For LDS Missionaries

If you are unable to hear the audio, please enable Javascript. This lesson is specifically for LDS Missionaries who have been called to serve in Japan and need to learn Japanese. Between this and the other public lessons, most of what you will learn in the MTC is covered and the lessons in our Members Area go well beyond. While you might think you have a good handle on the Japanese language by the time you're ready to leave the MTC, two months really isn't enough time to learn the language well enough to be very effective. Our hope is that you will find this lesson soon after receiving your mission call so that you have more time to prepare and can then focus more time on teaching.

The MTC focuses on teaching polite form. This is good because you should use polite form with those you don't know well or are meeting for the first time but some people (especially members) will switch to plain form fairly quickly so, if you don't know it, you won't know what they're saying. You also won't be able to understand the scriptures.

The scriptures use kanji, hiragana, and katakana (like any standard written Japanese) but they also have furigana (the reading written out in hiragana next to the kanji) so that even little children can read them. This means you only need to learn hiragana to read the bulk of the scriptures but will also need to learn katakana as well in order to read the names of the books and people.

Below you will find various nouns, adjectives, and verbs specific to the LDS Church in Japan. Click on the 🔊 image to hear the audio.

• Godan verbs.
• Irregular and ichidan verbs.

Here is a link to Moroni 10:3-5 in Japanese (モロナイ書十章三節から五節まで - moronaisho juushou sansetsu kara gosetsu made ) so you can practice reading. Look up words you don't understand here.