Is Japanese Language Difficult to Learn?

The answer is "yes" and "no". Yes, because, firstwhich he has picked up informally from Japanese
of all, the Japanese language has a few soundslady's speaking?
with five standard vowels and simple pronunciationWhat is even more troublesome is that the
scheme; syllables are formed by a single vowel orspeaker must choose his words considering the
a consonant-vowel combination. For the grammar,relationship between himself and the person he is
there are few exceptions to its rules, andspeaking to or speaking about. The barriers
restrictions on sentence structure are not severe.between the speaker and the listener/person in
The Japanese language is considered difficult bythe topic are mostly created by familiarity
many due to the mixture of different types ofbetween two people, age and position in society.
characters, namely, kanji characters, hiraganaThe more unfamiliar you are to the listener, and
characters, katakana characters and Romanthe younger you are, and the lower your social
letters; the most difficult one is kanji. There arestatus is, the more your speech becomes formal.
about 3,000 commonly used kanji charactersThe reverse is the informal speech. One example
including the 1,945 "daily use characters", and 46is that there are numerous words meaning "I" and
hiragana and katakana characters each.each speaker refers to himself using the one
One aspect of the language that makes it difficultwhat is most appropriate for his situation. Besides,
for foreigners to grasp quickly is the presence ofthese situational differences can be accentuated
many words which are pronounced the same butby the body language; custom of bowing (45
have different meanings. For example; hana candegree in general), space between two speakers,
be "flower" or "nose", ame for "rain" or "candy".eye contact, etc., which projects the cultural
Knowing kanji helps in this aspect of learning asaspect of the Japanese society.
each of these words can be easily recognized byIn general, the Japanese are notorious for being a
kanji.poor speaker of foreign language. Therefore, they
Cultural Considerationsappreciate the foreigners' learning Japanese. Their
Another feature which makes the learning oftypical response to foreigners' speaking even a
Japanese difficult yet interesting is the fact thatlittle Japanese is "Joozu desu ne!"; "Your Japanese
the way Japanese is spoken differs depending onis good!" Thus, knowing a little Japanese can go a
whether the speaker is a man or a woman, andlong way, not only in communication, but
adult or a child. Can you imagine, for instance, howcaptivating the heart of Japanese.
strange a male foreign speaker, especially a bigGanbatte! (Hang in there!
macho-looking man, sounds, if he speaks Japanese