I Hope You Like History

Some people don't like to study history. Personally, I find it fascinating, engaging, empowering, and absolutely necessary. You can learn a lot about a country just studying it's history. A little historical knowledge can give you a huge leg up when it comes to understanding the culture and interacting with people. 

When it comes to Japan and learning Japanese, you will need all the help you can get. Seriously. Take some time to learn a little bit about Japanese history. Memorize the names of notable people. Learn why they are significant. In doing so, you will be studying the same things the Japanese study. You will begin to understand why they are the way you are. You will also be able to impress them with how much you know. Anyone is flattered when they can see you have put time and effort into understanding their way of life. You may even find some things that you yourself find beautiful and interesting. Japanese history, like any history, is full of events to be ashamed of. But, it is also full of worthwhile stories, ways of thinking, and insights. You may even learn something that will change your life.

The Three Tenants of Keigo: Sonkeigo, Kenjougo, and Teineigo

Like a lot of things in the Japanese language, this is a topic that really cannot be explained in one post. Perhaps I will come back to it in the future because it is SO IMPORTANT. For now, I just want to introduce the idea so that you can be aware, especially because no one bothered to tell me about this when I started learning the language even though it is far too important to neglect.

Social standing is of supreme importance in Japan. Social standing in this case however is not just how much money you make or what kind of car you drive. Rather, it has everything to do with your age, job position, and title. Depending on your relationship to someone else, you will use different words and expression, while failing to do so is considered extremely rude. The language used in respect these relationships is called “Keigo.” It is one of the defining characteristics of Japanese, and to master it means you have obtained fluency.

In the way of making you aware and familiar of what Keigo entails, I will go over the three categories of Keigo.

1. Sonkeigo – honorific language. This is the umbrella term for language used to show honor and respect to someone who would be considered above you. This can be a wide range of people, including upperclassman, teachers, professionals, adults, etc.
2. Kenjougo – humble language. Kenjougo is used in the same situations as Sonkeigo, only instead of showing respect by talking the listener up, you are showing respect by talking yourself down. It no way is it derogatory to yourself; it is simple showing respect to the relationship you have to your listener.
3. Teineigo – polite language. This language does not necessarily related to your social standing, but rather refers to language that shows general politeness.

Great, now you know what the three categories are called, but of course that does not mean you can effectively use them. In time I will give dedicated explanations to each category. For now, knowing that they exist is good enough.

Japanese People Love You

My last post was perhaps a little rough around the edges. I just really did not want to sugarcoat the challenge of learning Japanese. Hopefully today is a bit of a pick-me-up for you.

One aspect of language learning that can be quite intimidating is a native speaker’s attitude towards those trying to learn their language. Forgive me for relying on generalizations, but on one end of the spectrum you have the French, whose love of language results in a fair amount of snootiness towards those who do not speak their language properly. Luckily for you, the Japanese are on the other end of the spectrum. While they too love their language, they realize how hard their language is to learn for a foreigner and are enamored by any attempts from foreigners to even form a cohesive sentence.

In general, Japanese people are patient enough to listen to you and figure out what it is you are trying to say, all the while trying to be as helpful and encouraging as possible. They are quick to tell you how good you are at the language and offer compliments. Whether or not their assessment is accurate is beside the point. It feels much better to have someone cheering you on in such an overwhelming endeavor than it is to have them beating you down.

So take heart, there are at least 120 million people out there who are cheering you on.

Understanding What You're Up Against

It is only fair to inform you what you have gotten yourself into attempting to learn Japanese as a native English speaker. In no way will it be easy, and in every way it will melt your mind. I've compiled a list of  three reasons why Japanese is, speaking bluntly, so freakin' difficult. 

1) English and Japanese are not related. They aren't even distant cousins. Lacking common language roots, you will not find comfortingly similar words, sentence structure, grammar, sounds, or anything between the two languages. Learning Japanese is not like learning Spanish or any other Latin-based language. There is absolutely no framework in your brain to build upon. In learning Japanese, you are starting from scratch. Just think of how different western culture is from Japanese culture. The major difference is definitely reflected in their languages as well. Get ready for many hours of skull splitting headaches as you try to wrap your mind around this Japanese.

2) The alphabet. The English alphabet is cute, isn't it? Twenty-six beautiful simple letters all wonderfully packaged into a cake-and-ice-cream song that all the frolicking happy children can master before they even start school. To juxtapose the ease of our alphabet with the mind-numbing scope of the Japanese alphabet (and it isn't even really an alphabet) is comical. The Japanese "alphabet" consists of 46 characters, called Hiragana. To call them letters is inaccurate, since each character represents it's own unique sound. It does not stop there though. There is another set of 46 characters, called Katakana, used for foreign words assimilated in the Japanese language (we will cover these later). Learn all 92 of these characters however, and all you have is the reading comprehension of a 1st grader, because to actually read Japanese, you need to master Kanji. Oh yes, Kanji: the monster that will haunt your every step as you tackle Japanese. Kanji, specifically Japanese Kanji, is the collection of characters that the Japanese borrowed from China a very long time ago, simplified (slightly), and twisted for their own devices. In order be able to read and understand just the newspapers Japan, you will need to have mastery of 2,136 unique characters. Not only that, each character has a different reading depending on the Kanji and Hiragana it is paired with. Learning Kanji is so difficult and involved that in order to attain this basic level of fluency, Japanese children study it from Kindergarten all the way through high school. What is truly dumbfounding is that Japan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world at about 99%.

3) The difference between written and spoken Japanese. All languages in one form or another has differences in their speaking and writing. The Japanese language laughs at these differences. The difference in kanji, words, and grammar used in writing is mind-boggling. It is truly frustrating too in that if you on study Japanese through reading (a good method for language learning in most cases), your language proficiency will be as lop-sided as a 3-wheeled-car. Spoken and written Japanese, while sharing basic similarities, operate so differently that they could almost be considered two unique languages.

I’ll admit, there are still more reasons why Japanese is such a major undertaking for a foreigner (or even a Japanese person), but this list will do for now.

One cannot possibly hope for victory if they do not know their enemy. Hopefully you now have a more comprehensive idea as to what exactly you are trying to accomplish in learning Japanese.