How Hard is Japanese? The real truth

[@t.k.abrams4720]

I didnt realize I was gonna get asked to sell my soul by a robot today lol

[@Sixxpounder92]

Ahem, android actually.

[@zeymort3926]

If you really want to learn Japanese, Kyuubey has a contract you can sign. 🤣

[@mikomichael9555]

@@zeymort3926 sounds fishy to me xD

[@mattice9083]

lmao

[@DANGJOS]

You can learn Japanese very easily. All it costs is...YOUR SOUL!

[@jammydoughnuts]

French was compulsory for me at school and I found it so difficult. The gendered nouns, the pronunciation, the verbs and the fact that I wasn't at all interested in learning it at all. Japanese has been way easier for me because I love the language and feel super encouraged when I recognise words in the wild or understand conversations. Motivation is a huge contributor!

[@EternalLovefield]

I've been brute forcing Japanese grammar for several years and while it worked well enough, it's miserable. Watching your "Japanese From Scratch" playlist has illuminated all the little dark patches in my understanding. It really is logically sound! But I couldn't notice the patterns myself. You have my eternal gratitude ( and money when I next get paid.) Thank you, again.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so much!

[@gonkong5638]

Yeah I use the brute force too. 700+ japanese grammar sentence, 10/180 N1 and still scare to read book in Japanese.

[@MrPapapasta]

I think one of the reasons why it is hard to learn Japanese is that there are too many different ways in which people systematize it and that people's opinions on how things work differ greatly, even (or especially) about the most fundamental things (like whether が marks the subject etc.). This makes it hard, because, 1- You, as a learner, are the one who should decide which source you are going to follow. This is a responsibility that is too much for a person who is beginning to learn Japanese (any language, actually) because you have almost no way to tell whether the source you are following is predictive or accurate. It is like you have to know Japanese in order to learn it but you cannot know it without learning it first. 2- If you have a question it is a little hard to find the answer to that because the person who is going to answer your question may have followed a completely different paradigm, which most of the time renders the answer useless for you. It is even harder for me because I am following your paradigm and there are very few people who look at Japanese your way. I think teaching Japanese should be systematized in some way. And that way should be the one with the least amount of "but"s (the one whose logic represents the logic of the language most, the one that sees from the eye of the language). Among the models I have seen, and in my opinion, your one is the one best at this. I sincerely wish it was the one and only model. It would make things much more easy for everyone else and probably I wouldn't have quitted learning Japanese two times before. But I feel like I will be able to go with it this time, thanks to you. Best Regards.

[@Ash-vt5cp]

yep, i've seen so many cult-like ways of thinking... i'm on a discord server full of hardcore stephen krashenists and they are always telling me how i'm so wrong by watching dolly's video's about grammar, and completely ignore if i say i feel it's greatly helped me get past the beginner hump.

[@amarug]

Such wise words! I started learning Japanese a year ago. I was already commited at the start, but your videos actually made me fall in love with Japanese so much, that honestly simply the act of learning Japanese is some of the most fun I have and I would like to note that I really enjoy my life, I got a fun job, fun hobbies, but learning Japanese is just THAT fun! TBH I dont even have a goal anymore, I just enjoy the walk!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

That's the best way. Enjoying Japanese and using it is the way forward!

[@mikomichael9555]

Cure dolly! I took the JLPT N2 last December, passed it and got the certificate a week ago, and just wanna say none of that would have been possible without this channel, your videos about structure and grammar give textbooks a run for their money. Thank you very much for teaching me this beautiful language

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Congratulations! I am so happy that I was able to help.

[@かえる77]

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

頑張りまーす！

[@x2bounty]

I've been learning Japanese since December. I've tried learning Spanish and French in the past, but the tasks felt so mundane. In comparison, they're not much more than replacing English vocab. I stopped due to boredom. Everyone warned me that Japanese was too hard, and told horror stories of how confusing it was. After using websites or apps like Drops for a while, I was afraid I wouldn't get any further. I was looking through language learning blogposts and articles for weeks. The last one I read was one that you wrote, that linked this KZbin channel. After watching a few videos, I was confident that I could actually learn. In the foreseeable future, I might actually be able to communicate with this tiny island that puts out such amazing creative works. Games, shows, movies, graphic novels. I really look forward that point. And now, I look forward to the journey to get there.

[@Linkin-2603]

5:44 Yes, I want to watch anime without reading subtitles, I want to read manga in its original form, I want to be able to understand Japanese music, I want to be able to write music with Japanese lyrics, I want to be able to understand people who speak Japanese, I want to learn a 2nd language and Japanese is my main pick.

[@robharwood3538]

Same reasons here!

[@slept_earlier]

I rarely comment on KZbin videos, but I need to let you know how awesome and underrated you are. I have been learning Japanese for fun since I was around 10, but I've abandoned efforts to systematically study it (not just once or twice) because of its seeming complexity. I appreciate how you emphasized the core structure of the language in another video and how often you say and demonstrate that Japanese's patterns are very regular. Your channel is the most motivating and interesting resource on Japanese I've ever stumbled upon in 18 years. I hope more people discover your videos :)

[@FahrenDef451]

I’m 4 ½ years into learning Japanese. This channel is exactly what I’ve been needing.

[@Prince.Hamlet]

Finally some real talk. So often people are trying to grift you and just thinking it’s easy for their own financial gain. Thank you robot.

[@CaptainWumbo]

One of the really interesting things about very smart people is they struggle to lie for their financial gain. They're more interested in the project and the work itself. Like "this will cost you your soul, so give up if you can't do that" is quite a sales pitch 😂 And it is what it kind of amounts to, you give up a lot of time to pursue a second language and it takes quite a long time to see even modest results far from what we're really aiming for.

[@expressionamidstcacophony390]

Honestly, learning hiragana took me about 4-5 hours one Saturday with a pictographic mnemonic deck of flashcards. Katakana went the same the following day. Of course my reading speed was cartoonishly slow - I'd forget the beginning of even short sentences before I reached the end, not that I could understand them anyway - but I don't regret it. Most of the learning since then has involved kana review all the same, so there was hardly a need to achieve quadruple-backflip levels of mastery before moving on. It's genuinely mystifying to me how far out of proportion this minuscule step in learning the language is routinely blown.

[@Cohffn]

What methods did you use to learn hiragana？

[@expressionamidstcacophony390]

@@Cohffn I learned kana with pictographic mnemonic decks. They were hosted on tinycards, a site that doesn't exist anymore. Ultimately they were just digital flashcards, but with an image roughly in the shape of the character and with a phrase or sentence connecting the shape of the kana to the picture. Tofugu has a mnemonic chart that's pretty similar, though I've no idea if they have flashcard functionality tied to it. As to the actual process, there was nothing all that special. I just drilled the flashcards I'd seen before and added in new ones sometimes. The site itself gradually increased the difficulty by giving more multiple choice options or hiding the pictographs.

[@Unegundaz]

I remember learning Hiragana myself and it took me 1 day to do so. It's really not that time consuming if you truly commit to it. After writing down each character and memorising its pattern, while reviewing them quickly in your head every hiragana "column", finding an Anki deck with them was very helpful. Do it a several times and you're all set and ready to start reading Japanese. It was difficult at the beginning of course, but reading a foreign alphabet became a second nature very quickly. No matter how slowly learning Japanese might take, it's a fascinating linguistic adventure. "Travel is fatal to prejudice bigotry and narrow-mindedness(...)" and learning a language is sort of travel as well, which then inspires to discover the culture and existence of the people using the language.

[@Bluesine_R]

Thank you Dolly-sensei! I found your channel not long ago and I think your videos are wonderful. For a long time I have wanted to advance from a beginner level in Japanese and I think your videos set a proper framework and mindset for actually learning Japanese the right way and efficiently. Your love for the language really shines through your videos. ありがとうございます!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

頑張ってください。

[@Narulopo]

My 弱点 is not being able to understand colloquial Japanese that is written Twitter, Facebook, KZbin, Images with text, etc by Japanese people. Stuff like: 1 あらすじ助かる 2 目覚めたら女上司の自宅 3 なかなかもった方じゃないか 4 油のこってり混じった水飛ばしちゃって I feel that something is left, like particles, or commas. Or pauses that can't be put on text. 😿 Thank you for your videos Dolly sensei 😻

[@atsukorichards1675]

Yes, one needs to see the situations these lines are said, the threads before them. Some are easy to understand or guess the meanings, like no.2, which is I am sure that I woke up to find myself at my female boss's house.

[@echovespertilio180]

Learning kanjies are the most rewarding thing in my whole life. I am soo happy if I can recognize certain kanjies and know the meaning of them. I do agree that they are a huge nightmare fuel at the beginning, but if you pass that level/barrier, they become your friend. I am from Hungary, and we don’t have western sentence structures in our language either, so I know the struggle of this westernize thing. Thankfully, I have chosen the "difficult" way, it worked very well and I enjoy it. Your videos are amazing and they gave me so much power and confidence!

[@AshokN]

Yet another beautiful video. Thank you so much !!

[@miles3638]

It really is a curious question. Often I wonder why the people who are asking it are actually asking. Also, I think some of the perceived difficulty of Japanese actually comes from learners who are struggling with the 'Eihongo' model: -Particularly for self-critical people, they may start to look for reasons (which usually end up being excuses) for their struggles. -Some people who give up entirely make themselves feel better by remembering that Japanese is a very tough, nearly impossible language, after all. -Then of course there are people who like to use Japanese as a sort of 'badge of honour', in which case, the more difficult you make it sound the greater the apparent achievement. So although the question is legitimate, I don't think the answer is particularly important; if you're able to put in the time, if you actually WANT to learn Japanese, then it's perfectly possible. As Cure Dolly 先生 says.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You are right. I wanted to give a balanced view of the areas in which Japanese is genuinely going to take more time and the areas in which it has an advantage over most languages.

[@tcsocal5554]

Exceptionally good advice.

[@ozthekeymaster]

"No more different than Uppercase and Lowercase" 5 YEARS of studying Japanese and that's the best way to describe Hiragana and Katakana that I've EVER heard!! 😮🤔👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 PS My 16 year old daughter learnt all the kana in an afternoon using Dr Mokus apps. And she was only doing it for a bet with me!

[@ojiwankenobi]

Thanks for the pep talk!

[@pazispeace]

I felt like I was in a very inspirational talk! I started because I wanted to prove new things and because I already liked Japanese, but you definitely made me love Japanese. Thanks for your hard work!

[@HumbleBee123]

It took me years to learn hiragana. I off and on learnt for 15 years haha. I have ADHD and struggle to keep at doing one thing and give up easily. I've started learning again. I do know hiragana and most katakana now plus some kanji now. I'm a very slow learner due to ADHD and guess that's what makes me wanna give up sometimes. I struggle to retain stuff like normal people. Theres no way I would have learnt hiragana in a week. I'm not in a rush to learn it anyway. I'm doing it as learning languages is meant to be good for memory, so it's an exercise. Reason I chose japanese over other languages is partly because I love art and love calligraphy. I love much of japanese culture and always loved martial arts and would love to go one day. I feel more serious this time with my learning so hopefully I get a lot further. Thank you for the video. It's made me feel better knowing it's not as hard as it seems. New subscriber 😎

[@lesthermiranda1794]

The problem that I have always had (I'm an Upper Intermediate Japanese Speaker) is that books never teach you to speak naturally and fluidly. What I mean by this is that if you follow a book you will end up saying something like this: 1. 僕がアメリカに転んだとき人々が僕に関して質問をして怪我したに気になった　(sounds weird and incomplete) 1. 以前アメリカで転んだ時、まわりに 4、5 人集まってきて大丈夫！？ 怪我は無い！？と声をかけられた (sounds like what a native would say IMO) I know it's a pretty simplistic example but I don't understand why books never explain the usages of phrases like ということで、という風に、という風な、っていう。。。、無くなった、みたいな感じ、という感じ and more, which are overused by native speakers, and if they do explain them, they usually do it until N2 or similar levels.

[@edluigi_954]

I honestly adore the way you explained how hiragana and katana are as similar as upper and lower case in western alphabet. Never heard of this perspective before and it made me understand right away, thank you!

[@zip7781]

we truly lost a beautiful soul with her passing

[@MarkOden]

Thank you for this video. It is the lecture that I really needed at this time. For me it is a reality check. Do I want to learn Japanese or not? I say Yes! I really do. Once again, thank you.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Good! ( am happy to have clarified your path. がんばって　ください。

[@robharwood3538]

Lovely video! We miss you, our treasured android sensei!

[@galacticzeus5518]

im learning japanese, and the kanjis are not even the hard part for me (yet), is the structure, is so confusing

[@360marcel9]

This was a good video , you all should watch dolly series on how to learn Japanese, I started improving fast and patiently 🙏 with it and i wanna learn casual Japanese to speak to people who are quite different then the business side of Japan but not saying Formal Japanese is bad but it quite confusing when you try to learn it in the beginning and that’s where Cure Dolly the Goddess comes in and Helps use all out 🌟😄

[@petwisk2012]

I hope more people starts tô teach Organic Japanese, you Will be missed R.I.P Cure Dolly (she passed away a few months Ago)

[@chicoti3]

ドリー：日本語が知りたいなら魂の一部を捧げるがよい 俺：(゜_゜>)

[@yasashisagakawaii]

笑

[@dorklymorkly3290]

I deferred learning Katakana for literal years, over a decade, only to just sit down one day and do some loops on kana pro for a few hours. Felt both stupid for not doing it sooner, and awesome because katakana didn't slow me down (as much) anymore. So yeah, just learn the kanas, they're not that difficult.

[@mudpill7509]

I started a thread on this on reddit recently, and got some good answers, but I was wondering specifically what you, Cure Dolly, thought on this. Does Japanese get easier with the more you learn? I asked in the thread if learning increases exponentially as you learn and can understand more, or is there increasing difficulty in the language which resultsin learning being linear? Many answers suggested that it was rather logarithmic learning.

[@technic1285]

Not to be arrogant, but if you want to know, my experience so far has been pretty additive. Tae Kim has pretty much all of the grammar points you need with explanations simple enough to use in minutes. I just learn one new grammar point and as long as I have the vocabulary (which grows everyday thanks to Anki), I can understand pretty clearly what is going on. This is just in reading, mind you. But my listening gets (a little) better the better I get at reading as I can more clearly understand each part of what they say in my head. Logarithmic is a very good way of describing it. Note, however that I Am Not An Expert.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I think it gets easier because Japanese is very logical and clear. It doesn't keep throwing new difficulties at you (other than more vocabulary of course). But this is only if you learn the real structure. Conventional sources (including I am afraid Tae Kim-sensei) leave you not knowing how the language actually works which means that it does appear to keep throwing surprises at you. Here are my reasons for including Tae Kim-sensei (who is aware of the flaws in conventional "Japanese grammar") among misleading models: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y3vYeZxjrrB6fMU - his strong assertion that Japanese has no grammatical subject (the very core of Japanese) is only the beginning.

[@technic1285]

Oh yeah, Tae Kim isn't perfect, I didn't even think to point out what I disagree with Tae Kim on because I started learning with Cure Dolly, so what he does wrong I thought was just obvious. For example, the idea of an "i-adjective" (adjective) vs a "na-adjective" (noun)

[@Soulskinner]

I'm far from the advanced level, but as I think, hardest part is the beginning. Like everything looks like complete mess. And your level is to low to even understand example sentences from different sources. And your brain isn't used to Japanese at all. While it's even hard to imagine to become better. Later you learn some stuff, many more things become useful and easier to understand. So, as I think, it becomes easier with the more you learn. Only exception which I can think of. Is if you're using some textbook course. Then yes. It starts simple, while getting a bit harder later. But when you dig various stuff, sometimes look at content for native, these grammar videos. Yeah. It looks like something really hard and you actually see how much things you need to learn, to make language actually useful.

[@EXTREMEKIWI115]

Kanji being hard was the most incorrect notion I've ever been given about Japanese. Being the kind of person who doesn't mind jumping into things I'm not ready for, I quickly found out that they're not that bad, and as a result, I started using kanji from the start of my journey like 10 months ago. (I learned hiragana and katakana years ago for fun, I had no intention of learning Japanese back then.) The only hard thing about Japanese is getting the experience and practice in while balancing a full-time job. But I would never have found this all out if it weren't for Cure Dolly showing me that Japanese IS sensible, and that textbooks are a fool's errand. (I tried so many textbooks, they're awful.) それで、ありがとうございます先生ドリ－さま！💥🤝 日本語の勉強は 簡単と楽しい。

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

So happy to have helped. 頑張ってください。

[@James-ml3nd]

Could you explain 治。 Its constantly mentioned in this webnovel, but I have no idea what it means

[@SelcraigClimbs]

How is it used in the webnovel? I only know of it in two contexts: 政治 せいじ "politics" and 治る (なおる) to heal 治す (なおす) to cure

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@SelcraigClimbs It isn't a kanji that really holds much meaning when used alone in modern Japanese. It is probably being used in a special sense in the novel.

[@日本語を勉強しょ]

I think I just goz it. Its the name osamu. I really didnt get that. Im disapointed: Also, this reply is from another account bc I made this one to immerse in japanese. I actually shouldnt be in this comment section bc its english. それでは

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@日本語を勉強しょ あの謎を解いてよかったですね。

[@日本語を勉強しょ]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 そうですね。何か恥ずかしい謎たったけど…

[@DennisPulido]

Cure Dolly is the Athlean X of Japanese.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

ガッツポーズ

[@Soulskinner]

About Hiragana and Katakana there are some catches. ^_^ At first, it seems like lots of stuff, but considering that these are syllables "alphabets" (I'm not sure how these called), they are actually well organized are kinda more easy to remember. Meanwhile, I remember complains from Korean that in Russian, there are capital letters, "small" letters, handwritten form of the alphabet. While in the Korean there is only one "alphabet" so it's not that simple. About learning Kana. Here, I think, there are more to it, than learning it in a week, or month. If you mean by learning the immediate recognition. It requires time, even long time. And... Knowledge of lots of words. We just often read not just separate letters, but words. Hard part of Japanese is truly, Kanji. I think. Or is it? I'm not sure, but Kanji is quite massive part of the language, and part that brings some amount of troubles. Like you can't just take something and just read, you need to know how to read these symbols. But is it hard, or just massive? Like it's (relatively?) easy to learn Kanji, but there's a tons of stuff to learn. And I wonder, is this the reason why Japanese is considered hard. Considering that official amount of "hours" required for these who don't know Kanji is much bigger, than these who knows (like Chinese). But meanwhile, there are not completely unique symbols, but many Kanji consist of various components, and often, there's some logic behind them. So it's not that hard as it seams. Another thing which I would like to mention is amount of content in target language. I wonder why is it rarely mentioned. And by content I don't mean various educational videos, textbooks and this kind of stuff. But rather cultural, or informational stuff like movies, animations, novels, games etc. Yes, sometimes there's a need to learn one or another language, but often people learn languages em. Just to know them? Hm. Even when there's a need to learn these. I think it's much more easy, when you have actual benefits and stuff to read, watch etc, in target language. And Japanese, maybe goes right after English stuff. Which makes language learning and not forgetting it much more easy thing. Ok. You need to get to some level to actually start to "consume" that content. But, at least, there is some. Other things was mentioned in the video, so. But about "easy", or "hard" languages. They are just too massive, even easiest languages. And that's why it becomes hard. While another detail, actually learning language is like swimming. While it's being more massive thing than swimming. And by this I mean that you need to move the language from conscious part of the brain to subconscious. Like with your native language. By using which, you don't consciously think about grammar, meaning of words and this kind of stuff. It requires time and lots of immersion. Ok. Technically someone can kinda know the language, it's grammar, lots of words. But if all this knowledge is only in conscious of his/her brain. He/she won't be comfortable with language. As I think, languages are too massive to learn them only from textbooks and vocab, grammar books. And meanwhile I think subconscious part of our brains are more capable with this kind of stuff, than conscious one. Considering that often, we learn some insane amount of words, in the target language, when we're becoming. Hm. More or less advanced? Something like this.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Learning hiragana is a one-off operation and you can do it in a week or less - but I allow up to ten days. But getting used to them is another question. You do need to be using them regularly - but that's pretty easy. You are learning vocabulary and if the word on the front of your Anki cards is in hiragana (introducing kanji as you learn them) you will be using kana every day from that alone. My core course introduces hiragana for examples from Lesson 2 (a bit slow in phasing out the romaji, knowing how people are) so one should read those and not rely on the romaji. The important thing is once you learn them, keep using them every day. That way you build up your ability to read them fluently. Core course: kzbin.info/aero/PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj

[@Giraffinator]

I think the word you are looking for is "syllabary"

[@Soulskinner]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 By "learning" I meant getting used to them. I don't really remember how much time I spent on Kana. But as I remember, I've dropped learning them separately after couple of days, or something like this. Just looked at the charts and stuff. I just thought that: "You do need to be using them regularly - but that's pretty easy." - will make the job done. XD "so one should read those and not rely on the romaji." I still don't really understand common usage of romaji. I may be kinda wrong, but maybe except Chinese (where, there are no alphabets and I wonder how natives are checking Hieroglyphs), where "native" alphabet often used. Or, at least, used that much, in learning materials. Heh. I actually had much more troubles with words. When I've started learning, I realised, that I have no idea on how to learn words. Like really. How to make that process. Only later I found out the Anki. And used mnemonics to learn first words.

[@Soulskinner]

@@Giraffinator Thank you.

[@silpheedTandy]

i know that it's possible to "learn" French as a game or topic-of-study, instead of as a communicative/language (ie "giving part of your soul to French"). that is, it's possible to get to a basic conversational / understand-a-soap-opera level of French, by being only a semi-committed let's-study-the-language-for-a-year language-collector. is Dolly saying that it really is possible to get conversational in Japanese *only* if you're ready to dedicate part of your soul to learning Japanese?

[@wirito]

5:44 Cure Dolly referencing Death Note :)

[@MaxIzrin]

The structure is confusing at first, but overall it's much easier compared to Russian.

[@antrumkfpsalatschleuder8768]

I think starting to learn any language is the hardest part. I started learning Japanese a year ago and I can tell the hardest part is to just start.

[@ratelslangen]

Hey calm down Dolly. I took 2 months to learn hiragana even though i practiced for 2 hours every day. Some of us just can't learn in that way and thats why we have trouble learning new languages from books, so we come to channels like yours. Kanji is actually leagues easier to learn to read than hiragana because they have meaning, and they are mostly pictographic, while hiragana is just abstract noise linked to symbols.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

So long as you stuck at it and got it done, that's fine! In most cases I've seen once people take over a month it's a sign they aren't ever going to get there. You are right about kanji. They do make sense in a way that kana don't (they are just sound-symbols like the alphabet). Some people do suggest mnemonics for them.

[@Elleibo]

Great video

[@futurez12]

I agree that initially a language like French will be a much easier ride than such an unrelated language for English speakers as Japanese. However, IMO the measure of your level in a language has to be compared to that of a native speaker, and no matter which language it is, and how far/close it is from your native language, adult native speakers have had decades of practice at it. French natives have spent exactly the same amount of time speaking French as Japanese natives have speaking Japanese. So to reach native level (which isn't possible as an adult learner, IMO), it's going to be just as hard and you're going to feel just as inadequate in the long run, despite initially getting that leg up of help from your English when first learning French.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I agree. As I said in the video any language is a big commitment and they are all difficult. Of course there are varying degrees of aspiration in learners, from those who are happy to be "fluent in 3 months" - which essentially means being able to hold simple conversations and which I agree _is_ fluency (which is why saying "fluent" to mean "really competent" is a misuse of the term). People who want to become really competent in a language have a long (and I hope very rewarding) road regardless of the language. However this doesn't mean "tons of study" it mostly means a lot of time spent in the world of the language.

[@tankeryy1566]

cure dolly sensei regarding hiragana and katakana do i need to memorize all the modified hiragana and katakana (the nya, cha sha, kya and so on...) or just the 46 standard hiragana characters and its handakuten and dakuten + 46 standard katakana characters and its dakuten and handakuten = 142 characters? my way of memorizing is first just read and memorize the characters a bit then read something in full Japanese katakana and hiragana (with kanji and furigana on top of it) since just memorizing the letters is boring for me.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You need to know all of them but it shouldn't be a matter of memorizing the others. They work entirely regularly. dakuten changes unvoiced into voiced consonant sounds. All the time. So once you know that you know all you need to know about dakuten. Handakuten turns h-sound into p-sound. That's all. The small ゃ、ゅ、ょ go after い-row kana and you drop the i-sound and add the sound of the small kana. They only look like a lot of different changes because of the romanization. Really it is kya, chya, ryo, shya etc. So yes you need to know them all and no you don't need to treat them as dozens more learning jobs. If you don't know about voiced vs unvoiced consonants watch this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/amqYfZafpNB-l8k - Learn the principle and save hours of work! Japanese has no kana representing combinations with voiced consonants b, d, g v etc. so they are all made with dakuten (ten-ten).

[@tankeryy1566]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 wow didnt notice that the modified hiragana/katakana is only for the い-row kana, nice! thank you sensei!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@tankeryy1566 Honestly, any source ought to tell you these things, but they don't, do they?

[@tankeryy1566]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 yep.

[@joshfike6464]

ありがとう！君のビデオがとても良い

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

ありがとうございます。

[@DanneoYT]

I’m curious do other Asian languages use the western model to teach Japanese? Say someone were to learn Japanese through Korean (I heard they had some similarities) so would the Korean textbook still teach all the misconception? I had a thought the other day where learning Japanese is pretty much an irl Isekai, since you’re starting from zero in what feels like ‘a different world’

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I don't know for sure, but I suspect Korean Japanese teaching would be better because (although not proven to be related) it is a lot closer in structure - it has similarly structured particles for example, which Western grammar models mess up completely. Isekai - ablsolutely. I think that is a wonderful way to look at it.

[@火災のアイスクリーム]

Simply, what actually people define as hard/difficult? Difficult means unusual, non-frequent, uncommon. So obviously, if one's not used to something or rarely interacts with, it is going to be arduous.

[@izen1149]

This doll will teach you japanese in exchange for a bit of your soul.

[@なにいってんの-s5e]

I really love japanese indeed

[@Jorzha]

How should I continue learning kanji now that I'm done with Alice in kanji land, and have used the anki deck for over a month? Can you recommend any other anki decks I can use to continue learning new Kanji?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

The best way to learn kanji is as part of vocabulary rather than raw kanji. Best way is to make your own Mother Deck kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaqUY6aBqph4mac this will last your whole Japanese learning career. You can start by adding kanji-vocabulary and as soon as possible start some simple reading and put in words (with kanji) as you encounter them.

[@Jorzha]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Ah Understood. I've been trying to avoid making my own Anki deck for too long. Thank you for taking the time to point me in the right direction.

[@SelcraigClimbs]

言語学には興味があれば必ず易しくなるような気がします

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

皆の役に立てつ言語学を紹介したいです。

[@Pepso8P]

From what you said, it sounds like Japanese really is an "easy language" once you learn the basics, so it almost feels like kanji was introduced arbitrarily or even deliberately just to make it harder. I really like the language, but I am not actively trying to learn it, probably because kanji just isn't my cup of tea... I am not sure about this, but from the little I've noticed, most kanji reads as 1 or 2 syllables, so it feels extremely unnecessary to use it instead of simple kana.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Kanji is actually very integral to the language and once you start reading - even with a few hundred basic kanji you soon get to the point where all-kana text is difficult and frustrating. Kanji really are your friends once you get to know them a little.

[@Pepso8P]

​@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 As a person who is used to text consisting of characters of latin alphabet exclusively (+ variations of them used in my language), I feel like I wouldn't mind reading text written in all kana - which I can actually do, although I don't understand much. I guess the reason I am most afraid of kanji is that if you come across a character you don't know (because there is so many of them), you just can't read it. While if you come across an unfamiliar word which you can read, you can simply check online or ask anyone about the meaning of it. You don't have to literary write the kanji to show it to someone or search through all the kanji to find it there. Thanks for the reply though, your kind response somehow motivates me to maybe start learning the language a bit more.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@Pepso8P Actually you would mind because Japanese is different. Languages written in all-phonetic characters are easy to read in all-phonetic characters. Japanese is not such a language. Kanji are necessary in ways that you will only begin to appreciate as you use them. Or never if you don't. More about this here kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXfIdnWme7ioqck

[@Pepso8P]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 You are probably right, I am just guessing as I am no expert, not even beginner really. Maybe once I'll too see the wonders of kanji. Thank you for the link. I'll make sure to watch more from you once I find some time for it.

[@johnvienna3422]

@@Pepso8P I'm 17 months in (which in my case makes me pretty much still a beginner), but indeed, I can already see how reading kanji is actually easier than reading just kana. I got some primary school books, which are written entirely or mostly in kana (according to which grade they are), and it's surprisingly hard to know what's going on. I pity those kids, learning everything in kana, then having to gradually replace it with kanji over the years of their school education. As usual, Dolly's spot on.

[@honey3762]

I've actually found it easier to learn japanese, german is so familar to me that its hard to not treat german like it's english

[@legendmen7024]

The Kanji makes it hard for western people

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

IN the end it makes it easier, but it does add a lot of learning at first.

[@Top_Weeb]

Kanji is scary but not that bad.

[@EroToMaNiAK]

日本語は超面白くて大好きなんだよ！

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

よかったです。

[@lyingcat9022]

Sold my Soul many many years ago…. Does Japanese accept Credit? ;)

[@LimeGreenTeknii]

Me: "Wow, テレビ, ケーキ, ワイン, テーブル, even 布団, 名前, and 鉛筆... Japanese is just so close to English!" Also me: "El taco es delicioso." "Das buch ist gut."

[@火災のアイスクリーム]

Grammatical gender is padding information.

[@yakitoly7461]

@@火災のアイスクリーム no, while it can be redundant that redundency is good because it helps you understand the sentence even if you missed a part. It might be harder to learn but it is definitely beneficial.

[@火災のアイスクリーム]

@@yakitoly7461 I speak Portuguese as my native language. Even myself get some genders wrong. People simply started to apply them at random and you simply have to accept it because... yes.

[@火災のアイスクリーム]

@@yakitoly7461 As for linking words, of course, it's not that "genderism" is the only strategy acceptable to classify them, but if someone try to propose such change as to drop grammatical gender, people would definitely brag about.

[@yasashisagakawaii]

日本語のことが大好きです　(つ✧ω✧)つ

[@vlaaa_0.0]

私も^.^

[@koolarooo]

Not gonna lie kinda cringy. Japanese isn’t some magical beautiful, special language, it’s just a language like any other. You can write beautiful things with the language but that’s true of any language. Weebs man.

[@debrucey]

You're right, it IS just a language like any other (which is actualy the point of the video), so why are you singling out people who want to learn it?

[@TIMRUM]

this is what she meant when she said about loving it, you obviously don't love it, therefore it's not special to you, and love is a matter of perspective, also belittling or rationalizing sentimentalities that came from someone's heart, and never were offered as fact in the first place, is rather immature