Is Japanese a hard language to learn?

Question

I'm American, and am Hoping to learn Japanese. Is this a hard Language to learn, or fairly easy? I will try to learn it no matter if it is hard, or easy. I just wanted some opinions.

Thanks

Howls,

Timber Wolf

I know a little Japanese already, and have been teaching myself.

Answer 1

As a person who (like me, also a citizen of the U.S.) speaks a Western European language (England is on the west side of Europe), any Oriental language will not be as easy as another European language to learn. Just think of it this way, every Japanese child has done this, on the average, they are no smarter than you, so you can do it too.

The other piece of advice I can give you is this, I've learned 4 languages in my life (English, Esperanto, Spanish & German) and I've studied two others (Polish and Mandarin Chinese). You will not learn any language without making MANY mistakes. So don't be afraid of making mistakes, look at each one as an opportunity to learn more.

Answer 2

Yes! Japanese is one of the hardest language in Asia. Ex:
Greeting in Japanese male and female have their own set of greeting. In order to learn greeting of your sex, you also got to learn opposite sex's greeting

Ex2:
Japanese made up with Chinese characters (called kanji), and two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana(separate from part of chinese cursive and regular chinese charaters). Which make many word(could be 10 words) pronounce the same way include Kanji.

Ex3:
Japanese is made up with some alpahbet hiragana and katakana. It got at least 3 strokes. And the sentense are very long. So it use much more time to write and read.

There is a research done by Japan show that many many Japanese have problem using their language. You can go online and search around.

Korean's alphabet is more systematize. You can learn how to pronounce some word in 10 min~1hr.

Many people (no matter where they from) learn Japanese very hard. But still can't use the language properly.

Answer 3

It depends, some people are more apt at learning foreign languages. As a Korean, Japanese was really easy for me to learn. Assuming that English is your first language, you might find the word order and you might find some of the particles confusing, but all in all the Kanji, and other characters are pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

Answer 4

Writing Japanese using kanji is very hard. Reading it written in kanji is hard. Speaking is not so hard. Listening is fairly easy. Grammar is hard.

I can say Japanese is a totally different language from English.

Japanese is one of the languages that have fewest sounds in the world. So listening is fairly easy.

Japanese uses four characters; kanji, hiragana, katakana and romaji. Romaji, which consists of the alphabet, is used only for foreigners. Japanese don't use romaji. Almost all the books are written in kanji, hiragana and katakana.

Answer 5

Easy. One of the easiest next to Spanish. Unless you are learning the characters. That's a bit harder, but not by much. Try learning a simpler one like Katakana or Hiragana. Good luck, and remember that learning any foreign language needs persistance and commitment.

Answer 6

I'm japanese learning English, From my perspective. Speaking Japanese is not so difficult, on the other hand I saw many people struggling to make a sentence. And the way boys and girls speak is different, so please pick up a right word when you study!! haha

Good luck

Answer 7

For an American, an Eastern language is typically harder to learn than a romance language (french, spanish etc)..

Mostly because 1. the Japanese do not use the same alphabet as we do so there's a whole new way of learning to read 2. the sentence structure is completely opposite of ours.

They say the verb last. So if you were saying
"I am cold". In japanese you'd say "I (wa) cold am". (It's kind of like speaking like Yoda)

They also have words that have no literal meaning, but denote respect or placement in a sentence. Like 'O' or 'Wo' or 'Wa'.
Like my example above, 'wa' is placed behind 'I' to show that I is the subject of the sentence.

I find Japanese to be much easier to read than speak or listen to. But my husband finds it easier to speak/listen than read. It just depends on your skills.

But it is possible. Just immerse yourself in the language. Listen to japanese music, watch anime in Japanese and find some japanese friends to help you and it will be much much easier.

Answer 8

Any language you want to learn will take hard work and consistency. Keep with it, and it will pay off. I'm a translator for Japanese-English, and it takes daily work to maintain the language skills.

Answer 9

The Japanese seem to think it is fairly easy.

Answer 10

i think is hard but if you really want to learn Japanese,then just go on.