Learning Japanese The Hard Way and The Easy Way

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Learning JapaneseThe Hard Way and The Easy Way

• Komei Harada
• http//www.komeiharada.com/Japanese

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Why learn Japanese?

• Learn Japanese culture
• Read manga comics
• Watch Japanese animé
• Read Japanese game manuals
• Speak reasonably well

• Visit Japan and get by
• Talk to Japanese friends
• Do business with the Japanese
• Speak a few phrases and be friendly

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Japanese Characters

• Phonetic characters
• Hiragana (46 chars)For original Japanese
  words.Created by simplifying kanjis.????? (good
  day)?? (river)
• Katakana (46 chars)For foreign
  words/namesCreated by taking parts of kanjis.???
  camera?????? Lara Croft

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Japanese Characters

• Phonetic characters
• Hiragana (46 chars)For original Japanese
  words.Created by simplifying kanjis.????? (good
  day)?? (river)
• Katakana (46 chars)For foreign
  words/names.Created by taking parts of
  kanjis.??? camera?????? Lara Croft

• Roma-ji (Roman characters)Kon-nichiwa (good
  day) Kawa (river)

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Japanese Characters

• Kanji Chinese Characters
• Imported from China a few thousand years ago.
• There may be 50,000
• 6,000 in the computer character codes alone
• Students learn 1,000 by 6th grade
• Each character typically has 2 or more
  readings? hi as in Hitachi?? nichi as in
  Nippon

?sun
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Japanese Characters

• Kanji Chinese Characters
• Imported from China a few thousand years ago.
• There may be 50,000
• 6,000 in the computer character codes alone
• Students learn 1,000 by 6th grade
• Each character typically has 2 or more
  readings? hi as in Hitachi?? nichi as in
  Nippon

?sun
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Japanese Characters

• Kanji Chinese Characters
• Imported from China a few thousand years ago.
• There may be 50,000
• 6,000 in the computer character codes alone
• Students learn 1,000 by 6th grade
• Each character typically has 2 or more
  readings? hi as in Hitachi?? nichi as in
  Nippon

?sun
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Japanese Characters

• Kanji Chinese Characters
• Imported from China a few thousand years ago.
• There may be 50,000
• 6,000 in the computer character codes alone
• Students learn 1,000 by 6th grade
• Each character typically has 2 or more
  readings? hi as in Hitachi?? nichi as in
  Nippon

• No way Im gonna learn those! Show me an easy
  way!

?sun
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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !
• All consonants are like in English No funny
  ll and ch like in Spanish/Italian/French
• Only 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U Get them right!

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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• bonsai

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !
• All consonants are like in English No funny
  ll and ch like in Spanish/Italian/French
• Only 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U Get them right!

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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• bonsai

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !
• All consonants are like in English No funny
  ll and ch like in Spanish/Italian/French
• Only 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U Get them right!

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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• banzai

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !
• All consonants are like in English No funny
  ll and ch like in Spanish/Italian/French
• Only 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U Get them right!

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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• banzai

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !
• All consonants are like in English No funny
  ll and ch like in Spanish/Italian/French
• Only 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U Get them right!

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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• Date sake

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !
• All consonants are like in English No funny
  ll and ch like in Spanish/Italian/French
• Only 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U Get them right!

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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• Date sake

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !
• All consonants are like in English No funny
  ll and ch like in Spanish/Italian/French
• Only 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U Get them right!

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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• Karaoke
• Honda
• Tsunami
• Shogun

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !
• All consonants are like in English No funny
  ll and ch like in Spanish/Italian/French
• Only 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U Get them right!

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The Hard Way and The Easy Way

• Forget Roma-ji!
• Learn hiragana/katakanaWhats kyoto?????
  (??) Kyoto City????? (??) head teacher???? (??)
  magnate

• Learn to pronounce Roma-ji !

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Names

• ???????????
• ?????(?)????
• ??????????
• ????(?)
• ??????
• ?????????
• ????????

• ??????
• ?????????
• ????????
• ???????
• ???????
• ??????
• ?????????

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Tongue Twisters

• ??????????????
• Kono kugi wa hiki nuki nikui kugi da.
• This nail is a nail that is hard to pull out.
• ??????????????????
• Tokyo tokkyo kyoka kyokuchou kyou kyuukyo kyuuka
  kyoka kyohi
• Tokyo Patent Office Director today suddenly
  denies vacation approval.
• Try your language at
• http//www.uebersetzung.at/twister/ja.htm

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Greetings

• Ohayou gozaimasuGood morning
• Kon-nichiwaGood day
• KonbanwaGood evening
• Dewa mata (see you) again(Sayounara is
  Good-bye)

• ?????????
• ?????
• ?????
• ????

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Talk to the Japanese The Easy Way

• Learn to say the Japanese greetings well.
• Use the polite form Be safe
• Then you can switch to speaking English! Just
  speak very, very slowly
• Japanese people may know English grammar better
  than you ?

• Ohayou gozaimasuGood morning
• Kon-nichiwaGood day
• KonbanwaGood evening
• Dewa mata (see you) again(Sayounara is
  Good-bye)

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More Phrases

• Arigatou gozaimasuThank you
• Dou itashimashiteIts nothing (Youre welcome)
• HaiYes
• IieNo

• ??????????
• ????????
• ??
• ???

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Traveling in Japan

• Stay in the Tokyo or Kyoto area
• signs are in English
• many people speak English
• Writing down (English) often helps

• Explore the rural side
• Fewer people speak English
• Fewer signs in English
• See traditional lifestyle
• Try your Japanese skills!

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Tonal Accent

• English - stress accentE.g., desert (barren)
  desert (to leave)increase (noun) increase
  (verb)
• Japanese tonal accent?? hashi (bridge)??
  hashi (chopstick)

• (Unlike Chinese)Most words have a few syllables
  or more
• Wrong accents rarely cause confusion
• Pay more attention to your vowels instead!A, E,
  I, O, U

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Similarity to Other Languages

• Grammar
• ??-? ?????-? 4?-? ???? ??? ??-???
• This Crystal April in move (to)
  new building is.
• Korean
• ? (??)? ????? 4?? ??? ? ?????.
• Turkish
• bu bina Crystalin Nisan ayinda icine gececegi
  bina
• Ural-Altaic language family is what linguists
  call them ?

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Babelfish Round-trip Game

• http//babelfish.altavista.com
• Incandescent is getting a pretty bad name in
  today's going-green society, but GE wants to
  salvage the tech with innovation before it's
  scrapped for the ages in laws that ban its use at
  home and abroad.
• ??????????????????????????????????????????????????
  ???????GE ?????????????????
• ? Society of incandescence present line green ill
  repute is obtained rather, but and before being
  thrown away because of age of the law which use
  of the foreign country the house is prohibited as
  for GE we would like to rescue the technology of
  reformation.
• http//www.excite.co.jp/world/korean/

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Similarity to Other Languages

• Chinese is to Japanese as French(Latin) is to
  English
• Many words look the same
• Difficult words have the same meaning
• ??? (Ch) ??? (Jp) automation
  automation zì dòng huà jidouka
  (Fr) (Eng)
• Pronunciation can be different
• Daily vocabulary is different?? (Ch) ??? (Jp)
  journal (Fr) ? journal (Eng) news
  newspaper newspaper
  diary(? new, ? hear)?? (Ch) ???
  (Jp)car train(? steam, ?
  car/wheel)

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Similarity to Other Languages

• Simplified
• (Mainland China)
• ??xué sheng (student)
• ??quán wei (authority)

• Traditional
• Hong Kong / Taiwan
• ??
• ??

• Japanese
• ?????? gakusei
• ????? keni

• Korean
• ??
• ??

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Similarity to Other Languages

• Italian

• Japanese

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Similarity to Other Languages

• Italian
• Spaghetti
• Broccoli
• Espresso
• Staccato
• Ghetto

• Japanese
• ??????
• ??????
• ??????
• ??????
• ????

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Similarity to Other Languages

• Italian
• Spaghetti
• Broccoli
• Espresso
• Staccato
• Ghetto
• 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U
• Double consonants

• Japanese
• ??????
• ??????
• ??????
• ??????
• ????
• ?????
• ?

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Trivia Top 10 Japanese Family Names

• ?? Satou (Sato) ? assist(ance) ? wisteria
• ?? Suzuki ? bell ? tree
• ?? Takahashi ? high ? bridge
• ?? Tanaka ? rice field ? middle, inside
• ?? Watanabe ? to cross ? side
• ?? Itou (Ito) ? this ? wisteria
• ?? Yamamoto ? mountain ? book, origin
• ?? Nakamura ? middle, inside ? village
• ?? Kobayashi ? small ? woods
• ?? Katou (Kato) ? to add ? wisteria

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Dictionaries - Offline

• EPWING format (mini CDs) readers (portable
  devices)
• DDWin / EBView (PC)
• Electronic dictionariesFrom Casio, Seiko
  Instruments (SII), etc.

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Dictionaries - Online

• SPACE ALChttp//www.alc.co.jp/
• Goohttp//dictionary.goo.ne.jp/
• Excitehttp//www.excite.co.jp/dictionary/

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IME Input Method Editor

• Enter foreign languages
• Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, pretty much
  all major non-English languages
• Easily installable on Windows from Control Panel
  gt Regional and Language Options (Requires the
  installation CD-ROM- copied on my PC)

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Most Common First Names

• Boy (1980)
• 1.?? Daisuke
• 2.? Makoto
• 3.?? Naoki
• 4.?? Tetsuya
• 5.? Takeshi
• 6.? Manabu
• 7.?? Daisuke
• 8.? Ryou
• 9.?? Kenichi
• 10.? Satoshi

• Girl (1980)
• 1.?? Emi
• 2.?? Yuko
• 3.??? Kumiko
• 4.? Megumi
• 5.?? Tomoko
• 6.? Ai
• 7.?? Kaori
• 8.?? Emi
• 9.?? Rie
• 10.?? Youko

• Boy (2006)
• 1.? Riku
• 2.?? Hiroto
• 3.?? Daiki
• 3.? Ren
• 5.? Tsubasa
• 6.?? Yuuto
• 7.?? Shouta
• 8.?? Kaito
• 8.? Sora
• 8.?? Yuuta
• 8.?? Youto

• Girl (2006)
• 1.?? Hina
• 2.?? Miu
• 3.?? Misaki
• 4.??? Sakura
• 5.? Ai
• 5.? Aoi
• 5.?? Nanami
• 8.?? Mao
• 9.?? Yui

http//www.meijiyasuda.co.jp/profile/etc/ranking/y
ear_men/
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Local Stores
Japanese Telephone Guide!

• Nijiya Mountain View, San Mateo
• Mitsuwa San Jose
• Kinokuniya Bookstore Next to Mitsuwa
• Gombei (cash only)
• Kanpai
• Dashi Sushi
• Miyake
• Sushi-ya

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Trivia Chopstick Rules

• Do not rest chopsticks by sticking them
  point-first into your food, especially rice.
• Do not pass food with your chopsticks directly to
  somebody else's chopsticks.
• Do not move around plates or bowls with
  chopsticks.
• Do not spear food with your chopsticks.
• Do not hover your chopsticks around while
  deciding on which food to pick.
• Do not touch one dish and immediately move on to
  another.
• Do not lick your chopstick or hold them in your
  mouth
• Do not lay them on the edge of your bowl or
  plateRules slightly differ in China, Korea and
  Viet-namhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopsticks

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Links

• CIA The World Fact Book Japanhttp//www.cia.g
  ov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html
• Wikipedia Japanese languagehttp//en.wikipedia.
  org/wiki/Japanese_language
• News websiteshttp//www.nikkei.co.jp/http//www.
  asahi.com/http//www.yomiuri.co.jp/http//www.ma
  inichi.co.jp/http//www.japantimes.co.jp/