Center for Distance and Independent Study
Japanese I, First Half Unit

Commentary

Your lessons will provide you with background information, insights, clarifications, and guidelines for each lesson. Please use the textbook, workbook, CDs, and these instructions to be sure you are studying all of the necessary information. This commentary section will attempt to answer questions that might arise as you are working through the textbook and workbook, so please refer to it frequently. Each lesson will introduce new characters and their pronunciations, vocabulary, contextual and situational use of Japanese, and cultural insights.

Unlike English, which uses a letter-based alphabet, the Japanese language utilizes an organized group of syllables (a consonant-vowel pairing). Except for vowels (a, i, u, e, o) and one single consonant (n), the other sounds that make up Japanese are syllables. Therefore, its character sets are called syllabaries. We will first focus our energies on reading and writing hiragana. You will have some roman, or romaji (English alphabet), letters to help you for a short while as you learn hiragana. However, it is best to learn the hiragana syllabary as soon as possible and not become dependent upon the romanized writing of Japanese. Develop good pronunciation by speaking aloud, listening to the CDs and repeating, recording yourself and critiquing your pronunciation.  Learning to read hiragana will improve your pronunciation of Japanese. When reading the romanized writing of Japanese, often English pronunciation interferes and causes problems.  Do your best and don't rush through these important basics. 

You will learn the characters in a different order than what the chart in the textbook shows. The textbook guides you through the character sets in a contextual manner, so you will learn characters that you can immediately put into use. You will keep track of the characters you learn on the hiragana chart in your workbook. It is also strongly recommended that you make flash cards for each of the characters with the hiragana character on one side and the romaji (corresponding English letters) on the other side. 

You will learn about voiced and half-voiced sounds and markings, along with blended sounds, in Lesson 4. It's important to start with the basics and build your knowledge and understanding of the Japanese sound system gradually. It is actually quite structured and orderly. 

Refer to the textbook as you begin working in the workbook. As you write the hiragana characters, be sure to follow the instructions for stroke order. This is very important. You will eventually notice patterns for how to write the characters. These patterns will carry over as you learn the other Japanese scripts, katakana and kanji. If you do not follow the stroke order carefully, you will create difficulties for yourself and for others trying to read your Japanese writing. Develop good habits early; it will make learning Japanese easier in the future.

Japanese Writing and Pronunciation

Before going further, it is important that you know some basics about the Japanese language. The Japanese language has some very unique and interesting characteristics. Linguists remain unsure about its origin. Some place it among Altaic languages; others list it on its own (in other words, unrelated to other language families). Historically, the spoken language closely resembled the languages of the Ryukyu Islands, but there was no evidence of a written Japanese language. The Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa Prefecture, are a chain of islands stretching southwest from Kyushu to within seventy-five miles of Taiwan. Please refer to the map below to get a clearer idea of where these islands are located.From about the third or fourth century CE, Chinese characters began being introduced to Japan by migrating Chinese and Koreans, and kanji became established in Japan throughout the subsequent four centuries. Most historians mark the sixth century as the time period when kanji characters were introduced primarily through the introduction of Buddhism to Japan. 

Figure 1.1. The Ryukyu Islands.

Kanji, literally meaning "symbols from Han China," are ideograms, or picture characters, that represent ideas, concepts, and words. The Western Han dynasty lasted from 206 BCE to 24 CE, and the Eastern Han dynasty lasted from 25 CE to 220 CE. Here are some examples of simple and not-so-simple kanji characters:

Because Japan lacked an organized, documented writing system when Buddhism and other Chinese ideas were introduced, the Chinese kanji characters were integrated them into the Japanese language. Grammatically, Chinese and Japanese are quite different so the integration of Chinese characters and meanings with the Japanese language evolved over hundreds of years. Eventually, two simplified syllabaries were developed to facilitate Japanese grammatical needs that differed from Chinese; for example, adjective and verb conjugation endings, as well as grammatical markers called particles, that exist in Japanese but not in Chinese. These simplified character sets are called hiragana and katakana. Hiragana characters are simplifications of kanji characters that represent phonetic sounds. The strokes are rather flowing and curved in nature. Here are some examples of hiragana:

As mentioned above, due to the grammatical structure of Japanese (verb endings, adjective endings, particles, and other structures absent in Chinese), hiragana is used together with kanji characters to fit the Japanese linguistic format. Soon, you will be shown examples of contextual Japanese where kanji and hiragana are used together. 

Katakana characters were also created from parts of kanji characters. They represent the same phonetic sounds as the hiragana set, but they are used when writing words of foreign origin, sometimes for sound words (onomatopoeia), or to show emphasis for certain words like company names, etc. They look more block-like, with straighter lines.  Here are some examples of katakana:

When reading Japanese in context, you may see all three character sets within one sentence. For example, the following sentence means "I like ice cream." The word for "ice cream" is in katakana (six characters). Can you also find two kanji characters and five hiragana characters?

私 は　アイスクリーム　が　好き です。

To pronounce this sentence, say:

Watashi wa aisu kuriimu ga suki desu.  

Please refer to the pronunciation guide below:

The consonants are not so different than English consonants. The most noticeable differences are as follows:

The chart below is a simplified pronunciation chart for your reference. Read it from left to right in order to get a feel for the syllabary.

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

The following chart is organized vertically. The rightmost column contains the vowels. The last character, ん (n), in the left-most column, is the only single consonant in the Japanese language. All other characters, except for the vowels, are syllables consisting of a consonant or consonant blend and a vowel. Please practice reading this chart aloud, vertically from right to left. Refer to your recordings to check your pronunciation. For example, read:

In Japanese, each syllable is pronounced for an equal length of time, as if being timed by a metronome. In contrast, English syllables have irregular lengths. Also, do not open or move your mouth too much when speaking in Japanese. Because Japanese syllables are open-ended—meaning that they end with vowels—the mouth remains open at the end of each syllable. If you have a chance, look closely at the mouth of a native Japanese speaker while he or she speaks.

Introducing Yourself

When introducing yourself in Japanese, start by saying, "It's nice to meet you" (Hajimemashite).

This literally means "(I'm meeting you) for the first time." This should be followed by Watashi no namae wa Oba desu.This means, "My name is Oba." (Insert your own name in the place of .)

The last phrase basically communicates your pleasure meeting the person, Douzo yoroshiku. It literally means "Please consider me favorably."

Listen to these phrases and practice saying them.

Bowing is also an important custom when meeting or greeting people in Japan. Bowing demonstrates respect and humility. It is important when you bow to show the top of your head, and not your face, as you bend slightly from the waist. Your eyes should look down, but your neck and back remain aligned. Practice this self-introduction standing up. Bow when you say hajimemashite. Then, bow once again as you say douzo yoroshiku. Here is a guide for your self-introduction.  It is broken into syllables for ease of reading. Under the romaji (English-letter alphabet) are the corresponding hiragana characters:

Note: When su falls at the end of a sentence, the u portion of the syllable is often not voiced. In this case, desu sounds like des.

Important:  お (o) in front of namae ("name") is a Japanese prefix, which is used to show respect to others. Therefore, if it is your name, you won't add  お  in front of namae ("name"). Don't forget. If you say o na ma e wa …when you want to say "My name is …" it will sound strange.

Vocabulary

* Remember that a particle follows the word that it marks or modifies.

Grammar

Are you beginning to see how the Japanese language works? If it seems a bit confusing, don't worry. Japanese grammar is organized and predictable, with few exceptions. There are no feminine or masculine markers as in Spanish and French. Typically, there are no plurals. So, if you want to say "I have three kimono(s)," for example, you say, Kimono ga mitsu arimasu. Notice that the word kimono did not change. There are a few instances where you can make personal pronouns plural by adding tachi.  For example, watashi is "I" and watashitachi is "we." 

Sentence Structure, the Topic Particle, and the Possessive Particle

You have learned how to say your name in the "Introducing Yourself" section. You have listened to the self-introduction phrases (Wa ta shi no na ma e wa ____________ de su) and practiced them, right?

Let's learn more about a basic grammatical sentence structure of Japanese. You can see the basic structure in the following diagram.

Notice that Japanese sentences end with verbs. In the first structure above, the verb is "is," which is de su in Japanese. Therefore, the latter part of the word in an English sentence structure (describing a topic) comes in the middle of the sentence and is followed by です (de su).  In other words, です (de su) always comes at the end of a sentence in this structure.

Another important point here is the usage of a topic marker particle, は (wa). As mentioned above, this topic marker particle is written は (ha) but pronounced wa. It always follows a topic* (or subject) word. Because of this topic marker, Japanese sentence structure is quite flexible. In formal writing, a topic word comes first (as in English "as for" comes first) in a sentence.

* The concept of "topic" may be unfamiliar for you. It is loosely translated as "as for…" or "speaking of…." In this beginner level, however, the topic word is usually a subject, too. Therefore, you can see it as a subject.

In informal writing or casual speech, however, you can place a topic word in the middle of the sentence or at the end. As long as you keep は (wa) beside the topic word, Japanese people will understand what you are saying. We may say, for example, Hana, namae wa ("Hana, name is") or Aoi, sono pen wa ("Blue, the pen is"). With action verbs, it would be more complicated for an English speaker. For example, we could not say, "A pen gave me Hana" if what you mean is "Hana gave me a pen." In Japanese, as long as you say wa after "Hana," everyone will understand "Hana" to be the topic/subject who gave you a pen. So, it is very important to place the topic particle in the right place!

The last point here is that は (wa) always comes in the place where you see "is" in the English sentence in this first structure. For example, the Japanese translation of "Name is Hana" is Namae ("name") wa Hana. Do you understand?  That's a good trick for you to know.

Now, look at the phrase again. The beginning is Wa ta shi no. Wa ta shi means "I," so it does look like "I, name is ________", doesn't it? Well, if you take a close look, you will notice that there is one more letter after Wa ta shi. It is の (no). This is the second particle you must know, and it is called a possessive marker particle.

Think of the possessive marker particle as an apostrophe plus s ('s) . It not only shows possession but in some cases indicates a relationship between the words on either side of the の character. Examples showing possession are as follows:

Examples showing relationship are as follows:

Watch out! Japanese sentences seem inverted compared to English ones. Unlike the subject-verb-object structure of English sentences, Japanese has a subject-object-verb structure.In the second sentence above, for example, "textbook of" follows "Japanese language" when translated into Japanese.

Please use these additional Web sites to support your study:

• Kids Web Japan: Hiragana Chart
• Japan Guide: Hiragana
• Japan Guide: Japanese History, Nara and Heian Periods (710–1185)
• Omniglot: Japanese Hiragana
• "A Guide to the Functions of Structural Particles in Japanese," by Ken Butler
• "Japanese Particles," by Tim R. Matheson