Japanese Language Lessons 2

JAPANESE LANGUAGE LESSON 2-2

Here we will take a sentence-by-sentence look at the previous kaiwa. Grammar note will also be provided. Gambatte!

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Great Job! I hope you weren't thrown too far off by the kanji. Now re-saddle your horse and prepare to tackle vocabulary and Grammar notes from the Kaiwa! Let's take each sentence apart.

1. Remember, こんにちは is only used during the day, but it acts like 'hello'

2. ゆみさん Yumi + san : This is important to remember. さん san is used for both male and female. Also it may be seen as rude if you fail to attach this to a name. Even close friends will usually use san. (Other name tags will be covered later, but a here's a sneak peak --> CHAN = used with children and nicknames ("Yumi-chan" it's cute) SAMA = used for very important people like kings and customers at stores (Yumi-sama)

One more note: SAN, CHAN, and SAMA are usually used with the last name. I used the first name in the dialog and that is fine, but be aware it is usually with the last name.

3. In conversations, the answer to こんにちは。 konnichi wa is こんにちは。 konnichi wa.

4. HOW ARE YOU? Memorize this phrase and use it everyday! Do you see that o that is before genki? You will see that o later on. It makes genki (energy, health, vigor) more polite. (honorific)

5. We briefly looked at the final ka in Lesson 1. あなたはねこがすきですか。anata wa neko ga suki desu ka? (Do you like cats?) It is doing the same thing here. It makes 'genki desu' a question. The ka is very, VERY easy and useful.

For Example : anata wa neko desu. (You are a cat) To make that a question simple add the ka : anata wa neko desu ka? (Are you a cat?) Easy!

YUMI: 元気です。あなたは？
genki desu. anata wa?
I'm fine, and you?

6. And here we find the answer to the big question --> "HOW ARE YOU?" 元気です。 genki desu.

7. あなたは？ anata wa : Do you remember anata? (You) -- very good! Do you remember what は wa does? Click on the は wa to find out. It changes the BIG IDEA. The focus was on YUMI now Yumi is changing the focus (topic) to CLAY. Got it? Think of wa as meaning 'as for (topic)'

8. 私も watashi mo (me too) You know watashi (I, me) attach mo to it and you get 'me too!' mo means too or also. Easy! Question: How do you say 'You too'? click here to check your answer

9. 元気 genki is very, very, very overly used in Japanese. The simplest way of asking, 'how are you?' is to simply say genki and raise your intonation at the end to form the question.

YUMI: あなたはどこから来ましたか？
anata wa doko kara kimashita ka?
Where are you from?

10. どこ doko (where) + から kara (from) = from where? Memorize this useful question:

11. 来ました kimashita (came) This is the past tense of the verb. Don't worry to much about that now. You will have plenty of other things to worry about :) But DO memorize the above sentence.

CLAY: 私はアメリカから来ました。
watashi wa amerika kara kimashita.
I came from America.

12. アメリカ amerika (America) This is written in Katakana. ALL foreign words are written in Katakana.

13. Take a look at how the answer is formed in relation to the question. It should be somewhat logical.

YUMI: そうですか？じゃあ、またね。
sou desu ka? ja mata ne.
Really? Well, see you later.

12. そうですか？ sou desu ka? (really?) Remember desu is really pronounced as 'dess'

13. じゃあ jaa (well...) This is used to change the subject or to end a conversation.

15. Listen to the sound file and becareful to NOT have a John Wayne pronunciation!