I’m beginning to learn Japanese on top of Scots Gaelic and Kanienʼkéha, it’s by far the most difficult out of the three. I have a friend from Yokohama who can’t speak English and it’s been on my to-do list so I figured I might as well learn now. But every time I go on YouTube and search for Japanese-related content, I get channels like Abroad in Japan, Dogen, The Anime Man, Yuta, etc. All these YouTubers are tailored toward an English-speaking audience and the comments are all in English. No actual Japanese seen. They don’t give a truly authentic image of Japan, just the touristy sides. But when I do try and find actual Japanese-related media or websites, it’s hidden away behind region locking.
I get that Japan is a very culturally isolated country but why is it so hard to find regular, everyday media from Japan? It’s a pain in the arse trying to learn when all I find are endless videos in English made by weebs. Am I doing things wrong?
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Those YouTubers channels are literally for an English speaking audience to *see* things in Japan. They aren’t there to teach you Japanese or about the Japanese culture, because well, apart from Yuta and Joey, they aren’t Japanese. There’s some videos out there, but you aren’t going to find a ton of Japanese lessons for free online. Take a class or get yourself a self learn book like Genki or a website like Japanesepod101.
If you have android, I recommend to switch the Youtube language in japanese. Then on the youtube app homepage click the compass icon and you will find a lot of popular contents in japanese.
search in english, english results
search in japanese, japanese results
Have you tried searching in Japanese?
You could also try changing to Japanese region, so you get the recommendations of Japanese YouTubers, like the Japanese trending page etc.
Your other two TLs have a large percentage of speakers who speak English bilingually. I’d even bet that a large percentage of learners are native English speakers who view these languages as heritage languages. It makes a lot of sense that there would be many videos where these languages are used with English. There are relatively few people who are bilingual in Japanese and English. Most people speak one language or the other. There are relatively few people with a high level in both. Therefore most videos will stick to one language or the other. There are a ton of Youtube videos in Japanese made by Japanese people for Japanese people. They’re not region locked so I’m not sure why you’re having so much trouble finding them
If you’re having trouble finding stuff, this resource list might help you: [https://kuzuri.neocities.org/resources](https://kuzuri.neocities.org/resources)
If your level is somewhat low, it might be better to stick to content that’s made for learners. There are plenty of YouTube channels that are teaching Japanese in Japanese.
Beyond YouTube there is also NHK Easy and SBS Japanese for content in Japanese
Have you actually watched those YouTubers or tried to find Japanese ones? Most of dogens videos are in Japanese. Joey has some great interviews in Japanese, even a few with some of the biggest Japanese YouTubers. Yuta has regular videos on language.
NHK world japan is a YouTube channel I enjoy. The recent video on 3 days after the 2011 earthquake was both devastating and fascinating to watch.
Also some of those you listed are actually Japanese and you’re calling them weebs? May I suggest you take the odd chip off your shoulder and put some effort into looking for what you do want to see? Stop relying on an algorithm catered to an English speaking audience.
Hello!
Japanese media content might be a little too difficult for a beginner, since News are for advanced learners and variety shows and drama are at least N3 (intermediate, B1) level. But if that is what you want, search for ANN News, TBS News, 日テレ. They’re always on 24/7.
If you really want to learn Japanese, try searching on instagram. There’s a lot of “studygrams” that recommend Japanese textbooks, manga, media, and apps targeted specifically for different levels. They’re super helpful.
There are also Japanese teachers on instagram posting relevant and useful words, phrases in Japanese everyday. They even post pronunciation as well as grammar patterns and example sentences. Those are super helpful.
> why is it so hard to find regular, everyday media from Japan?
because you dont know japanese
SoraTheTroll!
He does not make content for education, but it ends up being educational ^__^
Dogen has no actual Japanese? 何？
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9hJ5A0eFtg&ab_channel=%E3%81%A8%E3%82%8C%E3%81%84%E3%82%93%E3%80%82](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9hJ5A0eFtg&ab_channel=%E3%81%A8%E3%82%8C%E3%81%84%E3%82%93%E3%80%82)
Fuck it’s just so hard
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coIC2RBDPJ0&ab_channel=%E3%82%86%E3%82%8B%E8%A8%80%E8%AA%9E%E5%AD%A6%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B8%E3%82%AA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coIC2RBDPJ0&ab_channel=%E3%82%86%E3%82%8B%E8%A8%80%E8%AA%9E%E5%AD%A6%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B8%E3%82%AA)
To find Japanese youtube content
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ElDXKdphZI&ab_channel=PROWRESTLINGSHIBATARZZ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ElDXKdphZI&ab_channel=PROWRESTLINGSHIBATARZZ)
I don’t even know what to do
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLj4nu377SQ&ab_channel=%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4%E7%B4%94%E4%B8%80%E5%88%87%E3%82%8A%E6%8A%9C%E3%81%8D%E9%9B%86](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLj4nu377SQ&ab_channel=%E5%8A%A0%E8%97%A4%E7%B4%94%E4%B8%80%E5%88%87%E3%82%8A%E6%8A%9C%E3%81%8D%E9%9B%86)
It’s just hopeless man
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-9h4zwI6-N5vc7pPug2UKT70hnhk1IeF](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-9h4zwI6-N5vc7pPug2UKT70hnhk1IeF)
get on niconico? trial by fire baby.
Here’s a very useful hack that will help you immensely: in youtube’s settings, you can change your location to “japan” as your country. When you do this, the trending videos will be the Japanese trending videos, which are, almost entirely, in Japanese. You do not have to be in Japan to do this.
If you click on enough of these, native content will spring up thanks to the algorithm.
Ganbarou, my dude
Konbanwa, ScotmcS! I had a similar problem when starting. I have now a good selection of YTers that I follow all in Japanese. In particular I would check out these three: [Comprehensible Japanese](https://www.youtube.com/@ComprehensibleJapanese/videos) (teaching using pictures, for complete- or early beginners), [Japanese with Shun](https://www.youtube.com/@JapanesewithShun) (also a podcast, episodes posted to YT but does vlogs just on YT) and [Miku Real Japanese](https://www.youtube.com/@mikurealjapanese3804). Similar to Shun, but a female teacher. Both Shun and Miku are aimed at beginners to intermediate and offer transcripts for each podcast / vlog episode if you join their Patreons. Their content is interesting conversations on various topics, not “teaching” the language. With these three resources and a good course, you’ll be able to get a very long way over time if you stick at it.
You could look for some anime/cartoons aimed for children like Chi’s Sweet Home or something similar, quite simple grammar and vocabulary.
I’m shadowing this thread as lots of good ideas cropping up 🙂
I have to assume you’re searching in English for your Japanese content. It’s really easy to find if you’d just search in Japanese using Japanese scripts. If you did that, none of the results should be in English.
ForJoyTV is $20 (US) a monthish, that’s how I get a lot of my Japanese media