Archive for July, 2009
Japanese Proverbs Posted by Ginny on Jul 28, 2009
Do any of these proverbs sound familar to you? I’ll provide a translation of these proverbs in the next post, but for now, try to decipher the meanings on your own. 猿も木から落ちる (saru mo ki kara ochiru) 井の中の蛙大海を知らず ( i no naka no kawazu taikai wo shirazu) 蛙の子は蛙 (kaeru no ko wa kaeru) 花よりだんご (hana…
The Ne Particle Posted by Ginny on Jul 25, 2009
Today’s post will deal with the particle: ne (ね). When will you see ne (ね)? At the end of a sentence. Take a look at this sentence for an example, “いい てんきですね” (ii tenki desne). This sentence means, ‘the weather is nice, isn’t it?’ Ii (いい) means ‘good/nice’ and tenki (てんき) means ‘weather’ and in this…
The Mo Particle Posted by Ginny on Jul 22, 2009
With the last post, we looked at simple sentences and negated formal sentences that contained nouns. I’m going to add a little more to these sentences, but the basic structure will more or less stay the same. Let’s say you want to say, “I am also a student” in Japanese. In Japanese, this would be…
Simple Sentences Posted by Ginny on Jul 19, 2009
If you want to say, “I am a Japanese person” in formal Japanese, you could say, “わたしは にほんじんです” (watashiwa nihonjindes). However, how do you say the opposite of that? How do you say, “I am not a Japanese person” in formal Japanese? You can say this in Japanese as, “わたしは にほんじんじゃありません” (watashiwa nihonjin ja arimasen). As you…
Classroom Vocabulary Posted by Ginny on Jul 16, 2009
school – gakko (がっこう) student – gakusee (がくせい) teacher – sensee (せんせい) class – kurasu (クラス) class – jugyoo (じゅきょう) blackboard – kokuban (こくばん) book – hon (ほん) dictionary – jisho (じしょ) homework – shukudai (しゅくだい) pencil – enpitsu (えんぴつ) pen – pen (ペン) question – shitsumon (しつもん) answer – kotae (こたえ) eraser – keshigomu (けしゴム)…
Confusing Japanese Counters Posted by Ginny on Jul 10, 2009
This list contains some counters that have the same pronunciation but different uses. Even though the counters sound the same, the kanji will be different, so look out for that as well. dai (代) – used for generations or time period of a reigning monarch dai (台) – This dai is used for machinery like cars…
List of Professions Posted by Ginny on Jul 7, 2009
In an effort to get you guys to use more Japanese vocabulary, here’s a list of professions or occupations: doctor – isha (いしゃ) chef – shefu (シェフ) lawyer – bengoshi (べんごし) author – sakka (さっか) teacher – sensee (せんせい) secretary – hisho (ひしょ) student – gakusee (がくせい) police officer – kesatsukan (けいさつかん) housewife – shufu…