Subtitling my latest video was a bit of a challenge because a lot of it was somewhat uniquely Japanese. So I thought I would explain some of the cultural and linguistic references in the video!
WTF is a JYUKENSEI!? 受験生って何！？
A jyukensei is a student studying for exams. Exams are super duper mega important in Japan. You have to pass an exam to get into Jr High, then High School, then University…basically it's all about exams.
Calling your teacher?! 先生に電話しなさい！
I know in New Zealand it's not normal to have your teacher's phone number! Usually you'd ask questions in person. But in Japan teachers tend to have a closer relationship with students and go above and beyond the call of duty for them. In any case this whole scene is based on a true story.
What do Kit Kats have to do with anything!? 受験生に必要なものなんでキットカットなの？！
The word "Kit Kat" sounds like "you'll probably pass" or きっと勝つ(きっとかつ kitto katsu) in Japanese! So Kit Kats are super popular with jyukensei and are kind of like a good luck charm. Good luck charms from temples are popular with jyukensei too!
What does WWWWWWWW mean!? wってどういう意味！？
The word for "to laugh" in Japanese is 笑う（わらう warau). The kanji character 笑 is used to say LOL. But it's even easier just to put a lowercase "w" at the end of the sentence. Basically it means LOL.
This isn't formal so don't use it on your next Japanese exam!
I DIDN'T DROP ANYTHING! あたし何も落としてない！
The Japanese word 落とす(おとす to drop) is the same as the Japanese word for "to fail (an exam)" so some students get very superstitious about dropping things around exams. Some try not to even use the word just in case!
Hi guys! It's almost Halloween and this year I decided to dress up as something not-very-scary, Hachune Miku! (Kinda like the chibi, slightly crazy version of Hatsune Miku.) ハロー！今年のハロウィン、かわいいコスプレに挑戦します！最近ははちゅねミクの動画見すぎちゃって、はちゅねミクコスプルしたくなっちゃった！なので、はちゅねミクになってみた！
はちゅねミクみたいに可愛くなれなかったけどね! Well, I don't exactly look like Miku, but for my first time it's not bad!
Products used:
使ったものたち！ ベースメイク Missha Signature Range Real Complete BB Cream MAC Pro-Longwear Concealer YSL Touche Eclat Star of the Color Face Powder アイメイク Urban Decay Eye Primer 下地 MUA Eyeshadow Palette (Poptastic) CANMAKE TOKYO Liquid liner (リキッドライナー) Bobbi Brown Pencil Liner (Black) NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil (Milk) つけま Fake lashes Koda Kumi lashes by D.U.P DUPの倖田來未つけま（目尻タイプ) Charming Kiss No. 8（下まつげ) Gerlain Sakura Blush RIMMEl Lip & Cheek (pink)
Brushes: Sigma, Real Techniques
A lot of people do deka-me (big, dolly eyes) makeup for Miku, but I didn't want to over-do it. Actually the official Hatsune Miku channel on YouTube has a makeup tutorial and the MUA hardly uses any eye-makeup! Since Miku is only 16 I think that makes sense! But she's a character open to many interpretations!
You can achieve a really cute, anime-eye look with circle lenses, but my
eyes are too sensitive for them these days, and since my eye colour
isn't too far off Miku's, I decided not to use them.
コスチュームはAMAZONで買いました！思ったよりクオリティーが高いもので、大満足です！ I bought the costume on Amazon.jp! It really exceeded my expectations, it came amazingly well-packaged and the whole thing is gorge!
ハロウィーン楽しんでね！ I Hope you guys have an awesome Halloween!
One of the most frequently asked questions I get on my channel and on
tumblr is "How did you learn Japanese?" So finally I decided to make a
video in English about it! And just in case you'd rather skim a blog
post than watch a fairly lengthy video, here you go! Loading this one up
with links, so I hope you find something you like.
My Japanese isn't perfect!
In fact, it's pretty
far from it. I'm still studying and trying to perfect it and I've got a
long way to go. That said, my Japanese is fairly functional, so I can
give advice from that standpoint!
Find a class! (If you can.)
Self-studying Japanese is one of the hardest things I've ever done. If you can
find a class, language partner, or study group near you then take the
plunge and sign up! Self-studying can be a real challenge and without a
teacher to correct your mistakes and put pressure on you to memorise
vocabularly you have to be very, very motivated. That said, it can be done, so don't stop reading!
Learn Kana!
Learning how to read and write
hiragana and katakana is really important so start from there! Trust me,
they're a lot easier than kanji is.
By the way, I learn kanji by rote memorisation. I sit down with a bunch of kanji I don't know and write them over and over. Then I write them without looking. Then I test myself, etc. After memorising them it's really important to go back to them later because kanji love to just up and disappear from your memory.
Find a Good Textbook!
If you're part of a class then you'll probably have to use what the curriculum is written around, but here's my favourite: For beginners: GENKI I
This
textbook is logically-structured and easy to follow. The grammar points
are explained in depth and there are tonnes of exercises to help you! Check it out on Amazon, I page through it in the above video.
Next up: GENKI II
Like GENKI I this is an awesome textbook and will help to fill out your elementary Japanese knowledge! Check it out on Amazon.
My Studying Face
NIHONGO SO-MATOME
These books are written to prepare you for the JLPT but even if you're not going to
be taking the exam they are pretty good. I particularly like the
grammar and kanji ones although I struggle with the vocabulary ones
since they are basically just long lists of vocab you have to memorise.
It's probably best to page through them at a bookstore (if you can) to
get an idea of which level is right for you.
MINNA NO NIHONGO
This
is another widely-used textbook series and I think it might include
more situational, practical Japanese. However, I have never used this
series. If you don't like the sound of Genki, check these out.
Intermediate/Advanced Level Resources
Once
you reach a certain level I feel like there aren't any Holy Grail
textbooks. It's probably better to move on to things like: Japanese
magazines, books, manga, newspapers, and so on. Don't feel discouraged
if it's really hard at firstand try to find things that match
your ability or are just slightly higher. If you try reading NewsWeek in
Japanese right away you might just headdesk.
White & Nerdy
IMMERSION!
You don't actually have to go to
Japan to immerse yourself in Japanese but it does help! If you have the
opportunity to come here as a student I recommend it 100% but even if
you don't have the opportunity to come to Japan right now you can start
by surrounding yourself with Japanese media: music, films, drama and
anime. If you can make some Japanese friends or work in a places where
you get the opportunity to speak Japanese that will help you a lot too!
Change
your computer/phone/everything to Japanese (just memorise how to change
it back first because all those kanji can be pretty overwhelming!). I
have all my devices set to Japanese which is actually kind of tough
when you're doing a lot of video editing!!!!
View FaceBook and Twitter in Japanese! Set your homepage to a Japanese website! Just go for gold!
And then check out some of my favourite Japanese things:
Now go back to your own favourite Japanese things!
SPEAK.
I'd studied Japanese a bit before coming
to Japan but when I got here I found it so hard to form a sentence. I
was devastatingly shy and terrified of making mistakes.
These two things do not go well with language learning! You have to make mistakes in order to learn!
I still screw up all the time. I remember how much it hurt when I
messed up kage (shadow) with hige (beard) during a job and everyone
laughed their butts off at me. But thanks to that I will never make that
mistake again! So do not be afraid to say something ridiculously wrong.
It's the way you learn. Laugh at your mistakes. Don't take them to heart.
One of the ways I learnt to speak Japanese was by making vlogs in Japanese. Once I had a Japanese audience I kind of had to speak Japanese even if it was really hard. Through this I learnt a lot and was able to keep my motivation up!
(Also talking to yourself is totally cool.)
Use the internet as a supplementary learning tool!
Hannah talks about this in her video below:
There
are tonnes of Japanese people who want to learn English and will be
happy to talk with you! Just don't invite them to your house or anything
:P
Rikaichan is a great addon to help decipher kanji and unfamiliar words (just don't rely on it too much!!!). Twitter is a great place to practice Japanese and talk to Japanese people.
My favourite dictionary is Jim Breen's WWWJDIC. It's free and really really good. Lang-8 is a site where people will correct your Japanese! I think it's free!
And of course there's always YouTube!!!
Just remember that the internet is a supplementary tool! You're still going to have to buckle down and study if you want to become better than me at Japanese (and I 100% expect you to become better than me, not even kidding around here).
DO A LITTLE EVERYDAY!
It's so hard sometimes to sit down and immerse yourself in language learning so try not to forget how fun that time can be. Find the place you study best - for me it's in a cafe or library - and find time to go there and study! Carry your textbooks around if you have to! They might give you a backache but that backache will be nagging you to studying. I mean, you don't want to lug them around all day and then not study at all, right?
み
んなのメイクの動ガールたちと、リンメルの新作発表会にいってきました！写真いっぱい撮ってみました☆発表会は英国大使館でやりましたので旅行に行ったよ
うな感じでした☆I was lucky enough to be at the British Embassy in Tokyo when
Rimmel Japan announced their new eyeshadow!
リンメルの新しい秋冬アイシャドウ！Gem Dew Eyes! ジェムデュウアイズ♡
アイシャドウの形のGem Dewクッキーたちです！可愛くて美味しかったです♥
They had cookies made in the shape of the eyeshadow and homg they were delicious.
The
cool thing about this eyeshadow is that it has a primer (the cream
square) and also a pigmented "jem" gel shadow (the purple colour above)
which you can use to line your eyes. Recently I've been using the
beautiful purple shade a LOT. There's also a gorgeous gold shade! I'll
have to make a video about it closer to the release date. The palette
will retail for ¥1,680 (tax incl).
ミキさん、佐々木あさひさん、Choicerishのちひろさんが英国大士官の庭で動画を撮ったり踊ったりした！た・の・し・そ〜
Here's Miki, Asahi Sasaki, and Chihiro, dancing in the British Embassy gardens. These girls are too cool!
Gem jellies!おしゃれなジェムゼリーたち！
They did a live demonstration of the shadow with a wonderful makeup artist and model!
アイシャドウのデモンストレーションを見ました！
ジェムデュウアイズのモデル道端アンジェリカさん！もぅ、美人すぎます！
それとこのメイクも素敵ですね。これを見てから紫のアイラインにハマっちゃいましたよ！
The
model for Gem Dew Eyes is Angelica Michibana who as you can probably
tell is pretty much beyond gorgeous. After scrutinizing the picture I
really fell in love with the eye makeup. I love the way the gel-shadow
is used as catliner (which her cute wink shows off to such perfect
effect, ugh!). Just realised catliner probably isn't a word but never
mind that! After experimenting a little I was pretty impressed to find
out that the shadow actually does work as liner so you really can
recreate that effect! To get the sharp line you'd definitely need a
pencil liner brush though. Anyway all I can say is I love this palette!
海外のユーチューブで流行っている目隠しメイクチャレンジに挑戦しました！ 友達のクララさんが東京にいた間に一緒に楽しくやりました。
I'd been wanting to try the Blindfold Makeup Challenge for ages! But I waited until my friend Clara visited before attempting it.
Suffice to say it was a wonderful disaster.
うまくいかなかったです。
そして復讐をしました。アイライナーとマスカラがめっちゃ難しかったです。
And then I got my revenge. Actually I was really trying that time. The eyeliner and mascara were the hardest. Not to mention the mess I made with eye primer.
ものすごく楽しかったので、彼氏のダンカンさんと一緒にやりました。
I had so much much making and editing these that I made my boyfriend Duncan do it too.
First he made me into the Joker.
まずは彼氏にジョーカーメイクをしてもらいました。
Maybe I was trying to mess this up, just a little.
そしてあたしも雑にやりました！
You're never too old to fingerpaint the hell out of someone's face and this tag has to be my favourite tag ever. Except for maybe Draw My Life. Not only is it hilarious good fun to watch people attempt this, but making them is really fun too. I sat at my computer cackling like a manic while editing these.
このチャレンジはめっちゃくっちゃ楽しいので、ぜひぜひやってみてください！編集しながら爆笑しました♡
So this one time, a few years ago, I downloaded a bunch of eps of YOUtachi! one of the shows Dante was in when he was in Johnny's.
ダンテくんの可愛いジャニーズJr.の頃のYOUたち！出演２年前に見てました。
If I could share the episodes he was in with you I certainly would, but unfortunately I don't think the ones I viewed are up anymore. HOWEVER I did take a bunch of screencaps so I'm gonna dump them here for your viewing pleasure.
動画がありましたけど削除しました（汗
ではでは、エンジョイ！
(Talking about a game)
Dante: I had that game!
Dante: But I gave it away.
Dante: It was really boring.
(I think the reaction to this was like: uhhh...Johnny's takes all kinds, don't they.)
If the Johnny's Jr. won the game, they got treats. Dante scoffed them down like he'd never seen food before. The others showed a little more restraint.
Awwww.
This shots look silly out of context,but Dante was tasked with holding on to the guest's cellphone until she received a reply to a text the hosts made her send.
The word for "to laugh" in Japanese is 笑う（わらう warau). The kanji character 笑 is used to say LOL. But it's even easier just to put a lowercase "w" at the end of the sentence. Basically it means LOL. 
