Once, at an event, I had to interact with an older man from Morioka. I had no idea what he was saying and had to keep asking him to repeat himself. Disheartened about my lack of Japanese skill, I went to a man from Tokyo to ask if he could help because I was struggling with my Japanese. He said ‘oh, that guy from Morioka? Don’t worry, I’ve just been pretending to understand, I have no idea either’. Made me feel better :)
I'm reminded of this work trip I took to Glasgow. One of the colleagues I met during the trip grew up in the rural area in between Glasgow and Edinburgh. His accent was so thick, even several of our colleagues who were from Glasgow had to ask him to slow down and clarify some things while speaking.
Tbh, some of them wouldn't even be dialects but their own language Remember the difference between languages and dialects are rather political than based on linguistic
Linguistically speaking, Chinese is a language family, not a single language. Many have completely different grammar in comparison with Mandarin (include characteristics even as fundamental as subject-object-verb word order).
@@StrangerHappened not all the ethnic minority languages use Han characters. And Languages like Mandarin, Cantonese and Wenzhounese all share a lot more than just the characters, if anything the Traditional/simplified divide is one biggest divides.
I felt lefted out when someone that speak unique dialect actually has more benefits over someone who only speak standard dialect because they could comprehend the two different things in one call Oftenly i feel ashamed as Jakartan who only speak standard Indonesian dialect can't comprehend the Java dialect that my classmate has, while they can comprehend both
Are there opportunities to learn dialects formally, or are the dialects often house-languages (or equivalent, something you use mainly at home or between people of similar background)?
@@nutherefurlong Obviously there would be no such thing as official regional dialect, because the official standard is must be established for the sake of unification, especially Indonesia that has over +700 unique dialects
Ibaraki and Hokkaido dialects have been in a couple of Japanese anime (like Shokugeki no Soma and Mashiro no Oto) and it's always a nice exposure experience when they feature dialects in anime (mostly fascinating esp if I know the seiyuu, for example, wasn't from the locality of the dialect but manage to pull it off)
Me after listening to the first raw clip: I didn't get a single word Me after watching the captioned clip: I still only understand like 20% of it Me after watching the translated clip: I actually misunderstood 50% of the 20% I thought I understood
If I heard that conversation out of context, I'd think that it is some Chinese dialect :D Some sounds in that dialect sound more like Chinese than Japanese to me
this is what i thought too. i speak japanese fluently and have learned chinese for five years, and i understood only a few words; i thought it sounded more chinese in terms of sound and intonation.
Awesome! I have been interested in Tsugaru-ben for a few years, ever since I read about Itako (female blind spirit mediums) performing their ritual ceremonies in this dialect. I find it fascinating.
American who lived in Akita for a year in the 90s I caught one word in there that must be used in Akita-ben as well: んだ. I heard it just about every day.
Someday you should visit Okinawa and check out the Uchinaguchi language. It's not just a dialect but a unique language. Okinawans also speak standard Japanese, admittedly with an "accent" and somewhat different tempo. NHK produces content and programs in Uchinaguchi every day.
That was nuts! It's like a completely different language! I didn't get anything lol. 🤣Of course, I always find elderly people even harder to understand, because they tend to kind of mumble...
MY 2ND HOST DAD WAS WORSE THAN THIS AND I COULD NEVER FIGURE OUT WHAT HE WAS SAYING WHEN HE DID IT. AND IT WAS STILL DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND HIM WHEN HE SPOKE 標準語 THE STRUGGLE IS REAL.
Damn I understood none of that. Brings me back to meeting my in-laws for the first time. I'd been in Japan for less than a year and met my (then) girlfriends' family. Mother, father, sisters, uncle, grandma... her grandma spoke no "regular" Japanese at all. Nagasaki dialect only. And very fast. My usual reaction to her trying to talk to me at that time was glancing over at my girlfriend like "Help!". Glad I kinda got used to it.
I have some confidence in my ability, but any time the speaker is over 70 years old I doubt my ability to understand Japanese at all. I think a lot of the intelligibility I have requires clearly-spoken words and older people tend to mumble a lot more.
Its pretty hard for me to decipher what elderly people are saying even when I was learning english or my native language it was hard for me to understand elderly people. I guess with over time exposure it will become easier like it did with english and my native (This is not related to dialect but still)
Here's my guess (Interpreted into 標準語）: 0:14 私は進んで無事だってさ 0:17 この間、こっち行ってんで・・・(IDK) 0:23 探してみて、なんか珍しい 0:28 乾杯を言う前に垂涎してた、のど乾いたし、酒少なくなってたさ ... How much did I really understand? On one go? NOTHING, this took multiple repetitions bit by bit trying to get a grasp of what was being said. My guess is they were talking about something that turned out okay, then the other day someone came over and she explained something I couldn't understand. Then they were looking for something that was kinda rare. Possibly talking about different kinds of beer they like and were trying to find a specific beer that was hard to find. She then remembered a time where one person was so thirsty for that beer they were drooling form the mouth cause they had run out of the relevant beer. It takes a really long time of being around those who speak like this to get used to the accent (slurred speech mostly) and dialect (word substitutions)
@@sr-kt9ml In the past I've talked about living in Aomori and having to try to understand the very dialect showcased in this video. For the sake of integrity, thought it'd be neat to truly see (and post for public viewing) how much I actually understand at present (before watching past the 0:40 mark).
Hi Yuta! Thank you for the video. I was wondering if maybe this dialect has some influence of Russian language, because of close the lands are to each other. Do you know maybe?:) I cannot find any information online.. Sorry if that's a stupid assumption, just a blind guess from my side. Thank you!:))
Sounds like a mix between Korean and Mandarin... not Japanese at all. But then again, the Japanese government considers the Ryukyuan language(s), spoken from Amami down to the Yaeyama Islands, also just a "dialect".
I was pleasantly surprised by my level of understanding, given that Japanese and German have similar letter pronunciations. Although my Japanese speaking abilities are quite basic, my listening comprehension is fairly good. Being a native German speaker certainly helps. I can "understand" the words spoken and transcribe them in Roman letters in my mind, but I'm unable to translate them due to me having a pretty low japanese level. 1:47 - 1:55 is the parts I guessed most of the translation though due to my basic japanese understanding mixed with a lot of assuming. In the region where I'm from in Germany, we have a dialect that involves a significant amount of slurred speech. This dialect sounds quite similar to the one in the video, except for the language itself(obviously), which I find fascinating. It's predominantly used by the older generation, who tend to slur almost every word. Additionally, many words from standard German are either abbreviated or elongated at the end. Does this dialect share similarities? It certainly seems to.
It feels similar to American English Southern way of speaking. Shorten and slur as many words as possible. While the sounds and words themselves don't really share the similarities, it definitely reminded me of listening to my grandma and other old folks talking with each other. And, while my Japanese isn't nearly advanced enough to listen to it at regular speech level, I also relate in being able to at least pick apart a few of the sounds and recognize them.
I can't even understand the japanese spoke in Tokyo. I don't know if the cause is lack of vocab (I think I know between 1400 and 1700 words, something like that), or if it's because the speech is too fast for my brain to process the information. Probably both.
I understood that 3 hard working elderly ladies were having a good time while drinking Asahi beer.
Honto desu
best Asahi commercial of the year!
Once, at an event, I had to interact with an older man from Morioka. I had no idea what he was saying and had to keep asking him to repeat himself. Disheartened about my lack of Japanese skill, I went to a man from Tokyo to ask if he could help because I was struggling with my Japanese. He said ‘oh, that guy from Morioka? Don’t worry, I’ve just been pretending to understand, I have no idea either’. Made me feel better :)
The only word I understood was kanpai and I don’t even speak Japanese 😂
I'm reminded of this work trip I took to Glasgow. One of the colleagues I met during the trip grew up in the rural area in between Glasgow and Edinburgh. His accent was so thick, even several of our colleagues who were from Glasgow had to ask him to slow down and clarify some things while speaking.
Reminds me of the different Chinese dialects and how people cant really understand each other, very interesting :)
Tbh, some of them wouldn't even be dialects but their own language
Remember the difference between languages and dialects are rather political than based on linguistic
Linguistically speaking, Chinese is a language family, not a single language. Many have completely different grammar in comparison with Mandarin (include characteristics even as fundamental as subject-object-verb word order).
@@wwvvvvvww some of those are not even in the family. The only thing uniting them is the hieroglyphs system.
@@StrangerHappened not all the ethnic minority languages use Han characters. And Languages like Mandarin, Cantonese and Wenzhounese all share a lot more than just the characters, if anything the Traditional/simplified divide is one biggest divides.
@@wwvvvvvww Actually Chinese is the collective name and Sino-Tibetan is the language family overall
I understood 0 word, but it was a so wholesome moment of 3 ladies sharing a drink in a shop (:
I felt lefted out when someone that speak unique dialect actually has more benefits over someone who only speak standard dialect because they could comprehend the two different things in one call
Oftenly i feel ashamed as Jakartan who only speak standard Indonesian dialect can't comprehend the Java dialect that my classmate has, while they can comprehend both
Are there opportunities to learn dialects formally, or are the dialects often house-languages (or equivalent, something you use mainly at home or between people of similar background)?
@@nutherefurlong Obviously there would be no such thing as official regional dialect, because the official standard is must be established for the sake of unification, especially Indonesia that has over +700 unique dialects
Ibaraki and Hokkaido dialects have been in a couple of Japanese anime (like Shokugeki no Soma and Mashiro no Oto) and it's always a nice exposure experience when they feature dialects in anime (mostly fascinating esp if I know the seiyuu, for example, wasn't from the locality of the dialect but manage to pull it off)
Tsugaru! I live there and yeah as someone who learned Tokyo japanese, it’s very difficult lol
It's like Swiss German vs standard German 😂
Or Standard german and every dialect
Me after listening to the first raw clip: I didn't get a single word
Me after watching the captioned clip: I still only understand like 20% of it
Me after watching the translated clip: I actually misunderstood 50% of the 20% I thought I understood
If I heard that conversation out of context, I'd think that it is some Chinese dialect :D Some sounds in that dialect sound more like Chinese than Japanese to me
this is what i thought too. i speak japanese fluently and have learned chinese for five years, and i understood only a few words; i thought it sounded more chinese in terms of sound and intonation.
I guess this is what Japanese sounds like to people who don't speak it. I feel as though I reverted.
Awesome! I have been interested in Tsugaru-ben for a few years, ever since I read about Itako (female blind spirit mediums) performing their ritual ceremonies in this dialect. I find it fascinating.
American who lived in Akita for a year in the 90s I caught one word in there that must be used in Akita-ben as well: んだ. I heard it just about every day.
んだ is a very common thing in all dialects of Japanese, including standard Japanese…
@@caseygreyson4178I think he means んだ said by itself, not as a grammar point. Which yeah is wouldn't be used in standard Japanese
To my ear it sounds closer to Korean than standard Japanese. The only
thing I understood was 「うん」😂
Someday you should visit Okinawa and check out the Uchinaguchi language. It's not just a dialect but a unique language. Okinawans also speak standard Japanese, admittedly with an "accent" and somewhat different tempo. NHK produces content and programs in Uchinaguchi every day.
Also called the Okinawan language
heard that dialect for the first time from the anime "Flying Witch".
I am from the south in the US and they say we have a difficult accent but Tsuguru dialect is next level. They may as well be Martian.
That was nuts! It's like a completely different language! I didn't get anything lol. 🤣Of course, I always find elderly people even harder to understand, because they tend to kind of mumble...
I figured it was Tsugaru ben. I actually want to try to learn this dialect.
I found like slightly similar to kansai ben but no for the most part it was incomprehensible
I understood Asahi on a lunch break 😂
using 「んだ」as part of 相づち is somehow just really charming.
Reminds me of listening to Newfoundlanders. The thickest accents are like reading sentences with no spaces or punctuation.
They sound Korean at first, and then they sound more Japanese when you listen to them again and again
MY 2ND HOST DAD WAS WORSE THAN THIS AND I COULD NEVER FIGURE OUT WHAT HE WAS SAYING WHEN HE DID IT. AND IT WAS STILL DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND HIM WHEN HE SPOKE 標準語 THE STRUGGLE IS REAL.
Damn I understood none of that.
Brings me back to meeting my in-laws for the first time. I'd been in Japan for less than a year and met my (then) girlfriends' family. Mother, father, sisters, uncle, grandma... her grandma spoke no "regular" Japanese at all. Nagasaki dialect only. And very fast. My usual reaction to her trying to talk to me at that time was glancing over at my girlfriend like "Help!".
Glad I kinda got used to it.
I didn't even understand what were they talking about after English translation.
so any other nerds who were like, "they sound like Okayu's grandma" XD
all i here is bancho lmao
Well the only word I caught was 乾杯 (Kanpai). Cheers!
I have some confidence in my ability, but any time the speaker is over 70 years old I doubt my ability to understand Japanese at all. I think a lot of the intelligibility I have requires clearly-spoken words and older people tend to mumble a lot more.
I am a Japanese who speaks Osaka dialect, but I have no idea what they are saying. I have zero comprehension.
Its pretty hard for me to decipher what elderly people are saying even when I was learning english or my native language it was hard for me to understand elderly people. I guess with over time exposure it will become easier like it did with english and my native (This is not related to dialect but still)
Here's my guess (Interpreted into 標準語）:
0:14 私は進んで無事だってさ
0:17 この間、こっち行ってんで・・・(IDK)
0:23 探してみて、なんか珍しい
0:28 乾杯を言う前に垂涎してた、のど乾いたし、酒少なくなってたさ
... How much did I really understand? On one go? NOTHING, this took multiple repetitions bit by bit trying to get a grasp of what was being said.
My guess is they were talking about something that turned out okay, then the other day someone came over and she explained something I couldn't understand. Then they were looking for something that was kinda rare. Possibly talking about different kinds of beer they like and were trying to find a specific beer that was hard to find. She then remembered a time where one person was so thirsty for that beer they were drooling form the mouth cause they had run out of the relevant beer.
It takes a really long time of being around those who speak like this to get used to the accent (slurred speech mostly) and dialect (word substitutions)
That's a lot of words to say you don't know. He already translated it for us
@@sr-kt9ml In the past I've talked about living in Aomori and having to try to understand the very dialect showcased in this video. For the sake of integrity, thought it'd be neat to truly see (and post for public viewing) how much I actually understand at present (before watching past the 0:40 mark).
@@sr-kt9ml Bonus: 腹ヂぇ！
I wonder how many are gonna figure that one out & which dialect.
Dazai Osamu was from Tsugaru.
couple of beers and a bag of candy with your friends? i understand they are having a good time.
How I feel when my parents speak Cantonese with my grandma but I can only speak mandarin (and very badly)
The lady in the middle reminds me of my grandma.
I'll just do as Patrick Star and nod politely.
Oh wow even with the Japanese and English subtitles I have difficulty parsing the words 😱
Hi Yuta! Thank you for the video. I was wondering if maybe this dialect has some influence of Russian language, because of close the lands are to each other. Do you know maybe?:) I cannot find any information online.. Sorry if that's a stupid assumption, just a blind guess from my side. Thank you!:))
Reminds me of Todoroki Hajime...
その方言は何も分かりませんでした
Sounds like a mix between Korean and Mandarin... not Japanese at all.
But then again, the Japanese government considers the Ryukyuan language(s), spoken from Amami down to the Yaeyama Islands, also just a "dialect".
I just got 'yokunai'
Heehee, try to understand a rural Cornish speaker from England, or a strong Liverpool accent. Most English people begin to get confused too!
Man tough English phrase.
Interesting.
Sound bit like Inuit Eskimo ,😊
It has to be taken into account that it's hard to understand them because elderly people tend to slur their words. Also, they're drunk. 😆
I kinda reminds me of Ojibwe
I was pleasantly surprised by my level of understanding, given that Japanese and German have similar letter pronunciations. Although my Japanese speaking abilities are quite basic, my listening comprehension is fairly good. Being a native German speaker certainly helps. I can "understand" the words spoken and transcribe them in Roman letters in my mind, but I'm unable to translate them due to me having a pretty low japanese level.
1:47 - 1:55 is the parts I guessed most of the translation though due to my basic japanese understanding mixed with a lot of assuming.
In the region where I'm from in Germany, we have a dialect that involves a significant amount of slurred speech. This dialect sounds quite similar to the one in the video, except for the language itself(obviously), which I find fascinating. It's predominantly used by the older generation, who tend to slur almost every word. Additionally, many words from standard German are either abbreviated or elongated at the end. Does this dialect share similarities? It certainly seems to.
It feels similar to American English Southern way of speaking. Shorten and slur as many words as possible. While the sounds and words themselves don't really share the similarities, it definitely reminded me of listening to my grandma and other old folks talking with each other. And, while my Japanese isn't nearly advanced enough to listen to it at regular speech level, I also relate in being able to at least pick apart a few of the sounds and recognize them.
This was a very German comment. 👍
ДА!
これは日本語じゃないよ！😂
I can't even understand the japanese spoke in Tokyo. I don't know if the cause is lack of vocab (I think I know between 1400 and 1700 words, something like that), or if it's because the speech is too fast for my brain to process the information. Probably both.
Sounds like Korean
not first