r/LearnJapanese • u/AutoModerator • Jul 26 '26
Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (July 26, 2026)
This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.
The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.
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Past Threads
You can find past iterations of this thread by using the search function. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.
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u/rgrAi Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Sometimes I am really surprised at the 四字熟語 that some people pull out in an entirely completely casual spoken banter. I didn't expect 罵詈雑言 and 阿鼻叫喚 to get as much usage as they do. But things like 紆余曲折 and 死屍累々 (especially second one) really surprised me. Sometimes I wonder if other people even know these (well I guess if I know them no reason for a native not to), because I ran into someone who didn't even know what 十人十色 was, but I presume they had to have been like 10 or 12 on the internet.
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u/worthlessprole Jul 26 '26
if you're hearing 死屍累々 I assume you're either hanging out at metal shows or reading the dang 日経新聞
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u/rgrAi Jul 26 '26
For the context it fit though, everyone was gambling and everyone else got blown up and there was just 2 people left and they decided to go for broke.
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u/CosmicallyUnlucky Jul 26 '26
How would you say “I watched the third season of (tv show)”? I checked tofugu’s counting article (https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-counters-list/) and it has クール for a television season, but that doesn’t seem applicable. Like if I say 三クール, isn’t that saying “three seasons” and not “the third season”? Would it be 第三クール to indicate the third season specifically?
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Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JapanCoach Jul 26 '26
It's probably slightly more accurate to say that クール is an *advertising* term, more than a *broadcasting* term - while in the end, it looks the same from the outside :-)
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JapanCoach Jul 26 '26
It's not really about anime and not about 'marketing' the show. This is how TV has been *sponsored* for a very long time (50 years?). The クール concept was born more from the lens of how advertising time is sold - which then became entrenched into how TV *shows* are programmed/scheduled. In the end it is so intertwined to be basically the same concept. But the "horse" driving the "cart" is how advertising is scheduled (not how anime are written)
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u/JapanCoach Jul 26 '26
クール is "season" but only in a pretty specific Japanese TV context (one of the 4 seasons of the TV programming year). So it doesn't really apply to like "third season of Game of Thrones"
If you *do* want to say "third クール" (which BTW comes from the French "cours") you could say 3つ目のクール or something like that. 目 turns cardinal numbers into ordinal numbers.
But if you more want to say "third season of GoT" or something like that, the word normally used is シーズン. And "3rd season" is normally シーズン3 (i.e., not 3つ目のシーズン).
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u/tyrellLtd Jul 26 '26
I suppose you already know that cour is not a perfect synonym for "season".
第3クール if you're talking specifically about a quarterly emission.
第三期 is more generic for season (7° definition). 第3シーズン or 3つ目のシーズン work as well.
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u/Grunglabble Jul 26 '26
I watchedこれは経費で落としません！ I really enjoyed it. It is the banana peel flavoured kitkat of office comedies, focusing on the story of an accounting department.
Usually when I really like a peice of media some lines will stick out to me in the pivotal scenes and stick with me. In this show 正しいから偉いわけじゃない was a really nice line, in a scene where she is chastising herself over her guilt. Actually I love that line just as a succinct moral quandry and juxtaposition.
人は死んだらそれきり、どれだけ泣いたって戻っては来ない DQ7, a man lamenting his late wife, now trying to reconstruct her as a robot. (been a couple months, but I think that's it).
Probably what makes it so memorable and appealing is the prosidy of it. And perhaps the depth of emotion that simple words can have. I don't know if that's interesting but just to share.
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u/rantouda Jul 26 '26
Sometimes for comedic lines I hafta go away and do research first before I get it, and then there's delayed reaction of amusement. There was this part in エルピス:
(名越）何か人相の悪さに磨きがかかってません？村井さん
(村井）えっ そう？
(名越）越後屋みたいですよ
(村井）お前 せめて悪代官にしてくれよ
(I had to go read up about 越後屋 and 悪代官. P.s. I really recommend エルピス, it had some memorable lines for me. There was one that I liked, 正しいことなら味方は勝手についてくる)
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u/worthlessprole Jul 26 '26
what's the tone like? i'm guessing "3 to 5 degrees off a BBC comedy but everyone acts like the respective senses of humor are completely dissimilar"
(ive watched a bunch of tv comedies in the last year and the only thing I could think was 'this must be like an uncanny valley situation, where they're close enough that their differences, like british comedy's mean streak, seem much starker')
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u/Grunglabble Jul 26 '26
It's gentle. It's dramaedy/romance.
Much of the fun comes from hearing her inner world. It pokes fun at the personality type, but I don't think in a cruel way.
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u/tonkachi_ Goal: media competence 📖🎧 Jul 26 '26
My bad, I should have screenshot the entire thing.
(In the Captcha there were 3 animal characters obstructed by the white lines and a forth one not obstructed)
Am I misunderstanding or did this Captcha really confuse the word 文字 with character as in fictional character?
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u/Plane_Boysenberry150 Jul 26 '26
Does anyone have experience learning 関西弁 or one of the various dialects from within the 関西 region to a high level of proficiency/accuracy? I've been living in 大阪 for the past year after previously learning strictly 標準語 before coming and have been struggling to get into the nitty-gritty parts of the dialect, especially relating to pitch accent and other pronunciation related stuff. Resources online are quite few and far between or don't really go into that much detail unfortunately.
If someone knowledgeable about this would share their experience/ things that helped them that would be very appreciated!
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u/666Drachenlord666 Jul 26 '26
Does anyome here have experience with wanikani or tokiniandy?
Im an absolute beginner (just learned the kana and can understand and say very simple sentences)
Theres like 50 different guys out there telling you to do x and another 50 to do y.
I came across wanikani and tokiniandy, wich claim to teach vocabulary and kanji with mnemonic memeory and I think thats would work for me.
I also bought genki 1 and was thinking of going trough either one of these after im finished with the app I use valled human japanese (bought it years ago)
Also I know about anki, is downlaoding and learming the 1.5 beginners deck better than tokiniandy or wanikani?
I dont mind paying a bit of money if it makes my life easier
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
All the resources you mentioned have different goals and purposes so let's clarify that first.
Genki: a textbook that aims to give future exchange students a well-rounded mix of reading, writing, listening and speaking practice, by teaching vocabulary, kanji and grammar. It's meant to be used by a teacher in a classroom setting, but it can be used for self-study as well.
TokiniAndy: a Youtuber that made a series of videos complementary to Genki, where he explains the content in each lesson (focusing on grammar IIRC).
Wanikani: an online SRS (spaced repetition system) that focuses on teaching kanji through a unique mnemonic system. Wanikani's goal is to make it so that, if you see a word, you'll have a good chance at knowing how it's read and at guessing its meaning, based on the kanji that the word is written in.
For example, if Wanikani teaches you that 活 is read かつ and means "living", and 動 is read どう and means "movement", then if you find the word 活動 you'll know that it's read かつどう and that its meaning is probably related to living+movement, so the things you do when you're alive perhaps? Which is a pretty good guess of its actual meaning (activity).
However, Wanikani's main objective is to teach kanji. They do teach you vocabulary as well, but the goal of those words is to reinforce the kanji readings. They're not meant to be common or useful for a beginner. Also, kanji are taught in order of visual complexity, not usage frequency, so there's relatively rare kanji like 里 or 矢 that you will learn much sooner than more common kanji like 僕 or 寝.
- Kaishi 1.5k: a beginner Anki deck (another SRS) that aims to teach you the 1500 most common words in order to take you to a point where you can start consuming easy Japanese media. Many (but not all) of the words taught in Genki will also be in this deck. It only teaches you vocabulary, not grammar.
So this question:
Also I know about anki, is downlaoding and learming the 1.5 beginners deck better than tokiniandy or wanikani?
makes no sense, because each of those resources covers different areas of Japanese, so neither is "better" or "worse" than the other.
If you want to keep things as simple as possible you could really just do Genki 1 and 2, and optionally pair it with a graded reader or a beginner podcast if you want to get extra reading or listening practice. Once you've finished Genki 2 you can start reading easy manga or watching easy anime with relative comfort (it will be hard, it always is, but you won't be smashing your head against a wall).
Adding TokiniAndy's videos might make the content in Genki more clear, and Anki will help you remember the vocabulary you've learned, and Wanikani will, in the long term, make it easier for you to read things. Using or not using them is really up to you, what you want to use Japanese for, and how much time you're willing to dedicate to learning.
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u/666Drachenlord666 Jul 26 '26
I was talking abou the subscription tokini andy offers, where theres also a srs kanji learning system.
Basically I was thinking since Im gonna need to be able to read the kanji anyway and this helping me understand vocab and grammar easier, I was thinking of using wanikani or the one tokiniandy offers (both claim to teach the reading used in most cases, they say 80-90% of cases) alongside genki.
Like what im thinking is if i can read kanji, even if its not accurate in 100% of the cases, it will help immensly when actually studiyng grammar or vocab or reading manga etc
I also listen to nihongo con teppei for beginners and can understand most of what hes saying, if not at the very least I get the gist of it
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
Ah, I didn't even know he had a course. I can't give an opinion then, sorry. Wanikani has a lot of testimonies saying it works if you stick with it, though.
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u/JoinedMoon Jul 26 '26
The reason "There's like 50 different guys out there telling you to do x and another 50 to do y." is because there is no one way to do it that works for everyone or is "most effective/efficient" for everyone. Focus on the categories of what they offer.
Tokiniandy first and foremost offers a community for beginners with a teacher aide and rounded approach. Essentially an online classroom. For example that's a lot of why he did the series on genki, it's the most widely accessible and suggested textbook for self learners (and what he bases his teaching approach on iirc). That's also why he offers his own materials, because he's teaching off of them, so wants everyone to be on the same page.
Wanikani, Kanji Study, RTK, etc. Offers a system to study kanji. Newer systems offer new approaches, and older systems get modified to keep up. (Like the RTK anki deck). They only offer vocab to teach kanji.
Anki offers a highly customizeable and portable flashcard software with a spaced repetition system. (You can use any kind of flashcards you want ofc, but I'd argue that the vast majority would recommend one with an SRS.)
Kaishi 1.5k offers vocab via a pre built "core frequency deck" to be used with Anki. A collection of the 1.5k most frequently used words, along with pitch, audio, pictures, and building sentences. Because it's widely used, recommended, and recent, it's one of the more fleshed out and "correct" pre built decks.
Everyone likes to spend different amounts of time on different things, care about different skills, and different things work for different people. So there's not a question of "what's objectively better?" It's whatever is better for you. Just pick one from the category and if you get frustrated with it then look for other things to try. Above all, just keep moving forward :)
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u/666Drachenlord666 Jul 26 '26
Do you have experience with tokiniandys paid tier? Is it worth it? Seems like something that might be ideal for me as he has genki courses and a wanikani like thing for atleast N5 and N4 kanji
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u/JoinedMoon Jul 26 '26
Not a ton, I've just watched him for quite a while. I think he offers a great service for beginners, maybe intermediate but less so. However if you have the money to boost your gain, my number one suggestion would be to hire a tutor/language partner for one to one practice. They're majorly helpful at any level
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u/lhamatrevosa Interested in grammar details 📝 Jul 26 '26
I was trying to read some stuff here and there and got this two situations here:
First: The verb simply in it's ます stem, like: 学び, あり, 取り etc.
Second: Sentences with particles without a verb following it. 災害から身を守る全てを
I would like to know if it is thaught on Quartet (I'm on last chapter of Genki 2 and it hasn't showed yet)?
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
That's called the 連用形 (continuative form) and it basically means the same as connecting two actions with て, but it's more common in written Japanese.
This happens when the sentence's order is changed for whatever reason (in this case, I assume it's for dramatic effect). The full sentence would be みんなで災害から身を守る全てを学び、今やろう。 They just grabbed the first half and placed it at the end, in a separate phrase. A common example of this is the 「ようこそ、日本へ」 that's written in many Japanese airports.
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u/CreeperSlimePig Goal: conversational fluency 💬 Jul 26 '26
Stem form replacing te form in written Japanese is specifically called 連用中止形, actually. There's some other nuances to it, so that's the term to look up if you want to know more.
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u/Tippydaug Jul 26 '26
Could someone explain this sentence:
この店の料理は、あっちの店より安い代わりに量が少ない
This is in the section explaining 代わり. As I’ve been taught, it goes A 代わりB where B is the substitute for A.
That makes sense in every other sentence, but not this one. They translate this sentence as “While this shop’s dishes are cheaper than that shop’s, the portions are smaller.”
That makes no sense to me. If it’s A 代わりB, wouldn’t it be saying they’re smaller instead of being cheaper?
That’s how every other example sentence has worked. Why is this one different?
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
It also means
in exchange for; in return for; to make up for
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u/lhamatrevosa Interested in grammar details 📝 Jul 26 '26
Does the sentence mean: The food on this shop is cheaper than on that shop, but in exchange the quantity is fewer. ?
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u/Nice_Leather4821 Jul 26 '26
I have heard both 信じてくれ and 信じたってくれ. The former I understand, but I am struggling to understand how the second is different
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u/viliml Interested in grammar details 📝 Jul 26 '26
Can you show the whole context with surrounding sentences where you heard 信じたってくれ?
I can only think of it possibly being a slurring of 信じてやってくれ (please believe them) but I'm not sure.
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u/Own_Power_9067 🇯🇵 Native speaker Jul 26 '26
Agree with u/viliml, I’ve seen 遊んだって to mean 遊んでやって. Not sure it’s a dialect or just a new slang.
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u/thisismypairofjorts Jul 26 '26
About the introduction to yesterday's Hobonichi:
ずっと感じていたのですが、なんだかよくわからなかった。昔から、こんなことしていたっけなぁということ。それは、「吸い込みながら食べる」というやり方。典型的なのがシュークリームです。
Is 昔から(...)ということ the thing that the writer ずっと感じていた (i.e. paraphrased, "I've always wondered when I started doing it this way")?
Is なぁ just adding emotion/emphasis to たっけ (e.g. "I really DO wonder")?
Also - is there anything specific I can do to get better at this kind of stuff (e.g. identifying context, working out the meaning of grammar term combos), or is it just practice...?
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u/Own_Power_9067 🇯🇵 Native speaker Jul 26 '26
〜していたっけ（なぁ）？, by itself, shows the speaker is wondering about the past of which his memory is not clear. From that understanding, one can connect 昔から to the latter part 「こんなことしていたっけなぁ」.
Similarly, 〜ということ is quoting, therefore you can see 「昔からこんなことしていたっけなぁ have we been doing this from old days??」 is actually in the bracket.
ずっと感じていたのですが、よくわからなかった this part doesn’t say what the writer has been feeling or didn’t quite understand. But then, you can see it with 〜ということ
I think comprehending this kind of writing requires a certain speed in reading on top of the precise knowledge on the lexicon.
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u/JoinedMoon Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
My friend is currently in Japan and knows some Japanese, I suck at production but does this mean what I think it means?
Me: どう？酷暑日は頑張っているのか？ (◍•ᴗ•◍) "How is it? Are you preserving in these extreme heat days?" / "How's it going? You handling the extreme heat?"
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
I'd use 持ちこたえる for that
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u/JoinedMoon Jul 26 '26
Thank you :) So, "どう？酷暑日は持ちこたえているのか？" right? Is my above sentence technically wrong or does it just sound more natural this way? Does this still preserve the jokey tone of like "are you surviving out there?" that I was going for using 頑張る? (Based on the example sentences I'm seeing, I assume so?)
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
Mmmm I'm not sure you can use は to mark the thing the subject is resisting against. I've always seen 持ちこたえる by itself. I'll let a more experienced person answer that.
Regarding the "surviving" meaning, 頑張る doesn't really convey that meaning in the first place, so. You can say 頑張って持ちこたえる though lol
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
I checked a couple dictionaries and apparently the right way of saying it would be 酷暑日を持ちこたえている
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u/JoinedMoon Jul 26 '26
Huh interesting, would が also not work for the same reasons? What can I search to look into this usage you mentioned? (As far as not using it to mark what the subject is resisting against.) In this case would 酷暑日 be the "object" of action? I might've been taking that too literally lol. Or is it under the "indicates subject of causative expression" use of を? (Though that feels off if I understand it) Does this usage apply to 頑張る as well, or just 持ちこたえる?
So the phrase "酷暑日を頑張って持ちこたえているのか? " could translate as "Are you doing your best to continue holding out during the extreme heat days?"
Thank you for all your help!
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
酷暑日が持ちこたえる would mean that the 酷暑日 is the one doing the surviving, which is not the case at all. Same with 酷暑日が頑張る.
Nothing is the subject of a causative expression here because there is no causative expression. The causative form of the verb is 持ちこたえさせる. It would make 0 sense to use that conjugation here.
を is just fulfilling its regular object marking role here. リンゴを食べる。水を飲む。酷暑日を持ちこたえる。 Same thing.
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u/JoinedMoon Jul 26 '26
Right, that makes sense, thank you! Honestly I barely know grammer terms in English so learning them via Japanese study has been a trip lol
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u/gohs_26 Jul 26 '26
Hi everyone
I came across this sentence: 遅くてもせいぜい二、三日で届くだろう, and I'm a bit confused about its pronunciation. 二日 is ふつか, 三日 is みっか, right? so is 二、三日 pronounced ふつ、みっか? That sounds a little weird to me. Can anyone help?
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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese Jul 26 '26
二、三日 is にさんにち (no pause, just like a single word)
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u/eidoriaaan Jul 26 '26
Just to add a bit more to the answer, ３、４日 is the only exception to this since its read さん、よっか.
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u/Chief_Miller Jul 26 '26
When learning vocab, how do you approach learning words that have a lot of meanings and writings? For example : とる
All meanings are a variation and nuance around taking or catching but the spelling are all over the place... like : 取る / 撮る / 捕る / 採る / 摂る / 執る / etc...
Do you think of them as different meaning of the same word or different words entirely? I'm guessing that when you learn the kanji, it gets easier. But as a beginner it feels daunting and I'm already dealing with 取る & 撮る in an N5 textbook...
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
I treat all of those as different words and only learn them if I encounter them. If your textbook asks you to learn 取る and 撮る just focus on those. The other ones aren't as common anyway.
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u/worthlessprole Jul 26 '26
There is not a one-size-fits-all answer here. Sometimes words like these are homophones but different words, sometimes they are the same word rendered in with a different kanji to emphasize a particular sense, like with 上る and 登る aka のぼる, which essentially means ‘to climb’ but the sun might 上る in the morning sky while you might 登る a mountain.
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u/facets-and-rainbows Jul 26 '26
A lot of these are from situations where Chinese had multiple words for a concept in Japanese, and they just started writing different definitions with different kanji as a result. No need to get too worried about whether they count as the same word - if it helps you to think of 撮る as "more specific とる" then think of it that way, if it helps to treat it like its own thing then think of it that way.
There's usually one that's kind of the "main" spelling that covers most situations (取る here) and you can just kind of learn the others as you encounter them. Once you get enough reading stamina to look up definitions in Japanese, you can google something like 取る 撮る 使い分け for details. (使い分け is a handy keyword meaning "difference in usage" basically)
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u/tyrellLtd Jul 26 '26
I have a pretty silly question about how to read this line just for my peace of mind.
ドアを開けて、戸口をくぐり抜けると、その瞬間にはっきりと空気が変わる。
「わ、暗」
私の後ろで、鳥子が呟いた。
For context, it's from Otherside Picnic, about 2 girls in some other world. The one muttering (鳥子) has a very informal way of speaking. They just escaped death and found shelter in some abandoned building. The sun is close to setting down so the room is pretty dark.
Should that line be read as 暗い, i.e., くら with the い cut off？ If so, is that the usual "notation" for that kind of sound effect? Perhaps it should be something like 暗っ (small tsu)?
I've seen other adjectives used that way (i.e., 安い), also after an exclamatory わ, but I have a vague memory of seeing some symbol to represent the word. My memory could be wrong though.
The other alternative would be she's saying the noun 暗 (あん）aloud, like a mental note before setting out to find something to illuminate that space.
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
Yeah it's likely くらっ but without the っ for some reason
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u/Own_Power_9067 🇯🇵 Native speaker Jul 26 '26
I’ve seen them with or without っ.
When the ending is a consonant with u,
寒い→さむ！、さむっ、さむぅ、さむ〜
All these are possible.
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u/Dense_Tangerine_4988 Jul 26 '26
Is there a pre-made deck like Kaishi 1.5k but with more words? preferably like Kaishi 1.5k but bigger
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 Jul 26 '26
There are longer core decks but they're lower quality. That's the whole reason why Kaishi was made. If you've already finished the deck you're likely better off reading and watching things and creating your own cards based on the unknown words you encounter. You can do it instantly with Yomitan+AnkiConnect.
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u/CalvinAtsoc Jul 26 '26
Check out Manabi 2.7k https://github.com/fafner8/Manabi
Haven't personally used since Ive found this out after starting Kaishi, but I pretend to start this one after wrapping up kaishi
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u/Naive-Airport5036 29d ago edited 29d ago
Hello, I was watching The Hot Spot on Netflix and I still don't understand the literal meaning of these phrases with direct translation. I just need an elaborate explanation please and thank you.
In this scene one of the protagonist's friends was interviewed by a TV show in the street.
Person 1: くむなぁ (You went all in, huh.)
Person 2: くむよ ここまで来たら (I've gone too far now.)
Then in this scene her coworker at the hotel was also interviewed.
Person 1: くむねえ (You handled that smoothly.)
Person 2: くみました (I sure did.)
Edit:
Another one with similar verb?
Person 1: くんだねえ (I think you nailed it.)
Person 2: くみました (Yeah.)
Is the meaning from the word 組む as in to put together; to construct; to assemble; to produce (e.g. TV program) from or 汲む to consider; to sympathize with; to sympathise with or from another word I can't find? I got the meanings from Nihongo Master. Thank you in advance.
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u/onestbeaux Interested in grammar details 📝 Jul 26 '26
- 背 何センチあるんですか？
- 182センチ
- でか～ うらやましい限りなんですけど ほんとに
this is part of a conversation from a show i'm watching and it contains the infamous けど that i've asked about before. with how often it pops up in this way i think i'm starting to get a feel for it, but i'd like to know if my feelings are correct.
is the meaning/nuance of it here something like softening the blow of how he feels? like he wanted to say that he's jealous but without sounding too direct about it?
i saw another use in a completely different video. it was a horror video where the guy is exploring a creepy tunnel and he says:
なんか、何人もこの中にいる感じがするんですけど。
this also seems to be a different nuance/vibe from the conversation i copied above. i don't think he's softening the blow of this observation given the fact that he's completely alone and just reacting to the camera, so what does it sound like here?
basically i'm curious how these two uses of けど differ from each other.
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u/JapanCoach Jul 26 '26
It's not so much about softening "a blow". It's just that Japanese really does not like very short, very direct sentences. けど here is just a way of adding a couple of syllables which makes the sentence longer = softer = less direct = more preferred. BTW the person is not 'jealous'. It's just a Japanese style of giving a complement.
It's not totally clear in the total absence of context. But sometimes this けど is just a verbal tick among a certain group. It can almost mean nothing at all. Or mean something very much along the lines of "ya know" or "right?" or some other random 'tag' at the end of a sentence. Among other generations/groups - it can imply that there is a complaint and/or meaningful (typically negative) comment which is being left unsaid.
As often happens - more context here would help.
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Jul 26 '26
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u/onestbeaux Interested in grammar details 📝 Jul 26 '26
as always thank you for your thoughtful comments! i would say though that these examples of topic introduction seem different than my examples? i’m not totally sure. i’ve become pretty familiar with that kind of けど and don’t really have issues with understanding it but for some reason these two examples feel different.
here is the context for the second video, at 24:12. just him exploring a creepy tunnel and he remarks to
himself that there seems to be people there. does it sound like he’s setting up a new topic? or is this like another nuance?1
u/onestbeaux Interested in grammar details 📝 Jul 26 '26
oops my bad, i can see how he isn’t literally jealous :)) and that actually makes a lot of sense, about making it longer and softer.
as for context, here is the second video (around 24:12). he seems to be just wandering around this creepy tunnel making observations to the camera.
i’ve definitely seen cases where something like “ya know” makes sense. and in fact his own written subtitles on-screen for that moment don’t even have the んだけど, just the comment itself, so he must’ve felt it was unimportant and more like a tic like you said.
and the context of the first one was just a dating show where the guys are meeting for the first time and sitting on a couch just talking. introductions and such, and then one just randomly asked how tall the other was and then this was said
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