Learn Japanese Counters for People: 10 Little Samurai!

More Japanese songs at http://www.GenkiJapan.net

The first thing they ask when you go to a Japanese restaurant in Japan is "何名様?" - nan mei sama = how many people?

Now you'd think you could just hold up your fingers and say "一　ichi = one" or "二　ni = two" followed by "人　nin =

people". But no, you have to say 一人　hitori for one person, or 二人　futari for two people!

Luckily after that it gets a bit easier.

But I made this song to make them all stick in your head, ready for your first trip to a real Japanese restaurant!

Of course to make it more fun I've included lots of 侍　- samurai! You might of heard of 七人の侍　= shichi nin no samurai = 7 samurai the famous movie?

So remember the song and impress your friends when you walk into a Japanese restaurant. Just don't say "no samurai" afterwards, they'd just throw you out for being cheeky! ; )

The only other word in the song is "いるよ - i ru yo" which sort of means "there are". But don't worry about that for now, it's mainly just there to balance the lyrics of the song up.

And yes, in Japan they still do sing this song as "10 little Indians" - political correctness hasn't made its way over here properly yet!

Enjoy the song, give me some thumbs and feedback, tell your friends to subscribe and I'll see if I can make some more songs for you!

Be genki,

Richard

P.S. My "Get fluent in Japanese" book is free at http://www.GenkiJapan.net

Or if you have a question about learning Japanese then head over to http://www.LearnJapaneseFAQ.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• 10
• little
• samurai
• learn
• japanese
• counters
• indians

[SayuriSumisu]

OMG! I love it!

Man, I love all these little songs. They're so catchy.

If there was a cd I'd listen to it in the car all the time.

XD

[GenkiJapanNet]

@SayuriSumisu There's an ipod pack on the GenkiJapan Net site!

[Blalablo]

I have one question: my japanese teacher told me that 人 is spoken like "Gin" aund not like nin.

Which one is correct? or are both correct - one is on-, one is kun-reading??

I don't know

[GenkiJapanNet]

@Blalablo In this case it's "nin", but say for アメリカ人 you would say "Amerika jin" It's just like you can read "read" as "reed" or sometimes it can be read as "red"

[PureMetal420]

This has got to be the best dance-inducing language lesson ever!!!

どうもありがとうございまし

[Vidless]

Those samurai without hats need hats. They are way more creepy than their hat owning brethren.

[xSAKUxX]

OMG This song will stick in my head forever now *haha* Your songs are so great to learn! Thanks so much!

[Aincalandorn]

@KellsBells98 It's a possessive marker, generally. It's tying the 10 to the samurai to give it a value.

[johnmilutin]

lol i learnt this at school it cool and cachcy

[KellsBells98]

What the no for befor Samuria?

[ArisuXHiromi]

SAMURAI :D

[uliseshernandezl]

I almost forgot I had to sing along instead of dance hahahahaha. :D

[darkmaster52510]

during the slow part i was sleeping but the fast lol awake and cannot keep up =o

[AceQED]

Reminds me similar English version counting numbers of little Indian but this is thoughtful yet thoughtful Japanese version counting numbers of samurai.