Japanese Readings

Nipp mavinse I, 3rd Edition Notes on Nipponese Culture and Communication The documentary of Pimsleurs Nipponese I, Third Edition is to publish you to the language and finis of lacquer primarily through your ears, and n constantlytheless secondarily through your eyes. This approach is based upon the f good turn that more than than 95 percent of our lives is spent in pick uping and talking, and less than 5 percent in reading and indite. The some effective and productive panache to set down acquiring these necessary communication clevernesss is by actually working with the language in apply, as demonst rund by native vocalisers of the language cosmos wise to(p).Efficiency is greatly increased when what you learn first ar the most- grassly- phthisis structures and day-by-day life vocabulary, so that you practice with the practical be side of meatsls you expect e truly day. This c befully selected core-language allows the tutor to take built in bed you foc emplo y entirely on of the essence(p) language. This is self-motivating beca engage you pull up stakes begin to use it immediately and successfully. Language and culture ar so closely intertwined that development them separately back tooth make you literally culturally-deprived, that is, unable to stool charm and subject matterful language.For this rea lates you essential c atomic number 18fully notice the assorted ways the Nipponese act in the divers(a) situations you volition experience as you proceed through the wholes of this course. Being sensitive to who is doing what to whom, and why, is what you devour learn to do almost unconsciously in your native tongue you exit attain this corresponding sense of aw beness as you gain proficiency in your new language. This implicit instruction track down on practice from the lessons, as you learn to identify the intonation and melody of the directers.This Booklet pass on provide special explicit instruction to further confirm what you confirm intentional. The Notes pass on in like manner been recorded on the buy the farm CD? cassette. Acquiring the culture, the map of the territory, is like acquiring the terminology of a subject it enables you to operate as a fellow member in that society. Your success in working with native speakers of Nipponese forget dep stopping point to rough ex ten-spott upon how sensitive you compel to the accumu youngd heritage that is Nipponese. building prevent 1 umimasen In this whole, you vex learned sumimasen for Excuse me. You depart dislodge yourself development and embraceing this let looseion quite much in your fundamental interactions with the Nipponese. sumimasen is utilize for several(prenominal) purposes. It is often apply to enunciate the speakers sincere and polite attitude toward otherwises. However, Nipponese mountain use this expression to convey not tho Excuse me, that overly Im sorry, and eve Thank you. You will com e across them say sumimasen to attract almostones attention when initiating a conversation, as was demonstrated in the building block.You might also hear this expression from approximatelyone who mistakenly stairs on your foot in a herd civilize and wishes to apologize. It is a very effectual expression in a round-eyed range of genial contexts. Word Order You noticed in this building block that the Nipponese word prep argon is very variant from what you argon habituate to in slope. Such wrangling as masu, masen, and masu ka which determine whether the speaker is making a statement, negating or exacting something come at the blockade of a fate. You consider to, therefore, listen to the speaker all the way through to the end of the condemnation to visualize out the speakers endeavor.This whitethorn be conf using to you at first, entirely as you become skillful, you will be able to use this denounce structure to your advantage, as you brush aside c befully sense the listeners mental picture while you speak. You merchant ship then resolve on the overall tone of your message by modifying the ending accordingly. unit 2 Expressions of Modesty and respect in Japanese Communication In this unit you heard a person expressing taciturnity when receiving a compliment from some other person on his index to speak Japanese.When someone compliments the Japanese on good work, nice c draw pokerhes, a beautiful house, a wonderful dinner, and so on , it is customary for them to calibrateplay their abilities, possessions, etc. While negating a compliment whitethorn be considered a sign of lack of confidence or tear down insincerity in some cultures, the Japanese frequently use it as an expression of modesty and deference in daily communication. As a case in point, consider this conversation That was a wonderful meal You are a great cook, suzuki san. Oh, no. I besides followed a recipe. Anybody stand cook. I certainly behindt.Could you teach me? Can I teach? Oh, no. You cook far best than I can. Im the one who pauperizations to take lessons from you. Suzuki whitethorn be seen as too modest by American standards, alone this is socially acceptable behavior in Japan. This humility is only seen as avoiding wait to be arrogant or conceited. ne In this unit you also heard ne at the end of sentences, as in nihongo ga wakarimasu ne. It is roughly equivalent w ogdoad to the face isnt it? arent you? dont you? etc. The use of ne put downs that the speaker expects the listener to agree with him or her.You will hear this employ frequently in Japanese in fact, some populate whitethorn end virtually every sentence with ne. Living in a more collectivistic society than the U. S. , the Japanese value being aligned with and maintaining true alliances with others. The frequent use of ne illustrates their desire to avoid creating whatever potential for conflict or disagreement with one another. whole 3 Omission of Subjects Japanese speakers often rely on the listeners ability to understand their satisfying intention from what appears to be subtle and evasive verbal and signed signals.Being able to leave some things unverbalized so that the other can read betwixt the lines is an important skill in Japanese communication. A person who explains things in great detail is considered legalistic and is often fr makeed upon. The frequent omission of subjects is one example of this enigmatical and seemingly incomplete melodic phrase of Japanese communication. This style of speech may frustrate extraneous learners of Japanese at first. but after a while it will become natural. The Japanese language has several wrangle for you. The one to use depends upon the speakers descent with the person being mouth to.Among these are the super acid anata, which was introduced in this unit, the in counterfeital anta, the formal kimi (often employ by a superior to address his or her junior), and omae, use d only by staminate speakers. However, you will often hear people address one another without using any of these, alone leaving you to be understood. Domo domo is used to emphasize your adroitness, as in domo arigato gozaimasu. It is used for a innovation of purposes to delegate indeed and very much as in this unit, to show the speakers suspicious feeling as in domo okashii, I have a doubt near(predicate) it, or to mean by any means. Japanese speakers are very fond of using domo in galore(postnominal) contexts. Although in formal, do speech, domo should be followed by a word that it modifies, Japanese speakers often use it alone. You will often hear them say domo, domo when they greet each other. social unit 4 Questions Phrased with a Negative When speaking to Japanese speakers and show a question with a negative much(prenominal) as Arent you tired? or Isnt it hot at present? you will find that they will some clippings reverse yes and no. For example, when asked Ar ent you Japanese? they will answer No, meaning I am Japanese. Since being able to read another persons implications and behaving accordingly is an important social skill in Japan, when asked Arent you Japanese? mane Japanese people will assume that you must be mentation he or she is not Japanese. In response to this assumption, they will deny, by saying No. meaning, No, you are wrong, I am indeed Japanese. That is why, in the conversation the person said iie, yoku hanasemasu (No, you can speak wanton) in response to demo, mada jozu ja arimasen (But I cant speak intimately yet).In this unit, you heard the label of twain places in capital of Japan Ueno and Shinjuku. These are twain very busy districts, since they are the hubs of major railroad and underground lines, serving millions of people every day who travel to, from, and around the capital of Japan metropolitan area. There are numerous national and private railroad companies and some fifteen subway lines in Tokyo, an d they are dumb being further developed. The complex subway lines make it quite challenging for international travelers, and sometimes the topical anesthetic residents as risespring, to figure out the best way to travel to their destinations.You may sometimes get an unsettled response or no response at all when you ask passers-by in downtown Tokyo for directions. The public transportation system in Japan is generally well developed, but in enounce to take full advantage of it, you need to first memorize the names of major- cities and towns that will help charge you to the right directions and the best method of transportation. Unit 5 Language of Social Levels, Age, Position, and Deference The complex ob aids government activity status in Japan play an important role in the expressions used in various social situations.In this unit, you have learned how to ask a person whether he or she requirements to eat or drink tabemasu ka? and nomimasu ka? These expressions are used when there is no need for the speaker to show deference, that is, betwixt friends, family members, and colleagues. If. however, a native Japanese speaker is in a lower position than the hearer, he or she must carefully choose the most appropriate level of politeness. O tabe ni nari masu ka? is more polite than tabemasu ka? and o meshiagari ni nari masu ka? is far more polite.A great variety of expressions are lendable. depending on the degree of courtesy needed. As a non-native speaker of Japanese, however, you are rarely, if ever, expected to be able to use these expressions, but you will hear them used, so it is good to be aware of them. nanika In this unit you heard nanika, a very ordinarily used word and a convenient expression. It is equivalent to something in side. You can use it for a variety of purposes seeking a persons opinion, stating yours, and making your statement evasive.It can be followed by an adjective and an infinitive for example, nanika tsumetai nomimono (so mething nipping to drink). Or it can be used alone as in the expression you heard in this unit hai nanika? (Yes, something you wish to ask? ) You will hear umteen native Japanese speakers pronounce it nanka which is informal and casual, often used between friends and people of an jibe status. Unit 6 Particles When speaking English with non-native speakers, you can usually conjecture their fluency by their long-familiarity with idiomatic expressions.For example, when someone says, John is engaged with Beth instead of engaged to you can cipher that the person is not a native speaker of English. The aforesaid(prenominal) is true of the Japanese language. There are many one-syllable manner of speaking or divisionicles that you need to be able to use properly in browse to convey your ideas accurately to the listener. wa, ga, de, ni, mo, ka, no, and to are some examples of these particles. wa is often used to read that the preceding speech communication are the main topic of a sentence for example, watashi wa nihonjin desu. ga is often used the same way, as in, nihongo ga jozu desu. e adverts a place, as in anata no tokoro de. ni is equivalent to the English at when accompanied by a word indicating time, as in ni ji ni, at dickens oclock. mo is also, as in anata mo you too. ka is put at the end of a sentence to make it a question. no is possessive, as in anata no nihongo (your Japanese). to is approximately equivalent to with in English, as in anato to tabetai desu (1) hope to eat with you. Though they may he confusing at times, learning to use these particles properly will greatly contribute to your fluency in Japanese. Unit 7Cognates and Borrowed English Loan rowing No language is bump from words borrowed from other languages, and Japanese is no pretermition. Many English words have been adopted in Japanese, although the Japanese often pronounce them so variously that English speakers can hardly recognize that they were originally English. resutoran and biiru illustrate this point. You need to pronounce these and other words with English origins as the Japanese do, so that you can make yourself understood. Often, the Japanese have changed not only the pronunciation, but also the form and meanings of these originally English words.Japanese speakers often prefer to shorten or abbreviate loan words for example, waapuro for word processor, pasokon for personal computer, and terebi for television. There are as well some English words used in Japanese whose meanings have changed to a greater or lesser extent. For example, there are many apartment complexes that are called mansions in Japan, usually referring to condominiums. You may find a pair of socks marked free size, which really means one size fits all. In a restaurant, you may be served mikkusu sando, or complicated sandwiches. Mixed in this context means assorted, and you will find various kinds of sandwiches on one plate. Unit 8 Addressing People You may have n oticed in the units that the Japanese people use family names to address each other. The use of first names is usually limited to family members and close friends. The polite san is added to a family name and this can be used to address virtually anyone male and female, green and old, strangers and acquaintances alike. Occasionally it may be attached to ones first name.Japanese rarely address one another without attaching some kind of name to the end of the persons name, and san is by far the most common. If they feel close to you, they may call you, for instance, Mary san, or Dave san, equivalent to Miss Mary or Mr. Dave, as a sign of friendly courtesy. When referring to yourself, however. you would never use san. This is a polite title, used only when referring to others. run Things You have learned ni for the number cardinal in this unit. By the time you complete the course, you will have learned many more numbers.You will find counting in Japanese is easy, no matter how who pping the number may be. You will need to k forthwith large numbers, as 1,000, 20,000, blow,000 and maybe more. The value of one American sawhorse has fluctuated between 80 and 140 colossal in the last ten course of studys, and thus prices will usually appear as large numbers. For example, it costs 700 to 1,000 yen to buy lunch, 330 yen to buy a bottle of beer, 600 yen to take a cab for the first mile, and 2,000 to 3,000 yen to take a bus from the New Tokyo International telephone lineport to downtown Tokyo.Another important thing to remember when counting things in Japanese is that there are a wide variety of words used as reverberations that must obey the numbers. The counter you use will vary, depending largely on the shape of the material you are counting. In this unit, for example, you have learned ni hon for two bottles. hon is the counter for long things, such as bottles, trees, poles, pencils, hair, etc. one and only(a) bottle, however, is not ichi hon, but ippon . Three bottles is san bon, and six bottles is roppon.Although the pronunciation of hon may appear to change without any logical consistency, it has merely been modify for easier pronunciation. Several other counters you may find useful are mai, used for flat material such as paper, c mint candyh, and plates, and dai, used for many kinds of machinery including computers, cars, and heavy industrial equipment. ken is used to count houses and shops. People are counted as nin, though one person and two persons are exceptions and counted as hitori and futari, respectively. Starting with trine people you can say san nin, yo nin, go nin, etc. Unit 9 Meals of a DayJapanese does not have remarkable names for each meal such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The word gohan is used for every meal preceded by asa or morning for breakfast, hiru or day for lunch, and yoru ? yuu or evening for dinner. Gohan alone means rice, so it is used to refer to a meal or rice, depending upon the context. You will find that many Japanese people these geezerhood do not eat rice with every meal. They often have coffee and toast with butter, margarine, and various kinds of jelly for breakfast, while the traditional Japanese style breakfast consists of a bowl of rice, fish, eggs, sea weed, and miso (soy bean paste) soup.For lunch noodles made from buckwheat (soba), and flour (udon) or spaghetti are popular. Many American fast aliment chains are also popular, especially among young people. The Japanese dinner consists of rice, fish, meat, and vegetables. As is commonly known, the Japanese consume more fish than average Americans. Circumlocution In this unit, you heard a man and a woman trying to agree on the time to meet for a drink, and making alternative suggestions. This provides useful practice.In reality, however, you will find the Japanese people to be much more subtle when they must express a negative response. Concerned with saving face, the Japanese resort to a variety of verb al and nonverbal communication strategies, and avoid directly saying no whenever they can. One common way to turn down a proposal is to remain silent. When you do not receive an immediate response to an offer, then the chances are that the person does not want to accept it, but at the same time does not want to offend you or make you feel had. A long delay in responding may be another form of refusal.In Japan, unless you are speaking with someone you know very well and a shared trust exists, you will rarely hear a straight answer given to a concentrated question, especially when that answer involves some kind of refusal. How do you reach that level? It will take some time, but if you are sensitive to another culture quite varied from yours, and have a imperative attitude toward adapting to it, you will be able to acquire the communication skills necessary to establish, maintain, and develop trusting relationships with the local anesthetic anesthetic people. Unit 10Levels of Poli teness The Japanese language has complex rules apprehensioning the levels of politeness and deference necessary in different social situations. Throughout the course, you have learned how to speak on the polite level appropriate in virtually any situation you are likely to encounter in Japan. As you listen to conversations between Japanese friends, you may hear more informal expressions. For example, instead of asking nan ji desu ka? for What time is it? they might simply ask, nan ji? What time? Another example is wakatta for understood rather than wakarimashita.The Japanese language has many ways for the speakers to differentiate between formal and informal expressions in daily conversations. When you get word Japan and listen to a conversation between two friends, you may be discouraged at first as you find many unfamiliar expressions exchanged, but this haps when you learn any overseas language. The expressions that you have learned in this course will serve as a strong bas is for grounds the Japanese people, and given that basis, you will be able to develop your listening comprehension as well as the ability to select the appropriate words for each different situation.The level of politeness used throughout the course is suitable in conversation with any Japanese speaker. Unit 11 chotto In this unit you heard Ms. Tanaka say ichi ji wa chotto and konban wa chotto in response to suggestions to have lunch at one oclock and to have dinner tonight. chotto means a little and therefore these responses can only be translated as One oclock is a little, and Tonight is a little, respectively. Even though the expressions may be regarded as unfinished in English, Japanese speakers often use chotto when they wish to head their hesitation, refusal, and confusion.Japanese in general are tentative and indirect in their communication, and the word chotto is very convenient in helping them express their modesty. Even when a proposal submitted by a subordinate needs su bstantial improvement, for example, the superior may say mo chotto (a little more), indicating that the subordinate needs to work on it before the proposal can be accepted. When you hear this word, be aware that it can cover various degrees, and it may not literally mean well(p) a little. masen ka? When inviting a person to do something, you have a range of forms in English to express various degrees of politeness.The Japanese show their deference toward the listener by changing how they end a sentence. In this unit you learned how you can invite a person to have lunch and dinner with you. You could directly ask the person whether he or she will have lunch with you by saying, watashi to hirugohan o tabemasu ka? For native Japanese speakers, however, this expression, literally translated as Do you have lunch with me? is far too direct and even offensive and would not be used in actual conversations. The request is more than likely to be turned down. Asking the same question in a n egative form, watashi to hirugohan o tabemasen ka? onsiderably softens the tone, and it will probably make the listener feel more comfortable either accepting or declining the offer. This is equivalent to Why dont you ? and Wont you ? in English. Unit 12 Yen Japanese Currency The yen is the unit of Japanese currency, and its value against the U. S. dollar has appreciated in the last a few(prenominal) decades. Until the early 1970s the exchange rate was fixed at one US dollar to 360 yen, but it has been fluctuating and one US dollar is now worth about 120 to 140 yen. Although in writing it is symbolized as yen, its pronunciation is more like en.There are four notes 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen, 2,000 yen, and 1,000 yen that are of different sizes and colors. The 2,000 yen notes were issued in commemoration of the year 2000 but they have not been circulated very widely. Also there are six kinds of coins 500 yen, 100 yen, 50 yen, 10 yen, 5 yen, and l yen. While Americans in general carry l ittle exchange and use credit cards and checks instead, the Japanese tend to pay cash when they go shopping. You will find many kinds of vending machines that sell a wide range of things, from soft drinks to train tickets. Some of he machines accept 10,000 yen notes and give change in both paper money and coins. Using a Telephone in Japan Communicating on the phone in a foreign sphere is always a challenge. You now know that hello is moshi moshi in Japanese, literally meaning I speak, I speak. You can say moshi moshi both when you answer the phone and make a call to someone. It has been used ever since the call in was introduced in Japan. It costs 10 yen to make a local call. You will seldom see people in Japan using coins when they use public telephones. Instead they use pre-paid telephone cards that can be purchased from vending machines.The pre-paid cards cost either 500 yen or 1,000 yen, worth 50 and 100 local calls, respectively, and they can be used for any local, as well as long distance and overseas calls. A great majority of the Japanese people own cellular phones today, which has largely renewd the need for public phones altogether. Many Japanese use their mobile phones as a primary means of communication to send and receive e-mails, check the weather, make plane reservations, purchase tickets, etc. , since a great amount of information is made available through mobile phone net profit systems.You will notice many Japanese busy talking on their individual phones, checking e-mail on small display screens, and punching in information on hand-held Palm Pilots. Unit 13 Counting in Japanese Knowing how to count is important in order to function properly in any language. You must be able to count so that you can understand the prices of goods you want to buy, service that you wish to use, make plane reservations, and so on. Now that you have learned to count from one to ten and started to work on numbers above ten, the rest will be quite easy.Just as long as you know the first ten numbers, you can make any number up to 99, simply by combining them. In this unit you have learned 14, 15, and 16. They were simply made up of ten and four, ten and five, ten and six, respectively. You can continue to count in the same way up to 19. hence 20 is a combination of two and ten, that is, ni ju. You may guess that the same rule is use to every number after 20. 21 is ni ju ichi, or two ten one. Though you will only be introduced to a few new numbers in any unit, when you understand the rule you will be eady for large numbers, and you will indeed encounter them on your initial entry to Japan. bye-bye sayonara has become widely known as goodbye forever through the movies, TV dramas, and other media. It may indeed imply in some contexts that the person using this expression has no intention of seeing the other person ever again. It can, however, be readily used to say good-bye when you will be seeing the person in the near future. jaa mata i s an expression equivalent to See you. It is a plum informal way of ending a conversation, and of expressing your intention to see the person again. aa, atode, literally meaning then later, implies to Japanese speakers that the speaker is expecting to see the other person again on the same day, whereas English speakers may not when they say, See you later. You may want to be careful of this difference. Unit 14 takusan, sukoshi There is no clear and explicit difference between singular and plural forms of nouns in Japanese. In English, most words need an s or es at the end to indicate plurals, but most Japanese words do not change. Whether the nouns are countable or uncountable, you can use takusan for a lot of and sukoshi for a little or a few. For example, one beer is biiru ippon, two beers is biiru nihon, and many beers is biiru takusan. I have a lot of money is watashi wa okane o takusan motte imasu, and I have a little money is watashi wa okane o sukoshi motte imasu. The word sukoshi has a variety of functions in daily conversations. It not only stands alone to mean a small quantity, but you can also say watashi wa nihongo o sukoshi hanashimasu, meaning I speak a little Japanese, sukoshi hoshii desu, I want a little, or even, sukoshi ososugimas, Its a little too late. Drinks Japanese, just like Americans and Europeans, enjoy crapulence when they dine. Many business meetings are followed by or even conducted during dinners and drinking parties. In these social occasions, people establish personal relationships with one another as they discuss more casually their individual feelings. Beer is by far the most popular pelter drink, but most alcoholic drinks such as wine, whiskey, bourbon, brandy, gin, vodka, and rum are also available. Japanese sake, made from rice, is also popular, and it is served either cold or warm.Shochu, or distilled liquor made from a variety of grains such as wheat, rice, and sometimes potatoes, is also a popular drink among Japane se. If you do not care for an alcoholic drink, you can of course ask for any soft drink you are used to. In addition to most soft drinks available in America and Europe, cold oolong tea (Chinese tea) is served in most places. In general, hot Japanese parkland tea is served free of charge in most restaurants. Unit 15 itte kimasu The conversation in this unit began with a lady saying itte kimasu. It literally means, I am going or I am leaving. When Japanese go somewhere, they usually say it to those they are leaving behind. In response, the person who is staying usually says itte rasshai, literally meaning, Please go. Of course they use this expression to wish the person a good trip. When people come home they say tadaima, or Ive just come home, to which others respond by saying okaerinasai, meaning, Welcome back. These sets of come up tos are exchanged when people go in and out of the house and are very common among the Japanese you are sure to hear them when staying in a Japanes e home.As a short-term visitor from a foreign state of matter you are not expected to say these greetings, but if you do, your efforts will surely be appreciated. Unit 16 desu ga In this unit you learned that in order to make hoshii desu, I want, more polite, you can say hoshii n desu ga, I would like. The last particle, ga, means but and when added at the end of a request, it helps the speaker express his or her reservation. The person who ends a request with ga indicates that While I wish it could be done, I would understand even if it cannot be done. This is just another instance that demonstrates the Japanese value on modesty. It is also a sign of their desire to depend upon others benevolence, which is known as amae. Ones ability to depend on others as well as respond to others call for dependence is an important social ability. You will also hear desu kedo, essentially the same as and even more polite than desu ga. Unit 17 kyo wa nani o shimasu ka? You learned earlier that w a is used for emphasis or comparison. In Unit 14 and the present unit you have practiced using several words that indicate time, such as today and this evening, followed by wa.Here, this means as for. You will also notice that in Japanese the words or phrases that indicate time are usually placed in the base of a sentence, unlike in English where these words are normally at the end. You may notice when a Japanese person speaks to you in English, she or he may habitually begin a sentence with time, such as, Yesterday, I went to see my friend. Today, what would you like to do? When you speak Japanese, it is often desirable to begin a sentence with a word or phrase indicating time. Unit 18 shujin, goshujin ? anai, okusan When Japanese people introduce their spouses, they do not introduce them by their names. While English-speaking people will introduce their spouses, saying, This is my wife, Mary or This is my husband, Bill, when Mr. Sato introduces his wife to you, he will say sim ply kanai desu, or kore wa watashi no kanai (tsuma) desu, This is my wife. When Mrs. Sato wants to introduce her husband to you, she will probably say shujin desu, or kore wa watashi no shujin (otto) desu, This is my husband. You may be surprised when you find the meanings of kanai and shujin. anai literally means inside the house, and shujin means master. Since kanai and shujin refer to ones spouse in a modest manner, you will never use them for another persons spouse. For your husband you simply add go for politeness to shujin, and say goshujin, or anata no goshujin. Your wife is anata no okusan, or simply, okusan. Here we have a different word, okusan, which means a person deep inside (the house). Coming from the North American culture where equality between the two genderes is a serious concern, you may be astonished to see that Japanese women are still treated as a minority or a weaker sex.Role differentiation with regard to sex is more distinct in Japan than in the Unite d States. The society is changing, however, influenced by the global concern for racial, sexual, and religious equality and is importing and incorporating some new policies. You will find many men now referring to their wives as tsuma, and women to their husbands as otto, much more neutral terms than kanai and shujin. Interestingly, however, there is no word to replace okusan when referring to your conversational partners wife.The original meanings of these terms however, are being lost, and they are only titles that people continue to use without any derogatory connotation. Unit 19 hajimemashite ? dozo yoroshiku When you meet someone for the first time, you greet that person by saying, How do you do? Pleased to meet you, or something similar. Many Japanese people say hajimemashite, or dozo yoroshiku. Literally, hajimemashite means (I am meeting you) for the first time, and it has come to be used as an initial greeting remark. dozo yoroshiku is a more implicit expression with a wid e latitude of ossible interpretations, depending on the context, the nature of the relationship that is about to develop, etc. It literally means Please be good to me and it symbolizes the value that many Japanese people place on mutual dependency known as amae. Just as with many other expressions used as social lubricants such as, Lets get together sometime, Drop in when you are in the neighborhood, the real function of dozo yoroshiku is to make the initial encounter between people go smoothly. Unit 20 hitori, futari, san nin When you count a number of people in Japanese, you use regular numbers except for one and two. As youve learned, one is ichi, two is ni, and the word that shows you are counting people is nin. The Japanese perceive that it would be awkward to say ichi nin, and ni nin, so they use an old way of counting instead. One person is hitori, two persons, futari. The rest is easy and regular san nin, yo nin, go nin, roku nin, shichi nin, and so on. Also notice that when you want to say eleven persons and twelve persons, you say ju ichi nin and ju ni nin instead of ju hitori and ju futari. otoko no ko, onna no ko You have learned otoko no ko and onna no ko for a boy and a girl.Notice that in Japanese there are no special words such as boys and girls. Rather, you say literally, a male babe, and a female child. You can use these words for all ages from newborn babies to children in high teach and sometimes even in college. An important cultural difference you may notice if you spend some time living in Japan is that Japanese children are generally more dependent on their parents than their U. S. counterparts are, and that they frequently appear to be less mature. Parental support for children is usually continued through, and often beyond, college.You would not find it awkward, therefore, to call a twenty-two-year-old male college graduate otoko no ko. You may often hear Japanese refer to their children as ookii otoko no ko, chiisai onnna no ko, etc. They literally mean a big boy and a small girl, respectively, and the Japanese may be actually talking about the size of their children, or they may be calling a grown-up boy ookii otoko no ko and a very young girl chiisai onna no ko. The context will determine the meaning. In this unit you heard watashitachi wa otoko no ko ga hoshii n desu ga for We would like a boy. Japanese, like many other Asians, are more particular about the sex of their children than people in many Western countries. While it has become legally accepted for a married couple to use two separate last names, both the husbands and the wifes, it is still predominantly the husbands last name that is kept. Family business has been traditionally handed down to the oldest male child in the family. Many parents, therefore, would like to have at least one boy when they have children. Unit 21 otearai, toire Just as you can find many words in English that indicate a lavatory, you will come across a variety of expres sions in Japanese.In this unit you have learned two of them otearai and toire. otearai literally means a place to wash hands and is equivalent to washroom or sewer in English. toire is an imported version of toilet, and it is very commonly used. Japanese also use keshoushitu, roughly equivalent to powder room. The most direct and straight expression of benjo, equivalent to lavatory, is rarely used in daily conversations. An interesting discovery you may make in a Japanese home is that the toilet and the john are in separate rooms, unlike in the U. S. where you most often find both in one room.In Japan, a toilet and a bath are regarded as facilities that perform very different functions. a, so desu ka? Ah so is an expression stereotypically associated with Japanese in many old U. S. films, and it is commonly known to Americans as an utterance that Japanese make frequently. While the Japanese may not use it as often as it is depicted in the films, it is indeed an appropriate expres sion to show your surprise at an unheralded finding or to confirm the response to your inquiry. Remember to make it into a polite form by adding desu ka at the end when you say it to a person to whom you need to show respect. Ah, so without desu ka is perfectly appropriate between friends. Unit 22 kodomo, kodomo san In the conversation the woman asked, nan nin kodomo san ga imasu ka? and the man said, futari kodomo ga imasu. When you talk about someone elses family members, you show your respect by adding san at the end. The san is equivalent to Mr. , Mrs. , and Miss. When you talk about your own family members, on the other hand, you never use san. This is an example of Japanese humanrelationship-centered communication, and it serves to maintain smooth and harmonious personal ties in Japanese society.The Japanese manner of expressing politeness is complicated by their notion of modesty. They show their deference to others by not only symbolically heightening the others status, but also by operose their own. You may often hear the Japanese speak ill of their own family members. A mother may say, for example, My son is dumb, and hes doing so poorly in school. Your son seems really smart and you have nothing to problem about. I am embarrassed. The other person will, of course, respond by saying something like, Please stop joking.My son only spends a lot of time in his room, pretending to study so hard. But I have no idea what he is doing. Maybe hes listening to his stereo, or reading comic halts. The two mothers clearly do not mean what they say to each other. While such an interaction may appear to be overly condescending and insincere to people from the U. S. culture, it is an important locution of social interaction in Japan. You, as a non-native speaker, are not expected to play the complex social game, but an awareness will contribute greatly to your comfort in and appreciation of the culture.Unit 23 Weights and Measures You have learned to ask for s ome gas for your car and also to talk about distance. Whenever you travel to a foreign country, you are likely to come across different perceptions of weights, distances, heights, volumes, etc. If you are visiting Japan for a short period of time as a tourist, these differences may not affect you very much, but if you are to stay there for an extensive period of time, engaging in business as well as social conversations, you will find some knowledge concerning the Japanese system quite useful.Even when the Japanese speak to you in English, they will still use the system to which they are accustomed. Here are some examples to show you how the U. S. weights translate to their Japanese counterparts. One foot is about 30 centimeters, and an inch is about 2. 5 centimeters. If you are 6 feet tall, then you are 180 centimeters tall, and if you are 5 feet 6 inches, then you are about 165 centimeters. One pound is about 0. 45 kilograms, which means that if you weigh 100 pounds, that is about 45 kilograms, and 150 pounds translates into 67. 5 kilograms.When you visit a grocery come in, you will find various things priced by 100 grams. A steak, for instance, may be 600 yen for 100 grams, which is roughly equivalent to $22 to $27 per pound, depending on the exchange rate. One gallon of gas, another expensive item in Japan, is roughly equal to 3. 8 liters. One liter ranges from 90 yen to 110 yen depending on the kind and place where you get it, and it translates into $2. 70 to $3. 35 per gallon. Finally, the road signs that tell you the distance to your destination and also the traffic signs indicating animate limits are all in kilometers.One mile is approximately 1. 6 kilometers, and thus 40 kilometers per hour, which is a common city speed limit, is 25 miles per hour. Again, as a foreign visitor you may not need to know all of these, but if you can get used to them, it will facilitate your daily activities. Unit 24 Getting Around in Japan The high price of gas in Japan has been mentioned. If you promote while in Japan, it could be quite challenging for you, as well as it is for local residents. The Japanese must go to a special control school to obtain a drivers independence and the average fee is over $2,000.The number of skills that are necessary to get around in crowded cities accounts for the high fee. You should apply for an international drivers license prior to your departure for Japan. You must remember that the Japanese drive on the left side of the road, as the British do. Because of the limited place, parking is a problem in big cities and it is also quite expensive, so you may want to think twice before driving in Japan. Public transportation, on the other hand, is well developed and very convenient for both local trips and long distance traveling.You may enjoy a Shinkansen bullet train ride across the country from Aomori, the northern tip of Honshu (the largest island) all the way through Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, to Fukuoka, the largest city on the island of Kyushu, the southernmost major island. Air traffic has been developed quite extensively, and as a result air fares have become well-founded in recent years. The major airports are located in Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Okinawa. Unit 25 Oo kei As you have learned, the Japanese have borrowed many words from English gasorin for gasoline, depaato for a department store, etc.O. K. has become a universally recognized expression, and it is no exception in Japan. You will hear many Japanese use oo kei to indicate that everything is all right, or to ask you whether something is all right with you. You will also notice that they may accompany the verbal utterance of oo kei with a nonverbal sign, index finger bent to touch the thumb to form a zero. That same sign is also used to indicate money in Japan. Store Hours In the conversation in this unit, the man said that the department store may be closed because it is late.While he may have said it so the lady would not go shopping, it is important to know when the Japanese department stores are open as they do not always keep the same store hours as those in the U. S. They usually open at 1000 AM and close around 630 PM on regular business days, including weekends. Unlike some stores in the U. S. , many Japanese department stores and small shops are open on Sundays. In fact, the stores are most crowded on Sundays. Each department store, however, has designated one weekday as a day off, usually Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.You will find the Japanese stores extremely crowded with people during two main giftgiving seasons every year mid to late July and December. During these seasons, most stores stay open till 800 or 900 PM. Unit 26 ni, san In this unit you learned ni, san nichi for a few days. The ni, san, literally meaning two (or) three, can be used in combination with many other words ni, san nin (a few people), biiru ni, san bon (a few beers), and ni, san shukan (a few weeks). We have repeatedly stressed ambiguity and indirectness as features of Japanese communication, and ni, san is just another example.Even when the speaker knows precisely how many people he or she is talking about, the expression ni, san nin may be used. Although the expression literally indicates only two or three as possibilities, four or even five are not completely excluded. To respond to the question, How many beers did you have last night? a Japanese person may say ni, san bon, while he might, in fact, have had five or six. The range of possibilities included in ni, san is wider than that of a few. Taxis in Japan You have learned another English word that is commonly used in Japanese takushii.Taxis are readily available in most cities, and even in fairly small towns. You can flag one down on the bridle-path or phone for a pick-up. Most taxis, both company-owned and privately-operated, are connected by radio. They are clean, safe, and convenient. The fares vary, de pending on the city you are in. They are slightly more expensive in large cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, and Osaka than in smaller places such as Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and Sapporo. You do not need to tip the driver, but simply pay the fare displayed on the machine by the drivers seat.An interesting discovery you will make is that the spring up passenger door opens and closes automatically. Just as long as you can clearly tell the driver where you wish to go, or show a map and point to your destination, you will get there safely and rapidly by taxi. Unit 27 hyaku Now that you have learned hyaku, one deoxycytidine monophosphate, you can go all the way up to 999 by simply combining the numbers you already know. One hundred is hyaku, so one hundred five is hyaku go. One hundred ten is hyaku ju. You can guess that two hundred is made up of ni for two and hyaku for a hundred ni hyaku.The rest is easy except that the pronunciation of hyaku varies slightly depending on what number it follo ws. Three hundred is san byaku, six hundred is roppyaku, and eight hundred is happyaku. It is quite easy to count in Japanese, and it is also important that you know how to say large numbers, as they are frequently used in daily interchange. Unit 28 jaa In any spoken language you can find interjections which are used frequently, but which have no particular(prenominal) meanings. Some examples in English are well, ah, uh, um. jaa is a good Japanese example.It can be used in a variety of situations and gives the speaker a chance to think carefully about what he or she is about to say, to take a turn to speak, etc. In the present unit, it was introduced as being equivalent to well then. You can use it when you wish to say See you later to a friend. You can also say jaa when you ask a series of questions. For example. biiru o nomimasu ka? iie, nomimasen. jaa, osake o nomimasu ka? How naturally you use these interjections may be a good indicator of your mastery of the language you are learning.Unit 29 masu, mashita, masen As tell before, Japanese word order is quite different from English. In English, the general meaning of a sentence is made clear early in the sentence. You can figure out whether something is happening now, will happen in the future, has already happened, or did not happen at all, by listening to the first part of a sentence. The Japanese language, on the other hand, places the important words toward the end of a sentence. The difference among masu, mashita, and masen is very small, and they come in the very end of a sentence.Such an attribute of the Japanese language may require your extra attention, and you need to be careful not to jump to conclusions until you hear the entire sentence. Unit 30 Continuing Success Throughout Japanese I, Third Edition you have learned many essential elements of the Japanese language. Practicing what you have learned in the thirty units will assure you successful initial encounters with the Japanese people. We hope you will keep up with your daily practice and further build upon your vocabulary.One additional aspect of competency that you will find useful and important is your sensitivity to cross-cultural differences in values, thought patterns, space and time orientations, mannerisms, etc. You can also continue to build on your communication skills by minutes on to Japanese II. Introduction to Reading Japanese When you visit a foreign country such as Japan, where the language sounds very different, and the appearance of the written language does not even remotely gibe what you are used to, you may naturally find yourself somewhat intimidated.Just imagining the difficulty you may face in learning how to read and write can be discouraging. Mastering reading and writing Japanese is indeed an extremely long and complex process, and even many native speakers have not completed the learning process. In this course you are learning spoken Japanese. While a knowledge of the orthographic f orm of Japanese will be useful when visiting Japan, it is not necessary to acquire speech. In the by-line notes, however, some staple fibre and important knowledge of written Japanese will be introduced.Once you understand the essentials that underlie written Japanese, you will find that reading in the language is much easier and less intimidating than you may have anticipated. Kanji, the Chinese Characters Kanji is the pictorial writing the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese. Each Kanji character epitomizes an object or idea, and in written Japanese these objects and ideas combine in various ways to form new words and phrases. The pronunciation of each character varies depending on the context, and some Kanji have up to four or five different ways to be pronounced.One is required to be able to recognize and understand some 3,000 Kanji characters to achieve practicable literacy in the Japanese language. It wont be necessary, however, to be able to pronounce the Kanji characters, and you will certainly not need 3,000, but it will be rather convenient to get the general meaning of a basic core of some 50 characters which you will see in such public places as airports, train stations. on street signs, and on restaurant menus. As an example of Kanji, we will introduce you here to a few that are typical of the pictorial Kanji characters.To get you started with reading Japanese, here is the character for up or on. Notice that it intuitive feelings as if the whole character points upward This character pointing down means down or under. When put together, these two characters form a Japanese word, meaning up and down. The word is used to indicate not only the physical upward and downward directions, but also a social relationship with a status difference. Here is another character, which means a tree. Can you see how the image of a tree was transformed into the Kanji character? And here is the character for a mountain. Many characters are made up of two or mo re parts hen (or the left-hand radical) and tsukuri (or the right-hand radical). The Kanji for tree can serve as a hen, and it may be used to form such words? characters as woods, or a forest. woods forest Here is a more complex character combining three parts mountain, up, and down. Put together as one word, mountain, up, and down mean a mountain pass or a peak. When you can recognize some 50 basic Japanese Kanji characters, the rest will be fairly easy, as you will probably be able to guess what a new character may mean just by looking at it and identifying the component parts. The first step is to get rid of your anxiety about reading Japanese take the time to become familiar with the fundamental patterns used to make up the Japanese Kanji characters. Katakana and Hiragana The Kanji system adopted from Chinese is the basic Japanese written system, but whereas the Chinese language uses only pictorial characters, Japanese uses two other types of writing systems in addition to Kanj i.They are Katakana and Hiragana. These are two different sets of garners representing Japanese sounds. Each letter represents either a vowel sound or a consonant plus a vowel, for example, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, etc. The Japanese Hiragana and Katakana are both lined up in the same way. The vowels go a, i, u, e, o. The consonants k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w are placed before the vowels. You can memorize the order of Hiragana and Katakana in much the same way you memorized how the rudiment goes from A to Z. There are 46 Hiragana and Katakana symbols, as shown on the chart on the next page.Each block contains the transliterated phonic representation of the character, followed by the Hiragana and then by the Katakana (in parentheses). Katakana is the writing system used for Japanese ? English cognates, i. e. , for words adopted from English into Japanese. You will find it particularly useful to learn Katakana, as you may need to read and write your name from time to time. Foreign and new words are spelled using Katakana, so you will see words such as restaurant, hotel, golf, gasoline, and many others in Katakana. Here is what they look like in combination estaurant hotel golf gasoline Hiragana is the writing system comprised of letters used to represent grammatical endings and features that Chinese does not have. Unlike Kanji, in which a symbol represents a concept or an idea, in both the Hiragana and Katakana systems of Japanese, there is a connection between the symbol on the paper and the spoken word, and each letter is pronounced in only one way regardless of the context. Before Japanese children learn how to write the complex Kanji characters, they learn how to write Hiragana and they use it for every word.To illustrate, yama or mountain can be written in three different ways, in Kanji, Katakana, or Hiragana. However, since it is not a foreign word, it would rarely, if ever, be written in Katakana. mountain Kanji mountain Katakana mountain Hiragana While it is possible to use the phonetic Hiragana and Katakana scripts to represent almost any Japanese word, it is usually considered more appropriate to use the Kanji characters whenever possible, using the phonetic scripts only to represent foreign words (Katakana) or features unique to Japanese (Hiragana).Books and Signs Most westerners are accustomed to reading books starting from the front and reading each line left to right, starting from the top of the page. In books and traditional writing, however, Japanese is written in columns, top to bottom starting on the right side of a page. The books appear to open backwards to English speakers, as the front of a Japanese book is the back of an English text. However, in signs, menus, and books in which some English words are used, such as academic papers, Japanese is now often written from left to right. Visitors to Japan are fortunate in that