Introduction to Japanese Language

はじめてのにほんごHajimete no Nihon go

Lesson 1

Hajimete no Nihon go • はじめて（ hajimete ） =first time• の（ no ） =of• にほん（ nihon ） =Japan• ご（ go ） =language

Hajimete no nihon go=Learning Japanese language for the first ti

me(Japanese language of first time)

Greetings• Greeting in the morning time= おはよう(ohayou)

• Greeting during the day= こんにちは(konichiwa)

• Greeting during the night= こんばんは(konbanwa)

Thank you and sorry.

• Saying sorry can ease feeling of communication with Japanese people.

• Japanese are often prefer to be polite and afraid to be rude to other people.

• Japanese will say "I'm sorry" in many occasions to ease feeling of the others.

Thank you.

• Thank you.

= ありがとう(Arigatou)

• I am sorry.

= ごめんなさい(gomen nasai)

Yes and No

• Yes

= はい(hai)

• No

= いいえ(iie)

Yes and No• Japanese will use "Yes." frequently rather than "

No". This comes from the hesitation to hurt other people's feeling and fear of being rude by saying "No".

• "hai" will be used during the conversation frequently just to mean "I am listening to you."

• Japanese prefers not to object to other peoples opinion and have the tendency to hide their own opinion or have no opinion at all.

Words that sounds the same but different word.

• In Japanese language, there are many words sounding pretty similar but actually is totally different words. This sometimes derives from the fact that Japanese language can be written in different Chinese characters but pronounced the same.

Words that sounds the same but different word.

• For example, the word かき (pronounced as ''kaki" can mean persimmon or oyster. But when it is written in Chinese character "kaki" that means persimmon is written as 柿 and "kaki" that means oyster is written as 牡蠣 .

柿 牡蠣