Spoken Japanese
Basic Japanese conversation is not as difficult as you may think. A lot can be said in few words. Unlike in many European languages, you don't have to worry about gender markers, plurals, the future tense (it's the same as present tense), or conjugating verbs for the first person, second person, and so on. The subjects of sentences are generally understood from context and omitted when understood, just as in Spanish. The pronouns I, you, she, they, etc., are infrequently used; instead, names or titles are used when referring to or talking to people.
Desu is the "to be" verb, and it doesn't change with the person. Word order in Japanese is almost a mirror image of English word order: subject, then object, then verb. So, if you want to say "I'm Tom," say Tomu desu"; if you want to say, "She's Mary," say, Merii desu"; and if you want to say, "They are my friends," say "Tomodachi desu" (tomodachi means "friend" or "friends").
(excerpt from p.102)