Topic: Learn Japanese

[dak]

i agreed with you in this sir FallinG, especial with someone who have bad memory like me

[UruseiNeo]

I'm gonna post the Hiragana translations here:

　　　あ　　　     ã„　　　     ã†ã€€ã€€ã€€     ãˆã€€ã€€ã€€     ãŠã€€
     a            i            u           e           o

　　　か　　　     ãã€€ã€€ã€€     ãã€€     ã€€ã€€ã‘　     ã€€ã€€ã“
     ka          ki          ku          ke          ko

　　　さ　　     ã€€ã—　　     ã€€ã™ã€€ã€€     ã€€ã›ã€€ã€€     ã€€ã
　　　sa        shi          su          se          so

　　　た　　    　ち　　      　つ　     ã€€ã€€ã¦ã€€ã€€     ã€€ã¨
     ta         chi          tsu        te           to

　　　な　　     ã€€ã«ã€€ã€€     ã€€ã¬ã€€     ã€€ã€€ã­ã€€ã€€     ã€€ã®
     na          ni          nu          ne          no
 
　　　は　　     ã€€ã²ã€€ã€€     ã€€ãµã€€     ã€€ã€€ã¸ã€€     ã€€ã€€ã»
     ha          hi          fu           he          ho

　　　ま　　     ã€€ã¿ã€€ã€€     ã€€ã‚€ã€€ã€€     ã€€ã‚ã€€ã€€     ã€€ã‚‚
     ma         mi          mu         me         mo

　　　や　　　          　 　　　ゆ　　　　　          　　よ
     ya                Â       yu                Â      yo
 
　　　ら　     ã€€ã€€ã‚Šã€€     ã€€ 　る　　     ã€€ã‚Œã€€     ã€€ã€€ã‚
     ra          ri          Â  ru          re          ro

　　　わ　　　　　　　                     ã€€ã€€ã€€ã€€ã€€ã€€ã€€ã€€ã‚’
     wa                                              wo
 
ã‚“
n

[cata]

This thread is quite useful! ^^ I already use frequently some words you posted UruseiNeo. That's why sometimes people are like: "wtf you just said? portuguese please... we're not crazy as you... --' "

xD

Domo arigatoo UruseiNeo-kun.

[UruseiNeo]

and now for the first "Dialogue".

Mary, an international student who just arrived in Japan, talks to a Japanese student.

（１）

メアリー： 　すみません。　いま なんじですか。
Mearii     Sumimasen. Ima nanji desu ka.

たけし：　　 じゅうにじはんです。
Takeshi   Juuniji han desu.

メアリー：　 ありがとう　ございます。
Mearii     Arigatoo gozaimasu.

たけし：　　 いいえ。
Takeshi    Iie.

（２）

たけし：　 　あの、　りゅうがくせいですか。
Takeshi  Ano,   ryuugakusee desu ka.

メアリー：　ええ。　アリゾナだいがくのがくせえです。
Mearii    Ee.    Arizona daigaku no gakusee desu.

たけし：　　 そうですか。　せんもんは　なんですか。
Takeshi   So desu ka. Senmon wa nan desu ka.

メアリー：　にほんごです。　いま　にねんせいです。
Mearii    Nihongo desu. Ima ninensee desu.
------------------------------------------------------------
Translation:

(1)

Mary: Excuse me. What time is it now?

Takeshi: It's half past twelve.

Mary: Thank you.

Takeshi: You're welcome.

(2)

Takeshi: Um... are you an international student?

Mary: Yes. I am a student at the University of Arizona.

Takeshi: I see. What is your major?

Mary: Japanese. I am a sophomore (2nd year) now.

[cata]

Can you explain to me one thing UruseiNeo? =S How does a dialogue like this one help us when "newbies" to Japanese don't know the meaning of all those words. Almost every word is new to them so they would spend a long time using the dictionary. =S

[Shutaro]

Japanese isn't really something i'm good at, but I do know all the Hiragana and Katakana and the first 100 Kanji.

To perfect my Hiragana and Katakana I used this

http://www.gyford.com/japanese/

[UruseiNeo]

Can you explain to me one thing UruseiNeo? =S How does a dialogue like this one help us when "newbies" to Japanese don't know the meaning of all those words. Almost every word is new to them so they would spend a long time using the dictionary. =S

I had put the translation after the dialogue. Now, I DON'T expect you to learn or memorize any of that. This dialogue is just to show everyone what you should be able to say after this first lesson.

Japanese isn't really something i'm good at, but I do know all the Hiragana and Katakana and the first 100 Kanji.

To perfect my Hiragana and Katakana I used this

http://www.gyford.com/japanese/

Thanks, this will be a good site to use for character practice ^_^
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay so I'm given you the greetings, I've given you a dialogue example. Now I'm gonna give you the vocabulary for this lesson. Each lesson has it's own set of vocabulary, this one has a page of "additional vocabulary" but I'll do that later.

After the vocabulary, we can finally start the GRAMMAR section. This is the part that teaches you how to put words together, this is the part you want. So hurry up and post so I can give you the grammar ^_^

たんご(Vocabulary)


あの                              ano                                 um...

いま                            ima                                  now

えいご                          eego                                English (Language)

ええ                             ee                                    yes

がくせい                        gakusee                             student

～ご                           ...go                                 language ex. にほんご
                                                                       (Nihongo) Japanese Language


こうこう                         kookoo                               high school

ごご                            gogo                                 P.M.

ごぜん                         gozen                                A.M.

～さい                         ...sai                                 ...years old

～さん                       ...san                                 Mr./Ms. ...

～じ                           ...ji                                   o'clock ex. いちじ　(ichiji) one
                                                                        o'clock

～じん                        ...jin                                  people ex. にほんじん
                                                                       (nihonjin) Japanese People


せんせい                    sensee                               teacher; Professor...

せんもん                     senmon                              major

そうです                     soo desu                            That's right.

だいがく                     daigaku                              college; university

でんわ                      denwa                               telephone

ともだち                     tomodachi                          friend

なまえ                      namae                                name

なん/なに                  nan/nani                             what

にほん                     nihon                                 Japan

～ねんせい                ...nensee                           ...year student ex. いちねんせい
                                                                    (ichinensee) first-year student


はい                       hai                                    yes

はん                      han                                    half ex. にじはん (nijihan) half
                                                                    past two

ばんごう                 bangoo                                number

りゅうがくせい           ryuugakusee                        international student

わたし                    watashi                               I

[FallinG_StaR]

Hmm... Sorry but can you make the hiragana... bigger when you post... cause its to small...

Keep it up... I want more... XD

[UruseiNeo]

K, I attempted to make it bigger. It kinda displaced the alignment of the translations. Can someone tell me how to us the table feature? I can't figure it out.

Now, keep in mind that currently you do not need to know the Hiragana. We're focusing on the words in Romanji first.

---------------------------------------------------------

GRAMMAR 1


(1) X　は　Y　です

"It is 12:30." "I am a student." "My major is the Japanese language." These sentences will all be translated into Japanese using an appropriate noun and the word desu.

                  [～です。    It is...]

   じゅうにじはんです。   (It) is half past twelve.
   ^{Juuniji han desu.}

   がくせいです。         (I) am a student.
   ^{Gakusee desu.}

   にほんごです。        (My major) is the Japanese language.
   ^{Nihongo desu.}


Note that none of these sentences has a "subject," like the "it," "I," and "my major" found in their English counterparts. Sentences without subjects are very common in Japanese; Japanese speakers actually tend to omit subjects whenever they think it is clear to the listener what or who they are referring to.

What are we to do, then, when it is not clear what is being talked about? To make explicit what we are talking about we can say:

   ______は　にほんごです。   _______is the Japanese language.
              ^{wa  nihongo desu.}


Where _____ stands for the thing that is talked about, or the "topic," which is later in the sentence identified as nihongo. For example,

   せんもんは　にほんごです。   (My) major is the Japanese language.
  ^{Senmon　wa  nihongo desu.}

Similarly, one can use the pattern X wa Y desu to identify a person or thing X as an item Y.

       [X は Y です。  X is Y. As for X, it is Y]

                _{す う  ï¼Šãã‚€}
   わたしは　スー＊キメです。　　　　　　　　　I am Sue Kim.　
   Watashi wa   Suu    Kimu desu.

   (Normally you put a dot between first and last names but I can't find the right key so ima gonna use a ＊ ^_^)

   やましたさんは　せんせえです。           Mr. Yamashita is a teacher.
   Yamashita san wa     sensee desu.

   _{めありい}　　　　_{あめりか}
   メアリーさん　アメリカじんです。            Mary is an American.
   Mearii san wa     amerikajin desu.

Wa is a member of the class of words called "particles." So is the word no, which we will turn to later in this lesson. Particles attach themselves to phrases and indicate how the phrases relate to the rest of the sentence.

Note also that nouns like gakusee and sensee in the above examples stand alone, unlike their English translations "student" and "teacher," which are preceded by "a." In Japanese, there is no item that corresponds to "a," nor is there any item that corresponds to the plural "-s" at the end of a noun. Without background situations, a sentence like gakusee desu is therefore ambiguous between the singular and the plural interpretations; it may mean "We are/you are/they are students," as well as "I am/you are/she is a student."

[cata]

Grammar! This is what I need! ^^ Domo arigatoo! I suggest that you organize the vocabulary better like when you were reffering to hours and minutes you could have put it together instead of putting a few words between them.

[UruseiNeo]

I'm just copying the text book word for word.
PS: normally you don't put spaces between Hiragana, only for separating sentences in hiragana. I only do it so it's easier to match with the romanji below it.
----------------------------------------------------

(2) Question Sentences

It is very easy to form questions in Japanese. Basically, all you need to do is add ka at the end of a statement.


　　りゅうがくせいです。             (I am) and international student.
     ryuugakusee desu.

　　りゅうがくせいですか。^*1       (Are you) and international student?
     ryuugakusee desu     ka.

The above sentence, Ryuugakusee desu ka, is a "yes/no" question. Question sentences may also contain a "question word" like nan^*2 (what). In this lesson, we learn how to ask, and answer, questions using the following question words: nanji (what time), nansai (how old), nannensee (what year in school). Note carefully that the order of words in a sentence may be quite different from what you find in your language.

   ã›ã‚“もんは　なんですか。　　　　　　   ã€€ã€€ã€€ï¼ˆã›ã‚“もんは）　えいごです。
    Senmon wa        nan desu ka.                              (Senmon wa)        eego desu.
   What is your major?                    (My major) is English.


　　いま　なんじですか。　　　　　　　　　   ã€€ã€€ï¼ˆã„ま）　くじです。
    Ima     nanji desu ka.                                       (Ima)     kuji desu.
   What time is it now?                  It is nine o'clock.

　　_{めありい}
   ãƒ¡ã‚¢ãƒªãƒ¼ã•ã‚“は　なんさいですか。　   ã€€ã€€ã€€ã˜ã‚…うきゅうさいです。
    Mearii san wa        nansai desu ka.                         Juukyuusai     desu.
   How old are you, Mary?             I'm nineteen years old.


   ãªã‚“ねんせいですか。　　　　　　   ã€€   ã€€ã€€ã«ã­ã‚“せいです。
       Nannensee desu ka.                                             Ninensee desu.
   What year are you in college?     I'm a sophpmore (2nd year)


   ã§ã‚“わばんごうは　なんですか。　　　　  　１８６の７３４３です。
    Denwa bangoo wa      nan desu ka.                   Ichi hachi roku no nana san yon san desu.

   What is your telephone number?   It is 186-7343.



*1 It is not customary to write a question mark at the end of a question sentence in Japanese.
*2 The Japanese question word for "what" has two pronunciations: nan and nani. Nan is used immediately before desu or before a "counter" like ji (o'clock). The other form, nani, is used before a particle. Nani is also used in the combination nanijin (person of what nationality).

[cata]

Keep up the lessons, sensei.

[UruseiNeo]

(3)Noun₁のNoun₂

No is a particle that connects two nouns. The phrase Toozai daigaku no gakusee means "(a) student at Tozai University." The second noun gakusee provides the main idea^*3 (being a student) and the first one Toozai daigaku makes it more specific (not a high school, but a college student). No is very versatile. In the first example below, it acts like the possessive ("x's") in English, but that is not the only role no can play. See how it connects two nouns in the following examples.

  たけしさんの　でんわばんごう　　　　　　　　Takeshi's phone number
   Takeshi san no   denwa bangoo

   ã ã„がくの　せんせい                       a college professor
    daigaku no      sensee

   ã«ã»ã‚“ごの　がくせい                       a student of the Japanese language

    nihongo no      gakusee

   ã‚“ほんの　だいがく                          a college in Japan
    nihon no        daigaku

Observe that in the first two examples, the English and Japanese words are arranged in the same order, while in the last two, they are in the opposite order. Japanese seems to be more consistent in arranging ideas here; the main idea always comes at the end, with any further description placed before it.

         Noun₁  の  Noun ₂
            ^            ^
             |             |
             |          Main idea
     further description

A phrase of the form "noun₁ no noun₂" acts more or less like one big noun. You can put it wherever you can put a noun, as in the following example:

[ たけしさんの　おかあさん ]　は　[ こうこうの　せんせい ]　です。
Takeshi san no        okaasan            wa       kookoo no      sensee          desu.
Takeshi's mother is a high school teacher.


*3 Here is what we mean by the "main idea." In the phrase Takeshi san no denwa bangoo (Takeshi's phone number), the noun denwa bangoo (phone number) is the main idea, in the sense that if something is Takeshi's phone number, it is a phone number. The other noun Takeshi san is not the main idea, because Takeshi's phone number is not Takeshi.

[FallinG_StaR]

Yay... I can read hiragana... (most of it at least... still miss a few... too many look likes)

... Now comes the hard part... understanding what I'm reading LoL

Btw, can you put the variations that some hiragana get... like when they add the " and º

[UruseiNeo]

Like I said, the Hiragana is not important jut yet. I'll put the additional Hiragana up later.