How to learn Japanese?

Japanese is a language of success, progress, development and rich cultural heritage! Japan’s contributions to the world include, Sony, Mitsubishi, Canon, Hitachi, Toshiba, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc. besides the Religion – Shinto, the sport ‘Sumo Wrestling’, the Kimono outfit, origami kind of art, sushi and miso. Japan has also been the best teacher of life whereby it taught the world, how not to let any catastrophe be a hindrance in the path of development. Japan overcame setbacks received during Hiroshima, Nagasaki bombings! It has emerged a winner all the time be it, the wounds inflicted during the World War, natural phenomenon or disasters like tsunami, earthquakes, flash floods, etc. in past.

Throughout its history and even today, Japan stands tall in the list of the most successful economies of the world. The quality of its exported products is undoubtedly great and unmatched in any region, in any part of the world!

Japanese language, which’s highly respected and sought-after throughout the globe, stands as another great contribution of Japan to the world!

It is one of the most demanded languages in the world. You can get a fair idea of its popularity if you were to make a search, on how many universities language training and institutes, in different parts of the world, are offering courses in the Japanese language. Moreover, the number of students appearing annually for the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test or JLPT(a standardized criterion-referenced test to evaluate and certify Japanese language proficiency for non-native speakers) also indicates the position that Japanese enjoys in the world Ethnologue.

The Japanese language is classified as a tough language making its place in Group 5 of FSI language gradations. It’s as difficult as Chinese, Arabic, and Korean for English speakers. While it’s difficult due to its artistic language, it’s not impossible to be learnt! I am listing a few methods to achieve success however small, in your Japanese Language Learning:

Getting acquainted with the Japanese characters

Japanese writing system makes use of the combination of two types of characters – one is its syllabic ‘kana’ which consists of ‘hiragana’ and ‘katakana’, and the second is adopted Chinese characters ‘kanjis’. Japanese characters are not standalone letters, they are contextual in nature. Many strokes form one character. Every character is an idea; it is a concept.

Practising writing in the Japanese script often

Once a person gets to know a few characters clearly, he or she must keep on practising writing in the Japanese script often so as to remember and get one’s hand perfect at writing the characters. ‘Practice makes a man perfect’!

Reading out Japanese newspaper

Reading something out to oneself, aloud will help you improve pronunciation significantly. Keep looking out for commonly used conversational words, that can help you build a basic vocabulary, that in turn will empower you; to start small basic conversations.

Keeping a Japanese dictionary handy

One can always keep (a known language – to – Japanese) dictionary with oneself to refer to as soon as one comes across a new word while communicating with others or while reading any article/literature.

Watching Japanese shows with subtitles

Watching Japanese cartoons, tv shows, news channels, etc. with subtitles is an excellent and interesting way which one can use to develop one’s knowledge of the Japanese language.

Getting books meant for learning Japanese

Japanese for beginners, basic level Japanese, basic to advanced level Japanese, Japanese for all, Japanese storybooks, etc. are various categories of books which one can look for, to learn Japanese.

Learning with the help of online apps

Many online language learning apps allow users to learn languages with the help of fun activities such as daily quizzes, short lessons, online tests, scores, points, etc.

How?

Through the medium of an online Japanese learning course! Online audio-visual Japanese learning sessions allow a learner:

To learn Japanese from the safety and comfort of one’s own home

To save a lot of time and money otherwise required for and spent in travelling

To ask doubts during the session itself, and get them cleared right then

To observe the movements of the mouth of the instructor so as to understand the pronunciations of words clearly

To watch carefully how the instructor writes a character stroke – by – stroke

To develop one’s knowledge of the Japanese language on all the parameters of language learning – namely, listening, Japanese speaking, reading Japanese, comprehension, and writing.

From all the above ways, we understand that one can make use of these methods to learn the Japanese language. Couple them with online podcast, flashcards, audiobooks, YouTube video etc available online resources and you are sure to have a firm footing in learning!