Now, what does sanity have to do with learning Japanese? Well, if you’ve ever accomplished the learning of another language – particularly as an adult – then you’ll know that struggling to get comfortable with the rules of a different language can be very frustrating at the worst of times. Bearing that in mind, understand that Japanese is widely considered to be one of the most challenging to learn from scratch.

Does that mean you shouldn’t even bother? Of course not, especially if you really relish a challenge. Besides, Japan is a magnificent country, and one that is very hospitable to Westerners. Simply beware that you will need to take it seriously, and have the best possible teaching aids in front of you in order to achieve your goals. Once you get to the level of proficiency that you want, you will feel an extraordinary sense of achievement.

The first thing you will need to know is that there are 3 different writing systems: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are referred to as 'kana'. You can actually use kana characters to write everything you would ever need to. It is a good idea to learn hiragana before starting with katakana, and when you learn any of the symbols to do so with a sharp imagination. You can make the learning of Japanese symbols fun, or you can make it frustrating. For example, when learning the 46 symbols of the katakana alphabet, if all you see in front of you is a collection of dull, lifeless scribbles, then you'll probably get bored and give up. Attach the correct pronunciation as a sound in your mind for each as an association, and you're absorbing more by engaging more senses. When you see each symbol in front of you, you can train yourself to hear it in an amusing accent, as a male or female voice, as a baritone, tenor, soprano, etc. You're starting to make the language alive for you, and this will help you when you start to use it in a social situation.

Another fun way to start learning is to create your own Japanese immersion environment. Buy yourself one decent course (the Living Language series is always reliable) that includes audio tapes, and play it in your car or discman while on the bus, while you're cleaning, exercising, and surfing the internet. You may find this effective when coupled with more focused practice periods, and useful if you need to learn the language in a short period of time. Watching non-dubbed anime and Japanese films can help you get a sense of the rhythm of the language.

Once you know how to learn Japanese in an intermediary way, you will be much more motivated to keep going by the fact that you can hold some conversation and understand snippets of words in Japanese movies and music. Don’t let yourself become intimidated before you get to that point! Many thousands of Japanese of all ages put forth the effort to learn English each year in order to better communicate with Westerners for matters of business as well as social reasons. Imagine how great you’ll feel just by making the effort to meet them halfway.

Wyatt Moore
http://www.thehowtopages.com/masteralanguage/