While other languages might seem more familiar and assumed to be easier to learn than Japanese, that is not necessarily the case. Japanese is a logical language with simple grammar rules that make it easier to learn than say, Italian, or German.
Learning Japanese is easy because:
- Verbs are not conjugated
- Many words are borrowed from English
- Kanji is not as difficult as you think
- There are no gendered articles
- There is no future tense
- The grammar is simple
- The sounds are consistent
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1. Verbs Are Not Conjugated, Making It Easier To Learn Japanese
While more languages like Spanish, French, or Italian might seem more familiar due to their alphabet, many of the romantic languages are notorious for all the different ways in which you can conjugate a verb or must include the object or subject in a phrase. Japanese doesn’t have that. In Japanese the verb does not have to be conjugated at all, nor does the pronoun always have to be included. This simplifies texts and makes the Japanese language much more pragmatic.
2. Learning Japanese Is Easy Because Many Words Are Borrowed From English
In Japanese, many words are borrowed from English. While the pronunciation might a little different, once you understand the sound components of the kana, it is easy to understand “foreign” words in Japanese that are native to English. For example, Coca-Cola is koka-kora, ice cream is aisu-kurimu (say it out loud for better effect), desk is desuku, and many other examples.
3. Learning Japanese Is Easy Because Kanji Is Not As Difficult as You Think
You might be tempted to resist Japanese because of its different alphabet. While it can be intimidating to learn three different written alphabets, the sounds often repeat themselves. In fact, English and French have many more different sounds than Japanese does. As far as the writing is concerned, many symbols are also repeated. Once you learn some of the symbols and what they mean, you’ll realize the rest is not as fearsome as you originally thought. Not to mention technology makes it much easier to deal with the calligraphy, as instead of having to remember stroke orders, you can just type it out.
4. Learning Japanese Is Easy Because There Are No Gendered Articles
While English might not feel the need to gender a chair, map, or tree, many Indo-European and Afroasiatic languages certainly do. Trying to remember if a car will be gendered as male or female is useless in a language, and only provokes more work for the language learner and translator. Japanese, being the pragmatic, no-nonsense language it is, does not bother with gendering objects, so you don’t have to remember or worry about using the correct article.
5. Learning Japanese Is Easy Because There Is No Future Tense
If you have ever tried to learn literally any other language, you may have found it difficult to memorize all the different tenses there are. Portuguese for example has nine time tenses, German has six, English has 12 major time tenses making it harder to learn for language learners, and French has a whopping 20 time tenses to memorize. Japanese, on the other hand, only has two. That’s right, Japanese is broken down between past and non-past. It is called non-past because this tense is used for present and future tense as well. While it might sound like it would be hard to decipher when something is happening, context usually implies the information that we are used to indicating with words that illustrate time.
6. Learning Japanese Is Easy Because the Grammar Is Simple
Japanese may have grammar rules that are brand new to you, but they are absolutely consistent. For example, in English we know that adjectives go before the noun, but there’s an unspoken rule to the order of adjectives. Have you ever realized you say “the big green wooden house” but not “the green wooden big house”? Something sounds off, right? That’s because there’s an order to adjectives in English, meaning you don’t get to just put the adjective before the noun, you have to know what order to put them in. Japanese grammar is a bit more simplified and consistent with its rules.
7. Learning Japanese Is Easy Because the Sounds Are Consistent
Ever try to learn French only to find out there are 12 vowel sounds? English isn’t any better with its “short” and “long” ways to pronounce a vowel. How do you explain why there’s a difference between the “a” in “ate”, “cat”, and “land”? In Japanese, the vowels are consistent. So while you may be able to write “ka” in more than one way, it’s all pronounced the same.
Conclusion: Learning Japanese Is Not As Difficult as You Think
And there you have it! So, if you were hesitant about learning Japanese, don’t be. It is a beautiful language bursting with culture and tradition, and once you understand the base of it you will realize how much simpler it is to learn and memorize than many other languages.
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