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Free Japanese Lessons – #8

Oishii
While eating great tasting food, oishii is one of the most popular ways to say delicious in Japanese.  Remember to stretch out the “i” sound.

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Mā-mā
If the food you’re eating is not to your liking, a polite term to use is mā-mā.  This means so-so.  Remember to stretch out both “a” sounds.

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To say oishii and mā-mā in a more polite and formal way, you would add desu at the end.  If you’re meeting close friends or family, you wouldn’t use desu as it sounds too formal. (more…)

Free Japanese Lessons – #8

Itadakimasu!

Itadakimasu is a very popular expression in Japanese culture.  It’s very common to hear Japanese people say “Itadakimasu!” as a group before they eat.

Itadakimasu simply means “Let’s eat!” but can be translated as “I’m about to receive (something)”. (more…)

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Free Japanese Lessons – #3

The 48 Hiragana syllables below are what most non-Japanese speaking people call the Japanese alphabet.

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a i u e o

ka ki ku ke ko

sa si/shi su se so

ta ti/chi tu/tsu te to

na ni nu ne no

ha hi hu/fu he(e) ho

ma mi mu me mo

ya yu yo

ra ri ru re ro

wa wo(o)

n

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Japanese Lesson Notes #2

Japanese has 5 vowel sounds: a, i, u, e, o

a sounds like the a in dad (similar to the French or Spanish a)

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i sounds like the e in Pete(similar to the French or Spanish i)

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u sounds like the oo in loop BUT without rounding your lips!

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e sounds like the e in pet

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o sounds like the o in go

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Japanese 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. (more…)