Gakusei no Tengoku

The Particle の

2012-11-11T14:27:00.001-06:00

の denotes ownership. Putting の after a noun makes it possessive. For example, わたし means I, or me. わたしの means my, or mine. By doing this, you can put a noun after の to make the first noun possessive of the second noun. That sounds a little confusing, but it's just like this:

A の B

A and B are nouns. A has ownership over B. わたしのねこ (my cat), ともだちのほん (friend's book), せんせいのけんきゅうしつ (teacher's office) are some examples. の can be thought of as "of" or apostrophe S ('s). So those translations can also be "cat of mine," "book of a friend's," "office of the teacher," and it would all generally still have the same meaning. English just has many ways to say one thing.

Hopefully this isn't all too difficult to understand. Start practicing this grammar! You will see it everywhere in Japanese writing and speech.

Sentence Structure

2012-11-07T12:20:00.000-06:00

Before we move onto verbs and sentences with verbs, it's important to take a look at sentence structure. To understand the sentence structure of Japanese, we have to take a look at English sentence structure and compare them. Take for example:

I go to school.

I is the subject, go is the verb, and school is the object. So for English, the sentence structure for this is subject, verb, object. Now let's take a look at Japanese.

わたしはがっこうにいきます。
(Watashi wa gakkou ni ikimasu.)
I go to school. (A literal translation would be 'I school go')

わたし (I) is the subject, がっこう (school) is the object, and いきます (to go) is the verb. As you can see, this is different from English, as the sentence structure is subject, object, verb. It may seem a little confusing, but this is important for forming sentences in Japanese when you use verbs.

So to recap, sentence structure for English and Japanese is like this:
English: subject, verb, object
Japanese: subject, object, verb

This will become more apparent later and especially once you begin forming sentences. Study hard!

My Name Is...

2012-11-05T12:43:00.002-06:00

In this lesson, we'll learn how to introduce ourselves and say our name. Let's take a look at this sentence:

わたしは Y です。
I am Y.

Does this look familiar? It should, because it's the basic "X は Y です" format. X is わたし (watashi = I), and Y is your name. By using this sentence, you are saying "I am (name)." Let's look at another sentence:

わたしのなまえは Y です。
My name is Y.

It still uses the same format, except X is わたしのなまえ (watashi no namae = my name). の is a particle that denotes ownership and is like the equivalent of apostrophe S ('s), or "of." The possessive of me is my or mine, which is why わたし itself means "I" and わたしの means "my" or "mine." We'll learn more about particles later.

わたし is used by both males and females, but only males (usually young boys) use ぼく (boku). It would be strange to hear a girl use ぼく. For now, this should be enough information to tell someone your name.

Now that you know how to say your name, go ahead and practice!

X　は　Y　です

2012-10-29T11:20:00.001-05:00

Today's lesson is the most basic of sentences in pretty much all languages. We will cover particles later, so for now we'll practice forming the sentences and sounding them out.

"X　は　Y　です" means "X is Y." That's it, simple. The は (ha) that you see in the sentence is not pronounced "ha," but "wa." This is a particle, and it is pronounced that way. For now, just remember that because particles are a whole new lesson themselves (and some people will argue that it is the hardest thing about learning Japanese).

です (desu) is a copula. It's kind of equivalent to the English "to be." It's not a verb though, and it connects a subject and predicate. You will be using です a lot when you speak and write. To say it fast and fluently, it sounds more like "des."

With this sentence format, you can create seemingly complex sentences. For example:

学校に行く学生はいい人です。
がっこうにいくがくせいはいいひとです。
The student who goes to school is a good person.

The sentence may sound complex because there are verbs and adjectives modifying the nouns (student who goes to school, good person) but it's really just in X is Y format. X is student, and Y is person.

Congratulations on learning how to say your first sentence in Japanese. I encourage you to practice and create sentences with nouns that you may know.

Reviewing Katakana

2012-10-24T19:51:00.002-05:00

Hopefully you've memorized some Katakana by now. What next? Before we move on, it's time for a pop quiz. They're not fun, but it'll test you on how much you've been practicing.

Highlight with a mouse to see your answer.

オレンジ　オ(o) レ(re) ン(n) ジ(ji) orange

パーティーパ(pa) ー(a) ティ(ti) ー(i) party

マクドナルドマ(ma) ク(ku) ド(do) ナ(na) ル(ru) ド(do) McDonalds

ハンバーガーハ(ha) ン(n) バ(ba) ー(a) ガ(ga) ー(a) hamburger

アメリカア(a) メ(me) リ(ri) カ(ka) America

コーラ　　コ(ko) ー(o) ラ(ra) cola

シャツ　シャ(shya) ツ(tsu) shirt

イヤリングイ(i) ヤ(ya) リ(ri) ン(n) グ(gu) earring

カップルカ(ka) ップ(ppu) (small tsu!) ル(ru) couple

ホチキスホ(ho) チ(chi) キ(ki) ス(su) stapler

So how did you do? Hopefully you did well. Keep practicing and keep in mind that you'll always have to sharpen and improve your Hiragana and Katakana no matter how skilled you become.

Stroke Order

2012-10-15T15:21:00.003-05:00

In this lesson, we're covering the importance of stroke order. What is stroke order? Basically, it's the way you write a character or letter. Take for example a lowercase "t". How do you write this "t"? Do you write a horizontal line first, and then a vertical line? Do you draw from left to right? Up to down? When writing letters of the English alphabet, the order in which you write a character doesn't really matter. In Japanese though, each character has a certain way it is supposed to be written, thus each character has a "stroke order."

Photos source: Wikipedia

You may recall the strange markings on the Katakana chart in the last lesson. I've reposted it above. Notice how there are numbers and arrows. The numbers tell you which stroke to write first, and the arrows tell you in which direction.

You're probably thinking, can't I just cheat and write it however I want? Yes, you can. In fact, when it comes to Kanji, new learners of Japanese often write how they want. I've had a Japanese friend tell me that not writing with the correct stroke order makes the character wrong. I've also had another Japanese friend tell me that it doesn't really matter.

So what's the point of stroke order? Regardless of it being "more work" and "more memorization," there are benefits to running that extra mile. For one, you'll be able to write characters more easily and fluidly because that's how they are supposed to be written. Also, you won't forget the character as easily because writing it over and over develops muscle memory. There have been many instances when I've managed to write a Kanji that I've forgotten, all because my hands were familiar with the stroke order. It's saved my life many times over countless Kanji quizzes and lesson exams in school.

I can give you one more reason, and this one is a personal one I can relate to. Ever get called on in class to write something on the board? Or how about just writing while someone is watching you? Yeah. Too many times I've been embarrassed because I write with incorrect stroke orders in front of a whole class, or having my teacher look over my shoulder to see that I've wrote a Kanji wrong.

And so because I try to write with the correct stroke orders, I generally have less issues with writing a character incorrectly. Some of my friends on the other hand aren't so fortunate. Believe me, sometimes it's just not cool to get points off a problem just because you missed one little stroke on a character. But whether or not you'll be learning Japanese in a classroom setting or on your own, in the long run, committing to stroke orders will very likely do you a lot of good.

I suggest practicing stroke orders now with Hiragana and Katakana. From now on, I also suggest that when you learn a new Kanji, make sure that you learn its stroke order. (Don't be intimidated though, once you start practicing Kanji you'll find that you can get used to it and stroke orders will become second nature).

Katakana!

2012-09-21T16:11:00.002-05:00

Now that you've hopefully grasped Hiragana, it's time to learn Katakana. If you forgot, Katakana is the alphabet used for foreign words or expressing emphasis (similar to all caps in English). It has its own 46 characters, but don't worry. They are all the same sounds as Hiragana.

Photo source: Wikipedia

Disregard the WI and WE characters, as they are now obsolete.

Can you see some similarities with Hiragana? The sounds are all the same, but even some characters look similar too. Aside from the similarities though, there are some things unique about Katakana.

Katakana's long sounds (long sounds are covered in an earlier post) don't use any a, i, u, e, or o. Instead, they use a stick, ー. For example, the word party is パーティー　(paatii). To make a sound long, you simply have to put in a stick, that's it. I bet it's a major relief, considering that for Hiragana you have to remember that う is used for both long U and O sounds.

Now, I know it seems like I'm contradicting myself. I said before that Japanese people don't really have a sound for "ti" right? In Katakana however, yes, you can make this sound. You do this by writing テ (te) with a small イ (i). This combined creates the "ti" sound.

Similar to "ti," we can also create a "wi" sound (like the Nintendo Wii). We do this by combining ウ (U) with a small イ (I): ウィ. It's literally sounds like UI, but if you say it fast and combine both sounds, it begins to sound like (wi).

Katakana is strange, yes. But it's another alphabet for the Japanese language and is as crucial as Hiragana. As a student, you shouldn't complain about having to memorize more characters, because they are pretty easy to memorize if you study them! From my own personal experience, Hiragana and Katakana can be mastered in about a month each (or even less if you're really dedicated).

Begin studying and memorizing your Katakana!

Reviewing Hiragana

2012-09-17T15:23:00.002-05:00

Hopefully you've been studying your Hiragana and have began memorizing the characters! Before we move onto Katakana though, it's always important to review what you've learned so far. I'll write some simple words and see if you can try and read them. Highlight the black lines for the answer. がんばって！

Bonus Points! Try to pronounce it correctly and read it out loud!

うちう(u) ち(chi) house

いぬい(i) ぬ(nu) dog

あかいあ(a) か(ka) い(i) red

たべものた(ta) べ(be) も(mo) の(no) food

はしるは(ha) し(shi) る(ru) to run

おおきいお(o) お(o) き(ki) い(i) big

つなみつ(tsu) な(na) み(mi) tidal wave

たこやきた(ta) こ(ko) や(ya) き(ki) octopus dumplings

きっぷき(ki) っぷ(ppu) (small tsu!) ticket

わたしわ(wa) た(ta) し(shi) I; me

How well did you do? If you got them all correct, great! It never hurts to keep practicing Hiragana even if you can already read it because you can improve your reading speed. And trust me, reading speed is very important when learning a new language!

Anyways, this is all for now. Be ready for Katakana next time!

Long Sounds

2012-08-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

I'm back again with another quick lesson about Hiragana! This time it's as the title suggests: long sounds.

What are long sounds? They're basically just making a character sound longer. Take for example, とうきょう (Tōkyō). To English speakers, the capital of Japan is Tokyo, but it's really pronounced Tōkyō, with both O's being long. The length of pronouncing it should be about 2 syllables, and here's why.

とうきょう is spelled in romaji "toukyou." The う (u) that you see is not pronounced "ooh," (to-ooh, kyo- ooh is incorrect) because it follows an -o sound. If う (u) follows an -o sound, it makes the O sound long. So simply saying "Tokyo" when you're speaking Japanese is incorrect. You have to make the O's long, the length of two syllables: "Too-kyoo."

To make -a sounds like ka, sa, ma, etc. long, you follow the characters with あ.
To make -i sounds like ki, shi, mi, etc. long, you follow the characters with い.
To make -e sounds like ke, se, me, etc. long, you follow the characters with え.*
To make -u sounds like ku, su, mu, etc. long, you follow the characters with う.
To make -o sounds like ko, so, mo, etc. long, you follow the characters with う.**

*This is pretty uncommon, although it exists. You'll more likely see combinations of -e with い (i), as in せんせい (sensei).
**Mentioned earlier above with the example with とうきょう (Toukyou), to make -o sounds long, you have to follow it with う. Very rarely will you see -o with an お. HOWEVER, it does exist, making it that much more confusing! A very common word, such as おおきい (big) exists. The "o" sound is long, because there are two お's. You'll just have to remember which -o words are long with お!

I know this little lesson may be confusing, so if there are any questions or comments, or more examples are needed, comment below!

Combinations in Hiragana

2012-07-29T06:28:00.001-05:00

So we've learned the Hiragana characters and all the extra characters... but there's just a little more. Don't worry, it's not as bad as you think it is.

The main combinations that we'll use over and over again (and you'll see a lot of it in words) consist of a character (usually from the -i sound) combined with a small Y character. As you may remember, there are only 3 Y characters: ya, yu, and yo. What this combination does is that it just combines the sound into one. I know this may sound confusing, but let's take it step by step.

Compare these two:

きよ (kiyo) and きょ (kyo)

Do you notice that the regular-sized yo is its own sound, whereas the small yo paired with ki makes it into one sound altogether? The same is true for other combinations of -i and the Y characters:

きゃ (kya), きゅ (kyu), しゃ (sha or shya), しゅ (shu or shyu), しょ (sho or shyo), びゃ (bya), びゅ (byu), びょ (byo), just to name a few.

Pretty easy, right? Now, you can take a look at the last box below the main Hiragana chart (given two posts ago) and understand what those characters are. Remember, a regular-sized Y character and a small Y character are not the same! Using them incorrectly or writing them ambiguously may confuse readers and even spell different words! Take a look at this example, it's two words that tripped me up quite a few times:

びょういん (byouin) = hospital
びよういん (biyouin) = beauty salon

Yeah, you want to avoid these mistakes. If you ever get confused or can't tell if it's a small character, make sure that you ask someone!

Now go and study your Hiragana! If there are any questions or comments, please post them below!

Dakuten and Handakuten (Tenten and Maru)

2012-07-25T10:58:00.004-05:00

We're back with where we left off on our Hiragana lesson! This time we're covering dakuten and handakuten. Dakuten (゙) is also called ten ten (which means dot dot) and handakuten (゚) is called maru (circle). This is colloquial, meaning that dakuten and handakuten are really only called tenten and maru in speech. If you've ever been taught Japanese from a professor, most likely you'll have heard it as tenten and maru. For this lesson, we'll use tenten and maru.

So what the heck does tenten and maru do? Well, recall that Japanese characters usually consist of a consonant and a vowel. If you look at the Hiragana chart from the last lesson, you might notice that those aren't all the consonants. Yes, that's right, there are more: G, Z, D, B, and P. These characters though use the same characters as the K, S, T, and H column, except they include a tenten or maru. It's a little hard to explain, but seeing it this way might make it easier to understand:

K + ゙ (tenten) = G
か (ka) + ゙ (tenten) = が (ga)

S + ゙ (tenten) = Z
さ (sa) + ゙ (tenten) = ざ (za)

And the pattern repeats itself, with: T + tenten = D, and H + tenten = B.

It's different with P though, and this is where maru comes in:

H + ゚ (maru) = P
は(ha) + ゚ (maru) = ぱ (pa)

I enlarged the text to make the maru more visible. On normal sized font, it's so small it may be mistaken for a tenten (ぱ). See what I mean?

Anyways, P is the only consonant that uses maru, so whenever you see a character with a maru, you should know right away that it is a P sound. To recap, H can split into B or P depending on if it uses a tenten (it becomes B) or if it uses a maru (it becomes P).

Now that you know this, you can take a look at the Hiragana chart posted on our last lesson and look at the smaller chart to the left of it. It makes sense now, doesn't it?

Lastly, something to note about these additional characters.

You remember that ち is pronounced chi and not ti, right? And し is pronounced shi, not see? With tenten, these two characters become ぢ and じ, respectively, but they are both pronounced the same: ji. Also similar to this is づ (dzu) and ず (zu), as they are both pronounced zu. It's strange, I know (za, ji, zu, ze, zo for the Z column and da, ji, zu, de, do for the D column). You'll probably see one more common than the other, but that does not mean that they are the same character! For example, you'll rarely see the character ぢ (dji) and づ (dzu) compared to じ (ji) and ず (zu), but they'll appear in some words: つづく (tsuzuku = to continue). つずく (pronounced the same way) is a misspelling for this verb.

And this is the end of our lesson for today! If there are any questions or comments (I know this stuff can be pretty confusing), please post them below!

Hiragana!

2012-07-24T00:27:00.000-05:00

Photo source: TextFugu, with editing for formatting

Hey everyone, I'm finally back with a new lesson after a long period of inactivity, and this time it's all about Hiragana! I'm sure you have an idea of what Hiragana is by now, but if you've forgotten, it's mainly the alphabet for Japanese words.

First, I want you to take a look at the chart posted above. Focusing on just the bigger chart on the top-left, notice that there are a total of 46 characters. These are the characters that make up Hiragana. This chart is read from right to left (I know, I know... but trust me, it's not that bad looking at it this way). Look at the column on the right side, and notice that it's just the vowels: A I U E O. If you've forgotten how to pronounce them, there are little bubbles on the right that will give you an example of what it sounds like. Now, keeping in mind that reading the column goes like "ah, ee, oo, eh, oh," move over to the next column to the left.

Notice that the next characters all start with the consonant K? So read down that column: "kah, key, koo, keh, koh." Easy, right? With the alphabet in this format, all of a sudden Japanese doesn't seem so difficult anymore yeah?

Go to the next column, and this time the consonant is S: "sah, shee, soo, seh, soh." Whoa, wait- what? "Shee?" That's right, the character し (shi) is pronounced "shee" instead of "see." Why is that? Well, simply put, the Japanese language doesn't have a sound for "see," and usually, Japanese people can't pronounce these characters that are either modified in sound or taken out (more on that in a bit). Just keep in mind that it's pronounced "shee."

As you can see, the next columns just replace the consonants with other ones: T, N, H, M, R, Y, and W. If you look in the T column, ち "tee" is pronounced "chi" and つ "too" is pronounced "tsu." Again, this is how they are pronounced, and it's usually difficult for Japanese people to pronounce "tee" and "too." Also, you might have noticed that there are some blank spots in the Y column, and most of the W column. Yes, that's right. The Japanese language doesn't have characters and sounds for "yee, yeh, wee, woo, and weh." Now, you'll probably understanding why learning Japanese is a lot easier for English speakers and not for the other way around. We can pronounce all of their characters, even the missing ones that we think should be there.

Lastly, some notes about these characters: を (wo) is generally pronounced the same as お (o), although some dialects retain it as "wo." Whenever you see it though (trust me, you will), just pronounce it the same as お (o), or "oh."

And as stated earlier in one of my posts, ん is just "nn." Clench your teeth together when you say it, it should sound like "mm" (you know, when you eat something good), except with an N instead of M. This will probably seem like a strange character, but it isn't and is pretty common in a lot of words. For example: きん "kin," = gold.

If there are any questions or comments, please post them below! I was going to include dakuten in this lesson but I think this post is long enough. Until then, print out the chart and start memorizing your Hiragana!

A Quick Lesson about Romaji

2011-12-31T02:12:00.000-06:00

What is Romaji? Romaji is a way for the Japanese language to be written out with the Latin alphabet. It may be already noticeable that it's the English words we use to help ourselves pronounce Japanese words. Here's an example:

Japanese text: ねこはコンピューターをみています。

Romaji:　　　　 Neko wa KONPYUUTAA wo miteimasu.

Translation: The cat is looking at the computer.

The are many styles of romaji. One style writes out the Japanese character that would be used, and another just uses a macron (the line above a vowel to denote that it is a long pronunciation) for long characters. Another example:

高校 = こうこう = koukou = kōkō = high school

In this example, the word is pronounced with a long O sound for both O's. However, this is just an example of two different styles of romaji. There are more and they get pretty technical. I use a mix of different kinds because it's the way that I learn it best, and I suggest that you do the same. As for now, just work with what you're comfortable with. As you learn hiragana and katakana, you'll realize that you'll run into minor issues, such as both ず and づ both having the same sound, "zu". For these situations, I suggest finding a way that works for you, such as writing ず as "zu", and づ as "du" or "dzu".

One last thing to note. In the first example with the cat looking at a computer, you may have realized that romaji is written in all caps for katakana. I am unsure if this is a certain style of romaji also, but it helps denote which words are written in hiragana and which are written in katakana. For those of you who like to karaoke to Japanese songs, you may already know this fact if you look up song lyrics and read the romanization.

In short, romaji is just a way for Japanese to be written with the Latin alphabet. You may even call it an unofficial alphabet of the Japanese language. Pretty much all English speakers learning Japanese depend on romaji to help them read and understand Japanese when they first start off. However, after you've learned all your hiragana and katakana, you'll rarely be using romaji anymore (and you shouldn't depend too much on it either, since you want to push yourself to actually learn hiragana and katakana). This is why I think it's best to write romaji in a way that works most efficient for you. Develop your own style to it, but also keep in mind the other styles too so if you come across it, you can recognize and read it.

メリ　クリスマス！ Happy Holidays!

2011-12-25T03:27:00.001-06:00

I haven't posted in a while, but I'm going into winter break for a month! Now that I have time, I'll definitely get back to reviewing my lessons with you all!

みんな、勉強していますか？ Have a happy holidays!

Pronouncing in Japanese

2011-11-13T02:04:00.000-06:00

So, is speaking in Japanese difficult? No, it's not. In fact, it's very easy and if you're an English speaker, you should be able to pronounce correctly every sound of the alphabet.

Most Japanese sounds have vowels in them, and they're pretty much the same as in English. The majority of the sounds consist of a consonant and a vowel. As for how to pronounce the vowels? It's easy:

A = pronounced "ah"
I = pronounced "ee"
U = pronounced "ooh"
E = pronounced "eh"
O = pronounced "oh"
N = it's a hard "nn" sound

For consonants and vowels, they're also easy. "Ka" is simply pronounced "kah" and "se" is simply pronounced "seh" like how the vowels are pronounced. They just have a consonant in front.

Worried about the tone? Don't worry. Tone is different across different areas, regions, age groups, etc. and so it would be best to just try and imitate what you hear. Just keep in mind that there are two tones: low and high. That's it. And each sound is pronounced with the same amount of stress and duration (a sound can get a longer duration with the addition of another character, but we'll discuss this in the upcoming posts). As long as you get this down, speaking Japanese will be simple. It also helps to listen to Japanese people speak and try to imitate what they say to understand the flow of speech.

Introducing Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji

2011-11-01T09:53:00.000-05:00

The Japanese language has 3 alphabets: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Why 3 alphabets? They each have different uses.

ひらがな (hiragana) - this is the standard alphabet. These 46 characters are used for native words (48 if you count the obsolete WI and WE characters). Think JAPANESE words. Hiragana is also used to write everything that kanji can't cover, such as particles.

カタカナ (katakana) - this is their alphabet for foreign words, or all other words that aren't native words (46 characters also). For example, if Japan borrows a word from another language, such as ORANGE, it is spelled using katakana (オレンジ = ORENJI). In many cases, reading a word in katakana that is borrowed from another language such as English, you might be able to figure out what the word is since it is written to sound like it's supposed to from that language( ORANGE = ORENJI, CLASS = KURASU). Some words will combine both katakana and hiragana (i.e. サボる = skip class). Other uses for katakana include emphasizing a word (similar to writing all caps in English), or if you're a manga reader, it's used for sound effects.

漢字 (kanji) - Chinese characters. A single kanji character may have multiple readings, may sound similar to its original Chinese pronunciation, but may also have its own Japanese pronunciation. Kanji is used for JAPANESE words. That means Kanji is used in place of some Hiragana. For example, the word うみ (umi = sea), but in kanji it is this character: 海. Okurigana is when kanji is mixed with hiragana, such as 楽しい (tanoshii = fun). Furigana is when the hiragana readings are placed above the kanji so those unable to read the kanji will be able to.

It doesn't take long to fully memorize hiragana and katakana, but there are thousands of Kanji and only a few thousand are commonly used in Japan. It's easy to forget the kanji you've learned because there are a lot... but you're an eternal student, and you can do it. がんばりましょう！

始めは。。。 (The Beginning)

2011-10-31T15:06:00.000-05:00

I have to visit Japan one day. I need to. And when I do? You bet I'd better know how to speak their language! But to go a while without reviewing what you've learned, especially if it's been years, you can easily forget everything!

I am determined. I'm always going to be learning something new, so why not accept now that you'll always be a student, no matter what? There won't ever be time that I'll perfect the Japanese language, so let's make ourselves comfortable and create a place where 学生 (students) can study and review what we all have a passion for: 日本語！

学生の天国へようこそ！
みなさん、がんばってください！