Skills — 上手 / 苦手

Last episode you learned to say what you like. Today — what you're good at. Japanese uses the exact same trick.

What You'll Learn#

New vocabulary: 上手 (skilled, good at), 苦手 (weak point, bad at), 下手 (unskilled — rarely used about self), 料理 (cooking), 数学 (math), 歌 (song, singing), 絵 (drawing, picture), 母 (mother), 友達 (friend)

Lesson Transcript#

The Same Pattern as 好き#

上手 is a な-adjective. Just like 好き, you use が — not を. Topic with は, the skill with が, then 上手です at the end.

Break it down. 母 is mother (your own). は marks the topic — we're talking about her. 料理 is cooking. が marks what she's good at. 上手です means is skilled.

下手 vs 苦手 — The Cultural Note#

There's a technical opposite of 上手 — the word 下手 (へた). But Japanese people hardly ever use 下手 about themselves. It sounds too blunt, almost like calling yourself incompetent. Instead, they reach for 苦手 (にがて).

苦手 doesn't just mean bad at — it means this is a personal weakness, something I struggle with. It's softer. It's honest. And it's what native speakers actually say.

Two things to notice. First — no 私 at the start. When you're talking about your own weakness, you usually drop it. Second — you might have expected が after 数学, like we did with 上手. But with 苦手, it's natural to put the thing you struggle with right at the front as the topic with は. So 数学は苦手です — literally, math, for me, is a weakness.

Quick Reference#

Pattern Comparison#