How hard is it to speak Japanese?

Question

I was just wondering how hard is it to learn and speak Japanese.

Answer 1

Nihongo wa totemo muzakashi desu!
Japanese is very difficult!

日本語わとてもむずかしです！ Same as above, but as you can see reading is even more difficult! (I think that's how you write it anyway!)

Answer 2

It depends on several factors.

1. Your age. The younger you start the easier any language is.
2. Your first language. The closer your first language is to your target language the easier the second language is.
For a Westerner there is virtually no correspondence between the languages and so is more difficult, unless you happen to be Finnish or Turkish.
3. Whether or not you are already bi-lingual. People who grow up bi-lingual have less trouble learning third, fourth, etc., languages.
4. What level of ability you want to achieve. Hearing is the foundation of learning any language and that also takes the most time. For instance, a tourist can learn to ask questions in a language, but then not understand the answers.
5. How good is your language learning ability to start with. Some people are very good at it--their minds just seem to flow that way easily--other people have a very difficult time with it.
6. Are you a talker by nature, or are you pretty quiet. Talkers have the easier time learning. I defy a true talker to be quiet in any language, whether they know it or not (ha ha, but partly ture). A quiet person has a harder time.
7. How motivated are you to learn and what kinds of opportunities do you have to be around Japanese language on a regular basis? That makes a difference, too. With language, it's use it or lose it.

Answer 3

For someone that speaks english, it is more difficult. We have different ways of pronouncing and articulating things. Asian languages are often very difficult for people with a germanic language to speak(english is derived from germanic). For example, many people from europe speak languages from other surrounding countries. This is because they are all derived from romantic languages. Notice how similar spanish and french can be. Other asian countries would find it easier to learn japanese. But I guess it really depends on how old you are, and how much dedication you have to learning the language. It's easier to learn a language when you are younger. By the time you hit age 12 or so, you native language is pretty much set and any other language you speak will have an accent a become increasingly more difficult to learn. Hope this helps!

Answer 4

If you have background in foreign languages it will be easier. If you have background in any asian languages it will be even easier. It will likely take some work learning it if all that you know at the moment is english, but it really comes differently to everybody. I've known people who learned Japanese and they didn't complain about it. I personally think that the oddest part about the language is their complex system of addressing others (not just informal and formal) which I feel (aside from the system of characters) makes it feel most foreign.

Answer 5

I think it is a very easy language to learn just take sometimes like a couple of years, but to talk I think it is kinda hard cuz you know Japanese people talk fast and they always cut out many part of the language that we all use in english, many times they only use verb to tell who is doing what. I think that's the tough part

Answer 6

quite hard 2 learn 2 speak, specially coz cant read it in english
but apparently easier than Chinese (Cantonese n Mandarin)

Answer 7

not hard for Japanese

Answer 8

im still stuck at basic japanese language course for 2 yrs.. tats how hard..

Answer 9

I heard it was the easiest language to learn.

Answer 10

Dint know. Ask somebody in Tokyo.