俊’s Progress on Japanese 2
This is an continuation of "俊's Progress on Japanese 1" which covered the first lesson of the "My Japanese Coach" game. (With my own notes of course)
俊's Progress on Japanese 1" can be found here
"I'm here to share what I've learned and to give as much details as possible. Though I'm sure that a lot of people know much more than I do, this could be useful for those who consider to learn Japanese, but the main reason for writing this would be that I would be able to learn something from the readers too."
"If anything is wrong, feel free to comment and correct me"
From now on, the Hiiragi sisters will attend our lessons!
As I unlock new lessons, it becomes harder every time.
Motivation is a very important factor in learning Japanese.
I'm currently at lesson 24. (Last Katakana lesson)
This time I'm going to cover lessons 2 - 5, just to speed things up for a bit. (Though it ain't going fast at all)
In this lesson you'll see lot's of familiar words used in countries other than Japan.
The title for this lesson may be "Pronunciation", but as I can't tell you what the words sound like it can't be helped.
This is also the first lesson that consists of words written in "Hiragana" AND "Katakana".
"Kana" refers to both "Hiragana" and "Katakana".
If you're completely unaware of what all this "Hiragana" and "Katakana" is about, they're two writing systems for Japanese.
The first Hiragana lesson would be lesson 6.
So here are the words of lesson 2.
(Romaji - Kana)
karaoke - カラオケ
kamikaze - かみかぜ
karate - からて
anime - アニメ
manga - まんが
futon - ふとん
romaji - ローマじ (ro-maji)
samurai - さむらい
ninja - にんじゃ
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It is quite easy to see what is Hiragana or Katakana.
Just in case you don't know, "karaoke", "anime" and the "roma" part of "romaji" are written in Katakana.
I'm not sure why the "ji" part is written in Hiragana, but I think it's just an exception. (explanation from readers would be highly appreciated)
Also, futon is some kind of mattress from Japan.
This lesson covers numbers 1 - 15.
(English - Romaji - Hiragana)
one - ichi - いち
two - ni - に
three - san - さん
four - yon - よん
five - go - ご
six - roku - ろく
seven - shichi - しち
eight - hachi - はち
nine - kyuu - きゅう
ten - juu - じゅう
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There seems to be another way to write four or seven.
four - shi
seven - nana
Though in the game I've only seen "shi" used in one of the months. (April)
I have see "nana" being used in seventeen and seventy, but not in something like hundredseventyfive. (175)
Again, an explanation would be highly appreciated.
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eleven - juuichi - じゅういち
twelve - juuni - じゅうに
thirteen - juusan - じゅうさん
fourteen - juuyon - じゅうよん
fifteen - juugo - じゅうご
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As you can see, saying 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 shouldn't be hard.
You just attach the "ichi" after "juu" to make "juuichi" which means eleven.
This goes up to 19. (The next numbers lesson is lesson 15)
But now comes the tricky part.
You can not just attach for example "san" to an object to make "three (objects)".
Before you can say "three (objects)" the word "san" needs to be changed.
This is explained at lesson 15.
Well.. that seems troublesome, I think it would be better to stick to a certain subject rather than going through 12 more lessons.
In this lesson we're gonna cover some basic colors.
Some of the listed colors here are adjectives and some are nouns.
(English - Romaji - Kana)
white - shiroi - しろい
black - kuroi - くろい
blue - aoi - あおい
red - akai - あかい
green - midori - みどり
brown - chairo - ちゃいろ
yellow - kiiro - きいろ
orange - orenji iro - オレンジいろ
gray - haiiro - はいいろ
pink - pinku - ピンク
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Again, "orenji" is written in Katakana while "iro" is written in Hiragana.
Pinku is also written in Katakana.
So which colors are adjectives and which ones are nouns?
Here's a list:
Adjectives
shiroi
kuroi
akai
aoi
Nouns
midori
chairo
kiiro
oranji iro
haiiro
pinku
To use the adjectives, just put them in front of the noun.
These are examples from the game:
red apple - akai ringo
black paper - kuroi kami
To use the "noun colors", you have to put "no" (の) after it first.
Examples from the game:
yellow hat - kiiro no boushi
grey car - haiiro no kuruma
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After a quick look at the JLPT4 Vocabulary List at http://www.jlptstudy.com/4/jlpt4_vocab-list.html (Last updated on November 5 2008 according to the owner of the site), I've noticed that "My Japanese Coach" lacks info in some lessons and/or covers them in a later lesson, which may cause confusion.
For example, they didn't mention that the nouns for white, black, red, and blue are "shiro", "kuro", "aka", and "ao".
Seems like it's better to find information about the subject of a lesson on the internet before you continue first..
"kyou wa nan youbi desu ka?" is to ask what day is it?
(English - Romaji - Hiragana)
Monday - getsuyoubi - げつようび
Tuesday - kayoubi - かようび
Wednesday - suiyoubi - すいようび
Thursday - mokuyoubi - もくようび
Friday - kinyoubi - きんようび
Saturday - doyoubi - どようび
Sunday - nichiyoubi - にちようび
day - hi - ひ
today - kyou - きょう
tomorrow - ashita - あした
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Here are some samples from the game of how to use them:
Today is Friday - kyou wa kinyoubi desu
Tomorrow is Saturday - ashita wa doyoubi desu
Add some particles in, and this is the syllabus of JLPT 4! ^^;
for JLPT 4, time in Years, Months , Day before yesterday, and day after tomorrow's also tested.
Uh? I don't really get what you're talking about xD.
This is really helpful and educational! Thanks for posting this. ^^
I'm glad you like it ^.^
In case readers have missed it, it would be great if you could answer these:
"It is quite easy to see what is Hiragana or Katakana.
Just in case you don't know, "karaoke", "anime" and the "roma" part of "romaji" are written in Katakana.
I'm not sure why the "ji" part is written in Hiragana, but I think it's just an exception. (explanation from readers would be highly appreciated)"
And this:
"There seems to be another way to write four or seven.
four - shi
seven - nana
Though in the game I've only seen "shi" used in one of the months. (April)
I have see "nana" being used in seventeen and seventy, but not in something like hundredseventyfive. (175)
Again, an explanation would be highly appreciated."
The "ji" portion of "romaji" means character or letters. It uses the kanji: 字, just like the "ji" in 漢字 (Kanji). So basically, Roma(n) Characters. XD It's spelled in hiragana because it's a Japanese word, while roma is a loan word. So you might also see it spelled this way: ローマ字
I attempted a search for the history of these numbers, but haven't been able to find anything yet.
But for now, do you know what "on" and "kun" readings are? When saying the numbers ichi, ni san, etc, you're using the "on" or "Chinese reading" most of the time. 4 and 7 are the only numbers of this set that you can also use the "kun" or "Japanese reading" with flexibly. And while there is no exact rule for 4 and 7's usage, most people go with what sounds more natural. So if you said "yongatsu" or "nanagatsu" instead of "shigatsu" or "shichigatsu", you might get a few snickers, odd looks, or a correction. XD
I don't know how far you are into learning numbers, but you're in for a surprise if you haven't seen the many systems of counting in Japanese yet. Other counters, such as days 1-10 of the month, have a completely different system than the simple 1-10 you learned. Rather than ichi, ni, san... It goes tsuitachi, futsuka, mikka... And it is in number systems like this that the "kun" reading of other numbers will appear.
For another random bit of info (if you didn't know already). 4 is a very unlucky number in Japanese as "shi" is also the way you say "death" 死.
I see I see, makes a lot of sense.
Haven't actually started learning kanji yet, I was attending chinese lessons a while back but I quit because I couldn't pay attention because of lack on sleep xD. Wasn't exactly interested in learning mandarin either. (I was forced to)
I prefer learning when I'm not sleepy:P
Ah I replied while you were working out your second comment xD.
But no, I've never heard of these "on" and "kun" readings.
I shall do some research on those I guess.
Never heard of tsuitachi, futsuka, and mikka either.
For now I can only count to 999 xD
Already knew the random bit of info, but thx anyway. ^.^
Well, I'm glad I could help! \o/ When you start learning kanji, you'll encounter on and kun readings often, but for now you shouldn't have to worry about them.
I put the wrong hand on each arm..