How Awkward Is “Textbook Japanese” in Anime?
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another funny thing about that scene is, Horai Jun sound like Horizon
In my country the most famous English textbook sentence is "The book is on the table"
technically correct but spoken wrong language is sort of a universal thing, I feel like. You can often tell someone hasn't learned English in a natural way because their sentence formulations are grammatically correct but…nobody talks like that. one way that people can sound more natural is picking up on modern conversational 'tics' so to speak, ways of speaking that are incredibly common but almost never found in textbooks. For example, the use of 'like' in a variety of contexts, as a sort of intensifier or a break.
contractions are a thing in quite a few languages, and they are one of the few very clear things to differentiate formal English speaking from informal. I feel like it's sort of a weird downside of English that there's a weak and unclear distinction between formal and informal conversational language.
to use or not use contractions can be pretty complicated though. one thing I would say is contractions are less forceful, in general. like 'shouldn't' vs 'should not'. they mean the exact same thing, and on paper or a screen communicate the same, pretty much. BUT! one sounds 'lighter' than the other.
using contractions for 'question words' in particular is a dividing line between being merely fluent and mastering the language as it is really spoken. because most of the time you'll want to say 'where's' or 'who's' or 'how's', rather than 'where is', 'who is', 'how is', when asking a question. 'Don't' is also pretty important.
to me at least 'do not' sounds really textbook. in natural language 'don't' has pretty much overtaken 'do not' in most contexts.
another thing about English is that tonal emphasis isn't documented or taught that that well. take 'This is a pen'. that simple sentence can be spoken in FOUR ways, at least, depending on which word receives the emphasis.
"THIS is a pen" – what you might say if someone mistakenly identifies something as a pen, gesturing to something that actually is a pen
"This IS a pen" – confirms that a pen is in fact a pen
"This is A pen" – perhaps what you might say to be annoying if someone asks if a pen you're holding is one they misplaced
"This is a PEN" – to actually explain what the object is, or to express incredulity that someone would not know that the object is in fact a pen
I think it's an acting exercise to read a certain line in every possible manner of emphasis. "I don't think so" is another classic emphasis dependent statement. and yeah, it's ultra-ambiguous when written out, which is also why it's conversational and one might use different, more clear language in a text or email.
I've noticed non-native English speakers who are terrific at texting, emails, and writing comments, but the moment they start to engage in conversation everything becomes really shaky. I think because conversational English is a minefield of unspoken rules, which I assume to be the same in many, many other languages. Written English has to adapt for the language's weaknesses and often has more clarity.
also textbooks can be slow to respond to developments in the language. I don't think English textbooks are likely to explain the odd question "is that a thing?" which has become extremely common in English conversation, but seems impenetrable without context. What it means is kind of…"is that a common sort of phenomenon" or "is that something people actually do/think/believe" or "is that really going to happen". it is usually spoken with incredulity, in response to something the speaker was previously unaware of and finds maybe a bit difficult to believe. Another weird one, a bit less common but not rare is "I can't even." or variants like "I've lost the ability to can." It is grammatically wrong, but that hardly matters. it's like "this is beyond my ability to tolerate" "I've lost patience" or "I can't process this information because of the sheer absurdity of it". I highly recommend it to English learners as a fun way of expressing frustration with the English language!
Tried several times on Firefox and Bing but can't get the link to sign up to work. Each runs into different issues. Hopefully you implement different ways to sign up in future.
imo the reason why sentence structure and grammar textbooks like Minna no Nihongo or Genki etc. is so unnatural is because they teaching JLPT N5 – N4 level Japanese, if you ever take these tests you'll see what I mean. You can try listening to N3 listening audio and you'll see a huge difference.
From the page “Meeting people” !! 😅
That episode was hilarious 🤣
This is how I find out there’s a Witch Watch anime.
Can someone explain me the ''you'll tell this to your correspondent in Canada'' bit
The cuck reads textbooks and uses Duolingo and 50 other datamining services to learn robotic Japanese that's only good enough to order curry. The chad uses the deep recesses of torrent trackers and the Japanese internet to force his brain to comprehend such a language and will be able to explain theoretical sciences and advanced linguistic and literary concepts but only after 5 years of missed showers and college.
My Japanese teachers giggle and cringe when it comes to listening to textbook audio. I kind of wish they'd just skip it because if it sounds so unnatural to them why are they asking us to learn it? Then again it's mostly for listening practice, but still.
As a Fluent French speaker you come across the same issues with French textbooks though. A native French speaker won't sound anything like the lesson dialogue. So it's common in all languages
Just something I noticed, but the anime title is incorrectly spelled in the description. 😊
I wish my text books had these awesome looking covers back when I was in High School.. 😲
As for this, it is informative, is it not?
The Chinese sub of that episode was funny for me, since i understand Japanese and English
When I was watching this episode last week I thought to myself "Yuta could make a video about this…. "
Thanks! LOL
The funny thing is if you're learning and you actually got the joke when hearing and reading it either in anime or manga xD
"これがそのペンです" is basically the Japanese equivalent of "¿donde esta la biblioteca?"
where is the blond girl ?
Watching that episode, it felt like it was also poking fun at the Japanese textbooks. I think both Minna no Nihongo and Genki have the "Kore wa pen desu" sentence. Even if it makes fun of Japanese English textbooks, I related so much and I laughed so hard. It definitely gave me flashbacks to the traumatic times with sentences like "watashi wa Maiku Miraa desu".
I've been waiting for this video since reading the chapter for the first time. Very informative.
Its really silly imagining a text book character come to life interacting with regular people. My latin text books had all these characters, i bet real romans would have thought they were strange
I love how the "that Character Design" line plays into this as well. It's not just a 4th wall break.
I have some of these japanese textbooks (genki) and it took me out when i saw this scene hits to close to home 😂 my professor always told us to learn the textbook for reading and writing and she herself would teach us how to speak more naturally time to time, but would be okay with you using textbook speak.
Here's some nostalgia. "Kore wa Enpistsu Desu"
Sounds like it'd be like speaking English with no contractions and full enunciation. Like if you said "Hello, what is up?" instead of "Hey, what's up?" when you see someone.
It was a horrendous episode that ruined the anime for me
This is good ways to learn Japanese.
I've only just realised that "Hourai Jun" is meant to sound like "Horizon", i.e. the name of the textbook. And I fully agree that especially for new learners of a language the focus should be on gaining an understanding of basic grammar and vocabulary rather than sounding native but it also helps to learn sentences that you might actually use 🙂
Most japanese dont say i or you some how
Clicked on this video solely for Witch Watch, but it was actually super interesting!
bro sound like duolingo fr 💀
Japanese textbooks are written with business purpose in mind, you have to use polite forms and keigo in companies