Understanding the Japanese Writing System

[@AcademiaCervena]

*ANSWERS TO FREQUENT COMMENTS* (Concerning mistakes in the video, please see the Errata section in the video description above, where known errors are listed!) *Why do you pronounce "kanji" the way you do?* In short, I picked up a pronunciation of "kanji" that sounds unusual in the context of American English (AmE), which is the variety of English that I speak. Instead of CAN-ji (/ˈkændʒi/), AmE speakers would generally say KAHN-ji (/ˈkɑndʒi/). In British English (BrE), it is the other way around, and that’s where this issue stems from. As I’m not a native speaker of English, I checked the pronunciation in a dictionary before making this video, and it only said /ˈkændʒi/ (i.e. CAN-ji), and at that time it didn’t occur to me that this was a BrE pronunciation that would sound odd in AmE. If you’re interested, you can note the two pronunciations in the Cambridge English Dictionary, where the BrE voice says CAN-ji, and the AmE voice says KAHN-ji (the written IPA doesn’t match for AmE though). Link: dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/kanji For the record, I’m not trying to pronounce "kanji" as a Japanese word, but as an English word. Neither KAHN-ji or CAN-ji match the Japanese pronunciation, of course. (Comments regarding this question tend to be particularly hostile, which is why I feel it necessary to provide a lengthier explanation here.) *What are the remaining 16 % in the mentioned study of character use in print?* Mainly romaji (Latin characters), numbers and punctuation. *Why are は and を romanized as 'wa' and 'o' in the example sentences?* The topic and object particles - は 'wa' and を 'o' - have pronunciations that don’t match the kana used to write them (は and を are usually 'ha' and 'wo'). For this reason, it is customary to use the pronunciation rather than the kana as the basis for their romanization.

[@IgneelS11]

so, how do japanese pronounce kanji?

[@LelleKidd]

@@IgneelS11 The correct way.

[@jumria_JN]

C iasa

[@cecepsupriyadi6370]

Kk

[@cecepsupriyadi6370]

Ccas

[@shafe9866]

Me: Chinese is the most difficult language, I should learn Japanese instead. Kanji alphabet: Ok

[@ss327827]

Kanji is Chinese. It's borrowed into the Japanese scripts

[@nyenjime]

@@ss327827 well that's the joke ;;;

[@ss327827]

@@nyenjime right! I cannot believe I didn't get that they first time. I'll go kill myself now.

[@eeeeeeee7774]

my plan is to learn both. Japanese in high school and I'm going to make a career with Chinese. In theory

[@virusj216]

@@eeeeeeee7774 It does make things easier that I'm a native Chinese speaker trying to make Japanese my third language...

[@nocando17]

So thats where the name Pikachu came from. My life is complete now

[@TrollerzTV]

Ooooooooohhhhhhh

[@paulhk2727]

What?

[@paulhk2727]

Explain!

ピカチュウ (Katakana) ぴかちゅう (Hiragana) 光宙 (Kanji) Actually 光宙 is Kōchū but it is pronounced Pikachū

[@herby1585]

Paul HK ピカピカ- pikapika (spark sound) チュウチュウ- chuchu (mouse noise) so ピカ+チュウ- pikachu (spark sound + mouse noise) and if you haven't noticed, pikachu is an electric mouse. hopefully you know understand.

[@candysimss7192]

Me: Are you able to learn all the characters and memorise them? Brain: の

[@zahraa4149]

@Señor RandomPerson295 it was a good joke and you just HAD to ruin it

[@Mike-td4uq]

@@zahraa4149 An overused not-funny-anymore joke

[@zahraa4149]

@@Mike-td4uq literally don't care

[@Mike-td4uq]

@@zahraa4149 I didn't ask if you do care about it. It's a fact that it is a not funny "pun". And as a matter of fact, の is not pronounced as the english "no", so it isn't even right.

[@zahraa4149]

@@Mike-td4uq again, don't care

[@okthen4912]

oh my god i could actually read the end of the video. i saw the kanji for "see" and "arigatōgozaimashita” so i predicted that it was "thank you for watching" based on the context. moments like these just well up a butterfly feeling in your chest where you get so excited and realize the progress you're making is not going to waste! if you're reading this, keep pushing.

[@The_NSeven]

I know right!! I love moments like that too, it feels great

[@unusue5982]

Thank you, I'm trying to learn Japanese and this inspired me to keep pushing

[@BabySonicGT]

Nice

[@karniferous]

okthen

[@yamzuh]

Same, I’ve been learning Spanish for maybe 3 years so moments like these make me feel so cool. I can read the basics now and piece together advanced readings, but conversations are still a struggle :’)

[@itsastikbotparty8149]

Every time he said “kænji” a small part of my soul died

[@fabian4798]

Thank you!

[@Yourmom-cx8fw]

kænji

[@petermueller69]

look pinned comment

[@lyingcat9022]

Haha right?!? I’m mean not to judge to hard but I’m only starting to learn Japanese and know just a hand full of Hiragana and even I noticed the miss pronunciation on Kanji.

[@lyingcat9022]

Texan: Boy I can’t read non of that “Cangee” chicken scratch! Haha sorry no hate to my boy here :) or my Fam from the South… I just found it funny ;)

[@ded8491]

*full screen of tiny and many kanji pops up* Me: *gets jumpscared for no apparent reason*

[@saturnichaze]

I thought I was the only one lol. These japanese urban legends arent doing any good for my brain. xD

[@jackson5802]

Lol you should see the American seven year olds in the immersion school I went to... All we could do was memorize and try to find patterns...

[@yearzero7802]

Tryptaphobia?

[@unknown.ben2006]

Me too XD

[@mimii_chuu]

hi kira

[@smuecke]

I loved the idea of putting Kanji into an English text to demonstrate how a Japanese text "feels" to a reader! Very good job on this video! ;)

[@AcademiaCervena]

Thank you!

[@bloogibloo9901]

kanji looks very similar to traditional chinese words edit: some words are identical

[@ruty6099]

@@bloogibloo9901 Japanese after all get their Kanji from Chinese why they look similar

[@daniellemurnett2534]

@@ruty6099 And even past that, the kana are simplified Kanji.

[@victording5643]

@@ruty6099 buuut why don't they pronounce the same, gotta learn from scratch...

[@akkihole_]

Time to learn kanji! me looking at the common kanji: のののののの

[@opabeleza6902]

No no no no no

[@bakustop9606]

aw hecc nuu

[@ceice2248]

はい フェアデﾌｨﾚ

[@joex1084]

Try combining Remembering the Kanji with an Anki deck:)

[@wanitooo]

@@joex1084 can recommend. I'm about a thousand characters in and it's extremely satisfying to recognize a kanji out in the wild, especially when you know it's reading ahahaha

[@twelved4983]

“Japanese children are expected to know these 1006 characters by high school.” Me thinking about learning Japanese but already in high school: *it’s like relearning the whole alphabet hundreds of times)

[@樫野崎灯台]

Kanji is not that hard if you find out common point in kanji. for example, 金=gold , 銀＝silver , 銅＝copper , and 鉄=steel. These kanji mean metallic elements and they have 金 in them! and there’s more. 猪＝boar 猫＝cat 猿=monke 狩=hunting. They all mean animals and something related to them. and they have 犭 in them!

[@tako-0]

actually as a japanese high school is wrong. you expect to learn these kanjis within elementary school...

[@phantomsouls7788]

@@deadbones733 Yeah, in fact the some symbols that are used in multiple kanji the Japanese like to call “Kanji Radicals”, it really helps

[@willdabilldawill9664]

YEAH I HATE IT There’s so much 漢字マジでキッツイわ

[@Dablooner]

@@樫野崎灯台 yea still don't make sense

[@probablyhunter7469]

As a student learning japanese, I promise it really isn't hard as it looks. Mastering katakana and hiragana can be done in a year or less, and kanji, with enough practice, also comes easily. If you want to learn, don't stop yourself because of the difficulty! After a while, it'll become like second nature.

[@kingsoonkit9234]

My mother tongue is Mandarin (Chinese), so memorizing both hiragana and katakana only took me 3 weeks

[@nathanielsantos1706]

Thanks, I've memorized hiragana and katakana but I'm really intimidated by kanji, this helps my confidence

[@senior9030]

Well it also takes a while to get the grammar and vocabulary down as well.

[@checkerrose1990]

Kanji takes 10 years of education to learn, even then the average Japanese adult forget and don’t know a couple of them after school. KANJI DOES NOT COME EASILY

[@toastedkiki]

I had to learn katakana in two days cos I had a Japanese exam and never learnt it all oops🤣

[@heylookadistractionthingy1853]

For anyone who's intimated to start learning Japanese writing. Don't be scared. It consists of three alphabets; Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. If you learn Hiragana first, I think you'll find you start putting words together in no time. It's actually a lot easier than you thiiink~

[@Shanaoh]

Learn it like a kid. Learn the vocabulary before writing. People give up too easily because they have a hard time reading things. Learn how to speak the language cause that's what's important.

[@freezinganimenz7835]

@@Shanaoh yep, thats how i learnt Japanese

[@Zeckmon3]

Time to read japanese children books. Gotta start somewhere simple.

[@thomusroye5667]

For some reson i started before knowing it was one of the most complicated in the world and for now its kinda a bit not really but still suprisingly easy to learn

[@themitochondriaisthepowerh9177]

There's only three alphabets, they say. Yes, but the last is divided into 5 groups of increasing difficulty and size totalling to 3000. Also they have multiple pronunciations and meanings, so like, no. Let's not. As a side note, that's not the worst of it. Grammar's going to make you want to lobotomise yourself.

[@hijeffhere]

If you think memorizing Kanji is hard, then wait until they start combining together.

[@REAL_SKYFIRE]

Everybody weebs till the kanji starts combining

[@camchameleon4151]

*whimpers in a mix of confusion, curiosity, and terror*

[@notrocio]

@@REAL_SKYFIRE dont ever use the word weeb again

[@Beetless]

@@notrocio why weeb good

[@notrocio]

@@Beetless no its not 💀 so ur telling me wanting to be japanese when ur not is ok??,,

[@lethn2929]

This is how learning should be done, breaking it down properly into small parts rather than just going "This is how you do it" like a lot of useless tutorials, thanks! This has helped me break down the writing system to make it readable and actually read the characters rather than just see a mess of writing on the screen.

[@weirdcatxd8742]

0:04 The Japanese text means: Languages ​​are always convenient, whether in Asia, America, Europe or anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, many people can't read Japanese. Because you can only read Latin letters. If this text is easy for you, it means you have good language skills. Please watch the video, write a comment, and share it with your friends if it's interesting!

[@elchile336]

Bruh I can read Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and a bit of Japanese Kana

[@user-xr4wp3wj5m]

@@elchile336🍪

[@austin39833]

I could read the entire paragraph at the start. Moments like that have made all my efforts worth it. Been studying Kanji 1+ hours every day for 9months straight.

[@nahir5684]

Thats amazing 😭😭 im sooo behind kanji rn and im too intimidated to start again

[@eperkaine]

do you write them or only just learn how to read and understand them

[@austin39833]

@@eperkaine I write them out. Writing has been critical to my understanding / memorization of them. The way I do it is I have a set of flashcards of each kanji I "know" and it randomly gives me a word say like "fog" and then I write 霧 from memory in my notebook. On average I write 100-150 daily. Currently have wrote 37,500 this year lol I have a couple notebooks filled with nothing but kanji...its tough, but worth it.

[@kaori-himawari]

@@austin39833 すごいね～(´∀｀)🇯🇵✨ そんなに日本語を愛していただいて、なんかうれしいです～❤️🇯🇵ありがとう❤️ 日本語でコメントしましたが 大丈夫ですよね？ 文字間の 「間」までわかれば 日本人。 すばらしいですよ😘

[@deadspace2595]

"Says Muda" Jojo fans: Whomst've has awaken the ancient one

[@GentlemanQ]

my reaction was "wryyyy!!!"

[@レジギガス-l9c]

無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄無駄

[@_simon.s_]

@@レジギガス-l9c 無駄

[@tovaeng4579]

Whomst ???? Plingaplongdingdong? May sound nice too

[@camipitt2430]

Jojo fans are everywhere my god.

[@dbzcollector9963]

At first glance it looks complicated my head was spinning but after the quick explanation im starting to understand it a bit. This will make learning Japanese a bit a easier for me thank you 🙏🏻

[@All-star_Giga_Gargantuar]

This guy is basically the equivalent of the Indian dude making tutorials. He makes everything easier to understand.

[@oldtsk]

@@All-star_Giga_Gargantuar exactly

[@Dis_Dis]

@@All-star_Giga_Gargantuar Maybe he is secretly Indian?

[@sqwertt8605]

“Japanese has one of the most complicated writing systems in the world one of the reasons for this is...” Is because there’s >40,000 characters?

[@MatsubaAgeha]

The video states that it's about 45+45+3000 scripts. (There are far more than 3000 kanjis, but that's about what you need.) Yes, the sheer number of kanjis makes written Japanese complicated, but that's not the only reason. (By the way, 3000 kanjis does not mean having to memorize 3000 random shapes. Kanjis are made of fundamental building blocks called "radicals".) 1. One kanji can have multiple ways of reading. (Multiple ON readings & multiple KUN readings + exceptional ways of reading) ON = Based on the original Chinese sound. KUN = Sound based on the meaning in Japanese. Parallel in English: The heart symbol can be read as "love" or "heart", depending on the context, as an "Enlgish Kanji". I say "heart" is the ON reading and "love" as the KUN reading. "She has a big ❤︎ (heart).", "I ❤︎ NY" (I love New York), "I'm ❤︎ing it!" (loving), "She ❤︎s him." (loves), "He ❤︎ed you." (loved). Note that ❤︎ as a verb is being conjugated using alphabets like the Japanese verbs that use kanji gets conjugated using hiraganas. 2. The same word can be written in hiragana, katakana, or kanji, and that could express difference in connotation and nuance. For example, HIROSHIMA: In kanji (広島), it's just the name of the city. In katakana (ヒロシマ), it is one of the cities that the atomic bombs were dropped. 3. Different meaning of the same native/indigenous word can be written using different kanjis. For example, ATSUI (hot). If something you touched is hot, then it's 熱い. If the weather is hot, it's 暑い. 4. "Anything goes" for names of people & places. You just have to learn how to read those kanjis case by case. (It's INSANE.) 5. The same kanji word can be read differently in different context and have completely unrelated meanings. For example: 心中 ①shinchuh=What a person is thinking and feeling inside his heart. ②shinjuh=Committing suicide with someone. 6. Jukuji-kun. KUN reading (native/indigenous way of reading) applied to kanji words. For example, 煙 (smoke) + 草 (grass) = TABAKO (tobacco, cigarette) (Those two kanjis do not have the sound TABAKO, but are collectively read as such.) 7. The Japanese can be playful with written Japanese and can be playful with their use of kanjis, which further complicates things. Those are off the top of my head; there could be more reasons.

[@MatsubaAgeha]

8. Oh, yeah. There is this thing called "substitute kanji". This means substituting a kanji with a more common one that has the same sound and almost the same or close enough meaning. This will reduce the number of kanjis that get used, but you might run into the original one, so that might confuse you from time to time. Japanese Wikipedia page on this. (Sorry, no English page.) ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%90%8C%E9%9F%B3%E3%81%AE%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E3%81%AB%E3%82%88%E3%82%8B%E6%9B%B8%E3%81%8D%E3%81%8B%E3%81%88

[@dominicmorris9480]

That's like saying English is difficult because there is a whole dictionary full of words.

[@machinegunpreacher2469]

@@dominicmorris9480 That's actually a very encouraging thought.

[@dominicmorris9480]

@@machinegunpreacher2469 I hope it helps you overcome and doubts you may have had, if you had any.

[@waynewellsiii]

I watched this video so long ago and it got me really interested in Japanese. I've been studying for 3 years now. Thank you for this wonderful video.

[@danielsummers5438]

Considering it’s the first video I’ve ever watched on Japanese writing, you explained it very well. Surprised how much more I understood off of a 10 min video. Awsome work, thanks

[@petermueller69]

same

[@tnuoccaeht]

You make me want to learn every language lol

[@SleepParty30]

Do it. I challenge you. I know english, spanish, and about 33% french. I'm still learning french and getting into japanese at the same time. I know I can do it. And you can too.

[@smiley5990]

@@SleepParty30 hm i speak english, indonesian, malay, korean (but still learning) and im learning french spanish japanese chinese. i know its hard to learn these at the same time but i'll try my best since learning languages is my hobby. well good luck for us who are learning foreign languages!!

[@airahrah9875]

im actually learning japanese and korean at the same time since both of those languages have same sentence structures:D

[@ghayathigt9793]

Im a starter these are what i learned my mother language is (Arabic) English Japanese French chinese Indonesian im still progressing but the 2 i know is arabic and english

[@r011ing_thunder6]

Ralph Serr how do you believe in yourself?

[@PandoraKorobka]

Its 3am...why am I learning Japanese

[@draw2death421]

For me 6.30 am

[@Jaylio]

Lmao it’s 4am idk why I’m here

[@siena5019]

Try 8:35🙇‍♀️

[@izairdgh]

You lost the control of your life

[@cyprianpirog]

Lmao same

[@Yuki110rain]

ahah I'm Russian so I'm practicing my English and learning Japanese at the same time during this video :D perfect

[@necrostalker6317]

I'm an english speaker learning Japanese and русский.

[@whoareyou6211]

I'm russian who lives in germany and speaks both if the languages + english, also learns french at school (except i still can't speak it fluently), is going to learn spanish next year at school and has started learning japanese with an app

[@strawberrymilk3388]

@@whoareyou6211 what app do you use for Japanese?

[@whoareyou6211]

@@strawberrymilk3388 i recommend renshuu

[@santiagoandres7488]

Hahahaha! I'm Venezuelan and I'm learning japanese while I'm practicing english, cool!

[@emsi.j]

I am trying to learn japanese (i'm a beginner) on duolingo. yes, i know, duolingo is not the best place to learn languages, i've heard lots of criticism about that. but i didn't want that to stop me from at least learning the basics. i can not afford anything more than that. this video really helped break down what always seems so incredibly and frighteningly complicated. Thanks!

[@violethaye6987]

no place and no one place is the best to learn japanese, which is why for good and fast results it's best to use multiple platforms and tools to learn the language, but if you wanna just do duolingo for now then keep at it. Part of langauge learning is seeing what works and doesn't work for you. I used duolingo with wanikani, tofugu's guide to japanese, genki 1 and 2 and listening to music and watching anime. Gonna keep on adding.

[@boredom4475]

sorry but duolingo is just a exam or quiz like app to know what u have learned so u need another app for the actual learning it

[@dabangbaba7579]

ಶುಭಶುಭೋದಯ ಐಸೊಹಥಧಹಥಧಬೊಭೊಓಹಭೊಡಢಢಠಂಫಷಟೆಔ। ಷಾ। ಹೌದಮಣಮಹೌದಾ

[@myapaul19]

Wow this video made something click in my brain and I feel I’m able to understand hiragana, katakana and kanji so much better now! Thank you for the amazing video!

[@AcademiaCervena]

[This is a previously pinned comment. It was superseded by a new pinned comment in May 2022] *Errata & Addendum:* ‣ At 2:02, the characters ほ / ホ are incorrectly given as 'ha'. They really represent 'ho'. 'Ha' is represented by は / ハ. I'm very sorry for this mix-up. ‣ At 5:04, the kanji is wrong. The kanji for 'muda' is 無駄, and not 鮫. - A note on the pronunciation of the word . Since this term is well-established in English terminology, I pronounce it in English, rather than in Japanese. As an English loanword, this word can be pronounced either /ˈkændʒi/ (CAN-jee) or /ˈkɑndʒi/ (KAHN-jee). The former is more common in British English, and the latter in American English, with a lot of variation. This is similar to words like and , which can also be pronounced with either vowel in different varieties of English. I am obviously not a native speaker of English, and so before making this video, I looked the pronunciation up. The dictionary I used gave only /ˈkændʒi/, which is how I say it in this video. It has since been pointed out to me that this pronunciation is sociolinguistically uncommon in American English, which might make my pronunciation stand out to some.

[@novvain495]

Why Can-jee and Kahn-jee? C and K make /k/ on both.... Also if someone does not know the IPA, the æ one is basically your normal a, while the second one is making a 'back a' basically put the tongue where you put it when making an 'oo' and then lower it and make an a sound.

[@ren3050]

I realized that

[@ebiweenotaweebie2067]

Academia Cervena muda muda muda muda muda muda muda!

[@josephe4766]

@@novvain495 no

[@oleanderkazzy_]

WHOAA THE KANJI FOR MUDA

[@eclipse4995]

6:40 I think Japanese people write "猫は青い魚を「見」ている。" for this. 見る(miru) : see, watch 観る(miru) : watch (contain a strong meaning to concentrate) We are not usually aware of how to use words like "see" or "watch", "hear" or "listen". So we mainly use the word "観る" when we watch a movie or musical, and basically we write "見る".

[@opabeleza6902]

Hmmm interesting

[@eclipse4995]

@@opabeleza6902 Another interesting episode, English listening test in Japan was once called "ヒアリング(hearing)". EIKEN test, a famous English test in Japan changed to "リスニング(listening)" in 1994. (The kanji for "hear" is "聞く(kiku)", "listen" is "聴く(kiku)". "聴く" is used more often than "観る". For example, "I listen to music" in Japanese is "私は音楽を聴く(watashi wa ongaku wo kiku)")

[@mzanniksan8655]

True. -Japanese

[@lampboy926]

Maybe the cat is watching a movie called "青い魚"

[@smugfrog1041]

imagining a cat watching a blue fish swimming around in a bowl, using this kanji seems proper to me

[@ricoco7891]

This is by far the most helpful explanation of Japanese sentence structuring I've come across. Good job, and thank you so much

[@faribasameti9205]

dude this is quite the best thing i could find to kickstart learning my 4th language journey, thank you for this epic explanation.

[@azzasalah9341]

This is one of the most helpful, educational videos I have ever seen ! Such a good explanation please keep up the good work 👌🏼👌🏼

[@elvis1489]

Dude, you friction rock. I was contemplating giving learning Japanese because it's so damn intricate. But at 7:12 you blew a massive crater in my thought process and suddenly I could understand how Kanji is used in a more concrete way (for an American to understand).

[@eggsnbacon7122]

I hope a year after your comment here your studies are still going strong.

[@loaf7095]

@@eggsnbacon7122 yes we better get an update

[@SquooshyShark1000]

i cant understand if that is negative or positive

[@tygarner9142]

@@SquooshyShark1000 It’s positive. His mind got blown and he could understand everything a lot better because of it

[@sally-annebrown1298]

I learnt Japanese at Scarborough State school, in Brisbane a very long time ago. I can count to 5, know hello and goodbye, but do not ask me to write it in the script. Very beautiful scripting by the way.

[@freshcarrot2253]

That's crazy man,you should teach japanese

[@ftm448]

You can lean from the app duolingo yぷ化nぇあrnf炉mwづおぃんほ

[@GreatTasteMurder]

I can count 1-10 You're amazing!

[@savannahwise7058]

@@ftm448 is duolingo's japanese program actually useful? I have found that it wasn't very helpful when I tried to learn Russian for a friend a few years ago

[@fickscards743]

@@ftm448 I use Duolingo also. All I can do is count to four :いちにさんよん I probably wrote it wrong lmao

[@bingbongjoel6581]

7:12 Woah that's a great example! Makes it a lot clearer

[@TerribleTonyShow]

This keeps popping into my recommendeds and I keep watching it whenever it pops up, idk why

[@TonyTones123]

I love the color coding for the examples portion! Great job on the video!

[@casekocsk]

I'm glad to hear that I only need to memorize about 500 kanji words to understand 80% of commonly used Japanese words... Memorizing 3,000 words (let alone 45,000) on language I don't often use is too daunting for me...

[@paulhk2727]

Dude forget the 45000, most of those are exchangeable / archaic / used in such a specific context that you only need to learn them once you have to do with it

[@omp199]

Bad news, I'm afraid. It's not 500 "kanji words" that you have to memorise. It's 500 kanji characters. And just as a letter in English can occur in the written representations of many different English words, a single kanji character can occur in the written representations of many different Japanese words. Although people talk about "learning kanji", that phrase is really pretty meaningless. A kanji is not a word. You have to learn many thousands of words - things like "haha" and "okaasan", which both mean "mother" - and then learn how to write them, as well, which includes knowing which kanji are used in them, if any. As it happens, the word "haha" is written as 「母」, and the word "okaasan" is written as 「お母さん」. They both use the same kanji, but recognising that kanji and knowing that it is used for words that mean "mother" won't give you any clue that one of those words is "haha" and that the other is "okaasan". So you have to learn the words as well as the characters. And then on top of that, you have to learn why there is more than one word for "mother", and in what contexts each one is used, because you can make a terrible faux pas by using the wrong one in the wrong context!

[@roopabrungi4958]

I'm thinking of relating it to English... You don't have to memorize the entire dictionary to learn English so I'm pretty it's the same way for Japanese or any other language in particular

[@thathandsomedevil0828]

@@omp199 ok then, how does one even know that "haha" a Kun reading of that kanji character becomes "okaasan"? The sound of the kanji in the word becomes "ka", how does that happen? I also noticed the same with the kanji for father, for which the Kun reading is "chichi", but it then turns into the sound "tou" when in the word "otousan". How the heck and why does that happen?

[@japaneserequired6314]

there are 2156 joyo kanji or there abouts. All news and educational material uses only these kanji. You need about 90% of them. Memorizing them is unnecessary though. recognizing them is sufficient for most.

[@koshokreation]

ありがとうございます!! This was very helpful ありがとう😊

[@Ghost_with_Bow]

I feel so accomplished being able to read that

[@qindilramadhan]

@@Ghost_with_Bow you're not the only one👍

[@SelcraigClimbs]

@@joaquinbaluyot783 こんにちは*

[@riverevans726]

@@Ghost_with_Bow same haha

[@mohdrameez4147]

@@Ghost_with_Bow how long did it take for you?

[@your_opponent]

Perfect explanation! I have always been confused how to explain Japanese writing systems to non-Japanese people, you've just made me figure it out! Tack så mycket!

[@cucginel1941]

7:12 this is the best explanation for japanese scripts, THANK YOU!

[@JanaKatrinaDeLosReyes]

This video makes more sense on how the Japanese phrases are done mixed with Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. I’ve been confused how to use them all in 1 sentence. Thank you for this awesome video🤩 ❤

[@sakatasankai1392]

This was one of the very best and one of the clearest videos I have watched on KZbin. Thank you, sir, for taking the time and having the patience to create this video. You helped a lot of people. Thank you.

[@jackson5802]

I learned Chinese for 6 years and was repeatedly told that I'd need to memorize at least 1500 characters to understand a newspaper. This seems somehow simpler....

[@jaywwen]

really? I was told that I only needed 500

[@jesusismysavior7487]

@@jaywwen I think for Japanese you need to know at least 500 characters, but for Chinese at least 1500 to be able to read newspaper.

[@khshow9891]

@@jesusismysavior7487 2000 to 3000 i think

[@cherie..cherry]

@@khshow9891yeah that sounds right bc (at least to my knowledge) Chinese characters aren’t really based on Syllables (like Hirogana/katakana) so you HAVE to know the meaning. We had to do so in my Chinese class.

[@ysink]

The step-by-step conversion was so good at explaining it!

[@ao_and_on]

日本人の私からしても、この動画は非常に興味深かったです。海外の方が日本語をどのように感じているのかがわかり、自分の視野が広がったような気がします。

[@ankapatos]

After watching tons of videos, this is the very first to make me undestand this strange japanese writting system. Using examples in english was brilliant and very effective..

[@nainicool]

"The something is somethinging the something something"

[@dr.mckenna7901]

Basically that's how I read Japanese with a decent knowledge of hiragana and katakana and very little kanji.

[@TerribleTonyShow]

The *[REDACTED]* is *[REDACTED]* ing the *[REDACTED]* *[REDACTED]*

[@vibx4892]

My brain thought of something inappropriately when I heard that

[@funnyvalentine7416]

The is ing the

[@Ghost_with_Bow]

I always love coming back to this video to see how many character I recognize in the first segment. I still have no idea what it says, but to try and figure it out the more Japanese I learn

[@domo1507]

I just wanted to thank you for this very informative Video. For someone who just knew that japanese consists of 3 alphabets this video gave me a much better understanding of the language and answered most of my questions. Nice work. Appreciate it!

[@pakuro64]

KZbin got me here randomly... LUCKY ME! This was one of the best writing videos I ever watched. Even though I knew the basics on how the writing system works, there was a lot of amazing insights during the video :0

[@chJohnJobs]

This video really brightened my mood about learning Japanese, i havent been practicing in a long while and feel super rusty. yet i almost understood every single word in the video used before translation, which is a really great feeling and as a sort of bilingual, The way you explained most of this is amazing for native english speakers well done

[@mattedwards4533]

I am one of those people that have a hard time with foreign languages? I do speak some Japanese and have very little problem in conversing. Your video has been a tremendous help to me! Thanks!

[@justarandomgamer6309]

I’m so glad I actually managed to read almost all of the text at the beginning, I just practice a bit more tho till I can read confidently

[@naimfaie]

I been having a idea spinning in my brain to learn Japanese, and after this video I feel more confident to actually do it ✨

[@bizzystudio3945]

My mind is boggled. 700k+ views despite you saying "can-gee" in a video teaching japanese. I can't comprehend your brilliance. 日本語。。。上手。。。??

[@fearlessromeo4293]

Nobody could have explained it better than you did. Thank you. I watched other videos about this topic but they succeed perfectly to scare the hell out me.

[@Shelby6370]

Using kanji in English really helped me understand when to use kanji, thank you!

[@pinkkmochi7093]

Thank you so much! Great start to learning Japanese. ❤️

[@daskut.]

This really helps to get the feeling of a Japanese text across

[@rlujan1999]

I've been learning Japanese for 6 weeks, and this video was a great addition to my learning process, since I wasn't quite understanding why tf there were three ways to learn Japanese. I loved the colors used and the comparison between english and japanese. Very simple for a newbie like me :)

[@sarahalviz979]

Surprisingly accurate, the guy knows what he’s saying

[@grubber]

This majorly helped with my understanding of the language. Thank you!

[@GodofWar1515]

You've got a new subscriber. I knew that Kanji was used for Nouns but I never expected that they'd be used for verbs adjectives, etc. This was very educational. I hope you post more videos on this as I'm very interesting in language as a whole and I like comparing languages together which is what you did in this video. Good job.

[@equinox-XVI]

Taking Japanese right now and I've found this video to be super informative. I was already catching on that subjects and verbs were ordered different in Japanese but this really helps to explain it. Thank you! (Arigatou gozaimasu)

[@tektoms]

Great video dude! I doubt anyone's done a better job out there explaining it for anglophones. Kudos!

[@sanjayrajsoni]

I am shocked to see only 53k subscribers. You have a knack for teaching Japanese

[@kimshi2002]

"Oh, maybe I'll try learning japanese!" I said, not knowing what the fuck I was getting myself into

[@MahmoudSayed-hg8rb]

I'm 1 year late But yeah SAME

[@cloudv2926]

Same i dont even have time time to play games

[@immshep]

Well it’s too late to turn back now, I’ve already turned in my school progression form and confirmed that I’m doing Japanese, time to go through the struggle for years

[@tylergoffinet1085]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

[@laze_amvs424]

I find it suspicious how this shows up in my recommended after checking out a certain article this week about learning Japanese... Thanks though, I can only recognize about 15 kana and this put into perspective how I'll see all these syllabaries fit together.

[@zqdhfkh]

Yall let me make it more clear or explain what i understood by learning japanese : In a complete phrase, there mostly is 3 kanjis : one for the subject (君,私) , one for the noun (家, 花) and one for the verb (作ります, 見ます). The kanjis only replace words, so to make it a phrase, you use hiragana for topic, object, time and place markers (は,に,を,で...) ofc there's more than 4 markers. Katakana is already easy to understand so i've got not much to talk about it. So yeah as conclusion the kanjis of a phrase are replacing the main words of a phrase and its easier to read. Its like My 🇯🇵ese is 👍🏻. These "ese" here should've been written in hiragana if it was a japanese phrase. Hope this helpss❤

[@snivylink2119]

7:32 same energy as "man door hand hook car door"

[@sudonim7552]

ah yes 男門手針車門

[@poppohato1345]

As a native Japanese speaker, my impression is that Japanese and English are so different in grammar and characters that it is very difficult to learn English. So I am sure that native English speakers also find Japanese very difficult, but I am very happy that they are interested in learning Japanese through anime and manga.

[@EM-xr1jp]

Coming here one year later and being able to read everything is such a great feeling

[@aayushs.taehyung4631]

Perfect explanation. 完璧な説明😍😍

[@florianju5638]

Wow... Excellent overview with such a simple and yet so effective presentation. Awesome! Really cool!

[@ev-0163]

5:06 I aint seeing enough jojo references so here's one *MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA*

[@payple2222]

MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA

[@shiroakane-5874]

Same

[@MissMayaCakes]

Muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda muda M U D A

[@_rubyrose10_]

Haha 😂

[@yo-en]

phthalo blue I FOUND A HAIKYUU ( reference? I dunno if it’s a reference but) 2:59 has yama and tsuki next to eachotherrrrr!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺

[@ImWhyMortalsCry]

So I already can Hiragana and Katakana and about 30 Kanji. My problem was I didn't get the writing system. I now do. Thank you very much good sir.

[@JoyinQuark]

Wow...your explanation sounds very clear and simple... I am amazed 😳

[@bowman303]

WoW man just 3 min into the vid and my head already hurts lmao. I know I’ll never be able to speak it but I love the language so much that if I ever meet someone who speaks it I want to be able to communicate. So I thought If i could at least learn to write, it would be awesome. I’m taking notes as I’m watching this and tbh, I’ve never taken something so serious since high school, even then I wasn’t into studying. I’m gonna try hard to understand all this and I hope that one day I’ll be able to write it. Thank you for this video, it’ll get me closer to my goal.

[@tomypinazar8727]

I’m studying japanese for year 9 and this was helpful

[@franciscasfunspace3985]

Awww, I just love the sound of Japanese. It's amazing.

[@britanyborens7168]

I found this video incredibly informative and helpful! Thanks for the lesson!

[@rebooted51]

漢字を理解するのに、偏とかを知っておくのってすごい大事だよなといつも思う

[@aim4grace97]

I know someone who became fluent in just a few years. His entire phone is now in Japanese. I think living in Japan for a few years also helped, being involved with the people and culture, as well as studying it in their university. Then again, he's an extremely intelligent person. I can't even imagine speaking, reading, and writing it fluently. People who can are absolutely dedicated! I love it.

[@heyoimcyan2687]

My first language is English, but I’m currently learning Mandarin. Looking at the Kanji, sure the pronunciation isn’t the same, but the characters are very similar, and make it so much easier to understand the sentence. This video was very informative.

[@heyoimcyan2687]

Not all the kanji are the same, but if I can get one or two I can make out the sentence.

[@lovecook6382]

Wish me luck ya'll, I'm learning Japanese starting today and listening to this.. using 3 different scripts is already making me sweat! HAHA, but I already know 2 language.. how hard can it be to learn 3rd one right? Well, all or nothing, here I come!

[@jaedensoarin]

Good luck, you’ve got this!

[@frostyblade8842]

How's it going?

[@sajeev6632]

Thank you... I couldn't understand until now why the 3 forms are written together.... Well that is solved anyway.. arigatougozaimasu

[@MythWish407]

The kanji script so intimidating. I've got hiragana and katana down, but the sheer amount of kanji characters and their different pronunciations tends to overwhelm me

[@Bright_SR]

Your dim text make that jigly optical illusion dude. So cool!

[@lohphat]

It's not "can-jee" but "kahn-gee".

[@AcademiaCervena]

Please check the pinned comment to see what's up with this!

[@e.b.4379]

Are you Japanese? It's pronounced "kanjee" in Japanese, not "kahngee", which is how English-speaking folks pronounce it! I've lived in Japan for 8 years...

[@taylora7777]

E. B. I What do u exactly mean by “English”

[@morthim]

KAHHHHN

[@KC-sd9jh]

lohphat I bet you’re fun at parties

[@dylbanyeah]

I will be passing this video to my weeb friend. This is very well done!

[@leventerikli9173]

Awesome job you done , i was rly confuse before this and i was gonna learn hiragana first but i changed my mind to learn kanji first. All this f9r non translated mangas 😂

[@insertedgynamehere1648]

You actually made this so much simpler thanks

[@asafusu]

カタカナ、ひらがな、漢字など沢山の言葉があるのにすげー

[@zneuph]

When I actually read and understood 11:09. Mitekure arigatogozaimashita! (Thanks for Watching) I am almost on my way to giving up because I felt I cannot do it anymore (I have a weak will) but then, I finally reaped my first fruit!

[@renansouza2195]

Wow ! This videos is amazing! Tho Japanese is freaking hard I'm gonna keep studying it! I'm in love with this wonderful language 🤩🤩💝

[@Zerkon94]

Tydlig och pedagogisk video! Ser fram emot att se fler om det japanska språket :)

[@AcademiaCervena]

Tack så mycket!

[@teachersamm]

their writing system is pretty interesting!

[@hentehoo27]

I'd like to see a video about Finnic languages (like Karelian, Veps, Livonian, Izhorian etc.) Videos in your channel are very well made!

[@AcademiaCervena]

Thank you! I agree that would be an interesting video to do.

[@Isaakmedextraa]

What's the remaining 16% of the publication?

[@AcademiaCervena]

Mainly numbers, punctuation and romaji (Latin letters) :)