Be honest. How many of you guys commented before watching the video?

@aryanchauhan510

6 жыл бұрын

That Japanese Man Yuta tomorrow is my foreign language exam ie Japanese

@Lothy49

6 жыл бұрын

That Japanese Man Yuta insightful video. How long did you take to reach fluency in english?

@danielmurray2960

6 жыл бұрын

Very informative man thank you

@MrInuhanyou123

6 жыл бұрын

i watched the video first because you seem pretty awesome. coming from a westerner American point a view, i always like to see other cultures viewpoints beyond the language barrier

@cityvoyage

6 жыл бұрын

I think you are an overseas born Japanese

My personal opinion. Feel free to disagree. 1. English education in Japan is garbage. Seriously, it's so bad. Many of the English schools in Japan aren't much better. 2. People either don't want to speak English or feel that it's not really relevant for them. 3. It's genuinely difficult for Japanese speakers. 4. There aren't so many opportunities for people in Japan to regularly speak English with native speakers. 5. The vast majority of media in Japan is in Japanese. English films or TV shows tend to be dubbed or subbed and English language shows designed for Japanese people tend to be 95% in Japanese. 6. Japanese people are uncomfortable speaking English around other Japanese people.

@Pillokun

6 жыл бұрын

I agree with your notion that Eng education in japan is pure garbage. from what I have seen so far high schoolers have eng classes that are equal to what Nordic countries teach in 3rd-5th year of elementary school.

@AA-zw7dj

4 жыл бұрын

2 is the biggest reason. If needed, everyone would be able to speak it. Japanese aren’t under the pressure that they have to speak English to live.

@CinemaTechtify

4 жыл бұрын

I know it all. I know it all. Exactly, it’s the INTERNATIONAL language. Most people who are born in Japan, STAY in Japan. So unless they decide to move to a different country or have a job that requires them to use English regularly, they’re fine without it.

@Blaqjaqshellaq

4 жыл бұрын

I read that the Japanese dub the Apache war cries in western movies!

@leaparc6067

4 жыл бұрын

They shouldn't do number 5 I got better in English by listening way they talk, grammar and all that I went from mark C to mark A in school

I’m an American who’s a rare case. I’ve lived and worked in other countries since I was in my early twenties and feel comfortable speaking french Spanish Italian Japanese and Cantonese - most Americans, unless pushed, don’t consider anything more than maybe speaking Spanish as valuable. You take two or three mandatory years of language in school but never ‘need’ to use it. Yuta you are so correct about how being multilingual affects your salary. Me being multilingual considerably increases what I can make. International companies, or like when I lived in Kobe City and there was an absolute need for a multilingual speaker because none were available locally, opens doors to very exciting opportunities. Great video

@LittleLulubee

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah, most Americans probably feel that way for the same reason he stated that Japanese do. Because English is the common language in the States, so people don't need another language.

@PungiFungi

6 жыл бұрын

Chris Dooley, the problem with the American educational system is that they do not teach you a foreign language until it is usually too late. A lot of Europeans are multilingual because they start when the children are very young, which is when it is easier for them to learn. I mean, we all grow up speaking our native language with no problem, so this should be the same with foreign languages, start at an early age. I took Spanish in Junior High and French in college and the most I retained are several phrases and I know Spanish and French when I see them in written form and hear them, but for the most part I do not understand them.

@MitsuhashiTakashi

6 жыл бұрын

I'm American and id like to get to where you are with language I feel dumb and isolated only knowing English I am working on Japanese and Spanish but it's hard picking up in my 20s not having people to talk to

@LittleLulubee

6 жыл бұрын

There are tons of Americans who speak Spanish. You should go to a Spanish meet-up.

@MitsuhashiTakashi

6 жыл бұрын

LittleLulubee I mean I have people who live right next door to me that speak almost entirely Spanish but I don't talk to them a whole lot and it's weird if I were to just be like hey man can you help me with my Spanish? But anyway I had a work buddy at my last job that spoke both Spanish and some Japanese so that was nice while it lasted cause I started to have someone to talk to with both but I left there so I don't have that anymore also I live in iowa were are these meets at if I were to go?

them: why doesn't Japanese people speak English they study English also them: spent 8 years of high school and college learning Spanish and can barely speak a word

@sreekargunda3915

3 жыл бұрын

Also me: spent 5 years from 12-17 years with French as a second language in school and can’t understand a damn thing. The system was absolute shit and we had no French exposure other than reading grammar from textbooks. TBF, I didn’t care enough to learn more coz I already knew 3 languages by then and just wanted to spend time with friends

@sleeexs

2 жыл бұрын

@@sreekargunda3915 SAME

@sleeexs

2 жыл бұрын

@@dmskaoakwk Why would you do that lol

@norlysackkani3243

2 жыл бұрын

@@dmskaoakwk It depends whether we focus on it or not. Don't expect you can master it by learning for years🙄

@keiltree2710

2 жыл бұрын

I live in Kuwait and studied arabic for eight years and I only know how to greet someone 💀 because most of the people speak english (here being able to speak it is somewhat of a ‘pride’ to natives)

I think you're missing a very important point as a reason why Japanese don't speak as much English: Overall use in your free time. By that I mean how and when you can use it when you browse the internet, watch movies etc. Take Germany for example. While older generations aren't as good, the ones who grew up with youtube at hand, naturally picked up English along the way. That is not to say everyone beneath a certain age is fluent in English, it just shows how much it aided us. Of course being relatively easy to learn for us plays another part. For the same reason, most scandinavians are really good at English. Unlike bigger societies, they don't even have everything dubbed for them, so they consume even more English. Japanese on the other hand practically don't need to learn another language at all. Most websites Europeans use like youtube have a Japanese alternative like NicoNico Douga. Voice acting is so big, that pretty much anything and everything can be dubbed. And with a booming economy with 120 million people behind it, the market is big enough to translate a lot of stuff.

@VietnameseCongee

6 жыл бұрын

"booming economy" LMAO

@DowncastParadox

6 жыл бұрын

Germany is probably one of the worst offenders when it comes to not learning English due to an abundance of translations/dubs. I dare say it's barely below Japan in that regard, if not on the same level or above.

@younglink4828

6 жыл бұрын

I took Germany as an example, cause it's one of the very few countries to actually have good market, cause its population and living-standards are comparable to Japan's. Of course there are still a lot who aren't good at English, but the average German is probably still better than the average Japanese, cause a lot of us younger ones grew up on youtube just like many others around the globe. But yes, there is a big correlation between dubbing and English proficiency. Scandinavian countries alongside Poland and smaller European countries are quite a lot better than Germany or France. Problem is, these two plus maybe Italy and Spain are the only ones big enough to actually get dubs for most movies, video games etc. So Germany is a good example of a country with a similar background, but some small differences that make a bigger difference on English proficiency: Being closer to English culturally

@younglink4828

6 жыл бұрын

It's not a voice acting "scene", it's a market. It just doesn't make sense for Norway etc. to do voice acting for every single movie. Neither do they have enough voice actors to do that, nor can they sell enough to pay them. You need enough people to buy your product. Almost everyone also has a reason for wanting to learn a language, a use. German, just like Japanese, have little to no reason to learn English, since it's not neccessary for them. They can get by with German alone just fine. Most non native speakers nowadays just picked up English with youtube and comment sections.

@Mische2k

6 жыл бұрын

The english level in germany isn't as low as some ppl here think. There are many videos on youtube about that. But you are right, learning english isn't really necessary for a german. I learned the most stuff through youtube/twitch.

I have a Ph.D. in English and was a professor at a major university in the USA. But my wife is from South Korea and only arrived in the USA in her early twenties for her masters. She did not know how to speak any English when I met her but had studied all her life. In her Masters program, she only knew Koreans from Korea. But she had to become immersed in my world if she was to date me: she met my friends, colleagues, acquaintances...and the dominant language was English (I'm Asian but socialize in English). I would have to say that the major issue with Japanese and Korean instruction is that the focus is on mastering grammar and very nuanced rules. But there is limited practical dimension. My wife now speaks at a higher level than most Americans in terms of her vocabulary and complexity of sentence structure. She does have an accent she can never lose. But there's just fewer opportunities for immersion. And immersion is really humiliating, as you have to lose some of your pride as you make little mistakes and get corrected or laughed at...so in their home countries, a lot of Koreans and, I assume Japanese, just don't expose themselves to that kind of embarrassment.

今 日本語を勉強しています！ 頑張ります💪

@mana18rx

3 жыл бұрын

勉強してくれてありがとう。 でも、貴方の国の言葉が1番素敵な言葉です。 貴方の幸せを祈っています✨良い事がありますように∩^ω^∩

If you put subtitles on it says' Hey Guys it's Utah'.

@heinrichb

4 жыл бұрын

That Japanese Man Utah

@sanjuthakur1064

4 жыл бұрын

Well it's auto generated

@0w0._.OwO._.

3 жыл бұрын

@Varshith Indra Yarakala what do you mean?

Now it makes sense... Thank you!

Yuta, my girlfriend's baby cousin is only being taught Japanese, despite her mom being fluent in Tagalog and knowing some English. I think there is a pride there and national identity of only knowing and speaking one language. In the Philippines, you see English words everwhere but in Japan it seems like most things are in Japanese. I think they want to preserve their culture even though they could easily learn English. they want to keep Japan Japanese

You have a very fluent english Yuta! Loves your accent! Fm JOHOR with Lots of 💜💚💛💟💖

Well, actually, I teach English to people in China, Taiwan, and Japan, and I've noticed that my Japanese students are VERY behind the other countries in terms of their English fluency, and I'm not entirely sure why. All of my students are ranked at different levels of comprehension and fluency, but even when my Japanese students have the same rank as my Chinese students, they have much poorer English than the Chinese, and I'd probably say my Taiwanese are pretty equal to my Chinese students. I wonder why my Japanese students are so behind compared to these other countries. Some people say that Chinese really take studying English very seriously and work hard at it, as opposed to the Japanese who only learn as much as they have to in school, but even still, my Japanese students have a lot more problems with pronunciation than any other country I teach. Technically, they are speaking some sort of "English" but a lot of them have accents that are just too heavy to comprehend them (such as speaking English with Japanese pronunciation) and you may think, "Well, that's because it's their second language," but it's just as well my Chinese students' second language too and their accent is almost non-existent half the time. It's a very strange discrepancy, but I've noticed the huge difference between the countries in terms of their fluency and pronunciation (and I teach all of China, not just Hong Kong, but Shanghai, Beijing, and so on).

@ThatJapaneseManYuta

6 жыл бұрын

I've been to Mainland China and Taiwan but almost no one spoke English more than a few words. But it's quite possible that with the same amount of study hours, Chinese speakers can learn English faster. I don't speak Chinese so I can only guess from what I hear, but Japanese people say that Chinese grammar is close to English grammar. Also, I think Chinese languages are generally more complex phonetically. So that could be the reason. Having said that, I believe Japanese people are totally capable of learning English if they try hard enough. So again it comes down to the fact that Japanese people don't really feel the need. I also feel that way more Chinese people are compelled to study and work abroad than Japanese people when Japanese people just want to live in Japan.

@futureanimator522

6 жыл бұрын

Fullmetal1890P cool

@snowmanii

6 жыл бұрын

That Japanese Man Yuta see that tight there. That very last statement you made "Japanese people just want to live in Japan". Why is that? Why don't many more Japanese people Want to experience other cultures. Travel outside Japan, and learn other languages personally so they can be multilingual? I've noticed this with quite a few Japanese people you interview in your videos. They seem (just from an outsider Southern Black/Dominican American point of view) they seem to only be concerned with Japan and Japanese way of life and subsequently only with speaking Japanese. The Majority of the Japanese people you interview don't seem to have any ambition of their own to truly dive into experience other cultures. And the Japanese people you interview mostly don't seem to think deeper about things because many times you have to preface your questions just to get them on the right path to even having the thought-provoking conversations you try to have with them. What is it that makes so many Japanese people this way? Even as huge and prosperous as the U.S. is there are still so many that travel all the time, just to experience a new place and see the other major cities and countries of the world when we could just stay in our giant country and not ever try to leave. I wonder

@veemon

6 жыл бұрын

I totally know where you are coming from. I work at an izakaya(japanese pub) in Hawaii. On any given day, most of our customers are Japanese people. Since my Japanese has gotten much better, I've started eavesdropping on more conversations, but damn, many of their conversations are 1) mind-bendingly shallow and 2) excessively centered around Japanese-ness. The other day, one of our chefs was having full blown conversation with two customers about Kansai dialect and the respective kanji of their names.

@veemon

6 жыл бұрын

japaneseruleof7.com/are-japanese-people-retarded/ This article explains the lack of critical thinking in a humorous way.

Amazing, thank you Yuta

Well Yuta, you're right; Indian people are usually good at learning new languages (especially for work), because most of us are bilingual/trilingual from the time we learn to speak. Japanese in particular is quiet simple to learn because all the sounds in Japanese are also part of Hindi, for one.

this was a very informative video. thank you so much yuta-sensei

The part where you talked about the economy made complete sense to me. As someone who lives in Israel with a population of around 8.5 million, it suddenly made so much more sense to me that I learned to speak english. The market here is so tiny and by not speaking english, I am locking myself behind a huge wall. Thanks for the explanations! Very interesting stuff!

I am an Indian anime fan. As I slowly discovered the Japanese culture, I was shocked to see that Japanese people have their own words for technical English terms! You're correct yuta. Herein India, almost everybody knows how to speak English. Even if they can't Speak, everybody at least understands it

@lakshaydhull9608

3 жыл бұрын

Hello bro I am also Indian anime fan

@lakshaydhull9608

2 жыл бұрын

@O why

@Aven-Sharma1991

Жыл бұрын

Angrez ki mai ki choot bhai, main bhee paschim desh main paida hua lekhin phir bhee main bharatiya bhasa ko passed karta hain, angrez nahin

The same reason Americans don't speak any other languages?

@larryjimmomdad

6 жыл бұрын

Except for our large Mexican-American population! The future of bilingual America! USA USA!

@LittleLulubee

6 жыл бұрын

Yes, it is the same reason. Americans have no need for a 2nd language.

@theragingcyclone

6 жыл бұрын

+LittleLulubee:- Thats a lie perpetuated by American media. Much knowledge is available and published in non-English languages but American media tends to ignore it to brainwash foolish Americans that whatever needs to be known is available in English. If its not available in English its probably because its not important. This article might help you understand a little bit more: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/english-language-science-can-cause-problems-180961623/ Also we should not forget that USA has more Spanish speakers than Spain, the birthplace of the Spanish language. And in many states Spanish speaking population is reaching 50% mark but despite that it has not been recognised as an official language in those states and it is all being done deliberately. Even US territory of Puerto Rico is mostly ignored as we saw recently during a devastating hurricane because it is largely Spanish speaking territory. Just like native English speakers tend to ignore other language sources, similarly self-respectful nations need to ignore whatever is coming out of USA in English. This might help removing some delusions of native English speakers that it is some kind of special language.

@futureanimator522

6 жыл бұрын

WhyYouTaken actually we do. Well I do kind of. It depends if u care to learn it

@zukio6088

6 жыл бұрын

I mean Americans don't learn any other language (apart from a lucky Spanish or French) because everyone is too busy learning their own, but with Japan there aren't as many people learning Japanese.

I love your informative talks. Keep up the good work Yuta

Thank you for learning English and having a strong desire to learn about other cultures. I know it's your personal choice, and you did it for yourself. However, because of this, others are able to watch your videos, learn about Japanese culture, learn Japanese language, become more skilled. I feel you are really helping me, but also helping the world. Thank you!

I think only number 3 stands and only when you change it into "3) The need". I'm Polish, Poland is super homogenous society (mostly consisting of white, slavic, catholic people) so it's somehow similar in this terms to Japan. Colonisation didn't happen in Poland, well not from English speaking nation, so it makes no impact on our English skills. As I mentioned Poland isn't diverse when it comes to ethnicity or language. Not at all. I agree that diversity helps a lot with learning new languages, but it's lack is not a sole reason why nation isn't good at foreign tongues. Only third point gives some explanation, but I'd say it's not only economical need, but a need in general. I don't know how much anglo-linguistic culture is present in Japanese life (tv, music, films, books etc) but I'd risk saying it's not that popular. I met one Japanese guy who spoke quite well English, when I stated that to him he explained that he put extra effort into watching films and news in English and that's how he got better. So I'd say education + need to go out and discover other cultures might be main reason for people to learn how to speak foreign language well.

@007morezgaia

6 жыл бұрын

Poland has a rather terrible approach to learning foreign languages in public schools. Poles are very apathetic about learning and using English in general. Most of those who reach fluency do so because of emigrating to Western Europe, and of those many still don't bother to learn the local language beyond what is necessary to buy groceries. There are however some countries which have also never been colonised by an anglophone nation (Scandinavian countries and Finland, for example) which have an amazingly high level of English because of their well structured educational system.

@pe1eterek

6 жыл бұрын

007morezgaia What ? Lol, you actually know 0 about actual English education in Poland, right now. It's not great, but we are good enough to communicate and most students, when graduating from high school are at least on B1/B2 level, all my friends are on C1 level, and have no problems speaking to other people in English. It was bad in 1990s (before we didn't even have English lessons), but within 27 years, I think it's quite good improvement (same goes to baltic states, they are also quite good, as I have seen). I guess, older people don't speak in it, it's therefore very understandable - they were taught russian.

@massimolisoni4990

2 жыл бұрын

I tend to consider Polish and Italian very different languages, but your comment could have been written by an Italian! "....how spoke quite well English..." ♥ ("...sapeva abbastanza bene l'inglese...")

@MTC008

2 жыл бұрын

​@@007morezgaia poland, the baltic states and the scandinavian countries are surprisingly can speak english despite had no any direct contact from an english native speaking country like the UK or the USA, most of the time in their history in exception of the scandinavian countries, they had been isolated and occupied by the USSR during the cold war until the 1990s but almost none of them can speak russian language while scandinavians are never been occupied by british or USA, but they can speak english really good despite their countries had no any direct contact to any english native speaking country as i have said earlier, most of the countries that can speak english that are not native speakers usually had been occupied by an english native speaking country for example *india* - can speak english because they had colonized by the british *malaysia* - can speak english because they had colonized by the british *hongkong,* a city part of mainland china - can speak english because they had colonized by the british *myanmar* - can speak english because they had colonized by the british *singapore,* a city part of the malaysian islands but different country - can speak english because they had colonized by the british *philippines* - can speak english because they had colonized by the united states for 48 years after the spanish american war and got it's independence on july 4, 1946 almost a year after the WW2 ends in september 1945, the surrender of japan marks the end of the WW2, the USA chose the july 4 as their true independence which makes it out of control from the foreign powers because it was the USA independence day, they did this on 1946 and not in 1945 because july month had already passed when the ww2 ended since it was in september and july comes first before the september month and the august month was in between of july and september months *japan* - can speak english a bit because the USA has taught of them some english during the occupation of japan after their surrender in WW2 *south korea* - can speak english a bit because USA occupied this country after the surrender of japan in WW2 and abandoning their korea peninsula colony due to surrendering and the japanese soldiers fled back to japan after the surrender and using it as a satellite state of the US ever since until to this day, while north korea became a satellite state of soviet union until the 1990s and became independent on it's own and china uses it as a buffer state african countries that had been a british colony like the nigeria can also speak english because they had been also colonized and british taught them so, it started at the time of the slave trade from west africa particularly from nigeria to their plantations in the southern east of north america

My friend is from Northern Africa and she speaks 8 languages fluently she was saying to me that most places where people have diverse language it's because they were taken over by many other places I guess in the form of Japan they can honestly say they weren't taking over by a lot of different people. So she was saying in the form of communication it's not that people necessarily want to learn so many languages it's kind of forest because those are the languages spoken by all the places that had taken over that region.

Very interesting points, Yuta! We're new subscribers but already really enjoying your videos!

Really cool video, learned a lot. Thanks Yuta!

While I agree with some of your points, after talking to several japanese schoolmates (while at university in tokyo) and some local japanese friends, I believe the main problem is the system by which japanese people are taught english. 1) The teachers are bad at english. How can you expect students to learn english if the teacher barely manages to use the language? Maybe they have the grammar memorized, but they speak with horrible accents and use some pretty unnatural sentence flows and expressions. 2) Students learn (and are taught to learn) english in order to pass tests, not to understand the language. Sure, they memorize vocab and some basic grammar and ace a written test, but when it comes to actually using the language, coming up with sentences on their own and understanding spoken word, they are lost. Of course one of the biggest problems is that in japan, people dont really need english. They have their own books, tv shows, movies, games, youtubes (eg nico nico or even on youtube a large ammount of channels), message boards and even in professional areas there is a ton of content in japanese while the rest of the world depends on english based sites, which you touched upon. Luckily it seems more and more schools are opting for conversation classes with native speakers, even starting at a young age and a lot of young people seem interested in things like language exchange.

i want yuta to colonize me

@ajrwilde14

6 жыл бұрын

Get in line...

@claqyagami6914

6 жыл бұрын

mxkaka colon-ize!?

@Hephzibah624

6 жыл бұрын

XD

@ajrwilde14

6 жыл бұрын

*Colonise*

@jayvie9117

6 жыл бұрын

wat hahahaha

Thank you for the well researched and explained video, Yuta!

Pretty informative video. Thanks for uploading.

Because they have no need to use it in daily life most of the time? People here are afraid. If the government was serious about English as a foreign language, they would have done something about it a long time ago. Their approach to English as a second language is in dire need of being retooled and needs to encourage people and be taught in such a way students can think outside of the box. It's embarrassing students only start learning it here formally from 5th grade and even then can barely say their names. Being able to learn English gives the Japanese access to so much information and other ways of thinking it's insane. Learning a language broadens the mind and your understanding.

@larryjimmomdad

6 жыл бұрын

これはペンです。ジス　イズ　ペン。 Agreed. Japanese people have ample resources nowadays to learn English, despite little historical or modern inclination to do so. English teaching companies are big business here too. I wish there was more appreciation for foreign cultures in Japan. Japanese English textbooks and English curriculum typically have a lot of information about Japan (hanami, other Japanese customs, and the like), but surprisingly little about foreign countries. The great thing about English is that it can be used for travel and for experiencing the world. Meanwhile, native English-speakers have very little resources or any mandatory education in place to learn foreign tongues. This is really stupid and short-sighted and we are definitely the biggest losers. It is such a gift to be able to have foreign language classes today. Though, in some countries, that opportunity may have originated in the past from a sinister source (colonialism). 高校に日本語の授業があったらいいな～ : ' ' ' ( 　日本語は楽しいけど日本語のレベルが低すぎ...

@CordovanSplotchVT

6 жыл бұрын

Openness to other cultures and ways of thinking is a bit of a double edged sword, while being knowledgeable of the world around you is always recommendable, it is also easy to forget who you are when such a wealth of foreign ideas and information overwhelm you. The Japanese could definitely benefit from studying other cultures more, but they should be very selective and scrutinizing in what they adopt for themselves. Something the western world failed to do. Studying the mistakes and victories of the west in an accurate and sober way would of course also require learning English, so overall, I'm very much for Japanese people learning English for their own benefit.

@mintwee

6 жыл бұрын

I go to the most international university in Japan at the moment, and my understanding (from speaking with my Japanese friends) is that the problem is that the school system emphasize writing and reading to such a degree that conversation is completely ignored. They don't know how to have a simple conversation, but can keep up with reading pretty difficult texts, and answering difficult questions/writing comlicated essays. I didn't start to learn English formally before I was in 4th grade, but the difference from the Norwegian way of teaching English is that it focuses on all aspects of the language - as well as customs. Also, because most of the people in Japan are Japanese, they don't get a lot of opportunities to practice speaking, and if they do - they'd rather not, because they haven't had enough practice and do not feel comfortable speaking English at all.

@TrickWithAKnife

6 жыл бұрын

It's depressing, but true. I'm genuinely worried that my (half Japanese) son's English level will plummet when he goes to junior high and high school. I've heard stories from Japanese kids I know who can speak English well about losing points in tests if they use terminology the marker isn't familiar with. There is no way for the students to defend themselves in this situation.

@HaohmaruHL

6 жыл бұрын

Abhi Rao except Japanese use Tons of English words everyday. Also funny how most commercials, billboards and such have tons of English text, yet no one around can read it, lol. But Japanese think it looks hip so they go with it.

Please talk about or interview about why Japan relies on cash over card, and/or why physical media is still big, when the west is increasingly using streams and downloads. Thank you!

When I was in Japan almost nobody spoke English. It was so difficult to communicate there. But they were still very helpful and polite so that kinda helped a lot.

I really enjoyed this breakdown.

Came back to this video, I think I've seen it before, and I did enroll previously in Yuta's Japanese courses. I have friends in Japan, mostly from Tsukuba University, there's a professor there with who I actually discussed this topic, and the conclusions we came to don't exactly match with Yuta's points. Economic stability is invalid, because a lot of the products from Japan are exported out, and in order to do so, there needs to be negotiations between the two parties, that do require English., entertainment industry is also more and more oriented to international audience than what it used to be. Colonization is invalid as well, because there are many other countries in which people are good at speaking English but were never under the English rule or have it as a secondary, or primary language. Same thing with ethnic, and linguistic difference, it's not something that affect how good you are at a language. The conclusion we came with was solely that the Japanese don't feel the need to use it, and aren't exposed to it enough to get good at speaking English. A large number of nations are exposed to English speaking entertainment programs, music, tv series etc. Not to mention that there's also a lot more of international exchange going on in Europe than in Japan, and we get to practice English a lot more than the Japanese do. It's just like some of our secondary languages, for example, mine were French and German, I can say some fragmented words and sentences, but not speak fluently because I have not practiced it enough to get good at it. In general, do love your videos, but can't agree with the points brought up in this video, since I do believe that exposure to the language is the most valuable when learning a new language, and in other countries there are more incentives to get good at English, than in Japan.

@steveneardley7541

9 ай бұрын

While Yuta's points are valid enough, they smack of conservative Japanese isolationism, which is definitely a problem. For instance, the whole IT industry is conducted in English, and Japan has fallen way behind there.

now that you mention it, I never thought about it, the colonialisation really did play a huge role in second choice languages. I mean half of the Africa speaks French amongst other local languages. we in Bosnia usually know German and we learn English in schools, young people are pretty good at those. Turkish has become very popular these days and Spanish we also like as we enjoy their telenovelas industry. I can't complain about our language diversity 👌

@ibrahimkendirci3268

6 жыл бұрын

Anne S. why turkish popular in your country ?

@aneni

6 жыл бұрын

probably due to the good diplomatic relations between those two countries. we have lots of Turkish centers opening lately, turksih TV shows are also very common on our television and as once being occupied by the Ottoman empire we're pretty much familiar with Turkish customs and traditions, as partially sharing the same religion we're kinda used to same or at least similar behaviour, our language basically consists of lots of turcism..

@ibrahimkendirci3268

6 жыл бұрын

Anne S. hmm thanks for answer have a good day.

@RifqiMainGitar

6 жыл бұрын

You know what's interesting? We Indonesians don't speak Dutch even though they were colonizing us for about 350 years or so. Yes, there are some of Dutch-based vocabularies that we use but our language is very different from the Dutch. We have our own language as the lingua franca across the country because there are hundreds of local language spoken in each region. Unlike some countries that were colonized by the British empire where English plays an important role in their communication (i.e Singapore, Malaysia, India), we don't use Dutch as our secondary language. We even don't use Dutch at all

That's why I'm learning Japanese. Like you said, some information will be unavailable or just different in another language. I want to be able to read nonfictional Japanese articles so I can understand different cultural perspectives and learn new things!

ゆたさん, I love your videos. Keep up the good work!

Its just because they speak ENGRISH

先生「りんごは英語で？」 ぼく「アッポゥオ」 みんな「ぎゃはははｗｗｗｗ」 これが原因やな

@user-td3uj8is5i

6 жыл бұрын

ペニスマン ai dount anderständ juur längyits

@larryjimmomdad

6 жыл бұрын

そうそうそう！ｗ ６年生の先生「もう一回言ってみ！これはペンです。ジス　イズ　ペン。」 １２年生の先生「もう一回言ってみ！これはペンです。ジス　イズ　ペン。」 原因だねｗ　泣きたいｗｗｗｗ

I learnt so much from this video full stop top notch content

I love how smart you are 💕

I did notice this when I was in Japan I was in the music store and I couldn't find a single movie that I wanted that was subtitled in other languages I notice here in my home country you get at least three to four options to change subtitles however when I was looking for movies I couldn't find any good ones that I want it with subtitle so it made me sad.

@lukaswirmsberger6260

6 жыл бұрын

For non Japanese movies - there is always subtitles. The language names may be written in Japanese though which is why you may not have found it :)

@kitbina1925

6 жыл бұрын

Lukas Wirmsberger When I was in Japan in most of the major movie shop's. The shop keepers showed me the selection. Not many had English subtitles. Every one is super helpful 😍. I highly enjoyed shopping in Japan

@lukaswirmsberger6260

6 жыл бұрын

You sure? When I was there every movie besides those of Asian origin hat English subtitles. Very strange. Particularly considering movies are running in there original language in cinemas too.

@kitbina1925

6 жыл бұрын

Lukas Wirmsberger I was looking for assassination classroom. I had the Japanese title except every copy I found didn't offer English subtitles. I saw some offering Mandarin. Either way it was cool

@lukaswirmsberger6260

6 жыл бұрын

Oh I see that's a Japanese production so it doesn't have subtitles:)

Japan shouldn't need to speak English. In America everyone knows English only and probably a few Spanish sentences. What I think I want to say is if you're going on foreign land. It should be the foreigners job to understand the people. Not the people's job to understand a foreigner.

@OsakaJoe01

6 жыл бұрын

While I agree that Japanese shouldn't have to speak English, um, no, "everyone knows English only in America" is a sweeping generalization. Some of us know Spanish and Japanese, and very well, thank you. It really should be the foreigners' job to understand the people, not the people's job to understand the foreigner... And yet if you ask, most Americans can't speak a lick of Sioux, Cherokee, Hopi, or any language originally found on the continent...

@kregdesu9530

6 жыл бұрын

Joe Cortez it was an exaggeration that "All" of America speaks only English. It is true, there are parts of America where people speak other languages. Although, The majority of America speaks English. Your point about native Americans was invalid however. It's your job as a foreigner to learn the language and culture so you can live among the countries citizens. When people colonized America, they didn't intend to live among the natives, the foreign pilgrims unfortunately took advantage of natives and stole their land, forcing them to change. Therefore, in "Most" of modern American society, English is the common language. In conclusion, I believe you should know the language of the community around you because it opens the doors to communicate with the people. You do not need to know a language if people around you don't speak it. If you can speak another language, good for you, that's impressive yet unnecessary which is how Japanese society is. There may be areas where English(another language) can be useful, yet it's unnecessary for close communication in "Most" of Japan's society.

Yuta san, u r correct about this being multilingual. ur videos are deep rooted. keep it up.

Thanks for the analysis. What you said makes a lot of sense.

I understand that most Japanese people will never live abroad, and can travel with tour groups, so they don't need a 2nd language. But it's still shocking that they study it for SO LONG and aren't able to speak it.

@TheBleachj16

6 жыл бұрын

I studied Spanish for years in school and can't speak much either. Learning a language in school usually doesn't lead to the best results in real life.

@ROCKSTAR3291

6 жыл бұрын

They study English in school for exams only, it's a mandatory subject. They don't use it at all outside of school, because they don't really need it.

It’s simple let me put in perspective for you, “Why do Americans not speak Japanese”

@itsd2388

3 жыл бұрын

Too bad example

@Deerkins

3 жыл бұрын

Because they don't watch enough Anime.

@sergiolaurencio7534

2 жыл бұрын

@@Deerkins That is the most 😑 reason I ever heard.

@Deerkins

2 жыл бұрын

@@sergiolaurencio7534 That's the joke.jpg

@ryokohonda4619

2 жыл бұрын

Because Japanese is nit the universal language, English is. So they need to learn English. America's second language is spanish

Very good analysis

Very Informative. 👍

Bullshit, I live in the netherlands where only dutch is spoken, yet I learn english from tv and the internet, I think those two tools are more powerful than school or online classes.

@Bebop1811

6 жыл бұрын

I live in the Netherlands as well, yet i learned it at school. infact im pretty sure that most people here know english as a second language.

@brace110

6 жыл бұрын

Yea we all speak it, my point was more the way we learned it, I think it came a lot more from TV and the Internet than school.

@larryjimmomdad

6 жыл бұрын

Doesn't the Netherlands have superior English education too? Japan could learn some things from continental Europe, for sure.

@LittleLulubee

6 жыл бұрын

But as Yuta stated, Japan doesn't need it the way the Netherlands does.

@larryjimmomdad

6 жыл бұрын

Where does all that time and money go learning it though? 6+ years of mandatory English classes in Japan? Out the window : ( That time's gotta count for something.

My friend you are forgetting a crucial point in your arguments, which is the lack of will and the delay in the social conscience of what is multiculturalism. you can not compare africa and other underdeveloped countries with japan because they do not have 20% of the technological possibilities (tv, radio internet etc) to learn English, japan is a country economically, and technologically developed as well as more than half of europe , in europe the will to learn English is not because many like it, the European society sees and understands it as a link between people, portugal france italy, holland and the list goes on ... it is almost impossible to find a young man who do not understand and speak the minimum of English, because the culture of multiculturalism, the will to perceive and want to be with other societies has been imbued since we were born, and this is more and more common in uropa. this education of openness and fascination with other societies and other cultures is lacking in Japanese society. and it has nothing to do with colonialism ... let's be realistic portugal was never colonized, neither france, nor netherlands nor talia, Czech Republic and the list goes on, and all this countries speak English.I believe that Japanese society should start to evolve, set the ego a bit like Europe did, and wake up to the world. Another invalid argument is that economically Japan does not need English ... Germany is today and probably the largest economy in the world, and they all speak English, because they were probably in the last decades one of the most open countries for multiculturization, and that what Japan needs,I am Portuguese, we are a family of r people and we all speak English, and we learn mainly with TV radio and internet. because there is a feeling in Europe mainly in the young layer of wanting to know each other, and the world.

@chekAva2

3 жыл бұрын

Very nice answer. Yuta also made some interesting points. In addition to the points you made, I'd like to add a few of my own: 1. Unlike other Asian countries, Japan has the most striking contrast between an entire economy of English teaching schools/jobs/teachers, and an overall low English proficiency. 2. Yuta mentioned how advanced university topics are all translated to Japanese, pointing to an immense activity in translation. The reverse is unbelievably underrepresented, usually citing the "lack of capacity for translation into English" as a reason. How were all those books translated then? Japan seems to have different criteria for receiving vs. giving. Walking around Tokyo and observing the mockery of public signs in English either mistranslated or misspelled will astound you. 99% of the embarrassment could have been avoided with a simple copy/paste into google translate. Even immigration bureaus have only in the past few years been staffed with English speakers. 3. Economy: just like Korea, Japan's economy critically depends on exports. Unlike Korea, Japan refuses to prioritize English except for the employees transferred abroad. Many excellent English speakers among Japanese of _all ages_ come from the automotive industry. I'm guessing the logic is: "if the world wants Japanese products, the world should speak Japanese" (?). Some good comments were made below but the responsibility of the world's third economy is greater than that of other countries. 4. The history of Japan's contact with other countries, both Asian and non-Asian has been riddled with conflict and defiance. Except in those cases where Japan was importing knowledge or technology, when it was quite receptive. Europe has had similar experiences but, as you mentioned, has dealt with them differently. Bitter experiences with avoiding invasion have predisposed Japanese to a negative reaction towards anything "foreign". I'm from southeast Europe, worked for leading (100% English-speaking) German/French companies, have European friends who both despise and speak English fluently. Many European nations still hold grudges against each others (because of the good old tradition of waging wars) just like Japanese people hold grudges among themselves and towards foreigners, yet communication goes uninterrupted throughout Europe. In defense of an average Japanese person, they do have so much baggage coming from inter-societal competition and the pressure to climb the social ladder that even their Japanese language skills (keigo) lag in that process and are crucial "currency" in winning that battle. Just like other languages, verbs in Japanese do conjugate with time and negation but not with person/gender, and they heavily focus on social hierarchy (?!?), unlike any other language I've ever heard of. Factor that in and you get a messy experience in learning foreign languages. However, it's kinda cute to notice them bragging about their English skills once they do acquire them. I also fully support people who claim "if you want to be in Japan you must learn Japanese" but that is a misplaces argument in this issue. Both _must_ evolve _independently_ of each other: proficiency of foreigners and proficiency of Japanese.

@haoliangtan3428

3 жыл бұрын

I have to say that learning English is far harder for Japanese than Europeans. Portuguese, French, Germany, and English are all Indo-European languages. Which means Portuguese is closer to English grammatically and phonetically. And for North European and Germany, who speak Germanic languages, learning English is too easy cuz they are too close. It is like as a native Mandarin speaker, I can master 10 Chinese dialects with the effort I use in English without any Grammar mistake and incredible vocabulary. And these Chinese variants not that close linguistically compare to Swedish and English. Many things that are neutral and natural for European people are not for East Asian People. You might think Latin Alphabet is easy for everyone. Yes, it is, of course far easier than learning thousands of Kanjis. But many research shows you Europeans who speak a language that is written by Latin alphabet can memorise words a lot quicker than East Asians, although we do use Latin Alphabet as a supportive script. 29% of English words are borrowed from Latin, 28% from French, which is one of the successors of Vulgar Latin. And Portuguese is another successor of Vulgar Latin. You guys already have a great advantage on grabing English. you guys can pronounce isolated constants so easily. For Chinese and Japanese, constants are never isolated. They will always paired with vowels. So pronunciation of English is challenging for us, and listening is even harder. It is funny to see European thinking learning English for Japanese is so damn easy, cuz linguistically it is not. Imagine Japanese is the international lingua Franca. And there is Chinese told you why your country speak Japanese so bad. Why cannot you just write five thousand kanji properly and understand their meaning. We learn Japanese through TV radio and once there is kanji word I would just grabbed it. Why cannot you read science journal in Japanese? By just looking kanji I can understand 30% of the script without learning any Japanese. And with two years study of Japanese I found I read Japanese faster than English. Imagine a Korean asking you why your country’s people are so poor at Grammar, why not just watch anime with basic knowledge of Japanese so that you guys master 70% of Japanese Grammar. Imaging they said it is because you guys have no idea of multiculturalism and curious of world.

A quality and educational video!

Very interesting analysis, Yuta. You got yourself another sub!

I'm a Chinese and I had visited Korea several times, I never met a person who can speak English well, even in big cities like Seoul. In Japan though, I never needed to speak English as I can get by ok with my Japanese skills. But in my opinion, I think it's around the same in Japan and in Korea in terms of English language skills. In Korea especially, people are reluctant to speak English, and I had encountered more than a few times where I was shunted away when I attempted to converse in English with a Korean person.

As far as I know Dutch and Nordic countries are good at English as a second language. I think it is a problem of the education system. I guess Korea does not teach speaking English so Koreans have difficulty speaking English.

@user-rw8cd9sl2x

6 жыл бұрын

최재영 Japan also does not teach speaking English focusing on grammer and reading.

@hunterbrown9237

6 жыл бұрын

English is recognised as an official language in 59 countries, the next closest is french at 29. I'm sure around Europe, some Nordic languages would be as useful as English, but world wide no.

@Melinon

6 жыл бұрын

Nordic countries and Dutch need English more due to comparatively low population. It's not economically viable to translate everything to the local language, and these countries rely heavily on foreign trade, so learning English is very important. The lack of translation also means that most high production value entertainment is in English, and it's something most people want to enjoy.

@ThatJapaneseManYuta

6 жыл бұрын

+Melinon Yep and also, if you speak a European language already, learning English is a lot easier. When I learned French after learning English, I was amazed how easy it was because I already knew a European language.

@Melinon

6 жыл бұрын

Certainly, at least from a written language perspective. Finnish is an exception to the rule when talking about spoken language. It's easier for us to speak Japanese than English since we're not from the same language family, and the phonetics of Japanese are much simpler and closer to Finnish. Written language is of course another matter entirely. Given that English fluency in Finland is on par with other Nordic countries, I don't think being in the same language family matters other than making it somewhat easier and faster to learn. Perhaps we don't pronounce English quite as naturally, but the necessity for Finns to learn English is still there regardless, and that's why overall English language proficiency is on the same level as the rest of the Nordics.

A well reasoned argument Yuta. Never thought about 1 and 2, but number 3 was always how I thought about it.

Explains a lot!! Thanks!

Would you say people in Okinawa, close to the American military bases, speak better English, then?

@TrickWithAKnife

6 жыл бұрын

I live down the road from Yokota base. If I go shopping here, staff sometimes use English. I'm not sure how fluent they are, but it's rare for staff to use English with me in other parts of Tokyo.

There is a reason I think you skipped: media. In the Netherlands we have lots of tv-shows in English with Dutch subtitles, and pretty much everyone already has knows a few words English before they receive education in it. Plenty kids already picked up some phrases before education starts (which is at age 10-12, maybe earlier nowadays) Media also helps with listening and speaking, unlike education which more often focuses on reading and writing. Speaking seems to be the main issue for Japanese people.

@mimmiblu6138

6 жыл бұрын

Ms10000123 that's true... but it is also true that Dutch and English!are very similar and that makes it way easier. My child is 10 and voluntarily listens to a lot of videos in Spanish which he isn't studying at school..... But yeah .... we're Italian!

Very inspirational and thoughtful

Really interesting, thank you !

Hi, I live in China and am fluent in Chinese. I would very much like to see you make a video about how Japanese people view China and Chinese people, because I am so used to only hearing what Chinese people think about Japan/Japanese people. Do you think you might be interested in making a video like that?

@user-td3uj8is5i

6 жыл бұрын

Thomas Rooks Ei Vitus.

@TrickWithAKnife

6 жыл бұрын

Honestly, I don't think that would be a good idea.

@ShibaCat

6 жыл бұрын

you can find some on youtube and you will be mad if you are chinese. Quite much peoplea from different country is hate chinese from mainland china.

@rayvyn15

6 жыл бұрын

Pretty sure everyone knows that mainland china is hated by japanese people and vice versa

@joeym8023

6 жыл бұрын

日本人大多表面好，其实还是看不起中国的

I'm from Spain, and not a lot of people here talk English neither. I think it's because the Spanish speaking community is so large that people don't seem to need to learn English

@theragingcyclone

6 жыл бұрын

Large community is an important factor but its not a major factor. For example many major Indian languages have more speakers than many major European language but still they need English because IQ is low and they are not able to do anything in their native languages. The major reason why a large non-English speaking community is less dependent on English is because they are self-sufficient and have resources available to them in their own languages. So they have little need for learning English or any other language.

@salva1622

6 жыл бұрын

Lixin Zhang Well, some words are similar because of their latin origin, so that can help

@zukio6088

6 жыл бұрын

Actually, every pronoun but he/she/it uses have, so you say "People like me who have" because that "who" refers to "me", which is "I" Hope it helped, and I've been learning English for 8 years now, but I still have some left until I officially finish the entire course ;w; Wish me luck

@F.A.--

5 жыл бұрын

I would believe is because you, as the Japanese, live in a first world country where you don't have the need to learn English in order to get a job that pays what is necessary to have a comfortable life. You still have a better life than someone that lives in a third world country and requires to speak English in order to have a half decent job.

@bobbymidha3901

5 жыл бұрын

@@theragingcyclone no its because its a lingua-franca in India, not due to low IQ. Spain has so many other languages like Galician- Portuguese, Basque, Catalan and Occitan (aranès) but Spanish is the national lingua-franca. Hindi could have been the lingua-franca of India, but southern states opposed Hindi, which comes from North India, so English is the defacto lingua-franca. Inspite of this, most uneducated Indians cannot speak English. Get your facts straight

This is a really good video

I live in America where i hear so many different languages even daily. I can never tell which language i should learn so i picked Japanese because i like it better i can watch more things with it and learn more about Japanese culture. I loved anime as a kid and started thinking the culture was cool so i try and learn it but it is hard. Not many peoples speak it in the US.

As an English speaker from the UK who's studying Japanese at University and lived in Japan for a year, as much as English is a global language and being able to speak it is a good skill in today's society - Japan is Japan. Meaning, why should we expect other countries to speak English? As an English speaker I feel ignorant to go abroad expecting people to speak English to me, in the same way a Japanese person wouldn't expect anyone to speak Japanese to them if they went abroad. And I think it's really important to keep languages alive and not let English take over. Plus, in terms of why Japan doesn't have much English, books to signs etc, we have to remember that Japan has been a very closed off country for a lot of history and because of that has become a very closed off society. I think that's why Koreans and Kpop do better with English and do well abroad, because Korea seems much more westernised. If you think for example Korean people seem to have similar fashion and attitude to the west whereas in Japan a lot of things are still quite set in stone, gender stereotypes of the salaryman Dad and stay at home Mum. Even though Japan is changing there's a strong sense of tradition and following the rules and I think that effects learning English as well as other languages. I definitely agree with the fact that if you live somewhere with one language it's harder to learn languages. On the opposite end of the scale in the UK since English has become the main global language a lot of people feel no need to learn other languages, so that effects our language learning. We have a lot of different cultures but mainly use just English to communicate.

@D0x1511af

6 жыл бұрын

+Charmaine Philips well you nailed it

i'm a malaysian. we don't have *that many* languages. - malay (native) speaks Bahasa - chinese can speak Bahasa & Chinese language - indian can speak Bahasa & Indian language - most people here could speak English - almost every state has a unique dialect - of course, there are indigenous ethnic that use their own language

@killertheweebwarriors2685

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah. Same of mine.

@mrstrdknmabalz1412

6 жыл бұрын

dont forget that malaysians have their own version of english, which is a mixture of english, bahasa malaysia, mandarin & tamil words/phrases/affix. XD

@killertheweebwarriors2685

6 жыл бұрын

Kenny I know, because I stay at Kuching Sarawak malaysia.

@killertheweebwarriors2685

6 жыл бұрын

The Anime Channel Okay lah saya tahu! Sorry lah saya asking comment sejak. Tapi jangan marah saya. Please.......

@unmeaninglessly143

6 жыл бұрын

me? i've already mentioned "indigenous". japan also have indigenous people such as Ainu that uses their own language. also a few small island has their own language that isnt pure japanese language. Yuta mentioned that Malaysia has hundreds or languages. i'm referring to that, we dont have that many language. if you still dont understand, i'm sorry. out of words for you.

Thank you for the video, really interesting. I can see many of those reasons apply to the question of why french people don't speak english really well either, plus the strong cultural identity mentioned with china. On the other hand, as I am living in Finland, it's really "funny" to see the opposite of those reasons (such as economic incentives and unavailability of study materials, literature, or media, in finnish) acting as a driving force making english always more ubiquituous here.

Thanks for explain. I was so confused about that

DUDE your awesome and so informative! I had my suspicions but could never really pin down why places like South Korea or Hong Komg had more english speakers than Japan despite the US basically rebuilding the country after WW2. You made it clear, concise and to the the point. Subscribed. Basically, its not a necessary party of curriculum, the US didn't make it an official language to learn after the war during reconstruction, the occupied territories generally had more necessity to converse in english due to the occupation by western powers ect

@allenad2155

6 жыл бұрын

MrInuhanyou123 its not an official language in south korea. They learn it on their own because they know how important it is for communication and expanding the economy. Perhaps japan can take a que from the koreans since their economy and culture is so stagnant now.

@larryjimmomdad

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah, totally. I was so surprised when I could use basic English all over Seoul. Props to them! Very rare in Japan sadly, but luckily, 日本語でいい : )))))

@szorrin6812

6 жыл бұрын

English lessons were made compulsory in 2011, but even before that, most schools already taught English. Their way of teaching is just fundementally flawed. I explain more about this in my own comment.

@tinyhowie

6 жыл бұрын

English had been equal or even more important than Chinese in Hong Kong for 99 years. So before 1997 we had to know at least basic comprehensible English just to survive. :P

I am always with Japan.

Shout out from Singapore! :D Nice video Yuta!

Extremely insightful, before I finished the video was thinking how I prefer your street interviews but you proved me wrong, Yuta, that Japanese man!

I think in Germany we learn English at school because it's the most spoken language and it's important you can communicate with people from other countries. That's especially necessary if you want to work in a big international company here.

YUTA :):)

Oh man great video 📹 Yuta

First video I've seen of you. I can tell you are educated, driven, and interested in broadening your horizon and connected with other like-minded individuals.

Hahaha I'm an Indian and tbh, I can't speak pure hindi without English words, even though I am a native speaker. *British colonisation* 😂

@justsomeguywithasmolmustac9476

3 жыл бұрын

Me too

@anirudhviswanathan3986

3 жыл бұрын

Oh the wonders of urbanization... 😂😂

Nobody expects the Japanese to speak as good English as those countries who were under British rule. But its a very useful tool to have, it helped me tremendously with traveling, international business and I even dated women before who didnt speak my language and I didnt speak theirs but dating was still possible because we both spoke English. If the Japanese would say we dont want any of that or dont want to have anything to do with English in general, that would be fine. Nobody is entitled to Japanese attention, however you guys are already learning English in school its such a waste you only learn it to pass your exams. They should really teach it with communication in mind. Then you wouldnt have so many Japanese people fleeing in horror if a foreigner approaches out of fear to be publically embarrassed when trying to speak English.

@larryjimmomdad

6 жыл бұрын

Preach! 100% agree. Wasted effort and funding, sadly : (

@theragingcyclone

6 жыл бұрын

Instead they should just stop teaching English at all and instead use those funds, resources and time in learning something which is really a skill. Japanese have no need for outsourcing jobs. 99.99% Japanese are never going to need English in their life. Even when Japanese tourists are going outside wherever they go in sufficient numbers they get services in Japanese language as they should. Only those people should be given English and other language lessons who are going to do business in those countries who speak those languages. For example not every employee in Toyota needs to learn English. Toyota delegation going to USA for business meeting needs few English speakers. Similarly Toyota delegation going to China needs few Mandarin speakers, Toyota delegation going to France needs few French speakers and so on and on the basis of need they may hire staff fluent in these respective languages.

@Suffkopp0815

6 жыл бұрын

The Legend I agree with you as far as their current English lessons are concerned. Those are useless and just a waste of money. However not providing the language skills in the de facto "lingua franca" of our times is severely limiting in the options of the individual when it comes to employment, studying overseas, information on the internet as well as in tourism where you will be limited to a certain amount of locations without much interaction with the locals for the most part. Learning a different language will also help you training certain abilities which will be helpfull when learning other things/ solving other issues. Kinda like we teach way more math than the average person will need after graduating high school. And all of this doesnt put into consideration that the Japanese economy and/or international economy could change significantly in the future. Maybe in 100 years Chinese will be more important but right now people should learn English.

@veemon

6 жыл бұрын

Yeah, their society is so full of contradiction. And to think this is the country the world worships, ha!

@theragingcyclone

6 жыл бұрын

+Sufkopp82: I think you are wrong. As I have said already 99.99% Japanese people are never going to need any language other than Japanese because their country is very large in terms of population and also very advanced and produces everything in Japanese language. Every kind of journal, book, information, service is available to them in Japanese and because of Japan's large economy and being an advanced country, their language also has good international standing and hundreds of thousands of people learn it every year. Apart from that whenever Japanese people go abroad they have good chance of getting services in Japanese language. And above all is more true about China which is large in terms of both area and population. 99% Chinese people don't even need to leave their country ever even for tourism purposes as they have almost all kinds of terrain available in their country and also have world class cities, sleepy villages, nice countryside, steep valleys, rafting rivers and so on. Their country is also a major world power and Chinese people also get services in Mandarin Chinese abroad. Their country is also a leading country in terms of scientific knowledge and advancement and much knowledge is also produced in Mandarin Chinese every year. And seriously. I'm sure Americans never find it annoying when out of their country they don't get information in their illogical imperial measurement system. When USA can be the only country in the world to be using that illogical system of measurement and can still be a fully functional country then don't know why others can't run their countries successfully without any knowledge of English. In fact all first world countries are successfully doing that. And if learning English is a skill then most sills can be learned by doing any diploma or something for 6 months to 2 years and those who will be needing those skill go for that. We don't teach cooking to everyone, we don't teach electronics to everyone, we don't teach web designing to everyone. Those who are interested in it and will be needing those real skills in their career learn that skill. So it should be same for language skills. And as far as any information is concerned Chinese or Japanese people should just consider it to be not as important if it is not available in Chinese or Japanese. If China wants to be a superpower in every respect their government needs to inculcate this attitude in its citizens. Rest of the world can eat shit, we are the best.

Yuta, I'm from Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Your points are great. I agree! Espcially the Economic reason. :-)

With the music industry part, I notice with a lot of non-english countries, metal bands will often sing in English at least a little because metal music isn't as popular as pop music so it's harder to gain a wide audience if they stick to their native tongue. Most Finnish metal bands will sing entirely in English since Finland is the only Finnish speaking country. And with Japan I've found tons of J-rock and J-metal bands who either sing only in English or will at least try to throw in some English in their songs to gain a more international audience.

Here in Malaysia, many of us can speak more than 5 languages or maybe even more due to the different races and ethnicity

@otakify

6 жыл бұрын

That's accent/dialect, not languages. You should differentiate between this two types

Yuta for PM!

It is sometimes an advantage if you're Australian. Because we're closer than other western countries and in the Pacific, it's common for students here to learn a bit of Japanese in school. I'm glad that I was fluent in kana because of the katakana cocktail menus.

great vid, I agree with you :)

I dont understand why people are expecting Japanese to speak English in the first place. It's JAPAN. So they take it in school, big deal. Most people in America take a second language but only really get an idea of it, they dont become fluent.

@AstralBeing

6 жыл бұрын

No ones expecting japanese to speak english

日本人として日本語喋ることは当然じゃない？変なタイトル

@54gupisj13

5 жыл бұрын

おそらくこの動画は海外の人、特に今までに日本も含めいくつかの国に行ったことがある人、に向けて作られています。その人たちは他の国と比べると日本は英語が通じにくい国だなと感じているはずです。それが良いか悪いかは置いておいてこの動画では日本がなぜそういう国であるかを解説しているのだと思います。

@54gupisj13

5 жыл бұрын

His/her question was; why yuta titled this clip like that. The title sounds wirred because it seems to be quite ovious for me to speak japanese in Japan, since we are japanese. My answer is because yuta made this clip for people in other countries, in particular who have visited some countries including japan, and they might have felt language inconvenience because of japanese people's poor English skill, compared with the other countries. In this clip, he is just illustrating the causes.

@FBI-mf3mb

3 жыл бұрын

Op

@zorech6894

3 жыл бұрын

Bruh japanese

Very interesting video. Just one explanation though: Italian artists sing in Spanish (and some Spanish artists sing in Italian) not only to have a wider public (if they sang in English they would have a much wider public) but for the linguistic and cultural affinities between our two peoples. A recurrent experience for Italians is being spoken to in Spanish when they are abroad because foreigners cannot tell apart Italian and Spanish.

Insightful perspectives. I can tell you've done a lot of research on this topic! As they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention." Lack thereof in this case.

As a german i can relate to those points very well. It's basically the same here. Despite everyone learning english in school, barely anyone is able to speak english because outside of school they never need english their whole life.

@B__ri__d__ge

6 жыл бұрын

Do you have good marks too in English? I had a few changes in English books and I feel like there are some books which dumb down quite a bit vocubulary, so that if one knows what the English word mean on German, you would fail anyway in a vocubulary test because the book translate it as they please. The other thing which is rather the point that concerns me is, that people can't even understand in my class clear, british, English. It is astounding how many people at the end put their hands up in the air to answer the questions we had to write down in a note book.

@deinalptraum7858

6 жыл бұрын

I am also from Germany, but my experiences with English are almost the opposite of yours. I'm going to a Gymnasium, so maybe students are a little better at English here. I know for a fact that most of my friends can speak or at least understand English pretty well. It's common for us to watch movies in original English, though with English subtitles if possible, and we often make short remarks or jokes entirely in English. That might not be just because of English classes in school though, I think I got most of my English education & experience directly from the internet through KZread and various PC games, lately also English literature. I'm in twelfth grade right now, so maaaybe all of this only applies to us younger generations... Howevert my brother, about ten years older than me, also speaks English very well and my parents can communicate in English too, with lots of mistakes but still comprehensible

@B__ri__d__ge

6 жыл бұрын

Ah, that could've been the case, that because of our school the difference in the understanding of the English language is. Honestly, I've been on three different kind of schools now (in the function system - I visited 7 schools so far.), and honestly - they were bad in English. If the skill level in the Gymnasium in Germany is like you stated, maybe the thing I hoped for years long wasn't all just a lie. Basically I went from Sonderschule to Realschule, but got disappointed at what you have to do at the Realschule. Since then, I've been searching for my true live goal and haven't found it yet, so rather instead of giving everything to school, I just had make sure that I won't do the worst. The end of the story, I went back to the Hauptschule, after I moved, because the head master wanted it to. But If I miss one thing from the school I went to, then it was that these pupil don't hit each other. It is probably because of the known "Parents high education/money -> Kids high education/money" problem, or in other words, if the parents finds to fight and bully others okay, so does the kid. It is a bit annoying for me though, because I got the mindset that aslong nobody does something to me I won't do anything to them, either. But they're in my point of the view the perfect opposite of what I have been thaught. Maybe, because they're only moved 1-2 times school (in the fourth grade)? At any case, I've reading books too in the English language and I see videos in English aswell. If anything, the only problem I have is that I can understand too great, but when I speak, I only have a very few fitting words, even though I know a large amount of it. I am currently battling this issue by thinking more and more in English for a year now, but now there's the problem I recall concepts in English language and if I want to argue with that, I never find a fitting German phrase or word for it. Of course, that gotten better aswell. If anything, I would rather try to have some lessons in the English language just to see the difference. That is what has come to my mind more and more. The point that the younger generations can speak better English because they got more availability to different kind of informations than the old ones before has, is a good point. But here is a bit more showing off the gap between highly educated parents and normal educated parents; the highly educated parent know a link to good things in the internet, meanwhile the parent just barely made it to purchase a phone and have only a few years expierence with it. At this point, I would say it is more likely that kids these days can get more bad things in the Internet than good things, if they simply surf in there like a stray cat. For example, let's say some pupil only use social media and a few websites such as Wikipedia; What is the point of it? They get old memes and information shared, meanwhile they have no clue how to get to the 'fresh' source of it. Basically, what am I trying to say is, that they get active manipulated or in broader terms: indoctrination is happening; Only fun things is shared and one person can easily be tricked into fake news. Most of times, there's ten person who share something and that is shared into wider groups (1000+) and then much wider groups. Maybe I got a bit off-topic here, but im pretty sure that is just how school is working, isn't it? A selected few decides *who* goes to which school, a selected few decides what kind of stuff you learn at which kind of school, a selected few decides what matters. Isn't that dangerous? Like, for example, why was it decided that I have to go back to the Hauptschule, when I have knowledge in topics which aren't asked? Isn't that unfair? And maybe, but it is unknown to me, the person I actually look down upon are great in other things which aren't asked and just cool down their frustuation to me, who looks great to them in a selected few themes (English, ...). Hah, I know at the end it got somehow more into a rant, but it felt like I had to write down something. I tried to get some of them answered via Internet, but no matter how I formulate them, either they're too long for Google or they are not exactly or close to what I searched to. In any case, If you are at the end reading to this part, I sincerely thank you. Oh, and as a tip: www.deepl.com/translator is a really good translator for foreign languages. I don't really use it for English, but when you want quick information from Newspaper, in let's say, from French sources, then this one translator is relatable. PS: How do you not getting bored by learning stuff? When I really try sometimes to step up a level, after a few minutes I had just put it down again and listened to music. I guess that question is now far too late, because now that is not needed anymore for the Hauptschule. Although I wanna say, that I am really not your usual Hauptschule. My body is rather fragile and I am more better in observing people and opposing flaws infront of them; however instead of being thanked of that (so they can improve), I am rather being screamed at and they really would hurt me badly if the teacher weren't there. Hah, now I probably wrote waaaaay too much. But being able to write 120 words per minute on the keyboard helps a bit too get off my strongest weakness and rival; Lazyness. Edit: Oh, yeah. One thing that I forgot: I am in the tenth grade, but I had to repeat once (because I moved, in the sixth grade) I guess it is not that unusual to know that good English in the 12. grade. Edit2: Now that I think of it: The pupil in the Hauptschule I were so far (4 different ones), at one thing common: They liked to watch television, such as RTL, "Who will become Germany's superstar?" or "Farmer seeks woman". Also it seems like they don't know shows such as Stranger Things or other international known things. They just knew what Germany dubbed, such as Fast and Furious 7 or Pirates of the Carribean. At one point we even talked around it, because I forgot for one second that Pirates of the Carribean ment "Fluch der Karribik"

@deinalptraum7858

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you for taking the time to write such a long comment. I really enjoyed reading it, I just like getting to know other people and their opinions. It's obvious you're thinking a lot about what is going in life and it really looks like you have the mindset of a good student. Your English is fine too, although you do make a lot of grammatical mistakes, you are almost perfectly understandable. It's also great that you are actively trying to improve your English. Never stop learning and you will definitely get even better at it. The problem you're describing, that you don't find the correct words in English or even German although you know them, I have that problem too and many of my friends do too so I think it's natural. Sometimes I just use whatever word comes to my mind first, no matter if it's the German or English word. Don't do that during class when talking to the teacher though :p You asked how to not get bored learning stuff... well there's a lot to that and it depends on what you're trying to learn. First of all, if you're talking about learning school-stuff: Pay attention in class. It reeeeaaaally depends on just how good your memory is, but I find that I don't usually have to learn before exams because I always pay attention and can remember and understand almost everything important. Apart from that there's still lot of things you can do to improve your learning. You should try and experiment different ways of learning, usually a combination of different methods achieves the best results and by trying things out you might find a method that just makes it easier for you to learn things or not get bored as quickly. It might also help you to set yourself a time like "I'm going to learn Japanese today for 10min", that way you have a goal you can easily achieve and feel better about learning. You could also make that a habit, like learning 10mins everyday. That's not a lot of time but if you really do this every day, you can get a lot done. I learnt reading Hiragana (the first Japanese alphabet) that way in about four months, even though I was pretty slow and sometimes took 'breaks' from learning for weeks. You said you observe people and tell them about their flaws to help but get yelled at... In that case they probably don't deserve your help. Unfortunately many people don't like being criticised because of *their* fragile self-esteem. They often feel insulted if you try to correct them. So you shouldn't try unless you are friends with them, that way they should understand you are just trying to help and not be mad at you. Hope I could help and it's nice to ((talking)) to you :)

@B__ri__d__ge

6 жыл бұрын

Hey, thank you for taking your time and honest reply. I honestly thank you for your advice. As far as I know, my grammar in English is better than German, however I am somewhat known about this problem. I guess I look deeper into this. Actually, I am gonna try to learn the grammar rules by heart. I tried currently to do it natural. I guess a bit of my first language bias still got off, however at some points I already rephrased some sentences so it wouldn't sound like it. I guess I still have to try to pick up many english speaking habits. Thank you for the advice on how to learn stuff. I am gonna try it out. For real. I start today with improving my writing speed from now on, because I must strengthen links I already have a good point in. Currently, I can write 120 WPM. I try to achieve 125 WPM and go slowly. I think if I ever reach 130 WPM, I will do it from there in one steps. (131, 132, ...) About the part with the criticism: Yeah, I should probably focus more on working on myself. At some point, if they don't do it, they will hit a wall. However, this doesn't mean if I see an obvious way to let them improve a bit, that I won't tell it them. I think I should go a bit more relaxed and keep it to me. Actually... I tried to make my mind up for many times by now, but I am honestly now sure that I see the bright path. There were still a few parts I've to fight myself upon. For example I worked in the last summer to obtain money. At the end, I purchased with the money something I dreamed for, somewhat. Then I got overwhelmed by the pressure, saying stuff such as 'If In Japan they're barely making enough money to live, you can't do it in Germany either". I guess I should fight for myself a bit more. "And, what if this is the case? I'll rather do something I won't regret than living a bit richer with forever built up frustuation", that was my remark about it 6 months ago... but I didn't really followed it. I look into it more. I try to draw daily from now, even if I know at some point I have to face parts which make you feel embarrassed. If I don't find a few to learn the grammar parts by heart, I would probably try to pick it up by listen and reading much more English content. I guess some years expierence are also missing. No, but really, thank you for taking your time. But no, now really: Thank you very much for taking time for me! Edit: I also noticed that people are much stronger and higher than me. In this case I don't really know if this is a problem I can tackle on or if I just have to wait out if I am going to get a growth boost or not.

I support Japanese speak Japanese, and who want to communicate Japanese people should learn Japanese rather than other languages. I am from China and now living in Canada, that is the only reason why I study English.

Wholesome script and the segue at the end was perfect lol

Hi Yuta! I would just like to comment on my opinion regarding this subject as I have studied language acquisition and, mainly, secondary language acquisition. I will try to go through your points one by one (even those that are not listed as the main reasons in your argument). Sub-optimal education: This is partly true as the Japanese education system does not focus that much on oral interaction in the language. Rather, it focuses on grammar, reading and writing. This results in there being a low proficiency when it comes to oral skills, while reading and writing is usually at a much higher level in comparison. Similarities can be found in the French education system for the English language. Japanese people kind of shy: Well, shyness could be a part of it. If one is too shy one will try to avoid speaking English, which would be detrimental to developing oral proficiency in the English language. Though I doubt that shyness is the reason why. English and Japanese are very very different: The languages are quite different, which can be a factor. There are for example quite some differences in phonology, which would result in difficulties with pronunciation. However, there are also many similarities. Different grammar structure may make it difficult to form correct sentences. One of the biggest differences would be how Japanese usually have every other phoneme being a consonant sound and the other being a vowel. For example, T(c)-O(v)-Y(c)-O(v)-T(c)-A(v), which would make it difficult to pronounce English words that stack consonant sounds such as S(c)-P(c)-R(c)-I(v)-NG(c). Though this mainly explains why Japanese people have some difficulties with learning English and not so much why they are not speaking it. Besides from being embarrassed when not using correct pronunciation. Reason 1: Colonization I would say that colonization can be a reason for why a country is speaking a certain language, however I would not say that the lack of colonization is the reason why a country is not speaking a certain language. Even with colonization it needs to be a demand from the colonizer that their language should be spoken, otherwise it will not really change. Reason 2: Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity Ethnic diversity does not matter as much as the linguistic diversity. If you had a huge ethnic diversity but they all only knew Japanese, then there will only be Japanese that is used. However, with a linguistic diversity it becomes different, especially if it is widespread. Then a certain language can be needed to communicate between the languages, in order to make sure that not everyone needs to learn all the languages. However, that does not mean that it would be English that would have been the language to fill that position. Reason 3: Economy (need) This I would say is the biggest reason. There is really no need for Japanese people to learn any other languages than English. If there is no need for it, then it becomes way more difficult to increase the proficiency. There are some who still need it, such as translators, but also other professions. For example, it is still quite useful to know it as a scientist, because then you do not have to wait for certain papers, books or similar to be translated (if they ever will, depending on your field) which can potentially make a huge difference on your work. Though, this mainly means one only need to be able to read English and not speak it. Unless of course one wants to reach a wider audience with one’s work (as in giving lectures since published works can always be translated). From my studies I would say the most important part about learning a language is to immerse yourself in it. You need to consume it and produce it. Not only reading and writing, but also listening and speaking. However, if there is no need for it in your society, it instantly becomes much more difficult to learn it. Thankfully with the internet one can find a suitable environment much easier, though in the end it is up to oneself to actually use the language. That is one reason for why it can be quite useful to spend some time in a foreign country in order to learn that country’s language, especially if you can not get by without using that certain language. However, when it comes to proficiency it is a different matter. Then it depends on how high a proficiency is actually needed. If you are only going to use it on the internet for mundane tasks, then you do not need all that high proficiency, while if you are going to write an academic paper on a subject you will need a completely different proficiency.

Why do the Japanese generally don't speak English? Because they don't have to. And that's not a bad thing.

well... England made direct contact with japan, but the country always refused to accept diference. and it is the same until today... maybe that is the biggest reason. japanese people live in a island and resist other cultures

@paul1561

6 жыл бұрын

Matheus Castro Good for them, Japan should preserve their own culture. It's one of the most beautiful cultures in history. Excuse Japan for being anti-globalist...

@paul1561

6 жыл бұрын

djtopgear Anti-globalist as in Japan preserves their culture and doesn't take in mix culture.

@BunnyArisu

6 жыл бұрын

djtopgear - What a thrilling and educated response. If you want a joke, look at your own comments.

@_eLf45

6 жыл бұрын

djtopgear globalisation was imposed upon the world, it is the real terror of the world.

@Insaneronald

6 жыл бұрын

Matheus Castro Every country opening themselves to the westerners at the time ended up colonised lol. Letting the english in so they sell them opium right lol

Great video! I might add as someone with Indian ancestry, I have had an easier time grasping Japanese because quite a number of Japanese grammar patterns are very similar to those found in Indian languages. One of the main ones being the Subject, Object, Verb pattern.

First time commenting on your videos. My parents are from Mexico, and the town my mom’s from is near a city with a Nissan plant and there’s a large Japanese community there. I’ve noticed that many aren’t fluent in Spanish and they don’t want to integrate into Mexican culture/society. Just thought you’d find this interesting. I live in the US and know English and Spanish but I feel like knowing Spanish isn’t enough. I’m studying Japanese to stand out and hopefully find new exciting job opportunities. Keep up the good videos Yuta!

I speak English and I find English hard to understand

@kenny1138

6 жыл бұрын

Akuma Sentouki it's a complicated language.

@andreiteo6883

6 жыл бұрын

Kenpachi The destroyer actually it is one of the simplest ones

@MatheusCosta-li7zx

6 жыл бұрын

Try learning portuguese, If you think English is hard.

@kenny1138

6 жыл бұрын

The Dark Night At times I guess but, then you look at how certain things are spelt. For example "Colour" and "color"

@RVNT9OE

6 жыл бұрын

Matheus Costa Portuguese is not that bad if Spanish is your first language.

Pq o bagui é doido memo

@deathsekai7382

6 жыл бұрын

Aposto que é BR

@andersonantonio

6 жыл бұрын

Gostei da diversidade de videos assimilados hein, vai de Zóio à Yuta. Lol.

Hi Yuta. I enjoy watching your videos and learning about Japan and her people. I am interested to know what Japanese people think of overseas born and raised Japanese people who don't speak Japanese. Thank you and keep up the good work!

I see you covered some of the points I had brought up in a prior video, cool! Sorry for the long post. This is a topic I've thought about a lot since I was an ALT in Japan for 2.5 years at one point. I think if Japan could reach higher levels of English proficiency on average, then the country becomes a lot more accessible in different ways. The thing that confuses me though is that there are probably a few countries out there that were in a similar position to Japan in the past and adopted English to higher levels of proficiency over time. This is something that happens at a government level and an individual level, over time. People have to make a conscious decision at some point and say "I need English." This has been happening at the national level since the 70s, when the JET program started, and some schools in Japan have been doing it since the early 50s (I was an ALT at a school that was founded in the late 40s that has school photos from the early 50s with English teachers). The weird thing is that you don't see a major bump in proficiency as a whole. Maybe this is just a combination of a few things, such as English classes only being required in high school until recently. First they pushed the requirement back to Junior high, but now the government is requiring classes start in Elementary school as well. Another factor might be the economic angle and people seeing English as not being "required" in working society. Having worked as an ALT though and talked to other teachers in the public school system, I have come up with another possible factor as well though and I call it "assisted self-defeatism" which really turns out to be just a form a Nihonjinron (日本人論, there isn't a good English trans for this, if you are interested, google it, there is a wiki page). Here is a scene that has happened in a few elementary classes before. The ALT teacher is doing a lesson on some Question & Answer English phrase, such as, "What color do you like?" "I like purple!" The ALT is going around asking kids and getting responses back but then gets to a kid that is just having a hard time understanding this phrase and can't respond. Maybe the kid gets frustrated and says something like 「英語全然わからない！」(I don't understand English at all!) The homeroom teacher, whose English also isn't very good steps in and says something like: 「大丈夫、日本人だから英語が難しいです。」(It's alright, English is difficult because you are Japanese.) I and many other teachers have heard an exchange like this from teachers to students. It gives students an excuse to latch onto for why they have trouble with English and I think a lot of students hold onto it all the way through school as a reason to not try, or to give up when things get difficult. There is no single answer you can point at to answer "Why is Japan's English proficiency so bad?" It's simply a matter of multiple factors taking place. For the regular Japanese, I don't think it's that big of a deal, but I think politicians and businesses worry about it a lot because Japan's place as an economic power is slowly falling. I don't think anyone believes its because Japan's English skill is low, but I suspect many feel that higher levels of skill would give Japanese businesses more fluidity in an international environment.