Japanese Language Courses

• Japan is one of New Zealand’s key trading partners, and offers great opportunities for Japanese speakers.
• Many young Kiwis go to Japan every year under a working holiday scheme, often as teachers of English, for which there is a huge demand. Knowing enough Japanese to get around is a great benefit.
• Japan is of crucial importance for New Zealand tourism, with huge numbers of Japanese tourists visiting the country every year, many of them with very limited English.
• Many of us have had or will have young Japanese language students staying in our homes; now is the chance to find out a little about their language and culture.
• A lot of young Kiwis have Japanese partners: this could be the chance to understand them a little better – or to learn something to say to the prospective in-laws!
• Japan is a diverse and fascinating country, with a unique culture. Even a limited knowledge of the Japanese language can provide insights into this society.
• Although nearly all Japanese now learn English at school, many are reluctant to speak it to foreigners, so if you go to Japan, you cannot rely on finding someone to explain things for you in English!
• The Japanese way of running business, enterprise and society in general has been widely studied, and many people visit the country to find out more.

So what’s involved if you want to learn Japanese… and is it hard?!

• Japanese pronunciation is not hard: nearly all the sounds occur in English as well. You just need to acquire the distinctive staccato intonation!
• Contrary to what people imagine, it is not difficult to pick up some basic words, phrases and structures in Japanese.
• Most of the Japanese words you need are quite short and not hard to learn.
• Japanese has borrowed a lot of words from English. Can you recognise “kompyuta”, “boifurendo” and “tepu rekoda”? “Sarariman” comes from the English “salaryman”. (It’s just a pity that “salaryman” doesn’t exist in English!)
• Japanese writing is very complex, but learners normally use a script called “romaji” – basically, our alphabet (as used in the Japanese words above). Romaji is very straightforward. Don’t let fear of the writing put you off! You can learn a lot of useful spoken Japanese without worrying about the writing.
• Even a limited study of Japanese gives you a feel of the way the language works. You also understand much more about the culture, and the way, for example, that levels of politeness are expressed throughout the language.
• Japanese grammar certainly becomes quite challenging at a higher level. However, even though it requires a new way of looking at language, it is largely regular and has its own logic.