Intersting Facts about the Japanese Language

(PHOTO: a typical newspaper article in Japanese.You can see the mixture of 3 writing systems. The complicated looking ones are kanji, the Chinese characters.)

So, my FIRST LANGUAGE is Japanese, and I LOVE it! It's such a beautiful language! Well, I love all languages, but Japanese is very special in many ways.　

☆The Japanese language is SPOKEN BY OVER 130 MILLION PEOPLE in Japan and in Japanese communities around the world!

☆The Japanese language has its own sign language.(No, ASL users and Japanese sign language users cannot communicate with each other, just as English speakers and Japanese speakers cannot communicate with one another.)

☆Japanese is written with NO SPACES between words.

☆Japanese is written in a MIXTURE OF 3 MAIN SYSTEMS: HIRAGANA, KATAKANA, and KANJI-the Chinese characters.

☆HIRAGANA and KATAKANA are syllabaries. SYLLABARY is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional consonant sound followed by a vowel sound. Hiragana looks like this　→　あ(it sounds "a" and has no meaning.)Katakana looks like this　→　ア(it sounds "a" and has no meaning.)

☆KANJI is a LOGOGRAM, a grapheme which represents a word or a morpheme (the smallest meaningful unit of language).Kanji looks like this　→　漢字(it means "kanji")

☆Japanese is a UNIQUE language because its speakers use both syllabary and logogram at the same time. For syllabary, you use the left brain, and for logogram, you use the right brain. Therefore, Japanese users use both left and right brains constantly in a balanced fashion as they read and write Japanese.(there is no scientific evidence to this, though... but interesting to think about it this way)

☆There are 46 hiragana alphabet letters and 46 katakana alphabet letters and who knows how many kanjis there exist. Some say 3000 KANJI CHARACTERS ARE COMMONLY USED.(No Japanese person can tell you how many kanji characters they can read or write.)

☆Japanese students learn 1,006 KANJI characters by the end of 6th grade, and learn another 939 KANJI characters by the end of 9th grade, in total 1945 characters.


☆The Japanese language often DOES NOT SPECIFY THE SUBJECT. The meaning of the subject is conveyed by the context.

☆Nouns in Japanese do not change in the plural form. Instead, a number or counter before the noun indicates the quantity.

☆Japanese words change depending on the FORMALITY of the situation. Honorifics in Japanese are broadly referred to as KEIGO (敬語, literally "respectful language"), in which there are 5 CATEGORIES. Each type of speech has its own vocabulary and verb endings:

1.Sonkeigo (尊敬語), respectful language, a special form or alternate word used when talking about superiors and customers.

2.Kensongo (謙遜語) or Kenjōgo (謙譲語), the humble language, is used when describing one's actions or the actions of a person in one's in-group to others such as customers in business.

3.Teineigo (丁寧語), polite language. Television presenters invariably use polite language, and it is the form of the language first taught to most non-native learners of Japanese.

4.Teichōgo (丁重語), "word beautification" used when the listener is in the higher position than the speaker.

5.Bikago (美化語), "word beautification" used to add refinement to speaker's manner of speech.

So, do you feel like learning Japanese now? or is it too overwhelming? I know. You did not imagine how complicated this language was, did you? I don't know how we manage to master the language. It is a fun language to learn though if you are not a perfectionist. Lots of English speakers are learning Japanese despite its difficulty level. Many people enter into the world of Japanese language from anime/manga-Japanese cartoon or samurai movies.

By the way, did you know I am from OKINAWA and we have our own language? Yes, we do. Unfortunately, I cannot speak it. Long story...I might tell you about it later. But I do know lots of words and phrases in Okinawan language.