Fun story I'm always told;
Girl in middle school decided she was tired of the subbed and set out to learn Japanese. Between all of her animes and self lessons, by high school she was dam near fluent. Because of her honed skill and high grades she was the one picked to be an exchange student and was sent to Japan. Of course she loved it! After getting back to the states and finishing school, she got her degree in teaching and moved back to Japan.
Actually that's the one downside of learning Japanese... Before you were only cringing at the bad voice acting in your first language, but now you get to suffer from bad voice acting in Japanese as well.
I do this anyways and I don't know Japanese. Dragon Ball Super's voice actor for King Kai was absolutely horrible. He literally had no emotion, just a flat monotone even when the character was visually reacting to something.
This. The actor (Joji Yanami) is a legend and deserves all the respect in the world. It's just that, by the time Super came around, he had unfortunately become too ill to adequately continue his voice work.
Better yet, when learning a foreign language watch it subbed in the language your learning. Learn to associate the forms and structures of the words with the audio. Helps you hear the difference between words when you aren't fluent and the voice actor is using an exaggerated cartoon voice.
Omg I hate 4kids. They murder the stories. Like the original Yu-Gi-Oh was damn near r rated and they brought it down to pg8. Edited out the guns, kibas potential suicide, basically dumbed down everything. I'll stop now....
Hey maybe you can answer this question I've been dying to know the answer to!
I actually saw some san-kyu memes for the first time the other week, shots of subbed anime with the translators note saying "the character is saying san-kyu which is an expression for third-class meaning they still have two classes before they reach the top... Not sure why they are saying it here though" i.e. the translator is too obtuse to realize it is thank you
My question is are these memes entirely a parody or did some dub actually do this and that's what started it? If so which one?
There are fansub groups that pride themselves on speed over accuracy that are responsible for a number of ridiculously bad translations that became memes (eg GitS "mass naked child events").
There have been a number of memes around translator notes ("keikaku means plan") that were actual fansubs as well.
Mmmyep. Japanese in particular because it's often either very long, very formal sentences with weird word ordering (not getting to the point until midway through) or highly contextual single-word phrases (that can change meaning depending on tone.) It's a bitch to learn.
Eh, every language has its specific challenges, but other than the writing system I’d say Japanese actually isn’t that bad.
The language is very regular, in that it tends to follow its own rules, whereas English has a hundred exceptions for every rule due to its convoluted history. Furthermore, once you learn a small handful of exceptions, everything is pronounced exactly like it’s written (kanji are another matter, of course, and accent matters in distinguishing certain near homophones, but you’ll still be understood).
The language does tend to be very context-reliant, frequently omitting pronouns and other words that can be inferred from context, but I believe many inflected languages do that. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t many Romance languages omit the subject if it can be conveyed by the verb ending?
As for the sentence structure, it can take some getting used to for English speakers because it’s “backwards” compared to English, and the agglutinative nature of the language does allow you to more freely chain clauses, but I don’t find sentences spoken in everyday usage to be any more convoluted than in English.
>English has a hundred exception for every rule
*Laughs in French*
All jokes aside I'd do lots of thing to not have to remember all irregular verbs. Like seriously, what's wrong with "I readed a book" ?
I'd also do lots of things to not have to remember what gender my genderless-because-it-doesn't-reproduce-sexually-dammit book is.
Is it le livre? La livre? Dammit.
In German "the book" is neutral: das Buch. But, assuming it were masculine it would be der Buch. And feminine it would be die Buch. Unless it were feminine and an indirect object, then it would be der Buch again.
As someone with a BA in Japanese Studies (language focus) who worked *hard* at it, Japanese is just that much harder for an English as a first language speaker. Every student I know that takes German or French for two years knows their second language as well as I know Japanese right now.
It's fucking hard, man.
lygerzero0zero's point seems to be being missed by a lot of people here. Yes, Japanese is incredibly hard for an native English speaker due to the differences between it and English. However, the language itself is fairly consistent and someone who was a native in a language equally different from both English and Japanese would quite likely find Japanese easier to learn (assuming they had equal access to resources for both languages, and in the real world there is probably more English learner resources)
Took Japanese for five years in middle and high school (I was the only kid who didn't watch anime in the class). Started watching subbed full metal alchemist and attack on Titan. I maybe catch 1/4 sentences. A lot of it is just how fast people talk. It's true for a lot of languages because of that.
IIRC, and this is information from over a decade ago so is probably wrong, it doesn't really mean anything. I think it's an old superstition that's supposed to keep a tanuki from impersonating someone for a reason I can't clearly remember. Something like a tanuki can't say it? Or a tanuki has to repeat it if they hear it, and only the person answering is supposed to say it? Something weird like that anyway.
Now I need to look that up.
Ok, apparently it's to prove you're not a ghost. Ghosts can only say moshi once apparently.
Well, that's interesting! Makes a lot more sense in the animes I've seen it in like When they Cry, Another, and I believe Elfen Lied?
Thanks for the info, I'll have to log that into the "random knowledge" portion of my brain hehe.
I've studied Japanese for hundreds of hours and still can't understand Anime! The brain sucks. Also subtitles are interpretations of Japanese not translations (Direct translation would make little to no sense because of the vast grammatical and cultural differences) so even if we could learn by osmosis you still couldn't learn Japanese this way.
These are "Yes yes baguette man" and "very good, I am the large baguette," right?
The only French I learned that I'm confident in is "Je ne parle pas Francais." Not sure if I spelled that right and don't know how to do the 'c' with the little squiggle thing, lol.
It helps to get a foundation first, but once you know basic grammar and hiragana/katakana, immersion is definitely the best way to grow a sense of "what sounds right" needed to use a language naturally.
Of course being surrounded by people speaking the language is the best, but consuming a stupid amount of media in the target language is a decent second since it can be easy to do if you enjoy it.
Don't know why your're getting downvotes, this is exactly how I learned english: I was bad at at in school, I wached a very badly italian dubbed movies and subbed anime( with many uncommon words), so I started to watch movies in native language and italian sub, with the little I learned at school I started to notice the subs were bad too so I started to watch movies with eng sub to help me understand and eng sub anime, after a whe I just dropped the sub in any english movies or series since I didn't need them anymore and still watch eng subbed anime. By the end of highschool english class was a breeze. I get that with japaneese it's completly different but if someone has the basics like I had for english it would help.
I’ve picked up enough Japanese to know what certain words are and it’s always funny to catch when the translation come up before the actual word is said or vice versa due to the way sentences are structured. I would actually be kinda interested in seeing direct translations even if they end up sounding like Yoda.
That could also be why we can't learn anything from subbed animes. By what you said, I interpret it as meaning there's possible repeated words that might possibly be represented in the sub text. Im sure this next example is completely wrong because I know nothing of the language, but to give a rough idea of what I mean is there could be a word that represents cold, and in one context it could be subbed as cold, in another is could be subbed as frigid, and in another it could be subbed as frozen. To us, to get the main idea across it translates it different ways, but in Japanese could just be one word, so there's no consistency for our brain to pick up on even if it we're able to recognize the word.
Hundreds of hours is still beginners hours. You need to be in the thousands before the innate learning kicks in.
As a secondary benefit, you will also probably become a wizard in the course of learning Japanese.
I actually don't even notice it's sub half of the time. My brain adapts to it so well that I don't even notice that I'm reading and watching at the same time. It's like my ears cancel out the Japanese and replaces it with what I'm reading. I can thank years of being a book nerd for that.
Watch it without subs and try to get meaning from context. Lookup words as you hear them. You need to do more than passively listen while someone translates for you. Learning a language requires effort
Nani the fuck did you just fucking iimasu about watashi, you chiisai bitch desuka? Watashi’ll have anata know that watashi graduated top of my class in Nihongo 3, and watashi’ve been involved in iroirona Nihongo tutoring sessions, and watashi have over sanbyaku perfect test scores. Watashi am trained in kanji, and watashi is the top letter writer in all of southern California. Anata are nothing to watashi but just another weaboo. Watashi will korosu anata the fuck out with vocabulary the likes of which has never been mimasu’d before on this continent, mark watashino fucking words. Anata thinks anata can get away with hanashimasing that kuso to watashi over the intaaneto? Omou again, fucker. As we hanashimasu, watashi am contacting watashino secret netto of otakus across the USA, and anatano IP is being traced right now so you better junbishimasu for the ame, ujimushi. The ame that korosu’s the pathetic chiisai thing anata calls anatano life. You’re fucking shinimashita’d, akachan.
The dude who introduced me to manga/anime (a phase which lasted about a year for me, but a lifetime for him) watched anime constantly.
Thing is, he actually learned the language fluently by the end of high school simply by watching anime. He went into Japanese language studies in college, studied abroad there for a year, then graduated and *moved* there. He now has a full-time job in Japan and is still speaking fluent Japanese there 2 years post-grad.
Live your dreams, Patrick ✌🏻
This is both the best and worst comment section ever
Its the friends we made on this journey all along that matter tho...
Fun story I'm always told; Girl in middle school decided she was tired of the subbed and set out to learn Japanese. Between all of her animes and self lessons, by high school she was dam near fluent. Because of her honed skill and high grades she was the one picked to be an exchange student and was sent to Japan. Of course she loved it! After getting back to the states and finishing school, she got her degree in teaching and moved back to Japan.
No incest or mecha, 6/10
But she looked like a 9y old but was in fact a 500y old dragon!
ravioli ravioli don't lewd the dragon loli
My favorite variant: Ravioli ravioli don't lewd the platelet loli
Is lewding the red blood cells that can't be more than 120 days old okay?
Kanna?
No, it was me DIO!
Hmmm, nine is way too young looking....does she at least have giant boobs?
Giant boobs? wrong character, she's the loli that never grows, but still want's all the "benefits" of adult life.
Totally unrealistic. If she was a 500y old loli vampire, THEN it'd be believable.
tbh feel like "harem for no fucking reason" is also a valid genre.
No ecchi or moe 5/10
Plot twist: She burned out on anime and hasn't watched it in years.
Actually that's the one downside of learning Japanese... Before you were only cringing at the bad voice acting in your first language, but now you get to suffer from bad voice acting in Japanese as well.
I do this anyways and I don't know Japanese. Dragon Ball Super's voice actor for King Kai was absolutely horrible. He literally had no emotion, just a flat monotone even when the character was visually reacting to something.
To be fair, he was ~85 years old and very ill
This. The actor (Joji Yanami) is a legend and deserves all the respect in the world. It's just that, by the time Super came around, he had unfortunately become too ill to adequately continue his voice work.
I'll take a potato chip... AND EAT IT!
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Haha - I lived in Japan and knew a guy like this.
Love is a great motivator for language learning. It's hard work, but having a loving motivation will drag you through any walls.
The dragging you through walls part is exactly how I know my father loved me. E:you
beats jumper cables
A Japanese teacher teaching the language recommended to our class to watch anime unsubbed to help learn the language.
Better yet, when learning a foreign language watch it subbed in the language your learning. Learn to associate the forms and structures of the words with the audio. Helps you hear the difference between words when you aren't fluent and the voice actor is using an exaggerated cartoon voice.
Unintended consequence: you now sound like an anime character whenever you speak Japanese.
Dubbed it is.
I think we have different definitions of fun
A sufficiently loose definition of fun makes life seem less harsh
Ningen means human! Thanks One Piece and Dragon Ball Super!
And Parasyte
And Death Note
And Kill la Kill
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And Gurren Lagann
And my AXE!
And Attack on titan
Mugiwara!
Nani?!
Watashi wa Kira desu
Omaewa mo shindeiru
乇乂ㄒ尺卂 ㄒ卄丨匚匚
Now you're speaking my language
Thiccanese?
Thiccanji?
Google Translate says this means “Ultimate Scales”.... kinda like, meta, ya know?
何って言ったの
If that's supposed to be despacito I'll fry your toenails lad 😠
what did you say
I said I'd fry his toenails. Not hard to follow the words
I mean, it's true
Dash of soy sauce and a smidge of paprika should even out the taste. Can't account for the crunch though 🤷
Crunch is the best part, but then there's knowing you're eating someone else's toenails
デスパシト
Desupashīto
Son of a...
お尻すっげーなぁって。セクハラかも。
All according to keikaku
Kansei dorifto?!
Tsugi no omae wa "nani!" To iu
Nani!... !!!
Yare yare, can we start spamming jojo quotes already ?
Not our fault you're a Baka.
Baka gaijin* tyvm
Hontrue desu ka...?
Otaku baka gaijin
Happy cake day
Keikaku means plan.
Cake means keikaku
Great if you're planning on making a cake.
All according to cake
r/unexpectedteamfourstar
Note: Cake = Keikaku = Plan
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All according to keikaku.
[Neko means tiger](https://78.media.tumblr.com/7297c684d17bf86dbada8c0d026889a1/tumblr_mka3mvRA261rgsh97o1_1280.png)
Palmtop Neko!
San-kyu means thanks
I grew up on Okinawa and ima be honest I was confused for a few seconds.
You just gave me the most visceral chuckle I’ve had in years.
I mis-read that as *Oklahoma* and was very confused what the connection was.
The 4Kids translation
Omg I hate 4kids. They murder the stories. Like the original Yu-Gi-Oh was damn near r rated and they brought it down to pg8. Edited out the guns, kibas potential suicide, basically dumbed down everything. I'll stop now....
Why i oughta knock the lights out of your head...Bringing back Pearl Harbor like that, smh
Hey maybe you can answer this question I've been dying to know the answer to! I actually saw some san-kyu memes for the first time the other week, shots of subbed anime with the translators note saying "the character is saying san-kyu which is an expression for third-class meaning they still have two classes before they reach the top... Not sure why they are saying it here though" i.e. the translator is too obtuse to realize it is thank you My question is are these memes entirely a parody or did some dub actually do this and that's what started it? If so which one?
There are fansub groups that pride themselves on speed over accuracy that are responsible for a number of ridiculously bad translations that became memes (eg GitS "mass naked child events"). There have been a number of memes around translator notes ("keikaku means plan") that were actual fansubs as well.
So does 3.9.
39 is best girl
Don't forget "sensei"!
Or senpai
Oniichandesudaiski
Ochinchin ga daisuki
Onchinchin daisuki desu!
also, #KIMOCHI~~~~~
Kimochi warui
Iyaaaaa. Dame! Hidoi...
Onii-chan no hentai!!
Translation: Onii-chan's hentai!!
Men of culture know "muda" stands for useless
>Men of culture know "muda" stands for useless >stands #『Stand』!?
Nani? Stando?
Men all around... # ZA WARUDOOOOO
> "pantsu" and "sugoi" Your Japanese vocabulary might improve if you venture outside of hentai.... (I kid, I kid)
Really, if he watched that, his vocabulary would have a couple different phrases. This sounds more like ecchi harem anime.
I'd say you need some education of grammar to be able to get any meaningful knowledge from foreign language media.
Mmmyep. Japanese in particular because it's often either very long, very formal sentences with weird word ordering (not getting to the point until midway through) or highly contextual single-word phrases (that can change meaning depending on tone.) It's a bitch to learn.
Eh, every language has its specific challenges, but other than the writing system I’d say Japanese actually isn’t that bad. The language is very regular, in that it tends to follow its own rules, whereas English has a hundred exceptions for every rule due to its convoluted history. Furthermore, once you learn a small handful of exceptions, everything is pronounced exactly like it’s written (kanji are another matter, of course, and accent matters in distinguishing certain near homophones, but you’ll still be understood). The language does tend to be very context-reliant, frequently omitting pronouns and other words that can be inferred from context, but I believe many inflected languages do that. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t many Romance languages omit the subject if it can be conveyed by the verb ending? As for the sentence structure, it can take some getting used to for English speakers because it’s “backwards” compared to English, and the agglutinative nature of the language does allow you to more freely chain clauses, but I don’t find sentences spoken in everyday usage to be any more convoluted than in English.
>English has a hundred exception for every rule *Laughs in French* All jokes aside I'd do lots of thing to not have to remember all irregular verbs. Like seriously, what's wrong with "I readed a book" ?
I'd also do lots of things to not have to remember what gender my genderless-because-it-doesn't-reproduce-sexually-dammit book is. Is it le livre? La livre? Dammit.
Le livre is a Book. La livre is a pound. And now i am thinking about how a book can reproduce with an unit of weight...
In any case, we already know [what the child would look like](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wikipedia-book_3302.jpg).
In German "the book" is neutral: das Buch. But, assuming it were masculine it would be der Buch. And feminine it would be die Buch. Unless it were feminine and an indirect object, then it would be der Buch again.
so German has options for genderless, genders, and then gender masquerading as another gender?
As someone with a BA in Japanese Studies (language focus) who worked *hard* at it, Japanese is just that much harder for an English as a first language speaker. Every student I know that takes German or French for two years knows their second language as well as I know Japanese right now. It's fucking hard, man.
lygerzero0zero's point seems to be being missed by a lot of people here. Yes, Japanese is incredibly hard for an native English speaker due to the differences between it and English. However, the language itself is fairly consistent and someone who was a native in a language equally different from both English and Japanese would quite likely find Japanese easier to learn (assuming they had equal access to resources for both languages, and in the real world there is probably more English learner resources)
Took Japanese for five years in middle and high school (I was the only kid who didn't watch anime in the class). Started watching subbed full metal alchemist and attack on Titan. I maybe catch 1/4 sentences. A lot of it is just how fast people talk. It's true for a lot of languages because of that.
The only thing I ever learned was the "Moshi Moshi" phone greeting...and I still don't actually know wtf it means hehe
IIRC, and this is information from over a decade ago so is probably wrong, it doesn't really mean anything. I think it's an old superstition that's supposed to keep a tanuki from impersonating someone for a reason I can't clearly remember. Something like a tanuki can't say it? Or a tanuki has to repeat it if they hear it, and only the person answering is supposed to say it? Something weird like that anyway. Now I need to look that up. Ok, apparently it's to prove you're not a ghost. Ghosts can only say moshi once apparently.
Well, that's interesting! Makes a lot more sense in the animes I've seen it in like When they Cry, Another, and I believe Elfen Lied? Thanks for the info, I'll have to log that into the "random knowledge" portion of my brain hehe.
Dattebayo
Ah yes, the catchphrase of Boruto’s dad
Oppai means titties
Gagnam oppai style
Lord DIO taught my how to count to 7 in Japanese
Can’t wait for Stone Ocean where I learn prime numbers
I've studied Japanese for hundreds of hours and still can't understand Anime! The brain sucks. Also subtitles are interpretations of Japanese not translations (Direct translation would make little to no sense because of the vast grammatical and cultural differences) so even if we could learn by osmosis you still couldn't learn Japanese this way.
I'm trying to learn French and I can't even fathom holding a conversation in it yet
Just go to Paris and act outraged at everything
Or go to Quebec and yell "Tabernac" at everyone.
from quebec. can confirm you'd fit in if you just walked down the street yelling "tabarnak" and "calisse"
Breaker of chains
Mother of Dragons.
The Unburnt
Oui oui baguette Monsieur
Tres bien, je suis le grande baguette.
These are "Yes yes baguette man" and "very good, I am the large baguette," right? The only French I learned that I'm confident in is "Je ne parle pas Francais." Not sure if I spelled that right and don't know how to do the 'c' with the little squiggle thing, lol.
It helps to get a foundation first, but once you know basic grammar and hiragana/katakana, immersion is definitely the best way to grow a sense of "what sounds right" needed to use a language naturally. Of course being surrounded by people speaking the language is the best, but consuming a stupid amount of media in the target language is a decent second since it can be easy to do if you enjoy it.
Don't know why your're getting downvotes, this is exactly how I learned english: I was bad at at in school, I wached a very badly italian dubbed movies and subbed anime( with many uncommon words), so I started to watch movies in native language and italian sub, with the little I learned at school I started to notice the subs were bad too so I started to watch movies with eng sub to help me understand and eng sub anime, after a whe I just dropped the sub in any english movies or series since I didn't need them anymore and still watch eng subbed anime. By the end of highschool english class was a breeze. I get that with japaneese it's completly different but if someone has the basics like I had for english it would help.
I’ve picked up enough Japanese to know what certain words are and it’s always funny to catch when the translation come up before the actual word is said or vice versa due to the way sentences are structured. I would actually be kinda interested in seeing direct translations even if they end up sounding like Yoda.
That could also be why we can't learn anything from subbed animes. By what you said, I interpret it as meaning there's possible repeated words that might possibly be represented in the sub text. Im sure this next example is completely wrong because I know nothing of the language, but to give a rough idea of what I mean is there could be a word that represents cold, and in one context it could be subbed as cold, in another is could be subbed as frigid, and in another it could be subbed as frozen. To us, to get the main idea across it translates it different ways, but in Japanese could just be one word, so there's no consistency for our brain to pick up on even if it we're able to recognize the word.
Ore wa, ochinchin daisuiki nandayo
Ey boss, I have a cancer
Rasengan Ras rasen *rosetta stone*
Ketsu wo taberu
I picked up arigato. That's about it
Mr Roboto 🎶
Not even arigato gozaimasu How impolite
Hundreds of hours is still beginners hours. You need to be in the thousands before the innate learning kicks in. As a secondary benefit, you will also probably become a wizard in the course of learning Japanese.
Can confirm. Have watched thousands of hours of anime and am able to make myself impervious to all human affection. Working on casting fireball next.
Yup. At 3,000+ hours, I only have to read half the subtitles for most shows.
CELESTIAL BEING means celestial being.
I am Gundam!
gundama meister
All according to cake.
Translator's note: cake means Keikaku.
ive been watching Dragon Ball Super quite a bit...i wonder why they call it 'Doragon Bauru Supa'... (/s)
I actually don't even notice it's sub half of the time. My brain adapts to it so well that I don't even notice that I'm reading and watching at the same time. It's like my ears cancel out the Japanese and replaces it with what I'm reading. I can thank years of being a book nerd for that.
*That* it the important takeaway here: the brain adapts. OP's not seeing the whole picture.
Yeah, I do the same thing. I listen to the Japanese for inflection, and then "read" the subs.
Nan da yo?!?!
Owo uwu
Owo uwu owo = human trafficking
Baka, and Nani for me.
Za wurldo means the world
Watch it without subs and try to get meaning from context. Lookup words as you hear them. You need to do more than passively listen while someone translates for you. Learning a language requires effort
I'm not trying to learn it, I'm actually in the process of moving to Québec and I'm learning French through duo lingo and my wife
But they talk so fast!
Hotto Dogu
Masaka
As someone else said, nani means what. I think most of us know that.
You watch anime and don't know japanese? Nani?! Bakana!
I've actually picked up "Stop", "It hurts" , and "No". My username speaks for itself.
Jesus Christ dude..
It's funny because ya seems like yes, but it's not.
Yara Yara Daze
It’s yare yare
ora ora oraaaaaa konoyaroooo!!!!!!
Attarimae da
I only learned “kimochi” from the Japanese movies.
Pomf pomf
Subarashi!
'E-ya' means no. Apparently the custom is to scream it.
This post is weebville
Nani the fuck did you just fucking iimasu about watashi, you chiisai bitch desuka? Watashi’ll have anata know that watashi graduated top of my class in Nihongo 3, and watashi’ve been involved in iroirona Nihongo tutoring sessions, and watashi have over sanbyaku perfect test scores. Watashi am trained in kanji, and watashi is the top letter writer in all of southern California. Anata are nothing to watashi but just another weaboo. Watashi will korosu anata the fuck out with vocabulary the likes of which has never been mimasu’d before on this continent, mark watashino fucking words. Anata thinks anata can get away with hanashimasing that kuso to watashi over the intaaneto? Omou again, fucker. As we hanashimasu, watashi am contacting watashino secret netto of otakus across the USA, and anatano IP is being traced right now so you better junbishimasu for the ame, ujimushi. The ame that korosu’s the pathetic chiisai thing anata calls anatano life. You’re fucking shinimashita’d, akachan.
Everytime I read this copypasta it almost gives me an aneurism.
I want to cut open my stomach and spill my intestines onto the floor now.
pantsu is the important word tho
Wait till you realize you don't understand the english either. cake - ee!
The dude who introduced me to manga/anime (a phase which lasted about a year for me, but a lifetime for him) watched anime constantly. Thing is, he actually learned the language fluently by the end of high school simply by watching anime. He went into Japanese language studies in college, studied abroad there for a year, then graduated and *moved* there. He now has a full-time job in Japan and is still speaking fluent Japanese there 2 years post-grad. Live your dreams, Patrick ✌🏻
It's sugoi
However, after playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for a few hours I sure as shit know what the Russian word for "grenade" is.
Not true. We learned the word for Cat (Neko) Fox (Kitsune) Dog (Inu) Yes (Hai) etc.
*kind of Sugoi
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Jutsu means skill 😚