Domo arigato

Before moving to Japan, I thought it might be beneficial to try and study a bit of the language. I visited my local library and took out a few books. Trying to teach yourself a foreign language is extremely difficult (although I never tried Rosetta Stone). Without hearing the pronunciation, you have no idea how to even say 'hello' properly. Plus, Japanese has four separate alphabets. Luckily one of them is based on the English alphabet so I had a slight advantage there. The only Japanese I knew prior to studying was from STYX.

I started taking Japanese lessons soon after arriving in my new hometown of Shizuoka. For ¥300 an hour (dirt cheap since I was charging more than ¥3000 for private lessons) I learned with a group of other foreigners, with varying levels of the language. Being a beginner, Tanaka sensei had to spend extra time with me. She was in her 60's, very strict, loved tennis and had a wicked sense of humour.

For an hour and a half a week, she would review introductions, the alphabets, verbs, and conversational Japanese. I did little studying when I wasn't in her class. I was too busy working, settling into my new surroundings, making new friends, and singing karaoke. Although I loved Tanaka sensei and her style of teaching, I also learned quite a bit from the kids in my classes. They always spoke to me in Japanese, just assuming I could understand. The topics were minimal (how much can a 5 year old talk about?) and very repetitious. I would learn most of my vocabulary from them in the first few months.

My sensei told me I had to learn the Japanese alphabets, hiragana and katakana within the first two weeks of study.  Kanji is another alphabet adopted from the Chinese, but these characters I would come to learn later. Japanese use approximately 2,000-3,000 of these characters and children start learning them in elementary school. Japanese also use romaji which are Roman letters derived from Latin (the English alphabet).

HIRAGANA 

With the use of cue cards, I had this alphabet mastered in a week. Hiragana is the basic Japanese phonetic alphabet. It is used mostly with kanji to write all Japanese words. There are 46 characters and they represent each sound in the Japanese language. There are only 5 vowels and 13 consonants making pronunciation easy. The written form proves to be the most difficult aspect of the language.

KATAKANA 

By the second week, I was able to memorize this alphabet as well. Katakana is used for words that are loaned from other languages, like English. Many signs, menus, company names and billboards are written in Katakana.

KANJI

This would prove to be the most difficult for me. Kanji is a Chinese letter or word. The whole character is a meaning, not just a sound like hiragana or katakana. The stroke form is precise and I took a calligraphy class to improve my skills.

After learning these alphabets, life became a bit easier. I could now read signs and order off a menu. I understood what I was buying at the grocery and convenience stores. I could write out my name as it was extremely difficult for students to pronounce. More importantly, I could enter the appropriate washroom (not every country uses those stick figures!)

After residing in Japan for a couple of years, I took a proficiency test which tests your writing, listening and grammar.

Although I didn't ace the test, all I cared about was the result: PASSED. There are four levels of this test but I stopped after the first one. I just wanted to prove I could pass and make my teacher proud.

I would have a few teachers during my stay in Japan. The last was a surfer boy named Isao and although his style was quite different from Tanaka sensei, I still learned a lot. Each teacher helped make my stay that much better, and I am thankful for that.

The most important lesson I learned was not pronunciation, word order or writing kanji. I learned that language is much more than words. We communicate with expression, gestures, a look or a smile. I made friends with a girl named Yuko and although her English was impeccable, her family didn't speak it at all. I spent a lot of time at her family home and always felt welcome.

Yuko's ojiisan (grandfather) always smiled when he saw me. One day he followed another foreigner around the grocery store and bought the same items as they did, hoping I would like them as well. This kind gesture touched me and my bow and smile was all he needed to understand my gratitude. I also said, "Domo arigato"...thanks to STYX.

The best way to learn another language is to immerse yourself in it. The books I studied did little to prepare me for what I would encounter when traveling to Japan. When I visited other countries, I discovered English is more common and many people are able to speak it. That being said, I think learning the basics of another language when visiting a foreign country, such as hello, how are you, please and thank you, is just a common courtesy and the effort will be appreciated.

Sayonara for now!

~MT