Is Japanese Hard to Learn? An Honest Answer

Is Japanese hard to learn? For English speakers, honestly, yes. It is one of the harder languages to learn. The US Foreign Service Institute puts Japanese in its hardest group and estimates about 88 weeks, or 2,200 class hours, of full-time study for its English-speaking diplomats to reach a professional level. But some parts of Japanese are easier than most people expect, and with the right order, it is very learnable.

Is Japanese hard to learn for English speakers?

The difficulty is real, but it is not spread evenly. Most of it sits in the writing system and in how sentences are built. Speaking simple Japanese can come sooner than reading it.

It also helps to remember what the FSI figure measures. It is for diplomats aiming at a professional level. Ordering food, greeting people and reading signs come much earlier than that.

Which parts of Japanese are easier than you think?

• Pronunciation. Japanese has five vowel sounds and a fairly small set of syllables. Many of them are close to sounds English speakers already make.
• No grammatical gender. There is no masculine or feminine to memorise for every noun.
• Verbs do not change for the person. 食べます (tabemasu) means I eat, you eat, she eats or they eat. There are no endings for each person to learn.
• No plurals in most nouns. 猫 (neko) can mean cat or cats. The context tells you which.

What makes Japanese hard?

Kanji. Japanese mixes three scripts: hiragana, katakana and kanji, the characters that came from Chinese. The official list of kanji for everyday use has 2,136 characters, and many have more than one reading. This is the part that takes the longest.

Politeness levels. Japanese changes its words depending on who you are talking to. Polite and respectful language is called keigo (敬語). Even simple phrases have casual and polite forms. Our pages on how to say thank you in Japanese and how to say sorry in Japanese show how this works in everyday life.

Word order. The verb comes at the end. 私はりんごを食べます (watashi wa ringo o tabemasu) means I eat an apple, but word for word it is closer to "I apple eat".

Particles. Small words such as は (wa), を (o) and に (ni) show what each word does in the sentence. English has nothing quite like them, so they take time to feel natural.

Is Japanese harder than Chinese or Korean?

The FSI puts all three in the same hardest group. Each is hard in a different way. Chinese uses tones to tell words apart, while Japanese is not a tonal language in the same way. Korean has an alphabet that many learners pick up quickly, while Japanese reading means learning kanji on top of two sets of kana. Which one feels hardest depends on whether you find sounds or writing more difficult.

How do you make Japanese manageable?

• Start with kana. Learn hiragana first, then katakana. Hiragana writes the particles and verb endings, so you meet it in almost every sentence. Our guide to hiragana vs katakana explains the difference.
• Review a little every day. Ten or fifteen minutes each day usually works better than one long session a week.
• Learn words in phrases. A word inside a short sentence shows you the particles and the politeness level at the same time.
• Follow a level. The JLPT runs from N5, the easiest, to N1. Our guide to the JLPT levels from N5 to N1 explains each one.

So how long does it take to learn Japanese? It depends on your goal and how much time you give it each day. Nobody can promise a number, but steady practice adds up.

How LanguaCards helps

In LanguaCards, Japanese words are grouped by JLPT level, from N5 to N1. Every card has audio, and romaji is shown under the Japanese, so you can hear each word while you learn the scripts. You can switch romaji off as your reading improves. Reviews are timed to bring each word back before you would forget it.