To Learn Japanese

The Japanese language is one of the widely used Asian lingoes in the world. Statistics have it that more than 130 million people speak Nihongo all around the globe. Like any foreign language, it is always difficult to learn something that is not your native tongue. Here are a few pointers that may help you learn to speak Japanese in the easiest way possible:

1. Find the time to learn. In any aspect of learning, it is always important that you devote time into studying the language. Assess your reasons as to why you want to learn to speak Japanese and draw determination from there. In order to gain comprehension, you have to have the dedication.

2. Get an audio book that will aid you in your knowledge. The best way to learn to speak Japanese is for you to read and understand the words and their meanings, as well as listen to how they are being said. You can browse the internet or go straight to a nearby bookstore and look for the best book that may suit your needs.

3. While listening to the tape, try to catch key phrases phonetically and notice how vowels are being pronounced. Unlike English vowel accents, Japanese vowels are more pure in pronunciation and have no short sounds.

4. Try reading the words and phrases aloud. You can face the mirror while mimicking the words so as to see the movement of your lips. Make sure that you make a mental note of the meaning of the words as you say them. Memorize simple Japanese conversation phrases first such as: “How are you?” or “What is your name?” It is best to learn to speak Japanese in phrases or sentences so as not to have a hard time translating English sentences word per word.

5. Remember as you learn to speak Japanese that their language has a system in respect to formality and politeness. These prefixes or suffixes are often used to refer to different types of people. Try to also take note of the meaning of the verbs as the Japanese language emphasizes on the action.

6. If you can watch Japanese children’s shows, observe how these various phrases are being used. Japanese children’s shows often use basic Nihongo words that are understandable and relatable. You may use pointer #3 here and try to respond to their statements based on your understanding. You can also go back to your book and check on new words you have learned.

7. Practice. The more you practice, the easier it will be to learn to speak Japanese. This action will help you memorize and improve your vocabulary in their tongue. You may do so by speaking to Japanese-American citizens in your area. Do not focus on the possibility that you will not be understood, instead concentrate on their responses and go with the flow of the conversation. Do not be afraid to ask if you cannot understand. The Japanese people appreciate efforts of people who try to learn their language.

Yuki Shoji

http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/learn-to-speak-japanese-quickly-751590.html

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You may need to learn the Japanese language because you are traveling to Japan and want to become familiar with popular Japanese words and phrases. Or you might have taken a class to learn Japanese years before and are now looking for a refresher course. Perhaps you have a great interest in learning to speak Japanese simply because you love the Japanese language.

Whatever the reasons you desire to learn to speak Japanese, you will want to be sure to keep the following advice in mind.

There are many aspects of the Japanese language that you might be considering learning. If you are interested in learning essential Japanese words and phrases to get through a few conversations with those who speak Japanese fluently, then beginning with the basics is the best place to start.

Learn popular words and phrases such as “hello”, “how are you?” and “thank you” first. Then practice using them in your daily conversations with those who speak Japanese. If you do not know anyone who speaks Japanese, keep practicing and speaking your words and phrases daily anyway – practice makes perfect.

If you want to learn Japanese so that you can better understand Japanese etiquette and culture, it is probably best to immerse yourself in conversational Japanese language studies. Learning Japanese this way can be beneficial because you will understand the body language, intonation and communication styles of those who speak Japanese fluently.

Listen to conversational audio, observe fluent speakers interacting with each other, and even try to watch and comprehend Japanese news or other real-life Japanese shows on TV. When listening to others speak Japanese, you still want to try to pick up on basic Japanese words and phrases. However, in learning conversational Japanese, it would be to your advantage to focus on situational phrases and even Japanese slang or expressions as well.

Understanding and using these types of colloquialisms is what helps you to become fluent in the Japanese language. Instead of focusing on basic phrases like “hello” and “good morning”, you will want to focus on how to begin interactions by asking questions like “what is your name?” or “what do you do for a living?”. Japanese etiquette plays a role in conversation, so take notice of the phrases and intonations that younger people use when speaking to their elders or that employees use to speak to their superiors.

It can be very difficult learning a new language. You want to try your best to stay motivated. When learning the Japanese language, you are not only learning to speak new words, you are also learning to read and interpret a different type of writing. Languages such as French and Spanish contain the same letters as the English language, but used in slightly different ways. The Japanese language will be a totally new way of reading and writing for you.

Do not be afraid of making mistakes with reading, writing or speaking Japanese, instead try to learn from your mistakes. Record yourself while you practice speaking Japanese so that you are aware of your mistakes in pronunciation and intonation. Being able to identify your weaknesses as you learn Japanese is the best way to improve.

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The Japanese language is considered by many to be easy to learn. Whether you wish to speak Japanese for personal reasons like travel or for professional reasons, it is important for you to consider that learning Japanese etiquette is as important as learning commonly used words and phrases.

Why is it that learning to speak Japanese is relatively easy? To begin with, there are only 5 vowel sounds:

·A is voiced as “ah,” or the way English speakers pronounce the a in “la;”
·I is pronounced as the English e in words like “need” and “tea;”
·U is vocalized in much the same way as “oo” in words like “cool” and “soon;”
·E is spoken with the same sound of the first e in the word “letter” and the e in “set;”
·O is expressed as it is in the word “told.”

Knowing how each of the vowels sounds phonetically makes speaking the Japanese words less difficult.

In addition, the Japanese language is less complicated than many others because nouns are not tied to gender or number – the same word is used for one tree or many trees – and verb remains the same regardless of the subject. Unlike English, Spanish and French (and other Latin-based languages) in which you must learn different ways to conjugate the verb based on the subject, when learning Japanese, the verb will be either past tense or the present tense (ongoing actions or the suggestion of what may happen in the future are expressed with the present tense verb).

While pronunciations can be simple once you know how the vowels are spoken, and nouns and verbs are relatively easy as well, one way in which you may stumble with the language is word order. While in English sentences are typically in a subject – verb – object format, in Japanese they are presented in the order of subject – object – verb. Of course, just as we have prepositions in English, there are a number of articles in Japanese. One article used often is “ka,” which is used at the end of the sentence to ask a question (which is important because the question mark does not exist in Japanese).

Though challenges like punctuation exist in the written language, learning to speak and understand Japanese can be accomplished. There are many resources available online, books and flashcards, as well as computer software. By finding the one that will be most beneficial to you and practicing often, you will surely be able to learn the language.

Once you have learned the language, and even while you are learning, it is important to keep etiquette in mind because how you act has as much of an impact on how you are received as the words you use to express yourself.

Make sure that you keep the following in mind:

·Unless you are very familiar with the person you are talking with, you should avoid using casual phrasings;
·Avoid being loud to get someone’s attention. It is better to wave or to approach them with a bow and then speak;
·Use a quiet tone when speaking;
·Be cautious with your body language as much of the communication that takes place is unspoken;
·Always show respect for the person with whom you are speaking.

By maintaining respect for the people and cultural etiquette – you will find that beginning to communicate in Japanese is simple and, in time, you will become quite good at it.

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http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/speaking-japanese-learning-the-language-and-the-cultural-etiquette-63565.html

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Japanese is anything but an easy language to learn, regardless of one’s mother tongue. Still, it is one of the most popular foreign language choices in America and Europe, for two main reasons: the economical importance of Japan and the numerous businesses contracted between Japan and these areas and the fascination for Japanese culture that mainly formed up through modern Western media. Regardless of which reason you want to learn it for, the Japanese language cannot be learnt easily unless you know how it works.

Japanese is spoken by over 130 million people all over the world, obviously most of them being in Japan’s mainland. The Japanese language’s grammar is usually very complex to foreigners because it uses a specific speaker-listener status vocabulary that is unlike anything English or other western languages can offer. Another showstopper when learning Japanese is its writing style, which uses a combination of three alphabets: Chinese characters (also known as Kanji) and two syllabic scripts known as Katakana and Hiragana. In addition, modern Japan uses the Latin alphabet for more and more purposes, which makes it slightly easier for English speakers to grasp this new language than say, a hundred years ago.

Many Japanese learning courses and books start off slowly, in a gradually increasing order of steps. Although this is the correct way to go with any language learning process, it takes a lot of time and you might simply not have that available time to invest in it. For this reason, there are a series of accelerated learning techniques that skip through some of the basics and try to accumulate these fundamentals over more advanced chapters, naturally. Take note that although this is definitely a faster way to learn japanese, there’s a good chance that someone that takes the “stepwise”, slower technique will almost always speak and write better and more correctly.

One of the most common Japanese language accelerated learning techniques is to plunge you head first into some easier texts, as soon as you know the basic alphabet, then provide a translation in English (or your mother tongue) of the same text. This obviously skips a lot of steps such as basic grammatical structure, pronunciation of words, punctuation and so forth. However, this accelerated learning technique has the advantage of building up your vocabulary quickly. Doing several of these translated reading exercises per day, you will soon get some of the grammar and spelling foundations that you’ve skipped in the first place, up and running.

The next step in most Japanese language accelerated learning techniques is to play a tape followed by a translated text. After you’ve built on your Japanese reading and understanding skills, the audio technique is the logical step forward. This will correct any pronunciation problems and will also have a positive effect on your vocabulary gain. There are several sources offering Japanese language accelerated learning techniques, including books and courses. You can find some very useful sources online, on sites dealing with Japanese language learning, Japanese language translations and tests.

Michael Gabrikow

http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/japanese-language-accelerated-learning-techniques-70805.html

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How To Use The Right Japanese Words For Cooking

Japanese has many kinds of cooking style and each method has it’s own unique way of cooking the food. Learn how to distinguish the differences between these cooking methods in Japanese can be very useful for learning Japanese cooking recipes.

Let’s start with the most basic way of cooking and that’s to boil. The Japanese verb for boiling something in Japanese is waku. Waku means to cook something using water.

Ane wa ima oyu wo waite imasu.
My sister is boiling hot water now.

Kono niku wo sanjikan waku to, yawaraku narimasu.
If you boil this meat for 3 hours, it will become soft.

Oyu mo wakasenai, anta ittai dou yatte ryouri suru no?
You can’t even boil hot water, how on earth are you going to cook?

The most popular and the healthiest way to cook is to steam your food. To steam your food you need to place your food over boiling water and close it with a lid (the steam or hot air will cook your food). The Japanese word for steaming is musu.

Watashi wa mushi buta ga daisuki!
I love steam pork.

Tamago ha butaniku to isshoni musu to, sugoku oishiku narimasu yo.
If you steam the eggs together with the pork, it will be super delicious.

One of the most easiest way to cook is to fry your food. You will need abura (oil) to fry any food. The Japanese verb for frying is ageru.

Kono butaniku no agekata wo watashi ni oshiete kurenai?
Can you teach me how to fry this pork.

Watashi wa tabemono wo ageru yori, masu no hou ga kenkou teki to omoimasu.
I think it’s healthier to steam your food than to fry them.

Toufu wa sonna fuu ni ageru to, mazuku natte shimau zo.
If you fry the toufu that way, it will become horrible.

To learn more about cooking words in Japanese, you can view the original article here:
http://www.myjapansensei.com/words/japanese_basic_cooking.html

Copyright 2006 – Rippasama. You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

Rippasama

http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/how-to-use-the-right-japanese-words-for-cooking-68457.html

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