How to Become Japanese (linguistically) | Revolutionary method makes it possible for YOU

[@raggedcritical]

As a software developer Japanese always reminded me more of a computer programming language in the functional programming style than a human language. As my studies progressed that understanding seemed to be more of a hindrance than a help as more and more special rules came up so it's been great to find someone teaching a holistic approach to the language where there are few to no special exceptions, just underlying logic revealed. So thank you for this.

[@hardflip8]

"Join the Revolution" ... Dolly-san starting a cult here

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I thought it was about time. I have't started a cult all week.

[@thatoneradicalizedprussian225]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 How do I join, sensei?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@thatoneradicalizedprussian225 Just subscribe and you're in! (But don't forget to click the bell). The development of digital self-immersion was the Japanese (language) Revolution of the Heisei era. Organic Immersion will be the Japanese Revolution of the Reiwa era!

[@かえる77]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 　：＾）

[@akiragacha439]

I came from a Learning Japanese Amino, I was searching for complete lessons and someone recommenced your channel. After watching this video, I'm sure I'm going to improve ! I really like the way you describe Japanese !

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you. I hope my videos will help you. Please feel free to ask questions if you have any problem.

[@JeanOfmArc]

Congratulations on your 100th video, Dolly-sensei! You're still going strong and helping those of us who find your videos understand Japanese!! You forgot to mention that Organic Japanese, in my opinion anywya, way more fun than textbook or Anki sentences. Most people prefer listening/reading stories than looking at a series of grammar points or disparate sentences.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you! That is very true. And it is an important point because I think emotional engagement is the primary factor in successful immersion. If one has to choose between something that one enjoys and finds oneself wanting to watch/play/read and something that is "better" for one's Japanese advancement but feels "meh" - I would say nearly always go for the fun one! Because the engagement is really the best thing for your Japanese.

[@nicholasnagassar1205]

I found your channel a few days ago Never have I been so satisfied with information presented It just makes sense

[@sudipabhattacharya13]

I know I'm late here, but CONGRATULATIONS on your 100th video, Sensei!! Here's to a 1000 more of them😃😍🥳

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so much. Feel free to explore the channel.

[@k_alex]

おめでとう！As for the content of the video, as always, very on point and necessary.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

ありがとう！Thank you so much!

[@jordan6921]

Dolly I have been watching your videos for Hours now. Like famous mathamaticians seeing the beauty, complexity, and logic inside math, I believe you see Japanese in the same way. I have high hopes for this organic adventure!

[@retronickmusic]

Ok, so if I'm learning real structure from you, where did you manage to learn it from? I recently bought all 3 "Dictionary Of Japanese Grammar" books, and some of their descriptions are very close to yours.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

If they are describing the underlying data correctly there is no reason for them not to be similar, though they certainly also repeat numerous misconceptions. From memory I have an idea that they actually perpetuated the idea that 私はウナギです does _literally_ mean "I am an eel" even though it is used as a kind of elision to mean something else. But I may be wronging them on that one, it is a long time since I saw them. They certainly do not have a working model of structure, although they certainly sometimes have good descriptions (which is not quite the same thing as analyses, though there is some overlap) of individual points. They are among the best sources in this latter respect. As to how my own structural analysis was developed, I give a brief description here: www.patreon.com/posts/ai-japanese-how-26712303 (it is open to the public).

[@Re3iRtH]

In my opinion, you can get by with just the first volume and learn the rest through immersion. The intermediate and advanced series realistically contains less than 3% of daily spoken grammar use.

[@retronickmusic]

@@Re3iRtH I don't "study" them like texbooks. I use them as desk references for when I'm stuck reading manga, or Jsubs. I used to get frustrated, early, and often, but these books keep me on track.😉

[@Re3iRtH]

@@retronickmusic Nice to hear. But all those pieces of grammar (from all 3 books), are available as a reference online. I did buy the first to support the authors.

[@retronickmusic]

@@Re3iRtH You're not wrong, but whereas I can spend far more time poking around online hoping I can find a suitable explanation, I can just flip through the books, and find what I need in seconds. I don't mind paying for convience.

[@omnigon4]

i made a break for 4 months because of frustration, this video gave me the motivation to continue

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I'm very happy to hear that! Please keep going and if you have any problems, feel free to ask.

[@user-hf6jm4tv2v]

I understand with how my mind works I can intuitively understand patterns when I have enough exposure to the patterns through your content does help short cut things when I feel like I have had enough exposure and you properly explain things that always gets greatly misunderstood. I can be very logical in my way of thinking but also I have a very creative way thinking alongside with it. My creative ways of thinking I feel should be a great advantage. A small example of this creativity. In “tathym„ ain't a word at all whatsoever though my mind treats it as it was a living word, "tathym" sounds like taa mixed with "thm" but spelled with a y between th•m which sounds like thm as in ' rhy(thm) '. This word just spontaneously was created by my mind and in my lexicon, basically if that word where real it I would see it give off a feeling of in "synch", in "rhythm" and "alongside", basically giving off a mixture of these three concepts at the same time with a single word. My creative mind is spontaneous and unpredictable.

[@mancheezethegreat8617]

Here's my perspective, as a complete noob who has had only ONE level of University Japanese in which I learned hiragana and katakana and some basic things: I ENJOY Japanese learning on my own. I enjoy using my brushes to write the Kanji. My learning strategy is to do a little a day, and to search for things directly related to living. For example, I keep 2 pet mice. So I look up the Kanji and the words. I say it, I write it. Point is, it's MEANINGful for me to know how to express and I find I retain MORE when it's directly related to my life and has meaning for me. I always write what I'm learning with my brush and calligraphy ink, or my Daiso pens. I will start trying to read some children's stories, and see how that goes. To me, learning Japanese is FUN. It's a big exploration for me.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

That's absolutely wonderful. Relating to Japanese in your everyday life in whatever ways work for you is exactly the right approach. I am very happy to hear that you are building such a good relationship with the language. Incidentally, the kanji for mouse isn't used that often. It's most often written ネズミ but sometimes it's written in hiragana because that is considered softer and cuter. Have fun and がんばってください೭੧(❛▿❛✿)੭೨

[@mancheezethegreat8617]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Hopefully I translated your comment correctly. I got the impression you want to pet my mice. I hope I didn't screw that up! In fact, both my mice are wild. I have one young male called Quasimodo and one mature female called Sugarpuss. I just got done feeding Sugar. She climbs up onto my desk and asks for her supper and yes, I got to pet her on her soft fur, very very gently. Mice are afraid of everything because everything is bigger than they are so I have to stay very still and gently get them used to me touching them. Also, I'm not feeling so good. I might have an ulcer. My stomach is in knots.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

​@@mancheezethegreat8617 My apologies - I mistyped my message (I put a maru instead of a ten-ten on the は) it should have read がんばってください (I've fixed it now) which is hard to translate but very commonly used. Literally it means something like "please try your best" but it is more encouraging than that sounds and is often used where people would say "good luck" in English. How exciting that you have dear wild mice and that they are getting used to you. It's really cute that Sugar-chan climbs onto your desk and asks for her supper! You must be a special kind of human I think. I do hope your tummy gets better very soon. Please look after yourself carefully.

[@mancheezethegreat8617]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Now it makes more sense. LOL. They are very special little creatures. I love when Kwasi and Sugar are in my hand eating together. The male is half the size of the female and he loves her to no end. He gets so excited and happy when she's there and grooms her. She's a bully though and her little hand pushes him out of the way and she steals whatever is in his grasp even if there's a pile of crumbs in front of her. They are amazing to see. You should see when Kwasi has a temper tantrum. He rattles his tiny tail and runs and jumps around my desk, which is 8 feet long. You can imagine a creature so tiny having a tantrum. He gets angry if I move things to new locations (mice are cognitive map makers and like to know where everything is). He gets angry when he wants a certain kind of food and I haven't got it. Sugar has two babies. I named one Squidge and the other is Bobbin. Bobbin is SUPER tiny (size of an American nickel) and the least afraid of me, although she still runs away if I move too fast or speak too loudly to her. Neither of the babies have eaten from my hand yet but they are searching for solid food ie crumbs and they know to come up on my desk and look around. I'm watching their personalities develop. Bobbin is secure and Squidge is nervous like his mom. I do not leave food out at all. They only way wild mice get to eat is if they socialize and get used to me, otherwise I'd have a ton of them and that's just impossible. I live in a very old heritage building and wild mice come with the apartment. Each mouse has their own personality. Some are so social and laid back, like Kwasi, who I befriended when he was a mere month or so old. He's grown up with me and isn't scared of me at ALL. Sugar was a full adult when I met her and she's still very nervous, although she's getting better. Thanks for the well wishes. I can't wait to feel better and I'll let you know what I work out with my debit card and how to purchase your books.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@mancheezethegreat8617 They sound so cute! It makes me want to have mice! You should talk to them in Japanese. I think animals do not completely understand human language but they understand Japanese a little bit more because it is the nearest thing to Fundamental Language (that's what this doll thinks anyway).

[@meset8622]

13:22 They want to be the very best Like no one ever was To Learn Vocabularies is their real test To know them is their cause They will travel across the land Searchin' far and wide Each Kanji to understand the power thats inside Japanese (gotta know them all)...🎵

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I choose you!

[@meset8622]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 🤩

[@wanjanhasan4873]

Here's my perspective on learning kanji and vocabulary/sentence cards on anki: These will never sink in unless you encounter them in real life. I was actually pretty dumb and tried using anki for vocabulary without context. Took me a long time to realize that it wasn't working (I guess over 1500 words). It's really stressful too, making them, looking for regular use phrases, adding sound, remembering the kanji etc. Yet,among all those, the only ones that I still remember are the ones that I read in novels or hear in anime/drama on a regular basis . Also, didn't know that Japanese people can be pretty flexible with kanji. If there's too much kanji, they simply drop some while typing or writing. So, learning the kanji as set rules doesn't always work.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yes this is why I suggest taking one's vocabulary from what one is actually reading/watching rather than random lists/sources. That way you get relevant vocabulary that you will re-encounter. I did a recent video on kanji overuse (a common gaijin mistake): kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYPGeWWDjLh1mdE

[@wanjanhasan4873]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Just watched it and I can relate to it in so many ways. Wish I came across your channel sooner, although I'm still thankful that I kept learning through the textbooks which basically taught me to be safe in situations, not to encounter real life. Thank you once again sensei.

[@SingTingz31]

Such beautiful and motivational words. RIP

[@xHoneybreath]

Congratulations on reaching 100 videos :) Here's to the next 100!🥂 I'm going to hijack this to ask if you've ever made an explanation for として? That one still manages to make me scratch my head sometimes, and I can't remember if it ever came up in a video.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you! I guess they start this week - the Reiwa Series! I covered として in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/amHEp56joLaFbq8 feel free to ask there if you have any questions after watching it.

[@xHoneybreath]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you! Oh my, how embarrassing. I should have found that one easily, but on the phone the titles are cut off.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

KZbin isn't the easiest environment for finding some things. I want to make a Grand Index of subjects covered but it is hard to find time for a job like that.

[@DD-vu7ir]

2 questions: 1) What do you think of anki cards with a picture on the front and the word on the back for nouns? 2) you recommend starting with anime. How Fluent should one be before moving to manga and light novels ？

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

1) well it's rather limited in possibilites isn't it? You could do basic nouns and possibly some very simple verbs but nothing of any degree of abstraction. Also you would probably have to have a separate kanji deck which is a vast waste of time. The main thing about starting with anime is that you are hearing as well as seeing the words - in other words hearing actual pronunciation rather than making up what in the early stages is bound to be romaji-based approximations to the sounds. There is no harm in working in some written material as soon as you are ready - but keep going with the spoken material especially as you can make that the soundtrack of your life even when you aren't on a screen or in a book

[@your_sweetpea]

Hi Dolly, I started out my Japanese learning through MIA and largely adhering to Krashen's input hypothesis, and I guess the big question I had in the back of my head when watching this video is that (from my perspective, given my background) it seems that learning Japanese structure is fundamentally different from *acquiring* Japanese structure, at least under the input hypothesis. What are your thoughts on this? Are your intentions to make input comprehensible by consciously comprehending the structure of the input and using it as a crux until your brain "acquires" Japanese structure, or are you suggesting that there's an entirely different system at work there? Or perhaps do you not even entirely agree with the input hypothesis? From my view, with a conscious understanding of Japanese structure, you would essentially be put in the position where you're viewing processing input/formulating output as a math problem that occupies your conscious brain and in essence would require you to multitask when engaging in Japanese. Does your experience point to this not being the case? Thanks, sweetpea

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I believe that structure should be used as a support to immersion. Of course having made breakthroughs in structure I don't dictate how people use it, but that is how I recommend using it. Most modern input hypothesis based methods are not strict about avoiding "Japanese grammar" anyway. I believe Matt-san talks about grammar at times. But conventional "Japanese grammar" is highly misleading and in many areas does more harm than good. My approach is that understanding the basic structure we then learn to apply it automatically. Just like learning the alphabet. We stop thinking about it and just see words. Honestly if one can easily absorb Japanese structures accurately without understanding any structure in the abstract one should probably do it. But for many people I don't think it works well.

[@pauldang7014]

It can't be helped that the modern western European languages are quite messy since the history of western Europe is quite messy, starting with the downfall of the western Roman empire with outside tribes who weren't subjects of Rome. Japan had a big advantage in that respect, being an island nation and able to repel foreign invasions easily, compared to say, England, conquered by the Normans in the early 11th century, and Spain, partially occupied by the Moors for a large part of its history. I'd say the thing closest to Japanese in the western languages would be Latin and ancient Greek, probably why despite the disadvantage of using their grammars to study Japanese, it was a bit easier for those who were fluent in them, since those languages are pretty rational themselves.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yes, definitely the history of Europe has led to various developments pulling them this way and that. Though comparing Japanese to ancient Greek and Latin I would say that those classical languages have an unnecessarily complex and often irregular system of noun declension. Japanese does exactly the same job _right_ with logical particles (格助詞 or "case-marking particles") that attach to nouns in an absolutely simple and regular manner kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqjGhXxvptuCY7c

[@pauldang7014]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I guess that's true, though most of the time those declensions are rational; it's only the third declension that's the most complex. It used to be that there were more cases but at least Latin lost two of them. Ultimately that would be traced to the mentality of the ancient Greeks and Latins, and the Indo-Europeans in general. Still, I have found that these points of similarity have helped me appreciate Japanese, along with your videos as well. It's shame indeed that almost all Japanese grammars written for the Westerners use European structures. Also, in point of fact, at least for English, it makes no sense to use the terms from classical Latin grammar, but they're still used: thus according to the late Prof. William Harris, English grammar is still encumbered by older models of grammar that are now obsolete.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@pauldang7014 Yes, I think a knowledge of the Indo-European case system in any of its forms helps a lot with understanding Japanese logical particles (and therefore with Japanese structure as a whole). I have had German viewers saying they didn't understand why I was explaining at length things that were to them completely obvious - but this was because I was essentially explaining concepts of "case", which still exist in German.

[@TIMRUM]

why not go further, Japan is the closest nation we currently have to ancient Greece and Rome.

[@laurencechesterman8411]

I have found your videos extraordinarily useful however I believe they would be even more useful if you continued to explore structure. I have previously mentioned ということ which appears to frequently but it ways it is hard to see how the literal meaning fits with the English translation. Similarly 気 seems to used in all kinds of different presumably metaphorical ways. A full textbook book from you would I think be amazing. Your story of Alice in wonderland; is that your Japanese translation or can the full version already be bought if so from where. If not it would be extremely useful for you to publish the full story with grammatical explanations. Finally please extend your structural explanatory videos to cover all that is necessary to really understand japanese,

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I'm still making structure videos. Last week's was a structure one and I will keep making them. Actually five of my last ten videos were structure topics, so I guess they are currently dividing about 50/50 into structure and other. ということ doesn't have any direct English equivalent. Literally it means something like "thus-spoken thing" but in practice could often be translated as "the fact that..." Essentially what it is usually doing is bundling the phrase that went before it for the purpose of treating it grammatically as a noun. With 気 it may help to know that this is derived from Chinese "chi" as in tai chi (the kanji is also essentially the same though they have diverged slightly in form). It means both spirit and energy and so can have meanings ranging from a person's spirit/emotion to literal energy (as in 電気).

[@Ryodakun]

English is in fact my second language and I very much picked it up by usage. I never explicitly studied it, or in any way shape or form made an active effort to reach a certain level. It just happened due to me having an interest in using the language on a daily basis. If I didn't know a word, I'd look it up and that was that. I'd usually remember it cuz I had context for it (which is where I got the word from in the first place). I never even heard about anki before I got into Japanese studies. But I also must admit that I did it with how you describe it as "blind immersion". It did work out for me but it took a very long time. This time I will try with your method. You've earned yourself a patreon. I can only give the bare minimum but I still wanted to support your work.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Some people can use blind immersion - I would say they are a minority but for some people it works very well. But did you really not learn any English at all in school or anywhere? You say that you learned it from using it every day, and that is absolutely the best way to learn. But you can't start by using it as you have to know a little bit before you can begin using it.

[@Ryodakun]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I indeed used those few things I learned from school as a basis. Very basic nouns and verbs mostly, but without any logic behind it. I was always a C to D student in English back then. I would lie if I said I never took any English lessons before I begun using it daily, but I'd also lie if I said I paid any attention in them. When I begun I couldn't make a very basic sentence beyond "how are you" and "thank you very much". But yeah, if your point is that it would probably have been impossible without that little knowledge I had, I'd probably agree. At least I was able to understand a few things here and there and was able to build from that.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@Ryodakun Yes that was my point. I absolutely believe that what you did is the best way to go about absorbing language. Most people do need a stepping-stone to get started (babies boot from scratch but that actually isn't easy even for them - it takes massive amounts of hours to boot into even rudimentary language understanding from nothing at all). Also if your native language is related to English you aren't booting from absolutely nothing - an English speaker who knows no Italian or German at all can at least guess at signs and newspaper headlines just from similarities of grammar and vocabulary. With Japanese we get no help like that. So I try to give people the best basis I can - but in the end self-immersion is what actually teaches one the language. I just provide the stepping-stones to get there (and a little help along the way).

[@darkestholy74]

Hello Dolly Dool ! I loved the reference with the sword. You sum up well my perspective in one simple analogy. As for the oral comprehension... Actually... I might not be that interested in understanding spoken japanese after all... Usually, when I can't bring myself to do something, that means I'm not really in it, so I'm better off letting it go if I can. But of course, I'll keep reading japanese! In fact, I'm still slowly reading my visual novel 月影のシミュラクル. After I'll end this one, I decided I'll start ひぐらしのなく(亡く ; 鳴く)頃に. Still in the same category. Somewhat cute, heartwarming at times and scary, disgusting at others. I love this! You thought it was a very long and (I think) interesting comment but it was me! A congratulation comment! grats for the 100th. You'd better continue making videos. I fact, I don't even leave you with the choice.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Ryoukai - I'm not intending to stop in the foreseeable future. What aspects of Japanese one concentrates on depends entirely on one's purposes. If you have no use for spoken Japanese there's no harm letting it go. I would say it is easier to cultivate reading-only Japanese (if that's what you want) than spoken-only (which some people at least start out wanting) because understanding even spoken Japanese without a grasp of kanji is tricky - though not impossible. Japanese people do "think in kanji", and it vocabulary becomes much easier if one can learn to do so (this is one of my criticisms of the conventional Western approach to Japanese vocabulary). ひぐらしのなく頃に is one of those typically Japanese titles that leaves wonderfully open suggestive ambiguity. It can mean the time of the crying of the cicada　[蜩 -ひぐらし] (a very big summer symbol - Japanese is full of seasonal symbolism), or their death/disappearance (at the end of summer). or could suggest the time when ordinary everyday life (or the ability to sustain it) came to an end. It is a little more "suggestive" and perhaps fanciful on my part, but I think it also has overtones of "crying at the end of day" since なく could be read as 泣く and the kanji of 暮らし is that of 暮れる "become dark" and I would say that in their fundamental essence they are the self-move and other-move version of the same word. They follow the usual self-move / other move pattern る→す kzbin.info/www/bejne/e33OYpenlqqgr80 and while 暮れる is (the day) becoming dark 暮らす is literally "making (days) dark", i.e. passing them or living them through to darkness. While this isn't strict "grammar" I suspect that the overtone would be there. It is a very Japanese way of thinking - and one of the reasons so much is lost in translations. Ahem, sorry for getting carried away with my love of words. This trick of using hiragana to create ambiguity was recently used by my little sister who used the title 令和じだいすき which can be read as either 令和時代い好き (I love the Reiwa era) or 令和字大好き (I really love the kanji of 令和) - she was talking about both. Of course that only works by leaving out the particles, but those particular omissions are very common in colloquial speech. Which, come to think of it, is an example of why learning spoken-only Japanese is such a tricky proposition. Beyond early childhood, Japanese thinking starts to get very kanji-based.

[@darkestholy74]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 My view in life in general is "even the last runner in a competition is still running while others don't". I don't intend to give up on anything about japanese. I'll only take my time to do the rest.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@darkestholy74 I think that's an excellent view. Unless you have reasons to need something in Japanese I don't see any reason to push yourself to do kinds of immersion that don't draw you in. Emotional engagement is the number one factor. I think it very likely that you will become engaged with some spoken Japanese at some stage in your journey. At that point you can pick it up more fully.

[@darkestholy74]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Oh and while I think about it, there are 2, what you call helper verbs, that I encounter A LOT : かける (ex 忘れかける) and 込む (ex 漬け込む, 突き込む). When you look them up in a dictionary, they give 20+ definitions about these. Why these two verbs in particular? What do they exactly mean? Are there others verbs like these that I should frequently encounter? PS : I also remember there is 合う (付き合う)

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I should make a video on these as they are not well explained and a pretty big part of Japanese. かける as a verb-helper means that the verb is incomplete. Usually in process of completion but sometimes (especially in the simple past) left incomplete. 食べかけたリンゴ is a half-eaten apple. 忘れかける means literally "be in process of forgetting" (except it's a verb. English can't do that) and could imply half-forgetting or indicate a fear that one is forgetting (though one hasn't completely forgotten yet). 込む is very, very common and I've never seen it properly explained. Essentially the concept is close to 入る and as you can see the kanji is that of 入る on a waterslide. This pretty much gives the meaning. It means entering but adds the implication of entering forcefully, energetically or sometimes in quantity. In other words it intensifies 入る. So 飛び込む is "jump into" (sometimes figuratively). 突き込む is "thrust into". With 漬け込む which means "pickling a large amount of pickling thoroughly" the 込む is adding strength to the idea of thrusting things into the pickling fluid. In some uses (as in this one) the added vigor of 込む is more conceptual than physical and can indicate things like stubbornness in entering or remaining. Whether it is self-move or other-move depends on context and is generally no more difficult than deciding whether, say "eat" in English is being used transitively or intransitively.

[@Randhrick]

Ok, first I'd like to congratulate you on your 100th video :) And second, I liked your analogy of cutting a tree with a sword hehe. As always your video makes a lot of sense, maybe this will sound strange to many but is it normal that I feel like I have seen a lot of Japanese grammar in theory but in the "wild" I rarely see any of this grammar in action? Also, I realized how it caused a handicap to teach Japanese in the polite form first if your goal is to read manga and play games polite and casual is so different, that the first time you see something in casual Japanese you feel like you have learned nothing at all. Pretty sure Japanese kids don't start with polite Japanese.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

They don't. In fact they don't start using it for years, or hear it in their immediate family environment or in school interactions. However my main point about not starting with it is not about how often one will encounter/use it, but about the fact that it is not structurally basic. We should learn the actual structure before learning the ways in which it can be "decorated". Treating it as if it _were_ fundamental structure causes considerable confusion and misunderstanding. I think pretty much all the structures I teach, both fundamental and peripheral ("grammar points") are things that one encounters all the time. However some sources do tend to teach some relatively obscure things. Kanzen Master N2 grammar is full of things that I rarely if ever hear in real life - possibly because they are aimed at business/professional use. Since Kanzen Master is tailored to the JLPT a lot of grammar sources will cover pretty much the same material. None of this is useless, since they are all things you will hear at some point, but the arrangement of priorities is in many cases not optimal for people who are using Japanese largely outside very formal contexts. I can imagine people dutifully learning a lot of this material and still being stumped by things like ○○ちゃった, which you _do_ hear every day.

[@akira7ink]

So, what do you think of WaniKani (and KaniWani) then? Good approach alongside learning japanese with BunPro, Bunpo and several other sources? WaniKani does not really seem organic to me, but I feel like it´s the best way to learn the Kanji. I also chatted with japanese people, which actually kinda worked until it got a little too complex. That´s good, I guess !? Also thanks for your lessons in general, forgot about that in the last comment :)

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

And thank you for commenting! As you may know I don't really favor front-loading kanji beyond a starter base of maybe two hundred or so (not necessary, but one may want to do that). Of course some people prefer front-loading and from what I hear WaniKani is one of the best methods. I haven't tried it personally so I can't give a personal opinion, but the fact that it learns kanji within Japanese words rather than with English keywords (I believe) puts it ahead of its main competition!

[@evolutionxbox]

More videos about how to immerse would be very helpful. I watch a lot of japanese youtube, but I still don't feel like I'm learning/acquiring anything.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You could start with the first one on this playlist and look through it for relevant ones kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaCac4uFrLise7c

[@storzbickel4328]

Hmmm, very interesting sensei Dolly. Any thoughts on the MIA approach? Heavily reliant on flash cards. But they do say 2/3rds rest of time should be spent on immersion. Then once you can understand 80 percent of what you read and hear, only then you begin outputting.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

It depends on what you prefer. I am not a big flashcard fan and prefer the one-deck approach that keeps SRSing to the minimum necessary: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hquXdp-drcympas - I don't think there is any real reason to delay "outputting".

[@laurencechesterman8411]

Thank you much appreciated

[@LinkFromCdi]

百回のエピソードおめでとうございます! This is quite a fitting time for this question I have: What actually is the nature of おめでとう? Since the thing that is to be congratulated typically lacks a particle I can't seem to figure this out. In the case of "誕生日おめでとう" What would the particle for "誕生日" be, and if it isn't the ga marked noun, then what could it be?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

This is older Japanese (as set phrases sometimes are) so a little bit non-standard in modern terms. Essentially めでとう here is working as a noun. That is why in the more formal (or fuller) version it is followed by でございます which is an older and more formal form of the copula. So [お] めでとう is a noun being used descriptively, and we can see that it is morphologically similar to おはようございます and ありがとうございます (which also drop ございます in less formal usage). めでとう is a noun-form of the word めでたい (just as [お] はよう is of はやい and ありがとう is of ありがたい). It isn't a regular noun-shape in modern terms of course. So what we have, in a way, is an adjective turned into a noun in order to be used adjectivally? Why? Probably originally because using a noun with ございます felt more formal than just using a straight adjective, even with です (and indeed still does). めでたい means happy or joyous. You often hear the older adjectival form めでたし uttered twice at the end of fairy tales to signify a happy ending. So it means "it is happy" and the question still remains "what is happy?" And I think the answer is "the occasion". I say I think, because while no particle is normally used, in a small minority of cases を gets used which would militate against this interpretation (implying probably that the birthday is the object of "our" rejoicing-state). However I believe that the を is not really correct. As with set phrases based on older structures in all languages, the average native speaker may not be aware of the structure and may in a small minority of cases try to make it sound more "proper" by adding a particle - which is structurally inaccurate but euphonious.

[@LinkFromCdi]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 先生のおかげでやっとわかりました。 ありがとうございます！

[@barrydanser4334]

I am working towards immersion. How do I download anime soundtracks? Can you suggest the best method? For iPad ? Or android phone.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I think if you search KZbin to mp3 or something like that you will find various services. Some of them are not good so you may have to sift through them to find a good one. You can also record your computer's audio directly which is a little more complex but a search will help there too.

[@CHOCOLATIONZ]

Dolly san, do you personally agree with the concept of i+1 sentence (study from the sentence that you understand most of it but only one or two unknown words) or do you think organic immersion as much as you can is ok ?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

As a classroom-type theory it has obvious merits. It is really based on a minimal-structure model of learning - the idea that one can acquire language by progressing from point to point without having any theoretical grasp of structure. Clearly this _can_ be done. I think it works better for some kinds of mind than others, so one would have to assess a) how well it works for oneself and b) how much time one wants to spend in an artificial linguistic environment. The thesis is essentially a "classroom" one, not developed with self-immersion in mind. Certainly in Japanese all methods up until now have relied on "intuition" - n+1 is an intuition-based method, but conventional "grammar teaching" although pseudo-structural is also intuition-based since it does not teach real structure so in practice students are having to intuit things like how コーヒーが好きだ could possibly mean "I like coffee" (it couldn't, of course). One potential problem with i+1 in Japanese is that second language learners' intuitive facilities are not "fresh" (like an infant's) so they will tend to intuitively but incorrectly map the structures of Japanese onto the structures of English (so we are back to the "I like coffee" fallacy even without teaching it). I would say that if you are using structure you don't really need i+1. A progression of material from simpler to more complex (from the point of view of a foreign learner) would in some ways be ideal, but using artificial materials for a long time would be a high price to pay for it. I have been seriously thinking about some kind of "bridging" material that might help people over the difficult "first leap" into Japanese material. But this is a somewhat different concept from i+1 which means essentially relying on graduated material as a structure induction tool.

[@joemuis23]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 have you found videos on structure for other languages like korean?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@joemuis23 I'm afraid not though I haven't really searched for them. I don't know about Korean but Conventional Western Japanese teaching has very, very poor grasp of structure. I have seen the same in Spanish teaching, but because Spanish grammar is much closer to English grammar it isn't so disastrous.

[@LimeGreenTeknii]

11:59 "If I ask you how many English words you know, you're not going to know!" This had me really curious. I Googled it, and I took a test to see how many English words I knew. It turns out it's roughly 21,700 words.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

If you are actually using a language regularly as a means of communication, you tend to know more than you might think!

[@LimeGreenTeknii]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 To be fair, I remember seeing some words like "myriad" and "conflagration" and thinking, "Yeah, I remember that from my high school English class, but nowhere else." Another thing I noticed: I saw "dirge" and "leitmotif" and thought, "I wouldn't know those words if I weren't a musician." That reassured me that knowing 音符 and related words like 四分音符 and 休止符 early on wasn't such a bad idea for me.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

​@@LimeGreenTeknii I think everyone picks up words relevant to their areas of interest. A lot of English speakers wouldn't know leitmotif (and to be fair it is a German word really, though slightly re-spelled). It is pretty rarely used except in reference to Wagner although it does occasionally get used in non-musical contexts - but I think a lot of native English speakers wouldn't recognize the word at all. I don't advise giving priority to obscure words, but if they relate to a subject you are interested in and therefore may well use or encounter that means that they are much less "obscure" from your point of view.

[@MicahTheZombie]

Cure dolly, what is your opinion of wanikani?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I've never done Wanikani so I can't give an informed opinion, but I have heard good reports of it. My personal preference isn't for front-loading a lot of kanji, but if you want to it is probably one of the better options. I'm not certain but I believe they do kanji in the context of words, which in my opinion is much better than using English keywords like Heisig.

[@agalvan91]

Hi there Dolly Sensei! I was wondering if you've ever come in contact with Chinese or Korean and if you could say they have the same crystaline logic...

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I really don't know enough to say. I suspect Korean has, at least in some areas (and I would expect it to be mistaught in similar ways), but it would take a lot of knowledge to make a definite statement, which I am afraid I don't have.

[@KKMDB]

Can I just mention that the Doll's English is stellar. edit: (100th comment for the 100th video! 😎)

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yay! And a nice comment too! Thank you!

[@6ood6ame]

First thing, I want to thank you for your efforts teaching. I have a few questions thought. You talk about Ajatt and related material (Mia), but yet I miss an alternative to the structured course that they recommend. I agree, as far as my knowledge in language acquisition goes, with your criticism, but i find what you say as a way to acquiring the language vague. Also, where Matt vs Japan, and Katsumoto offer proof of their ability to speak, read, and understand the language, with you we can't really be sure. As long as that is the case, I'd rather orientate myself along the way that these Ideas offer. One more thing, I wanted to mention. I think your voice often times, especially as a non native english speaker can be very hard to understand. It distracts from the otherwise brilliant content you offer. Now I am a sound designer, and I have knowledge in sound recording, editing and engineering. I would offer my help to bring speech intelligibility up to the quality of your content. I am sure, more people would benefit from you videos.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I would say that my work divides into two parts - that is structure and the rest. Structure is essentially what I am offering that no one else is. My views on immersion you can take or leave. I put them forward particularly because the organic approach to immersion is only really possible with a structural basis. I do not offer, or claim to offer, a "system". I don't actually like systems. People who do like them a lot are probably best advised to find one. All I recommend is deep immersion, and though I give indications and approaches as to how to do it, really everyone will find her own best line of attack. I don't believe that one size fits all. The only "claim" I make outside of structure is that immersion works, which I take to be self-evident. Which leads to this whole - I would say rather absurd - cult of so called "proof". The fact that someone has reached a high level of Japanese and attributes it to her "system" proves nothing whatever about how useful it might be to any given individual (some people take to language very easily, and some approaches work very well for some people and not others). All the success of a particular person actually indicates (not proves) is that the "system" worked well for that particular individual. However if you are asking people to dedicate huge amounts of time to a "system" that promises results at some future date, people naturally want some kind of reassurance that it will work for them. Thus comes this cult of pseudo-proof. However it seems a little more complex than that as there seems to be a culture unique to certain online Japanese-acquiring circles of treating Japanese as some kind of competitive sport. My position is this. I don't ask for faith in my structure. I don't want faith. Take it. Use it. See if it works for you. It won't take months. You should be able to see very quickly whether you go "AHA why didn't anyone explain THAT before?" or whether you go "huh?" If you go "huh?" then that's that. Throw me away and get another android. I don't need your faith and you don't need me. If you go "Aha!" then we're in business. Let's proceed a little further. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Not _my_ eating. _Your_ eating. I wrote at greater length on this whole "credentials" notion here (it's open to the public) www.patreon.com/posts/on-dollys-or-and-18644117 As to sound - yes it's still lacking. You won't believe how much effort I have put in for such mediocre results. I have tried a lot of things and had what I am sure is some very good advice but while the sound has improved a lot I wouldn't call it good. I don't know if I will be able to implement your suggestions (I can't do much in the way of setting up a room etc.) but I will gratefully listen to anything you might have to suggest.

[@6ood6ame]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you for you answer and I read your post on "credentials" I get what you mean and agree on the fundamental issues. I am happy that you do what you do. And my questioning is a result of thr misinterpretation, that you wanted to offer a competing product to Ajatt or Mia, when you speak of structure and so on. Now I know better what you are referring to. To the sound issues. Just by hearing the results here, I can't speak out for any recommendations. It would be best if you get in contact via email, send me a sample of an raw recording, without effects. And then let me know, what your usual way is to create your voice. From there I can hear in what stage of your process you can improve. In most cases it is not necessary to invest in software, gear or acoustic treatment. Half my life I DIYed with results passing as professional :D reach me via [e-mail] .

[@mikomichael9555]

Hey dolly sensei, can seru, saseru, reru rareru come after a noun? Like in 社長に代えて部長を出席させます

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You can only (appear to) do this with さける and the reason is that this is _not_ in fact the helper verb させる but する (one of the two irregular verbs in Japanese) plus the helper verb せる. Nouns cannot take helper-words (because they aren't verbs) but some nouns can be modified with する directly to make a combination that acts as a verb. Naturally that する can then take any helper word that する normally can. Please see this video for more information on this and on what nouns can and can't do: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnK7qoNrfMp9fMk

[@jamesbush4674]

This lass' English voice is definitely based on Queen Lizzie

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Do you think so? I am not sure where my programmers got it from.

[@Re3iRtH]

Thank you very much for making these videos. This channel has been instrumental to having a mindset shift that really propelled my Japanese learning. I have never enjoyed anime or manga, and I can't make myself consume more than 5 minutes of an anime. This is clearly a disadvantage since this media becomes unavailable to me to actually learn Japanese. I would say that I have switched all of my immersion to listening. The reason is, I realized it is much easier to read Japanese than it is to listen to Japanese. So the little bit of reading that I do get sentence cards or something similar, is definitely enough for me. Once I hit the two-year mark, I should be able to read at least 95% of written Japanese and then I will start reading adult content at my leisure. I have just hit the one-year mark of learning Japanese. For my second year, I plan to focus on listening and pitch accent since these are probably the most difficult aspects of Japanese. In my opinion, Kanji was fascinating and not too difficult.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I think having very adult tastes can be a little bit of a problem in the early stages, and I don't recommend forcing yourself to watch anime if you don't enjoy it. The whole point is to have something that draws you in, so any material that you can both manage and enjoy is good. If one has to choose between material that is "ideal for learning" and material one actually likes I would always go for the latter provided it is possible. The more the heart and mind are engaged the better!

[@caegi137]

I did not understand whether I should be using anki or not to learn vocabulary. In your "learn japanese from anime" videos, you recommed us to use anki to learn new vocabulary. But isn't this the opposite of what you are explaining in this video ?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I have always said the same thing. Anki is probably the _best_ tool for a) learning to recognize kanji and b) pinning vocabulary in place. I strongly recommend using it, and if you don't use it you need to find some other way of learning kanji. However using sentence-based Anki decks for learning structure (a very common practice) is not what we do with organic Japanese. Also many people make Anki the center of their Japanese learning. Again I do not recommend this. The strategy I recommend is called "minimal Anki" or "minimal SRS". That is to say that we use it (and since there are a lot of kanji, we use it quite a lot) BUT we don't let it become the dominant force in our Japanese journey. Anki is a good servant but a bad mistress, so the important thing is to keep Anki in a subordinate position as the handmaiden to immersion. Incidentally I have created two Anki decks which are both very limited in scope, single-purpose decks (I don't generally recommend pre-made decks). One is a very small one that allows us to use the Sound Sisters Hack for learning large numbers of kanji readings with only a few cards kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppekm5d4n5Kjbrc The other one accompanies my basic kanji book _Alice in Kanji Land_ and is for getting a starter-base in kanji and a little vocabulary. Both are very limited, focused decks that won't take over your life! Beyond that, I recommend one personal deck for kanji/vocabulary in which you enter all new kanji (because we can't avoid "learning" them) and any words you want to pin. I did a video on some strategies for this deck here kzbin.info/www/bejne/fouopXehqJh8iLM Anki will still play a strong role in your Japanese acquisition strategy, but it won't take the central role away from real immersion.

[@supechube_k]

if 英本語 comes from ppl trying 2 treat japanese as a european language does japlish come from japanese ppl trying to treat english as an asian language

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

It comes from Japanese people trying to treat English as Japanese. Since Japanese is not related to other Asian languages (as English is related to West European languages) other Asian languages don't arise.

[@DeusaRem]

Sh*t talk at it's best, I love it! Thumbs up!

[@piadas804]

It just makes no sense to call Japanese a rational language "with almost no exceptions" and call English or "European languages" an "irrational mess" when both are natural languages.

[@唯我独尊ー]

well thats true

[@Snieder5]

you are cute!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you!

[@riloh58]

English is undoubtedly a complete and utter mess; an abomination when it comes to structure. I do not know how anyone tackles it when it’s not their first language. My complete respect to all who have managed it.