The Japanese language seems at first impossible. Not only does it sound and feel completely different from any kind of western dialect, but there three different writing systems! However, it is not as incredible a feat as it seems to learn Japanese. Learning this language is both extremely beneficial, and practical.
First of all, Asian languages make up almost a third of the languages spoken on the Internet. English takes up another third, and the European languages bundled together take the last. Japanese is the most prevalent language of all the Asian languages, so it is clearly an important language to know. But why does the internet matter when learning a language? There are a few reasons for this.
If you are not looking for business, then there is still a wide open door of opportunities to enjoy the benefits of learning Japanese. If, as stated previously, Japanese is the third most widely used language on the internet, then by learning Japanese, it will be possible to communicate with these people, who may potentially have radically different experiences and beliefs than people brought up in Western cultures. By bridging the language gap between you, the different parties can share their experiences and get a taste for what the culture on the other side of the world is like. Thus, even if business and making money is not your top priority online, learning Japanese can bring much excitement and many new experiences into your life.
Now we have arrived to the logistical reason why learning Japanese isn’t as hard as it seems. First of all, the Japanese writing system has a phœnetic alphabet, which can be used in place of all Chinese characters to help beginners. This alphabet is very helpful, because, unlike English words such as “acquiesce” or even “mice,” there is no ambiguity in how to pronounce a written Japanese word like there is in English. Secondly, Japanese grammar can be a lot simpler than English grammar. For example, the verbs only have present and past forms, unlike English, which has perfect, imperfect, pluperfect, future, &c. Similarly, the nouns do not have genders or plural forms, and the accompanying articles such as “a” or “the,” which are always impossible for English learners to master, are absent in Japanese. Overall, Japanese may look baffling when briefly glanced at, but most of it is quantity, and not complexity. Therefore, learning Japanese is a relatively easy task, especially compared to an ambiguous and almost completely random language such as English.
There is no doubt about it: one way or another, learning Japanese will make your life richer (in any sense of the word) and more satisfying. And since you now know that it’s not such a difficult task to learn it after all, why not go for it? There is nothing to lose in learning Japanese, and everything to gain. Bridge the gap between yourself and all those Japanese speaking people on the internet and all over the world in general, and make friends with people who you never thought you would be able to speak with before. And if you are really serious about learning that vocabulary, then try www.internetpolyglot.com/lessons-ja-en, a website devoted to creating flashcards to aid the memorization process so you can get to using your new skill as fast as possible!
