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