I’ve been more intentional about travel lately. This time, I decided to prepare a bit more than I usually do. I have been studying Japanese for the past 6 months. I enrolled in the Japan America Society of Chicago classes and attended each week. The classes were virtually hosted and late at night, and my brain wrestled with this beautiful language from 7:30-9:30pm every Tuesday night. My brain  didn’t like to work so hard that late, but I tried my best. I would study between classes as well, but it didn’t quite stick as much as I had hoped. It took a while to figure out my preferred learning style for such a multidimensional language.

When learning Japanese, you must become familiar with each of the 3 character systems (hiragana, katakana, and kanji), as well as romaji to help facilitate pronunciation at the beginning. This made flashcards practically impossible for me because I had to make flashcards to test pronunciation but then also test for meaning. I’m pretty comfortable with hiragana to start, but not every word ends up being in hiragana.

I learned “I/myself” as the romaji version first, which is “watashi”. Then as I got familiar with hiragana, it became “わたし”. But the ultimate way to write it is using the kanji character “私”. The shapes don’t usually have much of a reason; it doesn’t always look like the word it is representing so that takes memorization. I don’t know very many kanji yet. So far my favorite kanji is rain = 雨 (pronounced: “ame”). It looks like rain through a window. But also some words don’t have kanji versions of them. They stay in hiragana. “Excuse me” is “すみません” (pronounced: “sumimasen”) and that’s it. Hiragana is used for it.

The other character system, Katakana, is used for foreign words that weren’t original to Japan like:

English: basketball
Katakana: バスケットボール
Romaji pronunciation: basukettobōru

English: coffee
Katakana: コーヒー
Romaji pronunciation: kōhī

Japanese uses all 3 character systems together, so it’s important to know them all.

Here’s an example of them all together.
English: I drink matcha and coffee.
Japanese: 私は抹茶とコーヒーを飲みます
Pronunciation: Watashi wa matcha to kōhī o nomimasu.
You can see the more curvy hiragana, the more boxy katakana, and the more complex kanji all together in this sentence. Japanese doesn’t have spaces so the 3 character systems actually make it easier to read than if there was only one.

I wanted to learn Japanese mainly to say nice things to my friend and her family and friends. Last time I visited, I was a little shy and didn’t know any Japanese. Google translate is excellent for transactional communication, but is a bit limiting for coversational because it breaks up the conversation flow.

I am comforted by the structure of the Japanese language. It is like a puzzle. I suppose every language is, but Japanese feels even more. The structure is similar to English where the adjective is before the noun. And Japanese has sentence enders like “desu” that pretty much means “yep that’s the end of the sentence”. And anytime a phrase ends with a “ka” that means it’s a question. There are a lot of other patterns line that.

Genki desuka = How are you? (Direct translation is “good” “end of sentence” “question?”)

Genki desu = I am good. (Direct translation is “good” “end of sentence”)

The subjects of the sentences are implied and don’t always need to be said.

Another example of how Japanese functions like a puzzle: Edamame is a type of yummy bean served at Asian restaurants. I knew that part, but what I didn’t know was that Mame: (豆): means “bean”, and Eda: (枝): means “branch” or “stem”. So now I have a deeper understanding and meaning of edamame (豆枝) as “branch bean.” HOW COOL!!! There are so many relationships and structures like that.

I have enjoyed learning more about the poeticness of Japanese too. Learning the language is giving more insight into the culture which is so cool!

I subscribed to Japanese From Zero (fromzero.com) to accelerate my learning. I wish I had signed up a few months earlier to supplement my classes. I recommend this website and textbook to anyone who is trying to learn Japanese. I originally found the textbook at the library.

I definitely have a very limited language level of Japanese, but I am excited to hear, speak, read, and write it. Japan here I come!!! I definitely priorized speaking and listening towards the end of my studies because I plan to do that more than writing or reading.

I had a layover in Honolulu and I overheard some Japanese phrases that I knew which was very cool.
はい = hai = yes
大丈夫です = daijōbudesu = it’s ok
ちょっと 待って = chotto matte = wait a minute

I am excited to try to communicate using some Japanese with the friends and family I already know and also those I have yet to meet!

Stay tuned for funny stories, lots of foods, and general meanderings!!! Thanks for following along! ありがとう (Arigatō)!