Why You SHOULD Learn Japanese From Anime

[@mattvsjapan]

Part 2 is out! Watch it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qILXq4SHa65ngqc

[@flamgo9793]

​@@mattvsjapan O_O You must've had of practice with japanese. Maybe more than i'm thinking about! Like, how do you talk so fast and smooth? As a native speaker i would say you really sound like one! Keep practicing !

[@XgamersXdimensions]

Finger is Voracious easier to use than ShareX; what benefits does it have over it?

[@fkingraw4419]

@@XgamersXdimensions immediate translation like yomi chan, able to do anki cards virtually instantly, still there are many flaws but its probably the best player out there if you're only looking for maximizing productivity. Besides that ShareX is not even a video player to begin with, only reason to use ShareX is for taking the audio out of the anime, which could be done instantly in Voracious.

[@msspoonr]

is there gonna be a re-upload of part two?

[@TsukishimaGiulia]

Ma

[@punikachi]

I don't understand how the argument that you can't learn Japanese from anime even exists. It's literally content made by natives for natives. It's not like anime uses different words to other forms of media. As long as you are not stupid you are not going to actually speak like an anime character. Are there any ESL speakers who speak like Spongebob? I highly doubt it. But everything that Spongebob says is natural English.

[@jadenwalcott3312]

Thank you.

[@MrVess32]

low level japanese learners may think it's like this, because the fact is, anime characters really have some speach patterns that aren't used in real life, but let's be real, other than that it's still 100% native japanese

[@archdukefranzferdinand567]

@@MrVess32 So does Spongebob

[@BradleyAidanJohnson]

This reminds me of when girls say “I don’t think I should lift weights as I’ll get too big”. Wouldn’t it be great if your issue with Japanese was complete fluency with an awkward style of speaking. I’d take that. Oh my god I’d take that

[@teejay5516]

its like saying u cant learn english from eng. dubbed dbz

[@ナチョスタコス-v6p]

I’m Japanese and the learning process was exactly the same for me too when I was studying English. I watched a whole bunch of American cartoons, sitcoms, dramas, and movies. I listened and listened and listened to the language and had a general idea of when to use certain words or phrases in a particular situation. I gradually began to understand the nuances and I increased the amount of English I hear, speak, read, write in my daily life. While I was on the train, I watched American KZbinrs’ videos and without using textbooks, I naturally learned grammar. I also listened to lots of American pop songs. Learning another language is a lot of work but at the same time, it is a lot of fun. The number of valuable things you gain after you master the language is immeasurable. To those who are learning or are about to begin learning a language, go for it!

[@rashidah9307]

How inspiring! And you write like a native English speaker!

[@royalgoose]

Yes, your English is incredibly good. Congratulations! You've really done a great job.

[@Randomstuff77654]

Your English is perfect

[@mitchelltassicker5807]

Is your name nachos tacos? I’ve recently started learning katakana

[@festekiz]

[@BijuuMike]

i seen the podcast as well and when they talked about learning Japanese from anime i gotta admit i immediately thought of you

[@robtv3016]

How long have you been learning?

[@Unknown-d6e1y]

Aye bro like how do you study japanese

[@themasked_senshi4521]

2.45M nice

[@bilc3868]

What's the name of the podcast?

[@themasked_senshi4521]

Bil C trash taste

[@averageweeabo3965]

Saying that one should not learn from anime is like saying to an english language learner who likes detectives novels "Don't read too many detective books because you'll end up sounding like a Humphrey Bogart character! As if people are so stupid as to not be able to tell a difference between how characters talk and real life.

[@thefancydancer]

It's like saying don't watch SpongeBob to learn English, you'll end up sounding like him or worse Patrick.

[@babygorl9541]

@Dude Guyman lmfaoo

[@sandwichbreath0]

Reminds me of a bit Hugh Dennis once did on the Mock the Week, where he pretended to be an alien that learned English from radio broadcasts and sounded like one of those cheesy over-the-top DJs on FM lol

[@paulwalther5237]

You’d be surprised how many Japanese people tell foreigners not to learn from anime for this reason though. I have yet to meet a foreigner that actually sounds like an anime character however.

[@rainjb]

@Dude Guyman When Japanese people learn english from FRIENDS

[@cahsahhhhhhhn]

You’ve given hope to so many weebs. What a hero.

[@kingsmans4741]

excactly bc the truth is no matter where you live anywhere in the world, life and reality are still the same. You need to work and pay bills. This without saying Japan would be a nice place to visit and anime is still awesome. You dont have to be a weeb to like anime!

[@zomyaalt6565]

@Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart i think anyone who sees 7 anime and pretends to be expert is gonna be like that. I remember even as a 12 year old it was obvious. Also these stereotypes are only applicable to the mainstream shonen fans, watching even the most popular generic school anime is enough for reality to hit and also to hear keigo

[@jordanconner3808]

@Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart well the beauty of Japan is very the same in anime In looks. Learning the language is very beneficial for weebs or anyone that loves the language. And everyone who tries to speak a new language sounds stupid till then get good

[@Wilpsn]

@Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Even if what you are saying is true (which I believe is not). If someone chases his/her goals, they will grow much more than if they just keep living their life. There is no harm into moving to a country and seeing that is not what you envisioned, you can always come back or adapt, but there is a lot of harm in stagnating.

[@jordanconner3808]

@Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ok buddy I may be a weeb. But I am not learning Japanese just for anime I love the language is fun to learn and easier for me to speak. 2nd Japan is a beautiful country not perfect like every other country most Japanese people don't mind nice and polite foreigners. 3rd Japan have weebs/okaku that will welcome them with open arms. And some wouldn't welcome to we called society some like you some hate you

[@normanbates7599]

I was waiting for this

[@maw01]

Same

[@akiotk6440]

Who wouldn't

[@tomasbarria7431]

SAME

[@ABT8321]

Same, as soon as I watched that episode I was waiting for the MIA cult to get upset 😂

[@ジャスティンスキーん]

why were you waiting for this? If you already knew this to be the case then whats the point of watching the video? Its easy to fall into the trap of spending more time watching language learning theory on youtube than on learning the language itself.

[@kyosukee1156]

日本人よりしっかりした日本語話してますね笑　ここまで外国語完璧に習得するのはほんとにすごいと思います。

[@八尾匠]

ほんとですね☺

[@bhargavi7415]

what😩

[@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284]

I've met a few Germans and one Islandic woman who speak English better than native English speakers. It's an amazing skill.

[@drtacophd]

tf?

[@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284]

@@drtacophd Use google to translate. Then you can understand and communicate.

[@alineblooms]

besides there's worse than sounding like an anime character, it's to speak textbook japanese, seriously.

[@Kei-im9yh]

Facts.

[@looq5984]

Kore wa pen desu

[@xxStrQight]

日菜、私は本当にあなたを愛しています。あなたの目は夜空に輝く、それはとてもきれいです。私たちは永遠に一緒にいることを願っています。

[@lucassantossj]

@@xxStrQight Sounds like someone who was forced to express a love they don't feel at all lol(and I'm happy I could read it after 5 years without learning Japanese).

[@w1z4rd9]

Fanny's Learning Diary And the opposite of using Anime as a Source mainly are results of over confidence and a stupid-looking idiot.

[@cubingonmymind]

Honestly I don’t care if anime hurts or helps my Japanese I just watch it cause it’s good

[@opdhaka]

heheh , thats very honest reply!! by the way konnichiwa ! its me risa ; i teach japanese at my channel keeping into consideration the absolute beginners!and yes of course i strongly believe that manga and anime can effectively help learn japanese. i hv also made a separate playlist on this topic!! i hope my lessons will help u improve your japanese! do check them out incase u encounter aany doubt and need help!! i will be really glad 2 help u!

[@CrimsonDX]

Anyone else want to hear Matt actually talk like an anime character?

[@Joebidenfalling]

Absolutely

[@dinglebord]

Yea

[@物書き主婦]

素晴らしいです！こんな完璧なイントネーションで日本語を話すアメリカ人を初めて見ました！ 日本で暮らすアメリカ人でも、ここまで上手な日本語を話す人はいないです。 どうしても日本語って発音さえ合ってればなんとなく通じるので正しいイントネーションを無視される外国人が多いんですよね。 イントネーションを正しく覚えて日本語を勉強されるのはさぞかし大変だったかと思います。凄い！！👏

[@gogl0l386]

Omg yes, this is what is needed. Remember people to tweet this to garnt, Joey and Connor when it's published. This might be the first step to spread immersion based language learning to the masses. [I changed the phrasing as it previously couraged to spamming. I do not encourage spamming]

[@gogl0l386]

@LIMITLESS - POSITIVITY, PASSION, POWER I edited out the spamming part , but as much it's fun to have a secret club for really good methods, I think it's better to try to widespread it. As that will make people multilingual, which will lead to people having more insight in other cultures, which prevents conflicts. Plus the higher patreon goals are pretty dope.

[@babygorl9541]

@IamMe i already started spamming *shrugs* lol i don't even consider myself an MIAer but it's crucial that people know that input is key and anime/manga is perfectly valid input. they're misleading way too many people with that video.

[@gogl0l386]

@LIMITLESS - POSITIVITY, PASSION, POWER I mean like this video might only be the first step to widespread it in the anime community, which is relatively not a huge community in itself. I also think that the reason why immersion based learning isn't widespread, even though Krashen showed it decades ago, is that it isn't an easy and quick method, so people become naive and ignorant in hopes there exists a shortcut . I have many friends who spend all their time consuming Anime, but when I told them about the method, they said they couldn't bare to not understand and be dedicated enough to do it for so long.

[@jackneals5585]

Bro the ONLY way to get good at Japanese is from years of classes, txt book grammar study and actually MOVING to Japan. You CAN'T simply learn Kanji from RTK, watch a bunch of anime and mine some sentences and magically EXPECT to get fluent in a couple years......... OH WAIT......

[@kareepan3382]

Really got me in the first half, ngl.

[@AConnorDN38416]

I like that you used the word magically cuz it really does feel like magic how your brain just learns the language on its own mostly. Kinda spooky

[@GabbyFlavored]

he had us on the first half, not gonna lie

[@kokolexx]

Almost got me there

[@jackneals5585]

@@AConnorDN38416 Very true. It certainly has been a magical experience. I was almost shocked at the strange connections my brain would make during my passive immersion throughout the day. It seriously was spooky.

[@stevijs3345]

Exactly. And if you really do get fluent in a language you should be able to change what you are saying to fit the situation anyway. And seriously ... if you hear someone scream 貴様 while enraged and you think this is the right way to address your neighbour ... then I don't know what to tell you. And all of this even assumes that you ... - you only watch anime and read manga until you are fluent and nothing else. - that you never encounter a character speaking in 敬語 or dont notice it. Even if this was the case it would be easy to fix with some immersion with "everyday" speech, or by a japanese person pointing it out to you.

[@MrMickeei]

To speak like a native it is also good to know how anime characters speak (or how characters in movies, etc speak), because it can be utilized for comedic effect, or to make a point.

[@derptyderp5287]

It's definitely the right way to address some of my neighbours...

[@humanbean3]

haha if it wouldn't be so incredibly rude and/or awkward for the victims, i would like to see a video of someone trying to remain serious while engaging in conversation with random people in full on anime speech

[@azzamfs]

5:09 English is not my first language but I believe I am decent enough to understand everything that is said in this video. When I was learning English, the most helpful tool for me was watching Hollywood movies with English subtitles. I quickly expanded my vocabulary and English understanding from there. I think this would apply to learning any language.

[@humanbean3]

that depends greatly on what your first language is, and what language the movies are in. learning english when you speak spanish or german for example, english movies with subtitles would help a lot. but doing this trying to learn Japanese with english as your mother tongue... impossible unless you do some serious studying along with movies/anime. I think only korean people could learn Japanese like that. or so ive read. apparently their grammar , and sentence structure , etc is very similar

[@loyaaheibam6277]

Yeah man I also watched a lot of cartoon and movies to learn English and I haven't learnt anything from school

[@mounir__]

I am a native arabic speaker, and I learned English the same way. Once I learned basic grammar and vocabulary from school, I started watching english cartoons and movies. And even though I didn't understand everything at the beginning, it didn't take me long to reach a decent level of fluency.

[@null5573]

@@humanbean3 I learned English like that. My native language is way closer to Japanese than English. So yeah, it is not impossible at all.

[@CorralSummer]

@@humanbean3 Your commenting under a video made by a guy who learned Japanese exactly the way you say is impossible for a native English speaker.

[@AkaiNiwatori1]

Hopefully people notice this contrast to what so many popular you tubers have been saying recently: Japanese people don’t talk like they do in anime. With the exception of obvious differences that many have already pointed out, or course they freaking do or they wouldn’t be understanding it

[@princessthyemis]

hehehe, true!

[@andresvalera1430]

I feel like "That japanese man Yuta" explains it well, it does depend on the series but even something like a school romcom can have characters speaking in highly unusual ways

[@tiffyw92]

@@andresvalera1430 Yuta's videos are very informative, though sometimes he may leave out a few details. I think it's good to mention that the examples he gave in his latest video were mainly phrases that can still be more commonly found in literary texts or old theater arts, and in recent decades, aside from in anime/manga, also in novels, dramas, etc. Chances are that native speakers of a language don't speak like how writers write their characters. Usually, the authors do it on purpose to make the characters stand out or be unique or are trying to establish a certain time era and culture for the setting. *tl;dr* Anime is art and so has all the quirks and features of other arts from a preceding time.

[@kezako6783]

Well, that makes sense. My favorite immersion program when I was learning Hungarian was... dubbed Southpark ( there wasn't much more available on the internet at the time ). Surprisingly, I went to live in Hungary, I didn't end up sounding like Cartman.

[@opdhaka]

woah!thats good! and hello !konnichiwa ! its me risa ; i teach japanese at my channel keeping into consideration the absolute beginners!and yes of course i strongly believe that manga and anime can effectively help learn japanese. i hv also made a separate playlist on this topic!! i hope my lessons will help u improve your japanese! do check them out incase u encounter aany doubt and need help!! i will be really glad 2 help u!

[@HarukiAdamu]

Ez nagyon szuper én éppen japánul tanulok😂

[@kezako6783]

@@HarukiAdamu Régen nem gyakoroltam magyarul. Ha megprobálkozom, most csak japánul jut az eszembe. Sok sikert neked is. Japán nyelvhez képest, magyarul tanulni egysyerü feladat volt.

[@HarukiAdamu]

@@kezako6783 Igaz neked is😂👍Btw honnan jössz?

[@kezako6783]

@@HarukiAdamu Francia

[@Eruptor1000]

Matt I love how your channel has been blowing up lately, you deserve it.

[@Tony-rt1gr]

Finally tho. This channel is actually gold, I think every language learner, especially Japanese learners, should know about this.

[@jefftube553]

I feel like the trash taste podcast should respond to this

[@MrMickeei]

Yeah, we should spam their inboxes with this video lol.

[@TheNobleFive]

I feel like this is too unimportant to respond to tbh

[@槿ハイビスカス]

@@MrMickeei i don't think you should harass them over something like this, even matt says in the description that it is just a clickbait title that inspired a topic, and isn't a direct response

[@babygorl9541]

@@槿ハイビスカス no, the people watching it need to know that it's not true that you can't learn japanese from anime. it's a long-held misconception and myth, and the more people who believe it the less people who will actually be successful in japanese. it's harmful to spread stuff like that.

[@ShibaHamamatsucho]

The two other guys besides Joey, Gigguk and the blonde dude, think they know about Japanese but they literally know nothing. It's annoying listening to them talk about the language.

[@lorenzgluck5144]

Great that you're responding to this misinformation put forward by the trash taste podcast. I hope it will reach a lot of people who saw that podcast episode

[@kooken58]

I never cared for Anime, then I decided to sit down and watch One Piece. A few months later, I'm on episode 300.

[@_syzygy_]

I used to watch anime on tv when i was little then quit it completely for years till i got back to it a couple years ago on a fluke, gotta confess i now love it, cause the potential for stories and settings is simply limitless on animated media.

[@zomyaalt6565]

months? casual! 10days more than enough

[@azul6638]

Haha 7 days 300 eps ^^

[@kinarast]

I don't like one piece. I like psychological anime

[@kinarast]

@@azul6638 damn. I want to follow your path

[@felipecarrer8057]

When I heard that I immediatley paused the podcast and commented. " even if you mainly learn through anime, learning to shift your speaking style to be more in-line with “real life Japanese” will not be difficult." YES THANK YOU

[@zomyaalt6565]

same

[@shecklesmack9563]

It was feeling like Matt was trying to distance himself from the whole Japan/anime topic (understandably given MIA works for any language), so it’s cool to see more content focused on that. 👌

[@RobertKaucher]

The strategies employed are almost always the same, only the tactical details differ. I have no interest in learning Japanese but I always love watching videos like this.

[@bryan_cooke]

Robert Kaucher Idk why people don’t realize you can apply almost every language to his videos

[@Itachiuchiha-gq9br]

@@bryan_cookeI somehow managed to even learn full Arabic just from movies

[@damlurker]

ahh Demon Slayer. That anime will always have a special place in my Japanese learning journey. First time I watched it as it was being broadcast, I hadn't yet started learning Japanese so I watched it with English Subs. Second time I watched it with native subs but I wasn't really in a position to read or understand by listening so it was more like massive immersion. The third and final time was when I sentence mined it around the middle of MIA stage 2. By the time I got to the last episode I realized I could comfortably understand most of the content. (granted I'd watched it 2 times before).

[@princessthyemis]

that's awesome!

[@JapanesewithTaka]

Hi I totally agree with you👍 The most important things to keep motivated learning new language is FUN!! Actually I am teaching Japanese on KZbin. And I sometimes use Anime to teach Japanese 😄 Thank you for sharing your methods!! Thanks from Japan 🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵

[@BenLucasCritic]

Literally my first reaction when I saw that podcast title, had to dash into the comments real quick to correct this misinformation 😅 this is a great video to just send people to now though!

[@Samuel-uv6gp]

Feels amazing that I am capable of understanding 80~90% of what Matt explains in the video. Even though the 99% of the people I showed this methodology told me: “That wont work, go back to minna” Thank you for all your videos Matt! They have (and will) helped me a lot through this path

[@ヤマトゥーレ-k2g]

Mattさん、すごく綺麗な日本語です！ 日本人は"察する"のが得意です。少し変な日本語でもちゃんと伝わるので安心してください🥰

[@RIPhikennoace]

I recommend Animelon to anyone who wants to learn Japanese through Anime

[@RetroSmoo]

i miss daiweeb lol

[@outis99]

You can use also just use voracious, it's a video player made for japanese subs, you can download subs from kitsunekko. It also has the same dictionary as jisho.

[@SiegH.]

I'm a beginner with Kanjis (I've been learning for almost 2 months now) and Animelon just doesn't work for me. First because the website is too laggy and the videos don't load (or maybe it's just my internet) and second I can't just read Japanese and listen they speaking at the same time. The character is already saying his second line and I'm still trying to guess what the hell were that bunch of Kanjis from the first sentence lol I simply prefer to watch animes without any subs instead, just raw anime. At least it works best for me.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

@@SiegH. Animelon has a feature that pauses every line and the forward/back arrows will jump to the next/previous spoken line. You can set up loops to listen/read to the same section multiple times if that would help.

[@kevinscales]

@@SiegH. Just listening is fine, but with the subtitles you don't have to be able to understand every word, you just want to try and be looking at the words as they are said.

[@UltimateTiger1200]

Thank you for making this video. I too was very sceptical when I heard people say that you can’t learn Japanese from anime as I’ve actually learned a lot of Japanese words that Duolingo tried to teach me but which I already knew thanks to anime. The idea of saying any form of media cannot help you learn a language because it’s not how a native actually speaks is bs because I’ve heard from a lot of multilingual people that they’ve learned a foreign language through watching/listening to movies and media of said language they were learning.

[@HaroldR]

Haha this thumbnail is genius

[@tacoluna0001]

I thought they were doing a vid together, I was shocked but then reliased his bout to clown on them

[@opdhaka]

@harold san,konnichiwa ! its me risa ; i teach japanese at my channel keeping into consideration the absolute beginners!and yes of course i strongly believe that manga and anime can effectively help learn japanese. i hv also made a separate playlist on this topic!! i hope my lessons will help u improve your japanese! do check them out incase u encounter aany doubt and need help!! i will be really glad 2 help u!

[@Miksu__]

I'm so thankful you're making this. The second I saw the trash taste episode title I was disappointed in the guys for not doing proper research on language learning. I saw a lot of people in the comment section getting discouraged about learning Japanese because of that title

[@SchoolhouseTechno]

I think it was meant to discourage people who do what Matt said in just watching with subtitles expecting to learn much. Or ONLY watching anime without subtitles and expecting to learn the language with nothing else. At minimum you could ignore kanji and grind vocab while watching, but then you are learning with like romaji or hiragana and you aren't actually learning to read anything. And the vocab grinding is really what you are learning the language with, although the anime is the important input tool.

[@opdhaka]

konnichiwa ! its me risa ; i teach japanese at my channel keeping into consideration the absolute beginners!and yes of course i strongly believe that manga and anime can effectively help learn japanese. i hv also made a separate playlist on this topic!! i hope my lessons will help u improve your japanese! do check them out incase u encounter aany doubt and need help!! i will be really glad 2 help u!

[@Miksu__]

@@opdhaka Oh nice. Your channel looked pretty good

[@in2it85]

In my school we were taught English as a secondary language, But the reality is I've truly made the most progress in English by simply consuming and imitating different forms of media content. I don't think I would ever be at this point, if I hadn't spent so much time learning the language passively outside of the school enviroment. I think you can learn any language you want, but you have to immerse yourself enough to the point that learning becomes subconsciously.

[@masao37]

nice! i like the interspersed japanese parts

[@ithinkthistimeitsgoingtowork]

Yeah I never understood the anti-anime learning argument. People make it out like it’s a completely different language or that it will harm your learning. I understand that there’s ways people say things in anime that’s very different from the same person, but I mean... it’s still the same language lol

[@baduemerp9181]

Because, in the end, the whole thing isn't about what is or isn't effective, or what is or isn't true. Like almost every debate in every topic, it's less about the pragmatic aspects of whatever is discussed, and more about status and power dynamics. Anime, and passionate otaku in general, are low-status, seen as embarrassing by the mainstream society ("the normies") and subsequently the vast majority of language learning community. People known as "ironic weebs" and "non-cringy casual fans" will kiss the normies' asses, and shame and criticize their fellow otaku to protect their social status and prove themselves more adept at conforming to the society's unwritten rules and trends ("not being cringy"). There is a cruel, dehumanizing stereotype of an obese, unattractive, socially inept otaku who wholeheartedly learns Japanese through media, often interjecting native Japanese words into conversations and enjoying the culture in general (which is a freaking natural, logical consequence of acquiring a language naturally, damn it, look at how children act when they first start speaking! It's something to celebrate, not demonize!). To desperately differentiate themselves from that stereotype as much as they can, they will either reject or transform each element associated with it in order to not be seen as matching the stereotype (hence the irony and 'I'm not like the other weebs' thing). It DOESN'T MATTER whether watching raw anime daily for six years will make you a native speaker---all that matters is that THINKING SO is low-status, and therefore a social suicide. See how people will react VERY DIFFERENTLY when you talk about immersion learning in the context of, say, English or German. It suddenly becomes something relatively acceptable, if a bit exotic. Really makes you think.

[@tokiWren]

@@baduemerp9181 this feels very incel but also i dont disagree with any of this. very odd vibe coming from this one, congrats

[@opdhaka]

@johny [hey thats my best friends name ;heheh]konnichiwa ! its me risa ; i teach japanese at my channel keeping into consideration the absolute beginners!and yes of course i strongly believe that manga and anime can effectively help learn japanese. i hv also made a separate playlist on this topic!! i hope my lessons will help u improve your japanese! do check them out incase u encounter aany doubt and need help!! i will be really glad 2 help u!

[@Naruto-bp6hm]

I mean watching anime is probably good for listening for sure, and I think at an intermediate-advanced level you will definitely benefit from watching lots of it. But you need some sort of base I think. It's like an english beginner suddenly wants to watch game of thrones or another US show. And just like any other language ppl also need to practice writing/making their own sentences and speaking with other natives

[@ithinkthistimeitsgoingtowork]

@@Naruto-bp6hm oh most definitely! As I’ve progressed with Japanese, my views have slightly shifted, but I definitely think that immersing in anime and stuff at the very beginning (and especially by itself) isn’t really a way to get a good start. Tbh My progress really stagnated cause I was reluctant to spend any time getting familiar with grammatical concepts, and I didn’t really do my anki cards right. While I believe acquisition is the only way to become fluent, I also think you really need to learn stuff first, so your immersion actually becomes somewhat comprehensible

[@501clonetrooper]

Very well made video. As someone who has used anime for months, and can comprehend a good portion, it really comes down to typing up definitions of words as they appear, as well as the kanji. You have to be willing to pause, and hit multiple levels of vocabulary. There are a lot of N1 words that r very commonly used. That way, you can recognize words simply upon hearing them, which will make your life easier as you listen more and more. Anime is also most flexible method. Once you hit a certain level, you can play the show in your background. Nevertheless, I do think most people r going to need to rely on English subtitles at first. Seeing the English meaning when someone says a word will help connect you to the word. It will take many occurences over a long period of time to internalize the word for the English meaning. Being able to read Kanji is still quite difficult for beginners.

[@abdulallah7608]

Thank you Matt for the content GUIDING us all love it man keep it coming. willing to go against the grain of the community man respect from us all.

[@raulsuhett]

ありがとうございました、マットさん！I have just started learning Japanese (I'm 4 months in) and this video is extremely helpful. I'm not a huge anime fan, but I do enjoy a few ones, like Sakura CardCaptor - mostly for childhood memories with a couple of friends. Thank you very much indeed, Matt!

[@vanessameow1902]

I had been waiting for this day.

[@opdhaka]

vanessa san ,konnichiwa ! its me risa ; i teach japanese at my channel keeping into consideration the absolute beginners!and yes of course i strongly believe that manga and anime can effectively help learn japanese. i hv also made a separate playlist on this topic!! i hope my lessons will help u improve your japanese! do check them out incase u encounter aany doubt and need help!! i will be really glad 2 help u!

[@vanessameow1902]

@@opdhaka oh my goodness thank you so much for reaching out to me! I browsed your channel and I have to say, It looks pretty good. Unfortunately I'm past the complete beginner stage and so most of your content is not for my currentl level but the videos that are slightly upper beginner/lower intermediate(N3 level), I'd love to watch♡♡. Still you have gained a new subscriber and I'm looking forward to your future videos~ 教えてくれてありがとうございます。 よろしくお願いします~🙇🙇

[@TokuyuuTV]

I'm really impressed by your Japanese - you describe you thoughts accurately and it sounds extremely natural. My only gripe with learning Japanese through anime is that people just assume they can watch anime passively and have the Japanese just sink in, so I'm glad you made that distinction clear in this video. After seeing your Japanese subtitles + anki set-up I can see you took the anime studying seriously and it shows! At the end of the day it will still require hard work, but it doesn't hurt to harness something you love doing anyways!

[@usuallyandbusy]

His Japanese sounds like a native speaker . さすがマットさん流石っす

[@KotobaJapones]

As a native japanese speaker, wow, you really speak japanese well! I'm amazed. About learning from anime, that's funny, because I've uploaded a video saying that people should give a preference to Reallity Show > Doramas > Slice of Life animes > Shounen Animes. But overall, watch native content is by far better than not watching, and you should do what you reall like, so if you like watching One Piece than Terrace House, keep doing that. So I believe we agree on that. And you complemented that the "detox" process after to a real native speaking is not difficult. And you're living proof of that. I'm curious about that proess. Did you go to japan or had a immersive approach to accomplish that? I say that because, in my experience, foreigners students that strongly take it by animes, do have a preference to speak similar to animes. Maybe because its more fun, or it's a "cosplay" or "Role play" thing for them, or really don't know that it's different, etc. They tend to do simmilar gestures and reactions. So, when speaking to a person from Japan, or auhorities like ambassador or consul, it's embarassing that they can't switch it off. And they are living proof of that too. Usually, they are people who didn't had a chance to live in Japan. So, when we analyse the numbers, you are the common case or they are the common case? Scientifically speaking, your methods are replicable or you are the point out of curve? That's why I'm curious about the adoptoing process of yours. Personally, I like the apporach of "native japanese speaking" too than just teaching japanese from books inside class. And my students seems to like that. I really amazed by your skills and way of thinking. 素晴らしいです！

[@milo9086]

You’re a legend

[@babygorl9541]

he really is!

[@jordansarkisian]

Yeah I watched a Kdrama with english subtitles and then with Korean subtitles, my focus on what I was hearing jumped like 300% and I was practice reading Korean and finding words as well. I’d definitely watch something once to enjoy it, but then rewatch in Korean to really nail down the learning aspect. Knowing what’s happening in the scenes already helps as well.

[@porkysugrim]

I'll be honest, I have been following Matt's approach to learn Japanese for about 14 months now but I do like half the amount if immersion and reading as I should be doing. But what's crazy Is I'M ACTUALLY STILL LEARNING AND GETTING BETTER. It's soo cool and the better I get the more motivated I am to study more. MATT, THANK YOU. REALLY, THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing your ideas and videos #praisethesun☀️

[@beyondnomore1230]

If you studied with due diligence and motivation, you would grow regardless of the approach

[@PouncingAnt]

I kind of came to this conclusion myself after learning Japanese via schooling in the UK. Reading books etc. is great, but I think having imagery (and sounds, but I think manga is useful too) to attach to words is also great. Wish I'd realized this earlier!

[@jahayrac8636]

5:12 was some sexy bit of action 😍 😁 Awesome video and explanation. You grabbed some bits of anime for this that were incredibly appropriate. Wooow. 👏👏👏 I really appreciate the demonstration of your Japanese skills. When it comes to MIA, the proof is right there. (If people need more they just need to look through your interviews and Twitter.) This video is like the beautiful icing on the delicious multitiered MIA cake. 😋 🙌

[@beingme2345]

Do you know what app he used to automatically grab the audo when he clicked the subtitle line on the side

[@jahayrac8636]

@@beingme2345 sorry, I didn't get a notification regarding a comment. You might have figured it out by now but he used the MIA Dictionary Add-on to create the cards (grab text and create definitions) from the Language Learning with Netflix App that is an extension for Chrome web browser (maybe firefox too I don't know) the audio he grabbed, I believe, via ShareX. He has a video on how to install and use this as well as the dictionary add on.

[@たたた-u1w]

私も好きな映画のセリフやアニメの英語字幕を勉強にときどき使ってます 楽しいしモチベーションが上がる Google translation: I sometimes use the lines of my favorite movies and the English subtitles of anime to study. It's fun and motivating

[@matchasketch8224]

I learnt Japanese almost entirely through watching anime with subtitles in my second language (so I can learn both languages at the same time). It’s very effective as I’m an avid anime fan and I’ve passed N1 within 4-5 years of studying. While I’m not the best at writing Japanese, I can understand and speak Japanese quite fluently and I think anime is definitely what helped me haha

[@babygorl9541]

hows that possible werent you just reading your second language subs and ignoring the spoken japanese??

[@pandaguan]

5:00 I very much agree with this, one can never learn from reading the subtitles, the sentence structure between English and Japanese are very different You may be reading and listening at the same time, but in reality you are only comprehending the subtitles.

[@kiiturii]

I learned everything I know about the english language through youtube videos and T.V shows but now people are telling me I cant do the same for japanese lmao. My english has even passed my native language at this point and I never studied any english, never used any text books or anything like that.

[@whenyoudontrealizeyourcous5265]

That's so cool!!!!! So like, have you gone without subtitles and just sat there and got the context through time? How exactly did you go about doing it?

[@kiiturii]

@@whenyoudontrealizeyourcous5265 All happened unconsciously over time. I wasn't necessarily trying to learn it the same way that I'm trying learn japanese right now. It was mostly just being surrounded by english because of youtube and games and back then I didnt really care if I understood it or not, It was still enjoyable lol I've also had friends that only speak english for over a year now so that definitely helped too. But I'd say I was already fluent before that tho (I also learnt swedish the same way when I was young because my mom would usually speak in swedish to me. She also put me into a swedish speaking school Instead of a native one)

[@whenyoudontrealizeyourcous5265]

@@kiiturii The brain sure is amazing isn't it??? :0 omg good luck on your journey! I 100% believe you can learn the other languages if you wanted to! Thank you for your time, I'll try your methods as well as some others too :)

[@kiiturii]

@@whenyoudontrealizeyourcous5265 thank you and good luck to you too man :)

[@kyohei344]

日本語の単語、文法、発音が完璧です。驚きました。 特に、動画内0:38の「自分で言うのも何ですが〜」の部分。通常、日本人が使う独特の表現方法です。 英語を学習するために動画を探していたら思いがけず凄い動画に出会いました。ありがとうございます。

[@AleksandarRadlovacki1304]

Hhahahaha there you go again absolutely CRUSHING another topic. I love how you present ideas and how you go about explaining them. Absolutely a blast to watch you. When I listen to you I get hyped and wanna go back to anki and do another 20 cards of sentence mining upon regular 20 I'm doing a day.

[@英語わかりません]

Thanks. Been learning japanese for a month, gotten alot of the basics and found it intimidating to watch without subtitles since I will miss alot. But I think you're right about turning them off so I have. Good luck to me and thanks again.

[@futurez12]

I like how honest you are; that's rarely found in the majority of language learning channels. You're absolutely right, it _does_ take thousands of hours, no matter what language it is (many _more_ thousands for Japanese). It's one thing to hear and understand that, but it's a totally different beast altogether to actually put in those kind of hours. Even with a language like Spanish, which is relatively easy to learn for an English speaker, it still takes a few thousand hours to get close to fluency, and yet you still get people claiming they were fluent after 600 hours.... It's total BS. Put _anyone_ with 600 hours listening experience on the streets of Madrid and see how they fair, it won't be good. I'm guessing one is looking at something like 5k hours + for a language like Japanese; I'm seriously in awe of anyone who manages to put in that kind of commitment.

[@simon7364]

I'm french, I learned english through school and then through immersion, by watching youtube videos, twitch streams etc... nowadays I easily consume more english content than french content on youtube and I have probably spent thousands upon thousands of hours listening to english content. So even though I still live in france and don't use english very often my listening skill has reached the point where I don't feel the difference between listening to french or english. I started consuming english content without any subtitles about 6 years ago, in the beginning it was pretty hard, even though I had learned english in class for multiple years, my ears just weren't used to hearing full speed native english, and there were a lot of words I knew but I couldn't recognize due to the pace and the prononciation. But after a while it started clicking, and as I never stopped I only got better at it. So here I am today, I have been learning japanese for about 3 months, I'm trying to build a decent vocabulary before I start fully immersing myself. With my english experience, I know just how important immersion is when it comes to learning a new language. I'm not a big anime fan though, I've only watched some of the mainstream stuff but I did watch One Piece, so I might just rewatch it in its entirety without subtitles, that would be a lot of content for sure.

[@我楽多倉庫-b3i]

日本語ペラペラのマットさんが言うと、説得力あるなあ・・・ 加えて、日本はハイコンテクスト文化だから、ネイティブ日本語話者は共有しているであろう背景情報をすっ飛ばして書いたり話したりしてしまう。背景情報を共有していない外国人は、だから語彙や文法だけを学んでいてもなかなかペラペラにはなれない。「外国語のジョークの笑いどころがよく分からない」のと同じ状況が、日常会話レベルでもしばしば生じてしまう。 その点、アニメや映画は言葉に合せてその背景情報も映像で提示してくれるわけで、教材として最適かもしれませんね。

[@我楽多倉庫-b3i]

@シージ ウエンツ その共有しているであろう共通認識を省略して良しとするのがハイコンテクスト文化、たとえ共有しているとしてもなるべく省略しないほうが良いと考えるのがローコンテクスト文化、ということです。 自己紹介の場面を例に挙げれば、発話者が断りもなく他人の名前や職業について語るわけがないのだからいちいち「私は」なんて言わなくて良いだろう、というのがハイコンテクスト文化。 極端なことを言えば、日本人は「どさ」「ゆさ」で成り立ってしまう会話を理想としているわけです。

[@YngHstlr]

So glad I stumbled across your channel. subbed.

[@charlesjepsen]

I've been actively studying Japanese on my own for 1 month by now. I'm an anime fan and because of watching so much, I decide to give it a try to actually studying it - also, I love the sound of the language. And so, I started learning the alphabets and a few grammar rules to support the listening exercises I do every day. Also, watching J Dramas helps big time. If anybody is doubtful about actually studying or just watching stuff, if you combine both, you're gonna be fine. じゃあね

[@kuribosan]

マットさんの日本語がどんどん上達してる気がする。はじめのイントロとか。努力の賜物ですね😵英語学習をしてる自分にとって、こういったティップス動画は本当に勉強になります！！

[@Mindwipe96]

Hey Matt I watch Trash Taste, and I love they're podcast, and I also watch their individual KZbin channels. Since I started studying Japanese late last year I've come across your channel and loved all the videos I've seen from you they're all extremely informative and helpful. When I watched that TT episode I was really hoping you'd make a video about it. Very excited to see your response!

[@shebecrazy22]

Dude I totally agree with you! I've been watching anime a lot since I was younger and I've picked up some Japanese just by watching them with English subtitles and now with supplemental materials for learning. I love learning languages. This is so encouraging! I got my kids to watch anime as well. Someday they will transition to listening to the Japanese audio and start picking up stuff like me! Arigato guzaimasu!

[@water1374]

I mean, If you understand that it's purposefully dramatic then it's probably fine right?

[@MrMickeei]

@Alexandr Retardo I love how in JoJo, nobdy says じゃない, they always add another あ and say じゃあない instead. And you actually also learn many different ways how to insult someone and how to say you are going to beat someone up. (although I doubt it is going to be useful for daily conversation, but who even learns Japanese just to have conversations?)

[@omp199]

@@MrMickeei Out of curiosity, what is the effect of adding another あ and saying じゃあない? I am still a beginner at Japanese but would be interested to know.

[@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284]

I'm actually wondering if that would help. Characters would add dramatic emphasis and that might make it clearer to hear and understand.

[@spottybeats]

i am invested in this channel. stonks go up.

[@shandyleng]

Didn't have the intention of learning Japanese directly from anime but after watching many series of anime I actually picked up on some of the vocabulary which is very surprising

[@mtkkk]

YES! Thank you, I see it the exact same way. Being able to enjoy media that you love with the language that you are learning helps consolidate what you have been learning. I also switch the audio to japanese in japan made games and it also helps

[@lukacola7296]

Garnt, Connor and Joey: *I M P O S S I B L E*

[@budgetstylestories8357]

無理です.

[@Reforming_LL]

Joey learned Japanese from reading manga apparently so...

[@cevcena6692]

@@Reforming_LL Though his Mom taught him, since she's Japanese

[@Charly_dvorak]

@@Reforming_LL Joey already spoke Japanese since he was a child, maybe he learned kanji by reading manga

[@LovePantsu]

Last week I somehow had a KZbin recommendation of Xiaoma speaking Chinese, the language which I have no interest in. But when it turned out to be a collab with you, everything came into place and I’m so glad I’ve come across your channel. Now joining the fan base of yours!

[@trafalgarlaw3707]

Would love to see a video about the Japanese used in anime 👍

[@mcmodmod5533]

Really interested to see how next week‘s video will turn out. It sounds like a new type of video, considering we usually get quite broad language learning videos, instead of specific Japanese language analysis stuff.

[@mandaringoals1106]

実はできるんだよ

[@MidosujiSen]

Only real ones know where this is from

[@Thiago01071997]

I see you’re a man of culture

[@zomyaalt6565]

so um i feel proud to be able to read this but whats the reference?

[@quanta8382]

Sorry but what does that kanji mean?

[@kinarast]

@@zomyaalt6565 how much anime did you watch? You finished Japanese duolingo in a week...

[@ArchMageDarium]

I was just thinking you and Dogen need to get on the Trash Taste Podcast at some point. Chris Abroad was on there and he doesn't even like anime! I think you'd have a lot to contribute given your love for anime, Japanese culture and contrasting viewpoints on language learning. I'm serious.

[@handokurimu]

初めて聞いてみると日本語うまっ！！マットさんが何言おうとも説得力が高いわけですね

[@user-bh9bc8rl7d]

たまたま動画をみかけたので初めて見ました！めっちゃ日本語上手ですね……なんというか、外国人特有の「訛り」が感じられない、少なくともこの動画で話されている限りはほとんどネイティブの発音だと思います。母国語と全く違う言語を自力で習得できる人は凄いと思います。

[@くじらくま]

すごく上手でびっくりです！！ 私も英語を勉強中なので頑張りたいと思います☺️

[@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284]

Keep listening, my brother. You'll get it. Americans are very forgiving of foreigners who are trying to learn. We admire you for trying.

[@REORPG]

そこら辺の日本人よりきれいで聞き取りやすい日本語だと思います！ほとんど違和感ないです！ 尊敬します...！

[@paulwalther5237]

I’m a veteran Japanese student myself and most of my immersion is from anime. Except for some NHK news podcasts commuting to work and when I lived in japan and got to hear actual Japanese from real live people. Because I also studied a textbook and learned common grammar, I don’t think I ever even went through a phase where I sounded like an anime character. You have to consider the source of everything you say when you’re talking and even unconsciously I think most people can tell Naruto sounds a bit odd. Plus they don’t even teach the grammar he uses in textbooks making it actually very hard to imitate for foreigners. Except when he speaks normally. Anyway, I like anime but aside from NHK news which clearly isn’t good for normal spoken Japanese, there’s nothing else I enjoy listening to. I personally think this hurts my listening abilities. I can watch and enjoy almost any anime without subs but I struggle with live action or regular Japanese TV. Clearly I think I would benefit from rounding out my input some more but it’s just so boring I don’t know if I can do it.

[@danielantony1882]

Well, anime do tend to use a simpler range of vocab and vocab tropes so not understanding real japanese is obvious since normal people also tend to speak less clearly.

[@Mercure250]

3:15 The way you used that Monogatari footage there made me laugh I was already happy that you put Monogatari and Hyouka, but that was clever It helps that it comes from what I consider one of the funniest episodes of the franchise

[@EvaYohane]

Ah, the long awaited video.

[@opdhaka]

@eva san ,konnichiwa ! its me risa ; i teach japanese at my channel keeping into consideration the absolute beginners!and yes of course i strongly believe that manga and anime can effectively help learn japanese. i hv also made a separate playlist on this topic!! i hope my lessons will help u improve your japanese! do check them out incase u encounter aany doubt and need help!! i will be really glad 2 help u!

[@GypsyCurls]

That opening is soooooo dope! I am not learning Japanese but Spanish. But I follow you always.

[@eternallysami]

I saw a clip from Cyborg 009 in the preview video and clicked immediately! And also because it's another video from Matt vs. Japan.Thank you for the great videos, I love them all :)

[@deanl9012]

The trash taste podcast should invite him on

[@vanessameow1902]

Can't wait for the part 2!! マジで第二部を楽しみにしてる！！

[@kizryuver]

As long as you know the difference between fictional part of japanese used in an anime and realistic japanese used in an anime you can learn how to speak easily and it wont even be animeish even at start... And anime has realistic japanese and unrealistic one fused so like he said listening to non fictional japanese will help you know the difference between realistic and fictional japanese language used in anime .

[@Nimelle]

I absolutely agree with you. I actually never even wanted to learn japanese, but because of the sheer amount of anime and jdrama I consumed, I slowly started to understand them without subtitles (in several years). And then, there was a point, when I just thought, it'd be such a waste not to learn the language properly, if I already can understand this much. So I sat down, learned hiragana and katakana, bought a kanji dictionary and a grammar textbook, and started intentionally learning japanese. That's why I only passed the N3 level of the JLPT for now, but I can easily pass the listening part of the N2, and even several N1 sample tests I've found. So now I'm working on my grammar and reading/writing skills, because I'm waaaay behind with those compared to my listening skills. So yeah, you most definitely CAN and SHOULD use anime/jdrama to learn japanese, if you enjoy the genre. Not to mention, that you can easily learn to distinguish dialects and other nuances through anime, that otherwise would be much harder I think. As long as you use your brain, and don't try to copy certain _weird_ anime-characters, and don't start your sentences with 'yare, yare" and end them with "de gozaru" or some obviously not average way of speaking, you'll be fine. And trust me, you eventually WILL spot those oddities you shouldn't copy in a really short time.

[@SquirrelMonkeyCom]

Wow, impressive!

[@kqu1684]

True

[@markharrington8988]

I agree with you. There are different ways of learning your target language, whichever you choose that to be. I know quite a few people from Korea, Japan and Mandarin speakers who learnt a lot of what they know by watching English language tv shows and sometime movies. They weren't their primary sources, but were used by them to augment what they were already learning in various classes. Thanks for your insight and the wisdom you share :)

[@RSousa-ru7xi]

Talking like characters in the beginning is a natural thing, you just have to push forward that. My brazilian friends who learn english as a second language use a lot of slang and movie vocabulary such as "oh my god", "like-" and "oh sh--t", "what the hell" because they listen to it a lot in movies even if it's not useful in all types of conversation, but that's not a problem. You just have to keep learning other stuff.

[@deanl9012]

6:09 For anyone looking for the anime in the background, It's called "Whisper of the Heart", it's on Netflix because of the Netflix-Ghibli deal. It's 1hr51mins for anyone who wants to know

[@trafalgarlaw3707]

Can you tell us what kinda animes you were watching in the beginning stages of learning japanese?

[@nickm3694]

He mentioned he watched toradora once, but overall he reccomends you to watch whatever show interests you personally

[@opdhaka]

trfalgar san .konnichiwa ! its me risa ; i teach japanese at my channel keeping into consideration the absolute beginners!and yes of course i strongly believe that manga and anime can effectively help learn japanese. i hv also made a separate playlist on this topic!! and ALSO WHAT YOU WANTED -ANIMES FOR BEGINNERS! however let me note it down here for ya !! 1]zatchbell 2]doraemon 3]chi s sweet home 4]death note 5]yotsuba to 6]sazae san 7]shinchan crayon version i hope my lessons will help u improve your japanese! do check them out incase u encounter aany doubt and need help!! i will be really glad 2 help u!

[@kingwoodbudo]

Very nice mixture of you speaking Japanese and English. Watching you speak is inspiring on its own. This is what I've been wanting to see, a balance of the two languages. I understand that you're going back to agnostic language learning, but this was nice. Thanks.

[@homerthompson416]

That's good to hear since I have for the last month moved onto sentence mining and immersing with the games Persona 4 Golden and 龍が如く0 and the anime Persona 4 The Animation and Sailor Moon after getting a little bored with Genki and it feeling like a slog to finish the last 2-3 chapters of Genki II. And I was a little worried about my Japanese maybe sounding to slangy or rude, so it's nice to hear it's great for the basics and that switching over to speaking like a polite adult later on is the easy part.

[@sceKernelDestroy]

Matt is basically All Might telling us "You can become a hero"

[@heathersaxton8118]

I can get behind this but from the other way around. I didn’t learn Japanese from anime but from formal study + lots of interaction with natives (I did read a significant amount of manga though). Obviously I wasn’t really familiar with anime style Japanese by the time I was already fluent in the language , but I could still understands everything they were saying in shows even if it sounded a little weird to me, and I picked up on the specific quirks pretty fast and can easily replicate it. Can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work the other way around as well. As long as you hear actual people talk + other types of media at some point. Also you can’t really forget about the fact that anime is often the whole reason someone wants to learn Japanese so why wouldn’t they learn through the media that’s literally their goal 😅

[@Miksu__]

I remember getting very annoyed when I saw the podcast episode title

[@mcarbone4]

Just started learning Japanese about a month ago...trying to combat it from all angles. Books, online tools, speaking with natives via italki for example and so on. I also have downloaded some japanese books on audible to listen too as well. I am glad to hear your perspective on anime since recently I was considering not using that as a tool since there is a lot of backlash and negative opinions about using it. Looking forward to more of your videos. Thanks

[@eigonodo]

I feel like even Japanese kids learn Japanese from Anime :>

[@Senraikai]

I'm glad you finally made this video. Looking forward to part 2.

[@Miksu__]

Could someone tell me how I could get a setup like the one at 5:21 or link me a video where Matt explains that?

[@nichl474]

good question

[@jahayrac8636]

This is the MIA dictionary Add-on on in action with the language learning with Netflix chrome browser extension. It's awesome 😳 he uses Sharex for the audio grabs

[@Miksu__]

@@jahayrac8636 Ohh, how can I get my hands on it? Does he explain its use in a video somewhere?