August 14, 2009 by Rok | Free Japanese Lessons | 2 comments - Add yours »
Japanese Lesson #1: Greetings
Short but necessary introduction
It’s about time we start with our free japanese lessons for beginners! :) The goal is to help you learn the basics of this language in a simple way without complicated explanations that would put you to sleep! Our approach is a bit different from what you’d usually find in textbooks. We heard many times how foreign students of Japanese get a big shock when they arrive to Japan and find out that their learned Japanese doesn’t help them as much as they thought. Our aim is to help you simultaneously learn reading, writing and speaking a more casual everyday Japanese. These lessons would be practically impossible without Erika’s help. As a native Japanese, she also offered her voice to be used for the audio pronounciation. Of course, all your comments, questions or suggestions are always welcome.
Before we begin, a few words about our strategy! In each lesson, you’ll see the word or sentence written in Japanese either in Hiragana (for words of Japanese origin) or Katakana (for words of foreign origin). You can learn how to read these by the help of our Hiragana in Katakana charts. Underneath, there will be a Romaji version of the same word or sentence, which is Japanese written using the Latin alphabet. At the end you’ll see English translation and any special notes where necessary.
Also, don’t forget to listen to audio pronounciation by clicking on the green and yellow buttons. The green one is for normal speed, the yellow one for slow speed, syllable by syllable. We know it’s sometimes hard to catch the correct pronounciation, so we hope that the slow version will be helpful For listening, you’ll need Flash installed in your browser.
Let’s begin!
How can you greet someone in Japan?
おはよう。
Ohayou.
Good morning or ‘morning!
Casual greeting for people you know, like friends, family, acquaintances…
おはようございます。
Ohayou gozaimasu.
Good morning.
This is a more polite version. Use it for people you don’t know, people older than you…
こんにちは。
Konnichiwa.
Hello.
There’s a special rule when writing this word in Hiragana: the last syllable WA should be written as HA, but still pronounced as WA.
こんばんは。
Konbanwa.
Good evening.
The same rule about the last syllable as above applies here as well.
さようなら。
Sayounara.
Goodbye.
またね。
Matane.
See you! or bye.
Casual greeting for people you know better or friends.
おやすみ。
Oyasumi.
Good night.
Casual way to say good night.
おやすみなさい。
Oyasumi nasai.
Good night.
A more polite way to say good night. For example, for people older than you.
That’s all for today. We shall continue next time! :)
guys, this is GREAT! :) keep posting :)
Hey Maja, glad to hear you’re learning! :D