Learning Japanese : An Educator's View

During infancy, we discard sounds that are not used in our native language, making it difficult to learn unfamiliar sounds in a new language. Try pronouncing an "r" with the tip of your tongue touching the top of your mouth, and you'll see why English speakers have difficulty with certain Japanese sounds.

Learn 1,006 kanji characters, 46 hiragana symbols and 46 katakana characters and, like a Japanese sixth-grader, you can read most Japanese magazines. Written Japanese combines all three writing systems to convey meaning, making it one of the most complex scripts in use today. But you won't learn to speak Japanese by learning to read it.

If you know the basic structure of an English sentence, reverse many of the patterns for Japanese. The syntax, or word order, of a Japanese sentence is contrary to English. Depending on the age, status, gender or relation of the person you're addressing, you'll want to use "polite," "respectful" or "humble" language. Each type of speech has its own vocabulary and verb endings. Japanese society and customs determine when you use each type.

-- Duane Sider, director of learning, Rosetta Stone language learning software

Source : washington post