How To Actually Understand Anime WITHOUT Subtitles

If you love anime and dream of watching it without subtitles, this is the right video for you. Even though I'm a native Japanese speaker, today I want to share with you guys how to understand anime without subtitles. You might be wondering why should I listen to a native Japanese speaker about this. Well, the steps I'm going to teach you guys today is based on research and it's actually proven and reliable method. And also I used this to learn Spanish and it actually worked. So today I want to walk you through step-by-step guide to help you watch any Japanese content including anime to understand them without subtitles. So let's start. First, you need to choose right anime. What I mean by right anime is that anime that matches your Japanese level. According to a research by Stephen Krashen who made the comprehensible input theory, he suggested something called the 60 to 70 percent rule when learning the language. This rule is that learners should watch materials that they can understand roughly 60 to 70 percent of the content. So it should be something that they can feel familiar. So based on this rule, you should pick an anime that is at the right level for you. So it shouldn't be too difficult that you got discouraged but also not too easy that you can understand everything. Also it's important to pick an anime that is familiar for you. For example, if you choose Attack on Titan to watch, it uses a lot of military and tactic terms and vocabulary. So it is not the best fit to watch it as learning. So it's better to choose daily life anime like Atashinchi or Shirokuma Cafe. These anime are easier to understand because they use everyday Japanese. The next step is to choose right length of anime. So what I mean by length is that when I was learning English, I used to watch two hours movies. And in the beginning, I tried to understand the but after some while, I get so tired because I just couldn't pay attention anymore. This happens when we are learning a new language, our brain is constantly processing new and unfamiliar information so that our brain is using a lot of energy. And as a result, our attention span becomes really shorter. So instead of watching two episodes or movie, I highly suggest picking some short clips like 10 to 15 minutes at a time. So our attention keeps going and it's less stressing. Next step is to watch the clip with subtitle. One key reason why I suggest watching it firstly with subtitle is that native speakers often use contractions. So contractions are when words or phrases are shortened or some words are omitted. For example, in anime, you will often hear character uses contraction in their speech. For example, wakannai. This word you learned as I don't know in textbook, but they use contractions so it becomes wakannai. The words are omitted. So let me show you an example. Guess what I'm saying in Japanese. Watashinchi de tabeteku? What I just said was watashi no ie de tabete iku? Do you want to eat at my house? See, this is how watashi no ie, my house, becomes watashinchi, the shorter version. And also, tabete iku, do you want to eat, becomes tabeteku. So this is why watching short clips with subtitle helps you connect what you hear to the written form. It makes it easier to get used to how contractions are used in real conversation and especially in anime. To understand contractions better, it's important to practice your Japanese with native speaker and learn real-life Japanese. One of the best ways to do that is by taking lessons on italki. I want to say big thanks to italki for sponsoring this video. It's a super useful platform where you can improve your listening and speaking skills through real conversation. italki is an online language learning platform offering personalized one-on-one lessons with native speaker teachers. And it's not just for Japanese. italki offers over 150 languages so no matter which language you're learning, you can find a native tutor to support your goals. You can even choose lesson categories that matches your focus like pronunciation, grammar, or JLPT preparation. You will find a lot of tutors and you can pick the one that fits your needs the best. Each tutor has a profile where you can see things like their teaching experience, lesson count, attendance rate, and reviews. You can pick a tutor based on your favorite anime as well. Check their profile to see which anime they like. In this way, it makes learning Japanese fun and entertaining. Hello. Hello. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I'm Mako. Okay, so today we're going to do, you know, a convenience store conversation. A dear customer who's waiting which is and then keyword is meaning dear customer and another keyword is meaning please. The best part of italki is that you can choose a native Japanese tutor so you can learn real-life Japanese that you will actually hear in anime and daily conversation. When you take a class with a native tutor, you can receive real-time feedback and guidance from language experts. When I press this button, your, you know, role play setting will pop up so please act according to what's written there. Okay, are you ready? Yes, I'm ready. So, you can immerse yourself in a wide variety of languages and cultures without living overseas. It's also super flexible. Just pick a tutor, check their schedule, and book your session. No subscriptions required. So, it's flexible and affordable learning. If you are interested, please click through the link down below in the description to start your language learning journey today. Buy $10 and get $5 for free for your first lesson using my exclusive promo code Mako. The discounts are only available for the first 50 users so better be quick. Step number four. After watching the clip with subtitle, you should bring pen or paper to just write down any phrases or vocabulary you didn't understand while watching the anime. Currently, I'm using this method to learn Spanish so whenever I'm watching Spanish series and I encounter some words I don't recognize, I just write down in my iPhone notebook. To make this approach more effective, you can write down the vocabulary and use another example sentence. This way, you can learn the vocabulary with a context and also review it for later. Once you've written down those phrases or words, you should read them out loud. Just be like a character in anime. When I say be like a character, what I mean is that it's important to pronounce the words correctly. For example, in Japanese, the way the words are pronounced can change their meaning completely. Take hashi, chopstick, and hashi, bridge. Both words are pronounced the same way, hashi, but they are meaning completely two different things. For example, hashi wo tsukau. I use chopstick. And hashi wo tsukau. I use bridge. So if you mispronounce these words, people might misunderstand you. So it's important to practice your pronunciation and imitate like your character so you will practice your pronunciation. Once you've gone through all these steps, it's time to re-watch the clip but this time without subtitles. This is like a review process but it trains your understanding and also it will reinforce what you've learned. When the speaking speed is too fast to understand for you, you can always slow it down. So you will always keep track on what the character is saying and improve your listening skill. Lastly, I highly suggest staying in one video at a time, not jumping from one video to another. Because you want to make sure that your learning sticks in your head and also keep improving your vocabulary which you learned through that anime. So thank you guys for watching until the end. If you find this video helpful, please hit subscribe and see you in the next video. Bye!