japanese

Thesis: The Japanese language, though complex and inherently different from English,

is not impossible to learn as it is simpler than English in many ways and,

unlike English, it comforms to a strict set of linguistic rules.

I. Introduction
A. Japanese is widely considered a difficult language to learn and retain
1. It consists of thousands of characters.
2. I once knew a Japanese exchange student who began forgetting

her language.
B. While Japanese, especially its writing, can be difficult, its basic sentence

structure and conversational use is arguably simpler than English.
II. Japanese Writing System
A. Japanese writing was adapted from Chinese characters
B. The characters are derived from pictographs, like Egyptian hieroglyphics
C. There are three types of characters.
1. Kanji characters imply meaning, like earlier pictographs.
a. It is the closest character set to Chinese.
b. It is the most numerous, there are more than 50,000.
c. Kanji can be very complex, sometimes composed of more

than 40 individual strokes.
2. Hiragana is a phonetic set of characters, like our alphabet.
a. It is vastly simplified compared with most kanji.
b. Originally, it was used exclusively by women.
c. It is used to spell words for which there are no kanji or

to indicate pronunciation for more obscure kanji.
3. Katakana is another phonetic set, similar to Hiragana
a. It was the male counterpart to hiragana.
b. Today, it is used for foreign word adaptations and

emphasis.
III. Japanese Language
A. Japanese words are spelled out with a combination of the 3 character sets,

and are classified into four parts of speech.
1. Nouns are spelled out in combinations of kanji, often retaining

meaning. They have no set plural forms.
2. Verbs often have a kanji root combined with a hiragana inflection;

they can be conjugated to reflect tense, but do not vary based

on the number of subjects.
3. Adjectives also combine kanji and hiragana; they have two types

(-i type, and -na type) and precede the nouns they modify directly.
4. Particles are small, single-syllable words that serve to define the

usage of other words in context.
B. Japanese sentence structure is inherently different from English, but it

is much simpler. Unlike English, Japanese is a SOV (subject-object-verb)

language.
C. Unfortunately, many Japanese words have alternate, honorific forms used

when talking to one's superiors. These are important as neglecting them can

often reult in insult.
IV. In conclusion, the Japanese language, though complex and inherently different from

English, is not impossible to learn as it is simpler than English in many ways and,

unlike English, it comforms to a strict set of linguistic rules.