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Today I was quite mentally exhausted so I made sure not to overload myself. It was a brief review of my last lesson from Thursday with quite a few pronunciation exercises. It finally clicks with me that I'm learning a new language when I'm hearing myself recite a sentence. According to the exercises my pronunciation is pretty accurate, and any discrepancies are generally due to the microphone not hearing me well enough. Japanese has inflections on a few certain sounds that are not very common in the English language, but given my long history of listening to the language and learning how to say certain things even before attempting to learn the language as a whole, I feel I have a solid grasp on the enunciation, but speaking it rapidly will be a different story when the time comes!
I must say that I enjoy the progress that I've made since I've started all this. When watching a favorite anime or listening to a song I am able to pick out words and phrases I understand, and that excites me. I've sung along, phonetically, to some songs for many years now while always wondering what they meant. Certain verbal repetitions that stood out to me. Bokutachi ぼこたち was always one of them. I couldn't tell you why, but I always noticed when it was sung in a song, and it was sung often enough for me to think it was a common phrase. A couple of weeks ago I learned it meant "we", boku meaning I (generally masculine in usage, I've gathered) and tachi pluralizing whatever it follows (musukosantachi = sons, kanojotachi=they (feminine) etc).
Another big leap for me has been my familiarization with hiragana. One of the syllabic writing systems used in Japanese. Thanks to my flashcards, and my ability to associate each symbol with some type of picture image in my mind, I have been able to memorize all of them (and the common conjunctions) fairly quickly. If presented with a word composed entirely of hiragana, if I take my time, I am able to read it aloud in a short period. If it's a word I know, it won't take me long to realize it (translating from hiragana to romaji is one task, translating from Japanese to English is the 2nd task and I'm still a newbie!). Whenever I watch a movie, TV (terebi!) show, or an episode of anime, I pause the screen whenever I see hiragana just to voice out the words and see if I can discern anything from it. Often I can't, but sometimes I surprise myself!
I did get my first taste of katakana today. It took me by surprise, and I wasn't expecting it. I've been doing my PC lessons exclusively with the kana word display option enabled as to reinforce my hiragana knowledge. So today, when the vocabulary I'd learned on Thursday popped up, I was met with unfamilar characters. For example トイレ for toire (toilet). Up until now, I would have expected to see といれ, the hiragana for to, i and re. As of right now, I have absolutely NO idea why this writing system is used for these words now instead of hiragana. But I also knew that I'd eventually cross paths with this writing system, and honestly, I'm looking forward to deciphering it as well! It's all part of the journey.
Things I learned today
- ト = to (phonetically)
- イ= i (phonetically)
- レ= re
Questions on my mind
- So far, I have yet to understand why the kana "は" is sometimes spoken as "ha" and "wa", when there is a kana specifically for "wa" (which is わ). For example, in my lessons, hana (flower) is pronounced HA-NA with the kana は and な. But when you say "I am" as Watashi wa (in romaji), the kana used are わたしは, which would read wa-ta-shi-ha, although spoken as described earlier. This is something that I'm sure will become apparent to me as my lessons continue, but it's something that definitely makes me realize how far I still have to go in all this!
Parting practice phrase
Nani o tabete imasuka? Watashi wa gohan wo tabate imasu. なにおたべていますか？ わたしはごはんをたべています。What are you eating? I'm eating rice.
-Brendan
Hi Brendan, please let me explain.
ReplyDeleteWhen は is used as verb after noun it’s pronounced as Wa
I or I am わたし は Watashi wa
Waking up early is good to your health はやくおきること は けんこうてきだ hayakuokirukoto wa kenkoutekida
His name is Michael かれのなまえ は マイケルです kareno namae wa maikeru desu
One exception: こんにちは is pronounced konnichiwa but you can also write こんにちわ
But when は is used within noun, adjective or other expressions, it’s pronounced as Ha
Flower, Nose, はな hana
Teeth は ha
Scissors はさみ hasami
First time はじめて hajimete
Nice to meet you はじめまして hajimemashite
As for わ (wa), it’s used within noun, adjective or other expressions.
I わたし watashi
I don’t know わかりません wakarimasen
Selfish わがままな wagamamana
Deliberately or On purpose わざと wazato
O has also two ways to write in Japanese お(typed as O) and を(typed as WO)
お is used within noun, adjective or other expressions and it’s spoken as O
Mother おかあさん Okaasan (or Okah-san)
Father おとうさん Otousan (or Otoh-san)
Welcome back おかえり Okaeri (a response to someone who just get home, come back from somewhere)
Good night おやすみなさい oyasumi nasai
を is used after object and it’s spoken as O (but typed as WO)
I’m eating rice わたしは ごはん を たべています watashi wa gohan wo tabeteimasu
I bought a new car わたしは あたらしい くるま を かいました watashi wa atarashii kuruma wo kaimashita
But there are another words that are used after an object へ(e) and が(ga)
I went to school わたしは がっこう へ いきました watashi wa gakkou e ikimashita
I like you わたしは あなた が すきです watashi wa anata ga sukidesu
I hope this would be some of help. Talk to you later.
Wow, thank you once again Takao. I am grateful to have you as a teacher when it comes to answering my questions. Books can help in certain matters, but to have a person who can look directly at what you say is much better.
ReplyDeleteありがとうございます！
Also, I would like to commend your English writing skills. Your descriptions were very clear and easy to understand. :)