Japanese people: would you say learning English was difficult for you?

Question

Did you find learning English was difficult? I know all languages are difficult to learn and all, but I wanted to know from a Japanese person's point of view. I've been studying Japanese for a little bit, and I've always been curious. It seems really difficult learning English, especially from a Japanese person's point of view. Did it take you ages to learn? It's just curiosity :D I find Japanese quite hard :S

Answer 1

I think it just matters if you are interested in languages/culture or not.

I myself was good in school days (especially junior-high), having good marks without reviewing what I had learned at school. But when it came to "conversation" later on, I had to change my school text books to practical ones. When I first went to the states, I was amazed by native speaker's speed, and barely communicated with them.

Japanese is one of the most difficult languages, I agree. It's not so flexible/practical as English.



"What one likes, one will do well" (suki koso mono no jouzu nare)

Answer 2

From my point of view, English is a really difficult language, well if you really want to use it properly. English is my second language, and now I have become a English trainer for the people learning English.

1. There are so many rules (grammatical stuff) in the language system, and you have to mind yourself to use them accordingly.

2. there are so many syllables for most words when you speak. You have to speed up your pronunciation if you want to achieve that fluency. but be aware native speakers have the oral muscle built, you have not. you may tumble easily when you try to follow the conversation flow with native English speakers even though you have very good English knowledge.

3. English language has never experienced any collation in the history. a lot of words come from other languages, and some grammatical rules are lack of logical reason, and are truly nuisances.

4. too many vocabularies. look at the dictionary, and you will see how many things you should remember. and it is common for even those native English speakers to encounter difficulties in reading articles. well, they may guess the meaning anyway, but there must be some words they are not sure anyway... but in other languages, as a scholar or well-educated person, it is very rare for you to have some words that you can't recognise.



So if someone says English is an easy language, I alway dismiss such comments because I know they have never experienced the difficulties to learn the language, or they may only get the "grocery shopping" language skills.

When you cross a river, it should take you the same strength from one shore to another. there is no such thing that learning English is easy whereas leaning Japanese is difficult. as long as you want to cross the language barriers that are the things in the middle, you will experience the same...

Hope this help

Answer 3

Yes, It took ages and decades for me to become able to write this much in English in response to your question.

Frankly it has been long and hard for me to learn English and it seems I have to keep learning all my life to become as fluent as a native speaker.

As you know, learning a foreign language is to learn not only a language and also it's culture, people, history and every aspect of people's life.

Hope you would keep on learning Japanese and its culture. It is hard but at the same time pleasure to appreciate other culture.

Answer 4

Yes, it's difficult for me, especially in speaking and hearing possibly because we have totally different range of voice frequency; much lower frequency than English. But I know I'll be able to speak very fluently with day-to-day practice and a spirit of never-give-up. Actually I've made a lot of friends from other countries and had lots of wonderful experiences in both business as well as private life with English cultures. I have reasons and incentives good enough to keep studying it. I love studying English and it's definitely of a big fun! I also wanted you to be always encouraged to keep studying Japanese :D Thanks much for a good question.

Answer 5

I did not find it difficult so much. But it took some time because I had to learn every word as Japanese and English have few common words.



BTW, I think English classes at Japanese schools made it somewhat more difficult because those classes are all non-sense. They do not teach how to speak. They teach only some knowledge on grammars.

Answer 6

Learn Japanese – You think Japanese is hard?

24 Jan 2006 ... I originally wrote this for my blog and I thought I'd copy and paste it here ... Ahh, but you're forgetting that Japanese people can read your mind. ... I'm looking for a cheap place to stay,” all you have to do is say, “Me… ... considering how much more difficult English is compared to Japanese.

Answer 7

japanese teachers often said that

learning english is easier than learning japanese,

so you guys who have already mastered japanese

will easily master english. so dont worry:'(



for me, grammatical english is not so hard but

verbal daily expressions are hard to learn.