@Mychel213 The pronunciation is extremely easy, but the grammar is very different from European languages which often proves to be a challenge.
The writing is by far the hardest part. The 46 hiragana, and 46 corresponding katakana are 95% phonetic and can be learnt in a relatively short time, but in order to do any serious reading there are just over 2000 kanji (Sino-Japanese characters) that you need to read, write and recognise.
@Mychel213 Not sure if you've learned any other languages, but in Japanese the focus of grammar is different. In European languages we focus on time & tense, agreement of number, person & gender and directness. In Japanese the focus is on social position, politeness & register and attitude & motive..
Therefore, the verb "give" doesn't conjugate based on singular/plural, masculine/feminine or 1st/2nd/3rd person distinctions, but dependent on who gives what to whom and in which social setting.
@xXxXAssassin Both "sumimasen" and "gomen nasai" can mean "sorry"... "Gomen nasai" is stronger, a bit more like "I apologise".
However, "sumimasen" can also sometimes mean "excuse me", like in some varieies of English when you call someone's attention by saying "sorry". In fact "excuse me" even in English can sometimes mean "sorry".
I'd say there isn't a literally 1-to-1 translation, but the more you use them and hear them used, the more you'll get a feel for their usage.
Nice pronunciation. Ohayou, sayounara and arigatou aren't romanized in a way that reflects the pronunciation though. Also 'gozaimasu' should ALWAYS be attached to 'ohayou' and 'arigatou' unless you're talking to an inferior at work, or someone younger than you in a social context. If you only say 'ohayou' to your boss in Japanese he/she might take it as an insult.
I'm aware of the need for "gozaimasu", but I will teach it in a future lesson. It's a bit of a mouthful to pronounce such a long word especially in a beginners' lesson.
As for the long-o sound I prefer to use a macron-o rather than "ou" because that combination of letters is pronounced completely differently in both English and French.
Yeah, that 'ou' always looks weird to people. They'd think it's pronounced like the 'ou' in 'you' :-/ There's that system that uses 'oo' but that's also odd. I guess 'oh' is more natural to transfer over to English spelling but then you get things like "chuhgakkou" which are also weird haha. At first I thought it didn't matter but, man, you make one pronunciation mistake and you end up saying a different word. i.e. こうこう / ここ or しょうこ / しょうこう. keep up the good work!
Hmm, maybe if we were inconsistent and rendered うう as "uu" but おう as "oh" it would be more accurate in English.
Romanisation is a very thorny question and I see all sorts of solutions on romanised signs in Japan. For example the family-name さとう has been written SATOO, SATOU, SATOH and SATO(with a macron line over the o). I prefer the macron, but it's not always possible to add it while typing in Ro-maji.
I also used to dream about going to japan and living there, I even studied japanese for a a year or so. came to kanji, but then my life changed a bit and the dream of japan became less important to me. now Im a bit sad becouse I forget so much language I learned back then. maybe these videos will refresh my memory. :)
is it very difficulte to learn japanese ??
Mychel213 3 months ago
@Mychel213 The pronunciation is extremely easy, but the grammar is very different from European languages which often proves to be a challenge.
The writing is by far the hardest part. The 46 hiragana, and 46 corresponding katakana are 95% phonetic and can be learnt in a relatively short time, but in order to do any serious reading there are just over 2000 kanji (Sino-Japanese characters) that you need to read, write and recognise.
steevmac 2 months ago
@Mychel213 Not sure if you've learned any other languages, but in Japanese the focus of grammar is different. In European languages we focus on time & tense, agreement of number, person & gender and directness. In Japanese the focus is on social position, politeness & register and attitude & motive..
Therefore, the verb "give" doesn't conjugate based on singular/plural, masculine/feminine or 1st/2nd/3rd person distinctions, but dependent on who gives what to whom and in which social setting.
steevmac 2 months ago
@steevmac Thx for unsewring :)
Mychel213 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
lesson starts at 1:51 :)
thumbs up so that everyone can see it.
TecchyTutorials 6 months ago
Thanks for this lesson; I really enjoyed it!
bestiaccia 10 months ago
" it's a nice place ", where you are ?
instrumentmakertje 2 years ago
This might be just me being an idiot,
but why does ohayo have a u after it in the hiragana? Just i was reading over some earlier work of mine and got confused =]
XxSkyPirateBunansaxX 2 years ago
The "u" after the "o" makes it a longer sound.
steevmac 2 years ago
@steevmac doesnt gomen nasai also mean im sorry and sumimasen excuse me
xXxXAssassin 2 months ago
@xXxXAssassin Both "sumimasen" and "gomen nasai" can mean "sorry"... "Gomen nasai" is stronger, a bit more like "I apologise".
However, "sumimasen" can also sometimes mean "excuse me", like in some varieies of English when you call someone's attention by saying "sorry". In fact "excuse me" even in English can sometimes mean "sorry".
I'd say there isn't a literally 1-to-1 translation, but the more you use them and hear them used, the more you'll get a feel for their usage.
steevmac 2 months ago
Nice pronunciation. Ohayou, sayounara and arigatou aren't romanized in a way that reflects the pronunciation though. Also 'gozaimasu' should ALWAYS be attached to 'ohayou' and 'arigatou' unless you're talking to an inferior at work, or someone younger than you in a social context. If you only say 'ohayou' to your boss in Japanese he/she might take it as an insult.
horriehomepage 3 years ago
I'm aware of the need for "gozaimasu", but I will teach it in a future lesson. It's a bit of a mouthful to pronounce such a long word especially in a beginners' lesson.
As for the long-o sound I prefer to use a macron-o rather than "ou" because that combination of letters is pronounced completely differently in both English and French.
steevmac 3 years ago
Yeah, that 'ou' always looks weird to people. They'd think it's pronounced like the 'ou' in 'you' :-/ There's that system that uses 'oo' but that's also odd. I guess 'oh' is more natural to transfer over to English spelling but then you get things like "chuhgakkou" which are also weird haha. At first I thought it didn't matter but, man, you make one pronunciation mistake and you end up saying a different word. i.e. こうこう / ここ or しょうこ / しょうこう. keep up the good work!
horriehomepage 3 years ago
Hmm, maybe if we were inconsistent and rendered うう as "uu" but おう as "oh" it would be more accurate in English.
Romanisation is a very thorny question and I see all sorts of solutions on romanised signs in Japan. For example the family-name さとう has been written SATOO, SATOU, SATOH and SATO(with a macron line over the o). I prefer the macron, but it's not always possible to add it while typing in Ro-maji.
steevmac 3 years ago
awsome!
adilet1 3 years ago
Cool cool cool and simple!!
=D
InTouchWithBertJ 3 years ago
I also used to dream about going to japan and living there, I even studied japanese for a a year or so. came to kanji, but then my life changed a bit and the dream of japan became less important to me. now Im a bit sad becouse I forget so much language I learned back then. maybe these videos will refresh my memory. :)
thebigboss89 3 years ago