Japanese Lessons *basic sentence structure, numbers, and age up*

[Vaati]

My high school only offers Spanish, Latin, French, and German, which I take now (I should start a topic that teaches German, what do you guys think?). But when I get into college, I'll take Japanese.
This is actually quite useful, I'll be getting a head start in Japanese! :D

[Rinku]

Good for both of you. Also, since the school week begins in 4 hours, I won't be able to post a decent lesson until maybe even next weekend... *sigh*... I detest school so much. But I'll be picking up even more Japanese to pass on to the rest of you! Just wondering, but am I an okay teacher? I'm usually horrible at teaching, and and A+ in the class has no effect on my patience level... or explanatory skillz...

==========More Numbers============

In Japanese, when you say twenty, you have to say "two tens". Thirty and forty would be "three tens" and "four tens". 57 would be "five tens and seven" It's like that til you get to another counter- like 100 (hyaku) or 1000.

So if 20 is "two tens", and 2 is "ni", and 10 is "juu, Then 20 in Japanese would be ni juu.
30 is san juu. (san meaning three).
57 is go juu nana. (go is 5, and nana is 7.
132 is hyaku san juu ni. (100+three tens+2)

Hope that all makes sense. I have a funny vid relating to this, which I'll link to later.

===========Counting Age==============

When you count different things in Japanese, they have different suffixes. For example, when you count age, you use -sai. The base numbers change sometimes, but for age you're lucky because at least they sound similar.

For 1 year old, you'd think it would be ichisai, but it's issai. Another skipping sound example. Is-sai.
2 years old: nisai. (no changes)
3: sansai
4: yonsai
5: gosai
6: rokusai
7: nanasai
8: hassai (this is also changed. has-sai)
9: kyuusai (don't say "kusai". Kusai means smelly!)
10: juusai
11: juuissai (as you can see, you don't say juu ichi sai, you say juu issai)

It goes on and on like so until you hit 20. 20 is like a super-sweet-16 sort of age to the Japanese. 20 is completely different- instead of ni juu sai you say "hatachi".

21 isn't hatachi issai. It's back to normal, and it's ni juu issai.

I split the words up sometimes so you can see it clearer. When you write it normally it's all one big long word, and when you don't know any kanji and have to write it all out in hiragana, it takes FOREVER.

[Rinku]

Don't delete this or anything! Even though it is technically a double post. But it's for a valid reason!

Okay, the whole week was spent learning Katakana at school. I've learned about half of them already and have been drilling myself so it comes as easy to me as Hiragana and English.

===============No L============
I completely forgot to mention this. Japanese don't have an 'l' sound, so when they japanese-ify foreign words l's become r's. Therefore r's in Japanese are the hardest sound for foreigners to make. R's are crosses between an 'l', an 'r', and a 'd'. Yes, a 'd', and it's sort of hard to explain it if you can't hear it for yourself.

A good example of adapting words: Rinku.

Rinku means Link in Japanese.

Ri = Li
N= N
Ku= K. The 'u' sound, as I've said before, is very soft and indistinguishable most of the time so it sounds like an exotic way of saying Link.

====I'll edit this post to add more later... Off to do dratted Bio homework....==========

[Vaati]

Yeah. I knew that they couldn't say the "L" sound. In Death Note, L's name is "Eru". Much like Link's Japanese name "Rinku", they also added a "U". They also did the same with such Zelda characters as:
Ganondorf - Ganondorfu
Vaati - Gufuu

Reminds me of in A Christmas Story (No offense to anyone who's Asian), they go to a Chinese restaurant and the Chinese employees are singing "Deck the Halls" going "Deck the harrs with barrs of horry fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra!" And the manager goes "No, it's not "Fa ra ra ra, it's fa la la la la! Start over!" And the Chinese people just couldn't pronounce the "L"s.

Also, I have a question: I heard that they can't pronounce "V"s either. Is this correct?

[Rinku]

Yes, that's right. So when you say "video" in Japanese, it sounds like and is written as "Bideo".

[Vaati]

Interesting!  :-\ (I'll just put a post here so you canpost more w/o having to double-post) ;)

[Rinku]

Ok, I have been busy like no tomorrow all week and will remain that way until Sunday afternoon, so no big lesson yet, sorry...

============Family================
Kazoku - family, your family.
Gokazoku - someone else's family. The 'go' is used for respect.

Ojiisan- Grandfather, also can be used for old men.

Obaasan- Grandmother, also can be used for older women.

Ojisan- Shorter "ee" sound, means uncle.

Obasan- Shorter "ah" sound, means aunt.

Otousan - Father, formal.
Chichi - Your father, but you don't call him that. You call him otousan.

Okaasan - Mother, formal
Haha- Your mother, same as chichi.

Ani- Your older brother
Oniisan- What you call your older brother, or someone else's older brother

Ane- Your older sister
Oneesan- What you call your older sister, or someone else's older sister

Otouto- Your younger brother
Otouto-san - Someone else's younger brother. Don't bother respecting your own little brother with this. Asians are all about respecting the elders.

Imouto- Your younger sister
Imouto-san -Someone else's younger sister... same with otouto.

Itoko- cousin

Watashi no chichi no onamae wa Tarou desu.

Now since Chichi already means your own father, you can just drop "watashi no".

You should have noticed that all the respectful words begin with a different prefix, like 'o'. Onamae means someone else's name, and your respect that too.

Ok, from all that I've gone over so far, translate the following sentences in a post:

1) Haha wa sanjuuissai desu.
2) Anata no otoutosan no onamae wa nandesuka?
3) Imouto no namae wa Saria desu.
4) Watashi no ojiisan wa rokujuusai desuka?

[Vaati]

Hmm...the first one begins with "mother"...Gah, I'm bad at this stuff. :-* But keep posting.  :)

[Takun]

I learn a little from my two learning Japanese books and CDs. But I was really looking forward to it in high school. Unfortunatly Boone only offers what Vaati's offers. But Im going to take it in college too.

[Rinku]

Sorry it's been a while... School sucks.

================Countries and Languages================

Since countries are all foreign words, they're written in katakana.

America = Amerika

Japan = Nihon

China = Chuugoku

Korea = Kankoku

Spain = Supein

France = Furansu

Germany = Doitsu (possibly my favorite one. It comes from the original word, Deutchland. Or however that's spelled)

Mexico = Mekishiko

Philippines = Firipin (My country!)

England = Igirisu

Of course, there's loads more I forgot, but disregard that for now.

To make a language, you just add "go" to the end of the country.

Nihon (Japan) + "go" = Nihon-go (Japanese)

Supein (Spain) + "go" = Supein-go (Spanish. No, it's not "mekishiko-go"!)

English is an exception. It's not "Amerika-go" or "Igirisu-go". It's Eigo. Think Eggo waffles.

Doitsu (Germany) + "go" = Doitsu-go (German)

And so on. Note that this doesn't mean ethnicity! It just means the language. To say someone is American, or Japanese, or German, you add "nin", which I've said before is the suffix for people or person.

So Nihon (Japan) + "jin" = Nihon-jin (Japanese person)

Amerika (America) + "jin" = Amerika-jin (American person)

Etcetera!

=============Verbs ====================

Basic verbs:

Hanashimasu = to speak

Tabemasu = to eat

Nomimasu = to drink

There are different verb suffixes to to make it negative or affirmative. To make a verb negative, use "masen" instead of "masu" (which sounds like masss! Remember your pronounciation!)

So Hanashimasen means don't speak, Tabemasen means don't eat, and Nomimasen means don't drink. Hanashimasu, tabemasu, and nomimasu are all affirmative.

We'll get into more complex sentences next time. I believe you have enough to chew on, but here's one example of an easier sentence.

Watashi wa omizu o nomimasu.

I drink water.

[HippyMan]

interesting stuff man  :) i always wanted to speak a different language

[Rinku]

==========More Complex Sentences==================

1) Watashi wa nihongo o hanashimasu.

I speak Japanese.

Watashi = I, nihon-go = Japanese (language), hanashi = speak, masu = affirmative verb ending.

Watashi wa nihongo o hanashimasen.

I don't speak Japanese.

hanashi = speak, masen = negative verb ending.

2) Watashi wa supageti o tabemasu.

I eat spaghetti.

Watashi = I, supageti = spaghetti, tabe= eat, masu = affirmative verb ending.

Watashi wa supageti o tabemasen.

I don't eat spaghetti.

tabe = eat, masen = negative verb ending

3) Watashi wa biiru o nomimashita.

I drank beer.

Watashi = I, biiru = beer, nomi = drink, mashita = past affirmative verb ending.

Watashi wa biiru o nomimasen deshita.

I didn't drink beer.

nomi = drink, masen deshita = past negative verb ending.

You can plug in anything as long as you put in the right verbs and nouns in the right spots.

[Rinku]

I haven't been on the forums for a while, and now I don't know who anyone is cuz y'all insist on changing your names every 3 days!
======================================================

suki = like

daisuki = like very much, love

kirai = dislike

daikirai = dislike very much, hate.

Now if any of you know about DN Angel, when Wiz is pretending to be Daisuke he accidentally tells Risa/Riku 'daisuki' because he can't say Daisuke's name right. So Risa/Riku gets mad because she thinks he's telling her he loves her! Now I think the real way to say "I love you" is 'aishiteru'. I might be wrong. If you want to say it very formally, the only way I know for sure, it's

Watashi wa anata ga daisuki desu.

That's the type of sentences we'll be getting into today.

'ga' is a new particle. It's used after an object for adjectives and etcetera. I.... honestly don't know how to explain it very well technically... heh....

Literally it's "I is you love"

Watashi = I.

wa = particle

anata = you

ga = particle

daisuki = love

desu = the ending of the sentence.

Anata wa watashi ga daisuki desuka?

"You love me?"

Remember, the ending particle 'ka' after desu makes it a question instead. If I just said 'Anata wa watashi ga daisuki desu' it means 'You love me." Period.

1) Alex-san wa bideo geemu ga suki desu.

Alex likes video games.

2) Anata wa bideo geemu ga suki desuka?

You like video games?

So as long as you know what kind of words go where, just fill in the blanks!