[Guide] Japanese

[JVCA]

NOTE: This class/discussion is no longer taught/led by a teacher. However, please feel free to read through it and ask any questions that you may have or express any thoughts/opinions you have. Just please don't ask, "Can I join the class?" Because the answer is 'no'. Thank you.

Ohayo! Hajimemashite. Watashi no namae wa Jessica desu. Watashi wa anata no nihongo sensei.

Translated, this means:
Hi! Nice to meet you. My name is Jessica. I am your Japanese Teacher.

In this class, I'll be teaching you things such as how to introduce and describe yourself, different greetings for different times of the day, and many other things. I'll probably be picking out what to teach as we go along.

Contents:
Post 1: Introduction and contents
Post 2: Students
Post 3: Lessons
Post 4: [reserved]

Lessons will be posted in seperate posts, and will be linked to from post 3 so that you can find them.

On a final note, if this thread disappears, check the Sitting Room - I wasn't quite sure what subforum this should be in - it's a class, but it's not really Wicca... o_O  

[JVCA]

Students

Please make a post here if you would like to be an 'official' student. There are no conditions, but the benefit of being an official student is that you recieve PM notification when a new lesson is up. smile

Current Students:

Meca (fallen_angel_216)
Sachi (Sachi_x)
Viccy (Kyean Aiya)
Thomas (IRATE4ever)
Lex (ForbidenFaeryDesire)  

[JVCA]

Lessons

All lessons are listed below. Click on a lesson title to go to that lesson. smile

All Lessons:

Lesson one: Alphabets and the Sound System  

[JVCA]

[Reserved]  

[JVCA]

Lesson One: Alphabets and the Sound System

There are three alphabets in written Japanese - Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

Kanji was the first alphabet used for writing in Japan. The kanji alphabet - a 'picture' alphabet (ie. hundreds of thousands of symbols, each one representing a certain thing) - was borrowed from the Chinese by the Japanese, as the Japanese had no existing system of writing.

Being imperial Japan, women were not allowed to learn kanji. Frustrated that the men were communicating through the written word, where they could not, the Japanese women created an alphabet of their own, based on the Japanese sound system (see below). Infuriated, the men of Japan retaliated by creating their own alphabet - katakana.

The symbols of Katakana are largely an infusion of hiragana and kanji. Where hiragana is a feminine alphabet - flowing and curving lines, katakana is a masculine alphabet - short, sharp, rough lines.

In modern Japanese, we use hiragana to write. Katakana is used for foriegn words - borrowed from other languages - I would write my name in Katakana. Kanji, is used to 'condense' - shorten - written sentances - a little bit like how we use 'txt speak' - only, kanji is polite, and is expected.

For now, we will focus on hiragana and the Japanese sound system.

The sounds of Japanese are focused around 5 vowels - a, i, u, e and o. However, these are pronounced differently than as we would in english. 'A', is pronounced 'ah', 'i', is pronounced the same as we would pronounce the english letter 'e'. 'U' is pronounced 'oo', and 'e' is pronounced 'eh' (with a soft 'h'), whilst 'o' is pronounced 'oh'.

The following is the Japanese sound system.

Ah a i u e o
Kana ka ki ku ke ko
Signs sa shi su se so
Take ta chi tsu te to
Note na ni nu ne no
How ha hi fu he ho
Many ma mi mu me mo
You ya yu yo
Read ra ri ru re ro
Well wa (w)o
N n

On the left, you see the ah, kana, signs, etc.

This isn't part of the Japanese sound system - it is simply something to help you remember the order of the alphabet. Note that the first letter of each word on thye left is the same as the first letter of each sound in it's line (excluding 'ah' - this is the vowel line).

You will also notice that there is a bracket around the 'w' in 'wo'. This is because wo is pronounced as 'oh'. 'Wo' is a particle - we only use it in certain places. Particles will be explained in a later lesson.

Your homework:

Learn the Japanese alphabet. Practise pronouncing it. If there are any questions, feel free to ask. smile  

[Sachi_x]

日本語の修行ですか。すごいと思います＾＾
私は一人で日本語を一年半間ぐらい勉強しています。
問題があるならば、私に聞いて下さい。

じゃあ、またね！

nihongo no shugyou desu ka? sugoi to omoimasu ^^
watashi wa hitori de nihongo o ichinen han kan benkyoushiteimasu.
mondai ga aru naraba, watashi ni kiite kudasai.

jaa, mata ne!

A Japanese class? I think that's cool ^^
I have been studying Japanese alone (self-studying) for about a year and a half.
If there is a problem, please ask me.

Well, later!  

[JVCA]

n_n I've been learning at school for three years. mrgreen  

[fallen_angel_216]

i would like to learn  

[JVCA]

mrgreen Added.  

[Sachi_x]

3 years? Cool ^^ I wish my school offered Japanese, or the high school I want to get into... I'd like to be a student too, please ^^  

[Cat Goddess Bastet]

Konnichiwa! Watashiwa Sarah desu! Genki desu ka?
No namae wa nandesuka?  

[JVCA]

@Sachi: n_n Added. Yeah, in year 9 (first year of high school), we pretty much just learnt how to describe ourselves (not physically, but like... my name is, I go to this school, I have x number of pets and so on), and hiragana. In year 10, we learned katakana and bits and pieces from all over the place - a lot of stuff about travelling. I don't remember year 10 so well. sweatdrop This year, year 11 we've learned alot - time and dates, eating and drinking, describing yourself and others, health - those are just a couple of topics we learned this year. n_n I'm not taking Jap next year though - we're only allowed to take 6 subjects, and I had six that I needed to take for my future career o_O That and, I wanna learn Japanese for fun - I don't wanna do Japanese exams whee

@Sarah: Ohayo Gosaimasu. Watashi no namae wa Jessica desu. Watashi wa genki desu. Demo, Kinou, kyuuji han gogo kara yoji han made hon o yomimasu kara, kyou, watashi wa totemo nemui desu. gonk

When giving your name, don't forget to include the 'no namae' part - Watashi no namae wa Sarah desu is more polite on one hand - I don't know if leaving out the namae part is incorrect japanese or not, but anyway... o_O  

[Sachi_x]

That's cool smile I'm not so good with vocab, but I've been studying a lot of grammar. I wish there was someone to speak to in person, though sweatdrop That's why I want to find out if there are any classes around here.

And leaving out the no namae is perfectly fine. ＾＾Then it basically means "I am ..." instead of "My name is ...". You could also leave out the pronoun, too.

And in response:

はじめまして！さちと呼んで下さい。おかげさまで、サラーさんは？
hajimemashite! sachi to yonde kudasai. okagesamade, saraa san wa?

ジェスさん、なるほど。本はどうでしたか。^^;
jesu san, naruhodo. hon wa dou deshita ka. ^^;  

[JVCA]

Naruhodo is not a word I've come across before - what does it mean? o_O Yeah, I do well with grammar, but it's the vocab that gets me >.<

Hon no namae wa "Beka Cooper: Terrier" de, Tamora Piesu wa hon o kakimashita. Sore hon wa totemo omoshirokatta, kara, watashi wa taihen osoi nemashita.

I'm playing Grammar guessing games with some of that. xd We weren't taught how to say who the author of the book was, so I just guessed as to how to say it. sweatdrop  

[Sachi_x]

"naruhodo" means the same as "sou", I think. I just know it means "I see." xd

I'm not sure how to tell about authors, either, but you can leave out the second hon.

本は「ベカクーパー：テリアー」で、タモラ・ピエスさんがのを書きました。
hon wa "beka cooper: terrier" de, tamora piesu san ga no o kakimashita.

And also, because we were talking about the book, you could just leave hon out all together.

名前は「ベカクーパー：テリアー」で、タモラ・ピエスさんがのを書きました。
namae wa "beka cooper: terrier" de, tamora piesu san ga no o kakimashita.

I'm pretty sure that's how you do it, anyways sweatdrop