Learn how to ask where someone comes from, and to say where you are from. This will give you the perfect ice breaker for starting up a conversation.

Key Content

Topic: Introductions, countries, where from
Grammar: の (no) : possessive marker (particle)
から (kara) : from
に (ni): location marker (particle)
が (ga) : hesitation or softener marker (particle)

Dialogue

This dialogue takes place after Smith and Tanaka just have met. They have introduced themselves, and now it’s time for the next step in the conversation.

Japanese:

たなか: スミスさん　は　アメリカじん　です　か。
スミス: いいえ、イギリスじん　です。
たなか: イギリス　の　どちら　から　です　か。
スミス:
 ロンドン　に　すんで　います。　たなかさん　は　どちら　から　です　か。
たなか: きゅうしゅう　です　が、　いま　とうきょう　に　すんで　います。
Romaji: 

Tanaka .. Sumisu san wa Amerika-jin desu ka?
Sumisu Iie, igirisu-jin desu.
Tanaka Igirisu no dochira kara desu ka?
Sumisu London ni sunde imasu. Tanaka-san wa dochira kara desu ka.
Tanaka
Kyuushuu desu ga, ima wa Toukyou ni sunde imasu.
English: 

Tanaka .. Are you an American?
Smith No, I am British.
Tanaka Where from, in Great Britain, are you?
Smith I live in London. Tanaka, where are you from?
Tanaka Kyuushuu, but now I live in Tokyo

Vocabulary

じん -jin suffix meaning ‘coming from’
イギリス
 igirisu Great Britain
どちら
 dochira where
の
 no grammatical construct meaning belongs to
から
 kara from
すんでいます
 sunde imasu is living (residence)
に
 ni marker for place
が ga
 but (this is when used in the end of a sentence. But note that が is used in many other cases, for example as a subject marker, as described in the Language Reference on Particles and briefly in L102 – This is.)
いま
 ima now

Lesson Notes

  • In Japanese, it is marked what country you come from by adding the ending ‘-jin’ to the country. For example, a Swedish person would be a Suweedenjin, and a French person furansujin. See a table of some countries in the end of the chapter.
  • The word ga is used in the end of a sentence to express a hesitation or to soften the sentence. Often it can be translated with but or though.
  • The word ni is in this case a marker for a place. It is used for expression of where you live (sunde imasu/sumu/sumimasu), and can also be used to mark the place being at, coming to or going to. E.g. gakko ni ikimasu (to go to school) or koko ni kimasu (to come here).
  • sunde imasu is the present progressive form of sumimasu, “to live”.
  • The word kara is a marker for origin. The pattern is “… A kara …” . E.g. (I) came from Japan, “nihon kara kimashita” or a car from America, Amerika kara kita (=kimashita) kuruma.
  • Also note that the way Japanese answer yes or no on questions may differ from the way it is in your country. When Japanese say yes “Hai“, it is an affirmation of the question and no, “Iie” means not agreeing to the question. This may be confusing if the question is negative. E.g. if the question was “Are you not Japanese?”, ”Nihonjin dewa arimasen ka?“, the answer ”Hai” would mean that you are not Japanese.

    List of Countries

    In Japanese, the Kanji for country can be read read koku. But if you talk about a/any country, the reading kuni is used. The same kanji is used in many words. For example is foreigner gaikokujin, literally meaning outside-country-person, and kokusai, which is the word for international.

     

    アメリカ Amerika (or beikoku) USA
    ちゅうごく Chuugoku China
    ドイツ Doitsu Germany
    イギリス Igirisu (or eikoku) UK
    かんこく Kankoku South Korea
    きたちょうせん Kita chousen North Korea
    にほん /にっぽん Nihon / Nippon
    		 Japan
    オーストラリア O-sutoraria Australia
    スウェーデン Suwe-den Sweden
    タイ Tai Thailand

    Links

    Related posts:

    1. Free Japanese Lesson: Greetings and Phrases
    2. Free Japanese Lesson: This and That