Intricacies of する and やる

Hello everyone,

​

I have a question from a native English Japanese learner (me). I’ve been studying Japanese for a few years now to be able to better work with some Japanese colleagues. Thank you for answering my question.

​

One major difficulty I’ve always had is the difference between する and やる in casual expression. Generally, I just use する and that has gotten me through just fine while using やる only when I’m obviously doing some physical action (like playing sports). However, for example, an expression like “Do what you want” I hear as both 「すきにする」and 「すきにやる」in a form such as 「すきにしよう」and「すきにやろう」. As far as I understand (according to some native speakers), the intricacies are that 「すきにやろう」implies that the thing you want to do is more action based, but it is still very vague for me, it seems like either can be used in all obvious situations. (I suppose this is less of a “how to use” question and more of a “better feeling/understanding” question.) If possible, would you kindly explain? Or perhaps this distinction is too subtle for an obvious description?

​

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question.

Manakyn