Can Japanese Actually Write Japanese Kanji?

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.พ. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 13K

  • @ThatJapaneseManYuta
    @ThatJapaneseManYuta  5 ปีที่แล้ว +6134

    As you can see, many Japanese people can't write some kanji off the top of their head. So how do Japanese people write Japanese? Simple. With a computer or a phone!
    I think part of the reason why Japanese people are forgetting kanji is that it's so much easier to use a keyboard instead of a pen and paper. And if you want to learn Japanese, you can do it too! It's such a relief that you don't have to memorise how to write kanji on your own any more.
    Actually, if you want to learn Japanese, I can send you some free Japanese lessons by email. So subscribe here bit.ly/3bzsMnu

    • @esper5323
      @esper5323 5 ปีที่แล้ว +101

      i won't lie, it's amazing to me how much even natives struggle with them. i'm not a native and have never even been to japan and yet i don't have any issues with any of the words here (if it was outside the 常用漢字 and maybe words like 魑魅魍魎 came up, then i could understand.)

    • @nyanlinhtetd.g4051
      @nyanlinhtetd.g4051 4 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      I'm really confused to learn Kenji while learning Kiragana and Katakana.

    • @evoflysgaming3489
      @evoflysgaming3489 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      3 likes

    • @nyanlinhtetd.g4051
      @nyanlinhtetd.g4051 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@cristlewrite7944 Thank you soo much❣️

    • @osophine8672
      @osophine8672 4 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      Oh wow that really is a relief! I tried learning Japanese at one point and I can write hiragana and kana from memory but never Kanji. It's so intimidating

  • @oppaipoison2074
    @oppaipoison2074 4 ปีที่แล้ว +27806

    'why tf are you late for work?'
    'sorry some guy in the street was testing my kanji lmao'

    • @oeno6301
      @oeno6301 4 ปีที่แล้ว +703

      Lmao I laughed really hard at this

    • @oppaipoison2074
      @oppaipoison2074 4 ปีที่แล้ว +188

      @@oeno6301 im glad

    • @dhcarrot1195
      @dhcarrot1195 4 ปีที่แล้ว +130

      Made my day

    • @pranjal5687
      @pranjal5687 4 ปีที่แล้ว +60

      LMAOO 😂😂

    • @ぱんだくん-x8p
      @ぱんだくん-x8p 4 ปีที่แล้ว +163

      Almost Japanese go to work about 10 minutes before, so we were not late haha

  • @zarinsolkar6918
    @zarinsolkar6918 5 ปีที่แล้ว +9483

    The guy with blue tie and spects is that classmate who always says he haven’t prepared for the tests but still manages to gets A+.

    • @zarinsolkar6918
      @zarinsolkar6918 4 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Oηιon Коммγнизмα WHYYY

    • @arpitdas4263
      @arpitdas4263 4 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      It's specs mate

    • @zarinsolkar6918
      @zarinsolkar6918 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Arpit Das sorry my bad

    • @zarinsolkar6918
      @zarinsolkar6918 4 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      Caster Gil God I am jealous . I could be doing a thing for 3 years and still forget it after few days . You are blessed buddy.

    • @cashmoneymawk988
      @cashmoneymawk988 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      i do that too

  • @warilban
    @warilban 5 ปีที่แล้ว +10586

    "Battle"
    Dude: Ah I see this often in games.
    This man has a bright future.

    • @user-wp8bi1hx9z
      @user-wp8bi1hx9z 5 ปีที่แล้ว +83

      Y e s h

    • @peeei7423
      @peeei7423 4 ปีที่แล้ว +66

      @Augusto Cejas ahh i see your a man of culture as well

    • @alexmge_tm6561
      @alexmge_tm6561 4 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      We'll watch his career with great interest

    • @vanzwho854
      @vanzwho854 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Indeed

    • @tovelinhtinh
      @tovelinhtinh 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      I dont think so

  • @ナーシサス次元から来た人-d8u
    @ナーシサス次元から来た人-d8u 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1593

    As a Japanese, kanji is quite hard to remember and write, but it makes reading a lot faster.

    • @theSUN2773
      @theSUN2773 ปีที่แล้ว +77

      Yes.Each kanji almost refers to a whole vocabulary and takes small space.

    • @wenyichao5078
      @wenyichao5078 ปีที่แล้ว +87

      As a Chinese, I really don't think kanji is hard to remember and write.because we use kanji in every single day😂

    • @igaIIta
      @igaIIta ปีที่แล้ว +48

      ​@@wenyichao5078But Japanese Kanji are also different from the Chinese ones

    • @theSUN2773
      @theSUN2773 ปีที่แล้ว +53

      @@igaIIta Kanji and Chinese Hanzi are similar and have the same rule in shape,so it's not
      hard to remember.

    • @igaIIta
      @igaIIta ปีที่แล้ว +19

      @@theSUN2773 shape. But not sound. Japanese had irregularities there.

  • @milklab-milky2586
    @milklab-milky2586 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6872

    "Kanji is difficult"
    "Yeah, kanji is difficult”
    "I don't wanna learn them anymore"
    "We can just use hiragana"
    Me, as a foreigner who learns japanese: I see so much pain in your eyes girls

    • @vaylard9474
      @vaylard9474 5 ปีที่แล้ว +342

      Kanji make Japanese easier to learn for foreigners.
      For the Japanese it's their native language, they can differentiate between homonyms without much mental strain, and they are comfortable with their Chinese vocabulary so they don't require any visual aid to recall the meaning of a particular word.
      For me as a foreigner, spoken Chinese loanwords are easier to understand when I can visualize them. For example, I'm watching anime and I hear "だんせいきょうふしょう". I'm comfortable enough with 男性 and 恐怖 to immediately recognize them. Now しょう. There are tons of しょう's in Sino-Japanese, and only kanji help me differentiate between them effectively. In this case 症 makes the most sense.
      Honestly I can't imagine having to read a novel in hiragana, it would be such a pain in the ass.

    • @vaylard9474
      @vaylard9474 5 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      @Ki 木Ojo 王女
      I'm not Chinese either.

    • @ameyoko445
      @ameyoko445 5 ปีที่แล้ว +108

      Milk Lab - I am Japanese. I can read but it would be harder to understand. Using kanji is preferable because it has more detail in each Character. Also if I know the kanji, I can understand the Chinese but just a little though.

    • @yona20691
      @yona20691 5 ปีที่แล้ว +63

      @@vaylard9474 I'm totally understand this! LOL. For reading, Kanji will help us to understand the meaning more easily. I still remember I didn't understand a thing a child said in a manga because it's written in all hiragana. I have to think for some minutes to get what she said LOL.
      But it is different if you ask me to write Kanji. Like in this video, they know the Kanji if they read it but to write is totally different matters...

    • @Aurora666_yt
      @Aurora666_yt 4 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      Somehow I started studying japanese again after six years. It was the kanji that brought me back, not the hiragana. I'm not into the easy stuff, I want to be challenged.

  • @rish_hyun
    @rish_hyun 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5906

    Me as a foreigner learning Kanji for almost 2 years
    Locals : Why can't we just use hiragana

    • @faicalmounbane7338
      @faicalmounbane7338 5 ปีที่แล้ว +262

      Hiragana and katakana bro i really memorized it all

    • @maiadraconica6488
      @maiadraconica6488 5 ปีที่แล้ว +60

      is learning kanji sortof like learning vocab as well?

    • @faicalmounbane7338
      @faicalmounbane7338 5 ปีที่แล้ว +54

      @@Eman-ud6tg im not already dead bro i'm still alive 😁😁😁

    • @もっかてり
      @もっかてり 5 ปีที่แล้ว +222

      xX Móšțøpĕ ŔŌBŁŐX Xx
      Hi,I'm Japanese.
      To be precise, the word is"お前はもう死んでいる。".
      "わ" to "は".
      "し" to "死".
      "しで" to "死んで".

    • @aexe1542
      @aexe1542 5 ปีที่แล้ว +169

      Because if you only use hiragana, many words with kanji with Chinese readings become homophonic (since Japanese phonology isn't very complex). Reading the words with kanji help you distinguish the meanings almost instantly.

  • @yamaguchitadashi7511
    @yamaguchitadashi7511 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6855

    “i see it a lot in video games”
    ahh yes a man of culture

    • @mosota9079
      @mosota9079 4 ปีที่แล้ว +42

      lol Yamaguchi u here 😂

    • @babotu
      @babotu 4 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      @@mosota9079 Hallooo Yamaguchiiiii

    • @MPV-ig9iq
      @MPV-ig9iq 4 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Hello yamaguchi

    • @babotu
      @babotu 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@MPV-ig9iq Hello Taehyung!!!!

    • @mr.bushido88
      @mr.bushido88 4 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      HEY!! I thought you were practicing with the others?!

  • @JediPanBanam
    @JediPanBanam 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1180

    I honestly love seeing my Japanese professor sometimes stand for a whole minute in front of the whiteboard and think "how do you write that one?" Knowing the Japanese sometimes struggle with kanji makes me feel a little better about learning them myself.

    • @user-OMANGEMANGE
      @user-OMANGEMANGE ปีที่แล้ว +76

      In Japan, everyone in elementary and junior high school is required to study 2,136 kanji characters. Some children sometimes get calluses on their fingers in order to get a perfect score on a kanji test🤣🤣🤣Even if they go that far, when they only use computers and smartphones, they are unable to write kanji🥶In short, if you can read, it will not interfere with your life, so I would like those who are going to learn Kanji to take it easy.

    • @omaehaorosensei
      @omaehaorosensei ปีที่แล้ว +31

      大丈夫。日本語を話せて、ひらがなを書ければ日本人は文脈を読みとって
      漢字を教えてくれるよ

    • @stanlee4210
      @stanlee4210 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@user-OMANGEMANGE so what do japanese people write in? Isnt all documents written like that in japan?

    • @hangedfox9286
      @hangedfox9286 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      @@stanlee4210 Hiragana and katakana can be used for the same words. They are phonetic. Kanji is ideographic.

    • @piano_beginner
      @piano_beginner 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      ワイもカンニングしてたから大丈夫や
      アニメの字幕でリスキルしてる

  • @meowplayspokemon8332
    @meowplayspokemon8332 8 ปีที่แล้ว +14516

    "i see sentou often in video games"
    see mom? gaming *is* educational.

    • @alighozali1940
      @alighozali1940 8 ปีที่แล้ว +125

      I have no other options to reject this statement (y) :D

    • @ha1vorsen
      @ha1vorsen 8 ปีที่แล้ว +69

      "Dairantou Smash Brothers"

    • @renation89
      @renation89 8 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Pokemon gym battle

    • @ShidaiTaino
      @ShidaiTaino 8 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      Lmao. The only educational game is Oregon Trail

    • @user-kf8fs9zx4g
      @user-kf8fs9zx4g 8 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Saquez *is*

  • @issym1254
    @issym1254 4 ปีที่แล้ว +12274

    Kanji: *Exists*
    English people: Kill me now
    Japanese people: Kill me now
    Chinese people: *I like your funny words magic man*

  • @jonatanluna1061
    @jonatanluna1061 5 ปีที่แล้ว +10345

    "Why can't we just use hiragana"
    Me. Right now. Learning japanese for the first time.

    • @acgm046
      @acgm046 5 ปีที่แล้ว +565

      Me too. I can expect to continue learning and recognizing some kanji, which gives me satisfaction. But I definitely think I won't master writing them at all!!!!

    • @Herzman
      @Herzman 5 ปีที่แล้ว +401

      I just started to learn japanese on my own. I really dont know how its gonna work out buut.

    • @Herzman
      @Herzman 5 ปีที่แล้ว +107

      Yeah and goodluck to your studies

    • @littlemoon4589
      @littlemoon4589 5 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Jonatan Luna lol same

    • @ricblank0014
      @ricblank0014 5 ปีที่แล้ว +132

      you are not alone. im also self studying 😂

  • @Kenro25
    @Kenro25 2 ปีที่แล้ว +263

    読めるし見たら分かるけど、インターネットで変換ができる世の中になってから自分の手で書く事が減って、書けと言われても細部まで思い出せない事が増えた。

    • @cherie..cherry
      @cherie..cherry 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

      Same. My ability to write in mandarin has suffered even though I can read it and type decently.

    • @syee86
      @syee86 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      As a chinese i have the same problem, we all count an text generator
      放弃大脑 解放双手

    • @んんあぁぁぁぁぁあぁぁ
      @んんあぁぁぁぁぁあぁぁ 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      鬱←読めるし意味も分かるんだけど、いざ書いてってなったら無理かも

  • @Rudenbehr
    @Rudenbehr 5 ปีที่แล้ว +18544

    I’m imagining there’s elderly Japanese citizens who complain how kids can’t write Kanji these days.

    • @anormalfangirl7408
      @anormalfangirl7408 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2028

      Japanese boomer

    • @reychop
      @reychop 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1762

      Hai hai booma!! (Okay boomer!) xD

    • @applefoodie
      @applefoodie 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1784

      I don't know about Japanese, but there are older Chinese who complain that kids these days are so used to typing Hanzi/Kanji that they've often forgotten how to write them.

    • @reychop
      @reychop 5 ปีที่แล้ว +843

      applefoodie just as how many adults complain about kids no longer knowing how to write cursive these days.

    • @avm-xk1up
      @avm-xk1up 5 ปีที่แล้ว +117

      joomer

  • @simi-fk7xd
    @simi-fk7xd 4 ปีที่แล้ว +35182

    me: ok ive memorized hiragana and katakana. its time to learn kanji
    my brain: の
    me: pls
    my brain: ノ

  • @lp_grumpy
    @lp_grumpy 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2488

    Every person who is having a hard time learning kanji just suddenly felt a huge weight lift off their shoulders after this video

    • @souplover947
      @souplover947 5 ปีที่แล้ว +88

      learning to write kanji as a foreigner past the most common 200 or so was always a meme anyway
      anyone who gets to a high level in japanese knows that it's all about reading lots of books and media
      when you can read words in kanji then you can type them too and that's the most practical way to "write kanji" in this day and age anyway

    • @くるみ-h4q
      @くるみ-h4q 5 ปีที่แล้ว +38

      No, actually I kinda lost hope

    • @くるみ-h4q
      @くるみ-h4q 4 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      Creeps MaPasta thank you so much! To be honest, since I wrote this comment until now, I have learned at least 5 new kanji, and I think seeing kanji and learning how to write it is more enjoyable after I took it for fun and strengthening my memory skills, and I feel happy after I find that I wrote it correctly, sorry for my English

    • @lemonn41807
      @lemonn41807 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      That’s me!

    • @Serene21219
      @Serene21219 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      jiyui X imma cheer for you^.^

  • @chuyin_4
    @chuyin_4 ปีที่แล้ว +135

    Kanji is actually difficult to learn, but it is very interesting to know how this character was created or compounded, how ancient Chinese people were inspired. Imagining the meaning of unknown kanji from its parts is also fun.

    • @2oqh
      @2oqh ปีที่แล้ว +6

      its a very interesting writing system although very hard to learn for many

    • @adamlam9600
      @adamlam9600 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      "Ancient" Chinese people, i've got news for you they still write entirely with Chinese characters every day!

  • @krank568
    @krank568 4 ปีที่แล้ว +16262

    'we can just use hiragana'
    me trying to catch up in my japanese: *YES I AGREE*

    • @mrbaefong6964
      @mrbaefong6964 4 ปีที่แล้ว +825

      i never felt more understood when she said that 😭

    • @b1acksol
      @b1acksol 4 ปีที่แล้ว +270

      Lmao ikr. I’m going to live with a family member in Japan when I graduate and there’s no Japanese language course at the high school I’d go to so I’m taking Chinese instead and I didn’t think it would be as helpful as it actually is when I’m in Japan.

    • @ttchme9816
      @ttchme9816 4 ปีที่แล้ว +402

      @@b1acksol
      " You just need to learn a different pronunciation when learning kanji. It should be very simple. "
      -Me, still struggling to understand kanji despite being a native Chinese speaker.

    • @Ekolop
      @Ekolop 3 ปีที่แล้ว +42

      Hahahahaah that woman understands me

    • @zant41
      @zant41 3 ปีที่แล้ว +100

      Me after realizing that I'd have to read a whole chunk of text full of hiraganas: *NO* *PLEASE* *GO* *BACK*

  • @MrEnbyNerdz
    @MrEnbyNerdz 4 ปีที่แล้ว +10683

    This makes me a little more confident in learning Japanese

    • @BNK2442
      @BNK2442 4 ปีที่แล้ว +91

      Same.

    • @BNK2442
      @BNK2442 4 ปีที่แล้ว +304

      The part where woman said "Kanji wa musukashi desu" made me feel better.

    • @allenslayz5118
      @allenslayz5118 4 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      @Someone誰か 難しい is muzukashii right? Not ga

    • @jjjosssueee
      @jjjosssueee 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Artyona what are some good apps??

    • @allenslayz5118
      @allenslayz5118 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@jjjosssueee Kanji study is a good one for reviewing

  • @j.fletcher690
    @j.fletcher690 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4525

    Most japanese people can read kanji perfectly well. It's just that the writing doesnt stick. If you'd ask these folks to type the words, no one would make a mistake

    • @francesatty7022
      @francesatty7022 4 ปีที่แล้ว +394

      it's a little bit like spelling I guess, we can understand things written down but if you're bad at spelling it can be difficult writing it right

    • @arsalanjameel8478
      @arsalanjameel8478 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@francesatty7022 ARE you japanese?

    • @even___
      @even___ 4 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      I don’t know how the Japanese learn it, but I use Traditional Chinese and it isn’t that hard to learn.

    • @siyacer
      @siyacer 4 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Is it like cursive?

    • @randomperson1714
      @randomperson1714 4 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      Delivious if you know traditional chinese,then you can learn any language.

  • @just_peace
    @just_peace 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    This video is so fun to come back to as I keep progressing in Japanese

  • @paveladamek3502
    @paveladamek3502 5 ปีที่แล้ว +27115

    Meanwhile, some native English speakers confuse THEIR with THEY’RE.

    • @gwyndale3899
      @gwyndale3899 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3515

      and THERE
      also YOUR YOU'RE

    • @girlhoodcoquine7212
      @girlhoodcoquine7212 5 ปีที่แล้ว +444

      Iam not even native and I thought iam the only one who does 😂😂

    • @euivets2892
      @euivets2892 5 ปีที่แล้ว +175

      @Its_ cookiecat I'm german and I make mistakes with Seid und Seit as well 😂

    • @euivets2892
      @euivets2892 5 ปีที่แล้ว +67

      @@seulxejn Seid ist eigentlich ,,Seid ihr". Ich weiß nicht ob du Deutsche(r) bist, aber es ist leicht D mit T zu vertauschen.

    • @mohdluqmanulhakimabdulmali9622
      @mohdluqmanulhakimabdulmali9622 5 ปีที่แล้ว +96

      everyone speaks german
      i'm going to speak malay:
      gile susah siot kanji ni
      harap harap dpt belajar lah mcm mana nak tulis
      perlu cari cikgu yg betul betul pandai lah

  • @slenderslayer464
    @slenderslayer464 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11033

    Moral of the story: Do not feel sad, even Japanese people cant know them all

    • @DoNotDisturb.
      @DoNotDisturb. 3 ปีที่แล้ว +624

      I feel bad saying it but... Thank god.

    • @friedpotato5844
      @friedpotato5844 3 ปีที่แล้ว +75

      @@DoNotDisturb. LOL 😆

    • @blackrabbit2282
      @blackrabbit2282 3 ปีที่แล้ว +96

      @@DoNotDisturb. I felt this deep in my soul

    • @ギャル-t8j
      @ギャル-t8j 3 ปีที่แล้ว +82

      yeah im only gonna learn hiragana i dont got time to learn katakana and kanji

    • @blackrabbit2282
      @blackrabbit2282 3 ปีที่แล้ว +214

      @@ギャル-t8j Katakana is the same as Hiragana. They all sound the same just look different.
      Katakana is just for foreign words and names

  • @stationeryevolution467
    @stationeryevolution467 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2135

    Girl: I don’t want to learn more kanji we can just use hiragana
    YESSSSSSS
    but i know kanji is pretty much essential if you want to really learn japanese

    • @anthemsofeurope2408
      @anthemsofeurope2408 4 ปีที่แล้ว +55

      Would be cool, but probably not possible, because of religion. Shinto texts are writen in kanji and it's also a part of japanese culture, so sadly no

    • @Greyr4X
      @Greyr4X 4 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      but It's like everywhere especially on their posters and sign boards xD

    • @stationeryevolution467
      @stationeryevolution467 4 ปีที่แล้ว +41

      @@anthemsofeurope2408 yeah of course, im pretty sure kanji wouldnt be going anywhere, but it sure would be nice if japanese didnt use so much of it. But of course it is their culture, and i am still going to try and learn it.

    • @stationeryevolution467
      @stationeryevolution467 4 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      @@Greyr4X yeah i know, imagine the ease if they just used hiragana. but of course, language learning is never easy, and kanji is part of japanese literature and culture, so i still respect the language :)

    • @anthemsofeurope2408
      @anthemsofeurope2408 4 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      @@stationeryevolution467 I also learn japanese at the moment. I can remember many kanjis (mostly like "water", "city" or "mountain", they are easy). You could write all kanjis in hiragana. 山 would be やま (mountain).

  • @ND62511
    @ND62511 2 ปีที่แล้ว +55

    Ironically enough, I find Kanji super useful as someone who started learning Japanese only 2 months ago; it helps identify words quicker and it helps with analyzing sentences. It also is helpful in making information more compact: 私 takes up so much less space on a page than わたし, even if it is more complex to write. Though, I definitely get why people get annoyed with it; trying to write Kanji small isn’t easy, especially if you have a dull pencil. Makes me think it would be a good idea to invest in a mechanical pencil…
    Interesting to hear a perspective with those fluent with the language!

    • @vergl569
      @vergl569 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      How many kanji have you learned now, 9 months later?

    • @qxuaea
      @qxuaea หลายเดือนก่อน

      common kanji like 俺、僕、私 for example are such saviours, but uncommon kanji are devil incarnate lmao

  • @brokengoat4082
    @brokengoat4082 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5405

    I know everyone already probably said this, but as someone trying to learn Japanese, seeing even natives struggling with kanji made me feel much better and confident. Thank you for this video.

    • @Cats_Bread
      @Cats_Bread 3 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      They werent native thats why they think its difficult

    • @theprophet2444
      @theprophet2444 3 ปีที่แล้ว +92

      It would have been interesting to see if they could tell the meaning of the words instead of writing it, because I have a feeling they would be able to interpret them more easily than actually write them.

    • @thathandsomedevil0828
      @thathandsomedevil0828 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @Cloud TH-cam bro... 👀

    • @thathandsomedevil0828
      @thathandsomedevil0828 3 ปีที่แล้ว +32

      @@theprophet2444 same. I am currently learning Japanese and just learnt my 300th Kanji character. I already shelved the notion of having to write any of the characters from the Kana sets and focusing on being able to read and pronounce them right. I can spend the rest of my life learning how to write them. Issue of course is that this is the digital age, we use keyboards and mobile phone apps for everything now, nobody writes to anyone on paper anymore so I might just get away using Google translate to write documents. My British friend who lives in Osaka told me that's what he does, the dude is married to a Japanese woman and has a kid with her. He also told me not to sweat it, he only knows a thousand Kanji. I still find that all very impressive though. 😄

    • @himesetsu1001
      @himesetsu1001 3 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      @@Cats_Bread they are

  • @boothefool22
    @boothefool22 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5428

    "We can just use hiragana" made my day xD

    • @user-yd4om1qw3n
      @user-yd4om1qw3n 3 ปีที่แล้ว +76

      @@RadkeMaiden We laugh at them for being salty at Taiwan

    • @fatlind259
      @fatlind259 3 ปีที่แล้ว +145

      @@RadkeMaiden I laugh at Chinese people, because they are not allowed to criticise their government.

    • @still.ines07
      @still.ines07 3 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      It's litteraly me trying to learn Japanese :')

    • @principe.5116
      @principe.5116 3 ปีที่แล้ว +42

      @@RadkeMaiden and the rest of the world laugh at Chinese

    • @dijkstra4678
      @dijkstra4678 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      What a relief

  • @Dremekeks
    @Dremekeks 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4167

    4:32 - "Kanji is difficult..
    I don't want to learn them anymore."
    *_MOOD._*

    • @azarilh2355
      @azarilh2355 5 ปีที่แล้ว +126

      Consider that Japanese people learn Japanese because they have to, not because they want to. So if you're studing Japanese ya shouldn't feel depressed if *_even_* some Japanese people dunno how to draw a janji.

    • @Living_Legacy
      @Living_Legacy 5 ปีที่แล้ว +81

      Japanese being forced to learn Kanji in school is the same as Chinese being forced to learn the traditional characters in school or like people in west who are forced to learn Latin. But thank God, being forced to learn Latin is more of a thing in the past now. These old language arts are not even that applicable in the modern day but it's ridiculous how you're still forced to learn them in school.

    • @azarilh2355
      @azarilh2355 5 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      @@Living_Legacy Well, Latin is forced only in certain High Schools/Universities.

    • @shoma9716
      @shoma9716 5 ปีที่แล้ว +38

      ??? Japanese are also forced to learn ancient Japanese and ancient Chinese.
      And those two are included in National Center Exam (something like SAT)
      kanji is more important and necessary skill. Everyone has to be able to read kanji even if they can’t write it unlike Latin in Europe

    • @Living_Legacy
      @Living_Legacy 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@shoma9716 what do you mean ancient Japanese and ancient Chinese? Isn't that just kanji? I agree that kanji in Japan is more useful than Latin is in the west, but it's still not necessary.

  • @Marylily2
    @Marylily2 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    That genuinely made me feel so much better! I’m learning Japanese at the moment and can never retain Kanji, I have no idea why.

  • @ouo5544
    @ouo5544 4 ปีที่แล้ว +11408

    Kanji exists
    American: fml
    Englishman: fml
    Japanese: fml
    Chinese: lol ez

    • @lllIlIllIIIl
      @lllIlIllIIIl 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1351

      Chinese are good at everything. There’s always an unknown Chinese people that has the world record for everything and push their limits. Idk what drives them tbh

    • @yixie6830
      @yixie6830 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1091

      @@lllIlIllIIIl if you can learn writting traditional Chinese, you can learn anything

    • @GreatTasteMurder
      @GreatTasteMurder 4 ปีที่แล้ว +350

      I think Chinese can even understand kanji

    • @LuckyTheory
      @LuckyTheory 4 ปีที่แล้ว +538

      Chinese people really skip the step of remembering the stroke and everything and jump into remembering the sound&meaning instead. Which is sick

    • @omnomnom5359
      @omnomnom5359 4 ปีที่แล้ว +226

      Luta we don’t, we just know the pattern of writing in order because we have learned so many characters.

  • @So___
    @So___ 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3450

    (Ancient) Japanese people: “This new system of writing called Kanji from our neighboring country will improve our literature and knowledge”
    Also (current) Japanese people: “can’t we just use hiragana instead?”
    Edit: just FYI, I’m Japanese and I’ve been studying Kanji for more than 15 years so I know how people are stressed about memorizing complex Kanji, though the ones appeared in this video aren’t that hard😂😂 That’s why many Japanese people in the comment section are kinda confused, aware that many non-Japanese might think that Japanese people can’t even use their mother tongue correctly. Please understand that those that are interviewed in this video don’t represent Japanese as a whole, they’re just a part of massive population and there are MANY people, even middle school students, who can understand every Kanji appeared in the video.

    • @YT-jq6it
      @YT-jq6it 4 ปีที่แล้ว +177

      It's difficult to communicate using only Hiragana cuz our syllable is very simple and there's a lot of meaning for a word read in the same way...
      That's why we're still using Kanji unlike Korean language.

    • @So___
      @So___ 4 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      Y T hahah yeah true but watching people not being able to write or read in Kanji makes me doubt the usefulness of it😂 not sure if you’re Japanese (you used ‘our’ so probably you are??) but anyways 必要最低限の漢字以外は辞書とか自動変換とか使わないと完璧に覚えてられないからどうせならアルファベットみたいな感じになってれば覚えやすいのにな〜って思いました笑笑 教養として一般で使われてる言葉くらいは書けて/読めて当然でないといけないだろうと思いますが...。まあ全部ひらがなだと読むのめんどくさいし細かいニュアンスも伝わらないしなので結局は極論ですよね

    • @potaterjim
      @potaterjim 4 ปีที่แล้ว +164

      The extra sad thing is realizing that they adopted hiragana _after_ kanji, and just never bothered to transition fully.
      "Alright guys, our language has way too many homonyms, and using spaces is off the table. How do we make sure people can tell what we're writing to them?"
      "How about we use chinese characters. some of them are virtually identical to hiragana and katakana, like 夕 and タ, the more complex ones are all literally made of combinations of the basic ones, and sometimes they're related to their radicals, but usually not. And each one has like 4 to 6 different readings depending on the word they're in. And sometimes they just have a unique reading that you just have to know."
      "Well, do they at least make it easier to write lengthy words?"
      "Here's a 56 stroke kanji. If you draw any of the strokes in the wrong order, it will be illegible."

    • @hugoa2637
      @hugoa2637 4 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      Didn't hiragana come after Kanji?

    • @leonpb1409
      @leonpb1409 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Yes can't they

  • @lesweetpea
    @lesweetpea 8 ปีที่แล้ว +2223

    It's good to know that I'm not alone with forgetting how to write certain kanji! Reading kanji is much easier!

    • @cactussenpai9625
      @cactussenpai9625 7 ปีที่แล้ว +74

      LeSweetpea so I'm guessing that's a normal problem yeah?
      If I can read, that's good enough right?

    • @日本ジョリーン
      @日本ジョリーン 7 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      For sure!

    • @illiachapliiov4582
      @illiachapliiov4582 7 ปีที่แล้ว +60

      Yes, totally! It gives me so much more confidence to continue learning Japanese - seeing other people mess up the kanji) Ee, subarashi!!!

    • @debugger6502
      @debugger6502 7 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I love Kanji thou XD

    • @taritangeo4948
      @taritangeo4948 6 ปีที่แล้ว +57

      Its like recognizing people's faces doesn't mean you can draw them from memory.

  • @kanakana8289
    @kanakana8289 2 ปีที่แล้ว +154

    私達日本人は漢字を普段から使いますが、ほとんどはパソコンやスマホなどを利用しますので変換され出てくるため書く機会が少なく手書きではなかなか書けなくなってきています。
    日本語を勉強している方に安心してもらえる動画になって良かったと思います。
    日本語には同じ発音でも違う意味の言葉が沢山あり、漢字を使い分けていますが、日本人は漢字の選択に殆ど苦労しません。
    そして知らない漢字があっても書き順はあまり間違えないと思います。部首などのパーツで認識できるからです。部首やパーツの書き順はほとんど決まっています。書き順を間違えると漢字全体のバランスが悪くなり格好の悪い字になります。
    また部首にもそれぞれ意味があり、知らない漢字でも、パーツの意味から読み方や漢字全体の意味を推察できます。
    漢字を書くことは大切ですが、その漢字の適切な使い方や意味を正しく認識するほうが大切だと思います。『憂鬱』が書けても使い方や意味を間違えるほうが、書けないことより恥ずかしいことだと思います。

    • @ВладимирРеволюционер
      @ВладимирРеволюционер 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      Читать иероглифы всё равно придётся.
      Я считаю если человек смог по памяти написать иерголиф, значит он его хорошо выучил.
      Увидеть иероглиф и вспомнить что он значит легче, чем самим вспомнить и написать.

    • @kjullthedemon
      @kjullthedemon 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      @@ВладимирРеволюционер What's going on here, lmao. Why did you reply to him in Russian

    • @ВладимирРеволюционер
      @ВладимирРеволюционер 2 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      @@kjullthedemon Потому что я русский.

    • @bootyspoon4675
      @bootyspoon4675 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@ВладимирРеволюционер well you should stop being Russian then

    • @zhref563
      @zhref563 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Cómo hispanohablante me alivia un poco saber que hasta los mismos japoneses tienen problemas para escribir los kanjis
      Ya que en si the English It is really difficult because of its pronunciation (which does not agree with what is written and changes a lot)
      Et le français Avec sa prononciation compliquée de mots et ses signes qui n'existent pas dans ma langue 漢字と仮名を組み合わせた日本語では、3つの言語すべてを考えたり話したりすることが困難になっているため、困難を抱えているのは私だけではないことを知ってほっとしています 漢字

  • @PoeCompany
    @PoeCompany 8 ปีที่แล้ว +1688

    the man in the glasses and suit was on point. didn't miss any.

    • @nicetightsize8jeans
      @nicetightsize8jeans 8 ปีที่แล้ว +215

      he was very educated I wonder what kind of work he has to do at his job

    • @PoeCompany
      @PoeCompany 8 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      ***** if you say so

    • @LyamOfficial
      @LyamOfficial 8 ปีที่แล้ว +162

      I will assume he mainly works in an office perhaps dealing with alot of documents and alot of people that work in that field (in Japan) if they have a career they are usually are Law graduates which is quite heavy on the use of Kanjis that most normal folk at Japan dont tend to use everyday

    • @gaboratoria
      @gaboratoria 7 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      His suit was pretty neat

    • @krys8180
      @krys8180 7 ปีที่แล้ว +71

      how is his entire career being discussed with his outfit being the only thing we know about him? 😂

  • @fxyang1989
    @fxyang1989 5 ปีที่แล้ว +582

    0:40 She missed a left stroke in the letter meaning fight. Remember when I was a kid, this is a common mistake to make. And my teacher told me that a fighter without a knife is no fighter at all.

    • @sauusa6294
      @sauusa6294 5 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      is she fighting sugar?

    • @pualamnusantara7903
      @pualamnusantara7903 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@sauusa6294 😂😂😂😂 糖

    • @aye2you
      @aye2you 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      I dont get what youre talking

    • @firstnamelastname3367
      @firstnamelastname3367 4 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      @@aye2you He was refering to 戦 (fight), where learners occasionally mistaken the part 戈 with 弋.
      Pictogramically, it looks like a warrior without whos sword/knife (that missing stroke).

    • @aye2you
      @aye2you 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@firstnamelastname3367 ok a i get it now thanks

  • @MUTSUGORO_
    @MUTSUGORO_ 5 ปีที่แล้ว +7544

    Japanese language (日本語)
    American「🤔」
    Englishman「🤔」
    Japanese 「🤔」

    • @orionwhitford1292
      @orionwhitford1292 4 ปีที่แล้ว +289

      “Japanese language?” I’m still learning

    • @boterloryang2262
      @boterloryang2262 4 ปีที่แล้ว +534

      Chinese:😁

    • @That_Guy977
      @That_Guy977 4 ปีที่แล้ว +125

      japanese could also be 日本人 if it's nationality

    • @deadman9455
      @deadman9455 4 ปีที่แล้ว +104

      Aint that "go" after "nihon" means Japanese language?

    • @That_Guy977
      @That_Guy977 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@deadman9455 Are you replying to me or OP?

  • @neko_kawaii634
    @neko_kawaii634 11 วันที่ผ่านมา +6

    「漢字無くしてひらがなだけにすべき」っていうコメントを見ると悲しくなる。漢字は既に日本独自の発展を遂げて文化として染み付いてるものなのに、軽々しく否定しないでほしい。
    あと単純にひらがなだけで書き表すと文章が読みにくすぎる!利便性の面でも無くすべきではない。
    誰も書けないし読めもしない難読漢字とかは将来無くなっていくかもしれないけど、常用漢字は少なくとも我々が生きている間に無くなることはないと思う。

  • @Yarsig
    @Yarsig 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2764

    "We can just use Hiragana." Most beautiful thing I've ever heard. 700 Kanji in and I'm going to pull my hair out.

    • @tsunderebluu4943
      @tsunderebluu4943 5 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      Have you ever tried Anki?

    • @Yarsig
      @Yarsig 5 ปีที่แล้ว +47

      @@tsunderebluu4943 yes, I have it installed, I also use WaniKani. Still, it's intense once you've been doing it every day for 3 months.

    • @Gumbier_Than
      @Gumbier_Than 5 ปีที่แล้ว +56

      @@Yarsig I'm dying here too. Still every time I read fan fic from some of my favorite manga series, I get encouraged again. It's a vicious circle.

    • @KTMICD2
      @KTMICD2 5 ปีที่แล้ว +58

      @Имран Захаев yeah, but if we remove kanji and insert spaces, we'll get 4 years for free, 4 years of not having to learn kanji lol...
      sure fucking hope it's good for the brain as you say, or maybe I'll have no space left once I learn kanji.

    • @michaelweiske702
      @michaelweiske702 5 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      So, legit answer to the question (from someone who shouldn't have any authority on this whatsoever:
      They use kanji because it separates words from particles. I don't have japanese on my phone, so I'm going to have to romaji it; if you saw in hiragana "ha ha ha ha..." You wouldn't know where one word began and another ended (mostly because the hiragana for "ha" can be used as the subject particle pronounced "wa". The start of the sentence was "ha ha wa ha..." With ha ha meaning mother)

  • @thatguy7155
    @thatguy7155 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3305

    Me: trying to learn Japanese so I can read manga
    That one kanji: how would you like to die

    • @ericperez7750
      @ericperez7750 3 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      How is your progress?

    • @thatguy7155
      @thatguy7155 3 ปีที่แล้ว +140

      @@ericperez7750 last year i read 1 manga and now i read like 10
      Oh about the study? Yeah it's boring and i think it's not needed for now

    • @ericperez7750
      @ericperez7750 3 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      Oh ok lol. but you obviously read the manga in Japanese right?

    • @thatguy7155
      @thatguy7155 3 ปีที่แล้ว +62

      @@ericperez7750 a bit late response but holy crap man now i have a very great idea to cobtinue my japanese study
      Maybe this reading manga in japanese isn't a very bad idea after all

    • @ericperez7750
      @ericperez7750 3 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @@thatguy7155
      oh ok, hope you continue studying!

  • @randomperson1714
    @randomperson1714 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5704

    Chinese people: I learnt those when i was 5.

    • @fungyuncoi4818
      @fungyuncoi4818 4 ปีที่แล้ว +321

      that's quite true though, I was learning characters when I was 4...

    • @gizemkara9004
      @gizemkara9004 4 ปีที่แล้ว +479

      @@fungyuncoi4818 I could not hold a pencil when I was 4 years old. you guys are perfect

    • @feristired8092
      @feristired8092 4 ปีที่แล้ว +332

      @@gizemkara9004 there is always an Asian better than you at everything- someone I think

    • @yeehaw24
      @yeehaw24 4 ปีที่แล้ว +72

      @@heylol1 No one had to. Why do you think it’s called a comment section?

    • @frogeelixir
      @frogeelixir 4 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      lmao not all but like they dont have the exact same meaning and have COMPLETELY different pronounciation and that just gets on my nerves and make me lose motivation to learn japanese T-T

  • @micbrn
    @micbrn 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Thank you for these videos! ありがとございます

  • @sin-YA
    @sin-YA 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1532

    We need only to read Kanzi.
    For example, Most Japanese can read “檸檬” (lemon).
    But Most Japanese can’t write it

    • @georgeshen943
      @georgeshen943 4 ปีที่แล้ว +48

      柠檬

    • @randomperson3974
      @randomperson3974 4 ปีที่แล้ว +47

      @@georgeshen943 that is simplified chinese? (簡體字?)

    • @georgeshen943
      @georgeshen943 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@randomperson3974 yes

    • @chima6291
      @chima6291 4 ปีที่แล้ว +70

      Just like in China, everybody reads 戊戌, but they just don’t know which one is which one.

    • @contresillodenettur9828
      @contresillodenettur9828 4 ปีที่แล้ว +100

      my eyes are paining, did u squeeze some lemons?

  • @Kevin-be9iy
    @Kevin-be9iy 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3192

    Me: I will learn Kanji
    Japanese person: No
    Me: I will not learn Kanji

    • @TheExiledMeriler
      @TheExiledMeriler 4 ปีที่แล้ว +129

      *Japasene person: の

    • @twilightundersky8658
      @twilightundersky8658 4 ปีที่แล้ว +57

      いいえ

    • @seeya3705
      @seeya3705 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      ꧁Twilight UnderSky꧂
      What house..?

    • @twilightundersky8658
      @twilightundersky8658 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      シ ダークローズDarkRose oops I forgot about the extra い lol

    • @seeya3705
      @seeya3705 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ꧁Twilight UnderSky꧂
      へえ…

  • @DaveBarrack
    @DaveBarrack 8 ปีที่แล้ว +1849

    I found it interesting when an English word was used to clarify a Japanese one. (As in "battle") "Oh, that one!"

    • @andyli7344
      @andyli7344 8 ปีที่แล้ว +159

      Battle is actually used quite often in Japanese as a direct loan word. But it's quite common for East Asian language speakers to require clarification when no context is provided for a word. A peculiarity of Mandarin is its abundance of homophones, which were passed on to Japanese and Korean.

    • @barka.extreme
      @barka.extreme 8 ปีที่แล้ว +85

      i think "sentou" has more than one meaning and hence kanji, so he just said the word in English so they could easily get which sentou he is about

    • @relyat89
      @relyat89 8 ปีที่แล้ว +64

      Yeah, that was fascinating. The amount of context required in Japanese is pretty crazy sometimes. English and most western languages seem to rely on context much less.

    • @JustClaude13
      @JustClaude13 8 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      That was the first thing I noticed. I was surprised at the odd words that have infested Japanese.

    • @岡充太郎
      @岡充太郎 8 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      The odd words are usually differentiated by melody. This is also the difference between men's and women's. If picking up the case 「戦闘」and「銭湯」the first is Sen-tou and the second is sen-tou. Women know the meaning of sen-tou「銭湯」 but doesn't use it. They rather use "O-yu." It is also used for "bath" not for public bath and only includes the meaning of bath-tub. In short a bath room is independent from toilets in Japanese house.

  • @cookietries
    @cookietries ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I can't believe it has been 8 years since this video was uploaded. I remember watching it years ago like it was yesterday.

  • @OutlawKING111
    @OutlawKING111 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1676

    Me: Aight I think I'm decent at writing Hiragana and Katakana.
    *kanji exists*
    なに??

    • @blizzard3187
      @blizzard3187 4 ปีที่แล้ว +135

      何‽‽‽

    • @Natalie_Val
      @Natalie_Val 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Yeahh 😂😂

    • @vaiirecti7873
      @vaiirecti7873 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      nani ⁉️⁉️‼️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️

    • @blizzard3187
      @blizzard3187 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @Pink Cut Interrobang

    • @alle_sind_eins161
      @alle_sind_eins161 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      何ですか?

  • @CopShowGuy
    @CopShowGuy 5 ปีที่แล้ว +807

    "Sentou?"
    "Sentou as in 'battle' "
    "OH!"

    • @はひ-s9z
      @はひ-s9z 5 ปีที่แล้ว +202

      We have several words which read “Sentou”.
      For example, 戦闘(battle), 銭湯(Public bath), 先頭(the front of a line), 千頭(1000 of animals).
      So he probably got confused about which SENTOU

    • @CopShowGuy
      @CopShowGuy 5 ปีที่แล้ว +80

      @@はひ-s9z That's fair. How much will the fare cost to get us to the fair? Fare well.

    • @はひ-s9z
      @はひ-s9z 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      CopShowGuy what do you mean?

    • @CopShowGuy
      @CopShowGuy 5 ปีที่แล้ว +81

      @@はひ-s9z English has many words that sound the same as well. Fair, fare, fair, and fare all sound the same but all four have different meanings.

    • @はひ-s9z
      @はひ-s9z 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      CopShowGuy I got it lol

  • @soue6315
    @soue6315 5 ปีที่แล้ว +6193

    Imagine yourself trying to learn a language that even the native speakers have a hard time with.

    • @verybarebones
      @verybarebones 5 ปีที่แล้ว +455

      So every language?

    • @mayoiko
      @mayoiko 5 ปีที่แล้ว +196

      @@verybarebones haha no, some languages are easy

    • @verybarebones
      @verybarebones 5 ปีที่แล้ว +176

      @@mayoiko that doesnt mean native speakers don't struggle with them. Care to mention any language simple enough that no native speakers commit typos on?

    • @mayoiko
      @mayoiko 5 ปีที่แล้ว +158

      @@verybarebones i never see any native speaker struggle with my native language, and most of us dont just speak the national language we also speak more specific local language too, languages are not equally hard or easy, the world is big, open your eyes

    • @mayoiko
      @mayoiko 5 ปีที่แล้ว +135

      @@verybarebones typo is not the same thing as not knowing the spelling/meaning, typo is just happen by accident. not the same as people who cant tell difference between "their" and "they're"

  • @thepunisher2988
    @thepunisher2988 2 ปีที่แล้ว +303

    Actually, the Japanese government once debated abolishing the Kanji system during the Meiji Restoration, but for various reasons it decided against it. It took years for South Korea to completely phase out the use of Kanji, because newspapers and other printed medium kept using Kanji until the internet started to take over as a preferred medium for delivering news. On the other hand, North Korea phased it out relatively quickly it for the purpose of increasing the literacy rate.
    If Japan were to do away with the Kanji system they should have done it long time ago like Korea. There are too many written works and records that will need to be edited/re-written that the process of phasing out the Kanji system will take much longer that it took South Korea. In other words, it is too late now to abolish Kanji, so Japan is better of sticking with it.

    • @natanoliveira554
      @natanoliveira554 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Why would they want it abolished?

    • @Veronica-rh4js
      @Veronica-rh4js 2 ปีที่แล้ว +49

      I disagree with you because it's easier to change it now since most things are virtual. And if you never start you'll never achieve, later is better than never.

    • @低燃費エコドライブ少年
      @低燃費エコドライブ少年 2 ปีที่แล้ว +42

      @@natanoliveira554
      Japan, which lagged behind Western countries in terms of modernization, sought to modernize in various ways. One of these was the abolition of kanji writing. This was because Japan believed that a complicated writing system such as Kanji was hindering the modernization of its own country. Some of them thought that the Japanese language should be abolished and the alphabet should be unified.

    • @Esquelan
      @Esquelan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      @@低燃費エコドライブ少年 I think it’s Japanese unique feature that exists kanji,hiragana,katakana 3 writing system.
      In Meiji era many foreign word is translated using kanji but today people prefer to use katakana.Sometimes I think katakana is too long to read.Although kanji is hard for writing but easy for grasping meanings

    • @めちおにん
      @めちおにん 2 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      1945年時点で識字率が95%以上であったため、廃止する必要がないという結論に達しました

  • @Thatonejoestar
    @Thatonejoestar 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1588

    *Me studying *: why the hell do I need to learn this?
    My mom: imagine someone comes up to you and ask you about this and you don't know what a shame
    Me: wh- who would do that?
    *how my mom expects ppl to ask me:*

    • @moanbug
      @moanbug 3 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      that's literally my dad

    • @さくら-l8t
      @さくら-l8t 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      This is me and mom lol

    • @gasdd71
      @gasdd71 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Dude I understand you so fking much.

    • @ajdz1840
      @ajdz1840 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      You just never know when a random TH-cam channel might do it 🤔

  • @yuh6840
    @yuh6840 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3001

    me:maybe i can learn kanji,maybe its not that hard.
    japanese ppl:kanji is hard.
    Me:okay.

    • @hugebuffman3619
      @hugebuffman3619 5 ปีที่แล้ว +114

      2000 characters. What are they useful for? Saving some space

    • @aidenlin2817
      @aidenlin2817 5 ปีที่แล้ว +51

      I wanna die it also speeds up the reading I think, because the character suggests the meaning itself, while for the other two, you kinda have to mix them up to make sentences, and others would have to separate and recognize words themselves

    • @diaosibuku
      @diaosibuku 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I wanna die they are the language____chinese

    • @alibabaalibabababa3064
      @alibabaalibabababa3064 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      I’m a non-Chinese person living in Hong Kong, and I feel like Kami-sama after seeing these people fail.

    • @tldoesntlikebread
      @tldoesntlikebread 5 ปีที่แล้ว +46

      @@hugebuffman3619 Kanji is also easier to read, it's just hard to write and learn.
      This is Japan in Hiragana:
      にほん
      This is Japan in Kanji:
      日本
      Sentences:
      田中さん日本はあそこだ。
      たなかさんにほんはあそこだ。
      The top sentence is Hiragana and Kanji,
      the bottom sentence is just Hiragana.
      For me the top sentence is easier to read because the words are easier to identify. It's like saying 'one plus one equals two' instead of 1 + 1 = 2
      Kanji also helps to prevents the confusion between hiragana 'ha' with the particle 'wa' which is written with the same character, any word that has ha in it tends to be in Kanji like 話 (hanashi).
      Finally no it's not just space it also helps to combat against homonyms by using different Kanji, because like English, Japan has some as well.

  • @gasdd71
    @gasdd71 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6092

    Reading Kanji is easy… but writing… is a whole different story

    • @るか-r4l
      @るか-r4l 3 ปีที่แล้ว +359

      がんばってください✨

    • @Diamond-pv3bp
      @Diamond-pv3bp 3 ปีที่แล้ว +456

      @@るか-r4l thanks for hiragana atleast I can read it

    • @Diamond-pv3bp
      @Diamond-pv3bp 3 ปีที่แล้ว +68

      @@るか-r4l it is kanbatte kudasai

    • @るか-r4l
      @るか-r4l 3 ปีที่แล้ว +70

      @@Diamond-pv3bp yes!😍thanks for learning Japanese.

    • @nourjassem857
      @nourjassem857 3 ปีที่แล้ว +59

      How am I supposed to read kanji tho? Like I don’t understand I just memorize it

  • @vizsai
    @vizsai 4 วันที่ผ่านมา

    im always so amazed at complex languages like this. if you told me in middle school to learn kanji i would’ve cried

  • @DisEkript
    @DisEkript 9 ปีที่แล้ว +1926

    The first girl is like "jesus stop asking me to write these damn words!"

    • @k_______p
      @k_______p 9 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      +DisEkript true lolol

    • @elemenist
      @elemenist 9 ปีที่แล้ว +169

      still very cute girl but her reaction is just like "Oh God I forgot these exist"

    • @Rachiuwu
      @Rachiuwu 9 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      +DisEkript Lol

    • @kevinpopescu9741
      @kevinpopescu9741 9 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      +Rick Butler I love 'em cute ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

    • @CuteAnimeGirlsAreTheBest
      @CuteAnimeGirlsAreTheBest 9 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      +Rick Butler Actually, if she would have known all the Kanji the situation wouldn't allow her to act so cutely.

  • @QuinsonHonQBB123XX
    @QuinsonHonQBB123XX 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3092

    Foreigner: Menu
    Japanese: 献立
    Me, an intellectual: メニュー
    Edit: 1K likes!!! Thanks guys

    • @ivankoh3779
      @ivankoh3779 5 ปีที่แล้ว +445

      That's what duolingo taught me to say lol

    • @pflh2391
      @pflh2391 5 ปีที่แล้ว +488

      @@ivankoh3779 even duolingo just gave up

    • @lazysloth4256
      @lazysloth4256 5 ปีที่แล้ว +153

      めぬ?

    • @YNNEB-hz3be
      @YNNEB-hz3be 5 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      *AVENGERS THEME PLAYS*

    • @hannnnaareal
      @hannnnaareal 5 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      @its cat what are u trying to say?

  • @Deerkins
    @Deerkins 3 ปีที่แล้ว +6872

    Me learning Japanese: "How the hell do they learn all those letters?"
    Japanese People: "Why can't we just use Hiragana?"

    • @fasddfadfgasdgs
      @fasddfadfgasdgs 3 ปีที่แล้ว +405

      tell them to write a story in Hiragana. They will be like I am learning Kanji quickly as possible.

    • @miruz3519
      @miruz3519 3 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      @@fasddfadfgasdgs why?

    • @kefler187
      @kefler187 3 ปีที่แล้ว +779

      @@miruz3519 becauseit'dbelikereadingthisandtryingtomakesenseofitallasyoureaditatyournormalreadingpacelol

    • @defyspy
      @defyspy 3 ปีที่แล้ว +361

      @@kefler187 I had pain reading that but I did

    • @defyspy
      @defyspy 3 ปีที่แล้ว +207

      @@kefler187 because it'd be like reading this and trying to make sense of it all as you read it at your normal reading pace lol

  • @jorgeae6728
    @jorgeae6728 ปีที่แล้ว +53

    Algo que me he dado cuenta en los meses que llevo estudiando japonés es que los kanjis los puedes reconocer fácilmente cuando los lees, sin embargo la dificultad está cuando tienes que escribirlos

    • @ThePersistentKoala
      @ThePersistentKoala ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Parece que ya no es una distreza necesaria en el siglo XXI

  • @MemeBrainBlast
    @MemeBrainBlast 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2549

    I always wonder how Japanese students are able to complete their test in time writing kanji
    Now I know they don't

    • @peecondom6729
      @peecondom6729 4 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      Lmao

    • @MemeBrainBlast
      @MemeBrainBlast 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @Lauchianto k my bad

    • @beandiesel974
      @beandiesel974 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Oh ok

    • @suno6423
      @suno6423 3 ปีที่แล้ว +417

      Most Japanese students can write most of the kanji. That's because they study hard. On tests, you have to write all the basic things you learned in class in kanji to get a score.
      The reason why the people in the video can't write kanji is because they have fewer opportunities to study now that they are working, and also because they don't have the chance to use the kanji themselves on a daily basis.
      From a high school student in Japan.

    • @BiGSmoke-.-
      @BiGSmoke-.- 3 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@suno6423 Are there times when you may forget or not know a kanji letter?

  • @aldowilliams4765
    @aldowilliams4765 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1846

    Anyone: hey maybe learning Japanese would be fu-
    Kanji: I’m gonna stop you right about there amigo

    • @bing123go
      @bing123go 3 ปีที่แล้ว +42

      I find learning kanji fun but I guess I'm an exception due to the comments

    • @darrenfleming7901
      @darrenfleming7901 3 ปีที่แล้ว +94

      @@bing123go no disrespect to japanese but having a unique drawing for every word defeats the purpose of a writing system.

    • @deo.
      @deo. 3 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      @@darrenfleming7901 There isnt quite a unique character for every word. There are just about 2500 regularly used kanji, for about 15000 words, which is the general average a Japanese person may know.

    • @comradecameron3726
      @comradecameron3726 3 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Youcsn learn Japanese.
      It’s just the writing system that is difficult.

    • @shutdahellup69420
      @shutdahellup69420 3 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      @@deo. i would rather kms like fr, no offense.

  • @c0mplex_Ale
    @c0mplex_Ale 4 ปีที่แล้ว +251

    i feel like reading is much easier than writing in japanese. remembering the symbols and writing them down from scrach is much harder than recognizing what which one they are.

    • @valerijajovanovic2020
      @valerijajovanovic2020 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Yes, that is true.

    • @aoi6833
      @aoi6833 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I’m Japanese and I think it’s true

    • @noahi.1381
      @noahi.1381 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      That is true

  • @Aurora666_yt
    @Aurora666_yt 2 ปีที่แล้ว +244

    Advice to fellow learners of the Japanese language: learning Kanji is not the same as learning a phonetic system (such as kana, Cyrillic, or the latin alphabet, all of which you can learn within a week), it's a different concept altogether. Learning Kanji is like learning words or word stems. You're just never going to master the Kanji if you're stuck in the western mentality. It's supposed to take a few years to learn, so be patient.

    • @cxllmegeo3557
      @cxllmegeo3557 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Cold hearted truth 😓

    • @dogchaser520
      @dogchaser520 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      "a few years"
      Good stuff

    • @glory1356
      @glory1356 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Sorry but I'm not taking advices from Ben Shapiro fan...

    • @Aurora666_yt
      @Aurora666_yt ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@glory1356 What does that have to do with learning Japanese? 👀

    • @Aurora666_yt
      @Aurora666_yt ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@glory1356 My advice to YOU: Don't learn. Forget about the kanji and stick to the hiragana. Stay on the beginner level and leave the kanji to the experts.
      That's my advice to all the trolls. 😁

  • @gek3674
    @gek3674 5 ปีที่แล้ว +181

    It's amazing to see on a psychologic view how the more unsure they are of the answer the smaller their writing and viceversa.

    • @nekokna
      @nekokna 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Nero Deserto werent there also some big mistakes too?

    • @Xegethra
      @Xegethra 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@nekokna Yeah, but you can be wrong and confident for sure.

  • @mosshotep
    @mosshotep 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1116

    When a system is so complicated that the natives struggle

    • @kokonut5498
      @kokonut5498 4 ปีที่แล้ว +124

      jak sam To be fair, majority of Americans can’t distinguish their there and they’re. Or using “an” before a vowel so the average Japanese are smarter than the average American.

    • @VladimirJacinthe
      @VladimirJacinthe 4 ปีที่แล้ว +55

      rxd also, they don’t know how to use commas when they’re making a list.

    • @LuisFlores-tx4ee
      @LuisFlores-tx4ee 4 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      rxd or they misspell easy words like “realise”

    • @dimitrivukasin6867
      @dimitrivukasin6867 4 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      Your and you're

    • @permanent_daydreamer
      @permanent_daydreamer 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      rxd also I’m pretty sure other countries that have English as the primary language will make those same mistakes

  • @cxllmegeo3557
    @cxllmegeo3557 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    This video makes me feel more confident in just by seeing this. I thought that learning like all of kanji was like the base of Japanese so it stunned my motivation but I’m glad to see some people share my pain. 😂

  • @aunomixenda6173
    @aunomixenda6173 4 ปีที่แล้ว +304

    Me: learned hiragana and katakana in Japanese language but have been crying in toilet for hours seeing kanji.
    Japanese: (confused about kanji)
    Me : (stays confused too)👀

  • @crow4834
    @crow4834 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3071

    if japanese people cant remember how am i supposed to 😭😭

    • @SL2797
      @SL2797 4 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      With this: th-cam.com/video/sspUdoV9Il0/w-d-xo.html

    • @wladfan
      @wladfan 4 ปีที่แล้ว +75

      you are not, why would you want to speak a vocabulary no one else speaks lol

    • @crow4834
      @crow4834 4 ปีที่แล้ว +87

      Seudofonix its best to learn if youre wanting to write and read? cant read subtitles or books without knowledge of it

    • @wladfan
      @wladfan 4 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      @@crow4834 You have to learn more kanjis, when you find a hard one you will be able to read it because of its parts, but not write it

    • @wladfan
      @wladfan 4 ปีที่แล้ว +50

      @@musevms I was talking about the complex kanjis / kanjis of words that are rarely used, even japanese people don't know some kanjis, so why would anyone learning japanese learn the kanjis not even japanese people know?

  • @Koisheep
    @Koisheep 6 ปีที่แล้ว +262

    The suited man is my hero he knows how to write everything in a beautiful way

    • @johnkisaragi5920
      @johnkisaragi5920 5 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      His handwriting was god awful actually.

    • @ChipotleKanetsu
      @ChipotleKanetsu 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@leejiale3970 It's bad. 2:15 was good.

  • @Rene-tl1hz
    @Rene-tl1hz 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    漢字はその1文字だけでも意味を持つし、組み合わせて更に意味を持たせられる。音の響きが優先されるひらがなと、外来の印象を与えるカタカナ、これに加えて漢字があると読む時に細かな表現まで込められた意味をしっかり伝えられるから読みやすいんだよな。でも画数が多いと書くとなると普段からよく使う文字じゃないと忘れる字が多い。問題なく読めるけど書けない漢字が多いというより、読ませるための文字だからって感じかなあ

  • @poypoyh4413
    @poypoyh4413 3 ปีที่แล้ว +923

    面白いです! I’m a Japanese and I don’t write kanji in my daily life. In our daily life, we type hiragana to the computer and it changes them to kanji. Although we learn many kanji from elementary school to high school, we forget them after graduation😂. All we need is that we can read them. That’s why some people like 1:25 notice that the kanji they write is not correct(=something is wrong) but they can’t write the correct ones.
    Kanji is one of Japanese but sometimes I feel like that remembering kanji is similar to remember foreign language.(Of course it’s much easier than studying foreign language though)
    In schools, we have English-Japanese / Japanese-English dictionary to learn English. Similarly, we have kanji-Japanese dictionary to learn kanji.

    • @KingKuuga
      @KingKuuga 2 ปีที่แล้ว +73

      This is not a perfect comparison but that sounds like learning to write in cursive as an English speaker. You can read it pretty easily but you very rarely need to write it, and so you forget how to.

    • @LadyPelikan
      @LadyPelikan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      Haha. I find writing cursive really easy - it's trying to decide what I wrote (or my parents!) that is tricky!!!

    • @LadyPelikan
      @LadyPelikan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Thanks for the insight in how Japanese write today!

    • @KingKuuga
      @KingKuuga 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@LadyPelikan I haven't used it since middle school I think so I gradually forgot how to write in it. My signature has also devolved into a series of squiggles, haha. Glad that some people still use it though.

    • @LadyPelikan
      @LadyPelikan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@KingKuuga I write both notes, lettres and diary. But I like paper, stationary and books (as objects), and I know I'm not representative.

  • @localnyraccoon
    @localnyraccoon 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1164

    "We can just use hiragana",
    Finally, someone who understands me.

    • @mandynguyen8176
      @mandynguyen8176 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      fr 😭

    • @robertcastel1565
      @robertcastel1565 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      and what if you want write foreign words? you gonna to write in katakana.

    • @Arado159
      @Arado159 2 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      ​@@robertcastel1565 They were only asked to write 'domestic words' (Kanji) in this video though, hence they mentioned wanting to use hiragana instead.

    • @danieltran9634
      @danieltran9634 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      It’s actually more frustrating in some situations if only hiragana is used. Because in Japanese, there are so many words with same pronunciation but different meanings. I actually prefer reading materials with kanji.

    • @stratonikisporcia8630
      @stratonikisporcia8630 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@danieltran9634 People would never talk about their mother again
      Too scared to write the nonsense ははは looks like

  • @w7f21
    @w7f21 4 ปีที่แล้ว +775

    Japanese people: kanji is pretty hard
    Chinese people: that’s what we write on the daily

    • @LestrovoCoder6646
      @LestrovoCoder6646 4 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      Ya, this is what we learned daily. But the fact, we can't even write it out on the spot too🤣🤣🤣

    • @LestrovoCoder6646
      @LestrovoCoder6646 4 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      I mean some of the words are different from Chinese.
      But the word 贿赂 quite similar to chinese, but yet, I can't write it without handphone

    • @HingYok
      @HingYok 4 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@LestrovoCoder6646 It's the same in Traditional Chinese though.

    • @LestrovoCoder6646
      @LestrovoCoder6646 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@HingYok is it?? 😂😂
      My traditional chinese is bad

    • @Rubbeei
      @Rubbeei 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@HingYok Fun fact: some of the words are not the same as traditional chinese

  • @palmfictionisalehavre-musi6360
    @palmfictionisalehavre-musi6360 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Very well updating of these old videos that i enjoyed watching! Very good memories

    • @palmfictionisalehavre-musi6360
      @palmfictionisalehavre-musi6360 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I'm happy i can still enjoy these videos, and wondered how you managed renew or update. Fantastic. Very good job you did, beautiful

  • @sodu5698
    @sodu5698 5 ปีที่แล้ว +696

    Me a japanese: laughs at them for not knowing
    Me a Japanese: not remembering learning any of this

    • @joaovitordemelo8209
      @joaovitordemelo8209 4 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Hey, I'm learning Japanese, I'm quite at the beggining - i've learned just some grammar, hiragana and katakana, some radicals (I'm trying to learn them first to make learning Kanji easier) and I'm almost finishing learning the first grade's kanji. How much kanji do you think I still have to learn to be able to read decently, like, get most of the meaning of japanese twitters? I'm asking to you because you're a native and I've never actually spoken to a native japanese before (English is not my native language either, I'm brazilian)

    • @davidribosome4326
      @davidribosome4326 4 ปีที่แล้ว +15

      @@joaovitordemelo8209 to speak decently learn the most common 2000 kanji. Look up most common 2000 kanji and go from most to least common. This is a good strategy for any language

    • @joaovitordemelo8209
      @joaovitordemelo8209 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@davidribosome4326 That's what I'm doing, with Anki's help (a spaced-repetition software that helps memorization). First, I learned all common radicals (about 214), and then, I started learning kanji by making mnemonics using the radicals. I'm learning 20 new kanji per day and constantly reviewing it, and the order I'm using it's the order japanese people learn in school (because i read that is more didatic than the JLPT order)

    • @joaovitordemelo8209
      @joaovitordemelo8209 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@davidribosome4326 After learning all kanji (and meanwhile I'm already acquiring some vocabulary and grammar notions) I plan to learn japanese itself. I think it will be easier for me this way (like learning an alphabet and then moving to the language, but in this case the alphabet has 2000+ words)

    • @davidribosome4326
      @davidribosome4326 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@joaovitordemelo8209 NICE. Im doing the same. Good luck :)

  • @フクトモ
    @フクトモ 6 ปีที่แล้ว +1878

    Japanese cannot write kanji correctly due to PC and smartphone.But they can choose kanji properly on PC and smartphone.Literacy rate is 99%.
    There are 2000 chinese characters for daily use.

    • @SimArtzSimonS
      @SimArtzSimonS 6 ปีที่แล้ว +63

      @Error_404 PL It is not very different from chinese at all, many of the traditional hanzi (traditional chinese) characters is being used in Kanji, and many simplified hanzi characters has been simplified in the same way as kanji.

    • @Cookie-du2ru
      @Cookie-du2ru 6 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Teach me japanese

    • @yizhou5903
      @yizhou5903 6 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      It makes sense. I'm a Chinese, but due to PC and smartphone, sometimes I cannot write correctly either.

    • @AndrewVasirov
      @AndrewVasirov 6 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Error_404 PL
      Tsu and Shi
      or
      N and So
      I have a harder time differentiating N and So rather than Tsu and Shi, because there are only two strokes.
      The hardest thing about Japanese is learning how to pronounce a certain Kanji character in different instances. Chinese being a tonal language family and Japanese being not, there are a lot of homophones.

    • @yimmzz3093
      @yimmzz3093 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      Yi Zhou 对啊

  • @sakurya972
    @sakurya972 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2873

    Me being new to learning Japanese: Yes I managed to learn Hiragana in just a few weeks!
    Kanji: Oh hello there..

    • @Bulderme
      @Bulderme 3 ปีที่แล้ว +324

      Katakana: "Sorry to bump in, but...."

    • @user-zj1wd8ty5r
      @user-zj1wd8ty5r 3 ปีที่แล้ว +33

      I AM HERE!

    • @poof9327
      @poof9327 3 ปีที่แล้ว +110

      I am pretty fluent in hiragana(reading and writing) after like 3 hours now. Learning katakana rn, and I don’t wanna start kanji. Looks overwhelming xD

    • @qamar1041
      @qamar1041 3 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      @@poof9327
      Pretty easy once u master the first 2

    • @poof9327
      @poof9327 3 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      @@qamar1041 cap

  • @clintzieandromeda6216
    @clintzieandromeda6216 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I remember writing in Chinese for the first time and it is so difficult for me so I assume it would be the same as Japanese Kanji. But the thing is that not all Kanji gives me the struggle to write for those that has less than ten strokes. Like a year ago, I was enjoying writing in Japanese, and yes I also wrote Kanjis with a lot of strokes. Imagine everything in Japanese are just Hiragana and Katakana since Kanji came from China and the Japanese will not struggle writing their letters just like how we write in English.

  • @cybr88
    @cybr88 4 ปีที่แล้ว +543

    I read “Wairou” as “Wario” help

    • @stefanchandra1237
      @stefanchandra1237 4 ปีที่แล้ว +46

      Are ya coding son

    • @cybr88
      @cybr88 4 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      曾彥茗 *fake* yandere dev

    • @tylermustardloooser386
      @tylermustardloooser386 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      fair

    • @yangjeongin4053
      @yangjeongin4053 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      i read it as 'Wayrow'

    • @dum..
      @dum.. 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Alex, you should be learning how to code not how to talk japanese f off.

  • @はろ03
    @はろ03 5 ปีที่แล้ว +171

    I am Chinese and my mum taught me very well when I was learning how to write. Words that contain 貝(it means shell) in it usually are related to money as shells were money back in thousands years ago. Therefore, for “wairo”--賄賂 is related to money. There are also some other words that have secret relationship between each other sometimes but I’m not gonna list them all out as it’ll be too long

    • @ylangylang1088
      @ylangylang1088 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Matthew Tse please do

    • @alexp5569
      @alexp5569 4 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      Wow so it isn't random. That'll make it easier to learn once you know some. Like a snowball going off a mountain.

    • @lullaby_xx0324
      @lullaby_xx0324 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      y=Yea the book remembering kanji talks about that too. honestly the best book to learn kanji is from there. it attach's story's into each kanji that it would be very hard to forget. like i'm actually learning about 50 kanji a day from that book and its grilled into my head. i'm honestly so greatful for that book because before it was so hard for me to remember before. So I highly recommend it for people that are learning kanji. you can find it online.

    • @Maerigorr
      @Maerigorr 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      NoviMusic where I need it!!😭🤣

    • @cgamll
      @cgamll 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@lullaby_xx0324 What is the title of the book please ?

  • @ThatJapaneseManYuta
    @ThatJapaneseManYuta  9 ปีที่แล้ว +128

    日本で育ったハーフ、ミックス、非(東)アジア人系の日本人の皆さん、僕のチャンネルでインタビューを受けてみませんか?こちらまでご連絡ください。
    www.yutaaoki.com/blog/contact
    Are you a mixed or non-Asian Japanese person who grew up in Japan? Would you like to come to my channel and get interviewed? Please contact me:
    www.yutaaoki.com/blog/contact

    • @inquisitvem6723
      @inquisitvem6723 9 ปีที่แล้ว

      +ThatJapaneseManYuta don't adults normally forget as they get older in general? as we get older, we tend to forget what we learned in elementary and high school.

    • @LlamasBCN
      @LlamasBCN 9 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      +TheFirstBumtoDie To me it was really interesting and funny because although i'm still a beginner in japanese i know some of those kanji and can write them without much effort and at the same time some of those people being waaaay better than me (obviously) with japanese couldn't.
      Really nice video Yuta, i enjoyed it a lot.

    • @michaeljosephdimaano2802
      @michaeljosephdimaano2802 9 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      +ThatJapaneseManYuta nice challenge man. as a foreigner who is planning to spend my life in japan, that quite gave me a relief that even Japanese people is having a hard time remembering and writing kanji.

    • @lawable4946
      @lawable4946 9 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      +441meatloaf I don't think it is really that hard to remember if your first language is chinese

    • @BenjiSun
      @BenjiSun 9 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      +I'm Lawable it is. but for us it's every single character so it imprints a lot easier for us. when Japan has an alphabet to fall back on, they don't feel as much of a need to remember how to write the kanji as long as they can read it. it's rather sad because like the Koreans, their words are much shorter than other alphabet languages(eg. English, French, Russian, ...) so they have a lot of words written exactly the same way in hiragana, which becomes confusing in legalese, or even everyday use and everything needs to be pointed out explicitly otherwise they don't know what they're talking about. hana = nose, hana can also mean flower, and then intonations doesn't work either since Osaka dialect, Nagoya dialect, Tokyo dialect all have separate tones for words. not saying this because i'm Chinese, but it'll be confusing as hell if Japanese gives up on their Kanji like those two lazy girls think, even seeing some of their mistakes, one girl wrote wairo(corruption) as wa-rou (wa as in something that's traditionally japanese , and dew, as in morning condensation).

  • @yh-japan
    @yh-japan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    As someone who learned Japanese since last September and started living in Japanese for about 2 months now, I prefer seeing and reading kanji, but to write them, it’s a whole another level 😂 I can recognise them while typing yes but writing it out is almost impossible 😂

  • @wickedninja8599
    @wickedninja8599 8 ปีที่แล้ว +371

    Well, I feel better now that I know Japanese people have trouble learning Kanji.

    • @Cayan47
      @Cayan47 8 ปีที่แล้ว

      me too....

    • @maxkillers26
      @maxkillers26 8 ปีที่แล้ว

      hahahaha same

    • @veronicacamp9334
      @veronicacamp9334 8 ปีที่แล้ว

      wickedninja8599 Lol same

    • @elguinolo7358
      @elguinolo7358 7 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I wonder how much more (or less) difficult it could be for the Chinese.

  • @yejianyue
    @yejianyue 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1557

    Me as native chinese speaker: why cant we just use kanji

    • @TCookiebh
      @TCookiebh 5 ปีที่แล้ว +90

      Have you ever seen ancient chinese poems as Japanese texts? It’s kind of beautiful

    • @remingtonlamey3464
      @remingtonlamey3464 5 ปีที่แล้ว +140

      I was starting to wonder if no one was going to point out that it would be much easier for a Chinese speaker to learn kanji. Thank you for vindicating my belief.

    • @Huaneyk
      @Huaneyk 5 ปีที่แล้ว +71

      Remington Lamey Not quite. You know the meaning, though not exactly the same all the time, and that’s it. Japanese way of reading kanji is complicated as hell

    • @Th3End0fUs
      @Th3End0fUs 5 ปีที่แล้ว +137

      As a native chinese (I speak Cantonese), it’s easy for us to recognise and write Kanji, but the meaning in Chinese isn’t always the same as in Japanese. When I pick up Japanese products at supermarkets I just skim for Kanji and get a rough meaning of it😂😂😂

    • @Qichar
      @Qichar 5 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      @@remingtonlamey3464 Plus, sometimes the pronunciation isn't anywhere close to being the same in the two languages. It can be more confusing than if you didn't know any kanji to begin with. My brain wants to think the Chinese pronunciation when I see the Japanese kanji.

  • @ユエー-v5r
    @ユエー-v5r 5 ปีที่แล้ว +480

    me: *laughs in hiragana and katakana*

    • @tarambukis-c2q
      @tarambukis-c2q 4 ปีที่แล้ว +38

      broo kana is such a breeze, kanji is fucking hell

    • @vanessawertheim
      @vanessawertheim 4 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      フヘへ。。
      Same tho

    • @MybeautifulandamazingPrincess
      @MybeautifulandamazingPrincess 4 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Yup but the problem is, although you can communicate with only kana, you virtually can't read Japanese without Kanji cause they use Kanji in pretty much every sentence..

    • @Nazza_Bazza
      @Nazza_Bazza 4 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      へへ はは (´༎ຶོ◡༎ຶོ`)

    • @myoouii
      @myoouii 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      笑笑

  • @ruru4983
    @ruru4983 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I can't believe this was 6 years ago makes me feel olddd

  • @cn8299
    @cn8299 8 ปีที่แล้ว +1579

    It's so strange that they don't seem to know the word until the guy says the English variant, then they're like "OH THAT word!"

    • @tarisae
      @tarisae 8 ปีที่แล้ว +366

      John Doe because they are lots of homonyms in japanese.

    • @akakybashmachkin656
      @akakybashmachkin656 8 ปีที่แล้ว +202

      John Doe That's why they need kanji

    • @f0960031
      @f0960031 8 ปีที่แล้ว +325

      Following is several examples that pronounced Sentou:
      戦闘(Battle) 先頭(Piorneer) 銭湯(Public Bath) 
      尖塔(Tower with a sharp shape) 仙洞(Holy cave) 
      千頭(One thousand of ...(animals) )
      And, this is why they need kanji.
      On the other hand, Chinese has way more vowels and tones that can differ those Kanji and makes them to have different sounds.
      Being a native Chinese speaker living in Japan is fun lol

    • @dickdastardly9209
      @dickdastardly9209 8 ปีที่แล้ว +82

      If they actually needed kanji, then speaking in Japanese would be impossible

    • @f0960031
      @f0960031 8 ปีที่แล้ว +149

      Dick Dastardly Totally possible, because communication is not only by pronounciation, but also by the circumstances. Japaneae is a high-context language and it depends less on the words itself, but the total environment of the dialogue.
      However, for writting, there is no real circumstances for you to get into the meaning, and that is why you need Kanji in Japanese. In short, originally, Kanji is for recording but not speaking.

  • @hyperkaioken4982
    @hyperkaioken4982 8 ปีที่แล้ว +912

    some of those look complicated as hell to remember XD

    • @hyperkaioken4982
      @hyperkaioken4982 8 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      so do they not use it for everyday things then?

    • @hyperkaioken4982
      @hyperkaioken4982 8 ปีที่แล้ว

      true but in japan they have so many different forms of writting right? or am i wrong?

    • @takoyucky
      @takoyucky 8 ปีที่แล้ว +33

      +Jordy Uk Once you start to learn them they're not as complicated as they look because most difficult looking kanji are made up of similar components.

    • @DragN_H3art
      @DragN_H3art 7 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      not really if you're Chinese like me ;)

    • @sophiethewater7743
      @sophiethewater7743 7 ปีที่แล้ว

      FiveADay Kanji
      And in 7th grade youre just a mindless blob, huh? XD

  • @yerneroneroipas8668
    @yerneroneroipas8668 5 ปีที่แล้ว +191

    The business guy knew bribe lmao

    • @ucas5581
      @ucas5581 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      *ironic*

    • @RandomL0s3r
      @RandomL0s3r 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      Woudn't you need to if you were one?

  • @user-281
    @user-281 11 วันที่ผ่านมา

    As a Chinese I often forgot how to write a Chinese charactor too after over a decade of using keyboard instead of hand-writing. But there are some input methods encode charactors by charactors' shape, if any geeks using that kind of input method which is very hard to learn, he can't forgot how to hand write a charactor.

  • @TheSaneHatter
    @TheSaneHatter 9 ปีที่แล้ว +673

    In the West, research has been done (and widely publicized) suggesting that people read entire words in "romanji," instead of reading them letter by letter. They simply look at the first and last letters, and then fill in the rest of the word, even if the letters are mis-spelled.
    My point being, that if any similar effect exists with regard to kanji, then it might explain some of the results here: Japanese people might well be used to reading the entire character at a glance, instead of picking apart, and hence remembering, the individual components.
    But that's just speculation on my part.

    • @Figureight
      @Figureight 9 ปีที่แล้ว +82

      +Nick Hentschel Going by my experiences in learning Chinese Hanzi I think that's completely correct. I can read a character and know what it is at a glance but if I think about it to write them I can't pick out the individual parts of the character to write it, unless it's a frequently used word.

    • @nyororin
      @nyororin 9 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      I agree here, being exposed to "kanji" throughout my life in chinese and japanese settings. In a vague sense, I can tell when a character is written as it should, however when it is written wrong I occasionally cannot tell you exactly what is off. My experience however is only being a 二世, however I get this feeling from my mother all the time when I ask for help.

    • @MRKLBS
      @MRKLBS 9 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      +Nick Hentschel I think you're right, because I study Chinese and I often have no problems in reading words that I already know, but when I'm going to write them down, I forget a part of the character even though I have a visual idea of how the character looks, in my mind.

    • @callizer
      @callizer 9 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      +Nick Hentschel If you have learned a foreign language before, you'll know that "recalling" and "recognising" are totally different skills.
      "Recognising" includes reading and listening. Sometimes I call this as "passive language skill". It's the one that you can learn quite quickly from textbooks.
      "Recalling" includes writing and speaking. This is the one that needs a lifetime practice.
      Being able to read a kanji doesn't mean you can write it because they're different set of skills.

    • @TheSaneHatter
      @TheSaneHatter 9 ปีที่แล้ว

      Kevin Setiadi That could also be a factor, yes. But please don't assume that it's something I "should" know already.

  • @dylanblue9201
    @dylanblue9201 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1787

    Japanese
    English speakers: How the hell does this work?
    Kanji
    Japanese People: _How the hell does this work?_

    • @stefanchandra1237
      @stefanchandra1237 4 ปีที่แล้ว +167

      Traditional Chinese
      Simplified Chinese Users: *HOW THE HELL DOES THIS WORK?*

    • @banana7094
      @banana7094 4 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@stefanchandra1237 i can relate that so much :(

    • @dawsondonnellmusic
      @dawsondonnellmusic 4 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      But hiragana and katakana are fairly easy to understand imo

    • @moaangol5915
      @moaangol5915 4 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@stefanchandra1237 its other way around, grown up with simplified chinese is more likely easy to understand tranditional chinese.

    • @한태준-g8q
      @한태준-g8q 4 ปีที่แล้ว

      literally lol

  • @renphob1c
    @renphob1c 4 ปีที่แล้ว +89

    Me, a Japanese person who lives in England: *I'm glad I wasn't wandering around there at that time*

  • @pontapon7631
    @pontapon7631 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I can read it because I remember it as a form, but when asked to write it, it doesn't come up. I think this is even more the case now that computers and smart phones are more common and we don't use pencils as much anymore.

  • @Zh3nx
    @Zh3nx 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1272

    "it's basically chinese but stolen by japanese"
    *- my asian mom 2019*

    • @LastBastion
      @LastBastion 5 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      It is,

    • @Zh3nx
      @Zh3nx 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@LastBastion y u gotta be toxic to my english? i speak 🇳🇱 🇨🇳

    • @LastBastion
      @LastBastion 5 ปีที่แล้ว +61

      @@Zh3nx ._.
      Your mom's statement is actually correct 😁

    • @annonimooseq1246
      @annonimooseq1246 5 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Asianchickensoup I think that they were just agreeing with you, like oh yeah, it is

    • @sebastiandreak1462
      @sebastiandreak1462 5 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Too harsh, it's more a drawing experience rather than simply "stole"

  • @ramjam6934
    @ramjam6934 6 ปีที่แล้ว +375

    as long as you can read and recognize it i guess.

    • @jhope6272
      @jhope6272 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      The likes....don't wanna spoilt it so imma comment..

  • @NPRoyalty
    @NPRoyalty 5 ปีที่แล้ว +428

    Most People in Japan: *Can't remember how to write it.
    Americans: *Finally, they have their downfall.*

    • @Aenokoff
      @Aenokoff 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Ok

    • @Gamesmarts194
      @Gamesmarts194 5 ปีที่แล้ว +38

      Crush If we extend the contraction...
      “*Finally, they have they are downfall.*”
      Apparently you’re following them, buddy

    • @mayoiko
      @mayoiko 5 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      also americans: @Crush

    • @yamii7601
      @yamii7601 5 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      @Crush they're means they are and it doesn't make sense in the sentence, therefor you are incorrect

    • @lavii3355
      @lavii3355 5 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      + Crush You have incorrect grammar one second then good grammar the next?

  • @Lolownik
    @Lolownik ปีที่แล้ว +8

    I started learning Japanese a couple of days ago and so far I have learnt Hirakana and after thinking that I'd need to memorise Kanji I thought it would be a disaster to learn, but this... Does put a smile on my face.
    EDIT: Actually screw kanji I am not learning this. Surely I will be fine with Hiragana and Katakana.

    • @dreikaneda8913
      @dreikaneda8913 ปีที่แล้ว

      It depends on what your goals are, if you want to focus on speaking or understanding Japanese, Kanji might not be necessary, but not studying them at all can make everything more complicated :')

  • @karaneek6478
    @karaneek6478 8 ปีที่แล้ว +117

    This is actually understandable. If you think about English, even if you see certain words in books or on the internet it doesnt mean you know how to spell them.

    • @1anfinity08
      @1anfinity08 6 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      hannah eee except kanji has certain stroke patterns. When get the patterns wrong, it's actually a big deal

    • @cassuso4902
      @cassuso4902 6 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I've never looked at a word in a book and lacked the ability to spell a word I just read.

    • @Cotopia
      @Cotopia 6 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Speak for yourself.

  • @theproblemmustbeinyourpant5910
    @theproblemmustbeinyourpant5910 6 ปีที่แล้ว +463

    And I thought drawing a capital "E" was time consuming...

    • @filiparsovski4250
      @filiparsovski4250 5 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      Same, i just curve it to save time

    • @kaori8315
      @kaori8315 5 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Lol same

    • @thisismacom3723
      @thisismacom3723 5 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @@filiparsovski4250 you mean like this 'Э'

    • @ReiAnikaAyanami
      @ReiAnikaAyanami 5 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@thisismacom3723 yeah!! I do it like this too (except it's reversed)

    • @subscriberswithnovideos-vz1bw
      @subscriberswithnovideos-vz1bw 5 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      The Problem Must Be In Your Pants writing 等悲 for example is easy

  • @flaviospadavecchia5126
    @flaviospadavecchia5126 8 ปีที่แล้ว +198

    Please, make more of these kanji videos!!!

    • @jon1591
      @jon1591 8 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ^^^this

    • @adomniapericula
      @adomniapericula 8 ปีที่แล้ว

      +FiveADay Kanji I think he means that he agrees with it

    • @jon1591
      @jon1591 8 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      ^^^^ this

  • @thirdaccount106
    @thirdaccount106 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Thanks for posting this, this gives me hope and encouragement to learn

    • @Cartoories
      @Cartoories 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Me too. XD