Introduction:

Learning Japanese may seem intimidating at first…

Words seem strange and reading an alphabet you’ve never even heard of can feel like an impossible task.

However, I can tell you from experience that learning Japanese is highly rewarding if you persevere.

Believe it or not, Japanese is one of the most popular languages to learn among Westerners— many people have some exposure to Japan’s culture, and develop an interest in learning how to speak Japanese as a result.

And rightfully so: Japanese is a wonderful language that provides access to one of the safest places in the world to live, numerous career opportunities, and a wealth of culture and entertainment.

The language can be learned for different purposes for example; traveling proposes you can do a short crash course, with the main aim of learning short conversion, directions, asking a price, and simple greetings. You will have a fair idea about it. The courses like this can be easily learned from youtube tutorials or apps. Academic learning: in academic learning, you need to learn the language from the very beginning of the language i.e the alphabet and grammar. 

In this process, you need to familiarize yourself with it. The process will be intensive and time-consuming. Most of the institute offers three levels of language learning program i.e Beginner, Intermediate and Advance. You have the option to learn it by either choosing full-time or part-time. Here almost all the requirements in excelling in the language of speaking, reading, writing will be taught here. And the last one is learning for “Business”. Here you need to make sure what you have is accurate and resourceful. All the required terms and conversations related to business can also be learned. Few online platforms and institutes provide online Japanese courses. 

Learning the business Japanese language can be sub-categorized as Finance, Marketing, and Human resources. Whether you have prior knowledge in learning business Japanese or not you can always take a clue from here.

• Learning from books.

Many business Japanese learning books are available in the market. You can either search on amazon or buy from the book store. Most books are available in translation with the original Japanese hand in hand for better understanding. For better understanding, you need prior knowledge about the language. You can easily learn business vocabularies and useful phrases for conducting a business.

• Business Japanese online course.

If you cannot achieve your goal of excelling in business Japanese you can take professional help. You can take professional help anytime you need it by joining online courses. Most of the platforms offer simple courses for free but if you need comprehensive learning in detail premium courses are available by paying fees. You can take online courses from these platforms: Multibhashi, edX, Memrise, Udemy, etc.

• Watching and listening 

Third but not least you can always watch and learn. If you have ample knowledge about the Japanese language you can learn by watching the videos that teach business Japanese vocabs. One of the most effective ways of learning is listening, you can listen to podcasts, radio and sports commentaries etc. You will gain a fair amount of knowledge from here.

• Talk with Native Japanese speaker/ friend 

Make Japanese friends and practice with them! Many universities have Japanese clubs/conversation partner exchanges. You could trade Taiwanese practice for Japanese practice

• Speech practice. 

Talk in Japanese when you can, if you know others who are learning/are fluent, have a conversation with them so they can help you and correct your grammar, etc. listen to how native speakers talk and try to imitate them as well; get used to their tone.

• Learn about the culture.

You don’t have to delve deep into the whole history of japan, but knowing some of the basics of the country will improve your understanding of Japanese. (such as the traditional houses, famous festivals/holidays, etc.)

And if you are a beginner and want to learn Japanese for business purposes you should learn it more seriously as the whole of your impression of the Japanese people will depend upon your speech. So, don’t take it lightly and learn business Japanese from authentic Japanese learning resources.