Monday, 4 April 2011

Top Five Components Of A Japanese Language Course

By Chase Crawford


You need to go through a Japanese language course regardless of whether you're going to Japan for business or for pleasure. Understanding and knowing how to speak and read the local language is essential to enhancing your positive experience while in Japan. You shouldn't just settle for any learning program though. You need to settle for one that contains five essential components.

Conjugation Guide

You probably won't have a hard time memorizing essential phrases. Do take note though that talking to someone in Japanese doesn't just involve speaking in single words. To be completely comprehensible, you need to know a little bit about verb conjugation. Verbs in the Japanese language are often found at the very end of sentences and are vital because subjects are often omitted. In general, when you learn to speak Japanese, you will be introduced to verbs ending in "u" and "iru".

Essential Counters

In English, counting is a breeze. You simply have to learn one set of numbers that you can use for counting anything. In Japan, learning how to count isn't as straightforward. Of course, you can learn to count up to 10 but actual counting involves specific counters. You'd have to memorize hundreds of counters for inanimate objects, animals and other things.

Cultural Context

Any Japanese language course that does not include an introduction to Japan's culture is almost useless. The culture of the country is not just different from western cultures. It can also sometimes get a bit complicated when integrated with the use of the spoken and written tongue.

Take for instance the general local traits of respectfulness and politeness. These are aptly demonstrated in the use of various degrees of honorific terms and titles. You will have to go through learning keigo and its categories, sonkeigo, kenjogo and teineigo to differentiate how you speak to business associates and social acquaintances.

Reading Characters

It's isn't impossible or too hard to complete a Japanese language course for speech. A bigger challenge would be overcoming the reading challenge. There are hundreds of characters to commit to memory and these are divided into kanji, katakana and hiragana. You need to master many of these characters if you want to be able to navigate the local area quickly and without a hitch.

Pronunciation Tutorial

Pronunciation is one other vital element that you need to tackle if you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of other people. Thankfully, Japanese is not as difficult to pronounce as English. There are however a couple of clear rules of thumb that you'd need to keep in mind. Take for example the standing rule that "l" and "r" are omitted. In some cases the "u" sound is also taken out if it is at the end of a word. Also, words are often pronounced by syllables.

There are so many different Japanese language course programs being offered out there. You can't just pick a course randomly though. If you really want to communicate effectively and experience a grand time in Japan, you need to go through a language course that goes beyond just helping you memorize phrases and words.




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