LOL... My dogs refused to go on a walk yesterday -- We're having a 38C / 100F heatwave here. Once their paws hit the hot pavement, they both pulled me back inside to the air conditioning. First time that has ever happened.
I’m a Japanese and when I don’t know a kanji I just look away somewhere and someone will tell me haha I’m a returnee student so it’s far for me to read kanji so I get ur feeling! I love you videos! If you ever come to Osaka I would love to see you!
Marin Hoshino well I didn’t say it correctly. Is katakana used more frequently than hiragana or is it the other way around. Which do you use to write essays? Or does it depend on the class ur taking
@@andrea-cy6es hiragana and kanji is used the most since katakana is only used for when you make english words into Japanese. most people don't used katakana for everyday use
That awkward moment when you're so early RU-vid hasn't even finished processing the video colors... EDIT: Subtitles are UP! 日本語字幕つけましたよ！ Thanks for your patience :D
I had like black bars and a tiny square of your face that had processed, but nothing else. Was wondering if you had tried out some crazy new effects or something, haha xD
Hi, I can imagine how you feel like in working on intensive readings in a foreign language. I am Japanese. I have been in Australia as a graduate student and I have struggled with understanding of articles in English sometimes. In particular, Japanese language consists of three difference characters, like, hiragana, katakana and kanji, which makes it even much harder for overseas people to learn Japanese... anyway, have fun with it.
I loooooove satori reader!! My struggle with kanji is I can recognize a kanji on what it means but I would forget how to actually read it... like for example if I saw 駐車場 I could see parking lot but not actually read it. Lmaooo I’m not sure which part of the video that falls under. I just FELT THIS VIDEO SO MUCH. kanji struggle. Getting ready for the JLPT in Dec
If youtube ever ends you'll be one of the few Japan-based youtubers who will still have a job. LOL but in seriousness, I always thought your drive was amazing. It kind of makes me want to step up my own game.
I love your Japanese speaking voice! It's so natural and fluent that I really wouldn't be able to tell just from hearing you that you weren't a native speaker.
Still can’t get over your brains and beauty. Boomer is a lucky man. What I have learned so far watching your videos is perseverance. I’m learning Mandarin and from time to time I do feel like giving up but after watching your video I hit the books again. Thanks
girl this was so helpful! I plan on advancing my Japanese after graduating with my bachelors and this Satori reader looks real good! I definitely know what you mean by being able to understand the kanji but not being able to say them out loud. the struggle lol thanks for the value :)
Not only are you succeeding as a university student, you're doing it at a university in Japan. I hope I can become even half as successful as you are. You're amazingly hard working and intelligent. This is not flattery. I mean it and I'm jealous.
It is a genuine pleasure to hear you speak Japanese. I would love to just buy it on a CD and listen to it. It's so amazing hearing you switch languages so quickly, and with such flawless accents!
I just started satori reader, and it really works. I'm better at listening than at reading, so I read first and then listen to the audio to understand it better! I'm glad you got sponsored by them :)
When it comes to the language or the topic of Japan itself your channel is like a hidden gem so full of helpful tips and funny stories. I will be going to study abroad in Japan for the 2nd time for a year in fall. Keep it up and hope you succeed in your endeavors!
This video was in my recommendations for quite a long time now, so I finally decided to click on it. I checked out Satori Reader before I really started watching the video and I'm amazed by it. It's what I always wanted! Texts that you can practice your reading, vocabulary and Kanji with, but with English translations so you don't get lost and start to feel discouraged. Definitely something I'll check out more, thanks to them for sponsoring you. :)
You inspire me so much! I’m 13 and American and someday I want to live in Japan! You are like the older and female version of me! I hope someday we will meet in Japan in the near future. I love you!!
Omg you're so relatable 😭😱 your previous video of how to memorise kanji actually helped me 😊🤗👍🏼🙏🏼👌🏼 but is so true now that I know the meaning of the kanji now I have to memorise the different sounds of it 😭😭. I guess what you can do is memorise the word completely or at least try it 😂😂. You're such an inspiration 💕 ありがとう〜
Thank you, Loretta! I have been wanting to improve my reading because of exactly this reason. 😅 Some days it feels like the more you mess up while reading, the more you're called on!
Loretta, this was another very helpful video and nice of you to share your experiences as a Japanese University student. There is no doubt that you will do fine! I am a self study beginner who finds Kanji to be one of the highlights & greater challenges of learning Japanese. So, I just signed up for Satori Reader (you also got me into Duolingo) to help with those hurdles. It will be an additional tool to my other apps that I use daily. Thank you!
Firstly, you look so cute and summery 😊 secondly, I'm not studying Japanese but Korean and because I'm nit picky I like to know the meaning for each character of a new word ( it helps me learn better) so I always ask and I can see it gets a bit annoying for others. I sincerely think intermediate learners should definitely be learning the nuance of the words not because it enriches the language learning experience (and people aren't as forgiving when you are intermediate and use the incorrect words, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to this). This is what gets me having to learn the possible contexts the word can be used...... Thanks Loretta for the story it was really nice to hear how you manage things like this.
I found this channel today and I'm hooked. I love your energy and quirkiness! I've always loved Japanese culture and anime. I actually just got back from trip to Japan. You've inspired me to give learning the language another shot. I never really gave up but you rejuvenated my motivation. Btw I'm probably going to binge watch all your videos. Thanks for all interesting and fun content.
Just found your channel recently and loving it. You are so smart, lively and down to earth. It is funny that you posted this video today because I did a reading is ARGH hard in Chinese video yesterday! It is a two parter and I will put the links below but know that I am way lower level in Chinese than you are in Japanese. Even so, it was both encouraging and discouraging that you still found it hard to read sometimes in Japanese. That is not meant as an insult to you, it is more so a meh moment on the languages in question here. I have such a fascination with the hanzi Chinese characters but when it comes to getting sound out of new or forgotten ones.....just ahhhhhh is all I can say. It is so impressive that you are navigating your way through this while in graduate school. Holy cow that is amazing. Keep it up, you are an inspiration to us all! Part 1 : frustations and emotions ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VTEyPfqT_rY.html Part 2: tasks and fumbles ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-w4LOjt8JyUY.html
First, I really loooove Satori Reader. It has helped me immensely and I have not stopped recommending it to other people who are learning Japanese. Second, I had not learned about the Pitch accent when I was pronouncing the Your Name movie. I had no idea that pronouncing the Na wa part of Kimi no Na wa with the wrong pitch accent changes the name to Your Rope. lol. Thanks for sharing!!
I'll definitely use Satori Reader, thanks. I'm majoring in Japanese and we're starting Tobira this year, and I'm hoping to be get to a comfortable N2 level during this year and next summer, and apply for a MEXT exchange year stipend starting next autumn, or autumn 2020.
Love your stories, I found them relatable even though I'm not a Japanese student. You also brought back some memories of my own Canadian university experience - they made us write an English proficiency test as well which I found amusing.
As a former exchange student in Nagoya and as someone who learnt from Genki, as soon as you read the conversation I died hahaha, you're lovely, thank you very much for your videos, Now im preparing myself for applying for the MEXT scholarship as well, take care!
In my Japanese class, we're using the genki books and we have to memorize the dialogues so when you went through lesson 3 dialogue I instinctively started to say it with you because its like Ingrained in my head.
Thank you for the great advice! I'm definitely gonna try it! My struggle with the Japanese school, however, is not reading at all, as my home uni was pretty much obsessed with the reading-translation. It's communicative skills! I can read and write on a truly advanced level, but my speaking and listening are stuck at pre-intermediate. All passive vocabulary, you know. I admire you spoken Japanese, by the way)))
Thanks for sharing that app! It seems very convenient for learning kanji... I only did one year of Japanese and I'm struggling to learn vocabulary and kanji, this seems like a good way to practice
The issue with all languages. They make their inappropriate words too similar to commonplace words. In an ideal case, these inappropriate words would be too long and specific to say by accident. I remember when Apple released Siri in 2011, and all the Japanese heard was 尻.
Wow, I'm listening to your story about being a perfectionist and being called on to read, and I totally get it. It's probably good that the teacher kept calling on you though. You obviously needed some help with that and I'll bet they wanted to see you succeed. You could, but probably shouldn't, just go on without being able to read out loud. It'll be really helpful if you can master it. But hey, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. University just happens to be a great time to work on them. Don't let it get you down!
Yeah!! The thing that's frustrating is that now I really want to dig into my Japanese studies harder, but with my schedule I need to focus just on getting my thesis done. I'll have to do a Japanese makeover once I'm done writing and just pray I don't embarass myself too hard in the meantime 😂.
I’m so glad I stumbled on your channel and watched this video! I didn’t know about Satori Reader and it is perfect for where I’m at (trying to increase my kanji/vocabulary and reading and writing proficiency)! I’d been slowly reading Japanese books with a lot of dictionary help, and while I’ll continue to do so, I think Satori Reader will help my proficiency rise much faster. If you aren’t aware of it, you might like the Outlier Kanji Dictionary add-on to the Japanese app. The Kickstarter recently succeeded and I can’t wait because they explain kanji so logically using the best paleography research! BTW, I have also struggled with perfectionism for a very long time. I have found it most helpful to make it into a bad word (the P word), remind myself that it doesn’t exist, and try to discern how much perfection matters and perfectionism is helping or harming me in the task at hand. Usually what matters is doing my best, not achieving some standard of perfection. Of course seeing the difference can be tricky. I know it’s not easy. Hope this helps!
Loretta, I feel your pain. I'm only a novice in Japanese but I attended University in France because I was a French major. I still keep up on my reading in French through a local French book club. I still have to skip over words at times. I've found using a Kindle to be very advantageous because I have a French diction loaded on the Kindle and I can hold on a words and look up the meaning. Plus I can highlight it and make a note as to it's meaning as well as highlight key passages for discussion. It even connects to BING for translation. Have you tried using an ereader? I know you said you like physical books but it has some great advantages. I cant wait to try the program you suggested for Japanese.
I've been having my own struggles in the language intensive I'm in now. I'm taking it at a university that isn't my own and the class picked up 5 chapters ahead of where my last one ended. It almost feels like my Uni has been babying me by comparison. I've definitely been overwhelmed. By the time I'm done learning the kanji and vocab I barely have time to review the grammar points and by the time I learn those its 3am and I get to class the next morning and realize I forgot the homework! I'm hoping I'll adjust though. I'd rather struggle now to make my future struggles a little easier. がんばります！
I’m on a similar program to yours and having the same problem :D After a few months of being embarrassed pretty much all day every day, I somehow managed to let go of the perfectionistic tendencies to an extent and stop caring if I can’t read certain words or explain their meaning in class...but that attitude might just be a result of my constant lack of sleep I reckon :)
Let me share my experience here in Korea. I am taking up a master`s degree in Chinese language and literature here in Korea, my classes (the lectures) are sometimes 100 percent in Korean or 100 percent in Chinese or 50-50. My readings can be in either language and sometimes I would even translate one material from Chinese to Korean. And I can relate so much with you when I am asked to read aloud a character HAHAHA! The anxiety is real!!! I think I am still lucky since Korean and Chinese usually just have one pronunciation for each character and it is easier to guess, but I can imagine how hard it would be in Japanese. Another problem that arises is that you will always encounter a character that you do not know and sometimes it can be tiring to search everything. One thing I do is that when I have a Chinese text to read, I use baidu translate, took a picture of my readings, then check if there are incorrect characters, and let the app read it aloud for me. It also convenient when I need to translate my readings since I can just copy and paste the text to maybe google translate or papago. Maybe you guys can find a good OCR app or scanner for Japanese. Lastly, my classmates and teachers are very encouraging to me when I do not know a character and sometimes they do not even know how to read it so it is okay~ Just continue and you will improve yourself~
I sure hope I will pass N2, last time it was the reading exercises that tripped me up big time... And even now when I could read them (slowly) I still felt like I didn't quite grasp the content 😂 I'll need so much more kanji and reading practice so I'll check out satori reader 👍
In college I was taking a second class with a professor I really liked, but his class was super hard. When I took the first class I didn't do great on the first exam, so in the second class I made sure to study extra hard for the midterm so I had a better chance at a higher grade. He was giving us our exams back in our super quiet room, and when he handed me my exam I flipped it over so I could see my grade and I was SO happy at the grade I forgot I was in the classroom and shouted "YES!!!". He then looks over at me and said "I take it you're satisfied with your grade?" I just smiled and stayed quiet for the rest of the class
I took the JLPT N4 yesterday and except for some kanji, it went sooo well :D The step to N3 is a really big one imo but since I'll be going to Kyushu University this October.. I'm going to try to get to that level if possible :)
Lisa Michelle hope it went well. I also took the JLPT the other day. I see you mentioned Kyushu University. I'm actually an exchange student there right now. Will you be participating in the JTW program as well? I am gonna leave in August, but just curious and surprised to run into someone in the comments mentioning Kyudai ahaha
I'm currently studying in Tokyo right now and just as you said I've just finished the JLPT!!! Once you mentioned the reading in class I died because my professors do the same exact thing. Always hoped they would just skip me when I start mixing up the readings but they make me continue and sometimes even make me read longer than everyone else until the multiple Kanji readings stick. Can be helpful but not without drowning you in embarrassment first 😂
hi loretta !!! i love ur videos they really display the difficulties of learning complicated languages such as japanese. it’s super cool that you’ve been learning japanese since u were in high school!! lol i just graduated from high school a couple weeks ago but unfortunately they didn’t offer japanese as an option :(
I consider myself pretty good at reading Japanese out loud but I'm American - there's always going to be times when you can't remember a reading off the cuff if you're reading a text for the first time. But you still know the meaning. And to be called out on that by native speakers is so aggravating! That's said I do Japanese as a hobby and never went to school in Japan (phew!). I'm liking my kindle for reading Japanese - I can look up words pretty easily just tapping them. I'll look at satori but if it doesn't have native level interesting material but textbook kind of stuff I'll go back to the Kindle.
Oh man, reading 二人 as ににん... I relate so much 😂 I honestly really struggle with reading Kanji out loud, too, and the fact that every Kanji in our textbook has furigana (even things like 一 or 日本?? why? and sometimes our textbook doesn't use Kanji at all, they will write things like 行く in Hiragana!) makes it a LOT harder to practice it. I'm definitely going to check out Satori Reader soon (even though I'm still a beginner) because I really need to improve my reading skills, since I plan on studying in Japan for a few semesters in 2 years... Can't wait to see how that goes 😂
Struggling with rote memorization of the Kanji in Japanese? Maybe try this method instead: www.amazon.com/Read-Japanese-Kanji-Today-Language-ebook/dp/B06XFSV8SK/ The book is short, and only covers 400 or so Kanji, but it's interesting in that it discusses how the Kanji evolved from their original pictograms into Kanji, which for me - has been a great way to remember what they mean. It's so interesting that once you really KNOW a Kanji, it's quicker to read than a word in Kana, since it's generally fewer characters. Plus once you start learning Kanji, you're getting a bonus of some Chinese reading ability, too, which is cool.
This didn't happen to me but in my English literature class this guy who sat in the row next to me dropped his backpack and out came his soda. Later he opens it and it sprays everywhere around his desk, backpack, his pants, the floor, everything was showered in mountain dew. What blew my mind even more was the lack of help from my classmates. Not one person offered to help him. Yeah that was kind of dumb of him to do but still. Luckily I always carry wet wipes so that made cleaning up faster.
There is the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa has degree programs completely in English.... however, you have to get in. They came to my University here in Hawaii to hat with us and they only accept 3... THREE foreigners a semester.
I was part of the closed Satori Reader Beta and really liked it a lot! Wish I could continue using it, but I'm already subscribed to some other Japanese-things and really have to pick my weapons wisely, considering they all cost money ^^"That being said - wholeheartedly recommending Satori! It's probably even better now than back then when the closed beta was going on! ...also my reading out loud in (not japanese) university was.... always escaping to the toilet, so my professor wouldn't choose me. He had this habit of going person by person - but sometimes breaking the rhythm by suddenly picking the person behind the now-reading-student - et ceteraso whenever guys close to me where reading... i vanished for a short while. :'D...i do not recommend doing that.
omg what you did in high school for your Japanese class I do this but in my Spanish class in University lol I am in advanced Spanish but missed a year because I studied abroad in Japan so even though I studied intensively and understand very well, I still am searching my words when I have to speak and make some stupid beginner mistakes. So when we have reading comprehensions I always raise my hand to answer one of the first few questions because they are the easiest and then listen during the rest of the class hahaha
When I studied abroad, I thought my Japanese was pretty good. Then, I got placed into a class with mainly Chinese and Taiwanese students, and reading aloud was the WORST. Whenever I read incorrectly, the other students would pipe up and correct me, which didn't really raise my confidence at all.. It was a bit scarring, and I haven't been able to read a full Japanese novel since then, so I think I'll check out Satori Reader!
Aghh I remember that dialogue from Genki and it turned out that the characters couldn't find each other for their date even though they were so close. I was so frustrated 😂
My funny Japanese language experience was I saw the POP for the Kpop band Shinee, and I read it 死ね… and got really confused. Why would a cute boy and name themselves that?! I had gotten so used to reading romaji、that Shine-E, became"Die."
何時も 有り難う It would be a blesseing to meet you in Japan. Yes , I live in Japan. Just want to pick your brain about Japanese. Anychance? Come on. My wife will also be there/whereever.
I often confuse 給料 and 恐竜 when I’m talking which has made some funny conversations. I also when I first moved here tried to tell an old man on the train he could have my seat and think I accidentally invited him to touch me he looked very uncomfortable. The old 座る and 触る issue haha.
I'm correcting the same issue with Kanji now @_@ I got lazy and I learned to just understand what I read through context... Now I'm having to study my kanji readings and reading them out loud.
