subject: Learn Japanese Now - These Secrets Will Help [print this page] Learn Japanese Now - These Secrets Will Help
Don't be intimidated, it's very possible for you to learn Japanese now. Focus, commitment, and enthusiasm are three forces you can muster to help you succeed. While these traits are valuable, it's necessary to know some basics. The Japanese language uses three writing systems, or "alphabets":
* Kanji * Hiragana * Katakana
Kanji is a pictograph alphabet using characters taken from Chinese.
Hiragana and Katakana are syllabic scripts, more like the Roman and Cyrillic alphabets, and they are based on Chinese characters. Kanji and Hiragana, in combination, are the most used writing systems in modern Japanese. Because of today's broad culture, Katakana is necessary to form the sounds of borrowed words, and to refer to other sounds, like the ticking of a clock.
Asians accuse Westerners of doing things backwards, our script is horizontal, theirs is vertical, running from top to bottom. Westerners read left to right, Japanese read right to left. This method is standard in almost every sort of publication, but the Japanese have adopted the Western style for scientific journals as well as computer displays.
Folks from Western egalitarian cultures may find it odd that the Japanese language takes on different subtleties when it comes to the class of the person speaking or spoken to, and there are levels of politeness as well. Going even further, the language used within Japanese can indicate the gender of the speaker as well as the gender of the listener, this is done through the use of vocabulary, grammar, and even the pitch or tone of voice.
As always, commercial language institutes promote the facility of their language lessons as being the best and quickest way to learn. When you start to consider a school or method of learning, keep a few things in mind to help you choose wisely: Budget. Level of interest. Amount of time you want to spend. The curriculum or method of teaching must be compatible with your needs to learn Japanese now. What do you want or need to do? Do you want good reading and writing skills? Will you need it facilitate your ease of travel and communication with native speakers? Reading and writing is one thing, mastering conversational language is quite another.
To learn Japanese now, the reading and writing is the hard part, whether or not you're going to pursue that, it's best to get a handle on the speaking part. Pronunciation and choice of wording is paramount when learning a new language, get audio files that employ native speakers to help you with this task. (If you're planning to learn reading and writing, even lesson books that focus on those skills also include audio CD-ROMs.) Japanese employs many subtleties of tone, it's important to listen carefully and imitate them.
Consider the amount of grammar and vocabulary you need to study and ingest. Practice words and phrases that you will use most often so they are easy to recall, you can flesh out your vocabulary as you proceed from there. As far as grammar goes, learn some basic functions and sentence forms so you can easily construct necessary sentences for your conversation.
Patience and perseverance, remember those two words as you focus on learning the language. Textbooks, teachers, and drill exercises are important, but what you bring to the process is most important. Personal study is very convenient, your classroom can be anywhere, open at any hour, and conducted with a curriculum set to your own pace.
Are you ready to get serious about learning Japanese? If so, check out these free lessons on how toJapanese fast trackandlearn Nihongo now.
