What Japanese Fluency Really Means (And How To Achieve It)

[@willow277]

Thank you so much. In response to your final question, I find the rhythm in which Japanese is spoken to be absolutely beautiful. I also love the way that the language is so beautifully descriptive, and I find the writing system to be stunning. Fluency to me is to have the ability to think in that language. To hear something being said and to not translate the words spoken. To glance at a package in the store, or see a sign on the street, and understand what it means. To have a meaningful conversation with people you love, who you wouldn't have had the chance to meet if it wasn't for all that time, and all that hard work you put in to learning their language. They're just friends we haven't met yet. That's why I want to learn Japanese. 本当に、ありがとうございます。 毎日、頑張っています。

[@Tamagotochannel]

Thank you so much for your comment . I can really relate to it because everything you said is true for me also 😊 My significant other is Japanese, and I often think about how we'd never meet if I hadn't started this journey. これからも頑張りましょう！

[@TheYaha97]

I enjoyed your video! Thank you for making it :) I've been studying 日本語 for almost three years. The first year and a half was a rough start with not much progress. Now im doing WaniKani to learn Kanji (im lvl 25) and i read/watch/listen to as much native content as i can tolerate that interests me. Fluency to me is to be able to think in the language, and when speaking you don't have to think "how do i say this ...." , it just comes out. What im doing to work towards my definition of fluency is shadowing, journaling, and practicing speaking in a mirror (on top of basic learning). Im very slow at it but my goal is to get to a level where i can be understood and hopefully make some Japanese friends that would like to have conversations with me.

[@Tamagotochannel]

Thanks for watching! Speaking without having to translate in your head is one of the hallmarks of fluency! Imagining yourself in that position will help you achieve that goal faster! Good luck !

[@travisalejandro6690]

Hi Pedro, nice insight from you there. I really like hearing perspectives from personal experiences they have more nuance and a sense of authenticity, especially since you've been in Japan for 10 years. Very nice! By the way, I'm now in my 3rd month of learning Japanese. I've been learning English for about 10 years since college, and I've also studied basic German, Turkish, and Russian over the last 7 years. So far, Japanese is by far the hardest language I've encountered. I have to say, it’s extremely challenging, but I'm trying to stay serious about it. Never in my life have I had to review flashcards every day with such high repetition. It took me almost 4 weeks just to learn the alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana, and I still need to drill my Katakana because I often get the readings wrong. However, hearing your confession that even natives get it wrong sometimes made me think maybe the language itself is just really, really not possible, haha! Thus the best achievement for beginner is simply to be fluent in basic conversation or around N3 level to enjoy some good talks. Anyway, I'm glad I found your videos they up my motivation. Thanks Pedro, take care bud.

[@Tamagotochannel]

Hi. Thanks for sharing your experience so far too! I have something to admit to you, katakana is kind of a pain to me even now. Because it's used less than the other characters so you have less exposure to it. It's easy to read in familiar words like, カナダ , for Canada, but if it's a completely new and long word (like セントクリストファーネイビス, Saint Kitts and Nevis) it's really hard. But oops, I'm not here to kill your motivation haha. Take care too.

[@travisalejandro6690]

@@Tamagotochannel thanks bud.

[@alle8581]

You sound like a Brazilian, am i right? You have Pretty good english and japanese Pedro!

[@Tamagotochannel]

Yes, you are right! Thanks 😊

[@leviguerrag]

Hi Pedro! I am starting my journey with japanese, and I found your video very inspiring and interesting. It's amazing to see the domain of the language you seem to have, and how you transmit your passion to others. Also, I was shocked when I saw your subscriber count and your views. I am pretty sure your channel will explode in no time :) keep up the great work!

[@Tamagotochannel]

Thank you for your kind words! It's always nice to hear about people just starting the journey and I'm happy my video could be of help! I hope to see you in the next ones as well! 😀

[@chris.pbacon7949]

2 minutes into the video and it's something I experienced very fast upon coming to Japan already ^^". I was speaking with a roommate, telling her about how I went for a walk in 下落合 to take some pictures of a temple, she didn't know where it was so I said it was to the south of Shinjuku and when she asked which station it was, I showed her the name and until reading the furigana she didn't get the right pronunciation, we had a good laugh and she said that obviously Japanese was hard for the Japanese too. Most people don't really master their own mother tongue but they have a level at which it's far easier to look up and learn things they don't understand. Also, good point on children. They're fluent, that's why when I see people saying they think reading/playing stuff "for kids" should be easy, unless speaking of toddlers it won't. Think of the first novel you read in your native language. I read Harry Potter at 7, in French. Kids already have a very large vocabulary, one hard and scary part of learning a foreign language imo is that I think you have to accept the fact your understanding will be that of a small child at first, you have to be curious and proactive, think about stuff you want to understand and talk about and then try to put them in practice. Be curious as children are. Especially as we now have a lot of wonderful tools to learn with ! Anyway good luck.

[@Tamagotochannel]

Oh, wow, I also didn't know how I was supposed to read 下落合, I just assumed it was しもおちあい because I know a 落合さん haha. And it's true, as long as you know what's going on in the language, know your kanji, it's much easier to look up things you don't know. I think learning new languages, especially those different from your native one is scary because you feel kind of stupid in the beginning and everything feels impossible. Accepting that to be normal is the first step, I guess. And remember that if 4 year olds can speak that fluently, I can reach that level too 😅 Thanks for watching and for your nice comment :)

[@RiseAbove75]

Yoink - Sub ありがとうございます I just started myself for a variety of reasons but it's been a blast so far. I've got Genki, Anki and Duolingo for some extra quick diving into the language. Almost 3 weeks in and have nearly solidified all of Hiragana, Katakana while starting on Kanji last week. I'm loving it so far, I can definitely read and understand what's being said better than pronunciation speed but that will come in time and practice. Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences and recommendations.

[@Tamagotochannel]

Wow, 3 weeks! Being something I'm really passionate about I'm happy to hear you are enjoying it! 😀. There will probably be difficult days ahead too, but it's a very rewarding experience! Good luck and let me know how it goes!

[@abbylafey]

ありがとうペドロ先生 I've been studying for a few weeks and I use WaniKani for Kanji/vocab and immersion on KZbin and movies/anime for everything else. One thing I like to do for immersion in particular is watching lets plays for games that I'm already familiar with. It makes it easier to follow along and figure out stuff I don't know without searching because I already know what's going on. Plus the let's play part is helpful as well because you get both the story elements as well as the KZbinr talking about the game included in your immersion. Works pretty good for me

[@Tamagotochannel]

It's awesome that you already found your method within weeks of study! When I started I had no idea what to do haha. I learned a lot of English and Japanese from games too, so I think it's one of the smartest and most fun ways to learn languages! 頑張りましょう！

[@アレックスの部屋-s9h]

indeed fluency is all about what you think is fluent. in my case it is more about getting to a certain level of proficiency within a certain field. e.g. you can not talk about stocks an shares with a kid same as you can not talk about quantum mechanics with a doctor. therefore, absolute fluency is very hard to achieve goal even if your native language. especially in Japanese, even after 20 years of Japanese you will still find new words and phrases or new meanings and usage of those you are already familiar with. Japanese is a fascinating language in its fasces of expression und undertone of some of that. even when you can all words from e.g the koujien , it doesn`t mean that you know every aspect of it. there are some trend words coming in each year as well. that constant evolution makes it close to impossible to know everything of it.

[@Tamagotochannel]

Thanks for your insights. Yeah, I wanted to say that people do not need to obsess over perfection because I feel we tend to be hard on ourselves when learning other languages, but not that much when it comes to our native language which we take for granted. And with Japanese, as you say, the more I read the more I realize there's so much I don't know. But I think that's a good thing, because it means Japanese never gets boring for me. That's the same with other languages I know too though. As for trend words, yeah, those are hard to follow, I work with someone that has school age kids, so she teaches me sometimes the new words her sons are using haha.

[@davirochaaulasonline8224]

I find 四字熟語 fascinating

[@Tamagotochannel]

Me too! I especially like the ones we can use in real life like 臨機応変 and 自業自得 🤭

[@beingfluent]

I like this video, keep going please

[@Tamagotochannel]

Thank you!

[@egs-zs8-127]

HAMON!

[@davirochaaulasonline8224]

Fluency is to me will be the time when I am able to read japanese books without a dictionary. I am studying everyday to reach this goal

[@Tamagotochannel]

Oh that's a nice goal! I hope my future videos can help you a little bit with that! ☺️

[@johnmclean6380]

Fast forward to 6:02 (!) for START of content promised in title :/

[@Tamagotochannel]

Yes, perhaps the video was a little bit longer than it needed to be :/ , but hey, I do think the first part of the video before 6:02 is informative too :) (but what do I know, it's my own video)