# Difficulty of Japanese at a Pre-Intermediate Level



## Mist~

Japanese language in general? Is it so hard to learn at a pre-intermediate level? Because I'm interested in learning it, even at a lower level, as a hobby, because I like Asian culture and stuff(in no way ADVANCED, that would take years and the courses that I found are like maximum 10 weeks per year - two times a week, one session=two hours).
It wouldn't look bad on a resume(CV) either, who knows what career I might choose for myself; but I already know three other languages, so that shouldn't be a problem.Like I said, I just like it.I like Korean, too.

So, I am clueless about their writing system and Yahoo Answers isn't really helpful.  Can someone clear it up for me? 
Are they using those three: hiragana, katakana and kanji(less in Japanese, right?) combined when writing? Why are there three?
Anyway, I can deal with "Romaji", but I'm guessing they don't use it.
 As for the pronunciation, I find it very easy; much easier than Korean.The grammar isn't THAT impossible, but the writing and reading..? It seems so hard(the kanji part.Is it really necessary?)

So what should be learnt at a not-so-advanced level? Any pieces of advice? And is it true that Korean is easier? Why? (the writing system is definitely easier)

Thanks a lot.


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## fitter.happier

Hi and welcome to WR!

Choosing a language based on its difficulty level strikes me as a bad decision. But this shouldn't be an issue for you, because you say your goal isn't to attain proficiency in Japanese or Korean, but rather to learn the basics. By basics I assume you mean learning the script and a handful of grammar points, and that shouldn't take too long. 

Whether you want to go for Japanese or Korean (or both!) is up to you, but I don't think 'beginner' level looks impressive on a CV. If I memorised the Arabic script and learnt a few words, that wouldn't make me more employable, because my command of the language would be nonexistent.
 You say you like 'Asian culture and stuff' and then you refer to Kanji as 'Chinese stupid things', so I think you need to question your motivation: is it really worth your time? Why do you only want to learn the basics? What benefits would you gain from it?

If you want to learn more about the Japanese writing system, I think this is a good starting point.


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## Mist~

Thanks for your answer.You're right, but the problem is that I like both of these languages, but I don't think I have the time to learn both of them.I want to learn the basics because, again, I don't know if I have enough time for a more advanced level and I also have other priorities.Even if I don't have, I want to at least try, because, like I said, I really like Asian culture.I referred to those symbols as stupid because it's annoying how they make a language so hard to learn.I think that if you want to learn Japanese, you have to know Kanji, too.Also, maybe I'll take a summer course, which doesn't fathom things.And that's why I need some tips.


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## LilianaB

The Chinese writing system is really fascinating: there is much more to it than just being an alphabet. I only know about 40 signs since I studied the Chinese painting more than the calligraphy itself, but it is really fascinating. Hopefully one day I will go back to it. Japanese is based on similar premises, I think.


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## 涼宮

LilianaB said:


> The Chinese writing system is really fascinating: there is much more to it than just *being an alphabet*. I only know about 40 *signs* since I studied the Chinese painting more than the calligraphy itself, but it is really fascinating. Hopefully one day I will go back to it. Japanese is based on similar premises, I think.



Not an alphabet or signs. Chinese nor Japanese have an alphabet. And those ''signs'' would be hanzi (Chinese) or kanji (Japanese) . But, I agree, Kanji/hanzi are so beautiful, I love them very much.

*Mist*, as you said, romaji is not useful, you must know how to read the 2 syllabaries, hiragana and katakana, and then little by little you learn kanji. As *Fitter* said, you have to think about your motivations. Both, Korean and Japanese are isolated languages, but fortunately for people, learning one of them helps to learn some grammatical aspects of the other. The pronunciation is completely different, Japanese is much easier to pronounce for everyone of course.

Answering the question in your title. Learning the basics in Japanese is not that hard, but you have to be prepared for an entire new writing system. Japanese shares no logic in many things with most languages, they express themselves in a complete different way, so, you have to be _patient_ as Japanese (And Korean) takes longer to learn than other languages. Just start off with hiragana and katakana, then learn the basic particles and vocabulary. If you reach a pre-intermediate level, it would be sad if you stopped there, don't you think? . But you should also decide which you'll learn first, Korean or Japanese.


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## LilianaB

Yes, they are logograms, but in a way they can also be called signs, since different things can be called signs in language. They are more often referred to as characters. I said they were more than an alphabet.


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## fitter.happier

To the OP: If you're doing it for your personal enjoyment, go for it... but I don't think the lack of time is a valid argument. While it's true that Asian languages generally take longer to learn, if you're really interested about something you will make time for it. 

Learning kana and hangul won't take you longer than a week, I suppose. And since you've clearly stated that you don't want to go past beginner level, it doesn't really matter whether you start from Korean or Japanese.


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## Mist~

It is a valid argument in my case, believe it or not.I will try it this summer, though.I will start with Japanese.


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## sDestruct

Mist~ said:


> Can someone clear it up for me?
> Are they using those three: hiragana, katakana and kanji(less in Japanese, right?) combined when writing? Why are  there three?
> Anyway, I can deal with "Romaji", but I'm guessing they don't use it.
> As for the pronunciation, I find it very easy; much easier than Korean.The grammar isn't THAT impossible, but the writing and reading..? It seems so hard(the kanji part.Is it really necessary?)
> 
> So what should be learnt at a not-so-advanced level? Any pieces of advice? And is it true that Korean is easier? Why? (the writing system is definitely easier)



Ahm... Let me say Korean grammar and pronounciation are more difficult than Japanese ones. The structures of the grammars are almost the same. The actual differences come from their letters; as Korean letters can make much more syllables than Japanese ones, the grammar is really messy. And there are spacing problems. I bet no Koreans can do this perfectly, including me 

However, you don't have to memorise more than 2k kanjis with two or more pronounciation per character  That makes you almost impossible to read texts because you would learn ~150 kanjis at the level.

Hiragana and katakana are made by Japanese people; they represent pronounciation (like alphabets) and their pronounciations are the same but katakanas are only used to write foreign words and other special cases. Kanjis are totally Chinese and Japanese imported it (though nowadays japanese kanjis(kokuji) are slightly different from what's used in China).

Overall, if you don't want to go deep, then I'd recommend Korean since you CAN read Koreans at pre int level however you CANNOT read Japanese texts. And grammar is not that important in the level 

Hope this helped you.


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## alice313

As a korean, I recommend you to learn chinese characters not only for Japanes but it also very useful and helpful to improve your korean to advanced level. you know, it's all in the chinese-character culture. In addition, it's easier and faster to read Japanese sentences with Chinese letters than sentences with only Hiragana. And it's true.


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