Is Japanese easy to \nlearn?
397378
From what I've heard...no.  I think they talk somewhat backwards.
79278
I think you should start learning conversational Japanese first. Your local community college or community center might have a conversational class for a decent rate. If you are interested in learning the written language, this will probably take many years. The Japanese language uses katakana, hiragana, and kanji to convey there written language. The 'kana' are relatively easy to learn but you will not be able to function in Japan without "Kanji" or Chinese writting. The Japanese use several thousand kanji on a daily basis. Your community college or university is probably the best way to learn the total language.
700832
They're all pretty difficult.  But there are some things about each language that are just a tad bit easier than others. I've studied all four languages, and here are my impressions of each:\n\n1. Writing System:\nMandarin: Uses hanzi (Chinese characters).  Not really difficult, but if you want to be literate, you have to know at least three thousand of them. So there are a lot to remember.\n\nCantonese: No written standard, but there are Cantonese characters that people use but it's not used in schools. \n\nJapanese: Japanese uses a combination of kanji (Chinese characters) and two sets of syllables that represent 46 sounds each called hiragana and katakana.   Hiragana and katakana are easy to learn.  However, knowing kanji is essential but you have to know fewer than the Chinese have to. Also, unlike Chinese (Most of the time), each kanji can have different pronunciations depending on how it's used.\n\nKorean: Koreans rely less on hanja (Chinese characters), but it's still encountered.  Koreans have their own unique writing system called han'geul. It's very easy to learn and quite logical, as they say. Korean is definitely easy in this respect.\n\n2. Pronunciation:\n\nMandarin: Uses tones.  Each vowel can be pronounced in one of 5 tones. For example there is a high tone or a dipping tone.  Mandarin also makes use of retroflex consonants which involve curling the tongue back. This is not found in English.\n\nCantonese: There are no retroflex consonants in Cantonese, but there are more tones - 9 of them.  \n\nJapanese: Japanese probably has the easiest pronunciation out of the four. However, it does have its difficulties.  There are no tones, but there is pitch accent. \n\nKorean: Easier pronunciations. No tones.  But there are more vowels that English speakers may have difficulty with. So it's a bit harder than Japanese.\n\n3. Grammar:\n\nMandarin & Cantonese: word order is usually SUBJECT VERB OBJECT (like English).  You don't have to worry about conjugations or inflections. In fact, the structure is remotely similar to English.\n\nJapanese & Korean: Conjugation is involved.  Use of pronouns is discouraged.  Honorifics are present. There are also different verbs depending on politeness. Word order is SUBJECT OBJECT VERB. English speakers will have more difficulty in these two languages than they will in the two Chinese languages above.\n\nIn any case, don't let the difficulties scare you.  In the end, they are all equally hard. Choose whatever you think will be of most use to you in whatever you do. Good luck!
880976
Most (all?) Japanese students are required to take English as a second language. While some might not take it seriously, usually the ones traveling to the U.S. have and already have the basics down. Therefore, it shouldn't be *as* hard for them to learn than it would if they never learned a bit of English.\nTo be fluent, however, is another thing. Gaining fluency in a different language and being recognized as being fluent can be a difficult thing to do if it's granted that the test to prove it truly is difficult. Undoubtedly they would be able to speak and understand very well after a certain amount of time living and working in an English-only environment, but that doesn't promise the ability to allow words to flow and be eloquent as well as understandable.
365276
There are two main ways of writing japanese, hiragana and katakana not including the hiroglyphics/picture words. It is a pretty complex language unless you only wish to speak it but I would advise you order a book and CD or take a course somewhere.
473750
http://www.yesjapan.com/ is the best, cheapest place to learn a lot, quickly. It's almost as good as taking a real class.
506059
I teach English as a second language and have given pronunciation a great deal of thought. Here's my two-cents' worth on it:\n\nThe /zh/ sound (the si in decision or ci in physician [interesting...opposites]) is relatively difficult among the 43 or so sounds in the language so your brain anticipates it and gets ready to say it. While getting ready to say it, your brain says it when another similar sound comes along (namely, the ci in decision or si in physician) because your brain is preoccupied with getting ready for it.\n\nSo...\n\nYou have to practice intensively for just a minute. Say the words as slowly as you have to in order to say them correctly, then speed up as much as you can without sacrificing pronunciation. \n"In the real world", slow down a bit when these words come up.\n\nI have trouble with a few words too and tend to screw them up or stumble or get stuck but I can't remember them right now.\n\nGood luck. If you want more help, email me.\n\nBy the way, this isn't a pronunciation problem, really just a synaptic problem I think, and one I suspect we all have at certain times and even in other areas besides speech.\n\nThere are actually words that are impossible for any human to say perfectly. My last name, Gysler, is one of them. Try to say it with the /l/ sound a correct /l/ sound, not just a click of the tongue. The only way is to say Gyseler with a vocalization between the s and the l.\nWhat a crazy language. Some consonant pairs just have no business being side by side like that. In this way, I think Japanese makes the most sense out of any language I'm familiar with. It's usually (always?) consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel, and so on. Very logical and easy to pronounce.\n\nJay
932346
Greek isn't quite so hard as it's made out to be--it has fairly simple grammatical and pronunciation rules that are quite reliable. If the listen to the CD and repeat method doesn't work for you (it doesn't at all for me--I need the grammar first), a company called Living Language puts out some very nice textbook-type books that you could probably slam through in five months. They have more in-depth structure and such--nice if you're going to be there for more than a short trip, especially.
894228
Retaining a learned language is hard when your skills are not put to practice. But you have many solutions available. Go to Japanese chat rooms. Do NOT be embarrassed by grammar mistakes etc. they will be more than happy to correct you as well as help you. People generally enjoy telling people how to say things correctly! \nAlso, watch Japanese television programming on your basic cable. If that is not on your cable package, see if you can upgrade to get that channel. Put the enthusiasm back into the language by making the effort. Also, you can join a club in your area like a culture club as well as attend classes at community college.\nWhen you talk out loud to yourself, and we all do, say it in Japanese.\nI wish you luck on this. Please keep the language, you worked hard to attain it!!
230039
Let's see...\n\nI'd recomend japanese.about.com for japanese if what you wnat are the basics.\n\nI'm a native spanish speaker so I haven't checked it out, but I'm guessing they have a spanish.about.com too.\n\nHope they help.
854855
http://www.freetranslation.com/free/web.htm\n\nNo japanese but if you need it for another language. It doesnt work to good to often cause its free but its better than nothing.
479784
My personal experience:\nI went to Japan knowing the bare basics - greetings, and things related to my current state of being, such as "I`m hungry" "I`m thirsty" etc. I was in an environment where I had the option of speaking Japanese or not speaking at all. There was no English to fall back on.\n\nWithin a month, I could stumble through conversation (With hand movements and drawings) enough to make friends. Two months, and I could sort of manage to understand most of what was going on around me without too much difficulty. Three months and I was able to call and talk to my friends over the phone (basic conversation without any expression/drawing help.)\nEverything from then on was just slowly improving and polishing what I knew. I would say true fluency in *speaking* took around 8 months? Although by around 5 months or so, I could make myself look fluent. (You know, when you understand enough of the conversation to understand what they mean without *really* understanding the words?) After close to a year, I was able to fool anyone I spoke to into thinking that I had been born in Japan. (ie, no accent, no mistakes, etc.)\nWritten language took a bit longer. I could read quite well after about a year, and I considered myself fluent after around a year and a half. It`s hard to learn a written language if you don`t know what the words you are reading mean, so I didn`t read much until after I was pretty much speaking fluently. \n\nMind you though, I was in Japan, in a situation without the option of English interaction available to me. I was also 17 when I came to Japan - as you age it takes longer to pick up new languages. If you go to Japan to teach English or with a school program, your actual exposure to Japanese will be drastically less. And if you have the option to fall back on a language that is easier for you, 9 times out of 10, you probably will. Make sure you NEED to speak the language to survive. It`s the best way.
955704
Since you already speak and write English, I strongly recomend Japanese. Japan is at the fore-front of software, electronic, etc. break throughs. If you can speak and write Japanese, you will be golden and many new opportunities will open up for you. If you moved to Japan, of course, they make accomodations for people who speak English, but if you spoke Japanese it would make things a lot easier and you would be a lot more desirable in their job market. Especially since you already speak English.
46724
From what I have heard English is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, right after Japanese I believe. Its not because of strict rules and guidelines, but rather the lack of. We speak so loosely and our words have so many different meanings it makes it tougher for others to learn. I suggest possibley taking some classes, but I would say the best way is just to experience it. Got out and have conversations with others, your fluency will improve with time. If you are afriad or unsure about getting into a conversation you dont understand then just listen in and pick up as much as you can. It may also help to hire a tutor, or if you have a close friend who speaks english fluently you can always talk with them to help you sort out any specific issues you may have.\n\nHope that helps ^_^
813485
It isn't too hard to learn. Spanish is the easiest. But german is actully easier than english. If you have a good CD that teaches German. I really liked A+ german. You can learn lots of words. It is best to have a teacher or someone who speaks it to help you get the hang of pronounciation. If you have opportunity to speak it with someone you are more likely to learn it and retain it. A language that you do not get to use is of no benefit. I learned it and didn't have anyone to speak it with , so I've forgotten a lot of it. My daughter learned spanish and has someone to speak it with so she has become fluent with it.
998927
If you want a program to read text and speak Japanese then try this.\n\nhttp://www.kanji.de/VoiceOfJapan.htm\n\nOr if you have a worpress blog then you can post the text to it and add a plugin to translate a page to various languages including Japanese as on the page below.\n\nhttp://www.coolwebpagetools.com/blog/index.php\nJust click on the Japanese flag to translate.\n\nRegards\n\nRob
1167118
My son  plays on line games with people all over the world. He has asked that question of some Japanese people and they said yes that their keyboards have the characters of their language. Evidently, there is some type of an interpreter component that changes it to English when playing international games with English speaking people.