How Hard Japanese To Learn

If you've e'er told anyone that you lot're studying Japanese, you've probably heard one matter more times than you tin can count…

"Isn't Japanese ane of the hardest languages to larn?"

The East Asian language family unit has a reputation for being a real challenge to both new and veteran language students alike.

• But is this truly the case?
• Is Japanese hard to acquire?

In this article, I'g going to answer that question!

Y'all'll find that while Japanese does come up with a set of challenges (like any new linguistic communication), it'due south actually easier to learn Japanese than you might realise!

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Anyhow, back to the question at hand…

What Gives Japanese Its Intimidating Reputation?

It tin't be denied that Japanese (and Chinese) are widely regarded as some of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.

But, why is that?

What parts of Japanese intimidate people?

In essence, there are three main aspects of Japanese that make learners nervous and requite the language its difficult reputation:

• Kanji
• The Politeness System (Keigo)
• Word Order

Let's consider each one in turn…

one. Kanji

If y'all're a native English language speaker learning Spanish, German, Italian, or any of a number of other languages, y'all've got one affair going for you lot from the start—you lot can write and read all of the letters!

All these languages share the same Latin alphabet, though they use it to make dissimilar words that accept different spelling and pronunciation rules.

Not so with Japanese…

If you're going to learn Japanese, you demand to start from the very basics and learn the Japanese writing system in order to be able to read in Japanese.

Simply here'south the trouble…

Japanese has tens of thousands of "messages"! How on earth could you ever memorize them all?

The skillful news though is that it'due south non as scary every bit it might seem at first.

For a start, while there are tens of thousands of characters, Japanese only has about 2,000 kanji (characters) that are considered "common apply" (as well called jouyou kanji).

These are the ones that Japanese kids learn in school. If you can learn and use these kanji, yous've achieved a standard level of Japanese literacy.

"Okay, then I only have to memorize 2,000 kanji. Great. Just English still but has 26 letters."

I hear yous. Still, what you lot may not know is that those ii,000 kanji aren't all unique. In fact, if you know just a few really important kanji, y'all can starting time to build out the residue!

Building Blocks – Combining Kanji

Permit's have a look at the word kimono — y'all know, the colourful long-sleeved outfits worn past many Japanese people for special occasions.

If you've studied just a few joyou kanji, you'll already know that 着 (ki) means "to clothing" and 者 (mono) means "affair."

Well, … surprise:

• Kimono is 着物, which literally means "matter you lot wear"!

Looks like you didn't need to learn the word kimono after all, because information technology's fabricated of kanji you already know!

Japanese gives you lots of hints almost how to put a kanji together, and kanji are made of pieces that get repeated and reused often.

So those two,000 jouyou kanji aren't as big of a trouble as you might have causeless.

ii. The Japanese Politeness System: Keigo

Japanese is notorious for being a very polite language, and that's not a groundless merits.

Learning to empathise Japanese culture is major role of learning the language andkeigo – the Japanese "politeness" system – is a big part of that.

If y'all want to speak to people who "outrank" you (and that'south a lot of people—teachers, officials, and even your bosses and managers), then "honorific speech" (called keigo) is very important.

In keigo, you do 2 things:

• On the one hand, you apprehensive yourself to downplay your actions or thoughts
• And on the other mitt, you uplift the person who outranks you lot, praising their actions and thoughts

Both of these things happen at the same time through the words you use and the way y'all cohabit your Japanese verbs.

Some words (like taberu [to eat]) alter entirely in keigo (to meshi agaru), then you've also got new vocab to wrangle with.

It'southward critical that you don't switch things effectually and end upwardly accidentally praising yourself and humbling your audience!

That's just about the rudest affair y'all can do in Japan! Talk about force per unit area.

So, is there any practiced news buried in here?

You bet.

The rules of keigo never change, and they're built on very early Japanese basics that you'll learn just weeks into your Japanese studies.

Certain, you lot'll have to learn some new means of applying what you already know, but that's but it — it'southward mostly things you've learned already!

And on top of that, if y'all forget how to practice something in keigo, you can just say it any of a number of other ways.

Tin can't remember that big long formal phrase when yous're request for help? (Hint: it'south itadakemasen.)

That's okay! Try kudasaimasen instead.

Tin't remember that 1? Just change your verb to passive form.

It's all fine! No force per unit area if you lot forget i way of doing keigo.

And, by the way, did you notice that you already knew those words?

Keigo isn't annihilation new. It's just spicing things upwardly a scrap.

Notation

If y'all didn't know those words, that'south ok as well! You'll learn them with fourth dimension. They key point to accept away hither is that although keigo can appear intimidating, it's really largely based on things you'll already know or be learning anyway!

3. Japanese Word Guild

Lots of people get taken aback when they hear that Japanese puts its verbs at the stop of a judgement.

"I to the schoolhouse go".

Huh…?

That makes no sense! While it's true that talking this way takes some getting used to, I've got good news for you…

It's consistent. Japanese is very regular about having the verb at the stop of a phrase.

Want to wrap up a sentence? Just stick on a verb and it'll all be over.

In general, information technology takes nearly two weeks of practicing Japanese before yous no longer remain witting of moving the verb to the end.

But it will very quickly become natural. Your brain is very proficient at automating that sort of thing. So if you lot but let information technology go, word order in Japanese becomes basically a non-issue in a relatively short amount of time.

And having verbs at the end of a sentence in Japanese really makes some things easier, like asking questions. All yous accept to do is addka to the end of whatever sentence. Easy. Speaking of which…

The Other Side: Easy Things About Japanese

Equally yous can see, Japanese has some aspects that make it challenging.

But if y'all're considering how hard Japanese is to learn, remember that only like with whatever other language, y'all'll observe some parts of Japanese that are hard, but there are others which are pretty like shooting fish in a barrel!

Let'southward have a look at a few of them:

1. Japanese Phonetics

There are no mixed or "blended" sounds in Japanese like in English language. (In English, sounds like "sch" or "str" are blends).

All Japanese sounds (except north) end in a vowel, which makes them effortless to string together, fifty-fifty for non-native speakers.

Similarly, there is no variety in pronunciation like at that place is in English (call up of the alphabetic character A in the words "cat" and "away" – it represents ii completely different sounds!).

If you run across a Japanese give-and-take, you will definitely exist able to pronounce it correctly. And you lot'll probably be able to exercise it quickly, because the syllables by themselves are all uncomplicated sounds.

For case, if you lot look at the word "arawaresasewaremashita," you'll run across that it's quite long, simply if you try to pronounce it slowly you can see it'southward not particularly difficult.

• A-ra-wa-re-sa-se-wa-re-ma-shi-ta.

It flows right out because of the inherent structure of Japanese sounds!

2. Japanese Doesn't Have Word Genders Or Articles

Dissimilar, for example, German and Castilian, at that place are no discussion genders in Japanese.

• You don't have to remember which words are female person or male person.
• You don't take to change whatever endings.
• Believe it or not, you don't even have to use masculine or feminine articles!

That's right, Japanese has no articles (the words "a", "an", and "the" in English).

So if you've always struggled with whether or non to use "a" or "the" with a specific give-and-take when learning a European langauge, accept no fear — Japanese is here (but articles are non)!

So, Is Japanese Difficult To Learn?

In a nutshell… Yes.

Any linguistic communication is going to take fourth dimension and effort to learn, and Japanese in item presents more challenges to a native English speaker than many other languages.

However, as you've seen in this commodity, even the "hardest" aspects of Japanese are much simpler than they might initially seem.

It's less nearly Japanese being hard and more than nearly it only being different from English language.

And that means, that as an English speaker it will merely take you a trivial extra time to acquire and get used to the detail sounds, structures and vocabulary of Japanese.

Just, if you're really motivated to learn Japanese, y'all'll notice information technology challenging but fun! And both the journey (and the result!) will be more than worth the endeavor!

Too,showing up every mean solar day is what really matters, no matter what language you're learning.

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Source: https://storylearning.com/learn/japanese/japanese-tips/is-japanese-hard-to-learn

Posted by: websterobabounceept.blogspot.com

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