Eclectic Mix

Original Posting: October 22nd, 2008
Today I’ll be covering age, along with asking & answering how old you are.

On the basic level, you say the number of years you are the then add さい (sai.) If you’re 10 yeah old it’d be じゅうさう (juusai)

As always, there are exceptions. 20 when counting is nijuu, but as an age it gets a special name. Hatachi is used to describe 20-year-olds (this is like turning 18 in the U.S.) since this is the age when people are officially adults.

In Japan at the beginning of the year a person will turn 20, there’s a big celebration for all of them, even though it my not be their birthday yet. Read the rest of this entry »

Original Posting: December 8th, 2008
I’m just going to pound out these next 2 posts, I have finals to study for!

Just like with hiragana, there are more sounds with the tenten & maru, and they sound just the same.

ごめんなさい about the wait

がんばって
Ganbatte!

Original Posting: November 16th, 2008

こいちは　everyone! It’s been quite some time since I wrote a new カタカナ post, but things have been so hectic for me here. Between end of semester projects, the WOTLK expansion & other RL emergencies, this had to be put on the back burner. Anyway, I’m back & ready to roll! Moving on from the 1st 8 lines of katakana (a-ka, or sa-ta, na-ha, ma-ya) we’ll now finish up the main 46 with ra, wa & n. I’ll get the tenten & contracted sounds posts out soon (I hope!)

Just note the differences between ソ(so) & ン (n).
So is a down stroke & n is an up stroke.

ラ　リ　ル　レ　ロ
ra ri ru re ro

ワ　　　　　　　　ヲ**
wa wo

ン
n

**While the same pronunciation as を, ヲ is rarely used in formal writing. Most books list it only as reference.

Some words using these kana:
ロボット
robotto – robot

ワンピース
wanpiisu- one piece dress (I think it’s like a jumper for girls /shrug)

Practice!

がんばって
Ganbatte!

Original Posting: November 13th, 2008
Ko-S-A-Do Words, are what make up pronouns & the w5 (If you never watched Nick News W5 on nickelodeon, W5 are the Who, What, Where, When & Why. How is also in there too.)

For Now, I’m only going to cover 3 endings. There are 5 or so more, but we didn’t cover those in class.

The table below shos the 4 bases (ko, so, a, do) with the 3 endings (ko, no, re). Do is always a question word. こ Ko talks about someone/something you’re holding or are very close to. そ So describes something that you are close to but it is farther away than こ. あ A is always talking about something/someone away from you, say across the room, but is also far from the other person you’re talking to. These change depending on the location of the object to the speaker.

Say I have a pen ぺん. I would say　これは　なですか？ (Korewa nandesuka?)
The answer would be そらは ぺんです。 (Sorawa pen desu.)

The only one that needs a special note is の. No is always used with a noun as if to say where is THAT book, not just where are the books. When you’re talking about a specific noun vs that noun in general, you’d use no.

Other than that, they’re just used like in the example above.

Original Posting: November 12th, 2008
I’ve used this program for years- It’s called the NJStar Japanese Word Processor. It’s totally free to try… and the best alternative if you can’t get the Global IME for whatever reason. (You can’t get the IME, it’s not your computer, you run linux, etc) You can download it here: http://www.njstar.com/cms/njstar-japanese-word-processor-download.

When you open it, there’s a bunch of text showing off other font samples. I assume that if you were to purchase the software, it’d go away. It says it’s a 30 day trial, but you can continue to use it once 30 days is up. ( I installed this version 9/30… more than 30 days ago. It still works fine for me!)

So delete the demo text & you’re ready to start!

Make sure that the option for Romaji is selected in the bottom left corner. If it’s not, just keep clicking it until it is. This is the input selection method, and what allows us to type in Japanese with a non-Japanese keyboard!

So lets type
“Hello, My name is ____.”
こにちわ、わたしは　＿＿＿です。
Konnichiwa, watashi wa (ha) _____ desu.

As you begin to type Konni… just to the right of the romaji button a box shows what you typed, and the Japanese it has come up with.

Generally, box 1 is hiargana & 2 is katakana, but it changes with what you type. Finish typing Konnichiwa & then click box 1.
It’s as easy as that! You just typed in Japanese!

But lets finish our sentence. Put a space after こんにちわ, and type watashi. when you do the 2 boxes will be back, one with hiragana & one with the kanji for watashi. When you mouse over the boxes it gives you a dictionary of all the uses of the parts of the word. Sometimes it’s overkill & not always what you’re looking for in the definition, even though what you put in is correct. Add は (ha) to the end of watashi. (It’s a subject particle, but we’re not going to get in to grammar in this post. Just take my word for it ^_^)

Now you need to add your name. Unless you are Japanese, you name will almost always be in Katakana. Mine in Japanese is キャシ.
To switch to Katakana, just click the button in the right bottom corner that says カナ(kana).

If you don’t know your name in Japanese, this site can help: http://japanesetranslator.co.uk/your-name-in-japanese/ it’s pretty reliable.

When that’s done, click off the kana button & add desu.

You’re finished! You just typed a whole sentence in Japanese!
There’s so many more features of this application (even the trial version!) that I just can’t cover here. Just note the dictionary function is really handy (Tools Menu –> Dictionary).

But that’s it!

がんばって!