If you are wanting to learn a new language, and are considering Japanese, then maybe this post will convince you to continue down that path. Below are some of the reasons I find Japanese an appealing option. Ultimately though, the best choice will always be the language you are the most likely to stick with, so it is important that you take the time to recognize what motivates you.

Japanese is different

Since Japanese is not a part of the Indo-European family of languages, it contains some features that can feel quite alien. This is good though, because it opens up your mind to new concepts that you never would have known existed. It also makes studying the language more interesting.

For example, a portion of the language that you will spend a lot of time on is the writing system. Japanese employs three different scripts and one of these is called Kanji, which consists of thousands of characters. This may seem daunting, but it is also really cool.

This in conjunction with an abundance of new and foreign grammatical concepts will ensure that every day you spend studying Japanese is an adventure.

Japanese isn’t that difficult

Many potential learners get scared off by the perceived difficulty of the language, but a lot of this is overblown. Of course learning a new language is difficult, but Japanese is not necessarily harder than the others.

One of the first things you may notice is that the pronunciation of the language is very easy. There is only one real hurdle that most learners need to get past, which is the ‘R’ sound. After that, it is smooth sailing. Also, you will be relieved to see that pronunciation and spelling rules are consistent. Unlike English, which is absolutely littered with exceptions, in Japanese if you see a word, you are pretty much guaranteed to know how to correctly say it.

Also, you can take heart from the fact that Japanese grammar omits a lot of rules that give headaches in other languages. You will never need to memorize which words are masculine and which are feminine, you won’t struggle with verb conjugations based on the various pronoun categories, and you can often drop pieces of a sentence entirely if it can be inferred by context what they are.

Even the difficulty of learning Kanji, which is herladed as the most painful part of learning Japanese, can be reduced if you take the right approach. Books like James Heisig’s ‘Remembering the Kanji’ and online services like WaniKani have made it possible to learn Kanji quickly and easily.

Japanese is aesthetically pleasing

The language is one you can really drink in. The script is beautiful and the sound it produces is pleasing to the ear.

The culture is interesting

Typically the biggest motivator for people when learning a language is the culture behind it, and Japan certainly has no shortage of that. There are already plenty of articles that extol Japan’s culture and the enormous influence the country has had on the world, so I won’t try to duplicate that here. Suffice it to say there is probably some aspect of the culture that you will find interesting.