BASIC CONVERSATION IN JAPANESE LANGUAGE

BASIC CONVERSATION IN JAPANESE LANGUAGE B No 1 est beg for inner WRITER: TENGKU DIYANA BINTI TENGKU IBRAHIM FAZILAH BINTI ISMAIL FAEZAH BINTI MOHD SAOAD

This book explains about the foundation to Japanese language by introducing the hiragana writing letters stroke and the correct pronunciation of hiragana letter in Japanese. This book present an introduction to the Japanese language to the reader which contains 8 main chapters such as the foreword of hiragana writing and the correct pronunciation of hiragana letters in Japanese. Furthermore, it includes the numbering and basic words of daily conversation in Japanese as well as grammar compliance. Besides that, it comprise various exercises such as puzzles for more attractive and interesting learning sessions. The basics of the language used are also very helpful for readers who have never spoke Japanese nor do not have the experience to talk or pronounce Japanese word accurately. PREFACE i

Editor Fazilah binti Ismail Writer Tengku Diyana Binti Tengku Ibrahim Fazilah binti Ismail Faezah Binti Mohd Sa’oad Image ©Freepik, ©Canva, CC BY 3.0 Cover Image ©Canva First Published August 2022 All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher eISBN 978-967-2498-75-9 Published By Politeknik Muadzam Shah Lebuhraya Tun Abdul Razak 26700 Muadzam Shah Pahang Darul Makmur. No. Tel : 09-4502005/2006/2007 No. Fax : 09-4502009 Website: www.pms.edu.my BASIC CONVERSATION IN JAPANESE LANGUAGE ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Alhamdulillah, all praise is only to Allah S.W.T. His Almighty and Utmost ,who gave us strength, blessing and guidance we were able to finish this ebook within the given time. Upon his allowance, all the problems and challenges surpassed to ensure the success of the work. We gained precious knowledge and experience during the completion of this ebook. First and foremost, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to our family, friends and all those who have been giving supporting advice and courage involving the successful writing of this ebook. Moreover, the completion of this ebook could not have been fulfil without the continuous support from the management of Muadzam Shah Polytechnic for always providing exposure and encouragement in finishing this ebook. iii

C O N T E N T S T A B L E O F 6 P R A C T I C E T H E C O R R E C T P H O N E T I C S O U N D B A S E D O N H I R A G A N A L E T T E R . 4 I N T R O D U C T I O N T O H I R A G A N A L E T T E R S . 12 N U M B E R S 27 I N T R O D U C I N G Y O U R S E L F 40 B U I L D I N G S I M P L E S E N T E N C E S 43 B A S I C J A P A N E S E W O R D S A N D A P P L Y I N G H I R A G A N A W R I T I N G . 51 U S I N G T H E C O R R E C T G R A M M A R . 56 E X E R C I S E

Minnasan konnichiwa! みなさん こんにちわ I'm your sensei Diyana. Sensei means teacher. You will love learning Japanese because it’s easy.

There are also other reason that you will want to learn Japanese. Among the reason is because you want to change your life. Learning a new language will expand your knowledge, open new pathways towards many opportunities such as you get to travel more convenient in Japan as you can bond with their people and build a career in Japan. Learning Japanese language makes you explore their culture and open your mind in a new perspective of life. Learning a new language can also improves your memory. Studies have shown that a person who studies other language have proven that it improved their memory. Significantly it will delays dementia and Alzheimer as your brain gets healthier. If you love Japanese pop culture such as anime, manga or drama and their technology such as Sony PlayStation and its video games, you will become more excited to learn Japanese. Japan economy has the world largest production in electronic goods manufacture. Its famous brands are Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba are some of the brands of appliance that we have at home. Japan is also high in automobile production as we all know some of these brands are Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Daihatsu and Subaru. Knowing Japanese opens up many business and job opportunities. Majority of their people don’t understand other language. So, understanding Japanese will get you a long way. INTRODUCTION 1

If you would love to travel there, then learning Japanese will help a lot during your tour. There are a lot of interesting sites for you to explore and see such as Mount Fuji, their castles, museums and Japanese village. Some of their dishes are also common to us such as bento and sushi. If you love their culture, you will also love their traditional attire such as kimono. Some of you might also have learn karate that is origins from Japan. Some words are also we have commonly heard such as karaoke, wasabi, tycoon and ramen. There are also a lot of English word made its way into Japanese such icecream, family, camera, taxi and sister. All these words are borrowed and applied in their daily conversation. 2

Konnichiwa! I’m Ichiro. Today we'll start learning basic hiragana. Hiragana is phonetic letter in Japanese writing system. There are also katakana and kanji but you will see that hiragana is the most commonly used in Japanese writing. Okay let’s start! 3

HIRAGANA ひらがな 4

HIRAGANA ひらがな Japanese writing use 3 types of scripts such as hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana is the most basic alphabet. Mastering hiragana is fun and easy. Contrary to the English alphabet, each hiragana character represent only one syllable sound. For example, the English letter A can be pronounce either ‘a’ or ‘ae’ and etc… but for the hiragana letter あ will only be pronounce as ‘a’. Similarly for katakana, each character is also pronounce the same way as hiragana counterpart, however the shape of the writing is different. Katakana is the second script in Japanese writing. The application for this script is mostly used on foreign word. Hiragana and katakana syllables contains 46 basic character. However, there are nearly 3000 of characters for kanji to be used in Japanese . Kanji are Chinese characters and each of them represents a word. Therefore it is harder to master Kanji since there are thousands of Japanese words available. However it is still essential and important to learn Kanji to completely understand every Japanese communication. 5

HIRAGANA ひらがな Anyway, this book will only focus on hiragana as it is meant for beginner. Hiragana is the most frequent character that we will find in Japanese note because it is the fundamental phonetic writing system. Moreover, hiragana is easier to learn. After mastering hiragana, you will find it is effortless to remember katakana. Plus, lots of Japanese resources is written in hiragana. 6

HIRAGANA ひらがな H N T S K A は な た さ か あ A ha na ta sa ka a ひ に ち し き い I hi ni chi shi ki i ふ ぬ つ す く う U fu nu tsu su ku u へ ね て せ け え E he ne te se ke e ほ の と そ こ お O ho no to so ko o Practice these hiragana letters stroke and the sound. The characters are written vertically, so it will be read from right to left. The roman character or the romaji is how the character is pronounce. 7

HIRAGANA ひらがな Ｎ N W R Y M ん な わ ら や ま A nn na wa ra ya ma に り み I ni ri mi ぬ る ゆ む U nu ru yu mu ね れ め E ne re me の を ろ よ も O no wo ro yo mo Some of the characters are obsolete so the table area are darken such as ‘ye’. をcan be pronounced as ‘wo’ but more often sounded as ‘o’. へ also can be pronounced as ‘he’ but more often sounded as ‘e’. 8

HIRAGANA ひらがな P B D Z G ぱ ば だ ざ が A pa ba da za ga ぴ び ぢ じ ぎ I pi bi ji ji gi ぷ ぶ づ ず ぐ U pu bu zu zu gu ぺ べ で ぜ げ E pe be de ze ge ぽ ぼ ど ぞ ご O po bo do zo go These are the additional sounds represented by diacritics combined with symbols. The characters are the same as before but added with symbol, it will be pronounced differently. 9

HIRAGANA ひらがな B H N G K びゃ ひゃ にゃ ぎゃ きゃ A bya hya nya gya kya びゅ ひゅ にゅ ぎゅ きゅ U byu hyu nyu gyu kyu びょ ひょ にょ ぎょ きょ O byo hyo nyo gyo kyo S C J R M P しゃ ちゃ じゃ りゃ みゃ ぴゃ A sha cha ja rya mya pya しゅ ちゅ じゅ りゅ みゅ ぴゅ U shu chu ju ryu myu pyu しょ ちょ じょ りょ みょ ぴょ O sho cho jo ryo myo pyo しぇ ちぇ じぇ E she che je Combination of two characters will also be pronounced differently. Addition of the small 'y' is called yōon. 10

sakura ichiban arigatou ganbatte sashimi ohayo kodomo sensei konnichiwa sudoku emoji How do you write these words in Hiragana? EXERCISE: HIRAGANA 11

THE NUMBERS すじ 12

The writing of numbers in Japanese are similar to Chinese Kanji but pronounce differently. Numbers in Japanese are easy to remember because you just need to start memorizing from 1 to 10. Some numbers like 1, 3, 6 and 8 may be pronounce differently in certain condition. Then 100, 1000, 10 000, 100 000, 1 000 000 and so on. The rest are just stack of repetition. For example number 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 is just juu ichi, juu ni, juu san, juu yon, juu go, juu roku, juu nana, juu hachi, juu ku. The tenth numbers such as 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 are nu juu, san ju, yon juu, go juu, roku juu, nana juu, hachi ju, kyu ju. 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 are ni hyaku, san byaku, yon hyaku, go hyaku, roppyaku, nana hyaku, happyaku, kyuuhyaku. THE NUMBERS すじ Ichi juu Hyaku 1 いち 10 じゅう 100 ひゃく 2 に 20 にじゅう 200 にひゃく 3 さん 30 さんじゅう 300 さんびゃく 4 よん 40 よんじゅう 400 よんひゃく 5 ご 50 ごじゅう 500 ごひゃく 6 ろく 60 ろくじゅう 600 ろつぴゃく 7 しち 70 ななじゅう 700 ななひゃく 8 はち 80 はちじゅう 800 はつぴゃく 9 きゅう 90 きゅうじゅう 900 きゅうひゃく 13

The irregular pronounciation happens because there are interaction between two syllables such as sanbyaku, roppyaku and happyaku. So if you want to say 84 it will be hachijuu yon, 123 it will be hyaku nijuu san or 666 will be ropyaku rokujuu roku. One thousand is sen and ten thousand is ichiman. For the rest of the numbers are just normal combination of stack of repetition. Except for 8000 that pronounced hassen. For example, 7,358,642 will be nana hyaku sanjuu gomann hassen roppyaku yonjuu ni. But when 1000 appears in the higher units such as 31,000, you can also read it sann mann issen. THE NUMBERS すじ Senn Ichi Mann Hyaku 1000 せん 10,000 いちまん 100,000 じゅうまん 2000 にせん 20,000 にまん 200,000 にじゅうまん 3000 さんせん 30,000 さんまん 300,000 さんじゅうまん 4000 よんせん 40,000 よんまん 400,000 よんじゅうまん 5000 ごせん 50,000 ごまん 500,000 ごじゅうまん 6000 ろくせん 60,000 ろくまん 600,000 ろくじゅうまん 7000 ななせん 70,000 ななまん 700,000 ななじゅうまん 8000 はつせん 80,000 はちまん 800,000 はちじゅうまん 9000 きゅうせん 90,000 きゅうまん 900,000 きゅうじゅうまん 1,000,000 ひゃくまん 14

1 2 3 4 5 ⼀ ⼆ 三 四 五 いち に さん よん∕し ご ichi ni san yon/shi go 6 7 8 9 10 六 七 ⼋ 九 ⼗ ろく しち/なな はち きゅう∕く じゅう roku sichi hachi kyu/ku juu 0 零 れい∕ぜろ∕まる rei/zero/maru NUMBERS すじ 15

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 万百 万⼗ 万⼀ 千百 ⼗ ⼀ ひゃくまん じゅうまん いちまん せん ひゃく じゅう いち hyaku man juuman ichiman sen hyaku juu ichi 1000 yen bank note and its currency symbol. 0 NUMBERS すじ 1000 is pronounced sen or issen. 10 million can be senmann or issenman and 100 million is ichi oku and 1 trillion is ichi cho. Japanese currency is yen but pronounced en such as 100 円 will be hyaku en. Decimal point is ten for example 0.3 is rei ten san. Discount is waribiki, while percent is pasento, so 50% discount is gohyaku pasento waribiki. If you want to ask for the price of a certain product, just say ‘ikuradesuka?’. So if the price is 11,100 yen so the seller will say ‘ichiman sen hyaku en’. 16

0 How to read numbers Numbers are read from left to right. If the numbers are below a thousand (1000), just combine and read as usual. However, for numbers from 10 thousand to 10 milion is set as 'man'. Afterwards, the numbers from 100 million to 100 billion is set as 'oku'. Subsequently, above 1 trillion is 'chou'. 17

Japanese numbers are fairly simple, however a lot of practice can speed up the process of memorizing. All you have to do is memorize and combined the pieces together. How to read numbers 18

Number Hiragana Romaji 100 ひゃく Hyaku 101 ひゃくいち Hyaku ichi 200 にひゃく Nihyaku 300 さんびゃく Sanbyaku 400 よんひゃく Yonhyaku 500 ごひゃく Gohyaku 600 ろっぴゃく Roppyaku 700 ななひゃく Nanahyaku 800 はっぴゃく Happyaku NUMBERS すじ 19

Number Hiragana Romaji 900 きゅうひゃく Kyuuhyaku 1000 せん Sen 2000 にせん Nisen 3000 さんぜん Sanzen 4000 よんせん Yonsen 5000 ごせん Gosen 6000 ろくせん Rokusen 7000 ななせん Nanasen 8000 はっせん Hassen NUMBERS すじ 20

Number Hiragana Romaji 9000 きゅうせん Kyuusen 10,000 いちまん Ichiman 100,000 じゅうまん Juuman 1,000,000 ひゃくまん Hyakuman 10,000,000 いっせんまん Issenman 100,000,000 いちおく Ichioku 1,000,000,000 じゅうおく Juuoku NUMBERS すじ 21

六百三⼗⼀ 631 roppyaku sanjuu ichi ろぴゃく さんじゅう いち ⼆万六千⼋百⼆⼗九 2 6 8 2 9 niman rokusen hapyyaku nijuu kyuu にまんろくせはぴゃくにじゅきゅ EXAMPLE 1 22

⼆百三⼗七万五千六百⼋⼗九 2 375 689 Nihyaku sanju nanaman gosen roppyaku hachiju kyu にひゃく さんじゅう ななまん ろぴゃく はちじ ゅう きゅう EXAMPLE 2 23

6 9 10 17 99 345 10,000 50,000 555,000 900,999 1,000,000 How do you pronounce the numbers in Japanese? Write the answers in hiragana. EXERCISE: NUMBER 24

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BASIC JAPANESE WORDS AND APPLYING HIRAGANA WRITING. 27

There are a few simple words and phrases that we could learn if we are visiting Japan. The main reason to learn these words are because not many Japanese locals understand English. Only a few Japanese people who are fluent in English. It helps to smooth out some common problem that we may encounter and at the same time being nice if we were greeted by the locals. These include pronouns, basic conversation, simple greetings, replies, food and common things that are found in Japan. Pronounce are rarely used in a sentence because the subject is not important to be included in a sentence. It depends on the speakers' status and used in a formal context. It is like talking to someone who already knew what we were referring to. We may have encountered some of the traditional Japanese food since it is widely available around the world such as sushi, miso and ramen. There are other traditional food that we can try to indulge that only available in Japan. Some words that are taught in this book are common things that you will see a lot in Japan such as anime, bullet train and vending machine. SIMPLE WORDS かたんな ことば 28

We will learn some of the basic words that are commonly used in Japanese conversation.First, we will learn the common pronoun. ENGLISH JAPANESE HIRAGANA I Watashi わたし You Anata あなた She Kanojo かのじょ He Kare かれ They Karera かれら We Watashitachi わたしたち Everyone Min’na みんな All Subete すべて Us Warera われら Man/Male Otoko おとこ Woman/Female Josei じょせい Child/Children Kodomo こども BASIC JAPANESE WORDS AND APPLYING HIRAGANA WRITING. 29

Do I know you? わたしは あなたを しって いますか? Watashi wa anata o shitte imasu ka? BASIC CONVERSATION USING PRONOUNS My name is Diyana. わたしの おなまえは ディヤナです。 Watashinonamaeha diyanadesu He likes sushi. からわ すしが すきです。 Kare wa sushi ga sukidesu. 30

My children loves the playground. わたしの こどもたちわ あそびば が だいすきです。 Watashi no kodomo-tachi wa asobiba ga daisukidesu. BASIC CONVERSATION USING PRONOUNS Is everyone here? みんな ここに いる? Min'na koko ni iru? 31

ENGLISH JAPANESE HIRAGANA/ KATAKANA Sir Sa さ∕ー Madam Madamu まだむ∕マダム Friend Tomodachi ともだち Sibling Kyōdai きょだい Father Otosan おとさん Words to address people in Japanese are easy to remember because of some of the words sound almost the same as English pronounciation. BASIC JAPANESE WORDS AND APPLYING HIRAGANA WRITING. 32

ENGLISH JAPANESE HIRAGANA/ KATAKANA Mother Okasan おかさん Brother Ani あに Sister Shisutā しすた∕シスター Grandfather Ojīsan おじさん Grandmother Obāsan おばさん Collectively, you will see nearly a lot of Japanese words sound identical to English. There are only a handful of new sound that you will need to learn. BASIC JAPANESE WORDS AND APPLYING HIRAGANA WRITING. 33

BASIC JAPANESE WORDS AND APPLYING HIRAGANA WRITING. Now we will learn the basic greetings and phrases when meeting someone. ENGLISH JAPANESE HIRAGANA Hello/Good afternoon Kon'nichiwa こんにちわ Thank you Arigatou ありがとう Excuse me Sumimasen すみません Welcome Irasshaimase いらっしゃいませ Yes Hai はい No iie いいえ Good morning Ohayōgozaimasu おはようございます Good evening Konbanwa こんばんわ Good night Oyasuminasai おやすみなさい Good bye Sayonara さよなら See you again Mata ne またね 34

ごはん たまご とうふ Do you like fish? あなたはさかながすき ですか? Yes, I do. はい、そうし ます。 けいにく にく にぎり すし てんぷら さしみ うどん/ らめん りんご わさび べんと たこやき みそしる もち FOOD しょこもつ You will see a lot of the common food in Japan are also found in our local store. 35

ねこ いしゃ けいたい でんわ しんかんせん さくら まつちゃ にほんざる やま じどはんばいき きもの∕ゆかた まんが/あにめ くすり とろ ふとん たたみ EVERDAY WORDS にちじょの ことば These are popular things that you may see around Japan. Some words are also used in our home such as matcha, tatami and futon. 36

EVERDAY PLACES にちじょお ばしょ Where is? どこ ですか？ If you go to Japan, you may want to ask the locals where is the location of these places. 37 いちば えき たべる ばしょ もすく くこ ATMき びょいん けいさつしょ

けいたい でんわ しんかんせん とろ りんご EXERCISE: BASIC JAPANESE WORDS Match the word with the picture うどん/ らめん 38

Write the correct word based from the picture in hiragana. EXERCISE: WRITING SIMPLE WORD 39

BUILDING SIMPLE SENTENCES 40

BUILDING SIMPLE SENTENCES Japanese sentences usually does not includes the subject that we are focusing on. It means that the subject is known and doesn’t need to be mentioned. If the subject is unclear, then you can include it in your sentence. She is so pretty! かのじょわ とても かわいい! Kanojo wa totemo kawaī! Or you can just say... かわいい! This is an elephant. それは ぞです Sore wa zōdesu. Or you can just say ぞです. 41

Let’s take a selfie. じどり しましょう。 Jidori shimashou. BUILDING SIMPLE SENTENCES Can you hear me? わたしの こえが きこえますか? Watashino koega kikoemasuka? 42

USING THE CORRECT GRAMMAR 43

It is crucial to learn grammar if you want to speak Japanese properly. Japanese grammar may seems to be complicated to English speaker for the reason that its sentence order is different. English sentence start with subject, followed by verb and ends with object. For example, I walk to the mall. However, the Japanese order will be I mall walk or watashiwa moruni aruite ikimasu (わたしは もるに あるいて いきます). The verb will always located at the end of the sentence. Every other part such as time or location is flexible as it can be anywhere in the sentence. Sometime, subject may be more natural if it were excluded. For instance, if we want to say I eat sashimi, we don't need to say I or watashiwa. We just say sashimi eat or in Japanese, sashimi o taberu (さしみお たべ る). To add time, just say that I will eat sashimi tomorrow or in Japanese ashita sashimi o tabemasu (あした さしみお たべま すす). Note that the word eat or in Japanese taberu and tabemasu has the same meaning. Thera are two types of verb in Japanese grammar. The u verb and ru verb. Masu form is more polite. The root word is tabe. On the other hand, drink in Japanese is nomu or nomimasu. Its root word is nom. Meanwhile, desu meaning it is, is a linking verb not a u verb nor ru verb. USING THE CORRECT GRAMMAR 44