#2 What you can see by comparing it with your own language

Among those who are learning Japanese, some may ask: "Why is the Japanese language so difficult?" "Why are there exceptions in the grammar?" Some people may wonder why Japanese is so difficult to learn.
There are also many "Language Difficulty Ranking" on the internet, and Japanese is often ranked amongst them.
Is this really the case? Could it be said that the languages you speak in your everyday life are easier than Japanese? Who are the rankings written on the internet for? It is probably not a universal ranking for humanity in general.
I would like to lower this psychological hurdle for Japanese language learners as much as possible.
And I think one of the ways to do this is to review the language you are speaking.

灯台(とうだい) lighthouse

Good points of comparison.

「灯台下暗し(Toudai moto kurashi)」
「It's hard to see what is right under your nose.」
There is a saying in Japan. It is used as an analogy for the fact that it is very dark under the lighthouse, and that people are less aware of familiar things than they might think.
Some people who study a new language as adults may want to improve their language reasonably quickly. One of the ways to this is understanding of basic grammar. If this is the case, don't you think that a way to help with this is to understand your own mother tongue or first language, which you didn't need to know because you speak it as a matter of course, and which will help you to understand the new language?

Ease the burden of memorizing

Isn't it very difficult to just memorize a whole new language? You have to memorize all the grammar in a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning. Of course, if you can do that, you may, but I can't.
So I try to find similarities or differences between Japanese grammar and English grammar and link them to already existing knowledge.
I show some examples below.

For example, consider this sentence: "I like eating."
「わたしは 食(た)べる ことが すきです。」in Japanese.
It is important to note the concept of "gerund".
A gerund is a form of a verb that ends in -ing that is used as a noun, like "doing" "drinking" "running".
On the other hand, there is also gerund in Japanese, which are used in the form of "食べること". 
What do you think? Does finding similarities make you feel like you have something in your head?

Of course, the opposite is also true! It is about discovering the differences.
This is elementary, for example, word order. In English, the verb comes before a subject, in Japanese it comes last. This is "the other way round!" and if you understand like that, that will help you apply it better than memorizing it.

Raise tolerance for exceptions.

I believe that understanding your own language, you are able to tolerate exceptions and features of the new language you are learning that are not present in your own language.
For example, think about words for the months "January" and "February" in English and "1月(がつ)" and "2月(がつ)" in Japanese. Why doesn't English simply use numbers? There is no way to find out. If you ask a native speaker, he or she will probably answer, "Because this is the way it is". Of course, there are some things you can find out if you look them up because of the historical background, but if you have to know every single one of them before you can move on, it's a lot of work. I think only those who are interested should look it up.
Of course, the reverse is also true. Some expressions are easy to express in English but a little difficult to express in Japanese. Likewise！haha

Help to understand different cultures

Also, there are many expressions with the same meaning that are perceived differently in different languages! I think this is another way to learn a new language in a more enjoyable way by getting to know your own language in depth.
For example, look at proverbs!
"It's like teaching a cat how to catch a mouse."
「釈迦(shaka)に説法(seppou)」in Japanese.
The proverb means that it is foolish to teach things to an expert in a certain field, but in English it is expressed as teaching to a cat, and in Japanese as teaching to the Buddha(釈迦). 
This is at the vocabulary level, but even in grammatical expressions there are unique Japanese expressions and phrases. I would be happy if you could enjoy learning Japanese by seeing the differences in culture and history.

Summary

Has your impression of learning Japanese improved a little? I think it is normal to think that any language or any field of study that you are learning for the first time is difficult at first. However, the aim of this article is to show that there are things about languages that you have already acquired, and that this knowledge can be used as material to apply, compare and study in learning a new language.
Of course, there are many different people who are good at it, bad at it, interested in it or not, so if you read this article and think you might want to look back at your own language a little, I hope you will try learning it again.

Thank you for reading!