Christmas challenge: translate this children's book!

In the past, I spent many posts trying to translate a kids' book, and ended up giving up. Now I tried another one, and it was a breeze! Either we learned a lot in between, or this story is much easier. It definitely repeats the same sentences (with minor variations) again and again, making translation much easier.

The story is called ねずみの　よめいり, the Mouse Wedding, and I challenge you to translate it. Print this post, and during the more boring parts of the Christmas holidays, have a stab at it. I added translations for the words we don't yet know, which are not that many. Here goes, good luck!



1. おとうさんねずみは　かわいい　ひとり　むすめを　せかいで　いちばん　つよい　ものの　およめに　したいと　かんがえていました。　「いつも　せかいじゅうを　あたたかくている　おひさまが　せかいで　いちばん　つよいに　ちがいない。」
The words used are:

ねずみ	mouse, rat
むすめ	daughter
つよい	strong, powerful
もの	person
かんがえる	to consider, think

2. おとうさんねずみは　おひさまに　いいました。　「せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　おひさまです。　むすめを　よめに　もらって　ください。」　「いや　いた　わたしより　くものほうが　つよいです。　くもは　わたしを　すっぽり　かくしてしまうから。」
The words used are:

よめ	bride
いや	no
くも	cloud
すっぽり	completely
かくして	thus
しまう	to put away; to put an end to

3. おとうさんねずみは　くもの　ところに　でかけました。　「せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　くもさんです。　むすめを　よめに　もらって　ください。」　「いや　いた　わたしよりも　かぜのほうが　つよいです。　かぜは　わたしを　かんたんに　ふきとばしてしまうから。」
The words used are:

でかける	to go out, set out for
かぜ	wind, breeze
かんたんに	simply
ふきとばす	to blow off, brush away

4. おとうさんねずみは　かぜの　ところに　でかけました。　「せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　かぜさんです。　むすめを　よめに　もらって　ください。」　「いや　いや　わたしより　かべのほうが　つよいです。　わたしが　どんなに　つよい　かぜを　ふかせても　かべは　びくともしませんから。」
The words used are:

かべ	wall
どんなに	how, how much
ふく	to blow
びくとも	[couldn't figure this one out]

5. おとうさんねずみは　かべの　ところに　でかけました。　「せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　かべさんです。　どうぞ　むすめを　よめに　もらって　ください。」　「いいえ　せかいで　いちばん　つよいのは　ねずみです。　わたしの　からだに がりがり　あなを　あけるから。」
The words used are:

からだ	body
がりがり	making a scratching, crunching sound (onomatopeia)
あな	hole

6.　「 なんと　せかいで　いちばん　つよいのが　ねずみとは。」　とつさんねずみは　すぐに　いえに　かえって　むすめに　ねずみの　おむこさんを みつけて　やりました。　「よい　むこどのが　みつかって　よかった　よかった。」　ねずみの　かぞくは　ずっと　なかよく　くらしまして。
The words used are:

なんと	what, how, whatever
とは	particle indicating definition
むこ	husband
みつける	to find
どの	Mr
みつかる	to be found
ずっと	continuously, for a long time
なかよく	getting along with, being friends with
くらす	to live, spend time together

What the textbook doesn't tell you...

Most of us are trying to learn Japanese away from Japan or the Japanese. My own exposure to a native speaker at least is limited to my teacher. Some may not even have that much. It is hard. What makes it even harder is that you have no idea what happens if you're ever in a situation to play out all the dialogues you've memorised for months, even years. No textbook, no amount of repeating after the teacher could really prepare you for that scenario. Role-play with difficult scenarios might.

I've been to Dusseldorf last weekend. The city hosts the third largest Japanese expat population in Europe (after London and Paris). This was one of the charms of the place when I decided to visit. I was going to pop into the shops and restaurants, and finally use all those dialogues crammed up in my brain, complete with "~んで" sentences.

However, reality struck pretty soon. I've found out that one essential part is missing from all those textbooks: The ultimate shock and horror of the native speaker when they see you speak Japanese. It is a hurdle to get over, despite how famously polite they are. If you add to it the fact that time slows down when you are in a difficult situation, the misery takes forever.

I'm a believer that most of language comprehension depends on expectation. In the languages we're fluent at, we don't necessarily rely on understanding each word. First and foremost, we rely on the warrant to understand and be understood. Without that warrant, it gets sticky. I observe this a lot at home, where we juggle three languages at a time. Sometimes, one just can't quite get it, since nobody is sure which language the next word will come from. Even among people who know each other well, this may be the case.

We have been told over and over again that the Japanese do not expect a foreigner to speak Japanese or be good at it. So when you open your mouth in Japanese, the conversation just does not follow. My short experience has shown me that actually a silence takes over and you are given very brief answers...totally confidence shattering. They don't expect to understand you, so they don't right away, however good you may be.

I've made my mental note, and am now putting it out there: Be prepared not to be understood with your first opening sentence or two. It may not be your fault. Do not lose courage, and push on. It is very rewarding once you've managed, and delivers a high for at least fifteen minutes after you've completed the real-life scenario.

What to say after the plain form, part 2

Here is the next part of our list of 'things to put after the plain form of a verb'.

～ことが　あります。

This one refers to experience. It usually follows the past tense of the plain form, such as たべた, 'ate',　or いった, 'went'. Literally, the construction means 'there is a case of ~', but it's asking about someone's experience. For example: マルコさんは　にほんに　いった　ことが　ありますか。 'Have you ever gone to Japan, Marco?' Or in the affirmative: すしと　すきやきを　たべた　ことが　ある。　'I have eaten sushi and sukiyaki [at one point in my life].'

～ことが　できます。

Similar to the previous one, this one indicates ability rather than experience. Our sensei gave us this example (I only changed the name): たなかさんは　ちゅうごくを　はなす　ことが　できますか。　'Are you able to speak Chinese, Mr Tanaka?' or, less literally translated, 'Do you speak Chinese, Mr Tanaka?'

～のは　X　です。

This is a nominalizer, that is, it turns the whole subsentence that ends in a plain form verb into a noun. Sensei gave us this example: むこう　から　くる　のは　だれ ですか。 The word むこう is new to us, it means 'over there'. So the parts of the sentence read: 'over-there-from to-come [nom] who is ?', which translates to 'Who is the person who is coming from over there?' Here is another example the sensei gave us: にほんごの　レッスンが　おれるのは　いつ　ですか。　'When will the Japanese lesson have a break?'

As for the scope problem I discussed in the previous post, this is pretty tricky territory. If you want to read the whole discussion about it on the about.com Japanese language forum, be my guest. The short version: if you use ～とおもいます, you would translate it as 'I think that ~', but if you use ～とおもっています, somebody else would be doing the thinking.

What to say after the plain form, part 1

Here's a recap of the idiomatic expressions to use after the plain form of a verb. I'm splitting it up because it's a lot to explain.

First, just to be clear on what the plain form is: it is the form of a verb that, when used at the end of a sentence, is the less polite form of the -ます forms we've been learning. You also use the plain form in polite communication, but then only in certain contexts, such as the idioms discussed during class and in this post.

We've learned the present affirmative, present negative, past affirmative, and past negative of the polite form, which are respectively (for 'to eat'): たべます,　たべません, たべました and たべませんでした.
The plain form equivalent of this sequence is: たべる (this one is known as the dictionary form), たべない, たべた, and たべなかった.
The -te form (for example, たべて), is neither polite nor plain, and so only exists in one form.
For a full list of all (common) conjugations of a verb, visit the Ultra Handy Japanese Verb Conjugator.

Anyway, on to the first idioms. They are as follows:
～とおもいます (in kanji: ～と思います).　This means 'I think that ~'. For example:　にほんごを　はなすと　おもいます。 I think (s)he speaks Japanese.
～といいます. This means 'X says that ~'. For example:　がくせいは　レッスンを　わすれると　いいました。　The student said he forgot the lesson. Or: The student said, 'I forgot the lesson'. Note that I changed the present tense いいます into the past tense いいました.
～どう　です. This means 'I have heard that ~'.
～か　どうか. This means 'whether or not ~'. Sensei gave us this example: アントニさんは　きょう　くるか　どうか　わかりません。 'I don't know whether or not Antony will come today.'
～でしょう. This expresses conjecture (that is, not being sure of something) and roughly translates to 'probably will'. Literally it's the volitional form ('let's X') of です, to be. On the Web, I found this example: ちちは　みせで　バナナを　かう　でしょう。 Dad will probably buy bananas at the store.
～かも　しれません (in kanji ～かも　知れません). This is much weaker conjecture, translating to 'may' or 'might'. Literally it just means 'I don't know if ~'. Sensei's example was: アントニさんは　きょう　くるかも　しれません。 'Antony may come today' (literally 'I don't know if Antony will come today').

One thing I can't figure out is how you figure out the scope. Let me explain. Take the sentence ちちは　すしを　たべると　おもいます。 The parts of the sentence mean: dad(topic) sushi(object) to-eat(sentence-as-object) think.
Now the way I see it, this sentence can mean two things:
1. 'I think dad eats sushi.' In this case, ちちは is part of the relative clause ちちは　すしを　たべる, 'that dad eats sushi'.
2. 'Dad thinks he/she/etc eats sushi'. In this case, ちちは would be part of the main clause と　おもいます, 'Dad thinks that X'.　I'm not sure if that is a valid reading of the sentence, or if there's some way to tell the two apart. I'll try to find this out.

Japanese color names

Thanks to a colorful cheat sheet made by blogger NihongoUp, we've been able to learn a number of new words for colors (some of which I didn't even know the English names for, like chartreuse, which is halfway between yellow and green).
Along the way, there were also some new kanji to be learned, which help to memorize the color names. I'll skip 茶色, which I already explained here. As for the rest:

Kana	Kanji	Literal meaning	Actual meaning
だいだいいろ	橙色	Color of bitter orange	deep orange
ももいろ	桃色	Color of a peach	peach
みずいろ	水色	Color of water	light blue
わかくさいろ	若草色	Color of fresh grass	chartreuse (yellow-green)
はいいろ	灰色	Color of ashes	grey

Note how the kanji for 'ashes' clearly contains the kanji for 'fire', 火.
Note also how both 'peach' and 'bitter orange' have the same radical on the left, a compressed version of 木, which means 'tree'. In fact, many words that have to do with plants, fruits, or things botanical, have this radical in them.

Pop quiz!

Our teacher surprised us with a pop quiz this week: 10 English sentences to translate into Japanese. Here are the sentences, their translations, and some explanation.

1. Gerda is a Dutch and Caline is French.
ゲルダさんは　オランダじん　で　カリンさんは　フランスじん　です。

2. That restaurant is cheap, quiet and clean.
あの　レストランは　やすくて、　しずかで　きれい　です。

3. That park is beautiful but always noisy.
あの　こうえんは　きれい　ですが　いつも　うるさい　です。

4. Parents are watching TV in the living room.
いまで　りょうしんが　テレビを　みます。 (or みています?)

いま = living room (not 'now').

5. He's wearing a hat as it is cold outside.
そとが　さむい　ですから、　ぼうしを　かぶっています。
Note that そと is a noun ('the outside').
かぶっています is from かぶる, to put on the head. This an 'effect' use of the ています form, that is, "He has put on a hat" -> "He is wearing a hat".

6. Every morning he is jogging in the park.
まいあさ　こうえんで　ジョギングングを　しています。
This is the habitual/repeating use of する (dictionary form)/します, because it says 'every day'.

7. He went out to buy some beverage.
かれは　のみものを　とりに　いきました。
Note that the word 'out' is not translated; apparently, it's OK to just say 'he went'.
This sentence and the next 3 all use とりに which comes from とります, to get, pick up, retrieve.

8. He has gone home to pick up something left behind.
かれは　わすれものを　とりに　うちに　かえりました。
わすれもの uses the -もの suffix: the forgotten thing.
I'm not sure if you can leave うちに out, because かえりました already implies going 'home'. But かえりました can also mean 'back to headquarters', e.g. the office, so it's less ambiguous this way.

9. He will come soon to pick up his umbrella.
かれは　すうぐ　かさを　とりに　きます。
No specific future tense because it doesn't exsit, and すうぐ already implies the future.

10. He went to the post office to pick up his umbrella.
かれが　じゅうびんきょうくに　かきとめびんを　だしに　いきました。
かきとめびん = registered mail. This is a tricky one:
-The びん means 'mail', also used in 'air mail', 'surface mail (by boat)', and indeed じゅうびんきょうく.
-かきとめ is in Jisho as (Abbreviation) registered mail; registration (e.g. of mail); writing down; putting on record; recording; making a note of. As Marco (?) mentioned, it combines かき, which comes from かきます, dictionary form かく, which means 'to write', with とめ, which comes from とめます, dict. form とまる, which means 'to stop, halt'. And of course, I could verify this by looking at the kanji: かきとめ is written in kanji as 書留, and 書く = to write, while 留 means 'to halt'.

Eeeewww

The packaging says:
大仏さまの鼻くそ
大仏 (だいぶつ) = large (statue of) Buddha
さま = humbler form of さん
の = 's
鼻 （はな）　=　nose
くそ = excrement
鼻くそ = snot
So the name of the product is 'The snot of the Great Buddha'.

How it helps to know kanji

We recently learned a new color name: ちゃいろい, meaning (light) brown.
You might think, 'oh no, not another word to memorize', but you would never think that if you could read the kanji that make up this word: 茶色い consists of 茶 (cha), meaning 'tea', and 色 (iro), meaning 'color'. Tea color is indeed light brown.
Come to think of it, this actually makes more sense for us Westerners than for Japanese, whose tea is normally green...

All about the kanji, part 19: 自

The Japanese gesture for 'me'.
This kanji is easily confused with 目, which means 'eye' (among others). It's not. Look at the little 'tick mark' at the top. This kanji means 'oneself'. on is し or じ, the kun is おの　（as part of some compounds). You may recognize じ as the start of じてんしゃ　(自転車 in kanji), meaning bicycle.
Our group of usual suspects (combos with kanji and kana we know) is small:
自国 (じこく) - one's own country
自ら (みずから) - for oneself, privately
自ずから (おのずから) - naturally, as a matter of course

All about the kanji, part 18: 事

This is the type of kanji you'll rarely see on its own, because it means 'business', 'matter', 'fact' or 'thing'. This is a typical combining kanji.
The on is じ or ず, the kun will look more familiar: こと or つか as the beginning of the つかう or つかえる. (I don't really get this part, because if you search for those words, you'll see other kanji.)
Here's how it combines with the kanji we know, and with kana:
時事 (じじ) = "time things", that is, events of the day or current affairs.
人事 (じんじ) = "person things", that is, personnel affair, human resources (HR).
大事 (だいじ) = "big thing", that is, serious matter or important, valuable.
事による (ことによる) = "due to" or, if written using only kana, "depending on circumstances"

All about the kanji, part 17: 政

Hatoyama Yukio (鳩山 由紀夫), the new Prime Minister of Japan (as of September 2009)
Because these kanji are ordered by frequency in newspapers, the kanji found are often of the type you'd expect to find in the news. 政, which means government or politics, is one of these. No wonder, then, that there's only compound with kanji from before: 国政 (こくせい): political situation, statecraft, the body politic.
政 has an incredibly long kun reading:　まつりごと, next to the shorter まん. The on readings are: じょう and せい.

All about the kanji, part 16: 時

This is our first really complicated kanji, which can be divided into parts. The left part is a narrower version of 日, which we know as 'day', and the other 'radicals' (parts of the kanji) are 土 (which means 'ground' as a kanji) and 寸 ('measurement'). Note that not all radicals are kanji in their own right.
The complex kanji that results from this, 時, means 'time' or 'hour'. It is the じ (on reading) that we put at the end of はちじ (8 o'clock) and also the とき (kun reading) we use when we say 'when' (literally, 'at the time that') and repeat in ときどき (sometimes).
同時 (どうじ) means 'simultaneous(ly)', 'at the same time'.
日時 (にちじ) means 'date and time'.
一時 (ひととき) means 'moment' or 'time'.
The following 3 are all similar:
時々 or 時時 (ときどき) is 'sometimes' as we saw already
時には (ときには) is 'at times', 'occasionally'
時として (ときとして) is 'in some cases', 'sometimes'
All other compounds I found also convey this sense of 'time' or 'occasion'.

All about the kanji, part 15: 同

Two shapes inside each other that are pretty similar; that's your best bet for memorizing the kanji for 'the same, equal, agree'.
The kun reading is どう, the on is おなじ (that is, 同じ).
Here are combinations of this kanji with one of the previously learned kanji:

• 一同 (いちどう) means 'all present', 'all concerned', or 'all of us'; while 同一 (どういつ) means identity, sameness, similarity, equality or fairness
• 大同 (だいどう) means 'largely the same'
• some easy ones: 同国 (どうこく) means 'the same country' or 'said country'; 同日 (どうじつ --note the rare じつ reading of 日) is 'the same day' and 同年 (どうねん) is 'the same year'
• 同人 is 'the same person', also colleague, comrade, 'said person', clique or fraternity.

All about the kanji, part 14: 三

Great, an easy one to draw and remember. It means 'three' of course, and the readings should be familiar: み-, みっつ, and the first syllable of みつ (these are the kun) are all related to counters. You can remember the default counter みっつ easily by remembering the logo of the みっつびし (Mitsubishi) company: three diamond shapes.
The on readings are さん and one I've never seen, ぞう.
The great thing about this kanji is that its meaning never changes. It can be combined with some of the kanji from previous posts, but never in an unexpected way. So apart from the readings, there's nothing to remember!

All about the kanji, part 13: 出

出 has an unusually high number of readings: it's the first syllable in いだす, いでる, だす, and でる (all kun readings), and its on readings are しゅつ　and すい.
Just on its own, pronounced で, it can mean 'coming out, going out', 'start', 'origins, background'.
The number of compounds using this kanji is also higher than most.
Even worse, the two most important meanings 出る　（でる） and 出来る (できる), each have a number of different meanings: 出る means 'to go out, to leave', but also 'to appear', 'to be published', and 'to answer (phone or door)'. 出来る, on the other hand, can mean 'to be able to', but that reading is actually often written using hiragana. This is not the case for the other meanings, which include 'to be ready/completed', 'to be made/built', 'to be good at', 'to be permitted (to do)'.
And that's not all, there's also a verb 出す (だす), which again means a bunch of things like 'to go out', 'to put out', 'to show', 'to turn in (e.g. homework)', 'to publish', 'to begin'.
No wonder it ranks so high.
Here's how 出 combines with hiragana, and with the kanji we already know:

• 出会い (であい) - encounter
• 出会う (であう) - to meet by chance; to have a date
• 人出 (ひとで) - crowd, turnout
• 日の出 (ひので) or 日出 (にっしゅつ, note the completely different pronunciation!) - sunrise
• 出国 (しゅうこく) - leaving a country

All about the kanji, part 12: 長

Some kanji have different meanings that seem completely unrelated to us. 長 is such a kanji: it means both 'chief, head' (the on reading ちょう) and 'long' as 長い, using the kun reading ながい.
Looking at the 'chief' reading first, we learned a few of these in class, such as 首長 (しゅちょう), head of an organization, and 課長 (かちょう), section manager.
The なが reading has two forms: 長い is long; 長さ is length.
Here's how this new kanji combines with the previous ones:

• 長年 (ながねん) - a long time, many years, but:
• 年長 (ねんちょう) - seniority
• 会長 (かいちょう) - president of a society, chairman
• 長大 (ちょうだい) - very long, great length

All about the kanji, part 11: 中

Among these most frequent kanji, there are still many whose shape suggests its meaning. 中 (on:　ちゅう, kun: あた, うち or なか) means 'middle' or 'inside'. But just as in English, the word can be used in many ways:

• 人中 (ひとなか) means 'society, company, the world'
• 中でも (なかでも) means 'among others' or 'above all else'
• 中国 (ちゅうごく) means China, remember?
• 中日 (ちゅうにち) is a frequent abbrevation for 'China and Japan', while 日中 (にっちゅう) means 'during the day'
• 中年 (ねんじゅう) means middle age, midlife

Check back in the previous posts for a few more compounds using 中.

All about the kanji, part 10: 本

One reason that 本 ranks so high on the frequency list of kanji is because it appears so often next to 日 to make 日本, Japan. But even on its own, it has many readings, both in its on reading of ほん (where it means 'book', but also 'main, head, real' and serves as a counter for long cylindrical things, such as bottles, glasses, and scrolls of paper) and in its kun reading, もと (origin, source, base, foundation, cause, and a number of more obscure meanings).
This is why a simple compound like 一本 (いっぽん) can mean 'one cylindrical thing', or 'a certain book', or even, for some unfathomable reason, 'an experienced geisha'.
Repeating the kanji twice, written as 本本 or 本々 (々 means 'repeat previous kanji') is pronounced もともと and means 'originally'. 本国 (ほんごく) means 'one's own country'; 本人 (ほんにん) is 'the person himself'; and perhaps surprisingly, it's also the first half of 本当 (ほんとう), meaning 'truth, reality' (and so 本当に means 'in truth' or 'really').
Some more combos with kanji we know already:

• 本日 (ほんじつ) is another word for 'today'
• 本年 (ほんねん) is 'this year'.
• A three-kanji compound is 日本一 (にほんいち), meaning 'Japan's best, number one in Japan'.
• And finally we have all 3 parts to make 日本人 (にほんじん), a Japanese person.

There are tons more compounds, so it's best to leave those until we find the kanji 本 combines with.

All about the kanji, part 9: 二

Another easy one. We know the kun, ふたつ, as well as the on, に. In fact, in katakana, the character for the sound 'ni' is the same as this kanji: ニ　and 二. There are very few compounds with this kanji in which its meaning is not obviously 'two'.

• 一二 (いちに)= the first and second; a few
• 二見 (ふたみ) = forked (road, river) 見 means to see

All about the kanji, part 8: 十

Some kanji are easy to write, easy to understand, and don't change their meaning in combination with other kanji. These are the kanji to treasure and cherish.
十 is such a kanji. We know its two main pronunciations とう (the default counter) and じゅう; it's hard to imagine a character that's easy to write; and it means '10' wherever you see it.
Well, maybe not. Of the relatively small number of compounds with 十, there are a few idioms.

• 三十日, when pronounced みそか, means 'the last day of the month';
• 十字, pronounced じゅうじ, means cross or cross shape (字 means letter or character, don't confuse it with 学, learning or study);
• 十分 (じゅうぶん) means enough, satisfactory, also: perfectly,fully (分 has meanings as diverse as 'a minute' and 'to understand'), while 十二分 means more than enough.

And finally, a cultural idiom: 四十七士 (しじゅうしちし)　means 'the 47 ronin'. These ronin (a ronin is a samurai without a master) are the stuff of legend, famously plotting revenge for the death of their master for a year, killing the culprit, one Lord Kira, and then committing せっぷく, ritual suicide. The picture at the top of the post shows the ronin, though perhaps not all 47 (I didn't count them).

All about the kanji, part 7: 大

Image: giant jellyfish off the coast of Japan.
If 人　is a person, then as 大, he or she has outstretched arms, indicating a big size. That is why 大 means big. kun reading is おおー or おおきい (also the adjective); on reading is たい　or だい (the beginning of 大学 or　だいがく, 'big school', that is, university.
Some compounds with kanji we already know:

• 大人 = おとな, adult;
• 国大 = こくだい, national university (here 大 is short for 大学)
• 大国 = たいこく, large country (duh) but also 'the great powers'
• 大会 = たいかい, mass meeting, rally, convention

What's very unusual (maybe even unique) about the adjective derived from this kanji is that there are two:

• 大きい (おおきい), an i-adjective; and
• 大きな (おおきな), a na-adjective

Both mean the same thing and can, as far as I know, be used interchangeably.

All about the kanji, part 6: 年

Illustration: Beans being thrown at an oni, a demon, for good luck in the Lunar New Year.
This kanji means 'year' and so it's often found wherever a date appears, e.g. 2009年10月12日. Note that the Japanese use both the Common Era (CE) year, which is currently 2009, and the year of the reign of the current Japanese emperor, which is now 平成21年, or the 21st year of the 平成 (pronounced へいせい) era. 平成 is not the name of the Emperor, though, that would be Akihito. This year is also the Year of the Cow.
We know two pronunciations for 年: the kun reading とし (as e.g. in ことし　(今年), meaning 'this year') and the on reading　ねん (as e.g. in らいねん (来年), 'next year'; it's also the counter word for years). Note that さい, as in 'years old', is a completely different kanji, and that 年 rarely means something else than 'year'.
Some interesting compounds are 一昨年 (pronounced おととし) and 昨年 (pronounced さくねん), meaning 'the year before last' and 'last year', respectively. The kanji 昨 is the same one used with the first kanji we learned, and in the same way.
Combined with the kanji we already know, we get the following combinations:

• 一年中 (いちねんじゅう), 'all year round', analogous with 一日中 (いちにちじゅう) 'throughout the day'
• 年会 (ねんかい), conference or annual convention

All about the kanji, part 5: 人

Understanding what 人 means is easy. The various readings should also be familiar: ひと is the standalone word 'person', and にん　and じん are common endings, にん as a counter (3人 = さんにん = three people) and じん as a nationality suffix (日本人　＝　にほんじん = Japanese person) or occupation suffix. I have yet to see the readings -と and -り in the wild.
When you combine it with the kanji from previous posts, you get some fairly logical results:

• 国人, pronounced くにびと (note how the ひ changes into a び), means 'indigenous person; inhabitant of a country'.
• 一人, 'one person', has the irregular pronunciation ひとり (I guess that's the -り reading) and is often followed by で to mean 'alone' (lit. 'with one person')
• 人日, not surprisingly, means 'person-day', as used in the office to estimate an amount of work

Other familiar words using this kanji are:

• 人気 (にんき）, 'popular', where 気 is a fairly vague word meaning 'spirit', 'mind', 'energy' etc.
• 外人 (がいじん), 'foreigner', which is marked (sens) for 'sensitive' because it can have a negative undertone.
• 主人 (しゅじん) meaning '(my) husband' or, with the honorary prefix ご-, ご主人 meaning '(someone else's) husband'　（主 means chief, lord, or master; they're no feminists, then).

News headline

I was at the airport today. I came very early by taxi to drop someone off, and had to wait for a long time to get the first train back. So I hung around the newsstand, which was just opening up, and noticed they had a copy of the Morning Sun Newspaper, or as the Japanese call it, 朝日新聞 (あさひ　しんぶん). So I bought one, hoping to impress people around me by pretending to read it. I couldn't, of course, but I did recognize a kanji here and there.
The main headline on the front page (which was at the back, since they flip pages from right to left), says the following:

オバマ氏ノーベル平和賞

I definitely needed help with this one, but if you fill in ノーベル平和賞 in the dictionary, you get one result.
Also, with my limited kanji knowledge, I could read this sentence without having to consult a dictionary:

父はケニア人、母は白人米国人。

父 is father, 母 is mother, 白 means white, 米国 we just learned. So "His father is a Kenyan, his mother a white American." Note the following interesting facts:

• That sentence contains no verb, even though it's not a headline.
• The newspaper apparently finds it necessary and important to tell Japanese readers this fact about Obama.

All about the kanji, part 4: 会

This is one of those kanji with a pretty vague set of meanings: association, party, join, meet. The on reading is え or かい, and the kun reading is あう or あつます or あわせる.
If that doesn't sound familiar, here's some words we learned that contain this kanji:

• かいぎ (meeting), 会議 in kanji, uses the on reading;
• 会う, pronounced あう, is the dictionary form of あいます, to meet.

On its own, it means 'party', 'club', or some 'official' getting together. In combination with the last kanji we learned, for example, we get 国会 (こっかい), which means National Diet (the parliament in Japan), or just generally parliament or congress.
To show that the order of kanji can make a big difference, consider 社会 (しゃかい) meaning 'society', 'public', versus 会社 (かいしゃ), which you may remember as 'company', 'corporation' (a かいしゃいん is an office worker). 社 means 'association', 'company', 'firm' or 'office'. There's a whole bunch of compounds like these ones, all conveying some sense of a get-together or group. Most make sense if you look at the meaning of the other kanji.

All about the kanji, part 3: 国

The third most popular kanji in newspapers means 'country' or 'my country', which in turn typically implies 'Japan'. The kun reading is くに and the on reading is こく.
(If you're wondering what the difference between kun and on readings are, by the way, this Web page explains it clearly and succinctly, and, more importantly, this Web page does a decent job explaining when to use which.)
The picture showing the stroke order introduces a general set of rules about drawing kanji:

1. always draw from left to right or from top to bottom, never straight to the left or up.
2. always draw a box shape by drawing the left side first (up-down of course, see 1), then the top and right side in one stroke, and the bottom last.
3. If there's something in your box, draw the inside just before you draw the bottom.

You'll be happy that this kanji, whether alone or in combination with other kanji, almost always means 'country', 'national' or something obviously related with a country.
Also note that the kanji is, as far as I can tell, always pronounced こく or くに, although こく, in certain contexts, may of course become ごく.
I said 'almost always'. Here are the few exceptions where you might need help even if you know the other kanji:

• 一国 = いっこく = whole country, but also stubborn, hotheaded (I wonder what that says about Japanese national consciousness)
• 米国 = べいこく = the United States, but 米 means 'rice' (I found an explanation for it, but it's too boring to tell and has nothing to do with the meaning)
• 中国 = ちゅうごく = China, 'Middle Country', which is also how China writes itself.

All about the kanji, part 2: 一

一 is the easiest kanji of them all, both to draw and to remember the meaning of. The kun reading is ひと- or ひとつ (the default counter) and the on reading is the familiar いち. So far, no surprises.
But here are some unexpected uses or pronunciations of this kanji:

• 一日中 = いちにちじゅう, which means 'throughout the day', even though the individual kanji mean one, day, and inside or middle.
• 一緒に = いっしょに, which means 'together'. The kanji 緒 can mean strap, cord or even thong, so it literally reads 'in one strap', which I guess is 'bound together'.
• 一昨日 = おととい, meaning the day before yesterday, where 昨日 means yesterday
• 一から = いちから means 'from the beginning', 'from the top' (literally 'from one').
• 一生懸命 = いっしょうけんめい, 'with utmost effort', where the next kanji mean life/birth, suspend/depend/hang, and destiny/fate.

And let's not forget the recently learned いちばん, literally 'number one', which is used to say that something is the fastest, coolest, slowest etc.
一 is also very often pronounced as just い or いっ when used in combination with a specific counter, such as　いっぱい, one cupful (of, say, beer).

All about the kanji, part 1: 日

I thought it would be a good idea to start talking about kanji. And what better way to start than just writing about the most common of them all?

That would be 日.

This is a 4-stroke kanji and you write it like this:


日 has several kun readings: -か、 ひ and -び. The -か is a counter for days of the month e.g. 七日, pronounced なのか, means 'the seventh day of the month'... and also 'seven days'. -び is a typical ending for げつようび (monday),　たんじょうび (birthday) etc.
日 also has two on readings: one is にち, which we know from 毎日　（まいにち） or 'every day'. The other is じつ and I don't remember seeing it anywhere.

Important: The expression こんにちは, even though it contains the sound にち, is written using hiragana and doesn't use this kanji.

The meaning of 日 is 'sun' or 'day', and it usually means one of the two in combination with other kanji, except of course in the most common use, 日本 (にほん), Japan.

On its own, it's pronounced ひ. In combination with the days of the week (see above) it changes to び. The best one in the list is Sunday, 日曜日, which contains the same kanji twice, pronounced differently each time にちようび.

And in the words for tomorrow, yesterday etc, it's impossible to tell which part of the sound it is:
今日 = きょう = today
明日 = あした　= tomorrow, also pronounced あす.
昨日 = きのう = yesterday
明後日 = あさって = day after tomorrow
一昨日 = おととい = day before yesterday
This shows, more than anything, that you shouldn't think of kanji as sounds.
And here are some more combos:
日程 = にってい = schedule, program
生日 = たんじょうび = birthday
毎日 = まいにち = every day
日記 = にっき = diary

Unfortunately...

One member of the SHK team noticed a strange construction in a piece of text written by our teacher. The sentence actually has more interesting things in it. It runs:

In kanji: 美味しい 食事を　食べ過ぎて　少し太って　しまいました。
In hiragana: おいしい　しょくじを　たべすぎて　すこし　ふとって　しまいました。
The beginning is easy: delicious meal [OBJ]. The next word, たべすぎて, comes from たべすぎる, which means 'to overeat'. This may sound and look like some weird derivation from たべます, to eat, and in fact, the kanji 食 at the beginning is the same as for 'to eat' (and also the same as for 食事, meal). But the word たべすぎる is separately listed in the dictionary, and, say, the made-up のみすぎる ('to drink too much'), is not. So it looks like a separate word.
So it's "we ate too much of the delicious food and..."
少し (すこし) is known as 'a little'.
Then two verbs: 太って (ふとって), the -TE form of 太る (ふとる),'to gain weight', and しまいました, the polite past tense of しまう, listed as 'to finish', 'to put away'. This one is a puzzler, but internet to the rescue, pointing out that ~て　しまいます (or ~て　しまいました if talking about the past) is used to express regret.
So the whole sentence reads: "We ate too much of the delicious food and regrettably gained a little weight."

Our daruma challenges us

In our last Japanese lesson, we learned the word だるま (the dictionary thankfully tells us that this word is 'usually written using kana alone'!), the thing you see pictured here. The daruma is a representation of Bodhidharma, the Indian Buddhist who is said to be the founder of Zen. Some stories say that the daruma doll has no hands and feet because Bodhidharma spent many years staring at a wall in meditation, causing his limbs to atrophy.
The Japanese use the daruma to express a wish, and also to set themselves a challenge: they paint a pupil in the right eye when they decide to accomplish some goal. The daruma is there to remind us of our goal. When we have accomplished it, we paint the other pupil black, and then dispose of the daruma (there should not be more than one in a home at any time).
So, what challenge should we set ourselves?

Japanaesop

For your reading and practicing pleasure:
Aesop's Fables in Japanese, one for each day of the year.

Can you kanji?

Take your first, hesitant steps on the road to kanji proficiency using the all-new Kanji quiz. Clicking 'Learn' lets you look at a string with kanji in it, and enter hiragana (and sometimes katakana), followed by the English translation between brackets. Make sure your keyboard is set up so you can type kana. You can also check the box marked 'Ignore stuff in parentheses', so that only entering the kana is enough. There's still some issues with spaces here and there.
If this is too cumbersome, try 'Play Scatter' instead.
As the previous list, I'll be updating this one as the course goes on.
Enjoy!

Let the games begin!

Well, our new Japanese course has started, and that means new words to learn. To help you, here are the words in quiz form.

Note that the entry for いろいろ　is written 色々. The first character is a kanji, 色, which means color. The little insect next to it, 々, is neither a kanji nor a kana character, but an 'iteration mark', which is a fancy way of saying that it indicates that the previous kanji should be repeated. So 色々 is 色色 (色 on its own, by the way, means 'color'). Note that the pronunciation of the two kanji can be different, as in 時々, pronounced ときどき.

Anyway, if you click Learn in the quiz, you see the Japanese and have to guess the English. The Japanese you see is either in kanji + hiragana with hiragana in brackets after it, or in katakana. Note that it's probably best not to try and memorize the kanji yet, but to passively learn them just by looking.

I'll keep updating this list and I'll also create a list for the kanji listed at the end of each chapter, where you see the kanji (+ hiragana) and have to type the hiragana. E.g. you see 一つ and have to type ひとつ.

やるかにがっせん part 6: 3 for the price of 1!

The story so far:
おむすびを　ひろった　かにに　さるが　いいました。
The monkey said to the crab, who had found a rice ball:
「かきの　たねと　おむすびを　こうかんしようよ。　たねを　うえたら　おいしい　みが　どっさり　なるよ。」
"Let's exchange your rice ball for my kaki seed! If you planted the seed, lots of delicious fruit would grow!"
「それは　いい。　こうかんしよう。」
"OK. Let's exchange."
かにが　たねを　うえて　まいにち　みずを　やると　かきの　みが　たくさん　なりました。
When the crab planted the seed and gave it water every day, a lot of kaki fruit grew.
かには　かきを　とろうと　おもいますが　つるんと　おちて　きに　のぼることが　できません。
The crab thinks he'll pick the kaki, but he falls down making a sliding sound; he can't climb the tree.

Our next sentence is easy:
かにが　こまっていると　さるが　やってきました。
crab[subj] be-worried[ING][when] monkey[subj] come-along[polite,past]
"While the crab was worrying, along came the monkey."

The verbs used here are こまる, to be troubled or worried, used in the -ing form っている; and やってくる, which is listed in the dictionary as 'to come along/around, to turn up', used in the polite past form.

This was such a doozy that we can go straight to the next sentence.
「きのばりは　おいらに　まかせて。」
This, too, is a pretty straightforward dictionary search:
きのぼり means 'tree climbing', and is obviously related to き (tree) and the verb のぼる (to climb) that we saw two sentences ago.
おいら means 'I, me', and as 'Systemjap' explained to us in his video in an earlier post, this is a form used in manga/anime, and by little boys living in the country, as he put it.
The last word is the -TE form of まかせる, to entrust, to leave to.
Again, the translation is easy:
"Tree-climbing[topic] me[to] entrust[-TE]."
"Leave the tree climbing up to me!"

Wow, this was also easy. Let's take on something more challenging:
さるは　するすると　きに　のばり　かきを　ぱく　ぱく　ぱくと　いただきます。
The first word is our monkey.
Next するすると is listed, with and without the と, as 'swiftly, quickly'.
のばり is a noun, but it doesn't have any particle with it.
ぱく is another onomatopoeia, which stands for eating. The game PacMan is named after this sound (if you've ever played it, PacMan also makes this sound). As with onomatopoeia before, this is followed by a と for some reason. A good English equivalent would be 'myam myam myam'.
いただきます is a well-known expression, 'bon appétit', but it's also the polite form of いただく, which means (among others) to eat or drink. But this is a bit of an unusual form called "kenjougo", normally used when a lower person talks about himself to a higher one. I think that this form is used here to remind kids of the expression.
As you can see, the grammar is very loose:
monkey[subj] swiftly tree[to] ascent;climbing kaki[obj] myam-myam-myam eat[polite].
Especially the 'climbing' without any particle is strange, but we can come up with some sort of free translation:
"The monkey quickly climbed up the tree and ate the kaki. Yummy!"

やるかにがっせん part 5: onomatopoeia

The story so far:
さるかにがっせん
Monkey Crab Battle

おむすびを　ひろった　かにに　さるが　いいました。
The monkey said to the crab, who had found a rice ball:
「かきの　たねと　おむすびを　こうかんしようよ。　たねを　うえたら　おいしい　みが　どっさり　なるよ。」
"Let's exchange your rice ball for my kaki seed! If you planted the seed, lots of delicious fruit would grow!"
「それは　いい。　こうかんしよう。」
"OK. Let's exchange."
かにが　たねを　うえて　まいにち　みずを　やると　かきの　みが　たくさん　なりました。
When the crab planted the seed and gave it water every day, a lot of kaki fruit grew.

On to the next page of our story, which starts with the following long sentence:
かには　かきを　とろうと　おもいますが　つるんと　おちて　きに　のぼることが　できません。
Some words here are familiar from the sentences above.
Others are easily found in the dictionary:
とろう - to pick (as a fruit, which works perfectly with the かきを just before it)
おもいます - to think, intend, plan, which sounds like a verb that takes と (like to say). This is followed by が, which after a final form verb means 'but, and'.
Let's skip the middle for now and go to the end which is できません, which is the negative of できます, 'to be able to'. So it means 'cannot'. The sequence [verb]ことが　できます (or できません in this case) is quite typical and translates as 'can(not) [verb]'. In this case, [verb] is のぼる, 'to climb'. Before that verb is きに, which just means 'into the tree' (き means tree, but you're excused if you thought of 'spirit'. This is why Japanese needs kanji, people.)
So it starts:
crab[topic] kaki[obj] pick[that] think;believe[but]
"The crab thinks he'll pick a kaki fruit, but..."
and it ends:
tree[into] climb[subst] can[neg].
"...he can't climb into the tree."
(The [subst] is a substantivizer, meaning that it turns the verb into a noun. However, it's must easier to remember the sequence 'ことが　できます'.)

Now for the middle part, which reads つるんと　おちて. おちて is the -te form of おちる, to fall down or drop. But the つるんと was a big riddle. It wasn't in the dictionary (and neither was つるん) so I had to resort to asking real human beings in the About.com Japanese language forums. It took three days before I got the answer, but it was worth it. Turns out that つるん (or rather ツルン, the proper katakana spelling) is an onomatopoeia, that is, the imitation of a sound. These are very frequent in Japanese. This one indicates a sliding or slipping sound. The presence of the と is still a bit of a mystery. So つるんと　おちて translates to something like "ssssshhh he falls down".

So once more from the top:
かには　かきを　とろうと　おもいますが　つるんと　おちて　きに　のぼることが　できません。
"The crab thinks he'll pick the kaki, but ssssssshhhh! he falls down; he can't climb the tree."
Note that I translated the -te form as a semicolon (;) after the first verb. It seemed most natural here.

Every sentence in this story is a new lesson!

Update: As it turns out, onomatopoeia in Japanese are very different from those in other language. Although they can imitate a sound, they can just as easily refer to something completely abstract, like a feeling, or to something that doesn't make a sound. This is pretty hard to understand, but this article tries valiantly.

やるかにがっせん part 4

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

In part 4 of our story, we reach the end of page 1 of the story. The last sentence is:

かにが　たねを　うえて　まいにち　みずを　やると　かきの　みが　たくさん　なりました。

You should know or recognize most of these words by know. うえて is the -て form of うえる, and なりました is the polite past tense of なる.
The tricky part is the やると in the middle. やる is a verb with many meanings: to do, to kill, to have sex, to give, to do for, and so on. We also see と used after a final form of a verb here, which would mean 'if' or 'when', or with certain verbs 'that'. This leads us to the following word-for-word translation:

crab[subj] seed[obj] plant[-て] every-day water[obj] give[when] kaki['s] fruit[subj] much grow[polite;past].

My best translation of this is:

When the crab planted the seed and gave it water every day, a lot of kaki fruit grew.

The monkey continues...

(Read this post and this post to see what came before.)
The monkey's second sentence is

たねを　うえたら　おいしい　みが　どっさり　なるよ。

The interesting word here is うえたら, so let's translate the rest immediately:
seed[obj] うえたら　delicious fruit[subj] lots-of become;grow.
Searching for うえたら in the dictionary gives no results, except for the suggestion to check the verb うえる, which means either 'to starve' or 'to plant'. Given the object 'seed', 'plant' seems the best option. But what kind of form is うえたら?
To help us find out, some Googling was in order. I found this page, which lists "tara" as a Past Conditional verb ending. This means, in plain English, that うえたら means "if (you) planted". So the whole sentence reads:
seed[obj] plant[past;cond]　delicious fruit[subj] lots-of become;grow.
"If you planted the seed, lots of delicious fruit would grow."
If you understood the story so far, the crab's response shouldn't give you any trouble:
「それは　いい。　こうかんしよう。」

What the monkey said

In the previous post, we translated the title and first sentence of a kids' story about a monkey and a crab. Now, here's what the monkey has to say:
「かきの　たねと　おむすびを　こうかんしようよ。　たねを　うえたら　おいしい　みが　どっさり　なるよ。」
The first word, かき, has a number of meanings. It connects with the next word, たね,using の. By looking for a good combination and looking at the illustration, you will discover that we are talking about the seed (たね) of a kaki (かき), a fruit that looks a bit like a tomato. The combination 'kaki seed' (かきの　たね) is connected with the next word, おむすび, which we know is 'rice ball' from the previous post, using と, meaning 'and'. So 'kaki seed and rice ball', which as a whole is followed by を, indicating that this is the direct object of the verb, which ends the sentence.
This verb is こうかんしようよ and has a few parts:

• the よ at the end indicates emphasis (more or less an exclamation mark)
• the こうかん at the beginning has various meanings, but in this context, the meaning 'exchange, substitution' makes sense, and it's also the top ranked definition if the 'Common Words only' check box is checked in the dictionary.
• The remaining middle part, しよう, is not so easy to find. Some Googling reveals that it's the volitional form of する, to do. The volitional typically translate to "let's [verb]".

So the whole sentence runs:
kaki['s] seed[and] rice ball[obj] exchange-do[vol][!]
or, freely translated:
Let's exchange the kaki seed and the rice ball!
or
Let's exchange your rice ball for my kaki seed!
Next post: what the monkey says next.

Kids' stuff

It's not very difficult to get hold of digital versions of Japanese children's books, written in hiragana only. I thought it would be a good idea to go through one of these 'books' (each book consists of no more than a few dozen sentences) and try to translate it as best we can. Doing so can help us grasp the grammar better.

I'd like to try my hand at a story called さるかにがっせん。 This is story #9 in the おはなしシリーズ series, for those of you following along at home. Already, the title is tricky. It turns out that it's three words: さる, meaning monkey, かに, meaning crab, and がっせん, which isn't listed in the dictionary. Some Googling reveals that it's a changed version of かっせん, which means battle. So the title is Monkey Crab Battle.
Lesson learned: words can change their initial sound in context. Compare fun/bun/pun.

On to the first sentence, which reads:

おむすびを　ひろった　かにに　さるが　いいました。

Luckily for us, there are spaces for the little kids, so we can tell the parts of the sentence apart:

• The first part ends in を so it's a direct object.
• The second ends in た so it's a verb in the past tense.
• The third ends in に so it's a prepositional phrase ('to X', 'in Y' or something).
• The fourth ends in が so it's a subject
• The fifth we already know as the polite past tense of いう, to say.

Working our way back from the end, the part before が is the subject, the person saying something, which is さる, which just like in the title, means monkey. So we have 'The monkey said'. The part before に is かに, the crab from the title. So, 'The monkey said to the crab.'
Then before that is a verb, and not a -て form, but a final form (past tense). So it's the past tense of something like ひろる, ひろす, ひろく etc. Searching for ひろ in the dictionary reveals a verb ひろう, meaning to pick up or to find. And finally, the object is おむすび which means rice ball.
So our final word-for-word translation is:
rice ball[obj] find[past] crab[indir obj] monkey[subj] say[polite;past]
It's important to realize that in Japanese, it's very easy to use a sentence as a modifier. That's what's going on here: the only way you can explain the final form find[past] sitting in the middle of a sentence is that it modifies something. In this case, it modifies the next word, かに, and the verb has an object, which is the おむすび or rice ball. So this is not just any crab we're talking about, but a 'found a rice ball' crab. Or as we would phrase it, the crab who found a rice ball.
Lesson learned: A final form in mid-sentence is a modifier.
So the full sentence runs:

The monkey said to the crab, who had found a rice ball:

So what did the monkey say? That is the next sentence, and also a next blog post.

Particle Man, Particle Man

One big omission from our Japanese lessons so far has been an overview of all commonly used Japanese particles and their meanings in various contexts. We've already learned that particles like が and の have a different meaning when they follow a noun or pronoun, or when they follow a verb.
Particles can actually occur in four different locations:

• After a noun or pronoun
• After the final form of a verb; that is, any verb form that can be placed at the end of a sentence
• After the -て form of a verb
• After the stem of a verb

No one particle can occur in all four of these positions, but a lot of particles can occur in at least two of these positions. So without further ado, here are the particles, where they can occur, and what they mean.

が

After a noun or pronoun

Grammatical subject of the sentence.

After a final form

Mild contrast, can be translated 'but', but very often as 'and'.

は (pronounced 'wa')

After a noun or pronoun

Topic of conversation, 'as for...'

の

After a noun or pronoun

Possession (John's book), origin (John from Daihatsu), material (wooden building), apposition (John, a doctor, ...), grammatical subject of dependent clause

After a final form

Turns the verb into a noun, e.g. 'Smoking is bad for you', 'To dance the Funky Chicken is my lifelong dream'.

を (pronounced 'o')

After a noun or pronoun

Grammatical object of a verb

から

After a noun or pronoun

from; rarely after

After a final form

because

After a -て form

after

と

After a noun or pronoun

with (as in 'accompanying'), and (between nouns)

After a final form

if, when (implying possibility); that (when used with verbs like to say, to think, to remember)

や

After a noun or pronoun

and (implying an incomplete set: 'Books and papers and more stuff like that'.

に

After an noun or pronoun

to, for (indirect grammatical object, e.g. Tim in 'I gave Tim a book'); in, on (a place); by (with a passive sentence, e.g. 'His work was studied by many people'); direct grammatical object with verbs like become, seem, meet etc.

After a verb stem

in order to (ex. えいがを みに, 'in order to see a movie': the み is the stem of みる or みます, to see).

へ (pronounced 'e')

After a noun or pronoun

to, into, towards

で

After a noun or pronoun

with, using, by means of; at; similar to 'being'

か

After a noun or pronoun

either... or...

After a final form

question mark

も

After a noun or pronoun

even, too; both... and...; nobody, nowhere etc. (with negative verb)

After a -て form

even if; whether... or...; neither... nor... (with negative verb)

では (pronounced 'dewa')

After a noun or pronoun

Grammatical subject of a negative verb

けれど or けれども

After a final form

Strong contrast: but (stronger than が).

ながら

After a verb stem

while, even though

なら

After a final form

if (hypothetical)

とき

After a final form

when ('at the time that')

のに

After a final form

although

ので

After a final form

since, because

Your favorite Japanese word

YouTuber 'gimmeabreakman' asked various vloggers who are making videos about Japanese to tell him their favorite Japanese word. Here's what they came up with. You might recognize someone!

Ye Olde Japanese Grammar (a book review)

Yesterday I was in the American Book Center in Amsterdam, and just to kill time, I checked out the meager supply of books about learning Japanese. Apart from the trusty Japanese for Business People series, plus a number of beginner's books, I also saw a small book called Essential Japanese Grammar. The blurb said that it covered basic grammar as used in spoken Japanese only, not the more unusual constructions found in written Japanese. It's only about 150 pages and it cost €10, so I decided to buy it.
Only when I got home did I notice that the book somehow felt old. The font used on the back, the tone of the writing, it all seemed a bit dated. I checked the original date of publication and found that it was 1963. Yes, this book was written when Kennedy was still alive, and 6 years before man walked on the moon.
So, is it any good? Well, not for vocabulary building. The word for 'train' they give is 'kisha' (translated by Jisho.org as train (steam)!), not 'densha'. Did they only have steam trains in Japan in '63? The book also contains no kana or kanji of any kind.
But this book is neither about words nor about kanji. It's about grammar, and in that sense, it's a handy overview of the basics (and I stress that they are basics) of the grammar. It goes further than the grammar covered in J4BP part I, but not much further. The big plus of this little book is its overview style, presenting all (normally used) conjugations of a verb, adjective etc. in handy tables.
By doing this, it puts a lot of things together that I didn't realize were connected. For example, it points out that 'dou' ('how') is analogous to 'doko' (where), 'dore' (what/which one), 'dono' (which) etc. It follows that 'dou', 'sou' and 'aa' (a new word for me) are all related in meaning, just like 'doko', 'soko' and 'ako'. The book contained many more such 'aha!'-moments for me (I finally know what 'Ohayou gozaimasu' means literally! Would you have guessed that the 'ohayou' part comes from 'hayai', the i-adjective that means 'early'? Me neither.)
So, for a basic and handy reference book for Japanese grammar, it's OK if you don't find the price too shabby. ABC still has one copy left...

smart.fm - Excellent site to learn Japanese

Among the many internet links to good sites about Japanese, Smart.fm is probably the best. This is a site on which you can grow your knowledge of Japanese at your own pace by using the iKnow quiz application (runs in your internet browser).
iKnow is very well made: it remembers which questions you had trouble with and which were easy, and it revisits all questions anyway to make sure that you remember them.
More importantly, it lets you practice different aspects of the language at the same time:

Vocabulary

Every item you learn is about one word.

Kanji

If you set up iKnow to show you kanji, you learn the kanji at the same time.

Grammar

Each word comes with an example sentence, so you learn or rehearse some grammar at the same time, too.

iKnow keeps track of how often you visit, how much you study each time and so on, so it adapts itself to your training schedule.
Their Japanese Core 2000 course, in 10 packages (package 1 is here) gradually builds up your knowledge so that in the end, you know 2000 words. This can take a long time; I'm still doing Step 1 at the moment.
If you have any problems working with this site or the quiz application, let me know. It is brilliant and, best of all, free! Do note that the Web site is sometimes not available.

Me, me, me

Vlogger 'Systemjap' explains all the ways in which you can say 'I' or 'me' in Japanese, and when you would use which one.

Japanese from real life

Well, enough talking about Japanese, let's get to some actual Japanese.
This is a picture of a Chinese (or in this case Japanese) lantern, hanging outside Kushi-Tei of Tokyo, a Japanese restaurant close to the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam.
Can you make out what it says? Click on the image for a larger view.

How to choose a book using Google Books

It is neither plausible nor practical to actually buy every book on any given subject. If you have a good local library, then you may be able to browse and skim several books before you find one you like and borrow it. If you're not so lucky, you may have to make up your mind in a few minutes in you local book store.

I personally find such commitment too much too soon. Why not flirt with several before investing? Google Books is just perfect for that. All you need to type is the subject you are after, and you get a long list of books. Alternatively, you can browse using the subject index. All you have to do is to click on the book of your choice from the list.

One great advantage is that you see the year of publication almost instantly. When it comes to language learning materials , it is usually the newer the better. If it is not so, you'll be able to compare different editions and see which one actually suits your needs better. For example, our study book Japanese for Busy People is available on limited preview in almost all editions.

Another major advantage is that you can save the images to your computer, make a print out of a page or two...or fifty. Sometimes there is such gem of a page in an otherwise useless book. Some books are listed in their entirety, and some are partially available. I've come across limited preview books, which miss five pages, only. "Limited preview" or "Full view" are options you can pick from the drop down menu just under the search bar.

I have recently been using Google Books to choose a Kanji book that I finally may want to own. I have already used many pages from various books to practise Katagana and Hiragana. I was also able to read about some difficult grammar points from various sources, which has immensely helped.

It is not so different from Amazon's "look inside" feature, but I've found it to be more convenient and accessible.

Doumo arigatou Mathijs

Learning kanji: only 2500 to go!

Here is some general information about kanji that is useful if you want to learn to use them.

This might take a while

A high school graduate in Japan knows some 2000 kanji, known as the 'jouyou kanji'. They start learning 80 in the first year of primary school, and the tempo increases over time. This Wikipedia entry lists the primary-school kanji (about 1000), organized by grade.

No kanji is an island

You might wonder why 田, which mean "rice paddy", shows up so much in Japanese texts. Do people really have such a need to talk about rice paddies? They don't, but in combination with other kanji, it means all kinds of related things, such as 'farm', 'peasant', etc. More importantly, it also features heavily in names of places and people.
The point here is that learning individual kanji is just the beginning. It's as least as important to learn kanji phrases. Jisho.org, the online dictionary, has links to kanji phrases for each kanji.

Break it down

All but the most basic kanji consist of various identifiable parts which may or may not have meanings on their own. If they do, that's great, because there's a good chance that the meaning of the part will help you remember the meaning of the whole thing.
For example, knowing that 言 (used in 'iimasu') means 'to say' makes it easier to remember that 話 (used in 'hanashimasu') means 'tale' or 'talk', 記 means 'account' or 'narrative', and 語 (the '-go' in 'eigo', 'doitsugo' etc) means 'language'. And the 言 kanji itself has the shape of 口 in it, which means 'mouth'.
It also means that you can get a (very) vague idea of the meaning of an unknown kanji by examining its parts.

Don't try to read what you see (yet)

Almost every kanji in Japanese has at least 2 readings, which are normally completely different from each other. For example, 日 ('sun' or 'day') can be pronounced 'hi' or 'nichi', depending on context. And, of course, 'hi' can turn into 'bi' in certain sound contexts, such as in 金曜日, 'kinyoubi'.
All of this means that it's really hard to read Japanese out loud, and much easier to try to figure out the meaning by just looking.
The best approach is not to think of kanij as representing sounds: very often, they are pronounced as a single syllable or even letter (e.g.　the 言 in 言います is pronounced 'i').

First things first

With at least 2000 kanji to learn, it's good to know where to start. The best approach is to learn the most often used kanji first. Jisho.org indicates a frequency in newspapers for every kanji, but won't give you a list by frequency. This remains a challenge.

The joy of mnemonics

Learning kanji is hard because there are so many of them, and they very quickly become very complicated to look at. To help you learn, use mnemonics: relationships between a kanji and its meaning(s) which you construct.
Here's an example: the kanji 首 means 'neck'. When I first saw it, I thought it looked like a cartoon face: two eyes at the top, a nose in the middle, and a huge grin at the bottom. 'Face' and 'neck' link together quite easily in my mind, so I remember this kanji with fairly little effort.
Here's the important thing: whether 首 is meant to look like a face or not is completely irrelevant. What's relevant is what I thought when I first saw it and saw its meaning, because that's the most likely thing I'll think when I see it again.
In this case, 'face' and 'neck' are somewhat related, but often, my association and the actual meaning can be miles apart. The trick is to bring them together in your mind, even if that seems like nonsense. E.g. if the kanji reminds you of a banana and it means shop, imagine a shop that sells only bananas.
Cognitive psychology has determined that this kind of memorizing is the best way to remember things. I'm applying it to learning kanji, and I think I'm doing OK.

Yahoo! Kids Japan News

http://news.kids.yahoo.co.jp/headline/

Our teacher told us to check out kids' news channels to pick up some easy Japanese. This link points to the Yahoo! Japan Kids News Headlines, which contains daily links to news stories for kids.
The benefits of reading these stories are:
-Language is for kids, so the choice of words is simple.
-It is less likely to contain information that presupposes a lot of background knowledge of Japan (e.g. political parties, cultural icons and so on)
-The text uses less kanji than normally, and simpler ones.
I'm going to try and translate a story, will let you know how I'm doing.

Welcome to Sushi Ham Kaas

This weblog is a place for three students of Japanese to exchange information found online or elsewhere to help us learn the Japanese language.
We have about 100 hours of education, we know hiragana and katakana and are about to finish the book "Japanese for Busy People - Vol. I". We are continuing with book II in the autumn of 2009.

To start us off, here's a good tip from Koichi, a blogger who has lots of useful information about Japan and Japanese on the site www.tofugu.com: if you see a kanji or Japanese phrase that you don't know the meaning of, copy-paste it into Google and do an image search.

For example, you might not know what 家鴨 means. But just paste it into Google, click Images at the top, and what do you see? That's right.