Learning Japanese

After two weeks in Mexico, my Spanish improved noticeably. After four months in Japan, my Japanese is humiliating. I can only form short sentences, and most of my utterances I learned from the kids in my English classes. While I have studied on my own, as an English teacher living with other English speakers, I have little opportunity to practice waht I study. Beyond eating out and Japanese friends with excellent English, I barely use the words I learn. While Mexico was a language immersion opportunity where Spanish was almost all I could speak, living in Japan, English has remained my number one language for communication.

There are three writing systems in Japan. Originally, written language came from China with the arrival of kanji. There are the symbols we all recognize from tatoos across America. They are often very beautiful and can symbolize a sound, a word, and a meaning. From kanji, both hiragana (pictured) and katakana were derived. Katakana is the written language reserved for foreign words. English words that have been adopted by Japan always appear in katakana. All Japanese can also be written in romanji as well. And while learning hiragana has helped my pronunciation, being illiterate in kanji prevents me from reading much.

However, while I have learned slowly so far, Japan is an amazing country for providing Japanese lessons. In Nagoya there are a great many schools that teach Japanese for incredibly cheap prices. For a few dollars a lesson you can study with a class. For the equivalent of $30 you can get a private lesson for two hours. Even better perhaps, the large number of Japanese students learning English are another great resource. Most cities have a center where they can post messages to search for language exchange buddies. My goal for 2007 is to finally get to work and learn the language. Or at least increase my vocabulary beyond food related topics. Watashi wa sushi o suki desu. (I like sushi - at least I hope that's what it says...)