Japanese is spoken by over 125 million people around the world. Japanese is often called a language isolate as it has no genetic relationship with other languages, although it does borrow heavily from Chinese.
Japanese is written with three writing systems that are used simultaneously, namely kanji, hiragana and katakana. Whereas kanji are characters of Chinese origin, hiragana is used to write words that can’t be expressed with kanji and katakana is used primarily to write foreign words.
Honorifics in Japanese society are important:
Teinigo (“Polite language”) used on TV and most often first taught to students learning Japanese,
Sonkeigo (“Respectful language”) used when talking about superiors but not about oneself, and
Kenjōgo (“Humble language”) used when referring to actions of oneself when talking to a superior.
For more information contact us here: Japanese Translation Services.
