I Asked the World’s Most Renowned Polyglot How to Correctly Study Japanese

Many people want to learn Japanese, but find it extremely difficult. You may be one of them. So, in this video, we asked a very famous linguist to give us some tips on learning Japanese. We are happy to help anyone who wants to become as good as possible at Japanese.

●Steve Kaufmann's YouTube Channel
●Steve Kaufmann's website for you to learn more languages
●The language learning website mentioned in this video: LingQ

▼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.

[Timecodes]
0:00 Let's START!
1:07 Introduction
3:23 Why Japanese is Difficult to Learn for English Speakers
5:35 Advice for People Currently Learning Japanese
7:48 Mistakes That Japanese Learners Tend to Make
8:40 Recommended Content for Studying Japanese
11:04 Methods of Studying Japanese Outside of Japan
12:17 Benefits of Being Able to Speak Japanese
14:12 Is Japanese Worth Studying?
15:05 Message from Steve Kaufmann
16:34 Ending

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

▼Related videos in this channel▼
-Why Japanese are Unwilling to Improve their English
-Five Situations in which Tourists Had Trouble with Japanese Locals
-Why It's So Hard to Conform to Japanese Social Norms | Japanese React to Paolo fromTokyo’s Video

▼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”

I will be using the profit I gain from this channel at restaurants, hotels, and cultural facilities in Kyoto to introduce them. The more you watch the videos on this channel, Kyoto and Japan will become a more exciting place, and you can support your own and others’ dreams in the future even more.

▼Join our Membership▼

●Membership benefits
-Limited behind-the-scene videos
-Weekly Zoom call or live stream
-Priority reply to comments

▼[Sub-channel] “Shogo’s Podcast”▼
Please subscribe!!

The perfect channel to learn about Japanese culture and history in your spare time, during your walk to school or work, and when you are cooking or doing house chores.

Not only will I be covering the topics in this main channel, but also some topics that you will only be able to enjoy in the sub-channel, like answering questions I receive, and my opinions towards some of the comments.

▼[Listen to the real voices of the Japanese] "Voices from Japan series"▼

▼[Places recommended to visit in Kyoto] "Kyoto Hidden Gems" series▼

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

♪Music♪
おとわび
トーマス大森音楽工房
ぽるぽるMusic

♪Sound effects♪
効果音ラボ

♪Pictures♪
かわいいフリー素材屋 いらすとや

#stevekaufmann #howtostudyjapanese #studyingjapanese

[LetsaskShogo]

●Steve Kaufmann's YouTube Channel
●Steve Kaufmann's website for you to learn more languages
●The language learning website mentioned in this video: LingQ

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

▼Related videos in this channel▼
-Why Japanese are Unwilling to Improve their English
-Five Situations in which Tourists Had Trouble with Japanese Locals
-Why It's So Hard to Conform to Japanese Social Norms | Japanese React to Paolo fromTokyo’s Video

▼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”

I will be using the profit I gain from this channel at restaurants, hotels, and cultural facilities in Kyoto to introduce them. The more you watch the videos on this channel, Kyoto and Japan will become a more exciting place, and you can support your own and others’ dreams in the future even more.

▼Join our Membership▼

●Membership benefits
-Limited behind-the-scene videos
-Weekly Zoom call or live stream
-Priority reply to comments

▼[Sub-channel] “Shogo’s Podcast”▼
Please subscribe!!

The perfect channel to learn about Japanese culture and history in your spare time, during your walk to school or work, and when you are cooking or doing house chores.

Not only will I be covering the topics in this main channel, but also some topics that you will only be able to enjoy in the sub-channel, like answering questions I receive, and my opinions towards some of the comments.

▼[Listen to the real voices of the Japanese] "Voices from Japan series"▼

▼[Places recommended to visit in Kyoto] "Kyoto Hidden Gems" series▼

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

[Thelinguist]

Thank you Shogo for having me, it was a pleasure speaking with you.

[paulhudson]

I learnt Japanese many years ago but because i wasn't using it every day, only in my lessons, it was hard to get to grips with it. I would love to start again.

[LionKimbro]

The biggest shocker for me in learning Japanese, was discovering that *Listening is a skill, * and *That skill can be developed.* I see so many people studying Japanese, and they focus almost entirely on reading and writing. And I did a lot of that. But then I discovered *Listening.* And I played tons of anime and listened to recordings of anime and I struggled to hear Japanese, and -- little by little, but unnoticeably along the way, I developed the capacity to *hear* Japanese. I was just in a sushi restaurant that's well visited by Japanese people, and was shocked by how much of the Japanese I could understand. It was like the words were complete and distinct from one another, right in front of me -- whereas a year ago, it was just a mush of syllables. I could read Japanese, but I couldn't hear it. But listening skill is really a thing! And it's something really different than reading Japanese, writing Japanese, or speaking Japanese.

[daviddamasceno]

I got a teary eye when Steve started talking in japanese. I'm trying so hard, studying for so long, and still it seems I know so little. And yet, I managed to understand almost everything he said without subtitles. Thank you, you both. I won't give up ^_^

[RadenWA]

If you are using VPN, set your VPN to the country whose language you wanna learn. You’ll start getting ads in that language which means free constant listening material. Some ads appeared often enough and with captions so I was able to fully understand a couple of Japanese ads by now and that really adds to your learning.

[BlueFayt]

I have dyslexia and learning japanese has been an incredible struggle for me. Once I learned to read Hiragana, this was sucha huge feat for me that it taught me that no matter how impossible it might feel, with enough time and will power I can do it! I'm now learning basic kanji and getting tripped up over sentence order :D Thank you for your videos, they're a huge help!

[kyleclark]

Honestly the close out "If you are studying a language you better believe it is worth it" really says a lot. And perfectly sums up me wanting to learn and continue learning japanese.

[travisstrass-equestriasund]

Honestly when I was trying to learn Japanese I didn't find it any harder than learning English when it came to rules. It was just more words, so it felt like being required to learn the entire dictionary to graduate high school. It's a lot sure but doable. My problem came when most software stopped once it was time to learn sentences and obviously no one to talk too in Japanese.

[jscriber]

9:51 Okay I've heard that before. A native Puerto Rican supervisor I had said the hardest part about learning English was that there is a ton of slang. He was saying that you can't solely learn from speaking English in public because too much of the language is left out or spoken incorrectly. Sentence fragments, run-on sentences, mispronunciation, you know.

I think the most important thing is the 2nd step that Mr. Kaufmann said, keep yourself interested. Before I got extremely lazy, I drew a picture of the spanish word I was learning, and only wrote the English translation on the back. That way, I kind of forced myself to remember the spanish word without thinking "Does it sound like it does in English?". I aim to learn at least two languages other than English one day. Awesome video, Thanks Mr. Kaufmann and Shogo!!

[AngelRogue]

I have been studying Japanese for the past three months ( conversational only ) and I love it…motivation is definitely key!!

[DresdenDoll]

Listening to him speak Japanese at the end reminds me of my grandfather. He sounds just like him. Memory unlocked! 🥰🥰🥰

[PaleHorseShabuShabu]

I took four years of French in high school and got all As, but I didn't enjoy it, didn't want to use it in my professional life, and wasn't into French culture aside from the cooking and the art. After nearly twenty-five years of not using it, I've lost near all of the French I knew. However, when I was going to a a college that offered conversational Japanese as a special topics course (meaning it was a one-time only thing), I was more enthusiastic about learning the language and culture. Japanese felt more logical that French, the course was so much fun, it never felt like a chore, and I'd love to resume learning Japanese.

[DflatedBalloon]

I started learning Japanese on Duolingo (i have no other options as i cannot afford classes) and yesterday was my 100th day streak! I can read hiragana and katakana and form the most basic sentences :))

[Zekegedd]

I've been studying Japanese for a year and a half now and it is so nice to see a video like this. Nobody who knows me is aware that I have been studying Japanese, and honestly sometimes it gets a bit lonely to be completely self-study with nobody to talk to about it, so seeing this video made me feel a bit better (especially the part at the end when Mr. Kauffman gave an encouraging message). Thank you.

[morpheus]

I'm still learning but I've noticed I learn Japanese the best by consuming entertainment (anime, video games, etc) that I'm already familiar with but do so in Japanese. Using context and my memory of the last time I experienced it I can figure out what they're saying and learn new words through that context

[khalilahd.]

Wow it’s so cool to see Steve here too! I follow his channel and use LINGQ to help me study Japanese so it’s cool to see him explain his method 💜

[PsykoSockPuppet]

Thank you so much for this episode. I dove head first into learning Japanese, studying 1-2hrs every day. Honestly I hit point where I'm getting a little frustrated with myself for mixing up certain Hiragana & I had to take a day off to refocus my mind and reaffirm my commitment. The words of affirmation came at the perfect time for me.

[Adam-vxto]

Biggest advice I have is making sure you have a REAL reason why you are studying Japanese. When the studying gets hard you need to have motivation and reason to push through.

[darelsmith]

I was really turned off by Anime with English voice-overs. Once I started listening to the Japanese and reading the captions, I found Anime that were interesting and funny. Now, I have basic understanding of Conversational Japanese, sentence structure, and some cultural references. Latin was harder because no one makes Latin cartoons. I would like to thank you both for making second language more accessible to those who wish to learn.