This Course Introduces The Basics Of Japanese Language And: Fill & Download for Free

Japan was my life dream until I really lived there.I chose Japanese language and culture as my major in university, I felt the sound of Japanese language was extremely attractive that every night I listened to my text book record as a¨lullaby¨ before sleeping.After graduating, when I got an offer from a company in Japan, I felt like I won a lottery. So I started my Japan living experience as a foreigner.The first shock was during the 3 days newbie training in Tokyo head office.I learned a word 相槌 (aiduchi) which basically means when somebody (especially a senior in the company) talking to you, no matter what he/she talks, no matter you agree with him/her or not, you must keep on nodding, saying そうですね (soudesune)、なるほど(naruhodo)、はい(hai)、ええ(ee)、勉強になりました(benkyo ni narimashita) etc with a perfect smile, to show your respect. I understand and admire the social convention and manners like this, and actually it was a part of my "fancy elegant Japan" image. Still when I had to do it nonstop for 8 hours, keep a polite sweet soft voice(which is not my usual, or, let me say, real voice) and keep those sincere "I admire you, senior" eyes... It did drives me crazy.The second shock was in the “welcome party”. We newbies were the “main characters” who were supposed to give some special “show” as a tradition. I was lucky because I was both a female and a foreigner, so nobody asked me to do anything except for a short speech introducing myself. But my “douki”(the coworker who attended the company same year, so my newbie coworker) was a Japanese guy. Senior coworkers in my apartment forced him to drink a whole bottle of Tabasco in that party in front of everybody. It was a situation he had no way to escape. He did. Then he vomited terribly. I helped him cleaning and later we became friends- I realized why in Japan lots of “douki” coworkers have way better relationship with each other than with other coworkers- They kind of need a “union” to protect themselves from seniors in this strict “upper and lower relationship society”(縦社会 tatesyakai、上下関係 jyogekannkei).I said I was lucky to be a female that no male coworker in the company “bullied” me that much to feed me a bottle of Tabasco. But soon I felt maybe to be a female was not that lucky.In our office (and lots of traditional Japanese companies), there were 2 kinds of positions: “総合職 sougousyoku”(general position) and “一般職 ippansyoku”(common position).Former is the positions you can get promoted step by step, usually require higher education background; and latter is the positions basically you can never get promoted, usually ONLY for women who wouldn’t work for a long time, would quit job after get married or give a birth. (I have never seen any male in a “common position” in Japan. But if there is please correct me). So in our office, all men were in “general position” and all women were in “common position” except me. I was the only female in a “general position”. At first I was kind of, a bit proud of myself. But soon I found it was a complicated situation. Every morning female coworkers make tea or coffee for the male coworkers who they were working with. But it’s hard to say it’s part of their work as assistants or it’s just kindness. Still I have never seen any male coworker making coffee for a female coworker or a male coworker. I was a junior, I had a senior male coworker as my trainer. So I very much hesitated if I should make coffee for him. Finally I did, still I felt it’s something I HAD TO do otherwise I would look not nice and would be DIFFERENT with other girls which would make me a difficult situation in the office.Couples years later when I made some real Japanese friends, I tried to ask them why I always saw Japanese women pour tea, pass chopsticks and tissues when eating in restaurant for man, but seldom see men do such things for women? They answered me honestly “Hmmm…we got used to it… and the tea made by women is more delicious.”I found some “benefits” to be a woman in Japan too. Though I needed to serve beer for male coworkers when eating in a restaurant like my other female coworkers do, girls usually pay less than guys when separating the bill. I guess it’s somehow a “balance” in this society.Another shock is overtime work. In the first year I lived in Japan, I never finished work before 9pm, the average was 10pm. Sometimes I finished work earlier, or had nothing to do. But I dare not go home, because my boss and seniors were still working. It was too shameful to let them know I was "free". Later I got to know sometimes my boss and seniors do the same, they don't leave the office because it's too shame to let their staffs know they are "free". And of course, the overtime is basically no pay.In this answer I omitted all really amazing points of Japan because they are so obvious. Honestly to me, Japan is like a fantastic “lover” who makes me love and hate.I’m not living in Japan now. Still Japan is my favorite place to travel. Perfect service, high quality products, clean and safe, beautiful and unique- I guess to be an “outsider” and a “customer” is always easier than to be “one of them”.Well, still I love Japan. ^^

A very interesting question. Being a Korean by birth, I speak the other two as well. I always question which one should be the easiest for a foreigner - in this case, an English speaker - to learn.Conversation wise, Mandarin Chinese should be the easiest to speak. Yes, it is the tone that keeps you from learning it, or being tempted to learn, at least. However, as soon as you get used to the tonal system of Chinese, you will be thanking God that it is, in fact, tonal. It is painful for me to imagine trying to understand 'atonal' Chinese. Tone helps you a great deal once you get used to it. And i promise you, it won't take too long. The reason why it is easy to speak is that you can construct sentences in similar manner you do in English. They share good amount of grammatical rule in sentence construction.The problem kicks in when you get to learn the characters and what each one of them sounds like. If you do not have a background in Asian languages, it is guaranteed that you will suffer, at least for a while. There are simplified and traditional. You do not have to worry about the traditional ones at all, unless you want to speak Cantonese in Guangdong area, Taiwanese or read old Chinese texts.Korean alphabets are extremely easy to construct, and fairly easy to read. I have taught many friends from many different places and it did not take more than half an hour to let them grasp what's going on. In a few hours, you will read any texts out-loud. The benefit, of course, is that you can learn it to fluency without having to learn the characters.A huge challenge in learning Korean is that spoken language does not necessarily correspond to how it is written. And perhaps this is what most learners find Korean very difficult. On top of that, how the vowels are constructed can be a bit frustrating for many foreigners. However, if you pay attention to the rules it will not take long to refrain from making mistakes.My belief in difficulty of Korean grammar was deferred when I encountered a few Turkish people online who could type out Korean in perfect grammar with correct usages. They told me watching drama and movies helped them a great deal. Nevertheless, Korean should be difficult for English speakers. I believe grammar-wise, Korean and Japanese are on the same level of difficulty, let alone the fact that their grammars are miraculously similar in construction.Last but not least, Japanese language should be very easy (easiest of the three) for you to pronounce as an English speaker. Hiragana(alphabets for pure japanese words) and Katagana(for borrowed words) are straight forward, and you just have to commit them into memory. Japanese does not have supporting consonants other than 'n' and 'ng' sound, that are nasal. This makes it incredibly easier to pronounce than the other two. Basic conversations should not be difficult at all.However, complexity kicks in 'hard' when you start learning Kanji. Kanji basically means 'simplified'. Ironically, Japanese Kanji incorporates both simplified and traditional. For example, certain Kanji characters in Japan would be classified as 'traditional' in China. Although Hiragana and Katagana can transcribe any sound that exist in Japanese language, the language preserves the usage of Chinese character, whereas Korean language doesn't. One of the few benefits of using Chinese character is that you can understand the meaning even if you do not know how to read it, because it is a symbol, and also pictorial.Now an important concept has to be explained here. I should introduce an analogy of Greek root and English vocabularly to introduce how Kanji can be read in two different ways or more, in a similar manner. English word 'acoustic' came from ακου(ω) , which means 'to hear' in Greek. We still use the root 'acou' although we have 'hear' or 'listen' to explain the concept of detecting the sound wave through our ears. Now, what I am trying to explain is that when it comes to complex abstract nouns and high-level vocabulary, Japanese (and Korean) has adopted Chinese roots.For example, take a look:人 (chinese 'ren', meaning 'person') can be read in two ways. Either 'hito' or 'jin' or even 'ning'.'Hitto' is purely japanese, just like 'hear' in English. Whereas 'jin' is like 'acoustic' in English, taking Chinese root of 'ren'. ('Ren' and 'jin' actually sound similar in Asian standard..(Laugh)..)e.g." this person" in each languageこの人 in Japanese. should read : ' Kono hitto'vs這個人(trad.)/这个人(simp.) in Mandarin "Zhe ge ren"vs이 사람 in Korean " i - saram" (Notice the spacing in Korean grammar which the other two lack)"japanese person"日本人, should read 'nihonjin' in Japanesevs日本人, should read 'ri ben ren' in Mandarinvs일본인, should read ' ill-bon-in' in Korean*사람(saram) and 인(in) both have a root in 人, but we do not worry about choosing which one to read because Korean lacks Chinese characters.The bottom-line is that in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, characters could be read in two or more ways. This can make them twice as difficult. I believe Korean is very efficient when it comes to an issue like this, not having to learn any characters and still learn it to fluency.All Far-eastern languages are related in vocabulary usage, because they took words from Old Chinese, just like how English, French, Spanish each took roots from Latin and Greek. But it is important to point out that many modern vocabularies, that formed during the acquisition of Western culture, first appeared in Japan, because the Japanese took the initiative of exchanging with the West when the other two were not really interested (laugh).Japanese and Korean are very similar in grammar construction. Although both are 'isolated languages' and it is not clear where each originated from.. I came up with a decent analogy, that Korean and Japanese are like Arabic and Hebrew. And just like the two Semitic languages, they are not mutually intelligible, meaning that they can not understand each other. Mandarin is very different from the other two. It is fascinating to study how the three languages, despite the geographical proximity, have evolved in different manner.Best wishes in learning far-eastern languages!

I started learning Japanese in May last year (2014) on my own, mainly through songs and textbooks, and have already got an N2 for the test administered last July (2015), so if possible, let me share what I have in mind.The N5 test is in 3 sections: Language Knowledge (Vocabulary), Language Knowledge (Reading), and Listening.For the Language Knowledge (Vocabulary) section: you will need to master the Hiragana syllabary system, the Katakana syllabary system, as well as 300 basic Kanjis.Hiragana is important because many question items in the test will be written mostly in this form. In some question, they will write some words in Hiragana and ask you to convert them into Katakana, for example. As a result, a mastery of these two kana systems is crucial.For N5, a body of knowledge of 300 beginner-level Kanji is more than enough, and with such many Kanjis, you will be able to understand the reading very quickly. The only problem is you would have to memorize both the Kunyomi (訓読み) and Onyomi (音読み) to tackle the Language and Knowledge (Vocabulary Test) because they will give you a certain Kanji, and give you 4 options so that you can choose 1 from.For example: 新しいA. あたらしいB. あだらしいC. あらだしいD. あらましいSo, you might be asking, how the hell do I know which Kanji belongs to the 300 basic or such. Well, they have all been sorted out, and you can find them using google, or spend some money on materials, such as:Japanese Kanji Flashcards: 300 Beginner-Level Kanjior for free at this site: Common Kanji Vocabulary Lists · Tangorin Japanese DictionaryNow, the N5 would require as few as 80 Kanjis for you to pass, but trust me, you can do lots with Kanjis, so it's never too careful to learn a lot of Kanjis.But, even if you think questions of this kind (like the example above) are way too difficult, please don't panic. Questions of this kind do not account much for the total score. The one that does is the next section.The Language Knowledge (Reading - Grammar) section: you will be tested a wide range of grammar points, all of which can be found in the famous book series '皆の日本語' (Minna no Nihongo). This series have a total 4 levels, 'Elementary 1', 'Elementary 2' (You have to cover all 12 lessons in Elementary 1 in order to pass the test, but it's not that difficult), Intermediate 1, and Intermediate 2 (Similarly, a mastery of all the points in Inermediate 2 guarantees a passing scores in the Language test in N2)You will also be tested with several reading passage of short and medium length, which, if given enough practice, is easy as hell. You can find practice in Test booklet N5, or the textbook and workbook of '皆の日本語' (Minna no Nihongo), but extra-practice is never redundant.For the Listening section, for me, I often listen to songs from animes, turn on the lyrics, and sing along. It works magic for me. I had no troubles understanding all the sentences spoken in the test.That said, you still need to work on the workbook, though. And to assure you, all the test items will be of a similar level of difficulty to that of the workbook of '皆の日本語' (Minna no Nihongo).There are also plenty of channels on Youtube that offers free lessons.---All these can be done in space of 2 months if you are determined enough.Just make sure you have a good schedule (reasonable enough not to drop mid-way, yet strict enough to yield results). I used to wake up at around 6 in the morning, write Kanji (to memorize them) for about 45 mins. After that, I would read some passages from the textbook.I would always leave my music on, with lyrics sideway so I can check the meaning constantly if I need. Anime lyrics is everywhere online, so I am sure you will have no trouble looking for them.Good luck.***Added December 15, 2020***1) UpdateI haven't used Quora for a while, and I have to say I am completely overwhelmed by the support I received the past years without even knowing: over 250 upvotes and almost 70k views? Never in my wildest dream could I believe my answer would be this well-circulated (of course for a nobody like me).A little update: I got a Master’s from Waseda Univ. in 2018, and is now working full time for a Japanese consulting company. I passed N1 in Dec 2016, about 3 months into graduate school. I also passed an exam on Kanji formally known as 漢字検定2級(かんじけんてい２きゅう・Test of Kanji Aptitude Level 2), an exam intended for Japanese high school to measure their resource of kanji as preparedness for their college, especially in humanity majors. My working life in Tokyo has its ups and downs, but I definitely wouldn't have been able to ‘enjoy’ this many privileges had I not studied Japanese well before coming to Japan.Anyway, as a thank you for all your support, and your enthusiasm in learning Japanese, I thought I would write some more on learning materials, especially for elementary and pre-intermediate learners, in this email thread, and would try to spend more time writing on learning Japanese on Quora.2) More Learning ResourcesFree Textbooks & Resourcesa) Marugoto: A brand new series of Japanese textbooks was recently released, and has been beloved by many Japanese language teachers who do not feel like adhering to the heavily receptive-skills-focused of JLPT. The series emphasizes communication and pronunciation, helping learners to speak by imitating sampled conversations. It is also very content-based, as most lessons provides a glimpse into Japanese identity, culture, and lifestyle.The wonderful thing is, the publisher upload supplementary learning contents of the series for free (sadly not the textbooks themselves), but because the kanji, vocabulary and grammar knowledge are designed based on the corresponding amount of knowledge necessary for the JLPT (which was still gold-standard for judging one’s level of Japanese in Japan), so you can use it to prepare for your tests.Here’s the link for you to explore: MarugotoI suggest combing through the e-Learning materials. I was hooked, too.b) Online Japanese Accent Dictionary (OJAD)Portal for Learning JapaneseThis website is beloved by most Japanese teachers of oral skills and pronunciation. You enter a phrase, a word, a sentence, or a text, and the machine will render the sounds so you know how the input is supposed to be read, pronounced, or whatever. The manual is carefully recorded so I will not explain here.Youtube ChannelsHere a a few of my past and current favorite Youtube channels for learning Japanese. I have to say, however, some of the contents introduced below are intended for JLPT N3 level or above, because I myself started them when I already got my N2.1) Nihongo no Mori: 日本語の森 fun-loving young Japanese giving lessons on the JLPT tests (N3 and above)2) Bilingirl Chika: バイリンガール英会話 | Bilingirl Chika a vlog of a Japanese bilinguals on her life: travel, work, family. When she started out, she gave a lot of Japanese lessons (from the perspectives of a native who knows English), but now its more culture- and lifestyle-specific.3) Dogen: Dogen This guy is just pure gold. His videos are hilarious, although to understand you will need to have some intermediate level of Japanese.4) CGGAKA: Official CGGAKA A tourism promotion site. They are so polite they include an English video for every Japanese video they made. Their language is quite refined and might be good for you if you are aiming for N2 or above.5) Onomappu: Onomappu This Japanese guy teaches onomatopoeia to non-native speakers. I have to say it helps me a lot, because words like these are not in the tests, but are heavily used in daily conversations.Happy learning!To conclude: I will try to be more active on Quora after a few years off, and will work to answer your questions if directed at me.