Japanese vs. European Languages
Anime is a great cultural item that has made learning Japanese particularly inviting to many English speakers. It is also a big reason that many people in all parts of the world want to learn Japanese.
However, there are other reasons, too, for wanting to learn Japanese. Some people are interested in Japanese because Japan is the second largest economy and it would help them greatly in their business efforts. Some people are impressed by Japan’s deep cultural traditions.
For whatever your reason may be for learning a language like Japanese, you must remember a few things that learning a foreign language successfully means.
Japanese is more difficult to learn than a European language because Japanese uses kanji which are characters far different from the letters that make up our alphabet.
European languages, especially the romance languages, are a lot easier for English speakers to learn because they share many grammatical similarities and the vocabulary is often similar due to Latin influences. So, it is very easy to pick up vocabulary in these languages because the words are so similar to the English words already.
What this means for studying Japanese is not that it is impossible but just a bit more difficult.
What this truly means is that you must have a strong desire to learn that Japanese language if you are going to be successful in becoming proficient in it.
If you really want to get to that high level in Japanese, you have to make sure that these reasons are foremost in your heart.
This can either be your interest in something like anime or it can be something like a business investment for your future.
Whatever the case may be, remember to keep this reason foremost in your mind and that will help bring the spark to keep you going in the long process which master a foreign language like Japanese entails. Good luck and I hope that you continue to make progress in learning Japanese.
Author Robertson Kunz has a language learning guide: learn a foreign language fast. Japanese learners: learn Japanese.
