There is a YouTuber named "命知らずのジョシュ (Josh the Daredevil)". He claims to be an American learning Japanese, and the videos on his channel are all produced in Japanese.

First, here are his two short videos.

Your response to "What's up" is wrong!!

Most Japanese people don't know the correct response to "What's up." They often mistakenly think it's the same as responding to the greeting "How are you?" However, "What's up" isn't asking about your well-being but rather means "What's going on recently?" That's why responding with "I'm good" can make the conversation awkward. Typically, people respond with "Nothing much," but it's also perfectly fine to explain what you're currently doing. Only when passing by someone can you reply with "What's up?" Additionally, since the sky is literally "up," you can give a playful answer like "the sky."

Don't forget it!

My comment

This is really helpful to me. In fact, I don't really know how to respond to "How are you?" either. We learn "I'm fine, thank you!" a lot in school, but other practical responses... I have learned a few from various materials and some friends, but responding to greetings is still one of the topics that scares English learners like me.

English words used only by "Nipponese" people

When speaking English, Japanese people often use the expression "take the plunge." Before talking to Japanese people, I might have heard this phrase once or twice in my life, but Japanese people use it extensively. When I asked a Japanese person why, they said it was because this phrase appears in English textbooks. Of course, if you want to use it, go ahead, but to me, it seems less like an English expression and more like a word that Japanese people have "made their own."

My comment

This is absolutely true. In fact, I didn't know the expression "take the plunge," and I didn't see it in any textbooks, but I had memorized Hironobu Takeoka's "Dragon 100 Sentences," so the unique expressions from that text sometimes pop up in my conversations. However, while learning English, I often listened to AVGN (Angry Video Game Nerd), and it seems that many of the expressions he uses are ones that only he is allowed to use. So I try to remember WHERE I learned a certain expression. Incidentally, I often use double quotation marks (or "「」" in Japanese) in my writing, but this is more of a personal habit than a common trait among Japanese people.

The first time I learned about him was when Toshio Okada, the founder of GAINAX (known for the Evangelion series and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt), introduced him on his YouTube channel. He mentioned that Josh’s videos are incredibly cool and that he even wants to imitate Josh’s unique way of speaking Japanese. In addition, Okada likes that Josh points out aspects of the Japanese language that even Japanese people might not notice.

However, what is even more interesting to me is not just the Japanese language itself but also how he introduces American culture “in Japanese” as an American. This is information I definitely want to know.

Know the American Spirit!

You probably already know that America is the best country in the world, but let me introduce one of the reasons why it's so great. It's called "groove." Some people say that groove is a genre of music, but to me, groove is a feeling. It's the feeling that if you dance a little, your problems will disappear in no time. By the way, there's also a verb "boogie." Its meaning is quite close to "dance," but it has a groove-like connotation. "Boogie" has a more upbeat feeling than "dance" and was often used in the 1980s. By understanding "groove," you'll not only grasp American culture but also the human spirit. For your reference, let me share some of my recommendations here.

(A long list of songs)

My comment

I also love Earth, Wind & Fire's songs and own their album CDs. Although they are quite famous, I like "September" and "Fantasy", and there is another song by them that I absolutely love, but I can't remember the name to look it up.

The word "groove" comes up a lot in the FLStudio tutorial videos, and maybe I am the one who should know about "groove" because I have not yet mastered the essence of it.

The American Custom of Saying, "Your Mom is Fat"

Your mom is fat. When she goes to the movies, everyone ends up sitting next to her.

How's that? Are you angry? This is the American way. What I'm talking about is the so-called "yo mama joke." You can't talk about American culture without mentioning these. The practice of kids mocking each other's mothers has been around for ages. The one I just mentioned is quite famous, but let me introduce two I've made up myself.

Your mom is dumb. Her intelligence quotient is around minus 10.

Your mom is ugly. When she went to the Setsubun festival, she was mistaken for a demon.

If you can, retaliate. Go ahead and mock my mother with all your might.

My comment

(^_^;)... I can't remember the name, but I've seen a scene in a movie featuring Eddie Murphy where they were exchanging such jokes. I didn't realize that "yo mama joke" was such an established cultural phenomenon. However, I know that even American kids get angry when their family is insulted, as I learned from the Teddy Duchamp episode of Stand by Me, so I don't think I'll ever tell a "yo mama joke.

Most of the content he handles is about what he realized in the process of learning Japanese, but some of it raises questions about the English language.

English Even Americans Don't Understand

The English equivalent for "女" is "woman," and "女たち" in English is "women." You might already know this, but there's an important point to note. Quite a few Americans don't know the proper pronunciation of these two words. By understanding my explanation, you might surpass them in English knowledge. Interestingly, although the fourth letter is different in writing, the pronunciation difference lies in the second letter. In other words, the plural "women" has an "o," but it is pronounced as an "e." Don't forget this.

My comment

I found an interesting explanation of this mystery in a video by "Yuru Gengogaku Radio".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45YPaKkXS6A

Originally, "woman" was "wifmann," and simply reading it as written was sufficient. Over time, however, this word evolved into "wuman," or rather, it was supposed to evolve that way, but the problem arose when it was written in cursive. The word "wuman" had too many vertical zigzags and was difficult to read. So eventually "woman" with an "o" instead of a "u" became widely used.

On the other hand, the plural form of the word, which was originally "wifmenn," evolved. As time went on, the "f" sound was reduced in pronunciation, but when writing it, to align with the spelling of "woman," the spelling "women" was adopted.

As for why the pronunciation of "women" wasn't aligned with "woman"—that is, why the latter part of the word isn't pronounced "-men"—the leading theory is that it was because the placement of the accent made it difficult to distinguish the difference.

This is a summary of Josh's explanation about the pronunciation of "woman" and "women." I hope that Josh comes across YGR or similar content someday.

Finally, I love his Japanese. His videos convey how much he studies and loves the language. Watching Josh, I am amazed at his fluency in Japanese and his deep understanding of Japan, which has made me think a lot about my own attitude toward learning English and American (and more recently, Mexican) culture. That is why I decided to write this article about him.

I found it particularly interesting that he always refers to "言葉 (kotoba; word)" as "言の葉 (koto no ha; worde?)". Although Japanese people rarely use this expression, there is a movie called "言の葉の庭 (The Garden of Words)," so I assume this word existed in ancient Japan. His Japanese often includes expressions that ordinary Japanese people would never use, and while some people may point out that his Japanese is incorrect, I prefer to see it as his unique personality rather than mistakes.

Josh posted a video explaining his philosophy.

Why My Japanese Pronunciation Is Poor

I've been told several times that my foreign-sounding pronunciation doesn't match my level of Japanese. In fact, unlike most Japanese learners, I have no interest in practicing my pronunciation at all. There are English learners all over the world, and of course their pronunciation differs depending on their native language. Russian, Nigerian, and Mexican English each have their own unique and wonderful qualities. Similarly, if I were obsessed with speaking like a native Japanese speaker, it would be unfaithful to my beloved America, and everyone in Japan would miss out on the Japanese that only Americans use.

His unique Japanese reminds me of the time when I used to refer to "lumps of sugar" like candy and cakes as "sweets," only to be surprised when a friend pointed out that this word is not widely used in America. But following Josh's philosophy, I too would like to not be too ashamed of my immature and peculiar English, but rather a little proud of it as my personality, or more specifically, my style of calling sweet candies "sweets."