Learning Japanese languages... how is it?

[NightBird]

Hi all!

I would like to make Japanese my 3rd language to know but I'm asking some questions in my head and after some searches on Internet, it doesn't helps me so...

French is my mother tongue, then I learned English (not totally but it's OK to speak on any forum where we speak english, like you see)
Learning English for me is "easy" and I easily learn the vocabulary and ... about it... it took me about 4 years to get my actual level in english...

But the thing who make me scared is the "Japanese alphabet" who is nearly all foreign to our usual alphabet "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
So... i'm really interested to learn this language but I have no idea of what time it can take for normal courses...
Some peoples may tell to me that Japanese is easy to learn but i'm not so sure...

So...

1) Is Japanese a hard language to learn from someone who live in Europe?

2) What is the average time to learn Japanese to have the "level" to speak "easily" in nearly all situations (like on the forum or in conversation)

3) What about the pronounciation of this language?

4) About the difficulty, how do you compare the French and the Japanese language?

Thanks a lot! Sorry if my english is sometimes wrong ><"

[Realism]

1) Is Japanese a hard language to learn from someone who live in Europe?

No it's not.....if you learn Kanji first then it's not. So I advise you to learn Kanji first.

2) What is the average time to learn Japanese to have the "level" to speak "easily" in nearly all situations (like on the forum or in conversation)

1-2 years if you immerse yourself into the language. You know...like daily immersion where you listen to and read Japanese all the time.

3) What about the pronounciation of this language?

Easy

4) About the difficulty, how do you compare the French and the Japanese language?

Hard to say. I don't speak French. But every language has its quirks.

Thanks a lot! Sorry if my english is sometimes wrong ><"

[manganimefan227]

Realism, number one is absolutely wrong. One should study the hiragana and katakana before kanji.

[evanny]

wow. no offence but it sounds like you are pussy who is scared to pick up language just in case its hard.
if you were actually interested to learn this language then you would have done it. asking if its hard before you start isn't a sign of "im really interested"

so i suggest you to continue improving your english.

[Realism]

Originally Posted by manganimefan227

Realism, number one is absolutely wrong. One should study the hiragana and katakana before kanji.

Hiragana and Katana can be learned within a week.

And then you go immediately into Kanji.

Or else you won't be able to read a damn thing.

[RobinMask]

Originally Posted by Realism

Hiragana and Katana can be learned within a week.

And then you go immediately into Kanji.

Or else you won't be able to read a damn thing.

True to an extent, after all a lot of signs that use Kanji have furigana on top, so as long as one can read Hiragana and Katakana then they have enough to survive on in my opinion, although in the long-term it would be best to learn Kanji, especially if one wishes to be fluent.

That said one really needs to speak and understand the language before they learn to read it, ideally at least, because without an oral understanding there will be a lot lost when it comes to understanding how it's written and read. I would recomend that the OP learn to speak the basics of Japanese before getting bogged down in learning how to read, as learning to read Japanese is a lot of work and may even get in the way of speaking it.

[KyleGoetz]

I think learning kanji makes it much easier to grow your vocabulary, just like how knowing Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes like "pseudo-" "un-" "anti-" "-tion" "-ment" etc. help you grow your English vocabulary.

[NightBird]

Well sorry if you didn't understand my reason to ask if this language is hard...
It's more for a personal reason and to help me to be ready by knowing that (OK some peoples may take me like a strange man but well...)

If I understood, I must learn Hiragana and Katakana first to be able to read "anything" and after the Kanji part...
Can you explain me fastly the difference between these 3 things?

If the pronounciation is easy, well it will help to better understand what peoples says to me... Because sometimes I have a bit difficult to pronounce some words in English (often because I want to speak too quickly or sometimes because I speak like I think lol)
I already heard some Japanese videos (especially Japanese TV shows) and that does not appear to me to be so difficult... but they often speaks quickly like in English...

Well, thanks for your first informations!

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by NightBird

Well sorry if you didn't understand my reason to ask if this language is hard...
It's more for a personal reason and to help me to be ready by knowing that (OK some peoples may take me like a strange man but well...)

If I understood, I must learn Hiragana and Katakana first to be able to read "anything" and after the Kanji part...
Can you explain me fastly the difference between these 3 things?

If the pronounciation is easy, well it will help to better understand what peoples says to me... Because sometimes I have a bit difficult to pronounce some words in English (often because I want to speak too quickly or sometimes because I speak like I think lol)
I already heard some Japanese videos (especially Japanese TV shows) and that does not appear to me to be so difficult... but they often speaks quickly like in English...

Well, thanks for your first informations!

If it took you 4 years to get English, it will take you 6+ to get Japanese. I might even go so far as to say 8+.

French and English speakers can learn the other language quite quickly. Japanese is completely different in every way. Japanese is considered one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn. It's not exactly going to be easier for a native French speaker. There are even fewer similarities, seeing as how the vocabulary is even more dissimilar between Japanese and French.

[Decimus]

Originally Posted by Realism

Hiragana and Katana can be learned within a week.

And then you go immediately into Kanji.

Or else you won't be able to read a damn thing.

Ahem.



Now with that said, almost every single person who learns Japanese, including native speakers, would probably learn hiragana and katakana first before moving unto kanji. The only exceptions are native Chinese speakers, or people who have otherwise learnt Chinese first.

This is partly because learning kanji is hardly useful if you don't know how to
read them. And since most pronunciations are written in kana...

Originally Posted by manganimefan227

Realism, number one is absolutely wrong. One should study the hiragana and katakana before kanji.

Originally Posted by NightBird

Well sorry if you didn't understand my reason to ask if this language is hard...
It's more for a personal reason and to help me to be ready by knowing that (OK some peoples may take me like a strange man but well...)

If I understood, I must learn Hiragana and Katakana first to be able to read "anything" and after the Kanji part...
Can you explain me fastly the difference between these 3 things?

If the pronounciation is easy, well it will help to better understand what peoples says to me... Because sometimes I have a bit difficult to pronounce some words in English (often because I want to speak too quickly or sometimes because I speak like I think lol)
I already heard some Japanese videos (especially Japanese TV shows) and that does not appear to me to be so difficult... but they often speaks quickly like in English...

Well, thanks for your first informations!

Japanese has three basic components in its writing system. These are Hiragana, the Broad-stroke syllabary, Katakana, the Fragmentary Syllabary, and Kanji, the Chinese Characters.

Both Hiragana and Katakana are syllabaries, that is, they are sets of written symbols that represent sounds (syllables in this case), similar to how the Latin alphabet (ABC) is used for both English and French.

Kanji, on the other hand, is logographic -- they represent meanings instead of sounds. Instead of spelling out "D-o-g" or "É-t-o-i-l-e", for example, these words would be written as 「犬」 and　「星」 in kanji.

Kanji is generally used for "concrete" words, such as nouns, verb stems (the 'root' part of a word, like "swim" for the English "swimming"), adjectives, and adverbs. In a sense, kanji are the building blocks in your average Japanese sentence.

Hiragana is usually used for grammatical particles (like the word "to" in English), verb and adjective inflectional endings (like the "-ing" in the word "swimming"), and exclamations (Like the English "Ah!" and "Hey!'). Hiragana can be viewed as the "glue" which bind the "meatier" parts of sentences together.

Hiragana can also also used as furigana, in which case they are often found on the top of kanji as a pronunciation guide. Some words with obscure or hard-to-read kanji are also more commonly written in hiragana.

Katakana is most commonly used for loan-words, or words borrowed from a foreign language. "France", or example, would be written as 「フランス」. Foreign (non-Chinese/Korean) names are also written similarly, like 「ジョン」 for "John". Onomatopoeia, or words that imitate sounds, like "oink", "meow", and "boom", are also written in katakana.

Katakana can also be used for emphasis (similar to italicization or writing in ALL-CAPS) Some animal or plant names with obscure kanji are also written in katakana instead of hiragana, like 「バラ」　for "rose".

This article may be useful if you have any further questions.