Learning a new language is not only something that pushes you to develop your memory, but it is also a cool skill to have. It is a skill that will connect you with others and teach you a lot about new wonderful cultures you never would have discovered unless you learned that specific language. One language that has become rather popular throughout the years with the worldwide increasing interest in its countries pop culture, but also a place for travel such as study or work purposes, is the amazing language of Japan, also known as Japanese (日本語 - nihongo).
With the increasing popularity of learning Japanese, there are is also an increasing number of people creating their own YouTube channels with the purpose of teaching people the language. Ranging from teaching the Japanese writing system such as Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (カタカナ) and Kanji (漢字), to other topics such as grammar, pitch accent, dialect, honorific speech, Japanese culture and so on. Some YouTubers we would like to recommend are; Miku Real Japanese, もしもしゆうすけ (Moshi Moshi Yusuke), Dogen and Let's ask Shogo | Your Japanese friend in Kyoto.
Firstly, we would like to describe the Youtube channel Miku Real Japanese. The owners name of this channel is Miku and she is Japanese. In most of her videos she focuses on teaching Japanese vocabulary, grammar, particles, verb conjugation, listening practice and also introduces interesting facts about Japanese culture. Miku is always very cheerful and her teaching is very easy to understand for someone that has completed their learnings of Hiragana and Katakana. In most of her videos she will speak and explain things in English, but when it comes to the exercises, she will speak Japanese. She also goes into details when explaining different grammar structures and rules there are in the language. If there happens to be an irregular rule in the language she will explain why and how it is different from the main structure. Miku Real Japanese is a channel for people that wish to learn more basic Japanese in terms of vocabulary and grammar.
Next is もしもしゆうすけ (Moshi Moshi Yusuke). The owner’s name of this channel is Yusuke. Yusuke’s channel is definitely a recommend for those that would like to enhance their listening practice, but also learn daily used Japanese vocabulary. In most of Yusuke’s videos he will walk somewhere in Tokyo and have a monologue. His monologue is always centered around one topic, but provides many different facts or ideas relating to this topic. For example, in one of his videos he introduces the concept of Japanese convenience stores (コンビニ – Konbini). Not only does he mention what type of convenience stores there are in Japan and what they sell, but also mentions what type of vocabulary and grammar structures are useful to know in order to use when visiting a Japanese convenience store. Yusuke’s videos are great for listening practice, but also learn useful daily phrases. In addition, all of his videos are translated in both Japanese and English so we would recommend trying to read his subtitles in Japanese to further improve you reading skills.
Up next is Dogen. Dogen is an American YouTuber but residing in Japan. Although, a foreigner, Dogen is quite famous for his amazing Japanese, especially in nailing the Japanese pitch-accent. Most of his old videos lean into Japanese pronunciation and how to improve your pitch-accent. Many beginners of learning Japanese might think the pitch accent is not that important, but it is. For example, the word for sweets or candy in Japanese is お菓子 (Okashi) and the word for strange; funny; weird is also おかしい (Okashii). Very similar words in which the pitch-accent is very important to know in order to not create a misunderstanding. For anyone that would like to improve their Japanese pronunciation and learn more about the pitch-accent then Dogen is a good recommendation. If you like comedy and want to learn more about Japanese culture through funny skits, then Dogen is a recommend there as well as many of his newest videos are mostly comedy oriented.
And our last recommendation is Let's ask Shogo | Your Japanese friend in Kyoto. Not really a channel focused on teaching Japanese, but you can definitely learn a lot about the language through their cultural and historical oriented videos. Shogo and his friends do mostly create videos about historical and cultural events or concepts in Japan. Some examples are geisha, ninja, sumo, traditional music, religion and so on. Sometimes throughout his videos, Shogo might explain why the word for a concept is the way it is, for example why is it is called geisha, ninja and so on. So, if you are interested in historical and cultural events or concepts in Japan and would like to learn the history behind many of Japan’s vocabularies then Shogo’s channel is definitely something for you.
Throughout this blog post we recommended four channels in detail, but we have listed some channels below in the reference list for anyone interested to check out other creators that teach Japanese. If you are a beginner of learning Japanese and has not learned Hiragana and Katakana yet there are some channels listed down below in the references as well. We also encourage you to do your own research as there are many great channels on YouTube aimed at teaching you this wonderful language.
Presented by APU LEAF
Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/apu.leaf/
Reference list:
NihongoDekita with Sayaka (Teach Japanese vocabulary and funny skits)
Yuko Sensei (Teach Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, Particles and easy grammar structures)
Tomo Sensei (Teach Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, and provides listening and readings tests)
George Japan (Funny skits about Japanese culture and language)
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