Langma SchooL of LanguageS
Japanese Language
JAPANESE LANGUAGE • The Japanese language is considered to be one of the most difficult languages to learn. However, the speaking part is not as difficult as the reading/writing is. As the title itself suggests, this book is aimed at students, backpackers or people who have only a passive interest in Japan or Japanese culture. As a result, the vocabulary/grammar is mainly confined to words, sentences that are used in daily life (shopping, travelling, public services etc.) • The grammar in the Japanese language is fairly simple. The grammar is limited to basic sentence construction, parts of speech etc.
• A table listing the Japanese language characters (hiragana and katakana) has been providing, however one word of caution, it takes a very long time to master the art of writing Japanese. In addition to the basic scripts, there are kanji’s, which cannot be listed here (mainly because of their large number). Most of the book follows the Humanization method, i.e. writing the Japanese pronunciation in the Roman alphabet. This book can serve as a tool that will further deepen the curiosity of the reader towards this enigmatic yet beautiful country. • Japanese is an agglutination language with a simple phonemic and pure vowel. The real origins of this East Asian language were not obvious until substantial texts from the land appeared in around the 8thcentury. • As per 2010 studies, 125 million people are native speakers of the language. Another 3-4 million people speak Japanese in other parts of the world. In a country like Japan, there is almost no use of English and other languages. Everything is done in the native language. Anyone visiting Japan will find it hard to talk English with the natives.
JAPANESE LANGUAGE (READING & WRITING)
• The Japanese did not have a developed writing system until about the century AD. When KANJI (Chinese characters) was declared as the official writing system of Japan. Kanji are pictorial ideographs and not a phonetic script. The complex characters that indicate ideal concepts are assigned readings in Japanese language and are very difficult to master Most of the kanji have multiple readings and complex stroke order, However, later on, a unique Japanese writing system was developed as the Chinese characters were considered way too difficult to learn or write. This is the system of HIRAGANAand KATAKANA scripts (see table). HIRAGANA is mainly used to write nativeJapanese words and KATAKANA, on the other hand, is used for writing words of foreign origin. The basic vocabulary of Japanese, of which Chinese loanwords are an integral part, is written in a mixture of kanji and hiragana.
JAPANESE FACULTIES AT LANGMA SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES • Our faculties are experienced and qualified in the field of teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language with special and modern teaching methods, intensive mentoring and advice, as well as a course level system that is internationally valid.
JAPAN FACT FILE • • • • • • • • • •
Official Languages: Japanese Population: 12.65 crores Capital: Tokyo Government: Constitutional monarchy with parliamentary government Literacy: 99.00% Currency: Japanese yen Calling Code: +81 Time Zone: GMT+9 Major Mountain Ranges: Japanese Alps Major Rivers: Biwa, Inawashiro, Kasumigaura
• Japan is the land of the rising sun. The country is a cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean. With a population of 125 million, Japan is 11th most populated country in the world. • It is a powerful economy that has given the world high-value brands like Honda, Toyota, and Suzuki. Not only that, but the robotics technology in Japan is also far ahead of its contemporaries. Being an economic superpower, Japan offers a large number of career opportunities in various verticals.
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