How to learn Japanese by watching ANIME🇯🇵

Hi guys, it's me! Today, we're going to talk about how to learn Japanese effectively with anime. So let's cut to the chase. Can you learn Japanese with anime? Definitely, yes!

Hi guys, it's me. Today, if you're new here, I'm a native speaker when it comes to Japanese. In my previous videos, I got comments like, "Why would I listen to somebody that is native in that language giving language tips?" The thing is, first thing first, I can realize what foreigners usually make mistakes when it comes to Japanese. The second thing is, I didn't grow up in Japan. Therefore, from my childhood, we always needed to do some practices. I can clearly say from my other mixed friends that the ones that did their practices are clearly better than those kids that didn't really practice Japanese.

Therefore, even if you're partially Japanese, when you don't grow up in Japan, you need to make sure that you practice that language in order to come to a native level. Today, I'm gonna share some practices that I did when I was learning Japanese, and I'm sure that they're gonna help you.

So let's talk about how to learn Japanese with anime.

The step one when it comes to learning Japanese with animes is obviously picking something to watch. The method that I'm gonna explain right now is the exact same thing that I did when I was learning English. The tricky thing is, yes, something that you enjoy is really important, but if the intention of watching an anime is learning Japanese, then you probably should pick something that is related to daily life.

For example, it can be an anime about school life or maybe love. But if you probably pick something like JoJo, which is my all-time favorite anime, your Japanese will probably sound a little bit weird. I'm gonna explain why, but you should pick something that is related to daily life. At least, I would recommend.

After picking something to watch, the next thing that you should do is to watch the anime at least one to two hours every single day in normal speed with subtitles in your language. Not only reading the subtitles but also you're gonna try to understand and pick up some words in Japanese. In this way, you can learn some basic vocabularies and also how to build sentences, and you will have a general idea of Japanese.

The more you practice, the more you start to pick Japanese vocabularies and understand the sentence structure and all of these things.

Now, you need to start learning hiragana, katakana, and maybe a little bit of kanji. If your intention is to only understand anime, then you probably don't need to learn that much kanji. But I would highly, highly recommend you to study a little bit of hiragana and katakana. I have a video about how you can do it, so you can watch it right here.

But you know, learning hiragana and katakana is not that hard. In total, you will have like 100, just like 100 alphabets, kind of like thingies. So it's not going to be hard. But I would totally recommend you to learn hiragana and katakana for our further steps.

While learning hiragana and katakana, please don't forget to watch animes at least one to two hours because it is really important to make Japanese a part of your life. Now, you're going to watch animes at normal speed, but this time with Japanese subtitles. I know there are some programs, or maybe even in Netflix, there are subtitle options that you can watch Japanese animes with Japanese subtitles and hiragana and katakana, so like without any kanjis.

If it's not available in your Netflix, you can download some programs that allow you to do that. So in this step, you're gonna try to understand Japanese anime with Japanese subtitles. At the beginning, you might not understand any word, and that's completely normal. That was me back in the day when I was learning English.

But by the time, you're gonna start to build your Japanese brain. It is crucial to, you know, become fluent in Japanese. If you're translating every single word in your brain, then probably you won't become that fluent in that language, or your Japanese will sound pretty weird.

Therefore, this step is crucial. It sometimes can be intimidating when you cannot understand anything from anime, but with time and with the practice, you will be able to understand it. Trust me, it's gonna take a little time, but with practice, we can achieve everything.

So after getting comfortable with watching animes with hiragana and katakana subtitles, you're gonna move to the next step. In this step, you need to watch animes at least at 1.25 to 1.5 XP. So you're gonna speed up the anime a little bit, but you're still gonna continue to watch the anime with Japanese subtitles.

In order to understand Japanese native speakers, some people speak really fast, like me, unfortunately. Therefore, speeding up the process will allow you to understand native speakers as well as improve your listening skills. Once you get used to this fast Japanese, then the daily conversation is gonna be really easy for you. Even when a native speaker talks really fast, since you are already adapted to the 1.25 to 1.5 XP, it's not gonna be like really hard for you to understand them.

When doing this method, the important thing is, after watching every single episode of anime, please try to explain it to yourself in Japanese. In the beginning, it can be like very basic stuff since you don't really know the language, but it is crucial for us to do some outputs when we're doing some inputs.

Let me explain why this method works when it comes to learning Japanese. Anime Japanese and real-life Japanese are something that is different from each other, and I talked about this in my other videos. But the thing is, when it comes to the sentence structure and vocabularies, it's basically the same.

When you look into the grammar, you can learn from animes. Yes, some words are different and may be used in a different way, but when you look in a grammar way, it's exactly the same. Since anime is something that is made for Japanese speakers, it's not like made for foreigners. It's basically made for Japanese people to enjoy them. Therefore, we native speakers watch them and enjoy them and understand them. It's not that far away from daily Japanese.

So, you know, watching anime for building a foundation in Japanese is actually a great way to study Japanese. Like everything in life, we're going to implement the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule basically says that 80% of the outcomes come from the 20% of the inputs. What does it mean?

So, 80% of the results come from the 20% of that core part that you should be focusing on. When it comes to learning Japanese, that 20% the bulk is the basics. Once you learn the basics, it's easy to actually improve in that language, and you can do it with watching animes.

As I said, anime Japanese and daily Japanese are different from each other—this shouldn't be ignored. I have a couple of friends who are not Japanese and learn Japanese from animes, and you can clearly notice that their Japanese is anime Japanese. This happens because in animes, Japanese producers or anime makers or mangakas intentionally do this so that they can add more characteristics to the characters and the way they speak, making them more memorable.

They tweak the language a little bit. Therefore, it's a little different from daily conversation. But you know, once you build the basics with anime Japanese, I think you can practice daily Japanese and change it over time. So it's not going to be that much of a problem, but in the beginning, your Japanese might sound a little weird.

In order to prevent that, while watching Japanese animes and things, another thing that you should be doing when learning Japanese is that the best way to learn a language and, you know, be fluent in a natural way, is being in touch with native speakers. Because language is something that has changed over time, and language is something that lives.

You might be thinking, "How can I interact with native speakers?" The great way to do this is to use today's sponsor, Is this Pic? This Pic is an online learning platform. Of course, there are native Japanese speakers on that platform, but if you want to learn another language, there are more than 20 languages in this big platform.

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The great thing about learning Japanese from native speakers in an online platform is that, you know, due to the college situation, first thing first, it's much safer for your health. The second thing is it's really convenient. You can learn Japanese from anywhere in the world, and you can adjust to your schedule and find a teacher that fits your schedule.

You know, when it's a language school or when it's something physical, you have to go there, and the time that you spend for commuting and also the action of going there can be a little intimidating. Over time, you might start to not feel really motivated to go there, and you might make excuses.

But in Is this Pic, even if you're traveling, you can learn Japanese. With Is this Pic, you can even make this a 2022 New Year's resolution to learn Japanese by using Is this Pic and watching anime. I think it's a perfect combination: to watch animes and talk to native speakers.

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You should also consume daily Japanese sources such as television shows, maybe podcasts, maybe dramas, movies, or news and radios, and all this stuff. Okay, so now let's talk about the sources that you can use for learning Japanese.

So, like when it comes to anime, my recommendation is gonna be something that is related to school life; for example, "Oreno Monogatari" is an anime that is basically about school life and love. It's a bit romantic, but it's not that much. So I totally recommend it. Even if you're a guy and if you're not really interested in these romantic types of animes, my brother hates the romantic animes, but he likes it quite a lot. So I recommend "Oreno Monogatari."

Also, another anime that I would recommend is actually "Tokyo Avengers." It's also about not really school life; it's about a Tokyo gang life. But as I watch the anime, the language that they use is not really that different from daily Japanese, so I would recommend watching these two animes first.

When it comes to "JoJo," my all-time favorite anime, I don't recommend it in order to learn Japanese because JoJo Japanese is so characteristic. I love it so much; I'm a huge fan of it, but it's not really a good start, I would say.

Okay, so other than watching anime, the thing that you can actually do is to follow Japanese YouTubers. Because YouTubers basically talk in daily Japanese, they are actually a pretty great source when it comes to learning Japanese. I will link some YouTubers, both female and male, so that you can follow them and learn Japanese.

In Japanese YouTubers, they add subtitles in their videos in Japanese, which is a common way to edit in YouTube Japan, so they're actually a pretty great source when it comes to learning Japanese. Also, on YouTube, there are some YouTube news channels where you can listen to daily Japanese news, and the newscasters, like announcers in Japan, are very well spoken. It's really easy to understand them.

Also, in Japanese TVs, there are so many Japanese subtitles as well, so they're pretty great sources of learning Japanese. I will link some Japanese news channels as well. The other thing that you can do is to watch comedy shows, and my recommendation is going to be "Tabekade 07" and "Get your Karee."

Watching it from YouTube is illegal; you have to actually have a subscription, so I cannot put a link because that basically means that I would support that illegal thing, so research it on your own. I'm not gonna take that risk.

The other thing that I would recommend is to watch J-Dramas. They're actually pretty good, and the language that they speak is basically daily Japanese. So you can check "Hanayori Dango," which is my all-time favorite J-Drama. A couple of J-Dramas I might add the list link in the description below because I cannot really remember right now.

Also, you can listen to some Japanese podcasts. I am gonna link my all-time favorite Japanese YouTubers' podcast; she's like my favorite Japanese YouTuber probably, and she has a podcast about animes, movies, and things that she loves—so, books that she reads and all that stuff.

So that was it for today! If you guys have any questions or if you learned Japanese from animes, let me know in the comments down below. Thank you, Is this Pic, for sponsoring this video, and everything will be in the description below. See you guys next time. Bye! [Music]