Now with your basic knowledge of particles out of the way, let’s venture on with our Japanese. This time we have a new way to say “This, That and That over there”. However, what is different about この、その、あの　to　これ、それ、あれ is the sentence structure in which these “Demonstratives” appear.

The sentence structure, still follows a very basic pattern as before. However, the purpose of this new sentence structure is to change the conventional “This is a….” or “That is a…”. To allow the introduction of an adjective alongside the noun in question.

この　＝　This (Inside the speaker’s domain)

その　＝   That (Inside the listener’s domain)

あの　＝　That over there (Neither in the speaker or listener’s domain)

Therefore now we are saying “This…. is a…”, “This….is….”, “That..is…”, and etc etc.

We will put the demonstrative before the noun and then the adjective after the noun. (Note: There is no particle between the demonstrative and the noun).

Take this example:

あの　ひと　は　マイク　です。　(That person over there is Mike).

Do you see the structure? We basically have:

*Demonstrative**Noun**particle**adjective (or in this case the person’s name in question)**End*

Here are a lot more examples, I will give more complex examples towards the end.

この　くるま　は　カローラ　です。　(This car is a corolla).

その　いぬ　は　あきた　です。 (That dog is an akita)

この　たてもの　は　としょかん　です。 (This building is a library)

カフェテリア　は　あの　たてもの　です。　(Note: We took the adjective and put it to the front this time to say “The cafeteria is that building over there).

この　ほん　は　にほんご　の　ほん　です。 (This book is a Japanese book)

その　ほん　は　にほんご　の　ほん　です　か？ (Is that book a Japanese book?)

あの　ひと　は　やまださん　です　ね。 (New Particle: The particle “ne”, known as the “confirmation particle. It is the same as saying “That person is Ms. Yamada isn’t it?).

Just keep using examples, the change in structure will come to you. Make sure you remember to write down any new words you see or vocabulary.

I noticed I’ve written less than 50% than usual with this post. I was thinking of adding something else to end. However, I think I should stick to “One lesson per post”. I don’t want to force another 50% out and confuse things. On the flip side to this, the next lesson will come very shortly.

Well, they have appaeared in pretty much everytime Japanese has appeared. Therefore it is time you got an understanding of what particles really are.

Particles cannot be translated to anything. Therefore, if you thought that, unthink it. They can’t. Particles are like the structure of the sentence. They are what give the setnece it’s meaning. You can have two similar sentences but with a change of particle and they will mean different things.  Therefore, I’m going to go through some basic particles and give you an idea of what to look out for when you are reading Japanese.

The particle は：

Although this reads as “ha”, you will actually pronounce this “wa”. Only for particles (and at the end of こんにちは　And　こばんは）.  The job of this particle is to point out the main topic of this sentence. The particle comes after the subject it is referring to, but it signifies that information on the subject is to follow after the は. Take this very basic example:

わたしは　グレッグ　です。 (I am Greg).

In this sentence わたし is the subject of the sentence which the particle highlights by coming after it, then the particle emphasizes that information after it will be in relation to the subject. Here is another example:

グレッグさんは　スコトランドじん　です。 (Greg is Scottish).

As before, は shows that, Greg is the subject and that more information about Greg will follow after the particle.

The particle が

The particle が is similar to は in which that, it highlights the subject by coming after it and which that information about the subject follows after the particle also. However, the emphasis changes with が. Unlike はwhere the emphasis was based around giving information on the subject. The particle が puts the emphasis on the subject, stating that it is important to know the subject is connected to the information which follows after the particle. Not understand? Here is an example: *This conversation takes place in a crowded room*

- グレッグさんは　だれ　ですか？　(Who is Greg?)

- わたしが　グレッグ　です。　(I am Greg)

As you can see, the person asking “who is Greg?” already knows there is someone in the room called Greg. Therefore, using  は would be pointless as that would put the emphasis on the Greg and not the I. Which is why we use が when we want to highlight the subject in particular.

The particle か

A very simple particle. If you see this particle at the end of a sentence. Then that sentence is a question. Someone is asking you something. This can be backed up by numerous examples:

それは　ほん　ですか？

あなたは　トム　ですか？

これは　なん　ですか？

だれ　ですか？

ここは　どこ　ですか？

I decided not translate these, you guys can have fun doing that yourself. The last two are to spice things up a bit. I’m thinking I might have covered だれ a little, I’m not sure. However, I know I haven’t covered どこ so don’t worry, I will go over this in the future.

The particle の

This particle is quite possibly my favourite, not to mention it is quite useful. It’s purpose is to signify possesstion, or more simply put something belongs to something. In regards to using this particle with people it is pretty much the same as using “…’s” in English. Here are a few examples of how it is used:

やまださんの　おっかさん　(Ms. Yamada’s mother)

マイクさんの　ほん　です　(Mike’s book)

However, not always does の signify people’s possesstion. Sometimes in general it means “something belongs to something”. I’m reading what I just wrote to myself and it pretty much means the same thing. It’s isn’t easy to explain the difference, therefore you will have to see the example to understand, so here they are:

にほんごの　ほん　です　(A Japanese book)

にほんごの　がくせい　です　(A student of the Japanese language)

にほんじんの　がくせい　です　(A japanese student)

アメリカの　だいがく　です (A university in America)

アメリカの　くるま　です (An American car)

Do you see what I mean? The の no particle can show that a car was made in America, or that a student came from a certain country. Not always a person and their possesstion of objects. Also, you can have more than one noun being modified by the の particle. Example:

にほんの　だいがくの　すうがくの　がくせい　です　(A student of mathematics at a university in Japan)

Remember: The ultimate noun being modified (in this case gakusei – from the last sentence)must be placed at the end of a sentence, don’t be mislead by English word order.

The particle も

This is also a basic particle and easy to understand. Basically, if some state or action is said to apply to a latter item, then the latter item is marked with も. Example:

- トムさんは　がくせい　です

- スミスさんも　はくせい　です

These are all the particles I ‘think’ we have covered so far. I hope you have a better understanding of particles now. Don’t be discouraged by them. Particles will pop up all the time. Therefore from now on, anytime a new particle appears I will add a seperate particle section within that post dedicated to explaining it.

Until next time!

Hey, it’s a late release but it is here. Lesson 3. The time between lessons will vary depending on the lesson size. If the lesson takes longer to release, then it is because it is going to be a relatively big lesson. If the lesson is small(er) or an average size, then it wont take as long. With that in mind, follow on to lesson 3.

With lesson 3, we move onto basic sentences. I’ll also be using romaji at a minimum.

Kore, Sore and Are, follow a pattern of. K S A. A pattern which will show it’s head a few more times in future lessons to come.

Kore, Sore and Are, is like an expansion of the “desu” lesson. Back then you learned to say “it is something”. With kore, sore and are. You can be a little bit more specific.

Picture taken from "Japteach"

As you can see in the above picture. The girl is asking what the orange is. The なんですか？ shows this. However, she is asking in 3 different situations. With the above picture in mind, slide 1 is これ, slide 2 is それ and slide 3 is あれ.

これ： In a normal conversation, if a speaker wants to talk about a certain object and that particular object is closest to the person speaking, これ is used. Therefore, これcan be translated as “This”.

In the the above picture. The girl says, これはなんですか？　なん is a shorter form of なに which is translated as “what”. With that in mind you can use a quick template when using これ. Which would be.

これは＿＿＿です（か）。 Where you can change the particle around (Particles will feature shortly) put in any word into the blank that will make sense, and add か at the end if you want to ask a quesiton.

So for example, taking with the vocab from the です lesson, add any noun into the blank and it would be as follows; これはカメラです。 Which would translate to; This is a camera. Additionally if you added か to the sentence it would become; これはカメラですか？ which would translate to; Is this a camera?

それ： As explained above, not much has changed except これ has become それ. Basically それ translates to that. One would use それ if the speaker was talking about a particular object not closest to themselves but closest to the person they are talking to. Which is illustrated in the above picture.

Again as mentioned, the structure of the sentence pretty much stays the same from これ.

あれ： Again, the structure of the sentence stays the same from これ＆それ except we use あれ now.

あれ also translates to “That”. However the circumstance in which you use it differs from それ. You would use あれ if you want to talk about a particular object that is not closest to the speaker or closest to anyone the speaker it talking to. Which is illustrated in the above picture.

Ok, with that in mind. I have an example from my grammar book which I would like to share with you guys. Keep what I mentioned above in your head and try and follow the conversation. There will be a lot of new words and particles used. I will give brief explanations and translations at the end.

Conversations

Conversation 1:

- これ  は　はな　です。　さくら　です。

-　それ  は　もも  です。

-　あれ  は　ばら  です。

Conversation 1 translation:

- This is a flower. It is a cherry blossom.

- That is a peach blossom.

- That is a rose.

Conversation 1 explanations:

Nothing really new here. Just basic examples of 　これ、それ＆あれ。 Some new words for you to note down though.

はな　=  Flower

さくら  =  Cherry blossom

もも  =  Peach (Peach blossom)

ばら  =  Rose

With that let’s move onto Conversation 2!

—–

Conversation 2: (Please note, the dash represents a change in speaker)

-　これ  は　なん  です  か？

-　　　それ  は　はな  です。

それ  は　にほん　の　はなです。

さくら　の　はな  です。

それ　も　さくら　の　はな　です　か？

- はい、そう　です。

あれ　も　さくら　です か

-　いいえ、　あれ　は　さくら　ではありません。

あれ　は　ばら　です。

あれ　は　さくら　です　か？　もも　です　か？

-     あれ　は　さくら　です。

Conversation 2 translations:

-  What is this?

-          That is a flower

That is a Japanese flower

It is a cherry blossom.

Is that also a cherry blossom?

-     Yes, it is.

Is that also a cherry blossom?

-    No, That is not a cherry blossom.

That is a rose.

Is that a cherry blossom or a peach blossom?

-     That is a cherry blossom.

Conversation 2 explanations:

As you can see, conversation 2 expands quite well from conversation 1. The use of questions, introducing new particles and negatives (learned from the です lesson) makes the conversation a little more complex.

First thing to mention. ”これ　は　なん　です　か？” as I previously stated. The なん is a shorter form of なに in which translated to “what”.

Next new thing that appears is “にほん” Which means Japan. In the sentence it features from in conversation two, it is coupled with the particle の, and this particular particles indicates possession. Or states that something is of something. Which can be shown with the sentence in conversation 2 that states. “さくら　の　はな　です” which is another way to say “it is a cherry blossom”. If you do not understand this particle, please do not worry. I will feature a lesson on particles alone, however here are some examples to help you.

わたし　の　ほん　＝　My book

いっぽんご　の　ほん　＝　A book of/in/on Japanese

これ　は　わたし　の　です　＝　This is mine.

はい　And　いいえ。　Translate to, yes and no. そう　です、 coupled with はい means; yes, it is. Or; Yes, I am. Or; Yes, he/she is. Basically if someone asks you a yes or no question. そう　です will cover all every answer for yes.

The next new particle in this conversation is, も. も replaces the は in a sentence, which states that one subject is the same as another subject. Again, this will be covered in the particles feature, however the sentence in the conversation highlights this clearly.

それ　も　さくら　の　はな　です　か？　＝　Is that also a cherry blossom?

I can’t see anything else that might be new to any of you, so with that, let’s continue to Conversation 3.

—–

Conversation 3:

-     わたし　は　ブラウン　です。　がくせい　です。

あなた　も　がくせい　です　か？

-     いいえ、　そう　ではありません。　わたし　は　かいしゃいん　です。

なまえ　は　いまい　です。　にほんじん　です。

かのじょ　は　だれ　です　か？

-  かのじょ　は　アンナ　です。　わたし　の　いもうと　です。

-   かれ　は　だれ　です　か？

- 　かれ　は　トム　です。　わたし　の　いとこ　です。

- あなたがた　は　カナダ　の　ひと　です　か？

-  はい、わたしたち　は　カナダじん　です。

Conversation 3: translations

- My name is Brown. I am a student.

Are you also a student?

- No, I am not. I am a company employee.

My name is Imai. I am Japanese.

Who is she?

- She is Anna. My sister.

-  Who is he?

- He is Tom. My cousin.

- Are you Canadians?

- Yes, we are Canadians.

Conversation 3 explanations:

Ok, first off, there are new words you should all add to your vocab list.

がくせい　＝　Student

かいしゃいん　＝　Company employee

かのじょ　＝　she

かれ　＝　he

だれ　＝　who

いもうと　＝　Sister

いとこ　＝　cousin

Now onto the grammar points.

Firstly, you remember the そう　です..? Well in this conversation we have そう　ではありません. Which is just the negative of the former. However, you can also say. いいえ、ちがいます。

Now the rest of the conversation is just everything you’ve learned beforehand. Except the conversation get’s a little more complex. There are however some new things introduced, which I will explain in a moment. However, if you do not understand, please do not worry. They will appear in future features anyway.

だれ　＝　who, pretty much self-explanatory. Just follow the basic sentence structure style you’ve been using and you should be fine. (In fact, next feature will include a brief overview of sentence structure for anyone who can’t pick it up through example).

あなたがた　And　わたしたち　＝　These translate to, You (plural, when talking to a group of people), and We, when talking about a group of people that includes you.

That’s all I can see so far within conversation 3 that might be new to you. As I said, the new grammar points in conversation 3 will feature in future articles. So, please do not worry about those, focus on everything else.

With that, brings the end of Lesson 3. I hope you got something out of it. The grammar book I used for the conversations was called “Japanese for Today”. Check it out if you can find a copy. It’s quite funny, on the cover it says “あたらし日本語” which means “New Japanese”. Which it possibly is, but the book was published in 1973. Not so new in my eyes, however I’m sure the language hasn’t changed that much over 36 years, or at least, I hope not. Haha.

As usual, if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me (bottom right hand side in the navigation), skype (sliphonica). Or facebook (3 or 4 posts back there is a link).

Take care.

PS. If there is a demand for it, I will post the conversations in romaji. However, please try translate with your hiragana and katakana charts. You will memorise the characters better that way.

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Hey, with lesson #3 currently being prepared for you lot, I decided I would use this empty time to update you guys pretty quickly. The new domain I mentioned before, it is here. The old domain (http://japaninscotland.wordpress.com) will still work, however for a more professional look I’ve changed the domain to.

http://japaninscotland.com

Anyway, there is a few things I wanted to clear up from what people have been telling me in the comments.

People have been saying “Hey Greg, is Omae a rude thing to say?”

Answer: Well yeah. I suppose, but it all depends on the situation. As I said, it is very casual and should only be used around your friends. However, it is 3am and I can’t really ask anyone right now, however I will keep you guys updated.

Now, when typing on windows with japanese enabled. When you type Konnichiha. You actually have to type Konnnichiha. Why? I don’t know why it happens but it does.

Now I would like to point out. In Douzoyoroshiku, it is a YOroshiku, not YUroshiku. I know I had the romaji wrong but the hiragana was fine after a swift update. So, I’m telling you now. YOroshiku.Also there is really no spaces in it as japanese don’t use spaces.

Also, konnichiha uses ha not wa. However is still pronounced wa.

Anyway that’s all I can think of just now. Roll on lesson 3.

Ok, firstly. Sorry about the almost week delay. As you may know I fell ill, and was barely able to move let alone type. As the week progressed I got a little better but was still pretty bad. Thank you to everyone who sent me nice messages. Second post in and I get ill causing a delay. Tsk. Therefore I decided to do lessons once a week, so that if you guys expect a lesson every two days, and something happens to me and it’s not out, you would be wondering why is there no lesson. So, I want to avoid that, with a once a week thing.

Alright, so let’s talk about introducing yourself. I learned this section a little weird when I learned Introductions, so I apologise if this messes up.

First of all when we talk about introductions we need to talk about subjects. The subjects of “I” and “you”, that is, if you want to talk about yourself or about the person you’re talking to.

Talking about yourself: In Japanese there is more than one way to say “I”. Which really depends on the situation you’re in.

Watashi: This is the most common without a doubt. It is the most neutral way to say “I”. (ie, you can use it in formal situations and in informal situations.)

Boku: This is casual. Mainly used by boys. Although girls can say this if they’re tomboy-ish. Also, men can say this to people they are not close to (strangers). Because in Japanese, people are always meant to be humble, so you always put yourself in the lower position so to speak.

Ore: Again casual. Mainly used by Men, really only use this with your close friends. If you say this to strangers, you’ll come across as very arrogant. However if you say “boku” to your close friends, you come across a spoilt/arrogant (maybe the word I’m looking for is snobby?) type person.

Atashi: Casual, just a thing high-school girls say. You usually only hear this in anime I reckon. I don’t recommend at all.

Talking about the person you’re talking to: Again, “you” has more than one way it can be said.

Anata: Again, most neutral, can be formal and informal. Both genders.

Kimi: Only ever used between partners in a relationship. Would be a really bad idea to use this with your boss. Really bad idea.

Omae: Casually used by both genders.

I would like to point out, this is how far I got when I intially started to write it, then I fell asleep ay my pc because I couldn’t handle being ill. Haha.

The initial meet:

I suppose I should first explain the ways to say “Hello”, because just like any language usually the first thing you ever say to someone is “Hello”. However, really in Japanese there is no-one way to say Hello unlike English. It all really comes down to the time of day. Therefore they would literally translate to, Good morning, Good afternoon and Good evening.

Good Morning: “おはよう　ございます” (Ohayou Gozaimasu), is what can be said from the point you wake up and any time until 12pm (midday).  Although, おはよう　ございます is actually the polite form to use it. This is the form you would use with people who are not friends, your boss or your teacher. However, if it is just a casual situation, you can shorten that down to. おはよう (Ohayou).

Good afternoon: こんにちは (Konnichiwa – notice the last character is the character for “ha”. Just like when you use ha for particles, the ha is pronounced wa.) This is usually what is translated as “Hello”, and it does have the same effect. However, really it means more “good afternoon”. This is usually said between 12pm-5pm.

Good Evening: こんばんは　(Konbanwa – notice again the ha is pronounced wa) this is said after 5pm all evening.

Ok, now that we’ve established how to say “Hello”. Before saying who you are, there are two very important phrases that the Japanese use when introducing themselves to someone for the first time.

Hajimemashite: はじめまして – This literally means “Pleased to meet you”. This is very useful, if you ever meet a Japanese person for the first time where you are. Say this, it always gets a smile.

Douzoyoroshikuonegaishimasu: どうぞ　よろしく　おねがいします. This looks harder to say than it actually is, take it one step at a time. Note: the last o in “dozo” is silent, usually but sometimes Japanese people say the o too. The i in the character “shi” from “yoroshiku” is silent. However, the i from the “shi” in “Onegaishimasu” is not silent. (I think it would be helpful if I opened a youtube channel using videos to help people with pronunciation – what do you think?) Anyway, this has no literal translation. I’ve been told it could sound something like “Please treat me with care” or something to that effect. What I do know for sure is that “おねがいします” translates to please. Also, one last thing with this, the form I gave it in is the most polite. You can cut bits off the ends for example, you can say either. “どうぞ　よろしく” or よろしく　おねがいします” as long as よろしく is in there you’re fine, and yes, you can just say よろしく too.

Now to say who you are.

When you are introducing yourself. If you are introducing yourself first, it’s polite to be the first one to say your name. Using the subject for “I” and the particle ha, this is very simple.

In my case I would say:  わたし　は　グレッグ　です. (Watashi wa Greg desu.)

At the start, you can see the subject I used for “I”, watashi. I used the particle ha. Why? Well, particles don’t really translate to anything they are used for grammar purposes. So in the case the ha puts the stress after the particle itself, meaning the purpose of the sentence is to highlight my name “Greg”. (if you do not understand, do not worry, particles are confusing. I will dedicate a post to beginner particles very soon).  Then you see my name in Katakana, and finally I top the sentence off with our friend, です。 As mentioned before, desu does not always translate to “it is”. Like here for example, desu just signifies its a sentence, a polite one at that. You could actually leave out desu if you wanted, but that isn’t common.

However, in casual japanese we don’t really use subjects. Subjects are only used for people you don’t know, bosses, teacher or generally anyone in a higher position than you. If you’re in a group of people you don’t know except a few, and someone asks you your name. You can just say “___ desu”. For example, グレッグです.

The rules that apply to your name can be applied to a diverse range of things.

Take the template. わたし　は　＿＿＿＿　です。This literally translates to “I am ___”. You could put in any adjective that describes you in there. However for the sake of introductions, let’s keep it simple.

Age: We haven’t done numbers yet, and we will. However, in that little ___ part. You can put in any number you want and add the “sai” to the age. For example, わたし　は　１８さい　です。When the sai is attached to a number, it signifies the age of the subject it comes after.

Nationality: The rules are exactly the same as age, except you just put in your country name and add “jin” to it. For example. わたし　は　スコットランドじん　です。(I am Scottish). When Jin is attached to the country name, it signifies the nationality of the subject it comes after.

Now ask the person who they are.

Ok, if you want to know something about a person and you have a general idea that their name might be something, or they might be from a certain country or they might be so old. Basically all you have to do is change the subject to “you” and add the particle ka at the end. Example.

あなた　は　グレッグ　ですか？ (Are you Greg?)

あなた　は　１８さい　ですか？ (are you 18 years old?)

あなた　は　アメリカじん　ですか？　(Are you American?)

However. If you want to ask a specific question, it can be a little more complicated. Take the question, “What is your name?”.

In Japanese that would be. あなた　の　なまえ　は　なん　ですか？ (anata no namae wa nan desu ka?). Of course I don’t expect you to understand this until I review particles. However, the particle “no” signifies possession of the subject is comes after. Therefore Anata no = “your”.

If you changed the subject to I and dropped ka, you could actually say your name this way. Example. わたし　の　なまえ　は　グレッグ　です。　(My name is Greg).

To asks someone’s age, you would ask. なんさい　ですか？ (nansai desuka? – “nan” is a shortened form of Nani, which means “what”. )  So this question would be asking “what age are you?.

To ask someone’s nationality, you would ask. なにじん　ですか？(what nationality are you?) Nani here being what and Jin being the nationality.

As you can see the specific questions don’t really follow a pattern, so you’ll have to memorise them yourself. However, do take note of some of the words. For example, namae = name, nani = what. Or anything else you pick up on. However, I shall do a vocab list as time goes on.

So now you know how to introduce yourself. Here’s an example introduction for me, you can change your details in there. (Email me and ask if you don’t know the name of your country or how to spell your name in katakana).

こんにちは！

はじめまして！　ゆろしく　おねがいします。

わたし　の　なまえ　は　グレッグ　です。　スコットランドじん　です。　じゅうはっち（１８）さい　です。

あなた　の　なまえ　は　ですか？

I hope you got something out of this lesson, and I really hope I didn’t miss anything out or get something wrong. I will publish it and re-read it again, I will update if I see anything.

Remember, please don’t hesitate to email me any questions or add me on skype/facebook.

Take care.

Update: Sorry, I got home and began working on the next lesson. Half of it has been done, but I think I’ve gotten the flu or something. I don’t feel too well. I will finish it tomorrow.

Forgive me please!

I know I said I would try and get the second lesson for yesterday. However, a little unexpected event happened which prevented me to do just that. On top of that I won’t have time this weekend at all. I apologize.

That being said, this next lesson will be posted this upcoming Monday. I just thought I should set up a post letting everyone know so you guys know what to expect.

Have a good weekend!

As I promised here is lesson #1. I know I said Wednesday, and it is Wednesday for me, it might not be Wednesday for you, quite possibly it could be Thursday for you right now due to timezones. I apologize for that.

Anyway, let’s begin shall we?

Usually, depending on who teaches you, introductions are the first thing you learn when it comes to learning a new language. I apologize if that is what you’re used to, however I shall not start with introductions as that is not how I was taught. We will do Introductions super-soon though don’t worry.

Anyway.

If you have an interest in the Japanese language and you have interest in things like; Japanese movies, music or anime. You will have heard ”です”　(desu) on more than a few hundred occasions. Especially on anime message boards where you see people sign off their posts with it, not knowing what it means.

The reason I start with these 3 for you guys to learn. Is that, it will come in handy for introductions and extended sentences later on.

です(desu)： This directly translates to “it is”. It also comes at the end of a sentence. I did write out a lot more to explain about です however, I think we will cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, please just look at です as “it is”.

です Can be typically used to say something is. For example, ”ペンです” (Pen desu). This translates to ” Pen it is”. It’s very simple, so if you have a Japanese friend who points to something on the table you can pick it up and say “____ です”

Therefore I will give you a little vocab list of things you might have on you or around you:

ペン　(pen)

えんぴつ (enpitsu – pencil)

かぎ (kagi – keys)

さいふ (saifu – wallet)

とけい (tokei – clock)

けいたい　でんわ (keitai denwa – mobile phone ie cellphone)

カメラ (Kamera – camera)

てちょう (techou – diary)

じしょ (jisho – dictionary)

いす (isu – chair)

ざっし (zasshi – magazine)

しんぶんし (shinbunshi – newspaper)

ほん (hon – book)

かばん (kaban – bag)

テレビ (terebi – TV)

つくえ (tsukue – desk)

Any of those + any noun in japanese can be put infront of です to say something is something. Keep a note of this vocab as this vocab list can apply to でした (deshita) and じゃありません (Ja arimasen).

でした： Deshita translates to “it was”. So for example, if you and your friend are walking down the street, and you both see a newspaper floating about. However, it is floating so quickly you both don’t get a good look at it and to the both of you think it’s a UFO or something.

This is a good time for some random person to say ”しんぶんし　でした” (shinbunshi deshita) which will translate to “newspaper it was”. Just like です, でした comes at the end of the sentence and the noun goes at the beginning.

じゃあリません： This is the negative of です。Now remember です translates to “it is”. The negative (じゃありません） translates to “it is not”.

じゃありません can also be expressed as では ありません (dewa arimasen). じゃありません is said to be more casual than では ありません.  では ありません is said the more polite, so you can use any right now really, but know when talking to a higher position (eg teacher or boss). Use では ありません

Again like です、じゃありません comes at the end.  Therefore if you put any noun at the front it will become “it is not”. For example ほん　じゃりません　(Book it is not). Very simple.

Also,  じゃありません can be applied to でした to say “it was not”. Again it would go after the Noun. For example, If you have a pencil in your hand and you throw it away, and someone asks “was that a pen?” you would say:

”ペン　じゃありません　でした。　えんぴつ　でした。”

I hope you understood the explanations of desu, deshita and Ja arimasen. Like above, you can mix and match what you learned to say something like “it was not this, it was that” or “it is not tis, it is that. Like above here are a few more examples.

Person 1: えんぴつ　です　か？(enpitsu desu ka? – is it a pencil? (ka: particle indicating sentence is a question – I will go over in more detail later with particles.))

Person 2: えんぴつ　じゃありません、ペン　です。　( enpitsu ja arimasen, pen desu – it is not a pencil, it is a pen)

Or,

Person 1: ほん　でしたか？(hon deshitaka? – was it a book?)

Person 2: ほん　じゃありません でした、　てちょう でした。　(hon ja arimasen deshita, techou deshita – it was not a book, it was a diary)

I hope these examples helped with understanding my explanations. I understand this is very basic stuff however it is important to get these basics down and understanding their place in japanese before going any further. I am still new to this so if there is anything you don’t understand please email me, my email is at the right, below the links.

I hope to improve the way I teach things as time goes on, I will do grammar, vocab and sentences soon. I do not know how frequent lessons will be, but I will try get my next lesson up for this Friday.

I would like to thank danielG for picking up on the fact I messed up on じゃありません でした it has been fixed and I also fixed the final example regarding it.

Take care!

Hey!

This is an exciting post for me. This is the post that marks the official ‘release’ to the general public.

Update: First lesson pushed forward to the Wednesday 8th of April. I would like to know the people who follow my blog, so to keep up to date with me you can either e-mail me, OR:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/GregIsScottish

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Gregor-Brian-Simpson/726278023

Feel free to add me or follow me and get constant updates about the blog.

First off, let me explain the reasoning behind this blog and what I aim to achieve with this blog. It started December 2008. I had taken a few Japanese lessons online, I enjoyed it. About a month after that, I stopped taking lessons. I have no idea why, I enjoyed Japanese. However the sheer thought of continue to study it weighed on my mind a lot and I genuinely believed if I continued the way I was going, I would not learn Japanese.

Fast foward to about the beginning of March. I found a tutor who could teach me face-to-face for a relatively cheap price, I decided to take up the opportunity and try commit myself to learning Japanese. However, I still had worries about learning, thinking I didn’t have the motivation. I wanted to make sure I could find the motivation. This is where the blog comes in handy.

This blog has a few purposes. Firstly, it will be the recepticle of everything I learn in japanese. In other words, a database with every lesson I recieve put into my own words. Hopefully, it will be a large online database holding all my notes (everything, of course, will be backed up) for the world to see.

Secondly, it’s designed to keep me motivated learning Japanese. If I get a set of regular readers who expect updates, I will have more than one reason to keep learning.

Finally, I want this site to be helpful to everyone wishing to learn Japanese. However you use this site is completely up to you. My recommendation is to get your own tutor and follow my blog regularly to create your own notes throughout your course of learning Japanese. However, if you want to attempt using my blog as your main source of learning Japanese, go ahead. I will do my best to help you.

Structure of the blog: The structure of this blog is quite simple. Firstly, I will have a small post at the top explaining how to use the site, and that post will always be there. Under this post, every new post I create will be the second post of the blog and it will cycle like that.

The post that will be ‘stickied’ to the top will be banner-less. It’s sole purpose is to help people new to the blog find their way around. Every other post will have a banner like you might have noticed already. Each post will come under one of 4 categories.

Bloggish: Every so often, I will make a post that does not contain a lesson. This will primarily consist of updates in my life that might affect the outcome of the blog, or consist of information about changes to the blog in any way.

Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Japanese: Yes, the kanji in that banner translates to “nihongo” which is known as “Japanese language”. Obviously we will start with beginner, and I will continue to post up lessons through Intermediate and Advanced as I get to them over time.

Note: To people coming across this blog who are already at this stage of Intermediate or Advanced. Sorry I cannot accommodate for you. At the early stages of this blog, the blog will start at beginner only. You are welcome to read and offer any help on lessons or if you spot a mistake don’t hesitate to e-mail me.

Development of the blog: The blog is still in early stages of development, so there is a few things that exist I would like to get rid of over time.

Domain: I have already purchased a domain for the blog. However, domain-mapping costs an additional 10 credits through wordpress. Therefore, I will update the domain when I can buy the additional 10 credits. (I could just now but I would rather use it with excess cash).

Advertisments on the blog: If you are not signed into wordpress you may experience some adverts on the blog. I can get rid of these, but it does cost money. When I have extra cash, these will be gone.

Extra Storage: For all the media I post on this blog, I have a limit currently of 3GB. As this blog expands, this will NOT be enough. Therefore, as time goes on I will upgrade the storage space I have available.

Anyway. This blog will expand over time, and I will write more as it comes to me. The first lesson will be posted on Wednesday the 8th of April (sorry for delay – it’s due to late release of the link). The lessons about the writing systems are pre-emptivate lessons that are necessary for you guys to continue with the language. They were pre-posted so you guys can learn Hiragana and Katakana before starting with lesson 1. Don’t worry if you have not memorized the Kanas before lesson 1, everything I type in Hiragana and Katakana will come with the Romaji for the next 2 weeks then after that I will drop romaji.

Good luck!

All of this will go in the tab “About the author and blog”. Therefore don’t worry about saving any of this.

Ok, we’ve come to the third and final writing system in the Japanese language. That system is known as: Kanji

However, we cannot learn Kanji the same way we learned Hiragana and Katakana. Why? Unlike Hiragana and Katakana, Kanji has over 40,000 known characters, in which 2000 of them are in daily use in Japan right now.

What is Kanji? Kanji is Chinese characters adopted into the Japanese language. Meaning, the characters are the same but the pronunciation between Chinese and Japanese are completely different.

The majority of Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs are written in Kanji and on top of that as mentioned before, because Japanese has no spaces, Kanji helps seperate words from grammar which is used with the two Kanas (hiragana and katakana).

Due to the large scale in which Kanji comes in, it is no easy task to master Kanji. It is not impossible though. Also, kanji is not something that can be learned in a month or so. Kanji is progressively learned throughout your lifespan of studying Japanese. It will require you to engrave it into your brain, re-study the same kanji months after you learned it, to make sure you don’t forget.

We will learn Kanji from very early on, and progress with it. However, when I am going over grammar points and such. I will use hiragana instead, and just add spaces when necessary (we will remove the spaces over time).

I will show you guys Kanji in the order in which I learn it, my tutor has Kanji flashcards, which teach you kanji in the order of JLPT (I will explain JLPT in the next ‘bloggish’ post).

Ok, so for today I will not introduce any new Kanji. However, next week after we get into some Japanese. I will begin to introduce new Kanji in which you can begin to study.

Ok, now that we’ve conquered Hiragana it’s time to move onto stage 2 of the 3 Japanese writing systems, known as: Katakana

First of all. Let me explain, Katakana uses all the exact same sounds as Hiragana. However, what makes Katakana different than Hiragana is the use of which Katakana exists for. Japanese people use Katakana to “import” foreign words into Japanese. For example, “Television” becomes “Terebi” (テレビ). Aside from importing foreign words (Katakana’s main use), Japanese people also use Katakana for other things such as; Writing Japanese company names (eg, Suzuki is written as “スズキ”), and also highlighting certain words similar to the use of italics in the English language.

Take a look at the Katakana chart to your left there, what do you notice? Yeah, that’s right, it’s the same as the Hiragana chart, the only difference is, it is just more characters you need to memorize, that’s all.

With that in mind, I don’t really need to explain much. Just work through the Katakana chart the same way you did the Hiragana chart and you’re ready to go.

Points to remember: Pronunciation is important (don’t worry though it is the same as Hiragana). Stroke order is also important. As usual I have a link to provide you to a flash card list in which you can practice pronunciation and stroke order whilst remembering the characters.

http://smart.fm/lists/24667-katakana Just hit the iKnow button and you’re ready to go!

Additionally, there are a few more combinations in Katakana than in Hiragana. Don’t panic though, there are not a lot and as usual are based upon all the Katakana you have already memorized. Their purpose is to cover the wide range of sounds in foreign languages not found in Japanese.

A little word of advice! Memorizing Hiragana and Katakana can be a little daunting at first, especially if you are not used to memorizing characters as components of a language. Just keep at it. Keep trying to memorize them, try a little each day. Then try to read Hiragana and Katakana from normal Japanese sentences, if you begin to remember certain characters and you feel yourself improve little by little, it will boost your confidence and you’ll be ready to move on!

Also, it’s good to test yourself once a week. When memorizing Hiragana and Katakana try and write out these charts completely from memory. It will show how much you know and where you can improve on. Being able to write out the charts completely from memory will help you a lot!