@@mattvsjapan I've participated in survey, but why there is no "what type of content you would like to see" and/or "what topic of learning Japanese, you're interested the most"? XD (not like "you need to make requested type of content", but as a general question)
I'm not sure if it has any validity but I've been pondering whether or not some of USA high schools offers a fairly effective and well balanced Japanese language education as it seems that there are some very impressive Japanese language learners specifically from USA. Maybe coincidence or perhaps Americans are on social media/more visible and are therefore represented to a larger extent than other nations language learners to the public thus skewing the perception as such.
@@folkejhn8257 Lol. It could sound more or less valid, or something like this, if most of them wasn't telling that they've learned through immersing and this kind of stuff, while not really liking US Japanese language education. XD And there is another detail: there was a video from one guy exactly on this channel, who's "N1 and not fluent". XD "Maybe coincidence or perhaps Americans are on social media/more visible and are therefore represented to a larger extent than other nations language learners to the public thus skewing the perception as such." - but I bet that's the case. At least, in this situation. And/or lots of learners from other countries just don't speak much about their knowledge of language.
@@gogl0l386 it’s literally the first video that comes up when you google “konnichiwa kim possible”. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MNe2OtIzBdk.html
Native Japanese here. I guess he immersed so much he even started looking a bit like a Japanese... He could pass himself off as a hafu in Japan no problem! 😅 Impressive!
Seriously, Nick looks like a Japanese guy who tries to look like an American...except that he's American. I'm confused! Anyway great interview & thanks guys! Got a lot of study motivation for my Japanese studies
@日本語 @Michael Margono He's 'just' an American guy trying to look a little more Japanese. And that's just basic marketing specific to the country he's in. He's not gonna dress up/look like a middle eastern guy when he's performing in Japan. Pretty logical.
I never thought it was possible for a foreigner to be thinking in Japanese and trying to translate into English. Not just on a level of knowing a Japanese word and not being able to come up with the English equivalent quickly but it looks like even his talking style is more used to Japanese than English. I want to get to that level of speaking with no problem and this guy gives me a lot of motivation
Well this even happens if you don't speak your second language well but still use it all the time. It's just the lack of practice of your native language so I guess your brain prioritizes the one you use all the time over your native one you almost never use
That happens to me all the time and I’m just barely fluent from my perspective But it could also be that I was bilingual as a kid (Spanish and English) so my Japanese my not necessarily be that good (not like his for sure)
It happens to me with english and spanish (my native tongue). Sometimes when I talk in spanish I think first of the english word. Before I was talking about something and I almostsaid comfortable instead of the spanish word (cómodo).
His comment about learning feelings instead of words for random objects that could be pointed at, was absolutely profound and a fantastic bit of learning knowledge for anyone!
I have been doing this since day one coupled with mental imagery rather than translation, because it was intuitive to me. My progress seems to be more rapid than anyone I can see.
It says a lot how basically everyone I've seen who reached really high levels of fluency essentially just says "I found something I really liked, that I need X language to enjoy, and so I just did it.. a *lot* ". Even just Europeans I know who got to a near-native level of English playing games or watching TV in English, Dogen, Kaz and the other 4 guys Matt has interviewed now too. Its all pretty much the same story.
By far English is the most easiest to learn through immersion just cause of the enormous amount of media that English presents naturally if you spend any time on the internet. All the way from games to interesting story books and even allmost all of the famous RU-vid channels
Silhouette Fg. English is difficult for Japanese. An American RU-vidr said American distinguished cards and cars easily. But it's the same to us. That's the reason why there are so many English conversation schools in Japan.
@@coconutpineapple2489 I advice you to find youtube channels that talks about subjects you enjoy, eg if you like playing games, watch english youtube channel that plays your favorite game. By far easiest way to immerse is to find english medias or things that you actually enjoy. That way you focus more on the enjoyment of being able to consume that media, and then with enough time, you will naturally start to get the language. It will definitely take time at the beginning, but do commit yourself eg 1 hours of english media a day or such. More the better :)
Thank you for making this video. People who know Nyk in Japan may be pleased to hear he's speaking English. Because he always speaks Japanese and it's really fluently, so many of them(including me) sometimes suspect that he is actually Japanese and can't speak English.
Nyk is INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!! I also came to Japan willy-nilly but I didn't have some sort of strong plan outlined, I just ended up finding a teaching gig. SO FUCKING SICK to follow your dream in a foreign country and MAKE IT. INSANE. DUDE IS A LEGEND. ABSOLUTE LEGEND.
The feeling of Japanese people holding back because of a language barrier and wanting to get good enough for people to not hold back is something I can really relate to.
This kind of confirms my personal theory that songs are useful in building fluency. The greatest part about them is that once you've learned the meaning of the lyrics they have a natural built in srs, since unlike tv shows a song can be entertaining for at least 15 repeats or more(and at least for me you start by listening it very often and than you spaced it out as times go on), so you don't have to add those words to your deck, you just have to listen to that song when you feel like it.
Yeah exactly, actually Aussieman mentioned this in one of his videos iirc so you might want to check him out(if you haven't yet) edit) also wouldn't you actually still need to do srs with the words you don't know in the song, just for a few days? Seeing their translation once isn't usually enough to actually remember their meaning when you're listening to the song(well at least for me. I used to read through the entire lyrics once and then use yomichan to add the words I didn't know into a deck and then review those for about a week
When I read my first light Novel in Chinese (Welcome to the NHK) I sat on my ass, on Anki, making cards and reviewing the chapters for 8 hours a day. I completely understand both your pain and your commitment.
@@furretar6484 Kinda of, I like to make flashcards during the weekends and just chill and watch during weekdays. So yeah, I don't have when I'm making flashcards.
Cool to see another guy who started learning Japanese because of music. Turns out I'm not the only one 🙃 I've been thinking about the connection between language learning and music. Maybe an interest in music and especially singing can make you notice and integrate the sounds of a foreign language faster. Maybe that's part of the reason why Nyk sounds so close to a native speaker.
I know for sure that there are studies that show that people with musical abilities can fake foreign accents in their native language better. I don't think it's a reach to say that this also extends to learning a second language.
I gained sooooo much of my American pronunciation via singing A LOT. I am utilizing it in my target language now too of just using singing as a language tool.
Thank you for this great video. I enjoyed it very much. I'm a big fan of Nyk. His Japanese is really incredible! There is no subtitles, so it's hard for me to understand whole interview. I'll try to hard to listen his English again and again. It is definitely good practice for me!😊 I'll be happy if you have Nyk as a guest again.
I'm Japanese. I watched his video, I've never seen a foreigner who is so good at Japanese without flattery. It's native Japanese rather than good at it. He has a rich vocabulary and doesn't make any mistakes in his choice. I was surprised that he is studying pitch of pronunciation.
I just went to grad school in Oregon (from the East Coast), and the students there have far more opportunities than anyone I knew back home for studying Japanese. For example, of the colleges in my state only one state school had Japanese (very few high schools), while when I was in Oregon, many students had been studying since kindergarten or high school.
I'm becoming more and more proud of being a native of Portland, OR... I learned a lot from this video, as someone interested in show business in Japan. Thank you both so much!
I’m Japanese living in Japan, and in terms of speaking, Nyk has by far the most impressive Japanese skills as a foreigner to the point where it would feel rude to say his English is “jouzu” - because he speaks so much like a native. It’s amazing how even his intonation is on point. I wouldn’t be able to tell he wasn’t a native Japanese speaker. So impressive.
Because it goes beyond the language learning, he literally went to Japan without a visa one day after graduating high school, ended up on tv and then got a freaking visa from a talent agency; that's literally unthinkable! lol
The whole 'you can always point at a trashcan, but not your feelings' put into words one of the biggest hurdles I feel I have to overcome to truly become confident when speaking Japanese. I've always just had the idea that I should read more books, however I haven't really been able to pick up the habit of reading as I'm not really interested in it even in my native language. However I do love music, but I've always listened to Japanese songs the same way as I have English songs, just vibing to them without necessarily caring about the lyrics. After actually going through and writing down the lyrics of some songs I enjoy I feel like I might just have unlocked both a new passion and understanding for Japanese music, but also a key in building a stronger repertoire that I can use when expressing feelings. Thank you both for such an enlightening interview!
I love these interviews. Started learning Japanese a while back just because I liked anime and it was always something I wanted to do. Been following for a while but these interviews bridge the gap between purely learning a skill and improving competency and developing a pathway for language to enrich your life. Never really gave it much conscious thought before but this interview really sparked the interest of learning more about my chosen career through my target language. I can’t wait to see where that takes me!
"Kind of had...Hmm, not kind of... I don't know why I'm qualifying everything. I'm too used to speaking Japanese and pretending I don't know what I'm talking about." That made me laugh, and it's a great bit of insight into the cultural side of learning a language.
Thank You! By far Nyk has been one of the most impressive japanese speakers I have found (I have checked with plenty of japanese people) and I always wanted to know more about his journey
I notice the same issue "translating"... I do this in Korean where I have trouble quickly expressing a thought in Korean into English, which is my native language. I understand the Korean words or expressions but quickly interpreting them in English is problematic for me. My Japanese is so rudimentary that this isn't an issue yet, but I anticipate this occurring there, too... It's very solid advice here, though - immerse, immerse, immerse. It's solid and proven to help. The other thing he said that I completely loved was that you're going to see much better results if you actually enjoy whatever you're doing to immerse yourself in the new language.
Great interview Matt. For the longest time, I’ve been wishing you’d one day do an interview with Joe Inoue. Do you think that’s something that would be interesting to do? He also claims to have gotten to his level of Japanese through tons of anime and manga since he was young. Actually even just chatting with him about his thoughts on learning/teaching/acquiring pitch accent would be really interesting!
He said he spork in Japanese with his parents when he was a child, and he has many second generation Japanese American friends. I assume he learned slang from anime.
@@coconutpineapple2489 Hi Mr Pineapple 🍍 lol can you link the video where Joe said that about talking japanese with his parents? I’d be interested to watch.
マットさんが、ニックさんが袋井という地名を口にした時にすぐに画面にその袋井市の場所を具体的に白地図で見せたのがすごくマットさんらしいなと思いました。 どこかの動画で見ましたが、マットさんは確か都内の23区は勿論、市部の名前と位置関係も把握していましたよね。 I remember when wrote in some comment section "There is a guy named Nicholas Edwards , and his Japanese is I think equal to Matt or Dogen or maybe better", and then one Japanese rushed in and said angrily"Excuse me, but Nyk's Japanese is way better than the other two". Anyway,I'm going to watch this video over and over again and use it as my own English immersion tool.
27:15 I asked someone this on this channel before, whether writing Kanji may help it be remembered, and I think they disagreed (or said not necessarily). I was told by my trigonometry and analytical geometry professor that writing things down cements it in your memory better, and that always seemed true for me.
I remember stumbling on Nick’s channel a while ago and wondering about his Japanese journey (maybe he grew up in Japan? I didn’t know - he sounds really good). Interesting interview.
Thank you Matt for making this video. I don’t know how many times I have watched it. I like Nick so much and I know his journey well. also I am learning English so it’s really good at listening practice for me. Really appreciate you!! Love your channel too.
I can totally understand that part about not being able to do things that adults have to do in your home country. It's the same for me because I don't have experience living alone or working in my home country. I don't know how to find a place to rent, I don't know how to pay utilities and other stuff, and so on. I only know how to do all this stuff in Japan. Recently, people asked me if I'm not afraid of working in Japan at job interviews at Japanese companies, but I always reply that I would be more afraid in my home country because I don't know anything about it.
I have a question that I've wanted to get answered about the Japanese journey, and the main issue is the social part. How did Matt and other people deal with their social life? Was it ever lonely or was it ever a problem for you personally? It just hits my head because I've met a few people on Refold who worry about these questions, and I personally am seen by other people in my life that I lack drive when really that's not the case. It may seem that I'm locked in my room, but I'm really trying to put in the work to experience a chance to go to another country that would've been impossible otherwise and that I really enjoy this. I'm interested in anyone's thoughts if they get me some feedback.
I think the key is finding what works for you. Everyone is different. If you feel lonely and it's affecting your learning, then go be social! Make some native Japanese or Japanese learner friends online, join language exchanges, find a Japanese study group in your town or something. Heck, maybe even take some traditional language classes on the side. Oh, if you're worried about you're being perceived by others, then I guess just show them what you're actually doing and explain? If it's an issue where your friends/family are sad because they want to see you more, then I guess decide how much you value the relationship, and if you do care about the relationship then spend some time with them.
Well thats kinda the thing, u need to sit ur room a lot and learn japanese. Iam also one of those people who do not like to sit home all day and learn japanese but rather go out with people,but its the the most effective way there so yeah
I wonder about how much of Nyk's Japanese talent has to do with his musical talent? I feel like a lot of the best second-language learners out there are also of the more musical mind.
Timestamps and questions 1:23 When did you first decide that you're interested in learning Japanese did you have any kind of connection to japan when you were first growing up or anything? 3:48 What’s the first time you started studying Japanese was when you entered high school so then how did it take off from there? 5:11 What artists did you listen to? 7:27 Where did things go from there with your studies 8:21 Were there other people doing this? 9:48 What did you do after 4 years? 11:46 How long was the exchange? 13:58 How did you continue to study Japanese after coming back? 15:35 Did you do a lot of immersion? 18:47 Were you focusing on reading? Or studying Kanji or spoken language? 22:03 How may hours a day were you contacting Japanese media? 23:59 How did you study vocabulary? 26:54 Did you make flashcards? 28:16 What was your goal at the time? 30:22 What were you doing, music wise, to further your career? 32:07 Did you speak Japanese on RU-vid? 33:50 How did you manage to go to Japan after high school? 35:05 Did one of the record labels show interest? 37:04 Were there multiple offers? How did you chose a label? 39:02 What was your Japanese level when you came to Japan versus your level at that time? 41:05 What year did yo move to Japan? 41:13 Did you graduate from high school early? _41:46__ Acting_ 44:51 Did you know about Pitch accent? 48:54 What was the process of getting rid of the bad habits you had at that time? 51:40 Were you living in Japanese or did you want to study and take your Japanese skills to the next level? 58:10 How often do you use English on a daily basis and has your English ability changed? 1:04:25 Do you think you’ll probably spend the rest of your life in Japan? 1:06:39 What advice do you have for people who are taking a similar path to you?
I'm going to have to justify watching this instead of immersing. This was helpful, because I get to learn about his experience. Getting rusty in English. Pitch accent issues. Reading issues. Social etiquette issues. Language transfer. Really, a lot of things that come with learning a language. Very helpful. Definitely worth my time. I don't regret not immersing.
I would love to hear your thoughts on learning when there are few subtitles available in your target language. If I'm not mistaken someone you interviewed did not use subs for Japanese. Could you explain what that process may look like? What would the srs routine be like? I would love to hear some insight in this as most content I enjoy doesn't have readily available subs in my TL. Btw, excited every time I see another video from you and please keep it up!
you can definitely see that his mouth is somewhat lagging behind his thought process, and with the way he often rephrased what he wanted to say I often got the impression that besides trying to stay conservative with his words, his internal processes are probably mostly done in Japanese. what with the way he keeps going back to add additional context at the beginning of the sentence that should've been there from the start. really interesting to see this. regardless, really inspirational !
I remember when I saw nick for the time in that music show where all the singers are foreigners singing japanese songs he was so brilliant and talented I knew he was going to do it well in japan and I’m happy he is 😺
I had a look at your survey and I didn't even have any good answers. I took 2 years of japanese during my undergrad program and except for having a little party trick up my sleeve when I want to bust out some japanese I have no real motivation to keep learning right and yet I am here :)
You guys are both from Portland, pretty interesting, I'm curious where u guys are from in Portland, I'm going to guess the suburbs like Beaverton ^^. I'm from Portland too and speak Japanese. There has always been a connection with Portland and Japan IMO, if you look at the old TV show, "From Oregon With Love" (i think that is the name) I watched as a kid, and a lot of Japanese came to Portland because they saw that show.
