"IMPOSSIBLE" you say? Not necessarily. If you think about it, you might already know a few Japanese words like kimono and sake (rice wine). Did you know that when you pronounce the English pronoun "I", it sounds like you say "love" (ai) in Japanese? Or when you say "cow" in English, has the same pronunciation to mean "buy" in Japanese (kau)?
Some claim that a person can learn Japanese at night just by looking for a "How to Learn" book. Although it is not that easy, you can master Japanese quickly enough to visit Japan as a tourist.
Where is it?
The different ideas about its origin are even more complicated than the Japanese language. Recently, Leptcha, a language spoken in a Himalayan valley, has been found to be closely related to Japanese. Others argue that Japanese has a greater connection to Korean than any other language.
What is the relationship between Japanese and Chinese? Due to the use of Chinese ideographic characters which we call "Kanji", the Japanese are often considered to have a close connection with the Chinese. But the differences are huge. Chinese is a "monosyllabic" language that contains words with a single syllable. However, Japanese is "polysyllabic", in many words with two or more syllables. In Chinese, the meaning of the word is conveyed by the tone and order of the words, while in Japanese, the meaning is conveyed by the words themselves and the endings of the words.
Nearly 2,500 years ago, the Japanese language had essentially the same grammar as it does today. But at the end of the 9th and 10th centuries, changes began. To do this, you had to know a certain number of words to read and another to speak. The result was that by the end of World War II, 3,000 to 5,000 Chinese characters and two sets of programs of 50 characters each had to be known in order to be able to read important documents.
However, since 1945, the essential kanji have been simplified somewhat, reaching almost 2000. The language has also taken on many English words. In addition to these kanji characters, students today learn two types of Romanization. It takes hours of memorization and writing until kids learn 881 kanji by the end of high school and 1,850 kanji by the end of high school. However, reading school books requires knowledge of around 3,000 kanji.
Let's say something in japanese
You can test your knowledge of Japanese. The pronunciations are fairly straightforward, because basically only 50 different sounds are possible. The biggest problem is grammar. But now we stick to simpler questions.
First, there are five vowels, all pronounced as in Italian: La long, io come and me, E as in the nest, O as in old, U as uppercase when U is a short vowel; if U is long, so on. It is very important to learn the sounds of short and long vowels. A very common mistake by missionaries is to confuse så shi ki (organization) with sō shi ki (funeral). Quite a few viewers were surprised to hear about the great heavenly burial of God instead of the great heavenly organization of God. Another simple mistake is to call a girl Shō jō (orangutan) instead of Shō jo (girl). It is obvious that the Japanese teacher and the listener benefit from a sense of humor.
Often the same vowel or phonetic tone is used one after the other as in ta (head), ko ko ro (heart) or ko ro (place). Sometimes a phonetic sound is lost due to the contraction when you say certain words. For example, if you say kō fu ku (happy), cut the middle u and mix f and k. This leads to the pronunciation kō f’ku. If you repeat it a few times you will see how easily the Japanese come out of your mouth! Another key word is the pronoun "eu", which is wa ta ku shi in Japanese. It is correctly pronounced wa ta k'shi, with the loss of u and the transfer of k into the sound of shi. In recent years, “I” has even been abbreviated to ta ta shi.
Consonants can also be complicated. For example, the single consonant "k" of the word kō ka gives us "school music" while the double consonant of the word kok ka makes it a "national anthem".
Are there any rules for emphasizing the syllable? Authorities differ, but some agree that it is better not to highlight a syllable than to point out mistakes. For example, the city of Numazu is also pronounced nu ma, with each syllable also being stressed.
In particular, since the 17th century, Japanese has borrowed many words from European languages. For example, the Portuguese word "pao" (bread) becomes frying pan in Japanese. Dutch blik is bu ri ki. The "butter" in English gets low. Another English word, "strike", develops into five syllables with two different meanings. It's his to ra i ku in baseball lingo, but when some people want better wages or better working conditions, the word su to ra i ki becomes.
Other cool stuff
Please note that the word order in Japanese is different from that of most other languages. When you visit Japan, you can say in English "I want to visit Fuji". In Japanese, we would say: "Watak'shi wa Fuji San or hōmon shitai desu". The literal phrase is: "I want to visit Mount Fuji." In Japanese, the verb is always at the end of the sentence. As mentioned earlier, verb endings are also very important. To know if a sentence is present or past, or if it is a positive or negative answer to a previous question or statement, it is necessary to listen to the last syllable of a sentence.
An unusual feature of the Japanese language is the payment system or keigo. There are three things to keep in mind in all conversations: the speaker you are speaking to and the speaker you are speaking to. In addition, the speaker must take into account the positions, ages, resources, families, friends and social groups that were accepted in the conversation. These factors influence, to name a few, the vocabulary, suffixes, prefixes, and verb endings used in conversation. For example, the pronoun "you" is represented by many different Japanese words, depending on the state of the person to whom it is addressed. Often the polite way is to use the person's name or omit "you" altogether. Those residing in Japan must be determined to learn the various forms of skills. However, the visitor is temporarily forgiven for such mistakes. In general, the Japanese are satisfied with people's efforts to speak their difficult language.
Some reasons to learn Japanese
There are many reasons why people want to learn Japanese. For some people, it may simply be a hobby that helps them broaden their perspective on people of another culture and background. Others will want to learn Japanese for professional reasons. Tourists will enjoy their visit to Japan even more if they have a basic knowledge of the Japanese language. But to have a good command of Japanese, you must live in this country for a few years.
The nearly 80 Witness missionaries currently living in Japan have a very important reason to improve their Japanese. This is how they can share biblical truths with the locals. The first missionaries went with a dictionary in one hand and a Bible in the other. Although it was not easy, it was worth it.
If you want to learn Japanese, you can. Our advice is: "Ganbatte Kudasai!" Which means "stick to it!"