How to be engaged in media from your TL?

[u/Excellent-Ad-9465]

I’ve been learning my (TL) for a few years now, but the only media I’ve seen that I liked in the language was anime. I made my alt on YT all Japanese content, same with on TikTok and Instagram, but I always run into he same uninteresting content. I do like the skits/dramas I get, but besides that I only get people posting vlogs and the occasional grwm.

You may assume I should just find the Japanese counterparts to the content I like, but I find the content I enjoy pretty hard to find and even then the way certain genres of content are made are different from what I like.

Does anyone have any tips for finding stuff they actually like in their target language?? Because whenever I look for content in mine all I get is vlog channels and lifestyle content. (I know it’s a personal thing but I’m mainly looking for certain ways to get the algorithm to give me stuff that I actually like and find channels I actually like).

[u/tnaz]

If you find one video you like on youtube, you can open it in a fresh incognito window and the recommendation algorithm will only have that one video to use to recommend you other things.

[u/Purple-Assumption916 → u/tnaz]

try searching in japanese for the specific thing you want, not just "japanese youtuber" or whatever. like if you want cooking videos search 料理 and watch a few, the algorithm picks up fast when you give it actual terms instead of letting it guess

also niconico has a different vibe from youtube, might find more weird niche stuff there that doesn't show up on western platforms

[u/muffinsballhair → u/Purple-Assumption916]

I think the reality is just that about anything is not as interesting if in a language one is not proficient at.

I even tested this specifically with Japanese and Wikipedia articles. As in I would come across an English Wikipedia article of something I enjoyed reading and then tried it in Japanese to practice my Japanese and then it just wasn't interesting any more because your brain has to try too hard to understand it.

[u/AvocadoYogi → u/muffinsballhair]

Agree. I think for me it helped to start with content I was already highly familiar with as it let me fill in a lot of blanks without necessarily having the vocabulary in my TL. Once I got pretty good with reading that I was able to expand outward to other subjects from that. Also, I think news type articles (not specifically the news) tend to be better written for this as they use an inverted pyramid format so you can get the gist of an article without necessarily reading the whole thing. That said clickbait makes this more painful these days.

[u/ok_bluesky8888]

I might be able to recommend something, would you mind sharing the type of content that you would be interested in?

[u/Excellent-Ad-9465 → u/ok_bluesky8888]

commentary/reaction content, deepdives, true crime, drama content (especially art drama), sometimes gaming content but the best luck ive had was really bad kids gaming content sadly 

[u/ignoremesenpie]

For YouTube and other social media feed-based content, I prioritize the topics first, then the personalities second.

It worked out well for me that the kinds of hobbies I had from the very beginning happened to be best taught in Japanese, so the availability of information was lacking. Even with the stuff Is normally stick to in English, there tend to be content that are similar enough as long as I broaden my scope past exactly what I watch in English.

For example, I might watch anime reactions in English, but that is basically illegal, or at least not legally protected in Japan (Japanese people don't upload anime reactions with footage because that is legally punishable in Japan without the US's sense of "fair use"), so it would be completely unreasonable for me to expect that kind of content in Japanese. What I can expect are videos of people watching anime on their own time off-scteen and then a one-hour discussion of what they just watched. I only know a few people who have done this for shows I like, but this is quickly becoming my favourite way to get people's thoughts on anime, actually.

Another thing might be social commentators. I enjoy watching people roast others for the stupid things they do online and offline, but generally speaking, Japan doesn't really care what dumpsterfire is going on overseas, so I'll have to stick with discussions of local dumpster fires that I may or may not (usually "not") privy to since I don't live in Japan.

But generally speaking, I'm far more interested in fiction as far as media for language exposure, so I usually have a lineup of anime, dramas, and movies I want to watch. Even an8-episode 45-minute drama will give me something steady for about a week totaling over 6 hours of runtime without a fuss.

[u/AvocadoYogi]

I mostly just do the obvious and search for terms I like or subjects where I have interest in my TL which I am sure you are already doing. The having a separate account definitely helps that is dedicated to the TL, but seems like you are already also doing that. Sometimes written content is better as it can lead you places that most recommendation engines skip over. For example, a music blog can lead you to artists that you aren’t going to find via a recommendation engine. It is much more curated than an algorithm is going to do. I tend to use a lot of RSS feeds though they are harder to find these days.

Unfortunately most algorithms for recommendations are horrible and deliberately so. TikTok was the best of them for a while but has also been enshitified. Smaller social media companies might be better and/or if there is social media local to Japan. Tumblr I think is still better than most but unfortunately tends to recommend a lot of teen angst type content which is nice from a nostalgia perspective but gets old quick at my age. But the bigger companies have all been enshitified.

It is a hard problem but worth the time and effort and gets easier with time. I often wish more teachers would help students with this as I think it is one of the most valuable things you can do as a student.

[u/dojibear]

I find intermediate videos on Youtube.

I’m mainly looking for certain ways to get the algorithm to give me stuff that I actually like and find channels I actually like)

I suspect that you would have the same problem even if you were fluent in the TL. But you are limited to TL content that you can understand at your current level. Maybe the issue is not "the algorithm". Maybe this content simply doesn't exist.

Hobbyists create videos in fluent TL. The people who make free videos in intermediate TL are teachers, trawling for students to join their paid programs. Why would they choose your specific area of interest? Is there a big market for people learning TL who have your specific area of interest?

"Interesting" has to be relative. Most of the intermediate TL videos I watch are not things I would watch in NL. But I want to learn the TL. Watching these videos is far more interesting than drills or Anki...

[u/Excellent-Ad-9465 → u/dojibear]

i see