Learning Japanese for Beginners

When I was 15 I decided I was going to learn Japanese! I didn't have much ambition, did I? :P

I thought that to learn Japanese, I would have to learn how to write the language. So I bought a book on written Japanese and set about learning the kanji. In about a month I'd learned enough characters that I could . . . read a bunch of separate words! I couldn't have even read texts for children just learning to read!

Then I decided that to learn Japanese, I didn't really need to know how to read the language, just speak it. So I bought a small course on cassette tape (now you can see how old I am!) that diplomats and travelers supposedly used to learn basic converational Japanese.

I learned lots of phrases like:

• Domo sumimasen (I'm sorry)
• Arigato Gozaimasu (Thank you very much)
• Ichi, ni, san, shi go (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
• Sayonara (goodbye)
  

And very,very basic sentences. Unfortunately, I couldn't have asked for directions or anything potentially useful like that.

Learning Japanese was darn near impossible with that little course even with the cassette tape. o I bought a book that was designed for absolute beginners and was done almost in a comic book style. I can still remember many things from that book, I think because it seemed more fun and far less serious to learn Japanese using it.

I remember that toire-wa is toilet (gotta know that Japanese phrase,right?), Hajimemashite (nice to meet you), O-namae wa nan desu ka? (what's your name?), Konnichiwa (good day/good afternoon), and how to ask where something is provided I can remember the Japanese phrase for what I'm looking for, like:

• Where is the toilet? Toire wa doko desu ka?
• Where is the bus? Basu wa doko desu ka?
• Where is the cat? Neko wa doko desu ka?

The funny thing about learning Japanese is that once you learn a basic phrase like whereisnoun or pronoun, you do start to get a feel for the language.

But to start learning Japanese, it's important to understand how those words sound. The pronunciation is actually pretty easy when the words are written with a Western alphabet as they are above.

For instance, take the first sentence above, Toire was doko desu ka?

Toire wa is toilet, with 'wa' being a little article in the Japanese language that doesn't have an exact translation in English. It goes on the end of nouns like basu wa (bus) and neko wa (cat). Say it as if it were one word--toirewa. The emphasis is on the first syllable--TOIrewa.

Doko is easy, just say it like it sounds. Do-ko.

Desu ka is another one that's pronounced together: desuka.

But when you're learning Japanese, remember that a 'u' on the end of a word is barely pronounced. So desu ka sounds almost like desska with the slightly breath of a 'u' before the 'ka.' It does help if you can hear someone speaking it.

Basu wa (bus) also sounds all most like basswa, with the slightest soft 'u' between basu and wa.

There are several courses to help you learn Japanese that are available today that are much better than the ones I used when I was a teenager. I'll go over a couple and tell you why one of them is best in a later post. For now, here are some Japanese greetings for you to practice:

• Ohayo gozaimasu (Ohio goZYmass) Good morning
• Konichiwa (KohNEEcheewa) Good afternoon
• Konbanwa (KohnBANwa) Good evening
• Sayonara (SighoNAra) Good bye
• Dozo (dozo) Please
• Hai (pronounced like a sharp HI!) Yes
• Ie (ee-yay) No

Don't forget: learning Japanese is easier if you practice a small amount of words and phrases until you feel comfortable with them before moving on.