Japanese Hack: Canada vlog Kazuko From Japan

Let's learn Japanese with a Vlog by Kazuko

If you're familiar with youtubers who live in Japan and make videos about the differences in culture, language and so on...... you might know about the Channel TomokoTomoko. The channel is used to teach Japanese using live scenarios and this lady Kazuko appears on that channel. I never knew she had her own channel. She seems to be in Vancouver at the moment on a working holiday programme. This is one of her vlogs. 

How to use 多ければ多いほど

Ahhhh.... so many coffee beans 

人が多ければ多いほどにぎやかだ。

The more the people, the noisier it is. 

酒を飲めば飲むほど酔いやすくなる。

The more you drink, the easier it is to get drunk.

So, here we encounter the verb+ suppositional(conditional) + verb(plain form) + ほど 

and yes, the verb can be replaced with the adjective. 

It’s used to create a condition of comparison. 

How to use なるべく

Whoahhh,, take it easy horse-head

So, なるべく comes from the verb 成る(to make something happen, to allow something to happen) and the auxiliary verb べし(has aspects of order, reasoning, obligations, possibility)

and is used when you want to translate feelings of wanting someone to do something if possible. 

So, it's commonly used in daily life and something you will encounter on regular basis. 

Now, this is similar to できたら which translates to " if it's possible/if possible " but なるべく 　is much stronger and often a request you want to push on to someone.

If できたら was a gentle push, なるべく would be a stronger push. 

Sometimes なるべく is also used when one is irritated by a repetitous movement someone does in work environments, daily life and so on.  

Let's go through some examples, 

Japanese Slang: ヤバイ

Daaang son, what's the matter???

This is really common nowadays as a slang used among teenagers to people in their 30's,40's and even 50's. 

The term ヤバイ. The interesting thing is that it contains various meanings and can be used in very different situations. The meaning also seems to differ among the various age groups. 

How to use やる & する

The face I make on the toilet seat....

So I had this question from one of my students and I think this is something everyone would question at a certain point when learning Japanese.

How can I use する and やる when they have the same meaning?

Just understand that in most cases, する is your best bet. 

あなたは何をしますか？

What do you do? (What kind of occupation do you have) 

会社を経営しています。      or      会社をやっています。( a little more ambiguous )

I run a company. 

Japanese Slang : テンションが高い

Whoah,,,, excitement at its best. I wish I had such awesome hair. Lol

Alright guys, 

When you visit Japan and start getting immersed in the language and people, slang starts to creep up to you. It may be a very subtle thing, or something that's worth taking note of. 

I'm sure there's slang for every generation and it has its own contexts. 

Sometimes there's slang that's pretty common for almost all generations. 

One type of slang that's pretty much used and heard almost everyday is テンションが高い

今日はテンションが高いぞー！！！

How to use 当たる

I don't think I want to end up being her boyfriend.....

This is a verb that boggles our mind. Just how do you use 当たる?? 

There are an infinite number of ways one can use 当たる. Okay, maybe it's not infinity but there's quite a lot of ways. 

Let's look at some which are used quite often, together with examples. 

1.  As the picture above describes, some sort of physical contact by people and/or things. 

彼のパンチが顔に当たった。　

His punch landed(hit) on my face. 

This can also be used with hitting a ball, target, and so on. 

暖かい日差しに当たる。

Being under the warm sun. ( Get shone upon by the warm sunlight) 

The sunlight might not really be physical, but when you think of photons hitting us it's understandable. 

This way of expression can also be used for other natural elements. 　風に当たる(getting hit by the wind/feeling the wind) being the most common.