Can Japanese Spot Foreigners' Japanese by Listening? (Tokyo)

[@ThatJapaneseManYuta]

Learn Japanese with Yuta: bit.ly/3s0iV18

[@emirko3856]

Laughed so hard when the third speaker started talking. You cannot fool us, Yuta!

[@Reymax164]

WAHAHAHA True

[@andydyer6591]

List of countries in the world: 1. Japan 2. Thailand 3. Slovakia 4. Close to Slovakia

[@extjmrq]

LMAO gave me a good laugh

[@Yungtacosss]

The entirety of Europe is Slovakia now I accept that headcanon as a fact lol.

[@nullbeyondo]

HAHAHA

[@jumpvelocity3953]

slovakia is so funny because of how obscure

[@appleitree]

They mentioned India too. If that orange hair guy then probably not

[@GoodHunter9]

Slovakia is a strangely specific location.

[@acgm046]

I think he was just mentioning whatever foreign country that came to his mind first

[@nathanmerritt1581]

That guy gave me a good laugh!

[@Facino]

Yeah I was wondering what we've done to anger that guy. Loved him though!

[@silverstorm1000]

In my experience, a lot of Asian guys will kinda latch on to a random European country with an impression of people from there. A friend of mine wanted to date Norwegian girls for some reason.

[@tomasvrana.]

as Slovak, this actually made me really happy that they at least know that our country exists 😅 A lot of people would still say Czechoslovakia.

[@Griiisetryne]

I lived in Tokyo for a year as an exchange student a while back, and one time I was taking a cab home after a long night of partying I got the best compliment. I chatted a bit with the cab driver, and when we arrived at my place he turned around and looked at me, and was surprised I wasn't Japanese! He jouzu'd me and took off 70 yen from my taxi fare 🤣

[@MarkyTeriyaki]

Three things in life are inevitable; death, taxes, and getting 日本語が上手ですね'd

[@juanki8350]

If someone ever says you are 上手, then there’s a long way to go lol. It’s when people never compliment you that you know you are fluent

[@impepenane]

@@juanki8350 bullshit. if you tell them you are not a native person or you clearly do not look like a japanese person it often happens despite being fluent

[@Kaorii1905]

@@juanki8350 I don't think it applies every single time, in this case the driver was surprised that op wasn't japanese, so jouzu here just simply means she is so good that people can mistake her for a Japanese person

[@mfaizsyahmi]

The girls who roasted Yuta's otsukaresama as sha-sha-sha 💀💀

[@kipchickensout]

it's interesting how you can tell if they're japanese or not even without speaking japanese yourself

[@ellotheearthling]

Yeah because Japanese is very recognizable

[@neonch1]

maybe because a lot of the foreigners' native language is (presumably) English, and English vowels are very different from Japanese ones, in fact, they're almost opposites. English loves gliding between vowels (tons of diphthongs and triphthongs) while Japanese avoids this to a great extent. Trying to keep vowels separate while coming from such a language is way harder.

[@hontouhahitorikiri]

I agree with that woman... Yuta-san is very passionate in his work 😜

[@nesle1805]

It doesnt matter if you sound native speakers or not, language are made for communication. And its a good thing people will know your origin by the way you speak. But as long as you can communicate thats enough

[@yuki._loves]

I really love your outlook of languag its really motivating and inspiring

[@flashgordon6510]

I would be so happy to be able to hold a basic conversation. That's my goal right now. Perfection can wait.

[@nathanmerritt1581]

The guy Slovakia guy is throwing out some really weird random guesses out there lol

[@DowncastParadox]

Yeah, the others were like "I think this one's Japanese" but the Slovakia guy goes "I think this one is an Austrian car mechanic from the southern district of Vienna, possibly 21 Mozart street, apartment 34b... no... wait... 34a!".

[@doublebubblebarb7606]

@@DowncastParadox😂😂😂

[@Nogha12]

This is one of my new favorite videos from this channel! Number 2 totally had me fooled. They sounded really good.

[@chromakuro]

10:12 it would be interesting to have a video on how clearly you actually have to speak to still be understandable. From what I have seen of Japanese people in real speaking, they don't seem to be as nearly pronounced as Japanese in media such as anime or music, but regardless they can still be perfectly understood

[@nullbeyondo]

That one guy: "Slovakia!" "Wait... Close to Slovakia!" "So difficult.. AHA! She couldn't fool me!" I'm dying

[@usageunit]

I kind of remember him doing a video like this years ago, and one of the speakers was a Kansai native who a lot of Japanese guessed was a foreigner because their pitch accent was different.

[@nanakadog]

これを見て「これくらい上手ければ殆どネイティブに聞こえるのか」と思うかもしれません。しかし、この動画のポイントは、ごく定型的な「お疲れ様です」一言だけでもこれだけ見分けがつくということだと思います。実際の会話ではもっと色んなことを長く話すのですぐに日本人じゃないのがバレます。 日本人はよく日本語が上手い外国人に「日本人よりも日本語が上手い」と褒めますが、大半は単なるお世辞です。あるいは、外国人が日本語を話してくれるのが嬉しいからそう言っているだけです。日本語を教えている外国人講師ですら日本人じゃないと分かることが殆どだと思います。

[@Nordlys]

Love the video, Yuta! ^^, Would be nice if the intro had a short notice that we could try to play along by watching the numbers in the corner, since the reveal only comes at the end. I didn't notice it at first before the second phrase. Would be funny if you included a Japanese person who was just bad at spoken Japanese as well. As a non-Japanese speaker that has consumed a lot of Japanese media, I also got it right, but I was very uncertain of #5. I heard that parts didn't sound quite right, but most of it sounded fine so I thought maybe it could be due to dialect variation or an introvert speaker. I couldn't place any of their origins though.

[@pluviophile1988]

A native Japanese bad at speaking Japanese?

[@Nordlys]

@@pluviophile1988 Well, it sounds weird now that you say it like that, but there are people with odd mannerisms. I imagined something like a shut-in who doesn't interact much socially, people with some kind of speech impediment or rare regional variation from 'standard Japanese', or someone who live(d) abroad for a long while. They exist online, but finding them on the streets might not be the easiest task.

[@n1hondude]

YUTA!! You should add a Japanese raised abroad who doesn't speak much Japanese to throw them off.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

Hoo, surprised only Yuta is the Japanese in the sample. Well, it's definitely not impossible to completely adopt another language's full range of expression, especially if one fully immerse themselves in their people and culture. It's the case for one brit guy named Danial Tyler, who on a coin flip chose to stay at Perhentian Island for some years, initially for the clear tropical sea water but later became fully engrossed in the local culture to the point of completely adopting the state's local dialect. Made a name for himself in Malaysia.

[@jeannedarc6121]

A prime example is when tons of foreigners speak better English than some natives (some of them).

[@takanara7]

@@jeannedarc6121 There's a youtuber I've been watching, I totally assumed she was American, but it turned out she was Bulgarian and English wasn't her first language.

[@jeannedarc6121]

@@takanara7 O, what yt channel?

[@sunkuu]

Very interesting video! I’d be interested in seeing a similar experiment but with clips of Dogen’s Japanese in as well!

[@Firegarden999]

As someone living for a long time in Japan, I just think it’s not so important to sound like a Japanese but be understandable enough to communicate. N3 lvl is enough imo.

[@pahoopahoo]

こういう企画はお題の作り方で、回答者(この動画で誰が外国人かを当てようとしている人たちではなく、お題をしゃべっている方)のしゃべりに影響する。影響するというか、その人の日本語力の程度の露出度が変わる。 おそらくこの動画の企画者(yuta氏もしくはyuta氏チーム)もそこを考慮してお題を作ったものと思われる。 一番目のお題は「お疲れ様」という定型の挨拶で短い一言である。また、日本に住んでいたり日本語のメディアで頻繁に遭遇するものなので、学習者としては音に馴染みやすい。自分で口にすることも多くなるので比較的日本語母語話者に近い音を出しやすいお題である。 二番目は、やや長めの決まった文章を朗読するというもの。 この動画のお題に関しては、アニメに詳しくないので定かではないが、もしかするとアニメのセリフもしくはナレーションから引用した文なのかもしれない。 これは一番目よりは難しく地の能力が露呈しやすいが、予行練習ができる余地がある分、予行練習の量、質(例えばネイティブの先生にチェックしてもらうなど)次第では結果もまた変わってくる。 三番目のお題は、「手短に自分の学校生活について自由に話す」というもの。 こういう場合が比較的地の力が露呈しやすい。ただ、自分で自由に文章を話せるため、場合によっては意図的にもしくは偶然その人の中でネイティブっぽくしゃべられる単語や言い回しを選んで話せるので、二番目のお題よりも能力を誤魔化せる場合も多少ある。しかしながら基本的には二番目よりは三番目のお題のほうが難しい。 ここでは動画の尺の関係上出ていないが、他には対話を披露するというものもある。上の3つのお題は全てモノローグである。モノローグだとある程度は誤魔化しができる。対話形式となるとかなり本当の実力が露呈する。また、この対話の相手は当然ネイティブで、且つ親しい間柄ではない人のほうがいい。親しい間柄だと共にカジュアルな短い文章で済ませたりということができてしまい、やりようによっては誤魔化せる。初対面のモノリンガルの日本語母語話者との対話というものにするとかなり露骨にその人の日本語能力が露呈されるだろう。

[@nadiah3664]

Your voice as the third speaker is hard to miss :P

[@StarMercurian]

Thank you so much for this Yuta!I am definently try to brush up on my Japanese because I am planning a trip there for month in 2024.I'm ok at speaking it now but theres so much I need to learn before I go back.

「おつかれさまです」を聴いただけで全部わかりました。私も外国人ですから、同級生とか同僚の色々な日本語を聴いてきたので、外国人のくせがすぐにわかります。でも、5番目の人は本当に上手です。「おつかれさまです」を聴いたら「はい、外国人です」といいましたが、そのあとは一瞬「ユウタさんみたいにわざとやってる日本人か」と思いました。

[@Hide_Me]

I guessed 1, 4, and 5 weren't Japanese, but 2 had me fooled ngl. It's kinda strange hearing all the native speakers flip flop when to me it was abundantly obvious from the beginning that 1, 4 and 5 weren't native Japanese speakers. I guess there must be some things non-speakers pick up on that native speakers don't, which makes one hell of a case for the value of an outsiders perspective lol.

[@asaris_]

😂 I KNEW the German one was a fellow German. Don't ask me why, just ... Total pack mate vibes... 🤦 Still funny that I was able to spot a German accent in Japanese. Didn't know I had that "power". And funnily enough I did think the Japanese one was the only Japanese. Just couldn't put the others. 🤷‍♀️

[@zeemon9623]

I recorded my lines about 700 times but don't tell anybody.

[@asaris_]

@@zeemon9623 🤣 I know that feeling... Even when speaking my own god damn language! 😜

[@birdyyy4836]

Deutscher akzent ist so einfach rauszuhören 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@OpuYT]

I didn't get it immediately but when it was revealed being a german speaker I listened again and it was really clear true

[@asaris_]

@@OpuYT Yeah... It's that strange "packmate" gut feeling, right? 😉 What I found interesting is that even if there's certain "very german" pronunciation things going on, it doesn't feel terribly off from Japanese (well, certain dialects better than others, I guess). I think it's way harder for English speakers to create halfway accurately sounding Japanese?

[@acgm046]

Speaker 3's real name is Seiyuuta

[@UnsounderGnome]

Yuta, were you speaker number 3? haha

[@limitedmobro]

"Sounds like a British person living close to Slovakia."

[@ItsOnlyGenjutsu]

Was this video hard to follow for anyone else? Maybe I'm just slow 🐌 lol. But, in the future. For game show-esque videos like this. I'd recommend cutting the video to show each participant question #1. Then, cut to each person getting their results for #1. Then, on to #2 so on and so forth. Alternatively, you could show all of one person's guesses (no answer reveal). Then do the same for the next person etc. Have it cycle back to the first participant after the last participant has answered all questions, and show their reaction to each answer, and on to the next. Or, cycle through each participant for each question so it doesnt spoil the answers to all the questions right away. Method 1 or 2 depends on if you want to focus on the questions, or the people answering. By showing each person's answer to only one question before showing the next person's answer. It puts the focus on the question. By going through each participants answers all at once, it allows you to get a baseline for how each person guesses, their biases, and what they look for in totality before moving on without spoiling all the answers for the viewers. Before everyone has even heard the material in question. Doing that, then cycling through each person's result and reaction for 1 question before moving onto the next is probably best of both worlds. But, a more tedious editing process. I also got confused on which audio was being played when. Was there 2 clips for each speaker? God sometimes my comprehensive abilities are poo. I realized all that info may be convoluted so here is an example of what I last described if there were 5 questions and 5 participants -Question #1-5 Participant #1: answers all questions, cut to next participant Participant #2: answers all questions, cut to next participant Participant #3: answers all questions, cut to next participant Participant #4: answers all questions, cut to next participant Participant #5: answers all questions, cut to participant #1 -Results: question #1 Participant #1: show results for, and reaction to question #1, cut to next participant Participant #2: show results for, and reaction to question #1, cut to next participant Participant #3: show results for, and reaction to question #1, cut to next participant Participant #4: show results for, and reaction to question #1, cut to next participant Participant #5: show results for, and reaction to question #1, cut to participant #1 repeating the process for question 2#, #3, #4, and #5. God this was much harder to explain than I had in mind haha

[@southcoastinventors6583]

Great to see the street interviews again and the number 3 person is total not Japanese there were a lot of mistakes he needs to learn Japanese from Yutu.

[@francegamble1]

I haven't spoken Japanese since 2007 to anyone who is fluent enough in it... I only read and watch TV in Japanese now. I need to speak it again to someone. I wonder if my accent has changed?

[@owlowlss]

i have a question, how does Denji from Chainsaw man speak japanese? when I watched the episodes i noticed i think he added words to the end of his sentences occasionally i dont know what it is but i think it would be interesting to learn his speaking style

[@GippyHappy]

Yuta refuses to translate "jouzu" he's forcing vocabulary onto me well jokes on you that's one of the few words I actually know

[@stetsuninu2374]

Interesting! I (American native English speaker) played along and correctly guessed on 4/5 of the speakers. The one that I got wrong was the American-totally thought they were Japanese!

[@saebre.]

same

[@401Sakura]

This was a really interesting video but I'm wondering if you could do a part 2 where you use the same people but all saying the same thing? I feel like it would've been more fair/accurate if you had given everyone the same few sentences to say. A lot of people seemed to pay more attention to what kind of grammar/vocab the speaker used and used that to figure it out as opposed to really paying attention to their accent.

[@TheBombayMasterTony]

Like they said, Yuta was passionate.

[@bluelingen]

The pink-hair guy is a real-life version of Gintoki. 🤣

[@user-yc3fw6vq5n]

I think for many like myself who consume Japanese media, #1 from the first sentence I knew she wasn't Japanese. When he said she was Indian it made sense. #2 I thought sounded Japanese but was a little fast for a normal Japanese. Probably Japanese but I won't be surprised if they're not. #3 sounded like a a foreigner who'd learned Japanese extremely well or maybe a Japanese or half Japanese who was born and raised outside of Japan but their parents spoke Japanese to them. Or, a Japanese with a unique personality! #4 sounded obviously like a westerner #5 less so, I'm British Also, perhaps Japanese are simply not as used hearing foreigners speak their language so they can't easily tell which accent is from where compared to English speakers telling where someone is from when they speak English. When a person speaks English in an accent I've never heard before it's significantly more difficult for me to tell where they're from, but English speakers hear a lot of accents. And can we all agree on how on-point the man with the shades was!

[@Snoyuki]

Love these videos educating funny etc

[@applesolon993]

Yuta-san! I'm a huge fan of you! I really wish to meet you one day. It will be a dream come true, yuta-san 😍

[@jinjurbreadman]

cool video, but the pre-recorded audio allows the foreigners to do multiple takes. Their "live" Japanese (like if you were to talk to them on the phone, as an example) probably has more noticeable errors.

[@Marvel2328]

I guessed all of them right except for no. 2. i kinda want an interview with no. 2 now about how they learned japanese lol

[@mahomisawa4172]

To be honest the whole time I had no idea, i was vaguely guessing but it might as well have been blindly guessing. Might have been easier if it was like 3 out of 6 or 4 out of 8. I think its more interesting when they free talk instead of repeating the lines, though even then it was hard to tell exactly if they really were.

[@emoaf8555]

The red haired cracks me up

[@_MRK87]

I got confused, would be good to show scores for each guesser.

[@takanara7]

You should put up graphics or something about how all the people guessed, it's really hard to keep track of who got who right or wrong like this.

[@idk6465]

I feel like japanese people have a very pronounced way of speaking japanese, where english is a very laid back language (english is my second language)

[@Yotanido]

I actually guessed that #4 was German before the reveal. Being German, I recognise that accent anywhere, lol

[@IIIEPJIOK221b]

おつかれ。 Yuta, could you please make a video about how Yor (from SPYxFAMILY anime) speaks japanese? She uses phrases like いただけましょうか? which I only saw in textbooks. But still she sounds pretty natural

[@DowncastParadox]

If someone came to me with a bunch of recordings and ask which, if any, of them are native speakers, I'd assume they were reading from a script or book. Is that not the natural assumption? Because the people in this video often made remarks about sentence structure or unusual words being used, which I'd have completely disregarded. Am I wrong?

[@xlben10]

Loved the slovakia guy HAHAHHAA

[@TheStickCollector]

useful for me in case I need to gain an accent

[@fuego09esmeralda]

2:28. I feel like I've heard this voice before... Is he...? Wait...

[@StarlitLilies]

I've heard that first line before somewhere....

[@MattFromHawaii]

That's so interesting to hear the people disagree with parts I was sure was x or y 😂 I was thinking to myself "ehhhhhh?" 🙃

[@Yulo303]

I managed to guess everyone correctly :) Though couldn't tell specifically which country the foreigners are from, except #4

[@12Ger13]

Man, they always think you're a foreigner Yuta (Mr Person 3) 🤣🤣🤣 Nihongo janai xD

[@stefanhudacko2555]

How does he know about slovakia? Slovakia is such a little country and not many people know where it is. I was genuinely surprised he knew about it. Are japanese people just that good at geography?

[@ch0cocat]

that one guy who kept saying slovakia lol

[@Dudelee1]

can you do a video on how ojisan speaks japanese in isekai ojisan?

[@faradillaramadhani9457]

Indonesia south east asia India south asia It's different

[@DaremoTen]

Okay, I'm super late to this game, but at 9 minutes into the video, I will lay out my guesses: 1 & 5 are AI. 2 & 4 are non-Japanese(I think 4 may be another KZbinr... Whose name I can't remember? Half Japanese cat from Australia, does anime reviews...), and 3 is obviously That Sexy Japanese Man, Yuta. Time to unpause and see how off I am. Edit: Yay, I was way off! My apologies to the people I thought were AI. I didn't think of trying to puzzle out what specific country the speakers might be from.

[@zeemon9623]

I was halfway looking forward and halfway dreading my appearance. Seems like I'm mada mada not jouzu enough.

[@areukiddinme8438]

0:34 Eeeehhhhhh??! Itadorii??

[@anamei9]

I could hear consistently that only number 3 was Japanese.

[@idk6465]

11:11 this dude reminds me so much of Joe (the anime man)

[@Katsurenjo15]

But do most Japanese people care if the person is foreign and their Japanese is imperfect?

[@bensymes1876]

僕の音声使ってしてもらえなかったー：（

[@Mikey_in_Japan]

a British person that lives close to Slovakia

[@TomiDub]

Please do another oooone I wanna tryyyy I'm a voice actor and people tell me my pronunciation is clean :D

[@heytony]

Japanese pronunciation is relatively easier than Korea or China, so it's not easy to guess...

[@nileredsexperiment834]

Yuta is a foreigner confirmed lol

[@rubyrose7858]

Please don't forget about us half Japanese people who speak Japanese since childhood days yet we are considered foreigners lollll (I'm talking to the people who were guessing in the video 😂). We are always forgotten 😅😂

[@bettyspaghetti3018]

@@VGear My blood's full of blood. Lots of blood in there.

[@starstenaal527]

I think Yoto Kami is trolling

[@armandovillamizar9052]

I lost it here 1:11 xD he's so funny!

[@xiaoxaxo]

slovakia gang

[@gt7395]

Damn, I thought the last girl was Chinese rather than British 😆

[@warcatbattalion]

Person 3 is definitelyforeigner

[@thrillhouse4151]

I guessed perfectly! Not all the nationalities, but I had a hunch! There’s a LOT of subtleties to languages and even voices themselves.

[@jjssnC]

hi

[@Ethanol.]

I don’t know man… sounds like a Slovakian to me

[@pomelo9262]

Jouzu!!

[@crys4509]

it's really true that Japanese can really tell if you're not a native or a foreigner by simply speaking .. but for foreigners who learned Japanese as their first language(living in Japan) or a continuous exposure to the native speakers they can adapt the way on how to speak and sound like a native ..

[@purinwithahat1891]

if they lived in Japan and Japanese is their first language. they aren't really foreigners, are they.

[@jumpvelocity3953]

@@purinwithahat1891they are, because Japan is not defined by only geopolitical parameters (unlike USA or Canada), it’s that plus cultural background and genetic construct. It’s a monoethic country after all.

[@11Nicolaion11]

I mean, I think non japanese people can hear the difference too even if they can't speak that well

[@djangofett4879]

i am very good at copying accents if i hear enough of it. i bet with some practice i could trick them into thinking i was a native speaker 😆. that would be a fun game.

[@jyenswallow]

Go for it!

[@jumpvelocity3953]

You will never think like a Japanese person though, made apparent by this comment.

[@kumadori9627]

WHY SLOVAKIA HAHAAH

[@Figgy5119]

I mean, to me, all of them except the Yuta ones sounded very obviously foreign. I'm actually surprised some of them were fooled occasionally, it was fairly obvious, I thought.

[@UnimportantAcc]

7

[@Myron1010]

いちこめなんだけれども

[@LeegallyBliindLOL]

I absolutely hate it that when some of them are convinced it's a Japanese person, then get told it's not a Japanese person, they backpedal and try to find faults in retrospect. It's absolutely pathetic.

[@radorigami]

I didn’t think about this but I agree

[@gix9461]

this

[@DowncastParadox]

@Yoto Kami Ah, a real man of culture: people disagree with me, therefore they should end their lives. It's the only logical thing to do, especially over something as important as fluency in a language.

[@Stuttful]

It really isn't that serious

[@quackquack4335]

It was only 1 of them! The others complimented the speakers 😊

[@drbg11]

Early

[@boomboombean5640]

First

[@柯書凱-k4o]

Horrible. Down-voted. Only showing populated places. Doesn't represent the entire country.

[@quackquack4335]

いい加減

[@red2theelectricboogaloo961]

fucking if you go to a farm house in the middle of bumfuck nowhere that's a populated place. what are you saying he should talk to, a stalk of rice?

[@giselleschwartz6766]

simmer down

[@柯書凱-k4o]

@@giselleschwartz6766 no

[@柯書凱-k4o]

@@giselleschwartz6766 your mom

[@JihadiCarnifex]

Hello yuta

[@soyosugawara2658]

Bro I wish know this question.

[@Godzilladad]

Would you call a black/Japanese a foreigner? Just because of skin color?

[@Godzilladad]

@thinkginseng I’m seeing more Japanese/black on TikTok now. One day it should be common. They are JAPANESE!

[@Godzilladad]

@thinkginseng starting to see it more in Korean and Japanese tv and films.