by Gaël Malin

Learning Japanese is far from an easy task. It is a real challenge one might think twice before taking on. All language learners and students know for a fact that diving into a new language requires commitment, but just how much will it take is down to several things worth considering.

How motivated are you? Do the language and the culture pique your interest? How difficult is the language? Do you have time for it? The amount of effort needed to become proficient in Japanese may vary from one person to the other, but ultimately it comes down to your strategy and dedication to learning the language and overcome whatever problems you face along the way.

One of the most daunting things for learners is the three writing systems: the two syllabaries, hiragana and katakana, and the logographic alphabet, kanji. The syllabaries are not too much trouble once you understand the logic behind them, and they are relatively short (46 and 48 characters respectively). I say ‘relatively’ as the kanji alphabet is unquestionably one of the hardest parts of learning Japanese.

Kanji are Chinese ideograms which were introduced in Japan around the early 5^th century. Both their writing and pronunciation have greatly changed over time. The Japanese Ministry of Education has compiled a list of 2,136 “regular-use Chinese characters” (jōyō kanji) for Japanese students to learn as part of their school curriculum. It is important you master syllabaries beforehand, so you will be able to read kanji’s phonetic transcriptions (furigana).

There are many memorisation techniques and tools that might prove effective such as flashcards, mobile apps, or kanji writing. While memorising as many kanji as possible is key to improving your proficiency, it can feel really monotonous and out of touch with the language. You will find it much more helpful to learn kanji in context, as part of useful and frequent words. After all, this goes hand in hand with expanding your vocabulary.

Learning new words can be also be tedious when it comes to foreign imported words (or gairaigo, “loan word”). These are mostly written in katakana and borrowed mainly from English and other European languages such as German and French. However, they are adapted to be readable by Japanese natives and match the Japanese pronunciation and are often abbreviated (e.g. apo for “appointment”, rimekon for “remote control”). Now the trickiest part is coming across waisei-ego (“Japanese-made English”), which are words that were coined in Japanese based loosely on English (e.g. coin laundry for “laundromat”, ice candy for “ice lolly”, mug cup for “mug”). Waisei-ego can be very confusing for English speakers, although they are comprehensible in most cases.

Those are the main issues I had to deal with as a Japanese learner. Bear in mind each learner might have a different experience and uses the approach that suits them most. When I decided to learn Japanese as part of my translation studies, that was a huge step out of my comfort zone because it was such a different language and a totally uncharted territory.

As with any other language, it is a demanding process requiring long-term commitment with its ups and downs, which pays off the more you learn. I do not regret pursuing that path one single bit.