Where is the cat?

If you want to ask where some place or animal or thing is in Japanese, use '(name of place /animal / thing) do ko desu ka' For example, if you want to know where the police station is, just ask 'koban wa do ko desu ka? or in Hiragana こばんそこですか？’

The other examples are as follows:
1 Where is the train station？えきは　どこですか？[eki wa doko desu ka?]
2 Where is the cat? ねかは　どこですか？ [neko wa doko desu ka?]
3 Where is the car? くるまは　どこですかｈ？ [kuruma wa doko desu ka?]

You can answer, 'It is there.' [soko desu] or 'It is over there.' [asoko desu].

In Japanese,'It is there' is rendered as そこです。"It it over there is あそこです。in Hiragana.

How to reply to 'arigato gozaimasu'

When some one says 'ありがとうございます ARIGATŌ - GOZAIMASU' to you in Japanese, what should you say in return. Arigato gozaimasu means 'Thank you.'

Well, you just say 'いえ いたしまして。Iie, ITASHIMASHITE'. [You are welcome.]

The differences between 'sore', 'kore' and 'are' in Japanese.

When we refer to a thing near us, we use これ kore. For example, we write これ　は　きって　です。(Kore wa kitte desu which means Here is a stamp.) when we holding a stamp in front of us.

If there is a cat not far from us, we can say それ　は　ねこ　です。(Sore wa neko desu which means 'That is a cat.').

However, if the cat is up in the tree, then we say あれ　は　ねこ　です. (Are wa neko desu which means 'That is a cat.".

An aid to typing Japanese words

If you want to key in Japanese yet you are unable to do so without software such as NJStar, there is a way you can go about it. Just go to the following link and and a rectangle will appear for you to key in Japanese.

http://ajaxime.chasen.org/

When you are in Ajax IME, you can use romaji to key in Hiragana. For example, if you want to type the Japanese word ねこ which is 'cat', just key in 'neko' and ねこ will appear in the rectangle.

Happy keying in Japanese words with Ajax IME.

How to say 'how do you do' in Japanese

When you meet a person for the first time, you can say はじめまして or in romaji 'Hajimemashite'which means 'How do you do?'

Then you can say どぞ　よろしく or 'Dozo yoroshiku' in romaji. It actually means 'Please be nice to me' and is the equivalent of 'Pleased to meet you' in English.

For example, after being introduced to Mr Tanaka, you can saｙ
たなかさんで　はじめまして　どぞ　よろしく　(Tanaka-san, Hajimemashite, dozo yoroshiku.)
Mr Tanaka, how do you do? Pleased to meet you.

Some thoughts about learning a new language

I have been thinking how long will it take for me to master Japanese. Come to think of it, I really admire those who can speak Japanese well. For a start, I am determined to commit to memory the 2 basic sets of the Japanese sounds, namely hiragana and katakana. As for kanji, I have no problem with the words as I have learnt Chinese before and can recognise the words. Alas, the Japanese pronounce them differently. For example 'yi' or one is pronounced as 'ichi' and 'ben' or book is utterd as 'hon'

With determination, all of us can learn a language. Constant practice should do the job. Right now, I have a lot of audio and written material which I have donwloaded from the Internet for my use. I hope to benefit from all these and make learning Japanese fun and effective.

An aid to learning the Japanese vowels

As I searched through the Internet looking for materials from which to learn Japanese, I stumbled upon a freeware called Gojuon.Gadget. This cute litter software will sit on the right-hand upper side of your screen. A small rectangular that contains all the Japanese vowels. You just click on any vowel and you can listen to its pronunciation instantly. As for other program, it has to go through Winmap or Media player to produce the sound. In this respect it is very handy.

If you are interested to get this little aid for Japanese, you can go to the following site to get it.

http://download.gallery.start.com/d.dll/2~2~792~54924/Gojuon.Gadget

What's it?

In Japanese, if you want to ask what something is, you say ‘Sore wa nan desu ka?’ [それ　は　なんです か？]

The answer will be ‘Kore wa [name of thing] desu.’ [これ　は　_＿＿＿＿ です。]

When you use ‘sore’ you are pointing to something away from you. When it is in front of you, you use ‘kore’

Let use make some sentences using ‘sore wa’.

1 これ　は えんぴつ　です。 [Kore wa enpitsu. (It’s a pencil.)]

2 これ　は　かさ　です。[Kore wa kasa. (It’s an umbrella.)]　

3 これ　は　しんぶんです。[Kore wa shibun. (It’s a newspaper.)]

4 これ　は　めがね　です。[Kore wa megane. (It’s a pair of spectacles.)]

Katakana is used for writing foreign words

Besides hiragana, the Japanese also uses katakana in writing for foreign words and Western names. In today day's post I will list out the 46 vowels which bear the parallel of hiragana which I listed in my earlier posts. Here they are:

ア　イ　ウ　エ　オ　[a i u e o]
カ　キ　ク　ケ　コ　[ka ki ku ke ko]
サ　シ　ス　セ　ソ　[sa shi su se so]
タ　チ　ツ　テ　ト　[ta chi tse te to]
ナ　ニ　ヌ　ネ　ノ　[na ni nu ne no]
ハ　ヒ　フ　ヘ　ホ　[ha hi fu he ho]
ヤ　ユ　ヨ　[ya yu yo]
マ　ミ　ム　メ　モ　[ma mi mu me mo]
ラ　リ　ル　レ　ロ　[ra ri ru re ro]
ワ　ヲ　ン [wa wo n]

For example, hotel and Alan are written as ホテル[hoteru] and　アレン[A re n] respectively.

How to form questions in Japanese

If you want to ask a question, you just add か （'ka') at the end of a statement.
For example, your statement is 'きって　です。' which means 'It is a stamp.', you can add 'ka' at the end of this statement to form a question. Hence, 'Is it a stamp?' can be rendered 'きって　です か 。'

If you say, 'Yes it is.', then the Japanese equivalent is 'はい きって　です。’ (Hai, kitte desu.)

On the other hand if your answer is in the negative, then you would say 'いいえ,きって ではありません.'Iie, kitte dewa arimasen' which means 'No, It is not a stamp.'

It is a cat

Let us learn some Japanese grammar or structures in this post.
To say ‘It is …’, ‘Those are..’ or ‘I am…’, we use ‘____________ desu’. (‘desu’ is pronounced as ‘dess’ because the ‘u’ is silent. Vocabulary for today consists of ‘neko’ for cat, ‘inu’ for dog, ‘hon’ for book, ‘enpitsu’ for pencil.

Let at the following examples:
1 ねこです (neko desu)
[It is a cat]

2 いぬです(inu desu)
[‘It is a dog.’ or ‘Those are dogs.’]

3えんぴつです(Enpitsu desu.)
[It is a pencil.]

4 ほんです(Hon desu.)]
[It is a book.]
5 たなか　です。(Tanaka desu.)
[I am Tanaka.’

For negative statements, you can use　‘ではありません’ ‘dewa arimasen’ in place of ‘desu’. The above five sentences can be turned into negative throught this method.
ではありません
1 ねこではありません (neko dewa arimasen)
[It is not a cat]

2 いぬではありません(inu dewa arimasen)
[‘It is not a dog.’ or ‘Those are not dogs.’]

3えんぴつではありません(Enpitsu dewa arimasen.)
[It is not a pencil.]

4 ほんではありません[Hon dewa arimasen.]
[It is not a book.]

5 たなかではありません。(Tanaka dewa arimasen.)
[I am not Tanaka.]

It is interesting to study the origin of kanji

The study of the origin of Chinesed words in Japanese is really interesting. The Chinese words in Japanese is known as kanji.They are not pronounced as Chinese words should be but differently. For example, the Chinese 'ben3' is pronounced as 'hon' in Japanese.

The Chinese word 'ri' is formed by adding a dot in the middle of a circle which represents the sun. Later the dot is replaced with a horizontal bar and the circle becomes a rectangle. In Kanji, 'ri' is pronounced as 'ni'. Hence Japan (ri ben)nin in Kanji is 'Nihon' or 'Nippon'.

Some Japanese greeting phrases

For today’s Japanese lessons, we will learn some greeting or あいさつ。

1 a) Hiragana: おはよう　ございます。

b) Romanji: O HAYOU GOZAIMASU

c) English: Good Morning

2 a) Hiragana: こんにちは

b) Romanji: KONNICHIWA

c) English: Good Afternoon

3 a) Hiragana: こんばんは

b) Romanji: KONBANWA

c) English: Good Evening

4 a) Hiragana: おやすみなさい

b) Romanji: OYASUMINASAI

c) English: Good Night

5 a) Hiragana: お元気ですか。

b) Romanji: OGENKI DESU KA

c) English: How are you?

6 a) Hiragana: げんきです。

b) Romanji: GENKI DESU

c) English: I am fine.

7 a) Hiragana: はじめまして。

b) Romanji: HAJIMEMASHITE

c) English: Nice to meet you.

8 a) Hiragana: ありがとうございます。

b) Romanji: ARIGATOU GAZAIMASU

c) English: Thank you.

9 a) Hiragana: どういたしまして。

b) Romanji: DOUITASHIMASHITE

c) English: You are welcome

10 a) Hiragana: いらっしゃいませ。

b) Romanji: IRASSHAIMASE

c) English: Welcome

11 a) Hiragana: すみません。

b) Romanji: SUMIMASEN

c) English: Excuse me.

12 a) Hiragana: さようなら。

b) Romanji: SAYONARA

c) English: Goodbye.

You need to practice all the above phrases every day so that you can memorise them.

Happy learning Japanese!

Subject and object markers in Japanese

The particle 'wa' ( は) is used as a subject marker in Japanese. If we want to place 'I' as the subject of a sentence, you will write 'watashi wa' (わたし　は). By the way, Japanese grammar is of SOV (subject-object verb) as opposed to SVO (subject-verb objec) in English. As for the object, its marker is 'o' [を]. You should place を after the word which is your object to indicate so.

Let us construct a sentence of the structure Subject Object Verb according to Grammar in Japanese.

Romanji: Watashi wa mizu o nomimasu.
Hiragana: わたし　は　みず　を　のみます。
English: I water drink which is 'I drink water.'

The following sentence is another example of this pattern.
Romanji: Tanaka wa neko o mimashita.
Hiragana: たなか　は　ねこ　を　みました。
English: Tanaka saw a cat. (Literally, "Tanaka[subject] cat[object] saw.")

So much for today's post on learning Japanese.

Simple Japanese sentence structures

For today's Japanese lesson, let us leara some simple structures.

In Japanese, the subject is indicated by a subject marker, namely　は pronounced as 'wa'.

The equivalent of 'I' in Japanese is わたし (watashi). です or 'desu' is the equivalent of 'is' in English. Hence if you want to tell people that your name is Tanaka. Then you would write:

Hiragana: わたし は たなかです。　
Romanji: Watashi wa Tanaka desu.
English: I am Tanaka.

By the way, Romanji is Romanised way of writing Japanese.

Now let us use this is and that is to construct sentences in Japanese.

In Japanese, 'this is' is これ or 'kore' and 'that is' is それ (sore) or　あれ (are).

Look at the following sentences.

Hiragana: これ は みず　です。
Romanji: Kore wa mizu desu.
English: This is water.

Hiragana: それ は　かぎ　です。
Romanji: Sore wa kagi desu
English: That is a key.

Hiragana: あれ は　かさ　です。
Romanji: Are wa kasa desu.
English: That is an umbrella.

So much for some simple Japanese sentences.

Japanese words about the face and related parts

In today's post on Japanese, we will learn 10 words about our face. Here they are:

1 あたま[a ta ma] = head
2 かお [ka o] = face
3 くび [ku bi] = neck
4 まゆげ [ma yu ge] = eyebrow
5 め [me] = eye
6 まつげ [ma tsu ge] = eyelashes
7 はな [ha na] = nose
8 くち [ku chi] = mouth
9 みみ [mi mi] = ear
10 かみのけ [ka mi no ke] = hair

I hope you will try to write out the Japanese words and read them as well remember their meanings.

This completes the 50 basic vowels of Japanese

In this post, I will list the rest of the basic vowels or sounds of the Japanese language. These are:

ま み む め もん [ma mi mu me mo]
や ゆ よ [ya yu yo]
ら り る れ ろ [ra ri ru re ro]
わ を [wa wo]
ん [n]

ま [ma] is pronounced as mo in mother
み [mi] is pronounced as mi in missing
む [mu] is pronounced as moo in moon
め[me] is pronounced as may in May
も[mo] is pronounced as mo in more

や [ya] is pronounced as
ゆ [yu] is pronounced as
よ[yo] is pronounced as

ら [ra] is pronounced as ra in rather
り [ri] is pronounced as re in repeat
る [ru] is pronounced as ru in rule
れ [re] is pronounced as ray in rayfish
ろ[ro] is pronounced as ro in roll

わ [wa] is pronounced as wo in won
を[wo] is pronounced as wa in wall

ん [n] is pronounced as n

Try to remember all the 50 vowels given in this blog and you will enjoy reading Japanese then. Of course, there are other sounds such as g, z, d, b, and p. They are formed by adding straightened right inverted commas on the right upper sound of k for g sound, s for z sound, t for d sound, h for b sound. However, you add the degree sign to h for p sound.

Here they are:

g sound: が ぎ ぐ げ ご [ga gi gu ge go] pronounced as [gargle, guitar, good, gay, god]

z sound: ざ じずぜぞ [za ji zu ze zo] pronounced as [beza(Malay), Jill, zoo, zay, zo]

d sound: だ じずでど [da ji zu de do] pronounced as [radar, Jill, zoo, day, doll]

b sound: ば び ぶ べ ぼ [ba bi bu be bo] pronounced as [bar, bee, book, bay, bore]

p sound: ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺぽ [pa pi pu pe po] pronounced as [part, pee, put, pay, pore]

The next 10 Japanese vowels

These are the next 10 Japanese vowels to be memorised to master the Japanese language. Here they are:

な に ぬ ね の [na ni nu ne no]

は へ ふ へ ほ [ha hi fu he ho]

な [na] is pronounced as na in nasty.

に [ni] is pronounced as ny in many.

ぬ [nu] is pronounced as noo in noodle.

ね [ne is pronounced as na in naked.

の[no] is pronounced as no in nor.

は [ha] is pronounced as ha in harmony.

へ [hi] is pronounced as he in he( is a boy)
)
ふ [fu] is pronounced as foo in foolish

へ[he] is pronounced as hay as in hay

ほ[ho] is pronounced as ho hollow

How to write sushi in Japanese

These are the next ten Japanese sounds to be learned for this post.

さ し す せ そ - sa, shi, su, se, so

た ち つ て と - ta, chi, tsu, te, to

さ [sa] is pronounced as sa in ‘Lisa’.

し [shi] is pronounced as shi in ‘shilling’.

す [su] is pronounced as soo in ‘soothing’.

せ [se] is pronounced as say

そ [so] is pronounced as ‘so’ in ‘solely’.

た [ta] is pronounced as ‘ta’ in ‘Rita’.

ち[chi] is pronounced as ‘chee’ in ‘cheetah’.

つ [tsu] is pronounced as ‘tch’ in ‘catch’

て [te] is pronounced as ‘tay’ in ‘stay’.

と[to] is pronounced as tow.

Out of these ten sounds, you can form すし [sushi] , a type of Japanese food.

The first 10 Japanese vowels

In this post, I shall introduce the ten Japanese vowels and their pronunciation. I am able to input Japanese thanks to the NJStar Japanese Word Processor which I downloaded from the Internet.
As I have just started learning the vowels, I will share the experience with readers of this post as I go along. I took the trouble to memorise all the 50 sounds by reading and writing repeatedly every day. Hence you should just contend yourself with this ten sounds first. There are 40 more to come if you are interested.

あ い う え お か き く け こ

あ [a] is pronounced as AH as in 'are'.
い [i] is pronouced as 'i' as in 'idiot;,
う [u] is pronounced as 'oo' in 'wood'.
え [e] is pronounced as 'a' as in 'able'
お [o] is pronounced as 'au' as in 'auto'

か[ka] is pronounced as 'ca' as in 'car' but hard 'c'
き [ki] is pronounced as 'ki' as in 'kitten' but hard 'k'
く [ku] is pronounced as 'ku' as in 'coo' as in 'coolant' but hard 'c'
け [ke] is pronounced as 'ca' in 'cater' but hard 'c'
こ [ko] is pronounced as 'co' in 'coincident' but hard 'c'

The above are the rough equivalent of the sounds of the vowels. To listen to the accurate pronuncatiation, go to any free online Japanese website and you will be able to listen to the correct pronunciations.