Learn Japanese Quickly

If you're planning a trip to Japan, whether on business, vacation or part of a military PCS, you should do yourself a favor and learn some Japanese. You don't need to be fluent in Japanese in order to have a great time, but if you learn the basics, your trip will go much smoother, and you will definitely be less stressed.

The problem with most language programs is that they require a lot of memorization. With some languages, this isn't a major problem because the language is enough like English that you can learn many words with no problem. Japanese, however; has very little in common with English, so memorization is very difficult and time consuming.

There are several free programs available on-line, but they are woefully inadequate. I applauded there developers for wanting to help, but most of them start by trying to explain Japanese grammar, and sounds. It is almost impossible to learn a foreign language that way. You have to be able to hear it spoken. You also need to know if you are pronouncing the words correctly, otherwise how can you know you will be understood once you get to Japan.

The most popular program to learn to speak Japanese is Rosetta Stone. It is probably the most popular program for learning almost any language. It provides everything you need to know, and presents it in a manner that makes learning natural.

As soon as you start the program (whether online or installed on your computer) you are shown four pictures with descriptions written in Japanese. You then hear one of the pictures described. You have to select the picture that matches the description. Of course at first you have no idea what you are hearing, so you may guess. No problem. The program gives immediate feedback whether you are right or wrong. When you see the same picture again, you are more likely to remember the match.

The pictures start by showing simple things like a boy walking, or a girl eating. In a matter of minutes you can learn words like boy, girl, man, woman, eat, walk, sleep, and run. The pictures and descriptions get more advanced as you progress. And you'll progress quickly.

This method mimics the way we naturally learn language. When you were little, you say things and heard people talking about them. An infant only a few months old will respond when asked "do you want your blanky?" He was never told "This is a blanky. Repeat after me: blanky" You don't give an infant a list of 20 words to memorize. The memorization comes naturally with seeing and hearing. That's exactly what Rosetta Stone does for you.

You can see for yourself how well this works on their web site. They don't have a demonstration of Japanese, but the do have four or five languages you can try to see how well it works. I promise, you'll be amazed at how easy it is and how quickly you will learn Japanese.

If you want to try a longer demonstration and actually try the Japanese program, Rosetta Stone will send you a free demo CD.

Do yourself a favor; see how easy it can be to learn to speak Japanese. Click the link below, now.

Rosetta Stone Japanese Level I

Japan is a great place, and you could miss out on a lot of it if yu don't learn to speak Japanese. To see how you can benifit from learning Japanese, click here.