[ToshiroOC]

As per Zardon's request in an unrelated thread, here is a beginning to a crash course being written by me, ToshiroOC (a non-native, non-fluent speaker). Please keep in mind while reading this that this is not intended to replace real instruction or a textbook with an audio accompanyment - it would be very difficult to learn to speak Japanese from this... however, very simple written Japanese in the Roman alphabet would be possible... I hold all rights to this work, and it may be copied for educational and non-profit purposes only.

To begin, Japanese is a subject object verb language. English is a subject verb object language.

Here is an example sentence, which I shall dissect into it's grammatical components along with explanations:

Watashi wa gakusei desu.
This translates as:
I speak Japanese.

The basic stucture of a sentence in Japanese is:
Noun wa Noun desu.

Watashi is the first person singular pronoun (I). There are no case differences in pronouns in Japanese - this means that "I", "me", and "myself" are all synonymous in Japanese, and they do not change according to their grammatical use in a sentence.

Gakusei is the noun for "university student".

The word wa is a particle. Japanese uses particles as grammatical figures - the particle "wa" indicates that the preceding noun is the subject of the sentence. It translates roughly as "as for". Therefore, the literal translation of the sentence would be: As for me, (I) speak Japanese.

Desu is the coupla - it is a form of the verb "to be" in Japanese. The coupla does not change form to accomodate for plural or different persons. This means that the sentences "I am." and "He is." would have the same verb with the same conjugation: desu.

Pronunciation note: Terminal, or final, u's are silent - desu would be pronounced "des".

Another sentence would be:

Anata wa Nihonjin desu.
This translates as:
You are Japanese.

Anata is the second person singular pronoun (you).

Nihonjin is a compound noun - it consists of "nihon", which means Japan, and "jin", which is a suffix meaning "a person from"

This is the end of the first small section - I am now going to go around and see if I can find a good set of online tutorials that I can recommend This took a bit to put together! Anyway, enjoy, and if you have any critiques, suggestions, or questions, post here!

ToshiroOC

[merry]

It won't be of real practical use for myself, but I am generally - highly - interested in foreign languages, so THANKS!

I will be following this.

[ToshiroOC]

You bring up something interesting - most of the people I talk to like to learn foreign languages, but they don't see much practical use to em... the way I see it, for every language you learn, your net worth goes up, because your polyglotism (sp?) is an asset to any business, especially if it is one that deals internationally... I have heard of people commanding thousands of dollars more in certain industries because of a solid knowledge of extra languages... the most used languages in technical documents are English, German, and Japanese, and knowing these would be beneficial in any tech job... in physics, most of the great physicists wrote in German... so German is necesary for higher-level physics degrees, last time I checked. Foreign languages are really useful and practical, even if many people don't see it

[Vampyromaniac]

Originally posted by ToshiroOC
Nihonjin is a compound noun - it consists of "nihon", which means Japan, and "jin", which is a suffix meaning "a person from"

Hehe, so sinjin would be "a person form" of sin, eh?
Muhahaha, SIN PERSONIFIED

[ToshiroOC]

I would like to think that it wasn't intentional

[Zardon]

very interesting reading, im in work atm and would need a little more time to read it closely but ill be interested in this thread. I think most native english speakers are lazy so hopefully more members will get involved in this. its a great idea.

[ToshiroOC]

Here is a second installment of the Crash Course: Japanese. Again, all rights are reserved.

The other personal pronouns are as follows:

First Person Singular (I): Watashi (Watakushi, very formal variant)
First Person Plural (we): Watashitachi (Watakushitachi, very formal variant)
Second Person Singular (you): Anata
Second Person Plural (y'all): Anatatachi (Anatagata, very formal variant)
Third Person Singular Male (he): Kare
Third Person Plural Male (they): Karera
Third Person Singular Female (she): Kanojo
Third Person Plural Female (they): Kanojotachi

The Japanese language allows for leaving out subjects in sentences, so the following sentences would be acceptable in context, but vague out of context.

Gakusei desu.
Nihonjin desu.

These could mean "I am a student", and "I am Japanese", if you were talking about yourself. If you were talking about someone else, then the subject would be assumed to be the subject of the topic.

Translate the following sentences:

Watashi wa gakusei desu. Nihonjin desu.

The correct translation would be, "I am a student. I am Japanese."

Notice that "watashi" is not said in the second sentence. This is an example of a subject being left out of a sentence because of a clear context.

The next section will probably contain a dialogue and introduce some more words.

ToshiroOC

[craig5320]

'Gakusei is the noun for "university student".'

So how does it fit into the phrase:

Watashi wa gakusei desu.
This translates as:
I speak Japanese.

Did i miss something? where's does 'university student' fit into 'I speak Japanese'?

Cool Idea and seen as my mate knows japanese I'll have to try and dazzle him with my new found ability

[fornicatarachnid]

Driverheaven just gets better and better !!

Brilliant idea ToshiroOC and thanks for taking the time out to do

this, I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say your efforts are truly

appreciated

I took French and German at school but like a lot of us at that

age I didn't really take much notice and it was a wasted

opportunity but I will be paying extra special attention this time

[JavaFox]

Originally posted by craig5320
'Gakusei is the noun for "university student".'
So how does it fit into the phrase:
Watashi wa gakusei desu.
This translates as:
I speak Japanese.

No, you didn't miss anything, Craig. That was just a mistake. What he typed actually translates to "I am a student." "Gakusei" has nothing to do with the level of scholarship, actually -- Daigakusei would be the way to say "university student."

I would also be a little nit-picky about the translation of the word "jin." "Jin" does not mean "person from," it actually only means "person." It is, however, pretty much exclusively used as a suffix. The non-suffix noun form of "person" would be "hito" ("hito" and "jin" both use the same character).

But it was an otherwise excellent write-up, nontheless.

[Zardon]

yes ive learned quite a bit here today, keep it coming !!! (and you are more than welcome to join in java )


how about you teach us some common phrases like

"hello, you are a very beautiful woman, can I have your phone number?"

"its a nice day isnt it?"

"ill have a beer please"

"where do you come from"

"hello, im the owner of driverheaven, would you like to come home with me, and make me some coffee in the morning?"


and other nice sayings like this.

[craig5320]

"Mines a pint!" and "Your house or mine" will do. oh and perhaps "Your breast's are very beautiful may I touch them?"

[Zardon]

well all joking aside, I really do appreciate the effort you have put into this thread toshiro and I do genuinely look forward to reading what you and java post in here.
I love japanese, the eastern culture and the language, and im always up for learning.

[ToshiroOC]

Originally posted by craig5320
'Gakusei is the noun for "university student".'

So how does it fit into the phrase:

Watashi wa gakusei desu.
This translates as:
I speak Japanese.

Did i miss something? where's does 'university student' fit into 'I speak Japanese'?

Cool Idea and seen as my mate knows japanese I'll have to try and dazzle him with my new found ability

ARGH! I thought I fixed that! I originally had a more complex sentence that was "watashi wa nihon'go o hanashimasu.", which does translate as "I speak Japanese", but then I realized that it used a non-coupla verb, which I haven't explained yet, so I changed the sentence to "I am a student", but forgot to change the translation everywhere... sorry about that...

ToshiroOC

[Ryoko]

good use in a western culture: watching anime

and i heard that anata mo anime no otaku desu ka (pronounced deska) means "you are very good looking", but not in a nice way

[ToshiroOC]

Here we are going to go over a short conversation, and learn the vocabulary involved with the conversation. Note - do not expect to be able to understand this yet.

Daiaroogu:

Gakuensai de.

SUZUKI: A, Fujii san, konnichi wa.
FUJII: Konnichi wa. Shibaraku desu nee.
SUZUKI: Ogenki desu ka.
FUJII: Ee, kedo akiteiru desu.
SUZUKI: Kochira wa watashi no gakusei deshita. Yamada san desu.
FUJII: Fujii desu. Hajimemashite.
YAMADA: Hajimemashite.
FUJII: Yamada san mo gakusei desu ka.
YAMADA: Iie, watashi wa gakusei ja arimasen. Sotsugyoosei desu.
FUJII: Ah, soo desu ka.
YAMADA: Fujii san wa?
FUJII: Watashi wa sensei no nihon'go desu.
SUZUKI: Watashitachi wa kore kara resutoran no chuugokuryoori e ikimasu. Issho ni ikimasen ka.
FUJII: Ee, ikimashoo.

Translation (see if you can figure out what is going on )

Dialogue:

At the School.

SUZUKI: Oh, Mr. Fuji, hello.
FUJII: Hello. I haven't seen you for a long time.
SUZUKI: How are you?
FUJII: Fine, but I'm bored.
SUZUKI: This was a student of mine. He is Mr. Yamada.
FUJII: I am Mr Fujii. How do you do?
YAMADA: How do you do?
FUJII: Mr. Yamada, you are a student too?
YAMADA: No, I am not a student. I am an alumnus.
FUJII: Ah, is that so?
YAMADA: As for you, Mr. Fujii?
FUJII: I am a teacher of the Japanese language.
SUZUKI: We were about to go to a chinese restaurant. Won't you come with us?
FUJII: Yes, let's go.



Vocabulary:
konnichi wa hello
shibaraku desu nee I haven't seen you for a long time.
ogenki desu ka are you fine? (How are you?)
ee/iie yes/no
akiteiru bored (tired)
kochira this
hajimemashite How do you do?
gakusei student
sotsugyoosei alumnus/alumni
soo desu ka is that so?
sensei teacher
nihon'go Japanese language
resutoran restaurant
chuugokuryoori chinese cuisine
issho ni <verb> ka why don't you <verb>?
ikimasu/ikimasen/ikimashoo conjugated forms of iku, to go.
deshita was
ja arimasen is not

Ok, now to start with the grammar.

Note: There are no plurals or articles in Japanese. That means that "a word", "the word", "the words" and "words" are all the same word - kotoba. Sotsugyoosei means both "alumnus" and "alumni" - the precise definition of the word will be derived from the context.

San is a suffix meant to mean "Mr." or "Ms." in Japanese - it is used for people both above and below the speaker, and is easily the most common form of address. When talking directly to someone of a higher status or equal status, to be polite, one would use <name>-san instead of "anata". San is never used on one's self - I would never say Toshiro San to refer to myself, even when giving my name. I would say, "Toshiro desu.", not , "Toshiro san desu."

There are more particles aside from "wa" that are used here. The new ones to be learned this lesson are "ka", "no", "mo", and "kedo". There are different types of particles - sentence particles, word particles, and clause particles. Sentence particles affect the entire sentence while word particles are limited to the word(s) they precede/suceed. Clause particles are like conjunctions in English, and effect whole clauses.

Ka is a sentence particle. When added to the end of a sentence, it makes it into a question. Look at the following sentences:

Watashi wa gakusei desu.
Translation: I am a student.
Watashi wa gakusei desu ka.
Translation: Am I a student?

Adding ka may be done only at the very end of a sentence. It is not the only way to make questions in Japanese, but it is the simplest, and does not require changing the word order as in English.

No is the genitive particle. When used in the construct noun1 no noun2, noun1 becomes genitive, or in other words, it adds 's to the first noun, or acts in the place of "of". See the sentences below:

Kochira wa watashi no gakusei desu.
This I 's friend is

Translation: This is my friend.


Watashitachi wa kore kara resutoran no chuugokuryoori e ikimasu
We about to restaurant of chinese cuisine towards go

Translation. We were about to go toward a chinese restaurant.

Note: e is a particle which will be discussed later.

Kedo is a different particle which would be used in the place of "but". In the context of the dialogue:

SUZUKI: Ogenki desu ka.
(You) Fine is ?
FUJII: Ee, kedo akiteiru desu.
Yes, but bored (I) am.
Translation. Are you fine? (How are you?).
Yes, but I am bored.

I can also be added to the end of a sentence, in which case it's original meaning is no longer there, and merely serves as a softener to avoid an abrupt remark. There will be more on this and variants of "kedo" later.

Mo is a particle meaning "also", and can be used with any noun. In the context of the dialogue:

FUJII: Yamada san mo gakusei desu ka.
Yamada Mr. also student is ?

For the verbs:
iku (to go)
Present Tense, Affirmative: Ikimasu (subject goes)
Present Tense, Negative: Ikimasen (subject doesn't go)
Imperative, Single Person Plural: Ikimashoo (let's go!)

coupla:
Present Tense, Affirmative: Desu (subject is)
Present Tense, Negative, Informal: Ja arimasen (subject is not)
Present Tense, Negative, Formal: De wa arimasen (subject is not)
Past Tense, Affirmative: Deshita (was)

The coupla is an irregular verb. Iku, however, is not, and conjugates normally.
The way to conjugate verbs from the present affirmative tense (-masu)* is explained here:

Ikimasu - remove the masu
iki - now add the proper ending

-masu for present affirmative
-masen for present negative
-mashoo for imperative 1st person plural

Watashi wa ikimasu. I go.
Watashi wa ikimasen. I do not go.
Watashitachi wa ikimashoo. Let's go!

Here are a few other verbs for conjugation:

Kaerimasu, Kimasu, Tabemasu, Oyogimasu
come back, come , eat , swim

For Tabemasu,
Kare wa tabemasu. He eats.
Kare wa tabemasen. He does not eat.
Watashitachi wa tabemashoo. Let's eat!

You can try the rest!

I hope I went over everything - please post any questions you have or any comments, critiques, or mistakes you noticed And Javafox, I'm rapidly approaching the point where I don't quite know the material well enough to be comforable teaching it, so please feel free to pitch in at any time I'm going to probably make up a couple exercises next...

ToshiroOC

*Iku is the dictionary form, and there are many more rules than you need to know now about going from a dictionary form to a conjugated formal form such as ikimasen... later, if I get that far with these, I will explain in more detail.

[ToshiroOC]

Originally posted by Ryoko
good use in a western culture: watching anime

and i heard that anata mo anime no otaku desu ka (pronounced deska) means "you are very good looking", but not in a nice way

After reading the lesson above, we can try to dissect this phrase

Anata mo anime no otaku desu ka...

You also (anime of <pronoun for you, polite form>) are? is a pretty literal translation... I can't say I can see how that renders unto "You are very good looking", though Javafox may be able to explain up this one...

ToshiroOC

[ToshiroOC]

Originally posted by craig5320
"Mines a pint!" and "Your house or mine" will do. oh and perhaps "Your breast's are very beautiful may I touch them?"

Originally posted by Zardon
yes ive learned quite a bit here today, keep it coming !!! (and you are more than welcome to join in java )


how about you teach us some common phrases like

"hello, you are a very beautiful woman, can I have your phone number?"

"its a nice day isnt it?"

"ill have a beer please"

"where do you come from"

"hello, im the owner of driverheaven, would you like to come home with me, and make me some coffee in the morning?"


and other nice sayings like this.

Well, let me check my nice handy dandy book, "Outrageous Japanese: Slang, Curses and Epithets"
The first page I turn to, and I see this:

"And lastly, I want to note a toast popular during WWII. For years I have treasured this little gem without knowing just where I might ever make use of it..."
"Shinshu fumetsu, kichiku Bei-Ei!" - The Divine Land will never die; down with the American and British fiends!

Ok, lets see if I can find any other good ones in here...

baka - stupid/ignorant
baka na baita - ignorant slut
Jein omae wa kokoroe-chigai no baka na baita da - Jane , you're a musguided, ignorant slut. (Jein - with Japanese alphabet, it would be pronounced "jah-ney" if it was "jane"...)

and

Jiten da baka to iu kotaba wo hiite mreba omae no shashin ga notte iru - If you look up the word "stupid" in a dictionary, you'll find your photograph there.

I don't know if I'm using this right, but what the hell!

Nihon-boke no Javafox wa kyokutan desu yo! Repobikaan desu!

I'm hoping that means that Javafox has an extreme mental disorder from his long stay in Japan, and he is Republican I probably butchered it, but its fun

Anyway, I'll post a few interesting phrases with each set of stuff from now on - make it a little more interesting

ToshiroOC

[JavaFox]

I guess I will throw my hat into this thread. Just in case anyone was wondering, I am half-Japanese and I spent the last decade living in Japan. I am fluent in spoken Japanese, although my abilities as reading and writing are concerned are woefully lacking. My New Year's resolution is to get back on track with my studies, and hopefully pull up my literacy a few grades.

At any rate, I won't be hijacking this thread. It is Toshiro's. But I will, per his request, proofread through it, and offer corrections where appropriate. And perhaps on a later date post a lesson on keigo or something.

--

FUJII: Ee, kedo akiteiru desu.

Gotta stop you here. While I do see what you are trying to say, no Japanese would ever say "akiteru desu" because that means "I'm tired of [it]." Akiteru is a word used to mean that one has grown tired of a certain object or action, not to indicated boredum. The correct way to say "Fine, but I've been bored [lately]" would be:

1) "Ee, demo saikin wa chotto taikutsu desu."
2) "Ee, demo saikin wa ohima ga ooi desu."

"Saikin" is the word used to say "lately." While your use of "kedo" as "but" is acceptable, I just chose to use "demo." "Taikutsu" is the appropriate word for "boredum," while "hima" or "ohima" indicated "free time." "Ooi" is a word that means "an abundance of" or "a lot of." So the above two statements translate to:

1) "Fine, but I've been bored lately."
2) "Fine, but I've had a lot of free time lately."

FUJII: Watashi wa sensei no nihon'go desu.

Actually, there's a small problem with this sentence. You wouldn't say "sensei no nihongo" to indicate a Japanese teacher, you would said "nihongo no sensei." "No" is almost possesive in all its uses, and what you are saying is, essentially "teacher's Japanese" instead of "Japanese's teacher." Do you get what I mean?

At any rate, most professors of Japanese wouldn't call themselves teachers of Japanese (nihongo no sensei). They would say "kokugo no sensei." "Kokugo," literally means "country's language."

SUZUKI: Watashitachi wa kore kara resutoran no chuugokuryoori e ikimasu. Issho ni ikimasen ka.

Again, there is a slight mistake with this sentence. You would say "Chuugokuryoori NO resutoran," not the other way around.


Regarding "shibaraku desu ne" -- this isn't something I hear much. I'm not saying it's wrong, but I've never heard anyone say this to me. Perhaps it is older Japanese? Most people usually say "hisashiburi desu ne" or, the more polite, "ohisashiburi desu ne" to say "Long time no see!"

Note: There are no plurals or articles in Japanese. That means that "a word", "the word", "the words" and "words" are all the same word - kotoba. Sotsugyoosei means both "alumnus" and "alumni" - the precise definition of the word will be derived from the context.

I don't completely agree with that. The examples you give are indeed true. There is no plural form of "kotoba" nor "sotsugyousei." However, some words, like "hito" (person), do have somewhat of a plural form. When you are referring to large groups of people, you sometime say "hitobito" (this is essentially saying "person-person" to pluralize it). You also say things like "wareware" or "warera" to indicated "us" ("ware" is an antiquated form way to say "I" or "Me"). So, while most words don't have a plural form, there are some occasions in which pluralized nouns are used.

Kochira wa watashi no gakusei desu.
This I 's friend is

Translation: This is my friend.

What you are saying is actually "This is my student," not "This is my friend." Friend is most commonly "tomodachi," though there are numerous ways to say this as well.

---

Other than the few critiques I had, this was an excellent write-up. Remember, Toshiro, don't be afraid of making mistakes, 'cause I will do my best to catch them. A taxi driver once told me (Japanese taxi drivers are wells of knowledge, let me tell you!) never to be afraid to make a mistake, particularly when speaking Japanese. Why? Because people will correct you, and you will probably never make that mistake again. In this way, making a mistake is learning.

Anyway, good post!

[JavaFox]

Originally posted by ToshiroOC
After reading the lesson above, we can try to dissect this phrase

Anata mo anime no otaku desu ka...

Actually, this has nothing to do with looks. An "otaku," as many of you know, means "an obsessed person" or someone who takes his hobby overboard. One can be an otaku of anime, an otaku of manga, even an otaku of computers (pasokon no otaku)! Basically, otakus are geeks.

Anyway, the above statment says "Are you an anime otaku as well?"

[JavaFox]

Originally posted by ToshiroOC
Jiten da baka to iu kotaba wo hiite mreba omae no shashin ga notte iru - If you look up the word "stupid" in a dictionary, you'll find your photograph there.[/b]

This translation is exceptional, though I can't imagine a Japanese person ever saying this. Oh, and the particle between Jiten and baka should be "de," not "da."

Nihon-boke no Javafox wa kyokutan desu yo! Repobikaan desu!

I'm hoping that means that Javafox has an extreme mental disorder from his long stay in Japan, and he is Republican I probably butchered it, but its fun

LOL! Well, the phrase is a little butchered. Kyokutan really only means "extreme" and nobody would say, as far as I know, "Nihon-boke." Furthermore, there is a Republican party in Japan, too! It's called the Kyouwatou (tou means Party). So Republican would be "kyouwashugisha" or "kyouwatou no hito" or something along those lines.

[Zardon]

toshiro and java, truly excellent posting. this is my favourite thread on the board atm. im learning and being entertained

Note: There are no plurals or articles in Japanese. That means that "a word", "the word", "the words" and "words" are all the same word - kotoba. Sotsugyoosei means both "alumnus" and "alumni" - the precise definition of the word will be derived from the context.

this is something I find fascinating and quite hard to grasp, certainly if I was ever conversing with a native speaker (at a much later date), it could be quite complex to follow.

[Ryoko]

Originally posted by JavaFox
Actually, this has nothing to do with looks. An "otaku," as many of you know, means "an obsessed person" or someone who takes his hobby overboard. One can be an otaku of anime, an otaku of manga, even an otaku of computers (pasokon no otaku)! Basically, otakus are geeks.

Anyway, the above statment says "Are you an anime otaku as well?"

ah ha!! i knew that *censored* was messing with me... at first thought since i don't speak japanese i thought it meant "it isn't hard to obsess over your animeish looks" but apparently i'm not even close. eh, oh well.

and yes, i am an otaku

[Zardon]

java = kochira wa watashi no tomodachi desu


JavaFox wa watashi no tomodachi desu

[JavaFox]

That looks like a very fine first sentence, Z'.

[Zardon]

Originally posted by JavaFox
That looks like a very fine first sentence, Z'.

its very differently structured, but im certainly getting some of the basic foundation of how it all is "Put" together.

[ToshiroOC]

Well, this is the reason I wanted Javafox to come and help a bit - I'm getting in over my head with a bit of this - I have been focusing more on the different alphabets and vocabulary instead of grammar, and its showing So thanks JF for going over this - I'm still a beginning student, and error-prone... leading into what I have to say about my

Errors:

Akiteiru is a word I plucked out of the dictionary just for this - it was a word I just learned and wanted to use, despite not really knowing how

No is the one particle that has caused me endless grief, mainly because I forget what is what - something's thing is something no thing or thing no something I guess I was consistent, but backwards here. And I know the word nihon'go, and the word sensei, and I'm sure that anyone who speaks Japanese would understand what I was trying to say Just I didn't know the fine differences and oddities of the language as far as that...

As for plurals, I'm not far enough in the language to know that I just know the counters and how you use them for plural objects, but those are more glorified numbers than anything else if I understand this correctly...

As for tomodachi, I had that sentence from my textbook, and I was using it as a template for my own... the translation is for the sentence in my textbook, and the Japanese one is mine

That "exceptional" translation is straight from my phrase book, not from me I really wish it was, but I can't quite totally dissect that sentence (in that I could use it, but with different words, and have it still be totally correct)

And though I found the Japanese word for Republican in my dictionary, I couldn't tell if it was the same - a political party of conservatives, or people who advocate republics, or what... would the Republican party in America be the same word

Again, thank you JF for going over things - the only way to learn is to try, and I'm trying right now (its good review to go over this stuff and try and put words to it...) It's probably going to be a bit before I get the next one up, mainly because I need to review the stuff meself before writing about it

ToshiroOC

Glad to hear everyone's enjoying themselves! Next lesson I'm going to start up on the Japanese Characters, so everyone should try and find the Japanese character plugin for their browser-of-choice (if I don't get the links meself for the lesson...)