Welcome to Reiyachan To Hanashimasu (or talk with Reiya). This is designed to be an online guide to basic japanese. You will not become fluent just by reading this, but it can help you if you are already taking a class in Japanese, or if you just want to be able to pick out a few word from your favorite non-dubbed anime. For the most part, each lesson will be autonamous from the others, but it still helps if you read them in order. New lessons will be put up every couple of weeks, so keep your eyes open. Click on Talk With Reiya Menu to pull up a menu to more easily navigate this document.
If you have any question, you can write me. I will get back to you as soon as possible, but I can not garuntee that I will be able to answer your question accurately (or at all), as I have only been studying Japanese a couple of years. If you would like to write one of the lessons, or make a suggestion, you can email me. Now, on to the first lesson.
Watashi no namae wa Reiya desu. Tomodachitachi wa Reichan o yobisaseru. Mina ni sunde imasu. Uchi wa Taiya yama ni arimasu. Watashi wa anata ni nihongo o oshierimasu. Anatawa dare desuka. Sore wa nihongo de dekemasuka. Tsugi sore wa anata ni oshietemasu. Eigo de nani o hanashimasuka.
Reichan:What I said was
My name is Reiya. My friends call me ReiChan. I live in Mallia. My home is in the Taiya mountains. I am going to teach you Japanese. Who are you? Can you say that in Japanese? You will learn that next. What did I say in English?
Reichan:First, let's start with the basics: pronunciation and sentence structure. Susumimashiyoka. Shall we proceed?
Reichan: Okay people, are you ready to learn? Good. First we will go over the pronunciation of Japanese stating with the vowels, and their sounds.
The vowels are:
A pronounced like the O in rOd
E pronounced like the E in End
U pronounced like the OO in shOOt
I pronounced like the E in Easy
o pronounced like the O in Over
Reichan: In this tutorial, the placement of a U after a vowel means that the vowel sound should be held slightly longer, or stressed slightly. The U in such an instance, is not pronounced at all. Now on to the odd sounds. It helps if you can find someone to pronounce them for you, but I guess this will have to do for now. They are tsu and
r's
tsu is very
similar to, and
thus
easy
to confuse
with, su. tsu is like saying su only it is a sharper sound. It is said with the flat front of the tounge pressed up against the roof of the mouth
tsu sounds more like su with the U sounding like OU in wOUld
su sounds more like su with the U sounding like OO in sOOn
The japanese r is unlike any sound in English, and is a cross between an r and an l
The L sound is like making an L sound in english but with out moving the tounge from the roof of the mouth
Got that? I hope you do, now, let's move on to structure. Structure is, for the most part, very simple in a Japanese sentence. It goes:
TIME adjective for the noun NOUN adjective for the direct object OBJECT VERB
The last thing we will discuss is particles.
Aparticle defines a part of the sentence
such as the noun or direct
object. A particle is placed after the word it defines such as: Watashi wa. The particles are"
wa defines a noun
ga defines a sentence's topic
ni defines a time, a place where you are going (at), or a place where you did something
to defines who or what you did something with, also means and
de translates to in
And so ends lesson one. Come back in a little while when I will teach you how to Introduce yourself."
SAYONARA
Okay now,are you ready to proceed to the next lesson. In this chapter we will learn greetings, and polite phrases. This will go along with the next chapter which is the self introduction. Let's start by going over some basic greetings.
Ohayou (gozaimasu) - Good Morning
Konnichi wa - Hello
Kon ban wa - Good Evening
Oyasumi nasai - Good Night
Sayounara - Good Bye
Reichan: The use of these phrases are the same as in English (or Ego). The Gozaimasu is added to Ohayou when you want to show respect to someone. This is usual done towards an elder, or some one who is a superior in some way. When pronouncing Gozaimasu, the SU is usualy pronounced like an S. Ohayou Gozaimasu is shortened down to Osu in some parts of Japan, but it is usually not proper for foreigners to say it, because it's not correct Japanese. Kind of the equivlent of a Japanese person speaking Ebonics.
As above, the following phrases have the same meaning as they do in English.
Domo arigato gozaimasu - Thank you
Sumimasen - I'm sorry
Gomen nasai - Excuse me
Doitashimashite - You're welcome
Kudasai - Please
Hai - Yes
Iie - No
Nihhon - Japan
Amerikan - American
Reichan:Easy enough, right? I know your looking at how long the word for thank you is, but you don't actually have to use them all. The length is just show politness. You can just say Domo if you want to. Basicly the only the to watch is that whatever words you say are in the correct order, and gozaimasu by itself does not mean thankyou, but the other two do. Also, remember the pronunciation of gozaimasu (as above). Why don't you memorize those for now, and come back soon. Then you'll be ready for the self introductiton Section.
Welcome back. Today we'rs going to learn how to a self introduction. For this
, I am going to have my friend Aiyen help me. First I will introduce just myself. (Note: Neither Aiyen nor Reiya
are actual Japanese names, but they're cool anyway.). Before I start, say Hi Ayien.
Konnichiwa. Watashi wa Aiyen desu. Watashi wa Reiyachan no kohai desu. Kyo ni
jiko shyokai o oshierimasu.
(Hello, My name is Aiyen. I am Reiya's Assistant. Today, we will teach you self introduction)
Reiya:Konnichiwa. Watashi no namae wa Reiya desu.
Watashi wa Nihonjin desu. ni jyu roku sai desu.
(Hello. My name is Reiya. I am a japanese person. I'm twenty six years old.)
This Introduction is similar to the one I give at the very beginning of this tutorial. There should only be a few words that you don't know. Those are:
Namae - Name
-jin - The suffix jin is put after where you come from, to show nationality.
Sai - age (don't worry about that yet, we'll get into numbers later)
Now, Aiyen and I are going to pretend that we're meeting
each other for the first time. Just follow along as best you can. The
translation will be below, in the order that the words are said. Got it?
Hajimashyoka. (shall we begin)
Reiya: Hajimemashite. Watashi no namae wa, Reiya desu. Warudo afu
Dorimingu ni nihongo o oshierimasu. Dozoyoroshiku.
-Hello (not to be mistaken for Ohayou). My (watashi no: remember your particles from above.) name Reiya is. World of Dreaming at japanese teach.
Glad to meet you.
Aiyen: Hajimemashite. Watashi no namae wa, Aiyen desu. Watashi wa
anime ga dai suki desu. Warudo afu Dorimingu ga dai suki desu.
-Hello. My name is Aiyen. I love anime. I love World of Dreaming.
Glad to meet you
Below is a list of the new words that you should have learned. Just follow the model above to use them. You may be wondering why World of Dreaming is written so oddly above. That's because foreign
words are not translated. Instead, they are said using the closest equivalent Japanese syllables.
Hajimemashite - Hello (during an introduction)
Dozoyoroshiku - Nice to meet you
I'm sure that by now you know the drill. You practice this, and I'll work on the next lesson. Try to pace your self while learning these. I know you think that they're really short, but work on actually learning and understanding the word instead of just memorising them. The next lesson will be on numbers and counters. See ya' later.
Welcome back friends and lovers of Japanese.
Our next lesson is pretty strait forward. We will learn how to count in Japanese.
Before we begin, I will tell you that the Japanese system of counting is a little tricky.
Basic numbers are easy enough, but the Japanese use something called counters.
It is almost how in English you would say one book, two books, three books...
but with Japasese the numbers themselves change. This will be a pretty short
lesson, but it requires a lot of memorization. First we will start with the basic
numbers. The chart below shows the japanese writing and pronunciation. These
are the first ten numbers in order.
No explanation is really necessary for these. There used as the base for the counters,
but in a pinch if you forget a counter you can use one of the above instead. You
can use the numbers above for your age, just add the word sai after
the number. Next are the counters, the chart below has only three, but memorise theae,
and more will be put up later.
| Type |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
How Many |
| People |
Hitori |
Futari |
Sannin |
Yonin |
Gonin |
Rokunin |
Shichinin |
Hachinin |
Kunin |
Junin |
Nanin |
| Books/magazines |
Issatsu |
Nisatsu |
Sansatsu |
Shisatsu |
GoSatsu |
Rokusatsu |
Shichisatsu |
Hassatsu |
Kyuusatsu |
Jisatsu |
Nansatsu |
| Animals |
Ippiki |
Nihiki |
Sambiki |
Yonhiki |
Gohiki |
Roppiki |
Shichihiki |
Hachihiki |
Kyuuhiki |
Jippiki |
Nambiki |
Okay that is it for the day, but come back in about a week or so, and we'll begin
on some slightly more advanced concepts in japanese numbers.
SAYONARA
