So you learned how to say a few greetings in Japanese.
Please remember, in Japanese culture, it is considered very important
to be able to say these simple greetings when you see people everyday
- just as important
as saying "thank you" and "please" in Western culture.
table with 3 columns and 3 rows
Ohayō gozaimasu
greeting in the morning
Konnichiwa
greeting during the day
Konbanwa
greeting after dark
table end
There's another thing you need to remember about Japanese culture: it
is being polite and humble.
In spoken Japanese, there are different levels of formality and politeness.
You need to always be aware of the relationship between you and the
person you are speaking to. Are they a friend? A member of your
family? A customer?
Your boss? A colleague?
Of the three greetings you learned yesterday, Ohayō gozaimasu is a
good simple example.
Every morning I go to work, I say "Ohayō gozaimasu" to my colleagues.
Every morning I go to the kitchen to have my breakfast, I say Ohayō to
my family.
To a few of my colleagues I am very friendly with, I say Ohayō.
To my boss or my teacher, I definitely say "Ohayō gozaimasu."
To a stranger I walked past on the street in the morning, I say "Ohayō
gozaimasu."
For Konnichiwa and Konbanwa, there's only one version for everyone.
Let's look at the picture below. Can you tell what they're saying?
Konnichiwa
The paperboy would definitely be saying Ohayō gozaimasu:
table with 2 columns and 3 rows
1)
because the person he's speaking to is possibly a customer.
2)
because the person he's speaking to is much older than him and he
needs to pay respect to older generations.
3)
or simply because he is a stranger.
table end
On the other hand, the older man may be saying "Ohayō gozaimasu" but
he can get away with saying Ohayō if he knows the young man even
slightly because he
is much older.
II. Names and using "san"
You probably have heard a Japanese name mentioned followed by san.
San is an address showing a sign of respect. You might say it's like
Mr. Mrs. and Ms.
San, however, can be used both after family names or given names.
There's a very important thing to remember, though. Never put san
after your own name.
As I mentioned above, it is important to be "humble" and as san is a
sign of respect, you should not use it after your own name.
III. Japanese Writing Systems
Many people tell me that Japanese is not such a difficult language to
learn to speak well enough to get by. When it comes to reading and
writing, however,
it is a totally different story! And they are right!
The reason some people find Japanese reading and writing difficult is
because we use THREE sets of characters.
Characters, unlike the letters in the English alphabet, are like pictures.
So, letters represent sounds, but characters each represent a word -
or if not a word then at least a meaningful unit of language, such as
a syllable (a
"sound cluster").
For example, a Chinese character that means "mountain" would have
originated from a drawing of a mountain. Let's have a brief look at
what kind of characters
we use in Japanese.
1) Kanji (Chinese characters) 漢字
When the Japanese first wrote down their language many centuries ago,
they borrowed characters from the Chinese language and we still use
them in our modern
Japanese language. Every Chinese character has a meaning.
2) Hiragana ひらがな and 3) Katakana カタカナ
As the Chinese characters alone did not fit the Japanese language very
well, they next invented hiragana and katakana. These two sets
represent sounds.
Each character represents a syllable. Unlike kanji, these characters
do not have any meaning on their own - beyond the "sound clusters"
they represent.
There are 46 hiragana and katakana characters each and both are used
to represent the same sounds. Hiragana came to be used mainly in the
Japanese language
in conjunction with kanji and katakana came to be reserved for foreign
original words.
Since these two sets are phonetic, anything you can say you can write
down using these characters (within the sound syststrong of Japanese).
Let's take a person's name as an example. One of the most common
Japanese family names, Tanaka, and a very common girl's name, Yoshiko.
table with 2 columns and 4 rows
1)
田中佳子
2)
たなかよしこ
3)
タナカヨシコ
4)
Tanaka Yoshiko
table end
1) 田中佳子 Written in kanji
As I mentioned before, every kanji has a meaning.
table with 2 columns and 4 rows
First kanji
田 means a "rice field." It is read as ta.
Second kanji
中 means "inside" or "middle." It is read as naka.
Third kanji
佳 means "good." It is read as yoshi.
The last kanji
子 means a "child." It is read as ko.
table end
So this person's name can mean "A good child in the middle of a rice field"!
But it is read as "Tanaka Yoshiko."
Another Yoshiko, however, may use different kanji, 美子.
This kanji means "beautiful child." But it still is read as "Yoshiko."
So someone may ask me "What does Yoshiko mean?" I can only answer, "It
depends on what kanji characters they use"!
2) たなかよしこ Written in hiragana
Here, each character represents a sound cluster:
table with 3 columns and 6 rows
た =
ta
な =
na
か =
ka
よ =
yo
し =
shi
こ =
ko
table end
Easy, right?
3) タナカヨシコ Written in katakana
The same name written this time in katakana.
A Japanese name is usually not written in katakana. A foreign name,
for example, will be usually written using katakana. But since
katakana characters are
phonetic, anything can be written down using them.
One more Way to Write in Japanese (the "Easy" Way!)
Did you wonder how you're going to be able to read Japanese? Well,
don't worry. We have this system called rōmaji (literally Romanized
characters) which
allows us to write down what we say using the letters you use in the
English alphabet. In your next newsletter, you will learn the rules of
pronouncing
the Japanese words written in rōmaji. For now, let's just see how the
same name looks when written in rōmaji.
4) Tanaka Yoshiko Written in rōmaji
….this is how Japanese names will be expressed when they are used in English.
Ok. Let's get back to characters, kanji, hiragana, and katakana. You
might still be a bit baffled as to how the three systems are used
together.
Here's an example.
Kanji
You see, we use ALL of these THREE sets of characters. Can you spot
which ones are kanji? hiragana? katakana?
Did you also notice something else?
Traditionally we write vertically, from right to left. Newspapers,
magazines, novels, and formal personal letters are usually written
vertically and textbooks,
casual personal letters, and business correspondence are usually
written horizontally from left to right, top to bottom.
***
Well… that's probably more than enough technical stuff for one day. I
have to mention that you've been a most excellent student for sticking
through the
tricky bits. Next time we'll be back on the conversational side of things!
In tomorrow's lesson you'll find out all about how to introduce
yourself in Japanese, ask someone's name, and tell them your own.
Don't miss this one -
I all know how important first impressions are!
Jā mata ne (Until then),
