Our last lesson we learned the characters for face and body parts. Another set of kanji we can make to organize our studies is adjectives. We can use these characters and words to describe the body that we learned last lesson as well as other objects. These kanji they use come up in many kanji compounds that you will learn as you study Japanese as well. Those compounds often have different pronunciations though so lets worry about the simple adjectives first. This will also give us a chance to practice the (object) + が+　(adjective) sentence pattern. Let’s take a look at some pairs first.

大きい big ookii
小さい small chiisai

長い long nagai
短い short mijikai

高い tall takai
低い short mijikai

細い thin hosoi
太い fat futoi (for things or parts of people, not people)
丸い round marui

若い young wakai

Big and small are simple kanji that will pop up all over the place, you can even find big at the top of some mountains, big enough to see for miles. Long looks like a little man with long arms, and shorts right half is that character for bean again (豆 or mame).　　Tall is make by stacking a big piece at the bottom, a middle piece in the middle and a hat on top, when you stack it up, it’s pretty tall. Short has a short leg and a long leg. Thins radical on the left is the character for thread (糸　or ito), and that’s perfect because threads are thin. Fat is the same as big with something in it’s tummy…it looks like it has eaten already. Round has a round curve at the foot, it’s actually the same as the character for nine (九) but with a dash in it. For young, just remember it has a hat like a lot of young kids and make it easy for yourself. These are just some tips for remembering kanji, if you can think of your own, those might work better because everyone sees things differently, this includes kanji and other aspects of studying Japanese.

Now lets look at some of the ways we can use these kanji with the body parts we learned in our last kanji lesson.

We use a simple pattern.

目が大きい have big eyes me ga ookii
鼻が高い have a long nose (tall nose) hana ga takai
背が高い be tall se ga takai
背が低い be short se ga hikui
顔が丸い have a round face kao ga marui
足が細い have thin legs ashi ga hosoi
腕が短い have short arms ude ga mijikai

So in order to make a full sentence, which we don’t necessarily need but is useful when it isn’t understood who we are talking about, we just put person+ha in the beginning.

かれは背が高い He is tall.
アメリカ人は足が長い Americans have long legs.

We can also use の　in order to say “his/her —– is —–”
マドンナの顔が短い Madonna’s face is thin.
ともだちのおなかが大きい My friend’s belly is big.

There’s a cute method I learned to practice body parts. For the face, I drew a face using the characters that represent each part. It looked ridiculous but it was useful for remembering the each character and it was fun to draw. I did the same thing for body parts. This looked event more ridiculous. Some of these kanji are very easy and some are quite difficult. This will be our first time with some more complicated kanji, we might as well get used to them early and get a few out of the way.

The face

目 eyes me
口 mouth kuchi
耳 ear mimi
鼻 nose hana
髪 hair kami

Eye and mouth are extremely easy and ear is just like eye with sharp edges. Nose looks like a head, a body and legs and hair is a compound kanji with 3 parts. You will see all three of these pieces in other kanji as well. For complex kanji, the best way to remember them is to look for pieces of the kanji that you know already. Most complex kanji are made of pieces that are actually simpler kanji or resemble simpler kanji. These are sometimes called radicals. For hair, the bottom 1/3 is the same as the first kanji in the word “friend”, 友達　(tomodachi).

The body

手 hand te
足 foot ashi
頭 head atama
首 neck kubi
胸 chest mune
お腹 stomach onaka
腕 arm ude
お尻 butt oshiri
背中 back senaka

While hand and foot are relatively easy characters that will show up a lot, the others are not so simple. They become simpler however when you realize that chest, stomach and arm all use the character for month (月) on the left side. The character for neck also utilizes the character for eye with a head and neck on top of it. Things just got a lot easier. Although you may not know it yet, the left side of the character for head is actually 豆 (mame) or bean; so you can learn an extra character from this; just imagine a bean-head. See from 背中 has the month on the bottom as well.

This is how kanji work, they are similar to the roots of words so you can make connections between them to ease the pain of having to memorize so many. Some of these connections are very logical and some seem like absolute nonsense. It’s best to utilize both in order to make as many as possible.

The body parts and face make up for a fair amount of idioms and expressions so let’s look at a few now.

口がうまい smooth talker kuchi ga umai
頭にくる get angry atama ni kuru (it comes to my head)
耳が痛い hits close to home mimi ga itai (ears hurt)
目がない be fond of me ga nai (have no eyes)
鼻がたかい be proud hana ga takai (have a high nose)
顔が広い be well known kao ga hiroi (have a wide face)
腹が立つ be angry hara ga tatsu (stomach stands)
足が棒になる can’t walk (too tired) ashi ga bou ni naru (legs become sticks)

One aspect of Japanese that’s very different from English and needs a fair deal of explanation and for native English speakers to make proper use of are ending particles. These are vital to sounding natural when you speak so anyone who is studying Japanese needs to get them under their belt sooner or later. You may as well try to learn some right in the beginning since they are a good way to practice some hiragana. These particles don’t change the literal meaning of the sentence but they can change what you are saying drastically through nuances. They can add a note of confidence or uncertainty, turn a statement into a question, or make what you’re saying sound more urgent.

In English, we tend to change the tone of our voice a lot to express how we are feeling. Japanese is relatively flat. While English has half notes and quarter notes and full notes, Japanese tends to stick mostly to quarter notes. To make up for this, they have particles.

They can even be combined in certain ways but before we talk about combos let’s look at the most basic particles first.

よ　Yo

One of the most simple particles is Yo. Think of this as an exclamation point, or at times, half an exclamation point. Sometimes it also works a lot like the “yo” you hear at the end of a sentence in hip-hop songs. It is a way to express surprise, excitement, or insistence.

知らないよ！　－　I don’t know! (exclamation)
（あなたが）好きだよ　　－　I like you. (insistence)

か　Ka

Perhaps the most easy Japanese particle to get your head around is Ka. It is essentially just a question mark. Throw it on the end of a sentence and it will turn it into a question. There are other ways to make questions such as changing the tone of your voice at the end of sentence (the same way you would when saying “You like him?). But the most basic way to form a question is by ending the sentence with a ka.

おなかがすいてますか？ －　Are you hungry?

ね　Ne

Ne requires you to step it up a little bit with your imagination. The closest English equivalent to the Japanese “ne” is the Canadian “eh?” or adding a “right?” at the end of a sentence (although there are other words that more directly translate to “right?”). Rather than thinking of this as a word though, I like to think of it as a change in tone at the end of a sentence like when you are looking for approval.　 You use ”ne” when you want the other person to agree with you.

あの人は彼氏ですね　－　He is your boyfriend, right?

ぞ / ぜ　The anime particles (zo and ze)

I call these the anime particles because people rarely use them in real life. They sound really childish or overly manly. However they are used in anime and some action films. A foreigner using these is almost a certain signal that they watch anime. These are both full of so much enthusiasm that you won’t need to use them unless you are a sports coach or a personal trainer.

行くぜ！　－　Let’s go!

Some of the simplest characters are those related to nature. Perhaps these were the first characters needed for communication in ancient China and they were later adopted to Japanese. These characters can be used for lots of things other than their original meaning. 　Let’s start with a set of 7 words that you must learn if you want to speak Japanese.

Days of the week

The same way that English uses planets/greek gods to name the months of the year , Japanese use the elements to name the days of the week. Some of these are very similar to English too.

日曜日 – Sunday – nichiyoubi – Sun or Day
月曜日 – Monday – getsuyoubi – Moon or Month
火曜日 – Tuesday – kayoubi – Fire
水曜日 – Wednesday – suiyoubi – Water
木曜日– Thursday – mokuyoubi – Wood
金曜日 – Friday – kinyoubi – Metal
土曜日 – Saturday – doyoubi – Dirt
曜日 – Day of the week –youbi

The Japanese also use the Sun for Sunday. This kanji can also mean day though. They use the character for moon for Monday. Tuesday is fire day, I remember this because there is nothing special on Tuesday, you might as well just burn it. Although I have heard it referred to as “hump day” in English, I find that Wednesday is usually pretty smooth like water. Thursday is as boring as a piece of wood. Friday is golden, without a doubt! Saturday is when a lot of people get dirty drunk or they might still be hungover and dirty from yesterday so the character for dirt fits well. The biggest challenge is learning the character for “youbi” but if you notice, the left half is just the same character for “sun”.

Warning: be careful, most of the characters have different pronunciations when they are solo or in different words. Let’s look at some examples

お金 – money – okane
お水 – water – mizu
土 – dirt/earth – tuchi
月 – moon – tuki
お日さま – sun (childlike way to say…like Mr. Sun) – ohisama
火事 – a fire – kaji

This may perhaps be the first time you are exposed to multiple readings of kanji. Many people try to memorize every pronunciation of a new character that they start to study. Rather than doing this, I think it’s better to learn useful words first and learn how the kanji is used in the words you already know. It’s alright to take mental notes on the other pronunciation of kanji but don’t get too hung up on it because that is a much slower route for learning Japanese.

We may as well use this opportunity to look at some other ways to express time and while doing this we’ll see some examples of alternate pronunciation. Don’t worry, not all characters have these many pronunciations. 日, 月、年、and　先 are some of the worst. The character 毎　（mai)　can be used like “every” in English. It looks very similar to the kanji for “ocean” but it’s missing the water-radical so be careful. 今 means this —–. 先 (sen) means the —- before and 来 (rai) means the —- after.

先週 – last week – senshuu
今週 – this week – konshuu
来週 – next week – raishuu
毎週 – every week – maishuu

先月 – last month – sengetu
今月 – this month – kongetu
来月 – next month – raigetsu
毎月 – every month – maitsuki (different pronunciation)

去年 – last year – kyonen (different kanji)
今年 – this year – kotoshi (different pronunciation)
来年– next year – rainen
毎年 – every year – maitoshi (different pronunciation)

As I mentioned, don’t be turned off by these alternate pronunciations, these are some of the more confusing ones. At least week and month will be easy to learn. Year might take a little more practice. Just keep on studying, using, and exposing yourself to Japanese and it will stick. Take a deep breath, you just learned 15 kanji and more than 25 words! That’s a lot for one sitting so make sure to review.

One of the biggest worries students tend to have when they start studying Japanese is how to fit all those complicated characters into their heads. While it is a mighty task, it certainly can be done by anyone with some determination and guidance in the right direction. I find that one of the quickest ways to memorize kanji is to separate them by category. It helps to start with some that are easy to write because many of the more complicated characters will utilize these. After these you can move on to single kanji words that you find yourself using the most. After a while you’ll be ready to move on to kanji compounds and the multiple pronunciations of characters. We’ll start with something extremely basic; numbers.

１ 一 ichi
２ 二 ni
３ 三 san
４ 四 shi
５ 五 go
６ 六 roku
７ 七 shichi
８ 八 hachi
９ 九 kyuu
１０ 十 juu
１００ 百 hyaku

For learning simple numbers, maybe try a song like this

One, two and three you should be able to memorize for life in less than a minute. The others are relatively easy to remember, especially when you use a few tricks to do so. Imagine that 四 is a little puppet show with the curtains hanging down from the right and left sides. 六　looks like a little man; the small dot on the top is the head, the horizontal line makes the arms and the other two lines are legs. 八　looks very similar to the katakana for “ha” （ハ）。　十　looks just like a cross, easy enough. 五　and 九 both have interesting shapes that will stick in your head relatively easily. That leaves us with boring old 七 which shouldn’t be all that hard.

Other Related Numbers

Making bigger numbers is relatively easy. The number in the 10′s place is before the number 10 and the number in the ones place comes after. 四十八 is 48. 六十九　is 69. 100 works the same way 四百七十二　is 472. If this sounds difficult, don’t worry. Numbers above 20 are rarely written in kanji.

Dates

While the ways to use these are practically limitless, lets think of the most common and practical ways. The first is the date. In Japanese, the month is expressed with numbers, rather than names. That means January is literally called “one-month” and February “two-month”. Month is 月　(getsu) and day is 日　(nichi)

三月　　　 March
十月　 October

Time
We express o’clock with the kanji 時　(ji) and minutes with 分　（pun though pronunciation varies). 半　(han) means a half and comes at the end.

七時 7 o’clock
九時半 9:30

Year
The year is often expressed in kanji but in a relatively simple way. Rather than 千九百九十九年　（年 or “nen” means year), 1999 is written as 一九九九年。

Money
Another very useful way to make use of these characters is with money. Although prices are rarely written in kanji, you will find them written this way in some Japanese restaurants or in some stores that sell traditional Japanese goods and pastries. Yen is pronounced “en” in Japanese with the character 円。
五十円　

We’ve looked at a handful of loanwords that came from English already but not all loan words came from English. There are a fair amount that come from German, Portugese, French, Dutch and other languages. The most interesting thing about these loan words is that most Japanese natives think that they’re actually English words. They may be a bit harder to remember than English loan words but anyone studying Japanese should take note of them.

アルバイト　Working your byte (German)
One of the most common non-English loanwords is the word for part time job. The word is Arubaito and comes from German but is often abbreviated to Baito. I cannot count the amount of times I’ve heard Japanese use the word baito and expect an English native to understand.

パン – Pots and Pans (Portuguese)
Another extremely popular word to mistake for English, Pan means bread, not something you cook out of. I’ve met almost native level English speakers in Japan who still mistake this word and it can be really confusing at first if you haven’t studied Spanish or Portuguese.

アンケート – survey (French)
I tried for a long time to figure out which English word this came from but Ankeeto comes from French and means survey. It can be used for casual magazine surveys about your love life or more scientific surverys about how your health and the workings of your brain.

ピエロ – Hey Pierre! (French)
This one always makes me laugh. I imagine a man named Pierre who puts on make up and dresses up as a clown on his days off. There must be someone like that out there who is studying Japanese! If that can’t help you remember the word, I don’t know what can. Piero comes from French and means clown.

ミイラ Looking at the man in the mirror (Portuguese)
It sounds like mirror but if you look into a mirror and see a miira, you’ve been dead for a long, long time. Miira means mummy and apparently comes from Portugese. Once again, if imagining a mummy looking in the mirror isn’t a good memory trick, I don’t know what is.

マロン Those are some small melons (French)
First of all, get your mind out of the gutter. I learned the word “Maron” when I went to a supermarket and asked where the melons were. You could imagine the look on my face when I was shown a bunch of nuts. Maron comes from French and means chestnuts.

コンセント　Getting Consent (???)
Contrary to my initial idea, this word has nothing to do with getting approval from someone. It means electrical outlet and I have not been able to figure out where it comes from. It has been bothering me so if anyone knows, please fill me in.

One of the interesting things that happens to some English words when they get turned into Japanese is getting blended together. Some words are too long for Japanese speakers and so it is fairly common that a long English word will get this treatment. Today we’ll look at some useful examples for anyone studying Japanese.

パソコン Pasacon

One of the first katakana words I learned, a very useful one and a shining example of the interesting ways that English has found its way into the Japanese language. This word is short for Personal Computer and is a must for anyone studying Japanese.

アメフト Amefuto

Ame usually means either candy or rain but in this case it is short for American. Can you guess what this word means now? I certainly couldn’t; American Football. Unlike Europe, Japan uses the same word as America, soccer, to refer to the kicking game and American Football to refer to the tackling game, although it is rarely played in Japan.

エアコン Aircon

When I first heard this word I thought someone was talking about that airplane thriller that stars Nicholas Cage as a con man. Con Air was it? The real meaning however, is not nearly as exciting. This is what “air conditioner” looks like in Japanese. Japanese air conditioners are very different from western ones. There is rarely, if ever, central air conditioning in Japan so most people really on wall units that are only good for heating up one room and leave you with a pretty nasty soar throat if you don’t keep it on low while you are sleeping. They are pretty effective if you live in a well insulated place but in my room for example, which has 3 big windows, it takes a while for them to get started.

セクハラ Sekuhara

This is a word you don’t want being used toward you. Although you might not be able to figure it out on your own, this word is short for “sexual harassment”. Though lawsuits are not nearly as common as they are in Japan as the US and Japanese men may get away with much more than they do stateside, there are a few cases where someone crosses even the Japanese line into what someone would call sekku hara. One of the most common forms of Sekku Hara in Japan is the “Chikan”. A Chikan is someone who gropes women on a crowded train. When I first came here this idea was nonsense to me but if you spend time on one of the busier lines in Tokyo during rush hour you can easily imagine how some perverted guy who lets his hormones get the best of him might try it. For this reason there are some women only train cars during rush hours.

マザコン Mazakon

Since Oedipus complex is probably one of the very first word you wanted to know when you started studying Japanese, here it is. This word is short for “Mother complex”. It is usually used more to refer to the typical Mama’s boy rather than a confused person with serious feelings for the mother.

Happy New Years from Kyoto! I’m exploring the ancient city with my family who is here for the first time and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to teach you a bunch of words and concepts relating to New Years. Anyone studying Japanese will find these words extremely useful for understanding the culture of Japan.

Prepping for the new Year – 年賀状　Nengajou

Nengajou, or New Year’s cards are seasonal greetings that are an important part of New Year’s in Japan. Although the custom has become less essential with the spread of the internet and mobile messages in the last two decades, most old folk and many young people still send these cards to friends, coworkers, and relatives. Most young people I’ve talked to send between 20-30 and some older people will send upwards of 50-100, basically to everyone they know.

お正月　Oshougatsu

New Years Eve, or Oshougatsu, is basically a family day in Japan. The trains are packed for the days leading to New Years Eve because a majority of people are heading back to their hometown. Tokyo Station was packed but there were enough Shinkansen (Bullet trains) that we managed to snatch 3 seats. Many people will eat soba noodles for dinner. Soba symbolize longevity and means good luck for the new year. Unlike in the west, most people stay home with their families on New Years. Many of them will watch special television programs while eating (and in some families drinking) together.

初詣　Hatsumoude

Hatsumoude is the years first visit to a temple. Although the religious meaning of this tradition has faded among most Japanese, they do like protecting their traditions and almost all will visit a temple within the first 3 days of the new year, many going right after midnight. This usually involves standing on a long line making a quick prayer and throwing some coins in for donations to the temple. Many temples will have festivals with lots of food stands as well.

The morning after – おおみそか　Oomisoka

The first day of the year is a feast! Families will wake up and prepare Osechi (New Year’s food). Osechi is composed of a huge variety of small dishes. Some of these dishes are commonly found in bento and many of them are only eaten on New Years. Traditionally, each of these foods have a symbolic meaning though the meaning has been lost among most. Some families choose to cook this food on their own and others will buy expensive sets from department stores (I see many sets going for 30,000 yen, about 350 dollars!). The rest of the day (or more like the next 3 days) is spent either relaxing with family or those who didn’t do it the night before will make a stop at the nearest temple.

Although countdown parties are becoming more popular, the holiday is basically a time for family to relax, eat a lot, and enjoy time together. The following days are also a chance for people to see their hometown friends. If you have the chance to experience New Years in Japan, consider yourself lucky, it is one of the most enjoyable times of the year.

Last time we looked at some ways to use the magic word (or words) to get what we want. But you can’t always have what you want. Sometimes we don’t need to request anything, we just want to tell someone what it is we want and don’t expect them to do anything about it. When you tell your friend “I want a new car”, you don’t usually expect them to buy it for you (unless you are having an affair with a rich, generous person). In English we use “want” with both nouns and verbs but in Japanese there are two different ways to say want. It is important to take note of this when you study Japanese.

I want to eat 食べたい

When you want to do something, you have to conjugate the verb with the -tai ending so the sentence becomes “Noun + wo + verb-tai”. This is a verb conjugation so obviously we can not use it with nouns. After a long day, ”食べたい！”　is how you’d say “I want to eat!”. We take the stem form of “Taberu” or “to eat” with the -tai ending「何を食べたい？」would be a casual way to ask “What do you want to eat. To make this more polite, we add a “desu” at the end 「何を食べたいですか？」　「すしを食べたいです」 “I want to eat sushi”. Easy enough, right?

I want a car 車が欲しい

When you express that you want an object or a noun, the grammar is different so please be careful. We use the pattern “Noun + ga hoshii”, so if you are working day and night to save up for a new guitar you can say 「新しいギターが欲しい」　or “I want a new guitar”. Or if you’ve been single for a long time and finally need some love and affection you can say 「新しい彼女が欲しい!」 or “I want a new girlfriend!”. You’ve friend might respond with “Ganbatte!” or “Do your best!” People tend to use Verb with the -tai when they can. 「すしが欲しい」 and 「すしを食べた」 essentially mean the same thing but it is more common to say “I want to eat sushi” than “I want sushi”, just like in English. When we want to be polite, we add a “desu” at the end.

I Miss New York

One of the most frustrating things for people who study Japanese is trying to express that you miss something. There is no verb to express “to miss” in Japanese. We have to work with what we’ve got. There are two main ways we can do this. Instead of saying “I miss New York”, we might say 「ニューヨークに戻りたい」 or “I want to return to New York”. This can be frustrating if we don’t actually want to express discontent with Tokyo. We could also say「ニューヨークは懐かしいです」 or “New York is nostalgic”. The third way to say this is 「ニューヨークは恋しいです」 or something like “New York is dear to me” but you will not hear this one often. Take your pick. “I miss you” would most often be translated as 「あなたに会いたい」.

It’s important to know how to get what you want. When you go to another country this is especially true. It’s a good idea to try to be polite when you do this with people you don’t know or even with people that you do know. If you are studying Japanese, you need to learn a little more than just a magic word. There is more than one way to say please in Japanese and it effects the grammar of the sentence but it shouldn’t be too difficult. Let’s take a look at three different ways to say “please” in Japanese

The most common and useful way to say please in Japanese is by ending a sentence with kudasai. This is used in both casual and formal situations and is the most flexible way to say please. We can’t just throw it at the end though, we need to change the verb to the -te form. If you cooked a nice dinner and want to invite your friends to eat the feast in front of them you can say “食べてください” or “Please eat”. We take the word taberu and change it to the te form and add kudasai. Not too hard, right? If your friend gets a little too drunk and starts to tease you about your bosses crush on you, you can tell them 「やめてください！」 or “Quit it”! I use kudasai for all of my pleases except for in super formal situations and when I make very very casual requests.

Onegaishimasu is much more polite and is used for business occasions and with strangers when you want to be particularly polite. You can also use it as a stand alone word, unlike kudasai, when you just want to say “please”. An example of this would be if someone offers to give you a tour of the city, “Onegaishimasu!” means “please do!” Most of the time this word is used with nouns. 　We might say to a waiter 「水おねがいします」 or “Can I please have water”. Most people wearing a uniform, be it a suit or a fast food restaurant uniform will opt for this more polite variant of the magic word. You can also use it to someone you don’t know to be polite. A casual way to use this is 「おねがい」but be careful as it sounds a bit more desperate. 　

Choudai is the most casual way to say please. We may use it in a very casual way with close friends for small requests. 「水ちょうだい」 means “Water please” but you don’t want to say this to a waitress or even to a friend who is older than you as it is very casual. Children often use choudai with their parents if you say it in a childlike voice, it might be considered either really cute or really annoying. While a word for word translation does not reveal it’s nuance, the above sentence could roughly translate to “Gimme water please”. Even with close friends, it’s a good idea not to use this for big requests.

In a country where being polite is so important, it’s important for anyone studying Japanese to learn how to say please.