Japanese lessons

As you are walking to the airport parking lot together, Hiroshi helps you carry your suitcase, and you start to talk with his daughter Ayumi.

Illustration by Makushiro. Click here to see his work.

romaji - kana - kanji - translation

Anata wa? - あなた　は?

Notice that this phrase is not in the dialog, but it could very well have been used there. We’ll explain the phrase here because it’s very useful. In the text, Ayumi is asked "Anata mo daigakusei desu ka" to find out if she's a student too. The same thing could have been asked this way: "anata wa", which is the equivalent to "And you?". "Anata wa" is used to send back the question to one’s interlocutor without having to repeat the complete question. The intonation must rise at the end of the question just like in English, to let your interlocutor know it is a question. Once you have given some information about yourself such as your name, age, and where you come from, “anata wa" is used to get the same information about your interloculor.

Nan nen sei desu ka - 何年生　です　か

This is a question used in an educational context. Actually, it is pretty much used like the English question "what grade are you in?" except that in Japanese, it literally means "what year student are you?" (year is almost understood as an adjective).

Counting from 0 to 10

Several pronunciations do exist for some numbers. Context and training will let you to know which one to use. We'll learn them gradually. But don't worry. Even if you make a mistake, your Japanese interlocutor will easily understand you, which is the main goal, isn't it ? For phone numbers for example, "zero, yon, nana, kyuu" are used. Spaces or hyphens between numbers in a phone number are pronounced NO. Although Kanji exist for all numbers, Japanese people often use Arabic numbers in everyday's written communication. Their Kanji counterparts are very frequent in official documents, historic research materials, displayed prices in traditional restaurants, and in other specialized fields.

One last thing you should be aware of: decimal numbers are written with a dot just like in English (some other languages use a comma).

JAPANESE 15.6
ENGLISH 15.6
FRENCH 15,6

The NO Particle

Particles in Japanese are short words that don't really mean anything by themselves, but they articulate the syntax and the general meaning of the sentence. This phenomenon is similar to words like "OF" (the United States OF America) in English, where "OF" is used to link two elements semantically. Particles in Japanese are numerous, but for now, let's study the NO (の) particle.

NO is the most frequent particle. As we have just seen, it is used to create a link between two elements of the sentence. This link can express possession, or origin. No wonder it's the particle used to create the Japanese possessive pronouns (my, your, his/her, etc.). Notice that the order of the words may be different from the English order sometimes.

Japanese basic sentence structure and the particle WA

The common Japanese sentence pattern is: "topic WA information DESU". 'Topic' indicates the main element of the conversation, what we are talking about. It may be a place, a person, an event, etc. The WA (は) particle is used to indicate the topic in a sentence, so this particle could mean 'regarding' or 'speaking about'. As any particle in Japanese, WA is placed right after the element it's related to.

Just after WA, 'information' is something that we learn about the topic. This information can be a noun, an adjective, etc. As for DESU, remember that it is a marker for politeness and that it can often be translated as TO BE even if that's not always its real meaning (let's keep things easy for now).

Be careful not to mix up TOPIC and SUBJECT in the sentence. Even if it's true that the topic will also be the subject of the sentence most of the times, this is not always the case. So don't say that WA indicates the subject, but rather that WA indicates the topic. It is possible that the direct object might be the topic of the sentence.

Translating "too" using MO

As we've seen together, the basic structure in japanese is "topic WA information DESU". Here, instead of the WA particle, comes the MO particle, which means "too". Be careful : don't ever use the WA particle and the MO particle at the same time. To translate "too", you must remove WA.

Interrogative pronoun NAN

The interrogative pronoun NAN (なん) is used to ask the question WHAT. The full form of NAN actually is NANI, but the I is often removed depending on the way it's used.

NAN is also widely used before what is called counters. No need to ask, "what the heck is a counter?". We'll have time to get back to that. For now, some examples will be enough:

Subject omission

When the topic of a sentence is obvious, it is omitted most of the time, especially orally. Watashi (I) is almost always omitted, and so is Anata (you), especially when addressing someone hierarchically or socially above us. In that case, it's better to use this person's last name, her rank, or her professional function to address her directly. The は particle is added in the conversation when it is really necessary: each time the topic changes.

The business card

The business card is the ultimate weapon for doing business in Japan. If you’re working for a company and go to a business appointment for example, be sure to carry your business cards. Your interlocutor won't fail to hand over hers to you as soon as you’ve met. It’s considered polite to take the card with both hands.

Even if you can't read the characters on it, show your interest to your interlocutor's card by asking her a few questions before putting it in your jacket. These first few words exchanged are also useful to break the ice.

Of course this way of doing is only seen in a professional context. Don't start to distribute your business card to each person you meet there!

Yes and no in Japanese

HAI (はい) is pretty much an equivalent for YES. IIE (いいえ) is the opposite, that is to say NO. However, it’s not always that easy in Japanese. You’d better consider the meaning of HAI as "it's correct" and IIE as "it's wrong". Otherwise, in a negative question, you might come across a few misunderstandings.

Example :

For IIE, be sure to pronounce a long double I, don't say IE (which means "house").

Generally speaking, Japanese people don't like to answer with a straight "no" in most of situations, whether in a professional or a private context. Try to leave some space for a possible negotiation.

If you ask a Japanese person for something, and he looks a bit troubled answering your question, don't insist! He is trying to make you understand that he's not willing to accept what you're asking him for. In such situations, Japanese people often say "CHOTTO..." meaning "it's a bit...". Consider this a "no". They often don't finish the sentence in order not to be too straightforward.

The other ambiguity in negative questions is similar to what we've just seen above. In the Japanese language, a negative structure is often used to invite someone to drink or do something. (Won't you take a cup of coffee? / Do you want some coffee?). If you answer HAI to that question, you'll never have your cup of coffee because your interlocutor will understand "Yes, I won't take any"! Foreigners often make this mistake. To avoid any misunderstanding, try to answer with a complete sentence instead of simply saying HAI or IIE. That way you'll be sure to have your cup of coffee and enjoy your day!

One last thing: YES can also be translated into EE in Japanese. The difference between HAI and EE is that EE is less formal. That doesn't mean that EE isn't polite! Also, EE sounds somewhat feminine.