But they are native speakers so of course it’s easy for them. It’s their native language…
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I am only asking for one example that proves that Japanese have conjugation and you can’t understand it in easier way.
And very fact that there are natives to the language is a proof it is easy enough for 5 years old. There is no even one person native to technical english from the field of quantum physics. Because it is hard as hell… It is not possible for 5 years old. Even language of math is not and average 15-20 years old can learn it…
Let’s remember that 5 year olds do not speak the level of Japanese that adults do, in the same way that they don’t in English, or in any language at all. They speak simply, and they learn to speak more as they grow up in a fully immersive environment where they use it every day.
Simple Japanese is easy enough for 5 year olds. The Japanese that we as adults would need to have in-depth conversations or talk about complicated topics is not. I don’t hear many 5 year olds knocking about who use keigo, for example, but it is something that adults are expected to know and use properly in the correct situation.
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I like Cure Dolly, but their knowledge is not perfect. Their knowledge of Japanese is very good, but there are ‘some’ holes. For example, she says every sentence has a が, even if it isn’t said. That’s not true.
On the other hand, words like ‘conjugation’ are also not suited well to Japanese, because it’s an English word invented for the purpose of describing the English lsnguage (and languages close to it).
Just as a alternative view point, my ‘real’ opinion is that there are literally zero sources on the internet, or in academia, that describe Japanese well. It is just something most people slowly figure out after many years. If you asked Matt from mattvsjapan, or Dogen (both very fluent speakers) what their real thoughts were on Japanese grammar, I would guess that both would say that textbooks are terrible, and you will just ‘slowly’ understand it with immersion.
So yeah, I think ‘describing Japanese in English’ is where the real flaw lies.
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Seems like the last 30 comments are off-topic or could use a separate thread. 
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I do totally agree. Kids have miserable time while learning to speak and write. It takes them forever and they cry a lot during the process. And yet we all say that it is easy to them, but saying so about adults is controversial…
I don’t understand what is so amazing in attitude “it is so hard that almost impossible” that we have to take it as if that would be objective fact when it is just attitude thing. I don’t see any utility in that.
It is not motivating, it does not help, it creates illusion that making mistakes is not okey, and it scares people away from using the language since they never feel ready and worthy…
It is not hopeless task. If it feels so hard then on goodness sake change something in your learning routing or take a month break. It is better than being miserable.
Assumption that this is easy, and just requires time and effort is far more productive. It frees you from the idea that it is not ok to do it badly. It very ok: this is how you learn (becoming doctor is hard: you can’t do it badly…). And you don’t have to think if you got “talent” for it. Everybody can do it to reasonable degree when she or he can enjoy the language.
Edit:
Hmm… When is say “you” don’t mean any specific “you”, just “you” in general. I will probably start replacing my "you"s with "we"s or something, since I can understand how that can be taken in wrong way.
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I also think it’s an OK pace. Depends on how tiresome it becomes. I’d say if you start burning out from huge amount of reviews, then it’s time to slow down a little bit or tweak settings
I almost completed N5-N3 in a year of Bunpro by doing 5 new grammar points a day (except weekends, holidays e.t.c.). But at some point there were so many reviews to be done and I had to switch ghost reviews to Minimal and it actually became doable. Maybe I’ll switch it back to default On setting after I beat N1 for some real hardcore reviewing
Though keep in mind I personally prioritize moving forward and learning more new stuff instead of reviewing “until you feel it sticks” because after all it’s an SRS - you will eventually understand and learn it even if it’s almost like bruteforce. Time optimized bruteforce.
Find your flow and keep going~
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But its not an English word. Conjugation has existed for many thousands of years. English, German, Yiddish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Faroese, French, Urdu, Latin, Russian, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Polish, and Irish conjugate for example. And Japanese. It’s wrong to be to telling beginners that it doesn’t.
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True. It was created for Latin. I am ready to defend the claim it does not work very well for english as well. It works for polish, german and languages like that.
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I didn’t say conjugation does not exist. I said the word. The meaning of words changes to suit the language to which they exist in. Conjugation is a word that exists in English, therefore it’s meaning is limited to English. The words that other languages use might be ‘similar’ to conjugation, but their spectrum of meaning would be different to that of English, whether it be slightly or dramatically.
Let’s take an easier example than the word ‘conjagate’. As that is a word that most people would not learn in any language until they were well into formal schooling.
The word ‘think’, in English, you can use this word to convey an opinion ‘I think it’s good’. A belief ‘I think God is real’. A supposition ‘I think It’ll rain tomorrow’.
Now let’s look at a language that is VERY close to English (Swedish). There are three words in Swedish for these 3 meanings, tycker, tänker or tror. One for suppositions, one for opinions, and one for beliefs. Using any of these words in the same way that you would use ‘think’ in English will almost certainly cause a lot of confusion.
If two languages that are similar have such a gigantic difference on such a common word, imagine what dissimilar languages have in terms of meaning disparity. The fact that the Japanese word for ‘conjugation’ (活用）far better translates to ‘active use’ should be a sign of this. I am not saying there is no conjugation. I am just saying that what you think conjugation is, is verrrrrrrry different to what a Japanese person thinks.
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You have very little of it in English. Have a lot at Latin, German, Polish or Hungarian (if I remember it right Hungarian is the most difficult one)
This to me is not conjugation, these are just different words used to express a similar one word in a different language. Conjugation is inflection of verbs depending on context; think, thinking, thought, etc, isn’t it? To that end Japanese conjugates, the end of a verb is inflected to describe who is talking and about what.
@ljoekelsoey please note that I am not disagreeing with you. I just think that Japanese conjugation is sooooo far removed from English conjugation, that it is almost grasping at straws to use the word ‘conjugation’ to describe it. I wasn’t saying that my example was conjugation, I was highlighting the difference in the meaning of words in different languages. The meaning in this case being ‘conjugation’. Realistically, a new word should be invented to approach what ‘conjugation’ is in Japanese.
I am actually in the process (very slow process) of making a video for this (and a lot of other misconceptions about Japanese), as trying to describe them with words is painful… really painful.
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I still think the word ‘conjugation’ works well as here, it is telling you that the tail of the word inflects and changes depending on the sentence, which it does. it is semantic to the point of pointlessness to be telling this to a beginner. This is a discussion for semantics who are interested in linguistics, not the average Japanese learner who wants to watch One Piece.
As far as for beginners, and frankly any learners who are not interested in linguistic semantics, Japanese conjugates. It conjugates depending on time, date, relative status of the speak and listener, on the situation of the speaker and listener, mood, the conjugations include feelings and intentions on the subject being spoken about, to a far greater level of complexity than English does.
Take a basic verb; 行く, you could conjugate this as; 行き、行か、行け、行かれる、行かせる、行かせられる、行かす、行ける、行こう、行かない、行かず、行って、行った、行けば、行かれます、行かせます、行かせられます、行きましょう、行きません, (and if you want to include the (possibly dodgy) compound conjugations of) 行ってくれる、行ってくれます、行ってあげる、行ってあげます、行ってもらう、行ってもらいます、行っていただく、行っていただきす、行かせてもらう、行かせてもらいます、行かせていただく、行かせていただきます. And probably some others I’m forgetting
EDIT: If there was a new word for it in Japanese, it would almost certainly be コンジュゲートする
EDIT: 行ってしまう、行っちゃう、行っちゃった、行ってしまいました、行ってしもうた（笑）
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There’s already a word for it, 語形変化 variable/changes in language forms which I guess is easier to agree with.
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Now we can speak. I will demonstrate how it works for me:
行く、行き、行か、行け、行こ - those are just 5 different forms for the sake of connecting it to different helper works. Note that newer words from chinese does not have this feature since it is not needed grammatically. Example: 食べ. Just one connective form.
行かれる= 行か + れる. main word and helper word. Same for most of other examples. It better for beginners like myself in view to try to understand how those words interact than trying to memorise “meaning”
Interesting example is te form and past form. But it quite easy to notice that 食べて use 手 as helper verb. You can thing the same about た form if it make it easier. What makes it confusing is the fact that way of connecting is not regular in that case, so it my be easier to thing about it as “conjugation of sort” in not technical meaning.
The claim that Japanese is analytical language is not true. But you can treat “conjugation” as something similar in nature if it makes it easier to you.
There is no reason to think people using different framework are wrong 
I have poor memory. I can’t remember stuff I don’t understand. So “analytical way” is easier for me (except te and ta forms. Those ones was easier to just try to remember as conjugation).
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But this is where the fundamental lack of understanding is. Japanese words end where the kanji ends. I am not talking verbs here, I am talking all words.
This is what you see 行く、行き、行か、行け、行かれる、行かせる、行かせられる、行かす、行ける、行こう、行かない、行かず、行って、行った、行けば、行かれます、行かせます、行かせられます、行きましょう、行きません
This is what I see 行(く) 2、行(き)2、行(か)2、行(け)2、行(か((れる)3、行(か((せる)3、行(か((せ(((られる)4、行(か((す)3、行(ける)3、行(こう)2、行(か((ない)3、行(か((ず)3、行(って)2、行(った)2、行(け((ば)3、行(か((れ(((ます)4、行(か((せ(((ます)4、行(か((せ(((られます)4、行(き((ましょう)4、行(き((ません)3 (The numbers here denotes the number of words)
This is purely my view on Japanese, and something which I can only prove with a diagram, words just doesn’t really work. The reason I am saying conjugation is not a good idea is because it is the idea that words change to change meaning. But in Japanese, the reverse is true (in my opinion, which I am more than happy to be wrong about). In Japanese, words always stay the same, they are just joined to other words to show what ‘location’ they are happening in… I realize this sounds stupid, so just humor me until I am finished making the video, then you are free to criticize me all you like haha. Actually る is also a word by itself, but I chose not to separate that from the others, as the meaning is archaic, and not many Japanese people even know that 流 used to be read as (る）. る just shows flow, the flow of another word.
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I doubt it was invented for English. Linguistics academia was established in Europe long before English became the lingua franca of the world. Conjugation itself is a Latin word. Western academia lingo might be bias to Western languages but I don’t see how that invalidates using these terms to describe similar patterns in other languages.
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食べ’s not from Chinese.
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I know. Many ru verbs are though. Does not change my point
I think about it as “s” form in english:
“She does something” Looks like something that wants to disappear from the language as not necessary from grammar point of view, but writing keeps it alive.