Learning Japanese

The Japanese language is a language spoken by over 130 million people throughout the world in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities around the world.  It is a language which is distinguished by an intricate system reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and exacting vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, listener as well as the person talked about in dialogue.

The sound range of the Japanese language is moderately small and has a distinct pitch-accent system. The earliest attestation of the Japanese language is in a Chinese document dated from 252 A.D.

The Japanese language is written with a mixture of three diverse types of scripts: modified Chinese characters called kanji and two syllabic scripts called hiragana and katakana. The Latin alphabet, rōmaji, is also frequently used in the modern Japanese spoken language.  It is particularly used for company names and logos, advertising, and when keying Japanese words and information into a computer. Arabic numerals (used in Western countries) are used in Japan, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerical characters are also used frequently.

Japanese Vocabulary
Japanese vocabulary has been greatly influenced by other languages such as Chinese, or has been formed from Chinese models, over a period of at least 1,500 years. Since the late 19th century, the Japanese language has been intertwined with a considerable number of vocabulary words from Indo-European languages, chiefly the English language.

Learning Japanese
Learning Japanese can be a wonderful educational experience.  Learning Japanese can be accomplished in many ways.  One way to learn Japanese is to attend a classroom course.  Students also have the option of learning Japanese by listening to video or audio tapes.  Today, people have the additional option for learning Japanese by the use of Online Japanese Learning Programs.

Learning Japanese is an exceptional choice for a second language.  Learning a second language opens up new doors of opportunity for Japanese learning students.  It also allows people to expand in their communication skills.

Learning a new language such as Japanese can be a fun and exciting experience.