BASIC JAPANESE The Japanese Language:

The Japanese language is split into four different systems. The Kanji, the Hiragana, the Katakana, and the Romaji. Here it a better explanation:
[b]Kanji:[/b]

The ancient characters adopted from the Chinese Hanzhi writing. They each convey an idea, and are used for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. This collection of more than 7,000 characters usually has double meanings for each one, depending on the context and position in the sentence.
Hiragana:

Hiragana is a phonetic alphabet, used to present particles, verb inflextions (okurigana), explain the pronunciation of kanji (furigana), or words not written in Kanji.
Katakana:

Another phonetic alphabet. Katakana is not used to write kanji, but instead is used to display foreign names or things that cannot be translated into hiragana or kanji. They are easy to separate from hiragana because of their straight lines.
Romaji:

The romanization of Japanese. Romaji uses the Roman alphabet to display kanji, hiragana or katakana. Though used frequently by nonJapanese, it is highly inaccurate because of the double meaning that one kanji can have. In further lessons, we will teach you more about the Japanese language.

Hiragana: (Romaji:) English:

(ohayou) Good Morning (ohayou gozaimasu) Good Morning (konnichiwa) Good Morning (konban wa) Good Evening (Sayounara) Goodbye (matane) Goodbye (shitsureishimasu) Goodbye (sumimasen) Excuse me, Im Sorry (gomen nasai) Im Sorry (arigatou) Thank You (doumo) Thank You (iie) No.; It was nothing (arigatou gozaimasu) Thank You (dou itashimashite) Youre welcome. (hai) Yes

(ee / ii) Yes (ittekimasu) Im leaving (itterasshai) Please come back. (tadaima) Im home (okaerinasai) Welcome Home (hajimemashite) How do you do? (douzo yoroshiku) Nice to meet you. (Ogenki desu ka) How are you? (hai, okagesama de.) Fine, thanks. (genki desu.) I am well (itadakimasu) Thank you for the meal (before eating). (gochisousama) Thank you for the meal (after eating).

[Japanese for Beginners] Learning Kanji: Grade 1 Japanese children are taught about a thousand standard kanji for every day words and names. They learn new characters through each grade of elementary school. To learn kanji as a non-Japanese native, it would be wise to start from the same basics as Japanese children. Starting at Grade 1 and ending at Grade 6, we will present you with all the kanji covered in that year of school, as well as with a practise sheet that you can print out for yourself. Learning kanji, at any age, requires repetition and examination. Learning kanji is not easy and requires dedication. Just as Japanese students take 6 years to cover about a thousand kanji, you should set reasonable goals for yourself when studying Japanese. Note: All of the kanji in these lessons are approved by the Japanese government as being the fundamental basics of the Japanese language. If you want to learn more about different meaning of kanji, consult your local college professors on purchasing dictionaries or other learning material. Not familiar with kanji or other Japanese writing methods? See

Learning Kanji: Elementary School Grade 1: 80 Characters

Kanji Romaji: English: Ichi One Nana Seven San Three low, inferior, come down, Ka go down, retire high, highest, top, best, Jou superior center, middle, middle of Chu three Kyu nine Ni two Go five Hito/Jin man, person, people Yasu Sen Iru Hachi Roku En rest, sleep, retire

Kanji

Romaji: Onna Ko Ji Gaku Shou San Sen Sa Nen Shu Bun Nichi Haya Boku Getsu Mura Hayashi Kou Mori Sei Ke Sui/Mizu* Ka Inu O/Kimi Tama Sei Shi Ji Hana Kusa Mushi Miru Bai

English: woman, female, girl child, offspring, seed character, letter, word learning, scholar, scholarship, science small, tiny, little mountain river, stream, brook left year arm, hand literature, civil affairs, art, writing, text, composition day fast, quick tree month village forest school woods, grove right, justice, correct mind, spirit, soul water, ice water fire dog king, rule gem, jewel, jade life, birth, existance string, thread ear flower grass bug, insect see, look at shell, shellfish

future, priority go, come in, set in eight six circle born from, appearing from, Sui going out, sending out Chikara strength Ju ten Sen thousand, many Kuchi mouth, speech, words, lips Migi right, right hand Mei distinguished, wise Shi four Seki evening big, great, elder, huge, Dai grand, very Ten sky, air, heavens, god Ta ricefield, paddy Chou town, block, street Dan man, male Haku white Hyaku hundred, many Me eye Ishi stone, pebble

Su Ryu Chiku Kane Ame

empty stand bamboo money rain

Seki Soku Sha Sei On

red foot, leg vehicle green sound, noise

* Mizu is used for drinking water, whereas Sui is used for water in general and for things such as rivers. To be or not to be Shakespeare said it was an important question, To be or not to be, and indeed it is quite important in grammar to know how to express the copula. In this lesseon we are going to look at the Japanese form of to be, in present and past tense, and also in positive and negative. Lets try a simple sentence. . This sentence reads: Neko desu. Neko meaning Cat, and Desu being our copula To be. so this sentence says It is a cat. Desu is the present positive copula, this means affirm that something exists right now. It was a Cat, would therefore be past positive, since it was something in the past. Before we move on to the past positive, lets look at three rules for the copula: 1: The verb (to be) always comes at the end of a sentence 2: The verb (to be) can refer to any number of existance, therefore Neko desu can be either one car or a whole bunch of cats. Later we will learn of words that can help us define the quantity, but in general, the rule is that nouns can be plural or singular 3: There are no words for an or a in Japanese, there are words for this and that, but those will be covered later on. Okay, time for the past positive, ready? Here we go with the example: . Neko deshita translates to It was a cat. By putting Deshita after our noun, we confirm at it existed in the past. The Shi part is pronounced with a silent i, so when you say it, it will sound like Desh-ta. The same goes for Desu, which has a silent silent u and will therefore be pronounced Des. Look at the following sentences and see if you can tell which ones are present positive and which ones are past positive. . . . . . Not too hard was it? Even if you didnt know the words, you could distinguish the verbs at the end. Here is the translation of these sentences. Kuruma desu - Its a car. Ringo deshita - It was an apple. Neko deshita - It was a cat. Amerika desu - Its Amerika. Mizu deshita - It was water. Now that we know the present and past positives, what about the negative? We can start with the present negative, or the affirmation that something does not exist at this time. So lets turn the first sentence we used into the present negative. . Neko dewa arimasen is the polite form of Its not a cat. You will notice that I wrote deha, this is because of an

abnormality in Japanese that tells us to write Wa as Ha when it comes to grammar and particles. So remember that when you use the particle Wa, or you use it in the copula, you write it as Ha. However, when you write words in hiragana such as watashi, you still use the normal Wa. The more you use Japanese, the more you will get used to this, so dont worry about it too much. In normal Japanese (the Japanese you would speak with friends or colleagues), dewa arimasen will mostly be cut down to arimasen. Dewa arimasen is the politest form of the present negative copula, so its better to use it when you dont know how polite you should be. Generally, Japanese people are very polite with strangers, so the more polite you are as a tourist, the more smiles youll see. All that is left for us now is the past negative form of the copula. So go on and read the next sentence already! . They just get longer and longer dont they? Neko dewa arimasen deshita sounds very logical, since its a combination of the past positive and the present negative. Before we move on to the last part of the lesson, lets recap on the different forms of the verb To be. Positive: Negative: Present: Past: All verbs follow these four tenses, but the verb To be has one extra tense, which is the future tense Deshou. Look at the example. . Neko deshou can either become positive or negative, but since it is the future you wont be sure untill you see it. Therefore deshou is normally translated with probably. So the example would mean It is probably a cat. To close this chapter, here is a review of the words used in this lesson. See you next time! Japanese: Romaji: Desu Deshita Dewa arimasen Dewa arimasen deshita Deshou Neko Kuruma Ringo Amerika Mizu English: To be (present positive) To be (present negative) To be (present negative) To be (past negative) To be (future positive/negative) Cat Car Apple America Water