0:01 I probably don't have to say that the
0:04 way we native Japanese speakers speak
0:06 Japanese is different from the way
0:08 textbooks like mino that are
0:11 specifically written for non-native
0:13 speakers the way they teach you
0:15 Japanese. But have you ever wondered
0:18 what textbook Japanese sounds like to
0:20 native speakers? what you should watch
0:24 this anime Witch episode 9 specifically
0:26 because there's a scene where Nikico the
0:29 witch wants to help people using her
0:31 magic and her friends find this guy and this
0:44 said my name is Junhay which is not
0:46 incorrect but that's not quite how we
0:49 naturally speak Japanese and his face is
1:00 different. Did you understand why they
1:02 asked him if he lived overseas? Well,
1:05 it's because his sentences sound like
1:07 they're directly translated from
1:15 said, "When in Japanese, we don't use a
1:17 lot of pronouns
1:21 like and especially an in natural
1:23 conversation like this." When they
1:26 translate English into Japanese, they
1:29 often add these pronouns because English
1:33 sentences often contain them. I am very
1:36 glad to meet you. I and you. And if you
1:39 look at Number one, it actually trains
1:49 June. Horizon. So, New Horizon is a
1:51 popular English textbook that they use
1:54 in Japanese school. And his face kind of
1:57 looks like characters from New Horizon.
2:12 But the translation here doesn't quite
2:14 reflect what he actually said in
2:17 Japanese. He said the way you speak
2:20 sounds like the translations, Japanese
2:23 translations of English textbooks. As I
2:26 said, he sound like his sentences are
2:29 translated from English sentences. And
2:31 this also applies to textbooks like
2:34 minongo because many of the sentences
2:36 sound like they are directly translated
2:38 from English. I think it's coming from
2:40 the assumption that for foreigners
2:42 non-Japanese people that kind of
2:45 translation style will be easier to
2:47 understand and as a consequence it
2:50 deviates from how we actually speak
3:05 I'm on the tennis club team. I fun every
3:07 day. There are several elements that
3:10 make it sound like a translation or
3:12 textbook Japanese. For example,
3:16 excessive use of particles like W and O
3:19 or absence of contraction. For example, he
3:20 he
3:24 said, but in conversation we very often
3:28 say which is a contraction of and the
3:31 key word here is excessive. It doesn't
3:32 mean we don't use particles in
3:35 conversation because we do. It's just we
3:37 don't use them excessively like he does.
3:40 also the kinds of words that he'd use.
3:42 For example, words and expressions
3:46 like part of the
3:49 member, fun times. These words can be
3:53 pretty formal which we might not use in
3:56 this kind of regular daily conversation.
3:58 This is just young students talking to
4:00 each other. So, these are unlikely
4:03 words. So everything combined, it makes
4:05 it sound like it's translated because
4:08 translations often use those overly
4:11 formal words to match the English words.
4:13 And it also make it sound like Japanese
4:15 textbooks that are written for
4:17 non-native speakers because they also
4:19 use overly formal words and expressions
4:21 that we don't quite use very often in
4:23 daily conversation. So, if you want to
4:25 sound like a regular Japanese person, I
4:27 will teach you the kind of Japanese that
4:30 Japanese people today actually speak in
4:33 daily conversation without being rude or
4:36 overly informal. Click on the link in
4:38 the description and subscribe to my email
4:45 group. So, it turns out his dad is an
4:47 English teacher and he has lots of
4:50 English textbooks and he grew up reading
4:59 sentence. I have many English textbooks
5:01 inside my house and there's something
5:03 very wrong with this sentence. Can you
5:05 tell which part? Well,
5:09 it's so in English in this sentence you
5:12 use the verb have which is an infinitive
5:14 form of this verb and the equivalent in Japanese
5:16 Japanese
5:19 is which is a dictionary form. However,
5:22 in Japanese in this situation, we
5:25 actually use the progressive
5:28 form and
5:31 say, "I have many textbooks." So, it's
5:34 like saying, "I'm having textbooks in
5:36 English." There are actually many
5:38 situations like this where in English
5:40 you use the infinitive form, but in
5:42 Japanese, we use the progressive form.
5:44 Different languages have different ways
5:46 of saying things. Because of this, it
5:49 makes this sentence very non-native
5:51 like. Now, fortunately, Japanese
5:54 textbooks don't make this mistake. But
5:57 apps like Dualingo make this kind of
6:00 mistake very often. It's like Dualingo
6:03 translates English sentences directly
6:04 without really thinking about the
6:07 differences between these languages. And
6:10 if I make this sentence more natural, I
6:19 Because my parent in this case dad is an
6:21 English teacher. We have a lot of
6:23 English textbooks in our house. Did you
6:26 notice I used the colloquial
6:30 contraction instead of and
6:34 also instead of and I also added the
6:37 sentence ending particle y which we
6:39 often use in conversation. If you listen
6:41 to him, he doesn't use any sentence
6:45 ending particles like yo y which sounds
6:48 very robotic and textbook like even
6:50 though Japanese textbooks actually do
6:53 use sentence ending particles but not
6:55 necessarily the exact ways that we
7:04 So he
7:08 said, "This is that pen." And this
7:10 refers to the stereotypical sentence,
7:13 "This is a pen that English textbooks
7:15 supposedly teach you." And apparently
7:17 English textbooks in the past actually
7:20 did have this sentence, this is a pen.
7:21 And people were complaining, oh, this
7:24 sentence isn't very useful. When are we
7:26 actually going to use this? And this
7:28 kind of symbolizes how a textbook
7:31 sentences aren't very practical. But
7:33 English textbooks today actually don't
7:35 really teach this. And the English
7:37 textbooks are used in Japanese school
7:39 didn't teach us this sentence either.
7:40 But this sentence stays in our
7:43 collective mind as an representation of
7:46 how English classes are not always practical.
7:59 here? It's my first time seeing this
8:01 phrase being used in daily life. But to
8:03 be fair, I've actually used the phrase,
8:06 "Is this a pen?" before because I wasn't
8:08 really sure if that was a pen or a
8:11 pencil, like a mechanical pencil can be
8:14 used in real life. But as you can see,
8:16 if you sound like a textbook, Japanese
8:18 people will notice. But here's the
8:21 thing. Is it really a bad thing to sound
8:23 like a textbook if you are a non-native
8:26 speaker? Not necessarily. And Japanese
8:28 people don't always expect non-native
8:31 speakers to sound like them. A lot of
8:33 people learn textbook Japanese and they
8:35 sound like textbooks. So, it's kind of
8:38 expected. But it also means if you learn
8:40 the way we speak Japanese, you will
8:42 stand out and many Japanese people will
8:45 be impressed. They'll be like, "Wow, you
8:46 sound like us. How did you learn
8:49 Japanese?" So if you personally prefer
8:52 sounding like us instead of I will teach
8:54 you the kind of Japanese that real life
8:56 Japanese people today actually speak and
8:59 I will explain the nuances and
9:02 complexity and ambiguity of real life
9:05 language without being excessively uh
9:07 impolite and I will also explain the
9:10 complexity nuances and ambiguity of
9:12 Japanese. So click the link and
9:15 subscribe to my email group, Japanese with
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