So, I was on youtube and I spot some Japanese amidst a sea of English. It didn't take me long to figure out that it was a foreign speaker. He wrote, "私はそれが好き"
Today, I figured I'd write something to help this person improve their Japanese, as well as anyone else still starting out in this language.
Firstly, it'd be more natural to just say "これ好き". ( kore suki)
It's obvious he wants to say "I like this", but you can't just translate directly like that. It becomes INCREDIBLY unnatural if you do. I don't think there's a single Japanese person who would say 私は (watashi wa) in this sentence and when I first read it, I thought, "does everyone else hate it or something?" but then I realised it was just broken speech.
The reason it's broken is because of L1 interference which is the primary culprit behind our inability to just pick up a second language and start using it naturally.
The idea that textbooks and classroom education enforce is that we should learn about words and grammar in isolation and then practice (drill) to independently create something natural. This is insane and impossible.
It's much better to learn through example and osmosis instead. For example, how would you say "this is my favourite song"?
Think about it for a moment and get back to me. Here's a hint, don't use 一番. (ichiban)
But even if I tell you that, you'll probably try and do it anyway, instead of coming up with something like this: 大好きな曲の歴代一位！ (daisuki na kyoku no rekidai ichi i) Which means that out of all the songs I've ever loved, this is my favourite (or, this one I love the most)
But if I told you to say that in Japanese, you would try and add in "this" and "is" and the word "favourite" and you wouldn't use 歴代(rekidai) or 一位(ichi i) and even if you did, you'd probably try and put a particle in between the last two nouns, all because of interference from English.
Fyi, this sentence is quite effeminate and young-sounding, so something like 一番好きな曲 would probably be a better choice for males to memorise.
To continue, there is a comment perfectly placed below his that says "I enjoy this very much <3" which is pretty much the same as what our friend wants to say.
Let's say you were learning English. You'd want to find this comment and learn it. Then when you wanted to say "これ好き" because you're a Japanese person. You would copy and paste this comment from your mind. Figuratively regurgitate it. Instead of trying to write it yourself and ending up with something like "that songs like" all because of interference from Japanese. They don't use "I" as much as we do so that gets omitted. You get confused between "this" and "that" for some reason unknown to everyone, including yourself. You've been TOLD to use the plural with multiple objects but language is a skill, not a science, so it comes out broken because you don't know how to apply that knowledge in practice. Lastly, you end with like in English because you do that in Japanese.
This is pretty much the same thing that happened to our friend learning Japanese. He experienced something similar like this and as a result his Japanese is basically still just English.
Solutions
What I used to do was find an example of what a Japanese person would say instead and quote that. I spoke almost exclusively through whole clumps of words and phrasese that I remembered. I would just mimic what I had heard someone say when the situation called for it and you'll be surprised at your innate ability to do this.
This is a great way to use Anki or any other SRS program. Especially if you get audio to accompany it, too. Obviously, those don't come with youtube comments but you can apply this strategy to anything and everything. See something you think you'll have to say one day? Record that in your SRS. Record the sound, too.
What's even better is that you will, through enough use, start to fill in the gaps on your own. It will start to make sense and eventually, you will become autonomous, AKA, you reach your epiphany point. Once you do you will have the ability to start working with words individually and you'll be able to spot broken Japanese instantly.
I hear people saying that you should read textbooks because "you wouldn't re-invent the wheel, right?". Yeah, well, ironically when you try and create a sentence by yourself, that is exactly what you're doing. Of course, you should get plenty of practice doing exactly that but make sure you have someone correct you. Your Japanese friends, etc, even strangers once you know of more places where you can reach out to Japanese people online.
At first, you need an example. So our friend here, was right in using his Japanese. That's how you get better but he should have first gone and found a Japanese version of "I like this"
これ良いね (kore ii ne)
これめちゃくちゃ大好き (kore mechakucha daisuki)
これスコ (kore suko)
and then used that instead of his own Japanese. It's about learning an entirely new way of thinking and constructing thought.
Btw, すこ is just 好き。It's internet slang. The reason they say it is because when you type すき you sometimes type すこ instead as a typo and it just eventually saw widespread use.