Day #1.2

Today we learnt numbers (0-10), how to introduce someone else, asking others questions like what school they’re from and how old they are.

A conversation between two people might go like this:

I am a student. | (Watashi wa) gakuse desu.

I’m a Waseda University student. | Waseda Daigaku no gakuse desu.

My major is English Literature. | Senko wa Ebun Bungaku desu.

ASKING ONE’S NATIONALITY 

The word ‘ka | か’ is added at the end of a sentence to turn the statement into a question.

Are you Japanese? | Nihon jin desu ka?

–  –  –  –  –  –  –  –  Yes, I am. | Hai, Nihon jin desu.

–  –  –  –  –  –  –  –  No, I’m Singaporean.| Ie, Shingaporu jin desu.

ASKING ONE’S AGE

There’re two ways of asking someone’s age. ‘Oikutsu’ is a more polite way of asking.

(I don’t mean to be rude, but) how old are you? | (Shitsure desu ga), oikutsu desu ka?

–  –  –  –  –  –  –  –  23-sai desu. | I’m 23 years old.

ASKING ONE’S YEAR OF STUDY 

The word ‘Nan’ means “What”.

What year are you in ? | Nan nense desu ka?

–  –  –  –  –  –  –  –  Ichi-nense desu. | I’m in the first year.

* To say “I’m also in the first year”, the particle ‘mo’ is used instead of ‘wa’.

I’m also in the first year. | Watashi mo ichi-nense desu.

NUMBERS

0  | Cero

1  | Ichi

2  | Ni

3  | San

4  | Yon

5  | Go

6  | Roku

7  | Nana

8  | Hachi

9  | Kyu

10 | Juu

 

Lesson #1.1

Today marks the start of learning Japanese! 🙂 Posts are titled “Lesson #~” in the order of week and lesson number. I learnt simple introductions like greetings, introducing oneself to others and basic sentences. I also started learning Hiragana, a fundamental Japanese writing system. There’re 3 writing systems in Japan; Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, the oldest form of Japanese writing imported from China. The wordings in Kanji are Chinese characters, only pronounced differently. I hope I’ll have no problem with that! Katakana is used for words with foreign origins, like “hamburger | ハンバーガー”.

INTRODUCTIONS

Introducing yourself to someone for the first time:

Hajimemashite | はじめまして

Telling someone your name:

My name is Natasha. | Watashi wa Natasha desu. | わたし は ナターシャ です。

After meeting someone:

Pleased to meet you. | Dozo Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu. | どぞう よろしく おねがいします。

‘Wa’ is a particle. Particles are used to link sentences in Japanese, like prepositions in English. It is used after nouns, such as ‘I am | Watashi wa’. In Japanese, ‘Watashi wa’ is not always needed in a sentence because it is obvious the person speaking is referring to himself. ‘Desu’ is a topic marker.

Expressing your nationality:

I’m Japanese. | Nihon jin desu. | にほんじん です。

The word ‘jin | 人’ means person, so a literal translation would be a Japanese person.

ASKING QUESTIONS

When asking questions, a full stop is used at the end of the sentence.

Asking someone’s name:

What is your name? | O namae wa? | お なまえ わ。

Asking what a person does/ occupation:

O shigoto wa? | お なまえ わ。

‘O’ is a polite prefix.

We also learnt some greetings, these will be added in the Vocabulary section under Lesson #1. 🙂