NihongoDekita with Sayaka

    With its first upload in May 2021, this fairly new YouTube channel aims to help you learn Japanese expressions and culture through a combination of long and short YouTube videos. The channel's creator, who goes by Sayaka, originally started with posts on Instagram and then moved to making videos on YouTube.

    As of September 2021, the channel boasts around 20 videos with new ones being uploaded regularly. The first few videos are longer and go into detail about certain aspects of the Japanese language. In her video about greetings in Japanese, Sayaka provides both formal and informal examples and even gets into the nitty gritty when explaining common questions such as, "Why does こんにちは have は at the end instead of わ?" All of her videos are beginner friendly, including romaji as well as furigana for all of the kanji that's used.

    The bulk of her uploads are smaller videos — which she labels as "#shorts" — and are imported to YouTube directly from her TikTok account. In typical TikTok fashion, these shorts are informative, creative, and sometimes funny as well. In a short entitled, "'I’m excited' in Japanese," she highlights the dangers of using the word 興奮 — as well as the dangers of using Google Translate — and provides some safe alternatives for learners.

    NihongoDekita is a small channel but likely worth watching for absolute beginners. The overall production of each of the channel's videos is good — there is a wide variety of illustrations, transitions, captioning, and content. Additionally, Sayaka explains everything in English and really makes things understandable, even for total beginners.

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