| THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE |
Background |
The Japanese language is often considered too complex for the average non-Japanese person to learn. This, however, is not the case, particularly for spoken Japanese.
The written Japanese language is a bit more difficult, largely in part due to the fact that there are four different ways to write in Japanese. The first is Hiragana which is the Japanese phonetic alphabet for Japanese words. The second is Katakana which is the Japanese phonetic alphabet for loan words that originate in a language other than Japanese. The third is Kanji, which is based upon Chinese characters. The final way to write Japanese is romaji which uses the roman alphabet to express Japanese words. The literate Japanese citizen must be proficient in all of these. Incredibly the literacy rate among the Japanese is at 100%. |
Useful Words and Phrases |
Commonly Used Words
yes - hai
no - iie
Greetings and Salutations
Good Morning - Ohayo Gozaimasu
Hello (afternoon) - Konnichiwa
Good evening - Konbanwa
How are you? - Ikaga desu ka?
Are you well? - Ogenki desu ka?
Goodbye - Sayonara
Good night - Oyasumi nasai
Restaurants
Mizu kudasai - water please
Common Questions
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Useful Books and Audio Tapes and More for Learning Japanese |
I have many of these references in my classroom for students and teachers to use.
Books - Spoken
Audio - Spoken
Books - Written
Computer Programs |
Links to Other Websites that Teach Japanese |
1. FreeJapaneseLessons.com: If you want to learn Japanese, you've come to the right place! On this site you will find such things as the Japanese alphabet (including Hiragana and Katakana) as well as Kanji, Japanese grammar, sentence structure, and useful Japanese phrases.
2. Nihongo o Narau - Learn Japanese: This site is a free online resource for learning basic Japanese. Vocabulary and grammar sections allow you to advance your studies.
3. JapanesePod101:Learn Japanese with free daily podcasts direct from Tokyo. Everything you need to learn about the Japanese language, culture and travel at your own pace.
4. TheJapanesePage.com:This page contains many lessons as well as quizzes so that you can test yourself on what you have learned.
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