Why Learn Japanese?
“We study western civilizations to know our past but need to study non-western
civilizations to know our future.” --Ernest Boyer, former President, Carnegie
Institute for the Advancement of Teaching
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For American students who have never been exposed to non-Western
cultures, the study of Japanese opens the door to Asia. Studying a linguistically and culturally distant
language like Japanese is especially likely to awaken in learners an understanding of the degree to
which languages and cultures can vary and of what is distinctive about their own culture.
The unique features of the Japanese language and culture make it highly appealing, yet sometimes
challenging, for students in the United States. While studying Japanese, students develop the skills
necessary to exist within a linguistic and cultural structure very different from their own. They gain
access to the writing system, cultural practices, and expressive arts, as well as career opportunities
available only to those who speak Japanese.
With the increasing global importance of Asia and the Pacific Rim, and the economic and strategic
significance of the U.S.–Japan relationship, it is important that more Americans become proficient in
Japanese.
Through learning Japanese, American students gain access to information available only in Japanese,
increase our national level of understanding of Japan, and learn to better communicate a deeper
knowledge of the United States to Japan.
The U.S., Japan, and Germany have the three largest economies in the world.
The importance of Japan in the global and Asian contexts means that knowledge of Japanese language
and culture benefits not only those learners who will eventually become “Japan experts” but also those
in a variety of different fields such as business, tourism, journalism, science and technology,
humanities and social sciences.
One of the most important things to keep in mind when considering Japanese language learning and
teaching is the length of time it takes native speakers of English to achieve a high level of proficiency.
The Foreign Service Institute of the State Department, for example, has set the normal training time
for a Category 4 language like Japanese at eighty-eight weeks of full time study, as compared with
only 24 weeks for Category 1 languages such as Spanish and French. Because of this, it is critical that
those involved with Japanese programs not expect that students’ skills will advance at the same rate
as those of students of many of the other languages taught in the United States.
Why does Japanese take so much time to learn? Both linguistically and culturally, it is very distant
from English. here are no cognate words in English and Japanese. (This is mitigated by the fact that
there are large numbers of loaner words from English, and Japanese has a relatively simple sound
system.) The grammar of Japanese is extremely different from that of English. Basic communicative
functions such as requesting, disagreeing, and inviting are performed very differently in Japanese
culture. Merely translating American English interaction patterns into Japanese vocabulary and
grammar does not result in acceptable Japanese communications.
The same basic content takes very different linguistic forms (or is not expressed at all) depending on
social factors such as the gender, age, status, and closeness of the people speaking to each other.
The nature of the Japanese written language leads to its own set of challenges. In order to be able to
read Japanese materials written for adult native speakers, students must learn two different syllabic
writing systems and approximately 2000 Chinese characters (kanji), most of which have multiple
meanings.
Sources:
Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century, “Standards for Japanese Language Learning, pages
328 – 332. The Allen Press, Lawrence, KS. 1999.
Image: http://www.magicaljapan.co.uk/Images/japan1.jpg