1. Japanese にほんご
Japanese is very different from English and Chinese.
The main differences from English are followings.
1. Word order
The word order in Japanese is opposite from English.
Verb in English is just after the subject, but in Japanese it is located at the last of a sentence.
I am an American.
Watashi Wa Amerikajin Desu.
わたしは アメリカじん です。
Here “Watashi(わたし)” is a subject.
“Desu(です)” is a verb.
2. Postpositional particles
The postpositional particles are unique for Japanese.
It shows the function of the previous word.
Watashi Wa Amerikajin Desu
わたしは アメリカじん です。
Here “Wa(は)” is a postpositional particle.
This postpositional particle indicates a subject.
It means “Wa(は)” indicates “Watashi(わたし)” is a subject of this sentence.
There are various postpositional particles in Japanese.
It makes Japanese difficult, but when you learn 1 postpositional particle you can open 1 big door of Japanese learning.
3. Characters
Japanese has 3 kinds of character.
There are Hiragana( ひらがな), Katakana(カタカナ) and Kanji(漢字).
わたしは アメリカ人 です。
Here “わたしは” and “です” are Hiragana(ひらがな)
Hiragana is simplified form of Kanji character.
The Hiragana characters indicate pronunciations.
“アメリカ” is Katakana(カタカナ).
The Katakana characters also indicate pronunciations.
And they are used for Japanese but it came from foreign countries or foreign language.
For example ” コンピューター（Konpyuta) is a computer.
“カメラ(kamera)” is a camera.
“人(Jin)” is Kanji.
The Kanji characters came from China.
The present Chinese characters are simplified version.
It is different from Japanese Kanji.
Kanji in Japan and Taiwan is more original form, but it has complicated shape.
Each Kanji character in Japan has a few pronunciations.
It makes Japanese learners difficult to understand.
4. Pronunciation
The pronunciation in Japanese is easy to learn.
There are 5 vowels, “あ(a)”, “い(i)”, “う(u)”, “え(e)” and “お(o)”.
And there are 9 consonants, “K”, “S”, “T”, “N”, “H”, “M”, “Y”, “R”, “W”.
And there is 1 special consonants “ん(N)”.
Japanese remember the consonants with “あ(a)” vowel like “あかさたなはまやらわん”.
When you remember these 5 vowels “あいうえお” and 10 consonants “あかさたなはまやらわん” , you can speak basic Japanese 50 pronunciations.
There are some voiced consonants and contracted sounds.
The Hiragana characters indicate pronunciations.
Each character has basically one pronunciation.
The exceptions are “は” and “へ”.
“は” has “ha” and “wa” pronunciations.
“は” is pronounced “wa” at “は” works as postpositional particle “は(wa)”.
“へ” has “he” and “e” pronunciations.
“へ” is pronounced “e” at “へ” works as postpositional particle “へ(e)”
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