Lesson 6 - Nihon e Yookoso!

English sentences are generally arranged like SUBJECT - VERB - OBJECT. In Japanese, the basic structure is SUBJECT - OBJECT - VERBAL (verbal includes: verbs, be-verb, adjectives).
In english, for example, you say: "Today is Friday" or "Nicole ran to school". However, in Japanese, you have to say: "Today Friday is" and "Nicole to school ran".

More ... in English, the most important information tends to be given first, with less important items tacked on the end. In Japanese, less important items are gotten out of the way first, setting the stage for the important information which comes at the end.

So, let's imagine ... 

Nicole has just arrived at Tokyo airport. She'll be met there by Matsuzaka Tori , a teacher at the high school where Nicole will be teaching. Matsuzaka Tori  arrives and talks to Nicole. 

Tori: Sumimasen, Nicole san desu ka.

         Excuse me, are you Mrs. Nicole?

Nicole: Hai, soo desu. Nicole desu.

             Yes, that's me. I'm Nicole.

Tori: Hajimemashite, Tori desu . Yokohama Gakuin Kookoo no Tori desu. Nihon e yookoso! 

         Nice to meet you, I'm Tori. Tori from Yokohama High School. Welcome to Japan! 

Nicole: Aa, Tori san, hajimemashite!

             Ah, Mr. Tori, nice to meet you!

Grammar Explanations

1 . San - さん - Mr., Mrs., Miss and Ms.

The word san is the equivalent of Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms.  It's used as a term of respect after all names (it's even used after first names). But, since san is a term of respect to other people, you can't use it with  your own name. Check the dialogues again:

Tori: Nicole san desu ka. (term of respect to Nicole)

Nicole: Hai, soo desu. Nicole desu. (Talking about herself, without san)

2  . Desu - です - "to be"

In the Japanese language isn't necessary to learn long lists of different verbs endings. The verb doesn't change with the person (like: I am, you are, he is, etc.). So, desu can mean all the persons. Therefore, the verb always comes at the end of  sentence.
Examples:
Gakusei desu - (I) am a student
Amerikajin desu - (I) am an American
Enjinia desu - (He) is an enginner
Tori san desu ka. - Are (you) Mr. Tori?

3. Ka - か-  question marker

When you want to form a question, you can simply add ka to the end of the sentence. Plus, you don't need to put a question mark ("?") and you don't need to make any other changes.
Examples:
Gakusei desu. - I am a student.
Gakusei desu ka. - Are you a student?

Tokyo desu. - (This) is Tokyo.
Tokyo desu ka. - Is (this) Tokyo?

However, sometimes you may found exchanges, like:
Yusuke: Shitsurei desu ga, Kanadajin desu ka. 
               Excuse me, but you are a Canadian?
Tifanny: Kanadajin? Iie, chigaimasu. Watashi wa Amerikajin desu. 
              Canadian? No, I'm not. I'm an American.

( ^ Matsuzaka Tori)

Dialogues in Hiragana

Tori:  すみません, Nicole さんですか。

Nicole: はい, そおです。Nicole です。

Tori: はじめまして, Tori です。よこはまがくいんこおこおの Tori です。にほんえよおこそ！

Nicole: ああ, Tori さん。はじめまして！

Lesson 5 - Katakana

Katakana is generally reserved for words and names borrowed from another languages, excepting Chinese. Once again, we use katakana in the same way as we use italics, to write foreign words, exclamations, interjections and onomatopoeias.

We can also find katakana characters with: 

dakuten ( " ) - used in h, k, s and t kanas

handakuten ( ° ) - used in h kanas

Consonant +  ヤ[ya], ユ [yu], ヨ [yo]

We can combine consonants with the ヤ [ya], ユ [yu] and ヨ [yo] syllables to form a single syllable. This combination is possible when we have:  consonant + i + ya/yu/yo.

For example: ki + ya = kya ;   キ + ヤ = キャ  

Examples of words in katakana:

ラジオ (rajio) -  radio

チケット (chiketto) - ticket

ミルク (miruku) - milk

Lesson 4 - Hiragana

Hiragana is used to write various grammatical markers, inflectional endings and other words not written in Kanji. We can also use hiragana to write entire Japanese sentences - it happens when Kanji characters are very complex or when you don't know how to write something in Kanji. 

We can find 46 hiragana characters for 46 different sounds:

However, we can also find hiragana characters with: 

dakuten ( " ) - used in h, k, s and t kanas

handakuten ( ° ) - used in h kanas

Consonant +  ゃ[ya], ゅ [yu], ょ [yo] 

We can combine consonants with the や [ya], ゆ [yu] and よ [yo] syllables to form a single syllable. This combination is possible when we have:  consonant + i + ya/yu/yo.

For example: ki + ya = kya ;   き + や = きゃ  

Examples of words in hiragana:

さむい (samui) - cold

あめ (ame) - rain

はい (hai) - yes

いいえ (iie) - no

Lesson 3 - Japanese Writing Systems

The written Japanese is made up of three quite different writing systems: kanji, hiragana and katakana characters, which are used in combination.  In this blog, I'll use these three alphabets and the roman alphabet (mainly).

Katakana characters represent exactly the same sounds as hiragana alphabet, so in principle, all words can be written in katakana. But, In fact, we use katakana in the same way as we use italics, to write foreign words, exclamations, interjections and onomatopoeias.

Example of how kanji, hiragana and katakana are used together in a sentence:
Mike's school in is Yokohama.

Lesson 2 - Consonants

We can find 16 consonants in the Japanese alphabet and language: 

B, D, F, G, H, J, K, M, N, P, R, S, T, W, Y, Z

Most of the consonants sounds are pronounced as they are in English. A few differences:

[ts] - usually appears only before the vowel [u]. There are only a few examples where it comes at the beginning or middle, like "tsunami" and "tsetse fly".

[g] - pronounced as in "get", "go" or "gain". 

[w] - pronounced as in "want". Pratice saying [wa] without rounding your lips, as with [u] and [o].  

[h / f] - [h] is written before [a, i, e, o, y] and [f] is written before [u]. But [f] is pronounced with only a slight amount of friction between the upper and lower lips. Examples: "Fuji" sounds like who-ji; "Futari" sounds like "who-tari". 

[r] - represents a sound which is halfway between "L" and "R". 

[n] - before [t, ts, ch, s, d, j, z, n, r] represents a nasal sound held for one beat. ex: nonda, pronounced no-n-da. Same happens to [m] before [p, b, m] and to [ng] before [k, g, ng]. 

Sometimes you'll see words with double consonants in the middle, like "atta", "kippu", "gakkoo". As with the vowels, these doubled sounds should be held for twice the lenght of a single sound: a-t-ta, ki-p-pu, ga-k-koo. 

Lesson 1 - Vowels

First of all, each vowel is always said in the same way.

Sometimes, you'll see the same vowel in a row (e.g. uu). This means that the sound is twice as long as a single vowel.

The order of the vowels, in japanese: a - i - u - e - o

Vowels:
あ "a" - pronounced as in Kawasaki, Ah!
い "i" - pronounced as in eat, kimono
う "u" - pronounced as in sumoo, boot
え  "e" - pronounced as in zen, men
お "o" - pronounced as in Hiroshima, open

There are a few cases where the vowel sound almost disappears - devoiced vowels.

The vowels i and u tend to be dropped/whispered, usually when they're between consonants like p, t, k, ch, ts, h or when they're at the end of a word.

Example: "desu", sounds like "des" ; "yoshi!", sounds like "yosh!"