i started listening to a podcast ( nihongo con teppei for beginners) at work and i did it now for 3 weeks and i already know more then i did in the beginning but no wehere near 80% ist more like a yes that word i know what that is so hes talking abouth that theme ( for example emarikajin so hes talking abouth amerikan maybe other nations and so on) my motivation is the feeling when you hear something you think you know what it mean aka translate it in your head then look it up and its really what it is ( sentences and sometimes words)
I disagree, I think learning to read Japanese from the start is a good idea. Just don't expect sentences to make sense, it takes a long time to understand kanji.
Grilling some ribs and drinking beer in my backyard here in Phoenix Arizona. I truly enjoyed your video. I start my Japanese learning tomorrow. Thanks for the insight Bro.
4 years of Korean here. still can't speak, reading is decent, listening is okay but needs more work. I don't watch kdramas anymore because it's not enjoyable so just watch anime Korean dub/sub also I add 10 cards a day, and do about 4~5hrs immersion a day. I have thought about giving up many times and just trying out Japanese but I have a love hate relationship with Korean so I haven't gave up.
As far as pitch accent is concerned, even within the “tokyo dialect” there are tons of variations according to people and situations (announcer vs regular person). It’s a topic that fascinates me a lot. I asked Tokyo people to read the same sentence that I took from a Tokyo news segment and I got different results. Then you get even more different results from other regions.
Btw case in point, that first video you shared of the tokyo accent, that guy already has a little bit of a different way of pronouncing words from the “average” Tokyo person lol
The most difficult languages in the world: (linguists examined complexity of grammar, syntax, historical development, pronunciation, orthography, letter styles, signs, etc.) On September 27th a linguistic consortium in Paris has come up with following results: The easiest languages to learn: 01. The easiest language in the world spoken by more than 500 million people is spanish. Then Italian, English. 01. The most difficult language in the world spoken by more than 5.5 million people is Slovak. The most difficult is grammar structure. There are four grammatical genders in Slovak: animate masculine, inanimate masculine, feminine, and neuter. Many languages have only two. Also, Slovak language is the only one with seven grammar cases (nominativ, genitiv, dativ, accusativ, local, instrumental, vocativ), exquisite words, soft and hard "i", declension of adjectives and verbs, in other words almost each and every word in this language is being declinated. There are many other characteristics which are not found in other world languages. It is said, or estimated, that it takes about 12 years to learn it completely, but the linguists say, that there is no one on this earth who can speak this language perfectly knowing all the grammar rules. Slovak declension : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_declension
When you refer to "active immersion" around 0:59 are you talking about active reading+listening combined for a minimum of 2-3 hours/day? What did you do for your active reading immersion (if you did any beside the google word lookup method)?
I agree that you should avoid spending money on language learning as much as you can, but if your language progression isn't going as well as you'd like, as a last resort you could consider taking a class with a teacher, where you can interact with other students who share your goals, and may know shortcuts to minor language issues that you always had problems with. If you're practicing with a Japanese friend or even spouse, just because your friend is a native speaker, it doesn't mean that he/she is a good teacher (it depends-- if your Japanese friend is an education professional, then nevermind). And if you've ever seen the movie Nightcrawler, self-study without guidance can make you sound like the main character in that movie who also self-studied, and said things that are correct but still sounded unnatural. I just don't agree with the language learning side of the English Internet that completely dismisses the benefits of formal education, although I definitely agree there's no need to waste money on learning a language, thanks to the warchest of free resources
Great job! Can you post your old MMA fights too. I remember a video where you lost by a questionable decision, but I think you deleted it. I do judo too and remember you doing some judo in the fight. It would be great if you could post it somewhere so I could watch.
Nice video, but if you are watching videos to motivate yourself continue studying Japanese (or any other language) - you are probably at the point to reconsider your life choices and just move on. But when you know more than 2 languages (or for many people more than 3, cause you get 1 native like country-language and maybe 1 local-native dialect your parents speak and one 1 that you learn in school/uni) you already know what it going on and how hard/easy it can be. Although there is a huge difference between learning a new german-group language and asian-group (let's call them for clarity like this) Japanese/Korean/Cantonese etc. This is on another level of difficulty, I understand 5 (and fluent/can freely speak or watch videos at 1.5 speed only in 3 of them) languages from german-group. Now picking up on Japanse and oh boy, I'm about to give up. Am I about to fail? :|
I agree completely with what you say. But, I am one of those people who just want to learn a little of it, as a hobby, using my retirement time, and to do something that is good for people who are getting old.
