You’re Not Bad at Japanese. Your Brain Is Overloaded (Cognitive Load Theory) ｜ Japanese Podcast 40

Yes, this is Yuusuke. In today's video, I'd like to share something very informative and helpful. It's the theory of cognitive unavailability. The theory of cognitive unavailability. Well, the words are a bit difficult, you know. By deeply understanding this cognitive invisibility theory, people who struggle with listening, those who can't perceive native conversations, and so on, I can explain the reasons behind such people, so I'll go ahead and explain them this time. Yes, haven't you ever had an experience like this? Something like... Simple, when you first start listening, isn't it too difficult? How on earth am I supposed to do listening with this? Some people might think that way, but after studying a lot through the JLPT or textbooks, I ended up thinking, "Actually, I'm quite good at Japanese now." Haven't you ever tried listening to YouTube or watching dramas, or having a conversation with a native speaker, only to realize you couldn't understand a thing? I've experienced almost all of it, but it's really something, I think it would make you feel awful, sad feelings, I guess. You might think, "Maybe I don't have the talent?" or "Perhaps I lack sense?" But actually, that's not the case—this is simply a problem related to the theory of cognitive invisibility. First, cognitive impossibility theory—cognition means understanding in the mind, so to speak. Perceive. The word "perceive" itself is also difficult, but it's the kind of perception that happens in the brain. And "impossible" means, How much mental effort are you putting in? Your mind is straining to comprehend it. How intensely are you thinking? You know, there's a Japanese expression that goes "turning your head around," It's as if my head is spinning. Well, theoretically, it's theoretical, but this is actually an epistemically unknowable theory, you know. Well, to put it simply, it's like asking how much you're really putting your brain to work. And then, I think listening is really difficult, and the reason is that listening involves doing so many things at once. Honestly, I really think humans are amazing. Well, to get into detail, for example, with listening comprehension, you first hear the sound, right? I hear a sound. And although the sound itself has no meaning, it is human beings who赋予 meaning to it, who find meaning in it. Don't you understand that when you hear the sound, and the sounds connect, you realize this is a word? That's what gives it meaning. Well, but a sentence isn't just a single word; it includes things like "girl" being used, grammar being used, and various other elements as well. They come together to form a single sentence. And finally, that one... Understanding the meaning of that sentence. Understanding the overall meaning of the entire sentence. That's what listening comprehension is. Well, regarding this listening exercise, the difference between those who can do this listening and those who cannot is, It's about how fast you're processing it, really. Not just how fast, but how easily you're handling it. Someone who can handle textbook English—well, textbook Japanese, really. When we say someone who can handle textbook Japanese, we mean someone who can manage the Japanese used in textbooks. Thanks to having studied extensively, I can understand elegant Japanese more quickly. I'm simply accustomed to elegant Japanese. Well, I've had the same experience—I was really good at school tests and actually came in first in high school. But I couldn't have a conversation at all with native speakers, so I guess textbooks like these always end up featuring similar content. That's amazing; it feels like you can actually understand listening. Well, anyway, this... It's a wonderful thing, really. It's not bad at all; in fact, it's quite good that your mind is properly working on listening. When I heard that native speaker's pronunciation, the question is, why can't I hear it? First of all, Native speakers really change sounds quite a bit. With Japanese, there are even dialects and such. I also make rather bold changes sometimes. For example, it's not hot. The word "atsuku ne" isn't quite right—it's a slightly masculine way of saying it, but people do say things like "atsuku ne," you know. Well, things like this are very interactive and commonly used, but if you hear something like this for the first time, you wouldn't understand it, would you? Therefore, in the first place, the number of words I know is limited within that everyday Japanese language. There is that. Next, I think it's true that natives speak very quickly. Natives speak extremely fast, so I think it becomes difficult precisely because of that. In other words, there are so many changes that it's practically a completely different language. Even though it's the same language, I think it's almost like a different one. And when there are too many unfamiliar elements within a single sentence, the brain has to work hard to understand it. But if the load is too heavy, for example, if there are three unknown words, then these two You strain your mind, trying to predict, but you miss this entirely—what it's even saying, you don't understand, and you can't catch it at all. That kind of situation can occur, which is an excessively overloaded state. And the point at which people experience this overload varies completely from person to person. For example, is it that they can't perceive sounds at all? Or perhaps people who can recognize sounds but are slow to form images after perceiving them? People whose image is extremely weak to begin with, or those who are... There are people who can hear individual words but don't understand the grammar. Yes, exactly—what I'm asking all of you to do is speed up this workload. Well, the study method I've been recommending here is immersion learning. I've been saying this all along, you know. The great thing about immersion learning is that you hear a lot—lots and lots—of both simple and complex sentences. You know, there's that understandable input, isn't there? I forget the exact term—something like compressible input or whatever. That's exactly the same kind of thinking as that cognitive impossibility theory. How do you say something like "That's amazing, within the range of what I can understand"? It's meaningful, all those things you listen to. There are people who misunderstand and think they need to listen to a lot of difficult things to study. Well, that's fine too, but I'd like to hear lots of simple things and understand them instantly, It's difficult to become able to speak something simple instantly. Actually, you need to input a lot. And make sure not to overload it. I'm aiming to be able to speak a lot, so I highly recommend this immersion learning to achieve that kind of feeling. Wow, amazing, both immersion learning and the immersion hypothesis. It's an amazing, truly understandable story, or rather, a remarkably moving one, I think. Therefore, if you're currently having a bit of trouble with listening, I'd like you to think about the reasons. When you don't understand, there's always a definite reason. Maybe you can't hear the sounds properly, or you don't understand the grammar, or perhaps the sentence structure is completely unfamiliar to you. The word order is completely different, so it's also extremely difficult. Therefore, I'd like you to study so that your own brain can become attuned to that kind of writing. The study method I often used—this is the same method I used when I first started learning English. This is always shadowing. By constantly practicing shadowing and reading aloud numerous sentences that you understand, I'll master it to the point of memorizing the entire passage. As for the grammar and vocabulary appearing within it, I'll tackle those next. It becomes easier to understand whenever it appears in other sentences. In this sense, I truly believe shadowing is very effective. Especially for listening practice, really. After all, listening is incredibly important when it comes to studying a language. It affects speaking, writing, and reading alike, and especially speaking—where it's essentially a verbal exchange of words—how can you possibly respond if you didn't even hear it in the first place? You can't retort, you can't speak, can you? That's why I truly hope everyone here this I would like you to master the theory of cognitive impossibility and strive to achieve the highest level of proficiency in it. Understand it. If this theory of cognitive invisibility works well, then our ideal state would be, you know, just listening. But since listening imposes very little cognitive load, you can effortlessly think ahead while listening. I think we can reach that level of responding. I believe this applies to everyone's own language. I think that's what's called a report speech. You know, people who interrupt others in the middle of a conversation, right? That's because their minds are already thinking ahead. People actually make predictions while talking, you know. That fact too. In the previous video, I mentioned this, and I think we should talk about it again sometime soon. I'd like you to try out many study methods that enable your mind to process things quickly, in that kind of way. And indeed, native Japanese is difficult, isn't it? To support that Since I truly want to support you, I am between myself and... I'm making a vocabulary notebook for memorization, specifically a slang-only vocabulary notebook. Here it is. Since my voice is included, I can also do shadowing, and this I really hope you will study through these materials. We have provided 30 word lists, totaling 60 examples, completely free of charge, so I truly encourage you to give them a try. Yes, that's it for this video. Online lessons are still being recruited as usual. If you would like to study with me and YUMA, please make a reservation by clicking the link in the description. That's all for this video. Thank you very much. See you in the next video! Bye!