Writing Japanese takes a long time to learn and requires constant practice. There are 3 Japanese scripts, Chinese characters (kanji) were brought to Japan in the 6th century and were used for writing the Japanese language. Because Chinese and Japanese languages are very different, two other writing systems were created. These are called “hiragana” and “katagana”. Each of these Japanese alphabets has 46 letters. They are used to spell out words that cannot be written with kanji. Kanji are used to express whole words and ideas. There are over 2,000 kanji in general use. Japanese students must learn to read and write about 1,000 kanji before they complete elementary school, and they learn the rest by the time they finish junior high school.

     Japanese people enjoy when foreigners make an effort to speak Japanese while visiting Japan. Most of them are patient and encouraging. Besides, one should never assume (as was the case of a few FMF participants) that all Japanese speak English. Here is a list of a few useful words that you can put into practice when visiting Japan: