I create videos on Youtube and Twitch to help people learn Japanese, under the name “Itsupera”.

Problem

After learning Japanese for a few years and experimenting with various methods, I realized that there was almost no YouTube content in French to help Japanese learners beyond the beginner level.

More generally, the immersion-based approach I am using is still very under-represented compared to more traditional approaches (textbooks and classes).

Solution

In 2020, I created a YouTube channel to give tips on how to learn languages more effectively and keep your motivation as you hit the dreaded “intermediate plateau”.

This also inspired me to create a few software tools to help Japanese language learners.

In 2022, I started streaming on Twitch every week as well. I play a game in Japanese, read aloud the dialogues, explain the meaning and… look up what I don’t know!

Challenges

I am comfortable speaking in front of a large audience, but speaking in front of a camera was extremely awkward at the start because of the lack of feedback. With practice, I got more relaxed and stopped reading my prompt like a robot.

The most difficult part was to keep my motivation despite the slow growth of my audience. I purposely picked quite a niche, because there are not that many people who learn Japanese beyond a beginner level, and even fewer when considering only French speakers (Interestingly, I found out that non-French speakers were also interested in my content to practice French, and I even created an easy podcast for French learners on the side!)

Getting “discovered” by the algorithm takes a while, and you have to keep going for some time without much feedback. I had to fiddle with YouTube analytics to understand what was working and what was not, tuning the hashtags, the titles, the thumbnails, the description, the timing of the videos, etc. This made a big difference in the growth of the channel.

Speaking of thumbnails, that was a late epiphany for me: I use to spend hours on writing, filming and editing, but only a few minutes on creating a thumbnail just before publishing the video. But I realized that, for better or for worse, the thumbnail is the most important part to get people to watch the product of your hard work! In hindsight, that may seem obvious, but a lot of creators fall into that same trap.

This ongoing side project is a lot of fun and helps me improve my skills in writing, filming and editing. I also get to meet a lot of interesting people passionate about the Japanese language and language learning in general.