JAPANESE LANGUAGE

Are you interested in the Japan or the Japanese Language? That’s great! This site is about learning Japanese, not about Japanese history or culture. If you would like to learn more about those topics try Wikipedia…

On to the topic at hand… here is some background info…

Back in the days of Frances Xavier and Portuguese missionaries. Japanese was became known as the ‘Devil’s Tongue’ devised to keep Christianity out of Japan. As such, a simplified Chinese word came to be used in the Western world for the “Japanese” language. Which was otherwise known a Nihon-go (日本語) in Japan, which was otherwise known as the Nihon/Nippon (日本) by Japanese people, who are otherwise known as Nihon-jin (日本人) according to THEMSELVES.

Japan-go which is spoken naively by 130,000,000 Japan-jin is considered one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. At this point I’d like to quote Voltaire and ask, “compared to what?” I believe Japanese is EASY. However, it takes a great effort and a long time to learn for English speakers.

So, lets take a look at the Japanese language…

• Written with a combination of 3 scripts
• Heavy usage of loan words
• Different styles for men/women
• Different styles for honorific/humble/casual situations
• Has several dialects
• Relies on intuition and gut feeling

Japanese is written in a combination of Chinese characters called Kanji (漢字), Hiragana (平仮名), and Katakana (片仮名). It is also supplemented by the Latin alphabet, called Romaji (ローマ字), and Arabic numbers. Modern Japanese uses Hiragana primarily for non-Kanji written Japanese, and Katakana for loan words. Hiragana and Katakana look very different, but they mirror each other in sound. Each syllabary has 46 base letters: 5 singular vowels, 39 consonant-vowel combinations, 1 singular consonant, and 1 special vowel.

In order to read a Japanese newspaper you would need to know between 2000-2500* distinct Kanji. By going through the Japanese educational system natives learn:

• Old Jouyou: 1945
  • Grade 1: 80
  • Grade 2: 160
  • Grade 3: 200
  • Grade 4: 200
  • Grade 5: 185
  • Grade 6: 181
  • JuniorHS: 939
• New Jouyou: 191
• Jinmeiyou (reg): 645**
• Jinmeiyou (var): 145**

Japanese relies heavily on ‘loan words’. They are words that have been assimilated into the Japanese language are usually written with katakana. Most of the loan words are Chinese, many are English, and some are German/French/Dutch. However, don’t confuse an English loan word for English. So do not mix up a “cheese-burger” for a “chiizubaagaa”, and a “credit card” for a “kurejitto kaado”.

Further, Japanese has distinct patterns for masculine and feminine speech. More importantly, it has an extensive grammar structure built around level of politeness. (ie. Casual > Neutral > Self-Humbling > Honorific) There is also the presence of several dialects (~ben). School/News/Mass Media uses Tokyo-ben, therefore you shouldn’t worry about being understood by natives (given you speak intelligibly). Kansai~ben is the other major dialect, and is spoken in the Osaka/Kyoto area.

Finally, we come the psychic-phemonenon known collectively as the intuitive-gut-thinking of the Japanese archipelago. This phenomenon is not something a foreigner can grasp right away, and takes some time to merely understand. Basically, Japanese sentences are not sentences, they are fragments that omit the subject, the object, and sometimes particles, nouns, and all syllables. The remaining speech is reduced to “un” and “uun” for “yes” and “no” respectively. Then, the speaker and listener do a Vulcan/Professor X mind meld and speech is facilitated.

see Wikipedia for more information on:
Japanese Language
Japanese Dialects
Japanese Honorifics
Japanese Writing System

Further Reading:
Guide to Learning Japanese
Hiragana & Katakana
Remembering the Kanji Method
How Long will it Take to Learn Japanese?

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