End of the Line

This week was our end of class party.  There were people from both classes enjoying the activites. 

We had chopsticks and small cookies to practice with, which was a big hit.  One of the students also brought in some cherry blossom tea from Japan.  It tasted wonderful! 

I had a small display with information set up.  It included items I had picked up or made while I was in Japan.

The origami session kept everyone busy until the end of the party.  There were lots of cranes by the time we finished.

Week Five

Our final official class was a review, some new stuff, and alot of random words and phrases.

Days of the Week:
Sunday: Nichiyoubi   meaning: sun day
Monday: Getsuyoubi   meaning: moon day
Tuesday: Kayoubi   meaning: fire day
Wednesday: Suiyoubi   meaning: water day
Thursday: Mokuyoubi   meaning: tree/wood day
Friday: Kinyoubi   meaning: gold/metal day
Saturday: Doyoubi   meaning: earth day

The days of the week follow the Buddhist religion on the elements.

The months of the year follow the numbers and add on -gatsu.  January: Ichigatsu, February: Nigatsu, and so on.

The kanji for the above is available at http://www.kanjisite.com/

The fist ten days of the month have special names: 1st: tsuitachi, 2nd: futsuka, 3rd: mikka, 4th: yokka, 5th: itsuka, 6th: muika, 7th: nanoka, 8th: youka, 9th: kokonoka, 10th: touka.

I explained how years are counted both the Western way and by the year of the emperor's reign.  Your year of birth was dated by what emperor was on the throne.  When Meiji took the throne in 1867, it was formalized.

Meiji 1867-1912
Taishou 1912-1926
Shouwa 1926-1989
Heisei 1989-present

Example:  I was born in the 56th year of the Shouwa period. (1982)

The question one of the students brought up last class was answered; How do you say "I have a (color) (object)"?

Answer: He has...
              "Kare wa (color) (object) ga motteimasu"
              She has...
               "Kanojo wa (color) (object) ga motteimasu"
               I have...
               "watashi/boku/atashi/ore wa (color) (object) ga motteimasu"

A like/s: "A wa B suki desu"
A love/s: "A wa B daisuki desu" (dai is a form of "big", so it literally means "big like")
A dislike/s: "A wa B kirai desu"
A hate/s: "A wa B daikirai desu" (big dislike)

Other important and/or random words:

Wakarimasen: I don't understand; I don't know
Wakarimashita: I understand
Wakarimasu ka: Do you understand?
Oosu: multi-purpose answer
Hai: Yes
Sokka: I see
Yokata: I'm glad; I'm relieved
Gambatte: Good luck
Gambarimasu: I'll do my best (response to good luck)

There were other words and counters.  They will be in a later post.

Week Four

Wow, four weeks already!

This week, we reviewed all of the sentences from the last couple of sessions.  I went over some very important rules about thinking like a Japanese speaker.

-There are no such things as article in Japanese; i.e. a, an, and the.
-"I" and "you" are not used for every sentence.  Once the topic is established, you don't need it anymore.
-"it" has a word, however it isn't translated very often.
-really rolling your "r"s is speaking like a peasnat or mercenary.

I cleared up the colour sentence problem with the following; If you're using black, white, yellow, blue, or red, the sentence is "(object) wa (colour) desu ".  Any other colour uses "(object) wa (colour) iro desu".  The reason behind this difference is technical in its explanation, having to do with the ending of the colours.  I ended up going off on a couple of tangents.  The first was the different forms of "I";

-Female: Polite is "watashi", with friends and family is "atashi", thinking highly of yourself is "watakushi".
-Male: Polite is "watashi", with friends and family (a kind of take-charge attitude) is "boku", crudely is "ore".

We moved on to forms of "you";

-General is "anata".  It's a very direct way of saying you, the equivalent of pointing a finger and saying "you".  It's also the male form of "sweetheart".
-More common (and polite) is using the person's name and honourific.
-The rude form is "omae".

Some other bits of interest include; kimi (female form of sweetheart), "kami" has 3 meanings-hair, paper, and god, (kamikaze literally means god wind), baka kisama (very stupid person).

I showed everyone how to write the kanji for the numbers 1-10.

Next week is the last official class.
  

Anime and Manga Links

This is a link to a site which lists a number of fan translation sites.  A word of caution: Google the anime or manga first, so you know what it is and don't end up with an unpleasant surprise.  Anime is simply another form of media in Japan, and some of the stuff is 18A.

Anime Torrent: http://forum.mininova.org/index.php?showtopic=235035681&mode=threaded