mitchermitcher Posted July 31, 2015 Report Share Posted July 31, 2015 there are general trends, such as people generally crossing their Ts after they already wrote the vertical slash -I've been recommended the Tangorin Japanese Dictionary as one of the best online Japanese dictionaries out there.yo what and I fully support using Tangorin as well. While there are times that I use other sites as well, Tangorin suffices most of the time. Lovely site. And you're not like, covering only 5 letters at a time so it's alright. You could've covered all of the hiragana letters in one go but doing it in two weeks is pretty alright as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted July 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2015 yo what and I fully support using Tangorin as well. While there are times that I use other sites as well, Tangorin suffices most of the time. Lovely site. And you're not like, covering only 5 letters at a time so it's alright. You could've covered all of the hiragana letters in one go but doing it in two weeks is pretty alright as well. Well okay, fine, I cross my Ts afterward. XD There are exceptions, of course, and apparently you're one of them. >_< Okay cool, so that's two reps for Tangorin. I'll have to keep that in mind whenever I need a Japanese dictionary (which will probably be always until I learn enough kanji and crap but that'll be years off). Yeah no, five kana at a time would be dumb for a weekly blog. ._. And yeah I could've but the app has them separated into two chapters so I figured I'd just go along with it. Plus makes it less overwhelming for people (and also easier on me--idk how many hours this update took to write but it was a few at least). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet MS Posted July 31, 2015 Report Share Posted July 31, 2015 Now how did I not know of this? Looks dece, everything's sufficiently accurate so far. I could help out in grammar, though if this blog lasts long enough I might also end up learning some things from it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted August 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2015 3: Hiragana, Part 2 Hey guys, sorry this is late. Thursday was an off day for me. But enough about that. Let's move on to hiragana! Make sure you have last week's hiragana completely memorized before you move on to this lesson, though. [spoiler=は ひ ふ へ ほ]We're gonna dive right in with the H-series: ha hi fu he ho. Now, you probably already spotted the discrepancy and might wonder why it sounds like that. But as I mentioned before in the pronunciation chapter, the Japanese F isn't a hard sound like ours, so their "fu" sounds like a cross between our "hu" and our "fu." Also note the similarities between ha and ho. And it only gets worse in our next series, as there's another character that looks like ho, except without the first stroke.[spoiler=は=Ha]Pronunciation: N + あ, like in "hah."-Don't forget the loop is wider than it is tall.-This looks like what it sounds like. Ha. [spoiler=ひ=Hi]Pronunciation: H + に, like the masculine pronoun "he" or the sound of laughter "hee."-Keep the loop nice and open so it doesn't look like a V. Also make sure to keep it slanted.-He (hi) has a big nose. [spoiler=ふ=Fu]Pronunciation: F/H + う, making a "fu/hu" sound.-Notice that this character is written slightly differently here? In the chart, that's how it's written in handwriting, but the strokes are often connected in print.-Now, Tofugu uses a hula dancer to help you remember this. Me, however? I think this character's overall triangular shape evokes a picture of Mt. Fuji. [spoiler=へ=He]Pronunciation: H + え, as in when somebody snickers, "heh."-Don't forget the downstroke is twice as long as the upstroke.-More mountainous imageries. Think of Mt. Saint Helens. While this character might not be totally flat like Helens, it's still kinda squat. [spoiler=ほ=Ho]Pronunciation: H + お, as in "ho."-Make sure to note the differences between this character and ha.-Tofugu's comparisons keep getting odder and odder...think of the left stroke as a chimney and the right one as a headless Naga Santa Clause. "Ho ho ho, you don't want me coming down your chimney this Christmas Eve." [spoiler=Ten-ten and Maru]Now, you're familiar with the dakuten symbol softening the consonants of characters. However, with the H-set, it hardens instead of softens, and turns to B. So:Ba bi bu be bo! However, this is only the first degree of hardening! It goes a step further if you replace the dakuten with a circle, or maru symbol. The B turns into a P, which is a naturally harder sound. Or, first you enter the bathroom, and only then do you go pee. You don't do it the other way around. So that might help you remember which is which.Edit: I thought of another way too today. Think of the BP (British Petroleum) gas and oil company. Pa pi pu pe po! -The return of Hiragana Drag-n-Drop! Put all the hiragana you've learned so far (あ, か, さ, た, な, and は columns) and put them in place. When you've done this in a minute or less or done it five times then move on.-Using Real Kana again, check all the columns mentioned above as well as the dakuten (") columns, unchecking all katakana but checking all typefaces, and drill the kana for 5-10 minutes until you feel comfortable with these characters. If you feel you need more practice on the newer kana, uncheck the ones you feel confident on. Again, I like to do it until I get 100 right.-Download or print out this worksheet and fill in the boxes. This will help you remember the latest kana.-Good news. We're done with ten-ten! So here's a worksheet covering them all to help you keep them in your head. [spoiler=ま み む め も]Next up is the M-series, ma mi mu me mo! You'll be happy to know that this is completely regular. No shi or fu crap here.[spoiler=ま=Ma]Pronunciation: M + あ, like when you say "mama."-This is the character that looks like ho. Notice, however, that the vertical line cuts through both horizontal lines for this one, like it did for ha's single line.-This is probably the oddest of Tofugu's mnemonics. No head? Two pairs of arms? What the heck, ma? Yes, imagine it's your ma doing this. The only reason this worked for me was because it was just so strange. [spoiler=み=Mi]Pronunciation: M + い, like when addressing oneself: "me."-Don't forget to keep the loop open and draw the arch way over to the right.-Looks like the number 21. Who just hit blackjack? Me (mi)! Who just turned 21? Me (mi)!-I remember it by associating it with Sagittarius the centaur archer, which makes me think of mythical creatures, or taking it a step further, kami. [spoiler=む=Mu]Pronunciation: M + う, making a "moo" sound.-Give this character a nice wide bottom, like a coffee mug.-To remember this character, think of it as a cow. "Mooooo" (mu) says Lord CowCow. [spoiler=め=Me]Pronunciation: M + え, making a "meh" sound.-Try to keep this one separate from nu. It helps to remember that the N-series love to add faNcy loops to otherwise plain characters.-The Japanese word for eye is "me." Think of "megane," or glasses. Speaking of eyes, doesn't this character look like one? The two horns give it eyelashes, so that might help you remember. [spoiler=も=Mo]Pronunciation: M + お, making "Moe" like the name.-Keep in mind that the end of stroke one is pointing right to stroke two (first crosshatch), not only giving you a hint about the stroke order, but also tying the character together.-You catch more fish with more worms on your hook. -Back to Hiragana Drag-n-Drop. Try to get all the characters you've learned so far by 1:10 or sooner, or until you've done it five times.-Don't forget Real Kana! Real Kana's probably my favorite practice site.-No practice sheets this time around. [spoiler=や ゆ よ]Next up is the Y-series, consisting of just three characters: ya yu yo. The yi and ye sounds don't exist in modern Japanese, so that means there's less for us to learn. Yay![spoiler=や=Ya]Pronunciation: Y + あ, making the "ya" sound.-What you see is how this character is written in print. In handwriting, it's a bit different. Sometimes people connect the two horns as well or fancy it up.-Do you see Lord CowCow's cousin Sir Yak-a-lot has come calling? [spoiler=ゆ=Yu]Pronunciation: Y + う, so it sounds like "you."-Notice how the end of stroke one leads right into the next stroke. Some people even connect the strokes. It's good for you to recognize both methods.-This kana is a very unique (yu) looking fish. Also apparently the Chinese word for fish is yu, so that might help too. [spoiler=よ=Yo]Pronunciation: Y + お, making a "yo" sound.-Like with the other characters, make sure the loop here is wider than it is tall. Also keep the two ends that stick out on the right side about the same length.-The hitchhiker is yelling "Yo! Why won't you stop?" at all the cars that drive past him. Probably because he's actually a Naga that's planning on eating the first unlucky chap who stops for him. -Back to our old friend Hiragana Drag-n-Drop. Try to get all the characters you've learned so far done by 1:20 or sooner. Or move on to the next step after five tries.-Back to Real Kana, add the Y-column, make sure to check all typefaces, and drill for 5-10 minutes.-Download or print out this worksheet, and fill in all the boxes. [spoiler=ら り る れ ろ]Starting this, we're over the hump! It's also the last full set, so that's nice. Even better, the R-series doesn't have any irregulars, but the pronunciation might knock you off balance if you haven't mastered the Japanese R yet. Notice the similarities between ru and ro. Ra ri ru re ro![spoiler=ら=Ra]Pronunciation: R + あ, making a "ra" sound.-Looks similar to chi, doesn't it? But don't get confused. Try and remember that ra "racks" the crosshatch that chi has.-The rapper is rapping at the DJ table.-Or try and remember that this kana is rated 5 stars. Do you want to cheer "hurrah" or "rah rah" to getting a perfect 5-star rating on your test? [spoiler=り=Ri]Pronunciation: R + い, making for "reed" or "reason."-Now, in brushier fonts, this character looks the way it's shown above. However, in more handwritten fonts, the character looks the way it's shown in the chart. Make sure to memorize both ways so you don't get confused when you see one or the other.-The reeds (ri) are swaying in the wind. [spoiler=る=Ru]Pronunciation: R + う, like "kangaroo" or "rude."-Don't forget that after the first turn in the stroke, it goes further left than any other part of this character.-This character is just like ro except it has a loop at the end. However, ru is a crazier route (ru) with a loop (ru) at the end. Are there no rules on this road?-Or I just remember that this kana has a kangaroo tail, unlike ro. [spoiler=れ=Re]Pronunciation: R + え, like in "revenant," or "relative."-Looks almost exactly like ne, except without the loop. Like I said with me, remember the N-series like to add faNcy loops to their characters.-Another good way to keep the two apart is to remember that the end of this kana looks like a man's knees as he's bent over retching after drinking too much at the bar. Lightweight...or lightreight huh? Okay yeah, that was bad. [spoiler=ろ=Ro]Pronunciation: R + お, like when in "Rome" do as the "Romans" do.-Avoid making this character look like a 3 by keeping the top sharp. Also note, as in ru, that the second bend goes further left than any other part of this character.-This is an ordinary road leading to Rome without any loops. -Yes, it's our old friend Drag-n-Drop Hiragana. Try and do this within 1:30 or less.-And our newer friend Learn Kana. Check off the R-column and set aside 5-10 minutes for practice.-No practice sheets yet. [spoiler=わ を ん]This is the last of the hiragana we'll be learning. After this, we'll cover a couple rules on using it, but these are the last characters you have to learn with this script. Wa wo n. Yeah, you heard that right. Like the Y-series, the W-series is incomplete and even lacks a u-kana. This series is often learned with n. N is the only character in hiragana that's not a complete syllable, but just a consonant, like what we have in our alphabet.[spoiler=わ=Wa]Pronunciation: W + あ, as in "water" or "wash."-Wa is similar in shape to ne and re, just lacks the little loop or outward curl at the end. Make sure to keep the loop nice and open, like a filled water balloon.-This character looks like a wasp flying straight up. Imagine the cat from ne is chasing this wasp, which is why it's flying straight up, stinger pointed down at the cat's face. [spoiler=を=Wo]Pronunciation: W + お, to make "wo." However, the W is very quiet, so it sounds more like "oh" than "woe."-Imagine this character as a mixture of chi and to when writing it.-"Whoa!" yells the chinless guy from chi. "Someone threw a boomerang into my mouth!" he somehow manages to say around the boomerang. [spoiler=ん=N]Pronunciation: Just the "N" sound, like in our alphabet.-Don't forget to make this a cursive letter by adding the curl at the end.-Yes I know this looks like a lowercase H but imagine it's a lowercase N instead. -One more round of Drag-n-Drop Hiragana, guys. *sniff* I'm getting emotional now... Anyway, try and finish this within 1:40 or less.-Back to Real Kana, you can now check all the columns. Yes, that's right. All of them. Except the katakana ones, but that's a given. Try and practice for 5-10 minutes.-Download or print out this worksheet and fill it out. Okay guys, take a deep breath. That's the last of the hiragana you have to memorize. But you're not done yet. I mentioned earlier there's a bit left to learn, and I wasn't lying. [spoiler=Doubled consonants]So you guys know how to extend the length of vowels. Just write two vowels such as いい, which lasts two beats instead of one for "ee-ee." But what about doubling consonants? In English we write two consonants next to each other, like "battle" or "fellow." Japanese words also have doubled consonants, but they look a bit differently than what we're used to. However, they work the same way as doubled vowels. Instead of increasing the intensity of the sound, you just extend the length, like "met *pause* ta" instead of "metta." In Japanese, to double a consonant you write a small tsu (つ) before the consonant you want to double to show that it's supposed to be doubled. Remember that this tsu is half-sized to signify it's being used to double a consonant instead of standing on its own (っ as opposed to つ). I'll show you a couple examples:So basically, just put a pause between the doubled consonant to extend the sound. [spoiler=ん just has to be difficult]The only exception in doubled consonants is n. As you might have guessed, to double the n sound, you insert a ん where you need it instead. So if you were to write "donna" write out どんな instead of どっな. With n, there are also words that are different but look like they should be written the same way. For instance, せんえん and せねん. If you try and convert them into romaji, you may be tempted to write them both the same way: senen. However, they are two different words and sound differently: "sen-en" versus "se-nen." The first way is written as sen'en to differentiate it from senen. Note 1: The n character, or ん, can only be used at the end of a unit of sound, not the beginning.Note 2: Thus, it's good to remember that ん (n) + え (e) does not equal ね (ne), though this rule applies to the other four vowels as well. When using ん, to avoid merging the n sound with the following vowel, try and make it more like a ng sound. Japanese speakers often insert a "y" sound before the next vowel, like "sen-yen" to make it easier to differentiate. In fact "yen," the Japanese currency, is written as en. Even though it's written that way though, it sounds like "yen" which is why we know it that way. By the way, sen'en means "one thousand yen." "One Chihiro's worth of yen, please." [spoiler=Two-character combinations]ん aside, we have learned that the character tsu can work as a consonant doubler in addition to its original job working as a syllable. And it's not the only character that's working two jobs. The characters ya, yu, and yo can also be written as half-size after any i-character to create new sounds. Think about shi. You may have heard of the Japanese name Sho and wonder how that happens. Simple! Just add a small yo after shi and you get sho. Shi+yo=sho. Cut out the i and y, or the two inner letters, to get that sound. Likewise, we can make sha and shu using ya and yu respectively. If you add dakuten to shi to make ji, it's the same thing. Ja, ju, and jo. Thus, the famous "ja ne." Chi works the same way. Cha, chu, cho, and then ja, ju, and jo when you add dakuten, though these are less common than the shi dakuten. You may have wondered how Japanese write the "chu" kiss sound and this is how. So you might think that that's how it works for the other i-characters. Actually, I introduced shi and chi first because they are the exceptions. Everything else takes out only the i, leaving the y. For example: ki + ya does not equal ka, as we already have a kana for that, but kya. "Kyaaa! Look, look guys! It's Jaden-senpai! ...Oops, my bad. It's JustYui." Note 1: Remember that adding a dakuten to chi makes more of a "dzi" sound than "ji," though it's often written as "ji."Note 2: For ji (and dzi if you're differentiating them), some people like to leave in the y, making jya, jyu, jyo for example. I prefer taking them out, and so does the app I use, but you're welcome to use either method. So in total... ki + ya = kya きゃki + yu = kyu きゅki + yo = kyo きょgi + ya = gya ぎゃgi + yu = gyu ぎゅgi + yo = gyo ぎょshi + ya = sha しゃshi + yu = shu しゅshi + yo = sho しょji + ya = ja じゃji + yu = ju じゅji + yo = jo じょchi + ya = cha ちゃchi + yu = chu ちゅchi + yo = cho ちょni + ya = nya にゃni + yu = nyu にゅni + yo = nyo にょhi + ya = hya ひゃhi + yu = hyu ひゅhi + yo = hyo ひょbi + ya = bya びゃbi + yu = byu びゅbi + yo = byo びょpi + ya = pya ぴゃpi + yu = pyu ぴゅpi + yo = pyo ぴょmi + ya = mya みゃmi + yu = myu みゅmi + yo = myo みょri + ya = rya りゃri + yu = ryu りゅri + yo = ryo りょOf course, ぢゃ, ぢゅ, and ぢょ do exist, but they are pretty rare. [spoiler=Conclusion]So that does it for hiragana. Congrats, you are now a hiragana master. Or at least a hiragana adept. Still, it's best to solidify this stuff in your head, and that's what practice is for.Download or print out the Practice 1 and Practice 2 worksheets. By the way, all of the worksheets I've recommended were uploaded by me, so you don't have to worry about viruses or hotlinking or crap like that.Don't forget Drag-n-Drop Hiragana.Or Real Kana.You can also look at real life stuff to practice with too, such as Yomiuri Online, a Japanese newspaper. Check these out too. I also have a couple charts to help you keep track of all you've learned:Hiragana ChartHiragana Stroke Order Chart So, I considered adding another entry of "Sethera's Path" but decided that this update was long enough by itself. Sooo...we're done now. Show's over, folks, at least for this week. Tune in next week to discover what exciting new things we'll be covering. But before that, I'll be writing a little culture piece here, which you can expect within a few days. See ya! *bows off stage* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bury the year Posted August 11, 2015 Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 "细胞 拆分 在 两."NO. BAD SETH. THAT'S NOT HOW YOU CHINESE. 細胞分裂成两分 That's how you say "the cell splits in two." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted August 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2015 Why can't I rep this post five times? OT: Yay now I can hiragana. That chart for combined sounds confuses me now that I can read these. That's how I know I'm learning stuff; when hiragana makes more sense than romaji.Decided to add hiragana to the chart to make it less confusing. :) "细胞 拆分 在 两." NO. BAD SETH. THAT'S NOT HOW YOU CHINESE. 細胞分裂成两分 That's how you say "the cell splits in two."I'M SORRY, I DONT CHINESE PLEASE FORGIVE ME.Though actually what I wrote wasn't Chinese, but English using Chinese characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted August 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2015 Geography Hello guys and welcome to another culture update. Unlike the last one, this one really won't have anything pertaining to what we're learning. I mean, aside from the obvious "we're talking about Japan so yes it does have to do with it." And it's culture...well, kinda. Geography. Which is a bit different, but it's still fun. Anyway, I decided to try using more images in this blog, especially the culture posts, to make things a bit cooler, I don't know. Pictures make everything prettier! [spoiler=Sethera's Path, Entry 3]My pace has been a bit slower lately, but I think that's fine. Just so long as I haven't totally dropped it, it's okay to not run full-speed ahead like I was doing for a while. And that's another big reason that, while both my pace and yours are probably faster than this "one lesson a week" business, that I'm going so slow with this. Gives me a bit of buffer. Though if things get really bad like me getting super super busy I might have to take brief hiatuses until things start to settle down again. That shouldn't be for a bit yet though. So, big reason my pace has been slow lately--I really, really hate having to memorize stuff without anything to make it fun. Yes, it's necessary, but that doesn't make it any less boring. So for a few days I'd been procrastinating on getting any further in my learning because of this one chapter with vocabulary. Fun fact: there's gonna be a lot of vocabulary. Anyway, I finally figured out how to get it done a couple days ago. Quizzes (on the app) and flashcards. Since you guys don't have the app and I can't figure out a way to make quizzes with shuffled answers without shelling out dough for subscriptions, I'm gonna have to give you guys only one tool for memorizing vocabulary, and that's flashcards. Also looking at tables, but I'll be showing those anyway. For flashcards, Anki is what I recommend. It's a downloadable program (cross-platform, for fellow Mac users). Tofugu recommended it to me and after using it, I recommend it to you. I'll probably have to figure out a way to upload a deck import so you guys don't have to make the flashcards yourselves like I did--though I have to say I remember learning somewhere that making the flashcards yourselves helps with memorizing, but ehhh most of you are probably lazy butts like me. The only time I'm not being lazy is when I'm engaged in something, like nerding out, which is what I'm doing with this blog--nerding out over Japanese. Also heads up--katakana isn't going to be like hiragana. I mean, in the way I post it. It's not gonna be two updates of full katakana like I did for hiragana. Gonna break it up a bit more like the app did cuz heck, might be a better way to learn. I don't know, since we all learn differently, but yeah. So for those worried it's gonna be one big slog of katakana, don't, cuz it won't be. So let's start! But first, a note. Just because something is spelt a certain way here, doesn't mean it's spelled like that there. For example, I never knew Prague was actually called Praha by the natives before I visited there. It's the same for Japan. Toukyou instead of what we know as Tokyo. I'll be using the English versions to make things more recognizable though. [spoiler=Japan = Mountains]Japan shares a few things with Hawaii. Being an island chain, being a place for cool food, and being made of volcanoes. Unlike Hawaii, this is due to being near the edge of multiple tectonic plates instead of being a hotspot, which is another reason this country is wracked by earthquakes and Hawaii isn't. All of this has had a huge impact on their geography. Unlike the United States, which holds a plethora of different terrain, Japan is all mountains, all the time. Think about any part of where you live. Odds are, there's at least one thing about it that's so common, you just never notice it anymore. Perhaps it's the cows and their stink, or the sound of trains, or the lake right next to your town. Or perhaps, like Japanese people, everywhere you look is a mountain. Because of all the mountains though, Japan's a bit cramped, with everybody living in the valleys between mountains. 80% of the people live on 20% of the land. I was told to take half the US population, squeeze them into California, and then squeeze them further into a fifth of the landmass. That's how it is for Japan. [spoiler=The Japanese are very conscientious]So if you've ever lived in a cramped apartment building, you probably understand that people have to be polite when they're crowded together in one area, otherwise things can get hairy quickly. Japan, with its population problems, have figured out a way to combat that. Avoiding meiwaku--being a nuisance to others. You know the Golden Rule, right? "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Meiwaku is similar, except it inverses it. "Do not do unto others as you would have them not do unto you." Basically, don't be an inconsiderate sh*thead. Littering is meiwaku, jostling people out of the way is meiwaku, playing loud music in the dead of night is meiwaku, etc. Obviously Americans would have a hard time with this. Not to bash my country, but it's true. I don't know how many times I've had to stand on the bus while others take up three seats, or couldn't concentrate on the movie at the theater because of some noisy people nearby. Plus, I've seen how American tourists act, and it's pretty despicable. This pretty much fits Japan's attitude to a T. [spoiler=Islands are a thing here]Okay, yeah, there are hundreds of islands on Japan and I don't know every one. Heck, I doubt even a native would be able to identify all of them. What I'm talking about here are the four main ones: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. There's also Okinawa. [spoiler=Honshu] 本州 Honshuu, meaning "main state," is the largest of the four main islands. It's also where most of the people live, which is makes sense. Honshu is where most of the major cities you've heard about are located, such as Tokyo (technically a prefecture), Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Nagoya. Mt. Fuji is also located there. Most of Japan's tea and silk is from here. It is also connected to the other three islands by bridges or tunnels. [spoiler=Hokkaido] 北海道 Hokkaidou, literally "north sea route," is famous for the ice festival held every year in Sapporo, its capital. Unlike most of Japan, Hokkaido has plains and pastures. A quarter of Japan's arable land comes from this region, so it's no surprise that it's a leading producer of wheat, soybeans, milk, and beef. It's also home to a good many national parks, and the cool temperatures bring in people from other areas during summer. Its only land link to the rest of Japan is the Seikan Tunnel. [spoiler=Kyushu] 九州 Kyuushuu, meaning "nine states" for the nine 県 prefectures (Japan's version of a state or province) it once held, is the second-smallest main island and also mountainous. Japan's most active volcano, Mt. Aso, is here, as well as numerous hot springs, including the famous Beppu mud hot springs. Parts of Kyushu have a subtropical climate. Major agricultural products include rice, tea, tobacco, sweet potatoes, and soy, as well as silk. It also produces porcelain.It's separated from Honshu by the Kanmon Straits. [spoiler=Shikoku] 四国 Shikoku, meaning "four countries," again refers to prefectures, of which it has four. The smallest and least populated of the four main islands. Unlike the three other major islands, Shikoku lacks volcanoes, instead harboring rice, fruit, and forests. Its major river, the Yoshino River, is famous as Japan's best white-water rafting spot. It's also famous for its 88-temple pilgrimage as well as its udon. It has a few bridges linking it to Honshu. [spoiler=Okinawa] The island chain of 沖縄 Okinawa was originally separate from Japan as the Ryukyu Kingdom. However, in 1879 it forcibly became part of Japan, much like Hawaii for the United States. For this reason, many natives consider themselves Okinawan first and Japanese second. Because of its subtropical climate, it produces sugarcane, pineapple, and cut flowers, and is also a popular vacation spot for Japanese from other islands. Okinawan soba differs from mainland soba via its use of wheat noodles as opposed to buckwheat. There are also United States military bases here. [spoiler=Japan is great no matter the season] Okinawa is a bit of an exception in its climate, as most of Japan experiences four distinct seasons. However, there are a few trends. Generally, locations to the west and south are warmer, while those in the north are colder. Mountainous areas are also colder. [spoiler=Winter] Winter in Japan lasts from about December to mid-March, with temperatures ranging from around 30 to 45°F. They're also cold and snowy. Eastern Japan's winters are known to be especially clear, crisp, and beautiful. Skiing and snowboarding are common, especially in Hokkaido and Nagano, the Japan Alps. Also, it is said that soaking in the 温泉 onsen is an especially enjoyable thing during winter. Surrounded by white, snow falling on you, yet you're completely warm in the hot springs. That sounds pretty nice. [spoiler=Spring] Spring in Japan lasts from about mid-March to May, with temperatures ranging from around 40 to 65°F. The weather is rather capricious, much like American springs. Spring is known for its famous 桜 sakura trees which generally bloom sometime between late March and early April. People often enjoy 花見 hanami though that's made difficult by the blossoms themselves. Sometimes they bloom early or late, for a long while or not, and because of this they have become a symbol of unpredictability and impermanence in Japan's culture. 梅見 Umemi is also a thing, and is enjoyed by many older people for their calmness, as opposed to the noisier and more crowded sakura parties. Hanami at night is known as 夜桜 yozakura. [spoiler=Summer] Summer in Japan lasts from about June to mid-September, with temperatures ranging from around 70 to 90°F. The heat and humidity tends to peak at July and August. Summer also features many of Japan's best 祭 matsuri. Examples include Gion Matsuri, Tenjin Matsuri, Nebuta Matsuri, Awa Odori, and the Bon Festival. 花火大会 Hanabi taikai are another exciting feature of Japanese summers. The Sumida River Fireworks in Tokyo are especially famous. スイカ割り Suikawari is a popular summer pastime along with cooling soba noodles and going to the beach. [spoiler=Autumn] Autumn in Japan lasts from about mid-September to November, with temperatures ranging from around 50 to 70°F. Autumn is said to be the most pleasant season to experience in Japan in terms of weather. Famous for the vibrant changing colors of the leaves, November is generally the best month for this. This is another good season to be in an onsen, surrounded by beautiful trees as you soak. This is also a season for hearty eating and mushroom gathering, especially matsutake mushrooms. Japan has what they call 梅雨 tsuyu and what we would call the rainy season. Taking place from early to mid-June to mid-July, the rain is rather mild in comparison to most other Asian countries, and it doesn't always rain every day either. They also have a typhoon season, which begins in May and concludes in October, peaking in late summer. So that's it for the culture post. I'll try and have the next update up by Thursday, though I also have plans this week so depending on that I might be a bit late with my post again. See ya! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted August 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2015 4: Greetings Hello peoples! Sethera here! Sorry this is so late. I should probably type this stuff a day or two ahead from now on, so we don't have cases like these in the future. So we're going to look at basic greetings and introductions in this thread. Which means...YES. The dreaded vocabulary. Some of it will probably be familiar though, so that should help. A couple notes before we start:So I tried blowing up the hiragana text but then it made the tables take up too much space. So just, I don't know, zoom your screen if you want to see the details. Though by now you should have the hiragana memorized so you don't really need to see the characters up close to identify them.In addition to Tangorin I also recommend Jisho.org as a dictionary. One helpful thing about Jisho is that it sometimes has recordings for the various words, so that can help a lot.So the app has it that we learn vocabulary+katakana one week and then something new with grammar the next. This basic pattern. I'll be abiding by that, so it'll take longer to learn katakana than it did for hiragana. It's less intimidating learning it a little at a time like this rather than all at once like I did for hiragana, so hopefully the change in pace won't be all that unwelcome.[spoiler=First round of vocabulary]HiraganaRomajiEnglishおはようございますOhayou gozaimasuGood morningこんにちはKonnichi waGood afternoonこんばんはKonban waGood eveningおやすみなさいOyasumi nasaiGood nightどうもありがとうございますDoumo arigatou gozaimasuThank you very muchどういたしましてDou itashimashiteYou're welcomeはじめましてHajimemashiteNice to meet you (in beginning)どうぞよろしくDouzo yoroshikuNice to meet you (thanks in advance) So if you read through the hiragana, you might be thinking: "Oh sheesh, you made a couple typos there." And if I actually did, feel free to point it out. But if you were looking at こんにちは and こんばんは then those aren't typos. I'm not going to go into depth about it this lesson, but the は used in these two words does not function as ha but the particle wa. Even though it looks like a ha it's a wa. "Wahaha!" Misha and Wattson are amused.One thing to note about おはようございます is the sound. If you ever hear a native Japanese speak it, odds are they'll have taken off the "u" sound to make it sound like "ohayou gozaimas." This is called "whispering" because it's as if the speaker is whispering that last vowel, called the "whispered vowel." This applies to most words that end in "su." When speaking formally, it's pronounced with the "u," but in casual speech, the "u" is usually taken out. And for こんにちは, keep in mind to draw out the double n sound. Give it the two beats it deserves, and you won't sound like a dumb foreigner. Well, you still might, but less so. Now let's go over the various words. [spoiler=In-depth description of the vocabulary words]So just like we have set times for when we say greetings (we don't say "good morning" at 6 PM for example), so do the Japanese. おはようございます literally means "it is early" and generally isn't used after 10 AM. Another case is こんにちは. Most people think of it as "hello" but it more accurately means "good afternoon." You wouldn't use it at night. こんばんは lasts from 6 PM to 3-4 AM. おやすみなさい not only is used to say "good night," but also when separating after eating dinner together or closing a phone call. So just like we have many ways to say thanks such as "thank you," "thank you very much, I really appreciate it," and "thanks," so do the Japanese. The full phrase is どうもありがとうございます, which is the most polite. You probably knew the first two words from "Mr. Roboto" at least. The Japanese take off words to make it more casual.HiraganaRomajiEnglishどうもありがとうございますDoumo arigatou gozaimasuThank you very much (most formal)どうもありがとうDoumo arigatouThank you very much (less formal than above)ありがとうございますArigatou gozaimasuThank youありがとうArigatouThanksどうもDoumoCheersThe actual "thank you" portion is in ありがとう, どうも is "very," and ございます works as a formalizer. So どうもございます wouldn't work since it's missing the "thank you" portion. どうも by itself works as an abbreviation of some sort, though. The Japanese use a lot of "set phrases." An example would be: "It's time to duel," from Yu-Gi-Oh! It's a set phrase, a phrase whose parts are set in a fixed order. はじめまして and どうぞよろしく are set phrases used when meeting people for the first time. Literally, the first means "in beginning (this relationship)" and the second means "best regards going forward" or "thanks in advance." はじめまして is used when you first introduce yourself to people, and どうぞよろしく after you've finished introducing yourself. The second word can also be used to ask for a favor. [spoiler=Second round]HiraganaRomajiEnglishですDesuAm/is/areおじぎOjigiBowおなまえO-namae(Your) nameおなまえはなんですか。O-namae wa nan desu ka?What is your name?おげんきですか。O-genki desu ka?How are you?げんきです。Genki desu.I'm well.はいHaiYesいいえIieNoにほんNihonJapanあめりか*AmerikaAmericaかなだ*KanadaCanada~じん-jinA person from ~にほんじんNihon-jinJapanese personあめりか*じんAmerika-jinAmerican person*indicates words properly written in katakanaIf you listen (I recommend youtube or a dictionary like Jisho.org which I mentioned earlier) to the words こんばんは or げんき you will notice the first sounds more like "komban wa" and the second more like "geng-ki." The app has a neat little comparison for this. N, like tofu, picks up the flavor of the things it's cooked with. If you say "konban" a few times, your lips will naturally start to make the n sound more like an m with the "ban" right after. "Shinbun" (newspaper) to "shimbun" is another good example. For linguistic nerds, this is called euphony, or the quality of being pleasing to the ear. Basically we just say things a bit differently to make them sound better. "Konban" is pretty awkward to say, so that makes sense. You might be wondering how the "o" before some of the words works. For instance, "o-namae" or "o-genki." It works as an honorific prefix. For example おなまえ would be translated to "honorable name" or "exalted name.">Biggs: What is your honorable name?>Wedge: My name is Wedge.Notice the lack of "honorable" in the second line. When referring to yourself, you never use the "o" prefix. Exalting yourself is a bit...much. Though who knows, there are probably anime characters that do that.Note: Sometimes "o" is attached to a word for so long that it becomes part of it, as is the case for おじぎ. You also might be wondering why there are no question marks for the questions. For now just remember that question marks are a bit redundant in Japanese, which is why they have the Japanese period 。instead. Moving on, we're going to go through the words themselves now. [spoiler=In-depth analysis]All you need to know about です for now is that it is a verb that works like our "to be." Next chapter we'll go over this word in detail. The ins and outs of おじぎ will also be covered later, in a culture post. For now just keep in mind that it means "bow" and that bowing is a lot more important to the Japanese than it is to most Western cultures. When asking after somebody's health, you use おげんきですか。 Which literally means: "Are you healthy?" Which is why people don't say, "Oh, I'm fine," in response, but, "Yes, I'm healthy," instead. You would say はいげんきです。. Unlike in English, the Japanese don't use this phrase often. I mean, if you last saw your friend a day or so ago, you'd be pretty certain of their health, so there's no need to ask again. The next words should be fairly simple. はい and いいえ. Most likely, you already knew these two from anime. Then on to the nationalities. Just keep in mind that あめりか and かなだ should be written with katakana instead of hiragana. Also じん is a suffix we add on to the ends of locations to say a person is from that place. [spoiler=Now on to katakana!]In case you forgot, katakana is like the cousin syllabary to hiragana, and it's mainly used to write foreign words, such as "Amerika" or "Kanada." I showed it in hiragana, but it's actually supposed to be written in katakana. When we're do, we'll get to the point where we'll be at the point where we're able to write both native and foreign words the way they're supposed to (excluding kanji for now). The rules for katakana are the same as they are for hiragana, with the dakuten and ya-yu-yo stuff, so it should be easier to learn. "Should" being the key word. I struggle with katakana more than I ever did with hiragana, and you'll see the main reasons why in a couple weeks. Just like hiragana, we'll be going in the same order. A I U E O to the K-series and so on. [spoiler=ア イ ウ エ オ]It's the return of the vowels: a i u e o!One thing you'll note from looking at the above is that unlike hiragana, which uses curvy and natural strokes, katakana is hard and angular. In fact, they're almost entirely made up of straight lines. The only curved stroke you'll ever see is the one that goes from top to bottom, right to left. Note: Another difference between hiragana and katakana is how they double vowels. With katakana, instead of writing the vowel twice like ああ you write アー with a horizontal bar. We're gonna be using our good pal Tofugu again to help us with mnemonics. [spoiler=ア=A]-Keep the angle in stroke one nice and sharp. When you begin stroke two, don't curve it right away, but bring it straight down for a bit before curving.-This character has a deformed capital A in it, much like the hiragana one had. [spoiler=イ=I]-Be sure to keep the second stroke nice and straight, like a pillar, or a bird's leg.-This is an eagle, standing nice and tall, wings and tail hanging behind. [spoiler=ウ=U]-Don't forget to keep the first stroke centered.-This looks similar enough to う that it should be easy enough to remember. [spoiler=エ=E]-Don't forget that the bottom stroke is longer than the top one. Also note that this character is wider than it is tall.-Yeah, I know it looks like a capital I, but try and forget about that and think of these as the girders an engineer would use to build a building. This one gave me the most trouble out of all the vowels. [spoiler=オ=O]-Note the second stroke doesn't come down through the middle of the first. It's slightly off to the right to make room for stroke three.-What the heck, Tofugu? This is a dude with his trench coat open, flashing you. "Oh my god," you might say, or "Oh no." Or if you're like some people I know, "Oh yes." -Okay now that you're done with that, there's a new website for you. Called Drag-n-Drop Katakana. Why yes, it does look familiar, doesn't it? Stop after you've managed to get it done within 10 seconds or after you've done it five times. [spoiler=カ キ ク ケ コ]Now we're on the K-series! Ka ki ku ke ko.You'll notice that ku and ke look very similar to each other. [spoiler=カ=Ka]-Not much to say here, except to be sure to keep the bend nice and sharp for the first stroke. Also, don't forget the hane (jump) at the end of stroke one.-You should notice that this looks very similar to か so that should help a lot. [spoiler=キ=Ki]-Like its hiragana counterpart, this character leans off to the left. Notice the strokes are perpendicular to each other.-Looks similar to き or at least the top part of it. It also looks like part of a weird key. [spoiler=ク=Ku]-We have two instances of the katakana curve in this character.-Looks like a long cook's hat. For me, though, I just remember that it looks a bit similar to う. [spoiler=ケ=Ke]-Notice the differences between this and the last character. Not only is the placement of the second stroke slightly lower, it also extends farther.-It looks like the letter K. And how do you say K? Ke. Well, kay, but close enough. [spoiler=コ=Ko]-Don't forget to extend the first stroke a bit past the second stroke. Also notice that this character is slightly wider than it is tall, just like エ is.-See the 90° corners? That's how you memorize this. Or if you're like me, you just remember that the o-characters are always oddballs so of course they'd look the weirdest. [spoiler=Ten-ten]Ten-ten, or dakuten can be applied to these characters just like their hiragana counterparts. And, just like their hiragana counterparts, this forms the G sound. Ga gi gu ge go! -Now head back over to Drag-n-Drop Katakana and once you get both vowels and K-series done within 20 seconds or after you've done this for five times, move on to the next step.-Now download or print this worksheet and then fill it out. [spoiler=Anki]If you seriously want to learn Japanese, then I definitely recommend using flashcards to help you out. Either handwritten or electronic. Me? I'm using Anki, a flashcard program that you download and then open up to use. It's helped a lot so far. It's cross-platform too, for those Mac-users like me. I recommend reading the instructions below from Textfugu if you're going to use it. [spoiler=Instructions]The first resource you’re going to use (it’s a resource that’s used a lot alongside TextFugu, so you might as well get used to it!) is Anki. Anki is a fabulous flashcard application that works on all computer operating systems, is open source, free, and (most importantly) really good at helping you to memorize things (that would otherwise be tough to remember). It knows when you should study something and how often you should study. Basically, it tells you what to do, and as long as you follow along, good things will happen. To start, you’ll have to download the application:Go to Anki and download the version that’s right for your computer’s operating system (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc).Optional: Go to AnkiWeb and create an account. If you have multiple computers / devices, you can use this to sync your flashcard decks so no matter where you go, you can start right where you left off.The next thing you’ll need to do is download your list. Right now, you’re about to learn hiragana, so I’ve created a hiragana list for you. I’d recommend taking these steps to get ready:Create a folder somewhere on your computer for all your Anki files.Download The Hiragana Anki list and unzip it.Move the Hiragana-with-audio folder to your Anki folder (the one you created on step 1)Double click on the file Hiragana.Anki to add it to your study decks.When you do that, Anki should open (if it’s not open already), and it should give you the option to start studying your hiragana list (or any other lists you have). With that, you should be all set! Now it’s time to start learning the hiragana. Let’s go ahead and get started, actually, just with 5 kana. It’s always good to get started on things (because that’s the hardest part), and will help propel you into the next page, which is a bit longer. Start by opening up Anki, and choosing to study the Hiragana list. When the flashcards start up, you’ll be shown a kana with a blank under it. Look at it, and decide whether or not you know it. Feel free to look at your hiragana sheet if you don’t. When you know the answer, hit “show answer.” Here’s the interesting part. After you answer, you’ll be given a few options:Soon (you didn’t know it at all, pretty much) Note: This shows up as "Again" for me, which means the same thing.Hard (you had a tough time with this word)Good (it was pretty easy, but you’ll maybe forget it later)Easy (you knew the answer like it was your own language. Bam!)Be honest when you choose these, because it’ll help Anki know what to tell you to study. If you don’t know something so well, it will bring the card back sooner so you can study it again. If you know a card really well, it’ll show that card to you later, so you can study things you don’t know as well right now. Either way, just be honest and think long term. It’s okay if you don’t know something, because that means the Anki will be able to help you. For now, just go through the first five or so. You’ll want to click on the “timeboxing” option to limit your session to 5 items (just for now). When you’ve added that in, go through those five items until you feel semi-comfortable when it comes to recognizing them. Then, it’s time to move on to the meat, so to speak :) Now I have two things for you. First, the hiragana list they mentioned. Second, the vocabulary for this chapter. Unlike the hiragana, it doesn't have audio, but that's because I haven't bothered learning how to add audio. And the reason for that is I'm not good enough to emulate native Japanese anyway.-Hiragana-Vocabulary Anki's nice since it automatically finishes after you go through the cards a number of times and brings up troublesome cards the next day, so you don't have to worry about spending too much or too little time on them. I like to use Anki once a day, after I get on the computer. But even if you decide not to use Anki, I still recommend using flashcards of some sort to help you memorize this stuff. And I'm done. Phew. Hope you enjoyed the lesson and look forward to the next one. I'm not sure if I'll have another culture update in between or not. Probably not, though I don't know for sure. See you next week anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchermitcher Posted August 15, 2015 Report Share Posted August 15, 2015 Yay for mentioning Anki. That's pretty much where I am at this point, learning vocabulary and kanji through anki. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted August 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2015 5: The verb "to be"Hey all, Sethera here. Yes, I got this up on time! I'll try and work on it every Wednesday from now on so it's ready to upload the day after.You might have wondered when we'd be getting to grammar. Well, we're getting there, bit by bit.[spoiler=Sethera's Path, Entry 4'] So, the honeymoon period has ended with this language. Or, you could say that the novelty has worn off. Either way, what used to be a joy is now fast becoming a bit...dull. I blame the vocabulary. I reached this point with Spanish too, but I couldn't quit for multiple reasons:Taking Spanish was better than the alternatives in high schoolI need that second language proficiency to graduateWhy quit when I've come so far?Unfortunately, I don't have any of these to help keep me on this, but I do have the knowledge that the rewards will be great years down the road. Not only will I have achieved my goal of becoming at least trilingual (though I'll eventually want to go farther), but I'll also be able to finally read light novels and manga in their native language, which means I won't have to rely on somebody else. Oh Durarara!!, someday I'll be able to read you to my heart's content...It's not even that I want to quit; it's more I want to take a small break from this. But laziness, once admitted, is a persistent guest. I doubt I'll be able to come back to this anytime soon once I stop. I also know, if I drop this to focus entirely on other things, I'll come to regret it. Therefore, push on, me! While the climb may wear on you, you must not falter! Isn't your will the one that will pierce the heavens, the earth, and through to tomorrow? [spoiler=Introduction]This chapter will be all about grammar, with a bit of vocabulary mixed in. We're going to focus specifically on one aspect of grammar here, though. The verb "to be."I consider verbs to be the single most important part of a sentence. They tell you what's going on. Without verbs, you'd be clueless. With Japanese, almost any part of a sentence can be omitted if context is used. Anything, except verbs. Not only does every well-formed sentence have a verb in Japanese, but it also always goes last. [spoiler=Vocabulary]Before we get too deep into that, let's get some more vocabulary up in here. Thankfully, this stuff is still pretty simple, and you probably know at least a couple of these words. HiraganaRomajiEnglishいぬInuDogねこNekoCatりんごRingoAppleみずMizuWaterとりToriBirdうまUmaHorseえんぴつEnpitsuPencilぺん*PenPen*Like "Amerika" or "Kanada," "pen" should be written in katakana.There's really not much to say about this stuff. I mean, they're basic nouns; that's about it. [spoiler=Yoda]Back to what we were talking about before. Every Japanese sentence has a verb, and the verb always goes last. Barring exceptions, of course. So instead of "I walked to the store," it'd be "To the store I walked." Think of Yoda and how he phrases things. Fun fact, George Lucas was a huge fan of Japanese film, and to show how much of a Japanophile he was, he made Yoda speak like a Japanese person. At least in terms of basic grammar. Eventually, Yoda you will not need. But for now, a good guide he is. [spoiler=The copula, to be]The verb "to be," also known as the copula, can be used in Japanese to show:Identity: Ton is a turtle.Properties: Ton is soft.State: Ton is sleepy.Membership in a set: Ton is Yui's turtle.There are other verbs which function much like this one, such as "to seem" or "to feel." Also, while you can use "to be" in English to refer to existence (Ton is in a tank), the Japanese use two separate verbs for this: いる and ある, which we'll probably cover in a later chapter.Even if you're unfamiliar with the verb "to be" and what it means, you're likely familiar with its forms: am, is, are, was, were, been, being, etc. Like English, the Japanese "to be" has multiple forms, but they have nothing to do with subject-verb agreement.[spoiler=Subject-verb agreement]So, in English we have something called subject-verb agreement. Basically, if referring to a single subject, the verb should reflect that. If referring to multiple subjects, the verb reflects that as well. Examples:Ton is a turtle.Turtles are cool.However, Japanese does not make this distinction. You would use the same verb form regardless of how many subjects you're referring to. [spoiler=Sentences]Let's talk about sentences now. Or, how we're going to form our very first sentences.りんごです。Ringo desu.It is an apple."So where are 'it' or 'an' in here?""Exist, they don't."Yeah, so funny thing about Japanese. The articles "a," "an," and "the" don't exist here in the land of ninjas and ramen. And context is key. So ringo desu could mean anything from "it is an apple" to "you are an apple" to "I am an apple." English isn't that different, though. When we say "it" is an apple, we could mean "That thing in the bowl is an apple" or "The McIntosh is an apple." We're depending on context to fill in the meaning for "it." Japanese just takes out the middleman entirely.Of course, that means, when translating, we have to put those words in ourselves.If one just isn't enough, you could also use ringo desu to talk about multiple apples. Apples to Apples. Most words don't have a separate form for singular and plural. It's like the English word "fish." One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. [spoiler=To be, or not to be]The verb "to be" has three different forms:Plain: だ or daPolite: です or desuHonorific: でございます or de gozaimasuIt's also written differently depending on the tense. There are a lot of tenses, therefore a lot of forms, but for now, it's best to just focus on the polite form of "to be" with a few tenses. I'll probably make a complete table with all the forms at some point in the future once we cover all the tenses and crap, though.[/td][td=border: #000000 1px solid;]HiraganaRomajiExamplePresent AffirmativeですDesuThat cow is pink. What the heck?Past AffirmativeでしたDeshitaOh I see. That cow was pink, but the rain washed the paint off.Present NegativeではありませんDe wa arimasenAre you blind? That cow isn't pink!Past NegativeではありませんでしたDe wa arimasen deshitaI just said that cow wasn't pink anymore, bro. Learn to listen.VolitionalでしょうDeshouI think that cow is probably pink now though. If not, it will probably be pink tomorrow. I hope the examples helped you figure out how these verbs work. If not, just remember that です is the default present affirmative, でした is its past version, and ではありません is its negative version. To make that past tense, just add the でした to the end. And remember that でしょう is the odd duck out. It can be present or future, but what stays the same is the uncertainty, which is where the "probably" comes in. [spoiler=Conclusion]So in this lesson, we learned how to construct a basic Japanese sentence using the copula "to be." We also learned Yoda is best teacher, and that Japanese doesn't spell out every little thing like English does. Great!Of course, this is just the beginning. We'll be getting into bigger and better things...someday. In some weeks. To be honest, we haven't gotten very far yet, but...well, we're getting there. Little by little. Stone by stone. Step by step. See ya next week! Same time (maybe), same place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchermitcher Posted August 21, 2015 Report Share Posted August 21, 2015 You covered how desu's conjugated differently for the tenses but I do expect you to cover the individual conjugation rules eventually. Didn't know about the Yoda trivia but that explains a whole lot actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bury the year Posted August 21, 2015 Report Share Posted August 21, 2015 Just a quick clarification: "desu" functions not as much as a verb as it does a conjugated particle (kind of). Whereas other verbs can go in the middle of sentences to form adjectival phrases, です cannot. For example, ここに植えましたバラはとても奇麗です。 (Koko ni uemashita bara wa totemo kirei desu. The roses planted here are quite beautiful.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted August 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 6: At Home Hello all, and welcome to another update of ALPTLM! I've been wondering if I should rename this blog to something more palatable, but a friend said it's fine the way it is, so I'll keep it like this, I guess. I guess I could just call it ALP or TLM for short. Also, this is the chapter that was giving me such trouble, because of all the vocabulary I had to learn. :T [spoiler=Sethera's Path] So I was panicking about it before, but I guess I shouldn't have. I ended up kinda/sorta not doing much with Japanese this past week and...well I think the break did me good. Perhaps it was burnout I was experiencing earlier, but I feel a lot more motivated to continue with the language now. I guess we all just need a break some time. But yeah, this is why I have the buffer. So even when I take breaks like this, I can still give you your weekly update. Also this blog takes precedence over my LP, so for those worried that that might take time and attention away from this...well it shouldn't, anyway. So as I have been progressing with the app, I've found that while I prefer its teaching method overall, there are a couple elements where I adopt what other people say. Also, trying to figure out just how best to convey the information I've learned is a bit difficult as it seems most people disagree on the correct order of teaching. Some want to go into kanji before even learning katakana. Others prefer hiragana, katakana, kanji, then grammar. And then there are those who think you should learn grammar before getting into the scripts themselves. It's hectic, and as I'm still learning, I haven't yet figured out what my opinion on this whole spiel is. So I'm sticking with the app's method for now (hiragana then katakana+grammar then kanji), but I might change it in the future. I guess I'm trying my best to balance and pad out what the app teaches me with the lessons of various Japanese learning websites, but I have to go out of their order to do that, skipping some earlier lessons which cover material we'll learn later. I guess I've been procrastinating on getting further with that and figuring out what exactly I should do here. It's a conundrum. [spoiler=Vocabulary]So there will be a lot of vocabulary this chapter, as fitting with the pattern I mentioned before. Also I divided the words according to sections of the house to make more sense. The app had no clear organization in how they arranged things, so yeah. [spoiler=First we put in the skeleton]HiraganaRomajiEnglishいえIeHouseやねYaneRoofてんじょうTenjouCeilingかべKabeWallゆかYukaHardwood floorまどMadoWindowどあ*DoaDoor*indicates a word properly written in katakana There's not too much to say here, as all the words are self-explanatory. I remember てんじょう by thinking of tengoku, or "heaven." When you stare at the ceiling, you're looking heavenward. [spoiler=Then we add the rooms]HiraganaRomajiEnglishへやHeyaRoomいまImaLiving RoomだいどころDaidokoroKitchenれいぞこReizoukoRefrigeratorおてあらいOtearaiRestroom (polite)といれ*ToireRestroomながしだいNagashidaiSinkおふろOfuroBathおふろばOfurobaBath-room*indicates a word properly written in katakana へや: Can mean a general room or one's own room. おてあらい: Literally meaning "the hand washing place" it is a very polite way to say restroom, bathroom, lavatory, water closet, etc. といれ: Taken from the English "toilet," (thus should be written in katakana as トイレ), this word is used to mean the same thing as the above, but in a less polite fashion. It's not rude, just not super polite. Easy way to remember it is through "toilet," like if you told a friend you had to use the toilet, or the loo. おふろば: The suffix -ba here means "place" so literally "bath place." This is the room with the bath, which, for those unaware, is a separate room from the toilet area in Japan. I'll get to the details of that in a culture update. [spoiler=Fill them with stuff]HiraganaRomajiEnglishほんHonBookほんだなHondanaBookshelfとけいTokeiClockいすIsuChairかうち*KauchiCouchべっど*BeddoBedてれび*TerebiTVらじお*RajioRadioえあこん*EakonAir conditioningこんぴゅうた*KonpyuutaComputer*indicates a word properly written in katakana てれび: Shortened from terebijon, which was taken from "television." The shorter terebi is more often used. Should be written in katakana as テレビ but we haven't gotten that far in katakana yet. えあこん: Shortened from ea kondishoningu, which was taken from "air conditioning. The shorter eakon is more often used. Should be written in katakana as エアコン but we haven't gotten that far in katakana yet. [spoiler=Let's not forget tradition]HiraganaRomajiEnglishたたみTatamiFloor matしょうじShoujiSliding paper doorふとんFutonBedding たたみ: This, or tatami in romaji, is the name for the woven mats that form the flooring for traditional Japanese rooms. They are traditionally made using rice straw, modern tatami can be made with compressed wood chip boards or polyestrene foam. Unlike a jute mat, you cannot just roll it up. They are rigid, heavy, rectangular mats that measure 90 cm x 180 cm x 5 cm (width x length x height). According to a friend, they not only feel great to walk and sleep on, but they also are kind of springy.Note: Tatami mats are so central to Japan's idea of living space that the Japanese often use them to measure room size. So instead of saying the room is almost 10 square meters, one might instead say it's 6 jou, or 6 tatami. しょうじ: You've probably heard this word before. Shouji is the word for the sliding rice-paper doors that you often see in traditional Japanese rooms. What's nice about this type of door is that it not only provides privacy, but also lets light in so the room isn't pitch black. ふとん: When you think futon, you probably think of the couch that can flatten out to become a bed. However, a Japanese futon is a thin cushion (so thin you can fold it in thirds) placed directly on the tatami. It is also used to refer to a blanket or comforter (warm, lightweight goose down quilt). During the day, futons are folded up and put into closets, unlike our beds which just stay there until we buy a new one. While there are more and more Western-style beds in Japan now, futons are still pretty commonly used and are perfect for small spaces. [spoiler=And finish with a meal]HiraganaRomajiEnglishさらSaraPlateちゃわんChawanBowlこっぷ*KoppuCupおはしOhashiChopsticksほうく*HoukuForkすぷうん*SupuunSpoonないふ*NaifuKnifeてえぶる*TeeburuTable*indicates a word properly written in katakana こっぷ: Even though it sounds like "cup," the word actually stems from the small drinking glass copo from Portuguese. [spoiler=Katakana]We're learning two more sets today. [spoiler=サ シ ス セ ソ]Just like with hiragana, after K is S. Sa shi su se so!Just like with hiragana, the second character in this set is "shi," not "si." [spoiler=サ=Sa]-Be careful with this character as it looks a lot like せ or se in hiragana, except flipped.-Looks like three sardines stacked on top of each other. [spoiler=シ=Shi]-Note with the third stroke that you go from bottom to top, and is a more gradual incline than so. Basically, would you prefer a milder hill climbing up, or a steeper hill? Probably a milder one, so use that to remember that the stroke goes up. Also note that the first two strokes are more horizontal than vertical, unlike so.-Looks like a smiley face, but this is more of a Picasso or Mr. Potato style face than anything else. She (shi) has a very weird face. [spoiler=ス=Su]-Some people prefer to make this character all straight lines, with no curve. Whether you do or not is up to you, but it's best to be aware of the different styles.-Looks like a hanger to hang up your nice suits. [spoiler=セ=Se]-Don't forget the hane (jump) at the end of that first stroke!-Looks pretty similar to the hiragana せ right? That should help you remember. [spoiler=ソ=So]-When going downhill, you don't mind if the slope is a little steeper. Use that to remember that the second stroke is going downwards. Also note that the first stroke is more vertical than horizontal.-This is a needle and thread, which you use to sew (so). Also the needle is pointing downwards, which makes sense since you generally point them downwards to stab them through something. [spoiler=Ten-ten]Like with the K-series, this works just like with the hiragana counterparts.Za ji zu ze zo! -Let's return to Drag-n-Drop Katakana. Stop after you manage to get everything in 30 seconds or less or after you've done it five times. [spoiler=タ チ ツ テ ト]Now the T-series. Ta chi tsu te to!Just like with hiragana, it's "chi" and "tsu" instead of "ti" and "tu." [spoiler=タ=Ta]-This character isn't too difficult. Just don't forget the curves.-Looks like a tidal (ta) wave racing across the sea, doesn't it? Think of the top part as the crest of the wave. [spoiler=チ=Chi]-This character is very unusual. Generally, most strokes go from left to right, top to bottom. However, the first stroke goes from right to left, curving from top to bottom. Second one is normal, but the third one keep in mind that it goes straight down and then slants off at the end.-Doesn't this look like a cheerleader, cheering you on to learn Japanese? [spoiler=ツ=Tsu]-Like so, this character is mainly vertical and steep. However, it has two short strokes instead of just one.-Not just one, but two (tsu) needles and thread. You can stab two things instead of just one now. [spoiler=テ=Te]-Unlike chi, this is a fairly normal left to right character. Also the first stroke is straight, and the third doesn't touch the first stroke like it does with chi.-Looks like a telephone pole, huh? I also remember it by remembering it looks the inverse of て or te in hiragana. [spoiler=ト=To]-This one is pretty easy to write. Just don't forget to keep the first stroke vertical.-Looks like a totem pole. It also kind of looks like an upside-down と or to in hiragana. [spoiler=Ten-Ten]Just treat this like you did for hiragana T-series and you'll be sitting pretty.Da ji zu de do! -Back to Drag-n-Drop Katakana. Move on to the next step after you manage to get everything in 40 seconds or less or after you've done it five times.-Download or print out this worksheet and fill it out. So that's it! Vocabulary and more katakana. Overall, this chapter is somewhat interesting, but will probably take you longer to get down because of all the vocabulary. I keep forgetting to upload Anki decks. For last lesson's words, click here. For this lesson's words, click here. See ya next week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchermitcher Posted September 12, 2015 Report Share Posted September 12, 2015 kinda starved for updates buddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted September 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2015 Sorry, I've been pretty unmotivated with most things and I'm trying to slowly climb out of that rut. I've been neglecting my Japanese as a consequence, but I'll try and post an update by this upcoming Thursday (Friday for later time zones). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted September 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2015 7: Numbers[spoiler=Sethera's Path'] Okay, so I will be honest; I felt discouraged with the lack of feedback last update. It made me wonder if I was doing things wrong and stuff. Like if my teaching method was bad, plus the fact that I'm still learning myself and there are apparently multiple methods of teaching this but I have no clue which one is right and whether mine is right or if it sucks instead or if it doesn't even matter but still... I get insecure and wonder if the people who read through this don't really think much of this blog at all, and maybe I should just quit it? It doesn't help that updating this saps hours from my day that I could spend elsewhere, and my motivation was at an all time low for a long while. But there is somebody still reading this, following this, and looking forward to updates. And it's because of him that I will keep this up. It might not be every week anymore. Maybe once every two weeks. I'm not sure. It all depends on how quickly I can move through the chapters now, because I'm actually at the chapter right after this one. I've let myself go for long enough. I need to pull myself upright and start learning Japanese again. [spoiler=Introduction]So guess what we're going to be learning this lesson? You got it. Numbers. Fun fun fuuun. Okay, sarcasm aside, this will be pretty useful, and most of you have probably already learned some of these numbers, so that will make things easier. Which will help because we're going to learn how to count from one to a hundred million. You can handle that, right? Thankfully, it's not as tough as it sounds. [spoiler=1-99]HiraganaRomajiEnglishいちIchiOneにNiTwoさんSanThreeよんYonFourしShiFourごGoFiveろくRokuSixななNanaSevenしちShichiSevenはちHachiEightきゅうKyuuNineくKuNineじゅうJuuTen So you'll see that numbers four, seven, and nine have two versions. That's just a thing. Like how sometimes people say deuce instead of two. The ones listed first are the more common versions (よん, なな, and きゅう), but both versions are used. In fact, you'll be seeing a lot of the second versions next chapter, so yeah, be sure to learn both. So now you might be wondering how to say for instance, eleven. Easy. Just like when you say "twenty-one" you add the ones' place after the tens' place. じゅういち is eleven, じゅうに is twelve, and so on and so forth. Make sure to say じゅうよん, じゅうなな, and じゅうきゅう when you get to them, as they're the more common variants. Twenty is にじゅう or "two-ten," and the pattern repeats from there with よんじゅう for forty, ななじゅう for seventy, and きゅうじゅう for ninety. And just like with the teens, when you have a number that's not just a multiple of ten, you say that number afterward. So ごじゅうはち for example would be fifty-eight. I'll show the setup for that. ご (go=five) x じゅう (juu / ten) = fifty + はち (hachi / eight) = ごじゅうはち (go-juu hachi / fifty-eight). I'll give you a few random numbers to take apart for practice. Note that they're color-coded to make things easier on you. You will eventually have to be able to identify this stuff without a color guide, but I thought the colors would make this easier to learn and stuff. ななじゅうに[spoiler=Answer]nana-juu ni / 72さんじゅうご[spoiler=Answer]san-juu go / 35はちじゅうきゅう[spoiler=Answer]hachi-juu kyuu / 89よんじゅう[spoiler=Answer]yon-juu / 40きゅうじゅうきゅう[spoiler=Answer]kyuu-juu kyuu / 99ごじゅう[spoiler=Answer]go-juu / 50じゅうなな[spoiler=Answer]juu nana / 17にじゅうよん[spoiler=Answer]ni-juu yon / 24ななじゅうよん[spoiler=Answer]nana-juu yon / 74よんじゅうきゅう[spoiler=Answer]yon-juu kyuu / 49 You can also try the reverse. Go to RANDOM.ORG and make the minimum 1 and the maximum 99 and then try and write out the numbers in hiragana. [spoiler=100-999]HiraganaRomajiEnglishひゃくHyakuOne hundredにひゃくNi-hyakuTwo hundredさんびゃくSan-byakuThree hundredよんひゃくYon-hyakuFour hundredごひゃくGo-hyakuFive hundredろっぴゃくRoppyakuSix hundredななひゃくNana-hyakuSeven hundredはっぴゃくHappyakuEight hundredきゅうひゃくKyuu-hyakuNine hundred Hyaku means "a hundred," and you add numbers before that just like with the tens' place to show two hundred, three hundred, and so forth. You may have noticed that さんびゃく, ろっぴゃく, and はっぴゃくare a bit different from the others. This is another example of euphony, where the Japanese change the sound of the word to make it sound less awkward and more pleasant to the ears. To say numbers in between the hundreds, you just squish all of what you learned together. So for example... ごひゃく (go-hyaku / five hundred) にじゅう (ni-juu / twenty) はち (hachi / eight)Put all together it's: ごきゃくにじゅうはち (go-hyaku ni-juu hachi / five hundred and twenty-eight) Let's try some more examples. ななひゃくじゅうさん[spoiler=Answer]nana-hyaku juu san / 713よんひゃくごじゅういち[spoiler=Answer]yon-hyaku go-juu ichi / 451きゅうひゃくろくじゅうご[spoiler=Answer]kyuu-hyaku roku-juu go / 965ひゃくにじゅうご[spoiler=Answer]hyaku ni-juu go / 125さんびゃくろくじゅうさん[spoiler=Answer]san-byaku roku-juu san / 363はっぴゃくろくじゅうご[spoiler=Answer]happyaku roku-juu go / 865さんびゃくはちじゅうはち[spoiler=Answer]san-byaku hachi-juu hachi / 388ごひゃくななじゅうよん[spoiler=Answer]go-hyaku nana-juu yon / 574ろっぴゃくななじゅうはち[spoiler=Answer]roppyaku nana-juu hachi / 678にひゃくろくじゅうなな[spoiler=Answer]ni-hyaku roku-juu nana / 267 Again, you can do the reverse on RANDOM.ORG with the minimum as 100 and the maximum as 999. [spoiler=1,000-9,999]HiraganaRomajiEnglishせんSenOne thousandにせんNi-senTwo thousandさんぜんSan-zenThree thousandよんせんYon-senFour thousandごせんGo-senFive thousandろくせんRoku-senSix thousandななせんNana-senSeven thousandはっせんHassenEight thousandきゅうせんKyuu-senNine thousand More euphony occurs with さんぜん and はっせん. Three, six, and eight seem to cause a lot of euphony problems, don't they? Just like before, you just squish all of it together, putting the thousands' place before the hundreds', which is before the tens', which is before the ones' place. Step-by-step, it's:はっせん (hassen/eight thousand) さんびゃく (san-byaku/three hundred) にじゅう (ni-juu/twenty) よん (yon/four) And some more examples. きゅうせんきゅうひゃくごじゅうなな[spoiler=Answer]kyuu-sen kyuu-hyaku go-juu nana / 9957ろくせんよんひゃくさんじゅうなな[spoiler=Answer]roku-sen yon-hyaku san-juu nana / 6437はっせんはっぴゃくじゅうに[spoiler=Answer]hassen happyaku juu ni / 8812せんきゅうひゃくさんじゅうなな[spoiler=Answer]sen kyuu-hyaku san-juu nana / 1937さんぜんごひゃくろくじゅうきゅう[spoiler=Answer]san-zen go-hyaku roku-juu kyuu / 3569ななせんななひゃくろくじゅうよん[spoiler=Answer]nana-sen nana-hyaku roku-juu yon / 7764にせんななひゃくにじゅうろく[spoiler=Answer]ni-sen nana-hyaku ni-juu roku / 2726ごせんよんひゃくよんじゅう[spoiler=Answer]go-sen yon-hyaku yon-juu / 5440にせんごひゃくごじゅうさん[spoiler=Answer]ni-sen go-hyaku go-juu san / 2553せんよんひゃくななじゅう[spoiler=Answer]sen yon-hyaku nana-juu / 1470 Again, you can practice the reverse on RANDOM.ORG with the minimum as 1,000 and the maximum as 9,999. [spoiler=10,000-100,000,000]Okay, so this is what I had the most difficulty with, and it might be the same for you. Then again, it might not. Either way, there's a fundamental difference between Japanese numbers and English numbers. Thankfully, it's still base 10. Not so swell is that they follow the Chinese tradition of grouping by 10,000. That's right. Instead of grouping by 1,000 they group by 10,000 or 1,0000. So what would be written as 1,000,000 with us would be written as 100,0000 with them. This is something I had trouble adjusting to. So if you have ten thousand of anything in Japanese, it's not ten separate thousands brought together, but one of a new unit called man. HiraganaRomajiEnglishまんManTen thousandおくOkuOne hundred million Unlike before, if you want to specify one of anything above thousands, you have to put いち (ichi) before it. So for instance, to say ten thousand, you would say ichi-man. So to get a better picture of how weird this is, I'll show you some examples:20,000 = two ten-thousands = ni-man50,000 = five ten-thousands = go-man500,000 = fifty ten-thousands = go-juu-man1,000,000 = one hundred ten-thousands = hyaku-man10,000,000 = one thousand ten-thousands = sen-manNow let's do more practice: にせんろっぴゃくななじゅうななまんせんろっぴゃくきゅうじゅうろく[spoiler=Answer]ni-sen roppyaku nana-juu nana man, sen roppyaku kyuu-juu roku / 2677,1696ろじゅうよんまんろくせんななひゃくろくじゅうきゅう[spoiler=Answer]roku-juu yon man, roku-sen nana-hyaku roku-juu kyuu / 64,6769はちじゅうにまんにせんごひゃくろくじゅうよん[spoiler=Answer]hachi-juu ni man, ni-sen go-hyaku roku-juu yon / 82,2564きゅうじゅうにまんごせんさんびゃくじゅうご[spoiler=Answer]kyuu-juu ni man, go-sen san-byaku juu go / 92,5315ななじゅうごまんにせんにひゃくさん[spoiler=Answer]nana-juu go man, ni-sen ni-hyaku san / 75,2203にまんさんびゃくごゆうなな[spoiler=Answer]ni-man san-byaku go-juu nana / 2,0357せんよんひゃくはちじゅうろくまんごせんさんびゃくろく[spoiler=Answer]sen yon-hyaku hachi-juu roku man, go-sen san-byaku roku / 1486,5306にひゃくよんじゅうろくまんせんきゅうひゃくさんじゅうご[spoiler=Answer]ni-hyaku yon-juu roku man, sen kyuu-hyaku san-juu go / 246,1935ごせんななひゃくにじゅうはちまんにせんごひゃくにじゅうきゅう[spoiler=Answer]go-sen nana-hyaku ni-juu hachi man, ni-sen go-hyaku ni-juu kyuu / 5728,2529きゅうまんせんごひゃくろくじゅうはち[spoiler=Answer]kyuu-man, sen go-hyaku san-juu hachi / 9,1568 Again, you can practice the reverse on RANDOM.ORG with the minimum as 10,000 and the maximum as 100,000,000. And we're done! Here's the Anki file for this lesson, though to be honest, you'll probably be better off practicing numbers with RANDOM.ORG since this week was less about vocabulary and more about learning a new concept. Next lesson will be more vocabulary and katakana, though. See ya...whenever. I don't know. Hopefully next week, though more likely the week after. Sethera out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet MS Posted September 29, 2015 Report Share Posted September 29, 2015 Oh boy, day/month-counting rules make things a little more complex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethera Posted September 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2015 Oh boy, day/month-counting rules make things a little more complex.If it's what I think it is, then it's not too bad, but yeah, four and seven mess everything up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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