Lesson 9: How textbooks DESTROY your Japanese: No 1 Secret! + Expressing desire: hoshii, tai, tagaru

[@matthall8744]

This video is very useful. Thank you. I did want to interject at your point at 12:40 where you imply that the zero-pronoun is "I". I would have thought that the implied subject is instead 食べ物が? That's the way I thought of it anyway. "want to eat.... food!" :)

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Good thinking! This tends to be exactly what many of the more intelligent people who follow this argument closely start to think. I absolutely understand why you think that - it appears to regularize the whole system and iron out the last irregularity. However this is a seemingly logical but false trail that will make a large number of Japanese structures as difficult to understand as they are for the average Western student. Not just the issues raised in this video but a wide range of others. This is an area where the logic of Japanese works as always, but in a manner that is a little unexpected to the Western mind. This is so important that I call it The Final Problem, and I explain it all here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpCrnaGdhKapjpo Please watch it and come back to me if you have any further questions. PS - I begin by going over the basis that you already know in order that we're all on the same page, so bear with me until we get to the real Final Problem.

[@VladTepesh409]

This is one aspect of Japanese I did pick up during class. It came about as we were describing things. I mentioned, "white snow," 「白い雪」. And immediately, she corrected me: "Why say 'white' snow? Is there some other color of snow that usually falls in Winter?" And it struck me that this can also apply to verbs. There is no need to say you are going to eat "food" because, what else do you normally eat? But when it comes to "buying" or "shopping", there are several "things" that are bought, correct?

[@rika-chan]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I watched the linked video and it makes a little more sense to me now, though I don't fully grasp it. I have a question regarding the role of 0 in the same sentence. If crepes were already set up by a different speaker as the object of conversation, and the same (0が)たべたい sentence was spoken, could 0 be クレープ, or does it only ever correspond to pronouns? Does the distinction even matter? edit: nevermind, I saw a reply of yours on another video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5SymXujipWtpKs&lc=UgwrGchqdEIQLaWeQhN4AaABAg.8lxdmTAKua08lxioP5tMYL ) saying that this can be the case.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

​@@rika-chan It doesn't matter much, but if the crepes are the topic, the implication of 食べたい！ is そのクレープが食べたい not 私が食べたい. The latter implies "I'm hungry" in a general way rather than a response to the crepes. If you wanted to make it clear that you are hungry rather than that you find the crepes tempting you would have to say so more directly in accordance with the Universal Ambiguity Rules: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZTFk4aNYrCoirM

[@oliverlsanz]

I thought the same as Matt Hall: that the Zero pronoun would be "it" and therefore "たべたい" means "It is eat-desire inspiring". This seems to make the model round and perfect and made me feel clever and thinking I have grasped it perfectly. But then I heard Cure Dolly say that just saying たべたい conveys that "I am eat-wanting" and not necessarily wanting to eat some particular "it". So it broke my model apart and made me reconsider it all. The perspective of が always doing the same job has made me think that たべたい is the one that does different things. So, my mental model at the moment is: たべたい has one of these two meanings: a. "is eat-desire inspiring" as in にくがたべたい meaning "meat is eat-desire-inspiring". b. "am eat-wanting" (am, since it only works in the first person) as in たべたい that means "I am eat-wanting" I also understood that this phenomenon occurs with other adjectives describing emotions such as こわい that can mean "is scary" or "am scared" in the same way that -たい adjectives do. Is this correct, or only another model that works just for what I know right now, but won't do for more advanced uses?

[@JouzuJuls]

I've been searching for this video for months and nobody has been able to explain を vs が clearly. This video also doesn't show up in search because it doesn't have を vs が written anywhere! To anybody reading this, please help more learners find this by posting comments with "を vs が" in it so that it's more likely to show up in search when people looking for "を vs が Cure Dolly"! Thank you again Cure Dolly Sensei, rest in peace!

[@nimeobless]

Although there is indeed some explanations of usage が and は but only in case of fixing the miss leading concept from general explanations of textbooks. I think Cure Dolly have more in depth videos about this one in her very first lessons. In fact there is actually no は/が explanation :), just fixing of understanding たい　かわい　ほしい adjectives in Japanese, which happens to be a verbs in English. As soon as you get the concept of those - you don't need は/が explanation, because it is logically correct "as is".

[@JouzuJuls]

@@nimeobless Thank you! I actually became Dolly's private student on Patreon not long after posting this comment, and I now think I'm good enough where I'll actually make the video explaining the を particle in detail myself 😎

[@japanese2811]

​@@JouzuJulsWhaaat, how did you become her private student if she disappeared before your comment? 😅 Do you mean to say that she is still teaching, just behind the scenes somewhere?

[@olguioo]

@@JouzuJulsI will love to see that video! I'm currently going through her videos thanks to you!😊

[@aeronwolfe7072]

i cannot believe this even EXISTS on youtube. THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO SERIES ON JAPANESE I HAVE EVER SEEN.

[@notcyfhr]

quite literally the best way to learn grammar without reading on grammar in Japanese which is how I think she learned all this. There are good resources on particles or 助詞 as they call them in Japanese and includes more than the logical particles or 格助詞. They are all in Japanese which is a barrier for a lot of people so these help especially for me to supplement with those readings

[@MrKlumpfluff]

"And if that could happen (particles changing meaning), Japanese would become chaos. And that's exactly what it does become in the minds of many students." I confirm. Chaos was very prevalent. Thank you for a state of non-chaos.

[@hritesh7]

kore wa watashi desu im.this sentence there is not ga, so does it mean here wa is working as ga and not mean as for me?

[@dontshootmedic]

@@hritesh7 kzbin.info/aero/PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj there is the lessons in the right order. The ga particle is hide, the sentence is "kore wa 0 ga watashi desu", 0 in this sentence means watashi

[@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8]

@@hritesh7 I know this is 9 months later, but there's a couple things I'll say if you or anyone else reading this is confused about this. First, "kore wa watashi desu" isn't really something anybody would say, I don't think. Like, if you held up an object and said in English, "this is me", that wouldn't make any sense at all, because clearly it isn't you. Secondly, in any sentence without ga, as Cure Dolly has been saying throughout this series, there is an implicit ga (which she calls zero-ga). It might be easier to just think of "Kore wa watashi desu" as "Kore wa (kore ga) watashi desu". The structure of the sentence is very clear. "Kore wa" isn't just "kore ga" but with wa acting as ga, it's a separate part of the sentence. It marks the topic as the thing you're referring to with "kore". Then you introduce the subject, which is also the thing you're referring to with "kore", and since it sounds stupid and is inefficient if you say "kore wa kore ga", you just drop the "kore ga" because it's implied through context. It's basically taking "As for this, this is me" and turning it into "As for this, is me". The meaning is still perfectly clear, and although it may not be grammatically correct in English, because you're not allowed to drop the subject in a sentence, it's perfectly normal in Japanese because you _are_ allowed to drop the subject in a sentence if it's obvious what it's supposed to be.

[@hritesh7]

@@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8 Thanks for commenting ❤

[@rafa9330]

I'm not someone who usually leave comments but my heart made me feel like I had to. You're amazing, Dolly-sensei. I'm fairly new here...and it makes me sad to be this late to your videos and to have found you so late. We'll miss you very much! It really aches my heart to know that such a kind and great person is not between us anymore. That's not to mention your amazing teaching, intelligence and knowledge that you were willing to share with us. Your "legacy" will keep helping many people immensely, advanced or not, as it's been helping someone new like me. It will carry on for sure, Sensei. Thank you very much for everything!

[@elmhurstenglish5938]

When you regarded Japanese as an animist language, it helped me visualise everything as having its own soul/will (which isn't far removed from a core aspect of Shintoism). So I shifted my view from 'me wanting to eat something' (A does B) to 'that thing IS able to make me want to eat it' (A is B).

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yes I definitely think Shinto has had an influence on the way the language works.

[@Fredjoe5]

I think this is why the Japanese can be so open to anthropomorphic technologies such as robotics. In the West we have the Terminator; in Japan, we have Motoko Kusanagi (although admittedly, the Major's human, or a sapient mind, at least). I know which philosophical perspective I prefer.

[@ilyaSyntax]

this video and your comment blew my mind, studying for about 2 years and this really helped to unlock something for me. thank you!

[@Im-BAD-at-satire]

I need to study into animism much better to develop this mindset better.

[@mahad9343]

this comment made it all so clear for me. thank you!!

[@DennisPulido]

2 things: - I am really BLOWN AWAY at your repeated and strong emphasis on the Ga particle, something that I really think was taken for granted in most if not all the Japanese grammar resources that i have tried in the past. - your explanation of the differences on how English sentences works vs. how Japanese sentences works finally gave me a more conclusive explanation on what "thinking in Japanese" means, an idea that somewhat vaguely made some sort of sense to me before but is now clearer than it ever was.

[@BikerFromSpace]

It's like my mind is being purified

[@sbubwoofer]

sterile white and surreal gates and a sentient robot

[@zev-m4j]

That's how I feel.

[@DanteAlighieri100]

I think I'm in a state of shock. These concepts in and of themselves are invaluable and mind enhancing even if language learning is not a goal. In my opinion, this is not just language learning, this is education. You have my sincerest thanks. PS. I could have potentially wasted years of ineffectual and illusory learning, but thanks to this channel I've been saved, I think that's also why I feel shock, its like a near miss of a fatal accident. Is this Tenjin's blessing? I would like to think so.

[@Randhrick]

I'm watching your videos in order and even though I consider myself a little bit past advanced beginner I'm still learning new stuff because I learned from those textbooks. Your videos are literally unlocking the remaining things I don't understand from grammars points I already knew . And yes, I would call that lazy teaching it's like they don't want you to expkain the real cultural reason behind those grammar rules of Japanese instead they just show them as it is and ask you to memorize them. Japanese language always had the reputation of being vague and mysterious (as Rubin Sensei say in his book) and I think it's because people teaching it either doesn't fully understand themself or they are repeating the way they were teached.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I am so happy to be able to help. I think my approach can really help people who already know some Japanese to get it all clear and intuitive. And yes, I think you are right. In most cases I believe that teachers and even textbook writers don't actually know themselves _why_ things mean what they mean or _how_ they actually work. They themselves learned by the list-memorization method, and so did _their_ teachers. Jay Rubin-sensei made the first steps toward breaking that mold and de-mystifying Japanese. My work really carries on from there.

[@chuayuonn]

Correct. I am really appreciating your efforts.

[@niri-iq9tx]

The textbook Genki got me really confused on "好き" and "嫌い", because they are listed under な-adjectives, but it's said they are like verbs in English. 🤯 Would be helpful to include "unnatural sounding" translations in Textbooks as well, so students could understand the logic behind Japanese.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

For some reason (and I don't understand it at all), logic doesn't seem to enter into their set of considerations.

[@jcpshd]

I am a language teacher too and I wholeheartedly agree with your method of teaching. I do the same in my lessons, using "raw" translations to help the students figure out the logic and philosophy of the language. I wish I had watched this video when I first started to learn Japanese. As you said, it took me literally years to figure out the simple logic you have wonderfully explained here. Please keep up the good work, thank you very much!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you! I really don't understand the English-based language-teaching habit of simply throwing students a phrase in the target language and then the way a similar idea would be expressed in English and just saying "A means B" when in fact they are often two quite different structures. It seems almost willfully unhelpful.

[@jcpshd]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 My favorite Japanese teacher once told me: a language is like a flying butterfly, but what they teach you in books is like a dead, dissected butterfly ^_^ I think it's an outdated way of teaching languages that needs to go. I was an English teacher in Japan and the books used in senior highschool made me want to cry. I now teach Spanish and it's exactly the same problem. If you ever decide to learn Spanish, please let me know. I have a Spanish school and I would love to teach you in exchange for Japanese practice! :)

[@language_enthusiast3330]

I remember reading about the zero pronoun about a decade or so ago in some old book, and I remember wishing that this information was more common to Japanese learners. Today, I'm so proud to see this kind of information being put out for all the world to see in such an easily understandable way. This kind of information doesn't just teach you grammar in a language but intuition, which is far more valuable.

[@zczcbl]

this was the first time that がる　has made actual sense to me. Thank you

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Happy to help,

[@ericdude92]

I started learning Japanese a few days ago as mostly a joke and came across this playlist, now while I have no actual grasp on vocabulary I can look at a block of Japanese text and figure out all the parts of the sentence even without understanding what it says at all. I find that amazing and it's making me want to actually continue, this is one of the best lesson courses I've ever found. You will be missed.

[@chaosangel42]

I feel like part of why it took me so long to sit down and really learn the language was because I was waiting for this video to exist. It's exactly the sort of consistent logical approach I needed.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you and welcome to the channel!

[@jamesfilios6138]

This is probably one of the most important videos in the series in my opinion. So many people start their very first japanese lesson with this misconception and its just an uphill struggle from there.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yes - I needed to explain the basic mechanics before I got to this one but I did try to flag it as being particularly important.

[@darkdwarf007]

Why someone would want to avoid direct, clunky translation, is above me. I love to toy with this concept when I translate my thoughts from my native language to English, and I find getting into the nitty-gritty of language very fun. My Japanese teacher does it fairly often too, however, I feel that his adherence to the textbook is massively constraintng his teaching capabilities. We do a lot of things other than textbook, thankfully, where his education of me is much more prominent. Also, a question, if you don't mind. My teacher told me that たい can be used for close people, like family and friends. Is that true? And thank you for your videos. I always learn something new from you, and your passion inspires me a lot.

[@SomeboadySomewhereInTheWorld]

Thank you so much for making this video. Even after 2 years living in Japan, I couldn't figure out how to reconcile textbook translations with how particles actually worked. I think I FINALLY get it now, thank you, Dolly!

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

6:38 "Because this prejudice for putting an ego at the center of every sentence is so strong that it takes precedence over learning Japanese correctly." For evidence of this, check out Duolingo's comment sections. It's full of people slowly realizing the translations aren't conveying true meanings only to be met with "we don't say it that way in English". Often times you might get the impression you're being schooled on English grammar rather than Japanese. They even have a popular meme phrase, 「すみません、私はリンゴです。」, which they translate to "Excuse me, I am an apple." It's an unironic version of 「私はうなぎだ。」(I am an eel).

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I've never tried Duolingo but that helps me to know what to say when people ask! These "translations" are perfect for phrasebooks made for people who just want to know what noise to make when they want a cup of coffee. In teaching people who actually want to learn the language they should be illegal.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

In defense of Duolingo, I think it's a good enough tool to use to train basic hiragana usage, and maybe some katakana as well. With the site I went from basically knowing just あ to recognizing and reproducing the entire hiragana set (with a declining but modest error rate) in about 2-3 days. After that it does jump immediately into phrasebook mode, e.g. excuse me, hello, goodbye, nice to meet you (it will not accept "please treat me well"), etc. without breaking down the sentences at all. Just "memorize these phrases". Then it goes into a more earnest, if dubiously effective, attempt in teaching the language. It tends to introduce multiple concepts at once with little to no explanation, forcing you to proceed via trial and error. While learning is certainly possible this way, it's actually easier to just memorize the specific format the site wants for the repetitive bank of questions, which is probably what most of its users end up doing, rather than learning Japanese or any of the other languages. While the web browser version allows for inputting kana and kanji directly, the site's default mode has you clicking on word bubbles, even for the Japanese to English portions. I haven't tried it, but, from what I understand, the mobile version is strictly multiple choice and word bubbles, no flick input. Duolingo is okay as a very first tool and is likely the entry point for a lot of people due to its powerful marketing, but it's not a place to live in for long. Luckily, the flip side of the comment sections is that some commenters provide hints on how to escape the ecosystem. Chances are you'll be onto something like WaniKani, AJATT, and/or Tae Kim within a week of using Duolingo, and while those might not be your "home", either, they're better primary resources than Duolingo.

[@johnvienna3422]

As KB says below, some of your insights go beyond “mere” language learning. Stunning, the way you explain how (whatever someone says about what they want or how they feel) we can never actually feel what they feel, so we can never state with authority what they feel. I love it that Japanese does not allow us to make such statements (and even gives us a nice workaround in the form of -がる, like a legal disclaimer). Away from Japanese (not that I’m ever far away from it) I have recently been making a conscious effort to stop trying to work out what others are feeling, or making assumptions or statements about it. So with the further enlightenment offered in this video, I now feel even more ready to embrace the Japanese language, or at least its logic, beyond the confines of the language itself. Maybe it does indeed take an android to unravel and explain such human complications clearly… The comments to all your videos show just how valuable what you're doing is. Thank you for your contribution to our quest.

[@guchierrez]

Wow. This video was just mind blowing, I love how Dolly just teaches the language as it is and actually teaches the mechanics of the language instead of translating everything to sound natural in english and make a grammatical mess. This channel is seriously underrated. I have just paid 2 years worth of Japanese lessons in Japan and I doubt they can do much better than this. Thank you キュアドリーさん, for blessing us with quality material!

[@x0habiib0x]

I love the way you explain everything. Many textbooks give a good starter base but they continue too far with that same structure as opposed to shifting to a more natural grasp of the language. And YOU give that. It’s so helpful! Thank you!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

And thank you!

[@aWildAk]

Im so happy that i found this channel with dolly sensei to learn japanese because i know any other would have been very confusing and i would have just gave up but sensei really makes it fun and makes me like learning japanese , i know she has been gone for acouple of years but i will learn japanese in her honor and become able to read speak and understand this language

[@SrMissileMonkey]

This video actually explains in succinct detail, what it means to "think in Japanese" Listening too sentences now with my focus shifted to what's being acted on, has made everything about 50x clearer. Finally, an aha moment i haven't had in almost a year of learning after initially starting on thisjourney

[@tonywoolf5042]

I didn't understand how -tai works as an adjective (nor -nai) until I realised that as -i "adjectives" they are action words. Also I tried writing that as "It wasn't clear to me ..." but it didn't feel so natural in English. I think that's why wakaru is explained as understand: when you want to convey understand, wakaru is the tool you reach for. Of course you have to know that it works differently. If you want to cut wood in Japan you get a saw, but you need to know that Japanese saws usually cut on the pull stroke not the push.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yes I think that is why it is explained that way. That is what we would say in English. It is the right _translation_ if I were translating an anime or something "understand" would probably be best in most circumstances. As an explanation, though it is very misleading about structure. It would be all right if they also told people what was really happening in the Japanese but they almost never do (if ever). The aim of course is not to use "it is clear to me" or "I understand" but わかる. English explanations should be understood and then left behind - which is why they don't really need to be natural anyway. PS - thinking about the saw analogy, I think it is very good. Japanese often works "the other way" from English so if we can remember that in these cases it might well help.

[@lennardtimmermann3864]

Isn't that how saws work all over the world? Saws in Germany certainly "cut" or gring out material on the pull stroke. Or did I miss some metaphorical finesse?

[@homeape.]

@@lennardtimmermann3864 i don't think this is about actual saws it's more like "think of it as if saws were saws and you used em to cut down trees but they would be used differently in germany and japan" Grüße gehen raus

[@freak4twenty]

Your previous videos in this series completely destroyed the past month of me learning Japanese. I came to the point where I was convinced that I would have to start all over again, but this video changed all that. It made everything so clear. I now know that I don't have to relearn everything, but instead I have a proper view of what I had learned. Thanks.

[@arpitkumar4525]

I was confused over this Suki example for so long but you made it so simple. The whole structure is clear now! ありがとうございます!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

どういたしまして。I'm happy to hear that it has become clear!

[@grbbz]

I think this is one of the most important, maybe the most important video for understanding japanese language on the entire internet. Simply mind-boggling. Damn textbooks... 本当にありがとうごさいますせんせい。

[@sheet3335]

I feel so frustrated. This lesson is too deep for me but I feel like I'm very close to understand it. I feel like I understand it but I don't realize it yet. I need to repeat the video again. This will help me a lot because what I'm doing right now is forgetting english when acquiring japanese. I don't translate word by word I understand words by its own heart, core or energy. It feels like how baby learns, they know the meaning but they don't realize it well. Now I understand some japanese that I can't describe or explain but I really know what it means. And this lesson will open up a new door for me, I'm really close to it i feel it. ありがとうございます 先生！You're so underrated. You explains things that can't be found in books or internet. I'd love to support you but I'm only a student. this channel will help me deepen my understanding and I will payback soon when I have my own income

[@zephaniahbean]

This is the single-most helpful Japanese Language video I've ever seen

[@alvarolemos3193]

This channel is an absolute goldmine.

[@Extremetothemax1]

This video is what I have been looking for for so long. Something that clearly makes sense of this phenomenon. Thank you so much for this.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

And thank you for your kind appreciation.

[@retronickmusic]

I remember reading about this in Unlocking Japanese, but this video makes it so easy to absorb! As always, ありがとうございます。

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you! This is just what I hoped to hear. Of course the main thesis was in Unlocking Japanese but I hoped this way of presenting it would make it clearer and easier to digest. So what you said is super-encouraging!

[@retronickmusic]

KawaJapa CureDolly 嬉しい✨👍

[@kurootsuki3326]

This fundamentally confused my japanese learning when I was in school. This is so important!!

[@richard_watson]

The 'kohi ga suki da' part absolutely blew my mind. That's one of the first things you're taught, and I had been internalizing it for years as, 'Well, I know ga is supposed to indicate the doer of the action, but this is just some idiomatic expression that just needs to be memorized that way: things like that happen in English all the time.' I feel a little giddy and a little dizzy.

[@lynellewhite3630]

It’s so odd that Japanese is taught this way, as well. Italian and Spanish have exactly the same structure, but no one would think of implying that “caffe mi piace” somehow means that mi is occasionally a subject pronoun - they simply take a paragraph to explain that italian handles “I like coffee” differently. Simple. But Japanese text books tie themselves up in knots….

[@Magnemite_]

i came to the comments to say the same thing. i took many years of spanish and while they initially introduced "me gusta" as "i like", they still made it pretty clear early on that it actually meant "is pleasing to me". as someone who has never read any japanese textbooks or taken a traditional class on it, i almost find it hard to believe that japanese is actually taught in such a backwards way, but many of the other comments on this video seem to confirm that this is the case.

[@Птица-ы3в]

Yeah, it's also the same construction in German and Russian, and it also isn't presented as something mysterious.

[@ginkgo501]

@@Птица-ы3в Huh why is it like that in German though I thought it is 'Ich mag Kaffee' = 'I like coffee' literally, Ich (subject) & Kaffee (object)

[@yossefgamerr3813]

@@ginkgo501 I am pretty sure he meant: Kaffee gefällt mir

[@ginkgo501]

@@yossefgamerr3813 No one says Kaffee gefällt mir though

[@sethg4825]

What a fantastic lesson! You really understand how to break things down for English speakers in a comprehensive way.

[@maxxi5263]

Omg in 2 minutes "tagaru" and "hoshigaru" finally make sense and seems so easy to use!! I've spent hours trying to get them in my head without really understanding what I was doing! Thank you so much for putting everything in this logical perspective.. I just love it!!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you!

[@nieltab]

My brain exploded (in a positive way). You helped me soo much with this video. I wish I understood this 2 years ago.

[@gewehr4395]

Why 本を食べたい is mark with を and クレープが食べたい is mark with が ?? according to this video both sentences should end with を but i can't understand why she uses が with the crepes. Gosh

[@nieltab]

@@gewehr4395 I think it depends on what the subject of the phrase is. を is marking the object we perform an action on. But in the phrase with が that object is marked as the subject. Anyone, correct me if I’m wrong. I’m only like N5 level. In reality I would always use を to be honest.

[@gewehr4395]

Thanks for the answer i will try with that.​@@nieltab

[@HyperLuigi37]

This video is incredible. These topics are talked about almost nowhere, and it’s great you make them so clear. I think the reason textbooks do this is to avoid overloading students with complicated “this isn’t the same as English and you’ll just have to accept it” topics because it can be frustrating to think “I have to relearn everything!” So they simplify it to get the basic meaning across so that you can use them quickly without fully understanding, and in really basic environments this can be effective. But when you go farther it just confuses things until you really understand deep down. 今回もありがとうございます。

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I think there are several levels of learning "about" a language. At the lowest we have phrase-books which simply give simple phrases with English equivalents. There is no attempt to explain the real structure and there shouldn't be because phrase-book users are not trying to learn the language. Unfortunately this approach persists much too far into the teaching of people whose intention is seriously learning the language, where it stops being a useful shortcut and starts becoming an impediment to learning.

[@HyperLuigi37]

Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly Yeah, totally.

I think the が particle is easy to understand to spanish people because the sentence: I like creeps, we say like japanese people: Los creeps me gustan. Creeps are subject in sentence and for us the sentence not sound unnatural. Thank you very much for the video.

[@danielduarte6802]

Lo de が sí, pero decir "El café me gusta." sigue sin ser una traducción fiel porque 'gusta' es un verbo, mientras que 好き es un sustantivo... y aparte desaparece completamente だ. Lo más cercano que se me ocurre sería decir "El café es de mi agrado."

@danielduarte6802 好きtambién es un な-adjetivo y los adjetivos en japonés también pueden ir en el predicado de la oración y lo puedes traducir como si fuese un verbo en español.

[@danielduarte6802]

Veo que te gusta transformar las oraciones como se te canta, ok, fair enough 🤣, el msj en fin es el mismo 🤝

@@danielduarte6802 para decir cantar en japonés también hay un adjetivo? Perdona, estoy empezando con el japonés y no sé mucho. Exacto, estamos diciendo lo mismo pero de diferente forma.

Según tu traducción también puedes decir: El café es/está gustoso. Para que decirlo así cuando está el verbo gustar. Para simplificar y para hablar de forma normal decimos: El café me gusta.

[@uristmcdani]

Such a gem of a video, thanks Dolly Sensei, rewatching all your videos in honor to your amazing work!

[@kppassion5201]

This is really amazing. I've been studying a year and half japanese now and just coming across your videos now just made me realize the logic of what I have studied. It's completely mind blowing how everything that I thought was complex ends up to be so simple!!! Thank you!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so much for commenting. I am very happy that the structural approach is helping you.

[@cherubin7th]

I thought particle change horribly. I tried to make up some reasons to make it more logical, but this video solved it. Thank you.

[@Ziggy9000]

I wish I found your channel years ago. Listening to your explanation I could feel something click in my brain. You've cleared up a lot of confusion for me. I'm sad that you're gone and I'll never be able to properly thank you.

[@DrAgoti-jk2ff]

after 4 months of self study my mind has finally been blown. Only now have i grasped all of those things you said about wa and ga in the very beginning of the course, and this animistic approach to the language makes so much more sense. Thank you so much!

[@ericarzt9128]

People you really need to start liking these videos! I've learned more in 3 days of these videos then I have in 3 months of self study trying several other teachers and methods out there and we need to be making sure other people struggling with Japanese find these videos. Like every one you watch. 7.8 thousand views and only 300 likes.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so much! I am so glad it has been helpful to you! And yes, a few more likes wouldn't come amiss.

[@messmersspear]

going to continue to watch these first 10 videos every weekend until all of is concretely set in my mind

[@yasashisagakawaii]

Your lessons are pure japanese gold. 先生、どもありがとうございます for your efforts and kindness.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

And thank you so much for your kind words. がんばってください。

[@clay2889]

If only you knew how much you just helped me with my understandings of 日本語 with this one video. You should feel proud of yourself, Thank you very much :). 本当にありがとう。

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I am very, very happy to hear that. I hope I can continue to help you.

[@Lazulic]

i wanted to say first off that i love the series and have found it incredibly useful for recontextulizing what i learned even just by self studying. i wanted to comment that i was taking notes on this video in my notebook (specifically on sentences like 本が分かる) and while doing so subconsciously made the exact same mistake that you pointed out in this video, using を and が in completely the wrong ways. its amazing how much the initial learning process can screw up your most fundimental understanding of japanese structure. thank you for your videos and i wish the best for your health and recovery!

[@alexds8452]

Perfect explanation of what I have noticed from life, but wasn't able to articulate in words. I have also noticed English as fundamentally a "stative" language of being vs Japanese as a "becoming" language. Japanese being an observation-based language is very scientific & accounts for/yields to its high context nature.

[@zyoeru]

I've been wrangling with the logic of why sometimes auxiliaries are verbs and why sometimes they are adjectives. Thank you for beautifully explaining it

[@SilvanaExile]

Unbelievable... I took 2 1/2 years in high school and 4 years in university, achieving high marks in every class. And even at the highest levels of study, I still regularly struggled with "playing roulette" between the は, が, and を particles. Six and a half years and no one explained this fundamental difference between English and Japanese. The way it was taught in all classes across the board, が is an "emphasis" modifier that could replace を or は when it came to describing a direct object or subject, respectively. And は was apparently the subject marker that could sometimes be used to emphasize a direct object normally marked by を when a subject is omitted. But it sometimes felt completely random when these particles would be chosen in place of the standard ones... These particle explanations seemed to be fine in the beginning, but when applied to any complex sentences (let alone spoken colloquial Japanese), it all completely fell apart. I ended up stopping my studies because of how confusing things got in the higher levels. Didn't touch Japanese for about a decade. I started re-learning Japanese recently, determined to finally acquire this language and never lose it again, when I stumbled upon Dolly-sensei's videos. And what a change they've made. Dolly explained and clarified in 20 minutes what several teachers and professors failed to in years of formal education. Feels like a series of roadblocks are slowly being lifted one after the other. RIP Cure Dolly-sensei. Thank you for all you did. I will nail down this language and make you proud.

[@superelectrasuperheroe4079]

Oh, Koohi ga suki da, is really similar to how spanish says "I like too". We say Coffe pleases me, instead of I like coffee. Or Coffee enchants me, instead of saying we love coffee. It makes sense now!!

[@Mikaa5454]

I finally understood why I was confusing は and が. Everything makes so much sense now, thank you!

[@greatfool66]

wow I just discovered these videos and the explanation is extremely enlightening even after decades of Japanese, knowing things just by feel vs knowing the reasons is very helpful. I just wish the voice were clearer, even as a native speaker I'm missing a lot for example 8:54 I hear "the stem is ....(something)... before is a very important stem.... ." I don't know if theres anything you could do but thanks so much anyway!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so much for your appreciation. I am always astonished at the way these things are never taught. Of course humans _can_ know things by feel, which is harder for me, but I still think knowing the actual structure is helpful to everyone. I have done a lot to improve the sound quality so I am sad that it continues to cause problems for some people. "Please remember that every video has real (not auto-generated) subtitles if you turn them on. "The voice" is my natural voice, but I since I am a machine I suppose "natural" is a relative term. Thank you in particular for pointing out an instance as this helps me to pinpoint the problem In the instance you give the missing part was "as I told you before" - as you see not something that really mattered. And I think this is the problem. In my human-emulation setting I tend to play down the less important parts and consequently they may get speeded, slurred or the volume too low. I feel I am getting it right but it is very hard for me to say things in exactly the way an actual human would. I could try to turn down the human emulation which might make me sound a bit colder and more (heh, for want of a better word) robotic. It is a trade-off but possibly I have taken it a shade too far in the "human" direction. Thank you again - every bit of input helps me to get the balance (nearer to) right!

[@smudge8882]

Wow! This one really blew my mind! I appreciate you going more in-depth than your previous videos on this. This'll take me a bit to fully grasp but it'll be so helpful when I do. Thank you. ^^

[@tereya26]

Being a book hoarder myself. I have used about 4 different beginner Japanese textbooks(popular series), and they all teach WA and GA the same way...Aka "WA is always used and as for GA...it marks the object." Which always...left me confused when seeing japanese outside of those textbooks... "Why is GA there? Why is it used so often?" Seeing other people online debate and fight over the use of GA and WA. I was called out at the start of the video with the very thing mentioned...GUESSING and hoping for the best when to use them. But now... I feel like throwing the textbook out the darn window, I feel betrayed by it. Cure Dolly, you beautiful angel! You shed light on my questionable brain, rest well and ありがとうございます先生。

[@gewehr4395]

Why 本を食べたい is mark with を and クレープが食べたい is mark with が ?? according to this video both sentences should end with を but i can't understand why she uses が with the crepes. Gosh

[@cleopatra108]

Ok so this is simply the most iconic way of viewing language learning, which I advocate myself. It is thoroughly enjoyable to be able to learn the language as it is meant to be perceived: as a wholly different way of viewing the world, and understanding it. In that respect, I would just like to confirm, in the above example with pancakes the ideal variation would be : "in relation to me, the crepes want to be eaten" ?

[@jmaxpuga]

I have a hard time understanding you at certain times. I'm sure you upgraded your audio in further videos, so thank you for making these! They really help! Really! I know you get it a lot. You might even get this message a lot too! Thank you for being passionate about Japanese! Much love!!!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so much for your very kind words. If you have trouble with the audio please consider enabling the subtitles. They are accurate and made for just that reason.

[@SentientAnomaly]

Hello Cure Dolly, how's it going? I don't see mentioned in this video that たい verbs can also take the particle を as their object marker. And on top of that, while I read that たい can take either を or が as a particle, I don't think I actually ever saw or heard [object] が [verb]たい, only [object] を [verb]たい. Just wanted to point it out, mostly to check if there is something wrong with my own knowledge on the topic.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

This is done sometimes. A lot of Japanese people consider it to be sub-standard Japanese. Some people consider it to be a legitimate recent "evolution" of the language. Many people consider it to be influenced by English teaching in schools. This doesn't really need to concern us. The point is that the particles retain their values in all cases. No object is ever marked by が. So when we have ケーキが食べたい the cake is _not_ the object. That is the whole point. It is only what _would be_ the object in English. In ケーキを食べたい the cake is indeed being treated as the object as in English. If we understand that, then it doesn't matter which version we encounter. If we don't understand that, we are in deep trouble.

[@spaghettiking653]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Just for the sake for future reference, を~たい has been used since the Muromachi period and is therefore both an old and a native innovation, which doesn't have anything to do with English or with illiteracy. 「たい」が他動性の動詞に付く場合、希望の対象を表すのに、「水を飲みたい」「水が飲みたい」のように「…ヲ…タイ」「…ガ…タイ」の両形を、室町時代以来用いてきている。 (from Daijisen).

[@davidb.8907]

una maravilla que Dios la tenga en la gloria

[@nickbensema3045]

I had learned Spanish before, where we learn "Me gusta el café" as "I like coffee" before we even learn how object pronouns work, and we'd ask why it's not "Yo gusto el café", and they'd tell us not to worry about it. but the exact same thing is happening as with "suki": "gustar" means "to please" in Spanish, not "to like". There are other Spanish verbs and other Western languages that do this. so, it's true that the example of "suki" is well-known and some learners probably see past the JPN-101 explanation and thus think we know the whole game. But those particles, and the dichotomy between the speaker's feelings and everyone else's, don't really map to other Western languages, so I'm glad to see those points explained in close proximity.

[@qk2168]

Wow. Learning about がる was amazing. I often hear it on Japanese media but never understood why it had that ending. I just kinda knew the context. I've been looking at your videos at random but this convinced me to look into your videos chronologically. 先生の動画を全部見る、本当にありがとございます先生

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

ありがとうございます。この講座を最初から順番に見るといいです。

[@bhagatsingh5695]

I asked my native Japanese sensei once about the instances in which the [が] and [を] particles were to be used; didn't get a satisfactory response. This has dispelled my doubts. この授業のためにどうもありがとうございました！素晴らしかった。

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I'm very happy to have helped. コメントしてくれてありがとうございます。

[@notsomelancholy3797]

This has cleared up so much for me. When I started, what I initially thought was “は = as for/in regards to X...” too, but the textbook kept hammering home “Xは” as an actor and I really doubted my thinking when I went through it. While I sort of grasped the train idea in the beginning, the crepe example really is what made it ‘click’ for me.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I'm glad we could clear this up. The textbooks are so confusing!

[@kuroshinko427]

For a 19 minute video, it took me an hour to digest this video, however this video is very enlightening! Thank you for this great video!

[@TavartDukod]

It's also the same in Russian! "Мне нравится X" is always translated as "I like X", but what it literally means is "to-me is-pleasing X". "Мне" is dative form of "Я", which means "I". And X is put into nominative case, which is used only for subjects.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Which presumably leaves people with the same confusion of thinking that Мне only _sometimes_ means "to-me/at me etc" and Я only _sometimes_ means "I". This happens in Spanish too, though at least it covers a much smaller range of the language.

[@TavartDukod]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 well, in Russian it happens about as often as in Spanish, I suppose. There are some other common phrases like that, such as "мне кажется, что ...". It means "I think that..." or "In my opinion, ...", but it literally says "to-me seems that ...". By the way, "to seem" is a verb too, but the subject is not the one that is actually perceiving, but the object of perception. I guess all languages do something like that from time to time, it's just that in Japanese it happens all the time.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@TavartDukod Where there is a subjective interaction between an ego-consciousness and an external object, I think most (very likely all) languages can give agency either to the ego or to the object. English and Japanese seem to be at opposite ends of the scale here with English strongly preferring the ego most of the time and Japanese strongly preferring the object most of the time.

[@TavartDukod]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I've tried to find more information on this topic, and it gets way weirder: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXfdpZJ9fbOXZ68 P. S. It also appears that there is a number of verbs in English that can change what grammatical subject mean (either an actor or a receiver of an action) depending on whether object is present or not: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labile_verb

[@Eltaurus]

@@TavartDukod огромное спасибо за ссылку!

[@juliekersten6050]

That explanation made so much sense. I never could figure out why it seemed that verbs were changing to adjectives when you used tai or nai. It makes a lot more sense to show how they're not really verbs but adjectives to begin with. The common translations do make it seem like the words are switching function in the sentence. I think the way Japanese uses another verb when expressing someone else's desire rather than you're own seems to mesh with the politeness of the Japanese people, that they wouldn't presume to know another person's feelings.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I think that definitely plays a role. Also I think there is the logical aspect - we never actually do know for sure the feelings of anyone else and of course Japanese has the concepts of 建前 and 本音 (tatemae and honne) - one's outward face and one's true thoughts/feelings. Of course this phenomenon exists in all cultures but it is significant that Japanese has specific words for it whereas most languages don't. This has many implications, but for our purpose here it shows a very distinct awareness that what a person is outwardly manifesting is not necessarily what she is inwardly feeling.

[@Eltaurus]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Those two seem to resemble Kant's "für uns" and "an sich".

[@amarug]

incredible... to be honest, I don't want to trash on genki too much, as it helped me a lot to get started and some of the things here i kinda "guessed myself" during the reading of genki, but this was truly gold and helped cleaning up things :)

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yes I think some people do end up "guessing" some of how Japanese works from sources like Genki. I just wish they would explain things properly and not use misleading false associations with English.

[@SrMissileMonkey]

I'm here to say, been casually learning Japanese for more than a year now and felt like i was missing that "it" factor to learning. Like i was getting it, to an extent but had felt like i was missing something. Yes, "think in Japanese" but i felt like i didn't really have a grasp of what that meant. And being self-taught, i couldn't exactly ask questions. I knew about the particle-craze and how each one is used and what not as well as the many ways each particle can be used given context. But was always told in various books (as you stated here) that は and が were essentially one and the same or of it wasn't, は took slightly more precedence since that was the "subject" and anything that was then preceded by が before the verb but after は just added further context (which it does). Very much as you describe as catering to the English way of speaking of needing an ego. I realize now that i really have just been, *translating* for myself trying to make it easier rather than actually _thinking_ in the language because now i realize, barring any context whatsoever (which is difficult in Japanese but for the sake of argument) *_が_* is the one that *actually* takes precedence because as you explain, Japanese gives _things_ a sense of existence, the neutral, the "direct object" as it would be in English (or at least if i interpret your explanation of the differences correctly). What would be the _direct object_ in English, could be interpreted as the _subject_ In Japanese. Since there is such a cultural emphasis on "the thing that exists" instead of "A does to the Thing" In English, A is priority; in Japanese, the Thing is priority. I was told a lot that Japanese is both difficult and easy but mostly difficult. I now see why people say its both. Like the very language that champions it, *without this cultural context* it's difficult to grasp the language while learning it, but *_with this context_* Everything becomes much clearer. The year is 2022 and you have helped me greatly, ありがとうございます

[@JustPeasu]

One of the sources I learned for learning is Human Japanese: the way the explained コーヒーが好き was to translate it as "coffee is likeable" or 欲しい as "wantable" In general, a lot of the explanation of the author mirror a lot of yours which drew me to your channel immediately. I really like your approach to explanations and how in-depth you go. Thank you for this video.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

These are much better explanations than regular textbooks provide, so it sounds like a better book. I'd be interested in how it presents things like so-called "conjugation", the receptive helper (miscalled "passive conjugation") and adjectival nouns.

[@AS-ne5wu]

Bit by bit I'm starting to feel that mess in my head, a combination of languages, when I don't know what word or what phrase I want to say best using one language, or another. The same thing happened to me when I learned my second language, and this is a sure point that I'm finally getting somewhere. I can't thank you enough, because even at this point you've already done more, than any textbook or teacher I studied with, gave me.

[@ribbanya]

Hi Dolly! I have known about たい and たがる for years. However, seeing your video I decided to look them up in the dictionary (スーパー大辞林) and it threw me a bit of a curveball. The first definition for たい is entirely straightforward: （１）話し手自身の希望を表す。「おもしろい本が読み〈たい〉」「ぜひ私が行き〈たかっ〉た」 But the second says: （２）話し手以外の人の希望を表す。「帰り〈たけれ〉ば帰ってもよい」「大学へ行き〈たく〉ても行けない人もいるのだ」 Does this mean you can say, for example, 「故郷へ帰りたい人がいる」 in a definitive manner? Or can it only be used with suppositional language such as 「故郷へ帰りたい人がいる（らしい・そうだ・だろう・かも）」? Or does it preclude the use of ～たい in its base form entirely and only allow ～たければ, ～たくて, etc.? Interestingly, the definition of たがる is essentially the same as たい but in reverse, and in the case of someone other than the speaker it says 「希望・願望する意」 rather than 「希望」. But the nuance is lost on me: （１）話し手以外の人が希望・願望する意を表す。「熱があるのに，外に出〈たがっ〉てしようがない」「親はとかく子供に勉強ばかりさせ〈たがる〉」 （２）（条件を表す言い方の中で）話し手の希望を表す。「私がいくら食べ〈たがっ〉ても，何も食べさせてもらえなかった」 おつかれさまです！

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

First of all this isn't a fairy curse on which words can be used with which. The "prohibition" is against exhibiting actual knowledge of someone else's subjectivity. So the dictionary examples for たい (2) all come within this rule. You can conjecture if someone wants something, talk about the putative existence of people who want something or even ask if someone wants something (though "do you want coffee?" is _not_ a usual way of offering as it is in English). With たがる it is the same logic the other way around. Let's look at the example 私がいくら食べ〈たがっ〉ても，何も食べさせてもらえなかった One is talking about one's own appearing-to-want as conjecturally perceived by someone else. So instead of saying "however much I may want to eat I wasn't able to receive anyone feeding me" which would be hoping for outsiders to guess one's internal feelings - or just making a sad observation that holds no one responsible - one is saying: "However much I may have shown signs of wanting to eat I wasn't able to receive to receive anyone feeding me." This is a conjecture about others' perceptions of oneself, implying "They must have seen how hungry I was but they did nothing about it". This latter type of conjecture is relatively rare, but possible so the dictionary includes it.

[@ribbanya]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 That makes sense. Thank you again for patiently but swiftly answering my questions!

[@JeanOfmArc]

THANK YOU once again for clarifying the "私は～が好きだ" structure! In my mind, it was "I like ~" because that's what I was taught, but have always been confused about why it uses が instead of を or something similar (ex. 私がコーヒーをすきだ). You totally clarified this by starting the whole thing with the difference between English and Japanese's language centers. It's funny because, even in English, I sometimes speak this way as part of my personality. If someone asked me "Should we have cake or pie at the party?" I might say "Pie is really good." This doesn't directly answer their question, as I haven't said "We should have pie", but it does indicate my preference by making a statement about the positive value of pie. (Sorry cake fans.) Anyway, you've opened my mind yet again, ドーリー先生. THANK YOU!!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I'm so happy to hear that (even though I am one of the Cake Tribe). Japanese has nouns and verbs, and all verbs end with an う-row kana and can't take the copula (which only works with nouns), so there is no possible way that 好きだ could be a verb. Of course if it _were_ a verb, (in some parallel-universe version of Japanese) 私がコーヒーをすきだ would be perfect grammar and would mean "I like coffee" quite literally. Naturally the textbooks live in that parallel universe or something akin to it.

[@JeanOfmArc]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 I didn't know that these textbooks came from a parallel universe. It does make them kind of cooler that way, but ultimately less reliable.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@JeanOfmArc ですね。

[@aichujohnson8444]

Hmm. That reminded me. There certain languages that are known as Ergative. In such a case, the verb agrees with the object and not the subject. Most of these languages are partially ergative. It seems that Japanese is that way. Other known languages to do this are Sumerian and Hindi.

[@lynkkx]

ok I am back with more knowledge, I feel like the concept was a bit to hard for me since I was a beginner, but now that I know a bit more I can see how things are working. like how が is always used for adjectives for a reason and converting a verb into たい form actually makes it into an adjective just like hoshii, so が should be used unless you are actually talking about the very desire of you wanting to eat where you would use を.

[@chuayuonn]

What the heck..... It finally answered my question... It is why I confused at the beginning of studying Japanese.

[@hektor6766]

This is great insight into the Shintoist and Buddhist natures reflected in the language.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Yes I think this does in the end come down to underlying philosophy.

[@clu1878]

This makes so much sense. Giving the verb the -i ending to make it a noun, then using an adjective to say it is want-able. I guess the common mistake is thinking the word "want" is a verb and not an adjective. I feel like you could also translate the crepe sentence to : crepe-eating is want-able. This is huge help, thank you!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You could translate it to "crepe-eating is wantable", however a point I didn't make here (to stop it getting complicated is that this in fact involves an invisible は because while crepe-eating is wantable" is a complete logical clause, it also needs a topic, which is "me". I talk about invisible topics in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZ-7eaOhibmZfdU

[@orhalimi]

the GARU explanation helped me alot

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

I am happy to hear that!

[@Adonalsium_GG]

I'm going through the entire playlist, and this is my favorite lesson so far. Thank you for these lessons!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you! I'm so glad you like them! New lesson coming in a couple of days.

[@Adonalsium_GG]

I will make notes of these lessons, they are very informative and packed with useful information. I don't want to forget any of it!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

My original plan was to write the book of this course along with making the videos but I am way behind on that. Making the videos has turned out far more time-consuming than I imagined. I hope to get to the book at some point but - yes a good idea to make notes as I have no idea when!

[@Adonalsium_GG]

Oh, I look forward to that! I already bookmarked the other two books, I will probably order those soon. :)

[@joaodelvaux3152]

Fourth time watching in very slow pace and finally understanding the full lesson completely! Thank you very much ドッリ先生！

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

It's really worth giving them the time and repetition you need. Good luck.

[@homeape.]

this video is pure gold

[@antlershy]

Thank you so much for providing these lessons, they are incredibly helpful! You didn't explicitly state this connection this way around I think, but am I correct in thinking that one of the reasons こわい on it's own or even 私がこわい cannot mean "I am scary" and has to mean "I am scared" is because the former would implicitly make a statement about other people being scared of me (unless I'm scared by myself?), which I cannot know? If that's the case, I would assume that to make a general statement about my own scariness, it would need to be along the lines of 皆さんが私をこわがる as well?

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

私が怖い as a statement of fact can only mean "I am scared" because we can't actually know if we are scaring other people (we can't be inside their minds). However it can be used in some cases as a question. So this is somewhat context dependent. I talk in detail about this "polarity flip" here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpCrnaGdhKapjpo And this is why we should not fear - but should know how to handle - context-dependent "ambiguity" in language: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZTFk4aNYrCoirM

[@TheMornox]

I would like to share some early impressions comparing your course to a Genki-based university course of Japanese and provide some constructive feedback. I started to learn by learning kana and isolated vocabulary with kanji (SRS), fully aware of needing to add progress about understanding the structure, too. Eventually, I started to learn about it from your video course which looked like the best available source for that kind of knowledge. I only saw a handful of the course's lessons and read a few articles, but I feel I understand the general narrative and approach. I am all for combining different learning methods until my personally preferred method crystallizes from variety. So, I decided to take a beginner level course at the university in parallel. Pleasantly, the professor is a Japanese native. Unfortunately, she lacks any skill of teaching, but I will get to that. So, following your videos I was expecting the university course to teach English structure for Japanese and give misleading ideas about grammatical concepts. I always felt your criticism is somewhat overboard and I kept a neutral stance, processing the information in the context of probabilistic analysis like... an Android. It turns out, your criticism was not exaggerated, however, things did not turn out exactly as you predicted it. Instead of being taught misleading or wrong structure, I found myself being taught no structure at all. That was a surprise. I cannot decide whether I find that better or worse than being taught wrong/misleading structure. I can say that I would not have been able to follow the university course at all without knowledge from your course. Or if I had followed in some way, it would have been very inefficient and unsustainable. More specifically, I eventually would have been overwhelmed as basically each sentence was taught in isolation, like an entirely new thing, ignoring any structural patterns that, well, form the language in the first place. That combined with the lack of any didactic concept made me feel I waste my time there. Genki now has a third edition. I find it improved, but I would not want to rely on it to understand the structure of the language. For understanding Japanese structure it is not bad, but not particularly good either in my perspective. Grammatical concepts are at times unnecessarily complicated there and the order of concepts being introduced seems to be orchestrated around short-term gratification rather than sustainable efficient language learning. BUT there is one thing about Genki that I find very useful. It gives me a lot of opportunities for consolidation by the practice chapters and the workbook. I find consolidation is the major widely-missing ingredient in your course, I find myself feeling not ready to follow the next videos as I still need to consolidate what I learnt in the first few. And that is the case even though people consider me a fast learner. Notably, I did work through the worksheets you provided. That alone just is not enough for a beginner. I would think it to be enough for someone who switches over from a different system and has some partial structural Japanese knowledge already at hand. Don's Japanese Conjugation Drill was a very valuable complement and I already see myself benefiting from it. Overall, one of two concerns of constructive criticism is my suggestion to add more guidance for consolidation early into the course, at stages when immersion is not yet really possible. My other concern of constructive criticism is a suggestion to reconsider the anti-conventional-teaching narrative. While I do not disagree with you at all, I still find that your course would be better and more pleasant, for reasons of human emotion, if the negativity would be replaced by positivity or at least neutrality whenever possible. Most if not all your points of criticism are surely justified, which that does not change the fact that being exposed to that negative narrative in almost every video has an impact on my emotional state and partially impairs my motivation to work with the videos. It is entirely possible to maintain the same points of criticism without expressing them with negativity. Negativity is polarizing. Its presence alone will lead to conventional teachers rejecting your approach, regardless of the actual quality of what you create. I find it unnecessary to make enemies and invoke such polarization. To summarize my constructive feedback: In an ideal world I'd envision your course as a medium of serene positivity with plenty of guidance how to consolidate the dense input of valuable knowledge at any stage of the course. To conclude: As for myself, your course is the best source for learning Japanese that I could find (combined with an SRS system for kanji) and I am very grateful for this content being available to me. I spent a lot of time screening different sources and approaches to learning Japanese, so I feel rather confident and conclusive in that statement. Also, I feel your course saved me so much time and nerves that it probably makes the difference between failing and achieving a decent level of Japanese in the near future. Without your guidance, I would probably have given up and shifted priorities to other domains of life. Thank you for the existence of this course. It makes a difference.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you so much for your kind comments and for your constructive criticism. I accept both the main points. I haven't really tried to make this a course in the sense that Genki is - with exercises practice drills etc. That is mainly because I really have no expertise in that area. I am not a teacher but an analytical engine. I have thought seriously about what we might do about this but I haven't reached any solid conclusions so far. What I set out to do was (after my earlier piecemeal work in the field, which laid the groundwork) to create a relatively complete model for the language structure. The few worksheets and such were incidental and I would have to say probably not all that well done. So to your first criticism I would say, accepted and not yet solved. The second is more tricky. I have had this criticism before but I think it is actually necessary to point out repeatedly where these models differ from the conventional ones. This may be less apparent to you from your experience - if you haven't been taught much inaccurate structure that's all to the good (since you have access to accurate structure). But there is an awful lot of it about - and in the most prestigious places on and offline. What this means is that most people who have been exposed to it are likely (very reasonably) to assume that the consensus of informed opinion must be correct and that there must be a way of reconciling what I say with it. But there isn't. And thinking that there is can cause a lot of wasted time and more importantly a lot of tangled misconceptions. I feel it integral to what I am presenting to make the matter clear. What I am saying is in direct opposition to much of the conventional wisdom. Nobody has to choose my model over that if she doesn't want to. But she needs to know that it _is_ a choice. That what I am saying is not supplementary or complementary to the usual models. It is instead of them, or it is useless. *Clarification:* I am here of course talking about the fundamentally flawed central models of conventional "Japanese grammar" that present, say, the receptive helper as a "passive conjugation", or imply - in many cases actually state - that が sometimes marks the grammatical object. This kind of thing is non-negotiable. One must pick one model or the other and one does no favor to anyone by not making this very, very clear. I am not denying that some useful information can be picked up in piecemeal fashion from conventional sources.

[@heyasuki]

Your videos are always super helpful. I don't really understand why this doesn't have more views. I'm not keeping all these ideas in mind while reading.

[@eutectoid1]

I've been trying to learn Japanese for years - if only I'd seen this years ago it would have made my learning life so much easier. Where were you all my life sensei?

[@ojiwankenobi]

And the veil is lifted! I fancied myself capable of brute force learning Japanese as I did with Spanish. Grabbed a copy of an Edogawa Ranpo collection of Japanese noir mysteries, and IMMEDIATELY, and for months after, I was stumped by the first few syllables. 「あの泥棒が羨ましい」, words exchanged between a couple of characters who launch the tale. I read it as “The thief is envious”. Now I know better. Now I know why I never could identify of what or whom the thief might be envious. Two problems: I was ignorant of the topic in this Lesson 9 and I chose the wrong meaning of ‘urayamashii’ from my dictionary. So, it’s “enviable”, not “envious”! If Ranpo had wanted to say, “The thief was [seemingly] envious” might he have written, 「おの泥棒が羨ましがった」⁇ 「恥ずかしがらずに…」 I said to myself. “Go ahead. Ask a question!” Love these lessons. Became a patreon. Will watch all you’ve got on KZbin, then get back to Ranpo. Maybe he’ll start making sense!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

If you were close enough to the thief to observe envious behavior and be as sure as you would be when in English you would say "he was envious" then you could say that.

[@ojiwankenobi]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thanks for the feedback. Some native Japanese speakers with whom I lunch understand immediately, without having to read the rest of the sentence, that the meaning here is “enviable”. Encourages me to pay more attention to your comment in an earlier episode about the value of immersion or frequent, meaningful dialog practice. 「あの靴が赤い」”That shoe is red.” Statement of fact. No emotion involved. 「おの靴が羨ましい」”I envy that shoe.” Practice, practice, practice!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

@@ojiwankenobi The thing to bear in mind is that adjectivals of subjectivity tend to point to the thing causing the subjectivity, not the person experiencing it (unless there is no direct cause). Regular adjectivals that do not represent subjective states like envying, liking, wanting, fearing etc. point naturally at whatever they describe (whatever is red, big, round etc.)

[@ojiwankenobi]

@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Oji strives to snatch the pebble from your hand. . .

[@5bitcube]

Thank you for that last part, I had no idea ほしがる existed. Makes perfect sense

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Happy I could help.

[@CharlesG-d7q]

16:12 reminds me of the rust compiler...

[@Jimserac]

Not a problem for me, I THREW OUT my textbooks once I found your videos !!! The only book I kept from my PREVIOUS 3 ATTEMPTS, going back to 1980, at getting to an intermediate stage in Japanese was the Nelson Japanese Dictionary.

[@7irousagi10]

Good day sensei, I have a question. I'm quite confused with the "kowai" part. If I say that "I am scary", it would be "私が怖い" right? But it also means that "I am scared". How would I be able to differenciate which is which? Thank you very much 💕

[@SantiagoRodriguez-zi3gv]

You would say both exactly the same way. Japanese is very context based. If you wanted to be more specific, you could say something like 私が怖い人です "I am a scary person".

[@Nerukenshi1233]

@@SantiagoRodriguez-zi3gv This sentence, if I understand Dolly's explanation correctly, would imply that you scare yourself. I don't think that invalidates what you said at all. I just find it funny

[@ムネタ]

I think I finally, finally grasped the difference between が and は, really. I am rather apalled to say that I, too, fell under the strings of the average English translations of the simplest Japanese sentences. Water still runs deep, though. I have been using Genki I and, mind, every now and then he simply introduces new grammar points by saying what they do, but not why. So I never really get to feel 100% comfortable when that happens. For instance, your previous に explanation made me understand why, should I want to express purpouse, I would need to rearrange the verb in their い・stem. Genki called them "verb stems". I guess it is no biggie, but it does sound better if you also say "change to あ-stems" when explaining how to turn a verb into the negative in its short form. It's just cleaner overall. Anyways, God bless this video. It made me think "can Japanese really be successfully translated into English without making it sound clunky?" Thanks again!

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

The い-stem in fact turns verbs into a kind of noun which is why we can then mark them with logical particles like に. More on this here kzbin.info/www/bejne/laLNao2hdqhlqqc - this tells you all the main functions of the い-stem (the most active of the four) - if you find it a bit difficult now just leave it until a little later. More about は vs が in more advanced lessons but I won't confuse things with that here. The vital point to remember is the distinction between logical and non-logical particles (は and も). Logical vs non-logical particles here kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqjGhXxvptuCY7c Translation - I would say that literal translation from Japanese to English is more or less impossible. They just work too differently. If you see three good translations of a Japanese work they will all be different, because translation is an art not a science. It is not about saying exactly what the Japanese says, because you can't. It is about findnig the best way to convey in English what the Japanese is conveying in Japanese.

[@vacantly]

great info as always, and the sound effects/images for the "wrong" things were so funny. appreciating your humor

[@igorseabra4]

It’s interesting because in both Spanish and German you also use structures that say “something is pleasurable to me” instead of saying “I like something”, but while I got the proper explanation learning Spanish and German, I never had anyone else explain to me that that is also the case with 好き.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

You were quite lucky - it doesn't always get explained in Spanish classes either. I think the English prejudice for bringing the ego-experiencer to the fore is so strong that many people don't even perceive what is happening when they speak another language - they "auto-English" it in their minds.

[@Noelciaaa]

Wow, this so far had been the video that helped with what I was struggling with the most! Especially the part about who/what is the subject and how to talk about someone else's (perceived) desire! Knowing what がる does exactly, the philosophy behind its existence and nature is extremely helpful! I saw it being used in manga many times and other lessons about it confused me even more!! But this one finally made it 100% clear and simple. Thank you so much!

[@Ryodakun]

Many resources I see, even from Japanese natives, never tell you any of that. I recently watched some Misa Ammo just to get a different spin on some stuff I had issues with and it was just all "watashi ha means I am" or all these wrong, although more natural english localization (cuz that's a more accurate word than translation I think). It's no wonder the ga vs ha topic is such a big issue for everyone. Simply putting it in the correct (although awkward in english) structure solves so many issues with learning the language. I'm blessed to have found your channel so early.

[@organicjapanesewithcuredol49]

Thank you! Actually very few speakers of English understand in a structural manner how their language actually works. Native speakers of languages generally know how to use them by instinct. This is not at all the same thing as knowing _why_ they do what they do in speaking and not even remotely the same thing as knowing how to explain that in a language that works completely differently. This isn't at all to disparage native speakers who teach their language - they often do a very good job. The point is that when the whole conventional theory mis-explains certain things, native speakers are really not in a better position than anyone else to correct the situation.