Learn Japanese quick by following these simple steps Ep 23

Speaking Japanese doesn’t have to be hard if you do certain things!

[saltygravy]

Thanks for the videos. I'm planning on learning Japanese so when I do visit I'm not completely lost. Thank for the advice.

[LAQueja]

Learn languages the same way you learned your native tongue.

[flynnbuck]

Chase, Ive been watching your videos for a little while now and I love the content! You speak very honestly and have a great speaking voice!

I am a Journeyman Plumber in the United States and have been contemplating moving to Japan for a while now, I went two times back in 2023. I spent a total of 53 days there and loved the positive aspects of the culture (and also got to experience some of the negative ones as well in areas like Gifu) I have seen some reputable Japanese Plumbing companies willing to hire foreigners, do you think that this is a field that would fair better than traditional office work? I know work culture in Japan is different, but I am unsure of how construction varies from other types of typical western employment. This being said, I know that Japan is facing a labor shortage for the skilled trades much like the United States is. I would love to gather some information from your prospective. Thank you for your time.

[drewsneed]

recently found your channel but have been watching japan YT vids since the 2000's/tokyocooney era lol. your definitions of hira/kata/kanji is the best ive heard and the approach is literally the most advice driven and not ego driven. awesome walkabouts and info sharing. many thanks.

[xfloodcasual]

Everyone learns differently. The most important thing to learning anything is to first discover how best YOU learn. How does your brain work? For me, I learn very rapidly by doing. Others can and do learn everything in an academic setting. Obviously the education system is set up to reward one kind of learner and not others...but thats a different topic.

[SnuubScadoob]

Love your channel man! You have some amazing insights!

[Bones_Ex]

Thank you for this video! Many things you say are true and applicable to other languages. I learned spanish to an advanced level and now im trying to do the same with Japanese. Many things you pointed out here are applicable across the board when it comes to learning a language.

[jackfrost]

Thanks a lot, Chase - for me, having a J. GF from Tohoku with zero eigo was the real catapult

[jennifercorvec]

Again, I lived in Korea in the late '90s. I love listening to your videos.
I learned how to say several Korean sayings in HanGuk-o, like "...chicken head(dark mori)..." and "...4 days hot, 3 days cold(sum han sa on)..." and the Koreans were very happy ŵhen I said them, even though I didn't really speak their language. I can still remember the words I did learn, 25 years later! Maybe everyone has that happen when they have lived in a foreign country...

[ravie]

I've been learning Spanish and also want to learn either Korean, Chinese or Japanese. I must say your information and advice regarding learning Japanese is also helpful to me in learning Spanish or any language. I do feel that learning to listen and talk first is better than learning to read and write first. Thanks for your insight. I love your walks and talks.

[RibiRoo]

So everyday organic converse with locals is the way to go? I'm glad to have came across your channel. Much appreciation, and just subbed.

Love listening to your perspective with knowing and learning the language. I live in Osaka and I didn’t know that there was a different dialect here until I got here. I studied the language in High School so from 14-18years old, I’m now 30years old and it’s my first year in japan. I’ve kept up with reading and slight writing in Japanese, but I didn’t talk much. I would say during my first month of being here in Japan I was struggling to get my thoughts together and my ear to become accustomed to the sound plus I was dealing with a new dialect than the what I was taught in school. Now I’m about 7months into living here and I have much more confidence in speaking and actively listening to people(I even took the jlpt N3 but it’s not a speaking test), but I was always able to read my environment and learn new kanji quickly because I’m a reader.

I am not always looking to talk to people but because I read a lot my Japanese tend to be very “academic” sounding than the loose way that is spoken. But, dating has helped me with learning to be flexible with my language use.

Great video!

[wyatttilley]

10:50 The Hiragana. Before I knew any of this. Japanese was basically a hidden language to me as an English speaker. The 1st time I ever really knew what the Japanese language was, was through a song I memorized in the film Kill Bill. That song was Flowers of Carnage by Meiko Kaji. And at the time, I had no idea what any of the words were saying, but I got to see them in the romaji translations which are in the Latin alphabet. That is the first time I ever learned Japanese, it's ironic because I didn't even know Hiragana until I took my first lessons with my notebook and YouTube sensei's. It's amazing how the journey goes for a foreign speaker such as me, because now I know so much more literature. It's not just about learning another language; it is the culture. This helps with immersion, and immersion is a key in learning this language, but it's very hard to stay immersed in this language in the US because you only ever see English.

[samweirich]

Hey, Chase, question: When you speak Japanese do you instantaneously understand it the way we would instantaneously understand English? We don't need to stop and think about it, we just speak and think in English automatically.

[JapaneseLangauge]

So when I lived in Taiwan I knew a girl who got around the problem of people wanting to practice English when she was trying to speak Chinese.

Whenever she encountered someone who spoke to her in English she would just start speaking Spanish, and by the third sentence, they would decide to use Chinese on their own. Here's the thing she only knew those three sentences of Spanish...

[orlandoperez]

This video is exactly what I’ve been saying to myself all along. My parents are Cubans and we only spoke Spanish in the house but when I went to kindergarten I was forced to communicate to the teachers and other students in English. This was the quickest way I learned the English language. Mind you I can speak Spanish very well but if you put a Chinese movie with Spanish subtitles, I might as well take the subtitles off because I can’t read Spanish at all. Even through Jr high I was still getting corrected with my English words because I was thinking in Spanish. For instance. Asking someone at their job ( How much do you make an hour?) in Spanish I say ( Cuánto tú gana la hora?) so by thinking in Spanish to translate it into English I said “ How much do you win an hour “ My friends started laughing at me because I said Win in the sentence. Ganar or Gana in Spanish means win / earn depending how I use it. So I quickly learned better English by the mistakes I encountered while speaking with my friends. I’ve been studying Japanese from watching the learning Japanese YouTube videos that helped me a lot. I learned enough that I even understood every word that you said in Japanese. I already learned HIRAGANA & KATAKANA and can read it but I only understand the words that sounds like English words. Everything you said is the truth because that’s the same way I learned English when I was a child. Thank you for sharing this video because it reminded me how I learned how to speak the English language quickly.

[misoadeio]

Really good stuff, immensely motivating.
At 52 yo, learning Japanese would have diminished return on investment, but I keep your mindset and approach as highly valuable.

[Tamaquashad]

I appreciate your videos Chase! I took my first trip to Tokyo this year and can confirm what you said about Chinese being able to read most Kanji, my Chinese friend was translating them into English and most of them were correct. I also would recommend learning hiragana, it’s relatively easy and many shops and signs have hiragana or kanji with small hiragana pronunciations above them so I could make out things like “ramen” “sushi” “teriyaki” “sukiyaki” “udon” etc and some street signs like “kokokara with a picture of a bike” for a bike path.

[Misogravy]

Saw the time to leave video. I lived there for 15 years and moved back with my Japanese wife. Took us 10 years to reinvent. Loved your take.

[HassanMuhammad-xf]

Appreciate your content. Stay strong my brother.