My
Experience Learning Japanese
Before
coming to Japan, I didn’t know any Japanese. I knew how to say kon’nichiwa and arigatō, and that was about it. Dealing with the language barrier
has been difficult, but it hasn’t been impossible. Thanks to the kindness of
the Japanese people, the power of non-verbal communication, and my willingness
to laugh at myself, I’ve been able to get by. It’s amazing how much you can
communicate with pointing, hand gestures, and a smile.
I’ve
also been making every effort I can to learn Japanese. I am determined to not
just deal with the language barrier,
but to actually break it. So, as soon
as I arrived in Japan, I started studying. I bought myself a textbook, started
learning to read hiragana and katakana, and signed up for a Japanese language
class. Learning Japanese was really, really difficult for me at first! Studying
Japanese has really made me sympathize with my students who are learning
English. The two languages are extremely different, and I really struggled to
understand Japanese.
One of the hardest things for me about Japanese is the
writing system. Compared to English, it is very complex. It took me a while
just for me to understand around how
the writing system works, let alone actually use it. In English, you only have
one alphabet, whereas in Japanese, you have hiragana, katakana, and kanji.
I’ve learned to read hiragana and katakana, which are simple enough, but I have not even started with kanji yet. I’m always so impressed when I see how quickly Japanese people can write in kanji – the characters are so complex! I’m also surprised by how many different characters there are. I’ve heard that to be able to read a newspaper, you need to know at least 2,000 kanji. Wow! Compare that to English, where you only need to know different combinations of the same 26 letters.
I’ve learned to read hiragana and katakana, which are simple enough, but I have not even started with kanji yet. I’m always so impressed when I see how quickly Japanese people can write in kanji – the characters are so complex! I’m also surprised by how many different characters there are. I’ve heard that to be able to read a newspaper, you need to know at least 2,000 kanji. Wow! Compare that to English, where you only need to know different combinations of the same 26 letters.
Learning
Japanese has been difficult, but I have noticed myself slowly progressing. It’s
a really rewarding feeling, to finally be able to read characters, and
understand when I hear people talking. I can now give a self-introduction in
Japanese, and understand some basic words and phrases. I still have so much to
learn, but I’m making progress, and it feels great!
