Archive for the ‘Japanese Lessons’ Category
How to Say the Food is Delicious or Just OK in Japanese: Oishii and Mā-mā
Thursday, March 4th, 2010What Does Itadakimasu Mean?
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010“Sorry” / “Excuse Me” in Japanese: Sumimasen
Sunday, October 4th, 2009Yes and No In Japanese: Hai / Iie
Sunday, October 4th, 2009How to Say “Thank You” In Japanese: Dōmo Arigatō
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009How to Say “Please” In Japanese: Kudasai and Onegai Shimasu
Friday, October 2nd, 2009Japanese Lesson Notes – Basic Pronunciation
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Japanese Pronunciation: a i u e o
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009Rōmaji, Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009Japanese Lesson Notes #1
Rōmaji is Japanese for Roman letter and it’s a way of writing Japanese using the Roman alphabet. Hiragana, katakana and kanji are another three ways of writing more traditional Japanese. Rōmaji is particularly useful for beginners because you don’t have to know Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji when first trying to speak Japanese.
Examples of Rōmaji:
oishii (I say oishii when I want to say delicious in Japanese).
sugoi (I use sugoi when I want to say awesome in Japanese).
Andoria (Andria)
makudonarudo (McDonalds)
tamashii (soul)
chikara (power)
Kanji characters are ideographs, so each kanji represents a word or idea.
魂 tamashii
力 chikara
Hiragana and Katakana symbols are called kana (Japanese syllabary) because they are used to spell words. They do not represent a word on their own like kanji.
Hiragana is used for Japanese words.
おいしい oishii (o-i-shi-i)
すごい sugoi (su-go-i)
Katakana is used for foreign words and non-Japanese names. These symbols are more angular and straight when compared to hiragana.
アンドリア Andria (A-n-do-ri-a )
マクドナルド makudonarudo (ma-ku-do-na-ru-do)




