Well, definitely I am not speaking of the physics part of the title here because everybody knows that any matter is made up of particles. And I am sure that any student trying to learn Japanese language would appreciate the analogy. Yes, the subatomic particles make up the matter, while the grammatical particles make up the language. Perhaps this would emphasize the need to study and use the particles (“joshi” – 助詞) in Japanese language very carefully. Post-positional particles, commonly known as “joshi” in Japanese, play a vital role in giving a definite sense to the sentences. The use of particles is one of the challenges a beginner faces while studying Japanese language.
There are some students who learn Japanese from an English point of view. They translate English prepositions into Japanese particles to make a ‘satisfying’ sentence! I found two students arguing about the correct use of particles when one heads towards, enters, walks and exits a park:
The first said “kouen e ikimasu, kouen ni hairimasu, kouen wo arukimasu, kouen kara demasu”.
“No! The correct ones are…” the second argued “kouen ni ikimasu, kouen ni hairimasu, kouen de arukimasu, kouen wo demasu”.
The first student learns by translating the English prepositions and so, he first imagines “go to the park, get into the park, walk through the park, exit from the park” and translates -to, -into, -through, -from as e, ni, wo, kara. However, this leads to more of confusions and wrong usages of “joshi”. While it is fine to use e/ni with “ikimasu”(go), “hairimasu”(enter) must have ni with it always and “demasu”(exit) in this context must have wo as the particle. “kouen wo arukimasu” means that you are crossing the whole length en-route, while “kouen de arukimasu” shows that the action of ‘walking’ is taking place at the park. So, both are correct grammatically but their sense and intention are different. There is one more similar pair – “densha wo norikaemasu” and “densha ni norikaemasu”, both meaning “I will change the train”. In fact most of the students choose one of these options spontaneously and that would be practiced further, without their knowledge. But a good student must have a good observation in sensing the intention and choose the correct particle. And that surely would help students learning Japanese language to develop a skill to use appropriate particles.
I know a beginner working at an Indian restaurant in Osaka. He wants to learn Japanese but gets confused often with these particles as well as the context, while at work. A Japanese lady, a frequent visitor to his restaurant, was found enjoying a funny dialogue with him:
“kumaru-san, nan dekitano?” (Mr. Kumar, is Nan ready?)
“watashi desuka?” he replied in confusion “basu de kimashita” (Me?, I came by a bus!)
And the lady started laughing at his confused countenance because he misunderstood her question for “kumaru-san, nan de kitano?” (Mr. Kumar, how did you come?). Later he served the Nan bread and stood at a corner with a grinning face! The Japanese lady reminded him –
“kumaru-san, kare- ga kitenai desu yo!” (Mr. Kumar, curry is not served!)
The guy got perplexed as he asked “e, dare desu ka?” (Er, who?)
The lady started laughing aloud again, clapping her hands. He had mistaken “kare-” (カレー=curry) for “kare” (彼=he) and to him it was “kare ga kitenai desu yo!” (He has not come!). Anyway, later I heard that he used the perplexed behavior as an entertaining skill to attract more customers and keep his “joushi” (manager) happy with his confused “joshi”!
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