日本語 Immersion - Why and How (Hikosaemon agrees)

[XxZaackxX]

I really like your SHIRT!!!!! lol

[Pokeball26]

I listen to japanese music everyday, haha. Have been since about the 6th grade. I'm in the 11th grade now, and finally attempting to learn the language. Though throughout the years i have picked up several phrases but haven't bothered learning how to actually speak it fluently or write it out. I just bought a hiragana/katakana learning handbook today. And this video gives me so much confidence! I'm ready to immerse!

[KamiSetsuri]

Thanks for the advice! I found myself getting lazier and lazier because of school and video games. (and summer) I use to love learning Japanese 4+ hours a day, but now it's like I have to force myself to do it, and then I might have a little fun while doing it. Also I do make a note, I have changed my computer to show Japanese when I boot up, but I changed my screen font back to english. (to understand programs and stuff) so a burn-out is pretty hard.

[ilike3or4]

So a year has past. Do you still have you system in Japanese and you do still devote a lot of time everyday to learning? I'm using iknow.jp website - learning words and their kanji, instead of helsing. I also watch anime, japan tv via KeyHole program... lots of stuff. But I take a breaks sometimes, since it's too much for the brain. I know about 600-800 words after about 3-4 months. But I chaned websites and system back to English. But that's just me.

[acw584]

hey thanks for the great video. you mentioned a link to japanese audio files with english translations... can you please post the link? thanks very much!

[mark95427]

good vid

[jugglingotaku]

For me I like video games a lot, so I watch a lot of 実況プレイ videos on youtube. It can actually be better than buying the game because you get a real person speaking in the background, making comments on the game, and you can also pause and look up words.

[Unicornzilla]

thankyou so much for this video !!!

rright now im working on how to form sentences..

i immerse myself, and study 5 hours a day.. yet -_- i cant remember it all by then end of the week, it took me 2 weeks to learn hira and kata, and it was easy..

but forming a sentence and so forth took me almost a year..

do you suggest anything???

[sora3428]

PLEASE SOME READ THIS ok i am learning kanji right now using remember the kanji and i was wonder what do i do in the mean time. Yes i am in an immerse environment and listening to japanese music and watching japanese videos and some anime. I am guess that it will take me 3 months to complete this book but in the mean time what do i do about learn japanese. I know that i am being confusing but right now i am only understand reading what about understand when some one is speaking please help me

[KamiSetsuri]

@sora3428 hey, I'm using the same book. (and making very slow progress) what I'd recommend you do is to get this one program called Anki and download the deck with 25k facts. (just search "japanese core" in the anki search). Also I highly recommend you go to this site to review the kanji you learn from that book, it is actually based on that book, and it's VERY helpful to me. it's called: kanji.koohii(dot)com let me know if you want to know more.

[BriCareful]

HEEYYYYYY !!!!!!! :O nice shirt

[HoseiTutor]

haha !! I love the video, everything you said is true, the hikosaemon part was funny. So I don´t mean to hate, but since you took every advice in this video (partly the exact wording) from the AJATT site, i think it would be fair to tell people where you got this stuff from and give some credit to Khatzumoto in this video. I don´t know if you do so in other videos, but i think it´s worth mentioning him in every single video like that is based on his method.

[delbertmon]

@HoseiTutor in the description it's the second link

[HoseiTutor]

@delbertmon

Oops, silly me. Sorry for my impudent comment !!

I think your videos are a great help for students of Japanese ! If I had used this "immersion method" right from the start (3 years ago) I would probably be fluent already. Since I came across AJATT some month ago I´m making rapid progress though. Maybe the most important step for me was the discovery of keyhole TV... tired of watching Japanese late-night infomercials though (damn time lag !! ^ ^ )

[HoseiTutor]

@HoseiTutor

[iwantinyoursocks]

Sorry I dont mean to double posted.. But awesome links and video! Thank you so much! I loveee it totally bookmarking a lot of it!

[iwantinyoursocks]

Sorry I dont mean to double posted.. But awesome links and video! Thank you so much! I loveee it totally bookmarking a lot of it!

[iwantinyoursocks]

Sorry I dont mean to double posted.. But awesome links and video! Thank you so much! I loveee it totally bookmarking a lot of it!

[iwantinyoursocks]

Im feelin your hat and cape/blanket (:

[weefunker]

I watch anime 24/7 and have My Japanese Coach and Pimslurs

Nohongo ga skoshi wakarimas

:)

[JeremyScottThompson]

This is so true and i am going to be doing it when i move to japan in 2 weeks...ive been learning gradually but luckily i am located in a small city in the north of japan where hardly any english is spoken so i HAVE to learn. When i started picking up words and watched films, granted i had subtitles on, i was able to pick out words i had learnt...thats a great feeling when that happens

[nivlas1]

I'm an ELT teaching in Toronto, planning to go abroad soon, Korea, Japan. Great video. Very good advice. Hope you don't mind if I play it to my students (who are trying to immerse themselves in English). Excellent advice.

[Radrey]

LOL @ hikosaemon. That was awesome. That's a pretty cool idea having youtube J-vloggers interrupting your channel. Interesting effect.

Like chemist.. I think I'm gonna make a response to this vid.

5/5

[delbertmon]

@Radrey absolutely make a video response. i'm hoping this can be a a decent reference for people learning the language, so the more perspectives the better. Hiko's response was epic as well. definitely worth a watch.

[Radrey]

well, it might be a half assed response so to say. Mostly because I have other important things I need to talk about in the video. but none the less. I think it might help some learners see where I am at with the whole Japanese immersion process.

[tweety0bird8]

watashi no sukina shatsu wa arimasu!

[tonygaijin]

awesome ending! yea immersion does work for me also, i started by listening to a bunch of japanese podcasts from itunes and continuing to watch japanese movies. about a month ago i began using the anki program and it has also been helping a great deal. Great vid!

[mi9ke9]

If you have a ps3 make a Japanese psn account and use PlaystationHome. Its helped me a lot. You get to use the japanese you learned with real japanese ppl.

[StillSimplyMeSue]

Sorrrrryyyy......my comment wasnt that great...dont punish me...

[acromel]

2) Virtuous circle.

[BentoBenjamin]

I live in Sapporo on and off and I agree with everything you said, except for one statement. It is not possible to switch your iTunes to iTunes Japan unless you have a Japanese billing address. I've contacted iTunes about this and tried to explain that, while my postal address is in Japan, my billing addresss has to stay in America for various reasons. but it was a no go. oh well, good videos by the way! :)

[delbertmon]

@BentoBenjamin Bro... easy side step, buy an iTunes gift card at a 7-11 or something and create an account using it. That's what I did and it worked the first time. Down side is you have to buy gift cards to use the store, but you're still spending money and getting products.

[BentoBenjamin]

oh, that's actually a really good idea! Thanks! lol, I feel kinda stupid that i didn't think about it... haha

[ElevenColors]

BEST.... CLOSING.... EVAH!!!!

[sauron1grenoble]

love the video!

[studyingjapanese]

Great video!!

this video is pure motivation for me!!

thanks!!

[itsfortytwo]

Hey! Found your channel through ChemistInJapan - great stuff that you put up. I will move to Japan solely to learn Japanese (will go to a language school there) - pretty much for all the reasons you mentioned in this vid: total immersion. I am looking forward to my experience in Tokyo.

5 stars and a subscription from me. Oh, and the 42nd rating, too... I will give myself several million points out of 10 for style...

[reynoldsair]

well said, man.

[denitson777]

That's what I did back then when I was learning english,and it worked fine and dandy ^_^

Guys listen to Delbertmon,he really knows what he's talking about

poor hiko,but hey that's the nature of the game ^_^

[CrappyCartoons]

Using a Japanese keyboard on a regular basis does make it a little difficult when you back to type on an English keyboard. Whenever I go back to the states and borrow somebody's PC, I am forever looking for the "@" key.

[yumyumsesame]

Free audio books?! Awesomeness! :)

[kickass108]

question, I have been watching a lot of Japanese TV and I noticed that they use tend to use subtitles when someone speaks. Any idea why?

[Kordoc5]

Noooo! Hikosaemon! Your sick delbertmon sick I tell you! Trapping poor Hikosaemon in your basement! =P

Anyways...love the video man. I have to agree on not stopping your immersion because I decided to stop for a few days to take a break and now its really hard for me to get back into it.

[JDavis1186]

Awesome advice.

... Did you trap Hikosaemon in one of those prison books from Myst?

[kushinbou]

"Fun fo shizzle" haha...awesome!

 ありがとうね！

[sdurameshi19]

Thanks for the tips. I'm actually trying to learn Japanese through my DS and so far I think I'm having some pretty good results. However immersion sounds more effective.

[RisuMiso]

First of all, great video!

Second of all, I may be a hoser but you look like a hoser! Eh!

Lastly, thanks for the plug! Your ending was really cool!

[MrHiberto]

lol katsumoto would be proud

[TheDutchGaijin]

HAHAHA...

Don't torture/threaten that poor Hiko!

[StillSimplyMeSue]

Just to get (the) books is haaard:) no book shops carry here any jap language books..not to speak of an English version...havent found one yet...Seems to me i have to go to University-Eastern languages and ask where to find any...here its not a very popular language to learn unless you take Classes at uni.:P

[StillSimplyMeSue]

You know what i meant...:)its hard for people hwo dont have resources like Pc(all the time)for sites to help you or jap programs or dont live in japan...its more difficult...have to make things happen in kindergarten style:Dbelive me...im doing it:)

[StillSimplyMeSue]

Amount of suicking goes down:)))))))

[ElevenColors]

Ordered a T-shirt. First time ever ordering from cafepress. Be interesting to see how long it takes to get here.

[DanielGuerrera]

Haha, Hiko's a hostage. Noooo!

One of these days I would like to see a video in Japanese, or at least partial Japanese, just like what our good friend Hikosaemon does regularly. I think that would be an excellent way for you to improve your skills to a greater level =)

[trumasamune]

Phenomenally helpful video. I have friends ask me all the time what the best way to learn JPN from scratch.

Having taken 3 semesters of it in college I really have no way of knowing what will work. I've recommended Victor's JFM a couple times but that gets mixed results.

I'm going to start using this vid as a complement to his stuff, as well as use some of the ideas to keep my stuff sharp.

Thanks again d-mon, you rock!

[Tehiyeh]

I just discovered your videos a couple days ago, but you've quickly become one of my favorites on youtube. Thank you for your fun videos and great advice!! I am so much more motivated now (I was feeling a little discouraged about my japanese learning).  Thank you!!!

[212rocky212]

an awesome vid with an awesome look :D

[tmrdrgz]

Kick ass video, if I may say so. I often put KeyHoleTV on when just doing some light work or when I'm bored (I like watching Fuji Terebi). They often have Japanese subtitles when interviewing people on news stuff so I can read along. Fun ^_^

[ryno4u]

lol i remember having one of those revelations while watching Dragon Ball Z XD

[JoeCubicle]

Very good message. Talk about motivating, you have a real gift for promotion!

We have an exchange student coming to our house this August and I think you are getting me off my procrastinating butt so to speak.

[delbertmon]

@JoeCubicle Motivation is easy when your options are to hurdle big barriers like Japanese or to be isolated from the society you live in (for me... Japan). But yes, I find myself to get somewhat passionate and motivation is never far behind passion.

[hcm9999]

Post videos in Japanese!

[delbertmon]

@hcm9999 at the moment, although I feel i am getting quite literate my speech is not at a level to make videos in japanese. i do speak all day with my co-workers though... so hopefully in the future when i have more confidence. thanks for the encouragement!

[jericomovie]

in addition to all that great information, I have to say that as soon as I started thinking of Japanese as a different "style of speaking/writing," rather than "a foreign language," my assimilation of new words was much faster. I was also able to understand fast spoken Japanese (or at least the words that I had studied) with little or no strain. Best of luck to all those trying to learn the language...I mean "the style" x)

[delbertmon]

complete rubbish. what a hack.

...

i agree.

[jericomovie]

もやだー :p

I rely on these videos to distract me from the hundreds of people who mean those sorts of things when they say them.

[delbertmon]

you really do take a lot of heat... I was actually really glad for your comment. i thought of including similar things however there's only so much I can remember to deliver in 10 min. (and i hate making long videos anyway)

[jericomovie]

it's all good. これからも頑張ってください。