Japanese Language Basic Program

ORIENTATION To Begin With the MISJ BASIC PROGRAM

Characteristic features of the Japanese language.

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This is the mark used in this program to show my explanations or comments.
Here, I am briefly going to point out the characteristic features of the Japanese language to give you the total view of your study.

1. The number of sounds used in Japanese language is rather limited and the sound system is very simple. Thus, it is supposed to be easy to learn for most people.
That's good news, isn't it?

2. In Japanese, men & women, humans & things and singular & plural are not distinguished. This means, there is no special grammar for NOUNS themselves and you can always use them as they are.
That's also good news!

3. In Japanese, three types of letters are used:
HILAGANA (Used to write words and functional parts of a sentence)
KATAKANA (Used to write foreign origin words)
KANJI (Chinese origin characters used to write words)

That's bad news because you have to learn many letters. However, you don't have to worry about it. I won't ask you to study all of them at one time. In this program, you will study only HILAGANA and KATAKANA step-by-step using my original method.

4. In Japanese, there are three types of sentence.
NOUN-based sentence
VERB-based sentence
ADJECTIVE-based sentence

Each sentence has its own structure and different functions. You are going to study how to make each type of sentence one-by-one in this program.

5. In Japanese sentences, not prepositions but postpositions are used.
E.g. to school vs. school-ni
The postpositions are called "PARTICLES" in the MISJ programs. There are seven of them. How to choose the PARTICLES is one of the most important parts of the study in this program.

6. In Japanese sentences, modifiers always come ahead of the word that is modified. E.g. I-yesterday-my friend(with)-school(to)-went.
This is the typical word order of Japanese sentence. It is very unique isn't it? You will study how to make simple sentences in this program.

7. In Japanese natural conversation, three types of expression are used.
POLITE EXPRESSION (Can be used any time to anybody)
FORMAL EXPRESSION (Should be used when you speak to superiors)
COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSION (Used among close friends or family)

These should be carefully chosen according to whom you are talking to or whom you are talking about. This means that you have to learn all of them to master Japanese natural conversation. You cannot learn them all at one time because each expression requires different knowledge of grammar. You will start your study with POLITE EXPRESSION. It can be used any time to anybody, the safest expression. Don't you think it is fortunate that this expression is the easiest one to study?

8. In Japanese, VERBS change their forms. There are major four forms and many expressions are based on these forms. Thus, the study of how to make these forms is one of the most important parts of the Japanese language study. In this program, you are going to study only two of them.
In the long run, you have a lot to learn about VERB conjugation; however, the mechanism of the changes can always be explained by simple rules. There are few exceptions and above all things there are only two irregular VERBS in Japanese. That's very good news, isn't it?

Next, let me explain how you can achieve reasonable results through the study using this program.