Japanese is a superb language to discover, but it can be tough, especially for native English speakers. Still, you can make the whole process far easier by simply understanding three significant distinctions between English and Japanese. This article is going to talk about those variances.
Levels of Formality
When speaking English, it is perfectly okay to speak the same way to most people, within reason. As an example, you'd say the words "Good morning," to your husband or wife, your employer, your buddies, and to a complete stranger. Things are entirely different in The country of Japan. There, you have to speak differently to different people, according to their age and their connection to you.
To demonstrate, I am going to discuss the following Japanese morning greeting:
"ohayo" (informal) or,
"ohayo gozaimasu" (formal)
When you wake up and see your sons or daughters and your wife or husband, you should say, "Ohayo." When you have arrived at your office and see your employer, conversely, saying that could get you dismissed! To your manager, you should use the much more formal, "Ohayo gozaimasu."
How about one's colleagues? To nearly all of them, you should speak formally, saying, "Ohayo gozaimasu." To the people you've made close relationships with, however, you might drop the formality and say, "Ohayo." If speaking to people you just met, always use the more formal variant.
How essential is this? Very! Speaking informally to unknown people, your boss, or those significantly older than you is reasonably rude. To secure a greater understanding, suppose that you've got a teenage daughter.
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Now suppose that she brings a teen boy to your home for dinner. This young man comes into your home, approaches your aging father, and spits out the sentence, "Hey gramps, what's up." What would you think of this boy's manners? I suspect that although you might not throw him out immediately, you almost certainly wouldn't ask him back again either. Understanding the way to speak Japanese using appropriate formality will probably ensure that you do get invited to come back!
English VS Japanese Word Order
With The English language, we sequence our sentences like so:
Subject + Verb + Object.
As an illustration, we will evaluate the simple sentence, "I love you." In this short sentence, the verb is "love." The subject is "I," and the object is "you."
As a result, we write the sentence. I (subject) love (verb) you (object). Japanese sentence construction is a little different. In Japanese sentences, word order is as follows:
Subject + Object + Verb
The above mentioned sample sentence would be composed in this way (Romanized).
Watashi wa (Subject [I]) anatao (object [you]) aishiteru (Verb [love]).
Understanding this one important distinction between English and Japanese will significantly boost the pace at which you understand Japanese grammar--remember it well.
Marking Subjects and Objects
This is relatively simple. Japanese has subject and object markers, while the English language does not. Using these types of markers correctly is very tricky. In this article, though, I will simply give you the fundamental principles.
We will consider the example sentence, "I ate Japanese food." The markers we will use, in Romanized form, are "Wa" and "Wo."
English language word order: I ate Japanese food.
Japanese langauge word order: I Japanese food ate.
Japanese word order with markers: I wa Japanese food wo ate.
"Wa" marks the subject "I," and "wo" marks the object "Japanese food." As you get deeper into the Japanese language, you'll discover more about exactly how these types of markers can be used to make fine modifications to sentence connotations. For right now, though, just be aware that they are there, and make an attempt to use them properly whenever conversing.
Closing Thoughts
Getting the hang of the Japanese language can be challenging. We can easily make it far less difficult, however, by comparing it directly to the English language. Don't forget the difference in word order, the use of object and subject markers in Japanese, and the numerous formality differences between the two languages and you will definitely have great achievements studying the Japanese language.
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