Japanese feels like a game where I try to see how much of a sentence can be taken away before it does not make sense

I'm sure you hear this everywhere but your subtitling system is absolutely excellent

We have a million ways to say "you," now don't use ANY of them.

i saw some comments saying they didn't like how you go into detail about everything and i just wanted to say, i hope you don't listen to them. there are lots of shorter videos online that teach vocab like "x = y, so you just say x" without giving the various nuances and possible contexts that i really appreciate in your videos. when you go into detail about little things like 達 being used only for living things /unless they're toy story toys/ it really gives me a much clearer picture of the extent of what i can say, what i might want to express and opens my eyes to all the things i'm able to talk about in japanese. other videos often leave me with lots of questions about specific situational use, but when i watch your videos i rarely find myself leaving with more questions than i had answered. something i really like is when you're explaining a grammar point, for example, and you use another new point to help explain then you let us know that we haven't learned it from your videos yet or that you already made a video on it instead of leaving it go unacknowledged. it clears up a lot of confusion for me, and lets me know that i don't have to worry about that at the moment or that i might be overthinking how to say what i want to say in jp. lots of other videos don't do that and leave me wondering "well what about xyz???" misa-sensei's videos are one-of-a-kind, so thank you for putting so much thought and care, time, effort and mental energy into your videos for us. please keep doing what you do and being you 💙

Types of Japanese 2nd person pronouns:
1) Rude
2) Very rude
3) You are my sworn enemy, I shall not rest until I destroy you

As a Chinese mandarin speaker, I find it fascinating how words like 君 and 貴様 evolved into rude terms (between strangers) in modern times, when the kanji are very polite terms that Chinese language speakers today wouldn't use in modern conversations. I really liked your lesson, Misa-sensei!

Japanese: let's have a bunch of words to say "You"

me: Then, what should I use?

-None of them.

Great summary of Japanese pronouns!  Two things that occurred to me as I was watching:

1. At 27:56 you introduced 自分 as a versatile first-person pronoun (I) for men.  However, in the Kansai area 自分 is also used as a second-person pronoun (you). This confused the hell out of me when I first moved to Osaka and heard it used like this but eventually I got used to it.

2.  おまえ was a landmine for me. I heard it being used all over the place in Japanese dramas, YT videos and so on when young men are casually talking to their female friends or girlfriends so I decided to try it out on my Japanese gf (大阪出身) at the time.  I was trying to make my Japanese sound more ネイティブっぽい.  Well, that was a big mistake.  She got so pissed off at me.  She claimed that no man had ever addressed her as おまえ in her 27 years on this earth and it deeply offended her, which of course I had no intention of doing. It was a mess.  So a caution to other men out there.  It may depend on the particular girl whether she finds it offensive or not but probably better to play it safe and stick to just her name.

It sounds like Japanese is a more efficient language than English in that you can omit a lot of words and retain the meaning.

So basically, if you say "you" in japanese then it will be considered rude😂😂 no matter which word you use

With あなた I think the confusion for English speakers (at least in the United States) lies in the fact that the converse is true.  We honestly only use "you" in direct communication out of habit because. to quote every grownup in my childhood, "It is very rude to speak about someone in the third person when they are present."  Saying someone's name when they are right there implies dismissiveness, or at least a layer of formality that makes for awkward conversations.  Contrast the following conversation:

Person 1:  "Going to burn that part of the Japanese textbook about pronouns?"

Person 2:  "Yep.  Got a match?"


The word "you" was not harmed in this dramatization.

this is so useful it's surprising that this video is free! coming from the textbooks there's a lot of difference in writing vs conversational Japanese and Misa-san really cleared everything up. thank you!

I think that Misa-sensei doesn't get enough credit for her work
Her sort of "rants" or maybe "tangents" are what gives you a better feel for the language, as she doesn't just say the thing, she also gives examples, colours the words accordingly and even gives explanations as to why something works and why something doesn't work in Japanese, what is more natural compared to what would be the textbook Japanese.

One thing I want to talk about is Misa-sensei's spoken English
She is forcing the words out, forcing herself to speak in a more proper English and actually nails some words like "dang that's a well pronounced word, good job Misa-sensei"

This is why it's so easy to spot people who use google translate on twitter 😂

anata and kimi are rude because everybody knows that the proper way to address anyone in japan is with a stern OMAE in order to establish dominance

The true correct way to address other people is くそ人間 while wearing a crown and cape and carrying a large, golden, jewelled staff

@4:15 Slight correction here. Given a scenario of a husband and a wife walking by each other in their house;

Father: "What are the kids doing?"
Mother: "Watching TV"

is a totally valid and natural way of speaking in English. Similarly from a friend "Bro up to anything atm?" "Playing FFXIV" is also valid. We don't omit pronouns anywhere near as often but this translation is pretty capable of being 1 to 1.

i am in state of permanent confusion when it comes to "anata".  every book i have seen as a beginner, tells you this what you use as "you".  they don't give contexts, etc. And then Misa and other teachers online tell us how real language goes and it should not be used.  Is "anata" EVER used? what is the right context then?  I was watching a movie the other day with subtitles and the setting is Meiji era.  A woman calls her husband "anata" and subtitles translate it as "dear".  Is that accurate and is such use ok? And then why books fail to address such an important thing? It's almost like learning all the wrong things from the start and is very frustrating.

These detailed explanations about how everyday Japanese is really used are very helpful. They help us understand what’s actually happening much quicker. It could take hundreds of hours of immersion to fully realize what’s going on.  These lessons make immersion much more efficient. Typical Misa Sensei – outstanding, as always. 教えてくれてありがとうございます！

I'm so glad you mentioned what are some of the proper ways of saying "you" or addressing someone without coming off rude. That's one of my biggest fears of accidentally coming off rude to someone... Thank you so much!! I'm new to your channel and still at the early stages of learning Japanese, but your videos have been a great companion to help me understand Japanese alongside my studies and textbooks. Agian thank you.