How This Guy Learned Fluent Japanese by Age 21 | Method Breakdown  

Enjoy this? Here's a similar story about fluent Mandarin Chinese: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dMSxPvECMck.html

Awesome job Olly! This was really fun to watch. I think you portrayed my journey accurately and it was interesting to hear your analysis of the factors that went into my success with Japanese

I'm almost 34 year old,I'm learning japanese and let me tell you guys,age doesn't matter,determination does matter!

Apparently learning Japanese also made Matt's hairline better. Night and day difference over 5 years

I'm almost 2 years into studying Japanese, I'm primarily following Matt's methods but I tweaked them to work with my schedule. Learning Japanese is like trying to fill up a lake using only a bucket of water at a time. It seems almost impossible at times but as time goes on the water (progress) really starts to build up and it's the moment when you see your little progress that gives you a little more kick of motivation to keep going

I appreciate that it took him 5 years to become fluent. It makes me feel better about my journey to fluency in French. It helps me to have a more realistic goal.

I basically followed Matt's advice starting 3 years ago: I was listening to five hours of podcasts per day, and only reading in Japanese, and I got to the point where I'd occasionally find words or phrases I'd never sai before falling out my mouth - sometimes I'd wonder if it was right or not, and go check the dictionary - it invariably was. Admittedly I already had a solid foundation (I'd been in Japan twenty years already) but doing immersion made a massive difference and helped me break through the plateau I'd reached. Still a long way to go to native-like (honestly: I realize I'll probably never quite get there) but I read novels and newspapers and watch Netflix, all with only minimal dictionary use. Incidentally in my forties with a job and family, so you don't need to be a teenager to make it work.

He seems pretty realistic. He's not making exaggerated claims and he admits that his approach might have been a little too extreme. Seems pretty self-aware. I like it. Seriously, spending your whole day studying languages every day might be fun, but it's not necessarily a good thing in the long run.

Great vid Olly! Matt's story is super interesting! Can definitely relate to finally watching anime at 15 years old in Japanese dub for the first time and feeling captivated by the language!

One of the better approaches out there. I also respect that he doesn't make false claims or exaggerate stuff. The people in his community have pretty realistic expectations of what is required to attain fluency, unlike a lot of these gurus promoting gimmicks

To learn a language you need to be 1. Motivated, 2. Put in few hours a week to consistently practice, 3. Speak , listen, watch tv and don’t give a hoot about making mistakes...with perseverance and dedication anyone can learn anything. As a Moroccan, I learnt English in 2 years (from zero to fluent). I’m now learning Hindi at 50 years old. My trick is simple: I read a lot of kids’ books in the language I want to learn. I listen to radio and TV, etc. Nowadays, with RU-vid and audio books, it is much easier to learn anything - if you find the time! If I this can motivate someone to pick up that foreign anguage book, then I will be happy. I do speak French, Spanish, Italian (learnt in my teenage years) and can read and understand German...BUT to me the most beautiful language is my own language: Arabic. Poetry in Arabic is divine...in Persian too, to be fair -=)

Just darn stubborn. I know a guy like that. I see him in the mirror everyday. Bravo Matt!

I started when I was 14, now I am 16. I hope to be very fluent by 5 years as well.

His Japanese is definitely at the native level. His commitment for perfecting the language is amazing. This is such a inspiring session

日本語上手

Does anyone else have the problem of learning about learning but not actually doing anything?

I've spent the past 9 months following a similar path as Matt but for Korean, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Also, I've recently started reading your korean stories book and it's led to a lot of progress in solidifying all the basic grammar and common vocab. I'm familiar with most things in the book, but having a concentrated focus at an easier level without more complex grammar is really helping the transition to more native reading material. So thank you for releasing a great book.

That is exactly what I did to learn English. I am originally from Romania and I hated English taught in school, but when I moved I was forced to learn it. I spent 3 months without talking to anyone but just listening and learning words and phrases. Therefore after 3 months when I started highschool I was able to converse and write essays. Yes my grammar needed some work but I was able to have a full conversation and be understood by others around me. That was only when I was 15 years old... now I am learning Korean and still doing it the same way :) and wish to study it in college next year !

Inspiring video! Thank you 🙏

I love this video, it’s like a trimmed down version of my favorite videos of Matt’s language learning journey.

The thing I've learned about doing it this way is that it's one thing to think/plan/aim to do it... It's a completely different thing altogether to actually _do_ it. It requires an unbelievable amount of passion and dedication.

Perfect vid for me. Thank you Olly and Matt for sharing your knowledge and experience. This vid is gold!

I don't regret taking Italian in high school, but I wish I could've started learning Japanese back then too. But I'm starting now! Better late than never

👍すごく役に立ちました。

Great to see a young guy focusing his energy like this.

Thank you so much for this. This was so helpful I'm very motivated now, thank you!

This gave me renewed motivation for pushing on with Spanish. Thanks :)

Great video! I'd also really like to hear more about your "runaway" to France. I can definitely relate to that feeling of wanting to move as far away from home as possible, and that's what I did last summer. So far it's been great, but I'd like to hear about your experience and if you think it was the right move looking back.

Olly, thank you very much for this video. I needed some inspiration. I am from South Africa and I started to learn a local language called Sotho. i find your videos very inspiring and helpful Baie dankie ! Groete Christo

Brilliant, this young man gets it. I loved the comment about having conversations multiple times. I keep several tutors just for that reason alone, it's very effective to be able to repeat yourself or a story multiple times without driving a single listener crazy. :)

I like this video I'll have to look for other videos where you analyze someone's successful language journey.

This is a really interesting video, you and Matt both have a lot of great work! Keep it up. Be interesting if you do a breakdown for AJATT seeing as both xiaoma and Matt used that as the basis for their methodology when starting out

One of you best videos Olly. Thank you so much.

Breakdown method videos are great 👍🏻

I watched a few of his videos and (though he doesn’t seem to emphasize it) I got the sense that he did do a fair bit of book type studying since he said he was studying/memorizing word etymologies and stuff like that. And he seemed to be intimately familiar with several different dictionaries and reference works.

I'll let myself take a break from immersion to listen about the homie Matt :). He's taught many of us so much.

Great video, would love to see more videos like this. Definitely picked up somethings from this

My favorite video you've made so far. I found your commentaries very interesting and on point. 😎👍 Great work!

Really liked your video man. Also i love the fact that you actually do understand Matts method very well. I think its quits easy to brush off inmersion learning and dismiss it without understanding it fully. Ive seen a number of videos where people are just like "this is too extreme and completely unhelpful" and not really dissected the process. Ive been learning Russian with this method (not as crazy extreme but definitely very high levels of input) and its insane how quickly your conprehension grows. I think the thing that peopld dont give this method credit for is just how great people's comprehension gets doing this method. Ive seen lots of language learners who say they are fluent but im pretfy sure would get immediately lost in a real conversation or watching a movie without subtitles. Anyhow really good video and you've earned a sub :)

Wow! Inspiring!

As a marketer, you are on point with all of your little comments, well researched and presented ;)

I followed the same input-based method (however I didn't know it was a thing) when I was learning English. Now I'm advanced in it. Moreover, I work with the US market, managing business communication in English every single day. I'm Ukrainian, 22 y.o.

This is a serious analysis of Matt's method. Great content full of inputs for Japanese self study .👍

Thank you for your content Olly and yes Matt is definitely one of the examples to follow when approaching languages.

Interesting !. I capture that the idea keys of success are "not giving up " and "doing it with your passion"

This is a really cool video format!

I absolutely love Matt. The way I view the philosophy of mass input based learning is this: Through your input you develop your comprehension skill, which is the bass of every other ability in the language. While immersing, it's like you are slowly, little by little constructing a complex machine. Once built, speaking practice is just learning how to operate this machine properly, of which you already have a very strong mental image of every button and lever and learning to use it without thinking should not take too long. If you don't have this machine built, well, that's like trying to hammer in a nail with a screwdriver, I'm sure you could get pretty decent at hammering in a nail with a screwdriver with a lot of practice, but it's still a screwdriver.

I LOVE the language learning community on RU-vid. So inspiring. I've been learning German now for two months and have learnt more in two months than I did in the 3 years I studied it at school.

That’s actually a HUGE point. Bottom line is not giving up. Those who succeed aren’t necessarily effective learners, and while the combination of determination and effective learning lends likely to a faster pace of achieving your fluency, if you don’t ever give up, basically regardless of how slow your progress is, once you’ve progress being made at all , and continue for long enough, you will inevitably achieve any given level.

Thank you for this video Olly, merci beaucoup c'est très intéressant ! En tant que française qui apprend le japonais depuis plusieurs mois (années...) je suis très touchée de voir l'implication de Matt et surtout le rêve accompli ! Je suis curieuse d'avoir votre ressenti sur l'apprentissage du japonais en comparaison à l'apprentissage du français... C'est l'objet de blagues entre mes amis japonaises et moi : combien le japonais est plus difficile à apprendre (elles ne sont pas d'accord haha !). Au final, les langues nous rapprochent, on se comprend sur beaucoup de choses :)

Fantastic ❤️ Thank you 🙏 OLLY

Matt is the king of language learning RU-vid!

I have a similar experience to Matt, I studied Japanese in High school and college, actually got a minor in it. However I focused too much on textbook Japanese, and reading/writing and not enough on listening and speaking. I can understand most written Japanese, I have a high level of Kanji and vocabulary, but my listening is so poor that I have trouble conversing with people. Now I can do the same thing Matt can did where he has a scripted response to blow Japanese people's minds. "hi are you Japanese?", then go and start speaking Japanese to them and answering their questions as to why I was interested, but my Japanese listening ability was so limited that I couldn't do much more after that. I spent 2 weeks in Japan and I immersed myself and believe it or not my Japanese listening improved tremendously during that time, I almost would have a headache at the end of the day because all I did was listen listen listen. I completely regret not doing more Japanese listening practice (kikitori/ 聞き取り) because like Matt said this is 100% the most important part of learning, and it gives you the same experience a baby/child would have learning their native language. Recently I have been forcing myself to do listening practice but I really struggle trying to find material that interests me at my level. For example most N4/N3 listening excerizes are the most boring content imaginable and the interesting stuff I want to listen to is way to hard, and N5 is way too easy. Satori Reader seems decent, but still kinda boring. I am 40 now, and I have been studying Japanese for over half my life, but in total I am probably only a few years in since I haven't completely immersed myself. I think in the next decade I want to get to N3 listening level, and if I do that I think I can start reading books and watching tv shows pretty comfortably. Wish me luck!

I've' been watching him for a long time now. You and Matt are my go-to sources as far as language learning goes.

When I moved to the US (decades ago) I was a teen, i spoke 0 english. What Matt said about spending all his time in the library studying hit hard because I spent all my time with the dictionary. ESL (in my humble opinion) is a laughable waste of time and I refused to go, I insisted on full immersion into a regular classroom and I struggled but became fluent in 3 to 6 months. AJATT (or in my case AEATT) works and if someone has the discipline to set aside socializing for the sake of self improvement for a few months, it pays off.

That's so dope 🙌

Great channel. I've just started my Japanese learning journey (2 weeks) and I've been watching various videos such as yours and others about acquiring a language. I've joined Tandem and HelloTalk and made a few japanese friends, with one in particular meeting on scheduled basis. Watching netflix with no subtitles, I just need to get going on the reading.

I'm a Japanese learner and not surprisingly a fan of Matt's RU-vid videos. When he talked about the lightning striking and this sudden crazy obsession with the language as the big drive propelling him to learn the language I felt like he hit the nail on the head. That happened with me for German around age 21 and later with Japanese at age 34. I've studied other languages and enjoy it and I try to get that same lightning strike phenomenon to happen again but I can't seem to make it happen. I still enjoy other languages but I think I'm doomed to A2 maybe B1 or just semi competence in the languages as opposed to achieving something really special. (I've gotten a strong B2 in German and Japanese)

Yeah! Amazing. Go get it, make them dreams come true! No excuses, persistence and consistency. Thanks Olly, very inspiring story. Maybe one day you can interview me, how I became fluent in Tagalog 🙂

His content on languge learning is one of the best that is out there. He's authentic and real 👌🏼

good video!

Matt is famous! His English sounds very natural!!! 😮 Awesome!! ✨✨

Honestly Matt is like my numer 1 language mentor on YT. I also want to get super fluent in one language like him. It's rare to find, usually language RU-vidrs focus on quantity.

Dai sempre ottimi spunti!

If there is gonna' be an anime about language learning, Matt's story is the perfect basis.

This just proves how personal a language is to the person outside of it being a language everyone in your life speaks. There are those languages and then there are languages that you just want to learn because are curious about it and excited to listen to and use it. I learned Mandarin in school for close to 15 years but as soon as high-school was over I stopped using it and all Palace dramas and martial arts shows became boring to me that I don't enjoy watching them so that language has been at a B2 until now I can understand and speak at the same level comfortable enough to not get lost in a bigger Mandarin speaking city, I will get lost in provinces that speak other Chinese languages but the point is the journey is different for everyone.

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!! I feel like I've learned so much I can apply to my own attempts at immersion learning through this video. I have so many gray areas in my understanding of immersion learning but feel like this cleared up more things than any other video I can think of!

ty for enlightening us; he started as a child so yeah I understand better why

5:15 same thing for me I want to move to Japan to get away from problems (mainly social) and start over

That wall back in his bedroom, I wonder what stories it could tell.

I am currently learning korean with a similar method , so far is going good.

i think it's never about how long it's take. never about 1 to 10 years od learning. i respect the way he did it. and i believe their will others can achieve that level in less time. for me i started learning since high school, but wasn't huge progress. and one day i had an opportunity to study in the us. and luckily since i want to learn the language. 20% came from institute and college 80% came from me. i spent a year in English institute and than took a break before college. and bcuz i wanted it. i transform my entire life to English and that how learned faster and be fluent. so the point is. if u want to learn, just transform ur daily life to the language u want to learn and u will make a huge progress in short time..

It’s a really interesting niche you found in the language-learning community! Abusolutely love it! Maybe you can analyst my case sometime lol😂😂😂

I've been studying Japanese for about 4 years and recently I've been stuck between not being completely bad at Japanese, but also not actually being good in it either. That's why I've been trying to study by immersing myself more in the language by watching News and listening to Podcasts. As I'm not interested in most of the mainstream anime and light novels, I sometimes find it hard to find content I can immerse myself in that is also accesible in my home country. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Very interesting. Looked like a total nerd as a kid. He chose Japan. Good for him.

Yeah this happened to me with Puerto Rico. I lived and worked there for a while, but only half learned the language, so conversations with my coworkers were brief, and simplistic. Couldn't really make close friends because we had to talk to each other like we were 6 year olds

While i don't have time to watch this because I'm too busy applying Matts strategies everyday, I'm making time because I can allow a little bit of english content in my system right 😂

subscribed!

This series is super interesting and insightful. Thanks for taking the time to make this video series!

Make one about a person who learned Cantonese and korean through the same method!!

Yknow, good point. I don't think I really do have the dedication to do that. Maybe it's time to give up

Lol while watching this i'm the same age as when Matt first started, I hope I can work hard to become really good at speaking the language like him

Hi dear teacher thanks for sharing this outstanding information. I actually do appreciate it for making this beautiful video. Honestly i have found tremendous idea and i will definitely apply this idea into my process leaning, because right now i'm struggling in order to improve my speaking ability as well as my fluency. And I hope that you will bring up many video like this because this video is really inspired me in order to concentrate on my study and to get the level that i desperately need to attain. I wish you the best.

Yeah. The main reason that I feel that people move to Japan is because of something they're running from. Definitely. Everyone I've observed. Like not getting along with their family or not popular with the opposite gender or just plain hating their life. Me on the other hand, I didn't have a choice because I was 9 years old.

So what I got from this: he just learned by flash cards, memorizing as many words, studying the language in-depth in school, complete immersion in the language, and practicing speaking with Japanese friends.

I find it interesting that people call it native level when you're fluent with a good accent. I've seen a lot of people that are very fluent that seem to just completely ignore pronunciation being accurate, and it baffles me. I don't consider myself very good at Japanese but people who are much better than me have complimented me on how good I sound when I speak. I used to do a lot of impressions as a kid so maybe It's easier for me to change my voice than most people

I'll know I have finally mastered Japanese when my hairline comes back like matt's

I like Matts tenacity in his endeavour to learn Japanese. I think the principals of immersion can apply well to learn any language. However in a world where we need to work, be with our family etc i do not agree that having the language around us at 'all' times is practical. I think te Mass Immersion Approach is for anyone who has a BURNING desire to learn one language to its fullest.. Not for those who simply learn languages to enjoy their time in a foreign country, at university etc. This point was mentioned by Steve Kauffman in his interview with MattvJapan, which i think is worthy of mention. There are over 2000 languages in the world, Japanese is just one drop in that ocean. To learn it to the extent that Matt had i think you need strong motivation otherwise in my opinion you could do something more conducive with the time you have.

This video was lot helpful. But can i get some advice pls? I just started to learn japanese i mean self teaching myself. But i barely know any words. I cant read japanese apart from some common words that i hear all the time in the animes that i watch. So as I discovered from this video, reading can make my japanese improve to actually be able to speak. So i want to know what should i do if i want to read japanese as a beginner who doesnt know anything. Pls help me.

I'm laughing while watching this video because I can relate to Matt at this point of my learning. I was so obsessed with perfection that I forgot to enjoy my life. Then I realized that and said to my self "FCK IT! I'll throw away these books and immerse myself instead." Right now, I'm seeing more progress than before and overall, I'm happier because I can spend my life living. I'm nowhere near Matt's level but someday, I will definitely! I'll never give up until then

How would you use these tips if not as lucky as Matt and getting things such as trips etc?

I would love to do the full immersion approach but I don't really watch anime and can't find japanese content that I'm interested in 😞

Interesting video, Olly. He's definitely taken control of his own learning, but what I found especially interesting is that once he started really speaking Japanese, he was dictating the topic, and direction of the conversations. I've noticed this about other language learners who impress their interlocutors. I think this is especially ego-boosting when used among speakers who are not used to non-L1 speakers speaking their language proficiently.

It's incredible how shis voice changes completely when he speaks Japanese !

I’m at a crossroads... I want to learn Japanese so bad but I’ve been learning Spanish for a few years and I’m at a decent level but not fluent. Idk if I should just put Spanish to the side and focus on Japanese or if I should just go all out and achieve fluency in Spanish and then learn Japanese... damnnnnnn

he is our language prophet

had opportunity to study Japanese in high school had opportunity to study Japanese in community college had opportunity to work abroad in Japan (means full immersion) I don't say that his accomplishment can be dismissed easily but come on now! I don't see anything particularly distinguishable here.

Hello Olly, thank you very much for all the vidoes and content you put out there for us, language learners. I have been following your videos lately and I do agree with you apprach to learn a language the same way infants do when they learn their native language. But there is something that have troubled my mind. I live in Canada, where there are tons of immigrats from non-speaking English countries (including myself) there is something pretty common I see here and that is the majority of kids born here from a immigrant background do not speak their parents language. How is it possible they cannot speak their parents language when there is exposure of the language all day at home, so there is input from their parents, their comunity, media, food, you name it. I can say from experience that may be only 10% of immigrat decents speak their parent's language. Thank you

Japanese is very tough to learn. I've been trying to learn it on and off for years but I still can't communicate in it.

The real key? .. NEVER GIVE UP! 👍🏼