Learning standard Japanese is not enough to understand Japanese TV shows?

Question

Well, I'm learning Japanese (beginner) and someone told me that even though I learn the standard language, it's going to be difficult to understand the shows because most of the celebrities in Japan are from Osaka and their strong accents are totally different from what I'm learning right now. Is this true? Could you please give me an example?

Answer 1

Osaka dialect is still one of the many dialects in Japanese.



Standard Japanese is always the best way to understand Japanese TV shows. You can learn some special wordings and accents of the dialect later.

Answer 2

That's not true. Having an understanding of standard Japanese (Tokyo dialect) is enough to understand most Japanese. Of course there are some words that are different in different dialects



For example, Osakan dialect says "okini" instead of "arigatou"...but not everyone says that, either. Young people like to seem cool, so many of them will say "arigatou", even if they live in Osaka.



The main point is, yes, some words are different, but if you have a good understanding of standard Japanese, you'll have no problem figuring out those specialized words.



Don't worry about it, and enjoy watching Japanese TV! It's fun, and even if your level isn't very high, you'll be able to understand lots!

Answer 3

this question is what I have been wondering about:If you keep studying only tokyo dialect, can you understand osaka dialect?



As far as the native japanese is concerned, the answers is yes. Accent is different, but only to the level we can be aware of difference of the accent.

I can understand normal north american english(not including red neckish english), but it is difficult to understand if someone speaks with british accent.However, many native english speakers seem to be able to comprehend british english.So for me the story is the same. If you are native, then you can understand other dialects. Then how about japanese learners who keep studying only one dialect?Can they understand other dialects too?I need an answer too.

Answer 4

I'm Japanese.



If you can understand standard Japaense, you can enjoy shows. Osaka is famous for comedian. they like comedy show. lots of comedians are from Osaka, and they sometimes speak Osaka's dialect. so if you want to see comedy show, you had better know Osaka's dialect. but if you want to see tv drama, music program, movie, anime, they usually speak standard Japanese. and if you can speak standard Japanese, you can guess what they say, and they can understand what you mean.

Answer 5

Unless if you wanted to understand manzai owarai or Japanese stand up comedy, I believe learning the standard language is enough to understand the normal Japanese shows. I ruled out the statement that most celebrities come from Osaka but a lot of comedians do.



In some normal Japanese shows, occasionally they do use Osaka-ben (Osaka dialect) to be funny even though they, themselves, don't even come from Osaka. However, the Osaka-ben they used are the simple or commonly used ones that even anybody who's not from Osaka can understand it. It'd not be a problem once you've mastered the standard language.



I reckon this is true for any language with many different dialects. Even in my country, people from different states have different dialects. I can understand the simple or most commonly used ones but not when they started talking in full dialect. That's when it'd start to become rubbish to my ears even though it's essentially in my own language.



I gathered that that person who told you that learning the standard language won't be enough to understand Japanese TV shows meant that in the TV shows, they don't speak like what you learned from textbooks. Neither does any of the other languages in the world I believe. So you have to learn the spoken language, slangs et al. by either living in the country itself, read a lot of manga (and if you don't understand, ask your sensei or in a forum) etc..



For example:

1) Commonly used Osaka-ben:

めっちゃめっちゃカッコイ　(extremely cool)

>>めっちゃ (slurred Osaka-ben)-->めちゃ(osaka-ben)

>>that is often heard right?



2) Spoken

おすすめの店があんだよねー

>>あんだ (col) → あるのだ



Conclusion: I seriously don't believe that Japanese TV shows are heavy with Osaka-ben unless you're talking about comedy shows/manzai/local Osaka shows.



Ok do take this with a grain of salt ;)

Answer 6

Ok japanese people have 2 dialect's that they are using in writing and the way you learn how to speak or understand the word's are the same.. So 1 dialect in speaking/understanding word's.

Answer 7

yes its true. i am an japanes-american born in the u.s. but have 100% pure japanese parents. my mom is from osaka so i visit there everyyear. i am fluent in japanese and just like america there is a lot of how do u say it, dialect? and with the different regions people talk differently. kind of like some people saying new yok and some people say new york. so people from tokyo speak a more standard japanese and people from osaka have different kind of way to speak japanese. you will probably be able to understand what they are saying, but since a lot of the t.v. there is comdy(even tho i dont think half the people on t.v. are funny) and it might be alittle hard to understand why it is funny. but, there are a lot of hitting so that will be funny. thats the differenve between japan and america. sorry it got long, hope this helps