難しい？ Is Japanese Hard to Learn?

Is Japanese hard to learn? Yes, but so is anything that you want to get good at. To make this question more useful you should be asking:

1. How much time will it take to learn Japanese?
2. How much struggle will I have to go through?

Before these two questions can be answered though you need to know what level of Japanese you are aiming for.

If your goal is to just be able to make conversation then learning Japanese can be easy! If you want to speak well in Japanese though it can be much, much harder. Making your intention in speech understood and understanding others well will take much more time. 

How much time will it take to learn Japanese?

How much time? That depends on the level you are aiming for and how much time you have.

But, according to the U.S. Department of State, they estimates 2,200 class hours. That is probably the most common answer that language learners will hear when looking online. Even if it does take 2,200 class room hours, that may take months to years depending on how often you study. 

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There are several tips though to help you learn Japanese faster. Basically though the more time you put in, the quicker you learn. Since we are all limited on time though you may need to learn some other tricks for making time to study without eliminating other activities.

What to know as a Beginner

In the beginning, it is ok to learn Japanese badly. What I mean by badly is that you can make mistakes and you can learn things incorrectly. When you first start it is more important to try to just learn as much as you can. If you spend too much time trying to be perfect that will make it harder to learn Japanese. 

Don’t be a Perfectionist

It is better to be a sloppy learner in the beginning. That is because it allows you to learn Japanese quicker than focusing on the small details. Focusing on being perfect will cost you 10 years where it may only need to take 2. 

What about Forming Bad Habits?

Yes, it is possible to learn something wrong and have a hard time breaking bad habits. For example, you may ignore Japanese intonation or not even know that it is a thing in the beginning. Then later on when you learn about it you notice that you are pronouncing everything incorrectly. 

This is a very real and very hard thing to get past. Once you make a bad habit it can seem much harder to relearn it the right way. But, from my experience it is harder to break a bad habit that you put a lot of time into learning than just something you picked up casually. And how do you put effort into learning a bad habit? That is right, by being too perfectionistic in the beginning. 

The point is to focus on just picking up a lot of information in the beginning without trying to master it. After you get better at Japanese you will start to notice where your faults are. If it is still early enough you can still correct a lot of those errors pretty easily. 

Being Interested is the Best Study Method

So, as a beginner just have as much fun as you can. That is really the best way to learn Japanese. After you get to the point where you can communicate, you can go back and focus more on minor details and make your Japanese better. This is the stage where I feel Japanese is more difficult.

What does Not make Japanese hard to learn

The writing system, grammar, being unrelated to English are all things that can make Japanese difficult. These are all things that are different from English but are not what makes Japanese hard.

Any language you learn will have things new about them. Other languages related to English like French or German have more vocabulary in common. However, those languages have there own unique difficulties not found in Japanese. 

It is not learning specific aspects of the language that makes Japanese hard to learn. It is learning to speak correctly, in the correct context that makes Japanese hard.

Context is what Makes Japanese hard to learn

Anyone that has just started learning Japanese will learn simple words.

Watashi – I
Anata – You
Arigatou – Thank you

Then, just as quickly you will learn that no-one says anata, there are a million and one ways to say I, saying arigatou in the wrong situation may be rude, not to say Oishii when other people are eating, and so on.

Japanese is a language where context matters. In English, most of the time you can just say right out what you mean without thinking about the context you are in. That is not the case in Japanese.

The reason you can sometimes leave out the I and you when speaking is because the context makes it clear who you are talking about. If the context was not clear then you would need to say it.

Also, there are lot’s of words in Japanese that you will only hear in specific contexts. For example, only in formal situations, only when referring to something specific, or even only in Anime.

Learning to know when to use what words is what will take time and what is difficult in Japanese.

Japanese can be a hard language to learn but it does not need to be. There are ways to make it easier to learn.

So, context or how to use Japanese correctly is what makes Japanese hard. If you are interested in learning even more, I have reviewed what I consider the best resource for Japanese Grammar below. This book series explains not only grammar topics but how to use Japanese correctly in the right context.