Japan lesson for beginners

[elkica]

Ok…so here it is, my first Japan lessons. It basic, very basic, so no killing me with a fork or spoon, right? And yes, that means you Esti, because I think that you will not gain anything from my first lessons.

LESSON 1
First two images are the one our teacher gave us, because…well she doesn’t speaks a word of my language and her English is bad. But here are some nice examples, so I put them up and of course, there are also greetings on the end of second page, that you can fill up for practise.
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Here are the AISATSU (greetings) to fill:

 

Ohayo gozaimasu [ohaju gozaimas] – good morning

Konnichiwa [koničiva] – good day/good afternoon

Konbanwa [jkonbanva] – good evening

Oyasuminasai [ojasuminasaj] – good night

Sayonara [sajonara] – bye

 

Itadakimasu [itadakimas] – you say that before a meal

Gochisosama [gotsosama] – after the meal

 

So now lets look at the basic TABLE I: HIRAGANA SYLLABARY. It reads from left, up and down, to right. The next two images are the for the help of pronunciation.

Hiragana syllabary is basic tool on which we will work, we will learn with a group of ten hiragana at the time. 

The first ten of hiragana:

 

a        i          u          e          o

ka      ki         ku         ke         ko

 

the all are pronounced the way they are written or look at the 2.Tanboin to Choboin image II/page II

Here is seen how they are written and don’t you DARE to write the lines in any other order, if you do I will send my teacher to glare her ice glare at you until your limbs freezes. 

Next are exercises to practise your writing with and some new words with first ten of hiragana.

Now…let’s go to some conversations.

I have just meet you, so I will say:

 

HAJIMEMANASHITE [hajidemaste] – how are you or something like that

 

WATASHI WA (insert name) Ela DESU (vataši va Ela des)

 

WATASHI is I (ANATA – you; KARE – he; KANOJO – she; ITTO – it)

WA is used after the subject

DESU is IS

 

DOZO YOROSHIKU – I’m glad to meet you

 

Now we can use the sentence

WATASHI WA         SENSEI         DESU. for giving different information, like

                        SENSEI – teacher (I’m a teacher)

                        GAKUSEI – student

                        KAISHAIN – company employer

                        GINKOIN – bank employer

                        NIHON-jin -  Japanese (nihon – Japan, jin –pronoun)

Or                    SLOVENIA-jin – Slovenian

 

When we talk about third person, the sentences are following:

 

(name) – san WA SENSAI/GAKUSEI/…/SLOVENIA-jin DESU.

(Ela-san wa Slovenia-jin desu [Sloveniazindes])

We all know what –SAN means, so I wont even bother with translation.

If we want to have question, we just put KA at the end of the sentence and KA literally means ?.

Ela wa Slovenian-jin desu ka? (Is Ela Slovenian?)

Now we will answer:                         (HAI –yes; IIE –no)

Hai, watashi wa Slovenia-jin desu. (Yes, I’m Slovenian.)

Iie, watashi wa Slovenia-jin dewa arimasen. (dewa arimasen is use for negative, I don’t have literally translation, because the damn dictionary doesn’t find those two damn words, so I can’ only tell you what our teacher told us) ; (No, I’m not Slovenian.)

Watashi wa Roshia-jin desu. (I’m Russian.)

So desu ka (Oh, , I see or something like that, well you usually just hear the M sound with closed mouths and nodding, but I’m giving you Sudeska anyway, because I just love it. :)) So desu ne.

LESSON 2

Now to the second group of hiragana:

 

sa       shi         su         se         so

ta       chi         tsu         te         to

 

Pronunciation is the same as the first group.

 

How to write them:

Some exercises with new words:

And now some practise with conversations, but let me just first go over numbers:

 

0 – zero, rai, 1 – ichi, 2 – ni, 3 – san, 4 - yon, shi, 5 – go, 6 – roku, 7 – nana, shichi, 8 – hachi, 9 – kyu, ku,

10 – ju           11 – ju-ichi … the same to 19 – ju ku         20 – ni-ju, 21 –ni-ju-ichi … than the same style to 99

Look at the image A above.

 

There is seven people listed there, like:

 

Kashiru – is a person’s name                

Surobenia – the country were that person lives

Ryuburyana daigaku – the city where he lives

Gakusei – the occupation

25 sai – his age

 

 

Kono hito wa Koshiru-san desu.  (kono – this, hito – person); (This person is Kashiru.)

?- Kono hito wa kashiru-san desu ka? Or Kono hito wa dare desu ka? (dare – who; Who is this person?)

Yes – Hai, kono hito wa Kashiru-san desu.

No – Iie iie, kono hito wa Kashiru-san dewa arimasen. (I just don’t get it, sometimes they write iie and sometimes just ie)

More examples how to use already learned stuff :

Kare wa Surobenia-jin desu. (He is Serbian.),  Koshiru-san wa Gakusei desu. (Koshiru is a teacher), Kare wa 25 sai desu. (He is 25 years old)

 

More examples are on image B.

 

Do you get the picture? (Sorry but this typing is killing me, so I’m only showing you the possibilities, you can practise on your own, can you?) And one thing, you may have noticed, the verb is always, always at the end of the sentence, the only thing that can follow it is ka or punctuation mark.
And for my honeys here is Online English to Japanese Dictionary

 

So my dears this is all for today. I hope that you have enjoyed Ela’s beginner lesions of Japan and that you will excuse her lack of knowledge, because like you she is only started with her lesions.

And if there are any mistakes that you found due to type error or whatever, be so kind and let me know. Also if you think you can contribute to this lesson, please go ahead, every help is appreciated.

 

 

Now more personal stuff. I have got a schedule for the whole month of running around Slovenia and the only days I will be in my office are Fridays, which means (normal) internet access will be available to me just at that time. Damn. I tried my stupid slow connection at home and It Was Horrible. I couldn’t see all of Ann’s pictures of horses, not Esti’s ring, not to mention that uploading pictures or anything like that Is Impossible. *cries in frustration* Ok, I will admit chewing the cable, because of irritation my slow connection caused, didn’t help either, quit on the contrary. DAMN.

Comments

[fantasia0829.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, you're teaching Japanese! XD I think a lot (if not all) Japanese classes start with these basic stuff, so I've got all these covered in my own class already too! It's so nice to have a recap now! But at least I haven't forgotten too much of my Japanese!

Domo arigatou! ^^

And yikes, I hope you didn't really chew the internet cables! XD It'd taste awful. :P

[elkica.livejournal.com]

Well...I don't really teach it, I just put on the LJ the things I was taught and share it.
You learned Japanese? Well...than if you find any mistakes feel free to correct me, please.

Itto wa tanoshimi desu. (I hope I did it right)

I hope you didn't really chew the internet cables! XD It'd taste awful. No, not really, but even if I did I probably wouldn't notice the taste not in the state I was.

[fantasia0829.livejournal.com]

Nah, I only learned a little bit of conversational Japanese, so I doubt I'll be able to correct you or anything! XD I wanna learn more Japanese, but I just haven't got the time and money to commit myself to it.

Hai, totemo tanoshimi desu!

[dix19.livejournal.com]

Wow, Japanese! A memory trip for me, most definetely! A few years ago I really wanted to live in Japan because I admired the culture and history, so I started reading endles books on it and leanring Japanese. I got to just past the conjuations (or whatever the word is) when I became disinterested. It was because I didn't like modern Japan, the more I leanred about it. Which brings me to my next point...

How many languages do you speak? o_o

[anc-q.livejournal.com]

Wow - i know the word Tatte!!!! XD I learnt it from my Japanese Fencing! =)

Oh mamma mia!!!! there are too much symbols!!!!! 0_0

And about your internet - that's so pity =( Don't chew it - not a good idea XD

And you did great work with that stuff!! That you!!!!! *hugz*

[shiva--k.livejournal.com]

Ela~ (hope you don't mind if I call you like that) thanks a lot for your effort in typing all this *huggles*
I can see the pics properly though, they're too small hehe. Oh! I was watching Nana (anime) before and one guy there said "something-sama" after the lunch. Now I know what he said!!! Hehe, is this:
Gochisosama [gotsosama] – after the meal
(http://photobucket.com/)

Ah BTW! I think the "sudeska" thing is "Sou desu ka?" and yep it means something like "Oh, I see" or "Oh, really?" :) Another thing they use usually is "sou da ne" or "sou desu ne" ^___^

[shiva--k.livejournal.com]

I know it's not necessary but... I can't help it xD
*I can -> I can't

[shiva--k.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhh my fault!! I didn't know they were thumbnails!! Hehe I'm saving them right now =)

[candiedapples.livejournal.com]

Yaay! I'm going to save this in my memories. I haven't really started studying Japanese so this will be a good first step! Thank you, the pictures will be really useful to print out!

[elkica.livejournal.com]

Thank you, the pictures will be really useful to print out!
I’m glad you find it useful. There is more coming.

[anc-q.livejournal.com]

It's pretty old stuff I know T_T it's just that I've printed these lessons just now
and I wanted to ask - isn't 7 supposed to be for NANA and HENGE, not for 7 – mana, shichi like it's written in you post?

[elkica.livejournal.com]

I made a type error so it is NANA (I have repair the mistake) or shichi. Henge means goblin, ghost, apparition, bugbear according to online dictionary.

Nan/nani means what, sai is year, years; so nansai means how old (we always use nan in that case, never nani; the rules for this I will explain in one of future lessons).

Does that answers your questions?

and to write hieroglyphes is so much fun xD

[anc-q.livejournal.com]

yah - henge was my mistake )

yeah I got the - thank you!

and what about
Ano hito wa ... no ... desu
what NO means here? from anime I figured out NO is used as OF


and what's oikutsu?

[elkica.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot about no.
No is a possessive particle which shows that something belongs to someone/something. If I would use it in Kore wa AnnNO kaban desu, it would mean This is Ann's bag. The asking form in DARE NO, for example Kore wa DARE NO kaban desu ka? Which/to whome belongs that bag?
Ano hito Itaria no gakusei desu means "that person over there is Italian student/student from Italia"? ne? Yes.
I have to admit, I can't find oikutsu anywhere, where did you find that word; did I miss-typed somewhere.

[anc-q.livejournal.com]

just as I thought) Thanks!

I found this word written in the last page (pics you scanned.)

[elkica.livejournal.com]

I will show it to my sensei and ask her.

[anc-q.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[elkica.livejournal.com]

She says that it a polite form of asking how old are you so NAN SAI = oikutsu.

[anc-q.livejournal.com]

oh I see, thank you One-san )))

[elkica.livejournal.com]

You are wellcome.

[anc-q.livejournal.com]

one more question about the second lesson

Ano hito wa ... no ... desu
what NO means here? from anime I figured out NO is used as OF
so
Ano hito Itaria no gakusei desu means "that person over there is Italian student/student from Italia"? ne?

also could you explain this as well
"Ano hito nan-sai (oikutsu) desu ka"
I'm interested in "nan-sai (oikutsu)" here =)


and to write hieroglyphes is so much fun XD really )))