Archive for 'Grammar'
What to say when you are not feeling well. Posted by keiko on Feb 17, 2014
Here in Portland, we’ve just gone through a pretty heavy winter storm recently. Hope everyone is doing well in this winter season. The cold snowy weather prompted me to this topic: what to say when you are not feeling well in Japanese. I sure hope that you won’t have to use this too often, but…
Let’s learn how to read Japanese! Part 5 (Kanji) Posted by keiko on Feb 12, 2014
Hi everyone. We have had some lessons on how to read Japanese since last month, starting with basic Hiragana through Katakana so far. This month, I would like to introduce you to basic Kanji’s. If you would like to review what we have covered so far, please take a look each link below: Let’s learn…
Things to say at the restaurant. Posted by keiko on Feb 10, 2014
So, you are walking into a restaurant in Japan where nobody understands English. These are the expressions that you can use to survive and enjoy your restaurant experience! Below, I have created a typical conversation you might have at the restaurant in a dialog format. English translation is below for your review. ________________________________________ You(the customer)…
How to introduce yourself in Japanese? Part 2 Posted by keiko on Feb 3, 2014
This is the part 2 of the “How to introduce yourself in Japanese”. I thought I would include the questions that go along with Jikoshokai (じこしょうかい、自己紹介) below this time. Please note: in Japanese, we often omit the word “Your (あなたの)”. You don’t need to add the word when asking questions. In less formal conversation, it…
How to introduce yourself in Japanese? Part 1 Posted by keiko on Feb 1, 2014
“Tell me about yourself.” This is the phrase you might hear quite often at the job interviews. In Japanese, we have a word for “introducing oneself”, which is “Jikoshoukai” (じこしょうかい、自己紹介) 自己(じこ)means “oneself” and 紹介(しょうかい)means “introducing”. If you are introducing yourself in Japanese, these are the useful expressions that you can use. 私の名前は ～です(わたしのなまえは～です。） My name…
Let’s learn how to read Japanese! Part 4 Posted by keiko on Jan 24, 2014
So far, we have covered Japanese Hiragana’s(ひらがな) in Part 1 through Part 3 of the “Let’s learn how to read Japanese” series. Part 4 will be on Katakana(かたかな). Katakana is another writing system in Japanese. Katakana’s are used to express foreign language words or words that originate from other countries. I will discuss the examples below. Katakana’s…
Let’s learn how to read Japanese! Part 3 Posted by keiko on Jan 20, 2014
Hi everyone. The Part 3 of the Hiragana lesson will be on what we call Yo-on(ようおん,拗音) & Sokuon(そくおん、促音). Once you master these two along with the 2 previous lessons (basic hiragana(seion) & dakuon, han-dakuon), you will be reading Japanese hiragana’s in no time. Please don’t think too hard. These are just additional sounds in Japanese…