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In a nutshell…. Yes. Any language is going to take time and effort to learn, and Japanese in particular presents more challenges to a native English speaker than many other languages. However, as you’ve seen in this article, even the “hardest” aspects of Japanese are much simpler than they might initially seem.
- Japanese Sentence Structure Explained
By the way, if you want to learn Japanese fast and have fun...
- Japanese Writing System
(Source: Wikipedia Commons) Hiragana (the blue characters in...
- Kanji
Those are katakana, an alphabet Japanese people use to write...
- Japanese Culture
Show your Japanese friends and colleagues you really know...
- Japanese Sentence Structure Explained
- Contents
- Pronunciation
- Grammar
- Sentence Structure
- Why Most People Think Japanese Is Hard to Learn
1. All vowels have one pronunciation each
Japanese only has five vowels: あ , い , う , え and お . Each syllable is pronounced with the same rhythm without any stress, and the pronunciation of Japanese words is generally predictable. The same can’t be said of English, where the spelling doesn’t always match up with the pronunciation. You have to learn each word individually to pronounce them properly. When you’re learning Japanese, this won’t be an issue. None of this eau, samhain or tschüssof the European languages, either.
2. You don’t need to deal with tones
Japanese isn’t a tonal language. This might be surprising to hear, since so many Asian languages are spoken with tones, including Mandarin Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. But it should also come as a relief, since it saves you the time and effort of learning the tones of every word—and risking that you convey a different meaning from what you intended!
3. You’re already familiar with the parts of speech
Japanese parts of speech are similar to their English counterparts: One difference is that Japanese has particlesthat act like prepositions, except they come after the word to which they refer: Here’s an example sentence: オストラーリアで魚にキスされて、びっくりした。 (おーすとらりあで さかなに きすされて、びっくりした。) In Australia, I was kissed by a fishand I was surprised. In this example, the particles で and に come after Australia and a fish.
4. You don’t conjugate based on gender
Aside from a few nouns, Japanese doesn’t really change its word forms based on gender. Pronouns are only gender-specificin two cases: third person (she, he and they) and first person (I). Here are gender-specific options for referring to oneself: Men: 俺 (おれ) 僕 (ぼく) Women: あたし That being said, the gender-neutral option, 私 (わたし/ わたくし), is not only more polite, it’s also far more common. There are the basic words for boy, girl, son, daughterand so on. Otherwise, gender is omitted from nouns and...
5. You don’t have to change word forms
Japanese doesn’t have noun declension (i.e., it doesn’t change the form of nouns based on their purpose or location in a sentence). Instead, Japanese uses particles such as を and の to indicate purpose: Similarly, Japanese adjectivesand adverbs each have only two forms. Even verbs have three—one of which is a small family of irregulars (to have, to do, to be and to come). Each category has its own set of rules. But once you master one form of a word, then you’ve learned the same form of hundre...
10. You only need to remember two word order rules
There are only two rules about word order in Japanese: 1. Verbs come last. 2. In compound sentences, each clause must keep its kids in the assigned seating area. Japanese uses particles to designate each piece of a statement. The particle follows the noun wherever it goes: 庭で、犬が遊んでいる。 (にわで、いぬが あそんでいる。) In the garden, the dog is playing. 犬は、庭で遊んでる。 (いぬは、にわで あそんでいる。) The dog is playing in the garden.
11. Many Japanese words will be familiar to you
There are many common Japanese wordswe use in English all the time. A few you’re sure to recognize include: The opposite is true, as well. Japanese uses many English words, like: Notice how the English words incorporated into Japanese use the katakana writing system. If you see a word written in katakana, there’s a good chance (though not always) that it’s a loanword. If you want Japanese writing to come more naturally to you—and improve your listening skills, vocabulary and grammar at the sa...
You’ve just seen 11 aspects of the language that make Japanese easy to learn. Now, let’s compare them with reasons it seems difficult: 1. The kanji look scary and intimidating. I think kanjitakes the cake when it comes to the most intimidating part of Japanese. Since there’s nothing like it in almost any other language (apart from Chinese character...
Sep 11, 2023 · Yeah, one of the reasons why Japanese words can be challenging to write is because there are so many kanji characters to learn and remember. English. Hiragana. Katakana. Kanji. Pronunciation. University. だいがく. ダイガク.
- The Sound. First cab off the rank, the lack of phonemes. Japanese only has 46 distinct sounds for you to master. On top of this, Japanese is not a tonal language like Mandarin, Thai or Vietnamese.
- Japanglish. Japanese has always had a unique way of dealing with loan words from other cultures. They even went so far as to create an entirely new writing system to deal with them called katakana.
- No gender difference and no plural ‘s’ Learners of Romance or Germanic languages may rejoice to hear that upon starting their Japanese language journey, they will never again have to remember if a chair is feminine, masculine, or neutral.
- Kanji. With 2041 kanji considered “Jyoyou” or what a student completing Year 12 is expected to learn, it may sound counterintuitive to say that kanji is one of the factors making Japanese easier to learn.
May 23, 2022 · They rank Japanese as a Category IV language, which is the hardest category. The FSI, or Foreign Service Institute, considers Japanese amongst the hardest world languages, along with Mandarin, Cantonese, and a couple of others. The folks in Foreign Service Institute train members of the U.S. foreign affairs community, by the way.
Feb 22, 2012 · Japanese can be a tough language to get into. Not because it's a hard language to learn, necessarily, but because there are a bunch of mental barriers and misconceptions. Japanese has a reputation for being hard to learn. I can kind of understand why – Japanese can be scary to people. You have to learn all these brand new characters ...
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May 26, 2024 · While Japanese is hard to learn, understanding the reasons behind its perceived difficulty and implementing effective learning strategies can significantly enhance your progress. By embracing the complexities of the Japanese language and incorporating targeted tips for Kana, Kanji, and grammar, beginners can navigate their learning journey with confidence and success.
