Marty Friedman, an American guitarist living in Japan, talks about the importance of knowing Japanese


I started off little by little. I enjoyed touring in Japan a lot, and during those tours I found that knowing a little of the language made it even more fun. Japan is such a mysterious place the first few times you go there that it seems like a waste to be there if you don’t know any of the language. It’s like you`re missing out on something.

I cannot even begin to list the positive experiences I`ve had from studying Japanese. First and foremost, I’ve made lifelong friends and more interesting acquaintances than I can count. I`ve done upwards of 400 TV shows all in Japanese, worked with the absolute top Japanese entertainers, not only in the musical field, but actors, actresses, models, writers, politicians, scholars, you name it. I’ve also been able to work with all my favorite non-Japanese artists when they come to Japan (which most of them eventually do).

All of these experiences have directly and indirectly made me a lot more successful at my real job, music.

For me, there are so many benefits of studying Japanese. Although I did the majority of my actual “studying” a while ago, as in music as well, the learning literally never ends. Even now, over the course of my everyday activities I am constantly picking up new and more colorful ways to express myself. The main benefit is obviously being able to freely do anything within a society that is normally almost closed to non-Japanese speakers. It sounds corny, but if you can dream it, you can do it – because with a new language, any new language, you widen your spectrum of WHO you can communicate with several times. With this wider base of unique people you can now converse with, learn from, and offer things to, your possibilities and potential to do unique things grow in a big way. Also you have the weapon of growing up in a culture different from Japan; a culture the Japanese are VERY curious about.

I use Japanese for business all the time. Actually, living in Japan, I use Japanese overall about 95% of the time, maybe more. Japanese are very accommodating to foreigners when it comes to trying to communicate in English TO A POINT. After a very short while, it becomes too much effort, and very few people really speak good English here anyway.

LEARN TO READ AND WRITE!!!!!!!! There is nothing lamer than learning to speak Japanese but not being able to read a sign, or an email, or anything. Reading makes it fun; it`s actually incredibly rewarding when you find that you are able to “break the code.” You have to remember that you can`t work anywhere in the world without being able to read. Reading and writing is the key to enjoying the learning process of Japanese. It seems hard, but it actually helps your speaking, rather than being something else to learn on top of speaking. Good luck!

(February 2010)