You may be aware that the American Foreign Service Institute has ranked the difficulty of a language based on how many hours of classroom instruction are required to achieve a professional working proficiency. I find these comparisons interesting, especially considering that time is measured in hours of classroom instruction. In my opinion, motivation of the learner and the learning that takes place outside of the classroom is more important.

So, how do I assess the difficulty of a language? Well, the number one factor is your own level of motivation. Next, objectively, you need to accept that the more a language differs from your own, the more difficult it’s going to be. You have to get used to new structures. You have to acquire a lot of new vocabulary. This is more challenging when there’s relatively little in common between your native language and your target language.

The Short Answer: Is it hard to learn Japanese?

In short, yes. However, in my opinion, it’s becoming easier to learn. Browsing through my old collection of Japanese learning materials, I have so many different dictionaries. I had to do so much reading. And in those days,  back in the early seventies, there wasn’t quite as much listening material available. It was hard work. Today, with the internet, platforms like LingQ take a lot of the barriers to language learning away with instant translation and libraries of learner-friendly material. In this post, I’ll give an overview of the Japanese language and share some tips for happy learning.

A Work-in-Progress at LingQ: I fully stand by LingQ as my go-to platform to learn a language. However, I will confess that with Japanese and Chinese specifically, tracking word count is a bit more complicated. If a number of symbols come together to form a word, it may be more difficult for LingQ to accurately count your words. Overall, LingQ is still very effective.

The Japanese Writing System

The immediate obstacle with Japanese is the writing system. Well, there are three. This is pretty unique. First of all, there is Kanji (Chinese characters). You’ll also see Hiragana, which is basically a writing system in which Chinese characters represent Japanese sounds. This is also the most widely used phonetic script in Japanese. And then, you also have Katakana, which parallels Hiragana and is used for onomatopoeiae and foreign words. Personally, I found the Katakana very hard because you don’t see much of it. In short, 90% of the words are written in Hiragana and Kanji. You’re not doing very much reading in Katakana.

Everything boils down to reading and listening. The more you read and listen, the more your brain will adjust to the writing system. Eventually, reading will become easier. I began by doing a lot of reading in Hiragana, especially because I already had a good grasp of Kanji due to my knowledge of Chinese. There was a series called The Naganuma Books, and I read them all the time. I didn’t really find the folktales very interesting, but the goal was to just get my brain used to the writing system.

The Structure of Japanese

Japanese is structured differently, but it is also more forgiving. What do I mean by this? Well, honestly, I have no idea or very little idea of the technical terms used to explain Japanese grammar. However, this is a language that I was able to get comfortable with intuitively.

In Japanese, there are a fewer things to trip you up. For example, you’re not messing with declensions, conjugations, or gender. So if you use the wrong gender in French or Spanish, it’s kind of a bit jarring or can cause some misunderstanding. In Japanese, the nouns aren’t gendered. There’s not even a distinction between singular and plural.

A Quick Note on Formality

I also find Japanese verbs simpler, even with a distinction between formal and informal. So you have “iku” and “ikimasu“, but you can interchange them. In general, I don’t worry too much about it. Sure, very formal, polite language can be more difficult. However, expectations regarding formality are different for Japanese language learners, especially below an advanced level.

Don’t Stress Yourself Out over Structure

In Japanese, you simply won’t express ideas with the same patterns and structures that you find in English. It’s a different language that will require some adjustment. I wouldn’t stress over explicitly mastering these differences, as a lot of the language is a little vague.

For example, tense isn’t specified in the verb itself. You’ll need to add yesterday, today or tomorrow to make the tense clear. So, “ashita iku?” is “Are you going tomorrow?” “Ashita” is tomorrow. “Ashita iku?” “Ashita ikimasuka? ” “Ikimasu” “Ikimasuka?” The “ka” is an interrogative at the end. There’s a lot of different pieces in Japanese, but thanks to the flexibility, I found myself comfortable in the language through exposure. Consistent, vast amounts of reading, listening, and interactions with other Japanese speakers helped me develop an intuition with Japanese.

I much prefer intuition versus an explicit understanding of the grammar.

Put in the Time

Overall, success in Japanese requires time. Yes, Japanese requires more time to learn for an English speaker than Spanish. The structure is more different, and the amount of vocabulary in common is significantly less. In fact, some of the English loan words in Japanese aren’t even recognizable to a native English speaker. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible or especially more difficult to learn Japanese. It’s more a matter of time.

I tried and tested a lot of different learning materials: The Insider’s Guide to Sake, pocketbooks on Japanese grammar, and the Living Language course for Japanese. And yet, I found myself more confused than excited, and I didn’t find grammar drills very helpful. Ultimately, I made progress through consistent, quality exposure and interactions with the language.

The routine is simple: immerse yourself in the language through reading and listening. Look up words and explanations as needed. Repeat. Eventually, you’ll get more used to the language, and you’ll feel prepared to tackle more difficult (and more engaging) material. Start with our mini-stories on LingQ, review vocabulary as you see fit, and watch your progress grow.

For more videos on learning Japanese, check out my thoughts on incorporating anime into your learning or my interview with Japanese polyglot KazuLanguages.

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