How I Learned Japanese

[@Thelinguist]

I enjoy Japanese, including the sometimes indirect nature of communicating in Japanese. Acquiring Japanese largely through listening, reading and speaking, has been a slow gradual road of discovery. I've never been interested in writing tests to determine my level in Japanese. --- FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ My Podcast ⇢ soundcloud.com/lingostevepodcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learn-languages-with-steve-kaufmann/id1437851870 --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN

[@mypartyisprivate8693]

It was VERY interesting to hear the particulars of your language learning this time around: your posting in Hong Kong, and so on. As more of a casual learner of languages myself who lives abroad, very enjoyable. Thanks!

[@sleepsmartsmashstress740]

If you have mastered Mandarin it becomes very tempting and a lot easy to delve in Japanese because you have a good hang of how these crazy characts of match sticks represent concept. There are many loan words and in a lot of situation Japanese use Mandarin character for a concept remote from what that means in Mandarin

[@amevaio92]

Hi Steve, As a foreigner who studied and mastered Japanese, I am curious how you deal with Kanji because how I mastered the language is different from how it was the case for English. I learned mostly on brute memorization because there are tons of Kanji characters that need constant daily memorization whereas English has 26 alphabets only.

[@Neo-Reloaded]

You're right. We need patience. We don't have to be in a hurry while learning a language.

[@brendon2462]

I mean it should be a life long thing anyways with no finish line. Even natives never stop learning something new or improving.

[@ikemen2329]

It took me a year to finally catch basic japanese speaking and I need to tell you the feeling is totally worth it.

[@husky7601]

@@ikemen2329 I’m trying to self learn Japanese because I’m almost 15 and my high school doesn’t have Japanese class. I have 3 more years of high school to try and self learn. I think I can do it if I’m patient and take the time to do it.

[@osamahabbas3443]

I started learning Japanese in March 2020, and I have read 10 novels till now ,but I know its a long road.頑張ろう

[@theblackryvius6613]

I have a few books and manga but have finished reading NONE of them. Started same time as you. XD

[@bjap2442]

I started around the same time as you do and I can't even pass the first page of a manga, how did you do it?

[@theblackryvius6613]

@@bjap2442 Really just takes patience. Blah blah blah. My man probably already does a lot of reading in his native language anyways. Me, I don’t read much beyond the internet

[@osamahabbas3443]

@@bjap2442 ok there is no secret I just followed one of Steve's advice which is to accept uncertainty.I read I look up the words and use deepl dictionary and I don't care if I understand it or not because you start with zero comprehension but then it becomes 2% then 10% which means you are progressing but you have to be patient and don't ever get frustrated.U really recommend watching steve's video its titled uncertainty

[@osamahabbas3443]

@@theblackryvius6613 part of the reason is that I spend most of my time reading but I also listen to podcasts,but thats it I don't use anki or rtk ,I rarely study grammar

[@Disgusted19]

I learned english by myself when i was 15years old and i'm still learning but at least just a new vocabulary now i'm 18 and i began to learn russian I'm interested to talk to someone in his mother tongue and most of people think that it's hard to learn such thing as a blind man so guys i'm in love with languages and that's my hobby Even though i don't know how they can be helpful in my career but anyway i do it for fun It's enough for me that it changed my mindset about lots of things

[@moneyinvestingwithvandi7727]

Japanese sounds like a fascinating language

[@karry77777]

日本語に興味を持ち学んでくださり本当にありがとうございます♪

[@neotakehaya]

I appreciate you taking the time to talk about this subject and share your experience. I myself am learning Japanese, and this video has been very insightful, thanks so much!

[@constancechan7748]

Your story about learning Japanese is very interesting ! I totally agree with your opinion that patience is of great importance when it comes to any foreign language learning!

[@yakamoz1108]

I've been to Turkey by group tuor at first time and then I've learned Turkish for 10 years. And also I started to re-learn world common language, English. Furthermore, I starred to learn Spanish with Dualingo from last Desember. I'm 62, so not enough aged to learn foreing languages but they're just my hobby. FRom now, I keep on leaning them and want to cherish my current hoby. It's my treasure. I think you have the same thought as me, too. Anyway, have a learn, I'll also continue on learning. (I'm Japanese tutor now)

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

I strongly advise against Duolingo. Babbel is much better IMO. Also LingQ short stories. Just avoid Duolingo it’s scheiße, and very very inefficient.

[@ingela_injeela]

​@@StillAliveAndKicking_Duolingo is not bad for Hebrew, but could be a lot better in Korean. Using the app has nevertheless been helpful to me, who cannot study 'old school'.

[@sethwood7105]

So I used to live in Tokyo learning Japanese as a language student, since returning to the states I’ve almost completely lost my fluency. I’m hoping to follow your videos to get back on track and pick up a few other languages. Thank you for the great resources.

[@haicautrang5304]

Thank you Steve I AM SO EXCITED FOR LANGUAGES IN LINGQ 5.0!!!

[@songthanh896]

すごい！素晴らしい！Steveさんは英語や日本語や中国語やフランス語が話せます！私の出身はベトナム、今日本にすんでいます、大学院の医学を勉強していいます。英語が話せます、でも、日本語の話が下手です。日本語は面白いですが、学ぶのは難しいです。私は今でも英語を使って日本人とコミュニケーションをとっていますが、それでも日本語で話そうとしています。日本語を話す自信がない。ありがとうございます。Steveさんのビデオは本当に役に立ちます。

[@vdandres7424]

Thank you Mr. Kaufmann for any advices to learn languages.... ありがとうございます... And you have the whole reason about learn languages Kaufmann先生... I care it so much...

[@mr_noodler]

I have learned Japanese through long term commitment and consistent studying most days (1-2 hours per day) since 2014. Learning how to read and write has taught me how the grammar works and what things mean. I really do have a long way to go still, the journey is not over yet. Best of luck to new comers❤😊 To be truly good at a language you need at least 10 years of commitment despite what you find on the internet (3 months)😂😂😂

[@ivan_3578]

The learning never ends. It's endless journey.

[@user-fq8lk6pk8e]

いつもあなたの動画を見てみてexposing to Englishしています😂 たくさん読んでたくさん聞いて英語に慣れます！

[@Pruflas-Watts]

Learning to read and write in Japanese is so important, especially learning the 2000+ "every day kanji". I learned to speak Japanese very well by memorizing phrases to accumulate grammar quickly, then I went on to useful word memorization at 20 new words a day while constantly listening to people talk and trying to talk back. This improved my speaking and listening rapidly, but it really began to took off after I started reading grammar books to understand more particles and specific speech connectors, including verb conjugation. The biggest mistake I made was dedicating all of my time to listening and speaking. Although I got really good and can get close to JLPT N1 levels in speech/vocabulary knowledge, my Kanji is severely limited and because I didn't focus any of my energy into studying Kanji, I am now hamstrung trying to improve my Kanji so I can read clearly. I feel like reading will greatly improve language acquisition almost more than anything else, as it allows you to really visualize speech and fill in the blanks for unknown words much quicker.

[@michaeldeoliveira5966]

A sua experiência com o aprendizado de japonês é realmente inspiradora. Você teve a oportunidade de se expor ao idioma por um bom período, em diversos contextos de interação social, o que fez toda a diferença no seu processo. Além disso, o apoio e incentivo de outras pessoas foram fundamentais para o seu progresso. A sua motivação pessoal também foi crucial para manter o foco e a disciplina durante a jornada. Entretanto, sabemos que, na prática, a maioria das pessoas não tem tanto tempo ou a mesma disponibilidade para se dedicar de forma tão intensa. Mesmo assim, seu relato é uma ótima lembrança de que, para alcançar o sucesso em qualquer área, é preciso tempo, dedicação e prática contínua. Não existe milagre. Cada um tem seu ritmo e desafios, mas a perseverança e o esforço constante são essenciais para alcançar qualquer objetivo.

[@lorn4867]

Kauffman's story is so good. He stood up for himself. He had a bad supervisor in Hong Kong and negotiated on his own behalf. He had to learn Japanese to survive. 90% of people would have just accepted a bad situation because they saw no alternatives to survive.

[@女って障Ø者しかいなくて草]

You are such a talented man. It's incredible of you to speak so many languages.

[@jamescampbell121]

Your very smart too lj

[@NeonRabies]

このビデオをありがとうございました！中国語を分かるから、日本語の漢字の勉強が簡単ですか？読むのが難しい！ LingQ is really great with the text and speech components, there's entire podcasts that have the text transcribed so you can check which kanji are being used.

[@お節介じい]

因为日语里一个汉字有好几个读音，所以念起来比较难一点，可是一看就懂，使中国人一目了然

[@mimi-tx7mk]

素晴らしいです！いつも為になるお話を有難うございます！

[@MrAndyRachmat]

Japanese is one of the languages I am learning on at the moment. I love the language and the unique culture. Perhaps sometime I will visit the country with my ex girlfriend. Aamiin

[@flaguser4196]

As someone who is proficient in multiple (programming) languages, learning the differences and similarities between them help me notice and appreciate that such language features actually exist. Otherwise, I would have just taken those features fore granted. Perhaps the same applies to human languages.

[@markkeilys]

As a novice in multiple programming languages, and someone learning Japanese (and getting into linguistics in general). it does also apply to spoken languages... at least imo

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

French and English seem to me to be almost dialects, and in a sense they are as they are dialects of Indo European with significant cross fertilisation, mainly from French to English. German, which I am learning at about B1 now, seems totally alien. Then again, Forth is so different to C and C++, which differ markedly from Fortran. I feel that programming languages are far more distinct when you look at ones with different conceptual foundations.

[@RubyDuran]

Attitude is everything! I started self-learning Japanese a little over two months ago and it’s so exciting! I’m excited for this journey and to be sharing that part of my journey on my channel 😊 it can be tricky with certain resources. Having a study friend and immersion certainly helps :)

[@opdhaka]

Wow.. That's great to see u learn japanese... By d way ... I also teach Japanese at my channel.u can check it out .i am a starter although ... Just like her , i also promote this language..hope this helps u

[@Im-BAD-at-satire]

日本語の文法に文に大変強いだけど少し学んています。

[@Oceancurve]

Great stories Steve. Thanks for sharing your Japanese leanring Journey. Definitely more difficult to learn back then. Being patient, not rushing and a good attitute are all key.

[@ShaolinViolin]

動画ありがとうございます。私は仏な勉強する方じゃなかった。日本に住んだから自然に手に入れた。しかしやっぱりこれから上手になるのはSTEVEが言うどり聞きながら読む。あなたのおかげでもっと頑張ろうと思った

[@aoeu256]

日本に住んだことがないけど、日本語能力試験N2に合格したんだよ！　でも、日本に住んでいる外国人から、いろいろな悪い話に聞いたんだから、これからどうすればいいわ分からないから、中国語を勉強に決めたんだｗ。

[@wiztotheone]

ありがとうございます！

[@RcNuke]

One more time surprise me and make me better to start again learn another language. Thank you so muck (muito obrigado).

[@FujiyamaSoundProduction]

私は日本人です、みんなが日本語を学んでくることは嬉しいです！

[@theblackryvius6613]

よかったな〜

[@massacredsnake706]

やった〜

[@tylamason6712]

Si Senior!

[@お節介じい]

残念なのは近年欧米の大学では日本語科が縮小されたり廃止の傾向にあるそうです。これは中国語科の増設のためらしい。

[@jorgejimenez1554]

It's been really helpful. Thank you.

[@ariohandoyo5973]

Japanese languange is cool however, Most difficult to learn. I'm english learner, i fell in love with japan as well.😘🇯🇵

[@opdhaka]

Wow.. That's great to see u learn japanese... By d way ... I also teach Japanese at my channel.u can check it out .i am a starter although ... Just like her , i also promote this language..hope this helps u

[@EvelynMedrano-s3q]

I agree.

[@Neo-Reloaded]

As far as I'm concerned, the reason why he has improved his Japanese while learning other languages is that each language you learn gives you more sounds and more patterns. Don't be afraid of getting rusty in a language. Once you start using it again, you will recover your fluency.

[@israelcanada8969]

You are my inspiration Steve!

[@ernestorevollar3632]

I'm really impressed by the Steve's wisdom, smartness and willingness to learn any language, especially tricky languages such as Japanese. If you want to dive into an unfamiliar culture and language, you have to be patient and mindful to do so because learning anything requires commitment, self-confidence, motivation and an endless interest to deal with it. His level of that language is outstanding because he's an open-minded person who seeks many challenges since he's able to learn and handle several languages which began 60 years ago. Looking for new adventures and goals is always powerful and beneficial to maintain our wellness and health through learning. Keep up the great work with your language learning journey as always, you're a wonderful polyglot and you can do it regardless of how old you are 😀❤. There's no age barrier to do and achieve what we are so passionate about.

[@machidraws1]

im in college learning japanese, and i think what makes it hard to learn in the classroom is how hard the teachers push all the technically correct stuff like proper grammar, politeness etc etc

[@LEARNJAPANESEWITHZEESHAN]

steve さんがすごく頑張っている人です。🏆🏆

[@TysonLondon]

Story time with Steve! Really enjoyed hearing about your experience! Great video!

[@yusleiby1]

Such an interesting is i would describe your personal story through this amazing language. I agree with you, these days is way more easy to learn languages. Your experience has helped me to keep working on my progress even tho i sometimes think i don't improve too much. But in fact this is a time consuming and long journey that as you said having the right attitude could be a better and much importantly enjoyable journey. Thanks! excellent your videos!!

[@عاشقبيرسيرك-ج4ج]

5:34 how to deal with different writing system

[@fahey5719]

Helpful indeed. Thanks.

[@colorlace]

Your attitude is inspiring!

[@gfm9565]

Luckily, you chose the right place. There was many Japanese living in Hong Kong (from 70s to 90s) and many Hongkongers like me are deeply influenced by Japanese culture. In Hong Kong, people prefer English to Mandarin. We'd rather learn Japanese as our 3rd language. First is Hongkongese and English, second is Japanese. Certainly, Mandarin is easy to us and we don't need to take any class to learn Mandarin unless one would like to be expert in translation.

[@wafahassan4771]

You are amazing sir thank's for your advices. Iam learning jappanese right now i learned hiragana and iam willing to continue ありがとう先生。

[@opdhaka]

Wow.. That's great to see u learn japanese... By d way ... I also teach Japanese at my channel.u can check it out .i am a starter although ... Just like her , i also promote this language..hope this helps u

[@悪魔の実海賊団]

めちゃめちゃ日本語上手いですね！！

[@brazilianacademy]

There's no secret to learn a new language. You just need to be patient and to dedicate some time to study.

[@nolandderlugner1351]

some time? you need alot of time

[@Maggysaur94]

That's not necessarily true. You can study A LOT and still can't speak a new language. Sure, you are able to write and read in the language, but speaking and listening is a completely separate skill. It's not easy.

[@lesliebonilla8330]

@@nolandderlugner1351 I agree! 😂👌

[@RoyKoopaling]

No. There are secrets. Methods. Indeed there are whole courses established to make that road smoother!

[@RiverWorksCo]

What you need for success is motivation. Without it, failure is almost granted. And yes, there are no secrets, but tricks you may never have thought of, so it's better to listen to all who already have experience in learning new languages.

[@paulwalther5237]

I’ve watched so many of your videos and I’ve been curious about this topic. Thanks for sharing.

[@neiltalbert7091]

Great mindset advice

[@dartharaneus67]

Very inspirational story!

[@mariotaz]

I study (immersion included) for 12 hours a day, not because I have to, but because I want to. I'm also subscribed to LinQ. It's great.

[@英語わかりません]

Same here. 6-16h per day, average about 12. Good stuff. Keep it up.

[@mariotaz]

@@英語わかりません こちらこそ

[@bigbuggie5]

12 hours? You don’t have to go to school or work?

[@mariotaz]

@@bigbuggie5 Odd but I'm currently travelling throughout Australia. I left in November 2019 (Started Japanese in October 2019 just before leaving). During the Pandemic, I've been living in Melbourne (while having to jump between jobs to keep money coming in and whilst living at a hostel > host family > friends (currently)). But throughout all that time, I still studied everyday, even now I'm only at my computer responding to this just before starting my main study for the day. That said, I'm also leaving to go back to the U.K next month now that curfew/lockdown has ended.

[@tigerspiritjourney]

Hi Steve! Are you the same Steve the Vagabond who runs Silly Linguistics magazine?

[@Thelinguist]

Never heard of him

[@IntroMakerFTW]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! It does give me motivation. I've been studying japanese mostly by myself for 2 years, and a by a lot of youtubers standpoint, I should nearly be fluent, or aiming at N2, and while thats possible to do, that's not the average time lol. So yeah it's great to hear a well grounded story of learning japanese ^^

[@andreascarl9636]

After 2 years you should "not" be near fluent in Japanese, it would be quite an amazing feat. Most students, after 2 years, would be around N4 level (having finished Genki 2 textbook), would not be able to hold a conversation, would know about 500 kanji but unable to read anything (except sentences especially constructed for their text books).

[@TediousDraven]

Thank you for your experience throughout the fascinating language that Japanese is. I have recently started to studying it, it's fascinating how a language can be so interesting regarding to the gramatic, and the method to connect sentences it's simply amazing! I hope I can get to a level in will I will be able to speak with a native on a normal way-daily-talk. Thanks for the video, Steve! You're a inspiration to me.

[@opdhaka]

Wow.. That's great to see u learn japanese... By d way ... I also teach Japanese at my channel.u can check it out .i am a starter although ... Just like her , i also promote this language..hope this helps u

[@NinjaMaruSensei]

3:05 Just like the first English sentence we learned "This is a pen."😂😬😂

[@gloojaam6756]

Omg same in my country and also “ This is an apple “😂😂

[@linkswords10]

これはペンです

[@marcocrescenzi1387]

@@gloojaam6756 此れは林檎です

[@jimmg4585]

In Brazil: "The book is on the table"

[@Ian-uu3dz]

Could you make a video about how to learn a language without using LingQ, there are many I would like to learn that aren’t available on the site yet.

[@Thelinguist]

Is the lack of content that is the problem. I think most of my videos talk about how to learn.

[@haicautrang5304]

they're coming out with more soon though, someone said on the forum that the beta should be out in like 3 months

[@Ian-uu3dz]

@@Thelinguist no not exactly, I think I’ve just become reliant on LingQ and I can’t find any other method that is as efficient. Looking up words in a dictionary one by one is a lot more trouble than using LingQ

[@Australianprivatelabelwines]

Strange to learn mandarin in HK. HK speaks mainly Cantonese

[@jirojapandaily6751]

What a great video. I’m Japanese and learning English . I uploaded Japanese life. Your video is good help for me.

[@ayi3455]

Konnichiwa. Hajimemashite. I'm learning Japanese, now. I hope to take JLPT test N4 this December. I have learned Chinese before up to Hsk-3 level. My knowledge of Chinese characters help me memorizing basic Kanjis. Chinese and Japanese are like Latin and English.. There are many words brought to Japanese from Chinese, but the grammar is completely different. English adopted many words from Latin, but those 2 languages have different grammatical patterns...

[@opdhaka]

Wow.. That's great to see u learn japanese... By d way ... I also teach Japanese at my channel.u can check it out .i am a starter although ... Just like her , i also promote this language..hope this helps u

[@jirojapandaily6751]

@@opdhaka Yes I will check your channel

[@jirojapandaily6751]

@@ayi3455 That's good. I hope you will pass the exam

[@ayi3455]

@@jirojapandaily6751 Thankyou....

[@alwaysuseless]

I'm leaning toward learning only languages that have an alphabet: German, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian. Currently, B2, A2, A2, zip, zip. Obviously, I will be missing out on a lot by not learning Japanese, Chinese, or other eastern Asian languages, but my time is limited. Everyone's is.

[@hopperhelp1]

Yes. This is exactly the video I needed to see.

[@ulliusrussus]

今西は！ありがとう!

[@theblackryvius6613]

＊こんにちは あなたの投稿は「こんにしは」と言った。が、「今日は」の発音とは本当に「きょうは」だから、まだ違ったね。お邪魔してすみません笑。

[@karifurai8479]

今西はって…おもろっｗ

[@lalithakagupati6341]

Great Sir

[@lovegodmyself]

Good to hear from you! I originally from HK then moved to Canada. It would be great to know if one day you would find learning Cantonese is interesting too! : ) By the way, I am a die hard fan of Japanese culture since I was a kid, especially fascinated by their food and cartoons which are too awesome! It would be great to learn Japanese through your KZbin channel too or to see how you interact with your Japanese buddies by sharing both of your skills and experiences living in different countries!

[@Thelinguist]

I kind of speak Cantonese, but it's not my strongest language. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpLWdqdrnNqsm8k

[@opdhaka]

Wow.. That's great to see u learn japanese... By d way ... I also teach Japanese at my channel.u can check it out .i am a starter although ... Just like her , i also promote this language..hope this helps u

[@valq10]

Steve, I always knew you were an "absolute lad" as we say in my native language of Thames Estuary English, but your origin story of convincing the Canadian government to give you a new job in a location of your choice because you refused to work with an annoying boss has elevated you even more in my eyes, if such a thing were possible. Now you officially have "mad lad" status.

[@KillerTacos54]

Fantastic video

[@meriemsouha7389]

I love Japanese very much ❤ I really want to learn it 😊😊

[@guilhermesampaio5318]

My main interest in learning japanese is to understand sumo. So I'm glad that maybe I'll be able to understand that quickly.

[@FluxNomad678]

If learning by basically reading and maybe sometimes pausing to look up vocabulary, do you think Grammar can intuitively become apparent? Rather than just try to cram and retain the rules of Grammar from school books? Not to say the latter has no value, but use it just for occasional reference and not worry about it so much?

[@Thelinguist]

more or less

[@Corey-dk3xi]

Hey Steve, I'm somewhere near the beginning of my Japanese language journey. Your mention of a reader series from Naoe Naganuma caught my attention. I did some reading, and it seems like it was written in the same spirit as the Chinese reader series from DeFrancis and Teng, which was an indispensable part of my early Mandarin study. It's definitely the kind of thing I'd like to have as part of my no-screen study sessions, but it appears to be out of print. Do you happen to know how one could get ahold of those online?

[@qwqqi]

hi corey, hows the journey going so far? Just looking for a little insight as I am skeptical that i would ever get anywhere

[@breannaplatt6685]

I have been learning Japanese in school but I feel so behind all of my classmates are so ahead of me but this is my second language so it’s hard

[@unknowndreamz3843]

You motivate me sir

[@HamabaJuJu]

お疲れ様でした

[@naturalmedicinewriting5208]

Interesting story

[@wm32T]

It's my third day on LingQ learning Japanese. The system is very promising, and I particularly like the way that words can be joined arbitrarily to form phrases so that I can practice longer sound sequences to train my ear. However, I've found something annoying: the text-to-speech does not work properly. In the first mini stories, the Japanese words change their pronunciation when I combine them into phrases, e.g. 七 as nana when it is an isolated word, and become shiti when in 七時. Is it the rule in Japanese? Or is there really no hard rule for that? More frustrating is that sometimes と is pronounced as TOO (i.e. in English), and 会う is pronounced as AID-YOU. When doing the flashcards, sometimes it included additional sounds (at the beginning or at the end, it repeats the first word or last word in English or in Japanese).

[@Thelinguist]

We use the best text to speech resources we can find. Not our systems.

[@ethanlee-c3d]

Even someone has friendly and smart as you, can have conflict with this other person. And you refused to do the job because of this person and this was what 1960s? It can happen with anyone and we are all vulnerable. Who knows what this conflict was, only you would know. I have met many people like that and have conflict and I won’t tolerate it now. Thanks for sharing your story.

[@Tamère353]

I try to learn it on my own and I don't know what to do : with french or English or German or polish it was much easier : after a year of just creating a mini language environment for myself ( which consisted of talking to people on the net, watching and reading things I like in one of the languages)it d see the results. But with Japanese it doesn't work like that at all. Firstly, because I couldn't find anyone to try to speak in it with and another thing that was ruining my watching/reading experience is ... grammar. Like, it's so completely different from what I'm used to. Even if I translated a sentence word by word it d still be bearly possible to understand (while it d be pretty easy with English or any other languages i learn). And I usually learn grammar like this : I read or watch something and then when stumbling upon something unknown which really doesn't allow me to understand anything I'd go check it out on the net and thus a new grammatical rule is learned. But with Japanese it didn't work : these unknown grammatical things they never end * while in case with other languages the acquired grammatical structures would eventually start to come across and be repetitive. Like I'd start to see them again and again eventually * . So all the methods I use with the other languages just don't work with this one. And I don't want to go and study things through textbooks : it's just not my thing and most of the time you are given useless stuff there that you wouldn't ever encounter in some real language practice. So I'd eventually give up every year after a couple of months telling to myself sth like I should ve been spending more time on my french or polish or German etc because it would give results.

[@sasasa359]

その国に住んでも全くその国の言語を学ぼうとしない人もいるし、積極的に学んで地元の人とコミュニケーションを取ろうとする人がいますが、絶対に後者の方が好感もてますものね！私も英語頑張ります！ありがとうございました励みになります！

[@JugemuJugemu3]

@youknowkbbabyCommunication is usually written as コミュニケーション　in Japanese.

[@Neo-Reloaded]

My main takeaway from this lesson is that we can learn a language without living in a country where this is spoken. He learned Japanese living and Hong Kong. I also have been learning English without visiting any English speaking country. However, this method has a downside, you will come across expressions that aren't used in everyday conversations. That's why you have to be careful while learning with books and traditional methods.

[@sciarrinofan]

i have to disagree. it’s clear he said his learning of japanese only boosted when he was in japan itself. hong kong was just when he started learning japanese.

[@MrBwaki]

went to japan when i only knew how to said basic sentences after a few month i am now able to communicate my idea more fluently even though my japanese is still broken

[@zbsbadanilmuhikmah1944]

I agree with you

[@jordanakajody1]

I hope you do LingQ in dead languages too some day. It would be amazing to read, say, The Iliad, with the help of such a useful tool.

[@kamilpiechota9147]

Hello. How long does it take to learn Japanese? How can I learn to speak Japanese by myself at home? (What methods to use?)

[@TinaQQ]

请问您刚到日本时，去书店买的什么书籍进行阅读的呢

[@pmags1331]

Thank you for sharing. Do you think it is hard to learn Korean?

[@strauss7151]

Can you read katakana and kanji as well? Or just Hiragana was sufficient to make you proficient?

[@alchemist_one]

He learned Mandarin and Cantonese first, so kanji probably wasn't a problem.

[@dらんらん]

え、私が生まれる前から日本語を勉強しているんですね。それはスゴイです。

[@mokisable]

Thank you Steve for your insights! It really gave me an Aha! moment.

[@victorvila1389]

What are these reading materials in hiragana he mentions? Thanks!

[@Kiyos473solitaryqueen]

Hello, Mr.Steve,I have been learning English for more than 10 years,but still my level is in B1,how can I improve it further?

[@jimmorrison2657]

You could write a book Steve✌🏼

[@janstone2365]

He did: www.amazon.com/Way-Linguist-Language-Learning-Odyssey/dp/1420873296

[@user-mo6dt9lw7g]

About 30 years ago, I was teaching myself French (my C language) I bought a little Hachette book at the FNAC, with tapes (cassettes! imagine!) . One of the phrases was "Oui, nous avons des gants. Mais, ils ne sont pas en laine mais, ils sont en nylon". I felt incredibly frustrated with the book, thinking, "when am I ever going to need THIS? How will something oh! SO STUPID, ever stick to my mind?" 30 years later, it is the ONLY thing I remember from the entire book and recording! 🤣 Unfortunately, while I can have, I would say, a B2 or C1 level conversation in French (honestly, many times it depends on the day, I do not get to speak it too often) I've never learned to spell it properly. Il faut que je m'y applique !

[@BarefootShaman]

これが、何年も経った今でも私たちがあなたの声に耳を傾けている理由です。 KZbin には多言語がたくさんあります。しかし、あなたのレベルの経験を持つ人はほとんどいません。ありがとう。言語をどのように学んだかについて何か本を書いたことがありますか? 「私はどうやって日本語を学んだか」というタイトルの本など？ 平安あれ。 😀

[@moisesflores9109]

Currently, do you consider to be more fluent in Chinese or Japanese?

[@Thelinguist]

Japanese

[@michaeldeoliveira5966]

the most difficult to me in japanese is the fact they use hiragana and Kanji in the same prayers.

[@iansteels9195]

Talking is more important than anything, having bought a lot of text books I hardly use them. Dictionaries on the other hand often come to the rescue .

[@flikitisideways9953]

usted por casualidad habla tambien espanol o frances? or any other latin grandchild language will do id learn it if ud allow me just a 20mn conversation please

[@eduardogutierrez4698]

I wish for Alish Ivelich to interview Steve Kaufmann in Nonnative Creative.

[@jinhyun070]

Any plans on adding Hindi to Lingq??

[@wennick4859]

Wait how old is Steve I assumed he was around 50-55 but he was sent to Hong Kong in 68?!?

[@ravenzillaTV]

Honestly he looks like he is in his 70s

[@muhilan8540]

he’s 75

[@footballfan283]

I love 日本

[@libriniserenagobbo9717]

What do you exactly mean when you read A Lot? You still had to work, correct?

[@Tumtumtickler]

ここり does that mean anything

[@عبدالله-ن6ه2ص]

ستيف ضع ترجمة عربية لنفهم مقاطعك في تعلم اللغات الأجنبية ؟