Nihongo con Teppei (Beginner) - Ep5: ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字について
Teppei walks through ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字 in sequence — honest about which one is "まあまあ" (manageable), which is "ちょっと難しい" (a little tough), and which is just flat-out "難しい" (hard). He doesn't sugarcoat the kanji problem: "漢字はねぇ、たくさんあります、たくさんありすぎて覚えていない" — there are so many he can't even remember them all. For any learner who has ever stared at a newspaper and felt their brain glitch, that admission alone is worth the listen. He also names the elephant in the room: if you already read Chinese, kanji is basically a head start, and that's "ちょっとずるい" — a little bit unfair. The jealousy is real, and Teppei voices it for everyone who doesn't have that advantage.
So why shadow this episode specifically? Because the script vocabulary — ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字、簡単、難しい、覚える、ずるい、ジェラシー — is the exact language you will use every time you discuss your own learning progress, in Japanese, with a Japanese speaker. These are not textbook words you'll forget after the quiz. They are the words that come up in conversation the moment someone asks "how's your Japanese going?" Shadow this until the answer rolls off your tongue instead of freezing in your throat.
📚 Grammar Breakdown
Meaning: "Do you understand ~?" / "~ is [adjective]." The topic marker は isolates the subject for discussion — here, each script (ひらがな/カタカナ/漢字) becomes the topic, and the speaker rates it.
In Text: ひらがなはわかりますか / カタカナはわかりますか / 感じわかりますか / 漢字は難しいですね / ひらがなはまあまあですね / カタカナはねちょっと難しい (Do you know hiragana? / Do you know katakana? / Do you know kanji? / Kanji is hard / Hiragana is so-so / Katakana is a little tough).
Note: N5. The は-topic pattern is the single most-used structure in this episode — Teppei builds the entire script discussion around it. Self-learners often default to が when asking questions, but in conversation は is far more natural for introducing what you want to talk about. Shadow this structure until "～はどうですか" rolls off your tongue without thinking.
Meaning: "So ~ that I can't…" — すぎる (too much) in て-form chains into a negative result. Expresses that the degree of something exceeds what the speaker can handle.
In Text: ちょっとたくさんありすぎて覚えてない (There are so many I can't memorize them all).
Note: N4. すぎる attaches to the stem of verbs and i-adjectives: 難しすぎる (too difficult), 食べすぎた (ate too much). The て-form chain すぎて～ない is the spoken pattern for "too X to Y" — more natural in conversation than the literal textbook すぎて～できない. Teppei's line is a perfect shadow target: the rhythm (ありすぎて → 覚えてない) is exactly how a native speaker complains about volume. Self-learners tend to say 多すぎて覚えられません — fine, but stiff. ありすぎて覚えてない is the real thing.
Meaning: "Please do ~" — polite request / encouragement. Verb in て-form + ください softens a command into a suggestion the listener can accept or decline.
In Text: 頑張って覚えてください (Please do your best to memorize them).
Note: N5. This is the standard polite request pattern, but the nuance here is softer than it looks. Teppei isn't ordering the listener — he's encouraging them. 頑張ってください is closer to "keep at it!" than "do it." Self-learners often overuse て-form commands (頑張って！) and sound too direct with strangers, or overuse 〜ていただけませんか and sound overly formal. 〜てください is the middle ground — warm, polite, supportive. Shadow this exact line and you'll have a ready-made encouragement phrase for any study-buddy conversation.
Meaning: "How long / how much?" — asks about duration, amount, or degree. Combines with time words (期間、年、ヶ月) to ask "how long have you been doing ~?"
In Text: みなさん日本語どのくらい勉強していますかね / どのくらいの期間1年ですか2年ですか (How long have you all been studying Japanese? / How long — one year, two years?).
Note: N4. どのくらい is the spoken workhorse for "how long" — more common in conversation than the textbook-formal どれくらい or どの位. Self-learners often freeze when asked this question because they learned "how long" as どのくらい but never heard it in a rapid-fire follow-up like 1年ですか2年ですか. Teppei's pattern — question, then immediate guess range — is exactly how Japanese speakers keep conversations going. Shadow the whole two-line block until "どのくらい〜？〜ですか〜ですか" feels like one rhythmic unit.