English to Japanese

Doko kara kimasuka ? (Where are you from) or Doko ni sundeimasuka (Where do you live)

どこから来ましたか？(doko kara kimashita ka)or どちらの方ですか？(dochira no kata desuka)

It is Neko, pronounced Neh-koe. The Japanese Bobtail, is a symbol of 'Good luck' to merchants/ salespeople. This symbol is called Neko Neko. It holds a large yen.

The Japanese have different ways of referring to one's own family and someone else's.

Mother:

Own - 母 (haha)

Else - お母さん (okaasan)

Father:

Own - 父 (chichi)

Else - お父さん (otousan)

Grandma:

Own - 祖母 (sobo)

Else - お祖母さん (obaasan)

Grandpa:

Own - 祖父 (sofu)

Else - お祖父さん (ojiisan)

This is a very difficult question, because every person has their own individual learning styles and capability of retaining information; but, I would say, as a Westerner (I'm assuming you are because you asked the question in English), Japanese will be a challenge, but not am impossible task, by any means! You just have to be dedicated.

What is so hard about Japanese is that it is not phonetic. You don't sound out the words with letters like you do in many other languages. Not only that, but there are two alphabets that you have to learn (and rarely use), which puts a lot of people off at first!

First is Hiragana, the traditional Japanese alphabet. But the symbols, which you must learn how to draw, are not 'letters', they are sounds. They take the vowels and put them in front of the letters k, t, d, n, h, p, b, g, r, and w; each is a different picture you must memorize.

Then is Katakana. What is frustrating about this is that they are the exact same sounds, but they have different pictures to memorize. Katakana, or 'kana', is used for foreign words, so it's not used often. But it gets confusing when you've already made an association with a picture and a sound, and now you have to connect two pictures to a sound. It takes time to learn this.

However, once you get these two alphabets down it gets somewhat easier. The good thing is that you can start to learn vocabulary and grammar. The bad thing is that you really don't use the alphabet for much in real-world Japanese, and certainly not for nouns. There is an entirely different vocabulary, Kanji, to write nouns, adjectives, and verbs. And - you guessed it - the Kanji also has thousands of different pictures and sounds that you have to memorize, and none of them are remotely related to the alphabets you just learned! However, to make it easier on yourself so you won't quit on the language, I would suggest not dealing with Kanji until you absolutely have to. Buy an elementary Japanese textbook online or at a bookstore where it teaches you the vocabulary and grammar in Hiragana and Katakana first - that way, you'll at least have the sounds and the objects associated together. Once you complete this, Kanji won't be so daunting. It's really all just repetition.

So, no, Japanese isn't easy to learn, but if you take it step-by-step, it is manageable.

• Kudasai means: please
• Arigatou means: thank you (normal)
• Arigatou Gozaimasu means: thank you (formal)
• Douzo means: here you go

1. In Japanese the Rs are kind of a rolled sound, not like in Spanish though. The R is a roll on between R and D.
2. Endings like masu, the u is silent. It's like saying mas, Arigatou Gozaimas...
3. The Japanese Langauge is VERY confusing.

I hope this helped...