and you hear the japanese language much
more spoken
casually i can improve on and that are
kanjiko these are kanji have fun with it
routine remember words but also certain
sentences that just come
in handy is to find people to talk with
in the japanese language
hey guys and girls on ask javanese this
is cathy cat
well i work here in japan as a street
reporter which means i go up to japanese
people and interview them in japanese
about
all things cultural and fun here in
japan
and you guys asked me if i have any tips
for studying japanese for you
so let's go and ask it again
[Music]
one of you said i am listening a lot to
japanese but how can i make my
ears faster which is probably your way
of saying like how can i become better
at listening to the japanese language my
hint would be to surround yourself with
the japanese language more meaning
put it maybe on in the background maybe
find a japanese
radio channel that you put on in the
background and you hear the japanese
language much more spoken casually
i mean music generally is nice and it's
great but it's harder to pick up words
in a language with there are in music i
found that personally with english
when i was learning english i couldn't
understand many songs same thing so
maybe put on radio in the background or
maybe put on
a japanese audio book but maybe put on a
japanese tv show in the background just
something that you get used to the
japanese language more and more
and listen to it listen to the
intonation and maybe while you're
listening to it
maybe doing your house chores you can
actually try and copy it a little bit or
review a word in your head and go like
what could this be what could this mean
i love a little i'm thinking your
listening will get better
cat what can your japanese improve on
well i've been living here i can hold up
fluent conversations in japanese however
there's one thing i definitely think i
can improve on
and that are oh these are kanji
japanese language has if you know if you
started studying it has three alphabets
hiragana katakana and kanji hiragana and
katakana
you will remember fairly quickly but
however once you hit the kanji this is
where it gets difficult kanji all the
symbols
that have been originally imported from
china and those symbols are very very
tricky friends because there are a lot
of things you have to remember about
them
there are certain types of strokes you
have to do there is a stroke order
that is in place for that they have a
meaning and they have a sound and that
meaning and
sound is also very tricky because that
can change depending on how many kanji
you put together
and such so once you start learning
japanese you start to realize that
you're learning of kanji
will never be over there's always a new
kanji there's always a new way
and i think if you don't really write
and read as much japanese it's hard to
remember all those words because you
might remember something but then lose
it again if you don't use it
so that's probably one of the trickiest
things in the japanese
language also for speaking i know quite
a lot of language students including me
also
have a little bit of a problem with the
keigo on the song keigo which means
there is japanese there is polite
japanese there is very polite japanese
like very very polite japanese so
they're quite on different levels of
japanese that you can speak this
japanese use with your friends the
japanese use with your colleagues
the japanese you use with your bus and
the japanese you use maybe with a very
very
well highly ranked customer is again
different you can say the same sentence
in completely different ways depending
on who you speak with so that's
something you might want to look out for
in the future and depending on your job
you might have to know
the really complicated different song
keigo
which is kind of difficult but once you
remember that you'll be fine
but you might not need that right at the
start
[Music]
if you would like to know my absolute
hint if you're learning japanese
is have fun with it and with that i mean
find something that you're really
interested in and then connect it
to the language itself because if you
just study it for studying sake
you might lose out motivation after a
while and i think a couple of you guys
have experienced that you started
japanese you dropped it again you
started it
you dropped it again and the best way to
keep going with that
first of all it's fun there's also a
second point i'm gonna come down to that
in a moment but
fun is find something that you honestly
like
and include that into your studies so
for example if you love anime and manga
which i'm sure many of you do then try
and watch that always with subtitles
that's a first start
and then maybe if you have the option
after a while once you feel confident
try and swing switch the subtitles off
so watch your favorite anime manga or
drama maybe without the subtitles and
see how much you can pick up on at the
start obviously i recommend you
have the subtitles but also look up
words so if you find i used to do that
if you find a word we like that's
interesting so for example the way i
started it i watched an anime with
subtitles and there were a couple of
words when i thought these words
are really like interesting to have so
how about remember those so i looked
those up and then wrote them on a little
like
vocabulary sheet and then tried to
remember them and that was just the
start out of it and then later
i started watching japanese dramas like
tv shows like
actual people acting and in there again
the conversational japanese would be
slightly different
sometimes as you'd see for example anime
and manga
and then i go and look words up that i
don't understand
and yeah i think you should start
building on it but you build on it in a
way of oh i'm studying this it's more of
the
hey i'm having fun studying this also
you can make suggestions in your head or
connections in your head between
the word that you learned and how it was
used in the anime manga drama
tv show so you can say i remember
that character saying that word to the
other person it was so funny hey and
it's much easier to remember at that
point right you don't even feel
like you're studying if you do it like
that so definitely
connect your favorite hobby to your
japanese language studies
[Music]
being motivated to study the japanese
language is great but sooner or later
motivation will run out guys i know it
too
so once motivation is gone your best
trend will be
routine and i know that sounds dry but
seriously if you have a proper study
routine in place
you will not regret it so remember the
words that you for example looked up the
japanese words or
it might be vocabulary that you had out
of your japanese book what you're gonna
do with those is you write them down and
you make a routine
out of every evening before you go to
bed you look at maybe three to five of
those words before you go to sleep
and then on the next day in the morning
you look at them again that's a trick
that i learned that was really really
helpful for me when i learned japanese
i don't know why but you magically just
remember it better if you have it before
sleep and then in the morning
i think there's a science behind that i
don't know but it worked for me
literally learn in the evening right
before sleep and then again
in the morning it does wonders that's a
that's a nice
nifty routine that doesn't take too much
of your time just have your
kanji or your japanese words right next
to you to your pillow
in the evening when i used to have a
bunk bed i had this like stuck onto like
i had like a little clip that i put them
on
uh onto the top bunk and i just like
took it down
right through it and then that that was
it and in the morning one more time i'll
try to remember it and look at it
because what does it mean again
it worked it worked so a routine will
definitely be your best friend when you
want to learn japanese language
every little helps even if you feel like
you're not progressing much with like
three words
a night it's better than none right and
it's better to do
three words every day than try and like
face
like a pile of 20 words on one day and
then go like i will never remember all
of this so be nice to yourself and
you know do it step by step
[Music]
another tip i can give you and that
actually comes from the director of ask
japanese because obviously he learned
the english language what helped him is
to actually not only word
remember words but also certain
sentences that just come in handy so for
example
code what is that and then you already
have a sentence that you can easily use
in different scenarios you can just type
items what is that or
what is that sharp what is this
sometimes it might not be 100
grammatically correct but already you're
conveying something
conversation is a thing that is not just
simply based on language it's based on
body
uh like gestures and body language
similar things like that so
remember some really convenient words
what i found really helpful is the thai
version
once you had hang ti to a verb in
japanese it becomes the i want to so
taberu mine is the base for eat but if
you say tavitai it means
i want to eat and then it's really
really easy to just if you want remember
the thai version and you for example
going for a quick exchange to japan or
for
thing you can already convey the feeling
of i want to tie it i want to i want to
try this
i want to eat no mitai i want to drink
mmm
i want to play utaitai i want to sing
already you can say quite a lot of
things
that ways and that helps you to already
start a conversation even though you
don't know all the other words
you only have to remember the groups
themselves and that is actually a really
a nifty trick to learn the japanese
language if you start by little bits and
then work your way up from there
[Music]
it also helps to remind yourself of why
do you want to learn japanese and for
many of you guys to come to japan
to maybe make friends here to
communicate with japanese people and the
very first step i can actually recommend
you
is to find people to talk with in the
japanese language
that might be a japanese friend at your
school that might maybe even be
a person from the same country as you
are from who also speaks
japanese the trick to the whole
situation is find someone you can
communicate with
in japanese and then use that language
as much as you can you know you might
not be perfect it might not be right
but use the language that's really
important because the more you use it
the more confident you'll get
other people for example if you talk
with a japanese person that might
correct you
and then you just take a note of that
and next time you're better you'll be
better also another thing is there are
loads of apps and forums now online
that you can just go to and like ask
people hey i want to say this is this
right can you correct me and then
they might correct your japanese while
maybe you can
correct their english similar things
like that there's so many
situations where you can do that and
actually exchange the culture and that
will help you learn so
make use of the wonderful medium that we
have this internet to learn stuff
because it's right here
[Music]
so these are a couple of tips i can give
you when you are
studying japanese one more time guys i
know it's hard
it will never be easy but at the same
time it will be so rewarding even if
you just start to pick up that one word
that you learn in your favorite show you
already know
you have made progress so keep it that's
the most
important part of it also we have
actually done japanese language lessons
here on this channel if you haven't seen
them yet there is a whole playlist with
our japanese language lessons
they're fun they're very short they're
very easy so there's another thing you
can just pick up on and they're free so
you know why not have a look it doesn't
cost you anything apart from the couple
of bites up from the internet allowance
there you go
so yeah have a look at those if that
helps you and i hope you enjoyed this
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living in japan and loads more so i hope
to have you soon on the ash japanese
team
that's me cathy cat from tokyo i wish
you a lovely day and i'll catch you soon
for more stuff on us japanese bye