What I Don't Like About How Busuu Teaches You Japanese

●Busuu

▼Interested in learning Japanese/Iaido ONLINE from me? (Patreon page)▼
The best online lessons for anyone who is interested in learning Japanese or Iaido (katana budo).
[Japanese] We will be using the studying material "いろどり Irodori (starter level)," which you can download for free. It's specially designed to teach practical Japanese to people who want to live in Japan.
[Iaido] I have been training in Iaido since 2016, and I will share the basic katana techniques I have achieved through the years.

▼My New Channel: Let’s ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼
Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out!

▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼
The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo.

▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼
Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape!

▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼
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▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼
A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts!

▼Let's ask Shogo Merchandise Shop▼
Where you can buy t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, etc. of cute Ukiyoe animal characters and logos of Let’s ask Shogo:

▼Who is Shogo? What is this channel about?▼

▼Related videos on this channel▼
-Is Duolingo Really a Good Way to Study Japanese? | A Japanese Man Reacts to Duolingo
-I Asked the World’s Most Renowned Polyglot How to Correctly Study Japanese
-Why I Couldn't Get a Full Score on JLPT | A Native Japanese Tries JLPT N5~N1

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“To make every Japan lovers’ dream come true, by making Japan a more secure, comfortable, and safer place for everyone to visit, study, and live in”

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-Limited live streams every two weeks
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[LetsaskShogo]

●Busuu

▼My New Channel: Let’s ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼
Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100, 000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out!

▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼
The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo.

▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼
Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape!

▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼
*Get 15% OFF off all their products by purchasing through my affiliate link

▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼
A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts!

▼Let's ask Shogo Merchandise Shop▼
Where you can buy t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, etc. of cute Ukiyoe animal characters and logos of Let’s ask Shogo:

▼Who is Shogo? What is this channel about?▼

▼Related videos on this channel▼
-Is Duolingo Really a Good Way to Study Japanese? | A Japanese Man Reacts to Duolingo
-I Asked the World’s Most Renowned Polyglot How to Correctly Study Japanese
-Why I Couldn't Get a Full Score on JLPT | A Native Japanese Tries JLPT N5~N1

▼MY DREAM▼
“To make every Japan lovers’ dream come true, by making Japan a more secure, comfortable, and safer place for everyone to visit, study, and live in”

▼Join our Membership▼
The ticket to the front row seats to Shogo's rapid adventure to make his dream come true! Through the limited videos and live streams, your ideas and opinions will be adopted for Shogo to make the right decisions for his challenges!

●Membership benefits
-Limited behind-the-scene videos every week
-Limited live streams every two weeks
-Priority reply to comments

▼Sub-channel: “Shogo’s Podcast”▼

▼Instagram▼
*Please ask me questions through the DM here!（⚠I do not use e-mail）

[UnderTheSkin]

I've been using Busuu for almost 2 months now (so ironically, close to when Shogo filmed this) and so far it's been much more useful to me than Duolingo with the way they structure exercises and recaps of previous lessons. Of course the machine speak isn't too useful but that's what listening to a lot of real japanese is for.

[jambob]

I moved to Busuu from Duolingo and couldn't be happier. I've made more progress in 6 months on there than 12 months on Duolingo. You haven't seen the best of it to be honest - The first few chapters seem to be super beginner friendly. I understand why you say we should learn the alphabets from the start, but having the first few lessons build our confidence makes the whole thing much less daunting, which makes it more likely that we'll continue the lessons. It might not be straight away, but pretty soon you get into hiragana/katakana only, including typing in them rather than just reading and selecting. Honestly I found that the best way.

The best part for me though, is the community. Having native speakers correct your exercises and being able to comment on theirs let's everyone learn more "real life" and natural sounding language.

[familycalkins]

I love the slight surprise in his voice when he answers the questions right, even though Japanese is his first language 😂

[madernia]

I really liked the way your language video that you posted over the weekend approached it. Hearing the language audibly and visually connecting it to the word in your own language is the best way to learn it, immersing yourself is what I call it. I learn better with the visual clues and it just clicks faster for me that way because you’re actively practicing it. Great videos!

[cai_in_the_sky]

I used the busuu app a few years ago to brush up on the little Japanese I know. Some of the premium lessons include stories with actual Japanese people voicing them! There were also prompts to write a few sentences to a paragraph in Japanese and a native Japanese Busuu member would be promoted to review it and give feedback. There were speaking exercises too which I found the most helpful. In my personal experience, the premium membership wasn't worth the price tag. Also, the beginning part where Busuu has you select why you want to learn Japanese doesn't seem to have any bearing on the lessons you're given. You can switch it at any time and the lesson order never changes. I think that's another disappointing aspect - why give the illusion that lesson plans are somewhat customizable if it's not true? Maybe that's changed though.

[bruisedhelmet]

I hope you start teaching Japanese, should I (and my Japanese enthused daughter) ever need to travel to Japan it would be nice to have you as a teacher.

[SvenEdelweiss]

Very usefull topic. Wish to growing up for this channel. ありがとうございます。

[smallsymcsmalls]

Enjoyed your pleasure at being right here 12:08 😂

I would like more stuff that tests particles. It’s a complicated concept to get your head round at first.

[Z..]

For myself, I see it as the best application for learning.

[tieredcrisis]

I would love to see you review Memrise, which incorporates real clips of native speakers in a lot of parts!

[FOXHOUND]

11:27 I was wondering this for the longest time! Thank you so much!

[ari.plays.music.youtube]

I've seen others emphasize not to learn Japanese through romaji. For the "pre-beginner" Japanese lessons, you will see romaji alongside hiragana. But it's advised to learn hiragana as soon as possible. But I do see people actually typing sentences entirely in romaji later on, which is massively slowing down their learning.

Also I noticed that apps like Duolingo continue to use massive sentences almost entirely in hiragana. I like your point about having spaces in sentences at this point. A major feature of kanji is to see the word boundaries when sentences don't have spaces.

Another major problem I've discovered with these apps is that they introduce Japanese grammar with absolutely no explanation of the sentence structure, particles, pronunciation changes, etc. I ended up with so many unanswered questions.

I like that native speakers like yourself immediately can say "this is not really how we speak" eg どうぞ よろしく.

[vixonentalks]

I've been studying kanji and vocabulary using Wanikani, though it's worth noting that it doesn't teach grammar points or full sentences - but it's been really helpful for remembering kanji for me. I'm curious as to your take on the accuracy of the pronunciations available in Wanikani, if you get a chance to check it out 😊

[Henchmen]

I do like these videos. Very informative 👏

[DominicanStud]

Taking in person Japanese classes is definitely the way to go! I enjoy taking classes with my two friends.

[Im_Tired]

As someone who listens to vocaloid… I’m fine with robotic voices 😭

[SebastianSeanCrow]

4:59 the thing I like about Busuu I haven’t seen in other apps is in settings there’s an option to take a placement test. They test your comprehension/knowledge and then determine where you should start your lessons

[gwillis]

Thank you Shogo for an informative video

[lightsoulja]

about the robot voice I think when you're starting they have to use the "babality" voice because you're supposed to be a beginner. I started to use this app myself and I found the voice pretty funny since when I hear japanese people talk they speak a lot faster but the babality voice is okay for a beginner.