Lesson 10: Anata & Kimi (you & you)

A fellow long-term resident in Japan recently contacted me and told me that I should not use any reference to the word "anata" (you). It is not used in Japan like the English use of the word. Rather it is used by women to call their husbands or lovers, or used in a derrogatory sense. In a way, this is true. People tend to use the names instead of the pronouns when talking to a person.

However I do know some people that use it in regular ways, and there is no bad feeling meant at all. Also, I feel that even though it may not be a commonly-used word in the Japanese vocabulary, it is, nonetheless important to learn the basics. ANATA does exist. Some people DO use it. Some in good ways, some in not so good ways.

The choice is entirely up to you, how you wish to use the word. The person who contacted me did have a very valid, understandable and logical reason for his comment on this topic and I thank him for it.

Another interesting point is that about six years ago as of this writing, when I first met my partner from Hong Kong (she is Hong Kong Chinese and her name is Mikie, pronounced by her as "Micky Mouse no Micky"), I discovered that she did not like the term "kimi". She is fluent in Japanese as well, having lived and worked in Osaka for 7 years. She learned that kimi was a term for "you" that was used by men to "look down on subordinates".

Since she and I are equals, she felt it inappropriate for me to use. Again, there is truth to this. Bosses often use it to men when they are giving them orders and so forth. It is not usually used when referring directly to women. Coming from a native-English background, I find it difficult to always call the person I am talking to by their name. We use the pronoun "you" in English. Therefore in Japanese I also prefer to use it.

I acquiesed to her wish and no longer call her kimi. I still use it with others because they do not mind me calling them kimi at all (both men and women) and they know that I am not using it to look down on them in any way, but rather in a very close, friendly way. This is good for us all.

The times have changed and Japanese is a living language. Young women (i.e. teenagers) often call boys or other girls kimi in ordinary conversation. They also call themselves "boku" (I, me) which would have been unheard of in a half-generation past! How times and language change. Watashi (sometimes atashi to make it even softer) is used by older women in their 30s as well as people working in a more formal situation. Only the teenagers really use boku/kimi indiscriminately, but that is par for the course in any culture I believe. Teenagers are a race of their own!

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson 11: Is the toilet really far? (Questions & Adjectives)

Lesson Nine: Some Vocabulary

Here is a brief list of words that you can try putting together in various different combinations and come up with several different sentences.

Feel free to use the vocabulary in the previous examples as well:

watashi /boku - I
anata/kimi - you
kare - he
kanojo - she
watashitachi - we
sensei - teacher
okusan - wife
shujin - husband
tomodachi - friend
oniisan - elder brother
oneesan - elder sister
otooto - young brother
imooto - younger sister
itoko - cousin
inu - dog
neko - cat
itachi - weasel
atsui - hot
samui - cold
ii - good
Kanadajin - Canadian
Igirisujin - British
mono - thing
pen - pen
enpitsu - pencil (note you could write this "empitsu" with an "m" if you prefer)
kami - paper
okane - money
kasa - umbrella
shinbun - newspaper (note you could write it as "shimbun" with an "m" if you wish)
jitensha - bicycle
okanemochi - rich
tabemono - food
nomimono - drink
biiru - beer
sake - sake
suteeki - steak
sushi - sushi
kyou - today
ashita - tomorrow
kinou - yesterday

Now try to make the following sentences. Practice saying them so that you get a feel for how Japanese is supposed to sound off the tongue. If you are not sure how to pronounce the sounds, return to Lesson One for revision.

1. This is a dog.
2. This is a cat steak.
3. Mrs. Clinton is not a weasel.
4. You are an idiot!
5. He is not a German teacher.
6. Is your cousin from Italy? (Is your sister Italian?)
- No, she isn't. She's from Australia.
7. Whose sushi is this?
- Not mine!
8. Are you single?
-Yes, I am.
9. This is my beer.
10. It is hot today, isn't it?
- Yes, it is. Tomorrow will be hot, too!
11. This sake is delicious.
- Yes, and the steak is too, isn't it.

If you have finished with these, why don't you try making a few sentences up on your own for practice? It can't hurt. You obviously haven't stuck around this far just for the heck of it.

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Ten - "Anata" and "Kimi"

Lesson Eight: How To Make Something Possessive

A wa B no C desu.

By adding the word no between two words it becomes possessive, relational.
In the sentence,

Kore wa Kyan no tsukue desu. (This is Cam's desk.)

you can see what has happened. No allows nouns (people) to act as a possessive adjective and is similar to the 's in English. If no is found after a noun that is a place, it denotes the place of origin of the second noun.

Sore wa Furansu no Jamu desu. (That is French Jam)

If the first noun is any other kind of noun, it will be used to describe the makeup of the second noun.

Nihongo no sensei. (A Japanese teacher)
Are wa Eigo no shimbun, ka na? (I wonder if that is an English newspaper?)

If you add no after watashi, you get "my".
Anata + no will give you "your" while kare + no = "his"
Kanojo + no = "her".
Watatashitachi no means "our".

1. Kore wa watashi no pen desu.
(This is my pen.)
2. Anata no okane desu ka?
(Is this your money?)
3. Are wa kanojo no kodomo desu.
(That is her child.)

You can use no in conjunction with dare (who), doko (where) nan (what) to make dare no (whose), doko no (from where) ,and nan no (of what) to make even more complex sentences.

1. Kore wa dare no kuruma desu ka? (Whose car is this?)
- Watashi no. (Mine).
2. Anata wa doko no hito desu ka? (Where are you from?)
- Boku wa Doitsujin desu. (I am German.)
3. Yamada-san wa nan no sensei desu ka? (What kind of teacher is she?)
- Rika no sensei desu. (She is a Social Studies teacher.)

You are probably getting the hang of it now, right?

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Nine - Some vocabulary

Lesson Seven: How To Point Something (or Someone) Out

Kore wa pen desu.

The words kore, sore, are are used to point out objects (sometimes people) in different locations in reference to the speakers. Kore is used for items closer to the speaker than the listener: this. Sore is used for items closer to the listener than the speaker: that. Are is used for items at a distance from both the speaker and the listener: that over there.

If you want to talk about the walking stick in your hand you would say:
Kore wa sutekki desu. (This is a walking stick.)

And when you want to refer to the pistol that someone is holding to your face, you would say:
Sore wa honto no juu desu ka? (Is that a real gun?)

And when you want to inform your assailant that the policeman over there is pointing a shotgun at both of you, you would say:
Are wa sandanjuu desu yo! (That is a shotgun!)

Don't forget this. It could come in handy especially since drugs and crime are increasing dramatically in Japan.

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Eight - How to make something possessive.

Lesson Six: How To Make Something Equal to Something Else

A mo B desu.

If A is B and A is also C you use the word mo. This means too, or also.
Look at the examples below:

1. Suzuki-san wa sensei desu. Watashi mo sensei desu.
(Mrs. Suzuki is a teacher. I am a teacher, too.)
2. Kyo wa ame desu ne. Ashita mo so.
(It is rainy today, isn't it? Tomorrow, too.)
3. Kore wa ame desu. Sore mo.
(This is candy. That is too.)

Look at how you might answer Yes to the following question:

Suzuki-san mo sensei desu ka. (Is Mrs. Suzuki a teacher, too?)
- Hai, (Suzuki-san mo) sensei desu.- Hai, (Suzuki-san mo) so desu.

You can omit the subject and mo if you wish. But if you answer No to the same question you omit mo all together and replace it with wa.

Suzuki-san mo sensei desu ka. (Is Mrs. Suzuki a teacher, too?)
- Iie, Suzuki-san wa sensei de wa arimasen.- Iie, so de wa arimasen.

Does that make sense?

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Seven - How to point something (or someone) out

Lesson Five: How To Make An Imperative Statement

... and then How to Soften it

A) Imperative: A wa B desu yo.

Japanese does not use exclamation points, but there is a structure that shows stress and imperative in a sentence. Simply adding yo at the end of a statement makes it similar to an exclamatory sentence. The intonation is usually falling to emphasize the point being made. Look at number 4 in the previous examples (see below) to see what I mean. Now on your own, take the previous five sentences, transcribed below for you, and practice saying them in the imperative. The first one is done for you:

1. Kore wa juu de wa arimasen. - Kore wa juu da yo!!!! (as if you thought it was a boquet of flowers he was shoving in your face)
2. Iie, watashi wa dokushin ja nai. - Hai! Watashi wa dokushin desu yo! (A desperate person approaching "christmas cake" age).
3. Kanojo wa Kanadajin ja arimasen. - Kanojo wa Kanadajin da yo!
4. Boku wa baka ja nai yo! - (already done. Say it anyway just to reassure yourself that you are not really baka)
(I'm not an idiot!)
5. Iie, Bush-san wa neko de wa arimasen. Itachi desu. - Kare wa yappari itachi da yo ne!
(No, Mr. Bush is not a cat. As we thought, he IS a weasel.)

B) Softer or Agreeable: A wa B desu ne.

In Japanese we try to be as unimposing as possible (hard for a 6'5" monster here to pull off, but we do our best). It is important to try to agree with the speaker in order to maintain smooth relations and so as not to be offensive. To soften your speech so it doesn't seem quite so forceful, or to agree with what the speaker has said (not necessarily what they mean) just add ne to the end of the sentences. It is a little like adding, isn't it to the end of a sentence in English. Women use this quite frequently at the end of their sentences because it is demure, sweet, and non-imposing, therefore "feminine". The intonation is slightly rising.

Look at the example below:

1. Goshujin wa dorobo de wa arimasen ne.
(Your husband isn't a thief, is he.)
2. So desu ne.
(Yes, that's true, isn't it.)

Hang in there. You'll get this yet.

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Six - How to make something equal to something else

Lesson Four: How To Make A Negative Statement

A wa B de wa arimasen.

Now that you know how to say A is B it would probably be helpful to know how to say that A is not B. Again, it is actually very simple. All you have to do is take the A wa B desu, and replace desu with de wa arimasen (or de wa nai in the more informal situations and ja arimasen or ja nai in a contracted format) to get the negative. How is that for straight forward? Couldn't be easier, now could it? Are you remembering all this? Good. I knew you could.

Usually it is also good to know how to say Yes, and No. I am sure every single person on the face of this earth already knows, through TV and the movies that Hai means Yes. But did you know that Iie means No? I bet you didn't. Well now you do. If someone asks you a question, you can answer by putting Hai or Iie at the front of the sentence.

So here are similar examples in the negative:

1. Kore wa juu de wa arimasen.
(This is not a gun.)
2. Iie, watashi wa dokushin ja nai.
(No, I'm not single.)
3. Kanojo wa Kanadajin ja arimasen.
(She isn't Canadian.)
4. Boku wa baka ja nai yo.
(I'm not an idiot!)
5. Iie, Kurinton-san wa neko de wa arimasen. Itachi desu.
(No, Mr. Clinton is not a cat. He is a weasel.)

Moving right along....

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Five - How To Make An Imperative Statement, and then How to Soften it

Lesson Three: How to Make a Question

A wa B desu ka?

This is even simpler than the first pattern and it is extremely easy and a great relief for learners of Japanese to know that once you know the basic sentence structure, all you have to do is put a ka? at the end of the sentence to make it a question.

So to look at the same examples as above we see:

1. Kore wa pen desu ka?
(Is this a pen?)
2. Anata wa dokushin desu ka?
(Are you single?)
3. Kanojo wa Kanadajin desu ka?
(Is she Canadian?)
4. Sono pasokon wa baka desu ka?
(Is that computer stupid?)
5. Kurinton-san wa neko desu ka?
(Is Mr. Clinton a cat?)

Very, very simple, don't you think?

More to follow....

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Four - How to make a negative statement

Lesson Two: This is a pen. Is this a pen?

(or This isn't a pen. This is a pen for God's sake!!!)

Now that we have a little bit better idea of how to pronounce some Japanese, let's jump right in and start to learn some of the grammar so that we can start to say some simple, yet very important phrases.

In the real world we are always asking questions and looking for information so it might be beneficial to learn how to make a question or two as well. And where would we end up if we always said "yes" to every proposition we were offered? Perhaps the vice president's chair but more likely we would end up either in jail, some deserted back lane or heaven forbid, a cemetery. So as Nancy Reagan once said it, "Just Say No." Was that Nancy? I'm sorry but I don't recall saying that ...

As an aside, rather than have a long vocabulary list at the end of each lesson, I prefer to use the vocabulary that is in the examples. If I decide to make questions using unfamiliar words, I will put those in a table at the end. Otherwise, just consider the lesson as having the vocabulary directly in it. After all, who wants to memorize lists of words, anyway, right?


The Basic Sentence Structure: A wa B desu.

Japanese has a very straightforward sentence structure as you see above. We do not invert, rotate, or otherwise do funny things with it like we do in English (how many exceptions to the rules are there again?). The basic pattern is A wa B desu. This essentially means "A is B." The verb to be in this sentence is, as you might guess, desu. This is the polite form of the verb. There is also a "dictionary" or ordinary form as well and it is da. The wa in the sentence is a particle that marks the thing or person by means of B. It doesn't change; very simple. Very simple indeed.

Let's look at a few examples, shall we?

1. Kore wa pen desu.
(This is a pen.)
2. Watashi wa dokushin desu.
(I am single.)
3. Kanojo wa Kanadajin desu.
(She is Canadian.)
4. Kono pasokon wa baka desu.
(This computer is stupid.)
5. Buutsu wa neko desu.
(Boots is a cat.)

As you can see, the pattern is exactly the same throughout all of the examples. The only thing that changes is the vocabulary. Once you have mastered several useful words in Japanese, you can say very rudimentary statements regarding the existence of things.

Another very easy thing about Japanese is how you describe nationalities. In English we have so many different ways of doing it (American, Canadian, New Zealander, etc.) but in Japanese all you have to do is add jin to the end of a country and you have a native of that location (Amerika-jin, Kanada-jin, NyuuJiirando-jin).

More to follow...

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Three - How to make a question

Lesson One: Pronunciation in Japanese

Maybe you have a phrase translated for you with the corresponding pronunciation written in roman characters. But how do you pronounce it so it sounds close to natural? Fear not for help is on the way! In this lesson you will learn a bit about the history of the language and how the language sounds. So sit back, take out your notebook and enjoy the first lesson Japanese Lesson series.

Have you ever watched an old Japanese samurai movie on the late show? Chances are you thought that everyone was always angry at everyone else and spent a lot of time yelling in monotonous staccato tones. I felt the same way. It was all unintelligible blabber, not a real language. Well, guess what? It is actually possible to make some sense out of the nonsensical language that you hear on Japanese movies, etc. With a little understanding of how the language works, you will be on your way to sounding just like those yelling, sword-swinging samurai of yore. Let's get down to business.


Stress

In Japanese there is no clear stress on syllables in words as there is in English. A non-Japanese speaker would pronounce the city of Yokohama as "Yoko-HAA-ma" and the family name Yoshida as "Yo-SHEE-da". In English, stress tends to be placed on the second last syllable of longer words. Not so in Japanese. All syllables are spoken with equal strength and length. A Japanese speaker would say "Yo-ko-ha-ma" and "Yo-shi-da" without stressing any parts.

Try saying the following words without putting any extra strength or stress on any of the syllables:

1. Yokohama 2. Kawasaki 3. Nagasaki 4. Hiroshima 5. Amerika
6. Osutoraria 7. koohii 8. Nippon 9. beesubooru 10. koppu

Syllable Length

Some texts say that there are long and short syllables in the Japanese language. I disagree. In most cases the longer sound of a syllable is due simply to an extra vowel placed after the previous syllable. For example Tokyo is actually pronounced like To-u-kyo-u and Kyoto is Kyo-u-to (note here that the final to in Kyoto sounds shorter than the middle to but it is just because it lacks the additional u which makes the sound appear to be longer. Pronounced carefully, the "long" syllable takes twice as long to pronounce as the "short" syllable.

Practice these sounds:
1. biiru 2. biru 3. konpyuuta 4. konpyuutaa 5. koka koora
6. Toukyou 7. Kyouto 8. suteeki 9. ginkou 10. waapuro

Vowels and Consonants

There are five vowels in the Japanese language: A, I, U, E, O. These vowels have one sound apiece. Unlike the English "a" which can have the sounds found in cat, crawl, cape, the Japanese A sounds like the vowel found in the word cup. And as a matter of fact, all of the syllables in Japanese are very short and clipped (Suzuki sounds more like S'z'ki). Remember that whenever you see a vowel in a Japanese word it will always have the following sound:

Vowel: a i u e o
Sound: up heat soup left slope

Most consonants sound as they do in English with a few exceptions worth noting: K, G, S, Z, D, T, P, B do not have the puff of air that is associated with same consonants in English. The N is also a very unusual sound as it can actually take on four different sounds, depending on where it is found in the word.

If it precedes a vowel (as in no) it has the normal N sound found in English. Before t, ts, d, n, ch, j it also posses the normal n sound.

If it is found before p, b, m it takes on an m sound.

If it is found before k and g it sounds like ng as in finger.

If it is found at the end of a word, or before all other sounds, it has a nasal sound, similar to the French n as in pain (bread).

There is one other sound that we need to discuss. It is the most difficult sound for foreigners to pronounce correctly. It is the R sound. This sound is not found in the English language. It is a somewhere between the English L, D, R and is a rather short, chopped sound. In this case the tongue quickly flicks the roof of the mouth just in front of the soft upper pallette. This sound takes a lot of practice to get right and in order to pronounce it correctly you need to hear it to be able to reproduce it.

Syllable Structure

The following chart shows all the possible combinations of consonants and vowels in the Japanese Language. Note that in almost every case (except for n by itself) all consonants are followed by a vowel. This makes the language very easy to pronounce.

Main Sounds

a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa wo n
i ki shi chi ni hi mi - ri - - -
u ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru - -
e ke se te ne he me - re - - -
o ko so to no ho mo yo ro - - -

There are some other sounds which are not quite as common, but are actually a slight variation of the main sounds.

They are the Secondary Sounds :
ga za da ba pa
gi ji - bi pi
gu zu - bu pu
ge ze de be pe
go zo do bo po

There are situations where two consonants are together with a vowel.

They produce the following Tertiary Sounds:
kya gya sha ja cha nya hya pya bya mya rya
kyu gyu shu ju chu nyu hyu pyu byu myu ryu
kyo gyo sho jo cho nyo hyo pyo byo myo ryo

Now that you are armed with the correct sounds for the language, why don't you pull out your Japanese Name or Phrase and give the pronunciation a try? with a bit of practice you should be able to get the sounds just right.

One last thing to mention that I found really helps with getting the pronunciation right. Almost all of the sounds can be said without the use of the lips. Think of yourself as a ventriloquist, speaking from a puppet. Don't move your lips, and keep them relaxed. It should help. And practice.

Here are a few simple sentences that you can use for pronunciation practice and begin to memorize for your future use:

Practice Sentences

1. Watashi no namae wa Ken desu. (My name is Ken.)
2. Kono biiru wa ikura desu ka? (How much is this beer?)
3. Toire wa doko desuka? (Where is the toilet?)
4. Mata ne! (See you later!)
5. Ohisashiburi desu ne. (Long time no see.)
6. Ohayou gozaimasu. (Good morning.)
7. Konnichi wa. (Hello.)
8. Konban wa. (Good evening.)
9. Oyasumi nasai. (Good night.)
10. Koko wa doko desu ka? (Where am I now?)

The Culture Pocket: A Brief History of the Japanese Written Language

Most scholars believe that prior to the introduction of Kanji from China, there was no formal written language. No one is certain when the script first came to the islands but some believe that it could have been around the first century AD. In the early third century, artifacts have been recovered that depict some form of writing.

Kanji was first used as a system of writing sometime in the late 5th century or early 6th century. It is difficult to set an exact date because of the writings being based on the Chinese calendar which is difficult to interpret. More than likely, Chinese or Koreans who came to the islands to live began using the characters.

In the beginning kanji was more than likely used to represent sounds (phonetics) for loan words from other cultures. Also, the introduction of Buddhism into China and eventually Japan prompted translations of the scripts using the script. Buddhism probably had the greatest influence on the development of the language due to the huge influx of people from the mainland to build temples, translate documents, make statues, tiles, copy sutras, etc.

Around the seventh century it seems that the Japanese people began mastering the language themselves and started to do some work of their own. The language began to make some changes as it took on more than just a phonetic reproduction of foreign words (KUN reading). Eventually it began to be used to represent ideas and concepts.

Chinese and Japanese are completely different. In terms of structure, Chinese is actually closer to English than it is to Japanese. And yet, the Japanese, in their amazing ability to adapt things to their own ideas, were able to take the Chinese and add marks so that it would conform to the Japanese word order. Then the kanji began to take on a second reading, known as the ON reading, as mentioned above. It may be that the Korean language had influenced the development of the Japanese language as both have similar word orders and also use honorific auxiliaries.

In the Nara period (710-784) there was an explosion of Japanese literature. It seems that much of the oral tradition of passing on history was translated into script for the future generations. The language began to become more and more complex.

Hiragana began to be developed around the Nara period as well. It has its roots in the simplification of a cursive-style of writing kanji. This cursive style was mainly used privately among individuals to make notes, letters and other personal documents. For about 1400 years the hiragana had a very large set of letters. In 1900 it was standardized in brushwritten and woodblock-printed forms, mainly for artistic purposes. Because of this, hiragana tends to have a roundish, flowing style and shape.

Officials and scholars continued to use classical Chinese for their work for many hundred years. As the language developed, it became necessary to add notes next to the text to aid in the reading of the texts. This began in the Heian period (794-1192). Because space was limited, scholars began using a shorthand version of the kanji used for pronunciation. This was the beginning of Katakana. In the beginning it was not entirely different from hiragana but over time developed a more square appearance, more scholarly. Eventually the katakana script evolved such that it began to be used solely for writing foreign loan words, or concepts that did not exist in the native Japanese language.

Reference: Japanese Correspondence Course for JET Participants, 1993

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson Two: This is a pen. Is this a pen? (or Thi...

Welcome to the Free! Japanese Lessons

If you are interested in learning spoken Japanese then this is may be the blog for you. This will have to be an ongoing project because I run a "one-man show" in Japan that keeps me working 24/7. It may take some time to get a number of lessons developed. It isn't like a website where I can put up two or three pages. That would make people run away screaming I think. Have patience and hang in there. I'll do my best to make it fun (I have some experience with this).

What I would like to do is provide you with a basic understanding of the Japanese language. It is not meant to replace formal study at an institute of higher learning. Not everything can be covered, but I will do my best to provide language tips that will help you develop your Japanese language skills.

I will not be teaching reading or writing; it will be mainly "conversational" in nature; something that you can use right away in certain situations. I may put up the odd japanese character that could be of benefit to you should you make a trip to Japan.

Of course in order to truly become fluent in any foreign language it is always desirable, if at all possible, to immerse oneself in the language and culture (like what I did - threw away a life in biotechnology for a brave new world). Coming to Japan will do wonders for your language ability if you ever have the chance. I understand that this is not feasible for most people, so I will strive to do my best to provide you with current lessons and examples for study. When I find the time I will work on these lessons and then post them here.

So bookmark my Japanese Lessons Blogroom and pop in from time to time to see if a new lesson is available. Since I have this also set up for RSS readers, if you added it to your news feeds or your my.whatever.com page whenever I post a new one, you should see it pop up there. Give it a try!

As in any "classroom setting" the most productive is the interactive type. If I'm just typing away here like a boring lecturer drones on, I don't think I'll be doing it for long. What I am looking for is a two-way discussion. Or better yet, a 20-way discussion with all of you working with each other to discuss what is going on, to share ideas, help each other out.

As an aside, I sell used kimono if anybody wants to buy one. I have about 100 of them in my home at this current time. Some are 100 years old. Some have stains from tea that got spilled on them 70 years ago when the woman was serving a meal to a special guest. Things that make them really interesting. Prices are very cheap and there is a huge variety. If you are interested, let me know. (Oh, by the way, most of the "Japanese kimono" you see on E-bay are not Japanese. They are chinese silk dresses. That really burns me up). Just let me know.

That's all for now. I'm looking forward to meeting with you and hope the following will expand. Let's make this Japanese Blogroom a class worth attending, shall we? De wa, mata.

- Sensei

Next Lesson: Lesson One: Pronunciation in Japanese Maybe you h...