Wakaric's JP Teaching

How can I use this blog?

wakaric — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:14:20 +0000

Watch this tutorial video providing tips on how you can use this blog efficiently. It will be up soon…

LESSON 5: Shopping

wakaric — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:47:16 +0000

Loves shopping? How can you enjoy shopping if you do not know how to communicate well in the store? This lesson provides useful and relevant phrases/expressions used in shopping settings. You will see the phrases in the short dialogue between store clerk (てんいん) and customer(きゃく).

Dialogue
てんいん: いらっしゃいませ。なにか　おさがし　ですか。
きゃく:　いいえ、みてるだけです。

(After a while looking around the store. . . )

きゃく:　すみません。これ　いくら　ですか。
てんいん:　そちらの　シャツ　は　３９００円　で　ございます。
きゃく:　そうですか。あの、きいろ　は　ありますか。
てんいん:　もうしわけ　ありません。もう　しろ　しか　のこってない　です。

きゃく:　そうですか。。。。わかりました。じゃあ、これ　ください。

てんいん：ありがとうございます。

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Expressions:

1)てんいん(the store clerk):

いらっしゃいませ。 Welcome.
なにか　おさがし　ですか。 Are you looking for something?
そちら　は　３９００円　で　ございます。 That skirt is 3900 yen.
もうしわけ　ありません。 I’m really sorry./I apologize.
もう　しろ　しか　のこってない　です。 We have only white left (for this clothes).

2)きゃく(the customer):

いいえ、みてるだけです。 No, I’m just looking around.
すみません。 Excuse me.
これ　いくら　ですか。 How much is this?
そうですか。/ わかりました。 I see.
あの、きいろ　は　ありますか。 Well, do you have yellow (for this clothes)?
これ　ください。I’ll get this one.

If you do not want to buy,

じゃあ、*いいです。 Ok, then no thank you.*This phrase “いいです ” could cause confusions because it could mean ‘that’s fine/that’s good/I agree’ sometimes depends on the contexts. So, in order to avoid confusions, it is better to use “けっこうです” that means also ‘No thank you’ but with stronger intention compared to “いいです“.

You can practice your speaking and listening skills on the phrases you have learned today by hearing to the spoken dialogue. 　See vocabulary associated with shopping here.

LESSON 4: Family and Age

wakaric — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:23:55 +0000

What do you see in the picture? This is Japanese royal family. When you talk about yourself, probably you would mention about your family, wouldn’t you? So, here you will learn how to say family members and ages in Japanese.

Japanese counts ages putting ‘さい’[sai] after numbers. – i.e. 3[san]+さい[sai]=3 yeas old. The hardest part of counting age is pronunciation. The sound sometimes changes depends on the combination of particular number and this age counter as you see in the counting age chart below.

さい＝age counter

なんさいですか。

How old are you?

7さい　です。

I’m 7 years old.

See Lesson 4 vocabulary here.

LESSON 3: Introduce people

wakaric — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:42:13 +0000

In this lesson, you will learn how to introduce someone, associated vocabulary and phrases. You have learned how to introduce yourself in the previous lesson, so let’s review.

“はじめまして。たなか　ゆうこです。

Nice to meet you. I’m Yuko Tanaka.
どうぞ　よろしくおねがいします。”
Please be kind to me.

Now, when introducing someone, you use a specific phrase “こちらは” as in,

“こちらは たなか　ゆうこさん　です。” (This is Ms.Yuko Tanaka. )

Let’s see other phrease in the dialogue.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yuko:こんにちは。はじめまして。たなか　ゆうこ　です。　どうぞ　よろしく　おねがいします。

Eric: はじめまして。エリックです。どうぞ　よろしく。
Yuko: がくせい　ですか。

Eric: はい、だいがくせい　です。
Yuko: せんもんは　なんですか。

Eric: びじゅつ　です。
Yuko: こちらは、りょうこ　さん　です。わたしの　ともだち　です。せんもんは　えいご　です。

Ryoko: はじめまして。りょうこ　です。どうぞ　よろしく。
Erick: よろしく。

____________________________________________________________________________________
Go to Lesson 3 vocabulary tutorial and study vocabulary through effective exercises.

LESSON 2: Self-Introduction

wakaric — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:59:58 +0000

What is the first thing you would do when visiting a new place? Most likely you would meet new people there. Introducing yourself is the first step to start conversations, so this lessonfocuses on the prases used to introduce yourself. Before starting the lesson, here are important notions about Japanese grammar structures and cultural aspects.

In spoken Japanese, a subject is usually omitted when it is obvious what you are talking about between both speakers and listeners. For instance, as you see here, the sentence starts without a subject.

たなか　ゆうこ　です。(*たなか:Last name, ゆうこ:First name)

My name is Yuko Tanaka.

*The way people say names in Japanese might be different as in Last name + First name, so just be aware of the difference. When introducing yourself, although, you do not need to convert your name in this way because all Japanese know the way would be opposite in Wetern culture.

In Japan, it is impolite to call someone with his/her first name or last name. You should put suffixes after names, that equivalent to ‘Mr.’, ‘Mss.’, ‘Mrs.’ in English.Two general Japanese suffixes are “さん” and “くん”. The difference between these two is “さん”can be used for both sex, yet “くん” can be used for ONLY male (I would say, especially refferring to young boys and someone who is close to you). Both “さん” and “くん” can be used with either last or fist names. If you call someone who is not close to you, it is polite to put “さん” after his/her last name.

Ok, how can you call this person then?

(*たなか:Last name, ゆうこ:First name)

The most appropriate way would be… “たなかさん” (Last N.+さん), right?

You can practice the suffix usages in a suffix exercise.

Introducing Dialogue __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yuko: “はじめまして。たなかゆうこ　です。どうぞ　よろしくおねがいします。にほんじん　です。”

Eric: “はじめまして。エリック　です。どうぞ　よろしく。”

Yuko: “しゅっしんは　どこ　ですか。”
Eric: “かんこく　です。”

________________________________________________________________

はじめまして . . . です

Nice to meet you. My name is . . .

どうぞ　よろしくおねがいします

It is commonly used everytime after you say your name. (The direct translation would be “Please be kind to me/take care of me well”.)

どうぞ　よろしく

Short form of the phrase avobe

しゅっしんは　どこ　ですか。

Where are you from?

かんこく　です。

I’m from South Korea.

If you want to say nationaliry, you just need to put じん after the word avobe. - i.e. アメリカじん: American　 —> (わたしは）アメリカじん　です。I’m American.

See vocabulary for country and nationality in Vocabulary page.

Don’t miss the next lesson in which you will be learning some useful phrases associated with this lesson also~

LESSON 1: Greetings

wakaric — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:35:03 +0000

You will learn basic Japanese greetings and some important related expressions.

Greetings:

1) おはようございます。 Good morning.

*おはよう。 A short form of ‘Good morning’ used in more informal settings.

2) こんにちは。 Hello/Good afternoon.

3) こんばんは。 Good evening.

4) さようなら。 Good bye. Formal.

5) おやすみなさい。 Good night.

*おやすみ。 A short form of Good night. Less formal.

Other expressions:

1) いただきます。 The phrase you say before eating (showing appreciation for food or servers).

2) ごちそうさまでした。 The phrase you say after eating (same as above).

*ごちそうさま。 Used in more informal settings.

3) ありがとうございます。 Thank you very much. Formal.

*ありがとう。 Thank you/Thanks. Used in more informal settings and intimate relationships.

4) どういたしまして。Your welcome.

5) ごめんなさい。 I’m sorry. It is formal and used in both intimate and distant relationships.

*ごめん。 Sorry. Used in more informal settings.

6) すみません。 Excuse me. OR *I’m sorry. *It is formal like ‘ごめんなさい。’ but used in distant relationships.

You can practice these phrases in pronunciation flash-cards. Did you get enough practice speaking?
Now, let’s practice using these phrases in online exercises – ‘Attack Your Enemy with Your Knowledge!’ and ‘
Tom’s Life in Japan’ (reading).
After going through all the exercises, check your listening comprehension in the quiz from Lesson 1.

How did you do on the quiz? If you have any confusions or questions, you are welcome to post here.

The lesson will continue to “Self-Introduction”.

Introduction: Let’s Learn Japanese Alphabet

wakaric — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:34:11 +0000

There are three different writing systems in Japanese - Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

1) Hiragana:
Hiragana is consisted of 46 basic characters. 25 of the basic Hiragana with two diacritics (“　and ° ) would form other 25 more characters such as ぱ and が, which are in g, z, d, and b rows in the chart. Moreover, there are 33 conjugated Hiragana characters as きょ, which are in the separated three colums in the right side of the chart. As you see, this Hiragana chart includes all of these characters. *All the characters under the second row are vowel-consonant combinations. The five characters in the first row – あ,い,う,え,お are vowels.

2) Katakana:
Katakana also consists of the same number of base characters and other forms as Hiragana. Katakana is used to write foreign words such as “coffee – コーヒー“, “restaurant – レストラン“, “pizza – ピザ“, “John – ジョン“(person), etc. There are so many words borrowed from mainly English and other foreign languages, and Katakana is a tool to make the pronunciations ‘Japanese like’ by converting foreign sounds to Japanese sounds.

3) Kanji:
Kanji is originated from Chinese characters but has developed as simplified version of Chinese characters to adopt to Japanese language system, so the usage of Kanji is different from Chinese characters; for example, Kanji is used usually with Hiragana as in “朝ご飯を食べる” (“I have breakfast“). So, in this case, it does not make sense if you use only Kanji as “朝飯食”.

You would see all these three writing forms in Japanese daily life. The use of each form differs depends on situations. This sounds really lots of work to you who are going to study Japanese. Yes, I know it will take a while to master all the different forms, but don’t worry! In this lesson, you will learn a certain amount of Hiragana and Katakana which would be relevant to know in terms of lexicon, grammar, and some simple structures.

So, Let me begin with Hiragana then!
Here is the Hiragana website in which you can actually see how each character is written with stroke orders showing in a movie, and also if you click the character, it pronounces the character so that you can know how to pronunce it. *You will see Hiragana chart in the side way in this website. You see Hiragana from right to left and top to down in this case. Yet, remember all the five vowels are in the first colum from the right side, and the characters after the second colum from the right side are all the vowel-consonant combination characters. This rule always applies to either virtical or horizontal chart.

It is all up to your effort to be able to use Hiragana in the four domain language skills, so I recommend you to practice writing each character in a correct stroke order and pronounce it each time you write it, and continue until you remember it!

In the next lesson, you will learn basic Japanese greetings.
Good luck for your Hiragana learning…!

What do you see in the video?

wakaric — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:08:19 +0000

How much can you write in Japanese? Can you tell somebody what you saw in the video in Japanese?

You will learn survival Japanese in this blog step by step.
In each post, you will learn some important phrases/expressions or grammar such as greetings, self-introductions, simple sentences to convey your ideas, particular phrases used in public settings – i.e. how to order at restaurants/bars, how to take a subway, how to shop, how to ask directions, etc. Then, you will be able to use the knowledge gained from the lessons in describing this video in the final stage!

After going through all the lessons, it will be time for you to visit Japan and practice your Japanese!

Have fun:)

Trip to Japan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP-T-oEwmsk

Hello

wakaric — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:48:15 +0000

This blog will be providing survival Japanese lessons for second language learners.

Hope you will have meaningful experiences learning Japanese here, which would make your life a little richer.