안녕하새요 !
こんにちは! Last on our introductory series, we have Japanese!
I am very much a beginner in Japanese (still learning Hiragana and Katakana) so I’ll be learning as we go.
Today we’ll be learning:
How to say hello!
Basic sentence structure.
How to introduce yourself.
Basic Sentence Structure
Japanese is similar in sentence structure to Korean. They both use SOV. For more on this sentence structure go look at this Korean post
Subject/Object Markers
Japanese even has subject and object markers like in Korean. They are a tad bit complicated and have different nuances to them so we’ll just go over them as they show up.
Vocab
こんにちは – Hello
私 – I (n.)
クリス – Chris
です – Am (to be)(v.)
これ – this
ブログ – Blog
よろしくおねがいします – Please take care of me
Text/Story
こんにちは!
私はクリスです.
これは私のブログです.
よろしくおねがいします .
Translation
Hello!
I am Chris.
This is my blog.
Please take care of me.
Translation Break Down
The general structure of the translation breakdown will be:
Original Text
Romanized
English Translation
Word-by-word translation
Explanation
こんにちは!
Kon’nichiwa
Hello!
こんにちは (Hello)
– This is the most common way of saying hello to people you just meet. There are many other ways to say hello that we’ll go over in future stories.
私はクリスです.
Watashi wa Kurisudesu
I’m Chris
私 (I), クリス (Chris), です (Am/to be)
– Very simple and straightforward way to introduce yourself. A lot of meanings/words are implied in Japanese. The “name” here is left out for example. If we wanted to say the full introductory phrase (using “My name is”) we would say “私の名前はクリスです” (Watashinonamaeha Kurisudesu)
– The “I” ( 私は) can also be omitted, leaving just ” クリスです ” (Chris am). Note that the more is left out of the sentence, the more informal it becomes so it should only be left out if the person you’re talking to is comfortable with you.
これは私のブログです
Kore wa watashi no burogudesu
This is my blog.
これ (This), 私 (I), の (Of (symbolizes possession), ブログ (Blog), です (IS)
– We see here that the subject marker ” は ” comes after ” これ “. That means the subject of this sentence is “this” (this blog but the blog is implied).
– の is a special word that signifies possession. It is placed in between two nouns so show that one has possession over another. Typically the former has possession over the latter. Here 私 is the former noun so it has possession over the latter, ブログ . So 私のブログ becomes “my blog”. の functions very similarly to “的”. You can read about it in the Chinese post.
– Japanese uses lots of “loan words”. These are just words taken from other languages that are written using Japanese “letters”. Katakana is a special Japanese alphabet that is used to write foreign words. We know that ” ブログ ” (blog) is a loan word because it is written in katakana.
よろしくおねがいします
yoroshiku onegaishimasu
Please take care of me
よろしくおねがいします (Please take care of me)
– This is a special phrase really only seen in Japanese. It can mean many different things ranging from “I’m in your care” to “Please and thank you”. Here it’s being used as a sort of “please treat me kindly and guide me as we go forward”.
Thanks for reading! I hope you learned a bit and had fun! If you have any questions, comments, corrections, or suggestions, please leave a comment. Also, if you missed a post or you’re new here, consider looking at some other’s we have. https://chrislearns.home.blog/blog-feed/
Thanks and see you tomorrow! Fridays are fun days 🙂
Language Learning With Chris 