10/07/2024
Always many of you ask us Can I learn Japanese culture from anime?
Anime could be a very good way to learn the language and the culture deeply. The culture of what Westerners couldn’t really get, for instance, polite form and casual form, the relationships, how to address someone in some communities, and the complexity of respecting others. The culture of their customs which they do so often that they wouldn’t even think “unusual” while it is unusual to westerner’s eyes. The culture of something continuing in history and traditions.
If you decided to use anime to learn Japanese, I have some advice. Please DO NOT use the phrases and ways to talk directly from the anime. It would surprise Japanese people because, as i said, it could be very theatrical language. You would be spooking them. And you would need to keep checking facts, just dig in a bit into the internet to find out the manners, traditions, and customs.
Please bear in your mind that most of the stories are fiction. Even some stories which are set up in high schools are fictitious stories..
Each character is given a particular way of speaking to be that character.
For instance, “washi” is used to describe “I” by a character who is an old male. If you looked up the dictionary, that is what it says but it is not common in the real life for someone to say “washi”. There are lots of expressions that wouldn’t be used in real-life but are used in anime because of their character.
And often “ara” is used by a female character when she noticed something. Again, you wouldn’t hear this word in such a situation so much in reality.
So the language in anime is more theatrical language than real language so you wouldn't;t like to simply copy.
Yet, it is true they talk in a way very close to what they would do in everyday life.
If you watched My neighbor TOTORO, it shows so many things that exist in Japanese people’s minds, how things are so mythical but live together so an ordinary manner..And the way they cultivate rice, how a house would look like with tatami mats, and how things used to be in the rural area.
It is important to know they are fictional but in some way very close to how Japanese people live.
All I can say is good luck. It is worth everything if you like the language and the culture.