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。
When living in Japan I found myself in many situations where I would struggle to converse despite being a fairly confident speaker. Going to the post office was one such situation. I wouldn’t go to the post office more than once or twice every few months so having a parcel or letter sent was always a bit of a challenge. More often than not it wasn’t that I didn’t understand what was being said, it was an inability to decipher the polite language and respond quickly. In most customer service situations Japanese will use a lot of polite language and speak quickly.
My wife and I created a 2-part lesson explaining what language you’ll need to understand when going to the post office. With this Japanese lesson below you’ll be able to handle any post office situation.
Japanese Lesson -- Part 1
Want to learn more about Speak Japanese Fluently? Visit the website now http://speakjapanesefluently.com
If you would like to watch part 2 and access all 32 lessons then take action click the button below.
I have been studying and learning Japanese for over 15 years. When I first started learning Japanese the internet didn’t exist and I had to learn Japanese using traditional study methods and resources – text books, flashcards, group lessons and expensive audio programs on tape or CD. Now, we are fortunate enough to have the internet and can learn Japanese Online . Learning Japanese has never been better with hundreds of Youtube video lessons, free ebooks, private webcam lessons and beginner to advanced courses.
Over the years I have tried many study methods in my pursuit to master both spoken and written Japanese. I would like to share some alternative or unusual study methods I hope you find useful. I recommend you learn to read and write hiragana and katakana as soon as you can. This will really help you learn the phonetics and build you basic vocabulary quickly.
Watch a lot of Japanese dramas. I used to rent DVDs of popular dramas and watch the same episode over and over again. Some may argue that watching TV isn’t going to help improve your Japanese. However, if you take notes and repeat what the actors say you’ll be amazed by how much you can learn.
One program that I recommend to complete beginners is Rocket Japanese. I got myself the CD versions and basically went crazy with the program 30 days straight. The course basically promises that you will soon be able to speak Japanese at a restaurant, at a train station, with new friends… in basically every situation you can think of! This not quite true, but I certainly did learn a lot and recommend the course to beginners.
The 31 tracks in the Rocket Japanese Premium Interactive Audio Course average over 20 minutes in length each – that’s over 12 hours of audio lessons! Now you know why I went crazy with the program listening to two lessons twice a days for 30 days. They cover everything that you need to know to become part of a living, breathing Japanese community, from introducing yourself to getting around on public transportation, and a whole lot more in between. Japanese people just love it when tourists and travelers speak Japanese to them!
I know what it’s like getting discouraged when trying to make progress with a second language. It’s happened to most of us when we took a foreign language in school. Rocket Languages recognized years ago that there’s a better and easier way to learn a second language. They keep it real and make it fun and easy. (You still need to out in a effort though).
Rocket Japanese also has a Japanese Learner’s FORUM – your Rocket Japanese Premium purchase entitles you to full and unlimited access to the dynamic Rocket Japanese Premium Learner’s Forum, where you can get feedback from professionals and peers who all share a passion for the Japanese language!
The Rocket Japanese program is great for beginners. The audio quality is outstanding and the lessons are lots of fun.
You can take the lessons online or download them. The program also includes quizzes so you can track your progress.
Go check out their site to learn more.
Here are more articles on learning Japanese:
We are going to continue our study on Japanese grammar in this post with our third lesson on particles. We are going to take a look at the particle も.
The particle も can be used to indicate similarity as in the words ‘too’ or ‘also’. This particle replaces が or は, when used:
A: 私がえいがすきです。
B: 私もえいががすきです。
A: I like movies
B: I also like movies
This is a reasonably simple use of も, which can also be used in a double patternsuch as in the following sentence:
A: えいががすきですか、おんがくがすきですか。
B: えいがもおんがくもすきです。
A: Do [you] like movies, or do [you] like music?
B: [I] like both movies and music.
Remember that because も marks a similarity to something previously mentioned, you cannot use も out of the blue. It requires a prompt either by someone else, or by something you yourself just said.
A second use of も is after the て form of verbs and verbal adjectives. In this use, も acts as an emphatic contrasting particle, meaning something like the English “even [by/if] …”. The phrase below
“Even [by] leaving now, [you] probably won’t make it.” translates to いま いっても まにあわない でしょう。
There are two special things that concern this particle. One, a special case of this use of も is in combination with the copula です, which becomes でも. We will look at this in a later post.
The second is this particle can be used with question pronouns. Have a look at the examples below:
なに means “what”, なにも means “anything” when followed by positive verb or “nothing”, when followed by a negative verb.
どこ means “where”, どこも means “anywhere” when followed by a postive verb or “nowhere”, when followed by a negative verb.
だれ means “who”, だれも means “anyone” when followed by a postive verb or “no one”, when followed by a negative verb.
This rule continues for words like どんな (what kind of?), どっち (which way?), いつ (when?), どうして (why?) and so forth and so forth.
As you can see the simple use of particles can greatly change the context and meaning of the Japanese language. If you have ever taken the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) before you will know one whole section of the grammar test is devoted to particles. Particles are important. So we will continue our study of them. Look forward to the next post on the particle の.
