Pronouns in Japanese (ANATA and KIMI are RUDE) 

Japanese feels like a game where I try to see how much of a sentence can be taken away before it does not make sense

These detailed explanations about how everyday Japanese is really used are very helpful. They help us understand what’s actually happening much quicker. It could take hundreds of hours of immersion to fully realize what’s going on. These lessons make immersion much more efficient. Typical Misa Sensei - outstanding, as always. 教えてくれてありがとうございます！

this is so useful it's surprising that this video is free! coming from the textbooks there's a lot of difference in writing vs conversational Japanese and Misa-san really cleared everything up. thank you!

This was very interesting. According to dictionaries I'd read, 'anata' was described as the polite version of 'you' and I'd never been corrected by a Japanese person, so I never knew different. So it's good to find this out. I've also been lead to understand 'omae' is perfectly fine when talking with a good friend, but you would certainly never use it in a formal setting. (or unless you wanted to provoke someone) similar to 'ore' but now I'm questioning that.

Wow learned a lot from this video, more than I expected. All the social stuff behind the different pronounces is super interesting!

I finally have been having success learning Japanese with Duolingo, coupled with the app Benkyō for kana practice. However, I always watch your vids to get context and usage for what I’ve learned. Especially like with 彼 and 彼女. Really appreciate the explanations.

this is what makes japanese interesting to learn and really easy for me. keep it up and keep explaining things in details like this. you are doing a great great great job making japanese understandable for the people worldwide and aiding we learners from a confusing and complicated walkthrough of the language.

Misa先生はいい先生です :D just got to the channel and the video is helpful and gets the point across without being boring

I just want to say that I really really appreciate how understanding Misa 先生 is when it comes to respecting people's choice of pronouns, especially as Misa herself said: Japan is more conservative in comparison to the west when it comes to topics like that, so the fact she's so open and empathetic towards it, on top of all her generous teachings she gives us, just makes her even more amazing. Thank you so much みさ先生、you have my utmost respect. みさ先生は性格がよくて、優しくて、とても理解があります^^ どうもありがとうございます！！

"I am fairly a normal person" *slowly looking at the Pikachu nuigurumi collection behind her* :^D

Thanks for covering あたし, I've been hearing it and just assumed they were saying 私 but sort of ommiting the w like the way い gets omitted informally.

I love when you do the imitations of how someone would say something. It makes the video more immersive and also really funny sometimes! I loved your impression of the little boy playing with his toys hahaha I also always thought that 僕 was the best pronoun for a man but I’ll remember that now!! Your videos always put a smile on my face - I was really tired today after a big exam so this was fun and educational and I just love learning Japanese and learning it with you is one of the highlights! ミサ先生、いつも教えてくれてありがとうございます！

my first language is slavic so its the same as in russian: past and future tense is gendered in conjugation (also im surprised and impressed you knew about it). one of my dearest friends, a girl, started switching between the forms some time ago and i really dont mind it but sadly the society is very strict on that and even her parents started fiercely correcting her. that sucks

Very informative! Side note: the choker you are wearing is really cute ❤

The detailed explanation is really helpful for a beginner like me

I had no interest in learning Japanese however I was curious about why there were so many words to mean the same thing. Your video is so well done that I ended up watching the whole thing! Your way of explaining and showing the visuals was so easy and pleasant to follow along that I may have to come back to learn some more! Thanks☺️

This is why it's so easy to spot people who use google translate on twitter 😂

Japanese : has no gendered pronoun Also Japanese : certain pronouns can only traditionally used by one gender 😂

I really appreciate your explanations of the rules as applied, with nuance, context, societal expectation. I myself generally crave more than a hard and fast rule, as in presented in my Genki book. I want to know why, in the abstract, and if I don't have the reasons apart from 'this way is wrong, period', I continue break the rules all over the place. Having those explanations are integral to the memorization. So, thank you!

君のレッスンはすごい! Joking. Thank you so much for this video! I'm transferring to our Japanese branch at work, and didn't want to sound like a walking textbook (American-based tech company that encourages a casual atmosphere).

Misa is the best! I can't even fully explain it, She just is

Also, I appreciate you being respectful of people's genders or gender expression. I am also a language teacher, I can only give advice. (For example, if you don't want to get fired, these words are rude/not rude, be aware that some people can't get over their traditions and may be upset) but ultimately, in your private life, it's your choice.

Very often I thought I hear the word atashi rather than watashi in Japanese songs sung by female singers. Now I'm sure that I heard it correctly. Thank you for the explanation 😁

Dōmo arigatō. Your lesson seems to be most important. What would be stellar is if you made a series of phrases videos of informal speech. There are some RU-vid accounts like JapanesePod101 or Kendra's Language School that share phrases videos, which get many views and hence ad dollars. If you were to make informal speech ones, the repetition would help us Nihongo learners to speak well in real situations. It now seems embarrassing to think that we sound like speaking textbooks.

Video très intéressante. Je prends des cours de japonais depuis 3 mois et je trouve que c'est un bon complément de vous écouter. C'est instructif et très bien expliqué. ありがとうございます

I really appreciate your hard work, thank you Misa And the lesson you made about not judging, about being different, about acceptation was really beautiful even more when you know that not only Japan but the whole world - I might I exaggerate, want you to be like '' every body '' So, I'll just finished by saying : thank you Misa, I really hope to watch your others videos 😊

Thank you sensei, your explanation helped me a lot! I have a question: browsing online I also found some lesser known "I", like あし for girls- but one that caught my interest was 拙者 (せっしゃ). How legit are they? I've read that 拙者 is masculine and archaic, I think it's outdated? If I were to use it with my close friends (as a joke) would I sound like an old man, a samurai, both?

It's sooo weird, but thank you for this! It takes a lot of getting used to because maybe it's my culture, saying my name sounds soo rude. But again, as someone learning Japanese, and if speaking to a Japanese speaker, of course I'll be respectful! For example, "Jane, what are you up to?" sounds hostile. vs 'Hey, what are you up to?" "Jane, how are you?" sounds like you are a stranger. "Hey, how are you?"

How is "ware" used? I know it isn't used nowadays at all but just in case, I'm curious whether it is macho, neutral, or feminine and also whether it is formal or informal.

English actually has a bit of an equivalent to the omitting of parts like japanese does, and its also less formal as well. You could say "The children are watching television" Or, you could say "Kids is watchin' TV" You also can absolutely reply to questions without a subject in english like in japanese in a lot of cases, definitely not as many though. "What are the children doing?" "Watching television" "What's your boyfriends job?" "Bank teller" I say this not to correct you, but just to offer that english speakers (at least american english) will actually be familiar with these concepts.

この動画はとても手伝うほんとうにありがとうございます

So I’ve always wondered, what is it like being LGBTQ+ and speaking Japanese? I’d assume it’s easier cause there is rarely a need for pronouns, certainly not as important as they are in Spanish and English (every thing in Spanish has to be feminine or masculine lol)

Interesting that 赤いTシャツの人 (person in red t-shirt) phrase kind of suggest that the person is owned by the t-shirt. Like t-shirt's person. My native language does the same thing. Pessoa(person) da(of) camisa(t-shirt) vermelha(red).

I like your open-minded comments on gender identity. Thank you for speaking up.

Very helpful. What about "watakushi"?

Very useful video even for more advanced learners, thank you!

I just found you through this video and it's already helped so much, thank you!! :D

Nice video as usual and you’re looking more beautiful than usual, love the peach lipstick 💄

Excellent detailed explanation, please keep doing it this way

This was a great video! Thank you!

Hi. Just wanted to say this is fantastic and thank you so much for making it. I'm currently cross training as a Japanese teacher here in Australia, and this is helping fill in some gaps that the textbooks and lecturers don't give. But possibly more importantly, where did you get that Terriermon plushie I WANT IT.

i really appreciate your videos, Misa! I hope you make a video explaining the particle wo and he sometime!

It's the same here in the Philippines l, we like to omit and shorten our sentences, most of the time we can just answer questions with just 1 word

ありがとうございました、みさ先生!　わかるのがなりました!

Your videos help me phenomenally, Misa sensei!

If I am talking to a stranger on the street (e.g. when asking for the way or if being asked something or whatever), what pronoun should I use? I don't know if I could always omit the pronoun and asking for the persons name seems a bit unfitting. Otherwise great video! Everything is explained very briefly. For me personally only this one question is left.^^

I actually enjoy the gender language. I'm just really tired of society trying to make everything androgenous. It's great when you can readily identify who is talking based off a number of factors, whether it's appearance, speech patterns, etc. In my opinion, anything that tries to breakdown those distinctions is counterproductive.

I was caught by surprise when you mentioned Russian language gender issues😂 I remember when I was in high school, I would also refer to myself in a "male" form of speaking (verb forms mostly), because male form is more like a default form in our language and that made me feel more cool and important. But now I think that it was kinda silly and I should not be ashamed of speaking as a woman!

As a gender-nonconforming/nonbinary trans person, the idea of omitting pronouns entirely is something really appealing to me! That's so awesome

Very very detailed lesson, thank Misa-san a lot

The standard Japanese textbook like Minnano~ teach us わたし and あなた from the beginning chapter and never mentioned that あなた is rude 🤦‍♀️

she looks really cool while emphasizing phrases that may seem weird when spoken in japanese HAHAHA 14:44

Really helpful and insightful, thank you ☺️

ありがとうございます。この動画は役立っています

The 60/70YO Doboku guys I work with up in Fukushima constantly refer to me as 「お前」 and 「わが」わ for "You" is Kyuushuu Dialect, and is confusing because it's the opposite of 我. It's cool though cuz I've earned their respect.

In the case of very formal situations, how should one speak?

When you used the Rude Anime Voice when saying KI-SAMA!!! Lmao 🤣🤣🤣 Awesome & Hilarious. XD 🇯🇵🤙

きみ !!! ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ hehe bamboozled

This video made me realize that maybe かれ and だれ were maybe once related, because they seem very similar to これ and どれ. Was 彼 once part of the こそあど言葉 system? Was there ever a され?

みさーえんせいわきれいです ありがとございました

みさ先生は素晴らしい！野菜を宣伝したいな農家としてこのビデオはとても有益です

i saw some comments saying they didn't like how you go into detail about everything and i just wanted to say, i hope you don't listen to them. there are lots of shorter videos online that teach vocab like "x = y, so you just say x" without giving the various nuances and possible contexts that i really appreciate in your videos. when you go into detail about little things like 達 being used only for living things /unless they're toy story toys/ it really gives me a much clearer picture of the extent of what i can say, what i might want to express and opens my eyes to all the things i'm able to talk about in japanese. other videos often leave me with lots of questions about specific situational use, but when i watch your videos i rarely find myself leaving with more questions than i had answered. something i really like is when you're explaining a grammar point, for example, and you use another new point to help explain then you let us know that we haven't learned it from your videos yet or that you already made a video on it instead of leaving it go unacknowledged. it clears up a lot of confusion for me, and lets me know that i don't have to worry about that at the moment or that i might be overthinking how to say what i want to say in jp. lots of other videos don't do that and leave me wondering "well what about xyz???" misa-sensei's videos are one-of-a-kind, so thank you for putting so much thought and care, time, effort and mental energy into your videos for us. please keep doing what you do and being you 💙

I'm sure you hear this everywhere but your subtitling system is absolutely excellent

We have a million ways to say "you," now don't use ANY of them.

As a Chinese mandarin speaker, I find it fascinating how words like 君 and 貴様 evolved into rude terms (between strangers) in modern times, when the kanji are very polite terms that Chinese language speakers today wouldn't use in modern conversations. I really liked your lesson, Misa-sensei!

Great summary of Japanese pronouns! Two things that occurred to me as I was watching: 1. At 27:56 you introduced 自分 as a versatile first-person pronoun (I) for men. However, in the Kansai area 自分 is also used as a second-person pronoun (you). This confused the hell out of me when I first moved to Osaka and heard it used like this but eventually I got used to it. 2. おまえ was a landmine for me. I heard it being used all over the place in Japanese dramas, YT videos and so on when young men are casually talking to their female friends or girlfriends so I decided to try it out on my Japanese gf (大阪出身) at the time. I was trying to make my Japanese sound more ネイティブっぽい. Well, that was a big mistake. She got so pissed off at me. She claimed that no man had ever addressed her as おまえ in her 27 years on this earth and it deeply offended her, which of course I had no intention of doing. It was a mess. So a caution to other men out there. It may depend on the particular girl whether she finds it offensive or not but probably better to play it safe and stick to just her name.

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Thank you for these vids, they're super super helpful :)

My Japanese improved greatly when I omitted nouns, verbs, adjectives, particles and subjects. I'm very good with my hands and facial expressions.

It sounds like Japanese is a more efficient language than English in that you can omit a lot of words and retain the meaning.

I'm so glad you mentioned what are some of the proper ways of saying "you" or addressing someone without coming off rude. That's one of my biggest fears of accidentally coming off rude to someone... Thank you so much!! I'm new to your channel and still at the early stages of learning Japanese, but your videos have been a great companion to help me understand Japanese alongside my studies and textbooks. Agian thank you.

I think that Misa-sensei doesn't get enough credit for her work Her sort of "rants" or maybe "tangents" are what gives you a better feel for the language, as she doesn't just say the thing, she also gives examples, colours the words accordingly and even gives explanations as to why something works and why something doesn't work in Japanese, what is more natural compared to what would be the textbook Japanese. One thing I want to talk about is Misa-sensei's spoken English She is forcing the words out, forcing herself to speak in a more proper English and actually nails some words like "dang that's a well pronounced word, good job Misa-sensei"

*Types of Japanese 2nd person pronouns:* 1) Rude 2) Very rude 3) You are my sworn enemy, I shall not rest until I destroy you

Although I took notes of every thing about pronouns in other videos, I was waiting for the specific lesson on pronouns! Thank you so much, みさ先生！

Japanese is so fun. "Know your pronouns and particles, but use them as little as possible!" ¿🤔? I can only imagine the quirks of English a native Japanese speaker has to sort out. 😄

With あなた I think the confusion for English speakers (at least in the United States) lies in the fact that the converse is true. We honestly only use "you" in direct communication out of habit because. to quote every grownup in my childhood, "It is very rude to speak about someone in the third person when they are present." Saying someone's name when they are *right there* implies dismissiveness, or at least a layer of formality that makes for awkward conversations. Contrast the following conversation: Person 1: "Going to burn that part of the Japanese textbook about pronouns?" Person 2: "Yep. Got a match?" The word "you" was not harmed in this dramatization.

Even though I'm an intermediate learner, it's nice to go over the basics again! Thanks for the lesson, Sensei!

I am russian and I love your videos. I liked your russian language reference so much it was quite relevant. Thank you a lot for the videos. みさ先生はすごいです。

Brilliant explanation Misa! I've lived in Japan for 10 years, and every single point you made, I went through the ordeal of learning the hard way! To everyone watching this: she's spot on right. And she ended with "...but that's enough for today...", because there's even more to this topic. For example そっち / そちら to mean "you" or "your company", , 二人 to mean "you two", お互い to mean "each other", and perhaps more that I don't know yet. Viewers, know this: if I had seen this video many years ago, it would have been of tremendous help to me, so pay attention to Misa! And Misa, there's an idea for your next video, so ... You're Welcome! 😜 Once again, brilliant explanation, you really nailed it! 👍🏻

ありがとう! Your videos are a literal treasure for anyone who is having problems with usage of pronouns! This amount of info is golden! 💖

What pronouns to use when is one of my biggest fears about talking in Japanese - so this was super helpful for me. I love how in-depth and nuanced you get with your explanations. Your videos are always really helpful! :D

While there are obviously a lot of differences between English and Japanese, I think one problem language learners face no matter what language they're learning, is that learning the 100% grammatically correct form that your textbook teaches, is often different from the natural conversation form. For example, like you were saying, in a textbook, if a question were to ask you, "What's that man doing?" the answer the textbook would probably want would be, "He's watching TV," or whatever, because that makes sure you understand all parts of the sentence. But in natural conversation, it'd be totally normal for you to say, "Watching TV." I guess you have to learn how to follow the rules first by learning textbook language, before you can learn how to break the rules naturally, like in natural conversation.

The parallels between Japanese and Spanish never stop impressing me, as most variations of Spanish are also pro-pronoun dropping. Thanks for sharing!

@4:15 Slight correction here. Given a scenario of a husband and a wife walking by each other in their house; Father: "What are the kids doing?" Mother: "Watching TV" is a totally valid and natural way of speaking in English. Similarly from a friend "Bro up to anything atm?" "Playing FFXIV" is also valid. We don't omit pronouns anywhere near as often but this translation is pretty capable of being 1 to 1.

i am in state of permanent confusion when it comes to "anata". every book i have seen as a beginner, tells you this what you use as "you". they don't give contexts, etc. And then Misa and other teachers online tell us how real language goes and it should not be used. Is "anata" EVER used? what is the right context then? I was watching a movie the other day with subtitles and the setting is Meiji era. A woman calls her husband "anata" and subtitles translate it as "dear". Is that accurate and is such use ok? And then why books fail to address such an important thing? It's almost like learning all the wrong things from the start and is very frustrating.

I'm a male Japanese. I prefer male foreigners to use Boku unless you're super fluent. Not fluent and Ore don't match, in my opinion.

This was super helpful! Been a little confused on 私 / 僕 / 俺 and when to use them. But this made it super clear. ありがとうみさ先生！

It's interesting that Japanese has many ways of speech assigned to gender, yet avoids pronouns. Here in the west the issue of pronouns and gender is kind of a big deal, especially when talking to/about trans or non-binary people. Yet even though that seems like a completely avoided issue in Japanese, you still have things like women being expected to always say 'watashi' and speak more formally in general. If Japan ever gets a gender movement like the west has, it would be on completely different grounds. Instead of debating the use of 'they/them' and so on, it would be more about accepting the way an individual refers to themselves. One has to wonder what that dynamic would look like and how the debate around it would look, too. Sociologically fascinating to think about.

Hello misa.. Just wanted to let you know that I have passed my n4 japanese language test.. Your videos clarified most of my doubts in regards to grammar rule patterns and construction. As of now I'm in the phase of looking for a job in Japan.. Again thank you misa.

It's completely insane to learn they have multiple versions of each pronoun just to...never use any of them at all! I did learn something important, though..."Formality" means something different in different cultures. Sometimes it's about politeness; sometimes it's about distance. Seems like it's "distance" in Japan, which would explain how 「きみ」can sound condescending to the listener, when the speaker meant to be polite! I think the video explained well.

Как хорошо всё разложила по полочкам (объяснила). Спасибочки!

Japanese: let's have a bunch of words to say "You" me: Then, what should I use? -None of them.

I love how I can find similarities between Spanish and Japanese, especially now that I'm studying it xD. In Spanish we also love to omit words, abbreviate things or rename others just to make communication faster and easier.

This feels like what we learn in English class. You don't write how you speak. You talk differently. Writing an essay using correct pronunciation and grammar, etc. In other words, use some common sense and street smart when communicating via speaking or writing.

Yeah, the first meaning I've known for “かのじょ” is “girlfriend" … well… because of anime. But after sometime, I feel like it just means “girl" After I encountered it in an language learning app which of course similar to textbooks, im still a little surprised and im always uncomfortable using it for “she” 😆 But im starting to think textbooks and apps aren't bad at all, it's not wrong it's just unnatural. There are somethings we'll might miss if we go straight to natural. So iI think it's good to get exposed to both of them.

私が思うのは、僕か俺かは、年齢や親密さや失礼さなどではなく、言っている本人の「自立感」にあるのではないか？と思っています。

I wish there were more teachers like you, Misa--Sensei! ありがとうございます！

Thank you for all the materials you have given us over the years みさ先生、最高ですよ♥

We brazilians love to ommit pronouns too

Thank you, i had no idea. I have been using many programs to help learn Japanese but "none" of them explain this, at least there is nothing about this in "starting, beginner, intermediate" Japanese courses. I also appreciate you using furigana as I am learning kanji. Your explanations and examples are great and will help make my Japanese more natural and not "textbook Formal" Thank you!