Learning Japanese Language Basics

Excitement all around, you get to live and work in a new place! Your company is finally sending you to Japan for that much coveted transfer. The culture, people, country and the food…all new and very exciting. But one big problem…the language. How are you going communicate? How are you going to work? How are you even going to find your way around? There are two options – either you get an interpreter (which let me tell you is expensive and inconvenient) or you learn the language.

Learn Japanese you say…but how will I manage in so short a time? How will I learn a language that doesn’t even follow the same rules as the English language?

So many questions…so many ‘how’s’…
The solution is quite simple and quite obvious…you learn the Japanese language, and what better way to learn than using the Internet.
Most people would be quite intimidated by the thought of learning Japanese. But there is no need to be put off or be intimidated. In fact the Japanese language is quite a simple one to learn and grasp. If you want to speak Japanese, then that’s simpler, on the other hand written Japanese may take a little longer to pick up. But worry not; you are hardly going to be needed to write Japanese in your professional life.

Learning Japanese: the easy way
So you think learning Japanese is difficult? Think again… in fact it is simpler than learning English. The English language has a lot of rules, syntax and grammar rules, Japanese on the other hand is more straightforward. None of the complications and tricks in Japanese. Think of it this way, if you can learn English
(The most difficult language to learn) then you can learn Japanese just as easily.

In English, you take one root verb and conjugate it according to the person or gender of the sentence in question. The Japanese language has no such rules. The only rule that it has is that the verb comes at the end of the sentence. The subject is at the beginning and then omitted in the rest of the paragraph. This is just one of the very few rules the language has.

Cultural influence on the Japanese Language
Every language has some cultural influence and Japanese is the same. Courtesy is a big deal in Japanese culture, and the same courtesy is extended in the language. When you are learning Japanese, you need to understand the courtesy or the gestures used to express certain emotions.

If you were trying to apologize in Japan, it is not as simple as saying "I’m sorry". In Japanese, the pitch and tone and the degree of the offence will have a greater impact on what is being said.

Writing Japanese the Kanji way
Even though you will not be writing Japanese, as much as you would be speaking it, you need to be aware of certain terms used in the language. Chinese characters used in written Japanese are called Kanji. There are almost ten thousand Kanji used in writing Japanese these days. This can seem like an impossible task to pick up for those who are new to Japanese. If you learn the 1945 regular kanji and the 166 special kanji as prescribed by the Japanese Government, then you will be more than self-sufficient.

So whether you want to learn Japanese for your profession, or you are learning to improve your language skills, Japanese is a language that can be fun and easy to learn.