#220 Why and How I Came To Be Able To Speak Japanese

[Charmancer]

That is a very interesting story But I myself am reluctant to learn Japanese a the pronounciations are very specific and I consider all the need to knows so I feel a bit discouraged.

Can someone tell me if it is ok to just learn Japanese speech or would it be a requirement to also learn Manderin and Kantanese too, I also know theres a way you speak to family, friends etc, specifically but anyway, can someone please give me a heads up here!

[Lonewolf43]

I'm a freshman now at Cornell and was thinking of taking FALCON next year starting this summer, I hope i get in : D

[ElevenColors]

@Lonewolf43 Go for it. And be sure you stick with it, or all the pain will be for nothing. ;-D

[superbe4tt]

Thats awesome!

I wish i could study japanese..

I can speak a couple of langauges..

Im dutch, so dutch, english, german (but i hate it), french and spanish.. and now im learning japanese.. but not on a teacher-level.. but on a internet- level :P So you guys are really helping me out.

[ElevenColors]

@superne4tt Can't say what it is but my last name is Dutch, from the Frisian islands I've been told. Been meaning to visit one of these days, and I have long envied folks like yourself who could speak 50 different languages.

[superbe4tt]

hahaha Frisian Islands :P LOL!

I think you mean ''Friesland''?

wow then u got a pretty special last name!

You should come and visited! and then we'll meet up.. And you could learn me some on ur japanese and I will ''teach'''you al those ''50 languages'' xD!!!

[avernikas]

fate is a strange biatch, down side of all things is not being born in the same society as america, but being born in a shitty one such as the bahamas, all the years of my japanese dreams and i'm still in nassau, ho hum.

[draggt03]

Ya ive studied spanish, and german, but japanese ive been learning alot easier than both of those.

[badymojoy]

I admire you so much sir. Japanese is a beast. A beast I will always love. I too shall one day stand victorious upon it's vanquished corpse.

I found your channel by watching BetamaxDC's videos. Eventually I'll make my way through all your videos.

[ElevenColors]

Yep, vanquished corpse sums up a lot of feelings pretty accurately.

All my videos though? Ah dunno, I've put up a lot of crap over the past year. ;-)

[badymojoy]

Holy #$^@ I said that without actually noticing how many vids you've posted...ermm....umm...no matter!

[DrumzNChopstix]

Lmao that's one of the funniest fate stories I've ever heard

I'm surprised you started in College and can speak so well...I started in 8th grade-ish

[ElevenColors]

Stick with it and you'll be better than I am. 8th grade, only choices I had were French, Spanish, and Latin.

[ragnartheawful]

Great story. I'm on a quest to learn the language myself. Nice shades, too.

[ElevenColors]

Heh, thnx. Good luck.

[novanine]

Happy circumstance!

[ElevenColors]

And bizarre coincidence.

[robotpanda77]

Interesting. You and I may be the only ones in the US who did not start because of anime. Judging from your accentation I guessed you had access to a friend or relationship partner to study with from Japan. Still, it takes a unholy obsession to learn Japanese, I feel there is much more to this story left untold.

[ElevenColors]

Not so obsession as a determinatiion to master a beast. ;-)

[saiyouken]

great story. the impressive part is what happened after; you must have taken it seriously enough to study, get interested in it and ultimately learned it. Lots of people who study language in university don't achieve fluency like you.

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Thanks. More like, learning to speak was my revenge for how hard it was. ;-)

[TokyoBrando]

hahah thats awesome man, everything happens for a reason huh?

[Joskun]

Funny how life works.

[ericsurf6]

Great story!

[ElevenColors]

Heh, thx. For a couple years after it happened I enjoyed telling the story. Then I got sort of tired of telling it. Then after I started YouTubing I figured I needed to tell it just one more time.

[Daichen]

funny how things happens with you lol.

[ElevenColors]

Not enough involving porn stars or strippers unfortunately.

[tokyocooney]

Salve, Eleven colors... Not a bad school Cornell, but certainly no Syracuse University. Actually my band played a bunch of gigs at The Haunt, Im guessing you know that place.

[tokyocooney]

Salve, Eleven colors... Not a bad school Cornell, but certainly no Syracuse University. Actually my band played a bunch of gigs at The Haunt, Im guessing you know that place.

[ElevenColors]

Ah yeah! Knew the place but only made it down there once on some sorta DJ night. I think Shonen Knife played there once as well.

[percast]

It's funny how you got too study Japanese XD

It was meant to be O_o

:D

[ElevenColors]

Funny thing, I don't believe in a god with a long flowing white beard that wants me to go to a building on a sunday and sing, but I do believe in a sum total of bizarre circumstances which send me in a particular contorted direction. If that makes any sense.

[myargonauts]

nice! I liked this one. :)

Funny how little things in life can majorly alter your course...

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Part 2 coming up soon. That one'll make you laff.

[NichiBeiTrader]

Isn't that the truth. I went on a summer homestay in Japan in 1986 only because my sister decided not to do it at the last minute. And that changed my road dramatically...

[jonxjquee]

damn something so seemingly insignificant completely changed your life

[ElevenColors]

Heh. "Changed" feels like an understatement but I can't think of a better word.

[Y0urHumbleNarrat0r]

yay! I've wanted to know these things about you.. XP

Nice shirt maaane. Spooky katakana font ftw.

[ElevenColors]

You know that reminds me, I could add annotation's for the band's channel and videos.

Band's name is Bleach, but in the States they're known as bleach03 to avoid a name conflict with a Christian band that goes by the same name. Their YouTube channel, set up by their intrepid manager Nami, is "bleach03rocks". Looks like they've got loads of other videos on other channels too.

(*^_^*)/

[Y0urHumbleNarrat0r]

Soo desu ka..

What does the "pv" mean in nihon videos? Something video I'm assuming...

[ElevenColors]

Oh, PV is an acronym for Promotion Video. In practice it's used to refer to music videos of the sort you'd expect to see on MTV.

In Korea btw, the acronym appears to be MV. Same meaning, I figure.

[Y0urHumbleNarrat0r]

oooooohhh, okay. Now it makes since. Thank yah.

From your videos, it looks as if you are into the punk rock genre?

I was wondering if you have heard of the band " ジン " ? I don't know why, but im the romaji version they spell it "Jinn". In anycase, a good video by them is Raion (2nd video from the top if you search jinn Raion, (the non live version)) and Shishi no tane. Tell me what you think?

[ElevenColors]

Right, haven't seem them live but I saw them on SpaceShowerTV a few years back, just before they went major. I've seen them on the schedule of Shimokitazawa Daisy Bar several times. Like the sound, haven't seen them live yet.

When I first saw them I got the impression they were filling the role in the "major" music scene that Bean Bag (channel BC10Eureka) filled a few years before. Not sure if ジン are still major. They might have gone back to indies and kept going, much like Bean Bag.

[kansaiPJ]

Isn't it funny that the little choices, the ones that we never think will be important, tend to be the most life-changing?

[ElevenColors]

Oddly frightening and calming at the same time, aye.

[Noxp]

Maybe it wasn't a mistake/error after all, cue Twilight Zone music..

[ElevenColors]

Probably wasn't. I've made a mental note to tell the story about the birthday coincidence. Your head will spin when I tell it.

[J355UP21]

haha great story! 5/5

[ElevenColors]

Thx for the rating!

[ElevenColors]

Sliding Doors... wasn't there a movie title by that name? I'm kinda out the loop if it's not on the right cable channels.

[reynoldsair]

cool story

[ElevenColors]

much obliged. :-)

[JamieDanger]

If you would have taken German and spoke German and moved to Germany to work, and then vlogged in German, I'd still probably watch your videos.

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Thanks. Yep, I probably would've been doing collabs with SpeedyConKiwi by now.

[Gimmeabreakman]

You were the 13th! The Gates of Hell are creaking open!

Funny story. Especially given the title. I'm sure many wannabe Weaboos shall be disappointed you did not reveal THE secret!

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Yep. The 13th Student. Played by Antonio Banderas in the movie...

Weaboos? Funny thing. I don't even know how to pronounce the word. I came to Japan before anyone in the States knew what wasabi was.

[chibile]

You bastard are wearing my T-shirt again. Oh wait, mine is the one with the red lettering. ;) Anygoats, I am sure you would have enjoyed German less than Japanese, we are a bunch of humorless grammar Nazis, didn't you know? ^o^ After formally learning English and French and informally bits of Dutch and Spanish, my brain is having a hard time with nihongo, guess it's full and my ripe ole age is showing. ^.^;; That and me being a lazy bum.

[ElevenColors]

Let me look around. I might have that one too.

Humorless grammar Nazis would have worked great for me. At least you can count on Germans to let you know when you screw up.

[BusanKevin]

Well, looks to me as if that clerical error was certainly a good thing in the end! They offered no Asian languages at my high school or university. French was about the only thing we had.

[ElevenColors]

Well, y'all had a practical application for it in your country, in principle at least.

Foreign languages at least as they were taught in the Boston area were fuxored. Completely ignored any Haitian or Mexican populations nearby. Not even a mention of Quebec. It was all European-focused purism and completely impractical.

[BlackDreadBoy]

wow

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Yep.

[tias90]

So you settled for Japanese ;)

Shame that very few High Schools in the US seem to offer Japanese. It seems that just about every semi-decent High School in Australia offers Japanese, especially in Western Australia, hehe. I assume youve also taken JLPT since you speak Japanese, right? Out of curiosity...

[ElevenColors]

Yeah, I took level one at the end of 1999 and passed. That was my third try at it though. Passed level 2, failed level 1 twice, then passed level 1.

[tias90]

Oh that's awesome. I passed level 2 last year :)

[artworkslive]

i like boobs.

i might just use that as my catch phrase....kinda like 'mikma was here.'

tell us more about how you wound up in japan. was that also due to some clerical mix up?

[ElevenColors]

I love boobs. In fact there's one pair that I'm missing very much right now, but I might not ever see them again. Ah well.

How I wound up in Japan does deserve its own vlog. Tied a string around my finger for now.

:-)

[HaxorLee]

all i have to say is LOL :P

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Yep.

[acromel]

Loki nudged the fickle hand of fate. ;o)

Do you like Japanese? Is it a nice language to use?

I always really enjoyed Latin, aside from the grammar, it has a really nice `feel' to it. Italian a bit the same, unsurprisingly.

I haven't been absorbing Japanese for very long but it also has really a nice feel to it. Almost elegant. Especially the fragments of old, formal Japanese that I've heard.

It's just the learning to read thing that takes the time. Thank goodness for Heisig!

[ElevenColors]

Yeah, I do like the language. Big parts of it are lost in translation and underutilized within Japan itself.

[denitson777]

wow,great history,The languaje i spoke growing up was spanish,then i came to live to usa and learned english,and now Im trying to learn japanese,which i found kind of hard,If you or anybody could give me some recomendations,would be very helpfull!

[ElevenColors]

Pronunciation is similar to Spanish so you have a head start there.

Lots of folks out there have made videos about how to learn Japanese. Best advice I can give in one sentence is to get a job other than as an English teacher and live in Japan but as far away from the major cities as possible.

[reynoldsair]

Although, a) it won't be easy to get a job and b) once you do get it, it won't be easy~

[MisterNES]

wow, and to think i'm about to become an ENglish teche rin Tokyo. Can't be good for my Japanese.

[ElevenColors]

The job itself might not be, but if you make efforts outside of your workplace then you can overcome its limitations.

[kakera]

Lucky thirteen!!

:) Becoming fluent is the hardest thing!!

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Well, in retrospect I s'pose it boils down to how you choose to spend your time. :-)

[ToLokyo]

I totally agree!

"Fun" is so often mistaken for "hard" by people out here. :P

[TheUnderdocker]

Great story. I think a lot of us went through the Grew Up on Dragonball and Final Fantasy Vein.

[ElevenColors]

Funny thing, when I was a little kid, on UHF channels there were Star Blazers and a group of anime series collectively called Force Five. After that, Robotech/Macross. After that, Power Rangers. The first generation Power Rangers are the only ones I know.

By the time I hit college though I had outgrown all that. Went to the anime club screenings a few times, couldn't get into it.

It's well worth sticking with the language though.

:-)

[ToLokyo]

I used to watch Cowboy Bebop with friends every Saturday night in Uni. That was the extent of my anime exposure before coming to Japan.

Still don't understand why anyone ever liked the Power Rangers/Ultraman/ weird old-school Japanese Spiderman (YouTube search it) genre.

Crazy little story~

You think the music would have been better in Germany?

[ElevenColors]

Haven't been to Germany, so I'm not sure, but I can't imagine it being better than in Japan. If I were in Germany now, I'd probably be taking trips up to Finland to see Korpisklaani. (Youtube search for "Korpisklaani beer beer").

First generation Power Rangers' Yellow ranger was a lovely girl of Vietnamese descent I believe, and I have a raging Asian fetish.

[ToLokyo]

I guess anyone can only take so much of "Du Hast" and David Hasselhoff.

Now that you mention it, I do remember jokes about a Pink Ranger when I was in junior high...maybe she was hot too?

[ElevenColors]

Ain't nothing wrong with too much Du Hast. :-)

Don't recall any jokes about the Pink Ranger. Could have been after my time. Don't recall her being hot but everyone's got a preference.

In any Ranger group the pink one is always the token girl. In the first generation Power Rangers in the States, back when all the fight scenes were dubbed from the original Japanese, the Yellow Ranger was a girl with small boobs.

[Thesmitster]

Nice story, James. It's funny how fate unfolds.

[ElevenColors]

Truly bizarre is more like it.

[Niiickoh]

Ha ha, that's a neat story. :)

Glad it all worked out!

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Yep, still chugging along.

[Broan13]

Ha. About the only time I regret going to a polytechnic school is when it comes to language learning. Our language department won't give any more funding to give a second year of Japanese.

Taking German for me happened in a similar way. Lots of conflicts lead to taking German, which lead to taking other classes that I ended up continuing later and enjoying them.

hooray!

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Well, I pretty much beat myself to death through years of classes, but there are folks out there who throw themselves into self study and get fluent in much less time. Just thing of all the things you do with your day that are a waste of time -- TV, video games -- and replace them with study. Funding schmunding. :-)

Yep, fate's a funny thing. Sit back and ride the roiler coaster. :-)

[Radrey]

its funny how beneficial it is to take Japanese class. If I never took Japanese class back at my community college, I would have never met the Temple University Japan representative that came into our class one day. I suppose I'd be out in California or some film school if it wasn't for that class.

[ElevenColors]

Yah, my engineering advisor thought I was nuts. But I outlived the last bubble. I should do okay with this one.

[Hikosaemon]

Haha, wow, a funny old world. I had to do Latin as well - my only choice in school subjects in my first year of high school was French or Japanese, and I chose Japanese pretty much because my parents told me to take French, and it was the closest thing to Chinese on offer. Funny how things turn out ;)

Peace

[ElevenColors]

Latin was an excellent training language. Learning how to learn Latin got me prepared for everything else.

Japanese in your high school? Lucky. For modern languages we had French and Spanish, and probably since I wasn't any good at soccer I didn't stick with either.

[IntlAce]

sooooo...u kno japanese right cuz u wanted bacon and eggs like 17 years ago?!

all this time i thought it was da sun glasses XD

-Ace

[ElevenColors]

Omlettes. Cooked right there with bacon and green peppers and cheese. Cornell had the best food. All you can eat. Never learned how to cook it was too damned good.

[watsursnbaby]

haha thats pretty cool man.

[ElevenColors]

Pretty damned lucky too, when I think of everything that's happened since then.

[Call1us]

Wow, what a random way of learning Japanese! Did you think you were going to live in Japan/Germany when you were choosing courses or did that not cross your mind at the time?

[ElevenColors]

Didn't cross my mind. I just wanted to learn how to speak a language other than English.

[enbejey]

Haha. Good story.

[ElevenColors]

Heh. Thanks. Was considering a reshoot but figured, what the hell.

[enbejey]

Hey ElevenColors, I was thinking since you touched up on the subject... Could you give us some insight on to the techniques that worked best for you in learning Japanese? How did your progress go? What kept your motivation up? And so on. Thanks. :)

[ElevenColors]

Handwriting my own flashcards. Finding a girlfriend and refusing to speak English with her. Finding a good language school in Tokyo near where I worked with classes at night because my job at the time didn't involve much Japanese.

Motivation... finding music I liked. That helped.

[enbejey]

Fair enough. :)