By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
- Recognize and respond to classroom expressions in the affirmative and negative
- Identify and indicate the location of classroom objects belonging to you or your classmates
- Ask how to say something in Japanese
- Make requests
- Read and write hiragana
2-1 Classroom Japanese
Grammar Notes: Verbs consist of two parts - the verb stem and the verb ending. The verb ending ます [masu], which is the present/future affirmative is the part that gets conjugated. If you want to make the present/future negative form, change this ending to ません [masen]. So, わかります [wakarimasu] "(I) understand" becomes わかりません [wakarimasen] "(I) don't understand" We will learn the past tense endings a little later.
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2-2 Teacher's Directions |
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2-3 What Is This?
Japanese word order: In English, the word order is aways subject, verb, object. In Japanese, the verb always comes last in the sentence. All other words go in front of the verb. And so to know whether the other words are subjects or objects, there are hiragana characters attached to the end of the words called particles. These particles are labels on the words to tell us if they are subject or objects. They are not a part of the word itself and cannot be translated. But they are very important to show us which word is doing the action and which word is receiving the action.
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2-4 This Book Is Mine
Although there is a word to mean "you" in Japanese, あなた [anata], be careful how you use it. It is considered rude to use it to refer to superiors and strangers you just met. So, when talking to your teacher or boss or someone you just met, use their names plus せんせい [sensei] (for teachers) and さん [san] for everyone else if you want to mean "you". It is also used by wives to address their husbands, similar to "dear, honey" in English.
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2-5 Please Give Me
Counters: When counting things in Japanese, there are suffixes attached to the numbers that indicate the type of object being counted. In this chapter you will learn the counter 〜つ [~tsu] for general objects and 〜まい [~mai] for flat objects. Pay attention to the number part, as the pronunciation may change depending on the suffix being used.
**Particles are not attached to counters. Particles are only attached to nouns. |
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Vocabulary Review
Click here to access Yamazaki-sensei's Quizlet flashcards for chapter 2.
Hiragana Review
Click here to access Yamazaki-sensei's hiragana Quizlet flashcards.