"Huh but what did you just.. okay," is perhaps the most relatable statement I have ever heard with regards to learning beginner/intermediate Japanese with native Japanese speakers.

English is not my first language. I was taught "How old are you?", but on my first trip abroad someone asked "What's your age?" and I was absolutely lost. (I was 11)

Dogen has gotten so good at talking to himself, he can make genuine statements like "huh, but what did you..." and it sounds like someone genuinely confused in an actual conversation, even though it was said to dogen by dogen

To be fair, the English textbooks that Japanese students are forced to use present English in a similarly stiff style. I guess it’s a matter of learning the “rules” first and then learning to bend them. Still, great video as always.

My japanese teacher showed us Dogen videos. She was amazing

I actually managed to understand both version of all the sentences. Does that mean i'm ready to be promoted from 日本語土手 to 日本語上手?

The professor I learned from in uni is Japanese, but with her textbook she was very much focused on grammar and kanji as opposed to listening and speaking ability - when after two years of Japanese courses I finally went to Japan for the first time I did not understand the woman at the register asking me if I want a plastic bag. Reality check right there.

On my second trip to Japan I was coming down with a bit of a cold so I stopped in a combini to get some cheap whiskey to make a hot toddy with. The older lady behind the counter kept wittering at me, all giggly and embarrassed, and I had no idea what she was saying. I apologised. She apologised. (Repeat x100.) Finally she went into the back to fetch her coworker who barked at me: HOW OLD ARE YOU. I replied that I was 32 and we all started laughing. I realized later her wittering was some drawn-out variation of "oh I am so sorry to have to ask this, but are you old enough to buy alcohol" or whatever. Real life and textbooks rarely intersect XD

I feel this...Living in Japan for the past 6 years, being around a Japanese wife, Japanese co-workers and students, the language is way different from what I have been learning from the textbooks. And it confuses me every day. And that's why I struggle even to this day to really progress and have confidence in Japanese.

Love this works in all languages, as in the UK the text book would be "hello how are you today?" but more common would be " Hiya, you alright?"

Too good. I love how as the exchange goes on, you can just SEE the cashier's 本音 is basically: "this guy can't actually speak Japanese. I'll have to translate everything into textbook for him first."

Your 'bad accent' Japanese feels like a personal attack, lol. Love you.

I passed JLPT N2 because of textbooks but once I started talking to Japanese people in real life in my job, I felt like my Japanese is back to N5 😂

When I looked at the Japanese text, there were so many sentences starting with "watashi". But when I saw that, I thought. "Sorry, I only use the word watashi about 5 times a day." Native Japanese speakers almost never use the subject when talking about themselves. When talking about the person we are talking to, anata is also almost never used. We only put it in when others feel confused if we don't use it.

めっちゃ日本語が達者なのに、カタコトの外国人のリアルな演技もできるのね。 東京だとそれくらいの誤差で済むけど、方言の強い地域にいると、もっと違うから大変ですね。 こういう教科書の言い方との違いって英語でも良く経験します。

I got asked for my "nenrei" and I froze. So much for the textbook "nansai" and "oikutsu" XD

That's why using ウィーブシット is better 😂

I used a bit of Genki to get me started, but then mostly just bumbled around with podcasts, language partners and watching random Japanese videos (mostly documentaries or reality TV and stuff, no anime, never got into it). My Japanese sucks but I can kinda speak about most topics and I understand people pretty well, even if they speak fast, a bit unclearly and collquially. So I do not know if tekistobooks lead to the content of this video, but I can confidentally say that *not* using them doesn't. 😅

It is so real, it's painful. The entirety of a tourist experience with bare minimum spoken Japanese can be summarized with one word: えっ？ Which roughly translates as "I have no idea what you just said since I wasn't expecting none of that. Could you rephrase?" To this day I have no idea what that store employee said in prior to 「バッグは50円になりますので、大丈夫ですか？」

I'm three weeks into a month-long trip around the country, I studied for eight months in the run-up with Genki 1&2, Anki etc. But I think I learned everything I'd need to survive (fukuro, hotto kohi, tennaide, mochikaeri) in my first four days here. Kanji are totally useful too, I know if a door is push or pull, if the flush will be big or small and... umm... place names before the sign screen switches to the English anyway? That and the kindness of strangers, owe them a lot.

I think textbook is still a good way to learn but only until a certain level. I’m a complete beginner and just finished a course equal to N5 by using textbook only and it laid a great foundation. After that I still use textbook but luckily have some Japanese friends and they are eager to answer any question I have. Now I’m able to learn both both styles

ショートから来ました！！ 海外の方からみた日本語というのは新鮮でとても面白いですし、楽しみながら英語に触れられるので勉強になります！！ これからも活動頑張ってください！！ (((o(*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)o)))

Just experienced this. After years of studying Japanese and finishing my bachelor's degree, I finally got an interview with a Japanese company. The interviewer asked with いくつですか I just stared at my computer and answered it with すみません🤣🤣🤣. Until she gave me the same question with the textbooks dialect🤣🤣🤣

Was introduced to a friend of a friend who's an expat living here, was excited to speak to someone even for a little bit. At the end of the day she wished me 良い一日を which I had never in _years_ of studying come across. Such a basic thing!! Infuriating.

I came to the conclusion that languages are living things, in their own way. When I was in Japan, I spoke pretty decent conversational Japanese because I was always around Japanese students. My grades in class for grammar and writing were abysmal, though. Pretty sure my teacher just passed me because she knew I could have full conversations with her, despite my Kanji score 😂.

This is painfully real.

That was so me when I just arrived in Japan half a year ago. 😂 not that I have gotten super jozu now but at least somehow I’ve learned some actually useful daily phrases lol

I've been working at a Japanese restaurant for the last year and have sort of just had to get used to it, there's a limit to what textbooks can teach you, once you start actually speaking to Japanese you'll see how people actually speak. Like for example I've never actually heard someone say 言う as いう, only ever ゆう. I remember being so confused when they kept saying ゆった but now I say it all the time too

The same as Khmer textbooks! Just started learning Japanese 5 months ago or so and the similarities keep coming up

Dogen accuracy is 1000%. So good.

Another Dogen video absolutely smashing it by expressing painfully relatable reality as painfully relatable comedy 😅😂

Bro lmaooo you're calling me out too hard. When I went to Japan I got so lost when people didn't use the exact phrases I'd been taught, let alone with they mixed it with Keigo for the first month basically. Now, I'm at a way more reasonable level (N3-N2 approx) and I've applied to spend a year at Waseda University (still waking on the results aaaa) doing their Japanese program so this hits different. I'm hoping this time goes better, I think it will, I've definitely been practicing my Japanese online to get a better sense for what people actually say.

oh my GOD this is relatable. お住まいはどこ was one that got me. osu--what??

The delivery of "what?!?!?" at the very end is absolutely perfect. I've burst out laughing 3 times now. I keep coming back to re-watch it. 🤣

Yuuuup. みんなのfucking日本語 never prepared me to have cashiers ask me if I wanted a bag, or even worse, to be a cashier myself at a shop inside a デパート and ask customers if they wanted their purchase wrapped or how to properly address my manager. Let's just say I lived my life on ハードモード, during these days :')

BRILLIANT observations Dogen! I went through the exact same scenario as this skit many a time… but regrettably I forgot about my language expectations back then, and the common phrases used instead. Thank you for recapturing my nostalgic trauma!

もーーほんとこれよね。だし日本語は文語と口語の乖離がすごい

Honestly if anyone can listen this much on their first day in japan I’m gonna label them my sensei

it's a very universal feeling but i think we forget English is no different with the absurd amount of interchangeable phrases we have

I used to work at a Japanese tour company in Hawaii, my Japanese was very rudimentary at that time. I knew "hanasu" of course, but I met someone one day and they said "Nihongo shaberu?" and of course I had not idea what "shaberu" was.

途中からタメ口で話を受けてるのにずっと敬語を使い続けてるのも面白いなぁ…

Heck man, I've just moved to Japan and I am living this reality right now....

I think textbooks for absolute beginners are okay. Like until you pass the N5-N4 level (which honestly doesn't mean anything), so that you know the most basic grammar and vocabulary. Anything more advanced should be learned through immersion (TV drama, anime, manga, japanese youtuber, etc.) then when you stumble upon new words or grammar that you can't easily just guess the meaning of by the context, that's when you look around resources to specifically understand said grammar or vocabulary.

Fantastic to see one of my favourite youtubers reenacting literal moments from my life in a video.

dang it I had these exact moments 😆 u learn a whole host of words with every conversation Text books are still great for practicing grammar and sentence structure, but to get the vocab u gotta talk to people which u just need a lot of patience with.

So accurate. I've had this exact same problem when I've been to Japan on holidays.

I found this video discouraging. Yet motivating to actually speak to people who know Japanese. Thank you for the perspective. Great work, as always!

Thank you Dogen. Always makes me smile.

I think I learned most from tv variety shows where they always plaster the key words at every corner of the tv 😂

I litterlly just discovered this channel and he hits me right in the heart😂I am going to waseda for 1 year in september and this is how I imagine it to go😂

I can relate to this video soooo much!!! Reading books, doing apps,watching videos....ok, I got this ....sitting down with my 70 year old father-in-law to attempt a conversation, NOPE don't got this!

This sums it up very well! :D Same thing in many other languages too, but I remember the confusion so well.

Great!!! It's like Dogen san plans these videos to coincide with my Japanese language classes....

I've found that getting through that formulations are the best way to actually learn a different language.

My urge to have green tea and rice balls in the grounds of 早稲田大学 have simply been amplified. Thanks dogen

もう一度お願いします　ftw y’all 🙌

you've outdone yourself with this one dogen

とても親しみやすい声ですね。

And that's why that Japanese Man Yuta will teach you the kind of Japanese that real life Japanese people today actually speak because textbooks and apps are unnatural and don't teach you the way that Japanese people actually speak 😅

When I first got to Japan I told my boss I went to the local mall two weekends in a row. He said あのモールのみか？他に？ I said いいえ、普通に買い物をしたり食べに行ったりします。 He said あ…あ、そうですよね。 A few weeks later I hear ~のみ everywhere in meetings and realise they probably don't mean drinking. Found out it also means "only". So I just retroactively died of embarrassment. But it's fine I can just make more and more nuanced misunderstandings now.

nice, thanks dogen.

Oh god, this hurts me. In France when buying a train ticket, the attendant asked where we were going in an informal way that I just could not understand (vous allez où?, instead of où est-ce que vous allez? or où allez-vous?). Made me make a fool out of myself and I'm not even *that* bad with French, my brain just did not accept that he would be using a casual form like that...

I don’t know which textbook you use but in Marugoto serie they have a lot of natural expressions. I am at B1 level. Of course you need to use other things like real japanese in YT or so. But some textbooks can be very useful for vocabulary, and grammar explanations. You need to find your learning method too. Textbooks are not so bad (some are though) 😂.

I'm still grasping at words, and this perfectly captured that feel.

It basically just means textbooks need to show more than one phrase per meaning. I generally teach this way in English class. “The ‘best’ answer is A, but you can also say B, C, and D.” I honestly think phrase learning is the best way. Here are phrases, these are their meanings, now let’s use them in a conversation. Grammar points fall into place when needed.

Im so glad they teach us both ways in my class

Captured perfectly. In my first few days in Japan I was expecting 何歳ですか and got 年いくつ instead

First couple of days (or a weak) I've been just listening to random conversations anywhere (shops, trains, stations, you name it) to get used to the speed and non-class pronunciations. Really feels like pretending to swim in your bath (class) and being thrown in the lake (real convo).

I’m going though what I call the ‘DuoLingo shock’ with Indonesian right now. I can order things at a store, answer where I’m from, and say how old I am - but the moment someone goes outside the theme park ride rails and starts off-roading with real Indonesian, it’s all I can do to parse the sentence into words. 😂 Good on the exchange student even parsing hatachi or onaidoshi! Dōgen master of looking stressed and yet hopeful at the same time.

は、はたち？！のリアクションいいねぇ〜

The power of Genki edition 3 is on my side

relatable content (no matter which language you are studying!)

This is going to me this coming spring

I started relating studying Japanese as the foreign language version of Dante's "Inferno". As I go deeper and deeper, it gets nastier and nastier although in a good fun way. みんな頑張って。

Finally I learned enough japanese to understand without subtitles !! ... Uh ? Oh no... It was only the Dogen on the right side... Ganbare ore ! Mōsukoshi...

これは、同意せざるを得ない。 kore ha doui sezaru wo enai This is common sentence, you can say when it makes sense.That can translate as, "I have to go with Dogen san this time." or else. But Direct translation is, "I can't get it with not agreeing." Dogen Sama maji something else.

Both the stress on "I R L" and the lost wavering voice at 1:12 had me rolling 😂✌🏻

i was fortunate enough to have been taught all this in language school, and also if you watch anime for long enough youll pick them up naturally

i've learned english fluently from nothing but entertainment, literally not even a second in school or with any textbook.

ほんと毎回面白い

Brilliant.

That 0:51, “Huh, but what did you ju- okay” are hillarious.

Same to be honest... good for getting meaning out of grammar points and learning kanji... but not only can they be a bit wooden, it's just horribly boring to study out of them. I bought some N3 study books a while back and never got into them. But lately I've been trying different methods of immersion and I'll remember words or phrases that will stick with me and I'll go look them up after I get sick of not knowing what they mean. I never forget those words. It feels like a more natural and enjoyable way to learn Japanese. I get a bit nervous about using phrases and vocab I learned in textbooks IRL, because just like this video there's usually some other more popular way to say the thing.

こんなにたくさんの方が、日本語を学んでくれているなんて、驚きだし、とても嬉しいです。 いつか日本で会えることを、楽しみにしています! by Japanese.

There is nothing but hard work for you to get better at it.

This is REALLY painful to watch. Preach brother! 😭

Right to my sub-par language learning heart.

I learned 20歳 was pronounced "hatachi" from a song called "Oh, My ギー太" (Oh, My Gee-tar"

二十歳 has been confusing me for quite a while now, I guess Japanese do be like that

教科書：40課まで勉強しててお疲れ様でした。抽象的なものの、41課の話題は口語であります。口語は方言をはじめ、様々な要因によって違います。 単純に説明されるように方言、発音、普通に略されている言葉、色々における情報が書いてあります。 例1： リアル：おいっす日本語難しいっすねよくわからへんっすねまあいいやもう上手だからなー

right in the feels

hehe im really happy i could understand EVERYTHING... hehehe

Dogenさんの動画で昔めちゃくちゃ好きな動画があったんですけど、どれだか分からなくなってしまいました。毎日朝起きて、同じ電車に乗って、会社に行って、帰って、また起きて、みたいな繰り返しの中で出会いがあったりちょっとした変化があるような動画だったと思います。どうしてもまた見たいので、わかる方がいらしたら教えてくださいませんか。よろしくお願いします。

My teacher tries to teach us different ways to say the same thing, and the textbook sometimes does too. But we've got that one student who is always confused about different phrases having the same meaning... "but last month we learned that differently?" The teacher is then confused by their confusion, because to her it is obvious that there are different ways to say the same thing. I've tried to explain the concept to the other student with examples from our native language, but they just don't seem to get it. sorry for the rant, had to get that off my chest.

I remember being that 20 year old in Waseda. Except I kind of like that's there's all these different words for the same thing with teeny tiny nuances.

I remember vividly my Japanese teacher telling us "Never ask a girl いくらですか" so I never has trouble with いくつですか.

I felt personally attacked by the mention of Waseda as that is where I studied abroad lol

Absolutely had this experience

yep, i am in this situation right now

oh man I struggled with this sooo much my first year or so of learning Japanese XD