In Japanese, there are words with two pronunciations. I’m not referring to the different readings (on’yomi and kun’yomi) of the same word, but rather entirely different words with similar meanings. One is a native Japanese word, and the other is a loanword from Chinese. For those unfamiliar with Chinese, learning either word is fine. However, for those who understand Chinese, it’s easy to be constrained by the loanword from Chinese. This can make learning the corresponding native Japanese word a bit challenging because the Chinese loanword is often easier to remember. Once you’ve memorized it, learning another native Japanese word with the same meaning becomes difficult. In this video, I’ll provide a few examples to encourage learners to consciously study the native Japanese word, use it more in daily conversations, and thereby enhance their Japanese proficiency.

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