In Japanese teacher is “sennsei,” but we also say “kyoushi.” Kyoushi gives a somewhat formal impression. In Japanese there are four different types of script – hiragana, katakana, kanji and the Roman alphabet – and the way these characters are used creates subtle changes in nuance. By writing teacher in hiragana as せんせい, it gives the impression that a small child is talking, but if you write it in katakana as センセイ, it gives the impression that you are teasing or that the teacher is somewhat shady. You can often see expressions that combine different kinds of scripts used in things like company names or on billboards. For instance, if you write “Kokusai Gakkai” (International Academy), it sounds rather old fashioned, whereas if you write it as “Kokusai Akademi-,” it sounds as if there’s a balance between the old and the new. If Japanese scripts were in color, there would be four shades. In addition, Japanese has both vertical and horizontal writing styles. By using these you can enrich the way you express yourself. Many publications, including newspapers and magazines, are written with text running vertically. It is possible to deal with foreign words by transforming them into katakana. Books written with vertical text start from the right, while horizontal writing starts from the left. English is perhaps easier to learn as it contains fewer words, however, this can limit its expressive power. The Japanese language seems complicated, but the more you learn, the more you can enrich the way you express yourself. You might say that the Japanese language has had the single greatest influence on the perspectives and traditions of the Japanese people themselves.