My notes from a short speech at local Toastmasters/Speechcraft group. Topic: “The most interesting things about the Japanese language to me”.

• Why to learn such a different language? It makes you start thinking on own culture and language. language learning includes culture.
• There are multiple levels of niceness. (先生 enters room and says “お早う”. One student replies “お早う”. Other students are buffled.)
• There are words that are exclusively used by men/women, i.e. かない/つま. お肉/肉. おすし/すし.
• While many words are taken from English or German spelling is different: hamburger vs. ハンバーガー
• Different counter words are used, depending on counted objects:
  • long/round things like banana, umbrella
  • flat things like sheets of paper
  • fun topic of categorizing things like phonecalls: long/round
• adjectives can directly contain 'past time': cold (寒い) and 'was cold'(寒かった) are single words
• When learning: first speaking, later reading and writing get more important
• Interesting things: meeting situations when canonical thought to describe it is Japanese

“step by step”, “piece by piece” → すこしずつ(少しずつ)、一歩一歩 for example, 「私は日本語の勉強を少しずつがんばっていきたいです。」

“日本人の知らない日本語” is very popular book in Japan.

ぼちぼち is a dialect that means step by step, not often used. 少しずつ、焦らずに、のんびり　という意味です。 ぼちぼち日本語を習っています。→少しずつ日本語を習っています。