Help me with my Research Project.

[Nathan]

Age: 24
Years as a student: Approximately 3
- 2 years Japan residence
- 1 year self study
Kind of learning center :
- Living in Japan, self study

Why do you study Japanese?

My roommates in college were addicted to anime, and I developed an interest in what those "crazy voices" were saying. Now I've come to like the language itself, and have subsequently developed a minor interest in languages on the whole.

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn?

Learning a new language is never easy. Maybe if you only learned oral Japanese it wouldn't be as hard, but being literate as well is definitely challenging.

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why?

Kanji and colloquials. Different dialects. For example, after having it drilled into me by textbooks and online sources that men don't add "wa" at the end of their sentences, but women do, and then hearing native Osaka males do it often caused me some confusion.

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first?

Hiragana and katakana. They're the building blocks to Japanese. That, and self introduction language.

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet?

It took me about 3 weeks of constant practice and study. I just wrote them over and over until I had them memorized. I wrote them in the Japanese chart style, reorganized it to be an English style chart (a,e,i,o,u, ka ke ki ko ku rather than a i u e o, ka ki ku ke ko). Lots of repetition.

What was the first thing you were taught?

I'll assume you mean taught by another person, not from self-study:
[okawari!]

If not, then the first thing was the S-O-V style of Japanese grammar.

What are the most common mistakes?

Homonyms and other similar sounding words. You could write a book on them (in fact, several have been!)
Similar Word Example: kowai / kawaii, suwaru / sawaru, ninjin / ningen, kirei / kirai
* Nothing is more humbling than realising you just called a baby scary and not cute, or having said you dislike something rather than sayings its pretty.

Homonyms: kaeru (to return) kaeru (a frog), iru (to need) iru (to exist)
Context is very important in Japanese.

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future?

I do hope to eventually need a job using Japanese, but realistically its just a hobby at the moment.

[Harold]

Age: 17
Years as a student: 1 year
Kind of learning center (university, language school, etc.) : Self-study. Fellow friends in schools that offer Japanese in high school tell me I'm at least a Japanese 4 level, if that accounts for anything. I don't really believe it, though...

Why do you study Japanese? I love talking to the people, enjoying the music, and the culture overall

Do you think it is a difficult language to learn? Yes

What are the main difficulties you face when learning Japanese? Why? The number one on my list is conversational Japanese. I can't keep up with conversations very often. Also, Kanji... You can recognize kanji after seeing them frequently, but when it comes time to write them down, you go totally blank. Just the thought of learning 2,000 kanji sounds difficult but is very possible!

What is the easiest thing to learn? What did you learn first? the kanji for 1, 2, and 3, of course. I learned Hiragana first.

How long does it take to get used to the Japanese alphabet? A month or so.

What was the first thing you were taught? Te forms. They were hard at first, so I had to goto a forum for some help.

What are the most common mistakes? My most common mistakes are mixing up the particles wa and ga, ni and de, and tense problems.

What will your knowledge of the language be useful for in the future? Being able to speak with 150 million people is definitely useful. It will open up a plethora of jobs for me and will make me look better than "that guy" when someone is reviewing my résumé.