Why learn Japanese?

Japan, one of the largest world economies, attracts people for its beautiful nature, history, technology, and other rich cultures (such as food, music, fashion and anime/manga).

Kabukicho, Shinjuku at night

Although Japanese language is spoken mainly in Japan, it is used and heard across many countries thanks to technology and globalization and nearly 36 million people are learning it worldwide. Whatever your reason for learning our language, knowing Japanese will enable you to appreciate what Japan can offer to you at first hand and to broaden your horizons. It will also enable you to see different aspects of Japan which are rarely taken up in the media.

Additional information:

The University of Birmingham has two full-time members of staff for Japanese, one of whom comes from the southern part of Japan called Fukuoka and one who comes from the central area near Tokyo (Kanagawa and Gunma). Having different background and experiences, we share the passion and dedication to help you to be able to communicate in Japanese and to deepen your understanding of Japan and its culture. Having ‘communication’ as our main focus in class, we will guide you step by step so that you can express yourself in both spoken and written Japanese.

Is Japanese difficult to learn?

No! Although Japanese is a bit different from European languages, it is certainly not a complex language. Grammar is much simpler than European languages (e.g. no gender, no singular nor plural, flexible word order, only past and non-past tense) and pronunciation is relatively easy with only five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). A lot of foreign-origin words are used in Japanese (e.g. kamera for camera, chokoreto for chocolate) so you can probably guess the meaning of some words from their sounds. Japanese has its own writing system called Hiragana and Katakana. They are introduced little by little and you can remember each script by associating it with an English word as portrayed on a picture card. We use alphabetized Japanese until you learn all the basic scripts. This means that you start learning Japanese to improve your language skills from the start.

Am I eligible to study Japanese?

Japanese is available as a credit-bearing module (optional or compulsory)  and as part of our Free Language Course scheme.