Everyone knows some Japanese. You probably have heard or know the meanings of these Japanese words; kamikaze, keisha, kimono, karaoke, samurai and so on. Many Japanese words and phrases have deep cultural significance which can make it hard for students to learn Japanese. However, Japanese words aren’t  always deeply culturally rooted – there are some wacky words.  While living in Japan I came across some ridiculous Japanese words that could only exists in Japan. The Japanese have a knack for stealing foreign words and giving them new meanings. Let’s learn a few.

My pet hate Japanese word is juice, in katakana  ジュース. In Japanese “juice” basically means soft drink. It can even mean canned coffee.  How could they get this word so wrong. So if a Japanese offers you “juice” in Japan don’t be surprised if you are giving a glass of coke.

Snack, スナック, is an other word Japanese give new meaning to. Instead of relating to eating food the word is all about drinking. In Japanese snack means bar. But not just any bar. Snack bars are small drinking places usually for the older generation where Japanese can drown their sorrows with whisky or beer and belt out some enka. These places are very popular with men as they are sort of a hostess bar where you’re charged quite a lot to drink with female company. Enka is traditional Japanese music- songs about lots love. These places are probably the most depressing places you could ever visit in Japan.

Vikingis one of my favorite’s. It is pronounced “Bye -king” and written in katakana バイキング. Japanese most likely wouldn’t know who the Vikings were. Yet, at least one Japanese picked up on their eating habits and coined the phrase to mean buffet. Viking means “all-you-can- eat” .  It can also mean ”all-you-can-drink”.

Icecomes close. It means ice cream. In katakana  アイス. This is an example of how Japanese will take English words and shorten them or abbreviate them.  Japanese generally like to communicate with the least amount of words. They will take a foreign word shorten it, give it a new meaning, and eventually it slips into main stream vocabulary.

When you first learn or discover these words you will feel dumbfounded . You will either feel amused or annoyed.  It is quite hard to believe that the words I just taught you are meaningful and common words in the Japanese language. It certainly took me a while to accept and use them.  One of the most frustrating things is many Japanese believe that they are speaking English when using these loan words. Good reason enough not to even consider teaching English in Japan……just joking.

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.

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

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 this post we are going to look at a short Japanese converstion. Imgaine you are on the train on your way to Shibuya in Tokyo. A man sitting next to you asks you questions about where you are from and what you do.

A: あの、アメリカじんですか
B： はい。そうです。
A: しゅっしん　は　どこですか
B: ニュウヨーク です
A: りゅうがくせいですか
B: はい。
A: にほんはどうですか
B: だいすきです。

The first question is something I am asked all the time in Japan despite the fact that I am not American. Japanese are generally ignorant of the other countries. They assume most white foreigners in Japan are American.

アメリカじんですか – Are you American? じん means person or people. Adding じん to a country name gives you the nationality.

The reply はい。　そうです means “Yes. I am.”

The next question is asking where your place of birth or hometown is. しゅっしん means hometown. どこですか is the question phrase “Where is..? You reply dropping the subject and just stating New York with です。

The third question りゅうがくせいですか is asking if you are an overseas student. がくせい means student. Adding りゅう　can mean exchange, overseas or international student.

Finally the last question is asking your opinion of Japan. どうでか　basically means “What do you think of……? So にほんはどうですか translates to “What do you think of Japan?”

You love Japan so your answer is だいすきです. Notice again how you don’t need to state the subject which in this case is Japan.

Also notice how each line of this conversation ends with either です　or ですか

Here is the conversation in English

A: あの、アメリカじんですか
B： はい。そうです。
A: しゅっしん　は　どこですか
B: ニュウヨーク です
A: りゅうがくせいですか
B: はい。
A: にほんはどうですか
B: だいすきです。

A: Um…… Are you American?
B: Yes. I am.
A: Where is your hometown?
B: New York
A: What do you think of Japan
B: I love (Japan)

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

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?

An effective way to learn and remember 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.

Method

This method will work wonders for you vocabulary building, overall fluency and reading. Please put in an effort to follow the steps below.

Vocabulary List with Definitions

Words In English

Bully  Excursion  Face  Park  Noisy  Yawn Delicious  Listen  Police  Habit

If you would like to learn how to read kanji in context please visit  Kanji Supremacy

If you are not living in Japan or have no Japanese friends learning how to converse in Japanese is quite a challenge. It is quite easy to learn how to read and write kana and kanji, to study grammar and to learn lots of words by yourself. Conversation is different – you need a Japanese person to speak to. In this post we will look at a simple conversation. Hopefully you will learn something new.

Imagine you are at a train station wanting to go to Shibuya. You have forgotten your watch. You ask a stranger for the time and the time of the next train.

A: すみません。　いま　なんじですか。
B: じゅういちじはんです。
A: すぎのでんしゃ　なにじに　きますか
B: ごふんにきます
A: ありがとう　ございます
B: いいえ

In the above conversation すみません is said to get the strangers attention. Remember すみません can also mean “Thank you” or “I’m sorry” depending on context. In this case it means “Excuse me”.

To ask for the time in Japanese the set phrase なんじですか is used.

なん (what) 　じ (time)　ですか (question particle). いま　means “now”.

If you have studied Japanese numbers you will know that じゅういち is 11. So じゅういちじ　means 11 o’clock. はん means half past. So じゅういちじはんです means “It is 11:30”. です is just the sentence ending particle. Depending on context it can mean “It is”, “They are” and so on.

Let’s have a look at the next line, すぎのでんしゃ　なんじに　きますか. Again this is a time question

すぎ のでんしゃ – means next train. The のis just the possessive particle.

なんじに – What time…

きますか – Come? Here we have the ますform of the plain verb くる, which means “come”. By adding か the sentence becomes a question..

What time does the next train come? – すぎのでんしゃ　なにじに　きますか

Now, for the answer; ごふんにきます. As both the speaker and listener know the subject (the next train) it doesn’t need to be stated in the reply. This is very typical of Japanese. So the answer is something like this – (the train) comes in 5 minutes.

ごふん meaning 5 minutes and the verb きます meaning come.

ごふんにきます　- It comes in 5 minutes

ありがとう　ございます of course means “thank you” and いいえ means “Don’t mention it.”

Here is the conversation in English

A: すみません。　いま　なんじですか。
B: じゅういちじはんです。
A: すぎのでんしゃ　なにじに　きますか
B: ごふんにきます
A: ありがとう　ございます
B: いいえ

A: Excuse me. What time is it?
B: It is 11.30
A: What time does the next train come?
B: In 5 minutes
A: Thank you
B: You’re welcome

If you are in the unfortunate situation where you can’t find a native Japanese speaker to help you with your studies there is one alternative – Japanese TV, particularly dramas. Watching Japanese television dramas is an excellent way to pick up words and learn Japanese conversation dynamics. Japanese converse very differently to westerners. If you watch dramas you can see how Japanese converse in fairly natural every speech. Movies are usually too difficult and the story lines unrealistic. So buy some drama sets on e-bay or get on to youtube and start watching dramas.