There is no question that it does take longer to learn Japanese than some other languages. At the same time, there are about 500,000 Americans who live in Japan, so it is certainly possible. And there are over 120 million speakers of Japanese in the World, so it

There are some 130 million people who speak Japanese. Japanese is a part of the Japonic-Ryukyuan languages. It is spoken mostly in Japan. It is also spoken sometimes in Korea, parts of Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Philippines and some Pacific Islands which were under the occupation of the Japanese during and after the World War II. There are Japanese emigrants communities in Brazil, Argentina, Hawaii, Australia, Peru and the United States who also speak the language. But their descendants no longer speak the language fluently. Japan as well as the island nation of Palau has Japanese as their official language. Words from other languages have been borrowed and incorporated into the Japanese vocabulary. Prominent amongst them are the Chinese words. This has resulted from the interaction lasting 1,500 years. Indo-European languages too are its other source. Some Portuguese have been borrowed during the 16^th century and Dutch in the 17^th century and particularly English in the 19h century. Japanese script is a combination of three other types of scripts, namely Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji is the modified Chinese characters. Hiragana and Katakana are two syllabic scripts of the modified Chinese characters.

Hy?jungo is the standard form of the Japanese language which is taught in the schools and used officially though Ky?ts?go is the form that is the common language. K?go, the colloquial language is commonly used in writing though the traditional literary written language, Bungo, has become dormant. There are many dialects spoken in Japan. The predominant one is the Tokyo-type, followed by the Kyoto-Osaka-type and the Ky?sh?-type. The dialects of the peripheral regions such as T?hoku or Tsushima or southern Ky?sh? are often unintelligible to the mainstream Japanese. The Ry?ky?an languages, spoken in Okinawa and Amami Islands though distinct are treated as dialects of Japanese. The mass media, education and the mobility of people have made the standard Japanese prevalent nationwide.

The world

of Japanese

As with many languages, the language of Japanese contains many different dialects, which can make learning the language hard. The differences in dialect come from different groups of people; perhaps they have adapted the language themselves or maybe have taken words from other societies. This is why the Japanese language differs so much from one group of people to the next.

The dialects that vary in any language can most often be attributed to accents that the individuals have, as well as changes in their vocabulary usage. It may be that some groups of people have slight changes in the way that they pronounce their vowels. Even though it may seem that simple changes made to a vowel or group of vowels would not make a huge difference in the way a language sounds, it certainly can. The Japanese people may have variations in their speech depending on what area of Japan they live in, along with other aspects surrounding the unique Japanese culture.

Not all of the words that are used in the Japanese language are particularly of Japanese origin. Several of them are words that have been taken from other parts of the world. There are words used in the language of Japan that even have their origins within the U.S. This is not the only language that has “borrowed” words from other cultures. There are many words used in the English language that have their origins in other parts of the world as well. This happens most often when other cultures become well loved to a non-native culture or when other cultural exchanges are made.

While learning the language of Japanese may not be completely simple, it is certainly a possibility if a person takes the time and has the determination. It is best to know that within Japanese society there are different groups of individuals that say certain words differently and/or replace particular words with others. Having this information makes it simpler to know how the language is set up and works. While the variations may be small between groups, if listened to closely, they can be noticed.