Japanese Notes

Japanese notes

Draleed recommendations Where possible, use Bears, https://bears-tokyo.myshopify.com/ Rodeo https://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/auc-rodeo/spTop/#/brand UES own store https://japaneseselvagejeans.com/ Hinoya https://hinoya.shop/

Siri translations

2 Say “Hey Siri、 メッセージを送信。” Hey Siri, messēji o sōshin.

3 Say “Hey Siri、今日の天気 ？” Siri, kyō no tenki?

4Say “Hey Siri、タイマーを3分にセット “ Hey Siri, taimā o 3-bu ni setto

Counting to ten 一 (Ichi) 二 (Ni) 三 (San) 四 (Shi/Yon) 五 (Go) 六 (Roku) 七 (Shichi/Nana) 八 (Hachi) 九 (Kyu/Ku) 十 (Juu)

“Hey Siri, taimā o ichi-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o ni-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o san-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o yon-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o go-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o roku-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o nana-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o hachi-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o kyu-bu ni setto.” “Hey Siri, taimā o juu-bu ni setto.”

Ichijikan one hour

5 And finally, say “Hey Siri、音楽をかけて。”’。”

Hey Siri, ongaku o kakete

As for conjugation, Japanese verbs are fascinating. They’re pretty regular, unlike the nightmare you might encounter in languages like English or French. For a typical verb like 食べる (Taberu - to eat), you’ve got:

Plain present: 食べる (Taberu) Plain past: 食べた (Tabeta) Polite present: 食べます (Tabemasu) Polite past: 食べました (Tabemashita) Negative: 食べない (Tabenai) Te-form: 食べて (Tabete)

Absolutely, let’s expand that cheatsheet with a mixture of useful phrases, vocabulary, and tips for learning Japanese characters.

Greetings and Common Phrases

• こんにちは (Konnichiwa) - Hello/Good afternoon
• おはようございます (Ohayou gozaimasu) - Good morning
• こんばんは (Konbanwa) - Good evening
• さようなら (Sayounara) - Goodbye
• ありがとうございます (Arigatou gozaimasu) - Thank you
• すみません (Sumimasen) - Excuse me/I’m sorry
• はい (Hai) - Yes
• いいえ (Iie) - No
• わかりません (Wakarimasen) - I don’t understand
• 日本語が少しわかります (Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu) - I understand a little Japanese

Useful Nouns

• 友達 (Tomodachi) - Friend
• 家 (Ie/Uchi) - Home/House
• 学校 (Gakkou) - School
• 仕事 (Shigoto) - Work/Job
• 食べ物 (Tabemono) - Food
• 飲み物 (Nomimono) - Drink

Descriptive Adjectives

• 大きい (Ookii) - Big
• 小さい (Chiisai) - Small
• 新しい (Atarashii) - New
• 古い (Furui) - Old
• 美味しい (Oishii) - Delicious
• 楽しい (Tanoshii) - Fun

Japanese Symbol Drawing Tips:

• Practice with a grid: Use a squared notebook to get the proportions right.
• Learn stroke order: This is crucial for writing kanji properly. It often follows top to bottom, left to right.
• Repeat and memorize: Repetition is the mother of learning. Practice writing each character multiple times.
• Use mnemonics: Create little stories or images in your mind that help you remember the characters.
• Consistency is key: Practice a little every day rather than a lot on just one day.

Expanding Vocabulary through Sentences

Here are some basic sentence structures and how you can build them:

Topic-Comment Structure:

• [Noun] は [Comment] です。
• 猫はかわいいです。 (Neko wa kawaii desu.) - The cat is cute.

Requesting Something:

• [Noun] をください。 (Please give me [Noun].)
• 水をください。 (Mizu o kudasai.) - Please give me some water.

Describing Existence:

• [Place] に [Person/Thing] がいます/あります。
• ここに猫がいます。 (Koko ni neko ga imasu.) - There is a cat here.

Expressing Likes/Dislikes:

• [Noun] が好きです。 (I like [Noun].)
• [Noun] が嫌いです。 (I dislike [Noun].)
• 音楽が好きです。 (Ongaku ga suki desu.) - I like music.

Want to Do Something:

• [Verb stem] たいです。
• 映画を見たいです。 (Eiga o mitai desu.) - I want to see a movie.

Additional Verb Conjugations

• Potential form (Can do something): 食べる -> 食べられる (Taberareru)
• Volitional form (Let’s do): 食べる -> 食べよう (Tabeyou)
• Imperative form (Do it!): 食べる -> 食べろ (Tabero)

By gradually expanding your vocabulary and understanding of sentence structures, you’ll be able to express a wide variety of thoughts in Japanese. Remember that language learning is a marathon, not a sprint. Regular practice and exposure to the language, whether through speaking, listening, or writing, will lead to steady improvement. Ganbatte kudasai (Good luck)!

Japanese/English (日/英) - This key is used to toggle between Japanese and English input modes on a keyboard. When typing in Japanese, you can use a combination of hiragana, katakana, and kanji characters. This key allows a user to switch from a Japanese input method, like an IME (Input Method Editor), to English input, where the keyboard behaves like a standard QWERTY keyboard.

Half-width/Full-width (半/全) - These keys are used to switch between half-width and full-width characters. In Japanese typing, half-width refers to characters that take up half the space of a standard square character block, which is the space typically occupied by one kanji character. Full-width characters, on the other hand, occupy the full square. This is particularly relevant for characters like katakana, which can be typed in half-width to save space, or full-width for standard text alignment and readability. It’s also used for alphanumeric characters in various contexts to match the aesthetics or formatting rules of Japanese text.

Half-width Katakana (半角カナ) - This key might be used to specifically switch to a half-width katakana input mode. Katakana is one of the three scripts used in Japanese writing and is often used for foreign words, technical terms, company names, and for emphasis, similar to italics in English.

英 (Ei) - This stands for “English”. It indicates the key can be used to switch the keyboard to English input mode.

かな (Kana) - This is short for “Katakana/Hiragana”. It represents the Japanese syllabary, indicating that the keyboard can be switched to input Japanese characters.

The other two symbols you see are likely to be representations of:

半 (Han) - This symbol means “half-width”. It is used to switch to half-width characters, which are narrower versions of the full-width characters. Half-width characters are often used for Latin letters and numbers in Japanese text to save space and align neatly with other Japanese characters.

全 (Zen) - This stands for “full-width9”. It switches to full-width characters, which are the standard width for Japanese text. Full-width characters take up the space of a square, aligning neatly with kanji and kana characters.

黒春光琳海 spring spriNG 春 Haru