I wasn't expecting a Japanese grammar lesson to end with a soap opera skit, or that I would be invested in the outcome, just for it to return to 'now this would be weird because it's expressing the husband's feelings'
I swear, parts of the lesson about "knowing your limitations" and understanding "subjectivity of emotion/intentions" is almost like a preface from a good textbook. 👍
Although I don't agree with the idea that feelings are wholly subjective, this could explain why Japanese academics like phenomenology so much. At least we can still use verbs in the teiru form.
@AwesomeWholesome good point. Not meaning to split hairs, but you have mood and effect. And people may interpret others differently, depending on the situation. Hence, the importance of second opinions, especially in fields related to psychology. Q.E.D.
"I cannot express his feelings because I am not my son." I couldn't have said it better myself. So many times when I was a kid, I'd tell my parents "I'm hungry" or "I'm thirsty." And they'd say, "You're not hungry" or "You're not thirsty." One day, I said, "How do you know how _I_ feel?" And they gave me this look like "You better not say that again." I always said that if I ever have children, I'm never going to tell them how they don't feel.
Sadly just because the language has different views of what is a logical way to describe feelings doesnt stop parents from entitled or cruel feelings toward their kids
You've answered one of the words that my wife used, but I never understood. She would say that our dog was "kowagatteiru" about earthquakes and I didn't know the word. When she explained it to me, I understood, but wondered why she didn't just use kowai. Makes sense now.
This video shows your deep understanding of English, actually. Also, I was hoping you would make a video that describes the difference between how to use 喜ぶ and 嬉しい, because it was always something I was confused on! Now I recognize the difference, thanks.
This idea of not directly expressing other people's feelings is really interesting. It makes me wonder how much this influences how Japanese people think of other people's feelings. I could be off on this but I imagine a lot of Japanese people would be more careful in assuming what another person feels unless directly told by them. In the very least, I imagine it makes it harder to put words in other people's mouths.
Which would help from the chaos we have in western world. Also would mitigate the allegation of cultural appropriation unless the original owner express it themselves Japan has alot of inbuilt natural defense for many things
i think ur actually UNDERestimating it. becuz clearly, even if sakura tells you she feels scared, in japanese, you STILL cant say "sakura feels scared". it sounds weird becuz how can u know how somebody else feels? oh.... she told u how she feels? well, it still feels weird. im guessing this is becuz japanese culture forces japanese ppl to lie about their feelings a lot, so the language assumes "yeah if she says she was scared, that dont mean anything". in america and canada this is abnormal becuz we're less likely to lie about our feelings
Thank you!!! Oh my god, lol, this really help!! 🤣🤣 I often forcing chatGPT to include "watashi" when translating my words, so when the japanese person i talked to read it, they know that i'm talking about "my feeling" I noticed chatGPT translation is kinda always delete the subject. But its correct afterall, since you said adding watashi is weird, omg, lol, now i'm embarrassed at how many "Watashi" that i already said "weirdly"!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm curious how this effects fictional narratives. When writing in 3rd person (in English,) there are three different approaches. The omniscient narrator knows exactly what all characters are thinking and feeling, the limited narrator has insight into the thoughts and feelings of only one character, and the objective narrator can only describe what character are doing and appear to feel. For example, "Bob and Alice felt sick looking at the ugly spectacle before them." "Alice felt sick looking at the ugly spectacle before them. Bob looked like he might throw up." "Bob and Alice stepped back from the ugly spectacle before them. Alice looked clammy and pale. Bob doubled over, seeming sick to his stomach." In English, the first approach is the most popular, followed by the second. It's more space efficient to show the audience the inner feelings of the characters than to construct scenes where the audience must infer it. Does Japanese approach narrative in a similar way, or is the expression of character's feelings more like spoken language?
Actually, if you are writing literature, the descriptive method is usually preferred because it helps to place the reader in the scenario better, though sometimes the description is applied to the emotion itself so you can put yourself in the characters' shoes more easily. For example, "Alice's felt her stomach drop and the blood rush from her head, as if the ugly spectacle before her had wrenched her gut with an icy hand. Bob could feel that same hand coaxing the contents of his stomach out, forcing him to buckle over as his instinct to wretch overwhelmed his every sense, gripping his mind as words and thoughts left him faster than even his gag reflex could have kicked in; only a desperate struggle to suppress emesis remained." Might be bordering on the omniscient 3rd person narrator, though there are degrees to which a narrator who can speak a character's thoughts has agency and ability in the first place so I won't get too far into that. I suspect, though, that it's similarly weird to write like that in Japanese-not an expert here, but in a language where the subject of a sentence is handled so differently at a fundamental level, I don't think you can do literal translations from the kind of thing I wrote to Japanese without it sounding weird.
Was about to ask the same questions, it would be definitely interesting to understand how it would work in books, especially those translated from foreign languages
It’s fine but でしょう sounds too formal for this kind of comment. It sounds like a weather reporter reporting the weather. 今日の天気です。今日は全国的に雲のない1日となるでしょう。全国の田中さんはビールが飲みたくなるでしょう。 In this situation, more casual expressions like; 田中さん、ビールが飲みたそうだね。 田中さんは絶対ビールが飲みたいと思うよ（思いますよ）。 田中さん、ビール飲みたいって言ってるよ。 sounds more natural.
@@kanamenaito even if tanaka explicitly says 「ビールが飲みたい」、we still have to say 「飲みたそう」(or any of the other examples)?🤔 is this like a culture thing or a grammar thing? im very interested in this kind of topic and want to know more beyond what sounds "right" and what sounds "wrong".....
@@rabbitparfait always best not to assume things. this is the same with any language. even if you know things, it's best not to be too sure unless you absolutely have to be.
@@rabbitparfait Kaname's last example is just saying "Tanaka said he wants to drink beer" so it's much more literal than the others and probably what you'd use (and for very casual , you could drop the 言ってるよ and keep just って and it'd still be a quote
@@rabbitparfait The point here is that it is unnatural and perhaps even rude to make plain, declarative statements about what other people are thinking and feeling. If you want to comment on other people's thoughts and feelings you have to phrase it in an indirect or speculative way. To compare it to English, it's quite normal to say something like (following the above examples) 'My dad doesn't like beer' or 'My dad wants to drink beer' In Japanese, you'd want to phrase it more like 'It seems like my dad doesn't like beer', 'My dad appears to want to drink beer', 'I guess my dad doesn't like beer', etc. etc. But a plain, direct, declarative statement a la 'X is Y' when used for other people's thoughts and feelings is best avoided. Hope this helps :)
But seriously, you describe not just grammar but WHY and HOW Japanese people think about a specific situation, and it is such a deeper level of understanding than simply, "You can't say this in this situation." So thank you for that.
This was such an insightful video. I have to wonder if this is ever played with in fantasy or science fiction with telepaths/empaths who would know haha
This was NEVER explained or even pointed out to me before! I really appreciate how you explain both the grammar and the feelings associated with phrases like 「〜がる」 and 「〜たいみたい」. This sort of thing is what I find most helpful from your channel. I don’t know why no one else does this!
Kaname is the best! He's concise and speaks relatively slow when teaching. I love this channel..a tip for new subscribers. Watching at 0.75 speed helps for even more comprehension! 😊
I've been studying Japanese on and off since 1995 (I lived there when I was little) and I never knew this! On the Dunning-Kruger effect line I'm in the valley of despair.
Haha, I've been learning Japanese on and off for 20 years and I've observed this all the time, but never had this explained clearly. My Japanese friends couldn't explain it other than what I said was weird. Thank you, Kaname!
It might be something you picked up on naturally but never heard it articulated. It's the same for me, being half-Japanese, while my Japanese is perfect I have quite an intuition for how to phrase things in Japanese and this was one of those things which I knew to do subconsciously but never had it articulated.
@@rebeccajelliott rebecca, Take this video with a grain of salt, as it is true in somewhat formal situations and up, but not so much for informal situations.
Thank you so much for this. I knew how I was saying it was wrong but I couldn't find the correct way to say when my son wanted something. Hopefully I can sound more natural going forward
Question about something in the beginning that I've always wondered: You say feelings come from the 心 and stuff. Is there a meaningful difference between that and 胸 in this context? I feel like I hear song lyrics and stuff use 胸 all the time when talking about feelings and love and stuff, when normally my brain would associate them more with my 心 haha. Other than that this is the exact topic I was wondering about (talking about other people's thoughts and feelings) coming out of my Japanese class last semester. Thank you!
different words with different connotations 心 can be translated as heart, but it's more of an abstract concept like your soul, that's why it's related to feelings 胸 is chest, it's quite a literal meaning, as in the part of the torso above the abdomen the songs you're talking about could be refering to the physical sensation of your chest hurting or feeling funny because of love there's also 心臓 which also translates literally to heart, as in the organ inside the chest, I assume there aren't many songs that refer to your literal blood pumping heart, it doesn't sound very romantic lol
I think this is probably the most important video that you have made (along side with the んです video). It explains a lot, and i think it will make listening to Japanese a lot easier now.
I imagined that for those adjective, describing your state of mind is not you, but the cricumstance. Like "it hurts", or "it's scary". Because "kowai" would otherwise serve to describe a scary thing
Yeah this was how I thought it was meant too, now I'm gonna have to do more research because it's hard to speak naturally if you don't understand the language's "paradigm," so to speak.
Your videos are honestly so great. Even though you probably feel silly while doing your dramatic reenactments for the sake of expressing your point, I find them very helpful. You're honestly a good actor!
As an old philosophy graduate, I find this whole discussion fascinating, but I'm arriving at the position that the conventional "non-observability of other people's emotions" explanation is somewhat overblown and is probably just a rationalisation of an idiomatic quirk. By comparison, in English we can't/don't use "I think" in every sentence where Japanese people say 思う. (E.g. we don't typically say sentences like "I think I want to go shopping".) Is that because we don't "think"what we say? No, it's because the English phrase "I think" marks the sentence as dubious: it's a way of hedging. Also 思う is sometimes better translated as "I'd like to", ie as a softening strategy. (E.g. 今日はこのトピックを話したいと思います -> "Today I'd like to talk about this topic...") Much as I'd like to believe that the Japanese people are Humean empiricists from birth, I feel historical accident and quirks of idiom explain this difference better.
Personally, I found when I thought of 思う as "I think", it would throw me off in a lot of instances where Japanese people would use it. It would just leave me scratching my head. Then, after looking at a Japanese monolingual dictionary as well as at synonyms, I realized it meant something more along the lines of "I feel (that), I get the feeling (that), I get the impression (that), I get the sense (that), etc." It's less about thinking in the way we typically conceive of "think" in English, and more about your subjective feelings, impressions, emotions, and intuitions that you receive in the moment. This, I feel, would cover most of the usages of と思う, including the example you gave. (I would alternatively word your sentence as: "Today, I feel like talking about this topic.") This also explains what Kaname was saying regarding using と思ってる when talking about others, since this is basically saying "he/she has the impression that...", as opposed to 思う, an instantaneous verb which can only refer to impressions you get IN THE MOMENT. (Hence, why you would never be able to use it to talk about others.) I hope I worded that in a way that made sense!
I agree. Just like in Spanish hunger is not a state of being "I'm hungry" but something you "have" "tengo hambre (I have hunger). The feeling is universally the same they just came up with the structure of this in different ways depending on other aspects of language.
Thank you very much for another great video! :) The end was hilarious as always 🤣 I think you should seriously consider writing a book about the nuances of Japanese while incorporating your funny stories 😂 But it's true that I'd miss your face because your videos are precious 😂
Kaname, I had your video playing just as background noise. But the last example you gave was extremely unhinged, and I love it. I look forward to listening to these in the future.
It is really helpful when it comes to addressing others' feelings in a natural way that Japanese people can understand. One of the things outside of this video that I would like to learn is that sometimes, I repeat myself a lot when it comes to addressing myself as a topic, for example," 私は" to say I like something or think about something. Sometimes, when speaking with Japanese people, they (in casual situations usually) don't use" は" to address a topic, for example," 私さー. "When this happens, I feel lost in the conversation. I also understand that if you don't address the topic with" は." They might also feel lost when conversing, to the point that I am trying to guess whether I should use it or not in casual conversations. Kaname sensei or anyone who knows more about this and feels you can help me, please feel free to respond. :)
Basically we use て+いる present/ongoing tense to show other peoples actions, because thats what we are observing. We cannot know their exact feelings as we are not them I believe that was Cure Dolly's explanation, been a few yrs tho
@@UnimportantAcc I interact with younger Japanese, and they are always using stuff like 「しょへいはお茶飲みたい」とか。Even adults use it sometimes too, especially when stating what the other person wants.
The hypothalamus is considered important for homeostasis, helping control hormone production via the pituitary gland, and initiating a few other instinctual behaviors like aggression displays. There are a lot of areas of the brain involved in emotion: the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, and cingulate gyrus, to name a few of the most important ones. The hypothalamus does produce oxytocin, but the actual effect of oxytocin happens in other parts of the nervous system, including some of the ones I listed
Technically in most cultures, people refer to their metaphysical heart as place of emotions, but in reality it is the amygdala. The hypothalamus though controls the heart rate sometimes in response to emotions like fear, love etc.
I really recommend this channel for those who learn the language from scratch - zero His content is superb! Anime/drama watchers, game enthusiasts who plays in Japanese, tv show/podcast enjoyers etc learnt these stuff by heart. They can't explain it in details when you ask them, but somehow they knew how it works and how to use them. Really different from my friend who has no interest in any Japanese media, the real 'ZERO' starter I call it. They just keep asking and asking questions such as these.
it seems kaname thinks it sounds weird when you assert someone else's feelings. /joke i always love these videos, the emotive example conversations are so illustrative and helpful! at least in america, people speaking english tend to speak as though they know other peoples' feelings or state their own assertively as if they're objective, which i think is actually a great detriment to all of us. i've seen it lead to much conflict. whenever i'm speaking i always try to hedge what i'm talking about with "in my opinion" or "i believe" to avoid that sort of confusion and assumption.
If you think about it as a representation of japanese mentality, it's actually really great! We really can't know for sure what other people think, but we can communicate and base our assumptions around said interaction, and it's beautiful that japanese language teaches that
@@TragicGFuel well, when we anticipate the feelings other might have in English we also use expressions like “I think he doesn’t feel well.”. It is very bold to express another person feeling also in English language. “You disagree with this.” Or I would say “I assume you disagree with this.”. “You are happy.” … “you look happy.” … etc. Pretty much every example he’s mentioning in the video could be made in English as well.
6:20 Great video, there's just one thing I wanted to point out. It isn't "how dare am I to...." it would be "how dare I...." or "who am I to...". Very helpful video though 🙏🙏
Thank you for mentioning the difference between prefences and feelings in this, it's a very important point that was confusing me at the start of this video!
Thank you very much for this helpful video! All of your videos are so educational and entertaining. I'm a little confused about the emotional tonal difference in 欲しがってるんですよ vs. 欲しいです. Is it the verb form, how the sentence is continued, or both? My apologies, I'm a beginning learner.
I find the different meanings of 好き very interesting and am curious if you have anything more to say about that. I guess its similar to saying "I like anime", simply stating a preference, and "I like you," stating romantic intentions. Can the preference 好き ever be used for friends or just like celebrities? Can the emotional 好き ever be used for objects? Thank you for the video as always
田中さん buys beer when you don't have in the fridge, fixes your car when it's broken, translates english sentences if you don't understand...well 本当に田中さんのこと全部がすき！; )
Two things. First is that English, of course, has mandatory subjects, which would seem to introduce an artificial symmetry in such verbs that take only a patient in their simplest frame. We do have “it hurts” (which you mention), but the question of how that relates to “it hurts me” is fascinating, because “the dog hurts me” but “the dog hurts” is suddenly not “the dog hurts s.o.” but something (abstract, but not merely “it”) hurting the dog, an absolutive-style frame. Apparently, historically, other verbs followed this pattern (“it likes me” rather than “I like it”). Second, we have this entire philosophical discussion of qualia. It's not that we, English L1s, are _unaware_ of the fact that experiencing a thing and speculating about others' experience are different. “I'm afraid of the dark” and “Bob's afraid of the dark” have very different tones to them. But it does seem to mess with our heads far more than is reasonable. [Fascinating to have this drawn out for us (as so often happens with languages that take a different approach to modelling a domain). Some languages, of course, have evidentials for everything…. I am not, as the saying goes, a linguist.] Hey, what happens in Japanese fiction? Can an author directly and straightforwardly report the subjective experience of their own character? Or is this part of the reason that it's the show-not-tell medium of manga that has seen the most transfer to the English speaking world?
I have a question. If you're writing fiction and you have a situation where there's a character who can read someone else's thoughts, or to indicate that the character is omniscient/supernatural in some way, would it then make sense to have them say と思います about someone else, specifically to stick out to the reader?
Examples transcript:
田中さん…、私、田中さんのことが好き！
俺も好きだよ！
こころ
こわい…。
わたしはこわい…。(weird)
いたい。
いたたたた！いたい！いたい！
なんかこの部屋、誰かいる感じする。わたし、なんか怖い！
うちの息子、暗いところがこわいです。(weird)
うちの息子、暗いところがこわいみたいなんですよね。
こわがっています。
うちの息子、暗いところがこわいです。(weird)
ノンアルコールビールはおいしくないと思います。
私の父はノンアルコールビールがおいしくないと思います。(weird)
父はノンアルコールビールがおいしくないと思っています。
ディズニーランドに行きたいです。
うちの娘、ディズニーランドに行きたいです。(weird)
うちの娘、ディズニーランドに行きたいみたいなんですよね。
うちの娘、ディズニーランドに行きたがってます。
うちの娘、ディズニーランドに行きたい行きたい言ってるんですよ。
うちの娘、ディズニーランドに行きたいです。(weird)
うちの息子、任天堂Switchが欲しいです。(weird)
うちの息子、任天堂Switchが欲しがってるんですよ。だから買ってあげようと思っています。
うちの息子、任天堂Switchが欲しいです。(weird)
楽しい・嬉しい・くるしい・うらやましい・こいしい・ねたましい
田中さん、昨日のパーティーどうだった？楽しかった？
はい、すごく楽しかったです。
田中さんは、昨日のパーティー楽しかったです。(weird)
田中さん、昨日のパーティーすごく楽しかったみたいですよ。
田中さん、昨日のパーティーすごく楽しんでたみたいですよ。
山田さん。はい、これ！プレゼント！
え？これ、スノーピークのテントじゃん！うわー！これ欲しかったやつだ！ほんとうに嬉しい！ありがとう！
山田さん、すごく嬉しかったです。(weird)
山田さんすごく喜んでいました。
山田さんはすごく喜んでいました。
山田さんは嬉しかったです。(weird)
好きなんですよ。
好きです、怖いです、羨ましいです、いやです
田中さんのお母さんにはとてもお世話になったので、今度何かご馳走しようと思ってるんですよ。お母さん食べ物何が好きですか？
うちの母は魚とか海鮮が好きです。
あの、ご主人は何か趣味とかあるんですか？
ああ、うちの主人は釣りが好きです。
主人は松田聖子が大好きです。
主人は松田聖子の大ファンです
主人は松田聖子に夢中です。
私の主人、うちのメイドが好きです。
主人はメイドが好きです。
主人、うちのメイドに惚れてるみたいなんですよ。
あ、もしもし、内藤探偵事務所です。
あ、もしもし？すいません、実はうちの旦那、うちで雇ってるメイドに惚れちゃったみたいなんですよ。
あー、なるほど、浮気調査ですね。わかりました。じゃあ調査しますので、ご主人の情報を教えてください。
…
あなた、昨日の夜何やってたの？
昨日の夜？俺言っただろ？昨日出張だからビジネスホテルに泊まるって。
へえ、ビジネスホテルね…。見て、こんなビジネスホテルあるんだ！
なんかこれ、うちのメイドの鈴木さんの家みたいじゃない？
それは…。
別の写真もあるのよ！あなたが、その鈴木さんみたいな人とそのビジネスホテルに入っていくところが写ってる写真。
……ごめん。
「ごめん」って何が？
わかった。…認めるよ、俺、浮気してたこと。
ああ、そう？じゃあ私たち、さっさと別れましょう？
ちょっとまってくれ！認めるよ！俺、鈴木さんと色々あったこと。でも…、俺が本当に好きなのは君なんだよ！好きだ！
え、何言ってんの？そんなことしといて？いいから別れましょう、私たち。
いやだ！俺、君と別れたくない！やっぱり別れたくない！
うちの旦那別れたくない。
うちの旦那別れたくなかった。
彼、私と別れたくないって言ってた。
彼、私と別れたくなかったみたい。
彼、私と別れたくなかった。
それではみなさん、今日の動画はここまでです！
え！待って！先生！私先生と別れたくない！
そんなこと言っても無駄よ！私わかってるの、みんなが他の日本語のチャンネルを見てるって！浮気してるのわかってるんだから！
ということでみなさん、さようなら！
日本語文法ハンドブック(373ページ)では、気持ちを表す「好き」も第三者の気持ちを表す場合にも使えると書いてあります。それに、気持ちを表す形容詞も過去形なら使えるそうです。
できる限り簡単な説明になるように、こういうところを略したんですか。それとも、これらは本の間違いですか。
よろしくお願いします
legend
I wasn't expecting a Japanese grammar lesson to end with a soap opera skit, or that I would be invested in the outcome, just for it to return to 'now this would be weird because it's expressing the husband's feelings'
かなめ先生のチャネルようこそ
Tanaka-san is constantly getting confessed to every episode 😂, somebody give this woman a break
This lesson is philosophical and psychological as well.
Really interesting.
I swear, parts of the lesson about "knowing your limitations" and understanding "subjectivity of emotion/intentions" is almost like a preface from a good textbook. 👍
Although I don't agree with the idea that feelings are wholly subjective, this could explain why Japanese academics like phenomenology so much.
At least we can still use verbs in the teiru form.
@AwesomeWholesome good point. Not meaning to split hairs, but you have mood and effect.
And people may interpret others differently, depending on the situation.
Hence, the importance of second opinions, especially in fields related to psychology.
Q.E.D.
appreciate how you talk about the little things noone else does.
This is about n3 level grammar that you can find in japanese language books for foreigners. But yeah not everybody mentions it
"I cannot express his feelings because I am not my son." I couldn't have said it better myself. So many times when I was a kid, I'd tell my parents "I'm hungry" or "I'm thirsty." And they'd say, "You're not hungry" or "You're not thirsty." One day, I said, "How do you know how _I_ feel?" And they gave me this look like "You better not say that again."
I always said that if I ever have children, I'm never going to tell them how they don't feel.
A lot of marriages could benefit from this lesson as well.
Sorry you went through that. 😞
I'm sorry you had to go through that 😢
It doesn't sound like a healthy environment
Sadly just because the language has different views of what is a logical way to describe feelings doesnt stop parents from entitled or cruel feelings toward their kids
So true!
You've answered one of the words that my wife used, but I never understood. She would say that our dog was "kowagatteiru" about earthquakes and I didn't know the word. When she explained it to me, I understood, but wondered why she didn't just use kowai. Makes sense now.
no sensei It's not what you think
I just accidentally clicked that other channel's Japanese videos
I can explain
Everytime Kaname posts a video, the green bird gets intellectually destroyed
The Dangers in My Japanese
*「僕は…」 the OP song starts playing* Such a great anime.
僕の日本語のヤバイやつ
@@hyde_stopStealingMyUsername😂😂😂
I love the drama of the example-- i was so invested. 😂❤❤❤
I know! I need to know what happened!!!
like an actor frfr
This video shows your deep understanding of English, actually. Also, I was hoping you would make a video that describes the difference between how to use 喜ぶ and 嬉しい, because it was always something I was confused on! Now I recognize the difference, thanks.
The third button on your shirt has fallen off to omoimasu
This idea of not directly expressing other people's feelings is really interesting. It makes me wonder how much this influences how Japanese people think of other people's feelings. I could be off on this but I imagine a lot of Japanese people would be more careful in assuming what another person feels unless directly told by them. In the very least, I imagine it makes it harder to put words in other people's mouths.
Which would help from the chaos we have in western world. Also would mitigate the allegation of cultural appropriation unless the original owner express it themselves
Japan has alot of inbuilt natural defense for many things
i think ur actually UNDERestimating it. becuz clearly, even if sakura tells you she feels scared, in japanese, you STILL cant say "sakura feels scared". it sounds weird becuz how can u know how somebody else feels? oh.... she told u how she feels? well, it still feels weird.
im guessing this is becuz japanese culture forces japanese ppl to lie about their feelings a lot, so the language assumes "yeah if she says she was scared, that dont mean anything".
in america and canada this is abnormal becuz we're less likely to lie about our feelings
Thank you!!!
Oh my god, lol, this really help!! 🤣🤣
I often forcing chatGPT to include "watashi" when translating my words, so when the japanese person i talked to read it, they know that i'm talking about "my feeling"
I noticed chatGPT translation is kinda always delete the subject. But its correct afterall, since you said adding watashi is weird, omg, lol, now i'm embarrassed at how many "Watashi" that i already said "weirdly"!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm curious how this effects fictional narratives. When writing in 3rd person (in English,) there are three different approaches. The omniscient narrator knows exactly what all characters are thinking and feeling, the limited narrator has insight into the thoughts and feelings of only one character, and the objective narrator can only describe what character are doing and appear to feel.
For example, "Bob and Alice felt sick looking at the ugly spectacle before them."
"Alice felt sick looking at the ugly spectacle before them. Bob looked like he might throw up."
"Bob and Alice stepped back from the ugly spectacle before them. Alice looked clammy and pale. Bob doubled over, seeming sick to his stomach."
In English, the first approach is the most popular, followed by the second. It's more space efficient to show the audience the inner feelings of the characters than to construct scenes where the audience must infer it.
Does Japanese approach narrative in a similar way, or is the expression of character's feelings more like spoken language?
Narrator is exempt from this rule
I am curious about this as well. 😅
Actually, if you are writing literature, the descriptive method is usually preferred because it helps to place the reader in the scenario better, though sometimes the description is applied to the emotion itself so you can put yourself in the characters' shoes more easily. For example, "Alice's felt her stomach drop and the blood rush from her head, as if the ugly spectacle before her had wrenched her gut with an icy hand. Bob could feel that same hand coaxing the contents of his stomach out, forcing him to buckle over as his instinct to wretch overwhelmed his every sense, gripping his mind as words and thoughts left him faster than even his gag reflex could have kicked in; only a desperate struggle to suppress emesis remained."
Might be bordering on the omniscient 3rd person narrator, though there are degrees to which a narrator who can speak a character's thoughts has agency and ability in the first place so I won't get too far into that. I suspect, though, that it's similarly weird to write like that in Japanese-not an expert here, but in a language where the subject of a sentence is handled so differently at a fundamental level, I don't think you can do literal translations from the kind of thing I wrote to Japanese without it sounding weird.
Was about to ask the same questions, it would be definitely interesting to understand how it would work in books, especially those translated from foreign languages
「田中さんはビールが飲みたいでしょう。」って言い方が正しいか。🙂
It’s fine but でしょう sounds too formal for this kind of comment. It sounds like a weather reporter reporting the weather.
今日の天気です。今日は全国的に雲のない1日となるでしょう。全国の田中さんはビールが飲みたくなるでしょう。
In this situation, more casual expressions like;
田中さん、ビールが飲みたそうだね。
田中さんは絶対ビールが飲みたいと思うよ（思いますよ）。
田中さん、ビール飲みたいって言ってるよ。
sounds more natural.
@@kanamenaito even if tanaka explicitly says 「ビールが飲みたい」、we still have to say 「飲みたそう」(or any of the other examples)?🤔 is this like a culture thing or a grammar thing? im very interested in this kind of topic and want to know more beyond what sounds "right" and what sounds "wrong".....
@@rabbitparfait always best not to assume things. this is the same with any language. even if you know things, it's best not to be too sure unless you absolutely have to be.
@@rabbitparfait Kaname's last example is just saying "Tanaka said he wants to drink beer" so it's much more literal than the others and probably what you'd use (and for very casual , you could drop the 言ってるよ and keep just って and it'd still be a quote
@@rabbitparfait The point here is that it is unnatural and perhaps even rude to make plain, declarative statements about what other people are thinking and feeling. If you want to comment on other people's thoughts and feelings you have to phrase it in an indirect or speculative way.
To compare it to English, it's quite normal to say something like (following the above examples) 'My dad doesn't like beer' or 'My dad wants to drink beer'
In Japanese, you'd want to phrase it more like 'It seems like my dad doesn't like beer', 'My dad appears to want to drink beer', 'I guess my dad doesn't like beer', etc. etc.
But a plain, direct, declarative statement a la 'X is Y' when used for other people's thoughts and feelings is best avoided. Hope this helps :)
一番好きな日本語のチャンネルがカナメのだよ！
...しかしときどきドウゲンとかソラもみてる😭
But seriously, you describe not just grammar but WHY and HOW Japanese people think about a specific situation, and it is such a deeper level of understanding than simply, "You can't say this in this situation."
So thank you for that.
This was such an insightful video. I have to wonder if this is ever played with in fantasy or science fiction with telepaths/empaths who would know haha
This was NEVER explained or even pointed out to me before! I really appreciate how you explain both the grammar and the feelings associated with phrases like 「〜がる」 and 「〜たいみたい」. This sort of thing is what I find most helpful from your channel. I don’t know why no one else does this!
Kaname is the best! He's concise and speaks relatively slow when teaching. I love this channel..a tip for new subscribers. Watching at 0.75 speed helps for even more comprehension! 😊
Useful tip 😊
先生の “dramatic re-enactments” が大好きです ❤😂
Yeah I was gonna say “Why does Tanaka not wanna go?”
“Oh, he’s scared of X”
I've been studying Japanese on and off since 1995 (I lived there when I was little) and I never knew this! On the Dunning-Kruger effect line I'm in the valley of despair.
Haha, I've been learning Japanese on and off for 20 years and I've observed this all the time, but never had this explained clearly. My Japanese friends couldn't explain it other than what I said was weird. Thank you, Kaname!
It might be something you picked up on naturally but never heard it articulated. It's the same for me, being half-Japanese, while my Japanese is perfect I have quite an intuition for how to phrase things in Japanese and this was one of those things which I knew to do subconsciously but never had it articulated.
@@rebeccajelliott rebecca, Take this video with a grain of salt, as it is true in somewhat formal situations and up, but not so much for informal situations.
Thank you so much for this. I knew how I was saying it was wrong but I couldn't find the correct way to say when my son wanted something. Hopefully I can sound more natural going forward
Question about something in the beginning that I've always wondered: You say feelings come from the 心 and stuff. Is there a meaningful difference between that and 胸 in this context? I feel like I hear song lyrics and stuff use 胸 all the time when talking about feelings and love and stuff, when normally my brain would associate them more with my 心 haha.
Other than that this is the exact topic I was wondering about (talking about other people's thoughts and feelings) coming out of my Japanese class last semester. Thank you!
胸 chest 心 heart
different words with different connotations
心 can be translated as heart, but it's more of an abstract concept like your soul, that's why it's related to feelings
胸 is chest, it's quite a literal meaning, as in the part of the torso above the abdomen
the songs you're talking about could be refering to the physical sensation of your chest hurting or feeling funny because of love
there's also 心臓 which also translates literally to heart, as in the organ inside the chest, I assume there aren't many songs that refer to your literal blood pumping heart, it doesn't sound very romantic lol
I think this is probably the most important video that you have made (along side with the んです video). It explains a lot, and i think it will make listening to Japanese a lot easier now.
I imagined that for those adjective, describing your state of mind is not you, but the cricumstance. Like "it hurts", or "it's scary". Because "kowai" would otherwise serve to describe a scary thing
Yeah this was how I thought it was meant too, now I'm gonna have to do more research because it's hard to speak naturally if you don't understand the language's "paradigm," so to speak.
Thank you for this! It’s neat how learning these specific concepts give cultural insights too.
Your videos are honestly so great. Even though you probably feel silly while doing your dramatic reenactments for the sake of expressing your point, I find them very helpful. You're honestly a good actor!
This is so insightful. Thank you.
インドネシア ジャカルタ地元のひとの日本語教師です。動画ありがとうございます。とても参考になりました。
As an old philosophy graduate, I find this whole discussion fascinating, but I'm arriving at the position that the conventional "non-observability of other people's emotions" explanation is somewhat overblown and is probably just a rationalisation of an idiomatic quirk.
By comparison, in English we can't/don't use "I think" in every sentence where Japanese people say 思う. (E.g. we don't typically say sentences like "I think I want to go shopping".) Is that because we don't "think"what we say? No, it's because the English phrase "I think" marks the sentence as dubious: it's a way of hedging. Also 思う is sometimes better translated as "I'd like to", ie as a softening strategy. (E.g. 今日はこのトピックを話したいと思います -> "Today I'd like to talk about this topic...")
Much as I'd like to believe that the Japanese people are Humean empiricists from birth, I feel historical accident and quirks of idiom explain this difference better.
Personally, I found when I thought of 思う as "I think", it would throw me off in a lot of instances where Japanese people would use it. It would just leave me scratching my head. Then, after looking at a Japanese monolingual dictionary as well as at synonyms, I realized it meant something more along the lines of "I feel (that), I get the feeling (that), I get the impression (that), I get the sense (that), etc." It's less about thinking in the way we typically conceive of "think" in English, and more about your subjective feelings, impressions, emotions, and intuitions that you receive in the moment. This, I feel, would cover most of the usages of と思う, including the example you gave. (I would alternatively word your sentence as: "Today, I feel like talking about this topic.")
This also explains what Kaname was saying regarding using と思ってる when talking about others, since this is basically saying "he/she has the impression that...", as opposed to 思う, an instantaneous verb which can only refer to impressions you get IN THE MOMENT. (Hence, why you would never be able to use it to talk about others.)
I hope I worded that in a way that made sense!
I agree. Just like in Spanish hunger is not a state of being "I'm hungry" but something you "have" "tengo hambre (I have hunger). The feeling is universally the same they just came up with the structure of this in different ways depending on other aspects of language.
いつものように興味深かったよ！動画を作ってくれてありがとうございました！
他の日本語のチャンネルと浮気しちゃってごめんなさい！認めますけど、ないとう先生のビデオが一番好きなのです！
Whoa. This is super detailed. This is exactly the kind of explanation I need for stuff like this.
You're covering a ton of great concepts here. Things I know of, but have little practice with.
Thanks so much! I always wondered why these sentences are phrased like that.
Thank you very much for another great video! :) The end was hilarious as always 🤣
I think you should seriously consider writing a book about the nuances of Japanese while incorporating your funny stories 😂 But it's true that I'd miss your face because your videos are precious 😂
The way I was chanting dump him! dump him! at the end hahahahaha
I love his skits! specially when he shows us the ending! not today though :c
Kaname, I had your video playing just as background noise. But the last example you gave was extremely unhinged, and I love it. I look forward to listening to these in the future.
I did not expect this video to start with a love confession 😂
Thanks!
🤭 using Matsuda Seiko is epic and totally understandable!! 🤣Bravo Kaname-san 👏👏👏
Bro this is the kind of japanese lessons i wanted to find. thank you
It is really helpful when it comes to addressing others' feelings in a natural way that Japanese people can understand.
One of the things outside of this video that I would like to learn is that sometimes, I repeat myself a lot when it comes to addressing myself as a topic, for example," 私は" to say I like something or think about something.
Sometimes, when speaking with Japanese people, they (in casual situations usually) don't use" は" to address a topic, for example," 私さー. "When this happens, I feel lost in the conversation.
I also understand that if you don't address the topic with" は." They might also feel lost when conversing, to the point that I am trying to guess whether I should use it or not in casual conversations.
Kaname sensei or anyone who knows more about this and feels you can help me, please feel free to respond. :)
I learned a lot of this video (even though I thought I am already fluent in Japanese). すごく勉強になりました！
ありがとうございます
Very nice explanation while also very entertaining to watch!
I enjoyed your humor at the end of the video. 😊
That is exactly the input I want to have about languages. Thank you
Basically we use て+いる present/ongoing tense to show other peoples actions, because thats what we are observing. We cannot know their exact feelings as we are not them
I believe that was Cure Dolly's explanation, been a few yrs tho
Yet Japanese often use 「たい」when referring to others.
@@earlysda can you give an example? I've seen that being the case when reading narration of a story, maybe I'm forgetting smth!
@@UnimportantAcc I interact with younger Japanese, and they are always using stuff like 「しょへいはお茶飲みたい」とか。Even adults use it sometimes too, especially when stating what the other person wants.
@@earlysda good point! I'm gonna ask my mate abt that
@@earlysda I've been told it doesn't sound right unless you use たい + [みたい/らしい]
But then again this may be a regional thing, I heard from a 東京人
Very informative. Thank you.
ありがとうございます、この動画を見てすごく難しいですが結局最後まで理解した。嬉しいです。
目から鱗すぎた…！確かに無意識に使い分けてたのかも。
でも日本語学習者の話す日本語に慣れてると、不自然な表現にも段々違和感感じなくなっていく笑
「自然」と「不自然」の違いは、「聞き慣れている」と「聞き慣れていない」だけであることが多い。
Very very good video 😂, the acting during the affair thing sold me this channel. Subscribed!
先生、新しい動画ありがとうございました。大変勉強になりました。先生の説明わかりやすいです。
Wait, こころ is the hypothalamus?! 😂
The hypothalamus is considered important for homeostasis, helping control hormone production via the pituitary gland, and initiating a few other instinctual behaviors like aggression displays. There are a lot of areas of the brain involved in emotion: the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, and cingulate gyrus, to name a few of the most important ones. The hypothalamus does produce oxytocin, but the actual effect of oxytocin happens in other parts of the nervous system, including some of the ones I listed
@@sadjad5326 This is the origin of a new copy pasta like the gnu linux one
It is heart, brain and confusing. Lol
Technically in most cultures, people refer to their metaphysical heart as place of emotions, but in reality it is the amygdala. The hypothalamus though controls the heart rate sometimes in response to emotions like fear, love etc.
I really recommend this channel for those who learn the language from scratch - zero
His content is superb!
Anime/drama watchers, game enthusiasts who plays in Japanese, tv show/podcast enjoyers etc learnt these stuff by heart.
They can't explain it in details when you ask them, but somehow they knew how it works and how to use them.
Really different from my friend who has no interest in any Japanese media, the real 'ZERO' starter I call it.
They just keep asking and asking questions such as these.
さすが先生！勉強になりました。今回もありがとうございます！
Another video by Naito, let's gooo
Thank you Kaname sensei, so complicated this episode ...
I love how you create entire dramas in your grammar vids
Actually I've been cheating on all the other channels with you. Your content be too good. ;)
As always a very interesting and insightful video. And I love your humor!😂 Much appreciated Kaname-san!
it seems kaname thinks it sounds weird when you assert someone else's feelings. /joke
i always love these videos, the emotive example conversations are so illustrative and helpful!
at least in america, people speaking english tend to speak as though they know other peoples' feelings or state their own assertively as if they're objective, which i think is actually a great detriment to all of us. i've seen it lead to much conflict. whenever i'm speaking i always try to hedge what i'm talking about with "in my opinion" or "i believe" to avoid that sort of confusion and assumption.
This is my first video I'm watching from you. Both informative and hilarious. Definitely subscribing lol
I've been learnt a lot from your channel, thank you Kaname Sensei~
Oooh some of these sound weird, and some of them I say sometimes
Thank you so much, so great to learn something!!
Thanks for this video!
This is really helpful. I always learn a lot. Thank you so much!
If you think about it as a representation of japanese mentality, it's actually really great! We really can't know for sure what other people think, but we can communicate and base our assumptions around said interaction, and it's beautiful that japanese language teaches that
yes, but it is pretty much the same in English. :)
@@roderickjapan it doesn't feel the same to me so far, maybe it's because english isn't my native
@@roderickjapan it's not though?
@@TragicGFuel well, when we anticipate the feelings other might have in English we also use expressions like “I think he doesn’t feel well.”. It is very bold to express another person feeling also in English language. “You disagree with this.” Or I would say “I assume you disagree with this.”. “You are happy.” … “you look happy.” … etc. Pretty much every example he’s mentioning in the video could be made in English as well.
@@roderickjapan that's a good point actually, didn't think of that...
the last example😭😭i srsly dont watch any other jp learning channels bc urs is fhe only reliable one
This was something I really needed.
Summarizing the ways to express someone elses feelings:
伝聞：
～みたいです
～と言っていました。
ている動詞：
（単なる過去形は？）
～喜んでいました。
～悲しんでいました。
…
客観的事実を述べる：
～がっています
～なんですよ
Preferential 好き =/= Feelings
～が好きです（選好）
Sorry for my poor Japanese
「他の日本語のチャンネルをみてるって」
認めるよ、僕かなめせ先生の動画を全部見てしまいましたので、今もしもしゆうすけさんの動画を見ている。
Make a lot of sense and very clear explanation. Thx.
Kaname sensei is blowing my mind every time!
This information is very useful, thank you!
6:20 Great video, there's just one thing I wanted to point out. It isn't "how dare am I to...." it would be "how dare I...." or "who am I to...". Very helpful video though 🙏🙏
finally somebody explains this properly!! I never thought of it that way. Makes way more sense than the Japanese teacher keep repearing it ...
So funny and very informative!
ありがとう、カナメさん。
Naito sensei’s acting is improving!!!!!
Great video. Thanks! Well put
You explain this very well! Thank you 🙏
Thank you for mentioning the difference between prefences and feelings in this, it's a very important point that was confusing me at the start of this video!
Thank you, this is not a topic that I've heard before.
Thank you very much for this helpful video! All of your videos are so educational and entertaining. I'm a little confused about the emotional tonal difference in 欲しがってるんですよ vs. 欲しいです.
Is it the verb form, how the sentence is continued, or both? My apologies, I'm a beginning learner.
Woah this is psychologically fascinating.
Gosh! So this is why sometime i feel some expression unmatched with the meaning 😅 very interesting
I find the different meanings of 好き very interesting and am curious if you have anything more to say about that. I guess its similar to saying "I like anime", simply stating a preference, and "I like you," stating romantic intentions. Can the preference 好き ever be used for friends or just like celebrities? Can the emotional 好き ever be used for objects? Thank you for the video as always
田中さん buys beer when you don't have in the fridge, fixes your car when it's broken, translates english sentences if you don't understand...well 本当に田中さんのこと全部がすき！; )
That's cool, I need more yours videos
Great stuff as always!
Hi Kaname, could you please do a video on usage of 「ごらん」?
For example in : 「みせてごらん」
Thankyou 😎
ナイトテレビの番組が好きです！
Love your acting !
Anata no akutingu ga sugoi ! to omoi masu
Two things. First is that English, of course, has mandatory subjects, which would seem to introduce an artificial symmetry in such verbs that take only a patient in their simplest frame. We do have “it hurts” (which you mention), but the question of how that relates to “it hurts me” is fascinating, because “the dog hurts me” but “the dog hurts” is suddenly not “the dog hurts s.o.” but something (abstract, but not merely “it”) hurting the dog, an absolutive-style frame. Apparently, historically, other verbs followed this pattern (“it likes me” rather than “I like it”). Second, we have this entire philosophical discussion of qualia. It's not that we, English L1s, are _unaware_ of the fact that experiencing a thing and speculating about others' experience are different. “I'm afraid of the dark” and “Bob's afraid of the dark” have very different tones to them. But it does seem to mess with our heads far more than is reasonable.
[Fascinating to have this drawn out for us (as so often happens with languages that take a different approach to modelling a domain). Some languages, of course, have evidentials for everything….
I am not, as the saying goes, a linguist.]
Hey, what happens in Japanese fiction? Can an author directly and straightforwardly report the subjective experience of their own character? Or is this part of the reason that it's the show-not-tell medium of manga that has seen the most transfer to the English speaking world?
毎日アップしたら、「他のチャネルを見なきゃ」気持ちがなくなりますよ。
って、冗談です。
次の動画楽しみですね！
I have a question. If you're writing fiction and you have a situation where there's a character who can read someone else's thoughts, or to indicate that the character is omniscient/supernatural in some way, would it then make sense to have them say と思います about someone else, specifically to stick out to the reader?
"I don't know how Tanaka feels" sounds like it'd be a great title for a LN or anime!