Last week, the students learned body parts and expressions using body part words. For instance, "is smart" is あたまが いいです(あたま A TA MA=head, いい II=good, thus means "has a good head"="is smart"), or "かおが いいです(かお KA O=face, いい II=good, thus means "has a good face"= "is good looking." etc.
Body parts they learned were hair, ear, eye, nose, mouth, tooth, hand, stomach, foot/leg, head, face, body, finger, voice, heart and height.
Also, they learned kanji for body parts. Can you guess what these kanji means? HINT: These kanji were derived from the shapes of body parts.
a. 口
b. 目
c. 耳
d. 手
e. 足
f. 心
This week, we covered colors, such as あかA KA(red), しろ(SHI RO) white, くろ(KU RO) black, あお(A O) blue, きいろ(KI I RO) yellow, ちゃいろ(CHA I RO) brown, みどり (MI DO RI) green, and むらさき(MU RA SA KI) purple.
Speaking of colors, certain colors have significance in the Japanese culture. Red and white are used for happy occasions such as weddings, engagements, baby birth, etc. Black is used for funerals. Green has a clean, new and fresh image and therefore is used often to create a positive image.
Also, あお(A O) translates as "blue, " but oftentimes also means green. The green color of traffic light is called あお(A O=blue) in Japanese. New young leaves and fresh green grass are not described as みどり(MI DO RI=green), but as あお(A O=blue). So confusing!
In addition, the students have started to learn katakana, one of Japanese phonetic characters in this semester. Katakana is used to mainly to write non-Japanese words or names. Your child should know how to write his/her first name using katakana. Katakana is also sometimes used as a device to call attention to certain words (i.e., in advertising, announcements, etc.) It is also used to write onomatopoetic expressions.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Answers for kanji:
a. mouth
b. eye
c. ear
d. hand
e. foot/leg
f. heart
