The very first thing I watched in Japanese – and the thing that made me feel like I wanted to learn it, was this video:
It is a rather cute video of a bunch of Morning Musume girls (this was 13 years ago!) taking a faux English lesson.
When I first watched this video, I was highly dependent on the subtitles. By “highly dependent”, I mean that everything they were saying was, to me, utter gibberish. You might as well have tossed me in front of a charismatic speaking in tongues for all the good it would have done me. But it was the combination of this being gibberish, the fact that I discovered that the Morning Musume girls were actually funny, and all of the interesting symbols flashing over the screen like a secret code, that set me on this endeavor that has so far cost me over a thousand dollars and quite a few hours off my life.
But every now and then I revisit this video. The reason is that each time I watch it, I understand a little more, and a little more, and a little more. At first, I just picked up “chiisai”, “sensei, chiisai”, and was proud of myself for that! And then I picked up “eigo”, “daijoubu” (and I think I finally understand why Ogawa-san said “boo”, she was making a pun on “daijoubu”, which is very much not obvious). And then I picked up a few more things, and a few more things, each time I watched it.
I listened to it again today and I could understand even more. I may get to the point where I don’t need the subtitles – though whether that’s because I understand the words or have memorized the subtitles is a matter of some conjecture.
Subtitles really are not a good way of enjoying these videos, though. I mean, if it’s all you have, they are satisfactory, but you miss a lot of nuance. I don’t understand exactly how, yet, but Ogawa-san seems to have a slightly different way of speaking then Fujimoto-san, for example. And there are even occasions where what is being said is not really what’s appearing on the screen (the Japanese language is so context dependent that the translators are almost required to take some editorial liberties with the translation).
If you like Japanese media, seriously, learn the language. You’re kinda missing out.