Numbers

This week, we covered numbers.

There are two ways of writing the numbers in Japanese, in Hindu-Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) or in Kanji numerals (一, 二, 三). The Hindu-Arabic numerals are more often used in horizontal writing, and the kanji numerals are more common in vertical writing. Also, some numbers, such as 4, 7, and 9, have multiple names.

一
1.
Pronounced ‘ichi’ (rhymes with ‘peachy’).
一 is written as a single horizontal stroke, like an Arabic one, but on its side.

二

2.
Pronounced ‘ni’ (like ‘knee’).
二 is, you guessed it, 2 ‘one’s – again, on their side.

三

3.
Pronounced ‘san’ (like ‘sun’).
三 ‘one’s – on their side.

四

4.
Pronounced ‘yon’ (more like ‘yong’ actually) or 'shi'.
Getting a little trickier in terms of shape. Ignore the bits inside and just think of it as a four-sided object.

五

5.
Pronounced ‘go’ (a very short sound).
五 is conveniently made up of five lines.

六

6.
Pronounced ‘roku’ (pronouncing it as ‘loku’ is actually closer to native pronunciation).
This is a character you’ll just have to commit to memory!

七

7.
Pronounced ‘nana’ or ‘shichi’ (“shee-chee”).
A badly twisted 7 ?

八

8.
Pronounced ‘hachi'.
Another very simple character. With only two strokes, it is not to be confused with ‘ni’(2).

九

9.
Pronounced ‘kyuu’ (just like the letter Q) or 'ku'.

十

10.
Pronounced ‘juu'.
A simple cross shape: a neat ending to a sequence that began with a horizontal line.

After the students mastered how to say numbers (from 0 to 10) in Japanese, they learned how to say thier own phone numbers in Japanese.

When Japanese people read telephone numbers, they avoid similar sounds and short sound. SHI(4) and SHICHI(7) sound alike. ICHI(1) and SHICHI(7) sound alike. Therefore, they use YON for 4, NANA for 7 and KYUU for 9.

Also, single character numbers are lengthened to distinguish each number more easily (i.e., NI(2) to NII, GO(5) to GOO).

So, 927-6541 is read as KYUU(9) NII(2) NANA(7) ROKU(6) GOO(5) YON(4) ICHI(1).

Ask you child what is his/her phone number in Japanese, s/he should be able to say:
"My phone number is XXX-XXXX." in Japanese!

Speaking of numbers, in the Japanese culture, certain numbers are considered “bad luck” or “good luck,” much like the number 13 is considered bad luck in Western culture.

The “bad luck” numbers in Japanese are 4 (SHI) and 9 (KU).

The number four is considered inauspicious because it is pronounced the same as the word for death (SHI). Therefore, one should not make presents that consist of four pieces. In some hotels and hospitals the room number four is skipped.

Also, 9 is bad luck number in Japanese culture because it is pronounced the same as the word for suffering (KU).

Eight is considered good luck because of the mountain-like shape of the kanji for eight 八. Mountains are regarded with reverence in Japan. Also, the character 八 resembles a fan shape, which is considered lucky because it suggests spreading out, growing and increasing, as in mounting good fortune.

Also, in Japan there are certain things one does not do because they are thought to cause bad luck. A few examples are:

Stick chopsticks into the rice: Do not stick your chopsticks into your food generally, but especially not into rice, because only at funerals, chopsticks are stuck into the rice which is put onto the altar.

Give food from chopstick to chopstick: This is only done with the bones of the cremated body at funerals.

Sleeping towards the North: Do not sleep towards the North because bodies are laid down like that.

Whistle in the night: If you whistle in the night, a ghost will come to you.


Another productive week!
SAYOONARA

PS: Are you going to Led Zeppelin Reunion Concert at London's 02 Arena on November 26?

I wish I could go...

KORE, SORE, ARE & HIRAGANA CONSONANT か、き、く、け、こ

This week, students learned how to say "This is XXX." in Japanese, and hiragana か/ka/, き/ki/, く/ku/, け /ke/, こ/ko/.

The Japanese word for "this" is KORE, and "is" is DESU. Also, in Japanese, "WA" is placed after whatever is to be marked as the topic. (A topic marker topic marker is a grammatical particle found in not only the Japanese but Korean languages used to mark the topic of a sentence. ) Since Japanese word order is SUBJECT, OBJECT, and VERB order, "This is XXX." would be "KORE WA XXX DESU."

Then, students learned how to form a question from a statement sentence. Making a question in Japanese is quite simple. In Japanese, the word order of a question is the same as for statements, except that KA is attached to the end of sentence. So, "Is this XXX?" would be "KORE WA XXX DESU KA." Easy, right?

Also, students learned how to say "What is this?" in Japanese. "What" is NAN in Japanese, so you just place NAN to OBJECT. Now we have "KORE WA NAN DESU KA." which means "What is this?" Please notice that there is no question mark "?" in Japanese because the sentence-ending particle KA indicates a question.

In addition to KORE "this", students learned SORE "that", and ARE "that one over there."
Like English, KORE "this" refers to something near the speaker, SORE "that" refers to something near the listener, and ARE "that on over there" refers to something distant from both speaker and listener. However, those KORE "this", SORE "that", and ARE "that one over there", cannot be used for people except for people in pictures and photos.

By the way, Japanese /ra/, /ri/, /ru/, /re/, /ro/ sounds are produced so that the initial "r' sounds somewhat like a combination of the English "l" and "r" sounds. Japanese people have difficulty distinguishing English "l" and "r" sounds. Ask your child the story about a Japanese tourist who went to a restaurant in Hawaii, and ordered rice at the restaurant.

Moreover, students more hiragana, one of Japanese phonetic characters. They learned か/ka/, き/ki/, く/ku/, け/ke/, こ/ko/, が/ga/, ぎ/gi/, ぐ/gu/, げ/ge/, and ご/go/.

Please notice the diffiece between か and が, き and ぎ, く and ぐ, け and げ, こ and ご.

゛resembles a quotation mark placed at the top right corner of a hiragana character. The mark ゛(daku-ten in Japanese, colloquially ten-ten "dot dot"), is a diacritic sign used in the Japanese hiragana syllables to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced.

Finally, students will have their second test on Monday, September 10 for Period 3, and Tuesday, September 11 for Period 6.

Have a wonderful weekend!

SAYOONARA

Bowing, Greetings & Japanese vowels

I thank you for taking the time to meet me at Parents' Night on Wednesday. I am excited to be teaching your child this year! I wanted to catch you all up on this week's topics in the Japanese class.

Frist of all, students learned how to introduce themselves with proper bows, using:
HAJIME MASHITE. "How do you do?"
WATASHI WA -name- DESU. "I am -name-."
DOOZO YOROSHIKU. "Nice to meet you."

Bowing is a very important custom in Japan. Japanese people bow all the time. Bowing is a gesture of respect. Different bows are used for apologies and gratitude, to express different emotions, humility, sincerity, remorse, or deference, and in various traditional arts and religious ceremonies.

Most commonly, they greet each other by bowing instead of handshaking or hugging. It is impolite not to return a bow to whoever bowed to you. Japanese people tend to become uncomfortable with any physical forms of contact. But, they became used to shaking hands with westerners.

Bowing has many functions in one. It expresses the feeling of respect, thanking, apologizing, greeting, and so on. It's a convenient and important custom for you to learn. You can bow, when you say, "ARIGATOO (Thank you)", "SUMIMASEN (Sorry)", "KONNICHIWA (Hello)", "SAYOONARA (Good bye)", "OYASUMI NASAI (Good night)", "OHAYOO GOZAIMASU (Good Morning)", and more!!

When you bowing, pay attention that your:

• eyes move downward with the bow. Do not attempt to make eye contact during bow.
• feet are positioned together, facing forward.
• hands are placed relaxed but straight alongside your body if you are a male. Females lightly cross their hands at their fingertips in front of their body while bowing.
• body is not slouched or not turned away from the other person.

Bowing seems simple, but there are different ways of bowing. It depends on the social status or age of the person you bow to. If the person is higher status or older than you are, you should bow deeper and longer. It is polite to bow, bending from your waist. If it is a casual situation, you can bow like nodding. The most frequent bow is a bow of about 15 degrees. You might feel strange to do it, but try to bow in Japan. You will be considered very polite!

Surely, Japanese think that it is impolite not to return a bow to whoever bowed to you!

Also, students learned Japanese greetings such as OHAYOO GOZAIMASU "Good morning", KON NICHI WA "Hello, Hi, or Good afternoon", KONBANWA "Good evening" and SAYOONARA "Good-bye".

In addition to practical conversations, students have started to learn how to read and write hiragana, one of Japanese phonetic characters. In this week, they learned 5 Japanese vowels: あ, い, う, え, and お.

/a/あ is pronounced like a in father. "ah"

/i/い is pronounced like i in machine. "ee"

/u/う is pronounced like ue in Sue. "oo"

/e/え is pronounced like e in ledge. "eh"

/o/お is pronounced like o in obey. "oh"

Finally, students will have a test on Tuesday, September 4th.
They should have the study guide for the test.

Have a wonderful weekend! and SAYOONARA .

lunar eclipse: taken on Tue, August 28 in Waimea.

NIKON D-100, Nikkor 300mm, Kenko 1.5X teleconverter

* Luner eclipse is "GETT SHOKU" in Japanese, which means "Eating moon."

The first week

What a great start to the new school year!

I hope your child is excited as I am about their Japanese class.

This week your child learned some of basic knowledge of Japan and Japanese language, like…

NAME:
The Japanese refer to their country as "Nippon" or "Nihon". These two names apparently have their origin in the words "place where the sun rises”. The ancient Chinese referred to Japan as a “place where the sun rises” because of its relative geographical location. Since Japan is east of China, the sun appeared to rise from the direction of Japan.

GEOGRAHY:
Japan is an island nation lying off the east coast of Asia. It has the general shape of a crescent and extends 3,000 km (1,860 miles) from tip to tip.

The country is made up of four main islands (Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Hokkaido) which together with more than 4,000 smaller islands are collectively referred to as the Japanese Archipelago. But the way, the Big Island of Hawaii is almost half size of Shikoku island of Japan.

Japan is 10% smaller in physical size than the state of California, yet it is home to almost four times as many people!

The capital of Japan, Tokyo, is one of the largest cities of the world with a population of 12.29-million.

Japan's highest mountain is Mt. Fuji.

Then, a question for you: Which is higher Mt. Fuji or Mauna Kea?

Answer is...Mauna Kea

How about...

Which is higher Mt. Fuji or Mauna Loa?

Answer is...Mauna Loa

Even though the Big Island of Hawaii is half size of Shikoku, we have two mountains higher than Mt. Fuji. We should be proud of this, I guess...

The NATIONAL FLAG:
The national flag of Japan is called “Hinomaru” or “Nisshoki”, which means "the flag of the rising sun". The sun is represented by a red circle at the center. The flag match the name of the country (meaning place from where the sun rises).







JAPANESE LANGUGAGE:
Below are listed a few of the characteristic features of modern Japanese language:

KANJI, HIRAGANA, KATAKANA:
Until Japan came in contact with China, it had no writing system of its own. Japanese was a spoken language only. The Japanese adopted the Chinese writing system to express their spoken language in writing. The Chinese form of writing is called kanji, which literally means “Chinese characters.” Kanji is now one of three systems in the Japanese use to write their language. Hiragana and katakana are the tow other systems. There are phonetic systems, whereas kanji is a system based on meaning rather than sound.

Modern day Japanese sentences are composed of a combination of kanji, hiragana and katakana. Words which have strong semantic value, that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives and some adverbs, are written in kanji. Conjugated portions of verbs, adjectives or nouns (tenses, negations, etc.), particles, interjections, and most adverbs and other parts of sentences which do not convey the major message in the sentence are written in hiragana. Katakana is now used mainly to write words of foreign origin (non-Japanese), or names of foreigners. It is also sometimes used as device to call attention to certain words (i.e., in advertising, announcements, etc). It is also sometimes used to write onomatopoetic expressions.

THE BASIC JAPANESE WORD ORDER:
The word order in Japanese is subject, object, verb order. The Japanese word order in a sentence is subject first, object second, and verb last. Particles follow nouns. Correct particle usage is important in order to convey accurate information. Negations occur at the end of sentences. When forming a question, the word order of the sentence is not changed as it is in English. Rather, the question marker is simply attached at the end of the sentence.

JAPANESE WRITING FORMAT:
Japanese was originally written vertically on a page staring from right to left. Many Japanese books are still printed in this way. Therefore, the front cover of a Japanese book opens from the opposite side of a Western book. Recently, Japanese is written horizontally as is English and sometimes books written his way open the same Western books.

SELF-INRODCUTION
In addition, your child learned how to introduce him or herself. Ask your child to introduce him or herself in Japanese. S/he should be able to introduce him or herself with proper bows!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Welcome to Japanese class

Dear Parents:

I welcome your child to Japanese class! I’m excited about the opportunity to get to know your child, as well as you, and I’m looking forward to a happy and productive school year.

A key element in the foreign language classroom is keeping the students motivated. I think it’s really hard to teach a foreign language by sitting at my desk during the whole class period. I never sit while I teach. My moving around in the class keeps the students more on their toes and gives a certain dynamic to the class.

Although I’m not there to entertain the students but to teach them Japanese, I think teaching can be done in an entertaining way. Motivation being one of the most important factors linked to success in foreign language teaching, students need to be interested in the Japanese language and culture. If they are motivated and interested, not only will they do well in class, but they can also benefit from the Japanese learning experience even beyond the classroom environment.

My ultimate goal is that some of the students will become interested in Japan, appreciate some of its culture, and, perhaps, serve as a personal “bridge between East and West” in the future.

Course Object:
This course is intended for students who want to learn modern Japanese language. It is designed to give a foundation in Japanese sufficient to handle everyday, practical conversions.

The Japanese that will be introduced in this course is up-to-date and standard; it is the language used by educated people and acceptable to Japanese everywhere regardless of age, gender or occupation.

After studying this course thoroughly and carefully, students should have a solid knowledge of basic grammar, to read and write all of the Japanese syllables, hiragana and katakana, recognize some kanji, and develop conversational skills in listening, comprehension, and speaking.

By completing this course with the minimum of grade of C, and receiving a recommendation from me, a student will receive 1 high school credit and can proceed to the next level in the 9th grade.

Since each language reflects certain values, beliefs, and behavior of its culture, students in this course also will learn Japanese culture.

Homework Policy:
It is my job to define and clearly communicate what is expected. However, the students need to ask clarifying questions at school take home the appropriate materials, complete the work, and turn it in on time. It will be checked and recorded.

Homework not turned in at the beginning of class will be considered late. Homework assignments turned in 1 day late will receive half credit and 2 days late will receive no credit. All work will be completed with black or blue ink pen (unless told otherwise by me).

If there is a concern about the quality and/or quantity of homework, please contact me immediately.

Food Allergy:
In addition to our core curriculum, the students are given the opportunity to cook and/ or taste some of Japanese food at the class. If your child has any food item(s) allergic to him/her, please let me know.

Contact:
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me by e-mail. I believe that communicating by e-mail works well for you and me. I can be reached at thiruma@hpa.edu. I also welcome appointments to meet in person.

ARIGATOO GOZAIMASU ("Thank you" in Japanese) for visiting "our" Web site. Yes! This site is not only for me. This is for your child, you and me. Web site. Please feel free to leave any comment.