Changing Japanese

[Niko]

The end of Japanese as we know it

Despite its popularity, studying Japanese is far from a stress-free pursuit. For all the fun of trying out new phrases on native speakers, there is the hard slog involved in mastering kanji - thousands of often complicated characters derived from Chinese.

Aside from the written word, speaking Japanese also involves adopting a role in a complex hierarchical web, where an inappropriate personal pronoun or mangled verb ending can result in severe embarrassment.

Foreign learners are not alone in their struggle to master kanji and honorific Japanese. The Japanese themselves are forgetting the finer points of their own language.

Widespread use of word-processing software and mobile phones has led to a decline in writing skills. Furthermore, the erosion of traditional social structures means that the Japanese today are markedly less proficient with polite language than their ancestors.

Stopping the rot has become a mission for guardians of Japanese, who fear cultural and intellectual meltdown will lead to the end of Japanese as we know it. As the history of the language shows, Japanese is no stranger to controversy.