I Asked the World’s Most Renowned Polyglot How to Correctly Study Japanese

I am newbie at your channel! I loved so much the content it self but my favorite part is how excited you are to do this interview with Steve! Thank you so much it made me to more excited to continue my journey to learn Japanese! ❤

FYI the lingQ is own by the guy doesn't mean it's bad but that why he kept recommending it

ありがとう! This video was really motivating and informative for me!

Very encouraging, thanks for the video

I totally agree about the Keigo. Worrying too much about it can really inhibit people from speaking

You stayed in Michigan?!

That’s where I’m from! That’s such a cool coincidence. ☺️

No matter what I read or watch, learning a non-Latin based language seems so unrealistic. I see that some people can pull it off, but it largely seems like a lost cause for people born in the West unless they're one of those oddballs obsessed with languages in general. 🤷‍♂️

Im curious the specifcs though.

Listen and read. Do you look up each word as you go, or just passively listen and hope it clicks?

Learn vocab? Best method or tool to do so? Anki? Is there a certain amount of vocab one should learn before immersing becomes comfortable?

I like to watch Japanese dramas for listening practice (no subtitles). Great way to get used to flow of language.

Heisig is great <3

Thank for your informative video .what was the name of the app he uses for learning kanguage ?link?

I've attempted to learn japanese so much that sometimes I find myself watching anime and not looking at the screen and I still have a vague idea of what's being said, but learning by myself has been so hard on my motivation levels that I usually only study for about a month before dropping it. Wish I had a friend to learn with.

shoo I had no idea you could speak so many languages!!!

Chat GPT-4. Hands down.

Steve Kaufman is the best! What a great and encouraging message for new Japanese learners.😊❤

My 8 year old son is a polyglot and speaks ten languages. His approach will be available for sale soon

I like how when people learn a language they also end up learning the physical/cultural mannerism that go along with the language. It's so awesome to see!

New Subscriber Here! 😃👋

Im here because i want to watch One Piece without subs...

What is “Link?” I looked it up and couldn’t find it.

I think it's scary because it seems like Japanese have very high standards. I'm scared to be judged on how long it took me to learn Japanese, but I won't give up and it's nice to know I can make mistakes

HelloTalk

Woo! Michigan!

grammar also is a bottle neck.

me, learning english so that I can learn japanese from it

The main problem with learning languages like japanese is the availability of resources

Hey! When Kaufmann did go to Japan for business reasons, did he start learning Japanese before or started when he was there? And how did he do it at that time?

I'm new to learning Japanese, but I've always dabbled in languages so I feel confident in saying that this whole thing of 'It's hard to learn Japanese and it's hard to learn English' mindset is probably the biggest hurdle people have and it's one that they do to themselves. Strangely, I find the best thing to do is NOT think too hard about it. Study, yes, practice, yes. But telling yourself it's hard? That is going to MAKE it hard. Just go with the flow. Everything new seems daunting at first. Don't think about how many kanji there are, just learn one, then learn two. You will get there in the end. Every meal has to be eaten in bites.

I personally find Japanese so different from English that it's paradoxically easier for me to grasp. When I've tried Spanish and French, I always wanted to insert English subconsciously. Japanese is so foreign to what my brain is used to that it's easier to focus on for me.

What a great video! Thanks to both of you!

Steve sounds trans-atlantic in his English 🤔

I think that if you're in Japan and you can speak it (but not well). It would be great to go to a voice acting school just for the accent

How about Vietnamese learning Japanese? I will be traveling to Japan for business twice a year for the next few years. I want to learn. I speak both English and Vietnamese fluently.

Steve come on, let’s hear those languages!

Sumo - that's my Japanese listening (apart from the fact that I absolutely love the sport). That's how I'm beginning to learn the language and it's nuances. Love it!!

It's interesing how Shogo speaks "japanese forms" when speaking in English. When at the end of all Mr Steve's interventions He ended up saying "thank you so much Steve". That very japanese jaja loved it! I love the Japanese gratitude expresed in their language.

Why did he say anime with such an attitude? =/ "Ehhnimeehh"

OMG I UNDERSTOOD 90% OF WHAT HE SAID AT THE END 😁😁🎉🎉

Apple TV allows to use the Japanese language for programming... do you think the translation is similar to what was discussed in anime? Or do you think it is more proper?

I think that the big problem with English is that is never actually read how it's written. So for an english speaker that is learning japanese is harder to learn the correct pronunce of the romanji words and for the japanese one is hard to understan how to read the words that have some totally made up sound.
For example: I'm Italian and the letter A will always sound A (like in the word itAliAn) in any word, EVER, and that's for EVERY letter exept some exceptions that have a CLEAR RULE that works every time (like in bruschetta, the CH sound like a K so it's read BrusKetta and this is a rule because in the italian alphabet the K doesn't exist).
And that's for a lot of languages but in english every letter can sound different not because of a rule but because the word itself needs to sound like that and this makes a big barrier with the other language.

I'm sorry but his Japanese pronunciation was way off. My husband can speak better and he has only been in Japan for 23 years

the lips

Btw, I didnt find the "link" you were talking about.

What do they mean by “shadowing”? Is that like subtitles are ON when watching ingesting content?

As it phonetically similar wondering if an Italian could speak Japanese and make it sound like Italian ?

I think he meant to say speak "casual" forms of the languages, instead of too formal or or too slang.

I feel like learning most writing systems is ... relatively trivial. Obviously Hanzi and Kanji are a completely different story, and more on the level of learning vocabulary.