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The U.S Department of State rates Japanese as a Category IV (scale of I to IV) language of difficulty for English natives to study, recommending that a student needs 2,200+ hours of study to become proficient. If one were to study at least 1 hour per day, that is approximately 6 years of study. 

The vast differences in grammar, pronunciation, writing, and culture are a number of the reasons why it takes so much time for a native English speaker to learn Japanese. Perhaps the underlying reason why Japanese is so difficult is because it is not related in any way to English nor any other major world language for that matter.

■What Language Family is Japanese in? 日本語って何語族に分類されるの？

English is a Germanic language, meaning it is directly related to languages like German. In turn, Germanic languages are just one branch of the Indo-European language family that comprises a majority of languages in Europe, the Middle East, and the India subcontinent. Though there is great linguistic diversity among these languages, it is still possible for an English speaker to notice remarkable similarities between English words and Sanskrit words. When a speaker of English tries learning any of these other Indo-European languages, they will generally spend far less time to become fluent than with Japanese. How about Japanese?

Japanese is in its own language family called Japonic/Japanese-Ryukyuan. There at least 15 languages in this family, all of which are spoken in Japan and 11 of the 15 are found exclusively in Okinawa. In principle, any native speaker of these other languages will find Japanese or another Japonic language to be far easier to learn than English. In fact, all speakers of these minority Japonic languages happen to be fluent in Japanese. 

The Japonic languages are not thought to be related to other extant languages in the region, and even if they were distantly related to other nearby languages such as Korean, the relation would be so ancient that shared origin would not be why it's easier for Korean speakers to learn Japanese. The reason for this is that Korean and Japanese grammar happen to be very similar and both languages took heavy influence from Chinese in vocabulary and have also influenced each other over centuries of contact. Similarly, although Chinese grammar is very different from Japanese, Chinese students of Japanese don't have to spend nearly as much time on the writing and are at least able to carry over vocabulary language where the languages have influenced each other. 

For English speakers, there is no shared culture to make learning any easier as is the case for Chinese and Korean learners. One truly has to start all over with the only saving grace being words that come from English, but even those words are limited to newer things in today's 21 century world, and the learner would still have to overcome the many differences in pronunciation between the two languages.

■The Diversity of Dialects　方言の多様性

There are still dozens of dialects and forms in Japanese that came about due to centuries of external and internal isolation, but the form that almost all speakers share is known as Standard Japanese (Hyōjungo 標準語), which is also the language of instruction and the one taught to second language speakers. Standard Japanese is mostly based on the speech of Tokyo with elements borrowed from other regions, allowing for its proliferation to be more successful. The result of this is that even today, Tokyo Dialect is not 100% the same as Standard Japanese.

There is a considerable degree of dialect diversity that all speakers are at least familiar with and utilize for various effects. Many learners will have at least heard of Kansai Dialect, often times before really learning Standard Japanese due to its prevalence in Japanese comedy. Additionally, as dialect differences continue to disappear in mainland Japan, some dialects are taking their last breathes by contributing some of their uniqueness to mainstream Japanese.

In いまび, major dialect grammar and vocabulary will not be avoided as there is no way to separate dialect from 'real' Japanese. Pick up any book or manga to practice reading and you will find dialectal speech. What's more, all Japanese speakers are at least vaguely familiar with old-fashioned Japanese due to their schooling. To become truly native, you will have to branch out from the hyōjungo grammar. 

This famous map of Japanese dialects is mostly accurate, but it is worth noting that some areas listed as dialects are in fact distinct enough from Standard Japanese to be considered separate languages. If you visit such remote areas of Japan such as Aomori, the Ogasawara Islands, etc. and ask speakers of the native 'dialects' to talk to you in them, you'll hear for yourself how little you'll understand even as a fluent Japanese speaker.

Of course, you can make sentences without having every piece of information. After all, a verb by itself can constitute a sentence. 

今朝地震が起きました。
Kesa jishin-ga okimashita.
Literally: This.morning earthquake-subject.marker occurred.
Translation: An earthquake occurred this morning.

This sentence is perfectly grammatical with just a time phrase, subject, and a verb.  

In any language, there are several kinds of phrases. Each one has a head and the possibility of a modifier. The "head" of a phrase is the element that determines the syntactic function of the whole phrase. In "the smart cat," the head is "cat" because "cat" is the word that determines what the phrase means. The "modifier" of a phrase, then, is a word that gives information about the head. In this case, "the" and "smart" are both modifying "cat." 

The head of a phrase in Japanese is said to always follow its modifier(s), meaning that the modifier(s) are to the left of the head. The same cannot be said about English. Take for example the difference between "the Japanese book" vs. "the book in Japanese." Although there is no real difference in meaning, the grammar between the two is different. In Japanese, the equivalent would be Nihongo-no hon 日本語の本. Nihongo-no means "Japanese" and hon means "book." The affix -no seen attached to Nihongo is another example of how the function determining part of a phrase comes last as it is what allows Nihongo to modify hon as an attribute. 

When a language places the head of a phrase in the final position and places complexity before it, it is said to be left-branching. A good example of this in English would be "my husband's friend's adorable puppy." When translating this into Japanese, the word order will stay the same.

私の主人の友達の可愛い仔犬
Watashi-no shujin-no tomodachi-no kawaii koinu
Gloss: I-possessive.marker husband-possessive.marker friend-possessive.marker cute puppy
Translation: My husband's friend's adorable puppy

Japanese takes left-branching to the extreme when creating even more complex phrases and sentences. When modifying nouns with other sentences (participle phrases), Japanese still places them to the left of the head constituent of the sentence, and the word order within the modifying constituent too must follow the same left-branching principle. 

学校から帰った子供たちが外で遊んでいる。
Gakkō-kara kaetta kodomo-ga soto-de asonde-iru.
Literally: School-from returned kid-subject marker outside-at play-ing.
Translation: (The) children who came back from school are playing outside.

This example is a relatively short sentence with not too much information, but if you're wondering why there are two verbs in the sentence, remember what is meant by left-branching. The predicate (jutsugo 述語) of a sentence is what tells us what the subject is or is doing. That role is held by verbal expressions, and where is the verb in an SOV sentence? At the end. It is the head of the whole sentence, and so that is why no matter where the subject or object may be, the verb stays put. The reason for why there are two verbs in this sentence is because they're in different clauses. "Came back" is modifying "children," thus it is before "children," but it is also at the end of the modifying phrase as its head constituent. In turn, this principle pervades Japanese grammar and if you can get it to click now, you won't make any word order mistakes. 

Many learners feel like inverting their own name to sound more Japanese, but this will result in mutual confusion as Japanese speakers anticipate names being constructed differently in other cultures. Their priority is making sure that they are giving you proper respect, and so whatever your name is, that is what it is in Japanese, albeit with a Japanese-friendly pronunciation. 

It is worth noting that for those with Chinese or Korean names, the Chinese character spelling of one's name will carry over. As for how one's name would be pronounced, it's becoming more common to honor the original pronunciation as best as possible with the sounds available in Japanese.

Japanese grammar is rather certain about the predicate (verb/adjective) coming at the end of a sentence. However, there are times when a speaker may wish to state the predicate first and leave the rest of the sentence as an after-statement. This known as inversion. 

叶え、私の願いよ。
Kanae, watashi-no negai-yo.
Gloss: Come.true I-genitive.marker wish-exclamation.marker
Translation: Come true, oh my wishes.

Although not common, you may see this occasionally in music, poetry, and other similar emphatic situations. 

As has been stated a few times already but cannot be stressed enough, Japanese allows for contextually obvious things to be omitted from a sentence even if that said part(s) is/are grammatically necessary in English. The most famous instance of this is Japanese's tendency to drop pronouns such as "I" and "you" despite these same words appearing in a large majority of English sentences. 

Of course, the decision between omitting or verbalizing something does imply change in nuance. For now, however, it's important to know that even a basic sentence like "what is your name?" will exhibit this behavior, so it's important to know about it now. As you can see from the gloss, the Japanese equivalent of "your" is not used.

お名前は何ですか。
O-namae-wa nan desu-ka?
Gloss: Honorific.prefix-name-as.for, what is-question.marker. 
Translation: What is your name?

New learners will constantly insert words such as watashi (I) and anata (you) into their sentences even though no actual speaker does this. All the aspects of the language that you're being told in this introduction are pervasive. Even if you forget about them, they will pop on in all the sentences you see. 

There are two kinds of words in Japanese: independent words (jiritsugo 自立語) and ancillary words (fuzokugo 付属語. Independent words are those that can stand alone. Independent words can further be broken down into conjugatable and non-conjugatable words. Ancillary words, however, cannot stand alone. They too, though, may or may not be conjugatable. 

There are 12 unique parts of speech that can be classified as either independent or ancillary words. They then can be further categorized by their ability or lack thereof to conjugate.

• Independent Words (Jiritsugo 自立語)
  
  ーConjugatable
  
  　・Verbs (Dōshi 動詞)..................................................Lessons 16, 17, 18, etc.
  A verb is a word that describes an action, state, or occurrence.
  　・Adjectives (Keiyōshi 形容詞) ..................................Lessons 13, 50, 52　
  An adjective is a word that describes an attribute. 
  　・Adjectival Nouns (Keiyōdōshi 形容動詞) ................Lessons 14, 51, 53, etc.
  An adjectival noun is a word that describes an attribute while also being noun-like.
  
  ーNot Conjugatable
  
  　・Nouns (Meishi 名詞)................................................Lesson 8 
  A noun is a word that describes a person, place, state, quality, event, or thing.
  　・Pronouns (Daimeishi 代名詞)..................................Lessons 8, 84, 191
  A pronoun is a word that indirectly describes a person, direction, or thing.
  　・Numbers (Sūshi 数詞).............................................Lessons 27, 28, 29, 193, etc.
  A number is a word that counts or measures entities. 
  　・Adnominal Adjectives (Rentaishi 連体詞)...............Lessons 60 & 303
  An adnominal adjective is a word that describes an attribute by directly modifying a noun.
  　・Adverbs (Fukushi 副詞)..........................................Lessons 48, 49, 154, 293, etc.
  An adverb is a word that qualifies an adjective, adjectival noun, or a verb. 
  　・Conjunctions (Setsuzokushi 接続詞)......................Lesson 169
  A conjunction is a word that connects sentence together.
   　・Interjections (Kandōshi 感動詞).............................Lesson 200
  An interjection is a word that represents an abrupt remark. 
  
  
• Ancillary Words (Fuzokugo 付属語)
  
  ーConjugatable
  
  　・Auxiliary Verbs (Jodōshi 助動詞)...........................Lessons 9, 10, 36, 37, etc.
  An auxiliary verb is an ending that attaches to a conjugatable part of speech. 
  
  ーNot Conjugatable
  
  　・Particles (Joshi 助詞)............................................Lessons 11, 12, 15, 19, 20, etc.
  A particle is a word that marks some grammatical function. 

The parts of speech of Japanese typically match up well with their English counterparts even if they end up elsewhere in a sentence, but the part of speech that is completely foreign to the English learner is "particles." 

Particles are small words that note some sort of grammatical function, but some particles don't translate at all to English. What's more is that although there is only a handful of particles, most particles have more than one function, and using context and other grammatical clues are necessary to interpret them correctly. 

There are six main types of particles: case, parallel, conjunctive, final, adverbial, and bound. Particles may be categorized differently depending on how they're used, so if you see the same particle in a different part of a sentence, it will certainly have a different function. 

• Case Particle (Kaku joshi 格助詞): A particle that indicates the grammatical function of a noun in a sentence. Some are prone to being omitted if their functions are deemed unnecessary to make explicitly clear. 
  
  

1. The Particle Ga が.....................................Lesson 11, 167
2. The Particle Wo を.....................................Lesson 15, 167, 183
3. The Particle Ni に.......................................Lessons 31, 41, 66, 117
4. The Particle No の......................................Lesson 30, 89
5. The Particle E へ........................................Lesson 32
6. The Particle De De で......................................Lessons 33, 90
7. The Particle To と.......................................Lessons 40, 66
8. The Particle Kara から................................Lessons 46, 117, 256
9. The Particle Yori より.................................Lesson 144
   
   

• Parallel Particle (Heiritsu joshi 並立助詞): A particle that juxtaposes two or more things together. 
  
  

1. The Particle Mo も.......................................Lesson 22
2. The Particle To と .......................................Lesson 40
3. The Particle Ni に.......................................Lesson 41
4. The Particle Ya や......................................Lesson 68
5. The Particle Toka とか...............................Lesson 141 
6. The Particle Ka か......................................Lesson 164
7. The Particle Yara やら...............................Lesson 302
8. The Particle Nari なり................................Lesson 302
9. The Particle Dano だの..............................Lesson 304
   
   

• Conjunctive Particle (Setsuzoku joshi 接続助詞): A particle that connects clauses together. 
  
  

1. The Particle Te て....................................Lesson 26
2. The Particle Node ので............................Lesson 57
3. The Particle Kara から.............................Lesson 57
4. The Particle Noni のに.............................Lesson 58
5. The Particle Shi し...................................Lesson 69
6. The Particle Temo ても............................Lesson 67
7. The Particle Ga が.....................................Lesson 76
8. The Particle Ke(re)do け（れ）ど.............Lesson 76
9. The Particle Tari たり...............................Lesson 101
10. The Particle Nagara ながら.....................Lessons 104, 288
11. The Particle Ba ば.....................................Lessons 109, 110, 111
12. The Particle To と.....................................Lessons 109, 110, 111
13. The Particle Tara たら..............................Lessons 109, 110, 111
14. The Particle Tsutsu つつ..........................Lesson 289
15. The Particle Do(mo) ど(も)...........................Lesson 304
    
    

• Final Particle (Shū-joshi 終助詞): A particle placed at the end of a phrase to provide emotional context.
  
  

1. The Particle Ka か....................................Lessons 19, 20
2. The Particle Te て....................................Lesson 30
3. The Particle Yo よ....................................Lesson 77
4. The Particle Ne ね....................................Lesson 77
5. The Particle Wa わ...................................Lesson 78
6. The Particle Na な...................................Lesson 78
7. The Particle Zo ぞ...................................Lesson 78
8. The Particle Ze ぜ...................................Lesson 78
9. The Particle Sa さ.................................Lesson 78
10. The Particle Kana かな...........................Lesson 184
11. The Particle Kashira かしら...................Lesson 184
12. The Particle Jan じゃん.........................Lesson 184
13. The Particle Koto こと...........................Lesson 184
14. The Particle Kke っけ............................Lesson 184
15. The Particle Ya や..................................Lesson 184
    
    

• Adverbial Particle (Fuku-joshi 副助詞): A particle that indicates degree/condition/circumstance.  
  
  

1. The Particle Ka か...................................Lesson 44 
2. The Particle Made まで..........................Lesson 47
3. The Particle Dake だけ...........................Lesson 85
4. The Particle Hodo ほど...........................Lesson 143
5. The Particle Kurai くらい........................Lesson 143
6. The Particle Nado など...........................Lesson 143
7. The Particle Shimo しも.........................Lesson 182
8. The Particle Zutsu ずつ...........................Lesson 188
9. The Particle Nomi のみ............................Lesson 207 
10. The Particle Bakari ばかり.....................Lesson 254
11. The Particle Kiri きり...............................Lesson 302
    
    

1. The Particle Wa は...................................Lesson 12
2. The Particle Mo も...................................Lesson 22, 186
3. The Particle Demo でも...........................Lesson 67
4. The Particle Shika しか............................Lesson 108
5. The Particle Hoka ほか............................Lesson 108
6. The Particle Koso こそ............................Lesson 208
7. The Particle Sae さえ..............................Lesson 230
8. The Particle Sura すら.............................Lesson 230
9. The Particle Dani だに.............................Lesson 230

Hiragana ひらがな and Katakana カタカナ are both respectively known as Kana syllabaries. Learners familiar with Chinese characters will vaguely recognize many of the characters in these two systems, and this because all the characters do come from simplifications of Kanji. However, unlike Kanji, the purpose of these systems is to write out sounds phonetically. One might wonder why there are two syllabaries if they both do the same thing. Indeed, there is no difference in how they write Japanese sounds, but they have different histories and have been allocated for different semantic roles that will be discussed in Lesson 3 (Hiragana) and Lesson 4 (Katakana) respectively. 

Each Kana syllabary has a set of 48 basic characters, and from there a small number of add-ons are used to represent all other possible 'syllables' in the language. Although we will wait until Lesson 3 to start learning what the glyphs are, here are two charts showing their origins from Kanji. The chart to the left illustrates the origin of Hiragana ひらがな, and the chart to the right illustrates the origin of Katakana カタカナ. 

To learn more about what Kanji have been altered in Japanese, you can check them out in Lesson 362. This will be incredibly helpful for those who already know how to write and recognize Kanji from another language.

■Japanese-Made Kanji　国字

Hiragana and Katakana won't be the only writing systems foreign to Chinese or Korean learners. In fact,  the Japanese have also created their own Kanji over the centuries. Some of them have even made their way back into Chinese such as the character for "to work" 働. To learn more about these Japanese-made Kanji, check out Lesson 360．

Japanese was once void of any punctuation. This may seem incredibly strange, but Japanese grammar does a great job of accounting for all the jobs punctuation marks do in English. Nonetheless, it is due to contact with Western languages that Japanese borrowed those same punctuation marks into their own writing. Although mostly obvious as to what they are, some of the marks have changed appearance or at the least underwent a font transformation.