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| Kanji |
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| Hiragana and Katakana |
For foreign people who is going to Japan for the first time, for longer time than just for vacation or business trip, and not in major cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, then I recommend you to get familiar with Japanese characters before you come. Why? Because you will hardly meet English in public area, or more extreme, it is alphabet-meaning-something that you will rarely see.
My own experience actually. Although I had learnt basic Japanese characters, hiragana and katakana, back in my country, when I came here, I found out that most of the public signs are written in kanji! The most diverse and difficult Japanese characters which they adopted from Chinese characters centuries ago. How could I search for the meaning in dictionary while I didn't even know how to read them? And it was like being drown back to illiteracy. Not to mention totally different language I had to hear every time. Lost in space, oh no, Lost in Japan made me desperate, at least for the first 6 months.
Good thing that they sell electronic dictionary with writing pad which made my life easier. However it was kinda troublesome to always carry a device on your hands. Sigh. "Is there a faster way to live normally here?", I wondered. Well, seems no other choice except learning Japanese language, especially kanji.
And here I am now. Want to challenge myself in Japanese Language Proficiency Test (Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken) Level 2 on next December. Wish me luck.
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