Introducing Yourself

So, you want to know how to let people know who you are. And you want to be able to do it in Japanese, no less! Here's a quick guide and sentence pattern:

watashi no namae wa _______ desu.

Let's break it down a bit.

Watashi is the word for I, or me.
Namae is the word for name. (I hope you're making notes of all this new vocabulary!)

"But wait a minute!" I can hear you yell. "What about no, wa, and desu? What are they?"

Good question! no and wa are particles. These are the little words in English that don't mean anything by themselves, like "of" or "on."

no is the particle that indicates ownership, and it can roughly be translated to "of." So, "watashi no namae" is "the name belonging to me."

wa is the subject marker of the sentence. It marks whatever is before it in the sentence as the subject. It can be roughly translated to "is." Therefore, the subject of the sentence "watashi no namae wa ______ desu" is "watashi no namae," or, "my name."

"But what about desu?" you scream.

I honestly don't know how to explain desu. One of my dictionaries defined it as the verb "to be." Another doesn't have it at all. My first Japanese teacher said that it's just something they shove on the end of sentences. My current teacher says it means "is."

I like my first Japanese teacher's explanation the best.

Desu isn't used on the end of every sentence, though. To explain this, let's turn to syntax. No screaming about grammar, it's actually very simple. The syntax for Japanese sentences is STAPPOV, or Subject Time Anything else Place Purpose Object Verb. For example... let's say "In the park, at two o'clock in the afternoon, I eat sushi with chopsticks." in Japanese. But first, let's sort it into STAPPOV.

Subject: I
Time: Two in the afternoon
Anything else: Chopsticks
Place: Park
Purpose: (None)
Object: Sushi
Verb: Eat

Now then, let's put those in Japanese.

Subject: watashi (You know this one!)
Time: gogo niji (Gogo- afternoon, niji- 2nd hour)
Anything else: hashi (chopsticks)
Place: koen (park)
Purpose: (none)
Object: sushi (this one is easy!)
Verb: tabemasu (eat)

So, how about we put it in a sentence?

watashi wa gogo niji ni hashi de koen ni sushi o tabemasu.

See the conspicuous lack of desu at the end of the sentence? If we say that desu is a verb whacked onto the end of sentences, then we can see this sentence doesn't need a desu- it already has a verb, tabemasu! Does that make sense?

"Hey, what about these funny new particles?" you say incredulously. "Do I have to learn all this new stuff right now?"

Absolutely not! That was just an example sentence, made to demonstrate the use of Japanese syntax. I just want you to focus on the particles no and wa for the time being. However, I know some of you are probably curious and therefore will be mad at me if I don't tell you what the new particles mean.

ni: In, at or on. When referring to places, it's only used for places with no name. Therefore, koen uses ni, because it's just general- a park, not Fancy-Named Park.
de: In or by means of. Here, we use it to mean "by means of chopsticks."
o: You might occasionally see this romanised (put in English letters) as "wo." Both are correct, however, it is pronounced "o." It's used to mark objects- in this case, sushi.

Notice how particles always mark the thing before them? That's how Japanese works. It's incorrect any other way.

So, back to introducing yourself. Now that we know the mechanics of the Japanese language, it's all fine tuning and vocabulary. Your homework is to go to someone- Father, three-year-old daughter, stranger on the train- and introduce yourself in Japanese. Let's recap on that sentence pattern, shall we?

watashi no namae wa _____ desu.

A note: _____ is obviously where you put your name in. However, you can't just whack it in there in English. Oh no, no, no. That's sacrilege, that is. You have to try and put in Japanese sounds. As an example, let's use my name, Ashlyn. The Japanese can't say Ashlyn. Instead, they'll say Ashurin. See how that works? If you look at your handy-dandy hiragana chart, you'll see that the letters in my name have been replaced with the closest Japanese sounds available. So, Rebecca would be Rebeka, Lance would be Ransu and John would be Jon. So, when you go to introduce yourself, make sure you put your name in Japanese sounds too!

Hiragana

Hello again!

This is a "homework" post. This means we set you work (important work) and you do it. Your homework is to learn hiragana.

Hiragana is one of four writing systems that the Japanese use. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about hiragana:

Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana and kanji; the Latin alphabet is also used in some cases. Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each symbol represents one mora. Each kana is either a vowel (such as a あ); a consonant followed by a vowel (such as ka か); or n ん, a nasalsonorant which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n, or ng (IPA: [ŋ]), or like the nasal vowels of French.

Confused? I sure as hell am. Here are the things you need to know:

• Hiragana is the simplest "true" Japanese script.
• Each "letter" is one sound
• These sounds are usually a consonant and a vowel (eg na, ki, etc.)
• One hiragana (n) is pronounced nnn
  
• Five hiragana are vowels. They're pronounced differently to English vowels, however.
• A is pronounced as in car
• I is pronounced as in the last I in Hawaii (the eeee sound at the end of the word)
• U is pronounced as in you
• E is pronounced as in elephant
• O is pronounced as in hot

Hiragana is very, very important to learn. Save the following hiragana chart to your hard drive, and then begin writing out the first column until you know every single one of them off by heart.
Then, when you know the first column, go to the second column. Write all of those out until you know every single one of them. Here's something that'll speed up your learning.

Chonchons are the two little lines in the top right-hand corner of the hiragana in the second column.
Maru are the little circles in the top right hand corner of the P line of hiragana.

The K line + chonchons = G line (ka to ga, ki to gi, etc)
The T line + chonchons = D line
The S line + chonchons = Z line
The H line + chonchons = B line
The H line + maru = P line

Here's an easy mnemonic to help you remember:

Ted and Suzy got a keg from the hubba-bubba-pubba.

Yes, it's a bit stupid, but it works.

Now, after you've mastered the second column, you proceed to the third. See how all of them have a tiny little Y line hiragana in with them? See how it changes the sound? Once you've got note of that, it all becomes very easy.

Good luck! I'll be posting a hiragana test some time in following months, so please do your best to learn these to be ready!

Hiragana Chart

(To save the chart to your hard drive, right-click and then click "Save Target As" or Save Link As").

Honorifics

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of Learn Japanese! Today, we'll be learning about honorifics. In English, these are salutations like "Mr." or "Mrs." Japan's honorifics are very unique, but they make a lot of sense when you stop to think about them. You see, Japan is a country very concerned with social status and groups, and their language reflects this. You call people different things depending on how high or low their status in society is compared to yours. Here's a simple table with some honorifics:

san	The catch-all honorific. Functions as Mr., Mrs., Miss, etc.
kun	Used amongst boys for their friends, and older people to young boys. Girls can also use the kun honorific when talking about boys.
chan	Used amongst girls for their friends, and for all very young children.
sama	Used only for those worthy of utmost respect. Equivalent to "lord," or "lady."
sempai	Used for someone older who you respect as someone with a lot of experience in life.
sensei	Used for teachers.

All honorifics are added at the end of names. How about some examples? Let's use someone named Kaeko for the feminine honorifics and Kesuke for the masculine ones.

san	Kaeko-san and Kesuke-san	The honorific can be used for both genders. In this example, Kaeko and Kesuke are probably older than us, and we don't know them all that well.
kun	Kesuke-kun	Here, we can only use Kesuke. This is because this is a masculine honorific. Kesuke is probably around the same age as us, and we're all boys.
chan	Kaeko-chan	Kaeko is around our age, and now we're all girls! Kaeko could also be a young child.
	Kesuke-chan	Kesuke would have to be a young child, because he's certainly not a girl our age!
sama	Kaeko-sama and Kesuke-sama	Well, we've just been completely outclassed. Kaeko and Kesuke are now VIPs, and we owe them the utmost respect.
sempai	Kaeko-sempai and Kesuke-sempai	We like Kaeko and Kesuke, now. So much so that we've idolised them. If you had a really awesome older brother or sister, this is what you'd call them.
sensei	Kaeko-sensei and Kesuke-sensei	Kaeko and Kesuke are our teachers. The only opportunity to call someone sensei is if they are your teacher, otherwise it just doesn't fit.

*Note: sempai and sensei can be used as nouns, without a name at the front. They still carry the same meanings, though.