Why not...Learn Japanese?

[dgfhjkjhf]

Ooh, this helped me a lot! I already knew pretty much of the stuff there, but you made it really clear for me! Thank you! x3  

[Moonlit_Butterflies]

Hi there, everybody! I'm a friend of Miss RainBows! She finally got her comp up and running again so she'll be back to posting the rest of these things as soon as she makes a new account on gaia and joins this guild again. ^^  

[WeeMissRainBow]

Moonlit_Butterflies

Hi there, everybody! I'm a friend of Miss RainBows! She finally got her comp up and running again so she'll be back to posting the rest of these things as soon as she makes a new account on gaia and joins this guild again. ^^

I'd like to thank my lovely assistant. 3nodding
So, the next lesson will be coming up sometime later today. surprised

Oh the excitement! eek  

[WeeMissRainBow]

Japanese Alphabets! scream

I'm going to teach you all how to read hiragana whether you like it our not!

Okay so here's he hiragana alphabet



Remember it, because from now on all the Japanese in the lessons will be in hiragana from here after!

I'll teach you katakana some other way! surprised  

[dgfhjkjhf]

x3 I know Hiragana. *brag brag* xD But will you also teach us a bit of kanji? ÓwÒ Pretty please?  

[WeeMissRainBow]

StormyVampire

x3 I know Hiragana. *brag brag* xD But will you also teach us a bit of kanji? ÓwÒ Pretty please?

Patience young grasshopper, patience. 3nodding

I due time. I'm starting out slow, I may do a kanji a day thing. *thinks*  

[WeeMissRainBow]

Lesson 2: Who is it?

First, we should establish who you are. If you want to say "I am Sally." You would say: わたしはサリです。 わたし means 'I.' Wa (spelled with the character ha) is a particle which marks the subject of a sentence. It roughly means 'as for' so, the sentence translates to "As for me, I'm Sally." You can also just say "サリです。" which just means 'I am Sally.' Men and boys can also use the form "ぼくは ___ です。" ぼくalso means I, but is usually used by males. The word 'you' in Japanese is あなた, but be careful not to use it unless you're very familiar with someone as it is slightly personal. It's better to just use the person's name when referring to them.

I am Hana
わたしはハナです。
I am Mr./Ms Smith.
わたしはスミスです。
I am Hana.
ハナです。
I am Mr./Ms Smith.
スミスです。
I am John.
わたしはジョンです。
I am John.
ぼくはジョンです。

If you want to ask someone's name, you say "おなまえはなんですか。" なまえ means 'name'. The 'お' is added to make it honorific (used only for other people, not yourself). Remember from lesson one that 'なんですか' means what is it?' So the sentence literally means "As for your honorific name, what is it?" To tell someone your name, you can use the above replies or you can say 'なまえはハナです。' or 'わたしのなまえはハナです。' (Assuming your name is Hana.) The shorter form is usually used in less formal situations. The particle 'の' in this case is similar to the English " 's ". It indicates ownership. わたしのなまえ means "my name". あなたのなまえ would be 'your name.'

Examples:

What's your name?
おなまえはなんですか。

My name is Heather.
わたしのなまえはヘザーです。

My name is John.
なまえはジョンです。

What is the dog's name?
いぬのなまえはなんですか。

The dog's name is Spike.
いぬのなまえはスパイクです。


To ask "Who is it?" you say "だれですか。" だれ means 'who.' To ask "Whose is it?" you say "だれのですか。"


Who is it?
だれですか。
Whose is it?
だれのですか。

To indicate ownership of an object, the possessive 'の' particle is used.


Examples:

Whose dog is it?
だれのいぬですか。
It's my dog.
わたしのいぬです。

Whose cat is it?
だれのねこですか。
It's mine.
わたしのです。

Whose cat is it?
だれのねこですか。
It's Susan's cat.
スザンさんのねこです。

Is it yours?
あなたのですか。
No, it's Mike's.
いいえ、マイクさんのです。

Lesson 2 Vocabulary:

I
わたし
I (used by males only)
ぼく
you
あなた
who
だれ
subject marker particle (pronounced wa)
は
possesive particle ('s)
の
prefix added to some words to make them honoriffic
お
name
なまえ
dog
いぬ
cat
ねこ

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Kanji a Day!

Today's Kanji is:花 Hana! This is the Japanese word for flower. Not to be confused with the Kanji 鼻 Hana. The Japanese word for Nose.  

[WeeMissRainBow]

Lesson 3: I am Japanese.

The word for Japan in Japanese is にほん. (Or にっぽん) に means sun and ほん means root. So, にほん means "origin of the sun" thus Japan is also known as the "Land of the Rising Sun."

There are several words for 'person' in Japanese. ひと is the noun 'person.' If you wanted to say "Who is that person?" you would say "あのひとはだれですか。" あの means 'that over there.' (This will be discussed more in Lesson 4.) Likewise, one says おんなのひと for 'woman' and おとこのひと for 'man.' These mean 'female person' and 'male person' and are much more polite than just saying おんな or おとこ which sound insulting alone.

The other two ways of indicating people are the suffixes -にん and -じん. Adding the suffix -じん to the name of a country makes the name of the nationality of that country. にほんじん means 'Japanese person.' We will discuss the use of -にん later.

Similarly, one can add the suffix -ご to the end of a country word and it becomes the language of the country. Note that there are exceptions to this as some countries share common languages.

Examples:
Country People Language
Japan にほん にほんじん にほんご

The U.S. アメリカ アメリカじん えいご

Australia オーストラリア オーストラリアじん えいご

Canada カナダ カナダじん えいご/フランスご

England イギリス イギリスじん えいご

Lesson 3 Vocabulary:
Japan
にほん
person
ひと
suffix added to country to describe nationality
-じん
suffix added to country to describe language
-ご
Japanese language
にほんご
English language
えいご


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Kanji a day!

Todays Kanji is: 日 Hi. The Japanese word for sun. =3  

[La Ribon]

Do we pronounce the hiragana as it is in the alphabet? =3

 

[Mekami-Sama]

You, threadmaker WeeMissRainBow, should be applauded like crazy. I read the first lesson and I was understing more than I have before. I don't know much, so I really appreciate this. Putting it in hirigana makes it more difficult, but I'm going to try faithfully. *smile*

This is one of the best tutorials ever. I realize this won't be perfect, since you can't exactly help with perfect pronounciation, but for basics of typing, that's awesome. Thank you so much.

And I'm going to save the lessons. XD Thought you should know the lessons are good enough to print and share with friends.  

[Arieknight]

Hi thanx for making this thread it has helped me a lot! I am a beginner but would still like to learn Japanese. but I got lost at the alphabet part. so if someone could get back with me to clarify it, I would appreciated it..thanx xd  

[PerfectPhobia]

*sigh* I hate it when I see people do this...

The thread maker did not make this. She got it from here Nihongo o Narau

It really is a nice sight.

Thank you,

Phobia  

[sambart]

I love Japanese XD
It's such a beautiful language =]  

[Garynook]

If anyone desires to use Japanese characters(Both Hiragana and Katakana) Here's what to do on a Windows Vista computer:

Search for either a keyboard icon or two letters on the right side of your taskbar it depends on what country you're from what two letters that can be. If you're english it will likely be EN if you're dutch it would be NL and Chinese CH and so on it will be before the icons of say your internet connection, sound volume and other things working on the background like MSN or Norton Internet Security and the clock. when you've found it right click it and select Settings. You'll get a menu with on the right side several buttons of which the first will be named Add. Click that one then look up Japan>keyboard>Japan Microsoft IME select that one and click OK. Well done you've now successfully added Japanese to your keyboard but.. how to work with it now? I'll tell you. With Shift+Alt you can change the settings, press it untill the EN or whatever it may display for you changes into JP　a red circle with exclamation mark and a Japanese character. Now by typing how you pronounce a word in Japanese for example Arigatou it will automatically give possible matches, if the one showing up is not the desired character you can press space to show the next and on. Like this　ありがとう voilà. You've succesfully said Thanks. There may be better ways to spell arigatou but I'm not skilled in Japanese. I'm just good with computers. By pressing Shift+Alt again you'll change your keyboard settings again to the desired setting. You can also do this by left clicking the letters JP(or EN or CH or whatever) and selecting the desired setting from that list.