LESSONS

おばあちゃん

obaasan

Grandma

おじいちゃん

oiijan

Grandpa

すうじ

suuji

Numbers

とけい

tokee

Clock

おあね-ちゃん

oneesan

Older sister

ひこうき

hikooki

Aeroplane

こおり

koori

Ice

hiragana

kippu

Ticket

hiragana

asatte

Fractions

hiragana

gakki

Musical instruments

hiragana

zasshi

Magazines

hiragana

Yoku wakarimasen

I don't understand well

hiragana

Moo ichido omegaishimasu.

One more time please.

hiragana

Moo sukoshi, yukkuri itte kudasai.

Could you speak a little more slowly please.

hiragana

heya wa 213 desu

The room number is 213

hiragana

Sumimasen. Moo ichido omegaishimasu.

Excuse me. One more time please.

hiragana

Sumimasen. Moo sukoshi, yukkuri itte kudasai.

Excuse me. Could you speak a little more slowly please.

hiragana

Wakarimashta.

I understand.

hiragana

Anoo, nihongo, dekimasu ka?

Hi there, do you speak Japanese?

Some notes on this.

1. Anoo - this is a word used to indicate that you want to speak to someone so it is similar to saying hi there or excuse me in English.
2. go - go means language so you have nihon which means Japan and so nihongo means Japan language or Japanese.
3. Dekimasu ka - literally means do you do so do you do Japanese. In Japanese, there is no equivalent to speak as used in this context.

hiragana

Anoo, nihongo wakarimasu ka?

Excuse me, do you understand Japanese?

hiragana

Hai, dekimasu.

Yes I do.

hiragana

Hai, sukoshi dekimasu.

Yes I speak a little Japanese.

hiragana

Hai, wakarimasu.

Yes I do.

hiragana

Hai, sukoshi wakarimasu.

Yes I understand a little Japanese.

hiragana

Hai, sukoshi.

Yes, a little.

hiragana

Sumimasen. Dekimasen.

I'm sorry, I don't.

hiragana

Sumimasen. Wakarimasen.

I'm sorry, I don't understand Japanese.

Some other languages.

• 英語 - Eigo - English.
• ハンガリー語 - Hangari-go - Hungarian.
• 中国語 - Chugoku-go - Chinese.
• 韓国語 - Kankoku-go - Korean.
• インドネシア語 - Indoneshia-go - Indonesian.
• タイ語 - Tai-go - Thai.
• フランス語 - Furansu-go - French.
• 猫語 - Neko-go - Cat language.

Remember that go is the Japanese word for language so if you add go to the name of the country, you get the language and you can also remove go from the name of the language in order to get the name of the country in most cases. However, the Japanese word for England is

イングランド - Ingurando

I assume that if you put go at the end of Ingurando, a Japanese person would understand that you mean the language of England. However, note:

イギリス英語 - Igirisu eigo - British English.

Possibly a similar thing would apply for Scottish, but technically this is not a language. For info:

スコットランド - Sukottorando - Scotland.

Lesson 4

I found the katakana a little bit easier to learn using my flashcards than the hiragana but it probably makes sense to learn the hiragana first. Katakana are used for foreign words as we will see in image 4C.

One thing that helps when learning the katakana and I think this is true for the hiragan as well is that once you have learned the 46 basic characters of the katakana, you will find that it is easier to learn the other charaters because there are just the basic characters with a small embellishment. For example, if you take the five basic characters for ka, ki, ku, ke ko and add the two marks hat look like a double quote mark, you get ga, gi, gu, ge, go and similarly other sets of basic characters map to additional characters so knowing that means you don't need to learn the characters if you know all of the nasic characters and you know what these mappings are.

hiragana

Kore wa, nihongo de nan desu ka?

What is this in Japanese?

hiragana

Kore wa, nan to iimasu ka?

What is this called?

hiragana

Driver's licence wa, nihongo de nan desu ka?

How do you say driver's licence in Japanese?

hiragana

Driver's licence wa nan to iimasu ka?

How do you say driver's licence?

hiragana

Sumaho desu

It's Sumaho (samrtphone).

hiragana

Menkyoshoo desu.

It's menkyoshoo

hiragana