hamtaro jap

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Learn Japanese

Someone suggested I add a "speak Japanese" page, and since I do happen to know a little about the language, I thought I'd share some basics with you.
Reminder: I've had no formal lessons in Japanese, the info here is just what I've collected over the past three years or so. :)

^_^ Thank u Lena*!

Basic Language Structure

For those of you who know a foreign language, like spanish or french, you know the vowels, A E I O U, are pronounced ahh aey eee ohh ooo. This is also true in japanese.

vowel	pronunciation
A	ahh :: like when you open your mouth for a doctor
E	aey :: like in the word "Hey!"
I	eee :: like the e in "eat"
O	ohh :: said with out moving the mouth
U	ooo :: like the o in "Oops!"

Also, there is no "L" sound in Japanese. The "R" sound is used in place of the "L" and sounds so much like an "L" that, if said correctly, you won't notice the difference.

The vowels in Japanese are very important. No consonant can be said without a vowel coming after.......... except for "N" (which is pronounced with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, and sounds like "uhn")

uhn

Note: The Japanese language is a delecate, soft, flowing language. When speaking Japanese, keep your mouth relaxed and only open your mouth as far as you need to. If you can stick your pinkie finger in your mouth, it's open too wide. =)

Alphabet

Unlike English, Japanese has 3 different alphabets. Three!!
The Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Luckly, the first two are basically the same. Kanji, however, is comprised of 1,945 characters(letters)!!!
Romanji is when you use English letters to spell Japanese words.
Here's the basic Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana
a	e	i	o	u
ka	ke	ki	ko	ku
sa	se	shi	so	su
ta	te	chi	to	tsu
na	ne	ni	no	nu
ha	he	hi	ho	fu
ma	me	mi	mo	mu
ya			yo	yu
ra	re	ri	ro	ru
wa			wo

Romanji
a	e	i	o	u
ka	ke	ki	ko	ku
sa	se	shi	so	su
ta	te	chi	to	tsu
na	ne	ni	no	nu
ha	he	hi	ho	fu
ma	me	mi	mo	mu
ya			yo	yu
ra	re	ri	ro	ru
wa			wo

Katakana
a	e	i	o	u
ka	ke	ki	ko	ku
sa	se	shi	so	su
ta	te	chi	to	tsu
na	ne	ni	no	nu
		hi	ho	fu
ma	me	mi	mo	mu
ya			yo	yu
ra	re	ri	ro	ru
wa			wo

These characters here are only the basic characters, there's still 25 more to each set!

As you can see, though they may look different, the Hiragana and Katakana are exactly the same, just look different.
So what's the point of having two alphabets that are the same?? Most of the time Hiragana is used in writing, but Katakana is used for writing foreign words and names. Also, Hiragana is thought of as more feminine.

Dictionary

Because, of course, now you want to go out and try the japanese you've learned, here are some japanese terms to use around the house!

English	Romanji	Japanese
Good Morning!	Ohayo!	Note: The extra U is added to the end because the O sound flows instead of stopping.
Hello!	Konnichi wa!	Note: You won't find the first two letters in the alphabets above, they're Kanji characters. But you could also spell Konnichi wa out with the Hiragana letters too!
Good Evening!	Koban wa!
Good Bye!	Sayonara!
Yes	Hai
No	iie
Cute	Kawaii
Hamster	Hamusta
Love(romantic)	Ai

Okiez, now go annoy your parents with all the great stuff u learned! ....lol

I'm really not sure what else to put here, if anyone wants me to put a word or two up here, just e-mail me. =)