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Learning Japanese Isn't Actually That Hard — Transcript

by Trenton · 4,734 words · 684 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00okay so if you clicked on this video
0:01you're probably interested in or
0:03currently studying Japanese cool so we
0:05know that you're either a A weeb or
0:09B yeah okay you're a weeb if you look
0:11basically anywhere on the internet for
0:13advice on how to learn Japanese you're
0:15basically just how should I say this
0:17politely given the most god- awful
0:20advice
0:21possible like seriously how does this
0:23have 21 million views million Yes you
0:26heard correctly like what okay so I
0:30might be being just a little bit
0:31hyperbolic but seriously if you look for
0:33advice on YouTube Reddit Tik Tok Twitter
0:35Myspace LinkedIn I don't know basically
0:38anywhere on the internet where you're
0:39going to find advice on how to learn
0:40Japanese it's mostly just going to be
0:42extremely unhelpful stuff I often get
0:45asked how did you learn Japanese or how
0:47did you get good at Japanese so fast and
0:50I usually just say something along the
0:52lines of oh I watched a lot of anime or
0:55yeah I listen to Japanese talk shows all
0:57day or something like that when I'm
0:59genuinely asked for advice I wish I just
1:01had an all-encompassing video detailing
1:03exactly what to do to learn Japanese so
1:05that I didn't have to sit down and
1:07explain every little detail over and
1:09over and over again to people who let's
1:11be honest are probably going to quit
1:13after 3 days and then I thought to
1:15myself hold on wait a minute why don't I
1:18just make that video and that's
1:20basically why I'm here so to give a
1:23brief introduction to who I am hi I'm
1:25Trenton I'm a random white guy from
1:27America who for some reason thought huh
1:31I bet learning Chinese would be fun and
1:33then I discovered anime when I was 16
1:35years old and yeah the rest is kind of
1:37History honestly you guys are probably
1:39the same as me so I'm sure you
1:41understand I learned a Japanese with
1:43what is called an immersion method which
1:45is basically exactly how it sounds yep I
1:49went to Japan and immersed myself in the
1:51Japanese culture I went to akih Habra I
1:54went to maid cafes I went to okay no I
1:57didn't actually go to Japan to learn
1:59Japanese but that's what most people
2:01think when you tell them the word
2:03immersion actually I learned Japanese
2:05entirely in America yeeha brother now
2:09you might be thinking wait wait wait
2:10hold on how can you immerse in Japanese
2:13without being in Japan that's crazy now
2:17let me tell you about this crazy
2:19invention that they made like 20 years
2:20ago it's called the internet okay so now
2:24things are starting to click right okay
2:26so that's the entire point of this
2:28method is essentially that you just
2:30pretend that you're in Japan by
2:31constantly listening to watching and
2:33reading Japanese for multiple hours a
2:36day this method has gotten relatively
2:38popular in certain communities over the
2:39past few years but compared to people
2:41still struggling in a gkey one textbook
2:43and beating their head against the wall
2:44trying to remember verb conjugation
2:46tables I would say it's still pretty
2:48unknown so if you've spent any time in
2:50Japanese learning spheres on the
2:52internet then you've probably at least
2:53heard of this guy named Matt versus
2:54Japan you could probably say that he's
2:56the most influential person in making
2:58this method popular to people on YouTube
2:59YouTube and a lot of what I'm going to
3:01talk about in this video involves
3:02principles which I first learned through
3:04his channel okay so first there's some
3:05Basics that we need to discuss if you're
3:07going to take anything away from this
3:08video it should just be what I'm going
3:10to talk about here okay so number one if
3:12your goal is to learn some basic phrases
3:14for your trip to Japan in a few months
3:16and you don't really care about being
3:17fluent in the long run then just click
3:19off this video now if you really just
3:21want to learn a few phrases you can just
3:23go to dualingo and they'll teach you how
3:24to say some stuff like ah tanakaan tank
3:28and then the Japanese will be like oh my
3:29God God you're so good at Japanese what
3:32and then you can feel good about
3:33yourself nothing wrong with that just to
3:35be clear now because they're literally
3:37everywhere on YouTube I'm sure you've
3:39seen them literally every language
3:41learning YouTuber says I'll learn a
3:42language in one week one month 6 months
3:46even a year and to be completely honest
3:48those people are just lying straight to
3:49your face specifically learning Japanese
3:51to any decent level will take you
3:53multiple years and thousands of hours of
3:55effort and there's just literally no way
3:58around it you're not going to get good
3:59at Japanese in a matter of 1 or two
4:01years assuming you're a native English
4:02speaker and even if you make it your
4:04entire life you're still looking at a
4:06very very long time so basically I'm
4:09just saying understand that you're here
4:10for the long run okay so the second
4:12thing we need to talk about is the
4:13distinction between acquisition and
4:15learning a lot of people think of
4:17language acquisition as being this black
4:19and white thing where children acquire a
4:21language naturally and adults have to
4:22learn it consciously and this is why so
4:25many people spend so much time studying
4:26syntactic rules and treating a language
4:28as if it's a math problem problem have
4:30you ever stopped to think wait a minute
4:33if someone did the exact same thing that
4:35an infant does to acquire a language
4:38would they achieve the same
4:40results now I'm not advocating for
4:42literally doing the exact same thing as
4:43a child because you can leverage your
4:45adult knowledge as a catalyst for
4:47acquisition but a child literally spends
4:49zero time thinking consciously about
4:51grammatical forms and just lets their
4:52brain pattern recognize through tens of
4:54thousands of hours of input so basically
4:57what I'm trying to say is input is the
4:59single most important thing in language
5:01learning now this isn't to say that you
5:03shouldn't study vocabulary or look up
5:04grammar sometimes when you feel like you
5:06need to but by far the most deciding
5:08factor of if you're going to be
5:09comfortable and if you're going to get
5:11fluent in the long run is just the
5:12amount of input that you have there's
5:14this linguist named Steven crashing
5:16who's pretty popular among people doing
5:17an immersion method and he has this
5:19awesome video from like the 80s where he
5:21explains the concept of comprehensible
5:23input and I would highly recommend
5:24watching it but for the 99% of you who
5:27are too lazy and I understand he BAS
5:29basically just says that humans acquire
5:31Language by understanding things through
5:32contexts which include ambiguous Words
5:34which by themselves would not be
5:35understood it's like if I said this
5:38robot is orange and you didn't know the
5:40word for robot but just from seeing the
5:42context of this image you could
5:43inference that robot means robot without
5:45having to open a dictionary crashion
5:48says that contrary to the way most
5:49people learn languages through
5:50memorizing grammar rules and trying to
5:52treat a language like a math problem
5:54that humans are equipped with a
5:55biological ability to acquire language
5:57when exposed to it for long enough and
5:59that this ability is not limited to
6:01Children this is to say that language
6:03learning consists of consciously
6:04studying rules in ways that are commonly
6:06taught in classrooms and language
6:08acquisition consists of naturally
6:10picking up things through Mass exposure
6:11and letting the brain's pattern
6:13recognition ability do what it was
6:14biologically meant to do this idea is
6:16basically the Crux of what I'm going to
6:18be talking about today and I've met so
6:20many people who like myself had had very
6:22successful results doing methods which
6:24are based in ideas that crash and put
6:26forward okay so now that that's out of
6:28the way how do we actually put these
6:30ideas into practice you might be asking
6:32well actually that's the easy part you
6:34literally just go to YouTube search
6:36anything you want in Japanese and then
6:38watch that and then do that for 12 hours
6:41a day for multiple years and cut off all
6:44social interaction with literally
6:46everybody done now you speak Japanese
6:49all right thanks for watching catch you
6:50guys in my next video which will be
6:52shocking natives with a
6:54[Music]
6:57taser dude I'm trying to record a video
7:00can you just wait a second dude you're
7:01forgetting so much what about the SRS
7:04what about output what about learning
7:05how to read you can't just okay so maybe
7:07I should elaborate a little bit more
7:08about what I'm talking about so we're
7:10going to start from the beginning
7:12applying the principles that I just
7:13talked about how should you go about
7:14learning Japanese well to start you need
7:16to learn the alphabet or both alphabets
7:19these are called hiragana and Katakana
7:21and essentially hiragana is just used
7:23for writing Japanese grammar and a lot
7:25of Japanese words which aren't written
7:26in Chinese characters and Katakana is
7:28used to write foreign words words or
7:30give a flavoring or kind of emphasis to
7:32Words which usually would be written in
7:34kanji or hiragana these are very easy to
7:36learn and you can Master them in just a
7:37few days if you really want and there
7:39are literally countless resources for
7:41learning these and it doesn't really
7:42matter what you use just learn how to
7:44read them somehow now like I mentioned
7:46earlier the core of an immersion method
7:48is getting Mass amounts of input and
7:49essentially learning through the same
7:51mechanism that a child does which is
7:52through comprehensible input if you were
7:55to just listen to and watch content in
7:56Japanese 24/7 without any study or any
7:59lookup you would eventually become able
8:00to understand Japanese but doing so
8:02would take a lot longer than it
8:04realistically needs to remember earlier
8:06in this video when I said you can
8:07leverage your adult knowledge as a
8:09catalyst for acquisition this is where
8:11explicit learning comes in you're going
8:13to want to build yourself a very
8:14fundamental and basic knowledge of
8:16Japanese grammar just like learning Ka
8:18it doesn't really matter what you use to
8:20do it just learn basic particle uses
8:22sentence structure and how pieces of
8:24Japanese interact with each other on a
8:25fundamental level many people in the
8:27immersion Learning Community have a lot
8:29of good things to say about t Kim's
8:30guide to Japanese grammar so if you're
8:32unsure what to use then it might be
8:33worth looking into you can just look up
8:35T Kim's guide to Japanese grammar PDF
8:37and you'll find it this is going to take
8:39a lot more time and effort than learning
8:41kna but honestly don't think about it
8:43too hard at all it's really important
8:45that you don't feel pressured to master
8:46everything or to understand it perfectly
8:48by only reading a few explanations as
8:50long as you have a surface level
8:51understanding that's good enough and any
8:53confusion will be cleared up later
8:55through getting input you can spend as
8:56long or as little on this step as you
8:58want because it's not really that
8:59important in the grand scheme of things
9:01and you can always look things up later
9:02down the line if you're confused the
9:04main mechanism for which you're actually
9:05going to learn these things is through
9:07hearing them hundreds and thousands of
9:09times through actual natural
9:10conversation and trying to learn them
9:12through studying rules and brute forcing
9:14grammar drills is just so inefficient
9:16and not going to be good in the long run
9:17for you okay so I keep yapping about
9:19learning things through exposure input
9:21immersing yourself in the language but I
9:23haven't actually really talked about how
9:25you should properly do that so just to
9:27be clear there isn't really any correct
9:28way to do this and you can honestly just
9:30do whatever feels the most enjoyable or
9:32comfortable to you the important thing
9:34here is that you just start to have real
9:36contact with Japanese and when I say
9:38this I don't mean doing 5 minutes a day
9:40of some language learning app or
9:41watching anime with English subtitles
9:43I'm talking about committing a
9:45significant amount of time to authentic
9:47language that's spoken by native
9:48speakers this can range anywhere from
9:50YouTube videos anime podcasts if it's in
9:53Japanese then for the most part it
9:54really doesn't matter earlier I
9:56mentioned just how long and difficult
9:58learning Japanese to a level actually is
10:00and for that reason I should make it
10:02very clear that when I say significant
10:03amount of time I don't just mean
10:05watching one or two episodes of anime a
10:07day I mean actually going out of your
10:09way to get exposure on the level of
10:11multiple hours a day this is the most
10:13important part of this entire process by
10:15far and it's pretty safe to say that
10:17your success is going to vary depending
10:19on how much time you actually are able
10:20to put in now you might be thinking well
10:22I'm really busy I don't really know how
10:24to sit down and watch things for hours a
10:26day in Japanese I just don't have that
10:28much time on my hands and there's
10:30actually a solution for that it's called
10:31passive listening and it's basically
10:33exactly how it sounds essentially you
10:36just put in earbuds while you're doing
10:37something else that doesn't really
10:38require a lot of attention and you can
10:40get a lot of listening hours in by doing
10:42that and that's actually How I Learned
10:44Japanese for the most part I'm someone
10:45who doesn't really have that gr of an
10:47attention span and so sitting down and
10:49just intently watching stuff in Japanese
10:51for hours a day was not going to work
10:53for me and just listening to Japanese in
10:55my ear all day while I was doing other
10:57stuff actually worked a lot better in my
10:58situation
11:00this is why I recommend podcasts so much
11:02and I think podcasts are the single best
11:04way to grow your listening ability
11:05really fast one of the most essential
11:07things that anyone doing an
11:09immersion-based method needs to
11:10understand is the importance of what's
11:12called tolerating ambiguity and this is
11:14basically just saying you're not going
11:16to understand like anything when you
11:18first start and that's okay if you asked
11:21most people learning Japanese hey do you
11:23still watch anime with English subtitles
11:25most of them are going to say yes if you
11:27ask them why do you still watch with
11:28English subtitles if you're learning
11:30Japanese they're going to tell you oh
11:32because I can't understand it you ask
11:34them okay when are you going to take the
11:36subtitles off and they're going to say
11:38when I'm able to understand it now this
11:40might sound logical at first but if you
11:42really think about it how are you
11:44supposed to become able to understand
11:45anime without subtitles if you don't put
11:47a significant amount of time into trying
11:49to understand anime without subtitles
11:52now this is where tolerating ambiguity
11:53comes in you're going to have to spend a
11:55lot of time listening to things that you
11:57can't really understand yet and and
11:59that's okay because by trying to listen
12:01to those things for thousands of hours
12:03you'll become able to understand it this
12:05happened to me this happened to everyone
12:07else I know that's done an immersion
12:08method and it's pretty much the core
12:10staple principle of doing immersion is
12:12that you just keep listening keep
12:14reading keep consuming the language and
12:16eventually you will understand now while
12:19I did say that it doesn't really matter
12:21what content you're using for this if
12:22you want to make the most progress
12:24possible you should probably stick to
12:25things that are at least a little bit
12:27comprehensible to you this is just
12:29because there's more context available
12:30for you when you understand things and
12:32drawing connections between the things
12:34that you do know and the things that you
12:35don't know is a lot easier if you
12:37already have a solid base of
12:38understanding okay so now it's time to
12:40get to the fun part you're probably
12:42still thinking okay I understand the
12:44theory but are you really just saying to
12:46just listen to things until you
12:47understand them that doesn't really seem
12:49efficient at all and you're actually
12:51correct in thinking that and to remedy
12:52that we're going to use something called
12:54an SRS now a lot of you probably already
12:56know what an SRS is the most popular of
12:58which being anky because it's used by a
13:00ton of people already for language
13:01learning so SRS stands for spaced
13:03repetition system and essentially it's
13:05just a flash card program that lets you
13:07grade yourself on getting cards correct
13:08and it uses an algorithm to calculate
13:10when you should see that card again so
13:12at the time of recording this video at
13:14about an average of 10 to 15 words a day
13:16I've memorized about 15,000 Japanese
13:18words using Ani if you use Ani
13:21consistently for a few years you can
13:22really easily grow your vocabulary to a
13:24point where it's pretty difficult to
13:26find new words the problem with the way
13:28that most people use Anki is that they
13:30treat it as their main way of learning
13:31and don't actually spend any time
13:33contacting their target language Anki is
13:35actually a really powerful tool if used
13:37correctly and when I say this I don't
13:39just mean using it as a way to memorize
13:40words and phrases so that you can say
13:42them later in conversation but rather so
13:44that you can actually just understand
13:46your input better being able to very
13:48quickly remember the rough definition of
13:50a word through Ani then grasp the more
13:52nuanced concept through reading or
13:53hearing it in real Japanese is what
13:55makes the SRS such a good tool so it's
13:57really important not to treat as the
13:59core mechanism for making progress there
14:01are tons of pre-made Japanese Decks that
14:03you can download on Ani web which will
14:05give you the most common few thousand
14:06words and you can use one of those to
14:08get started once you feel like you've
14:09got a pretty solid base down you can
14:11start doing what most people call mining
14:13which is essentially just taking words
14:15or sentences from content you've been
14:16listening to or reading and making an
14:18ankey card to remember that specific
14:20word there are lots of tools out there
14:22that make this easier and I won't go
14:23into detail on all of them but I
14:25encourage you to search around because
14:26many people in the community have made a
14:28ton of Awesome stuff that even I'm not
14:30up to date on I personally use an add-on
14:32called eny connect which allows you to
14:33connect a pop-up dictionary to Anki and
14:35make a vocabulary card within the click
14:37of a button there's two main card types
14:39that people talk about which are
14:40sentence cards and vocab cards and in my
14:43experience it doesn't really matter
14:44which one you choose and both are going
14:46to work for the purpose that we're using
14:47them for which again is just to remember
14:49the rough definition of a word so that
14:50you can understand it in your input I
14:52would recommend sticking to around 10
14:54new cards a day and if you feel like
14:55that's easy enough for you you can bump
14:57it up to 15 or even 20 but but I
14:59wouldn't recommend going above 20
15:01because it's not really sustainable to
15:02do more than that all right so next
15:04we're going to talk about reading and
15:05pronunciation you might be thinking how
15:08the hell are reading and pronunciation
15:09related to each other so I guess I'll
15:11start with that reading is by far one of
15:13the best ways to increase your
15:15competence in a foreign language and if
15:16your main goal is just to get as
15:17technically good at Japanese as fast as
15:19possible then you probably should just
15:21spend the majority of your time reading
15:22and making SRS cards while I could go on
15:25about the benefits of reading forever
15:26honestly there's a few reasons why I
15:28would actually recommend against doing
15:30so for the first long while when you
15:32first start learning a foreign language
15:33there's going to be sounds in that
15:34language that you're just unable to hear
15:36or produce meaning that when you try to
15:38speak you're going to be approximating
15:39those sounds into the closest ones in
15:41your native language and this is why
15:43Foreign Accents exist constantly
15:45attempting to reproduce sounds that
15:46you're unable to even perceive correctly
15:48means that you're almost certainly going
15:50to come across sounding very foreign and
15:52have a strong accent even if your
15:53technical level in the language is very
15:55high this is basically what happens when
15:57you try to read as sub ization in your
15:59head is essentially just mental output
16:01if you don't already have a really
16:03strong fundamental understanding of the
16:04Rhythm and sound of Japanese then trying
16:06to read is just going to enforce
16:08incorrect perceptions on how Japanese is
16:10supposed to sound while there are things
16:12that you can and should do to sharpen
16:13your understanding of the sounds of
16:15Japanese by consciously studying things
16:17such as phonetic rules or pitch accents
16:19by far the most beneficial thing to do
16:21is just spend as much time listening to
16:23spoken speech as possible it is
16:25important to note that while to many
16:26people minimizing your accent is really
16:28important important and this type of
16:30approach is probably the best option it
16:32really depends on what your goals are if
16:34your goal is to sound as close to a
16:35native speaker as possible it's probably
16:37worth it to be extreme and to become
16:39fluent entirely through the spoken
16:41language before even learning to read on
16:43the other hand if you don't really care
16:44about having a foreign accent at all and
16:46you just want to get competent as fast
16:47as possible then honestly you can just
16:49ignore this section entirely and just
16:51read a ton from the beginning ultimately
16:53this is up to you and you can decide how
16:55you want to learn but my recommendation
16:57would be to postpone read until you feel
16:59like you have a pretty decent
17:01understanding of how spoken Japanese is
17:02supposed to sound if I had to put a
17:04number on it I would probably say around
17:066 months to a year is okay if you're
17:07trying to get the benefits of waiting to
17:09read but you also want to get into
17:11reading relatively quickly while I'm
17:13still on the topic of pronunciation I
17:14want to quickly touch up on Pitch accent
17:17there's a lot of discussion about Pitch
17:18accent and whether it's worth studying
17:20or not and I plan on making a more
17:22in-depth video about this eventually but
17:23my recommendation would be to at the
17:25very least become fundamentally aware of
17:27what pitch accent is and train yourself
17:29to be able to hear it many people are
17:31pretty daunted by pitch accent at first
17:33and admittedly I was as well but it's
17:35actually not that difficult to
17:36understand the basics and you'll
17:38definitely be glad that you put the
17:39effort in later down the line I'll link
17:41to some helpful resources in the
17:42description so look there now something
17:45I haven't talked much about yet is
17:46speaking the inherent premise of an
17:48input method doesn't really place a lot
17:50of emphasis on speaking because there
17:52isn't really much of a point in trying
17:53to improve your speaking ability if you
17:55can't even understand what people are
17:56saying to you there are a lot of
17:58opinions out there about when you should
17:59start trying to speak but the common
18:01sentiment among people doing an
18:02immersion method is that at best it's
18:04usually not productive to speak as a
18:06beginner or intermediate learner and at
18:07worst it's damaging to your long-term
18:09goals I'm not really going to dive deep
18:11into the alleged drawbacks of trying to
18:13speak early just noting that it's
18:14probably wiser to wait until you're
18:16pretty comfortable in understanding most
18:17things you hear in Japanese to attempt
18:19speaking also this isn't a Dogma so
18:21honestly just do whatever you feel like
18:23is the most helpful or enjoyable to you
18:24you'll be fine okay so when you're ready
18:26to attempt speaking Japanese how should
18:28you go about it personally I found a lot
18:30of success building up Comforts by
18:32writing and no I don't mean writing
18:34kanji by hand because that's practically
18:36useless nowadays I mean just start
18:38typing some things in Japanese open a
18:39Google doc and just talk about whatever
18:41you want text Japanese people literally
18:43anything will work I even wrote all of
18:45my notes for college in Japanese as
18:47practice I found a lot of success on
18:49hello talk it's a language exchange app
18:52and alternatively you could also use
18:53Discord or line or any other social
18:56media platform to just connect to
18:57Japanese people and make some friends
18:59now if you're looking to like actually
19:01speak to people with your voice then
19:02that's a little bit more tricky but the
19:04internet exists so it's not really that
19:06difficult honestly I found the most
19:07success just going on VR chat and going
19:10to random Japanese worlds and just
19:11starting talking to people and honestly
19:14it's been so great for my Japanese and
19:16my speaking ability has gotten miles
19:18better just by doing that for a few
19:27years
19:29[Music]
19:41[Laughter]
19:50for there's not necessarily a secret
19:52trick to getting super good at output
19:54just input a lot and mimic what you hear
19:57and do that over and over again and
19:59eventually you're going to sound pretty
20:00good there are other things that people
20:02recommend such as shadowing or adopting
20:04a language parent which are essentially
20:05just taking a Japanese speaker and
20:07trying to mimic them until you feel like
20:09you've replicated it pretty well these
20:11are all things that I think are worth
20:12trying but honestly at the end of the
20:13day it's just get a lot of input and
20:15speak a lot and eventually you'll get
20:17pretty good okay so that's basically it
20:19this video ended up being way longer
20:21than I originally planned and it's still
20:23as concise as I possibly could make it
20:25my point with this video is that well
20:26yeah it's a lot of effort and dedication
20:28to learn Japanese it actually isn't as
20:30difficult as some people make it seem
20:31and if you do things right you can
20:33actually get to a pretty impressive
20:34level relatively quickly too many people
20:37over complicate learning Japanese when
20:39all they really need to do is tone down
20:40the kanji and grammar studying and just
20:42spend a lot of time with actual Japanese
20:45I can promise you that if you do the
20:46things in this video that I outlined
20:47you're going to see a drastic difference
20:49in just how easy it is to understand
20:50Japanese and your comprehension is going
20:52to rise a lot if you're interested in
20:54learning more about immersion learning
20:56and actually getting into it I would
20:57recommend doing more research search
20:58about it yourself and maybe joining some
21:00Discord servers or watching people on
21:02YouTube who are talking about it I'll
21:04put a bunch of resources and helpful
21:05stuff in the description so you can just
21:07go there and you should be able to find
21:09what you're looking for anyways this
21:10video took me so long to make so I
21:12really hope you found it helpful I plan
21:14on making more in-depth videos on
21:16singular topics regarding learning
21:17Japanese so if you want to see those
21:19then stick around I also make videos in
21:20Japanese so you can watch those too if
21:22you want also if you have any questions
21:24feel free to ask in the comments and
21:25I'll try to answer them the best I can
21:27anyways that's all bye for now

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