If you have a spare 102 seconds, please check my youtube video ^.^

Any Japanese corrections would be much appreciated!

http://youtu.be/MF6SVugSTLE

First mistake is that you didn't choose the curly wurly.

And just a couple of minor things I noticed. When mixing the ingredients it should be 混ぜます not 混ぜります. And when it's finished cooking usually 出来上がりです is used instead of 成功

Take your hat off next time, if you're going to be inside (sorry- pet peeve).

How long have you been studying Japanese? It didn't really sound that bad. The pacing was a little disjointed at times (although it's probably better than having copious amounts of ね, えと, etc. as silence fillers, lol), but a lot better all in all than a fair few people I've heard, especially with the pronunciation.

SendaiDan Wrote:First mistake is that you didn't choose the curly wurly.

And just a couple of minor things I noticed. When mixing the ingredients it should be 混ぜます not 混ぜります. And when it's finished cooking usually 出来上がりです is used instead of 成功

Pfft curly wurly...LAME.

Thanks for the feedback! Ahh thanks didn't spot that mistake, 混ぜます　was one of the few words I had to learn for the video and I STILL go it wrong!

uisukii Wrote:Take your hat off next time, if you're going to be inside (sorry- pet peeve).

How long have you been studying Japanese? It didn't really sound that bad. The pacing was a little disjointed at times (although it's probably better than having copious amounts of ね, えと, etc. as silence fillers, lol), but a lot better all in all than a fair few people I've heard, especially with the pronunciation.

Sorry if my hat upset you, please message me a list of appropriate indoor clothing, or call the fashion police.

^.^

I have been studying for 5 months-ish and I CANNOT get my head around pacing and flow of japanese, it all feels so unnatural.

Thanks for feedback.

uisukii Wrote:Take your hat off next time, if you're going to be inside (sorry- pet peeve).

Just out of curiosity why? It strikes me as an odd thing to say, especially since he's in his own house.

RondonDan01 Wrote:

uisukii Wrote:Take your hat off next time, if you're going to be inside (sorry- pet peeve).

How long have you been studying Japanese? It didn't really sound that bad. The pacing was a little disjointed at times (although it's probably better than having copious amounts of ね, えと, etc. as silence fillers, lol), but a lot better all in all than a fair few people I've heard, especially with the pronunciation.

Sorry if my hat upset you, please message me a list of appropriate indoor clothing, or call the fashion police.

^.^

I have been studying for 5 months-ish and I CANNOT get my head around pacing and flow of japanese, it all feels so unnatural.

Thanks for feedback.

lol, fashion police.

Yeah, the pacing and flow can feel weird. Do you listen to/watch much native media? You can get a pretty decent idea of pacing a such via osmosis, though having a decent amount of exposure to studying grammatical patterns can give you a bit of a rationale behind the why certain breaks in speech tend to occur at similar points.

One aspect which I somewhat picked as why it sounded a little off putting at first was due to getting my head around the concept of post-positioning particles as opposed to what I'm used to in English as basically laying the foundation of ideas and statements in a completely different order of importance.

You'll find that in Japanese speech, the corresponding particles very closely follow the related prior speech component, acting as effectively a singular unit, with a very minor pause before the next segment (often due to speech being something which the vast majority of time isn't premeditated, unlike written language). You can hear this especially with the で, の and に singular particles, and heavily in conjunctive colloquial speech, with what linguists have come to call the "glottal stop", with the common って usage.

Actually, manga, and other forms of media which focus on dialogue, can be a useful form of "practicing" certain speech patterns (provided you have at least heard how it is usually executed a few times (such as pretty much in most highschool, or contemporary setting anime), by reading aloud. There is also shadowing ドラマ.

Yet, really, you really haven't been studying all that long and for something which "feels so unnatural", you certainly aren't doing a bad job of it considering. If it is something which in time doesn't start to feel any better, you could always mindlessly mimic Japanese actors and such, like children do time to time while watching tv. lol, at least that way even if it doesn't feel much better, it will at least be a fun way to practice

JunePin Wrote:

uisukii Wrote:Take your hat off next time, if you're going to be inside (sorry- pet peeve).

Just out of curiosity why? It strikes me as an odd thing to say, especially since he's in his own house.

Grow up with parents, teachers, etc., drilling into your head that it's rude to wear a hat inside and it becomes a "thing". It was more of a self-depreciating joke at how I'm becoming just like the people I used to get frustrated at for be "old-fashioned". It wasn't really meant to be taken seriously. The internet isn't the best format for communicating certain aspects of humour; a lesson I'll probably never learn, lol.

Awesome feedback, didn't expect such detail on the intricacies of linguistics.

I have listened to more native media than I'd care to admit. Perhaps it's my brain's processing speed and uncertainty of what I'm saying next.

What you mentioned about the で、の、に particles makes it sound as though they should be used almost as suffix as opposed to a individual part of the sentence. Right?

I think I get it. Again, great feedback. ^.^

RondonDan01 Wrote:What you mentioned about the で、の、に particles makes it sound as though they should be used almost as suffix as opposed to a individual part of the sentence. Right?

Sentences themselves- even fragments of speech which aren't "technically grammatically complete" sentences- can basically be deconstructed down to a series of key words and associated 'connector' particles which sort of attach themselves to these words to provide some form of structural value which helps adhere the conceptual framework of the phrase to something which the brain can process as relating to a spatial, visceral, metaphorical situation.

Umm... that probably made very little sense (I'm not really good at being direct), but it's like what you're saying is a little like lego bricks stacking atop each other, with certain words which by themselves don't really mean much, but in relation to other nouns, verbs, adverbials, etc., provide more information- kind of like how "this", "from", "and", "is", etc. function in English. In real time, we are trying to express something conceptual in our brains, such as an idea, which take up a physical image/projection of some sort (such as something simple like telling someone we are going to the chippy, or soemthing) and with words we are forced to wrap it all up in a metaphorical manner.

Grammatical patterns, etc. are useful to understand as it gives us certain insights into how these concepts are usually stacked together, and given enough time playing with these bricks, we will be able to build little castles of our own without thinking about which piece goes where- but the finished product will "look right".


Wow... I kind of went completely left of the margin there. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff you can learn, but really, it takes a lot of repeated experience over a period of time for the brain to physically adapt to using this different set of lego blocks to build similar houses it once did with another set of lego, only with a slightly different method of holding the blocks together.

Pretty impressive for five months of study, I think. Has all of it been self-study? Sounds way better than the horrible Japanese movie I made my first semester of college! Like others have said, the main thing that stood out to me was that the flow doesn't seem very Japanese.

#1 thing to improve this is just listen to more native Japanese speech, podcasts, dramas, anime, whatever. Imitating what you hear aloud (or even "vocalizing" it in your head) will really help you get a feel for the rhythm of the language. I just talk to myself a lot (no, it's not crazy at all...)

Also... I like the hat, indoors or not!

As someone who tried to make a Japanese video blog about a month ago, it's not easy. That being said trying to make an interesting video in a non-native language is even more difficult. I think you tried to accomplish 2 difficult things at one time and if you were to just focus on the video being in Japanese, even if it's just you staring at a webcam, it may be more beneficial. I see that's pretty much what your first video was. Let's face it, if you try too hard to prep and edit a video you're wasting time that could be used studying. Good work though. Takes a lot of confidence to do such a thing.

As for the hat, it's a non-issue. I mean I am bothered by people with stickers on their hat, or who wear sunglasses indoors, but that's not the point of this post nor does anybody care about my opinion.

uisukii Wrote:Take your hat off next time, if you're going to be inside (sorry- pet peeve).

How long have you been studying Japanese? It didn't really sound that bad. The pacing was a little disjointed at times (although it's probably better than having copious amounts of ね, えと, etc. as silence fillers, lol), but a lot better all in all than a fair few people I've heard, especially with the pronunciation.

Studying in Tokyo last year our teachers would make us say e~to, anoo, etc. because it sounds unnatural to not have them in our speech. Some kids took this and ran with it putting way too many to the point where every other word was e-to but the point was there needs to be a balance. Our teacher's explanation was if you don't put some e-to in in the appropriate places it makes you sound too sure of yourself to the point where no one can interject and express their opinion if they don't agree.

Also softens your speech a makes you more likeable =) (not based on any real evidence).

NoSleepTilFluent Wrote:Also softens your speech a makes you more likeable =) (not based on any real evidence).

Considering that there are many different ways of softening statements, and how different "levels of politeness" are sort of based around indirectness, I don't really think it's too much of a stretch to make the statement that the usage of fillers may avoid potentially awkward "dead air", which could make the general public more pliable to your expression, possibly.

But yeah, said without anything I could refer to as an objective measure. Call it a 'gut feeling'?

Be extremely precise on your pronunciation. Japanese is already a very poor language phonetically, so the slightest mistake or ambiguity in your pronunciation makes it sound you're saying other syllables and words.
To me the first line sounds like : ぽこうおー のふが　すいっている, which really doesn't make sense. I had to look at the script to understand what you meant.
It's not すぎ but つぎ (次).

Grammar mistake : it's not 始まりましょう because the verb 始まる is intransitive, it's another thing/subject that is starting (学校が始まった). You can't use the volitional form on it since you have no control over the action. Use the verb 始める → 始めましょう, which is transitive (you act on an object : 僕は復習を始めた), instead.
[check this : 「さあ、始まりましょう」と「さあ、始めましょう」の使い分けをお教えいただけないでしょうか。]

RondonDan01 Wrote:What you mentioned about the で、の、に particles makes it sound as though they should be used almost as suffix as opposed to a individual part of the sentence. Right?

But it's exactly how you should thing about particles : they are suffixes. Never, ever think about particles like this : 駅　に　来てください, but always like 駅に　来てください. 駅に is a whole unit indicating location/target of an action. And that should be reflected clearly in your speech : you can make a pause after 駅に, and only at that point of the sentence (sorry, I won't make a video on YouTube just for this, ahah).

Be careful about plain form and polite form. Decide on one for the whole speech and stick to it. 俺は天才だ sounds weird when you are using です・ます almost everywhere, and besides you chose to refer to yourself with 僕 at the beginning... This kind of sudden change in politeness level can be used for comical or theatrical effect, but it's better to keep this kind of play on the language when you already have a solid foundation.

Speech flow and pitch accent : one important thing on which you can focus right now and that will make you sound that much more native-like, is when you use て-form. Ex: 次ぎ、チョコをてんぷあミックスの中に落として, you should raise the intonation on the final て, not lower it. And you can make a pause at that point, before linking this with the next sentence (you must think of the て-form as a "doing this action AND [something]", or as a comma). Next time you listen to a Japanese video, try to pay attention only to this specific point, that will appear glaringly obvious to you.

That's a lot of stuff but don't worry, like others said, that's not bad at all so far and you're on the good road

NoSleepTilFluent Wrote:Our teacher's explanation was if you don't put some e-to in in the appropriate places it makes you sound too sure of yourself to the point where no one can interject and express their opinion if they don't agree.

Also softens your speech a makes you more likeable =) (not based on any real evidence).

Interesting points.

Well don't force yourself to say eto ie eto every 5 seconds. Eto means um... So...

Nostalgic

彼女：チョコレート天ぷらは、とても斬新でした☆牛乳も入れるのですね（ふむふむ）
日本語の発音可愛いですね☆チョコに「さん」がついてて可愛かったです：）勉強頑張ってくださいね☆私も英語を勉強してますが、全然覚えられません（笑）
Me: Wow, back when I had only studied 5 months I didn't have the courage let alone the skills to make a video in Japanese. Keep up the pace! My advice to you is to speak with natives as much as you can, and barring that, try to shadow dramas when you watch them. You seem to know what you need to work on which is half the battle, but try to work on the flow and your accent. As it stands though, you are WAY better at speaking than I was at only 5 months in.