Is Japanese a hard language to learn?

Question

I want to work for Nintendo someday...so y'know...their main development headquarters are in Japan...so is Japanese hard to learn?

Answer 1

Japanese is difficult to learn, but perhaps not as difficult as you would think. Whilst it may take a while to come to terms with the huge differences between Japanese and English, the spoken language is actually pretty simple, and the written language can be learned very successfully with a little hard work and logical planning. Obviously more difficult than most European languages, but probably easier than other exotic languages, the lack of tones is a blessing for westerners.

Japanese pronunciation is dead easy, all the sounds are perfectly natural for the native English speaker, the only new sound is the Japanese R which is nothing like an English R and involves tapping your tongue just behind your teeth, similar to the English L.

Different, rather than difficult, Japanese grammar is not particularly complicated, but the sheer differences of the language compared to English can cause problems. An agglutinative language, you will need some time to organize your thought "backward" unless you already speak Turkish or Korean who are organized similarly. Japanese verbs always go at the end of the sentence, hence the language sounds back to front to the English speaker. Japanese is very well structured and once you know the speech patterns, irregularities are rare. Japanese has only three irregular verbs!

One year of hard study should see you speaking the language well in most situations. The written language will inevitably take longer but it is genuinely possible to learn the 1945 characters you need in less than six months, and be relatively fluent within two years.

Some programs to consider are.......

Rocket Japanese

Pimsleur Japanese

Answer 2

It's not hard to learn the basic language but writing can be difficult. Although the grammar is simple it's not that easy. Easier than english but still not that easy. Pronunciation...if it's not that good it's really annoying.

Answer 3

I really don't know. But I hope not. I want to learn...

BTW:Angel, how are you learning? Could you give me some tips or a website to help me?

Answer 4

ya its like the hardest language to learn and english is the 2nd hardest

Answer 5

Lol the first answerer is crazy. Japanese is sooooo easy to learn i think you can master the whole language in a year. The only thing that might be difficult is the writing, but to speak it, its really simple. It's way easier than english.