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. 

明日ビデオゲームする？                 明日ビデオゲームやる？ ( sometimes this can feel slangy, since a lot of teenagers tend to use やる, often boys than girls) 

Do you want to play video games tomorrow?

するするー！！                                    やるやるー！！

Yeah yeah, definitely!!

You can use やる、but it's safer to use する。Also, やる carries masculinity and not many women use やるon a daily basis unless it's necessary. 

Some phrases requires one to use やる

タバコはやりません。( I don't do cigarettes, I don't smoke) 

お酒はやります。　( I drink )

This has a more repetitious and unintentional feel to it. 

When I say unintentional, I mean that it's become so much of a daily thing, a habbit that doing such things ( drinkning, smoking ) becomes unintentional. 

If you work at a Japanese company, perhaps your mates or Boss will say " 一杯やりませんか”

as in " Why don't we go out for a drink? " 

This also requires やる　　　　　

　As far as the reply goes, you can simply say はい、いいですよ、やりましょう

やる can also have a little more focus on ' action ' when compared to する

The best way to get accustomed to this is to listen to real life conversational Japanese. Try and pick out する and やる and compare their uses, contexts depending on various scenarios and situations.



*** Just a quick thing you should know. やる is a slang which can directly be translated to " to fuck " "to have sex " so just keep that in mind as well.