It's been 8 weeks since the first JIP column. What have you learned since then? I hope you've learned a lot about Japanese in the last 2 months. Now would be an excellent time to go back and review the previous 8 lessons. You may catch something that you overlooked the first time through.
Since an actual review column would be about as long as the last 8 episodes put together, I see no reason to put all that material here! That's what the archives are for. I recommend you at least read through the last 8 episodes. It shouldn't take too long. There are a lot of important points in them, and I want to make sure everyone has absorbed that information!
Japanese is Logical
Learning Japanese, like most sports or activities, involves repetition. You start out able to do almost nothing. You are very unskilled at first, but you make yourself practice every day. After working at it for a while, you discover that you are becoming more and more capable.
I believe that most people can aquire a decent proficiency of Japanese, especially if they like Japanese music, video games, and/or Anime. The only catch is they have to believe they can do it. You can't make excuses. You have to tell yourself that everyone else is wrong - it's not hard. They just don't know how easy the grammar and spelling is.
To give you an idea of what awaits you in Japanese:
tekubi - wrist
(te = hand, kubi = neck)
koinu - puppy
(ko = child, inu = dog)
tatsumaki - tornado
(tatsu = dragon, maki = wind)
You know how English has about 100 different words for a group of animals? (herd, flock, ostentation, murder, gaggle, etc) In Japanese there is just one - "mure".
There are a great many words that are made from 2 "kanji", or Chinese characters. Over time, you get used to how the different kanji are read, and what their meanings are.
For example:
FU - un, not
AN - rest, ease, comfortable
SHIN - heart, feelings
ANSHIN - peace of mind
FUAN - anxiety, worry
The kanji are like building blocks, which are used to build different words. It does help to learn some of the more popular kanji. I wouldn't say learn them right away, but after a while you may want to start learning them.
It doesn't take much effort to learn "tasumaki" when you know that "tatsu" is dragon and "maki" is wind.
Example Sentences
tsumetai mizu wa ichiban desu.
cold water is the best.
kuroi ushi wa sora ni tonde iru.
The black cow is flying in the sky.
ore wa omae no otousan da.
I'm your father.
kono jigoku kara no pasokon wa atsui da yo!
this hell (from) (modifies) computer (subject) hot is !
This computer from hell is hot!
yukina no kouri wa samui da!
Yukina's ice is cold!
rekka no honou wa atsui da!
Rekka's fire is hot!
omae o korosu.
I'm going to kill you.
ano furui neko wa akai desu.
That old cat is red.
kanarazu lina no okane wa taisetsu da.
Without a doubt, Lina's money is precious.
boku ni kiite iru no ka?
Are you listening to me?
koitsu wa kuruma ni mukatte iru.
This guy's heading for the car.
ano hidoi bakemono wa chi o nonda.
That awful monster drank blood.
doushite shoujo ni natta ka?
why did you become a girl?
Popular Words
New words for this week:
[Noun] kouri - ice
[Noun] mizu - water
[Noun] ushi - cow
[Noun] honou - fire
[Adj] taisetsu - precious
[Verb] tobu - to fly
[Misc] da - is (exactly like DESU)
Here are 129 VERY popular words. Each word you learn from this list will be extremely useful. These were all given in previous lessons.
[Adj] akai - red
[Adj] amai - sweet, naive
[Adj] aoi - blue
[Adj] are - that over there
[Adj] atarashii - new
[Adj] atsui - hot
[Adj] chiisai - small
[Adj] chikai - near
[Adj] furui - old
[Adj] hayai - fast
[Adj] hidoi - terrible, awful
[Adj] hitsuyou - necessary
[Adj] hontou - true
[Adj] ichiban - number 1
[Adj] kore - this
[Adj] kuroi - black
[Adj] midori - green
[Adj] mijikai - short (hair, etc)
[Adj] muri - hopeless, impossible
[Adj] muzukashii - hard
[Adj] nagai - long
[Adj] ooki - big
[Adj] osoi - slow
[Adj] saigo - last, the end
[Adj] samui - cold
[Adj] shiroi - white
[Adj] sore - that
[Adj] toui - far
[Adj] tsumetai - cold
[Adj] warui - bad
[Adj] yoi - good
[Adv] itsumo - always
[Adv] yukkuri - slowly, leisurely
[Int] dare - who
[Int] doko - where
[Int] ikutsu - how many
[Int] itsu - when
[Int] nani - what
[Misc] arigatou - thank you
[Misc] kanarazu - without a doubt
[Misc] kesshite - never
[Misc] kudasai - please
[Misc] kure - please (informal)
[Misc] nante - a thing such as
[Noun] ai - love
[Noun] ame - rain
[Noun] asa - morning
[Noun] atama - head
[Noun] bakemono - monster
[Noun] boushi - hat
[Noun] chi - blood
[Noun] chikara - power
[Noun] densha - train
[Noun] heya - room
[Noun] hito - person
[Noun] hon - book
[Noun] inu - dog
[Noun] jibun - yourself
[Noun] jigoku - hell
[Noun] kage - shadow
[Noun] kami - god
[Noun] kami - hair (yes, it ALSO means god!)
[Noun] ki - energy, spirit
[Noun] kokoro - heart
[Noun] kotae - answer
[Noun] kuchi - mouth
[Noun] kumo - cloud
[Noun] kuruma - car
[Noun] makoto - truth
[Noun] minna - everyone
[Noun] mise - store
[Noun] mono - thing
[Noun] nai - nothing
[Noun] neko - cat
[Noun] ningen - human
[Noun] obake - ghost
[Noun] okaasan - mother
[Noun] okane - money
[Noun] onna - woman
[Noun] otoko - man
[Noun] otousan - father
[Noun] shoujo - girl
[Noun] shounen - boy
[Noun] sora - sky
[Noun] tabemono - food
[Noun] tatakai - (a) fight
[Noun] terebi - T.V.
[Noun] tomodachi - friend
[Noun] ude - arm
[Noun] uta - song
[Pron] aitsu - guy, dude
[Pron] aitsu - he, she (informal)
[Pron] anata - you (always appropriate)
[Pron] are - that over there
[Pron] atashi - I (said by females)
[Pron] boku - I (said by males)
[Pron] kanojo - she
[Pron] kare - he
[Pron] kisama - you (what you would say to a baby -- or an enemy)
[Pron] koitsu - same as aitsu
[Pron] kore - this
[Pron] omae - you (said to inferiors)
[Pron] ore - I (speaker thinks he is superior)
[Pron] sore - that
[Pron] temee - you (one step above kisama - still extremely rude!)
[Verb] aruku - to walk
[Verb] bakuhatsu suru - to explode
[Verb] erabu - to choose
[Verb] hanasu - to speak
[Verb] hashiru - to run
[Verb] imasu - to be somewhere (person) *polite*
[Verb] iru - to be somewhere (for a person) *plain*
[Verb] iru - to be doing something
[Verb] kaesu - return something, give back
[Verb] kasegu - to earn (money)
[Verb] kikoeru - to be heard
[Verb] kiku - to listen
[Verb] korosu - to kill
[Verb] miru - to see
[Verb] miru - to see, watch
[Verb] mitsukeru - to find
[Verb] motsu - to have
[Verb] mukau - to face, to head for
[Verb] naru - to become
[Verb] nomu - to drink
[Verb] noru - to ride
[Verb] omou - to think
[Verb] osu - to push
[Verb] ou - to follow
[Verb] sagasu - to search (for)
[Verb] taberu - to eat
[Verb] tamesu - to test
[Verb] tasukeru - to rescue
[Verb] tataku - to hit
[Verb] tekagen suru - to hold back
[Verb] tomaru - to stop
[Verb] toru - to take
[Verb] tsukeru - to attach
[Verb] tsukiau - to hang around, to date
[Verb] tsuzukeru - to continue
[Verb] unten suru - to drive
[Verb] utau - to sing
A Special Request
For those of you who have time, I have a special favor to ask. Since it is hard to convey how to pronounce things without sound clips, I am asking you to send in various sound clips! If you have an Anime (preferably a comedy or Shoujo series) with a nice clear line of dialogue, please record it and send it in. WAV format is just fine. I can turn it into a RealAudio clip or MP3, that's no big deal. If you have a lot to send in, just break it up into segments smaller than 1 MB. I wouldn't try to send anything larger than 1 MB.
I'll listen to them, and type out what they said (along with translations). The clips (in RA or MP3 format) will be used to help illustrate different aspects of Japanese pronunciation!
Since there are a lot of words and phrases out there, the more sound clips the better! Remember, the preferred length of each sound clip is around 5 - 10 seconds.
Another way to send me sound clips - upload them to your website, and e-mail me the URL. I will download it, and upload it to my own site. You can then delete it from yours, as it will no longer be needed!
Please send any sound clips to maktos@maktos.com
Next Week