have to be passive. I listen to Chinese podcasts while I'm doing other things and I make sure to pay some attention to every word, repeat interesting sentences and synthesise my own answers when the hosts ask questions, I suppose that makes it 'not just listening' but my point is there are many ways to immerse actively.
This probably the best "how to speak fluently" video ever. He tells fact and hardworks.
still, i don't buy that he's "not superhuman", the music and fitness mean his brain can think differently.
Thanks! I think anyone can do it really, so you got it. Just time and practice. Same with anything else.
Coldddd, been waiting for this video Broski since i asked about your Japanese in a previous one.
I’ll add a part two next week if I can, maybe mostly in Japanese. To address some other stuff.
(Partially doing it in Japanese because the annoying comments from people who don’t wanna watch my shorts or other videos Lol).
As a Special-ed teacher and being mixed with Japanese, I truly agree in your guidelines and principles in learning another language. This is a great video and very informative!
🙌
Great video. I have started learning Japanese in a University (college) language course, but I find myself in a weird position. I'm German and have learned English to the point of speaking and understanding it intuitively (I'm certified to speak at C1 level and I believe I understand english at a near native level). I learned English back in school and from different forms of media (eg. movies, shows, TH-cam, and gaming for spoken English). The problem is I dont know anymore how I did it and how I became fluent. So I'm now learning Japanese from scratch and don't really have a good strategy besides following the university course (we use the book みんなの日本語).
I find your video very interesting and will try to implement some of your strategy into my Japanese learning journey. Especially what you mentioned about learning 2000 - 4000 words early on. I have been aware that that is what holds me back the most. Just knowing a lot of vocabulary would be a huge step towards understanding and being able to speak more Japanese.
Thank you again for sharing your strategy :)
Vocabulary really is the gatekeeper,
Another reason it’s good is because you can just practice speaking anytime you want.
In the shower. In the car, anywhere. But without vocab there is a lot of blanks you will draw.
Honestly, I feel so supported after watching this! Amazing score
This is by far THE BEST video I have watched for language learning. Thank you so, so much!
Thank you! Glad it helps! I have a few other videos that kind of help the process (some in Japanese), but this one is the main idea of language learning in my experience.
なんでこの動画がオススメに出てきたのか分からないけど（日本人）
勉強になりました！笑（英語勉強中なので, yes im the crazy one lol）
動画の雰囲気もとても落ち着いてて素敵だと思います
ありがとうございます！
Lol well welcome! And thank you, really glad it helps.
English is difficult but you can do it. 💪
@@vaughngene I'm European. How can you find English difficult when it's your native language?
@@sfrezo it can be a difficult language for Japanese speakers, and maybe not to someone who has been hearing it since they were born.
@@sfrezo high level English is difficult even as a native speaker, there are some really difficult books out there
@@sfrezo Because too many exceptions in rules. When I started learning English at the age of 10, I found it easy. I've been living and working in England and Canada more than 20 years, but I find leaning English difficult and still studying it.
your comments on immersion are absolutely right, as adults the brains are less plastic and so we do require stronger activation (which is the active effort you mentioned) to force the brain to adapt
Exactly. I think adults learn language just fine, Just takes a more active approach.
you have such a calming presence 😁thank you for this video, I feel motivated to begin studying again!
Glad it helps! 🙌 and thank you.
I’m glad I found this. Instantly subscribed. A few years back I traveled and lived in Brazil for half a year. I did exactly this, but not to the extent before I landed. Had simple sentences, numbers 1-1000, days, months, and verbs on a sheet and would just practice and speak them. This helped immensely with speaking Portuguese while I was there. I’ve been wanting to practice and learn other languages and am glad I found this as I agree this method is the best way of quickly learning to understand the language.
Nice, sounds like you went directly for the practical.
It's such a confidence building method too. That's why I really advocate for this.
Incredibly helpful and to the point unlike many other videos on the internet about this same subject. I’ve been studying Japanese seriously for about 6 months and my input is great but my output is horrible. I can understand 50% of most causal conversations but forming a simple sentence is so difficult for me. I will follow your steps - thank you so much.
Passive listening help get an Ear for the language. Active help understand it. We need both.
Both are good yeah, speed wise, active is better.
But like I said, passive here and there is perfect too. I think a mix of both, opting for more active, will give the same returns in the long run.
@@vaughngeneI think you’re definitely underestimating the power of passive listening, used for times when you literally can’t do active listening
@@theadoniscast I’m not saying it’s completely ineffective, don’t take it that way.
(As a beginner though yeah I think it’s trash.)
But maybe very effective when you have a base.
This point of view I have is from my experience.
But I also do 20 things in a day so I literally have NO time for passive anything. So I have a heavy bias.
If passive listening helps you speak and understand better though then I’m all for it 👌.
I think it's much more viable if you read over lyrics or transcript before listening
@@jsigns5899 ideally you’d only be passively listening to things you actively listened to/watched in the past
Definitely the best 'Black guy on the internet' for language related tips and frameworks! :) Thanks!
@@vladimir193 Is that the best comment you can contribute?
Smashing it buddy 🍾
🙌
This is really awesome advice. I appreciate your candor and realistic expectations. I'm a result of exactly what you explained later in the video - I've heard Spanish passively all my life, know some vocab and could read/write some (through school, my mom using words around the house, etc), but I can't hold a (very long or detailed) conversation at the age of 29, and struggle or freeze when trying to get concepts out because I'm still translating in my head, very slowly 🤦🏽♀️ as an adult, I'm finally getting more muscle memory and learning more through that comprehensible input method you mentioned (listening/ watching Spanish content and reading Spanish subtitles, rather than English), and listening to native speakers, including from different countries since Spanish is spoken differently all over the world.
But your advice is pretty solid, so thanks for sharing your experience and methods. It's my dream to become fluent in both Spanish and Japanese before I die, and be able to travel to these countries and speak and learn from native speakers. And speak with my mom in her first language, since she shared with me that she thinks in Spanish and sometimes dreams in Spanish too 😊
Oh yeah you can definitely get both down for sure. Within the next few years tbh.
Love this video! Thanks ! Love the fact that in this AI area, people are still encouraging others to learn languages ~ probably gonna try your method to get back on my Japanese!
This video is totally spot on.
People have different learning objectives but my goal is to comprehend written and spoken Japanese, and that requires lots of input: vocabulary and in context grammar . I know this because that's how I learned English. I can understand pretty much anything in English. My output is not that good because I never practice it, but that's the easy part when you completely understand the language.
The same applies to Japanese, if your goal is to understand, you are wasting time trying to output, memorize grammar or use textbooks. If down the road you decide you want to take the JLPT then you can use textbooks and memorize grammar rules and that will take no time and will be a breeze, because you already understand the language.
If your primary goal is to pass the JLPT then maybe it's more efficient to start with textbooks from the beginning.
Yeah definitely goal dependent! I’ll probably make a video for people who just want to understand the language, rather than use it to speak.
And funny thing about JLPT is that a lot of them actually can’t speak Japanese Lol. Even N1.
But I don’t want to sound rude.
Many of them use it as a flex. But countless times in person I have seen them fall apart in conversations.
This is why I like the more deliberate approach.
It just works.
@@vaughngene Yeah, you are on point. You are not rude at all, that’s just the reality.
I can write and speak in English, just not very well lol, but that was never my objective. This year I want to get the C1 Cambridge certificate so I will need to practice a lot.
The thing is that I’m very satisfied with my level because the goal was comprehension of English content, so with Japanese I will take the same approach.
Your vibe is unreal! Subscribed when you said "Let me make the soundtrack real quick" xD
Lol thank you! I like mixing the stuff I like in the videos here and there.
You are right about the grammar thing. Ive been watching anime for like 15 years and unknowingly picked up the sentence structures and thousands of words of vocabulary.
7 mins into this video and tbh its great to hear all the things I've been saying from someone way more advanced than me. I've been explicitly aiming for 2000 words with an Anki deck for Japanese and watching youtube videos that are at/slightly above my level and I've seen big improvements in comprehension. I'm only about 6 months into doing this seriously but even with the limited time I have to study its been very effective.
I've also found it useful to gradually pick up more complex grammar concepts, but I dont study those hard. They are useful for speeding up comprehension by giving small clues on what to look for though.
Nice! You’re on the right track
Vocab is usually the gatekeeper to language 👌
Kudos Vaughn, you’ve hit a nerve in your videos for those of us who have the shiny object syndrome and jump from video to video adding too much useless and unimplementable information . I’m definitely a subscriber and commend you on sharing your experience and lessons on learning Japanese and things in general. You truly have a gift of demystifying and simplifying learning in a very realistic matter-of-fact style which is very appealing to folks that actually want results. I am going to use your approach in learning another language as I have unfortunately wasted a lot of time accumulating different books on the language and multiple language courses with no results.
Thank you! appreciate that.
And yeah it's really never too late to just take a lot more action. I find that many of us have enough resources to be very advanced, just comes down to the practice at that point.
Great Video! I am going to apply this method to learning French :)
Sounds good Mom! ❤️
Nice works man, the effort shows in the video
Thank you 🙏
I’m so glad I found your channel. Your videos have been so very helpful. Good, clear actionable things I can employ to learn Japanese. I’ve wanted to learn since I was a young girl, but became overwhelmed every time. 👏🏾 Thank you!
Glad they help! 🙏 And yeah just come back for a refresher when you need to.
It’s a lot of work but it really pays off.
I’m so proud of you man! Although I’m fluent too and been using Japanese more than half my life, it’s always so awesome seeing others who made it there too or even have more solid methods than me with how they study languages. This is so good for so many people! Although I’ve done a lot of those things, only recently I started really learning new languages so this really helps a ton for them! Great job! 👏
💮
Again, really solid video lmao❤
Thank you! 🙏 I find that for some languages in particular, like Japanese,
Deliberate Practice really is the key to seeing lasting results.
Damn. I needed this video. I’ve been “trying” to learn japanese without results for a year now- studying at work, listening without much comprehension, scared of messing up pronunciation and grammar.
This video was exactly the honest facts I needed to hear as I refocus and fix my strategy. It makes total sense why I can’t speak. I wont be as fast, but i’m never giving up!!
本当にありがとうございます！
Yeah mistakes and language insecurities are apart of the game, the more you make honestly, the better you'll get. So it's good to just get them out of the way Lol.
Got addicted to your videos! You're my inspiration :)
Really glad they help 🙌,
4:35 Exactly bro. What's the point of learning all that vocab if you can't actually use it in a conversation, you NEED the most used and fundamental vocab first
This is pretty much how my Japanese has gone. I spent a few days (like 3 or 4) reading through a grammer app. I decided to skip genki for an app called "Human Japanese" which honestly is a great fast grammar resource for starting out.
I spent two months grinding out vocabulary and listening to podcasts or watching TH-cam while really paying attention and repeating everything and it helped a lot. I'm fortunate to have some native Japanese family that live in Osaka and I was able to understand nearly everything that people said to me. My speaking sucked because I had only been studying for like two months, but hell, I was able to get my point across.
I have a fluent friend who started with Human Japanese just like you, the iPhone app.
and he said it was a HUGE help to him.
And that’s awesome! Seems like you were doing this approach the best way possible right away.
Speaking is just a form of muscle memory at the end of the day, but since you have a base, that’s literally only a matter of repetition. Then it will stick just fine.
@@vaughngeneis the iPhone app different from the android app?
@@jamueI I'm on android, pretty sure it's the same
YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!! You basically just taught (those who are watching and really listening and paying attention), a method of how to learn as many languages as you want!!!! DUDE!!!! Who are YOU!!!! And to think, you have this to us all for FREE !!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, my brother 100 billon times over!!! MAY GOD BLESS YOU EVERYDAY AND FOREVER!!!
I learn from the best (many people I met in Japan) so It's the least I can do for TH-cam. Especially since the language learning space is cooked Lol.
Glad it helps though!
Bravo. Finally, not some git pushing some learn in 30 hours app, nor I've been in Japan for 10 minutes, but I know what's going on vid. Subbed in the first minute.
Thank you! I think this approach is demanding but it's the most efficient imo. Especially if you have more to do in your day than sit around and study a language.
I’ve been studying Korean on and off for a decade and I forgot how well mnemonic devices work. I think it works best for those of us who are naturally creative. Visualizing and making unusual connections comes easily to us and gives that dopamine hit, and I think that helps cement the information in our minds.
Yeah it’s a lot easier to attach new ideas to older ones I find! Maybe some people do it better than other like you mentioned with creativity but I think everyone has it in some way 👌
Looking forward to part two.
🙌
Tremendous video. I speak Spanish, French and Portuguese and I'm now on to Serbo-Croat as I just moved to Belgrade a week ago. Using a more 'guerilla' active style approach for the new language as I don't have even the option of formal classes.
I hadn't even thought of using ChatGPT so cheers suggesting that.
Thank you! And nice!
Yeah ChatGPT is AMAZING! I’m going to do more videos about it in the future. It shortcuts so much work.
Some invaluable ideas here that I would never have thought of. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing.
Most of your advice aligns with what I also believe is best-focused, intense learning for specific contexts. For example, when I had to do a Japanese interview, I spent a few days beforehand learning work-related Japanese sentences. It was fast, intense, and very useful. I also agree that ChatGPT is often underutilized. The approach is simple: live your life, and when you find yourself unable to say something in Japanese, give ChatGPT a prompt based on what you want to express, with the right context, and then learn that sentence. Rinse and repeat. I think one major factor that will greatly improve the learning process is when we have advanced AI conversation partners capable of handling multiple languages like a native speaker. We're getting close to that point.
Exactly, leveraging AI is a real game changer