Despite the fact that Japanese is a language that is getting more exposure, thanks to the popular Japanese exports such as sushi, Manga comic books and Anime, Japanese is still not a language that has an abundance of eager students. The individual who embarks on the quest to learn Japanese is often more aware of the wide chasm of difference between English and Japanese. And this Debbie Downer attitude (a.k.a. negative attitude) makes the road of ascent to Japanese seem long, arduous and at times, unattainable. When you ask yourself, "Can I learn Japanese?" Here is some food for thought to nourish you, keep your mind positive and quell your "Debbie Downer" to make your days happier as you learn to speak Japanese.

Double Your Pleasure - All students have to climb up "Mount Grammar". For even the most enthusiastic foreign language student, Grammar is the long and arduous road to proficiency when you have to learn a language and Japanese grammar is no exception. However, there is hope. If you know your English grammar, it will help you learn Japanese grammar more easily because most grammatical terms are used in both English grammar and Japanese grammar. You see; studying English in school does have a purpose! O Happy Day!

Keeping It Simple - Japanese is somewhat simpler than European languages in that it has only two verb tenses, past and present and irregular verbs are sparse. There are no singular or plural, gender, or nouns with articles. O Happy Day!

Tag You Are It - The Japanese "particle". Not to worry. This is not physics and we are not talking about the atomic particle. This particle is the "grammatical particle". In Japanese, these structural particles are the central aspect of the Japanese language. These particles act as sentence markers by tagging the subject and objects and also takes the role similar to prepositions in English. However, the preposition-like particles are different from English prepositions in that they come after instead of before the nouns they mark. The function of nouns is indicated through the use of these particles. In a nutshell particles help to establish connections between things by designating a topic or an identifier of something in a sentence to indicate to you how each part of a sentence relates to the other parts. Simply put, Japanese is not as grammatically precise as English. So, if you happen to omit or make a mistake concerning particles, you will not sound as ludicrous or illiterate speaking this "broken Japanese" as you would if you did the same thing in English. O Happy Day!

Jack And Jill Went Up The Hill - The Japanese sentence structure is in the word sequence of Subject-Object-Verb. This simplifies formulation of Japanese sentences because the verb usually occurs at the end of the sentence. In Japanese a sentence is more like an utterance and less like an English sentence. Basically, a sentence is a string of words organized in a specific format but in the Japanese language, it is a series of utterances that are linked together by structural particles along with verbs and a few connecting words. Therefore, if you can get a solid understanding of the functions of Japanese structural particles, you will be well on your way to acquiring competence in speaking and understanding Japanese. O Happy Day!

Mind Over Matter - Student of Japanese be not afraid, you have chosen well. You are the brave soul. You are the one who has chosen Japanese as your language to open wide the gates of the Orient and your life experiences. You are the wise one who will take the road less traveled and embark upon a learning journey that few of your peers will experience. You are the unique one. Remember, the mind is a powerful thing and if you dwell on the fact that Japanese seems less feasible than other European languages, you will have a very difficult time learning Japanese. So don't be a "Debbie Downer". Keep your mind focused on the positive aspects and you will be able to learn Japanese quickly and effectively.