They Call Him the Best Japanese Speaker on the Planet

Target goal, now sighted and locked onto.

It’s Peter Barakan! Love his Begin Japanology NHK series. What a lad. OG.

I love begin japanology and japanology plus I would love to go to Japan and meet Peter barakan and Matt allt?!

Here in US Japanese words spoken by Americans are atrocious, laughable and comical. But, you have to appreciate the effort. LOL

Thanks Mr. Barakan.

I find it fascinating how he almost looks like a japanese man to me. I'm not sure if he has asian ancestry, or if it's a coincidence, or if it's something about his demeanor that he perhaps adopted from living in Japan for so long. But often when I see, for example, Chinese or Korean people in Japan, or Japanese people abroad, it's something about their demeanor that gives away their nationality. (I don't have a 100% hit rate, of course.) What I want to say is, there is something other than physique, because many Chinese or Korean people are hard to distinguish from Japanese people based on, say a photo from a driver's license.

Also I have a friend who's Iranian and doesn't look asian at all, but she grew up in Japan and to me it feels like she's 100% japanese. And sometimes I forget that to others she looks like a foreigner and get confused about other people's reactions. :D

He said "that gives you the impetus to up your game" not the "input".

When these two young men speaks English with Peter they sound so “Valley “. One fellow uses “like this like that” as if he was a teenager. It is embarrassing to listen to their poor English.

Oh yeah I've seen him on NHK!

When someone says "日本語上手," what are they trying to say? They are trying to express gratitude that you are putting effort into studying Japanese, which is why someone who is just starting hears it often as well as those who have put a lot of time into it. 一般的に、日本人は社会をちゃんと参加したい外国人を尊敬するので、この気持ちを表現します。だから、このような反応を聞こえなら、感謝を感じる方が良いと思います。

People should stop treating it like an insult or something that should be looked down upon.

Peter we love you, thank you for NHK Japanology.

He even looks Japanese xD

The interview should be in Japanese.

Peter is my hero, from when he was a road manager for Yellow Magic Orchestra through Begin Japanology/Japanology Plus on NHK...and beyond. I think Peter is also a graduate of U. of London SOAS.

He doesn't look Japanese he looks white.

The OG. Amazing score! Love Peter <3

Peter Barakan is one of the nicest person on earth! I am a huge fan of begin Japanology of NHK and I am also a huge fan of YMO, when I discovered the connection between this two amazing forces for a film project, Peter grant me a interview with some amazing and unique stories from his HUGE contribution to some of Japan coolest music. Very grateful to his insight, kindness and generosity.

The only guy I know that has a better grasp on fluent Japanese is the Samurai Cop, of course, but this guy is definitely a close second. Well done.

No need to take in foreign workers just have more children

He is also one of the most known person among japanese music band "Yellos Magic Orchestra" fans. I knew him since late 70s.

A true hero, for me! I am only 7 years younger, yet, he has lived a life I could only envy. I found Japanology before Covid, yet, it was during Covid, that I watched it both for educational reasons, and just a sense of quiet and peace, during those years!

It's Peter, with his lovely demeanor, and avant garde shirts, that makes Japanology (in all it's splintered iterations) so cohesive and special. He is just a lovely and humble man. To see Japan through him has been a gift for me!

Impetus, not input

Impetus not input.

omg i know this guy! often saw him on NHK

Love the stories.

"...like...like...like.........."

I first learned about Peter in Begin Japanology series in NHK. Since I already love watching the less than 5 minutes Japan Video Topics clips on our local channel here in the Philippines since I was a kid in the 90s, I was excited to learn they will have almost 30 min. long episodes just like it. Now I'm still watching Japanology Plus were he is still hosting it which is the updated version of his previous show.

subtitle should be "impetus"

I don't mind the nihongo jozu. I recognize it comes from a want for me to keep going and a love of sharing their culture with others. And while there are a lot of people who can speak it I think most only really count people in major cities like Tokyo . If you go around military bases, which there are a lot, then the number of Foreigners goes up but the Japanese level goes way down. So many of them live here and have little interest in learning the language

長い期間の滞在者たるもの、申し分のない日本語力だったわ

この顔、日本のテレビで昔どこかの番組で見たことがある気がするけどね

watched this up until the idiot TikTok zoomer captions popped up over Peter. Had to quit at that point 🥳🎉

Wow, I would have expected the "best Japanese speaker on the planet" to be a native speaker!

Damn, the Japanophile guy is getting old... 😢

Why does he look so Japanese when he laughs?

Peter Barakan hosts Japanology, a NHK series on Japan, interesting gentleman

Japanese people are rude to people who are just trying and do them no harm
Why so much anger towards white people? Yet also worship of it? It's weird

Okay so judging by the comments, this guy‘s reputation is exemplary

It sounds like the 60 minutes experience not only vastly expanded his vocabulary, but also really nailed down his accuracy.

Peter is the GOAT

japanology bringing back the memories. love that show

mooshi mooshi shi shi

食べられる (Taberareru) is also sound like a passive form or a formal expression. So when you say 食べれる Tabereru it is able to distinguish from these forms and become clear that it means nothing but " edible " or " can eat ".

Good point about English speakers taking it for granted that people will speak English.

I’d like to know a bit more about what he meant about Japanese people “mispronouncing” or “getting it wrong” with katakana English. It felt like he was making a false equivalence between the original English words and their Japanese/katakana versions. “Correct” is a tricky term — it seems to me (with my limited Japanese) that there is a correct or standard way to katakanise words in Japanese. In fact, if you don’t say them that way you likely won’t be understood.

I do recognise that there is a widespread phenomenon of Japanese speakers speaking English “in katakana”, or in a way that’s very influenced by it. It can get in the way of communication at times. But when they’re speaking their own language, we have to accept to a degree that imported words are going to be adapted to that language’s pronunciation and may even take on new meanings. That’s how language works — just look at English. I don’t know if that’s exactly what he meant though, so I guess I’ll have to read the book!

Nice interview.

Legend! How I adore japanology show!

Absolutely love Peter. The interviewers could stand to be a bit less goofy and more professional.