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what's the best way to learn Japanese
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from scratch how how would you answer do
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you tell your student to learn Kan or
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you don't really recommend when you
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watch anime does it help to learn
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Japanese hey guys how you doing I'm
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Takashi from Japan so today I'm going to
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interview Japanese tutors what's the
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best way to learn Japanese and I also
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interview my foreign friend who speak
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really good Japanese so I ask her how
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she Japanese as well okay let's get
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started okay thank you for your time
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could you introduce your background hi
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hi my name is k Sensei I am from Tokyo
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Japan and right now I am online Japanese
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tutor I'm risako onishi from Osaka Japan
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I'm currently living in Mexico City as a
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Japanese tutor and content creator hi
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I'm sayaka and I teach Japanese online
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I've been teaching Japanese for like
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five six years now I live in Nagoya
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lived in United States for two years in
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total in Japanese in Japanese
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okay
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as a Japanese I'm going to ask you some
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questions first of all what's the best
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way to learn Japanese from scratch how
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how would you answer um in the beginning
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or the earlier stages I would say to
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focus on pronunciations because over
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time if you start uh building up the
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habits of saying words in Japanese it
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will be difficult to fix it so I would
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focus on like um pronunciations by
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working on the shadow Ing and then
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listening so no wrting reading of course
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hiragana and Katakana are pretty
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important that's well because H and
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Katakana are the reading syllables for
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us um to read a Kani we need hiragana
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and Katakana so I would say these two I
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would start from learning the characters
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but not just the characters but also
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some basic phrases and stuff I think
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it's important to learn all of it all
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together at the same time I wouldn't
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just focus on H but I would try try to
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learn phrases and try to write those
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phrases in and kak I think it'll be a
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kind of approach for them to start from
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letters from kak start to associate each
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letter with each sound you develop like
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to absorb vocabulary with that
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vocabularies you can learn to express so
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small units like letters like for many
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people first step in learning Japanese
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How I Learned Japanese uh I started off
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back in 2013 and I started just like
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looking up how do you learn Japanese so
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right now you know you can learn
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Japanese fairly a lot easier than maybe
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like 20 years ago because there's so
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many resources um and so then I looked
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up How I Learned Japanese and I found
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some blogs on the exact process to do it
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and I was like well let me just try this
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out and I downloaded a bunch of apps on
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the App Store and I just tried all of
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them and I was like okay there's a
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couple I like I started learning kagana
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Katakana and then kanji and then I
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started to understand a little a little
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bit of the grammar and then I was just
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watching a lot of anime dramas and stuff
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listening to Japanese music already and
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so then after a while it was like really
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exciting to hear words that I learned
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it's better almost to watch like TV
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dramas and stuff cuz when you have
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example sentences you're attached to the
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context of that show and you know what
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they're saying and so it's easier to
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remember words and how to say it so he
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speaks Japanese English Spanish right so
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what are the differences English Spanish
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and Japanese pronunciation the letters
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know structure and everything can you
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explain the similarity I see between
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Spanish and Japanese is how close there
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are in pronunciation each letter tends
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to be constituted of two elements which
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is consonant and vowel that makes two
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languages sound similar in pronunciation
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so would you say that it's easier for
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Spanish speakers to pronounce Japanese
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language I think so I personally think
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aaso they have great Advantage
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difference is Japanese writing is a bit
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more complicated three patterns right of
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writing and I think it's a huge obstacle
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for beginners I think English and
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Japanese are completely different so I
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feel bad for Japanese people learning
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English because yeah it's just so
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difficult and I speak telu which is also
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a language from India and we have the
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same grammar structure so it's a lot
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easier for me to pick up Japanese
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because I understood the verb noun
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structure what about pronunciation
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pronunciation is like oh my God I feel
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like it's so different English is just
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we have a lot of like T or like R and T
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sounds I think are very like rough like
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the way we say it but then Japanese
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where you say the T sound and then the r
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sound it changes where you're putting
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your tongue like at the roof of your
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mouth and so I had to kind of study
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where to place it each time the way you
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approach the language it's different
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depends on your native language I think
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there's definitely a difference when if
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you only speak English and you're
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suddenly learning Japanese I think
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there's definitely a bit of a hurdle
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because it's tough to get used to the
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new sounds the the grammar structure and
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so for me I do feel like it was a little
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bit easier because the telu
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pronunciation and the grammar structure
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is slightly similar and in general if
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you speak at least two languages I think
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you have that flexibility and able
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you're able to pick up languages a lot
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easier and especially if you Chinese you
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don't need to Lear Ki you know yeah ex
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particle is probably the uh biggest
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thing Joshi
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um or GA or o and those are um kind of
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similar to prepositions in in English
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but not necessar the same and that uh is
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a framework um of a sentence so
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connecting a words together and a make a
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sentences in Japanese and I think um
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that's one of the hardest part of
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learning Japanese as well when you watch
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anime does it help to learn Japanese it
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definitely helps because the more you
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hear the more you get used to hearing
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Japanese and get used to the intonation
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of Japanese the students I've met who
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have the best pronunciation or
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intonation they all have been binge
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watching anime so I think it totally
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helps and also to develop vocabulary any
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negative aspect of learning Japanese by
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watching anime you learn some bad words
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and uh uh some words are not really used
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in real life real life so maybe that's
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the disadvantage to study Japanese or to
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learn something just in general you have
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to have a passion right I always tell my
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students to have passion in Japan like
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learning Japanese and if it's just if
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it's just a understanding anime I think
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that's that's amazing and also um anime
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is a great way to build up your
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vocabulary or um phrases that we use in
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daily lives you know action animes they
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use the phrases that we don't really use
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in the daily conversations like maybe or
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like um or something like that so that's
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something that you should be careful
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with but it's nothing wrong with like
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being familiar with those I believe
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interesting because I get so many DMS on
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Instagram and some some people call me
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like Kama which is very very very rude I
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never heard of any real life but very
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rude but you know they use it a lot in
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anime so I think they assume that it's
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okay to use it but like it's not okay
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though don't don't call me anyway I
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think it's difficult to learn everyday
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Japanese words from anime I think it
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makes it difficult because you don't
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know which is which but what I think it
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does help is with listening practice
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because you will hear words that you've
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studied before and you'll get used to
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hearing Japanese so I was watching a lot
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of anime the first 3 four years that I
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started Japanese learning and there are
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animes that have very natural speaking
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Japanese as well so I think you can
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totally use it but I think if you ate it
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with something like TV dramas you'll get
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an idea of what what normal Japanese
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speaking is the first five six years
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that I started learning Japanese my
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entire world that I lived in was in
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Japanese like I would make notes in
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Japanese I would watch TV in Japanese
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and I would just try and make my entire
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environment that language and that
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included music I listen to Japanese
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music uh TV shows like variety TV shows
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as well like comedy uh anime and I would
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call my friends in Japanese or I would
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write blogs blog posts in Japanese and
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yeah basically every single part of my
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life was
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in this video I'm asking Japanese
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teachers what's the best way to learn
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Japanese I also want to share one of the
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best method from my perspective that's
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prepi today's video sponsored in fact
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several friend of mine who are studying
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Japanese are actually using prepi and
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they say it's really good so I ask them
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let's start learning Japanese by
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signning up for pre okay let's get back
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to interviews any common mistakes
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Japanese Learners tend to have tend to
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make at the beginnings in the beginning
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I would say the biggest one is the
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pronunciations we have like certain like
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or specific pronunciations that only
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exist well probably only exist in
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Japanese like long vowels for example is
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um uh if we say movie in Japanese is a
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in written but when a e a sound and a e
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sound together you would say so hold it
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like a long sound and which is can which
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can be difficult in the earlier stages
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and um I always Focus um on teaching
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long vowels and also double Conant which
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is small uh the pause in between and
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like I mentioned um each each character
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represents one sound so um we have to
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say them properly otherwise it will it
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will sound be like an accent in Japanese
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anything you did but you didn't need to
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oh I bought like a dictionary of all
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Japanese verbs and I tried to memorize
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like every single day like a verb and it
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didn't work at all like it was such a
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waste of time because I didn't have
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anything to work off of like you need
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some kind of TV show or some kind of
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context or you know practical something
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practical or else you're just kind of
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like sitting there trying to memorize
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something that has no relevance to you
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and so now what I do is I use flash
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cards and even then like a lot of people
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uh recommend Anki for example I
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recommend it too but I've never used it
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because I think that for me flash cards
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it it was just easier for me to use the
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apps that I had but anyway I would put
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in words from conversations that I've
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had and those words is what I would use
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because I'd have the context if that
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makes sense one of the things that I see
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often is start learning Kani so much
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before building a lot of vocabulary if
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you learn the Kani first and then you
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learn vocabulary you are learning do
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things at the same time but if you knew
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the vocabulary I think it's easier to
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apply the Kani to what you know already
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and also not speaking out people are
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just writing down and understanding but
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because they don't really pronounce it
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try to do the output work the output
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work is also as important as doing the
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input work do you believe that Kani is
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really important to learn acquire to
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live in Japan to to be able to speak
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Japanese like what do you think like oh
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as someone who actually lives in Japan
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like what's your opinion I think it's
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really important um it's not important
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to write it I don't write Japanese I
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just type
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it yeah I don't think you need to do
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that but um I try to make sure that I
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know the Kani of like Signs around me or
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just in general I think it helps so much
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because it reduces the amount of time
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you have to think it's like you know the
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kanji so you know generally what
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something says and you don't have to
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think beyond that I was really glad that
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in moments like if I had to go to the
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doctor I could read kanji and I could be
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like oh like I think blah blah blah blah
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blah should be like this like you know
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so you don't think that you need to
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write kanji to memorize kanji to be to
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be able to read I definitely wrote
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Japanese to practice the beginning like
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nak and you really have to do a lot of
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image training of what each word kind of
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represents and after a while it really
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looks like what the kanji was meant to
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be and you grow like an appreciation for
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it too at the same time now days we use
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a lot of online resources so if you can
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recognize the conses and understand the
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meaning of them I think it's fine
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however um in the daily lives like if
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you're living here you need to know how
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to write them so balance is probably
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important um I wouldn't say like you
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need to know like 100% with 3,000 kjas
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by tomorrow you can learn like 10 a day
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or like even one a day is fine but know
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how to write them and and kind of get
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used to writing those at the same time
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time reading and understanding the
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meaning I think so you cannot ignore but
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you still you don't need to focus that
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much right I would say so yeah the real
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Japanese that Japanese people actually
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use in their daily life and Japanese
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that you learn on textbook or in the
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class or something like you know I think
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there are some differences yes in my
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class we use this textbook very famous
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one
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called I yes and it has 50 uh lectures
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lessons from 1 to 50 okay and from 1 to
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2021 the information that they give you
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is formal this m blah blah blah from 21
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you have like the first approach to
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informal casual style but those 20
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episodes are very very important because
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informal Japanese is based on formal so
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you can't skip like any of I think
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textbook Japanese sometimes can be
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really robotic they pronounce each sound
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really correctly it happens in English
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and I I'm sure happens in other
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languages too for example not at all is
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not at all or something like that and we
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omit a lot of words from our sentences
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when we speak in real life so those are
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the things that are not really mentioned
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because I think it's important to learn
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the textbook Japanese first so that you
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can understand everything it's easier to
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Omit something than adding something
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more to what you've learned I think I
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know that many borers living in Japan
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for 10 years 20 years still don't really
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speak Japanese and so that means living
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in Japan doesn't mean automatically you
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know being able to speak Japanese right
00:15:08
so any cons of living in Japan when it
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comes to learning Japanese yes so
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regarding the topic I think the most
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important thing is to be uh be out of
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the comfort zone and then try to make a
00:15:23
Japanese friend one Japanese friend is
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fine but it is um sometimes it's a
00:15:28
difficult too because Japanese people
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here uh want to speak uh want to learn
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English as well so if you come here then
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um it's the purpose of like maybe you
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get to use uh English um in a
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conversations and it will be easy as
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well from my experience when I lived in
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the United States um I really it was
00:15:48
really hard for me but I try to make
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just at least one friend and I had a
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host family um they're from the United
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States so I just like um actively went
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out with them that helped me a lot with
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the my English as well so I would say
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well it's kind of different story here
00:16:04
but um always um be out of the uh your
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community and then try to be try to uh
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jump into like Japanese communities to
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make a friend and then have
00:16:14
opportunities to speak Japanese even if
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you're here and you're surrounded by
00:16:18
English speakers then it doesn't help so
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it really doesn't matter where you are
00:16:24
you can be you can be in Japan you can
00:16:26
be in America or wherever you are Yeah
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the more you speak the better at end any
00:16:32
advice to those who just started
00:16:34
learning Japanese at a Japanese tutor
00:16:37
okay what do they need to do uh like
00:16:38
first of all just congrats your journey
00:16:42
your decision on like learn Japanese
00:16:44
like learning vibe in this educational
00:16:47
ambient I think it's very positive you
00:16:49
learn a lot of thing right you
00:16:51
understand better yourself sometimes
00:16:53
Japan it's a weird country really we
00:16:56
live in a bubble without knowing that we
00:16:58
are
00:16:59
but that means that we have a very weird
00:17:02
concept of lives tradition and culture
00:17:05
so enjoy it and I think with each
00:17:07
expression that you learn in every class
00:17:10
you you find a bit new piece of Japan
00:17:12
piece of culture that's that can be
00:17:15
really interesting interesting because
00:17:18
learning the language it's also
00:17:19
including learning the culture right
00:17:22
exactly uh don't forget to enjoy
00:17:24
learning uh don't stress too much don't
00:17:26
be afraid of making mistakes just try to
00:17:28
use them as much as you can and if you
00:17:31
can communicate that's all that matters
00:17:32
I think the biggest thing is to be um to
00:17:36
have a courage you will be coming to
00:17:38
Japan and which is completely different
00:17:40
culture language living setting is so
00:17:42
completely different in Tokyo especially
00:17:44
so it's good to have a courage to live
00:17:46
here and then courage to learn or use
00:17:50
Japanese and that's probably the fastest
00:17:53
way to um learn the language as well so
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it's not necessarily like study skills
00:17:58
or anything but I would say it's more
00:18:00
like a mindset that I would always
00:18:02
recommend my students as well to be
00:18:04
passionate to be uh to have a
00:18:24
[Music]
00:18:27
courage
00:18:32
okay thanks you for watching so far how
00:18:34
was it that was interesting I hope this
00:18:35
video will help you if you're learning
00:18:37
Japanese right now and also if you're
00:18:38
coming to Japan I just published my
00:18:40
Tokyo guide book so if you're interested
00:18:42
please check in the description okay
00:18:43
anyway thank you for watching if you
00:18:44
like this video click like button please
00:18:46
subscribe to my channel if you have any
00:18:47
question you want me to ask people in
00:18:48
Japan please leave the comment too see
00:18:50
you next time