Intermediate, Weather.

Konbanwa, mina-san.

Jeremi desu.

Today's lesson:

Intermediate weather! Brrr!

Before we start today's lesson, I'd like to refer you guys to an awesome, free site which helps significantly with learning Japanese, and other languages! I'm currently on it as Tenshi. www.livemocha.com . Feel free to add me!

For today's lesson, we will be learning more advanced phrases associated with the weather.

Although this topic is related to the weather, you can use these words in many contexts and you get an increased perception of Japanese grammar! Which is always a bonus!

First off, we will start off with some new nouns / adjectives / etc, and later on use these in

phrases.

Atatakai- Warm

Taiyou- Sun

Boushi- Hat

Kasa- Umbrella

Mafura- Scarf

Sunglasses- Sungarasu

Raincoat- Rein-koto

Here is an alternative way of saying "Tenki wa dou desu ka?", or "How is the weather?".

A bit of variety is useful when learning a language, it's a necessity when trying to understand others!

"Donna tenki desu ka?".

Ima wa hareteimasu- It's now fine!

Ima wa kumotteimasu- It's now cloudy

Ima wa.... - It's now (state of weather inserted here, or anything!)

Ima wa aoi desu- It's now blue!

Boushi wo kabuteimasu- Is wearing a hat

Mafura wo shiteimasu- Is wearing a scarf

Sangarasu wo kaketeimasu- Is wearing sunglasses

Rein-koto wo sashiteimasu- Is using a raincoat!

Naze rein-koto wo sashiteimasu- Why are you using a coat?

Ame ga futteimasu kara- Because it's raining!

Naze..... - Why....

....... Kara- Because.......

Kasa wo sashiteimasu- Is using an umbrella

Ame ga futteimasu kara, kasa wo sashiteimasu- Because it's raining, is using an

umbrella.

Now, I'd like to explain the grammar used in this lesson.

As you may have noticed, Japanese is very context specific.

Due to this fact, usually you can drop he,she, her, him, etc when in a situation / context which is obvious that you're referring to that person/place.

It sounds like a mouthful, but trust me, it makes Japanese insanely easier.

For example! Let's say.... Hmm... A basic example is that there are 2 people in a room, only one is wearing sunglasses. If you state "Naze sungarasu ga kaketeimasu ka?" "Why are wearing sunglasses?", it's obvious that you are referring to that individual and do not need to add "you" or "anata" into the sentence. Get it? Good :)

Study hard!

Mata ne!

1st lesson on my blog!- Basic introductions

Website Design, Website Development, Shopping Carts, Content Management Systems, Custom Programming, Custom Applications

Konnichiwa mina-san! Good day everyone!

Jeremi desu yo! It's jeremy!

Biiig lesson!

Basic introduction,numbers and pronounciation!

This is a histroic moment for 2011japan.blogspot.com, for today, the 1st ever Japanese lesson shall be posted! I'll make sure to create some audio for it on my youtube channel, JeremiDesuYo, !

"So, what exactly shall mark this great occasion, which words and useful phrases will we learn?"

Is the question I can mostly certainly hear in your focused minds. Well! We'll be learning useful, yet simple, introduction phrases and related words! Yea!

But before I place this big weight of responsibility on you guys,

we shall go over the prounciation laws of Japanese!

a = as in father	A-sa-ku-sa -- Tokyo place
i = as in eat	Ni-hon-ba-shi -- Tokyo place
u = as in food or zoo	U-e-no – Tokyo place
e = as in end	E-do – name of Tokyo before 1868
o = as in Ohio	O-cha-no-mi-zu – Tokyo place

The consonant sounds are:

k = as in cat	A-ka-sa-ka – Tokyo place
g = as in gourd	Gin-za – Tokyo place
s = as in Sue	E-bi-su – Tokyo place
sh = as in seashore	Shi-ta-ma-chi – Tokyo area
z = as in zoo	Zen
j = as in Jack	San-gen-ja-ya – Tokyo place
t = as in tick	To-ra-no-mon – Tokyo place
ts = this is one of the tricky ones; thinktsetse fly.	Tsu-ki-ji – Tokyo place
ch = as in chicken	Chi-yo-da – Tokyo place
n = as in new	Ni-hon – “Japan”
h = as in have	Ha-ra-ju-ku – Tokyo place
f = another slightly tricky one; think of “who” with an f sound	Fu-ji-san – Mt. Fuji
b = as in Boeing	O-da-i-ba – Tokyo place
p = as in party, pea, Poe	I-p’pon-ba-shi – Tokyo place
m = as in mama	Ma-ru-no-u-chi – Tokyo place
ya = as in yahoo, yeoman,	Ya-su-ku-ni – Tokyo shrine
r = the trickiest one – more like a “d” than an “r” (as in a British butler saying “very good, madam”) **	Ro-p’pon-gi – Tokyo place
w = as in wander	Su-mi-da-ga-wa – Sumida River

(Thank you http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~bestor/easy_pronunciation.htm for this useful grid!)

As you can probably tell, the rules of prounciation are similiar to those of Maori, or Samoan.

Except in Japanese, the G is not pronounced as a "gnah", err, yeah, you get what I mean.

Yes! That's correct! Japanese is indeed easy to pronounce! Especially in comparison to Chinese, boy, that's a mouthful.

So, anyway!

Back to the Japanese lesson of introduction!

Okay, let's start off simply here.

To say, my name is...

you'd say "Watashi no nomae (name)...."

Try it! Watashi no nomae Jeremi!

Let's break this down...

Watashi- The word for I,

No- the possesive particle (similiar to ')

Nomae- The word for name.

That's easy, wasn't it?

Please beware, that the grammar does get insanely different later on.

Okay, to say where you come from the phrase "...... kara kimashita" is essential!

(kara meaning from)

For example, "Nyujirando kara kimashita", would mean "I come from New Zealand!".

In order to state your age you would say, the number followed by "...sai desu"

E.g. Jyuu roku sai desu (I'm 16)

(sai meaning age, desu means it's)

Wait, wait, numbers?!

Don't worry, Japanese numbers are simple!

Here we go, count along!:

1- Ichi 20- Ni jyuu (2-10)

2- Ni 30- San Jyuu (3-10)

3- San 40- Shi Jyuu (4-10)

4- Shi 50-100 is the same logical structure, easy isn't it?

5- Go 23- Ni jyuu san (2-10-3)

6- Roku 34- San jyuu shi (3-10-4)

7- Hichi 45- shi jyuu go (4-10-5)

8- Hachi All other numbers with multiple digits follow this structure, too!

9- Kyuu 100- Hyaku (100)

10- Jyuu 200- Ni Hyaku (200)

300- San Hyaku (300)

324- San Hyaku ni jyuu shi

1,000- One thousand

Easy, isn't it?!

Exactly!

Okay, back to introductions,

to say "My hobbies are..."

You'd say "Watashi no shumi wa..."

(Watashi, I, No, possesive, Shumi, hobby, wa, is)

Followed by the hobbies!

Some examples of verbs/hobbies are-

Odotte- dancing, uta-singing, computaa- computering,

hashire- running, etc (We'll cover more verbs in another lesson)!

So, "watashi no shuma wa odotte to hashire"

Would be, "my hobbies are dancing and running"

(Oh, "to" means and, btw)

Now, lets move on to our language abillities in an introduction!

How do you say "I speak some Japanese and fluent english"?

Here we go !:

"Watashi no chotto nihongo wo hanshimasu"- I speak some Japanese

(Watashi, I, No, possesive, chotto, some, nihongo, Japanese, hanashimasu, speak, wo particle belonging to speak)

So, therefore "Watashi no eigo wo hanashimasu" is I speak english (Fluently)!

(Eigo meaning english, chotto was taken out because we know more than some english, and nihongo was taken out because we're not fluent in Japanese ;P)

Activity!

So, can you introduce your self now?

My introduction would be:

Konnichiwa, mina-san! Watashi no nomae Jeremi desu! Watashi wa jyuu roku sai desu!

Nyuujirando kara kimashita! Watashi no chotto nihongo wo hanashimasu, to, watashi no eigo wo hanashimasu! Watashi no shumi wa computaa to nihongo!

Thank you for viewing this lesson!

If you've read through this big block of text,

you're learning Japanese really well!

Awesome!

Please tune in for next time, (it'll be not as long next time, I promise! (,yakusoku!))

Ja Mata!

Welcome to my blog!- Introduction

Kombanwa mina-san! Good evening all!

Boku wa Jeremi desu! I'm Jeremy!

Welcome to my new blog dedicated towards my future exchange to Japan, for a whole year in 2011, the 28th March! This will be quite an exciting moment, one that that will be a life changing, culture immersive, and simply awesome experience! Because my exchange will be such an exciting event, I wouldn't want anyone to not experience it themselves. So, "How will I do this?" I thought... I got it! A blog. A blog will allow me to post diaries of my daily and weekly occurances of my life in Japan!

"So, why are you setting this up now, then?" I can hear reverberating throughout many of your intentive minds. Well, simply because the preparation for the exchange, will just be nearly as exciting! Fundraising, Japanese language learning, learning about Japan's culture etc etc will all be interesting aspects of this preparation process! This blog will be updated weekly, sometimes even more than that with useful tads of information about Japanese language, culture, and my fundraising processes~! Won't this be awesome? Yes! It will be ;) . I'll also make this blog as interactive as possible, posting polls, videos, competitions and other interesting and immersive activities!

I have recently set-up my youtube channel, JeremiDesuYo, in preparation for all of the video creations! There are a few videos on there right now regarding Japan, check them out!

During my exchange, I'll be posting many video diaries of my life in Japan, even taking videos of my Japanese school and friends, places of interests, exciting events and festivals in Japan etc!

I'll be taking advantage of this channel before I go too!, I'll try and get a video recorder asap to make it as interesting as humanly possible ;)

You want to know more about me, you say? Sure! I'm Jeremy, I'm 16 and I currently go to a college called Bishop Viard College, which is located in Porirua, New Zealand. Yep, I'm a kiwi, heh. My exchange will be taking place through the awesome high school year exchange programme, E.F. highschool year exchange ( visit www.ef.com for more information, and if you're interested in partaking in an exchange to almost any nation!).Raising the funds to go, may take some effort, but I've already raised atleast half of the required funds so far and have been accepted into the programme (with flying colours, I might add ;P), so it's inevitable that I'll be going! How will I be raising the excess money? Fundraising and part-time work (which you will frequently be updated of!).

So, if you want to learn the elegant, and awesome language of Japanese with me,

experience Japan itself, learn of Japan's interesting culture, and simply be involved in an exciting experience, then, this is the blog to frequently visit!

In order to get be frequently aware to remember this intriguing blog ;),

please bookmark this page ;)

Arigatou gozaimasu, mina-san! Thank you, everyone!

Please look out for my next interesting and intriguing post,

Ja mata!

(See you later!)