Kanpai!

If you visit Japan, you’ll no doubt see a group of people raising their beer or alcoholic beverages and hear them say, “Kanpai!”.   Kanpai is a popular Japanese expression that is equivalent to “Cheers!” and is used before you start drinking.

Please note that kanpai is commonly misspelled as kampai .  You can view my blog post on the Japanese alphabet to learn more about the letter n before a p.

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution and inspiration behind my contemporary Japanese art, canvas art, and art prints.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

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.

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.

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.

Oishii desu

Mā-mā desu

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution and inspiration behind my contemporary Japanese art, canvas art, and art prints.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

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)”.

It’s very polite to say itadakimasu before eating a meal, no matter the time of day or night.

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution and inspiration behind my contemporary Japanese art, canvas art, and art prints.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

Sumimasen
Sumimasen means ’sorry’ or ‘excuse me’ in Japanese.  You can use sumimasen to apologize if you made a mistake or if you bothered someone.  You can also use sumimasen if you want to call someone’s attention.

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution of my art and the inspiration behind my contemporary paintings.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

Hai
Hai is a very simple way to say “yes” in Japanese.

Iie
Iie is “no” in Japanese. Make sure to pronounce both i’s, stretching the i sound a bit before saying the e sound.

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution of my art and the inspiration behind my contemporary paintings.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

Dōmo
Dōmo is a very simple way to say “thank you” in Japanese.

Arigatō
Arigatō also means “thank you” but is more polite than Dōmo.

Dōmo Arigatō
Dōmo Arigatō is like saying “Thank you very much” and is even more polite than just saying Dōmo or Arigatō alone.

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution and inspiration behind my contemporary Japanese art, canvas art, and art prints.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution and inspiration behind my contemporary Japanese art, canvas art, and art prints.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

Free Japanese Lessons – #3

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

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

A Few Pointers:

1- You may have noticed that si is pronounced shi, ti is chi, tu is tsu (think of the ts in ‘hot soup’), hu is fu (the f is like an English f but without touching your teeth to your lips), he is often pronounced as e, and wo is often pronounced o.

2- In the Japanese language, if n is found before b, p or m, it is pronounced like an m. An example of this is kanpai, which is the equivalent of cheers when you raise your drinks. The n is before p, so kanpai is pronounced kampai.

3- The u is usually very weak at the end of syllables. For example, desu is pronounced des and masu is pronounced mas.

4- The famous Japanese r is a challenge for so many people. The r is nothing like the English r. If you can roll your tongue you’re in luck because the r is kind of like a supper duper short version of the rolled r. It might help you is to think of how you say the tt in butter. To me, it feels like I’m tapping my tongue on the same spot when I say butter and the Japanese r. If you just can’t say the Japanese r, it’s better to say it more like an English / rather than an English r.

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution and inspiration behind my Japanese art.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

Free Japanese Lessons – #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)

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

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

e sounds like the e in pet

o sounds like the o in go

There are both short and long vowels in the Japanese language. In rōmaji, long vowels have a macron (a dash positioned over a vowel) to mark that the pronunciation should be long. For example, ō has a longer sound than an o without a macron.
Here is an example of the o, ō and the word dōzo. Keep in mind that, in this audio, the word dōzo is said slower than normal speaking speed in order to really hear the difference between o and ō.
o, ō, dōzo

Pronouncing short or long vowels carefully is very important. Obasan means aunt or middle-aged woman, while Obāsan means grandmother or elderly woman. The difference in pronunciation could make a woman like or dislike you. Lol

obasan, obāsan

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution of my art and the inspiration behind my contemporary paintings.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.

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)

Here’s a video of me, Soniei, trying to explain the evolution of my art and the inspiration behind my contemporary paintings.

This video includes a brief explanation of how I left the 9-5 work world to live my dream as a full-time artist.