Japanese Core Vocabulary: how to acquire it (and how NOT to!)

[@FroyoShark]

It cracked me up when you said: Saying "I've learned 6,000 core words and I still can't read this manga" is like asking "Why is it so hard to knock in a nail with a rubber tire?"

[@sprenzy42]

Don’t mind me while i use my calculus book to teach myself algebra xd xd

[@VivianaFontanari]

I was referred to Cure Dolly Sensei by a fellow wanikani-user: best advice ever! I've been studying japanese on and off for some years now, and for the first time I feel like I'm on the right track. Now I have to catch-up with all your lessons so far. Thank you for sharing with us your brilliant insights!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so much for your kind appreciation. I am very happy to be able to help you. Please feel free to ask any questions.

[@VivianaFontanari]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you for your kindness Sensei! Indeed I have a lot of questions, but I'm sure most of them are already answered in your earlier videos and don't want to make you repeat yourself. First, catch ups, questions later! ;)

[@DANGJOS]

Wow! This is the best advice I've heard on this! For the past several months, I've been watching Gurenn Lagann, and later Darling in the Franxx, with Japanese subtitles. I thought I was getting a good variety of words. I even took a test that estimated I know 1000 words. But now I've recently switched to the anime Non Non Biyori because a website listed it as the easiest anime for beginners. Let me tell you, I was *shocked* at the sheer number of words I didn't know! Many of them common too! I fell into the exact trap that Cure Dolly is referring to. I was acquiring many words from Mecha anime, which means that I picked up core vocabulary from that genre of anime. Now that I've switched to a Slice of Life anime, the core words are *completely* different, and there's countless words I've never seen. I guess I learned my lesson. Watch a *variety* of anime. Also, the advice to listen to the anime multiple times, rather than blindly doing Anki, makes perfect sense. I can't tell you the number of times I'll recognize words in Anki, but not in content.

[@yasashisagakawaii]

Core vocabulary for japanese music: "心" and "さようなら" :D

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

And あなた! The textbooks teach it as if it is used in the same way as English "you" (scattered all over one's sentences) which, of course it isn't. But one place in which it _is_ used pretty liberally is in songs, because of the need to refer to the unnamed "you".

[@yasashisagakawaii]

That's right! Exactly these three words! I REALLY wanted to add "あなた" in a minute from sending the message, but didn't want to edit it! Fantastic, couldn't expect that! WOW!

[@darkestholy74]

and also 優しい　and 美しい

[@ernestokenner4618]

also: 好きたよ

Also 恋人 and 抱きしめる at least in 80s city pop. It is so so common it almost bothers me.

[@peterkjobek7241]

Hello Dolly I just want to thank you so much for your organic japanese series. I don't really have any use for japanese but I wanted to try a non european language. So I started using duolingo and found it quite fun to learn japanese. After a few days I got really confused and because they don't teach sentence structure I started searching the web and it all seemed very confusing. Untill I found your "why you shouldn't use desu or masu" video. So big thanks and I will be following your course when I don't have too much homework. Ps-I'm on lesson 3 right now Aland I've learned 4 times the amount I learnt in one week in just 4 days. Thank you keep up the good work👍

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I am so happy to have helped you and I'll keep trying hard!

[@longphan7656]

what she said about core is very true if you also think about in English or your own language Till now, we mostly only learn the basic words of our own languages; we dont learn words of other fields unless we work in said fields. If we are a chemist, we'll learn most or all of the words that are related to that field, if we are a doctor, we learn all the names of the diseases, symptoms, medicine,... We just dont learn every word there is to exist in that language, we just learn the words necessary for us to work in the field we desire. So that 6000-10000 words may not even be the so called "basic" words but many of them probably are other fields combined into 1. But since it is more of a generalist rather than a specialist, you just cant really just use those 10000 words in any field you are trying to pursue

[@x2bounty]

Thank you for your unique approach to learning. So many different options for people who learn differently. I particularly like getting immersed early on when learning ANYTHING. Using just one app for learning French was a losing battle from the start. These videos allow me to jump around and approach Japanese from different angles, which is my favorite way to practice. Because of you, it feels like I might stick with this. :D

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I hope you do. So many people give up on Japanese that a special part of my "mission" is helping people to find the inspiration to stay the course!

[@わかりません-v8u]

Your videos have been absolutely fundamental in pushing my pursuit of learning Japanese forward. I wish I had got the chance to express my gratitude to you while you were alive. Maybe, in some way, you could be reading this from where you rest. We don't know what happens in the afterlife, after all. Sensei, you're an amazing teacher. You provided such a valuable resource to everybody wanting to learn this language. I'm eternally in your debt. If there is an afterlife, I hope that when it's my time, I get to meet you and properly thank you face to face. I'll look forward to it. It's a promise. I'll continue down this road, sensei. I'll do my best. Thank you again.

[@sundivers]

I wish I could thank you for your advices. Rest in peace and thank you for everything. You're trurly missed.

[@Rs2006REMAKEVids]

Completely agree with everything you said. Everything you read or watch has its own vocabulary, in the same way that every person you meet has their own vocabulary. The only way to learn what those words are is to listen to them. Or, in this case, watch the anime or read the visual novel.

[@mancheezethegreat8617]

I remember learning the kanji for 'jackhammer.' The reason I learned it was weird. I just stumbled upon it somehow while I was looking at the kanji for 'sugar' and I noticed the 'stone' radical. LOL. I remember the kanji for jackhammer because it's so large and wonderful to paint with my brush. 鑿岩機

[@mancheezethegreat8617]

@@lorax121323 No, it's Japanese. I looked it up Jisho and of course, if you understand that Japanese Kanji is Chinese characters, so of course the way to express 'jackhammer' is in Chinese characters.

[@mancheezethegreat8617]

@@lorax121323 Like I said, I looked this up in online Japanese dictionary from the stone radical. Since I practice calligraphy, I purposely look for characters to practice and I stumbled across it.

[@rosemartin4702]

This series is brilliant!!!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you!

[@riaboyes1299]

This makes a lot of sense! I've realized that I learn vocab in wanikani and it doesn't really stick, but as soon as I notice it's in a song I listen to, boom! I can remember it super easily. I've also noticed that my understanding has gotten much better since reading japanese otome stories (which I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to do until I had much much more vocab) but seeing things in context even if I don't fully understand makes all the difference.

[@xan1613]

I watch most english media im not invested in in 3-4x speed without missing anything. I don't know if my ability in doing so will help carry over in any way but it at least seems easier if I think I only have to watch at a quarter of my English speed. Love the vids. so far have watched lesson 1 to 42 as of this post.

[@Randhrick]

Watching this video made it so much clearer on how I should proceed in my Japanese learning quest :) You made something clear that was in my heard but I could not sort it out in words (if that make sense). Learning a language is full of core like you said it's like when I was learning English when I was a kid at first, my vocabulary was silver sword, gold pieces evil lord etc ... not very useful on the day to day conversation but the more you pick-up for what you like the more it grows and you learn even more vocabulary so the next game I played I was used to some word so my brain concentrated on new words and you eventually get more proficient without even noticing it sometimes. I'm really looking forward to your next video I feel like your video unlocks some precious knowledge on how to proceed with my Japanese learning journey. Oh and I started watching しろくまカフェ the anime is pretty funny, to be honest, and here is what I do, I'd like your input on this method please, I watch it with English subtitle first So I have an idea of what is going on, then Japanese title only and look up word and sentence construction as needed and then I record the audio only and listen to it in my car when going to my job each day. Should I watch it in English first or just I just go straight away to Japanese only? Thank you Sensei :)

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You don't use "gold pieces" in everyday life? What do folks use for money where you come from(笑). Yes, just as you say, get immersed in one area and you will pick up a lot of what you need. I'm glad you like しろくまカフェ. It's really funny isn't it? And the characters are so good! What I recommend is using the Japanese subtitles and only referring to the English when you get stuck. This will take longer, of course. However if it makes it a lot more enjoyable/manageable to watch in English first to get the general idea, that's ok (much better than running the English during your real Japanese watch). It's always important to balance things like how much time you have available and whether doing it the "right" way is going to be really boring (not a good idea to get bored). Listening to the soundtrack multiple times afterward is really important.

[@Randhrick]

No, we don't use GP as currency in my country but I have a few Dragon Quest collectible coins but I prefer to keep them :) Yes, しょるくまカフェ is pretty funny I laughed a lot when Panda tried o find a job over the phone. The anime is quite charming. Learning something while having fun is the best method :)

[@mattice9083]

been watching your videos again. miss you Dolly RIP

[@ace-2k8qa6]

Lol, this video brought me joy, but cute dolly is right, you learn how to swim in the water itself, not on dry land, Even if you understand the concept of swimming, actually trying to swim will be difficult because you haven't actually gone in the water yet. In japanese, you can't aquire vocabulary in anki-land, you need to dive into the ocean of Japanese vocabulary and immerse yourself in it, even if you don't understand, it's fine. At some point you will aquire these words along the way Thx Cure dolly for making japanese easier 😊

[@mistersadaimusic]

I'll be honest. I watched a few of your core videos and towards the first half I felt you were needlessly complicating things at first. After watching through them a few times it became apparent the actual importance of keeping that implied が particle in mind. It's made actually parsing sentences a lot easier for me. I'll admit I bought into the idea of learning Core Anki decks, but after watching this I feel I probably should learn a base vocabulary, though I'm still not sure how to acquire it.

[@MasterCorneilous]

The website is down so I go to way back machine and try to download the anki deck and the link to the download is dead. So how do I get it? Anyone?

[@default632]

TL;DR Stop being a baby and read real Japanese. I find the 2D waifu cute btw

[@angelos3046]

I know that this is nothing to do with grammar and maybe it has been asked already but have you ever considered creating a "grammar book" based on your video series? I am already watching your videos and I am going to watch them all soon. After that, I will re-watch them while writing down the stuff I want since your explanations are the best by far and I want everything in one place. I think that my notebook will be far superior than most of the textbooks thanks to you. This is truly organic Japanese and this is the correct way to make this language really make sense. Thank you very much for all your efforts.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

The truth is that I intended to write the book following directly the numbered organic lessons but I was so busy with making them and other things that I haven't even started it yet. I still intend to do it, but I'm not sure when.

[@m.m.2341]

I hope you'll still do it at some point, seriously, this channel and your methods will blow up at some point. I can feel it 👌

[@sentival]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 if i know programming i will create an app for u for free to honour your work. It will the best japanese learning app with the world with ur method.

[@spartan.falbion2761]

Thank you Dolly, wherever yow.are now.

[@ashleymorris6636]

Hello ive only just came across your channle recently it seems to be very informative. I think ill try the method which you mention however i do not have a computer i only have a phone and tablet. Are you able to use yomichan on samsung phone and/or tablet? Do you suggest to keep watching the same anime over and over untill you fully understand it? Please can you reply to my message, thank you!

[@ElectricDragonfly]

What changed at 9:20?? The audio became muffled, and your skin tone became yellowish. ?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

It's horrible isn't it? What happened is a bit of a long story. Essentially this video became very long (it's hard to tell what will happen sometimes because I always film a lot, most of which ends up on the virtual cutting-room floor). In the end it was longer than any video I have made and I realized that it was a bad length for many reasons and needed to be split into two. This involved filming a new section which I had to do late in the week (I usually try to get the filming stage completed early in the week). What went wrong with the lighting I think I understand and can probably fix. What went wrong with the sound on the other hand I don't understand at all. Everything was the same. Same mic., same location, same processing, everything. At first I didn't realize how poor it sounded. I have no idea what degraded it. I abandoned my new mic because having generally gotten good feedback from most people who commented, it suddenly started producing poor audio. Maybe there is some other factor at work that I haven't understood. I should have (yet another) new Mic. very soon, so I'm hoping that will solve these problems.

[@LycanFollow]

Because I am hard of hearing, I read manga to learn my vocabulary, because I cannot really "listen" to anime (although I could read the subtitles). But this means I cannot "listen" to any material in the background while I am doing other things really, because my hearing is such that it takes up all my brain power to do the act of hearing (even in English it does this). Do you have any advice for how to help get these brain epiphany moments when I can only really do written stuff? I am reading the PokeSpe manga, so it does have a very well defined "core" vocabulary assigned to it (like, I have learnt "Attack", "Opponent", and a couple of other words thanks to this manga) Thank you ^_^

[@LycanFollow]

Also - THANK YOU SO MUCH for having clear subtitles on your videos! They have been a life-saver, because so many people don't bother and just rely on the not-always-great auto-generated ones

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@LycanFollow I am very happy that they are helpful to you. Some people find my voice difficult in any case because I am not quite human. But also for people in your situation, as well as our many non-native English speaking viewers some of whom find complex spoken English difficult, I believe that reliable subtitles are important.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Unfortunately this problem does reduce the possibilities for "background" learning. However, manga is an excellent learning source, as are text-heavy games (visual novel and RPG type games for example). I would advise finding as many written interests as possible that you can pursue in Japanese. My own favorites are novels and games though I do also read manga from time to time. You may also like to explore Japanese blogs and websites. Essentially the more exposure you can get the better. At starter level you may find it easier to stay with one manga series (just the way it is often better to stay with one anime series) so that you can build that initial core. PokeSpe is good - I've read several volumes myself. You might want to supplement that with Pokemon games (the core games have quite a lot of text) - the only problem with Pokemon is that all the ones I've seen force you to choose all-hiragana or kanji with no furigana. Kanji with furigana is far better for beginners. The good news is that the ポケモン不思議のダンジョン games do have furigana. I love those games because the stories are even nicer and the all-Pokemon world is charming. So you might take a look at that.

[@LycanFollow]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you so much :D I have a Switch, so when Sword and Shield come out, I will do some research, and if that has furigana with the kanji, I will also play through that in Japanese

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@LycanFollow I hope it does. The earliest Pokemon were hiragana only because of the limitations of those old 8-bit handhelds. It is really time to use modern text! By the way many Zelda games had hover furigana. I'm not sure about the newer games. Level 5 games (including the Layton series) as well as Dragon Quest have furigana. Dragon Quest is coming for Switch this fall.

[@るう-j1b]

i'm not interested in anime or manga so my main reading practice comes from twitter and listening from variety shows. i wonder if you have any tips on how to utilise social media and tv shows? variety shows include the fancy pop-up captions which make it easier to understand, but i have trouble reading them when i watch shows live and don't want to get behind on the stream. this video was helpful though. gonna avoid "core vocab" lists and stick to ones i make for myself.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You can't really add vocabulary to Anki on the fly in a live stream but you can watch the recorded version afterward and add the vocabulary then. Or you can have some (recorded) material that you use for vocabulary and live material that you just get as best you can (both are valuable exercises. Twitter is easy to use for vocabulary (though you'll probably see a certain amount of truncated words and slang, depending on the accounts you follow).

[@vicentemendoza2648]

As always thank you for making these videos from the bottom of my heart, as a learner of japanese who's been learning for quite some time i really think your organic lessons and the logical way of looking at japanese grammar has helped me in more ways that i could think of, wasn't it for you i wouldn't be able to even get a grasp of what japanese really means, infinite love for you💗 With that said, i'd like to ask of you, if you could make some videos explaining the usage of なんか which i dont seem to quite understand, and ちゃう/しまう/じゃう and its possible variations i might be forgetting rn for unintended actions and for completing actions, which have troubled me for a while now お願いします！ Again thanks for doing god's work and please never stop!!💗💗

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so very much for your kind words. I have lots of video ideas lined up for the future, so I will definitely keep going! The whole しまう family (しまう is the base form and all the other forms are simple variants) is something I have on my list to do a video about. It is easy to understand though no one ever points out what is fundamentally going on. It will take a video to do it, so I won't try here. As for なんか、I did mention it in this recent video kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKfLlKmmbr5sm9E - it is a contraction of 何か so basically means "some-such" or when appended to X "things like X" or "X kinda thing", however it goes beyond that literal meaning and is often used to simply to mildly belittle things, actions or people (including oneself).

[@alexionut5444]

This video is very usefull, I want to ask after what number of videos from your playlist "japanese from scratch" would you recommend me reading Alice in kanji world?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

If you are at the stage of wanting to learn basic kanji and how they fit together I think it is helpful. You can see a preview of the book here to see if it suits you: learnjapaneseonline.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Alice_in_Kanji_Land-sample.pdf - there is also a free Anki deck of the book to support your learning

[@alexionut5444]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I want to learn some basic vocabulary and kanji, but I thought it would be good to first achive some knowledge in grammar by wathing some of your videos and I wandered how many should I watch in order to understand it to a decent level, so then I can move forword learning kanji and words.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@alexionut5444 There isn't really a rule on this as they are two separate areas. It's best to watch the first 20-30 grammar videos in order as each one builds on the ones before it, but kanji and vocabulary are a separate thing. You can start them whenever you like. Bear in mind that you can't do very much with grammar structure until you have some vocabulary so you want to be working on that too.

[@alexionut5444]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 ok then, thank you very much for the answers, I think I will go with both of them at the same time

[@alexionut5444]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 is there any way to buy an ebook version?

[@a.m.4479]

Core vocabulary -> build it from watching anime in Japanese with Japanese subtitles Make Anki cards with Yomichan, but try to spend the least amount of your time on Anki, and the most of it immersing; nevertheless, Anki is important to learn kanji On your free time, listen to the audio of the anime episode you are watching, as much as you can, trying to pay attention and understand

[@uttccltucluglutd7rotc]

I'm in a beginner-lower intermediate level. If I wanna watch anime like Death Note, Psycho Pass or Detective Conan, is it gonna be alright? I mean...there'll be lots of police focused vocabulary

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

It will be a lot tougher than taking less complex anime to start with - so it depends if you want to take the challenge or go for a gentler entry-slope.

[@uttccltucluglutd7rotc]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 But I wanna watch them...okay I'm gonna do that. Anyway I guess the Innocent Corpus frequency number is gonna be kinda low for lots of words. Do you by chance have any tips like considering words that got a certain number of frequency?

[@josephbradley1781]

Would you consider the vocabulary taught for the JLPT5 to be the core words for everyday usage? If not, is there a list using hiragana that I should get?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

The JLPT5 vocabulary makes an excellent starting base. You could probably manage with a bit less than that but if you have that you will certainly be ready to go. Even though I am not generally a fan of JLPT this is a well-chosen list of genuinely useful beginner vocabulary. My book _Alice in Kanji_ land covers the JLPT N5 kanji.

[@nihongobenkyo3102]

I think people choose the core decks because this is a lot of fiddly work and it becomes draining very quickly. I mean, audacity work just for one card, out if a possible 1000/2000?

[@bjb0808]

I think this may be the best Japanese channel there is. BUT, I find the android doll disturbing and difficult to understand. I wish you used something different.

[@coffeedude]

Cure Dolly has passed away so it's not something that's going to change

[@MasterCorneilous]

Who gets scared of that? How do you find that scary? Like what?!

[@Arc_Soma2639]

Hi cute Sensei, what is your opinion on LingoDeer? I've been studying for almost 3 months and LingoDeer is my main source of study...

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I'm afraid I've never tried it and don't know enough about it to make a useful comment.

[@Arc_Soma2639]

​@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 No problem, thanks a bunch for taking your time to reply I really appreciated it, also thanks a bunch for your classes, they are really helpful.

[@kunslipper]

ありがとうございました

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

どういたしまして

[@psyrvn]

Thank you very much!! Please keep making video 😊

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you! I definitely will!

[@solennev3073]

I haven't acquired the first core of essential vocabulary yet and I was wondering if it would be better to learn it directly from lists or in context throught watching or reading content. It seems like it's more accessible for people who already have a great portion of words known to dive in japanese content to pick up new words but for my beginner level I feel like it could be detremental as I will take more time to decorticate the sentence than to actively learn essential words. But at the same time, just learning a word on his own without any context makes it harder to stick in our memory... I also have a problem with kanji, for now I prefer to focus on the kana version of words but I want to learn some kanji too but I don't really know which one to learn first since they are used depending on the context (for instance, and like you said on another video, people will use kanji more on Twitter because of the character's restriction)

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You want to get a few hundred of the most basic words - person, house, food, run, eat, talk, big, small, hot, cold etc. before you start. Don't worry too much about kanji before you have basic vocabulary but there is no harm in learning simpler kanji along with it.

[@solennev3073]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you for your answer ! Would it be better to just incorporate them in my Anki deck step by step or watch/listen to content (like anime, TV shows, music...) and make a new Anki card when I encounter one basic world ?

[@goldeer7129]

@@solennev3073 I think what you describe corresponds more to learning peripheral vocabulary. You should first learn basic vocabulary maybe not via 'immersion' but still with context : Alice in KanjiLand for example, or WaniKani can be good.

[@laurencechristianlenon9484]

Soo we should learn vocab from anime, or what ever our goal is. BUT you first need "basic mounting block vocabulary", doesnt matter where it is learned.. Goes to Anki* I guess the message of the video is never rely on just one source (regardless if its Anki or not) for vocabulary, because you sort of get stuck in that comfort bubble. Build your foundation and take off from there using whichever method works and always get out of the comfort zone

[@penguinsarecool6324]

Shame Saiki k speeds up the talking in the Japanese (although it makes it funnier) cause I have seen it so many times I probably don't need subs

[@Yami_yuugi]

Stupid question but how does one get this vocabulary from anime or manga?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

This video walks you through the technique with anime. Manga is a little harder because you usually can't copy words from it on your computer so the process is similar but more manual kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2TJiZ5teN96Y80

[@Kitkat915e]

Are there good places to watch anime with Japanese subtitles? I can't seem to find... like... any......

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

It is pretty bad just now. Animelon seems not to be functioning and the only free resource standing seems to be this one anjsub.com/ which has very intrusive advertising but I suppose works. Alternatively if you can get the "raw" anime this site has a LOT of J-subs that you can use the old-fashioned way: www.kitsunekko.net/dirlist.php?dir=subtitles%2Fjapanese%2F For information on the best way to work with separate anime and subs, please see this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJqUhZSioNKWiLc I also hear about some J-subbed anime being available on Netflix but I believe it is fairly limited. I know nothing about Netflix (I've never seen it) so I can't help much further there.

[@Kitkat915e]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Wow, I did not expect an answer so fast, thank you! I just found your channel and it's amazing, so thanks for that as well, I guess ~!

[@Kitkat915e]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Hi Cure Dolly, I tried anjsub but for some reason it keeps showing me this message "The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported." I was wondering if there's a way to fix this, because I can't seem to find any other way to watch with Japanese subtitles...

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@Kitkat915e All the J-sub streaming sites are currently non-functional. I am not sure why. Possibly some kind of blocking, which seems unfortunate as they were a valuable educational resource. Please read this post for information and help about what to do: www.patreon.com/posts/animelon-down-36777516 (it's open to the public).

[@breaellis5827]

Try Netflix

[@Ryodakun]

I want to read manga or watch anime amongs other things, so I've been starting to read manga at only 6 weeks into my studies and I'm supplementing with core 2k as well as doing tae kim's guide. I wanna give your method a try so should I drop the core 2k? I do have time for it even if I get fully involved in your immersion method. This is the first video of yours I watched, maybe I will find the answers to my questions in the others which I will watch tommorow.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

The decision is yours but if you are reading manga at 6 weeks and using Anki to pin words you are going to get a pretty hefty Anki pretty quickly. I can't see any advantage in adding Core 2k to the load. However you may want to move what you've already done in Core 2k into your new Base Deck (I recommend a single deck which will be your vocabulary and kanji deck in one - you may want to do the Sound Sisters on the side but I think it better not to have more than one main deck). Tae Kim-sensei is a good teacher but he has some seriously weird views on structure. For example he will lead you right down the rabbit hole on the meaning of the が-particle and the だ copula (two of the most fundamental things in the language). I strongly recommend watching my structure course from the beginning. kzbin.info/aero/PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj course you aren't at beginner level but it won't take too long and you will get an idea of how Japanese _really_ fits together. You can then look at Tae Kim or a some other site armed with that knowledge if you want to. I would really go over the first 20 lessons. If you aren't starting to say "Aha! NOW it all makes sense" by lesson 8, ditch me and stay with Tae Kim-sensei.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

PS - I should add that if your main Anki is getting overwhemled with words from your reading, don't feel compelled to add half-learned words from your old Core deck. It's a pragmatic choice and it's important not to get buried in Anki reviews. If the words are immediately useful you will probably come across them in your immersion fairly soon and the fact that you half-learned them before _will_ help. If they aren't that useful at this stage, they can wait.

[@Ryodakun]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Alright I'm fine with giving your course a go. I was planning on watching a bunch of your videos anyways. I shall comment on the usefulness once done. I shall also not use the core2k as luckily I only just begun using it and therefore I am only around 30 words into it. So no big loss there and I shall build my own anki deck further. Cuz you are right, I started learning words like 不景気 for whatever reason, and even tho I will eventually learn such words, it has literally nothing to do with the things I want to achieve right now.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@Ryodakun Good luck and feel free to ask me about anything.

[@gblazs4157]

how do you do to search the kanjis that you don't know?, since you can't copy paste unless it has furigana

[@darkestholy74]

Hello body-shaping dolly! There's something that bugs me. I rarely hear characters use か just after an い "adjective". But Marisa Kirisame says it along other weird manners of speech ( she's also the only girl I ever heard to use なぁ at the end of her sentence ). Why is it there and what is the intention to make her sound like that? PS : I got my answer from last time, about っていう.He said that って contraction is not unique : it can be either ておいていって or simply ておいて. Now it makes sense in my eyes, it comes from ておいていう. Just to let you know, because I like to update people of my unanswered question. Thanks for trying to help me! PPS : I think I also heard that か thing from pirates speech, but I'm not too sure about this one PPPS : I remember one or two examples : " いいじゃないか", "最近事件がおもしろいか" PPPPS : I was really doubtful about your Audio with Audacity, since Anki never worked for me, yet you seem to recommand it a lot. But one of my friends who has a pretty similar memory to me found it useful. I'm going to try and do that. If it works for me you're a genius!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

What I teach is the fundamental structure. Naturally casual speakers and particularly somewhat eccentric speakers, will have numerous variations on this, which will be more easily understood if we know the basis. Without knowing the character I would say that this speech pattern reflects a very casual, somewhat rough or else "don't care what people think" kind of attitude. If it is being used as an affirmation it would be a variant on じぁない(か) so 美味しいか if used as an affirmation would be something like saying "Yummy or what?" in English, to mean "that's yummy". In both languages this is stretching the relation between grammar and meaning somewhat, but in an understandable manner.

[@darkestholy74]

I hate being too bothersome, so comment deleted. Please don't worry.

[@hhdhpublic]

Ive come to the conclusion that i simply cant rote memorize things. At all. There will never be a day ill learn any sort of core vocab. I cant remember readings, i cant remember meanings, mnemnonics, poof, gone. All that happens is ill sit with anki for hours to an end, becoming more and more frustrated as same few words get repeated again and again but i just cant hold even the mnemnonics in my head fpr the few seconds it takes for the word to re appear from the deck. In the end all ive gained is frustrated, sour mood, not only for my incapability to remember the words but from knowing that theres no way over or under or around. Nothing but rote memorization since you need that core vocab to be able to move fowards and you cant get it through anything else except rote memorization. Ill never learn any other language. Sigh.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I'm not sure what to suggest here. Have you learned a second language ever (English?) If so what happened there? There are methods using sentence-fronted cards rather than word-fronted and some people recommend listening to raw Japanese material (perhaps things you have seen before with English subs so you know what's going on) and suggest that you can slowly pick up the words over time. I am highly dubious that this really works with most people, but since your mind seems to work a little differently it could be worth a try.

[@hhdhpublic]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 finnish is my mother tongue, english my second language. As for how i learned english, not sure really. Did really bad in english at school. Guess ive just been surrounded by so much english media that ive pickee it up. As for vocab, i think i just tried to learn too many words at a single time. I cut from 10 a day to just 3 a day. Hopefully itll help. With shorter sessions i shouldnt get so frustrated and with less to learn it should be easier to learn. Hopefully. Thanks for suggestions. Saddly i dont think i have time for that. Studying writing atm so lifes pretty busy with all the reading, writing and such! But goddamnit, one day ill read kawabatas snow country in japanese!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@hhdhpublic Really the key is "Guess ive just been surrounded by so much english media that ive picked it up". This is how it works. If you can find a way to do the same with Japanese, then at some point you will definitely come to read Snow Country. If you don't - well that's the reason so many people successfully learn English and so few people successfully learn Japanese: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipy2ZnSGpqZ5fqM

[@hhdhpublic]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I've watched that video and as far as I remember 'chronically unable to rote memorize anything' wasn't on the list. I've been doing three words per day (six cards in total, reading and meaning) and while I can manage it it still is extremely frustrating. I might remember things a bit I can honestly say that between sessions my brain just forgets majority of the words, both meanings and readings. Thing's just don't stick in my brain when doing anki or any other rote memorization system. On other hand, I remember things from your videos, both vocab and grammar concepts, extremely easily. I might have to write things down few hours after watching them but they stick. Am I weird? The most annoying thing is that the more I learn grammar the more I just wanna get into reading, watching anime, and such but I cannot do it since I don't have enough vocab to understand even most basic sentences. Like after a week of three words a day I reliably know only eight. Most places recommend learning ten words a day. This situation is unbelievably frustrating, knowing that you could do it but there is this singular thing standing in your way and there seems to be nothing that can be done about it. Sigh.

[@x123Juancho123x]

​@@hhdhpublic I learned English the same way, I knew basic words and grammar but reached fluency by pure immersion. That can be a bit harder to do with Japanese due to words having kanji. I've found making your own mnemonics can make it stick in your brain easier, and sometimes the more ridiculous the story you create the easier it is to remember. I usually try to create a sentence with the pronunciation of the word as if it were an English or Spanish word (in my case), and include the meaning there. Knowing two languages makes it easier since you can come up with more words that sound similar. Also knowing the radicals and trying to picture how the appearance of the kanji relates to the meaning helps.

[@ct_warrior]

my opinion is that kanji should take priority over vocab with regard to anki. for those who dont write, we differentiate kanji by almost the bare minimum effort. a deck of 100 unique kanji for example requires such a vague understanding of the kanji that you can easily cheat the deck without really learning to recognize the kanji to a respectable degree. the sooner you can get to 1000 unique kanji or so the better, even if it leads to disappointment on the vocabulary front due to learning upwards of two kanji for a single word. reviewing the vocab you learn through immersion is important, but i think you have that covered with relistening to the episodes. im more curious about any insight you have on a more structured approach to learning production.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

What you say is very true. In fact Alice in Kanji Land originally grew out of a project for "consolidating" kanji known by "facial recognition" by making stories that fix their exact structure. However I don't see this as a big problem. With those kanji that become ambiguous because we don't know their exact formation (although we can recognize them) it is very possible to disambiguate them when it becomes necessary. To do this we don't need to "go back" to them but simply to disambiguate them for future words in which they appear (remember that with my approach we never, ever "learn a kanji". We learn words and the kanji in them). To my mind this is more, not less, efficient, because we don't spend a lot of time learning lots of kanji to a disambiguative level when many are never going to need it. Compare this to spelling in English. Most English speakers, faced with a long word that they have never seen are prone to mispronounce it unless they read it very carefully (of course if they are reading aloud they will read it carefully but if they are reading to themselves and don't consider the word/name important they may never bother to work out how it is pronounced). This is true even if the pronunciation is clear from the spelling (not always a given in English, of course) because we don't actually register all the letters in a word when we read it. We long ago discard the practice of looking at every letter for the more efficient practice of recognizing words by a few salient features. Japanese people do the same when reading kanji. Many Japanese people can't write all the kanji they can read (even though they once could). With my approach we never even think about "getting to 1000 kanji". And we don't count the words we are learning either. One can count one's Anki words if one is really that way inclined, but that won't measure our vocabulary, because we should be learning to strategize so as to maximize the words we can learn without touching Anki. This is not the case with kanji, of course. Words with new kanji always need to go into Anki, but they are still not regarded as raw kanji - simply words with new kanji. I am not here arguing _against_ learning kanji in the abstract. Just putting forward an ecology in which it doesn't happen.

[@hosoke9713]

Please add the translation 😭😭 it's hard to understand 😭😭

[@MasterCorneilous]

Subtitles are available

[@Leon_der_Luftige]

What's interesting here for me: I'm a guy who had it always rather easy in comparison to his co students in terms of understanding and learning foreign languages. However, back in school it was all about romanic languages like German (mother tongue), English, French, or Italian. My brain is very used to these languages with their rhythm and structure. When it comes to Japanese, my brain is still like: "Alright, mate. I see what you're doing but I have no clue where this is going." Guess I'm just in a quite early stage in this chapter of learning something new. :)

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Japanese is very different from Romance languages, although knowing German actually helps in some respects. German speakers usually find it much easier to grasp the function of が and を (which get in a terrible mess in English language Japanese teaching) because German still has a case-system. However in terms of overall structure Japanese is a whole new ball-game and it's important to see it in its own terms, as Japanese. It's an exciting new adventure and you'll have a lot of fun!

[@Leon_der_Luftige]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 True, deconstruction of Japanese is like a riddle with lots of small puzzle pieces.

[@nasalimbu3078]

Living organisms

[@アイス熊]

Crunchyroll app doesn’t offer Japanese subtitles

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

There are some resources here that do: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2TJiZ5teN96Y80

[@curedollyenjoyer7927]

Y

[@Layarion]

Cure, you seem to be doing good work but this is the first video of your I watched - thing is you have alot to learn about voice work. It's really hard to hear you because it's 100% clear that you have alot of bare reflective surfaces in the room that you're recording in and it's creating alot of what's known as "reverb". please look into reducing that, and for the love of god eliminate whatever it is you did to your voice because again - it's hard to understand you.

[@Layarion]

whats with the reverb and the bad EQ? are you intentionally trying to make it hard to understand you? and to be clear, i'm not talking about the second half of the video.

[@tpnpzauber4795]

God bless your soul 🙏🙏❤️