Probably, many modern people are now worried about the question of how to learn Japanese on their own. The reason for this need, in principle, is explained quite simply. Who will refuse to be the first to know about the latest in the world of the most advanced technologies? Right, few. It’s just that they are most often issued exactly in the Land of the Rising Sun, which means that the instructions and operating instructions are primarily published not in Russian or English, but on the local system of complex hieroglyphs.
Why do many seek to learn Japanese on their own? Wouldn’t it be easier to enroll in any courses or find a professional tutor? At first glance, of course it’s easier, but only if you are lucky to live or study in a large city, for example, in Moscow, Kiev, St. Petersburg or Minsk. But in more modest settlements, it is almost impossible to select such a specialist. Either he is not at all, or for his services he asks for cosmic sums of money.
This article will tell you in detail about how to quickly learn Japanese yourself. The reader will receive step-by-step instructions that will surely come to the rescue in realizing this difficult, but quite feasible dream.
Is it possible to learn Japanese yourself?
Konishua, or Japanese, is an interesting and rather unusual dialect, which is certainly worth learning at least in order to be able to read Japanese manga books without translation or communicate with Japanese friends - carriers of a unique culture.
Many are interested in the question of how to learn Japanese on their own at home or is it even possible? The answer will be unambiguously positive. However, those who decide to succeed will have to show considerable perseverance in this difficult, albeit very exciting, activity.
True, we will not hide, the study of the Japanese language may not go as smoothly as we would like. Why? The thing is that it has nothing to do with the Western languages of the world. The rules and alphabet of this dialect are complex, but the basic phrases, pronunciation and grammar are quite easy to remember even by a novice, so mastering them will not be difficult.
Those who are interested in how to learn Japanese on their own, experts recommend starting the study with useful and widespread phrases, and then gradually moving on to more complex tasks, for example, learning the alphabet and Japanese sounds.
Local alphabet
In this dialect, there are not one alphabet, but four, and each of them has its own graphemes. This fact may already scare away those who wondered how to learn Japanese on their own.
Indeed, studying it is not an easy task. As a consolation, we can note that in any Japanese alphabet there are basic sounds, of which there are only 46. By the way, each alphabet has its own sphere of application, so you probably will not have to confuse them.
- Hiragana is used purely for writing. In syllabic spelling, each character of this alphabet denotes a whole syllable, including both vowels and consonants.
- Katakana is also a syllable, but it is used exclusively for recording onomatopoeic and foreign words.
- Kanji, the third alphabet, consists of characters that the Japanese language borrowed from China.
By the way, hiragana and katakana are a phonetic letter denoting sounds. Kanzdi is considered an ideographic way of writing, and each of its symbols has its own meaning. It contains several thousand characters, of which only two thousand are widely used. In addition, it should be noted that kanakana and hiragana are widely used in kanji.
The role of the Latin language in the development of Japanese
The fourth Japanese alphabet is considered to be Latin, which in Japan is called "romaji". This fact cannot but surprise those who wondered how to learn Japanese on their own from scratch. It would seem, well, what can the usual Latin have to do with the complex hieroglyphs of the Land of the Rising Sun?
However, in the modern eastern state, it is widely used to write acronyms, names of various brands, trademarks, companies and so on.
Note that people who have started learning Japanese in order to quickly get used to reprimanding local characters often use Romaji, although locals in Japan do not do this. Why? The thing is that, among other things, the Japanese language consists of many characters that are difficult to pronounce and impossible to write in Latin, so it is best to immediately go on to the study of hieroglyphs. This approach is considered more literate from a linguistic point of view.
How to learn Japanese on your own. We produce the correct pronunciation
As we noted above, in the Japanese language there are 46 basic sounds, which are represented either by one of the five vowels, or by a combination of the vowel and consonant. An exception is the one and only sound that consists only of a consonant.
From the phonetic point of view, even before you learn Japanese yourself, it is worth paying attention to the fact that vowels here are not amenable to inflection and are not pronounced differently.
You can start pronouncing sounds by reading and studying the symbols of katakana and hiragana. However, first you need to focus on the intonations of the pronunciation of various sounds.
By the way, we note that in Japanese the meaning of a word can completely change if the stress is incorrectly put. And the same word with only a long vowel often has a completely different meaning than with a short vowel.
Learn the simplest variations of Japanese sounds
Sometimes, when writing to Japanese characters, small icons are drawn that indicate a different pronunciation of a given sound and completely change the meaning of the word.
It is worth noting that there are some rules for pronouncing Japanese sounds: voiced consonants must be pronounced in an inter-vocal position with a firm fit, and long vowel sounds that are pronounced with a long stretching of sound indicate a difference in words.
Grammar: difficult, but possible
Many are interested in how to quickly learn Japanese without having to learn grammar. We answer: no way! The whole point is whether we want it or not, but we still have to pay attention to the basic rules, since only knowledge of the very structure of a given dialect will help to learn how to make sentences correctly.
You don’t want to talk like a robot, uttering separate phrases taken out of context, right? In general, the Japanese language is very flexible and simple, despite all its difficulties, and to add whole sentences from words will not be difficult even for a beginner.
By the way, not everyone knows that in the Japanese sentence there may well be no subject, since it is not necessary at all. But at the very end of the sentence should always be a verb that acts as a predicate.
Nouns do not have a gender, and for most of them there is no plural category . As a result, Japanese verbs also have neither gender nor number.
An important feature is the fact that for a word in a sentence you always need to put particles that belong to this lexical unit and indicate an object, subject and so on.
Personal pronouns, unlike the Russian language, are used only when politeness or compliance with a certain formality requires it.
Mentor or language school. Advantages and disadvantages
How to learn Japanese from scratch? Where, in fact, to begin? According to experts, first of all, you need to find the recordings of Japanese audio lessons. There are actually a lot of them, so each student will be able to choose something to their own taste.
Once the basics of the Japanese language are learned, you can move on to more complex exercises. If the need for learning the Japanese language arose only for pleasure, learning the language may be limited to learning a specialized CD-ROM. It will provide an opportunity to learn the most common sounds, phrases.
The second way to learn Japanese is to enroll in courses in a language school or online lessons. It is suitable for those people who are going to live or work in Japan, because it will provide a unique opportunity to learn how to read and write. Under the guidance of a mentor, mastering even such a complex language will be faster and more correct.
The most important aspect in learning any language is knowledge of the alphabet, so you should learn it as soon as possible. Katakana and hiragana, if desired, can be mastered without problems in a couple of weeks. For writing this is enough, with their help you can write almost everything.
Kanji characters can be studied for several years, but anyone who wants to learn the language perfectly will not regret the time spent. Didactic cards will help you master words and phrases better. For the study of kanji, there are special cards that indicate the order in which the character is written and examples of compound words.
How to immerse yourself in the language environment at home
In order to recreate the small Japanese world at home, you need to find a group of like-minded people who are also studying Japanese. Participation in certain communities will help you get used to speech, after a certain time you will be able to distinguish separate Japanese words in a conversation without any difficulties, and this will generally improve understanding of the Japanese language.
You also need to make acquaintances from Japan with whom you can regularly practice the language, call up and talk at least half an hour a day only in Japanese.
Professional linguists recommend reading Japanese newspapers, magazines, novels, watching films and programs daily. In the public sources of this material, as a rule, abound. Thanks to newspapers, grammar, design and relevant words will improve, and novels will be introduced to the artistic style.
Beginner Tips
Any language, if you do not constantly study it, is quickly forgotten, so study must be given at least half an hour daily. This is a difficult language, so even the Japanese themselves, living some time outside of Japan, begin to forget kanji.
By the way, it is also not worthwhile, upon arriving in Japan, to pester others with informal conversations, as they may not respond to a poorly speaking foreigner there. These are the features of local culture.
It is best to learn to speak from living people, because words from anime and manga in everyday life are definitely not useful.
When learning a language, it would be nice to observe how the Japanese behave in a given situation and the same age category and gender as the student. You must learn to take into account the context and local flavor.
Studying the question of how to quickly learn Japanese on your own, you also do not need to pin high hopes on gadgets and electronic dictionaries, since it makes no sense to buy them for a person who does not know at least 300-500 characters.