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If you are contemplating learning Japanese for any reason, you will undoubtedly be looking for a Japanese Learning Software Program. There are plenty of them to choose from. The question is, ‘Which one is the best?’ There is no single answer to this question, but with a little information, you are more likely to find the Japanese learning software that is best for you.

The first thing to consider is how effectively a language learning program does its job. Teaching languages has evolved since the days when memorization and rote learning was the only teaching strategy employed. The better language courses today are far more sophisticated and use a variety of teaching techniques to expedite the learning process. The best Japanese teaching programs are genuinely interactive programs designed to engage the student in enjoyable exercises that are both motivational and effective.

The best Japanese language software programs employ a radically different premise from the older, more pedagogic technique that teaches language as a second language. Old-style teaching uses the student’s native language as a base: new words are learned by translation and memorization. Sentence structure, verbs and tenses, etc. are all compared and contrasted to one’s native language. The most popular and effective programs today teach language in the way that children learn their native language – from scratch.

When children are learning to speak, they are starting from a blank slate. They hear a jumble of sounds coming from others and eventually start to mimic those sounds. As they progress, they associate certain sounds with certain objects – “Papa” and “Mama” are often the first words a child learns because they are simple words that are connected with powerfully emotive “objects” in their environment. They build on this list steadily until they can speak their native language fluently. The “nuts and bolts” of formal education come much later.

The older style of learning may be effective if you are a native English speaker learning a European language because all of our European languages have their roots primarily in Latin. Many words have similar roots and word association is often easy. The logic of the structure of sentences, tenses, etc. is also similar.

Asian languages have entirely different roots and the student of Japanese is faced with a completely foreign language. It is difficult enough to learn to understand or speak these languages. When it comes to reading and writing, it can be an overwhelming task. We are literally starting out as children when we’re learning Japanese, so it makes sense to learn the language as children learn – starting with a blank slate. That may sound difficult, but those who have tried Japanese learning software that teaches in this manner have found that they learn faster and retain more than they could by using traditional learning methods.

Another thing to consider when you’re looking for Japanese learning software is price. If you are planning on going to Japan for a short vacation, an inexpensive Japanese CD Rom that teaches you some basic spoken language skills may be all that you need. If you are going on business, you may require a more comprehensive program. Prices for Japanese learning software programs vary tremendously, from as little as $15 to as much as $500 or more, so the price of the program is an important consideration. There is no sense spending $500 if all you need to know is how to say hello in Japanese and to ask a few simple questions. Some of the cheapest Japanese language CD’s can teach you these things and more quite effectively.

In our next installments, we’ll look a little more closely at some of the more popular Japanese learning software programs. Each of them has its strong and weak points. Some of the more expensive programs are fully comprehensive, but require a tremendous commitment of time and money in order to fully master the language. Some are better for learning spoken Japanese than for reading and writing the language.

If you are intending to invest time and money into learning Japanese, you will want a program that makes you want to learn, that engages your attention and that helps you every step of the way. There is no use pretending that learning Japanese will be accomplished overnight. It won’t be easy, but it needn’t be a burden, either. With the right Japanese learning software, it can be an exhilarating experience that you look forward to every day!

Despite what you may have heard, it is not any harder to learn to speak Japanese than it is to learn European languages. Its challenges are simply different as there are some aspects that are indeed more difficult, but others that are easier. Still, Japanese does present a few special problems for English speakers which you should be aware of before starting a Japanese course. The grammar presents a few particular challenges, and, of course, learning a new alphabet and writing system takes time and practice. That said, if you keep an open mind and stay determined, you can overcome these problems and start speaking a wonderful new language in only a matter of months.

The first difference you will encounter is the alphabet. Japanese uses three different alphabets, in fact, and you should plan to learn the basics first before even starting to memorize vocabulary. Then you can practice both writing and speaking together as you become more comfortable with the systems of writing. The three alphabets are Hiragana, Kanji, and Katakana. Hiragana is used more often than the others, and it functions similar to our Roman alphabet because the symbols represent sounds. However, each symbol does not represent a single English sound as some represent entire syllables like “kyu” or “kyo.” Keep this in mind when you start to learn the characters. Kanji is the used slightly less often than Hiragana. This alphabet is derived from the Chinese system, and each symbol stands for a particular word or concept. Luckily, these are often very common to their Chinese equivalents, so you get the added bonus of learning a touch of Chinese along with Japanese.

Finally, the least common alphabet, Katakana, is another sound-based alphabet which is used for foreign words and new technological and scientific terms. Writers may also use the Latin alphabet, called “Romaji” in Japanese, but the sound equivalents are not always exact, nor are they entirely systematized. Remember that Japanese writing may mix all of these alphabets at the same time, so don’t expect to get by with just one or two.

The biggest grammar differences that English speakers will need to keep in mind are the practice of omitting words, sentence structure, and formality. Japanese speakers often feel that brevity makes for the best sentences, and this is reflected in their grammar. Specifically, it is perfectly acceptable for a Japanese sentence to leave out a part that an English speaker might find necessary, even the subject or the verb. You may hear sentences which appear to be incomplete, but, in fact, you need to listen to context to understand what’s going on. Figuring out the right balance between what is grammatically necessary and what is taken as given is one of the first real challenges for an English speaker.

Japanese sentence structure is easier than English in some ways, but it does follow different rules. Verbs will always come last in sentences, and, while you will come to appreciate the regularity, you may feel like you have to wait unusually long to get to the main idea. Also, Japanese is called an inflected language, which means that it changes the form of words to make meaning instead of word order. It also indicates meaning in a sentence with five “particles,” or words which say what part of the sentence the word belongs to. These are topic (“wa”), subject (“ga”), direct object (“wo,” pronounced “o”), indirect object/time (“ni”), and direction (“e”). Starting with this basic understanding of Japanese sentence structure, you’ll start to learn how the sentences function.

When you learn to speak Japanese, you will also have to learn a new sense of formality in speaking. Your grammar and vocabulary will change depending on the person to whom you are speaking and the social situation in which you say it. In European languages, there is often a distinction in the 2nd person between formal and informal, but Japanese has five distinct ways of addressing someone else: high-formal, polite, normal (also called “plain form”), informal, and “rude.” What’s more, these formalities change more than just the 2nd person pronouns and verb conjugations as certain words are simply inappropriate for some situations. As you learn to speak Japanese, you will have to memorize a word’s appropriateness along with its meaning in order to be a fluent speaker.

If you keep these differences in mind as you start to learn to speak Japanese, you will be know some of the obstacles that may be in store for you. But you will also be better prepared to overcome them.

If you want to learn conversational Chinese, you have probably already been told that it will be a very difficult undertaking. Chinese has become infamous as a difficult language to learn. It is a reputation that it doesn’t deserve. While Chinese does contain a number of sounds and tones that do not exist in English, it is still very possible to learn conversational Chinese in less time than you would expect.

It is true that there are some challenges associated with learning Chinese as a second language. Chinese contains a variety of sounds and tones that do not exist in English. In addition, many people feel intimidated by the Chinese writing system. They may not know that it is unnecessary to learn to write Chinese characters. In fact, it is much better to learn conversational Chinese first. That way, language learners have a better foundation in the language when they return to learn to read and write. Here’s a secret. The challenges associated with Chinese are very easy to overcome for two reasons.

The first reason is that they occur very early in the process of language learning. If you want to learn conversational Chinese, of course you need to learn to pronounce the words correctly. Once you learn this, the rest of Chinese comes very easily to you. The grammar and syntax are very straightforward and aside from the challenges of pronunciation, Chinese is an astonishingly easy language to learn. And pronunciation is a challenge that every language learner faces. French contains a number of sounds and accents that don’t exist in English.

The second reason that it is very easy to learn conversational Chinese is that Chinese lacks many of the difficulties that plague learners of European languages. For example, if you are learning French than you will certainly spend a great deal of time focusing on the conjugation of verbs. Chinese has a remarkable system for indicating past, present, and future tense without the use of verb conjugation. Also, Chinese lacks articles. While English is full of words like “a”, “the”, and “an”, Chinese does not have these at all.

The number one reason that people fail at learning Chinese, is that they are afraid, or discouraged. After a month, six months, or a year of study they do not feel that they have made significant progress and this leads them to believe that the project they have undertaken is impossible, or at least requires more effort than they are willing to put in. I can almost guarantee you, these people have attempted to learn conversational Chinese by memorization. If you employ the wrong language learning techniques, it doesn’t matter what language you are attempting to learn — you’ll fail. For some indescribable reason, people continue to attempt to learn languages the way that they learn math or physics. Language is processed by the human brain in an entirely different way. The only way to learn a language effectively is to speak and listen.

This is the last and most integral reason that Chinese is as easy, or easier, then learning European languages. No matter what language you are attempting to learn, whether it is conversational Chinese, French, or Zulu, you need to listen and speak in order to attain fluency. Chinese is no different than any other language. However, if you attempt to learn conversational Chinese by memorization it will continue to look strange and incomprehensible to you. Don’t make the same mistakes that others have — learn conversational Chinese the right way, by speaking.

Justin White lives in Jhubei Taiwan, and frantically works at learning Chinese.

Learning a tonal language is not easy, especially if you were brought up speaking a European language. Western languages have few tones which consist of simple things like raising your tone at the end of a question sentence. But you will normally be understood by a Western language speaker whatever tone you use.

The Thai Language is as hard as any, and has five basic tones. These tones are high, low, middle, rising, and falling. A single word can have five different meanings which depend upon the tone used with it. Thai Language also has three classes of consonant; high, middle, and low. Each class has either three or five tones. And there are 44 consonants.

There are 32 Thai vowels, some of which represent sounds that do not exist in Western languages. The Western student almost has to contort their mouth and tongue to pronounce some of these vowels. They seem to require an unnatural, almost contortionist-like movement of the face and tongue muscles!

Normally, when someone starts learning the Thai Language, it is after they have spent some time in Thailand and picked up a few words of Thai. Perhaps they have spent a lot of time in Thailand but find that they still can not understand what Thais are saying. However, they do know a number of words that they have picked up.

It is likely, however, that their pronunciation of words is incorrect. Sometimes Thai listeners can pick up what these people are trying to say, but more than likely they will struggle to understand. It is usually at this time that the serious person will start formally learning the Thai Language.

They will come to class with a list of words they know and find that they are not saying them correctly. Because the Thai Language is so different from other languages, Thai Language teachers have introduced a phonetic system that consists of Arabic (Western) lettering and five tone marks. The tone marks are represented by lines going in the direction of the tone sound or pitch.

A student will often spend many months working with this phonetic system, only to emerge needing to start from scratch again; this time with Thai characters and tone symbols. For those who are willing to make the effort, it is better to learn Thai lettering from the beginning. It will save you a lot of effort.

The key reasons for learning Thai Language reading and writing from the start are:

Firstly, for the serious student it saves a lot of time not having to learn the phonetic words which do not give a truly accurate representation of the Thai sounds anyway.

Secondly, one of the best ways to accelerate your Thai Language skills is to be able to translate street and shop signs that are written in Thai lettering, into English. Of course, this is if you are in Thailand. If you spend a lot of time travelling in taxis, buses, or motorcycle taxis in Bangkok you will find that there are constant opportunities for translation. Your Thai Language skills will grow much more quickly if you practise translation in this way.

Thirdly, learning to write down the Thai words when you hear them spoken to you, or dictation, helps you learn the language quickly. You learn the rules that apply to written Thai Language and how that makes the language sound the way that it does. You will learn to listen for tones and consequently, become far more aware of them through the process of writing down what you hear in Thai.

There is really no good reason to learn phonetic Thai Language if you are serious enough and have the discipline to learn the Thai scripts from the start of your language training. But the drawback is that it does require a lot of extra effort at the start to master the consonants, vowels, and tone symbols in the Thai script. You will have to remember sounds and relate them to unfamiliar symbols, and this is hard in the same way that learning Ancient Greek is hard.

Which is the best language to learn? Which is the easiest?

Two different questions, often uttered in the same breath. But that’s okay, because there will be only one answer. Whichever language you wholeheartedly choose to study will be both the best and the easiest. However, here’s some help choosing.

The choices.

Here is the Modern Language Association’s 2002 list of the most commonly studied languages at university level in the United States. I have not included ancient languages like Latin, Biblical Hebrew, or Sanskrit, special purposes languages like American Sign Language, or U.S. heritage languages, like Hawaiian or Navajo since the choice of those languages follows a different dynamic:

1. Spanish
2. French
3. German
4. Italian
5. Japanese
6. Chinese
7. Russian
8. Arabic
9. Modern Hebrew
10. Portuguese
11. Korean
12. Vietnamese
13. Hindi/Urdu
14. Swahili

Difficulty, according to Uncle Sam

First, consider some cold facts. The U.S. State Department groups languages for the diplomatic service according to learning difficulty:

Category 1. The “easiest” languages for speakers of English, requiring 600 hours of classwork for minimal proficiency: the Latin and Germanic languages. However, German itself requires a bit more time, 750 hours, because of its complex grammar.

Category 2. Medium, requiring 1100 hours of classwork: Slavic languages, Turkic languages, other Indo-Europeans such as Persian and Hindi, and some non-Indo-Europeans such as Georgian, Hebrew and many African languages. Swahili is ranked easier than the rest, at 900 hours.

Category 3. Difficult, requiring 2200 hours of study: Arabic, Japanese, Korean and the Chinese languages.

Will you get a chance to practice this language?

Now, consider another important factor: accessibility. To be a successful learner you need the chance to hear, read and speak the language in a natural environment. Language learning takes an enormous amount of concentration and repetition, which cannot be done entirely in the classroom. Will you have access to the language where you live, work and travel?

The 14 most popular courses according to a combination of linguistic ease and accessibility.

1. Spanish. Category One. The straightforward grammar is familiar and regular. It is also ubiquitous in the Americas, the only foreign language with a major presence in the insular linguistic environment of the U.S. Chances to speak and hear it abound. It is the overwhelming favorite, accounting for more than fifty percent of language study enrollment in the MLA study.

2. French. Category One. Grammatically complex but not difficult to learn because so many of it’s words have entered English. For this vocabulary affinity, it is easy to attain an advanced level, especially in reading. It is a world language, and a motivated learner will find this language on the internet, in films and music.

3. German. Category One Plus. The syntax and grammar rules are complex with noun declensions a major problem. It is the easiest language to begin speaking, with a basic vocabulary akin to English. Abstract, advanced language differs markedly, though, where English opts for Latin terms. It values clear enunciation, so listening comprehension is not difficult.

4. Italian. Category One. It has the same simple grammar rules as Spanish, a familiar vocabulary and the clearest enunciation among Latin languages (along with Romanian). Italian skills are easily transferable to French or Spanish. You might need to go to Italy to practice it, but there are worse things that could happen to you. It is also encountered in the world of opera and classical music.

5. Russian. Category Two. This highly inflected language, with declensions, is fairly difficult to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet is not particularly difficult, however, and once you can read the language, the numerous borrowings from French and other western languages are a pleasant surprise. It is increasingly accessible.

6. Arabic. Category Three. Arabic is spoken in dozens of countries, but the many national dialects can be mutually incomprehensible. It has only three vowels, but includes some consonants that don’t exist in English. The alphabet is a formidable obstacle, and good calligraphy is highly valued and difficult to perfect. Vowels are not normally written (except in children’s books) and this can be an obstacle for reading. It is ubiquitous in the Muslim world and opportunities exist to practice it at every level of formality.

7. Portuguese. Category One. One of the most widely spoken languages in the world is often overlooked. It has a familiar Latin grammar and vocabulary, though the phonetics may take some getting used to.

8. Swahili. Category Two Minus. It includes many borrowings from Arabic, Persian, English and French. It is a Bantu language of Central Africa, but has lost the difficult Bantu “tones”. The sound system is familiar, and it is written using the Latin alphabet. One major grammatical consideration is the division of nouns into sixteen classes, each with a different prefix. However, the classes are not arbitrary, and are predictable.

9. Hindi/Urdu. Category Two. The Hindustani language, an Indo-European language, includes both Hindi and Urdu. It has an enormous number of consonants and vowels, making distinctions between phonemes that an English speaker will have difficulty hearing. Words often have clipped endings, further complicating comprehension. Hindi uses many Sanskrit loans and Urdu uses many Persian/Arabic loans, meaning that a large vocabulary must be mastered. Hindi uses the phonetically precise Devanagari script, created specifically for the language. Predictably, Urdu’s use of a borrowed Persian/Arabic script leads to some approximation in the writing system.

10. Modern Hebrew. Category Two. Revived as a living language during the nineteenth century, it has taken on characteristics of many languages of the Jewish diaspora. The resultant language has become regularized in grammar and syntax, and the vocabulary has absorbed many loan words, especially from Yiddish, English and Arabic. The alphabet has both print and script forms, with five vowels, not normally marked. Vowel marking, or pointing, is quite complex when it does occur. Sounds can be difficult to reproduce in their subtleties and a certain amount of liaison makes listening comprehension problematic. It is not very accessible outside of a religious or Israeli context.

11. Japanese. Category Three. Difficult to learn, as the vocabulary is unfamiliar, and the requirements of the sound system so strict that even the many words that have been borrowed from English, French and German will seem unrecognizable. With three different writing systems, it is forbiddingly difficult to read and write. Also, social constraints may impede useful interaction.

12. Chinese. Category Three. Whether your choice is Mandarin or Cantonese (the MLA survey does not make a distinction, oddly enough). It is the most difficult language on this list. It includes all of the most difficult aspects: unfamiliar phonemes, a large number of tones, an extremely complex writing system, and an equally unfamiliar vocabulary. Personal motivation is absolutely essential to keep the student on track. On the positive side, it is easy to find, since Chinese communities exist throughout the world, and Chinese language media, such as newspapers, films and TV, are present in all these communities.

13. Vietnamese. Category Three. This language belongs to an unfamiliar family of languages, but it does borrow much vocabulary from Chinese (helpful if you already speak Chinese!). It has six tones, and a grammar with an unfamiliar logic. It’s not all bleak, however, Vietnamese uses a Latin derived alphabet. The chances of speaking this language are not high, though there are 3 million speakers in the USA.

14. Korean. Category Three. Korean uses an alphabet of 24 symbols, which accurately represent 14 consonants and 10 vowels. However, the language also includes 2000 commonly used Chinese characters for literary writing and formal documents. Speech levels and honorifics complicate the learning of vocabulary, and there is liaison between words, making them hard to distinguish. The grammar is not overly complicated and there are no tones. It borrows many Chinese words, but the language is unrelated to other languages of Asia.

The most important factor of all: personal motivation

The third, most important factor is up to you. The easiest language to learn is the one that you are most motivated to learn, the one you enjoy speaking, the one with the culture that inspires you and the history that touches you spiritually. It is useless to try to learn a language if you are not interested in the people who speak it, since learning a language involves participating in its behaviors and identifying with its people.

So, consider all three factors: motivation, accessibility and linguistic ease, in that order, and come up with the final list yourself. The bad news is that no language is really easy to learn, but the good news is that we humans are hard wired for a great amount of linguistic flexibility, as long as we know how to turn on the learning process. If the rewards and benefits of the language are clear to you, you will be able to get those rusty language synapses sparking in your head and start the words rolling. Bonne chance!