How Dogen Gets Ahead of 99% of Japanese Learners

Hey KoreKara Squad,

There is no denying Dogen is a top-tier Japanese language learner, but I wanted to share two specific tactics that I see him use to keep his Japanese above 99% of learners

💡 Tip of the week

When I spoke to him on the podcast, I had the opportunity to ask him exactly how he went about learning Japanese. He talked about total immersion, listening to movies on repeat, and also practicing output. Things you might expect. But there were more two things I saw talk about that most language learners neglect.

The first is writing deliberately.

Dogen actually started out first aspiring to be a Japanese author, even having published a short book on Amazon. In order to achieve this he spent hours every single day writing and studying the works of other Japanese writers to learn how they write. By writing deliberately, it forced him to think about Japanese grammar on a deeper level and to reflect on the patterns that he uses.

But what do I mean by writing deliberately?

It’s writing and deliberately trying to get better. You can start off by writing in a journal and describing things you’re passionate about. You could create an anonymous twitter account where you tweet every day in Japanese. (See Ananya) To get better, you can do things like get feedback from natives or try to describe more complex thoughts and ideas. The purpose of this is that you get used to pushing outside your comfort zone. When you then go and have conversations, you’ll remember the ways you go about describing something in detail, and the words will flow out of you.

The second thing is speaking deliberately.

Dogen has said in interviews that he actually mostly uses English in his day to day life. But how does he continue to keep his Japanese in top shape? He speaks deliberately for his YouTube channel. After he has polished his Japanese script, he then goes and records it line by line, making sure he has as close to perfect pitch accent as possible, and finally edits the video. This process of recording, reflecting, editing, makes sure that he’s confronting his own Japanese and seeing where the flaws are.

The biggest benefit Dogen is gaining from writing and reading through his scripts is the speaking practice. Speaking in front of a camera and reviewing it is something not many language learners are doing, and it is what sets Dogen apart from the rest.

While many of us are content getting some speaking practice, Dogen might speak through a script 10 times before he’s satisfied with his pitch and delivery. It is his hyper-fixation of sounding as native as possible that pushes him closer to that goal every time he creates a video.

So how can you get as good as Dogen?

Listen, Speak, Record, Repeat.

Just listening to a recording of yourself after spending countless hours listening to natives, you’ll spot some differences. Don’t get discouraged. Make some changes and speak again. Keep making these small changes until you sound closer to where you want to be. If you want to take it to the next level, then record each line of a script and go through and edit a perfect version. You’ll notice so many little weird pronunciation quirks and habits that you have when you speak.

📺 Immersion of the week

One drama I enjoyed and thought was pretty funny when I watched it for the first time is called Moteki. The word in Japanese means a period of time where you start being popular with the opposite sex.

The show is about this guy who has never been popular with girls who suddenly get’s all this attention. Pretty chill, 12 episode series if you want to watch something this week. I’m open to recommendations to, send me some stuff and I’ll watch it and feature it here :)

I found a link to watch it here. No signups or anything lol

✍️ Kanji of the week

The kanji for this week means “to review” and is composed of 復 meaning “to restore, to return to” and 習 meaning “learn”. ‘Returning to your learning’ or going back and actively reviewing is something some immersion learners may be overlooking or actively avoiding. Active review is an important part of taking your Japanese to the next level.

🗣️Q&A
Btw, I started tweeting Japanese advice on the korekara twitter page. Go follow if you use twitter.

Alright, see you next week.

Eric