Learn Japanese FAQ

Archive for March, 2009

Here’s another Japanese song + video for learning Left & Right:

Left, or “Hi da ri” is a symbol of a dude with a (which nearly looks like an “L”) shaped tool in his Left hand.		Whereas or “Migi” is a dude with his Right hand putting something in his , “Ku chi” or mouth.
Left Tool, Right Mouth. Dead easy

The mp3 and poster of the song are also available in the Genki Japan Download Pack which contains mp3s of:

01.Numbers 1-20 Song 02.When, Where, Who, What 03.Days of the Week 04.Months of the Year 05.Hiragana Song 06.Katakana Song 07.Hot, Cold, Fun Song 08. Weather in Japanese 09. Mary had a little lamb 10. How much? 11. Where are you from? 12. Colors in Japanese 13. NEW Left & Right in Japanese

They’re ideal for your iPod!

Plus if you Buy Today you get 4 of my Japanese eBooks included

“Easy to Learn Japanese: Posters eBook” print them out, put them on your wall & impress your friends when they come over and see you know Japanese! & 70 page Katakana Workbook learn how to read and write “katakana” symbols you can use to read Japanese “loan words” & menus & 70 page Hiragana Workbook learn how to read & write the first full Japanese alphabet. And my “Get Fluent” ebook. You can be learning Japanese easily in just a few minutes time. all for only  $8.99 US Payment Secured with Credit Card, Debit Card or Paypal Download Now! If you’ve already bought the download pack then send me an email and I’ll send you a complimentary upgrade to the latest version.

Q: Do you teach korean also cause I want to learn both. At a time of course.-  Kaesey

A: Yes indeed,  GenkiKorean.com !

I had a request for a video of the Tokyo Nightline.  Well here it is, complete with Tokyo Tower, Ginza & the Imperial Palace as seen from Roppongi Hills!

Q: I Have a few questions actually. First, could you please tell me, what is the difference between kimi and anata? How do you ask for, and state your age? Difference between Uruwashiki and Utsukushi? Difference between Koi and Ai? How would I say “Sir” or “Miss” if I don’t know their name? Arigatou! – Yadia

A: 君 kimi is less formal e.g. talking to pets, children etc.  あなた　anata, is more formal.  But to be honest you very rarely use either of them in Japanese.  It’s much more common to say the person’s name plus “san” instead of kimi or anata.  In fact if you don’t use their name it sort of sounds like you’ve forgotten it!  The big exception is song lyrics, where of course the singer doesn’t know the listener’s name so uses “kimi” all the time!

One common way to ask someone’s age, which is usually just as impolite in Japanese as in English, is 何歳ですか？　nan sai desu ka   Although there are other more subtler ways to ask.  To reply you nearly always say …. 歳　… sai   e.g.   I’m 21 is 21 sai.  or you could say 秘密　hi mi tsu – secret!

Difference between Uruwashiki and Utsukushi?  To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever heard 麗しき　uruwashiki outside of songs.  Also  although utsukushi is what the texbooks translate as “beautiful” if you are talking about women then it usually has a feeling of being old, so kawaii=cute is what all the girls want to be!

Difference between Koi and Ai?  I think people have spent their entire lives on this question, it’s like trying to decide what the difference is between love and affection!

How would I say “Sir” or “Miss” if I don’t know their name?   Good question!  This one is a bit tricky because for normal people there’s no real way to cheat, you just have to ask and remember their names.  But one trick you can use for teachers or doctors is to call everyone “Sensei 先生” this saves me a lot of embarrassment when I forget people’s names!

Q: in writing.we use katakana or hiragana.which is the most we use?  – feroz

A:  There’s probably been a really accurate breakdown researched somewhere, but from a general point of view I’d say they are both used as often as each other!

Q:  What’s the best way to learn kanji?  – from lots of different people!

A:  Here’s a video I’ve just made with some of my techniques I used to learn kanji and the other Japanese symbols.

The key is not to learn all the kanji, but to concentrate on learning how to write the first one hundred.  Then as I show in the video you find that many of the more complicated ones are simply combinations of those!

For the hiragana and katakana symbols I have games, songs and worksheets at my own site www.GenkiJapan.net

It takes around 4 to 5 hours using the site to be able to read either katakana or hiragana.

Then for the kanji I’ve just found a great new resource which is www.MangaUniversity.com They have some cool “kanji de manga” books where they’ve taken boring kanji worksheets and jazzed them up with manga illustrations as well as examples of real Japanese using each kanji.  Highly recommended!

be genki,

Richard

Q: Bonjour or hi my name is Samy. The job video was cool unfortunately I am 11 years old. Is japan a beautiful place?  Does japan have a farm for sale?  My moms thinking about moving and maybe we could move to Japan however my mom doesn’t have a degree do you have any suggestions. By the way are there any farms with ten acres?  Please reply.  From Samy

A:  Hi Samy, thank you very much for your email.   Is Japan a beautiful place?  Yes, outside the cities it is very, very beautiful.  Having farms for sale,  what a good question.  To be honest I’ve never seen one for sale!  I have a lot of Japanese friends who have farms, and I’ve known two foreigners who have had farms, but it’s not common and you’d need to be really, really good at Japanese.    If it’s really what you want to do then go for it, do as much research as you can online and try and make some friends with people who have farms in Japan.   I can tell you it will be hard, very hard work, but if you’ve already got a farm back home I would imagine you’d be fine with that!

Q: How do you usually say these following words:

- sara

A: Hi Sara, here we go:

1. Princess = 姫　hi me  or more politely 姫様　hi me sa ma    As Disney is so popular in Japan you hear it a lot!

2. 助けて！　ta su ke te!   is “help me”   although it’s a little on the alarmist side, more a case of “I’ve been attatcked by space aliens, help me!”   than “could you help me please?”    In which case a quick すみません　sumimasen “Excuse me” would be best.

3. In the next books they translate My name is …. as 私の名前は…　wa ta shi no na ma e wa.   But this is one of those horrible phrases than you only ever see in textbooks.  In real life everyone just says their name and then です　de su after it.  The tricky bit is figure out how to say your name in a Japanese accent!

Here’s my latest video, a silly dance track to learn the colours in Japanese!

You can find the poster and mp3 to go with it here: http://www.genkienglish.net/genkijapan/download.htm