The REASON Google Translate FAILS at Japanese

Translating between Japanese and English can go horribly wrong. We explore HOW and WHY, as well as the most common mistake made by all new Japanese learners.
Special thanks to Ryotaro with his drawer metaphors. Check out his channel!
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[@AbroadinJapan]

NOTIFICATION SQUAD: Who's up for a bowl of puppy ramen? I've been wanting to do a video on Google translate for a while and I finally feel vindicated! If you have any translation tools you recommend, fire away with your suggestions!

[@justagoogleuser8642]

hi

[@Scottsgamerlounge]

Puppy ramen? I’m in!

[@sayakamiura524]

Hi Chris!

[@andres-m]

hi

[@user-lv4ne7nq1h]

Hi

[@dabossdud]

"i think i'll close my imaginary resturant" *flips sign so the open side is facing out*

[@kenjcruz8002]

😂😂😂

[@ninjatep]

Ahh I was waiting for this comment! 🤣

[@DjokovicIsOurLordAndSaviour]

I was genuinely confused by this haha

[@komalkuku]

😂

[@frederickaugustus4225]

Nobody's perfect

[@MegaPompoen]

"don't use he/she, use their names" Me who is terrible at remembering names: Sweating profusely

[@Jordan-inJapan]

Exactly! This has been the bane of my existence for the 20 years I’ve lived in Japan. Luckily for me I work in schools here...so everyone is just, “SENSEI”.

[@AeneasMTG]

Yes yes yes! At my school it was so hard to remember 500 names to use instead of pronouns ahhhhh impossible. :'(

[@Jordan-inJapan]

Aeneas Yeah, I tried to remember students’ names for the first couple of years...and then realized the futility of that and just basically gave up. Where were you teaching, btw?

[@luisen1996]

With all the Kanji and having to remember people's names, Japanese has proven to be an excelent exercise for memory.

[@elijahdage5523]

You've just got to use their name until you remember it.

[@hatenayousei]

"I didn't know what I was saying but I was angry" honestly a mood

[@adylaar6708]

Legit thought he/they yelled back to the elderly.

[@rodrigo4379]

hahahahha

[@ThatJapanGuy]

Big mood 😂😂

[@ImmortalXUchiha]

Well angry is a mood, so it's literally a mood lol

[@jk9554]

tbh, that could easily be an untranslated 1-star review by a native english speaker.

[@AlizeeYeezy]

great video chris, very unpleasant.

[@toiletmaster3044]

ur here??? wtf

[@Michelle15556]

Woah, almost like a crossover episode!

[@shiva_689]

I don't understand what I'm saying!

[@itsanemmamergency7623]

Yes, puppy Ramen on pork week unpleasant very much yes.

[@dundermifflin3847]

Great chemical video with great chemical content. Two stars

[@Duskbear]

Chris, you may not observe Pig Bone Day but that's no reason to demean those of us who do

[@AbroadinJapan]

*DAVID CAMERON HAS ENTERED THE CHAT*

[@mrclueuin]

@@AbroadinJapan 😄😄😄😄

[@ピアノマン-k1y]

Abroad in Japan Socialism has left the chat.

[@beastbell0543]

Lol

[@beastbell0543]

Yes David was a strange one wasn’t he

[@aaaron7481]

I'll never forget my classmate using google translate to cheat on his Japanese test. Let's just say he failed hard

[@AbroadinJapan]

My Japanese students used to use it to cheat on their English homework. The results were horrendous.

[@iliamironov9700]

@@AbroadinJapan Any chance on making a video reacting to those results?

[@3katfox]

@@AbroadinJapan PLEASE make a video about that! 😂

[@favforsue]

Abroad in Japan I teach ESL to Spanish speaking students. Since I run essays and projects through a program to detect plagiarism, one of my students got creative and plagiarized a Spanish document by running it through Google translate. First of all, I know my students and it just sounded “too good.” Second, even though Google translate is great for Spanish/English, it is not perfect. The mistakes made me suspicious that it was a literal translation. So I reversed the translation back to Spanish thanks to Google and a brief search brought up the original article. I was so upset, not only because of the attempt to plagiarize, but because it was one more thing I had to worry about when grading papers.

[@princessthyemis]

@@favforsue geez that sounds awful!!!

[@28add11]

Lol I google translated some Japanese restuarant menus. I found out that the restaurant served mountain

[@haventshoweredinamonth7364]

lmaooo

[@snifey7694]

lmaoo

[@pauloazuela8488]

Wow, you might owned mount Everest if you go there XD

[@Angel_EU34]

For when you are REALLY hungry... ... MOUNTAIN DISH! Has a lot of minerals too! xDDD

[@28add11]

@@Angel_EU34 And for only $5.99

[@alloymetal7861]

After I saw Google translate 「アメリカの御飯」 ("american food", literally "america's rice") as "united states of rice", I'm not surprised by anything.

[@伏見猿比古-k8c]

Probably because the kanji for food used in the sentence above "飯" is also the kanji used for rice "ご飯".

[@alloymetal7861]

@@伏見猿比古-k8c Well, yes, but if anything, it should be "rice of United States" (or even of America), not "United States of rice"... That's a country, like the United Kingdom of Fish and Chips.

[@伏見猿比古-k8c]

@@alloymetal7861 either way it would sound strange and I don't get why they change America to the united states when it wasn't necessary. maybe Google is just trolling?😆

[@notatallheng]

Could be worse... Imagine what it would do with 米国のご飯.

[@ihaveseverefrootsnackism]

This almost made me spit out my water LOL

[@Hugo-gn1ff]

A personal favourite when trying to translate a menu item at a café was, “attentiveness of eggs” which meant... omelette. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@gopalabbineni3941]

I gonna laugh to death on this one 😂🤣🤣

[@moonmannd7501]

_DECEARING EGG_

[@robertgarza9414]

It's not just Japanese, basically most languages have the same issue with Google translate. I use it a lot to translate Arabic and it's miserable; especially, when it comes to sentences.

[@cernanwinterfox85]

its because google is bad at english too.

[@lzh4950]

Fun fact: Japanese egg cakes ( _tamago_ 玉子) literally means 'corn' in Chinese ('玉'; '子' in Chinese is meaningless when used immediately after '玉', but on it's own can mean 'son')

[@vklj296]

As a trilingual person, the drawer theory is very accurate. Risotaro is a genius.

[@AbroadinJapan]

I've known Ryotaro 5 years and there's barely been a day he hasn't whipped out his beloved drawer metaphor mid conversation.

[@pauloazuela8488]

@@AbroadinJapan So you're right on point with his obsession with drawers

[@groundhawg4657]

@@AbroadinJapan It seems like trilingual people talk about how theyre trilingual more than the other languages they speak cause I have a friend who does the same thing

[@danielwordsworth1843]

@@AbroadinJapan 5 years of this wisdom and you told us just now?

[@vklj296]

GroundHawg465 I think mentioning that I’m trilingual to people in English is more effective than writing a comment in a language the majority of the channel’s viewers don’t understand. But yeah, we do mention it when it’s relevant.

[@MochinYoja]

I worked at a school in Korea and one day a new teacher from the US came and wanted to Bing translate the school's website from Korean into English. The motto for the school in Korean was 'Let's stand atop the mountain' but because the pronunciation and spelling of 'let's stand' is the same as the word for 'b*stard' in Korean, and 'atop the mountain' is pronounced and spelled in the same way as the word 'normal', the school's motto was translated by Bing as 'Normal B*stard'. Great school motto there *applauds*

[@joshuasterling2144]

Lolz, well at least there wasn't any negativity involved....

[@lzh4950]

Reminds me of 'fairy' in Japanese (妖精) literally meaning "demon spirit" in Chinese (妖精). Think examples of these feed into opinions/arguments etc that I've heard of others calling Japanese a 'b*****disation' of Chinese

[@は私です彼の名前]

@@lzh4950 Don’t you mean a Let’sStanddisation if Chinese?

[@mshaman86]

Im proud to be a normal bastard.

[@stefthorman8548]

At least bing was honest...

[@dzello]

By the way, for those wondering why ''oppeshan'' gets translated to ''puppy''... Oppeshan means a flat face with a small nose. It doesn't specifically mean puppy, but it's often used to describe, you guessed, it, puppies with that feature.

[@MIZZKIE]

When you described it, the first thing that came to my mind was a Pug. Maybe Google likes dogs so it chose puppy.

[@SnabbKassa]

Because who can tolerate ramen without small noses in it?

[@ishnenigans]

does anyone want Flat face with a small nose ramen?

[@mumujibirb]

Natural. Google Translate works on analysing languages like ciphers, and has no understanding. Thus, it can only look at large datasets and get out an answer. If a word is used in a common meaning, and the second meaning is very rarely used. it is very normal for this to happen

[@RogerOcelot]

Wow, japanese people are harsh. "I had a good meal." - 3/5 Stars "On 10th of every month there is a promotion and you can eat for 500 yen." - 3/5 Stars "I filled my stomach but could not smoke" 1/5 Stars "Went to the market and some crazy obaasan yelled at me on the driveway." 1/5 Stars

[@aartadventure]

It's more that the type of people who bother to leave to reviews are almost universally hyper critical and Karens in training.

[@VoxelLoop]

@@aartadventure Exactly this. I'm sure it's mostly universal, few people leave a positive review unless their experience was really exceptional, but, people will leave a negative review if even the smallest thing was wrong. This can really make a mess of review systems, rather recently the Steam Store tried to combat this by displaying a 'Would you recommend this game? [Yes] [No]' box whenever you go to start the game, forcing more users to leave a simple review and correct the skewed reviews for sometimes very good products. :)

[@mikeshoults4155]

It's true. I work in Japan and get this shit all the time. I had to profusely apologize for another companies "mistake." In the end our reputation was damaged because earlier that week in a different city, a different company pissed the customer off. Somehow that was our fault and we get a bad review and our reputation is permanently damaged.

[@wwoods66]

"some crazy obaasan yelled at me" Well, sure. She was offended because you didn't call her "obasan". tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ObaSan

[@kKizz]

@@mikeshoults4155 oh wow that sucks....

[@jamodonnahan610]

"Yeah, I think I'll close my imaginary restaurant!" Stock footage person: *turns sign so it tells customers the place is open

[@slughead]

That bothered me too

[@flare6030]

Literally just about to comment this lol.

[@evanever]

I think the door slamming shut was supposed to indicate that they were walking into the store afterwards. But I dunno why the sign would be on the outside...

[@slughead]

@@evanever I think the footage was of a shopkeeper coming inside and opening his shop for the day

[@albinoasesino]

How else do you expect a charming British guy to receive hate mail. He leaves his closed imaginary restaurant open for criticism.

[@BooLee01]

I emailed a Japanese friend of mine once that I (and my family) were going to visit Japan. He replied by typing in Japanese, translated via (possibly) Google, and then sending me the translation. One sentence read, "I look forward to tossing my family at yours." I never saw the original text, so I have no idea how we got to tossing families at each other.

[@Niniel28b]

I may have spat a bit at my screen laughing at this.

[@adam_kano]

please tell me you eventually asked them

[@safinehakamaki3537]

@@adam_kano and we never heard of him again.. hope the family tossing ended well.

[@voidsabre_]

I'm gonna start saying "Full Stomach: achieved" after every meal

[@SeaSerpentLevi]

hahahah definately Ill say it with an excited voice like an anime character too cant wait to see people's reactions

[@SeaSerpentLevi]

Now that i think about it is kinda cute tough lol

[@odinlordofasgard9748]

Hey if Full Stomach is not an achivement then i don't know what it would be.

[@scintillam_dei]

Digestor at Maximum Capacity.

[@Soloman_Gumball]

Nobody talking about how ridiculous the ratings and real reasons are. Tough crowd to please.

[@mcgoo721]

Honestly in the restaurant business we take most online reviews as absolute jokes. Unfortunately some people still hold overall ratings in high regards though.

[@Madhattersinjeans]

Right? Someone had a good meal. 3 stars...what? Were they expecting a stage performance and a wire act to push that up to 4-5 stars or something? You're buying a meal not doing a film review.

[@mcgoo721]

Mad Hatters in jeans My personal favorite review I ever got was a one star review that said “best Mac n cheese I ever had.” So I joked that while it was the best they ever had, they happen to really hate Mac n cheese lol

[@emirs769]

​@@Madhattersinjeans I think it's better off this way. While we are willing to give 5 stars if nothing "bad" happens, they give 3 stars on average. And if their experience is beyond their expectations, they give more. I mean giving 5 stars should be a big deal, right? It's the maximum appreciation you can give to a restaurant. So it's acceptable for someone that just had a good meal to give 3 stars if that's what they expected, nothing more, nothing less. Also you should take into account that there are plenty of additional factors other than the quality of food affecting their opinions.

[@JezzmanGAMES]

If you leave a 5 star review, they'll probably print it out & hang it on the wall.

[@spicyplumber9544]

As someone who’s trying to learn Japanese, I’d love more of this type of content!

[@crimsoncrimsoned609]

そうですか？この和文を分かれて書けますか？ 笑み

[@memez44]

Same

[@adriananthonydeguia736]

Ey saaaame

[@simonbelmont1]

I took sticky notes, placed them around the house on items like the bookshelf (hondana), lamp (ranpu), etc. w their phonetic spelling and Kanji. If I'm ever lost in Japan I can now ask for water(Mizu). 😁

[@sinsrow8975]

Yes please!

[@harrystravelvideos]

Natsuki: 'I'm dental broken' .... this now makes perfect sense...

[@RonPaul42069]

Breaking teeth on gummy candy will never make perfect sense.

[@talalabalkhail]

Yes

[@jansettler4828]

Thhhpinal

[@molpy6671]

I first thought it is a re zero reference

[@scrapper1176]

Legitimate question ive learning hiragana and katakana but to understand the kanji how since there are so many symbols that stand for objects it would take forever to learn. Ive seen then use in phrases or sentence in conjunction two and I slow am able to translate it(still new I translate writeing thing down in my japanese notebook) but the kanji I can't figure out any tips or tricks going forward I would be in Japan learning but the gap year where I would learn the lauguage and the culture got stopped by corona sooo..... That isn't happening

[@TheMatizyahu]

Actually Ryotaro's metaphor about drawers with languages is very accurate. I'm native Polish and every time i speak English i'm starting to think in English. Literally if i'm starting to have opinion, try to figure out what to say next i do it in English. I completely shut down my Polish thinking like a drawer - i'm no longer have contact with it. With Japanese is a different story because it is whole thought process and seriously you have to redo all the wires inside your brain. It's not just using other vocabulary and gramar.

[@lassikinnunen]

Some people who speak only broken english can only understand like english talked like their native language. "Our car" can be "we car" etc.. But yeah if you speak a language well your brain kinda switches.

[@lucidnonsense942]

As a native Polish & English speaker and intermediate Japanese learner - it's so much easier learning Japanese via Polish. Polish is really flexible with SVO/SOV you can even do VSO with correct word aspects etc. It might sound bit odd, but you can make it grammatically correct. Plus, Polish let's you imply the subject by modifying words, which something Japanese does a lot, it's not that there's no subject in Japanese. A lot of languages do that actually, English is probably unusual in being rather strict. I just learned to try to force the English parts of my brain off and things go so much more smoothly. I think English's grammatical simplicity makes it a lot easier to pick up - at the cost of making it rather inflexible.

[@bludeadstuff683]

I'm going to start using the phrase "Full belly, received"

[@barshank15]

Aah... amateur.

[@ジョージです-n1h]

That's kinda creepy saying that sentence is acting like machine not like human being

[@Abi-zj5mz]

Prypiat 0 Not creepy. It’s super Krispy and Cool.

[@theotherflash2625]

Sounds like a finishing move once you're done eating.

[@ericjamieson]

Seems like a pretty sticky thing to do.

[@TheXiahouDun]

The clerk is sticky was actually quite close to being a decent translation. "The staff was stuck up" would adequately carry over the intent of the original japanese's disdain for the staff trying to look cool.

[@AxionSmurf]

I immediately thought it must be a massage parlor clerk cross-training.

[@yoanadimitrova8760]

Or arrogant

[@natefunk1]

Pretentious, Uppity, Primadonna.

[@angelinprasad5295]

This makes sense

[@xHeadcleanerx]

Gay

[@BrainSlamAnimatedScience]

The last time I was this fast Dave wasn't even in Japan!

[@snifey7694]

Abroad in England you say

[@killerkd123]

Last time i was this quick was with my girlfriend... Probably why she left me

[@monsieurduquack5440]

I was expecting Chad from Seattle, but I guess Dave would do

[@vivien767]

@@truepotential206 i8í

[@glegos2281]

Holy cow dude Dave in Japan just liked your comment!

[@seiyuokamihimura5082]

Ryottoro has very good analogies. Very cool how he can effectively get his point across in an effective manner.

[@BeerdyBruceLeeCentral]

To be fair, I've been to restaurants that served salads with scraps of sack before. Very unpleasant.

[@leemyers1878]

I would so take an online Japanese class with Ryotaro as the teacher.

[@newschannelx2986]

Exactly 🎰

[@ilfriner1287]

Owner: soo the meal was good? Japanese customer: yes Owner: the staff was the best you’ve seen Customer: yes Owner: you’re full? Customer: yes Owner: soo it’s fair that u rate is 5 stars Customer: 1 star take it or leave it

[@assassinaria]

Can't stand it when people give 5 stars to restaurants that provided decent service lol. To me, 3/5 = decent, 4/5 = amazing, 5/5 = unmatched

[@cin3859]

Weird, I default to five stars and take away points as needed. 5/5 Great! No complaints. 4/5 Pretty good. I’ll come back. 3/5 Fine. I was fed. 2/5 Unpleasant. Bad times. 1/5 Fucking garbage. 0/5 Call the authorities immediately.

[@miegravgaardxoxo]

Nancy Sheep Love that last one 🤣

[@nilserhard2895]

@@cin3859 I have the same mentality, but it's just a matter of perspective, expectations, optimism/ pessimism. Some people go in delighted already and something bad has to happen to make their experience worse. Others go in to be made happy and with high expectations and a miracle has to happen, to lighten up their perception. I don't wanna talk down the latter option (I even have a very close friend who's pretty much like this), but I think the optimistic way is definetly more fun :D Have a nice day everyone :)

[@peelsbanana1626]

@@assassinaria i just give 1 regardless of how good it was

[@xDERable]

as a bilingual person myself, that ryotaro drawer example is pretty accurate lol. I used to learn spanish for a little bit, havent studied it in a while. Nowadays I’m learning japanese and I’ve reached a higher level with that. When I try to think of a spanish sentence nowadays, for some odd reason, japanese words and particles come into mind. But the opposite never happens for some reason. Just an interesting anecdote.

[@eri_noemi1462]

I though I was the only person this happened to! I try to remember some basic Spanish words I learned back in middle school, but my brain wants to say it in Japanese.

[@avlinrbdig5715]

i suck at many languages, but i like etymology. i like to try and understand abit of the thoughtprocesses and associations of the foreign mind behind the language. now, that is facinating to me . .. however, i tend to not care that much about grammar and being specific. i talk like caveman. person primitive utterance it is!

[@Baard5Szomoru]

@@scintillam_dei En efecto, la fonética es casi idéntica, se pueden decir palabras de un idioma al otro y entenderlas debido a la alta similitud en fonética. A diferencia de algunos angloparlantes que meten fonética angloparlante al idioma japonés entonces escucharíamos algunos horrores... Por ejemplo "Miyamoto" les sonaría algo asi como "Meejamoutou".

[@Barakeh]

@@scintillam_dei it blew my mind when I found out anata means anta in Arabic, my only problem is that masu sounds a lot like the word for sucking in Arabic, but I'm also over that

[@tohaason]

The drawer metaphor is excellent. I learned English without using translation at any point, and I effectively have two separate departments - one for English, another for my native language. I'm terrible at translation, if one drawer is open I have no idea what the word in the closed drawer would be. I have to kind of pull back until I only see the full image/context/situation, and then use the other language to describe it. It's very hard to translate on a word-by-word level. I couldn't do it at all, until I had to start helping my wife learning my language, so I'm slightly better at translation now, but only a bit. The mixed-up drawers for languages you aren't fully confident in is also spot on. It happens to me with Japanese and another language.. both ways. When I want one, the other pops up at the same time.

[@ExisCernos]

No one is mentioning the "Help me" "I'm stuck in a drawer"??? That was such a genius edit and it's good to see Chris has moved from his basement at least.

[@sungibatman1996]

I mean.... Japanese sounds easier than the absolute garbage on fire which is the English language. I am from asia so Japanese has lots of similarities in word placement compared to my first language. But english, ohh man.

[@sungibatman1996]

To add to my reply, english moves around the words so much. I know everyone that only knows english thinks that word placement in a sentence is normal but why have “I went to the toilet because I needed to pee” instead of “needed pee so went toilet”?

[@skwisgaarskwigelf1365]

@@sungibatman1996 Different languages have different word order, wtf is even that complaint lol. But wonder how'd you like learning russian, which doesn't have any word order and you're allowed to do whatever you want. Also, it's "dumpster fire" :)

[@frostyblade8842]

@@sungibatman1996 yeah if you already know an Asian language Japanese will obviously be easier since its significantly more similar to your own language than English, which isn't an asian language

[@AnnualLotus]

13:47

[@jediron169]

"For better or worse here's Ryotaro" - well that's one way to introduce someone.

[@ApothecaryTerry]

*Risottaro

[@lynda.grace.14]

So much for "favour going forward." 🤣

[@groofay]

He should host an American talk show, he's a natural.

[@joshhodkinson9677]

Legend has it that Ryotaro is still waving to the camera.

[@mayaparamita2254]

Or opening drawers 😄

[@angelus_solus]

It's an old joke that has been recycled to death....just fucking let it die already. You're not being cleaver by using it, social lemming.

[@S春香]

Very interesting to hear the veteran Japanese learner's view on difference of two languages. I knew Google translate is not right always, but I never thought of what is their weakness like you did. Also, as I learned English in my junior high year「よろしくお願いします」was translated to "Nice to meat you." which later I noticed it is not concerning the meaning of the sentence at all. Good point.

[@SherrifOfNottingham]

these days it translates to "thank you" on google translate

[@wrightcember]

どうぞよろしく！

[@captainmarvel4015]

Can confirm, very glad. Source: am comrade.

[@goldsnow2802]

Yes comrade! I salute you! I as well..am comrade.

[@timberfedor5]

is you glad?

[@kazune2469]

“Are you aware of your own defect?”

[@sbesbees]

Said the actress to the bishop

[@aliasmarg8ta127]

I want that on my TShirt

[@abernabe7049]

I love how Ryotaro can make a smile and a wave seem so sinister. He rocks.

[@gloval2009]

Remember, when he is being evil he is using his alter ego, Risotaro.

[@kittyman7015]

Observe. He didn't blink even once during the time he was smiling. Clearly a serial killer. Jk.

[@schmitzi99]

Oh god these drawers. Help mee

[@Mrkenjoe1]

The drawer metaphor is probably the most useful thing I've had for learning any language. I was mentally picturing adding them all in one which has been leading to a lot of issues.

[@Globox2004]

So, noone mention how unreasonable those reviews are? Like blaming a restaurant for some weird lady at the parking lot xD

[@ontheroadtechno]

You have to consider though the fact that the most common reviewing platform for restaurants, in Japan, is Tabelog: there, the highest scores are reserved for the finest dining experiences. For a casual lunch, three and a half stars is absolutely not that bad.

[@V.U.4six]

Ikr like they make no sense still lol The ones less than 3 barely described exactly why it was bad they just said it was bad Like the “terrible, staff tried to be cool” like what??

[@hexyko4850]

@@V.U.4six Yeah, I didn't understand that one either. Does it mean that the employees were snobby?

[@mastermarkus5307]

@@ontheroadtechno I still think even if the number of stars makes sense, you should still say something about the restaurant and not a probably unrelated incident.

[@Rofpo3233]

@@hexyko4850 Once when I was a teenager I went to Pizza Hut with some friends, and some waiter was trying to act cool by making sex jokes with us like we were friends. I'm very reserved so that was definitely an unpleasant experience. Maybe it was something similar?

[@Blowingmind]

We do have a verb for trying to makes oneself look cool, it's called flexing

[@rosewaterlily2886]

I was also thinking of peacocking or poser. Cringey or extra could also work. There's more you could use depending on what type was actually implied 🤔 I think he's been in Japan for so long he's now out of the loop of things 😂

[@ThePandafriend]

Isn't "flexing" colloquial for "showing off"?

[@yashvangala]

@@ThePandafriend "showing off" is essentially "trying to make oneself look cool" but using less words

[@A_Lion_In_The_Sun]

Primping, preening, posing, boasting

[@1003JustinLaw]

Or just tryhard

[@ArchaeologyMonster]

I've always kind of translated "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" as like "I leave myself in your capable hands." I think it makes sense in most cases, like when you ask someone to pick up the dry cleaning and end it with "yoroshiku ne" like "I'll entrust it to you" kind of thing. That definitely is a hard phrase to explain to people!

[@jacobpeters5458]

judging by your username, "Archaeologize", I fully believe you are Japanese and shall myself in your hands' translation entrust in capable, Ramen

[@ArchaeologyMonster]

@@jacobpeters5458 My name refers to my profession as an archivist and archaeologist, and I speak, read, and write Japanese as I lived there for over ten years. Is there a reason you need to feel so bristly and make snide comments, or does that just make you feel better, dear?

[@jacobpeters5458]

@@ArchaeologyMonster you sound gay

[@sericsson1996]

@@jacobpeters5458 You sound like a douche.

[@ArchaeologyMonster]

@@jacobpeters5458 Ouch, ooo, my feelings! What an insult! XD

[@SonnyO]

The drawer comparison for using languages is brilliant. People who try to learn a new language think it’s a filter, sifting key words, where you just have to turn off the languages you’re not using and think in another.

[@masonhales]

When he said "stomach filled up" he meant his stomach had magically filled up and he was longer hungry -aka- he refused to go into the restaurant because of the change in smoking policy.

[@kevinscales]

Good catch "What a shame it become non-smoking. Somehow I'm no longer hungry!"

[@LemoNanora]

"Chris uploads" My comrades is glad

[@JaydevRaol]

😂

[@austinwiebe3801]

Brilliant

[@sheaewart7618]

Best comment

[@PSK8530]

Ryotaro-"Uncomfortably Enthusiastic Assistant" How does Chris even come up with these?

[@2fat2furiouz]

Pranav Kameshwar probably used google translation 😂

[@mrclueuin]

@@2fat2furiouz Ha! 😄

[@yurikuki]

perks of being British

[@alanlee1355]

Who is also reasonably priced.

[@TheOpy83]

As a person who works with foreign languages and translations, this video is fascinating! I appreciate that you offered us some insight into a notoriously difficult language. I love the fact that a lot of foreign languages challenge you to restructure the way you speak and think and you made it very clear that Japanese does that a lot.

[@gianmarcoprezioso]

The dislikes are from the Google employes who created the puppy ramen conspiracy

[@dudearnav]

How badly did they want to create puppy ramen? Guess we will never know

[@hobbybugs1286]

Ikr they are disliking their translation

[@hobbybugs1286]

Extra Japanese lessons yes

[@grubbybum3614]

No. The dislikes are from SJW's, as Chris just advised people to avoid using pronouns.

[@josiahfam]

😂

[@Ole_Rasmussen]

I've been struggling with what to use "anata" "kimi" "omae" etc. and Ryotaro just solved all my problems and made me a millionaire with "just say the name."

[@AkiAmeko]

Short answer is, in polite conversation with strangers, don't ever use pronouns. Names only.

[@IanCunningham92]

@@AkiAmeko If they're a stranger, how would you know their name?

[@SnipinG1337]

@@IanCunningham92 you get their attention by apologizing and asking if you may ask them something

[@AkiAmeko]

@@IanCunningham92 In a brief conversation I assume you can communicate without pronouns entirely because you can drop that from Japanese sentences entirely and both parties know the context most of the time. When introducing yourself to someone for the first time, like a business meeting or a new friend at the bar, it's customary to ask their name asap. (Although anyone who knows Japanese better than I is free to correct me.)

[@komaru_7120]

I may not be correct, but what I heard was: Omae = comes of as rude, maybe if you want to be threatening or start a fight. Anata = A close person? Or just the most common? I heard that using it too much can sound robotic, however.

[@N.Traveler]

What I learned: Japanese Google translations are just Japanese merch T-shirts in the making.

[@jacobpeters5458]

"I

[@SlyHikari03]

Mhm

[@伏見猿比古-k8c]

More like the reason behind why there are so many strange English sentences on Japanese merch.

[@nytheris2848]

12:47 That made me realise that I might be better at Japanese than I think. The literal translation is nonsensical but I was fully able to understand the Japanese instantly. I'm nowhere fluent, but it's a nice feeling.

[@pantsmanx]

"I think I'll close my imaginary restaurant"... *uses clip of someone opening their restaurant*. OK buddy

[@ominousbiscuit]

That's how it's done in Japan

[@gabrielsancheztorresalcala723]

Because it's open

[@alvarodiaz2221]

Plot twist, the footage was reversed

[@christianwemoboi]

Ok ? Lol really weirdly non important bill to die on.

[@christianwemoboi]

Hill*

[@ceno10101]

"Who do you think you're talking to!" Google: "I DON"T KNOW!!"

[@dylancastellanos87]

🤣🤣

[@princessthyemis]

Ahhh YES!!! that's a Tenth Doctor reference?! Ahhh I love Doctor Who!!

[@gaiusjuliuspleaser]

While holding extensive conversations and pseudo-philosophical debates fueled by Google Translate and an excessive amount of Asahi beers definitely produced some hilarious scenes at the local izakaya, it did leave me with a few people I now consider close, lifelong friends. Just keep your phrases short. Some words strung together loosely can go a long way. Better to sound like a caveman than like a madman.

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

Ryotaro seems like a fun person to have a beer with or just hang out with.

[@wingknutt1130]

Yeah, much better than that other guy that spent so much time jabbering during the video.......LOL. Just kidding.

[@Alex-fv2qs]

He doesn't drink often, for a good reason

[@kuyache2]

I watched the whole ryotaro playlist and im still eagerly awaiting for more videos. natsuki is a fun guy but his specialty is swear words, weird philosophy and absurd but funny translations. whereas ryotaro goes for adventure, amazing food and making friends/connections.

[@alexeysaranchev6118]

@ErsatzMoose How was that type of personality called? Tsundere?

[@marty1076]

Risottoro’s analogy about opening and closing drawers is the most accurate description for being multilingual I have heard.

[@oriongear2499]

“Translating between Japanese and English can go horribly wrong.” But sometimes when it does go wrong it can provide some funny results. 😂

[@RyoHazuki224]

the long-term existence of engrish.com is a testament to that!

[@17th_Colossus]

Someone needs make a 10 hour loop of Ryotaro smiling and waving. Only then can we achieve world peace!

[@rheiagreenland4714]

Smile and wave boys

[@Alynos235]

That moment when Chris actually is openning his imaginary store instead of closing it @1:14

[@danielamockova3206]

Omg that ckacked me! :DDDD :D :D :D

[@b.michaelphillips8178]

It’s almost like we could have taken the whole day off!

[@electronresonator8882]

reverse psychology

[@leyow9]

Natsuki rating a Restaurant: (5-star rating) "Justice Delicious"

[@valeriansage]

underrated comment ^

[@Anthraxb0mb]

I always felt like he was trying to say “just is delicious.” If I remember, he was asked to describe the food in one word, and “delicious” seemed to me like the word he was working towards. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@sathwikmalyala886]

Google translate: *dies* translating it into Japanese

[@R-Otaku747]

Chris: "Who'd want to go to a restaurant with a sticky hostess?" Spiderman: "....no.. pizza time..?"

[@sandk7969]

Call Reed, he might accompany Parker.

[@kristofkovacsRisy]

I thought that it translates Hungarian poorly, but now it's almost fluent in Hungarian compared to Japanese.

[@chiragmotwani8419]

I'm not first, I'm not last, But when Chris uploads, I click very fast

[@SupaKoopaTroopa64]

If anyone is wondering where the "puppy ramen" came from in the translation, I think I can explain. Google translate doesn't have an algorithm for translating between all possible combinations on languages, since that would require the developers to write around 10,000 different translators (not to mention how some are rarely used, such as Basque to Telugu). What happens instead, is each language is translated into a "universal language" and then to the final language. This way, only two translation algorithms are needed per a language. Now, this universal language isn't one spoken by humans, but a language automatically generated by an AI to represent common sentences from every language equally well. Things like the name of a restaurant aren't commonly used in speech, so when a review is translated into the universal language, the restaurant's name might be poorly represented. When the universal language is converted to Japanese, any ambiguous meanings will basically be interpreted as "fill in the blank with something that might be represented similarly in the universal language," and chances are, the universal language is much better at describing things to do with puppies than it is at describing the name of a restaurant.

[@chocjamie]

Interesting! Maybe because puppies like bones? But so do skeletons...

[@adrianamendesporcellato]

Very interesting! But I don't really understand what you mean by "universal language"...what would it be? It's like a code language (which would probably be based on English)?

[@laurencefraser]

@@adrianamendesporcellato basically the translation algorithm has its own 'native' language in translates into and out of, rather than translating between every combination of other languages. It Attempts to optimize this "native" language to be the best possible language for translating into and out of, rather than for actually communicating with. So calling it a universal language is sort of true, but also kind of misleading. If a language were an electronic device, this "universal language" would be closer to a USB connection than an electronic device suited for every task. (Admittedly, my analogy is kind of terrible there). That's my understanding at least, knowing, as I do, a bit about language and very little indeed about Google's algorithms beyond that they basically exist to let Google avoid taking the blame for it's stuff ups.

[@SupaKoopaTroopa64]

@@adrianamendesporcellato It's kinda hard to describe exactly what it is (I don't know all the technical details). It wouldn't be anything that humans can read, and would likely just look like some random numbers and letters, without individual words. The language is created and updated automatically by an algorithm. This is done by comparing text translated by hand to the same text translated by Google Translate, and making small changes to the language until more accurate translations start to come out of the program.

[@adrianamendesporcellato]

@@SupaKoopaTroopa64 and ​ @Laurence Fraser Thank you very much for your explanations. I was puzzled by the use of "universal language", but now I understand it's not really a "language". I actually worked for a translation company to help "train" an algorithm so that it would get more and more precise (one of the most boring jobs ever), but I never actually understood how it worked. Now I think I have a better (however superficial) grasp of it. Thank you again for taking the time to explain that ;) It's quite amazing!!! Nevertheless, being a language lover (and a language teacher) and truly believing that learning languages helps us make sense of the world around us in so many ways, I can't help but fear the day people will prefer relying on automatic translators to going through the challenging (but amazing) experience of learning a new language...

[@jakobhahn8043]

“A lot of metaphors” The metaphors: Stomach full Stomach empty

[@HanyuuHOLO]

Wait until you learn the word 気... THEY USE IT FOR EVERYTHING I HATE IT!

[@nakulsharma5266]

@@HanyuuHOLO 気になった。

[@aditichawla8606]

@@HanyuuHOLO what does that word mean?

[@forestofsecrets7273]

@@aditichawla8606 energy/spirit/vigor/atmosphere

[@forestofsecrets7273]

@@aditichawla8606 energy/spirit/vigor/atmosphere

[@bwcbiz]

Ryotaro's drawer analogy is great. I have the exact same problem when I try to speak German, I frequently say stuff in Spanish or mangled English instead.

[@_PM__]

As a guy who thought it was a good idea to try to learn Japanese at the age of 60 in the not so Asian cultural epicenter of the US, Terre Haute, Indiana (we do have a sushi restaurant and one of our grocery stores sells Pocky), I've found, for simple Japanese sentences, structure isn't too difficult. It's not that much different than talking like Yoda. Particles, however, are evil. My contribution to the language is the new particle of, "um". It's used immediately after every word while you try to decide what the correct particle is. It can, also, be used before the word ええと to fill in that awkward silence that happens before you realize there is a Japanese equivalent to the word "um".

[@MrHarumakiSensei]

Don't worry, as you get better you can start leaving out the particles. Just like the Japanese do!

[@notintere5ted]

Do you speak any other languages? Do you have a talent for languages? I'm thinking of learning but at 46 and only able to speak one language, I'm thinking it may be too late

[@MrHarumakiSensei]

@@notintere5ted Oh heck no. Not too late. It is true that it takes longer, so what would take you two years at 18 takes maybe four years to learn in your forties. To get perfect pronunciation in a language, you need to start before 12, but that's about the only part you can't do later in life. Also, studying another language in your sixties and seventies is good for keeping Alzheimer's at bay!

[@_PM__]

@@notintere5ted Hi there. What makes me smile about your post is that you are wondering if, at 46, it might be too late to start learning a language. While reading that I'm thinking, "Imagine how much I would now know if I had started at 46". After about the age of 30, we seem to start thinking we're too old to start something new. Then you hit 40 and think, "Wow, I can't believe I though 30 was too old to learn something new. It's really 40 that's too old". It goes on and on like that. "If only I were 10 years younger". In my 40s I decided to try my hand a computer graphics and design. Of course, I thought I was too old, but it seemed like it might be a fun hobby. I ended up getting pretty good at it and have since sold some of my work, including a couple of magazine covers. Turns out I wasn't too old to learn a new skill. To answer your question, no, I don't speak any other languages. At times, I question my ability at my own mother tongue. Still, Japanese is something I had wanted to try to learn, for years. One day I just decided to start, and have been working at it since. I say give it a try if it is something you want to do. I would recommend trying Duolingo for a couple of weeks. It's free and can give you a taste of the language. See what you can learn in that period of time. Just give it a try. You can always stop if you decide you really are too old :) If you enjoy the time you spent, there are tons of free Japanese language resources online, including KZbin. If you really get into it, there are paid courses you can take online, I use Japanesepod101. There's so many great milestones you have when you're learning. I'm still not very good at all but just a few weeks ago, I actually understood an entire line of a Japanese song, I was listening to. For one short line of a song, I felt fluent in the language. 頑張ってね

[@notintere5ted]

@@_PM__ Thank you for your wise words, whats to lose eh? As you suggested I will try some bite size Japanese to get a taster. All the best!!

[@SuperArashi90]

I'm going to just say "stomach empty" from now on. I like this. Knees weak. Arms heavy. Mom's spaghetti. I'm speaking Japanese already!

[@azufendusgarendum6583]

You used a pronoun though 😏

[@angelinprasad5295]

Slim shady was trying to teach Japanese all this time.

[@Anvarynn]

Actually laughed out loud thank you

[@chetansingh3219]

I just came from Eminem singing anime intros dude

[@Anvarynn]

@@chetansingh3219 You wot, link?

[@tarcal87]

13:34 _"My grandpa used to frequently exclaim, 'When one door closes, another opens.'_ _Lovely fella, but he was a terrible cabinet-maker."_

[@MawangHujan-fl2zn]

And just like In Indonesian Language. Using pronoun to the one we are speaking to is considered rude. We Usually use name. Also use relatives word or greeting word, like Bapak (for old man), Ibu (for old woman), Mas (young man), Mbak (a girl), etc.

[@satomiarihara6887]

And vise versa. For us Japanese people, one of the hardest parts of learning English is that we have to add the subject in any sentence.

[@DjokovicIsOurLordAndSaviour]

Yeah, that must be super weird when not used to it.

[@shizuokaBLUES]

Well to be fair , not in any sentence. For example , and you probably know this, these are all perfectly fine depending on the situation; Wanna drink ? How bout a pizza? Can’t think of anything now but maybe later. Etc etc In my 25 years of working in Japan, I’d agree with you and say that including subjects is very difficult for Japanese learning English. Other things would be subject-verb agreement, the horrid English spelling “system”, and mastering some of the many many idioms used in daily conversation. My other experience is that many of my non-English majors , especially males, cannot see gaijin as equal to Japanese, at least not until they have lived outside of Japan. It’s become part of my acceptance of Japanese culture that a good many people around me, even my students, regard me as a less-than-equal human. しょうがない

[@r3zaful]

It's called sentence pattern If you're a multi lingual person you will understand.

[@zzBaBzz]

vice* And it shouldn't be hard at all. English teaching in japan just plain sucks. The amount of shit I've had to correct that "hurdurr native" people taught students is insane

[@shizuokaBLUES]

Clarence alteria who are you addressing here ? And are you referring to syntax?

[@inocha_]

I am sad that foreigners who are interested in Japan cannot come to Japan because of COVID-19. I'm sad I can't go abroad. Please tell us the recommended spots overseas so that you can go when COVID-19 is gone. (I'm sorry if I made a mistake because I use a translator 🥺)

[@danielvlk140]

Hello, as someone from Czech Republic (central Europe), I would recommend cities like Olomouc, Český Krumlov or Prague and castles like Lednice, Červená Lhota or Hluboká nad Vltavou. Also, from other countries, I find very beautiful Salzburg with near Alp mountains and mountain lakes (Austria), Jena (germany) and if you like hiking than Tatra mountains(Slovakia). I do not want to overwhlem you with other places, for example from Italia or Greece. Hope this is going to be of some use for you :) (Also sorry for mistakes, english is not my native language :) ).

[@wovenwar8528]

心配しないで。英語は上手です。when things are better, Seattle and Portland are beautiful in the summer. The Grand Canyon is beautiful in spring. California is always beautiful and Florida is good in the winter. 気をつけて!

[@hannahcrossett3415]

US National Parks are nice, depending what you want to see. The Smoky Mountains are beautiful with occassional fog. The West has not only the Grand Canyon but also has many other cool parks. Other parks include the following: naturally-made arches at Arches National Park, odd natural phenomenon on thermal hot springs land at Yellowstone National Park, an ancient Native American village at a park called Mesa Verde, and Bryce Canyon (a really beautiful place, too). Also, there is a place around there where the corners of four different states come together so you can stand on 4 states at once. Meanwhile, the US National Quilt Museum is in tiny Paducah, KY, which is also a great place to shop for antiques. If you wanted to visit there, it is 2 hours drive from St. Louis and may have air-travel nearby with assistance from Uber which could add this to a visit to St. Louis, MO, which has tons of free stuff to do (including one of the nation's best zoos and art museums) as well as the famous Gateway Arch and the largest collection of mosaics under one room anywhere in the world.

[@Queen-qy4qc]

Russia St.Petersburg and Moscow are beautiful cities with lots of history, meusems, traditional food and tours!

[@cheshirecat9037]

In East Europe you can visit Romania or Republic of Moldova. Not a big place but it's fairly priced and we have lots of pretty sights(Castles like Peleş and Bran in Romania, so many natural parks and reservations in bith countries!) and interesting traditions if you happen to come during a national holiday or festival!

[@JohnPorsbjerg]

"A friend who is not Ryotaro" Chris we get it, you have two friends, no need to be チャラ付く

[@SidheKnight]

So.. Natsuki then.

[@gazenaitogirufan]

You mean, sticky clerk?

[@uchuuseijin]

if you want to use "to be" in English, the adjective form of チャラつく is チャラい charai

[@JohnPorsbjerg]

R Lee Oh cool, thanks! I’m only just starting to learn the adjective forms so all i know so far are the -い and -くない forms

[@icanwatchthevideos]

@@JohnPorsbjerg チャラい is the adjective but チャラ付き would be the noun I believe

[@millsaj]

Japan: "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick"

[@faffywhosmilesatdeath5953]

Kevin was a gem

[@agentzap]

this but unironically

[@cassif19]

Japanese works very differently. I'd say you actually have more words in a Japanese sentence than in an English one, but many of the are completely untranslatable. They are meant to show what the subject and them object of the sentence are. So if you would say: "dogs like bones", it would be :"Inu wa hone ga suki desu" "Wa" says that "Inu/dog" is the subject "Ga" means that "hone/bones" is the object These words often make other words redundant. If you say "like apples" it makes no sense, but if you say in Japanese "apples GA like" it means that the apples are liked by someone, probably the speaker.

[@millsaj]

@@cassif19 bro... It's a joke from the office...

[@electronresonator8882]

to be honest kanji is like a huge compilation of symbols, just like emojis in your phone

[@12Prophet]

Google once gave me a "translation" that an "elephant was riding the truck in the ravine on hat" ... It was a translation homework, and I wanted to check my work.. I ended up getting an A on the assignment because I did not rely on Google for help. Bullet dodged. And to new learners of the language (from English to Japanese), keep at it. Surprisingly it does get a little easier the more you learn. You start to build on concepts that solidify in your mind. And the stress is part of the fun. It gets so much more interesting when you then try to explain the basic concepts to the people you know who haven't studied it. That's when you realize you've come a long way. The fun part about learning it, is that you personally don't know how much you're improving until you start explaining it to others. What becomes common and comfortable to you, but fascinates others when you talk about it, that never gets boring. So keep at it, it's a wonderful journey!

[@lin90210]

In Cantonese, when we meet someone we say "dor dor je gao" which translates as "lots lots point teach". As in respecting the person and asking them to teach you the ways which seems strange in English

[@PrograError]

i think it's due to the cultural context... English is too individualist, where East Asian language is more communal and "in the name of the betterment of all"

[@princessthyemis]

Cool!

[@lemonosharky3338]

I think we just say ”wei! lei ho aaaaaaaaaaa!”

[@sabinrawr]

In some American dialects, "drawers" (sometimes pronounced like "draws") is a slang term for underpants. With the greatest respect to Ryotaro-san, I want to know as little as possible about his drawers! I am a native speaker of English, bilingual in Spanish, and a student of Latin, Russian, and (very recently) Japanese. I've found that in ES, LA, and RU, subjects are often dropped, but for a slightly different reason: the conjugation of the verb usually implies the subject. Another difference is that even when the subject is unnecessary, it may be included to bring emphasis or attention to it without the negative connotations. For example... Eres mexicano? Arre you Mexican? Tú eres mexicano? Are YOU Mexican? The way that Latin plays with word order has thankfully made my introduction to Japanese a little bit less jarring (even though I have learned only one verb so far). Quis canem edit? Who is eating the dog? Quis canis edit? Who is the dog eating? Yes, it's a contrived example and unnecessary here, but it was too much fun to omit! Although the mechanics of Latin and Japanese word order are different, it's good to know that my brain is already primed to accept it. Thank you for the video!

[@sabinrawr]

@@piotrbojkoff I honestly never gave it much thought until now. I struggle to think of another example where "it" is so vague other than weather, but I'm sure there are many. In this case, I would suggest that "it" is the sky or climate. I like the idea of "state of being" defined as its own category. Another way to look at it (at least in English) is that "it" is a shorthand for "the thing that I am describing exists in the manner that I have described it". "It is a nice car.' "The car is nice." In practice, these mean exactly the same thing. If there is any slight difference, it might be this: It is a nice car. This thing that we are talking about is an object called "a nice car". The car is nice. This car that we are talking about is modified to include the property of being "nice". Confusingly, we have yet another way to say it: What's nice, is that car. Among the collection of all things that can be described as "nice", I bring your attention to that car in particular. I suppose that I could go on and on, but I'll share you further agony. Ultimately, I suppose the main difference between these is which part of the statement gets the emphasis or direction. Consider the difference between: "Что видит Мария?" and "Что Мария видит?" They seem to say the same thing, but how would you describe the difference, other than one might just sound better?

[@sabinrawr]

@@piotrbojkoff Your point is valid, though I would hastily add that if you change the context, you change the meaning. By adding the sentence about the donkey, you change the meaning of the "it" that follows; it's now a regular pronoun. You can do this with any sentence that uses pronouns or other indefinite or ambiguous construction. There isn't anything special about the "it" pertaining to rain. If I said "This is my shoe, it is raining", I have just claimed that my shoe is raining. Like you correctly said, factually incorrect but otherwise a valid sentence. "Look at this donkey. This car is nice." If the sentence about the car requires prior mention, shouldn't the donkey also? I am open to the idea that the weather and environment might be a default assumption made when there is no other clear candidate. The sentence "It's hot" means different things of I'm standing next to a picture of a beautiful woman, a pot of boiling water, or a trending Reddit post. But without any of that context, I'm probably talking about the air temperature in the room, or about the air temperature outside. If I think it's ambiguous, I might specify "in here" or "out there". I think you're on the right path with known vs. unknown information. I would stretch that a bit more to speak of what may be assumed or inferred. If I am wearing beach attire and drinking an iced beverage, it would be strange to assume that I am talking about the temperature in the core of the Sun when I mention how hot it is. Language is, ultimately, a social exercise. It therefore relies, to some degree, on having a common basis of understanding. This is why it is often difficult to accurately translate ancient documents. In America, there are numerous legal battles about the meaning of statutes written just a few decades earlier, and even of our Constitution itself. Evidence of this is in the dictionary and thesaurus: why is it that so many words have two or more definitions, and so many ideas can be represented by several different words or phrases? This is also why I think many misunderstandings happen between people who may share a language but who have very different ideas about the underlying social and cultural underpinnings of it. Getting back to the question at hand, perhaps "it" is the nearest "thing" to the speaker. As people generally don't refer to themselves as "it", the next most immediate thing is the speaker's environment. And if there is some additional context to the conversation, that becomes more immediate. Of course, the ambiguities in language can also make it fun and give it some spice. This conversation has caused the sentence, "This is a nice car and it is raining" to be ambiguous because it isn't always clear whether it is joining two predicates with the same subject or joining two independent clauses. :)

[@sabinrawr]

@@piotrbojkoff Oh, I forgot to add... I'm not sure that I support the idea of an act with no actor. While it may be possible to engineer such a sentence, they simply don't occur in normal speech or writing. When the object is a noun, it can be reflexive and self-referential.

[@eduardoribeiro8378]

I must say that the objects being dropped from the phrases happens in Portuguese too (you know, one of the four main latin languages, the sister of spanish that everyone forgets that exists, despite being the 3° most talked western language just behind english and spanish? Not that i'm being salty or anything, hahaha). It has its own classification on grammar, with the objectless phrases (for example, "choveu". It would be something like "rained", the past form of the verb rain. It's objectless because, who rained? The cloud? No, it just happened without anyone doing anything) and the invisible object phrases (for example, "comi", meaning "i ate". The verb conjugates with the object and the time, so it's implied that the verb is in the past and in 1° person without adding anything. I'm no expert in languages whatsoever, but i think that the "it" situation in english (that i used multiple times in my comment, hahaha) come from the implicit rule that every phrase needs an obejct, even if it doesn't necesserily sense. I don't know if that rule emerged naturally or some white dudes in the 19 century thought that they were being smarter than everyone else (for what i know, it happened a lot with english, people meddling with the language desregarding the structures of the language in favor of their own ego and will, i'd say to watch the Storied youtube channel video "Why the english spelling is so weird?" or something like that, it's easy to find and pretty informative.

[@CTGReviews]

I’m an American and I’ve heard of the term but don’t use it, also in my area we pronounce it “droars” as in the American pronunciation of oars

[@Gyatso98]

Even though COVID-19 is going on and Chris is basically stuck in his house, he still manages to create great content that gives me a smile. Keep up the good work!

[@sox-b9999]

It's not just Japanese, basically most languages have the same issue with Google translate. I use it a lot to translate Arabic and it's miserable; especially, when it comes to sentences.

[@jamessanguinet7404]

@鍾益飛 Mandarin is very similar to English in terms of grammar though. Japanese, Arabic, and even Korean are completely different grammar-wise lol

[@lzh4950]

@@jamessanguinet7404 Some of the time; at other times you're forced to speak in only passive voice (e.g. 12:49 in Mandarin (& other Chinese languages/dialects also actually; they're mostly translatable word-for-word, but with each character pronounced differently) would be "eating ice cream the person is walk to station" (adverb-subject-adverb-object)), which makes sentences more convoluted. On the plus side there're fewer tenses (no distinction between present & past, though there are between continuous & non-continuous ones) & prepositions (notice that 'the' is omitted from the sentence I talked about), but quantifiers are compulsory & more complicated than in English

[@yaboiothman984]

Arabic is weird ngl

[@sox-b9999]

@@yaboiothman984 it's not weird if you understand it

[@blessringgirl6786]

Hindi too..

[@gafrers]

I have questions about Risottoro's Drawers and needing to hear him talk in German, Italian, etc

[@Jellylamps]

I’ve learned German in the past and I’ve been learning Japanese for about a month now and the way i translate them is completely different. Between German and English i used to go on an almost word-by-word basis before i became fluent. Now it flows better but it’s still a more direct translation. Between Japanese and English, though, it’s totally different. I internalize the meaning in one language without much consideration for specific vocabulary and spit out whatever has the closest concept in the other language. It’s like the link between the two languages for me is a cloud of concepts devoid of language at all.

[@Kirchnerize]

Matter of fact, there' a contract out on Manny Squirrels.

[@lordofgraphite]

really ticked me off that some one would leave a one star review for having an unpleasant encounter in a completely different location ffs

[@shengbojia3389]

@@qaulwart lmao, be happy or be fired

[@haventshoweredinamonth7364]

" -Ryotaro- Risottoro has an obsession with drawers. " I'm sure everyone can relate

[@scottshepherd8795]

I've recently started listening to Japanese rock bands, and one of my favorites is ヒトリエ, or "hitorie" in English. Since I knew hitorie meant nothing in English, I used google translate to translate the original Japanese, and it came back as... "Hitler."

[@moon_june_7515]

If you're still wondering what ヒトリエ means, I did a quick research and found out that it comes from ひとりアトリエ (hitori atorie), which means "one-man atelier".

[@hnglbanana]

since hitori can also mean alone, you could also make a portmanteau in english and translate it as 'alonelier'

[@Wubulixi]

Hiteru means Hitler. Seems Google Translate tries to associate with the next closest word

[@Hwyadylaw]

@@Wubulixi Hitler in Japanese is *Hitoraa*. I think "hiteru" would be "is drying out" or "is dry"

[@_dorime20yearsagoedited39]

@@Wubulixi "Hiteru" (ヒテル) would be translated as "Hitel" in English if it was a proper noun _(if it was a native Japanese word, the word "hiteru" (干てる) would be translated as "(to be) drying (out)", but this word is rarely heard in actual daily conversations in Japanese, as people usually use "kawaite(i)ru" (乾いて(い)る) instead of "hite(i)ru" (干て(い)る) in order to say "(to be) drying (out)")._ Since the Japanese word for "hotel" is "hoteru", "Hiteru" would analogously be "Hitel" in English, which actually is a rubbish (unless it's an actual proper noun). So, I suggest you at least open an online dictionary before you "judge" and state how a word would be translated into Japanese, to confirm whether or not what you're going to state is correct. It's okay for language learners to be wrong because we do learn from our faults/mistakes, but it just seems lazy to me if you judge and state something from a language you're still learning without actually rechecking and confirming whether or not you're correct on the topic.

[@sadied0g]

Ryotaro’s description of two drawers hits home when I instinctively fill in a Spanish word when trying to speak Japanese but there’s one word I can’t remember how to say

[@ethan5719]

Just hearing the name "Ryotaro" makes me laugh as I always think of Rissotoro

[@juneseongmin]

😂

[@genericgamefan6621]

I just think of Ryotaro Dojima, forget which game he’s from, think about the Dojima Family from Yakuza, then realize he’s from Persona 4. I have a horrible memory. 😅

[@rp-lopez]

Just curious, I've seen him used both Ryotaro and Rissotoro - what's the difference? I know there has to be a joke behind the 2 versions I just can't figure it out even though I've watched so many of his videos

[@ethan5719]

@@rp-lopez his name is Ryoataro, but there was a joke in one video where a comment referred to him as Risottoro, as in the dish Risotto. So that became a joke

[@rp-lopez]

@@Wepeell thank you!

[@PrettyTranslatorSarahMoon]

This is why my silly, illegitimate Japanese entertainment translating job will be safe from our robot overlords for a while yet. 😎

[@rastynicc]

Machine translation can work, but it requires a whole lot of fucking around with each sentence Google spits out in order to get it right. Sites like Jisho help a ton, and so does running the original text through 6 or 7 different machine translations, and interpreting all of those into something readable.

[@TwilightWolf032]

Japanese translators unite! Can I ask you what you work for, exactly? I'm a freelancer translator, but ever since the pandemic started I haven't had a single request for translation.

[@Shanaoh]

@@TwilightWolf032 I wanna be a translator myself. I'm half Japanese and I've studied both languages since I was very small. Can you tell me how you started your career? Also do you have another Job?

[@Gregarman]

Nani?!

[@TwilightWolf032]

@@Shanaoh I started my career thanks to a friend of mine, who saw an ad from Abracadabra Games looking for part-timer translators. I sent an e-mail, they sent a reply en mass to all applicants saying they would make a selection and return only to the chosen ones. About a month and half passed and I hadn't received anything, so I sent them another e-mail asking if there was any chance for me or if they could point me towards other companies. They must have liked my assertiveness, because they decided to send me a test, which I passed, and then I spent the following 12 months working on various games in both English and Portuguese. (By the way, don't play Love Gossip, the main character is the worst and the writing is terrible! Love in the Skies is great, though!) Now, Abracadabra had an... internal turmoil... and the person who was carrying the company on their backs left due to health issues, and many games that were ready to be published had to be postponed. It's possible all my translated works have been delayed or cancelled, including Love in the Skies, which was the first title I translated for them, and all routes by myself... you can imagine I'm not happy with that, because that's most of my portfolio. I've taken other jobs, including a request for terms and guidebooks that were supposed to be used in 2020 Tokyo's Olympic Games (that was another headache I'd rather forget about), but recently requests have been down thanks to China's virus. If you want to start your translation career, go after companies yourself and offer your services. Keep an eye out for announcements and work on fan translations of anything you come across to start a portfolio you can show off. As for my side job, I do work as a digital artist on Pixiv. Just search for Ryuugamine Ryuuto on MangaDex for my stories (warning: what isn't a doujinshi is lewd stuff) and 竜ヶ峰竜人 on Pixiv for my illustrations (warning: there's porn). I gain a bit of change here and there for commissions and a very small number of subscribers on SubscribeStar, so translation is still my main gig. My plan is to get enough subscribers to make a living out of my art and stories, but that's going to take years at this pace. In the meantime, I keep working on translations.

[@lh7128]

YOUR COMRADES IS GLAD - Stalin, date unknown

[@Spyduck]

OUR, COMRADES

[@amonrei]

Maybe it should've been Vlad instead haha...

[@Komediantka]

@@amonrei It would be much funnier with "Vlad(-imir)"

[@AverageArtEnjoyer1941]

Our comrades are totally glad to see your videos.

[@sachiiii]

Chris: what's your thought process when you're translating between English and Japanese? Ryotaro: there is no thought process

[@MrMickeei]

If you are fluent in two languages you don't translate between them, meaning is converted to the desired language.

[@mementomori7160]

​@@MrMickeei As a non native English speaker, I totally agree(but I'm still not fluent enough)

[@KylerJones]

Honestly that drawer metaphor is surprisingly good. Like as a native English speaker I don't have to construct a sentence in my head, I can just say it. But whenever I've (unsuccessfully) tried to learn a new language, I've got the sentence in English, then I have to construct it in the other language before saying it. Whereas if you're fluent in both languages you can see a sentence, break down the meaning of it abstractly into your head, (sort of like how when you have an idea but don't know how to say it, you've just got this abstract concept of what it means), then say that idea in the other language.

[@pableitor2009]

I mean, that's usually the key to be fluent in different languages. When you start studing a new language you usually first think the phrase in your main language, then try to translate it to the new one. But once you get used to the new language you just think on the new language directly. Most of the times this change goes gradually over the time. In japanese it seems that you cant go gradually improving, but you have to be that comfortable in japanese to start thinking only in japanese directly

[@ProtagonistOfficial]

@@MrMickeei Saying that there is no thought process is a little disingenous. As you can see when asked to translate a phrase like "yoroshiku onegaishimasu", Ryotaro was definitely forced to think about how to express the term in English. I generally agree with the statement, but there can definitely be thinking involved when it comes to deciding how best to convey an idea in a language that doesn't have a built in way to convey the idea.

[@JJMarkin]

I like Ryotaro's analogy of the drawers -- and as someone who grew up bilingual I can attest he's (basically) right: when it comes to grammar, the drawers are separate. It's the vocabulary where things get problematic for me; worse, all languages in which I am unsure end up with all their words into one "Languages, other" drawer. Result: I frequently ended up substituting Παρακαλώ for ください or お願いします when I was learning (or trying to learn) Japanese -- both sets of vocabulary were in the "Languages, other" drawer. I must say, though, that it helps tremendously to come into Japanese having both Latin and a Germanic language in one's arsenal: Latin helps free you from specific word orders, and both German and Dutch habitually tuck the verb at the end of the sentence. Unfortunately, now that I am getting older (read: I *am* old [sighs]), even my two primary language vocabularies get mixed up. Worse, there are even times I remember a word in one of my not-at-all certain languages but not in either of my two primary ones. Dumping vocabulary from three or even four languages into one sentence has been known to happen when I'm very tired, alas. All of that said, though, Google Translate can be a godsend for handling written material, if one is careful and has a sense for languages. For Japanese, Chinese and Russian, it's beyond valuable for its ability to handle, and transliterate from/to, kanji, hanzi, or Cyrillic. As a book cataloguer in an academic library, believe me, I'd have *paid* for Google Translate.

[@Sercotani]

Your last comment hit me very hard. I don't use google translate for the translation, I just use it to quickly see what this foreign alphabet looks like in Roman alphabetical letters, so I can actually read it and understand it. As a new learner of a language like Japanese, it's simply invaluable (of course I try to avoid using it as much as I can, but I've yet to be able to recognise more than a very select few kanji).

[@iliamironov9700]

Nice flex

[@dlevi67]

I'm glad to know that I'm not going mad. Just demented.

[@ThinkingPower0]

If you're tired, it's only natural for a slip of the tongue. Honestly be happy with your accomplishment of language! I think it's fun when people switch on accident. I work with a bunch of native Spanish speakers, so I learn more when they accidentally use a word in a sentence

[@sucyshi]

I put on my OkCupid profile that I was learning Japanese, and then like half of the messages that weren't obviously copied and pasted were messages run through google translate, by guys who genuinely thought they could trick me into thinking they're fluent. The obsessive use of watashi made it really quick to tell. I've also met a lot of people on discord pretending to be fluent Japanese who were actually just using google translate. It's pretty hilarious drama when you expose them.

[@TheSmurfboard]

It's worse when guys can hardly write a sentence in English and English is their only language.

[@BrgArt]

@@TheSmurfboard kinda sad considering how easy english is. -a french man

[@ellawatson2711]

I very much feel the draw analogy. When I was first learning Chinese I kept putting things into SOV because my non-first language draw was open, where my second and third are Japanese and Korean respectively lol

[@--Paws--]

Principal Skinner: "Pathetic" Ryotaro: "Amateur"

[@maxwellmyers]

I'm literally at this point in my study of Japanese. I like to remind myself of the idea from Steven Pinker: We don't think in any language, we think in thought. When I listen to Japanese audio, I'm not attempting to do a 1-to-1 translation anymore, but instead trying to recognize the thought and associate the proper translation with that thought. Great video, thanks for making it!

[@nyarlathotep.mythos]

Something to look out for on Google Translate: ✔️ Community Verified!

[@Jessie_S]

Sometimes that could end up being wrong so I wouldn't totally rely on that.

[@Jessie_S]

@@danield.1438 There is actually human involvement in the community verification process. People can either validate translations or translate phrases as a way to contribute in making Google translate better. I'm sure, however, that their would be some who contribute inaccurate contributions.

[@nyarlathotep.mythos]

A Japanese friend is ideal, but “community verified” is right more often than a regular translation

[@Desilurobinson]

Something to look out for on Google Translate: ❌ Later…

[@Wyzai]

10:25 Having watched anime and read manga with subs, it's usually translated as: "Please get along with me", "I hope we can get along" or something along those lines.

[@psinjo]

As someone who is attempting to wrap my head around intro level japanese, I found this incredibly informative, and honestly if the situation arises, i would love to hear more intricacies about the language. Thanks a lot for putting in the time :)

[@kyounokaze]

"I got a lot of belly" is more correctly translated as "I am VIP de big"

[@newschannelx2986]

Nani?

[@Aquahawk911]

@@newschannelx2986 it's from Chris's video on "What it's really like to teach English in Japan". One of his students called him VIP de big.

[@newschannelx2986]

@@Aquahawk911 oh lol thanks

[@shiny9690]

"I fear no man..." "But...that thing..." *puppy ramen* "...it scares me."

[@masterbitter7688]

@Tartarus china have a dog eating festival

[@ReptilianTeaDrinker]

At least it's not bat ramen. lol

[@SHRIIMPSUCKS]

taste good actually I recommend you try it

[@lzh4950]

@@masterbitter7688 My countrywomen was like: _Hindus don't tell us not to eat beef so how can we tell China not to eat dogs?_

[@masterbitter7688]

@@lzh4950 i tell you dog meat really tastes good as other meat, the only difference is texture more like a skinny pig. the only problem is dog are really adorable and they wiggle they're tail when they see you and they're very happy. it feels cannibalism

[@KnumskullOfficial]

I love how rough translations bring our cultures closer together 💕

[@Dax893]

I'm not saying Coco's was the greatest, but their service was a lot better that what is reflected in many of these comments. P.S. Puppy ramen has more bite.

[@psinjo]

I've heard it's quite heavy on the bark though

[@billjoe2080]

Puppy ramen is a little ruff but you get use to it.