The Most Difficult Conversation for Foreigners in Japan: How Assumptions and "Japanese English" Create Communication Barriers

Dogen

Introduction: Dispelling Myths about Difficult Japanese Elements [0:00]

The video begins by asking what the most difficult part of Japanese is, quickly listing common answers like Kanji, N1 grammar, and pitch accent. The speaker, Dogen, immediately refutes these, stating the real challenges lie elsewhere.

Kanji: Not as Complicated as You Think [0:10]

• Modern Kanji Usage [0:19]
  • Dogen argues that writing kanji is not complicated in modern life.
  • Most writing is done digitally, eliminating the need for complex stroke order memorization.
  • Even for official documents like resident card applications or utility auto-payment setups, only basic information like names, birthdays, and addresses is written, which foreigners quickly master.
• "Difficult" vs. "Simple" Kanji [0:46]
  • Ironically, foreigners often try to learn highly complex kanji (like 鬱 (utsu) for depression, 薔薇 (bara) for rose, or 痙攣 (keiren) for spasm) to appear smart.
  • However, they frequently mix up objectively simpler kanji, such as 雪 (yuki) for snow and 雷 (kumo) for cloud, because the simpler ones are overlooked.

N1 Grammar: A War of Attrition, Not Difficulty [1:08]

• Outdated Grammar in Textbooks [1:30]
  • N1 grammar, while requiring extensive study, is not inherently difficult but rather a "war of attrition" against large textbooks.
  • Many N1 grammar points, like bekarazu (べからず) meaning "must not" or "it is forbidden to," are archaic and rarely used in modern daily speech.
  • Such forms are predominantly found only in Japanese textbooks.
• Real-World Signage [1:53]
  • Instead of archaic grammar, real-world signs use simple, direct commands like "入るな危険" (Hairu na kiken - Do not enter, Danger), or even provide multilingual translations for foreigners.
  • This highlights the impracticality of focusing on outdated grammar for real-life communication.

Pitch Accent: An Overlooked and Easy-to-Improve Aspect [2:28]

• Pervasiveness and Learnability [2:52]
  • Pitch accent, despite Dogen having made many videos on it (implying difficulty), is actually easy precisely because of its constant presence in spoken Japanese.
  • Foreigners are exposed to it every time they listen to Japanese, but most resources don't teach it, so learners don't know what to listen for.
• Pronunciation Improvement [3:00]
  • Once students actively begin studying pitch accent, they start noticing it everywhere, leading to immediate and significant improvements in their Japanese pronunciation.
  • Dogen compares this improvement to a baseball player going from a "Mario Mendoza average" (low) to an "Ichiro average" (high) overnight.

The True Hardest Parts: Katakana English (Gairaigo) and Communication Barriers [3:25]

• Understanding "Japanese English" (外来語) [3:29]
  • Dogen identifies "Japanese English" (Katakana English or 外来語 - gairaigo, foreign loan words) as the actual hardest part of Japanese for native English speakers.
  • Words like "サステナビリティ" (sustainability) and "プラスアルファ" (plus alpha) are difficult due to altered pronunciation, beat structure, and often different meanings or contexts from their English origins.
  • These terms are "extremely irritating" because more natural, shorter Japanese alternatives often exist.
• Difficulty of Katakana Alphabet [4:18]
  • Dogen provocatively claims Katakana is the most difficult Japanese alphabet due to its simplicity, which paradoxically makes it harder to distinguish characters and leads to confusion. He challenges viewers to write nu (ヌ) without looking, implying it's hard because you never need to write it.
• Japanese Adoption of Loanwords [5:17]
  • Despite the challenges, Japanese people frequently use these loanwords to the point that they have become integral parts of the language. Foreigners living in Japan will inevitably hear and memorize them.

The Most Difficult Conversation: Navigating Assumptions [5:35]

• The Dentist's Experience [5:42]
  • Dogen shares a personal anecdote about visiting a dentist, which illustrates the most difficult conversational hurdle.
  • Despite speaking Japanese to the dentist (and being highly proficient), the dentist assumes Dogen cannot understand him.
• Miscommunication due to Presumption [6:15]
  • The dentist begins speaking in "not the best English," then switches to a bewildering mix of Japanese with English words pronounced in Japanese (e.g., "getting ass" for "getting worse," "tan" for "tongue," "Anastasia" for "anesthesia").
  • This creates a situation where Dogen, proficient in both English and Japanese, struggles to understand due to the dentist's presumptive communication style, making the conversation more difficult than if the dentist had just spoken normal Japanese.
• Dogen's Expertise and the Unexpected Challenge [7:26]
  • Dogen, who teaches Japanese, has a Japanese wife, and children in the Japanese school system, describes this as a "completely new phenomenon" he wasn't prepared for, despite his extensive knowledge.
  • He emphasizes that this is not simply foreign loanwords turning into Japanese, but a "pretentious Japanese" created by the assumption of a foreigner's non-comprehension.
• The "Top Gun" Analogy [9:06]
  • Dogen likens the encounter to a "Top Gun" dogfight, where the "random Japanese dentist" executes unexpected maneuvers, leaving Dogen's "decades of experience" and "sophisticated strategies" useless. The dentist's unpredictable linguistic twists make it impossible to respond effectively.
• Embracing the Unavoidable [9:42]
  • In the face of this "chaos," Dogen humorously suggests closing one's eyes and embracing the inevitable, implying that sometimes, fighting against these communication assumptions is futile.
• The Ultimate Strategy [10:01]
  • The only way to counter this communication style is to "give him a taste of his own medicine," mirroring the confusing hybrid language back to them. Dogen demonstrates this by repeating the dentist's garbled English-Japanese phrases to try and understand, highlighting the absurdity. This self-referential confusion, where the Japanese speaker's attempt to simplify actually complicates, is presented as the most difficult aspect of conversing in Japanese for a foreigner.