The Japanese language

We first learned about the structure of Japanese at the University of Florida before studying how to speak, write, and read Japanese at the language school here in Tokyo. By structure, we mean the basic linguistic components (subject, verb, object) found in every language, the morphology (the little bits that make up the bigger parts, like prefixes or verb endings), and the phonology (the sounds and how they're combined). Japanese sentence structure is subject-object-verb with particles that mark the grammatical function of words.

Here's an example of the subject-object-verb sentence structure:
Michiko-san wa sushi-o tabe-mas. Michiko eats sushi.

The wa marks the subject (Michiko-san), o the object (sushi), and mas is the present tense verb conjugation for the verb taberu (to eat). 

Also different than English, Japanese adjectives are conjugated, changing in the present/past and whether positive/negative.

Most famously, Japanese has a complex system of honorifics with verb forms and vocabulary that change depending on the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and the persons mentioned. Pronouncing Japanese is easy actually because the vowels are pure and the syllables are mostly CV (consonant-vowel) structure.

Learning the language has helped us to understand the structure better... but a linguist doesn't need to learn every language before understanding how it works.

(image means Nihongo or Japanese)