If you’ve been a subbed anime watcher for quite some time, you probably had that thought at one point or another “…I should learn Japanese!” Wouldn’t it be cool to understand your favourite animes? Maybe even manga or anime theme songs!
Perhaps you’ve already taken that first step. You started learning basic vocabulary and phrases, maybe started learning hiragana. Perhaps you took a more casual approach with Duolingo. Maybe you even paid for classes or a tutor.
But the thing is, whether you’ve been studying Japanese for 6 months or 4 years, even if you’re able to understand conversations and communicate a bit…..you still won’t understand anime. You won’t be able to get through most manga or pick up the words in the theme songs. And it can be discouraging.
I say this, because it’s been my personal experience.
For me, I studied 2 years independently during high school (2010-2012), followed by 1 year in university (2012-2013). I had lots of printouts and a textbook, had a couple Japanese conversation partners, spent lots of time on Livemocha (they shut down, but looks like they’re up again), and learned a lot of vocabulary through flashcards on smart.fm (which is now the paid iknow.jp website).
I had a pretty good foundation and was able to survive on my own for a week in Japan. Yet, despite all that studying, I still relied a lot on subtitles and translations when it came to Japanese media like anime and Japanese music. The very things that I was learning Japanese for in the first place.
Why is that? Well, let’s dig into it.
1. Different Vocabulary
The biggest difference between ‘real life Japanese’ and ‘media Japanese’ is the vocabulary. Real life Japanese is quite simple in a way. School and work, introductions and formalities, some travel vocabulary for food and shopping etc, all pretty predictable stuff that one can prepare for and reuse time and time again. I also find they usually use very short phrases.
In anime, however, a lot of the shows are built on fantasy. Even the slice-of-life series may be based off of something not so normal, like K-ON!! which is about a high school girl band. There are so many words in these shows that you’ll hear often in anime, but almost never in real life, like ‘prince’, ‘angel’, ‘fight’, ‘detective’, ‘dream’, ‘war’, ‘demon’, ‘potion’, ‘courage’, and much, MUCH more.
Japanese courses and textbooks have levels at which they will teach certain words. Because of the rarity of some of these words, you may not even touch on them until you hit level 3 or higher. Sadly, most Japanese learners will drop out by then due to the kanji required for them to know (memorized, able to write).
Now, it’s not that these anime words are any more complex than other words, it’s just that it’s not as common in real life so it’s saved til later. But for those who mainly want to learn anime, they may start to lose motivation to keep studying seriously since it’s taking forever to get to the stuff they need to learn the most.
2. Expressiveness & Openness
The next big difference between real life Japanese and fictional Japanese is openness. It’s pretty much a fact that Japanese people are not only shy and private individuals, but they have two faces: honne (real face) and tatamae (the one they show the world).
Foreigners may appreciate Japan’s extreme politeness, but many will always feel there’s a wall, and even think they are ‘fake’. People don’t seem to share their true thoughts or opinions enough to have deeper discussions about anything. It’s more important to have positive relations with others. The only time you may get a glimpse of their real selves is if they’re drunk or a place like a concert.
But when one watches anime, we get to be in the inner circle. We get to learn about their dreams and their goals, and just how much everything is relying on this moment. We get to hear the characters thoughts, their complaints, their fears and anxieties. They will express themselves more openly and cry when they need to.
I find real life Japanese doesn’t really touch much on expressing one’s self, one’s feelings, emotions, and true thoughts about anything, at least not in the first few levels since it’s not necessary. But one would want to learn this not just for the anime, but especially the music which conveys these feelings the most.
3. Different Politeness Levels
In every Japanese course, they’re going to teach you ‘polite’ form first. Every verb will be conjugated to ~imasu so that you don’t offend anyone. Obviously, it makes sense when teaching real life Japanese. The Youtuber below shares her experience working at an office, and said there’s even a higher level of politeness required and she’s gotten in trouble for using just regular politeness for correspondence.
Of course, in anime, you’re going to come across all levels of politeness. Since most characters will be talking to those among their age group, such as classmates and friends, they tend to talk more casually, and that can definitely through off learners who are only used to polite speech. If they’re talking with their family, they may only say one or two words, and the watcher is expected to fill in the blanks themselves.
Then of course, there is usually an enemy or rival in a lot of these shows, in which they would speak rudely, and even say a lot of slurs during fights. It’s rare one will learn these kinds of fight phrases since it is never needed in real life. If you’re only learning formal speech, you really won’t be able to catch a lot of these phrases.
4. Different Points Of Focus
In every course or online lesson I’ve taken, the focus was always on conversations. As with most languages, the usual purpose is to communicate with speakers of that language, whether out of interests for that country, moving there, or work reasons. However, thanks to anime and other media, that is the main reason a lot of people pick up that language.
Of course, this also means many will be ignorant and assume that anime language is real Japanese, thus why the whole ‘real life Japanese’ term has been coined so much. Japanese teachers wanted to avoid weeb speech like the clip below. (You gotta admit it though, anime speech is pretty cool in comparison).
As you’ve seen with previous points, there is a big difference between these two ‘dialects’ in a way. If one is picking up Japanese to socialize with Japanese people, then conversation should be the focus. But if one wants to understand anime, manga, video games, and music, then comprehension should be the focus. They won’t necessarily need to speak or write, but they should be able to listen and read.
I don’t think all Japanese courses should focus so much on real life Japanese and passing Japanese tests cause that’s not everyone’s goal and focus. And while it is certainly very cool to learn Japanese and it can always come in handy, very few will dedicated years of their life to be fluent in a language if they’re only going to use it for a 2 week trip.
There aren’t many Japanese people around the globe. Even in Toronto, one of the most multicultural cities, Japanese people make up less than 1%. I could prepare all I can for real-life conversations, but then I’ll never use it and eventually forget it.
At least comprehension could take me farther since I indulge in Japanese media everyday and even have this blog dedicated to Japanese music. I don’t need to speak or write perfect Japanese, I just need to be able to understand what their media is portraying and the message they are trying to get across.
5. Lack of Reading Material
Websites, manga, karaoke, books, newspapers…there’s a lot of things to read out there. And honestly, reading is one of the best ways to learn a language as it allows you to pick up new words, learn their spelling, see how it’s used in a sentence, along with grammar and syntax.
Yet, I find it extremely hard to find easy reading material for Japanese beginners. From what I’ve seen, I find it’s usually in these categories: 1. It’s too easy (no kanji), 2. It’s a children’s story (contains fictionaly vocabulary like ‘princess’ and ‘magic’ that you don’t learn in class), 3. It’s too advance (too much kanji, little to no furigana. No translations on the page). If you’re in a class that gives you stuff to read, it’s usually just conversations written out.
The thing about reading is, you should know at least 80% of the vocabulary ahead of time. If there’s one new word, but you can understand the rest of the sentence, you can usually figure out what that word means by the context. But on the odd chance you don’t, then you can look it up. It’s no fun reading something that you have to keep looking up words every 2 lines. Not to mention, kanji is hard to look up as it is. Harder if you’re not on a device in the first place (ie video games, karaoke).
But again, how does one get to that 80% stage when there just isn’t much late beginner or intermediate stuff out there to read anyways? People say there’s stuf, and yeah, you can pull up a random website online and try to read, but everyone needs some handholding.
Kids have the privilege of picture books and older people to read it for them a few times and explain things to them as they learn. Only after they can sound out words and understand books on their own are they usually left alone. But for adult learners, what is there for us?
It’s also sad that so many Japanese youtubers discourage people from learning because they say everyone uses computers to write and you can always us translate, but that’s not necessarily true. I get that they’re trying to save people from wasting their time memorizing and learning to write 2000 kanji, but again, I know they just want to push people to focus on conversing instead of reading and understanding text.
I, for one, would really love to learn to read Japanese well so I can do Karaoke without needing the Romanised lyrics on my phone. Furigana is sometimes available, but the lyrics can move so fast that you won’t have a chance to read those smaller letters and figure out how to say it when it comes. I don’t want to stumble every time a foreign kanji comes on, which can be quite often thanks to the different vocabulary and expressions.
The Solution: A Focused Study Guide
So, if you are like me, in that you want to understand Japanese enough to enjoy and indulge in the shows, games, and music more, what can you do?
Well thankfully, I already made the perfect solution: A Japanese Study Guide For Anime, Games & Music.
I’m currently in an anime cover band, so I’ve gotten to dig into the music a lot more. I’ve had to learn a lot more lyrics as well, but it’s hard when most of the words are new to you. But I have seen and heard a lot of words repeat, so that’s what led to my article on Common Japanese Words in Music.
But from there, I realized there is a bigger need for all Japanese media. Also, people don’t just need a dictionary, they need study material. They need more reading material so they can pick up the vocabulary and recognize kanji and their meaning more easily.
Essentially, I created everything I could have possibly wanted years ago when I started studying Japanese. I’m learning so much just building this resource and looking over ever sentence as I format it. I know I’ll be using this to practice my reading and to review anime vocabulary regularly.
Trust me, I’ve looked long and hard on the internet for something like this and it just doesn’t exist. You won’t need a dictionary by your side as kanji, romanji, and translations are all side by side.
If you’re interested, please check it out here!
Conclusion
I’ve been an anime fan before I even knew the cartoons on TV were anime, and by middle school, over 15 years ago, I was already watching subs. Anime has certainly influenced me and motivated me a lot, and I’m sure many other watchers are just as touched and inspired by the shows they watch. Despite Japanese not having many speakers, it certainly has many learners.
But the thing is, as fun and cool as learning Japanese is, it’s good to have a goal and a focus. Do you want to lean real life Japanese to speak with the locals, or do you want to learn fictional Japanese so you can comprehend the shows and games?
Both will take you a lot of time. But if your main goal is to just understand what you watch or to sing Japanese covers, you may as well skip the unnecessary real life Japanese words that you’ll never use, and focus on the rare level 5 Japanese vocabulary that you’ll hear all the time in the media.
And if that is your goal, I highly recommend checking out my Japanese Study Guide. I guarantee if you go through just the kanji study guide, which includes Kanji and various sentence examples under each of them, you’ll start picking up more from your shows in no time.
On top of that, I got a media, video game and onomatopoeia dictionary, Japanese folk stories, anime quotes, and a lot more. They all contain kanji, romanji, and English translations side by side so you don’t need to look up anything. You can just focus on your studying.
Definitely check it out! <3
Thanks for reading!