If you're thinking of learning a language (Japanese or otherwise) I wouldn't recommend a tutor. My lesson was really fun, really interesting and I will carry it on, but to be honest all the information they teach (and more) is on the internet for free.
However I spent time on the internet, I learnt to read the Hirigana and Katakana Syllabary myself, I then went to a tutor to practice pronunciation and I find I learn best when there is someone in front of me to answer any of my usually ridiculous questions.
There is of course Pro's and Con's to having a tutor and to learning on the internet. I would recommend Tofugu as a great starting place online (Also I must add, if you have an Iphone/Ipad then the "Human Japanese" app is amazing, one of the best purchases I've ever made. It seems expensive, £6 on iphone and £10 on ipad but believe me it's more than worth it)
Of course the decision is yours.
Anyway, that links in nicely with today's cultural note. As I had my first tutor lesson this week, I thought I'd talk about the Japanese Language.
Something very interesting about Japanese language is that, to this day, it's still unclear of where it actually originated from. 3rd Century Chinese Documents contain some Japanese words, but large amounts were not recorded until much much later.
As far as I am aware the first authenticated form of Japanese writing came around the 8th Century, conveniently tilted "Old Japanese". This "Old Japanese" came in the form of a document named the Kojiki which consisted of a selection of myths regarding the main islands of Japan (apparently).
Old Japanese soon found it's way to "Late Middle Japanese" (all very easy to remember). Late middle Japanese must of been terribly confusing for the people of Japan, especially those older generations. Why I hear you ask? (If you didn't ask why, then I shall give you space to do so now..)
Why I hear you ask? well because late middle Japanese saw the introduction of European words (Tobako - tobacco etc). A lot more happened in Late middle Japanese, if you are interested do some research on Google, if not you are more than welcome to ask me.
More importantly I wanted to talk about Modern Japanese. Again there is a lot of information that I could talk about, but it will probably bore most people so I won't (and again if you want the information just ask me or ask Google).
So, present day Japanese consist of 4 "alphabets" known as Syllabary. The 1st one is Romanji, which is Roman letters. If you don't know Roman letters, then you're wasting your time reading this as everything I've written has been in Roman letters. In Japanese they're pretty useless though, so don't panic.
The second and quite possibly most important Japanese Syllabary is Hirigana. Hirigana is used to write Native Japanese words (when there isn't a Kanji - which will be discussed). This seems to be the first syllabary learned by both Japanese students and those learning Japanese.
If you have a good understand of Hirigana then you can start to really open up your Japanese learning.
I am more than happy to teach anyone Hirigana, as I have a relatively good comprehension of it now.
I will write a new post tomorrow which contains much more information on Hirigana and Katakana, and will also be a good start for you to learn.
Okay so next is Katakana.
Katakana is used to write "borrowed" words.
More appropriately called Foreign or European words (like Tobako, Pan, Glass etc etc).
And last but by NO means least is Kanji.
Kanji is probably the hardest to learn (hence why I haven't yet).
There is way over 1000 Kanji to memorize, some Kanji have more than one meaning as well, which makes it very very hard.
Essentially it is the borrowed Chinese writing system, used for Japanese words.
As
I said a million times over, there is a lot more information, I don't
want to bore anyone but you are more than welcome to ask me for any
information you want. I have just provided brief notes for you to read.
I will write about Hirigana and Katakana tomorrow, which I hope to provide a learning tool with.
Apologise if this post feels rushed or slightly boring, it's a little later than I usually write and I am slightly tired, which means I tend to waffle.
I hope you have enjoyed my brief lesson on the Japanese Language system, you probably havent learned anything, but there is always another day. Hopefully that day is tomorrow when you come back and read my Hirigana and Katakana Lesson.
Be sure to follow us on twitter - @TurnChapanese
I appreciate any help in promoting this post. There is links to share this page on facebook and twitter, so I hope people use them.
I also hope this post makes some form of sense.
Thanks again
Dan
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