Learn to Count in Japanese

Learn to count in Japanese from 1 to 20 the fun way.
This video from Youtube teaches you to count in hip hop style.

Ichi, Ni, San ...

Seven Super Useful and Common Japanese Greetings

Here is a video posted on Youtube by The Japan Shop.
It teaches you the
"Seven Super Useful and Common Japanese Greetings".
Basic Japanese Greetings to use when you meet somebody.

Learning Japanese - The Basics Step 2

Learning Japanese

The Basics Step 2

GREETINGS – common phrases you use when meeting somebody.

GREETINGS

For Beginner's stage, sound files are readily available at many sites for free, and
I think the sound files at Coscom are fantastic.

Each sound is a single syllable. You will notice some Romaji letters have an extra "o". "Do" is short sound, "Doo" is a longer sound. Sometimes "Doo" is also written as "Dou".

You will notice that some characters has a double apostrophe (called "tenten") like the word " ば " which is read "ba". At this stage, for the sake of conversation, we shall read Romaji. To make things simple, the additional sounds will be introduced later.

Disclaimer : In this blog, I'm sharing as accurately as possible how I had learned Japanese as a Beginner. This free series would attempt to introduce the Japanese Language to non- Japanese speakers, like me, to explore for free learning material available on the internet. Kindly evaluate and let me know if you spot any errors. Perhaps you would like to comment and share your learning experience with me. Hope you would find this page interesting.

Learning Japanese - The Basics

How are you getting on?
O genki desa ka. おげんきですか。

Questions in Japanese do not end with a question mark.
The final particle "ka" represents a question mark at the end of the question.

Yes. I'm fine.
Hai, Genki desu. はい、げんきです。

In reply, a positive answer must begin with "Hai" for yes.

In Step 1, memorizing the Hiragana Chart is quite a task
especially if you are learning Japanese for the first time.
I made another chart with only the Hiragana and Romaji letters.
This may be easier to read.

Basically, the first line is made of 5 tones that are read from left to right.
Then k,s,t,n,h,m,y,r,w,n are added to the 5 basic tones to form the next set,
the ka series and so on.



Although Hiragana, Romaji and Katakana are written differently,
they all share the same set of sounds.
Coscom has an excellent audio e-Book which is free for learning Basics.



* Listen to all 5 tones in each line, and feel the rhythmic pattern.
In this case, it is read from left to right, top to bottom.



Credits : Audio e-Book from Coscom.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Atari Kousuke and Hana

Atari Kousuke and "hana" (flower), with subtitles.
Have a listen to this beautiful Japanese folksong.
This guy looks like a rocker but he sings this folksong beautifully in very traditional Japanese style.

My First Japanese Lesson Revisited

Learning Japanese

Learning Japanese. Nihongo wo benkyou shimasu.
日本語　を　勉強します。
Let's begin. Hajimemashou.
始めましょう。

Step 1.

Build a strong foundation in your Japanese reading and writing skills.
* First Memorise the Hiragana Chart.
* After you can recite all the phonetic characters,
Learn to write them stroke by stroke.

Refer to Hiragana Chart, and memorize the phonetic character set.
Best Link for Exercise : Click Here for Japanese Audio e-Book, published by Coscom Japanese Language School, Tokyo, Japan.

Do Your Best! Gambatte ne !
がんばって　ね。

Notes:

An overview of the Japanese Writing Systems

There are four different character sets used in Japanese Writing.
They are Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and Romaji.

Romaji uses the English alphabet A, B, C…. and this was developed to help foreigners pick up the language quickly. Beginners can use Romaji as a transition to learn Japanese conversation. After mastering Hiragana and Katakana, Romaji is seldom used except for keying input on computer.

Hiragana is the phonetic character set that is written and spoken.
Katakana is the corresponding phonetic character set used in most cases for foreign words or borrowed words.
Kanji is the Japanese-Chinese character set of words. Each word expresses an idea or meaning. Don’t be surprised that most of these words have at least 2 readings.

Schedule :
The best approach is to learn from a native Japanese speaker, a good teacher who can make learning Japanese most interesting. But if you are lost on the way, try to move in this direction, although not necessarily in this order.
The first steps for a complete beginner:

Step 1. Start with the Hiragana Chart.
Step 2. Learn simple conversation and basic sentence structure.
Step 3. Learn Katakana Chart.
Step 4. Add some Katakana words into sentence.
Step 5. Practice, practice and more practice makes perfect.


HIRAGANA KATAKANA CHART
ひらがな カタカナ びょう

Learning Japanese

どうぞ、よろしくおねがいします。
わたしは　シンガポール　の　しゅふ　です。
いま、日本語の　勉強すること　について　そのブログ　に　かきたいです。
ありがとう、よろしくおねがいます。

How's your blogging experience?

Hi, How about sharing your blogging experience with me?
I am also blogging at www.amethysti.com.Please take a peek. Your comments are most welcome.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Watch this ! Very entertaining.