Today we gonna learn some common word in a restaurant.

お茶　- おちゃ　　－　tea ( green tea)

紅茶　- こうちゃ　　－　tea

お水　- おみず - plain water

お会計　- おかいけい　- bill, please

ください　　　　　　　　- please

eg: お会計ください　－　bill, please

コーヒ　- coffee

2名　- にめい　- 2 person

二人　- ふたり　- 2 person

Normally when you enter a restaurant, the waiter will ask you.

Waiter: 何名さまですか？　ー　 なんめいさまですか　-　How many person?

You : 二人です。　 　　　- 2 person

Waiter: こちらへどうぞ。　 - This way, please

おはようございます Good morning

こんにちは Good afternoon

こんばんは Good night

始めまして　　　　　　はじめまして Nice to meet you

お元気ですか？　　　　おげんきですか How are you?

よろしくお願いします　　　よろしくおねがいします Please teach me

久しぶり ひさしぶり Long time no see

よろしく

Please leave your message in comment below for any suggestion or request (ex: common vocabulary for school, office, shop etc)

Japanese Vocabulary 2 - School

卒業 - そつぎょう　－　graduate
学生 - がくせい　－　student
先生 - せんせい　－　teacher
学校 - がっこう　－　school
勉強 - べんきょう　－　study/learn
本 - ほん　－　book
雑誌 - ざっし　ー　magazine
鉛筆 - えんぴつ　－　pencil
ペン - ぺん　－　pen
ホワイトボード - whiteboard
パソコン - personal computer
試験 -　しけん　－　examination
紙 - かみ　－　paper
テスト - test

Japanese Vocabulary 1

食べます　－　たべます 　eat
飲みます　－　のみます　drink
歩きます　－　歩きます　walk
書きます　－　かきます　 write
行きます　－　いきます 　 go
来ます　　－　きます 　come
払います　－　はらいます 　pay
話します　－　はなします 　talk/speak
考えます　－　かんがえます 　 think
郵便局　－　ゆうびんきょく　post office
英語　－　えいご　English
学校　－　がっこう　school
コーヒ　－こーひー　coffee
私　－　わたし　I/Me


コーヒーを飲みます。
(I) drink coffee.

私は学校へ歩いて行きます。
I walk to school.

郵便局へ行きます。　　　
(I) go to post office.

彼は英語で話します。
He talks in English.

Japanese Pod 101

I've never write a review of any product before but this time I have to because this one is really good. It's Japanese Pod 101. It is a learning japanese program with many resources. What I like about this program is it's media resources. They have videos, mp3 and drama! They are all very interesting, unlike other program that just teach, teach and teach like in school! That's boring but Japanese Pod 101 is very amusing and fun. That's the key point in learning Japanese. It has to be fun. When it is fun you'll spend more time on it and makes you learn faster. Most of the staff are native Japanese. Pronounciation is important.

With all their resources available to download, you can put it in your ipod or iphone and listen or watch it anywhere. Eventhough I know most of what they are teaching, I watch their videos because it is fun!

I learned Japanese a few years ago. That time the internet was still new. I had trouble finding a good resources to learn. I didn't go to Japan to learn Japanese. I learned it in my country and then go to Japan. No Japanese friend or somebody to talk to in Japanese. I've passsed Level2　(２級日本語能力試験）Japanese Language Proficiency Test before going to Japan 10 years ago. (There are 4 level. Level 4 for beginners and Level 1 , you can be a Japanese language teacher) .

All I could find were Japanese-English dictionary (Kenkyusha's New College English-Japanese Dictionary), a few old magazine and translated manga or anime. The translated manga or anime won't help your Japanese language skill. You have to read or watch it in Japanese, without translation! It was tough. Nowadays, with internet technology, you can easily find Japanese videos and other resources online. Thus learning Japanese online is so much easier.

Just download the podcast and you can listen to Japanese 24/7! If that can't help you learn Japanese, I can't think of anything else.

What makes Japanese Pod 101 different than any other program?

They have so many resources and the lessons are easy to understand and FUN!

You can join them for FREE or if you want more lessons and resources, subscribe for US$4, US$10 or US$26 per month. It is worth it, trust me. Join now!

Btw, some of the youtube you find in this blog are from Japanese Pod 101.

They also have a forum where you can meet other friendly Japanese and Japanese language speakers. Ask anything about Japanese and they are more than happy to help you.

Click the banner below and join us!

Latest update

I'm planning to bring this blog to a new level. More tutorial, more news and article related to Japan like food, anime, drama, movies and so on. But all this new feature will be on new domain, new server. I'm thinking about using wordpress. I will announce about the new website once it is setup and ready to publish. 

Think Japan!

 While you're learning Japanese, it is a very good idea to make yourself familiar with Japan's culture. If you can not go to Japan, bring Japan to you. How? Bring Japan into your daily life. Listen to Japanese song, watch japanese tv (you can watch youtube or online tv), read japanese books or magazine, eat japanese foods and everything related to Japan. I know it sounds silly but if you want to master Japanese language, it is all depends on how much effort or time you are willing to put in. Doesn't matter if you don't understand now. Keep listening and slowly you'll get the meaning. This is no joke. Listen to japanese song, keep watching those japanese youtube, over and over again. Keep reading those hiragana signboard, product package or anything you can find. There are a few nice sites we have in this blog. Check out those interesting link in the sidebar. Good luck!

 

Hiragana - next step

  Have you memorize all the hiragana character? Can you read  " おめでとう" without referring to the hiragana chart? I hope you can. It means congratulation. If you can't read it, please try to memorize hiragana as soon as possible.  I won't teach Japanese in romaji. Sorry. I just feel that won't work. Remember, romaji is for you to learn the pronounciation of the kana. That's all.

Please read these words before we move to the next step.

1) おはようございます 

　-Good morning　

2) はじめまして  

   -Nice to meet you

   -始めまして　　　  (kanji)

3) おげんきですか？

   -How are you?

   -お元気ですか？　(kanji)

4) さようなら

  -Good bye

5) がっこうへいこう

    -Lets go to school

　-学校へ行こう     (kanji)

　

Can you read all of them correctly?

*Watch out for the pronounciation:

 よ    - yo

 よう - yō  (long "o", as in "more" ) Even though in romaji we write "you" , the correct pronounciation is yō, not yo-u

 (eg: おはようございます）

The correct pronounciation is ohayōgozaimasu, not ohayo-o-gozaimasu

The same goes to いこう, refer to no 5) がっこうへいこう. 

The correct pronounciation is gak-kō-e-ikō, not gak-ko-u-e-iko-u.

Another example, おめでとう。

The correct pronounciation is omedetō. 

Confused? Don't worry, you will find more of these a lot later. You will get used to it in no time.

Each time when お、こ、そ、と、の、ほ、も、よ　and 　ろ  meets  う、 just pronounce it longer.

Please refer to hiragana chart, most right vertical line.

よう　- yō

そう   - sō

とう    - tō

のう   - nō

ほう   - hō

もう    - mō

よう   - yō

ろう   - rō

がんばりましょう 

(remember, it's gan-ba-ri-ma-shō, not gan-ba-ri-ma-sho-u)

Let's put more effort.

How to write a good blog post?

 I found a good article about how to write a good blog post. (Yea, I found that article because I don't know how to write a good blog post). I want to share my experience of learning Japanese but I'm afraid people will get bored. I myself get bored LOL.

 Anyway maybe I could add some other post about Japan or anything else, not only about learning Japanese. Maybe some news or something interesting on the web. Something I could share with other people. 

 Writing blog is not as easy as I thought. It is easier to make a website because you can create a page and leave it. Not like blog where people expect you to update almost everyday. How to do that? I've no idea. Not to mention your post must be interesting enough. 

 The good news is I've just finished writing  a new post. Haha.. Wait for my next post ^_^

 

 

akasatanahamayarawa

This is Hiragana chart. The first basic you should learn. You really should memorize hiragana as soon as possible. Do not use romaji to learn Japanese. You won't go far. Romaji is for learning hiragana. That's all. 

 What should I learn?

 Learn how to read,write and pronounce hiragana correctly. You can refer to the right bar of this blog under "Interesting site: Learn Hiragana" to learn the stroke order and sound. 

Learning the stroke order is important because later you are going to use the same skill to write kanji.

Please practice to write it down on paper because that's the fastest way to memorize it.

There is another technique I want to share with you. 

Look at the top vertical line of the chart : あいうえお or aiueo.

Then look at the left vertical row :  あかさたなはまやらわ　or akasatanahamayarawa.

Please memorize this. The rest is easy.  After a: aiueo, ka: kakikukeko. Next is sa: sashisuseso and so on. It will help you to memorize the order of hiragana and trust me, you won't forget hiragana easily.  This is very useful because you'll need to know hiragana order to find word in Japanese dictionary.

   ^_^ ♪ akasatanahamayarawa ♫ Have fun!

How to type Japanese on your computer (1)

Installing the IME in Windows XP

1) To install the Japanese IME, start by opening the Control Panel (Click the "Start Menu" and choose the "Control Panel"). Then click the "Date, Time, Language and Regional Options" icon.

2) Then select the "Add Other languages" task.

3) You should see the "Regional and Language Options" dialog box.

4) Click on the "Install files for East Asian Languages" check box
(This ensures that the correct fonts are installed).

5) Then click the "Details" button.
You should then see the "Text Services and Input Languages" dialog box.

6) In "Text Services and Input Languages" dialog box we need to add the Japanese IME and the Japanese Keyboard components.

7) Click the "Add..." button.

8) You should now see the "Add Input Language" dialog box.

9) Choose "Japanese" in the "Input language" combo box.
Still in the "Add Input Language" dialog box, in the "Keyboard layout/IME" combo box and choose "Microsoft IME Standard 2002 ver. 8.1".

10) Finally click the "OK" button.

11) You should end up with a "Japanese" entry under "Installed Services".
Be sure that there is also a keyboard entry under "Japanese" and that it is the "Microsoft IME Standard 2002 ver. 8.1" and NOT just "Japanese".

12) Finally click the "OK" button.

You may be asked to put your Windows XP CD-ROM in the CD drive so that the relevant files can be copied across to your hard drive. NOTE: You can not install the IME without the CD.

That's it. After rebooting you should now see the IME icon in your task bar that has a Japanese option when it is clicked.

* To change between English and Japanese, simply press "shift" + "alt". Or "alt"+ "~ " button (the one next to ! mark) when in JP mode.

Chat Room

Added Chat Room. You can chat in Japanese with other Japanese speaker. A good way to practice hiragana, katakana or kanji. Have fun!! ^_^

*Next post will be about how to read and write japanese on windows. Learn how to install japanese font in your Windows operating system.