@@BecomeAnything. I was going to say the same thing but then I remembered how many words I learned incorrectly. It doesn't change the point of the video which is well taken.
Im 64 years old and have been studying Japanese for six months. I find it very interesting and it keeps my mind active. My trip to Japan last year was amazing and I wanted to learn more about the culture and language. I enjoy it and I’m having fun with it. I don’t expect I’ll ever be fluent, but that’s ok. It’s not a waste of time!! Any endeavor to learn is not a waste of time!!
absolutely agreed. i hope my video didnt give the impression that i considered it a waste of time, but that it takes a lot more time than most i've seen are willing to put in to reach their goal. also i think it's awesome that you're joining the game at 64, it's very inspirational. I can only hope that I have the discipline to keep myself sharp past like age 30 haha thanks for sharing your story!
Totally agree I'm 56 and I began studying Korean one year ago and japanese this year and I'm very happy and like both languages, I don't have any expectation to be fluent and it doesn't matter if take me many years I will learn until I can and wanted because I enjoy learning languages and keep my mind active. I already speak Spanish(my mother tongue) English and French.
Japanese gets pretty easy later on tbh. I never thought it was difficult anyway. I just consumed a ton of content and now books and series are not that hard to understand. 3 years of study for those who may ask.
@@Luckydaze Depending on your personal goal and how much invested you are to learning Japanese I would suggest different approaches. Why are you learning Japanese and what is the end goal?
@@Luckydaze If you live in Jaoan jist hangout with them you will learn naturally. If not then, I suggest starting to listen Japanese as much as possible. That's it really, there is no secret to learning languages other than immersing yourself. You can use textbooks but only in the first 2 weeks or so just so the entry is a bit easier but I wouldnt recommend them, they are boring plus they teach really bad japanese. Good luck!
Japan is my 3rd foreign language and I can say from experience that those official sites telling you how long it takes to learn a language aren't really a good point to start off. How long it takes for someone to become fluent depends entirely on each individual. It also depends on whether you find the right resources quickly and if you have enough motivation to practice regularly.
yeah for people who find good resources and are motivated to do the research it's very inaccurate, but sadly the average person doesn't. I'll make videos about what I used soon and hope that can help most learners
Those stats are for people enrolled in a pretty standardized, pretty intensive and full immersion type curriculum. There's going to be wildly more variation among people out doing things by themselves. You'll get everything from the obsessives sinking hours and hours into it every day to the people who think Duolingo will get them there.
The FSI chart is actually quite accurate in terms of how long they take to learn, as they have many many years of thousands of people learning said language and they have documented every step of the proccess from beginning to end, and these numbers are the average results. However, and this is a BIG however, it is an average, in every chart there are outliers, some people learn faster, and some slower, but on average most people take this long. AND this is in the perspective of English speakers learning, so If you speak another language this chart is less accurate, as what makes a language difficult is it's diversity from the language/s you speak. ANNNND this is documemented from thier own teaching style, and this is class hours spent in THEIR classes, so IF you are and English speaker, AND you are learning in thier programe, this is very accurate. But that doesn't mean this chart is useless for your average langauge learner, as you can use it as a rough guide to get an idea of which languages are probably harder than others, and in general how long it will take on average.
Lol same. I am not new to language learning but japanese is on a whole new level for me since it’s my first asian language (and one that comes with thousands of letters and/or caracthers
I caught myself in the thought, that even in languages, where writing better represents how the word is said, like Russian, in the end you end up reading words as a whole without paying attention to the letters it consists of. So you essentially learning a word in a written language. So it is not dissimilar to what you do with kanji words. It's just a pain to lookup :) As a multiple readings of a kanji, I've heard advice to not to learn kanji separately and to learn words instead. You eventually learn separate kanji as a side effect and it would help you to lookup and even read new words that share kanji with ones you know
To anyone worried about kanji, I strongly suggest trying the free levels of wanikani. If you haven't heard of it, it works by first teaching you the radicals of each kanji, then pre-made mnemonics to cement them in your memory. On top of that, it uses a spaced repetition system to maximize your retention over long periods of time while minimizing study time. You don't need motivation, just show up every day, do the bare minimum and you will learn the joyo kanji in a year and a half plus 6000 vocab words. In my experience, it's unreasonably effective at teaching you to read. If you've just learned the kana and don't know what to do next, I strongly suggest giving wanikani a try.
HUGE advice, that's how I learned actually. I made it to level 60 and plan on promoting it once the channel is bigger, if a sponsorship is ever on the horizon that would be dope but even if not I'll promote it one day
Instead of discouraging me from learning Japanese, this video just made me think about how valuable time is. Like the vlog style by the way, I think the cuts are a bit too frequent, but that's just my take, other people might like it.
Hell ya. I think the main goal of this video was to warn those who are not serious to avoid wasting time, and a calling for those who have made up their mind to the extreme. Only the people most motivated won't be discouraged by this video.
Not trying to be billy badass or anything but I’ve trained in martial arts my whole life and what it’s taught me is how to be consistent, be patien, and to enjoy the journey. I love the idea of learning something that can never be mastered. There’s always something new to learn. That’s how I feel with martial arts. So I see Japanese as something that I’ll never be able to master but it just makes me love it more. It’s the mountain that never ends but the views just get better and better
You don't have to try to be a billy badass, you ARE one! Nah but I love that mindset, that's currently where I am with RUclips right now. It's given me a constant hunger for more, and even knowing that I may never be full, I strive forward every day. Japanese for some is much the same, but for those who just want to "know it" and move on, it's one hell of a chore haha. best of luck on your martial arts and japanese journey, you definitely got the right headspace for it and this was an awesome comment
I want you to know that sentence is amazing and I will be sharing it with others for sure. "Learning/Living X is the mountain that never ends but the view gets better and better" dang
I'm newly married to a Japanese woman and we plan to move to Japan in about 5 years (we live in the US now). I'm just starting to learn the language...yep it's hard! She told me it will take decades to become native-level...
She is indeed correct. Although if you are VERY active you can achieve that level in 4 or 5 or 6 years with intense MIA/AJATT. Learn to enjoy the journey, not the destination and you won't fail.
It doesn't take Japanese people decades to reach a native level and they're learning mostly passively. Yes, it's difficult to learn a new way of thinking and a new language, but if you practice a lot and surround yourself with Japanese media and content, you'll be fine :)
Aiming to reach the native level is like aiming to become a professional soccer player when you are just starting out. First, you should learn how to shoot and score a goal to understand how fun it is. Don't rush yourself, take it easy!
@@briddenattech did he mean he is a learner of chinese, and thus japanese kanji is less demanding than what you would have to remember when doing chinese in comparison
@@ambarvalia9757 Almost certainly not. Hanzi is at least consistent in pronunciation. The 'onyomi' pronunciation is based on the Chinese sounds they make, but as they were mapping an already existing alphabet system onto a completely different language, the characters often have the same meaning, but with completely different sounds... making kanji a much MUCH more complex system. My personal, bias opinion, kanji is actually my strong point. I completed almost all N2 Kanji/vocab, N5 in speaking/listening comprehension. EDIT: Nothing to be said for the Chinese tonality when pronoucing words. Most people say Japanese is easier to learn for speaking/listening, but much MUCH harder to read/write.
3 years into my Japanese language learning experience and I can say it was worth it. I want to go to a language school in Japan next year to really immerse myself in the language.
@@TragicGFuel Well, japanese language schools here can only take you so far. and even with my self studies, I'm only N4. so I want to immerse myself in the language 100%
@@jadthecat387 3 years and *N4?* Did you mean to type N2 or N1? Because N4 is something people achieve in a couple of months. I'd say 7-8 months at the latest, if you have very little time or are not comfortable learning.
As I just got out of my online Japanese class, this video weirdly made me feel a lot better about my apparent lack of progress. Or, perhaps, this was the 4D chess of motivational speaking all along!
Im 54, my wifes japanese, my kids are fluent , im slogging away trying to learn, i thought id learn as my kids did, nope they're sponges,but i think im in for the long haul, for the rest of my life, i dont think its a race for me, i just want to connect with my family more, if that makes sense. I cant afford the solid couple of thousand hours to level up in a couple of years. Great channel 😊, subscribed :)
ya it's frustrating knowing that kids just get a free ticket to fluency lol the way I see it, it's a marathon and as long as you never leave the race then everything is gonna be ok. doesn't matter if you gotta stop or go slow, and I'm beginning to realize I'm in for the long run too... glad u enjoyed tho !
I've been studying Japanese since 1999. I took a semester in college, reinforced it by working in a visitor industry aimed at Japanese tourists, and have been traveling on and off to Japan since 2000. I'll say this,make Japanese friends, don't be afraid to make mistakes and keep on going. It's a lifelong endeavor.
The way you describe standing on the edge of the abyss, as the universe stares back with its uncaring eyes, is so much gold. It's how I've felt learning any language. The world is vast, and when you begin to realize how little you know, that's when it starts to eat at you, and you feel the desperate hunger for more, and/or you run in fear from it. I'm at the spot where I'm beginning to have the kana right, and have begun adding kanji. I think there's a lot of context use in Japanese, so having a teacher, or at least a native speaker to help provide context to make things make more sense. I read something about "leveling up" in life. If you are 20 years old, and you've spent your whole life speaking one language, you have 2 literal decades of language learning under your belt, with lots of public and private support to do so. After only a few years of studying hard, you still won't have had that support structure of constant immersion and home education for years before a public education took over the reigns. You've levelled up in Japanese past that of the language acquired by native speakers in the same amount of time (given they are infants incapable of speaking for years) to be capable of conversing and understanding what is going on around you. You have this comparison in your head, but it really isn't fair to you to compare yourself to an adult who's spent their whole life learning the nuances of interaction in their home culture and language. It is much more accurate to compare yourself to a toddler or a small child, since you're working with a similar amount of time dedicated. But even that comparison is limited and really inaccurate at best. Just keep consuming media and learning like you did with English by constant exposure and practice. You will get to your goals in time. Maybe lots of time, but some things are worth it. You said you let your RUclips ideas sit on the backburner for a while. Maybe this is time well-spent in pursuit of those dreams. But maybe it comes into play elsewhere in your life later, too. In a way you didn't expect. I enjoyed this. I hope you enjoyed making it.
this was a very interesting read, you said a lot of things Ive sort of thought about but never quite knew how to put into words. even now, the deeper I get into the language I still keep telling myself I know even less and less, as you expand your input you realize just how many different specific words and phrases are used and it just feels like I only know 1% of the language now haha but comparing yourself to the people the media was made for isn't fair, its like a 3 year old trying to understand Shakespeare I'm glad you enjoyed this video, I'll have a lot more similar coming ! thanks for the comment :)
@@BecomeAnything. You know quite a bit. Gotta give yourself some credit. The hours didn't evaporate into the ether. You've acquired a level of skill in something many don't. It's something to be proud of. Besides, English is another Cat V Language. It's the worst, and you're pretty fluent in that. That took years, quite a few of which were spent doing tedious work in a classroom, or at least reading and writing and memorizing things nearly constantly. And think of all the media you've consumed your whole life bringing you to this level. How many books did you read, movies did you watch? How many songs have you listened to and learned the lyrics for? Many things add to your fluency and immersion in the culture to create an enmeshment with the language that goes beyond grammar and vocabulary. You'll only keep getting better the more exposure you can get! Good luck! You're far ahead of me on this Japanese Journey, but you've reminded me of why I'm trying to invest in this language again. So thanks for that. Nice channel name, by the way. I look forward to more content.
Holy crap, the Videos are so enjoyable to watch. I'm currently learning Chinese, but I always enjoy watching People in Japan. After I watched the video, I think in the Future I'll probably go through the pain. But until then, I would've already mastered a lot of other Languages.
Haha glad you enjoy them, and yeah if you feel a calling to learn then go for it but its definitely a time sink. Being familiar with Hanzi meanings will help a lot tho
it's totally possible. idk what your definition of fluency is but look up "ajatt" and "sentence mining", it's useful tools and i promise you can do it with them. glad this vid could push you in the right direction, you got this!
Lol 1 year? good luck mate im 7 years in have N1 which doesnt even measure your skilll level. i can perfectly communicate with my Japanese gf and friends, read all kanji and im still far from fluent and basically dumb af when they start to speak kansai dialect
And if you just live with japanese, without having the pressure to learn it complete as fast as possible. Just live your life using/listening japanese, it will get better over the years.
Well, I speak Portuguese, English and French, but in the process of learning French I lost my passion to learn languages. I had to learn French to live here in Québec, BUT since I was a kid I wanted to learn Japanese, I've been postponing it since then. I just started, like 2 weeks ago, I feel I'm in the right track again, maybe what I needed was a good challenge, and it seems that I've found it xD Thanks for the video!
it's considered one of the biggest challenges in language learning. seeing how you've picked up some other languages I think you got it! best of luck on the journey
Yea I never liked French much. I think learning Japanese is easier if you learned at least one other language in your life, since you're already familiar with the base process of getting to know different grammar you have never seen etc etc.
I love how realistic this video is 😂 thank you for this bluntness. It’s absolutely true but I still like to go off and on in my journey to studying Japanese. I have a love hate relationship with it.😊
about 10 months in and honestly it hasn't stopped being fun when I can't wait to go to japan and troll natives by making them think I don't understand them then busting out some top tier verb conjugations
@Jashi Yessss, I just got here when the humidity was crazy. I've been to hot countries like malaysia and Thailand, and I have never felt humidity like fukuoka 🤣 But yes it's nice now
You put a lot of things in perspective. Every time I study a piece of media I think oh I finally am starting to understand this language. Then I watch something new and I have no idea what they're saying. The amount of words I've never heard before feel so daunting when I think about how long it's taken to learn the ~2000 I do.
Realizing how long it is going to take to become even conversational was quite a shock. I've been studying every day for a little over two years, with a teacher - multiple teachers, actually. I love it, but I have had to embrace the fact that this is a giant mountain with no peak. But that's okay -- I only wish I'd started sooner. I started at 58, and I suspect I'll run out of life before I run out of things to learn about Japanese.
I'm 18 and I will run out of life before I run out of things to learn too. I think the ability to pursue knowledge despite knowing this is what gives birth to excellency. if you can find a way to get joy out of learning japanese then I think you got what it takes ! accepting that it will take a while is important tho haha
I'm a half Jpanese person here, learning Japanese in the U.S. I know that my situation is different than yours, since I've grown up surrounded by Japanese, but I'm still not as good as my fellow Japanese who are the same age back in Japan. I still find it really useful to watch lots of anime, consume jpop, and basically consume media in Japanese to help with the learning, as well as taking classes online.
Congrats sir, your vid hit like a truck. I'm planning on living in Japan in the next years, and I'm totally decided to keep going on learning, your video simply stated perfectly what I believe about Nihongo study, but also gives even more value to this decision, and tests the limit of the one who's passing trough these issues rn. Also I'm really impressed by the editing, the cuts and all, must have taken a lot of time and editing, nice damn job!
I was a bit worried the message wouldn't go through right, so I'm relieved you heard it well. i made it just for people like you, so if youre still determined enough to jump in the abyss then you're already halfway there
Thank you Man for saving my time, i will rather increase my knowledge in other languages that i know. because i'm losing time on japanese. I like the language, but i'm moving really slow... I had the exact same thoughts on this for some years now... you confirmed it, thank you. :)
i love japanese 💛 honestly i dont regret starting on japanese almost 4 years ago. its the only language i find interesting, fascinating even. i feel like my time is well spent whenever i study or immerse myself really i dont think japanese is that hard to learn, just time consuming. theres so much material (anime, manga, games, etc), im definitely not running out of content to get immersed in living in japan or communicating with its people isnt really my goal, i just like what theyre producing, and thats fine by me my opinion? try it, maybe youll love it. especially if its on your mind often or if it ignites some sort of spark in your brain. and if you give up? try again maybe. i gave up on japanese at least twice before finally committing of course you dont have to bother if you don't want to, that's a viable option too 👍 anyone can learn a language ✌️
I think the best thing to say to a new learner is to basically expect to hit a massive grind right after they learn kana and some basic grammar. I'm still weighing up whether or not I want to learn this language, and haven't studied any of it yet (not even kana), but I like the sound of a challenge. I'm not even a weeb. My favourite food is from japan, so I just want to be able to go to japan and order food and maybe hold a conversation. Nothing too crazy. I like how the N1-N5 system is laid out and it almost gamifies the grind a little. Maybe I will start today.
Been studying Japanese for over a year now. I'm 34 with 2 kids and very little free time. If I can go back I would definitely not do Japanese. By far the hardest thing I've done is try to learn this language. But now I'm at a point where it's like, I'm in too deep. I do love seeing my progress and mostly have fun while studying. Great Video, good luck with this RUclips path. I'll be checking in for more !
yep haha at some point the sunk cost fallacy takes over and you just gotta keep going best of luck with japanese while raising kids though, i can barely do it in college so kudos for that. thanks for dropping a comment and glad to see you'll stick around !
that's one way to go about it. it's all mind over matter at the end of the day, but I wonder if it's better to expect the worst or to expect nothing... either way this language sucks sometimes LOL
As someone who's been learning Dutch, French, and Japanese for the past few years, it's true that learning germanic and romance languages takes less time and faster acquisition, but I feel like knowing Japanese has more practical value. English is the lingua franca of Europe, so most places in Europe will be able to accommodate english speakers, in fact if they sense you're not a fluent speaker, they'll switch to English, which gives you less opportunity to practice the language. Whereas in Japan, on average there's far less people who are able to speak English to a conversational level. Being able to speak Japanese in Japan has helped me far greater than being able to speak French/Dutch in France and in The Netherlands.
Yeah that's true and honestly I think it's sad that English became like that. That's why I like being in Japan, their culture still revolves around their language and while English is kinda being forced into it, it's much less than those counties so far. thanks for the comment, u made some good points !
Funny thing it goes both ways, Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn for native English speakers, and English is one of the hardest languages to learn for native Japanese speakers, for mostly the same reasons (very big grammatical and cultural differences). Japan has consistantly scored among the lowest in Asia on standarized English tests.
Wonderful video! I really appreciate your honest and truthful opinion. I get tired of seeing so many video claiming how easy it is to learn Japanese. Learning Japanese has been the monster in my closet. Moved to Japan 4 years ago and spent the first 2 years in language school. After taking every class twice, changing to another school the 2nd year and studying every night for 4-6 hours, I could hardly speak any meaningful Japanese. It's now 2 years later and my Japanese is a little better but nowhere close to where I feel it should be. I have recently stopped studying because, as in the video, I'm absolutely BURNED OUT! It's just so frustrating because of all the time and money I have spent trying to learn this challenging language. I love everything else about Japan and currently living in Tokyo.
as someone that's been learning Japanese for 10+ years but probably only actively studied Japanese for 4 years in school (first year of high school to graduation), I haven't studied in a long time, I just do things I like in Japanese (play games, read manga, watch tv shows) and I've learned a lot. Learning isn't a race, there's almost no finish line per se. Just have fun and try learn passively too. If you make it a chore or rush it you're gonna have a bad time.
Thank you for this information. I did study Japanese in college for a year and only dabble in Hiragana and Katakana, while also learning some grammar along the way. I totally agree with everything you have said. Japanese is hard. I also think it can be fun and rewarding given how you can be very expressive with what you can say. I also decided to learn it because i want to watch anime without subtitles ahahahahah. Can't wait to see more of your content sir. Look forward to seeing you speaking more Japanese.
Yep it's a struggle, I been there too. You gotta have a real strong reason to keep going every day but it's very rewarding. thanks for dropping another comment! always looking forward to em
The hardest part for me is getting to a level where I can properly immerse in content I am actually really interested in. I am not good at memorizing vocabulary, the words I remember well are mostly ones I encountered in media I consumed. From learning other languages before I know that once I can immerse better, I will make good progress. But until then, I gotta grind through the mud.
Try Migaku especially if you aren't too techy but want the results from using Anki. It is an awesome alternative to Anki and allows you to pull subtitles for study flash cards from RUclips and Netflix.
no it going to take a decade or more to learn it well and still you will not fully know it, stop listening to what books say stop trying to rush it and just enjoy life instead of stressing over where your at, you will progress slowly and naturally in time
I started studying it recently, and so far I'm having fun doing so. About 2 or 3 hours a day. This video doesn't scare me away lol. Being able to communicate at least a bit when I finally get to visit Japan will be worth it.
It is definitely one of the most satisfying processes I have ever done in my life. But the sad part is the more you know, the more you realize you don't know and the more you realize you want to know. ); (bjorn editor here)
What a genuine and honest video, also nice style and play with the dark, lights and shades. Nice and chill narration. My story: always wanted to learn Japanese but started to learn Chinese instead. Everything you said about the Japanese learning process applies also to Chinese learning process. It's fun but the constant questioning if you made the right decision with learning this language is huge. I could've learned Spanish, Italian and Portuguese (all three easily) instead and what's sad about it is that my Chinese is still very miserable (let's say A2 level). Positive thing is that if I started to learn Japanese one day, I would already know the majority of Kanji so the learning process would be much smoother and quicker. Not sure what my motivation would be though. I wanted to learn Japanese when I was a teenager and was watching anime. That is not the case anymore. I still like the way the language sounds, sometimes I listen to some Japanese music but I'm not sure if that's enough of a reason to learn a language. The same with Chinese. Since my level is extremely low, I can't really use it and profit from it fully for example at work. All job opportunities come at higher level (at least B2) and I am far away from that! It was just recently when I came to my local Chinese restaurant and wanted to order beer in a bottle to take it home. My good friend Chinese owner didn't understand me even though he knows me and I always say the same sentences to him. So that was embarrassing, after learning Chinese for around 8 years or so 😅 (not continual, there were long breaks inbetween but still lot of time that could've been invested otherwise).
wow I was definitely able to relate to a lot of what you said haha. I'm in the opposite position, I wanna learn chinese just to say I know it but I don't have too many reasons. I guess what keeps me going is just the sunk cost fallacy, I've already put so much time in and already told people I'm learning, so i may as well just keep going. best of luck on your own journey !
On my second and last week in Japan, bouta go home tmrw, so I've been getting a lot of Japan related videos recommended on my TL Really glad I stumbled upon your channel cause I really respect the amount of effort you've been putting into them I believe you got a lot of potential so you earned yourself a sub! Looking forward to more content being put out from you 🙏🙏
after coming to Japan after learning japanese for 1 year only, i regretted that i did not learn more japanese lol after moving back to my home country i sticked to learning it everyday until i come back to jp
So agree! I lived there for 6 months and as he said, I feel guilty not being able to hold a conversation with people who have become like family to me. I hope to go back someday and be able to speak with them.
keep it up, i remember when I was studying kana.. takes me back. but yeah if you're down to get a microchip in ur brain then that's a different story 😭
I think the most Important thing about learning any language is having fun with it. I'm currently learning Japanese and even after the countless kanji ive been going through i love seeing kanji i learned even if I dont know the meaning of the whole sentence. For me personally, another thing thats important is knowing yourself and how you learn. How i learn kanji is by writing it down 60 times and then after learning the English translations of a handful of kanji i go back and learn the kun-reading. Sounds like a lot of work but it's because I understand myself and that this is the most comfortable and best way for me to memorize kanji.
Thanks for the laughs 😂❤ If you accomplished this much Congrats on your progress!! I'll probably share this to anyone I come across who is interested in Japanese
Loved the last sentence, but hey, even if AI can let us speak with anybody across the world without speaking their native languages, I still want to pursue my dream of learning Japanese ✌Actually, I've been watching/listenning to your video while doing my kanji exercises, lol, hope to watch more of your content to practice my japanese audio skills 💪 ánimo!
keep up the grind! if you are willing to learn despite it potentially being "rendered useless" by AI (which some ppl will think) then I believe in you and you got what it takes to learn
And even after all 17 min, i still use my one and only brain cell to push through kanji lol, great video, really enjoyed. Found your channel by pure chance, imma stay here, excited to see you next video!
Not only is Japanese considered by the FSI a very difficult category V language, it gets an asterik, denoting "a language that's more difficult for native English speakers than other languages in its category". So more like category V+.
There is actually no such thing as category V. It's a myth that spread widely on sites claiming to quote the FSI for some reason, but if you look carefully at FSI primary sources you will see that category V has never existed.
I'm very excited and intend to enjoy the process, to spend all that time and miss out on all those things for the chance to be 1/3 as good as a native speaker in the hopes that when I'm able to immigrate I'll be able to hit the cultural and professional ground running. At that point, maybe I'll be able to learn Japanese! Mada mada desu...
When I first started dabbling, I read or heard somewhere that it could take 10 to 12 years with consistent study to fully grasp the language. I just committed myself there to the long haul. I looked into the abyss and dove in I guess.😅
I live with my Japanese in laws. No kids. No brothers or sisters. I have to learn Japanese to speak with them. The more I learn, the deeper I am able to connect with them and make the relationship meaningful. But....I'm stuck on weather, food and schedules....stuck on a loop. It's so hard to dive deeper....I really want to for the sake of my family...
yea I can understand that for sure. the more exposure you get the better you naturally get tho. hope some of my language vids can help ppl in ur type of situation tho, that's why I make them !
You have high school energy in the way you think about things, you really reminded me of people I knew back then. I have some advice, it seems like you've been passionate about studying Japanese. A better way than studying a language is to acquire it. Other people talk more about this on RUclips if you're interested. Like you correctly identified that studying kanji readings isn't the optimal way to learn, but rather learning words. Secondly, learn the framework to put words into. People use their preexisting frameworks from their native language and put foreign words into them and it leads to problems. When 文法 rhymes with うんこ in your mind it's not a good sign. Unless you meant 運行. Learn building blocks of Japanese, kana rhythm: ruclips.net/video/J_HLY0Rss-g/видео.html and pitch accent: ruclips.net/video/K8E-cU19PMsU/видео.html19PMs Good luck.
wow please call me anything but a high schooler this is the worst hate comment ive ever gotten anyway this video honestly doesnt represent my japanese journey. you actually gave very good advice, especially acquisition vs learning and pitch accent and mora. this video is just a play on how long it takes to "traditionally learn" japanese, the way ive gone about learning japanese is not represented in this video at all. i havent even spoken the language more than a few times lol i just stay quiet and ajatt with flashcards like i said tho, good advice just please dont ever say the word "high school energy" in this comment section again lmao
To be honest, effectively learning 2200 kanji in a year is motivational, not discouraging. If I thought it was possible, I would reconsider learning kanji.
though if your mother tongue is one of the five level 5 languages, then it's generally easier. Especially if you speak Mandarin or Cantonese, then Kanji would be a lot easier, and it helps with pronunciation because of similar intonation and stuff
This does explain why in spite of how much I've learned over the past 5-6 years I'm still not content and keep going. The abyss fully has it's grip on me. Help.
I don’t know how long to say I’ve been learning I’ve been off and on learning Japanese for 3 years but after that 3 years I stopped completely for 2 years and started again and am taking it very seriously I’ve passed n4 in a month in a half so would it be accurate to say I’ve been learning for a month and a half seeing how when I was studying on and off I couldn’t even read a babies book
not everything in this world has to be useful. you constantly say how learning japanese may be a waste of time, but what about all the time we spend on our phones just doomscrolling lol. if someone has fun learning a new language and it makes them happy, i don't see any issues. honestly, being fluent in english, german, french, italian etc. wouldn't make me happy as i would still not be able to understand any japanese, which i really enjoy💀
ya thats true, i think its a way better use of time than most other things. i just kinda wanted to give people a bit of a time estimate and warning that its gonna take a lot of dedication, but for those who enjoy it, it's extremely worthwhile imo
on the other hand I mainly started learning because i was considering moving to Japan for work and when put European languages as a frame of reference, i am thinking otherwise now. I might just learn them instead. Regardless I'll still probably learn it because I am a massive weeb lmao. I consume too much Japanese content to not learn some basics to comprehend it at least a little bit. thanks to @BecomeAnything.
i don't know how this got reccomended to me but i watched the entire thing. I hope you'll make the videos you want now that you've spent all the time learning japanese! imo you've already gotten the video part down, lets see if japanese can help you get more content out!
@@BecomeAnything. Portugal was the only country that colonized Japan, until its villages were destroyed by the Japanese. For more than a hundred years, Portugal maintained the monopoly right of trade between Japan and other nations. In other words, Portugal made an agreement with the Japanese government in which only Portuguese merchant ships could dock in Japan. All trade, for example, between China and Japan, was carried out by the Portuguese.
I always tell people, if they can't learn hiragana/katagana quickly, they might want to reevalutae how badly they want to learn the language. But apart from that, I personally think this later part of japanese, the "abyss phase", is the most fun part yet. It feels so rewarding to overcome such a challenge and it never stops to be interesting to me
honestly you don't need to know more than like 100 words to do that, customer service people aren't gonna try to strike up a conversation or anything lol
yeah man hope to see you here one day! sounds like you got the right mindset to learn the language so you should go for it, once you move here it'll be so rewarding being able to understand what's around you
Why it sounds so sad. By Learning Japanese you could make friends or maybe even a relationship. You can just relax and chill out a little bit, then study again when you are feeling motivated. It just normal to feel burnout during the learning process.
Lolz great video. I'm at the N5 going on N4 level now. It's great to know that I will still feel like an idiot two years from now, but at least I'll be able to watch shonen without subs hahaha
Dang this really discouraged me I always wanted to learn the language and be able to travel all of japan I’m a medical student and can sacrifice maybe 1-2 hours a week without giving up my other interests, hobbies, and responsibilities. So I wonder how far I can even get in 2 years. Will it even be enough to travel outside of Tokyo and the other big cities?
yeah japanese sadly is very intense to learn, especially in 2 years. if it's something you're really passionate about, then u gotta make those 2 hours a week work and maybe some time will open in the future. hope it works out for you !
As a 2nd year Japanese student, I have come to this same conclusion. It's actually crazy how I can spend two to three hours a day on something and not feel confident enough to speak fluently. I aspire to live in Japan but this language is an incredible time sink. I'm fortunate that I'm at now at a level to interact with different forms of Japanese media that's not a textbook.
I think it's worth to mention that at some point there is no real point in "studying" anymore (meaning reviewing kanji or studying in a traditional sense). Simply experiencing and learning/aquiring the language from natural interractions and enjoying things we enjoy like novels, dramas, music, karaoke and games is enough to keep improving. And most importantly. It's fun to learn that way. I think that also acts as a natural filter so we avoid learning a bunch of Kanji that we might actually never use or encounter for the rest of our life. I also think its a lot easier to recognize a word in the context of a sentence. After reading a lot of novels I have found that I can sometimes accurately guess the word without knowing the kanji because the context around the word is strong enough. Like I know the word because i've heard it enough times, I just didn't know the Kanji. But turns out that's not always an issue. Throughout my language learning journey there has always been something there for me to enjoy at my current level. I think finding a way to enjoy learning the language in a natural way is so important for motivation. That being said. I've been learning for 10 years and I still got a long way to go. So I can resonate with a lot of the things you are talking about. It takes time. But thats exactly why the journey needs to have greater focus than the goal.
giving up on the right time is honestly the best you can do when learning languages…I spent two years in Russian with zero improvement and I understand the feeling of the time wasted without moving a bit…i felt the most freedom in my life when I dumped the Russian mess…I’m intermediate in Spanish now after six months!!…
Haha yeah. Thats the thing is a lot of people criticize us for taking this stance, but we are really trying to say that if you are not serious about learning a language for many many years very seriously it would better for 90% of people to just stop while you are ahead because you will just come out of it with little to nothing as brutal as that sounds.
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クリーム is cream, not claim. クレーム is claim/complaint
Bruh I'm a fraud
@@BecomeAnything. I was going to say the same thing but then I remembered how many words I learned incorrectly. It doesn't change the point of the video which is well taken.
@@BecomeAnything. No, but you're not about N2 level 😘 You either got it or you don't
@@POLICESTARBODYCAMS tbf JLPT is not the greatest test to define your Japanese skill, it's way too differ from the Japanese people currently are using
@@BecomeAnything. Bro studied on luodingo 😂
Im 64 years old and have been studying Japanese for six months. I find it very interesting and it keeps my mind active. My trip to Japan last year was amazing and I wanted to learn more about the culture and language. I enjoy it and I’m having fun with it. I don’t expect I’ll ever be fluent, but that’s ok. It’s not a waste of time!! Any endeavor to learn is not a waste of time!!
absolutely agreed. i hope my video didnt give the impression that i considered it a waste of time, but that it takes a lot more time than most i've seen are willing to put in to reach their goal.
also i think it's awesome that you're joining the game at 64, it's very inspirational. I can only hope that I have the discipline to keep myself sharp past like age 30 haha
thanks for sharing your story!
Totally agree I'm 56 and I began studying Korean one year ago and japanese this year and I'm very happy and like both languages, I don't have any expectation to be fluent and it doesn't matter if take me many years I will learn until I can and wanted because I enjoy learning languages and keep my mind active. I already speak Spanish(my mother tongue) English and French.
Try to study more Kanji like writing them down, understanding how they are made etc. That's a very good memory exercise.
Try to study more Kanji like writing them down, understanding how they are made etc. That's a very good memory exercise.
You got the right mindset my dude! 頑張ってください！
Japanese gets pretty easy later on tbh. I never thought it was difficult anyway. I just consumed a ton of content and now books and series are not that hard to understand.
3 years of study for those who may ask.
yeah it's much easier past the learning curve
Any tips ?
@@Luckydaze Depending on your personal goal and how much invested you are to learning Japanese I would suggest different approaches. Why are you learning Japanese and what is the end goal?
@@SakugaMeister I have Japanese friends and I would like to speak to and understand them clearly
@@Luckydaze If you live in Jaoan jist hangout with them you will learn naturally. If not then, I suggest starting to listen Japanese as much as possible. That's it really, there is no secret to learning languages other than immersing yourself. You can use textbooks but only in the first 2 weeks or so just so the entry is a bit easier but I wouldnt recommend them, they are boring plus they teach really bad japanese.
Good luck!
Japan is my 3rd foreign language and I can say from experience that those official sites telling you how long it takes to learn a language aren't really a good point to start off. How long it takes for someone to become fluent depends entirely on each individual. It also depends on whether you find the right resources quickly and if you have enough motivation to practice regularly.
yeah for people who find good resources and are motivated to do the research it's very inaccurate, but sadly the average person doesn't. I'll make videos about what I used soon and hope that can help most learners
Those stats are for people enrolled in a pretty standardized, pretty intensive and full immersion type curriculum. There's going to be wildly more variation among people out doing things by themselves. You'll get everything from the obsessives sinking hours and hours into it every day to the people who think Duolingo will get them there.
Makes me want to keep learning even more. No intentions to live there, but would like to visit one day.
The FSI chart is actually quite accurate in terms of how long they take to learn, as they have many many years of thousands of people learning said language and they have documented every step of the proccess from beginning to end, and these numbers are the average results. However, and this is a BIG however, it is an average, in every chart there are outliers, some people learn faster, and some slower, but on average most people take this long. AND this is in the perspective of English speakers learning, so If you speak another language this chart is less accurate, as what makes a language difficult is it's diversity from the language/s you speak. ANNNND this is documemented from thier own teaching style, and this is class hours spent in THEIR classes, so IF you are and English speaker, AND you are learning in thier programe, this is very accurate. But that doesn't mean this chart is useless for your average langauge learner, as you can use it as a rough guide to get an idea of which languages are probably harder than others, and in general how long it will take on average.
Lol same. I am not new to language learning but japanese is on a whole new level for me since it’s my first asian language (and one that comes with thousands of letters and/or caracthers
“ the abyss looks back with cold, dark, meaningless eyes”😂😂😂
English has kanji. It's called english spelling
Nah that's romaji
I caught myself in the thought, that even in languages, where writing better represents how the word is said, like Russian, in the end you end up reading words as a whole without paying attention to the letters it consists of. So you essentially learning a word in a written language. So it is not dissimilar to what you do with kanji words. It's just a pain to lookup :) As a multiple readings of a kanji, I've heard advice to not to learn kanji separately and to learn words instead. You eventually learn separate kanji as a side effect and it would help you to lookup and even read new words that share kanji with ones you know
Tru tru
Woah, I've actually never thought of this before, I think you're completely right! @@EvGamerBETA
If only it were that simple.
To anyone worried about kanji, I strongly suggest trying the free levels of wanikani. If you haven't heard of it, it works by first teaching you the radicals of each kanji, then pre-made mnemonics to cement them in your memory. On top of that, it uses a spaced repetition system to maximize your retention over long periods of time while minimizing study time. You don't need motivation, just show up every day, do the bare minimum and you will learn the joyo kanji in a year and a half plus 6000 vocab words. In my experience, it's unreasonably effective at teaching you to read. If you've just learned the kana and don't know what to do next, I strongly suggest giving wanikani a try.
HUGE advice, that's how I learned actually. I made it to level 60 and plan on promoting it once the channel is bigger, if a sponsorship is ever on the horizon that would be dope but even if not I'll promote it one day
Instead of discouraging me from learning Japanese, this video just made me think about how valuable time is.
Like the vlog style by the way, I think the cuts are a bit too frequent, but that's just my take, other people might like it.
Hell ya. I think the main goal of this video was to warn those who are not serious to avoid wasting time, and a calling for those who have made up their mind to the extreme. Only the people most motivated won't be discouraged by this video.
Nah the cuts are perfect. No need to change it.
@@BecomeAnything.even if im not serious it’s better than spending my time on tiktok or instagram
Not trying to be billy badass or anything but I’ve trained in martial arts my whole life and what it’s taught me is how to be consistent, be patien, and to enjoy the journey. I love the idea of learning something that can never be mastered. There’s always something new to learn. That’s how I feel with martial arts. So I see Japanese as something that I’ll never be able to master but it just makes me love it more. It’s the mountain that never ends but the views just get better and better
You don't have to try to be a billy badass, you ARE one!
Nah but I love that mindset, that's currently where I am with RUclips right now. It's given me a constant hunger for more, and even knowing that I may never be full, I strive forward every day. Japanese for some is much the same, but for those who just want to "know it" and move on, it's one hell of a chore haha.
best of luck on your martial arts and japanese journey, you definitely got the right headspace for it and this was an awesome comment
Billy's been training in the martial art of Gator wrestling since he was born to his parents who shared the same name before they were married. 😄
Excellent mindset, I'm enjoying these small language understanding wins along the way and try not to think too much about how much I don't know
You sound amazing and I totally agree with you on the last part
I want you to know that sentence is amazing and I will be sharing it with others for sure.
"Learning/Living X is the mountain that never ends but the view gets better and better" dang
I'm newly married to a Japanese woman and we plan to move to Japan in about 5 years (we live in the US now). I'm just starting to learn the language...yep it's hard! She told me it will take decades to become native-level...
She is indeed correct. Although if you are VERY active you can achieve that level in 4 or 5 or 6 years with intense MIA/AJATT. Learn to enjoy the journey, not the destination and you won't fail.
@@BecomeAnything. thanks
It doesn't take Japanese people decades to reach a native level and they're learning mostly passively. Yes, it's difficult to learn a new way of thinking and a new language, but if you practice a lot and surround yourself with Japanese media and content, you'll be fine :)
Aiming to reach the native level is like aiming to become a professional soccer player when you are just starting out.
First, you should learn how to shoot and score a goal to understand how fun it is.
Don't rush yourself, take it easy!
Chinese learners laughing at Japanese learners complaining about Kanji 😂
AND I RESPECT THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE LEARNING THE GREATEST MOST BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY THE GREATEST PEOPLE 🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳
@@BecomeAnything. Building that social credit score huh?
@@briddenattech did he mean he is a learner of chinese, and thus japanese kanji is less demanding than what you would have to remember when doing chinese in comparison
@@ambarvalia9757 Almost certainly not. Hanzi is at least consistent in pronunciation. The 'onyomi' pronunciation is based on the Chinese sounds they make, but as they were mapping an already existing alphabet system onto a completely different language, the characters often have the same meaning, but with completely different sounds... making kanji a much MUCH more complex system.
My personal, bias opinion, kanji is actually my strong point. I completed almost all N2 Kanji/vocab, N5 in speaking/listening comprehension.
EDIT: Nothing to be said for the Chinese tonality when pronoucing words. Most people say Japanese is easier to learn for speaking/listening, but much MUCH harder to read/write.
@@briddenattech well that is one facet. however chinese also has tones and multiple readings for the standard chinese
14:30 we dont do things because they are easy. We do them because of the challenge.
that's the type of mindset it takes !
🙌🙌🙌
well said. I feel all the same.
Well said, JFK
3 years into my Japanese language learning experience and I can say it was worth it. I want to go to a language school in Japan next year to really immerse myself in the language.
go for it !
3 years and you want to go to school????
@@TragicGFuel Well, japanese language schools here can only take you so far. and even with my self studies, I'm only N4. so I want to immerse myself in the language 100%
@@jadthecat387 3 years and *N4?*
Did you mean to type N2 or N1?
Because N4 is something people achieve in a couple of months. I'd say 7-8 months at the latest, if you have very little time or are not comfortable learning.
@@TragicGFuel I go by what my school says. of course I know that such progress is too slow so I wanna take a real JLPT test to see my real level
As I just got out of my online Japanese class, this video weirdly made me feel a lot better about my apparent lack of progress. Or, perhaps, this was the 4D chess of motivational speaking all along!
It could be 👀 only the most determined will see it.
Im 54, my wifes japanese, my kids are fluent , im slogging away trying to learn, i thought id learn as my kids did, nope they're sponges,but i think im in for the long haul, for the rest of my life, i dont think its a race for me, i just want to connect with my family more, if that makes sense. I cant afford the solid couple of thousand hours to level up in a couple of years. Great channel 😊, subscribed :)
ya it's frustrating knowing that kids just get a free ticket to fluency lol
the way I see it, it's a marathon and as long as you never leave the race then everything is gonna be ok. doesn't matter if you gotta stop or go slow, and I'm beginning to realize I'm in for the long run too...
glad u enjoyed tho !
@@BecomeAnything. Glad to see the algorithm picked you guys up, your destined for greatness lol! :)
I've been studying Japanese since 1999. I took a semester in college, reinforced it by working in a visitor industry aimed at Japanese tourists, and have been traveling on and off to Japan since 2000. I'll say this,make Japanese friends, don't be afraid to make mistakes and keep on going. It's a lifelong endeavor.
man you made a really high quality video, I like your style
thanks so much!
The way you describe standing on the edge of the abyss, as the universe stares back with its uncaring eyes, is so much gold. It's how I've felt learning any language. The world is vast, and when you begin to realize how little you know, that's when it starts to eat at you, and you feel the desperate hunger for more, and/or you run in fear from it. I'm at the spot where I'm beginning to have the kana right, and have begun adding kanji. I think there's a lot of context use in Japanese, so having a teacher, or at least a native speaker to help provide context to make things make more sense.
I read something about "leveling up" in life. If you are 20 years old, and you've spent your whole life speaking one language, you have 2 literal decades of language learning under your belt, with lots of public and private support to do so. After only a few years of studying hard, you still won't have had that support structure of constant immersion and home education for years before a public education took over the reigns. You've levelled up in Japanese past that of the language acquired by native speakers in the same amount of time (given they are infants incapable of speaking for years) to be capable of conversing and understanding what is going on around you.
You have this comparison in your head, but it really isn't fair to you to compare yourself to an adult who's spent their whole life learning the nuances of interaction in their home culture and language. It is much more accurate to compare yourself to a toddler or a small child, since you're working with a similar amount of time dedicated. But even that comparison is limited and really inaccurate at best. Just keep consuming media and learning like you did with English by constant exposure and practice. You will get to your goals in time. Maybe lots of time, but some things are worth it. You said you let your RUclips ideas sit on the backburner for a while. Maybe this is time well-spent in pursuit of those dreams. But maybe it comes into play elsewhere in your life later, too. In a way you didn't expect.
I enjoyed this. I hope you enjoyed making it.
this was a very interesting read, you said a lot of things Ive sort of thought about but never quite knew how to put into words. even now, the deeper I get into the language I still keep telling myself I know even less and less, as you expand your input you realize just how many different specific words and phrases are used and it just feels like I only know 1% of the language now haha
but comparing yourself to the people the media was made for isn't fair, its like a 3 year old trying to understand Shakespeare
I'm glad you enjoyed this video, I'll have a lot more similar coming ! thanks for the comment :)
@@BecomeAnything. You know quite a bit. Gotta give yourself some credit. The hours didn't evaporate into the ether. You've acquired a level of skill in something many don't. It's something to be proud of.
Besides, English is another Cat V Language. It's the worst, and you're pretty fluent in that. That took years, quite a few of which were spent doing tedious work in a classroom, or at least reading and writing and memorizing things nearly constantly. And think of all the media you've consumed your whole life bringing you to this level. How many books did you read, movies did you watch? How many songs have you listened to and learned the lyrics for? Many things add to your fluency and immersion in the culture to create an enmeshment with the language that goes beyond grammar and vocabulary. You'll only keep getting better the more exposure you can get!
Good luck! You're far ahead of me on this Japanese Journey, but you've reminded me of why I'm trying to invest in this language again. So thanks for that.
Nice channel name, by the way. I look forward to more content.
Holy crap, the Videos are so enjoyable to watch.
I'm currently learning Chinese, but I always enjoy watching People in Japan. After I watched the video, I think in the Future I'll probably go through the pain. But until then, I would've already mastered a lot of other Languages.
Haha glad you enjoy them, and yeah if you feel a calling to learn then go for it but its definitely a time sink. Being familiar with
Hanzi meanings will help a lot tho
everyone should view learning as a journey so that they appreciate the ups and downs of it.
well said
474th sub here. I stopped learning japanese years ago but now I decided to learn this language again. I want to become fluent in a year
it's totally possible. idk what your definition of fluency is but look up "ajatt" and "sentence mining", it's useful tools and i promise you can do it with them. glad this vid could push you in the right direction, you got this!
Lol 1 year? good luck mate im 7 years in have N1 which doesnt even measure your skilll level. i can perfectly communicate with my Japanese gf and friends, read all kanji and im still far from fluent and basically dumb af when they start to speak kansai dialect
skill issue japanese is easy if you just grow up there
yeah I literally just get mogged every day by japanese ppl when they see my studying
And if you just live with japanese, without having the pressure to learn it complete as fast as possible. Just live your life using/listening japanese, it will get better over the years.
oh then let have a call kid
But then English would be hard
Great video! I love your eye for
背景！
Well, I speak Portuguese, English and French, but in the process of learning French I lost my passion to learn languages. I had to learn French to live here in Québec, BUT since I was a kid I wanted to learn Japanese, I've been postponing it since then. I just started, like 2 weeks ago, I feel I'm in the right track again, maybe what I needed was a good challenge, and it seems that I've found it xD Thanks for the video!
it's considered one of the biggest challenges in language learning. seeing how you've picked up some other languages I think you got it! best of luck on the journey
Yea I never liked French much. I think learning Japanese is easier if you learned at least one other language in your life, since you're already familiar with the base process of getting to know different grammar you have never seen etc etc.
I love how realistic this video is 😂 thank you for this bluntness. It’s absolutely true but I still like to go off and on in my journey to studying Japanese. I have a love hate relationship with it.😊
it is the strongest love hate relationship one can have
about 10 months in and honestly it hasn't stopped being fun when I can't wait to go to japan and troll natives by making them think I don't understand them then busting out some top tier verb conjugations
xiaoma style behavior love to see it
Hi from Fukuoka 👋 I really like you video cutting style!
I've always wanted to go to Fukuoka!! thank you for watching and leaving a nice comment :)
I just arrived in Fukuoka on my student exchange from the UK!
@@samo6083 uhh sweet! and perfect timing! weather just gor bearable 😄
@Jashi Yessss, I just got here when the humidity was crazy. I've been to hot countries like malaysia and Thailand, and I have never felt humidity like fukuoka 🤣
But yes it's nice now
@@samo6083 tell me about it 😅💦 it was 3 months of being constantly sweaty...
You put a lot of things in perspective. Every time I study a piece of media I think oh I finally am starting to understand this language. Then I watch something new and I have no idea what they're saying. The amount of words I've never heard before feel so daunting when I think about how long it's taken to learn the ~2000 I do.
Can you make a video on how you learned Japanese? Thank you! Also the quality of your videos are really nice 💗 keep up the hard work !
it's on the way :) thank you for the kind words !
Realizing how long it is going to take to become even conversational was quite a shock. I've been studying every day for a little over two years, with a teacher - multiple teachers, actually. I love it, but I have had to embrace the fact that this is a giant mountain with no peak. But that's okay -- I only wish I'd started sooner. I started at 58, and I suspect I'll run out of life before I run out of things to learn about Japanese.
I'm 18 and I will run out of life before I run out of things to learn too. I think the ability to pursue knowledge despite knowing this is what gives birth to excellency. if you can find a way to get joy out of learning japanese then I think you got what it takes ! accepting that it will take a while is important tho haha
I'm a half Jpanese person here, learning Japanese in the U.S. I know that my situation is different than yours, since I've grown up surrounded by Japanese, but I'm still not as good as my fellow Japanese who are the same age back in Japan. I still find it really useful to watch lots of anime, consume jpop, and basically consume media in Japanese to help with the learning, as well as taking classes online.
Nice video. I can relate. But I enjoy studying the language as its a challenge.
It's considered the most challenging language so learning to like it will get you very far
Great video! I welcome the abyss!! And I also want to make youtube content while in Japan!! I'm glad I came across your channel!
thank you, i still wanna do it, but having that perspective is invaluable
Congrats sir, your vid hit like a truck.
I'm planning on living in Japan in the next years, and I'm totally decided to keep going on learning, your video simply stated perfectly what I believe about Nihongo study, but also gives even more value to this decision, and tests the limit of the one who's passing trough these issues rn.
Also I'm really impressed by the editing, the cuts and all, must have taken a lot of time and editing, nice damn job!
I was a bit worried the message wouldn't go through right, so I'm relieved you heard it well. i made it just for people like you, so if youre still determined enough to jump in the abyss then you're already halfway there
I love how every sentence has a new camera angle
glad u like it ! Will be using it in future vids too
Thank you Man for saving my time, i will rather increase my knowledge in other languages that i know.
because i'm losing time on japanese.
I like the language, but i'm moving really slow...
I had the exact same thoughts on this for some years now...
you confirmed it, thank you. :)
glad this video helped your situation!
The effort u put in to change the background for the video, every 10-20 secs, so cool
gotta keep that retention graph up somehow haha
happy to hear u appreciate it, means a lot
So glad this Chanel just popped up on recommendations, RUclips finally got “1” right 😂💀
haha that means a lot
i love japanese 💛
honestly i dont regret starting on japanese almost 4 years ago. its the only language i find interesting, fascinating even. i feel like my time is well spent whenever i study or immerse myself
really i dont think japanese is that hard to learn, just time consuming. theres so much material (anime, manga, games, etc), im definitely not running out of content to get immersed in
living in japan or communicating with its people isnt really my goal, i just like what theyre producing, and thats fine by me
my opinion? try it, maybe youll love it. especially if its on your mind often or if it ignites some sort of spark in your brain. and if you give up? try again maybe. i gave up on japanese at least twice before finally committing
of course you dont have to bother if you don't want to, that's a viable option too 👍
anyone can learn a language ✌️
real spill
I think the best thing to say to a new learner is to basically expect to hit a massive grind right after they learn kana and some basic grammar. I'm still weighing up whether or not I want to learn this language, and haven't studied any of it yet (not even kana), but I like the sound of a challenge. I'm not even a weeb. My favourite food is from japan, so I just want to be able to go to japan and order food and maybe hold a conversation. Nothing too crazy. I like how the N1-N5 system is laid out and it almost gamifies the grind a little. Maybe I will start today.
go for it ! the hardest part of knowing japanese is honestly just the learning curve at the beginning, after that it's much smoother sailing
Been studying Japanese for over a year now. I'm 34 with 2 kids and very little free time. If I can go back I would definitely not do Japanese. By far the hardest thing I've done is try to learn this language. But now I'm at a point where it's like, I'm in too deep. I do love seeing my progress and mostly have fun while studying.
Great Video, good luck with this RUclips path. I'll be checking in for more !
yep haha at some point the sunk cost fallacy takes over and you just gotta keep going
best of luck with japanese while raising kids though, i can barely do it in college so kudos for that. thanks for dropping a comment and glad to see you'll stick around !
Thanks! I wish I have watched this video when I started studying 18 months ago.
Haha same here to an extent, that's why I made it !
I hope you blow up man. This content is looking really cool and its all so well shot!
Thanks so much. I hope we do too but just thankful for all we are getting right now 😭
My friend always says "expect the worst" - and that really helps me to get surprised by own results
that's one way to go about it. it's all mind over matter at the end of the day, but I wonder if it's better to expect the worst or to expect nothing... either way this language sucks sometimes LOL
As someone who's been learning Dutch, French, and Japanese for the past few years, it's true that learning germanic and romance languages takes less time and faster acquisition, but I feel like knowing Japanese has more practical value. English is the lingua franca of Europe, so most places in Europe will be able to accommodate english speakers, in fact if they sense you're not a fluent speaker, they'll switch to English, which gives you less opportunity to practice the language. Whereas in Japan, on average there's far less people who are able to speak English to a conversational level. Being able to speak Japanese in Japan has helped me far greater than being able to speak French/Dutch in France and in The Netherlands.
Yeah that's true and honestly I think it's sad that English became like that. That's why I like being in Japan, their culture still revolves around their language and while English is kinda being forced into it, it's much less than those counties so far.
thanks for the comment, u made some good points !
Funny thing it goes both ways, Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn for native English speakers, and English is one of the hardest languages to learn for native Japanese speakers, for mostly the same reasons (very big grammatical and cultural differences). Japan has consistantly scored among the lowest in Asia on standarized English tests.
Wonderful video! I really appreciate your honest and truthful opinion. I get tired of seeing so many video claiming how easy it is to learn Japanese. Learning Japanese has been the monster in my closet. Moved to Japan 4 years ago and spent the first 2 years in language school. After taking every class twice, changing to another school the 2nd year and studying every night for 4-6 hours, I could hardly speak any meaningful Japanese. It's now 2 years later and my Japanese is a little better but nowhere close to where I feel it should be. I have recently stopped studying because, as in the video, I'm absolutely BURNED OUT! It's just so frustrating because of all the time and money I have spent trying to learn this challenging language. I love everything else about Japan and currently living in Tokyo.
as someone that's been learning Japanese for 10+ years but probably only actively studied Japanese for 4 years in school (first year of high school to graduation), I haven't studied in a long time, I just do things I like in Japanese (play games, read manga, watch tv shows) and I've learned a lot. Learning isn't a race, there's almost no finish line per se. Just have fun and try learn passively too. If you make it a chore or rush it you're gonna have a bad time.
facts
Great video! I'm currently in the process of transitioning from N2 to N1 myself.
best of luck ! its a very difficult spot to be in
You can tell it's the first hard thing he's ever tried to do in his life
not true! I passed the AP music theory exam in high school
Thank you for this information. I did study Japanese in college for a year and only dabble in Hiragana and Katakana, while also learning some grammar along the way. I totally agree with everything you have said. Japanese is hard. I also think it can be fun and rewarding given how you can be very expressive with what you can say. I also decided to learn it because i want to watch anime without subtitles ahahahahah. Can't wait to see more of your content sir. Look forward to seeing you speaking more Japanese.
Yep it's a struggle, I been there too. You gotta have a real strong reason to keep going every day but it's very rewarding.
thanks for dropping another comment! always looking forward to em
The hardest part for me is getting to a level where I can properly immerse in content I am actually really interested in. I am not good at memorizing vocabulary, the words I remember well are mostly ones I encountered in media I consumed. From learning other languages before I know that once I can immerse better, I will make good progress. But until then, I gotta grind through the mud.
Try Migaku especially if you aren't too techy but want the results from using Anki. It is an awesome alternative to Anki and allows you to pull subtitles for study flash cards from RUclips and Netflix.
no it going to take a decade or more to learn it well and still you will not fully know it, stop listening to what books say stop trying to rush it and just enjoy life instead of stressing over where your at, you will progress slowly and naturally in time
yeah books are pretty useless ngl
@@BecomeAnything. who needs reading skills :D
natives don't fully know their language, no one cares about fully knowing a language that's practically impossible and pointless
I started studying it recently, and so far I'm having fun doing so. About 2 or 3 hours a day. This video doesn't scare me away lol. Being able to communicate at least a bit when I finally get to visit Japan will be worth it.
It is definitely one of the most satisfying processes I have ever done in my life. But the sad part is the more you know, the more you realize you don't know and the more you realize you want to know. ); (bjorn editor here)
What a genuine and honest video, also nice style and play with the dark, lights and shades. Nice and chill narration. My story: always wanted to learn Japanese but started to learn Chinese instead. Everything you said about the Japanese learning process applies also to Chinese learning process. It's fun but the constant questioning if you made the right decision with learning this language is huge. I could've learned Spanish, Italian and Portuguese (all three easily) instead and what's sad about it is that my Chinese is still very miserable (let's say A2 level). Positive thing is that if I started to learn Japanese one day, I would already know the majority of Kanji so the learning process would be much smoother and quicker. Not sure what my motivation would be though. I wanted to learn Japanese when I was a teenager and was watching anime. That is not the case anymore. I still like the way the language sounds, sometimes I listen to some Japanese music but I'm not sure if that's enough of a reason to learn a language. The same with Chinese. Since my level is extremely low, I can't really use it and profit from it fully for example at work. All job opportunities come at higher level (at least B2) and I am far away from that! It was just recently when I came to my local Chinese restaurant and wanted to order beer in a bottle to take it home. My good friend Chinese owner didn't understand me even though he knows me and I always say the same sentences to him. So that was embarrassing, after learning Chinese for around 8 years or so 😅 (not continual, there were long breaks inbetween but still lot of time that could've been invested otherwise).
wow I was definitely able to relate to a lot of what you said haha. I'm in the opposite position, I wanna learn chinese just to say I know it but I don't have too many reasons. I guess what keeps me going is just the sunk cost fallacy, I've already put so much time in and already told people I'm learning, so i may as well just keep going.
best of luck on your own journey !
On my second and last week in Japan, bouta go home tmrw, so I've been getting a lot of Japan related videos recommended on my TL
Really glad I stumbled upon your channel cause I really respect the amount of effort you've been putting into them
I believe you got a lot of potential so you earned yourself a sub! Looking forward to more content being put out from you 🙏🙏
that means so much! glad you like the videos
after coming to Japan after learning japanese for 1 year only, i regretted that i did not learn more japanese lol after moving back to my home country i sticked to learning it everyday until i come back to jp
don't stop studying either, japan is a whole different experience if you speak the language. can't wait to hear when u make big progress!
So agree! I lived there for 6 months and as he said, I feel guilty not being able to hold a conversation with people who have become like family to me.
I hope to go back someday and be able to speak with them.
holy shit the "what you could do instead" part hit me hard
it be like that
Thank god I'm a Mandarin speaker, which massively shorten the time requirement for learning in Japanese
Ya I wanna learn Mandarin one day and I think knowing kanji meanings will help me pick hanzi much quicker
中国語と日本語の漢字の意味は全く異なりますが
@@ClaroKirari 一部の意味か似ている、多数漢字の書き方は極めに似ています
@@BecomeAnything. That's the language learning equivalent of New Game +
Whilst studying my kana I stumbled onto this video. Loved it! fml at the ending lol
keep it up, i remember when I was studying kana.. takes me back. but yeah if you're down to get a microchip in ur brain then that's a different story 😭
How is Dutch not with German is category II? Or is it from English to Dutch? Because that is understandable
I think it's comparing English to Dutch vs English to German
@@BecomeAnything. Ahhhh yea that makes sense.. Dutch is def closer to English. thanks
I think the most Important thing about learning any language is having fun with it. I'm currently learning Japanese and even after the countless kanji ive been going through i love seeing kanji i learned even if I dont know the meaning of the whole sentence. For me personally, another thing thats important is knowing yourself and how you learn. How i learn kanji is by writing it down 60 times and then after learning the English translations of a handful of kanji i go back and learn the kun-reading. Sounds like a lot of work but it's because I understand myself and that this is the most comfortable and best way for me to memorize kanji.
Bro your actually funny thank you for making these videos
glad you like them !
Brother, we grew up speaking English. If non-native speakers can learn our clusterfuck of a language, then I can learn Japanese.
amen to that haha
Thanks for the laughs 😂❤
If you accomplished this much Congrats on your progress!!
I'll probably share this to anyone I come across who is interested in Japanese
sharing is extremely helpful so I appreciate that ! glad I could make you laugh too
Loved the last sentence, but hey, even if AI can let us speak with anybody across the world without speaking their native languages, I still want to pursue my dream of learning Japanese ✌Actually, I've been watching/listenning to your video while doing my kanji exercises, lol, hope to watch more of your content to practice my japanese audio skills 💪 ánimo!
keep up the grind! if you are willing to learn despite it potentially being "rendered useless" by AI (which some ppl will think) then I believe in you and you got what it takes to learn
And even after all 17 min, i still use my one and only brain cell to push through kanji lol, great video, really enjoyed.
Found your channel by pure chance, imma stay here, excited to see you next video!
lol at least you have one brain cell left I'm currently running on empty
glad to have you here now! thanks for the comment :)
Not only is Japanese considered by the FSI a very difficult category V language, it gets an asterik, denoting "a language that's more difficult for native English speakers than other languages in its category". So more like category V+.
oh hell na
There is actually no such thing as category V. It's a myth that spread widely on sites claiming to quote the FSI for some reason, but if you look carefully at FSI primary sources you will see that category V has never existed.
I'm very excited and intend to enjoy the process, to spend all that time and miss out on all those things for the chance to be 1/3 as good as a native speaker in the hopes that when I'm able to immigrate I'll be able to hit the cultural and professional ground running. At that point, maybe I'll be able to learn Japanese! Mada mada desu...
When I first started dabbling, I read or heard somewhere that it could take 10 to 12 years with consistent study to fully grasp the language. I just committed myself there to the long haul. I looked into the abyss and dove in I guess.😅
That's awesome, it will probably take less than that long but the fact you're willing to dive in anyway makes me think you got what it takes
I live with my Japanese in laws. No kids. No brothers or sisters. I have to learn Japanese to speak with them.
The more I learn, the deeper I am able to connect with them and make the relationship meaningful.
But....I'm stuck on weather, food and schedules....stuck on a loop. It's so hard to dive deeper....I really want to for the sake of my family...
yea I can understand that for sure. the more exposure you get the better you naturally get tho. hope some of my language vids can help ppl in ur type of situation tho, that's why I make them !
You have high school energy in the way you think about things, you really reminded me of people I knew back then.
I have some advice, it seems like you've been passionate about studying Japanese. A better way than studying a language is to acquire it. Other people talk more about this on RUclips if you're interested. Like you correctly identified that studying kanji readings isn't the optimal way to learn, but rather learning words.
Secondly, learn the framework to put words into. People use their preexisting frameworks from their native language and put foreign words into them and it leads to problems. When 文法 rhymes with うんこ in your mind it's not a good sign. Unless you meant 運行. Learn building blocks of Japanese, kana rhythm: ruclips.net/video/J_HLY0Rss-g/видео.html and pitch accent: ruclips.net/video/K8E-cU19PMsU/видео.html19PMs Good luck.
wow please call me anything but a high schooler this is the worst hate comment ive ever gotten
anyway this video honestly doesnt represent my japanese journey. you actually gave very good advice, especially acquisition vs learning and pitch accent and mora. this video is just a play on how long it takes to "traditionally learn" japanese, the way ive gone about learning japanese is not represented in this video at all. i havent even spoken the language more than a few times lol i just stay quiet and ajatt with flashcards
like i said tho, good advice just please dont ever say the word "high school energy" in this comment section again lmao
To be honest, effectively learning 2200 kanji in a year is motivational, not discouraging. If I thought it was possible, I would reconsider learning kanji.
yep never be afraid to push the boundaries either !
though if your mother tongue is one of the five level 5 languages, then it's generally easier. Especially if you speak Mandarin or Cantonese, then Kanji would be a lot easier, and it helps with pronunciation because of similar intonation and stuff
true true true
This does explain why in spite of how much I've learned over the past 5-6 years I'm still not content and keep going. The abyss fully has it's grip on me. Help.
Wish I had the answers 😭
I don’t know how long to say I’ve been learning I’ve been off and on learning Japanese for 3 years but after that 3 years I stopped completely for 2 years and started again and am taking it very seriously I’ve passed n4 in a month in a half so would it be accurate to say I’ve been learning for a month and a half seeing how when I was studying on and off I couldn’t even read a babies book
thats faster than average actually
Suggest online japanese language in japan
I have checked SGK but it has paid reviews and not good for futute , so can you suggest me
good to know
not everything in this world has to be useful.
you constantly say how learning japanese may be a waste of time, but what about all the time we spend on our phones just doomscrolling lol. if someone has fun learning a new language and it makes them happy, i don't see any issues. honestly, being fluent in english, german, french, italian etc. wouldn't make me happy as i would still not be able to understand any japanese, which i really enjoy💀
ya thats true, i think its a way better use of time than most other things. i just kinda wanted to give people a bit of a time estimate and warning that its gonna take a lot of dedication, but for those who enjoy it, it's extremely worthwhile imo
on the other hand I mainly started learning because i was considering moving to Japan for work and when put European languages as a frame of reference, i am thinking otherwise now. I might just learn them instead. Regardless I'll still probably learn it because I am a massive weeb lmao. I consume too much Japanese content to not learn some basics to comprehend it at least a little bit. thanks to @BecomeAnything.
I'm thankful for this video. But yeah, I can't give up. I'm gonna live there sooo...yeah....
don't give up then you got this
i don't know how this got reccomended to me but i watched the entire thing. I hope you'll make the videos you want now that you've spent all the time learning japanese!
imo you've already gotten the video part down, lets see if japanese can help you get more content out!
thank you!! I'm excited to see what type of content I can come up with here on out :)
(3:49) コンテント is from "contente", パン is from "pão"; カケイラ is from "caqueira".
There are a lot of Portuguese words in Japanese.
wow that's interesting I didn't know !
@@BecomeAnything. Portugal was the only country that colonized Japan, until its villages were destroyed by the Japanese.
For more than a hundred years, Portugal maintained the monopoly right of trade between Japan and other nations.
In other words, Portugal made an agreement with the Japanese government in which only Portuguese merchant ships could dock in Japan.
All trade, for example, between China and Japan, was carried out by the Portuguese.
I always tell people, if they can't learn hiragana/katagana quickly, they might want to reevalutae how badly they want to learn the language. But apart from that, I personally think this later part of japanese, the "abyss phase", is the most fun part yet. It feels so rewarding to overcome such a challenge and it never stops to be interesting to me
TRUE
I just want to be at a level where I can interact with store clerks and waiters on my next trip.
honestly you don't need to know more than like 100 words to do that, customer service people aren't gonna try to strike up a conversation or anything lol
After watching this video: "Ye, imma still keep learning."
GOOD KEEP GOING
Yo dude, this video is Amazing, especially considering that your channel is new. All the best for you. Underrated channel for sure.
That means a lot ! thank u :)
I'm only a year in, but this is such a vibe. This is the language I want to learn though. Hoping to make the move one day myself 🙌
yeah man hope to see you here one day! sounds like you got the right mindset to learn the language so you should go for it, once you move here it'll be so rewarding being able to understand what's around you
@@BecomeAnything. First visit is going to be in a couple weeks actually! Looking to get some serious language immersion in.
@@mdb39602 Brooo that's so exciting I hope you have a blast, the nightlife here is next level so you'll find some ppl to chat with for sure
Idk why but this video motivated me even more to keep studying japanese.
that was the goal, get the most determined to be motivated. best of luck !
Why it sounds so sad. By Learning Japanese you could make friends or maybe even a relationship.
You can just relax and chill out a little bit, then study again when you are feeling motivated. It just normal to feel burnout during the learning process.
ya it's kinda just the reason a lot of ppl quit and I think it's best they know what it costs. the rewards totally worth it for me tho
Its not about the end goal, but the journey and friends we make along the way 🤟
Hell ya that's what it's all about! 🤸
日本語を21月で勉強しているそしてまだ楽しいと思います。漢字は難しいでもまだもっと学びたい。
勉強頑張って！
0:12 Can I ask about title of your background music? It's very catchy :)
Imagine living the dream of your life and once you do it, you tell people not to
Gatekeep girlboss gaslight
Anyway that's not the intended message
3:00 Damn bro you didn't need to call me out like that
lol I feel you
Lolz great video. I'm at the N5 going on N4 level now. It's great to know that I will still feel like an idiot two years from now, but at least I'll be able to watch shonen without subs hahaha
yep and I will also feel like an idiot 2 years from now 😭
Dang this really discouraged me
I always wanted to learn the language and be able to travel all of japan
I’m a medical student and can sacrifice maybe 1-2 hours a week without giving up my other interests, hobbies, and responsibilities. So I wonder how far I can even get in 2 years.
Will it even be enough to travel outside of Tokyo and the other big cities?
yeah japanese sadly is very intense to learn, especially in 2 years. if it's something you're really passionate about, then u gotta make those 2 hours a week work and maybe some time will open in the future. hope it works out for you !
As a 2nd year Japanese student, I have come to this same conclusion. It's actually crazy how I can spend two to three hours a day on something and not feel confident enough to speak fluently. I aspire to live in Japan but this language is an incredible time sink. I'm fortunate that I'm at now at a level to interact with different forms of Japanese media that's not a textbook.
Another absolute BANGER
hell ya glad you enjoyed imma keep them coming
I think it's worth to mention that at some point there is no real point in "studying" anymore (meaning reviewing kanji or studying in a traditional sense). Simply experiencing and learning/aquiring the language from natural interractions and enjoying things we enjoy like novels, dramas, music, karaoke and games is enough to keep improving. And most importantly. It's fun to learn that way. I think that also acts as a natural filter so we avoid learning a bunch of Kanji that we might actually never use or encounter for the rest of our life. I also think its a lot easier to recognize a word in the context of a sentence. After reading a lot of novels I have found that I can sometimes accurately guess the word without knowing the kanji because the context around the word is strong enough. Like I know the word because i've heard it enough times, I just didn't know the Kanji. But turns out that's not always an issue. Throughout my language learning journey there has always been something there for me to enjoy at my current level. I think finding a way to enjoy learning the language in a natural way is so important for motivation. That being said. I've been learning for 10 years and I still got a long way to go. So I can resonate with a lot of the things you are talking about. It takes time. But thats exactly why the journey needs to have greater focus than the goal.
We're on this together, guys 🔥💪
giving up on the right time is honestly the best you can do when learning languages…I spent two years in Russian with zero improvement and I understand the feeling of the time wasted without moving a bit…i felt the most freedom in my life when I dumped the Russian mess…I’m intermediate in Spanish now after six months!!…
Haha yeah. Thats the thing is a lot of people criticize us for taking this stance, but we are really trying to say that if you are not serious about learning a language for many many years very seriously it would better for 90% of people to just stop while you are ahead because you will just come out of it with little to nothing as brutal as that sounds.