be noted here that although characters were adopted principally for their meaning, and pronounced as the equivalent-meaning Japanese spoken word, they also had Chinese pronunciations of their own, which also entered the Japanese language (with considerable modification in some cases). Other characters were borrowed specifically for their pronunciation in order to express Japanese words or word-elements in writing. Also, many Chinese words (especially compounds) were adopted. And so, especially from around the seventh and eight centuries, Japanese became considerably "Sinified."
Presently, kana phonetic symbols were produced from certain characters used primarily for their sound rather than meaning, and were initially applied (in the case of katakana) as pronunciation guides to characters. Eventually kana were also used for writing native Japanese words, especially the more cursive hiragana, which were used largely by women. Among other things this meant that Japanese people could now write in a way that Chinese people could not readily understand (that is, not without study).
Westerners first arrived in Japan in 1543, and stayed for around a century before being expelled. They were mostly Portuguese, and later Dutch (who alone among Westerners avoided total expulsion and were allowed a small settlement), and these two nations left a legacy of a number of words that were incorporated into Japanese. However, it was when the Westerners returned in 1853, this time for good, that Japanese underwent its next major change. This time it was English that was the major influence. In fact, as Japan set out on its course of modernization—which to a large extent meant Westernization—there was even a move among certain people in high places to adopt English as the official language. This move, in similar fashion to the eighteenth century proposal to make German the official language of the United States, was taken seriously and only narrowly failed to gain acceptance. Had it not failed, you would now be studying Japanese as an archaic language, not as a living one!
FIGURE 1f: What might have been.
During the decades following the return of the Westerners, in addition to numerous new words adopted from English and other Western languages there were many new Sino-Japanese words coined, such as for "telegraph" and presently "automobile." A similar process occurred in China at around the same time, and there was borrowing both ways between China and Japan so it is not always clear in which country particular words were coined. There was also a brief revival of very heavily Sinified language among scholars, and a reasonably successful attempt by novelists to bridge what was up until then a substantial gap between spoken and written language styles. In recognition of the complexity of the writing system, there was also a proposal to abandon kanji and use only kana, but, like the move to adopt English, this ended up failing to gain acceptance.
During the strong nationalistic atmosphere leading up to World War Two, there was a move to ban Western words and replace them with Japanese (or Sino-Japanese) words. This had limited success in practice, and, following Japan's defeat and the largely American occupation that ensued, the profile of English in Japan and in the Japanese language greatly increased. As we shall see later, the Japanese are now actually making up their own "English" terms and phrases, known as "Japlish," and in some cases re-exporting them to the English-speaking world!
As internationalization and globalization progress, changes to languages worldwide are inevitable. Given the Japanese ability to adapt and modify, we can expect that the language will evolve into an even more hybrid form, despite the significant degree of ritual language use mentioned earlier.
1.3.4 What is "standard" Japanese?
The standard language that now represents (British) English is often referred. to—somewhat inaccurately—as the "Queen's English." However, the Japanese monarch's title has never been seen as a representation of standard Japanese, for the language of the Imperial Household, though now less distinct than in the past—very few members of the public could understand Emperor Hirohito's surrender speech when the first imperial radio broadcast was made in August 1945—is still not very representative of ordinary Japanese. Rather, standard Japanese might be termed, like "BBC English," to be "NHK Japanese," based on the language of the nation's principal broadcaster Nihon Hōsō Kyoku (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). This in turn is based largely on the dialect of the capital, Tokyo.
There are many rich and varied dialects in Japan, more so than in England, but in this book we focus on standard "NHK Japanese."
CHAPTER TWO
Challenges and Rewards
Every language has, for the learner from another language background, what might be termed "good news" and "not quite so good news." Japanese is no exception. In this chapter, from an English speaker's perspective, we consider the straight-out good news first, in Section 2.1. Then in 2.2 we introduce you to the challenges, but soften these by giving you tips along the way so as to reduce the level of challenge. That's why we refer to it as "not quite so good news" rather than simply "bad news."
All points raised in this chapter will be discussed in more detail later in the book, so don't worry if you are left wanting more information on some particular point.
2.1 The good news
We shall consider here different types of "good news." These are the rewards of learning Japanese, and the downright "easy bits."
2.1.1 The rewards
Although Japanese does have its challenges, it is almost always seen as rewarding, even by those who do not pursue their studies beyond an introductory level. These rewards are both material and personal.
Japan is one of the world's major nations. Even though its economy has been relatively unhealthy for more than a decade now, it is not going to cease being a world superpower. And yet, despite increasing numbers of native English speakers becoming competent in Japanese, especially proportionately in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, worldwide these are still few relative to those competent in the traditional foreign languages of French and German. That is, Westerners competent in Japanese have a very useful rarity, and possess a skill much in demand. (Having said that, the growth of students of Japanese mentioned earlier may eventually erode that rarity value.)
A recent UK survey revealed that more and more young Britons are keen to study Japanese because they love Japanese anime, and other surveys show that young Americans also think it is a "cool" language. This interest value is another significant factor, in that learning Japanese clearly satisfies a personal interest for many students, and is not merely a planned career decision. In terms of personal development and satisfaction, there is also great reward in the very learning of a language characterized by different concepts and cultural associations. Japan's culture, along with its history, is one of the richest in the world, and command of the language provides an extra dimension of accessibility to it. And in terms of broadening the mind by learning another language, it follows that the more different from English that language is, the more the English speaker's mind will be broadened.
2.1.2 The easy bits
Some things about using Japanese—certainly in its spoken form—are downright easy. For example, you don't have to worry about gender of nouns or conjugating verbs according to person, or noun/pronoun changes depending on whether they are subject or object. And, compared with many languages, Japanese verbs do not contain many irregularities at all in terms of tense change.
English has become such a part of the linguistic consciousness of the Japanese that in many cases you can simply use English words and be understood. Even if a word has not formally entered the Japanese language, many Japanese would be familiar enough with the English vocabulary to understand it from the given context. (The Japanese grasp of English grammar is not quite so advanced, so whole English sentences and long phrases should be
