Time to learn some basic Japanese phrases and Japanese words relating to things you like doing – your hobbies. “Hobby” has a slightly different meaning in Japan. Japanese consider things like shopping, eating favorite foods and even sleepping as hobbies. The word for hobby in Japanese is しゅみ (shumi). The Japanese symbol or kanji for this word is 趣味.
Japanese Phrases Lesson
In this lesson you will learn how to ask and answer questions relating to hobbies. We have upload many videos to youtube. Video language lessons are a great way to learn Japanese. We hope you like this one. This is a basic Japanese lesson, but hopefully you will learn something.
Structure
私のしゅみは……………です。
Watashi no shumi wa……desu.
My hobby is………………
My hobbies are………….
Vocabulary
| ひらがな | Romaji | English |
| らくがき | Rakugaki | Drawing, graffitti |
| うんどう | Undou | Exercise |
| かるい | Karui | Light |
| たべる | Taberu | Eat |
| ひく | Hiku | Play (a musical instrument) |
Grammar Note
verb + こと
Adding “koto” will nominalize the verb; change it into a noun.
たべる － Eat ; たべること － Eating
After watching the video try to read the sentences and questions below.
（あなたの）しゅみは何ですか。
わたしのしゅみは、すしをたべることです。
私の趣味はらくがきをすることです。
私の趣味はかるく、うんどうすることです。
私の趣味はギターをひくことです。
私の趣味はピアノをひくことです。
趣味はないですよ。
趣味のじかんがない。
趣味とまではいかないけど、どくしょがすきです。
ねることがわたしのしゅみです。
In Japan every time you walk into a restaurant, shop, department store – basically any place of service you will you will be verbally attacked with a “welcome” greeting. This will happen without fail. The greeting is “Irasshaimase” – いらっしゃいませ. Like many Japanese expressions this one is deep and goes way back. More on that later. I do have to say that I loved the word when I first came to Japan. I really liked walking to restaurants to be greeted with a chorus of “Irashiamase”. I made me feel…..well, very welcome. I remember thinking it was a little un-Japanese for Japanese to be yelling at their customers.
Now, after living in Japan for ten years I can say I am pretty sick of this word. I do find it irritating when I am shopping at a clothing store or just browsing at book store to been constantly disturbed by shouts and chorus of Irasshaimase. Some staff will really scream it out. I have walked out of the odd store or two because of the constant cries from a tone deaf Japanese.
Japanese Set Expressions – Irasshaimase
The deeper meaning of the word goes way back and not surprisingly has to do with etiquette. Centuries ago Japanese behavior was formalized to the extend that there was a prescribed way for doing virtually everything. Direct interaction with other people, weather greetings, requests and speeches was the most important and carefully enforced. This lead to one of the most interesting and early developed etiquette customs – the calling out of “irasshai” or “iarashaimase” when someone entered the vestibule home of a home or place of business.
“Irasshai” means “walk in” as well as “welcome” and is an informal, friendly expression used by tradespeople in traditional restaurants and shops and department stores. This greeting kind of takes the weight of formality off the customers’ shoulders. It lets them know that they are at a place where they can relax and have fun. This could explain why Japanese are quite happy to eat with total strangers with restaurant owners often asking customers to share tables when business is busy. I have done it myself and it a bit unusual and very uncomfortable. A contradiction to Japanese culture in general, but then again eating habits are very different indeed and an area of Japanese culture that lacks etiquette and decorum. Japanese can eat like pigs; making nosies as they eat, speaking while eating, and even using communal chopsticks as tooth picks.
“Irasshaimase” is a much more polite and formal Japanese expression used only in the sense of “welcome” and “thanks for coming”. This is one word you want to remember and use. It represents an important part of the overall etiquette of Japan and one of the things that foreign visitors and businessmen can easily assimilate, and benefit from, in their interactions with Japanese.
An effective way to learn and remember Japanese vocabulary is to not only to try to memorize particular words, but also to learn how to define them. As students we often become too dictionary dependent and not actually take the time to learn the meanings of new vocabulary. Often we forget new words and as a result become frustrated and get into a negative state of thinking, believing we can’t easily remember new words.
However, we can communicate what we want to say often by defining the word we have forgotten. We do this quite often in our native language when we can’t remember elusive words or when we are just having a mental block. In the process oflearning the definitons of new words we also improve our chances of remembering new words and reinforce words we already know.
Japanese Vocabulary
This method will work wonders for building your Japanese vocabulary, improving your overall fluency anddevelping reading skills.
1. Try reading the definitions by yourself
2. Listen to the audio tracks and take mental notes of Kaoru Sensei’s readings
3. Try to read the definitions in the same manner as Kaoru Sensei
4. Find the English translation for each definition
5. Try to recall the definitions from memory
6. Repeat process until you can define each word from memory
7. Watch the Video
Japanese Vocabulary List with Definitions
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| Word | English | Definition |
| あくび | Yawn | ねむくなったり、 あきたりしたときに、 しぜんに口を大きくあけていきをすること。 |
| いじめる | よわい人に、わざとひどいことをする。 | |
| うるさい | 音が大きすぎて、いやだ。 やかましい | |
| えんそく | 学校で、 見学やうんどうのために遠くに出かけること。 | |
| おいしい | あじがよい | |
| かお | 目や、 はなや、 口があるところ。 | |
| 聞く | 声や音を耳でかんじる。 | |
| くせ | いつも、 気づかないうちにしてしまうこと 。 | |
| けいさつ | わるい人をつかまえたり、 みんなのくらしをまもったりするやくしょ | |
| こうえん | みんながあそんだり、 休んだりするためのひろば。 |
English Trasnlation
Bully Excursion Face Park Noisy Yawn Delicious Listen Police Habit
Want more Japanese vocabulary lessons like these?
When learning a language you often find yourself perplexed with what to learn. The Japanese language in particular often overwhelms students – kanji, hiragana, katakana, idioms, dialects and polite language such as keigo. With the prospect of so much to learn most students give up learning Japanese as it seems just too difficult and time consuming. You could spend decades studying the Japanese language. However, it doesn’t take years and years to become proficient in spoken Japanese. If you have a clear focus and good study habits you can speak Japanese with only a year of study.
What should on study first? This a difficult question to answer as will depend on your own goals. However, once you have the basic greetings and some vocabulary under your belt you should start learning questions. Understanding questions is paramount in any language. If you visit Japan you will no doubt attract attention and be asked questions. Most conversation begin with questions so it is important to develop an understanding of sentence structure. So before you begin to consider learning polite Japanese, Kanji, idioms and Japanese dialects spend plenty of time learning questions.
Here are ten questions on the subject of food. I have provided English translations. Try to memorize all ten and use them the next time you met a Japanese person. Click on the audio player and repeat after Kaoru Sensei.
Audio Lesson – Question On Food
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すきなたべものはなんですか
きらいなたべものはだんですか
くだものはなにがすきですか
りょうりはできますか
とくいりょうりはなんですか
きょうのあさはなにをたべまいしたか
きのうのよるごはんはなんでしたか
コンビニでたべものをどれくらいよくかいますか
エスニック料理はすきですか
いままでたべたなかでいちばんかわったものはなんですか
What foods do you like?
What foods do you hate?
What’s a fruit you like?
Can you cook?
What’s something you can make/cook well?
What did you eat for breakfast today?
What did you eat for dinner yestartday?
How often do you buy food at a convenience store?
Do you like ethnic food?
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
Here is our second Japanese grammar lesson on particles. In this post we are going to look at the particle は. Note that the particle is not pronounced as it is reads. It is pronounced wa and not ha. Although we are covering basic Japanese grammar in ths lesson, you may struggle with this for quite some time as I did. It took many Japanese grammar lessons for me to master this one particle. I hope my lesson will help you gain some understanding.
This particle has three main functions in Japanese. The first of these is to act as topic marker for conversations or texts. The main difference between a topic and a subject is that you can leave off a topic from a sentence, and it will still make perfect sense. This in contrast to a subject, which if removed creates a sentence with a gap in it:
Lets have a look at an example
きょうは だれが きましたか Who came [here] today?
The same sentence on its own without the topic works just fine:
だれが きましたか。Who came [here]?
However, the same sentence on its own without the subject won’t make sense.
きょう はきましたか。 …came [here] today?
The second function of は is as contrast marker, as in an “[A]は something, [B]はsomething else” pattern.
Here is an example:
ちがいますよ。 これは すしで、それはさしみ – [That's] not [quite] right. This is Sushi, and that’s Sashimi
Here a contrast is given between “this” and “that”, regardless of whether they were already topics.
The third function that は is the negative imperative when it follows a て form.
Here is an example;
きょう こなくて は いけません － You have to come today.
In this use, it creates a negative imperative。The は could also be followed by だめ.
きょう は だめ － Today is no good.
In our next post we will look at more particles.
