Learning Japanese has a reputation for being challenging for native English speakers.

The reality is that Japanese simply requires time and consistency.

The Foreign Service Institute classifies Japanese as a Category V language, meaning it takes an average English speaker about 2,200 hours to reach fluency.

However, many aspects of the Japanese language are actually much easier than European languages.

I’ll break down the different parts of Japanese so you know exactly what to expect on your language journey.

The Japanese writing system

The writing system is often the biggest hurdle for new learners.

Japanese uses three different scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji.

Hiragana and katakana are phonetic alphabets that each contain 46 basic characters.

You can easily learn both of these scripts in a single weekend.

Kanji is a system of adopted Chinese characters that represent ideas and sounds.

There are over 2,000 kanji needed for daily life in Japan.

This is the main reason why Japanese takes a long time to learn.

You have to memorize the visual character, its meaning, and its multiple pronunciations.

Japanese grammar is highly logical

Grammar is where Japanese starts to become very easy for beginners.

Unlike Spanish or French, Japanese has no noun genders to memorize.

There are also no complex plural forms or articles like “a” or “the” to worry about.

Japanese uses a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) sentence structure.

This means the verb always comes at the very end of the sentence.

Verb conjugation in Japanese is extremely regular.

Once you learn a conjugation rule, it applies to almost every single verb in the language.

There are only two irregular verbs in the entire Japanese language to memorize.

Pronunciation is easier than you think

Many people assume Japanese is a tonal language like Mandarin Chinese.

Japanese isn’t a tonal language.

It uses a pitch accent system, which simply means some syllables are pronounced slightly higher or lower.

However, getting the pitch accent wrong rarely prevents a native speaker from understanding you.

Japanese only has five basic vowel sounds: a, i, u, e, and o.

These vowels are always pronounced the exact same way, no matter where they appear in a word.

English has over 15 different vowel sounds, making English pronunciation much harder for foreigners.

English loanwords give you a head start

You already know thousands of Japanese words before you even start studying.

Japanese frequently borrows words from English, known as gairaigo.

These words are always written in the katakana script.

They’re slightly modified to fit Japanese pronunciation rules.

Here are a few common examples you’ll recognize immediately.

Japanese regional dialects (hougen)

Standard Japanese is understood by everyone across the country.

However, Japan is famous for its rich regional dialects, known as hougen.

If you travel to Osaka or Kyoto, you’ll hear the Kansai dialect (Kansai-ben).

This dialect changes standard verb endings and uses completely different vocabulary for everyday items.

You don’t need to learn regional dialects as a beginner.

Focus entirely on standard Japanese first.

Once you reach an intermediate level, learning local phrases makes interacting with locals much more fun.

Best resources to start learning

Starting with the right learning materials will save you hundreds of hours.

You should focus on resources that prioritize spoken fluency and foundational grammar.

Here are the best tools to start your Japanese journey:

• Talk In Japanese is our highly recommended interactive platform for mastering real-world Japanese quickly.
• WaniKani is an excellent spaced-repetition app specifically for learning kanji characters.
• Anki is a free flashcard software that helps you memorize vocabulary efficiently.
• Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese is a fantastic free website for understanding grammar logically.

Consistency is the most important factor when learning Japanese.