Learning a new language isn't easy, but Rosetta Stone offers the tools needed to help you achieve confidence in speaking in your chosen second language, whether it's for job travel or just for fun.

Rosetta Stone's got your back.

I was able to test out Rosetta stone for myself and a video uploaded on my channel and loved it for all levels.

I wish I had something like this when I was younger and learning japanese because back then all we had were text books and paper flashcards.

Rosetta stone is easy to use and even has the option for an online language tutor better yet I'm giving you an amazing option to get a discount on your subscription price or a lifetime offer for unlimited access to the app and program for only 100 and $99 total.

You have it for a lifetime.

It allows you to learn as many languages as you would like with only one account forever.

So don't miss out on this opportunity to grow, learn and bridge the gap between cultures using Rosetta stone's amazing language program.

The links are down below.

Hey everybody welcome back to my channel.

So today we're just going to briefly talk about how we learned a second language.

So some of you guys are asking actually, how do you, do you learned english and most of you know that he lived in the States.

So I feel like that is a big factor in it, but we can talk about some tips and things that we learned for me when I learned japanese and for him, when he learned english, he's obviously more fluent in english than I am at japanese.

So I feel like it would be more interesting to hear from you, I mean, yeah, I know, but like he understands everything I say, he gets jokes like today he said something really like, I don't remember what you said when we were eating, sushi went to heaven and he had some oyster and he said, oh my gosh, I went to heaven and just came back and I just think it's so funny because a lot of like Japanese bull who learned english as a second language, it's like those things they don't know, but like I just want you to kind of explain how you learned all of this and then I have some of my tips because I'm an intermediate Japanese speaker, I'm not like fluent or anything.

Like I graduated with the japanese degree, but I lived in the States, so it's very different and then living in Japan, I'm an english teacher, I feel like because of that job, it kept me from really succeeding or advancing in that language because I was doing youtube and like I didn't have time, it's all about the time you put into learning, right?

When did you start learning english, when, when was your first english class when I was a kid, I think the system has changed now kids started learning english from elementary school in Japan when I was a kid it was a middle school.

So my first english class was when I was 13 and I did not speak any single english word for three years.

We had this regular english classes.

But as you probably know japanese education is very not very practical I guess for speaking that's how I started.

So I was interested in learning english and I loved american music and like movies and that kind of stuff.

So when I was like 14 or 15 or something I was just like watching american tv shows and movies and stuff and that's why I was like watching movies with my dad often.

Oh in english with the subtitles?

In japanese subtitles.

Yeah I think I started listening to american music and more like started watching movies from there.

Were you interested in english?

Were you interested in learning english culture in general?

And I of course includes english as well.

I just loved music.

I think that's my introduction.

Did you learn any english when you were watching the T.

V.

Shows?

I did not try to study I guess but like I guess in my mind somewhere I was like learning those like some friends and stuff but it's not like I watched it to study or anything like that and I took a note of anything like that.

I did not do any of those.

I started learning japanese in uh elementary school, junior high school because they have like a four.

Yeah, they had a foreign language class and but it was like four different languages you can choose right?

Yeah.

Well no, we didn't choose that time.

That was like, you tried out different languages one month we learned french the next month we learned german the next like it was like a world language sort of thing.

Yeah, I thought that was interesting because it helped us choose what we wanted to pick when we went to high school because we have to choose when we go to high school.

I liked it.

I liked it because the music too because I discovered Utada Hikaru and then that was when I was like, I want to know, I want to know what she's singing and I thought it was really beautiful.

Like the way people sang in japanese all the way she sang in japanese was very beautiful.

Your first japanese album.

Yes.

Yeah.

Today was my first japanese singer that I really liked.

And then I started getting really into music and then I downloaded like I remember I had limewire and I looked like downloading all her song.

Yeah.

I started buying video games in japanese, zelda.

I have that in japanese high school.

I took japanese and so I think it's so cool that in America.

I mean I don't know if this applies to all the schools, but at least the school you went to, you have chances to learn multiple several I guess try out.

I think that's very rare.

Like I don't think it's like that in all schools but like my school offered a chance to like take a class where you can learn multiple languages.

I went to international, it's like a public school with more intense, like a more focused on english.

Did you choose that school or like yeah from second high school, first year it was just normal one.

We had like uh did you choose the high school that you had to go to or like is that just your school?

Like it was more intense and I chose the high school because you can choose maybe we can do, I don't know, you have to take examine, you have to take an exam to get into the high school.

What the heck that you took a lot of english classes I'm assuming right?

Yes.

From second year of the high school, yes, I went to International course and I have more classes.

Is that what you wanted in your life?

Like you wanted to be able to speak english at that time.

I wasn't really thinking I was really into just play music and you wanted to be banned but I was writing a music and you know some songs are in english and is that what you wanted to do?

It is so you can write in english and learn and understand at the end of high school, I wanted to go to a music school.

Yeah, then I ended up not going, I did go after college, but it wasn't like a school school, I think high school, when you learn the language, it's more about really discovering the culture and I think that's what got me excited Ultimately.

In college we had the groups where you would come together and just speak japanese.

Do you have, did you have that in your college or did you not do anything in college?

I went to study Economics.

Yeah, I know you studied Economics.

Yeah, I didn't really have a lot of english classes throughout.

Did you have an english class in college?

I don't know these things.

Why do I not know these things about my, when you go to college in Japan, you have to take english classes, but uh really, you have to, in college, Yeah, on top of that you have to take another language as well.

And I took spanish, went back to high school.

I actually went to IAN, which is an english class.

Extra classes.

Okay for fun.

Like you wanted to do it.

Yeah, I was forced to speak, I was forced to write every day and I almost, I almost hated it because you're forced Yeah, I just don't like it when people forced me to do certain things and even though I liked learning english and I never actually did work and stuff and I was told the teacher was always scolding me actually as much as I can feel that the same, that's like one thing that people don't really like explained to you before you start taking classes is that you get excited about the class.

But even for me, like in japanese, when you're forced or told to do like write an essay in japanese or like, you know, do specific tasks and japanese, it just gets more, I don't know, it makes you more unmotivated.

It did help me in a way, but it also like during college turned me off a little bit to japanese because I was like stressed, you're rushing to learn something for a test and you're not enjoying it if that makes any sense.

A lot of japanese education is like that even english, it's all memorization and it's just like, it's not as enjoyable as if you were to study it as a passion and you were going, you were doing things that you loved to learn the language every morning.

We have, we have this little 10 minutes english test which we have to learn 20 words every day or something, testing every day and actually that became really helpful later on my life.

Yeah, I think I actually learned something out of it.

I think if you take outside classes that has nothing to do with college, it's a lot, you're a lot more motivated.

Like if I were to find a class in Japan, I would probably really enjoy it because you're paying actually, you're using your money, you're forced to take the class, you're probably gonna like exactly when I moved to the United States after college I worked like 23 years to save that, save off to move and I went there in my english sucks, I went to Starbucks first day and I could not order the drink that I wanted to get.

It's not the english that you know that I saw in textbook, it's very, yes, textbook, japanese faster, so I could not understand what they're saying and I could not say what I want what I wanted to say, textbooks are good for when you start, when you start out and you know you want to learn a second language textbooks and language programs and all that stuff.

Online language programs are really good to use to like really learn words and things.

But naturally if you want to get better, if you want to get to an advanced level, you have to put yourself in stressful situations like that.

There's some people that go out in Japan and then they get so frustrated.

If you're in that situation, take that as a lesson learned from it.

It's part of yeah, if you don't know how to learn, if you don't have to say anything, then go home and look up the phrase that you want to say, right, is that what you kind of did, like, you didn't know how to order, right?

So you kind of looked over the crash, I put myself in a position or a situation where I'm not, I'm not with japanese people I guess I kind of distanced distanced myself from japanese people so that my english will improve.

You had roommates right?

When you first moved Russian people?

Yes, but they spoke english?

Yeah.

Okay.

So did you communicate them with them in english?

Okay.

That's why I lived with the Russian people.

Yeah, that's the best thing to do.

And but I did not talk with japanese people for I guess a while I spoke here and there because there was like a lot of japanese people in LA, I guess the first year I was very, very stubborn that like, no, I'm not going to talk to japanese people, I'm here in Los Angeles, Los Angeles to study music and long english and why would I talk to Japanese people so you can't came to L.

A.

To study music first.

Yes.

Ok, Yugi was putting himself in situations where he could learn the language.

So I think maybe a lot of people do know this or don't know this, but if you put yourself in those situations it does help you, but when you get a job like teaching english and you're like, I want to learn japanese, you have to take set aside that time in order to learn, I guess another language, whether you're in the native country or you're not, it makes a huge difference.

And for me, I started learning like real english when I first moved to the States because even though I learned like basic and all the syntax or grammar, my bad grammar of english, which helped me a lot actually, you have to know grammar in order to guess improved from the second year though.

It was very too much.

I missed speaking japanese and I started forgetting japanese.

So I changed my mind and it's actually kind of regret like why did I do that distance from myself from Japanese people?

I think it's still good to like do it, but like not too much, it's good to like say, ok, um six days out of seven days, like I'll speak english maybe, but one day out of a week, you know, I can speak in japanese and I can be a japanese.

Yeah, yeah, and you're gonna go nuts if you only speak a second language thing is when you move abroad to me, maybe this isn't you, but for me, like when I moved abroad, like I wanted a sense of family because I didn't have that here.

So it's hard, you can't, you can't just connect with japanese people all the time.

You have to have a balance between the two.

If you want to learn the language, it's good to hang out with japanese people if you want to like, you know stay sane in another country, then you need to build a family and relationships with people that you know your language and know your culture.

So it has to have a balance.

I obviously don't hang out with a lot of japanese people in Tokyo, but in Nagoya, I had all japanese friends.

Like I was always hanging out with japanese people, but Tokyo, everybody's so busy working like it's so hard to hang out with people here unless you really put yourself in groups that are language groups, like on apps, you can find that you want to learn the language, you have to make mistakes and that's the thing that I struggled on with the struggled with the most.

I was scared to make mistakes and I still am today and it's something that I work on all the time.

Okay, here's something I need to tell you.

We don't care if you make me sick.

I know, yeah, listen to you.

If you speak super slow, will still listen to.

We're in past that you speak, people are impressed here and Jeff I if I say Kenichi while everyone, I remember the 1st 23 years I was having trouble with, it was like a catch pole, right?

It's like at some point after five minutes or something, I lost track of what they're talking about, something.

Yes, it's exhausting.

It's really mentally exhausting when I studied abroad, it was like that for the first time, I was like, I'm gonna learn japanese, but you can only listen for so long and then you just lose it and you just can't think or listen anymore and when people learn a second language it's exhausting like exhaust your body, you physically feel it.

When I studied abroad, I was always kind of frustrated with myself because I would listen and try really hard and then I just, I can't do, it's like running a marathon little by little, it gets better and at some point you realize that you can actually understand what's going on even after 10 minutes, 20 minutes and you get the joke and little by little you're learning okay, so one thing that helped me a lot when I was learning japanese and when I was really pushing myself was phrases and this is a coming from another friend of mine in Japan, I became best friends with a girl in Maury and she told me that she learned because she got so good at english, she was perfect and like she just lived in Japan, she didn't really, she, I think she studied abroad like once or twice, but she was like fluent and she said the thing that helped her the most was learning phrases like she'll learn a vocabulary word right and then she'll look up sentences with that vocabulary word in it to put it into context and then she'll just remember those phrases and then use them when she needs them.