Lesson 4~ Hiragana, Katakana, and Romaji

Hello again!!

Hey, you guys see where at the top of the page it says "Home, Hiragana Chart, Katakana Chart"? Well, right now we're gonna use them.
I can't teach you Japanese properly unless you're writing the stuff as well. I mean, you could survive if I just taught you to speak it, but I might as well get you used to writing it along the way.
Now, I do mean WRITE IT-- like get a pen and paper out and start scribbling.

Now, in case you don't know, in Japan the kids learn to write using hiragana first, and in case you haven't noticed, it's all over in Japan. it's one of those scripts you see the most on signs, books, TV shows-- I mean everywhere! The second is kanji, Which we won't be using until WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY down the road! That's one of the hardest ones you see written. I kid you not, there are OLD PEOPLE who are still learn new kanji everyday, because there are over 2500 characters to pick up!

So, of course, we're not going to touch that.

Then there's katakana. It may not be the most used in the written language, but it is the most frequently seen on signs around town, so it is really useful when you're new to the place. There are many, many, MANY  words borrowed from the English language into Japanese, and all of them when written are in katakana.

Little rule of thumb; if you're in Japan, and you still can't read or understand the language, if you learn katakana and sound out the characters, you can figure out what it is.

Okay, here's your assignment;

I'm gonna give you a set of words and phrases and sentences and you're going to use the hiragana chart to translate the "romaji" into hiragana.... on paper. Like I said, get a pen and paper and write these bad boys!!

(By the way, "Romaji"-- Roma= roman, ji= written word, romaji. There, now you know.)

Eki

Doko

Kare

San

Sato

Sato San

Hai

Ie

Arigato

Gozaimasu

Hai, Arigato gozaimasu!

Desu

Watashi

Tomodachi

no

now these two, I want you to write in katakana;

Hoteru

Pen

And, now back to hiragana;

Yamaguchi

Wa

Watashi wa Yamaguchi desu.

Kare wa Sato San desu.

Hoteru wa doko desu ka? (BE CAREFUL, NOW.)

Eki wa doko desu ka?

Ookii (hint: o-u-ki-i-- look for those.)

Hoteru ni ikimasu. 

By the way, you don't have to separate the hiragana into groups like you letters. Just write them out like they're one big word.

Sato San wa Ookii desu.

Yamaguchi San wa chiisai desu.

Watashi no tomodachi wa ookii desu.

Watashi no pen wa ookii, demo, Kare no pen wa chiisai desu.

Okay, I think that's enough.
Keep practicing! As a matter of  fact, write it twice! Get the hang of writing it as much as you can. And I'll see you later!

Lesson 3~ Kare, Doko and Ka

Warning, If you're new to this site, BE SURE TO START AT THE BEGINNING!!! If you don't you'll be lost. You're gonna need the info.

Hey there, you!!! Konnichiwa!!!

Great to see you again!!

Say, I was wondering;
Has anyone ever seen an anime called Gosick? It's about this kid named Kazuya Kujo who leaves Japan to go to this made-up country in Europe-- I can't remember the name-- to go to school. It's set in the springtime in 1924, and somehow he finds himself in the middle of solving some mystery.
Honestly, it was interesting at some points, but I couldn't quite make heads or tales of it. Maybe you could check it out and see for yourself. There's a place where you could email me and tell me what you thought after a few episodes. I post what you thought in the next blog.

Okay!! Let's get down to brass tacks.

Read this:

Konnichiwa! Watashi wa Sato desu. Kare wa Yamaguchi San desu.

Watashi no pen wa ookii, demo Yamaguchi san no pen wa chiisai desu.

ARIGATO GOZAIMASU!!

Did you understand that? GOOD!!! (If you didn't, that's fine! Go back over the other entries before doing this one. I've said this already, repetition is the ONLY way to learn!)

Before we move on, which word didn't you recognize?

Kare, right?

We'll get to that later.

Now, do you have something to cover part of your screen with? If not, get something, I'll wait...... [JEOPARDY THEME]........*yawn* (I wish they wouldn't take so--) Oh! you're back!! Okay, good.

Okay, Now, today, we're gonna ask questions. Cover your screen.
And don't forget to say these things aloud!! you've gotta get used to speaking it!!

Here's a new word;

Doko

"Doko" means "Where".

And here's another one;

Ka

"Ka" is "the question mark", if you will (though you would still write a question mark, of course).

Try to figure this one out;

Watashi no pen wa doko desu ka?

Did you get it? Yoshi! (Alright!)

Look at the word order; "my pen where is?"

Now try to say, "Where is Mr. Sato?" (TRY TO GET IT, THEN MOVE THE PAPER.)

Sato San wa doko desu ka?

Say, "Where is Mr. Yamaguchi? (TRY FIRST)

Yamaguchi San wa doko desu ka?

Here's how to say "Hotel"

Hoteru

Now Say, "Where's the hotel?" (TRY FIRST!)

Hoteru wa doko desu ka?

A little quickie note here; there is no "the" in the Japanese language. Just thought you should know that.

Say, "The hotel is big". (REMEMBER, THERE IS NO "THE").

Hoteru wa ookii desu.

Now say again, "Where is the hotel?"

Hoteru wa doko desu ka?

Now, what did I just say, "ka" meant?

It makes any sentence a question, right?

Say again, "The hotel is big".

Hoteru wa ookii desu.

Now, try to say, "Is the hotel big?" (TAKE YOUR TIME.)

Hoteru wa ookii desu ka?

Did you get it? YOSHI!!!

Now say, "is the hotel small?"

Hoteru wa chiisai desu ka?

Say, "Is Mr. Sato's pen big?"

Sato San no pen wa ookii desu ka?

Say, "Yes, Mr, Sato's pen is big."

Hai, Sato San no pen wa ookii desu.

Here's how to say, "go";

Ikimasu

And here's another one;

ni

"ni"means, "in," or "to".

Hoteru ni ikimasu. What did I just say? (TRY FIRST, THEN LOOK!! I MEAN IT!!!)

Go to the hotel.

Watashi wa hoteru ni ikimasu. What did I just say?

I go to the hotel.

Say, "Mr. Yamaguchi goes to the hotel." (TAKE YOUR TIME.)

Yamaguchi San wa hoteru ni ikimasu.

Here's a new one;

Tomodachi

"Tomodachi" means "friend".

Try to say, "My friend goes to the hotel." (TRY FIRST.)

Watashi no tomodachi wa hoteru ni ikimasu.

By the way, I hope you guys are actually saying this aloud...... if not, you should be.

Remember in the beginning when I said we'd get back to "Kare"?

Okay, "kare" (pronounced kah-rey) means "he".

Say, "He is big." (KEEP YOUR MIND OUTTA THE GUTTER! JUST GUESS...)

Kare wa ookii desu.

Say, "Is he big?" 

Kare wa ookii desu ka?

Say, "Where's my friend?"

Watashi no tomodachi wa doko desu ka?

Okay, one more;

Eki

"Eki" means "Station" or, "train station".

Try to say, "Where's the train station?"

Eki wa doko desu ka? 

Say, "My train station"

Watashi no eki

Say, "Mr Sato's train station"

Sato San no Eki

Say, Mr, Yamaguchi's train station"

Yamaguchi San no eki

Try to say, "My friend's train station" (TAKE YOUR TIME.)

Watashi no tomodachi no eki

Do you remember how to say "but"? (THINK FIRST)

Demo

Now try to say, "I go to the hotel, but my friend goes to the train station". (THINK FIRST, TAKE YOUR TIME!!!! YOU CAN DO THIS!!)

Watashi wa hoteru ni ikimasu demo, watashi no tomodachi wa eki ni ikimasu.

How'd you do? I'm sure you did great!!!

Go over these a few more times before moving on to the next post. MAKE SURE the words have become second nature to you so you can answer quickly. Then find some people you can talk to. You can always go here and go to the chatroom or find some people from that little box full of people on the left side of the page (you'll see what I'm talking about).

Okay, that's it for today!! I know that one wa a little long but coming up, I've got a lot of videos that we're gonna use in the near future. I'm gonna break them down to a science for you so when you hear them again (and you WILL)  you'll understand them without a hitch.

Until then......              JA MATA, NE?

Lesson 2~ Desu and Wa

Attention new people!!

If you're new to this blog, start at the beginning! You're gonna need it to keep up!!

Hey there!! Konnichiwa!!

Have you guys ever heard of Skip Beat! ? It's REALLY GOOD! It's about this girl named Kyoko that moves to Tokyo from Kyoto to help out this guy that she's known her whole life. She'd been helping him by working two jobs and paying all the bills to support his ass, never thinking about herself even once, so that he can support him  on his rise to the top in showbiz, when one day, Kyoko finds out that he's just been using her, so she plots her revenge by working her way into showbiz herself. I'm watching it on crunchyroll.com right now for the second time, it puts you on the edge of you seat at times.
New lesson  time!!!
The best thing about this is that I get to do this with someone else for once!! I love this!! I'm not Japanese, and I'm the only one who likes to learn languages in my family, I think that this could be a great relationship together, you and I! SQUEE!!! HAPPY FACE!!

Okay, so there's three things I want to pay a little bit of attention to.
No, wa
and desu.

Okay, first of all, when it comes to "wa", there are things that even I don't fully explain. But all we need to know for the moment is, when pointing out the subject in a sentence, put "wa" right after it. We'll worry about the rest later.

Now, do you remember how to say, "no, thank you?" (GIVE IT A SEC, THEN ANSWER.)

Ie, kekko desu.

Do you remember what it literally means? (THINK FIRST.)

It means "No, that's okay", or more importantly in this case, "no, it's fine". (I know I said "no, I'M fine" in the last entry, but this is what it means as well.)
In the case of "No, IT'S fine", it's the "it is " in the sentence that we're talking about.

"Desu" means  "is", "are", or "am". But in Japanese, It's ALWAYS at the END  of the sentence.....ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!! NEVER FORGET THAT!!!!!!!!

Let's use it a bit, shall we?

Here's the word for "big"---

Ookii (pronounced oh-kee-ee)

And here's the word for "small"--

Chiisai (pronounced chee-ee-sa-ee)

Now say, "Mr. Sato". (THINK FIRST)

Sato San

Now here's how you say, "Mr Sato is Big" (get your mind outta the gutter and just read.)

Sato San wa ookii desu.

"Sato San" is the subject, so "wa" comes after it.

Now say, "Mr, Sato is small". (THINK FIRST, THEN LOOK)

Sato San wa chiisai desu.

Say "Mr. Yamaguchi".

Yamaguchi San

Now say "Mr. Yamaguchi is small". (THINK FIRST)

Yamaguchi San wa chiisai desu.

Say, "Mr, Yamaguchi is big".

Yamaguchi San wa ookii desu.

Does everybody get the whole "desu" thing? how about "wa"? That's okay, if you don't then just go back over it. That's the beauty of all this.

Okay next; NO.

If you watch the first episode of Skip Beat!, there's this point at the beginning where Kyoko's getting changed in the dressing room of her first job to get ready to go to her second, and there are some other girls are talking in there about how cool and awesome Sho Fuwa is. (That's the guy that Kyoko's devoted her life to like a friggin' idiot.)
Now she never told anyone that she lives with him and takes care of him because apparently he didn't want anyone to know, so she's contentedly listening in on how one of the girls bought two CDs and got two free posters with them.
Now Kyoko's starting to do that typical over dramatic downward spiral that most animes do at this point (you know, they do a few freeze frames as they stare in horror and the camera pans back and forth around them-- I think that's hilarious) because she bought two of his CDs as well and he never got any posters!
"Well" the other girl says, "If you still have your receipt you can always go back to the store and tell them you never got one and they'll give you one."
OH! Well, now she's on a rampage!!!
Before you know it, or even see it She's on her bike doing mach 12 down the street SHO CHAN NO POSUTA! SHO CHAN NO POSUTA! SHO CHAN NO POSUTA!!!!!
"NO" in a Japanese sentence points out who the object belongs to, like an apostrophe "s".
(As for the "chan" part to that sentence, well, if you don't know already, then we'll have to go over that another time-- probably next time.)

Here's how to say "pen" in Japanese--

pen......

I know, that's a hard one. Take a deep breath, recoup. You'll be fine.

Okay, try to say "Mr. Sato's pen". (SERIOUSLY, TRY, THEN LOOK.)

Sato San no pen

Say, "Mr Yamaguchi's pen".

Yamaguchi San no Pen

Now try to Say, "Mr's Sato's pen is big". (TRY FIRST!!!)

Sato San no pen wa ookii desu.

Did you get it? Good!!! Happy Face for you!!! ;D

Now say, "Mr Yamaguchi's pen is small".

Yamaguchi San no pen wa chiisai desu.

Okay, Here's another one;

Demo

"Demo" means "But".

Now, Try to Say, "Mr, Sato's pen is big, but Mr, Yamaguchi's pen is small. (TRY FIRST, THEN LOOK!!)

Sato San no pen wa ookii desu, demo Yamaguchi San no pen wa chiisai desu.

I know that was a little tough, but did you get it? GOOD!!

Okay, here's another one;

Watashi

"Watashi" means "I".

Now, try to say, "I am Big".

Watashi wa ookii desu.

Okay, now try to say, "My pen is big." (TRY, YOU CAN DO IT!)

Watashi no pen wa ookii desu.

Say, "Mr. Sato's pen is small".

Sato San no pen wa chiisai desu.

"But" (SAY IT)

Demo

"My pen is big."

Watashi no pen wa ookii desu.

"Mr Yamaguchi's pen is small, but my pen is big." (TAKE YOUR TIME)

Yamaguchi San no pen wa chiisai desu demo watashi no pen wa ookii desu.

YAY!!!!!! That's it for today. We're gonna go a little more in depth over some of the word structure, but I didn't want to scare you....

I really want you to spend more time listening to your pronunciation. It's a good thing to-- like I said before-- use it as much as you can.
You can also listen to the pronunciation of "Desu" HERE and watch the first Episode HERE. After you've done that, come back here and let me know what you think.

Okay, TTFN!!!! Love Ya!! Smooches!