Introduction:

Japanese is thought to be one of the more difficult languages to learn for a native English speaker. It takes some amount of dedication and time to learn the language. Studies say that depending on several factors like your original language, how much time you devote daily to learn the language, etc. one can decide how difficult it is to learn Japanese. Again contrary to this popular belief, many linguists agree that spoken Japanese is comparatively easier to master than other languages, because it has only five vowels and thirteen consonants. In this blog, I will discuss a few points why Japanese is easy to learn for some people and why it is difficult for others.

The answer to the above question is – No Japanese is not that much difficult as you think but it can have challenging moments while you are learning. But challenges are a part of our life and we need to take them. Then only we will be able to achieve something new. 

Japanese is considered one of the easier languages for the Indians to learn. The syntax (Subject-Object-verb structure), pronunciation, etc are pretty much closer to Indian languages than English. Only you need to concentrate more to master the language. In the writing part, you need to put a little more effort to learn the Japanese writing system as it combines different systems. They are kanji, hiragana, katakana, Arabic numerals, and even the Roman alphabet. The Japanese language basically revolves around Kanji, and there are more than 10,000 kanji in Japanese. Along with this Hiragana and Katakana are equally essential to learn in Japanese. People of India have lots of advantages in learning Japanese as the basic structure of Hindi and Marathi languages are exactly the same as the Japanese language. The Hindi grammar part is almost the same as Japanese.

• Japanese phonology (the sounds which make up a language) is very simple. There are only five vowel sounds and most of which are common in other languages. And the consonants are also basic. The English phonology, especially the vowels are complex than Japanese. Each Japanese syllable can be pronounced only one way. Except ‘n’ all Japanese sounds end in a vowel, and this makes them easy to string together. There is no variety in pronunciation like there is in English. Japanese words are easy to pronounce, and you will be able to learn them fast.
• Japanese is not a tonal language. You may think that when Japanese is derived from Chinese then it must be a tonal language like Chinese. But let me tell you it’s not true because kanji is just based in part on Chinese writing systems, but the languages themselves are totally unrelated. So there are no tones to worry about in Japanese!
• The grammar of Japanese is comparatively easier than in other languages. Japanese doesn’t have word genders or articles. There is no need of remembering female or male words. You don’t need to change any endings. And along with that, you don’t have to use masculine or feminine articles. And believe me Japanese has no articles!

This is an important question as there are some segments of the Japanese language that require more dedication, practice, and motivation to learn. Let’s check those out:

Japanese uses four different methods of writing. Out of them, two of the Japanese writing systems are syllabaries, which means they are a group of written characters that represent syllables in words, rather than individual letters. The four different methods are:

• Kanji- 漢字 (かんじ)

Kanji characters are based on Chinese characters. This writing system is one of the most difficult parts of Japanese learning. There is over 2,000 different characters to learn and many kanji have several different readings. But with constant practice, you can definitely master Kanji!

• Hiragana – 平仮名 (ひらがな) 

 It is the syllabary that breaks down words into individual symbols that sound out a particular syllable.

• Katakana – 片仮名 / カタカナ (かたかな) 

It is a syllabary that is used to pronounce something from another language as well as for a few other things like sound effects. Katakana is used for borrowed words like turning “hamburger” into ハンバーガー (はんばーがー) — hanbāgā.

• Rōmaji – ローマ字 (ろーま じ) 

It is relatively easy. It is the romanized reading of a Japanese word. Non-Japanese speakers and readers use rōmaji to understand the proper pronunciation of words. 

Japanese writing system can be a little tricky, but if learned with dedication then it will be easy to understand. Start with the syllabaries and then learn Kanji.