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Don’t be intimidated, it’s very possible for you to learn Japanese now. Just bring along some enthusiasm, commitment, and focus and you’re off to a good start. Of course, aside from your optimism, it’s important to understand a few basics. Japanese employs three different “alphabets”:

* Kanji * Hiragana * Katakana

Kanji is a “picture” alphabet that uses Chinese characters.

Katakana and Hiragana, both based on Chinese characters, are scripts that represent sounds like Western alphabets. Kanji and Hiragana, in combination, are the most used writing systems in modern Japanese. Because of today’s broad culture, Katakana is necessary to form the sounds of borrowed words, and to refer to other sounds, like the ticking of a clock.

We often accuse Asians of doing everything backwards, no matter which writing system is employed, in Japanese writing characters are written from top to bottom, vertically, the columns running from right to left. The Western style has been adapted to scientific writing and for computer display, but the familiar method remains in use in practically all other Japanese publications.

Folks from Western egalitarian cultures may find it odd that the Japanese language takes on different subtleties when it comes to the class of the person speaking or spoken to, and there are levels of politeness as well. Going even further, the language used within Japanese can indicate the gender of the speaker as well as the gender of the listener, this is done through the use of vocabulary, grammar, and even the pitch or tone of voice.

As always, commercial language institutes promote the facility of their language lessons as being the best and quickest way to learn. When you start to consider a school or method of learning, keep a few things in mind to help you choose wisely: Budget. Level of interest. Amount of time you want to spend. To learn Japanese now, you have to determine whether or not the curriculum or method of teaching is suitable for your needs. What do you want or need to do? Do you want good reading and writing skills? Will you need it facilitate your ease of travel and communication with native speakers? Learning a bunch of characters and scripts isn’t necessary if you’re going to just be wandering around – you need to learn conversation.

If you do want to learn Japanese now by reading and writing, it’s always a good idea to get a grasp of the spoken language before tackling the harder reading and writing. Listening to a native speaker pronounce and use words is the best way to pick up conversational language, get yourself audio files to help you with this. (If you’re planning to learn reading and writing, even lesson books that focus on those skills also include audio CD-ROMs.) Japanese employs many subtleties of tone, it’s important to listen carefully and imitate them.

Consider the amount of grammar and vocabulary you need to study and ingest. You’re going to be using a lot of elemental words and phrases as you go about day-to-day life, focus on those so they are easily at hand when you need them. Learn the bare necessities of grammar, enough to help you construct easy sentences with facility.

Patience and perseverance, remember those two words as you focus on learning the language. Your personal qualities, your hopes are at least as important as textbooks, teachers, and drill exercises. Personal study is very convenient, your classroom can be anywhere, open at any hour, and conducted with a curriculum set to your own pace.

Are you ready to get serious about learning Japanese? If so, check out these free lessons on how to learn Japanese today and learn Japanese now.