Pronouns in Japanese (ANATA and KIMI are RUDE)

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Pronouns and genders in Japanese
0:15 He/She
11:30 They
15:35 I
32:29 You
40:14 We
watashi, boku, ore, atashi, uchi - I
anata, kimi, omae, temee, kisama - you
kanojo - she
kare - he
karera - they
...But are they really used commonly??
(Hint: NO)
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[@pipsqueak6814]

Japanese feels like a game where I try to see how much of a sentence can be taken away before it does not make sense

[@zammich3649]

Tell me about it. And my boyfriend (Japanese) is REALLY bad about clarifying when a subject changes, so sometimes I'll get lost following his train of logic only to realize he's talking again about something from five minutes ago (and not the subject I thought he was) and I have to scold him for not warning me.

[@theartisticbox4753]

Lmao

[@MichitaroNaito]

Yes. It's a death-game of language. We walk minefields as we speak Japanese. This video is gold to avoid those dangers.

[@nuanil]

How is that any different than english? For example "roflmao"...

[@MichitaroNaito]

@@nuanil The biggest difference is: if you don't use a short-hand, you offend others unintentionally.

[@PRISMkidd]

i saw some comments saying they didn't like how you go into detail about everything and i just wanted to say, i hope you don't listen to them. there are lots of shorter videos online that teach vocab like "x = y, so you just say x" without giving the various nuances and possible contexts that i really appreciate in your videos. when you go into detail about little things like 達 being used only for living things /unless they're toy story toys/ it really gives me a much clearer picture of the extent of what i can say, what i might want to express and opens my eyes to all the things i'm able to talk about in japanese. other videos often leave me with lots of questions about specific situational use, but when i watch your videos i rarely find myself leaving with more questions than i had answered. something i really like is when you're explaining a grammar point, for example, and you use another new point to help explain then you let us know that we haven't learned it from your videos yet or that you already made a video on it instead of leaving it go unacknowledged. it clears up a lot of confusion for me, and lets me know that i don't have to worry about that at the moment or that i might be overthinking how to say what i want to say in jp. lots of other videos don't do that and leave me wondering "well what about xyz???" misa-sensei's videos are one-of-a-kind, so thank you for putting so much thought and care, time, effort and mental energy into your videos for us. please keep doing what you do and being you 💙

[@vanessameow1902]

👏THIS

[@pannkeki8940]

I love the super in depth videos. Misa's videos have been by far the most helpful to me out of all others.

[@animeloverXinuyasha]

Agree with every word 1000% I’m so glad you expressed this so well in a comment. Truly Misa sensei’s videos are the best for this reason, I feel incredibly lucky like I have a personal tutor who goes into all those aspects instead of being left hanging. The alternative (unless you have a native friend willing to tutor you!) is going through all the Japanese forums painstakingly to understand all the ambiguities and even then you may not find the answer you were looking for! I don’t find those short videos that just give you the quick solution helpful, in the long term the foundation of my Japanese will be weak if I skip over details like that. And also it is so useful that misa sensei uses different sentence patterns and grammar structures and then summarises it in a explanation and tells us there is another longer video to refer to etc Misa sensei thank you so much for teaching us so much! You are far more than just a language teacher, you bring meaning to the role of a “language teacher”. Thank you so much for all your effort and putting your all into everything that you do 🌟

[@stucky101]

Couldn't agree more. Misa is one of the few who understand that the devil is in the details!!

[@mikeoxfat6081]

I think it’s great that we get the full depth meaning of the words or phrases

[@gigitrix]

I'm sure you hear this everywhere but your subtitling system is absolutely excellent

[@davidsherman7965]

I second that.

[@skippychurch2965]

We have a million ways to say "you," now don't use ANY of them.

[@lu3060]

As a Chinese mandarin speaker, I find it fascinating how words like 君 and 貴様 evolved into rude terms (between strangers) in modern times, when the kanji are very polite terms that Chinese language speakers today wouldn't use in modern conversations. I really liked your lesson, Misa-sensei!

[@Oblithian]

It is interesting.

[@Bonyari_Boy]

君 shows up in classical Japanese as very polite speech. It's how the emperor was once addressed (and still is addressed in the national anthem 君が代 'Kimi ga Yo').

[@Jumpoable]

君 in modern Japanese is used by someone of higher status talking down to someone of lower status. So teachers might use it to address both male & female students (but mostly in anime) 貴様 is used sarcastically, & the meaning has shifted from an extreme honorific to an almost ironic insult (in anime, it's shouted before a fight do NOT ever use this in real life).

[@xw3132]

君 means emperor in Chinese, and 诸君 is a real, very polite third-person plural pronoun. Whereas 貴様 is not Chinese at all. Japanese samurai made up that word.

[@AlexM-oq5el]

​@@xw3132I see 貴樣 and mentally interpret it as 貴方 in Chinese. Extremely polite sounding haha

[@shimewaza]

Great summary of Japanese pronouns! Two things that occurred to me as I was watching: 1. At 27:56 you introduced 自分 as a versatile first-person pronoun (I) for men. However, in the Kansai area 自分 is also used as a second-person pronoun (you). This confused the hell out of me when I first moved to Osaka and heard it used like this but eventually I got used to it. 2. おまえ was a landmine for me. I heard it being used all over the place in Japanese dramas, YT videos and so on when young men are casually talking to their female friends or girlfriends so I decided to try it out on my Japanese gf (大阪出身) at the time. I was trying to make my Japanese sound more ネイティブっぽい. Well, that was a big mistake. She got so pissed off at me. She claimed that no man had ever addressed her as おまえ in her 27 years on this earth and it deeply offended her, which of course I had no intention of doing. It was a mess. So a caution to other men out there. It may depend on the particular girl whether she finds it offensive or not but probably better to play it safe and stick to just her name.

[@Cobbbler]

Just throwing my own personal experience in as well: I picked up the habit of saying お前 from my Japanese ex, because she had a somewhat rough speaking style. She would say it when she was annoyed at me, but not actually angry, or she would jokingly say it when I would tease her. Example: Her: ねぇ、ゴミ出した？ (Hey, did you take out the trash?") Me: あっ、忘れちゃった！(Crap, I forgot!) Her: おまーえー！(Omae!) After we broke up and I dated other people, I would sometimes accidentally use お前 to express fake annoyance when joking around and a girl would tease me about something. In all instances, I realized right as I said it, apologized and said I didn't mean to be rude. Maybe it's because of the gaijin pass, but they all say it was fine, or they didn't mind. One even said: "It didn't seem rude to me because we're so close." I think it also depends on the delivery. What I'm referring to is more like おまーえー with a pitch up on the ま and then back down on the え. Also, being used as a one off word to express (often fake) annoyance, rather than as a pronoun in a sentence. Not saying learners should use it, but just that, like everything in Japanese, context is key. Honestly, because context is so important, I would just straight avoid using it, just like OP recommended. You won't seem less natural for it.

[@shimewaza]

@@Cobbbler Thanks for sharing your experience. I know exactly what you mean. It's often used when engaging in lighthearted teasing with someone you are close with, male or female, who isn't socially above you. Actually, after the incident with the ex that blew up at me (which was a number of years ago) I've used it without issue in this way with other female and male friends who I was confident would be ok with it. As you say, context. It's risky though and should be avoided if one isn't an advanced speaker because things can go south quickly if used with the wrong person, as I learned lol

[@randomprozimity]

So what do you think is better to use? Since I'm still a student in Osaka and almost most of my friends uses omae and aitsu to describe each other so I'm pretty much used to using it and scared that I might experience what you said

[@jaycee330]

"自分" (jibun) means "ones self" and can be reflexive to yourself or to a second person.

[@jaycee330]

@@randomprozimity Your friends will probably let your get away with "omae" (I would avoid "omee" though, it's rougher).

[@kamaboko1]

My Japanese improved greatly when I omitted nouns, verbs, adjectives, particles and subjects. I'm very good with my hands and facial expressions.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

Q: 何かウイスキーをのむたいですか？ A: Zatto Wan *point*

[@martin_elguy48xd42]

Lmao

[@tcsocal5554]

These detailed explanations about how everyday Japanese is really used are very helpful. They help us understand what’s actually happening much quicker. It could take hundreds of hours of immersion to fully realize what’s going on. These lessons make immersion much more efficient. Typical Misa Sensei - outstanding, as always. 教えてくれてありがとうございます！

[@2wcp]

this is so useful it's surprising that this video is free! coming from the textbooks there's a lot of difference in writing vs conversational Japanese and Misa-san really cleared everything up. thank you!

[@worldcomicsreview354]

She should write her own book, honestly.

[@gilbertoez1994]

I'm so glad you mentioned what are some of the proper ways of saying "you" or addressing someone without coming off rude. That's one of my biggest fears of accidentally coming off rude to someone... Thank you so much!! I'm new to your channel and still at the early stages of learning Japanese, but your videos have been a great companion to help me understand Japanese alongside my studies and textbooks. Agian thank you.

[@JapaneseAmmowithMisa]

Check out my merch

[@TeacherinTraining39]

Not sure about UK English, but in the example: "What are your kids doing?" "They're watching TV." We often omit the pronoun in that sort of situation in the US, depending on the speech style.

[@cad3nce]

It sounds like Japanese is a more efficient language than English in that you can omit a lot of words and retain the meaning.

[@kirbymoomoo5419]

I feel like English is the same. It’s contextual

[@LonewolfProd_]

@@kirbymoomoo5419 99% of the time, English leaves significantly less room for ambiguity than Japanese. Ambiguity is almost virtuous in Japanese. In English, specificity is generally more respected. With exception, of course.

[@hiramzaldana153]

when you think about it, japanese doesnt really have that much room for all those intricacies that English have. The Japaneses language has a very simplistic phonology, composed of syllables, leading to much longer words. English is the opposite, we have a very complex phonology, composed of individual sounds, leading to smaller words and less syllables, so we have more room for these smaller details.

[@LonewolfProd_]

@@hiramzaldana153 Which is even more funny given more information because modern English is a significantly simplified (in many but certainly not in all ways) version of Old English, which comes from the proto-germanic family tree which has a rather interesting level of complexity in it. It's kind of humorous how languages like English, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish have simplifed from their ancestor languages whereas other languages in relatively the same family tree maintain some level of that grammatical complexity (specifically the grammatical cases) like German and Icelandic.

[@uklife1628]

If you want the most efficient language , then you have to learn Chinese poetry .

[@kovaxim]

I think that Misa-sensei doesn't get enough credit for her work Her sort of "rants" or maybe "tangents" are what gives you a better feel for the language, as she doesn't just say the thing, she also gives examples, colours the words accordingly and even gives explanations as to why something works and why something doesn't work in Japanese, what is more natural compared to what would be the textbook Japanese. One thing I want to talk about is Misa-sensei's spoken English She is forcing the words out, forcing herself to speak in a more proper English and actually nails some words like "dang that's a well pronounced word, good job Misa-sensei"

[@Aquaria942]

Even though I'm an intermediate learner, it's nice to go over the basics again! Thanks for the lesson, Sensei!

[@TrippyPepper]

Thank you for these vids, they're super super helpful :)

[@telchar]

What pronouns to use when is one of my biggest fears about talking in Japanese - so this was super helpful for me. I love how in-depth and nuanced you get with your explanations. Your videos are always really helpful! :D

[@agustingomez528]

Although I took notes of every thing about pronouns in other videos, I was waiting for the specific lesson on pronouns! Thank you so much, みさ先生！

[@raventreeth3694]

I love how I can find similarities between Spanish and Japanese, especially now that I'm studying it xD. In Spanish we also love to omit words, abbreviate things or rename others just to make communication faster and easier.

[@rayjin7448]

Hello misa.. Just wanted to let you know that I have passed my n4 japanese language test.. Your videos clarified most of my doubts in regards to grammar rule patterns and construction. As of now I'm in the phase of looking for a job in Japan.. Again thank you misa.

[@AA-wg5up]

Brilliant explanation Misa! I've lived in Japan for 10 years, and every single point you made, I went through the ordeal of learning the hard way! To everyone watching this: she's spot on right. And she ended with "...but that's enough for today...", because there's even more to this topic. For example そっち / そちら to mean "you" or "your company", , 二人 to mean "you two", お互い to mean "each other", and perhaps more that I don't know yet. Viewers, know this: if I had seen this video many years ago, it would have been of tremendous help to me, so pay attention to Misa! And Misa, there's an idea for your next video, so ... You're Welcome! 😜 Once again, brilliant explanation, you really nailed it! 👍🏻

[@mikhailnikolaev9927]

It was my question exactly: Can I use そっち(informal) and そちら (formal) to express "you"?

[@grantholomeu3725]

While there are obviously a lot of differences between English and Japanese, I think one problem language learners face no matter what language they're learning, is that learning the 100% grammatically correct form that your textbook teaches, is often different from the natural conversation form. For example, like you were saying, in a textbook, if a question were to ask you, "What's that man doing?" the answer the textbook would probably want would be, "He's watching TV," or whatever, because that makes sure you understand all parts of the sentence. But in natural conversation, it'd be totally normal for you to say, "Watching TV." I guess you have to learn how to follow the rules first by learning textbook language, before you can learn how to break the rules naturally, like in natural conversation.

[@ronaldzazu9595]

Very powerful advice thanks

[@EvilRobotSteve]

This was very interesting. According to dictionaries I'd read, 'anata' was described as the polite version of 'you' and I'd never been corrected by a Japanese person, so I never knew different. So it's good to find this out. I've also been lead to understand 'omae' is perfectly fine when talking with a good friend, but you would certainly never use it in a formal setting. (or unless you wanted to provoke someone) similar to 'ore' but now I'm questioning that.

[@robkoper841]

With あなた I think the confusion for English speakers (at least in the United States) lies in the fact that the converse is true. We honestly only use "you" in direct communication out of habit because. to quote every grownup in my childhood, "It is very rude to speak about someone in the third person when they are present." Saying someone's name when they are *right there* implies dismissiveness, or at least a layer of formality that makes for awkward conversations. Contrast the following conversation: Person 1: "Going to burn that part of the Japanese textbook about pronouns?" Person 2: "Yep. Got a match?" The word "you" was not harmed in this dramatization.

[@TheClintonio]

@4:15 Slight correction here. Given a scenario of a husband and a wife walking by each other in their house; Father: "What are the kids doing?" Mother: "Watching TV" is a totally valid and natural way of speaking in English. Similarly from a friend "Bro up to anything atm?" "Playing FFXIV" is also valid. We don't omit pronouns anywhere near as often but this translation is pretty capable of being 1 to 1.

[@emilysbimbo2213]

ありがとう! Your videos are a literal treasure for anyone who is having problems with usage of pronouns! This amount of info is golden! 💖

[@christopherdebuhr2684]

Thank you, i had no idea. I have been using many programs to help learn Japanese but "none" of them explain this, at least there is nothing about this in "starting, beginner, intermediate" Japanese courses. I also appreciate you using furigana as I am learning kanji. Your explanations and examples are great and will help make my Japanese more natural and not "textbook Formal" Thank you!

[@patja89]

The parallels between Japanese and Spanish never stop impressing me, as most variations of Spanish are also pro-pronoun dropping. Thanks for sharing!

[@Jhud69]

Same with Polish, and I noticed that Polish and Spanish also have a lot of in common!

[@rightwingreactionary]

@@Jhud69 Same with Bulgarian and I presume all other Slavic languages.

[@lyricsevoq]

And also Spanish/Portuguese speakers just say a simple verb as a phrase. For example: "that/this helped (me)." "Ayudó." Spanish "Ajudou." Portuguese

[@dawnokeefe8456]

Italian too!

[@alexmore3865]

I am russian and I love your videos. I liked your russian language reference so much it was quite relevant. Thank you a lot for the videos. みさ先生はすごいです。

[@Andrew-ve3pp]

A girl speaking Russian and using a masculine form of a verb in the past tense? I think that would be super weird. (I'm Russian too.)

[@martinvanlaethem543]

Excellent video! just wanted to point out that despite the examples she gives, English can usually omit just as many, if not more words from the average sentence. Going by her first example ("What are the kids doing?" "They are watching TV.") It's actually pretty uncommon to NOT omit "they". A more natural response would just be "watching TV." In fact for this sentence many dialects could even omit the "watching", since it is implied as that's the only thing you do on TV. So another natural English response would be "what are the kids doing?" "TV." This would be even more common for other activities like gaming or biking; where the specific locations or games are almost always omitted.

[@ba-wp5zs]

Would some people really omit 'watching'? I've never heard that usage; I'd probably think it sounded weird if I heard it. I'd also like to note (in addition to your note) that in some questions words can be dropped (informally too). EG: 'Got a second?' Also, over the internet, and maybe in speech too, questions can even just be... sentences. EG: 'Wait for me later?'

[@lastofusclips5291]

@@ba-wp5zs just saying "tv" would sound very unnatural. they would say "watching tv". the "biking" or "gaming" examples are correct, though. if "TVing" ever becomes a word, then maybe that would work.

[@lastofusclips5291]

Interesting example. I'm very curious which places would just use "tv" while simultaneously sounding natural.

[@danielantony1882]

That is not appropriate in different context. You can't say "Watching TV" or just "TV" if someone says" What about the kids. That's straight up nonsense. Japanese can, however. Because Iru implies what and who is doing the thing because both the context and conjugation allows it.

[@dreamystone]

Actually the omission of words is one of the things I love most about Japanese, because my first language, Greek, is exactly the same in that regard.

[@despoinagrigoropoulu563]

Oh ho ho so true. I sometimes feel like they're similar because of how confusing they are even if it's your native language...😩

[@Calamity556]

I wish there were more teachers like you, Misa--Sensei! ありがとうございます！

[@jamesh7458]

Japanese is so fun. "Know your pronouns and particles, but use them as little as possible!" ¿🤔? I can only imagine the quirks of English a native Japanese speaker has to sort out. 😄

[@EdwardLindon]

In actual fluid speech, English also omits a lot. A phrase like "I will see what I can do" easily becomes (in my generic southern English accent) "Lsee whattah cndo". The difference is that these native speaking styles are rarely formalized and taught by ESL pedagogues, being left rather to the linguists. I'm convinced that many of the so-called differences between English and Japanese are down to this difference in degree of formalisation and conceptualisation. Or to put it in a more spoken style, "convincedut manyuthu so-called diffrences'tween Englishun Japaneser downtu this diffrencin degreeuv formalisationun conceptualisation."

[@jamesh7458]

@@EdwardLindon lol, well said. I read your reply in the best pronunciation this Yank could possibly muster up. Probably would have sounded horrible out loud...😂 But yes, it is quite a lot to learn. Three writing systems, many levels of politeness, and all to find out much of it is barely used in common day-to-day speech. It's as far from a Western language as one could get. Immersion is really the only way I think.

[@WalkingOverHere]

This was super helpful! Been a little confused on 私 / 僕 / 俺 and when to use them. But this made it super clear. ありがとうみさ先生！

[@MatadorM9]

25:25 you totally nailed that kid’s impression lol. I noticed the use of boku and ore in a old anime show. All the male characters will use ore, except for one that was younger but still a teen. He will use boku. And his personality is just what you described.

[@eponymous3784]

would that happen to be evangelion by any chance?

[@dextokuyasu]

I finally have been having success learning Japanese with Duolingo, coupled with the app Benkyō for kana practice. However, I always watch your vids to get context and usage for what I’ve learned. Especially like with 彼 and 彼女. Really appreciate the explanations.

[@jinmikim8095]

Been studying Japanese for several months...your lessons help me a lot. Many thanks

[@cookingflies4218]

i love these videos, you explain everything thuroughly and i like how when you explained the different "I, myself", you told everyone that "as a teacher, watashi, atashi, and uchi are used by girls while boku, ore, and jibun are used by boys, but as Misa, you should use whatever you like" and just explaining both sides

[@azdajajeanne]

It's completely insane to learn they have multiple versions of each pronoun just to...never use any of them at all! I did learn something important, though..."Formality" means something different in different cultures. Sometimes it's about politeness; sometimes it's about distance. Seems like it's "distance" in Japan, which would explain how 「きみ」can sound condescending to the listener, when the speaker meant to be polite! I think the video explained well.

[@ssh348]

i am in state of permanent confusion when it comes to "anata". every book i have seen as a beginner, tells you this what you use as "you". they don't give contexts, etc. And then Misa and other teachers online tell us how real language goes and it should not be used. Is "anata" EVER used? what is the right context then? I was watching a movie the other day with subtitles and the setting is Meiji era. A woman calls her husband "anata" and subtitles translate it as "dear". Is that accurate and is such use ok? And then why books fail to address such an important thing? It's almost like learning all the wrong things from the start and is very frustrating.

[@lingo_noob]

this is what makes japanese interesting to learn and really easy for me. keep it up and keep explaining things in details like this. you are doing a great great great job making japanese understandable for the people worldwide and aiding we learners from a confusing and complicated walkthrough of the language.

[@mrkiky]

*Types of Japanese 2nd person pronouns:* 1) Rude 2) Very rude 3) You are my sworn enemy, I shall not rest until I destroy you

[@Video-bw6rp]

Как хорошо всё разложила по полочкам (объяснила). Спасибочки!

[@Greez996]

Опа, такая редкость видеть здесь русских)

[@creativebodyflying]

@@Greez996 ну почему же? )

[@abdulhamid9605]

Wow learned a lot from this video, more than I expected. All the social stuff behind the different pronounces is super interesting!

[@turhakuolla6078]

my first language is slavic so its the same as in russian: past and future tense is gendered in conjugation (also im surprised and impressed you knew about it). one of my dearest friends, a girl, started switching between the forms some time ago and i really dont mind it but sadly the society is very strict on that and even her parents started fiercely correcting her. that sucks

[@Venik75]

Thank you for all the materials you have given us over the years みさ先生、最高ですよ♥

[@Venik75]

来月、ぜひ何か買って応援しますよ

[@notequalto5179]

It's fascinating how many slang variations of watashi and anata exist

[@americangirl6654]

こんにちはミサさん！ Thank you for making these videos! I’m an N3 level Japanese language student, and I am so glad I found your channel. ありがとうございました！

[@PapaPapaD]

めっちゃいいコンテントですね…. Misa, I don’t want to sound rude, but I would love to see your story (aka origin) video especially with pictures of you when you were small. Unless you already made it and I missed it.

[@russellward4624]

Thanks for covering あたし, I've been hearing it and just assumed they were saying 私 but sort of ommiting the w like the way い gets omitted informally.

[@JosephTheAustin]

It's interesting that Japanese has many ways of speech assigned to gender, yet avoids pronouns. Here in the west the issue of pronouns and gender is kind of a big deal, especially when talking to/about trans or non-binary people. Yet even though that seems like a completely avoided issue in Japanese, you still have things like women being expected to always say 'watashi' and speak more formally in general. If Japan ever gets a gender movement like the west has, it would be on completely different grounds. Instead of debating the use of 'they/them' and so on, it would be more about accepting the way an individual refers to themselves. One has to wonder what that dynamic would look like and how the debate around it would look, too. Sociologically fascinating to think about.

[@TheMandalorianPadawan]

Personal pronouns and how you refer to yourself in Japanese have always been interesting to me because I've noticed that in some anime, female characters who are delinquent-types or female characters who present more masculine (like Haruhi from OHSHC) will use "jibun" or even "ore" instead of "watashi" and people automatically assume that they're rougher and more "masculine" people. Something else interesting I noticed was that it seems to be becoming more common for men to use "atashi" which I always saw as very feminine because it was always used by shoujo protagonists. It's really interesting how third-person pronouns are where gender shows up in English but it's typically the first-person and sometimes second-person pronouns where gender becomes important in Japanese.

[@jayp9158]

You are my favorite Japanese teacher of all KZbin. You are amazing! Thanks for all the great content.

[@beni5616]

This is waaay more helpful than most videos and lessons i've watched that just tell you to, for example, just default to watashi or boku without getting you to understand the pronouns' connotations all that well, thank you so much for going into the details and examples, it's very valuable to be able to learn from a native speaker! Sorry for the following dump! Also, the talk about deviating from "proper" male and female pronouns and some people not really tolerating that kind of stuff reminds me of the way in spanish there didn't use to be neutral words, you would use "o" or "a" at the end of any given word depending on gender of the person, animal or thing. People have tried introducing "e" as a gender neutral alternative, for example instead of "mi amigo" or "mi amiga" you'd say "mi amigue". This is veeery recent, i remember being in elementary and middle school and making a conscious effort of avoiding gendered words to refer to myself, cause the femenine form didn't feel right, and i didn't know there was any alternative! so i just felt weird and miserable. At first, and still, people opposed to it talk with "e" incorrectly as a mocking joke, or to make fun of "progressives", but in recent years i've found more and more young people who use it earnestly, and have started to sprinkle it in conversations about myself. I think these kinds of changes are important to many people and even if i'm not even close to fluent in japanese, it makes me very happy to see you talk about and address these kinds of things, cause i feel "they" in english is a pretty simple solution compared to what most other languages have to deal with.

[@Reymax164]

Yeah, the first meaning I've known for “かのじょ” is “girlfriend" … well… because of anime. But after sometime, I feel like it just means “girl" After I encountered it in an language learning app which of course similar to textbooks, im still a little surprised and im always uncomfortable using it for “she” 😆 But im starting to think textbooks and apps aren't bad at all, it's not wrong it's just unnatural. There are somethings we'll might miss if we go straight to natural. So iI think it's good to get exposed to both of them.

[@GyrosGeier]

Aren't there local differences? IIRC in Kyoto かのじょ would be "my (female) friend", while in Tokyo, it would have more of a "girlfriend" connotation. It has been a while since someone explained that to me, so I might get it entirely wrong now though.

[@starflurries]

i've come to learn apps/textbooks/classroom teachers are real tight asses about formality and don't teach informality but duolingo would have made my ass grass if i had never come across this video before speaking to a jp person lol

[@greyfox3954]

"I am fairly a normal person" *slowly looking at the Pikachu nuigurumi collection behind her* :^D

[@brramzi31]

you give very informative description on the real day-to-day life way of speaking Japanese. I thank you for that and highly respect you and appreciate your commitment, contribution, and your non dying endeavor to help others who are seeking to learn Japanese the proper way. Thank you very much!!

[@GoldenWreck]

I just want to say that I really really appreciate how understanding Misa 先生 is when it comes to respecting people's choice of pronouns, especially as Misa herself said: Japan is more conservative in comparison to the west when it comes to topics like that, so the fact she's so open and empathetic towards it, on top of all her generous teachings she gives us, just makes her even more amazing. Thank you so much みさ先生、you have my utmost respect. みさ先生は性格がよくて、優しくて、とても理解があります^^ どうもありがとうございます！！

[@ibemper1850]

みさ先生のビデオはとても役に立ちました、ありがとうございました

[@fawderfox]

When I first took japanese classes nobody really explained the "contextual" nature of the language to us, so it'd be full of pronouns and sound so stiff. While the sentence still makes sense without it because of the context it's used in, it was really strange to learn about it but it makes sense.

[@skyborne6393]

This feels like what we learn in English class. You don't write how you speak. You talk differently. Writing an essay using correct pronunciation and grammar, etc. In other words, use some common sense and street smart when communicating via speaking or writing.

[@mrlugtyai44]

Your videos are just great! Thank you! These types of explanation were never given while I studied Japanese in Japan long ago. I also really appreciate the sentences in Japanese using different colors--that is just great for learning kanji and kana and seeing the grammar highlighted.

[@Im-BAD-at-satire]

自分はめっちゃ嬉しく、動画は役に立ちました。みさ先生ありがとうございました。

[@Aveja20]

The blanket is great, cute. [ すごくかわいい ] I prefer the hiragana print- but this one is also POG'u❤ You wrap yourself in a blanket and the next day the knowledge from katakana/hiragana is learned. Btw. interesting lesson. Shortening sentences helps with communication, and if you sometimes forget a participle, it's okay

[@chloelabelle10]

What company makes those? I agree, its very cute. Glad to know there is one in hiragana!

[@Aveja20]

@@chloelabelle10 This is Misa-san merch. check the description under the video. there is information" check out my merch". and link.

[@chloelabelle10]

@@Aveja20 OMG, so sorry! Didnt realize! Silly question, sorry for the trouble!

[@Aveja20]

@@chloelabelle10 no problem .

[@rogerthecactus]

I really like atashi- the way it was explained by you and some other youtuber, i feel like it's more bold and kind of challanging way to say "I". but i also have a feeling, if you're from a western country, it's a pretty safe bet that you're louder and more outgoing then japanese people- so i think using 'atashi' would be really on point in this case. I mean from what i see, most foreigners are bolder, more direct, louder, outgoing people compared to japanese- even if in their own country they wouldn't be considered anything out of average, in Japan they really stand out and draw attention to themselves.

[@jeanalex7698]

Japanese: let's have a bunch of words to say "You" me: Then, what should I use? -None of them.

[@mshumai]

In my opinion the issue with 'anata' comes from English speakers trying to translate the sentence they want to say in their head to Japanese. In English, using names and titles in place of the second-person pronoun 'you' is called speaking in the third-person. This is typically associated with satirical/sarcastic comments. To refer to oneself or the person you are directly speaking to by name is usually done as a joke. Example: Bob is so smart! If this is referring to oneself or to the person you directly are speaking to, it is usually sarcastic and has the opposite meaning. This is perhaps why Japanese learners are compelled to use 'anata' instead of using names. Thank you for teaching us that we need to break this habit and use names when speaking Japanese.

[@kengo7273]

I'm a male Japanese. I prefer male foreigners to use Boku unless you're super fluent. Not fluent and Ore don't match, in my opinion.

[@yhchdnooad]

Love these examples which are precise and based on diff language comparison, I am Taiwanese but felt huge diff between the Chinese and Japanese expression behind. thanks Misa again !

[@Wuggyboobeaufuf138]

I'm moving to Japan in April so tips on *how* to use language properly are really valuable. Thanks for doing it and I appreciate how much detail you give.. ^^

[@dshinc]

Goodluck on your journey here

[@timscharf3289]

I’m more worried about being misunderstood than I am about not sounding like a native speaker. “Clear from the context” seems to be the most common phrase Japanese teachers use, but a bit of a fear I have is what to do I do when it’s not so clear to me? I think a but of cultural divide exists here because in English pronouns are a big deal so omitting them is hard to get used to.

[@maggot6320]

this was a worry i had early on learning japanese. i know it sounds like "clear from the context" is something that is just said with no actual substance, but its really true. i've been watching a lot of japanese youtube videos lately that are mostly just friends talking about stuff and in like 90% of situations there is absolutely no confusion as to what theyre talking about when. context is a full-body, 3d thing; when you see people speaking and interacting in person in a real space "clear from the context" makes a lot more sense. in real life situations where japanese is being used it essentially becomes a non-issue, but definitely a hurdle to cross when learning japanese

[@miyakawaso]

The cultural divide is sometimes apparent when Japanese write English. I occasionally find when editing their work (that's otherwise written beautifully) there will be an "it" whose subject is unclear -- although often I can make a good guess.. But of course, native speakers are not immune to this error.

[@silveryfeather208]

Also, I appreciate you being respectful of people's genders or gender expression. I am also a language teacher, I can only give advice. (For example, if you don't want to get fired, these words are rude/not rude, be aware that some people can't get over their traditions and may be upset) but ultimately, in your private life, it's your choice.

[@isaiahben-yahweh3245]

Thank you Misa for your effort, it's amazing how you share both the formal textbook standard form of a sentence and than the native standard version of a phrase or sentence, something very unusual, thank you so much for sharing such precise translations for the ones wanting to learn, also the written format in Japanese helps even more for those wanting to learn

[@pillowo]

Thank you so so so so much!! I always feel that I learn something new when I watch your videos. Thank youuuu! At first, I didn't really know Japanese and didn't really understand Japanese, but now I can watch simple videos in Japanese and I would understand somewhat. Thank youuuu❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@TamagoSenshi]

The true correct way to address other people is くそ人間 while wearing a crown and cape and carrying a large, golden, jewelled staff

[@johnlong6213]

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I was under the impression that "Anata-wa" could be used when meeting someone for the first time especially when introducing yourself to them and asking for their name.

[@mtlvmpr]

Don't know why this was never answered but you should probably ask おなまえは(onamae wa) instead of that.

[@User-nf9ik]

what an amazing video, very useful! thank you. Suscribed! Ommiting words happens in spanish too. The more i study japanese the more i find it similar to spanish

[@c47_erik45]

9:00 broke me T^T... I was like: wait doesnt takai mean expensive? and I was pretty sure so I thought maybe its written with another kanji character but i looked it up and it means both. That means what if I am trying to buy a slave and I want it to be expensive to impress my friends with how rich i am. They will think Im talking about a Tall slave and not an expensive one T^T. No but for real, you are telling me that in my duolingo lessons I've been technically translating "The apple is tall" like if it was "takai *japanese word for price*" I would understand it, and you would say "the apple has a high price". Like, there are 20 words for this and that but there arent two different words for tall and expensive T^T. What if I want to say "the tall ladder is expensive"? would I say "takai ladder ha takai desu"?

[@5002seven]

Then, I would probably use the word long (nagai) to substitute for it.

[@johnp.johnson1541]

Dōmo arigatō. Your lesson seems to be most important. What would be stellar is if you made a series of phrases videos of informal speech. There are some KZbin accounts like JapanesePod101 or Kendra's Language School that share phrases videos, which get many views and hence ad dollars. If you were to make informal speech ones, the repetition would help us Nihongo learners to speak well in real situations. It now seems embarrassing to think that we sound like speaking textbooks.

[@user-gv1sq9wb2r]

Very interesting lesson, thank you! How about using "socchi" to say "you"? Is it ever used in spoken Japanese?

[@zeroimpact742]

そっち does not mean 'you', but refers to the situation, environment or location of the person with whom you are speaking. Again, when it is obvious from the context or when both persons have a prior awareness of a common topic, that specific situation or environment is not referred to. ex) here is an example of a telephone conversation. 「こっちはひどい雨だよ、そっちはどう？」 Here, そっち is used to mean the weather in the other person's location. ex) here is a conversation between estranged friends who meet again 「俺は結婚して子供が二人もいるよ、そっちは？」In this case, そっち means the other person's family situation. ww

[@zammich3649]

そちら is probably a bit more flexible, in that it can be used in formal situations while そっち is a contraction, so I feel you already need a layer of closeness to say it (in which case you should already feel more comfortable addressing them). I tend to use そちら in more polite conversations where I don't feel comfortable using their name (or more often when I forgot it), or where it's more acceptable to talk around someone ("your company," "your situation," "your area," etc.) rather than address them directly. But generally you still only want to use it maybe once or twice -- usually as a tool to flip a conversation after talking about yourself/your situation -- or it comes off as forced.

[@RosemaryAmey]

Interesting. I studied for a few years at the University of Toronto and at the Ottawa Japanese Language School, but I had no idea the words 彼, 彼女, and 彼ら even existed until I stared doing Japanese on Duolingo. Your explanation makes a lot of sense, thank you!

[@jamesdickson2482]

Thank you Misa Sensei for your fantastic podcast! You will save me from being rude in Japanese. ありがとう ございます! If only someone had warned me to not call the waiter “garçon” (boku) in France. I am reading the manga 君の名は kimi no na wa - is the pronoun ‘kimi’ used because it is a romantic story? What you said about atashi reminded me of the song lyrics あたしもんだいガール ‘atashi mondai gāru’ - the personification of an outgoing and popular girl!

[@delbomb3131]

I dunno, in English a conversation "what are your kids doing" Responding "watching tv" is perfectly natural. I'd never respond "my kids are watching tv". But if was writing a conversation i would include "my kids are". There's no need to include all that in conversation.

[@miyakawaso]

I agree about not repeating "my kids." But I wonder which is more common: "watching TV" or "they're watching TV"?

[@delbomb3131]

@@miyakawaso speaking I'd never have contextual words in the response, but if I was writing a conversation I might have the person respond "they're watching TV". It sounds very blocky. Would you add "they're" in a conversation?

[@Reymax164]

Ah I see, so just using mame can replace “you" 😆 I've been wondering that, because there's occasions in other languages where “you” can't be avoided but now I know. みさ先生はかわいいです、ありがとうございます~ Every time I hear "おまえ” I think of the friendly way of it 😆 (Friends bullying each other)

[@maggot6320]

i guess its because it's more rude in japanese to be "overly familiar." お前, to somebody you arent close to, sounds way too close like you're assuming "i know you." the same sort of thing happens in english i guess; between my friends calling each other a "bitch" or something isn't any big deal but if you just call your boss or some random person that it would come off extremely direspectful

[@animeloverXinuyasha]

I love when you do the imitations of how someone would say something. It makes the video more immersive and also really funny sometimes! I loved your impression of the little boy playing with his toys hahaha I also always thought that 僕 was the best pronoun for a man but I’ll remember that now!! Your videos always put a smile on my face - I was really tired today after a big exam so this was fun and educational and I just love learning Japanese and learning it with you is one of the highlights! ミサ先生、いつも教えてくれてありがとうございます！

[@goldeer7129]

Hi Misa ! I love your videos, they are full of truly valuable information about Japanese and that's great ! I really like how they are structured as well, it makes them easy to follow. About that, I wonder if you could try doing the "split video into chapters" thing to make it even easier to go back to specific points of the video when needed. In that video it could be seperating it with 1) 0:09 He/she 2) 11:28 They 3) 15:34 I 4) 32:29 You 5) 40:10 We

[@user-zd3rn2ri3z]

Thank you for the lesson! I still confused how to use "I" pronounce, what should I use for when I talk to my acquaintance, person I know for some time but not yet on a friend level, should I use watashi to sound more formal or can I use ore?

[@claudio6998]

Ore is a more smug and rude way in my understanding.

[@skippychurch2965]

Don't. When taking about yourself, it is assumed. Leave it out

[@yoku651]

Watashi only if neccessary. When you're closer you can maybe switch to boku, like if you notice that they start speaking more casually. People only use ore with close friends and family otherwise it sounds rude.

[@maggot6320]

if there is no subject present in the sentence at all, in 99% of cases it defaults to "I." if you just randomly walk up to someone and say "ケーキを食べたよ” even with no context it sounds like "I ate a cake"

[@jaycee330]

You only need to use "watashi" when the topic in conversation needs to be explicitly redirected back about you.

[@idoru6441]

so happy to see you adressing gender issues in the video!💐💖💖💖👏🏻

[@caki4695]

Misa先生はいい先生です :D just got to the channel and the video is helpful and gets the point across without being boring

[@MinorLife10]

Thank you for saving us from an absolute awkwardness. It's kinda funny that I can omit things because as a Slavic person, I can say that we omit nearly as much.

[@AmodeusR]

I must ask... What *isn't* rude in japanese? 🤔

[@MaxNMotion]

So I’ve always wondered, what is it like being LGBTQ+ and speaking Japanese? I’d assume it’s easier cause there is rarely a need for pronouns, certainly not as important as they are in Spanish and English (every thing in Spanish has to be feminine or masculine lol)

[@user-mx1rb2vz3v]

As explained in the video, people don't normally use pronouns while speaking, so

[@adrianroed2178]

Japanese also has gendered versions of I, so I assume telling people your pronouns is easier.

[@roxorsoxor]

their language is static, snowflakes with protagonist syndrome just can't change the language because they don't have a dad

[@clairdelune9725]

This video reminded me that the trans woman in Tokyo Godfather referred to herself as atashi, although in her other comments it wasn’t clear if she was referring to herself being trans or gay, something lost in the translation I think.

[@ebarobyre2720]

Being gay doesn't mean changing pronouns. That's exclusively a trans issue and Japanese society at large doesn't acknowledge or accept the western views on trans and gender topics

[@hoodoootakoo1998]

I love the way you teach miss Misa! You explain everything so clear and concise. Also your hair colour is so cute! 🤩

[@corneliahuber9320]

What if i find an umbrella on the train and I want to ask someone "is this your umbrella?" (Could be someone elses though) What would I say? "すみません、この傘は something…のですか?" ? 🤔 would I just avoid that sentence structure?

[@donaldoluigi8342]

I like your open-minded comments on gender identity. Thank you for speaking up.

[@GothicKin]

misa dropping the trans rights out of nowhere, based

[@LukeHsieh_rosebaronet]

Japanese has more pronouns than most languages on earth and you are telling me I cannot use any of them, skin-meat doesn't even begin to describe the irony. lol

[@jaycee330]

The problem is, they aren't really "pronouns" in the sense that we use them. They are actually nouns.

[@exterminatus5782]

This is why it's so easy to spot people who use google translate on twitter 😂

[@arniegrape7364]

外国人向けの日本語解説動画見るのが好きなんだけど、この動画が説明多くて1番詳しいかも！ I, who is Japanese, personally like to watch this kind of Japaese-learning videos. This video is the easiest to understand with lots of explanations!

[@2yllusthe1st]

I had no interest in learning Japanese however I was curious about why there were so many words to mean the same thing. Your video is so well done that I ended up watching the whole thing! Your way of explaining and showing the visuals was so easy and pleasant to follow along that I may have to come back to learn some more! Thanks☺️

[@HabuBeemer]

Misa Sensei, when using ndesu ka in a sentence as a question, does the ndesu ka indicate you are looking for a response from the listener vs just desu ka? In your example: doko ni sunde iru ndesu ka. Thank you for your response. Your lessons and teaching style are excellent. I'm learning a lot from you.

[@ChWi1]

Incredibly well made video, thank you very much 🤗 I just realised how weird my textbook japanese has to be for the people in the konbini that i always go to

[@712lovelife]

New sub! Your videos are amazing! I have been studying Japanese for a while and struggling, I now have a new found understanding and confidence thanks to your videos. I love how you color code the words; it helps sooo much!