So, you want to learn Japanese writing?

Learning to read and write Japanese is quite an undertaking, considering there are a total of four official scripts.

The four scripts used in Japanese are:

• Katakana – phonetic alphabet used mostly for foreign/borrowed words and in advertising. Also used for animal sounds!
• Hiragana – phonetic alphabet used to write native Japanese words and sentence particles.
• Kanji – imported Chinese characters that have a specific meaning.
• Romaji - a romanization of Japanese.

Learning to Read and Write Japanese

Not all scripts are created equal.

For the Japanese learner the most important scripts to learn early are Hiragana and Katakana. Learning them doesn’t take too long. You can learn them well within a week using the bonus software included with the Speak Japanese Fast system.

Knowing Hiragana means you can read native text and will find studying much easier.

Knowing Katakana means you will be able to read any foreign words in Japanese writing (this comes in handy in Japan because often menus are written entirely in Katakana).

A huge benefit of knowing Hiragana and Katakana is that your Japanese pronunciation will improve a lot.

Kanji is a longer term project. It is good to begin familiarizing yourself with Kanji, but it will take time. The good news is, you don’t need Kanji in order to speak and communicate in Japan.

I recommend using romaji as little as possible. Relying on romaji means your pronunciation will not improve as quickly as you would like.

To learn Katakana and Hiragana fast, check out the bonus software that comes with Speak Japanese Fast at http://www.SpeakJapaneseFast.com

If you want to know how to speak Japanese, keep reading.

In this post we’ll look at the easy ways and hard ways of learning to speak Japanese.

When you first decide to learn another language, I bet the first thing you think about is grabbing a textbook. This is probably the worst decision you could make.

Starting from textbook is the usual surefire way to not learning a language. Learning from a textbook is a de-motivating, boring and slow process.

No wonder most people give up.

I’m going to share something a bit crazy with you…

What if language was better learned in context… What is commuication was more important than grammar… What if getting the message across was more important than perfect pronunciation…

The easy way to become conversational in a language is to understand lots of vocabulary. The textbook and classes will spend hours drilling grammar into you… But what good is grammar if you don’t have the vocabulary to use it?

Let’s try this: Instead of worrying about grammar, let’s concentrate on learning lots of Japanese words fast, so you can understand what’s going in TV shows, and in conversations. So you can start to communicate what you want.

We can learn words fast, like this.

Imagine you want to learn the Japanese word for sheep.

The Japanese word for sheep is hitsuji. Pronounced hit – soo – gee.

We will create an association between sheep and an English phrase that will force your mind to remember the Japanese word.

You must close you eyes and vividly imagine the following phrase for 10 seconds:

“Imagine, as we are driving through a field, a sheep hits our jeep”

Doing that simple exercise for 10 seconds, will lock the Japanese word for sheep (hitsuji) into your mind forever.

Test yourself tomorrow, I bet you remember!

To memorize 100 Japanese words in the next hour, visit http://www.SpeakJapaneseFast.com

The easiest way to learn Japanese words is to not do what everyone else is doing.

Most people study Japanese using repetitive, boring methods. Learning Japanese doesn’t need to be boring.

You can learn any Japanese quickly. Simply create an association or link between the Japanese word and something you already know in English.

Let’s take the word for “meet”. The Japanese word for meet is “au”. It is pronounced “ow” as in “owch! that hurts!”

To remember any word in 10 seconds flat you need follow this simple 2 step process:

• Link the word to something you already know in English
• Think about the link for 10 seconds

Let’s see how easy it can be to memorize Japanese words:

• “au” sounds similar to “owl” so let’s link it with owls. Imagine two owls meeting for the first time
• Close your eyes and imagine “two owls meeting for the first time” for 10 seconds

Easy peasey! Now you’ll always remember that the Japanese word for meet is “au”.

Visit http://www.SpeakJapaneseFast.com right now to learn 100 Japanese words in the next hour.