Following up on that last introductory post, here's my original list – drawn from a quarter-century of study! – of what's hard about learning Japanese.
The three hard things
Here's a little good news to go with the bad: My list only goes as far as three items. That can't be so bad, right? Well, decide for yourself:
1. Unfamiliarity
Let me assume for the moment that you, dear Reader, hail from a background speaking English or another European language.
Japanese isn't related to English (well, not until we go back to some proto-Ur-language), or the family of Indo-European languages. So if you're coming from one of those, you don't get the little "freebies" – familiar structures here and there – that you get when tackling a language from somewhere within your tongue's family tree.
So the initial hurdle is big: Many points of structure will seem new to you, maybe even "bizarre", right from Lesson 1. Obviously, that's not something remotely unique to Japanese; you'll find a similar gap any time you go to learn a language unrelated to your own, with large differences in structure. This factor says nothing about the language being difficult in absolute terms; it only makes it difficult relative to tongues with more similarity to what you already know. (Naturally, it works in reverse, too: Japanese school kids all suffer through the initial hurdles of acquiring English, a language unrelated to their own.)
If you know Korean, on the other hand, you're in luck: You get to cross this difficulty off the list. You'll find the structure of Korean nicely similar to its Japanese relative. (That alone hardly guarantees fast fluency, though I have met Koreans who picked up excellent Japanese with a speed I could only envy.)
2. Formal speech
This is more properly referred to as "honorifics", and technically breaks down into respectful language, humble language, and polite language. I'll call it all "formal speech" for now.
Wherever you hail from, your native tongue probably has little interlocutions to pretty-up an expression, to display respect, and so on. So there's nothing new here in concept. But there's no getting around it: In Japanese, formal speech gets complex – possibly more so than in any other major language. (I believe Korean gets pretty complex as well; I'm not qualified to say whether it gets as complex.) There's a lot to learn – and regardless of what a slim phrase book or some expat English teacher may tell you, if you really want to learn the language, you do need to dive into formal speech.
3. Reading and writing
This one you've probably expected. I'd call it the biggest difficulty, and it's an absolute, not a relative, one. That is, it doesn't matter what your native language is; if you want to learn to read and write Japanese, you have a lot of study ahead of you. (There's no magic in how the Japanese do it, either; school kids learn it through a lot of study.)
If you know Chinese characters, you get a big head start over someone who wouldn't know a 大 from a 太. But that will really only take you so far; fluency in written Chinese will let you pick out lots of key words and names from Japanese text, yet not necessarily yield much context or understanding. You've still got a long path ahead. (Incidentally: Yes, that works in reverse too. Fluency in written Japanese will let you pick out plenty of useful bits from Chinese text, though not let you actually read typical material.)
This isn't to downplay the difficulty of learning to read and write other languages. In fact, comparisons of written Japanese and (for example) English tend to vastly underrate the difficulty of the latter, a topic on which I'll have much to say later. But at the same time, I have no reservation in saying that achieving a given level of literacy in Japanese takes more time, in absolute terms, than reaching that same level in English, due to the demands of Chinese characters.
That's it!
In summary, there are only three big hurdles for the learner of Japanese:
1. Unfamiliarity as it's not related to your native language (unless that's Korean)
2. Formal speech
3. Reading and writing (thanks to Chinese characters – though obviously, literacy in Chinese gives you a leg up)
Not so bad, really. And here's the good news: there's plenty more that's easy about learning Japanese!
Comments
Korean and Japanese relatives?
Submitted by angus77 (not verified) on
The relation between Japanese and Korean has never been proven and is heavily disputed (as well as being politically charged).One strong theory is that the similarities between the languages are due to sprachbund effect. There was a lot of communication between Japan and Korea in Japan's early history---in fact, Kanji was originally brought to Japan by the Koreans. Korean has never been proven to be related to any other language, and Japanese has only been proven to be related to Ryukyuan. Even if the two languages do turn out to be related, they've been separated by many thousands of years.
Japanese and Korean relatives!
Submitted by Traveler on
I'm familiar with the argument you make, and was always curious: if Japanese and Korean aren't necessarily related, why do some people claim they are? The frustrating thing was that I could never get a clear answer. I'd ask seemingly knowledgeable people about the possible relationship, and would always hear both "Oh, sure, they're related; it's obvious" and "Oh, no, there's no relation!" Huh? Which is it?
So I did the only thing I could: I began classroom study of Korean, to find out for myself.
The result? After learning Japanese and studying Korean, my impression could be summed up with this: "Good lord, these are practically the same language. With different words."
Seriously: At the basic level, they're essentially the same language, right down to the same word order and the same particles (Korean equivalents of wa and ga and o and all the rest) and pretty darn similar verb forms. They aren't "kind of" similar; they are massively, overwhelmingly similar in structure/grammar (which for both is quite unrelated to Chinese; Chinese influence is not a possible explanation).
But some caveats: My Korean courses of a few months hardly took me to an advanced level. I can only claim that they're practically the same language at a basic level; how far they diverge at a complex, advanced level, I can't say. And clearly, my use of terms like "practically the same language" and "massively similar" is anything but precise and scientific. Until I can point to measurement criteria + data for making the related/unrelated claim, I'm just stating opinion.
Still, I remain quite amused by those speakers of the two languages who insist there's no relationship. (Who – if I let myself get all ad hominem about this – are largely older, politicized "patriots" with lots of personal emotional investment in the "my nation is oh-so-unique" meme and in ancient "the other guys are lame" rivalries.) Using the sprachbund defense, the Japanese side is essentially claiming that Koreans – the people just across that small pond, with whom Japan is most intricately tied, both ethnically and culturally – just happen to have a language that's nearly a structural/grammatical clone of Japanese (in ways that have nothing to do with their shared exposure to Chinese).
Or in other words: "My language is special! No one else can have one like it! Especially not those bums!" (I don't claim to be so familiar with the reverse claim made by similar parties in Korean, though I'm told it's similar.)
Well. It's much too big a topic for this comment, and please note that I claim no magical knowledge that tells me Korean and Japanese absolutely are close linguistic relatives. Maybe the amazing similarity is some cosmic coincidence.
I only say that a study of both languages makes the claims of non-relation sound awfully suspect. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you study both Korean and Japanese, and see for yourself!
Counters are killer.
Submitted by Friendly Visitor (not verified) on
Counters are killer.
Counter words in Japanese
Submitted by Traveler on
Counters? I assume you refer to "counter words" for indicating number of objects (and not the formica type of counter). And by "killer", I assume you mean "tough to learn", not "awesome cool".
You're right, they are a rich topic with lots to memorize, and perhaps deserve special mention – though it also has to be noted that a speaker of English (and many other languages) will be familiar with the concept, if not the breadth of these counter words. Hmm, I think I'll toss up a quick post on counter words soon. Thanks for the idea!
Formal speech
Submitted by Mart (not verified) on
It really isn't that much different from some other languages. Both German and French have subtle levels of formality that can give away a non-native speaker immediately.
Theoretically, just using the second person plural as a formal second person singular would be enough, but that doesn't work; both cultures have heaps of idiom that go with the grammatical distinctions to express multiple levels of formality.
Granted, Japanese is a level beyond that, and the shifting relative level of status can be hard to keep track of, but it's a difference in gradation, not principle.
Indeed, the concept of formal
Submitted by Traveler on
Indeed, the concept of formal speech (and its many sub-areas) is nothing unique to Japanese; I'd argue with anyone who said otherwise. There are subtleties in languages of the sort you point out. To add another example, I have a clipping somewhere (which I can relate when I dig it up) from a linguistics expert who notes that English may appear to lack the overt trappings of formal speech found in Japanese, but it does express formality through subtle changes in pronunciation, to a degree that few people realize.
But it's still true that formal speech in these languages doesn't involve much in the way of wildly different vocabulary, as characterizes formal speech in Japanese (and I believe Korean, and possibly others). That creates one big difference in difficulty: In a formal situation, the non-native speaker of a European language may give himself away as a non-native by not employing the subtleties you note, and may miss subtleties (including, say, sarcastic misuse of formal speech) – but either way, basic comprehension of content itself should remain pretty intact. Whereas someone who's learned basic conversational Japanese, faced suddenly with full-blown formal speech, will find that half the words are completely new and incomprehensible.
It's not a bizarre, unthinkable complication, as languages go – it's just complex enough to make for a notable hurdle for learners.
True, Japanese formal speech
Submitted by Mart (not verified) on
True, Japanese formal speech uses a lot of grammar and vocabulary that is decidedly off-putting once you start to try and learn it (I've taken only my first baby steps in Japanese).
Still, why I made the point that this is a difference in gradation rather than kind is the fact that yes, this does happen in European languages as well; the use of the 'subjonctif' in French is almost always associated with polite speech, and in German the equivalent you hardly ever hear in daily speech unless you are in a formal situation, and then it can appear as shockingly as full-on keigo in Japanese.
Still, you have a point that at least these verb tenses are recognisable from the more common forms, whereas keigo employs a much wider vocabulary.
I think that everyone who learns basic conversational Japanese should recognise that they're still missing a large part of the language.
On the gripping hand, just how tolerant are Japanese regarding faux-pas from foreigners?
Formal speech
Submitted by Traveler on
Hey, I forgot to reply to this! My apologies!
Interesting comment; thanks. I would certainly be unsurprised to discover that there's a lot more going on in the polite speech of European (and many other) languages than I'm aware of. Your examples are interesting; I'd like to look into those more. Until I can do so, I'll take your word for it that the complexities go beyond the famous "tu/vous" distinction.
I'm vaguely aware of some similar fun in Polish, such as everyday forms of polite third-party address: a "Would Sir care for breakfast?" sort of thing. That certainly still exists in modern English too, though I think I'd be hard pressed to hear an example of English usage on a given day. (Incidentally, third-party address is very alive and well in Japanese, too...)
Anyway, you are correct that Japanese learners will miss much if they avoid formal speech. They should stick with the basics first, of course, but really taking part in the surrounding discourse requires branching out into keigo and other forms of polite speech.
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