is the japenese language difficult to learn?

I studied Japanese at college. I actually found it fairly easy for as far as I took it. I'm English, and I took a GCSE and got an A, the only subject in which I acheived such a grade XD I was also studying Italian at the time and found that to be very difficult. I think it really depends on the idividual. With the Japanese, a lot of the learning was very visual, which I think is why I caught on better. It's an easier way for me to learn. The two syllabic alphabets, Hirigana and Katakana were fun to learn, but Kanji is quite... hard XD More strokes and meanings and sounds. Studying Japanese was one of the best things I ever did. I only wish I'd been able to take it further. Another reason I probably did well was that it was fun and I ENJOYED doing it. I loved my homework!

nihonggo (japanese language) is quite easier to learn compared to Chinese. of course, at the beginning, it would be hard for you to learn the writing but you'll eventually get used to it. the sentence patterns are relatively easy. they seem standard except for a few syntactical and grammatical exemptions. the verbs are also easier to identify because they all end with "masu" (formal usage). but i had a harder time learning the colloquial or the informal japanese rather than the polite, formal patterns. hehe. since you first learned the formal, there are a lot of changes when it comes to informal, that's why i had a hard time looking back to old japanese lessons and replacing everything with the informal words, expressions, etc that they use. i recently took a japanese proficiency exam and the results are coming out this march. i'm still keeping my fingers crossed. hope i made it to the cut-off. another thing that makes nihoggo a bit hard is that when you are answering a question you still have to think of three things: 1) how to read the character 2) what the word means 3) what the answer to the question is. :-) but it is really fun to study nihonggo especially when you are already able to watch anime and tv shows in japanese. but, that i have to say, i still cannot do right now. hehe. im still a beginner. but when you start studying it, you'll want to study it more and more and more... until you're fluent enough... learning a language could get addicting you know, hehehe :-) good luck!

Japanese laguage is not difficult to learn but the writing is very very difficult.

I took Japanese for a year some time ago. The language is extremely easy to speak (especially if you're French since the pronounciation is the same). Of course, like for all other languages, you have to learn the vocabulary. Japanese is only a pain when it comes to writing it. Although the kanas (hiragana and katakana) are really easy to learn, the kanji (chinese symbols) aren't. The rest is actually really easy, because you don't have singular/plural for nouns, and as for verbs, there are very very few tenses.

Hmm, I think the most difficult thing by learning Japanese is the some what reversed grammar and the writing of course. The grammar you get used to fairly quick.

I am still self-learning at the moment. I find it fairly easy to learn it compare to Chinese language. They don't have much intonation.

Fairly easy to speak, but the writing was tough. Hiragana, and katakana scripts were fine, but kanji is a nightmare (even for Japanese people)

The language is fairly easy to learn, especially if you are an Asian. =) The pronounciation isn't that hard to master. Also, sentence construction is easy. Any Japanese sentence will be valid as long as the verb is at the end of it. =) As for the writting, Hiragana and Katakana is easy. You just have to memorize what each character sounds. Kanji is nightmare on paper. =)