History
The Japanese language has a very individual language stem. It originates from the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukaan) language family, but is the only branch in this language family. There have only been two strong influences in the past on the Japanese language: English and Chinese. Chinese has been picked up through contact with the Chinese culture from around the 5th century onwards, while the English language has something of a kitsch following in Japan. The English language is treated in a very similar way to the way that many Western societies treat the beautiful Asian languages of Japanese and Chinese.
In the early part of the last century, the Japanese language had a definite split between the written and spoken versions of the language. Bungo, or literary language, carried a very different form to colloquial language, or kogo. The former is considered to be a very formalized way of speaking, and is barely used today, with the more informal language now being used in writing as well.
Popularity
Over 130 million people worldwide speak the Japanese language, though Japanese is spoken mainly in the country of Japan where it is the official language. When Japan occupied countries in the Second World War, such as Korea, Taiwan, and areas of China, many of the local people in these countries were forced to learn the Japanese language. While there is obviously a backlash against the Japanese language in these places today, many older people in these countries can also speak Japanese.
The area that has the highest number of Japanese speakers outside of the country of Japan is Brazil, where there are around 1.5 million Japanese immigrants living today. There are also a significant amount of Japanese speakers living in Hawaii, Peru, Australia, the U.S., and the Philippines.
In Japan itself, there are dozens of different dialects, though these can mostly be categorized into one of three groups. These three groups are Tokyo-type, Kyoto/Osaka-type, and Kyushu-type. Tokyo-type is from the Tokyo and surrounding area, while the Kyoto/Osaka-type dialects are from the central region. Kyushu-type dialects are a much smaller group. An unfortunate thing about the Japanese language is that certain dialects are unintelligible from others, so the best thing to do as a beginner to the language, if you are in the country itself, to stick to learning the Tokyo dialect.
Language
The Japanese language is written in three different scripts, which each use a different alphabet. This can be a little confusing for the beginner, but it is best to keep in mind that often the Latin Alphabet is also used in Japan, which gives a phonetic translation of Japanese words. When the Latin alphabet is used, the words are said to be written in romaji. However, the three alphabets that are used in the Japanese language are Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana.
The Kanji characters are originally characters of Chinese origin that have been adopted by the Japanese language. They are a combination of Japanese morphemes and Chinese loanwords, and the word Kanji itself literally means Chinese characters. Hiragana and Katakana are two syllabic scripts created from modified Chinese characters, and both contain 48 characters in their alphabet.
Why Learn The Japanese Language?
The Japanese language is one that is very heavily based on politeness. There are many words that one can use, both in day to day situations and in formal ones that can show your respect to the speaker. Many of these are based on age, as respecting your elders is an integral part of Japanese community life, both in small villages and the big cities. As a newcomer to the language, you will be given a little bit of leeway in terms of understanding the various nuances of politeness, but as a sign of respect, it is best to learn about these terms before you speak with a Japanese speaker or go to the country of Japan.
Many Universities and higher education schools of study offer Japanese language courses, which are very popular throughout the world. Japan is a very individual country, and one that clearly holds a high level of fascination for many people. It enjoys a high level of comfort and technology at the same time as developing many entertainment avenues. By studying Japanese, one can become much more involved with aspects of the culture such as anime, manga comics, video games, Japanese films, and the wide range of literature that is available. The Japanese language is invaluable in understanding more of this unique and quirky culture.
Chinese, Korean people didn’t learn Japanese language.
and Japan even couldn’t conquer Korea and China. During WW2, the order to teach Japanese was nominal, so nobody learned Japanese except some national betrayers. In addition, Japan couldn’t erect stady-state goverment for China and Korea. the goverments were crude, and Japanese armies in China and in Korea always faced with battles. Moreover, Japanese armies were usually defeated by Korean and Chinese armies, after they had established the stupid goverment in China and in Korea because Japanese armies were dispersed. Therefore, We can’t say Japan conquered China and Korea. Japanese people could hardly live in China and Korea, and even Japanese armies barely stayed only in a few big cities of Korea and China.
The biggest reason to learn Japanese is because Japanese people have such a hard time with English. Other difficult languages, such as Korean and Mandarin/Cantonese, are not as important to study, because Koreans and Chinese people learn English in a snap. But Japanese people have proven that they will never learn English properly.
You will never learn Chinese or Korean as well as native speakers of those languages will learn English. But if you study Japanese, you stand a great chance at being much better at it than a Japanese person is at English. (I.e. you can get a job doing it!)
While I am a longtime admirer of world cultures, particularly Japanese, I am but a novice in the language. That said, I am also an avid historian. What Anonimity stated in the first post is somewhat true: Japanese armies did face enormous losses in numbers during WWII and did fail at conquering China. What they fail to note is that by WWII, Korea and Taiwan had been an integrated part of Japan for several decades, and Manchuria in Northern China had been a puppet-state for some years. As for the the statement that the Japanese armies inability to stay in conquered cities, this was more due to the constant guerrilla warfare in the countryside, which only later moved into the cities. One must remember Nanjing and Hong Kong in particular. And while few people in mainland China did not learn Japanese, Manchuria, Taiwan and Korea were completely different cases. I do not mean to insult Anonimity, but I do hope they go and actually look up facts before attempting to post them.
Do NOT listen to Bret about Koreans and English. From my experience, Koreans find learning English as hard or even harder than the Japanese. Most Korean students study English regularly for many years, arrive at university and speak like beginners due to comparitive language difficulty, poor study routines, bad learning methods and poor motivation. Do NOT let incorrect utterances this put you off learning Korean.
From a historical perspective, everything you’ve just said is wrong. From 1910, Japan controlled Korea directly as an annexed territory. It also operated a puppet regime in Manchuria (called Manchukuo) which is a part of China. Japan, during World War 2, conquered most of China mostly in the Eastern Provinces close to the Ocean. Most of China’s population centers besides Chongqing were conquered. Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Changsha, and Peking. They demolished Chinese armies and Korean units didn’t exist at all. The Chinese armies you speak of that Japan was usually beaten by didn’t exist. The Japanese wiped the floor with the Chinese. The Chinese were crippled by corruption, a lack of industrialization, were fractured by Warlords, and good leadership. Japan only saw problems when they were bogged down in Central China and their army wasn’t large enough to cover the whole front. Plus, the Japanese language was enforced harshly in Korea and many of the older generation can still speak it fluently. The Japanese also had settlers in Manchurian and Korea but less so in mainland China. Check your facts next time you comment something and please pick up a History book before you talk about this kind of stuff ever again.