Matt vs. Japan on How to Master Japanese Through Immersion, Learn Kanji & Nail Your Accent

Topics Discussed

• How anime first piqued Matt’s interest in Japanese as a teenager.

• How Khatzumoto’s AJATT (All Japanese All the Time) method inspired Matt to learn Japanese through extensive immersion and “comprehensible input.”

• Why languages are “acquired,” not “learned.”

• The pros and cons of high standards and the importance of having realistic expectations (e.g. appreciating that native-like fluency will likely take 10+ years of dedicated effort).

• Why fluency is not a switch that gets flipped one day, but rather a never-ending journey of refinement.

• The dangers of putting a culture on a pedestal and the importance of seeing a culture honestly as it is (not how you want it to be).

• How Matt immerses himself in Japanese throughout his day via YouTube, music, books, etc.

• When you should start practicing speaking, especially if your ultimate goal is native-like fluency.

• The pros and cons of adapting your English “factory” to create Japanese, or creating a new factory dedicated to Japanese.

• The power of developing a high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty.

• Matt’s views on using subtitles when watching Japanese anime, shows, movies, etc.

• The power of creating learning habits, minimizing choices, and not relying on willpower.

• How Matt’s views on learning kanji evolved over time, the critical difference between kanji recognition and production, and the advantages of the “quick and dirty” approach.

• What Matt would do differently if he started learning Japanese from scratch today.

• The importance of learning accurate “pitch accent” in Japanese.

• The difference between “tone” and “pitch accent.”

• Why consistency, patience, and mindset are the truly difficult part of learning a language.

• Why learning about the mistakes of others doesn’t guarantee avoiding them yourself.

Concepts, People, Resources & Terms Mentioned

• Pokémon (ポケットモンスター)

• Beyblade (ベイブレード)

• Khatzumoto (勝元)

• Spaced Repetition Systems (SRS)

• Stephen Krashen

• Input Hypothesis

• Grammar–translation method

• Rote learning

• Mentalese

• Steven Pinker

• Sen-mon-go (専門語, “speciallist terminology”)

• Language Reactor (Formerly Language Learning with Netflix)

• Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin

• Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig

• Rō-ma-ji (ローマ字, “Romanized Japanese)

• VPN (Virtual Private Network)

• Natsume Sōseki (夏目漱石)

• Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (芥川龍之介)

• Japanese pitch accent (高低アクセント)

• Stress accent

• Hashi (箸, “chopsticks”)

• Hashi (橋, “bridge”)

• Hashi 端, “edge”)

• Hana (花, “flower”)

• Sake (酒, “alcohol”)

• Sake (鮭, “salmon”)

• Fu-rat-to (フラット, “flat”)

• In-to-nē-shon (イントネーション, “intonation”)

• Negativity bias

• Senpai (先輩, “superior/elder”)