Is Japanese Hard? The 3 ‘Scary’ Parts Debunked

Ask anyone about learning Japanese, and you’ll likely hear a variation of the same thing: “Oh, that’s one of the hardest languages in the world!” For a native English speaker, the U.S. Foreign Service Institute famously classifies it as a Category V language, requiring an estimated 2200 hours of study to reach proficiency—the same category as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean.

It’s an intimidating reputation. The winding characters, the “backward” sentences, the complex social rules. It all adds up to a seemingly impossible mountain to climb. But what if that mountain is more of a series of manageable, rewarding hills?

Today, we’re tackling the three big fears that stop aspiring learners in their tracks. Let’s debunk the myths around Kanji, grammar, and politeness, and show you why Japanese is far more accessible than you think.

Fear #1: The Kanji Conundrum

The first and most visible hurdle is, of course, the writing system. Or rather, systems. Japanese uses three: the phonetic syllabaries Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ), and the logographic characters adopted from Chinese, known as Kanji (漢字).

The fear is understandable. While Hiragana and Katakana can be learned in a couple of weeks, the list of jōyō kanji (常用漢字), or kanji for general use, contains 2,136 characters. The thought of memorizing thousands of unique, complex symbols is enough to make anyone want to give up before they start.

Debunked: It’s a System, Not a Mess

Here’s the secret: you don’t learn kanji by memorizing 2,000+ random squiggles. You learn them as part of a logical system.

1. Radicals Are Your Superpower:
Most kanji are not monolithic drawings; they are composites built from smaller, reusable components called radicals (部首, bushu). These radicals often give a clue to the character’s meaning or sound. Once you start recognizing them, you can make intelligent guesses about new kanji.

For example, let’s look at the “water” radical, 氵(sanzui). When you see this on the left side of a character, it’s a good bet the word has something to do with liquid.

• 海 (umi) – sea
• 池 (ike) – pond
• 泳 (oyogu) – to swim
• 泣 (naku) – to cry

Suddenly, what looked like unrelated scribbles are now connected. Learning radicals turns memorization into a game of pattern recognition.

2. You Learn in Context:
Nobody sits down with a list of 2,136 characters and drills them in isolation. You learn kanji as you learn vocabulary. For example, you’ll learn the character for “person,” 人 (hito), when you learn the word for Japan, 日本 (Nihon). You’ll see that 人 is also part of the word for “three people”, 三人 (sannin). This contextual learning reinforces the character’s meaning and readings naturally over time.

3. You’re Never Completely Illiterate:
Thanks to Hiragana and Katakana, you can technically write anything you want to say in Japanese phonetically. Furthermore, learning materials, children’s books, and even some public signs use furigana—small hiragana printed above or next to kanji to show the pronunciation. You’re given built-in training wheels from day one.

Fear #2: The Grammar Puzzle

The next great fear is grammar. English is a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) language: “I (S) eat (V) an apple (O).” Japanese, on the other hand, is a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) language: 「私はりんごを食べます。」- Watashi wa ringo o tabemasu – “I (S) apple (O) eat (V).”

To a beginner, this feels completely backward. Add in mysterious things called “particles”, and the entire structure seems alien and confusing.

Debunked: Different, Not Difficult

Japanese grammar is different, but in many ways, it’s more consistent and even simpler than English.

1. Particles Are Your Signposts:
Those little “mystery” words like は (wa), が (ga), を (o), and に (ni) are called particles. Instead of relying on word order to understand a sentence, Japanese uses particles to label the function of each word.

• は (wa) marks the topic of the sentence.
• を (o) marks the direct object.
• に (ni) can mark a location, destination, or a point in time.

Think of them as little tags. In `Watashi wa ringo o tabemasu`, `wa` tells you “Watashi” (I) is the topic, and `o` tells you “ringo” (apple) is what’s being eaten. Because of these tags, word order can be flexible for emphasis. Both `Watashi wa ringo o tabemasu` and `Ringo o watashi wa tabemasu` are grammatically correct!

2. The Hidden Simplicities:
While the SOV structure is a learning curve, look at all the grammatical headaches Japanese *doesn’t* have:

• No Genders: Unlike French (le/la) or German (der/die/das), Japanese nouns have no gender. A table is a table. A car is a car.
• No Plurals (Mostly): The word 猫 (neko) can mean “cat” or “cats.” Context tells you which it is. No need to memorize irregular plurals like “mouse/mice” or “goose/geese.”
• Simple Verb Conjugations: In English, we say “I eat”, but “he eats.” In Spanish, the verb ending changes for every single pronoun. In Japanese, 食べます (tabemasu – to eat) is the same for I, you, he, she, they, and we. It only changes based on tense (past/present) and politeness.

Fear #3: The Politeness Predicament (Keigo)

Finally, we have Keigo (敬語), the intricate system of politeness. The fear is that you have to learn an entirely different vocabulary just to talk to your boss or a store clerk, and that one wrong word will make you sound like a horribly rude barbarian.

Debunked: It’s Gradual and Forgiving

The concept of politeness exists in every language. We don’t speak to a judge the same way we speak to our best friend (“May it please the court” vs. “Hey, what’s up?”). Japanese just formalizes this system.

1. Start with the “Safe” Zone:
Learners are not expected to master Keigo. The vast majority of your learning journey will revolve around two forms:

• Plain/Casual Form: Used with close friends and family (e.g., 食べる, taberu – “to eat”).
• Polite Form (Distal Form): Also known as the です/ます (desu/masu) form. This is your all-purpose, go-to style (e.g., 食べます, tabemasu – “to eat”).

The desu/masu form is polite enough for almost every daily situation you’ll encounter as a foreigner—ordering food, asking for directions, talking to colleagues. Master this, and you’re set.

2. People Are Understanding:
Native Japanese speakers are acutely aware that you are a learner. They do not expect you to have perfect Keigo. In fact, a foreigner using overly complex honorific speech can sometimes sound more strange than one who sticks to the standard polite form. As long as you are making a good-faith effort with the desu/masu form, you will be seen as polite and respectful. Your effort is what counts.

Conclusion: A Different Kind of Challenge

Is Japanese hard? Yes, it presents a different set of challenges compared to learning a language like Spanish or French. The initial hurdle involves learning new writing systems and getting used to a different grammatical foundation.

But “hard” does not mean “impossible” or “illogical.” The “scary” parts of Japanese—Kanji, grammar, and Keigo—are all systematic, consistent, and can be learned step-by-step. Kanji is a puzzle of building blocks, not random drawings. Grammar is a highly logical system of signposts, not chaotic word order. And politeness is a gradual skill you build on a solid, simple foundation.

Don’t let the reputation scare you away. The journey of learning Japanese is long, but it is one of the most intellectually and culturally rewarding paths a language learner can take. Break it down, and you’ll find that mountain is just waiting for you to take the first step.