The Very Basic Guide to Japanese

This is a very basic guide to Japanese. You might have read my very basic guide to Russian; if not look for the reference / link at the end of this blogpost.

I've learned some Japanese before, in fact I even studied Japanology, though this was more studying the culture than the language. As I had forgotten most of it and need to review Japanese during the next weeks, I thought better start to write the very basic guide first and then concentrate on other words.

Learning the two syllable scripts (Hiragana ひらがな and Katakana カタカナ) is very helpful. Kanji (漢字) would even be better, but if you have no experience with Chinese character, which is what Kanji means, then you won't be able to get far within a short period of time. Hiragana script is used for Japanese words. The same inventory of katakana is used for foreign words. Kanji are limited to less than 2000. Kanji may be read in different ways (on-reading or Chinese reading and kun-reading or Japanese reading), one has to learn this. I'll abstain from giving examples! Let's move on with the very basic approach!

Yes - hai (はい)
No - iie (いいえ)
Thanks – domo arigato (どうもありがとう)
Please - dozo (どうぞ)
Excuse me - gomen nasai (ご免なさい)
I am sorry – sumimasen (済みません)
Good morning – ohayo gazaimasu (おはようごやいます)
Good day – konnichi wa (今日は)
Good evening – konban wa (今晩は)
Good night – oyasumi nasai (お休みなさい)
Goodbye – sayonara (さようなら)
How are you? – ikaga desu ka? (いかがですか?)
Very well, thanks. – genki desu (元気です)
How much is it? – dono kurai (どのくらい)
Write it down- kaite imasu (書いています)
I don’t understand – wakarimasen (わかりません)
Where are the toilets? – benjo wa doko ni arimasu ka? (便所はどこにありますか?)
Entrance – iriguchi (入り口)
Exit – deguchi (出口)
What is your name? – onamae wa? (お名前は?)
I am LMK – LMK moshimasu (LMK と申します)
Am I am back – tadaima (ただいま)

PS. Mistakes are my mistakes!

The Very Basic Guide to Russian http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2012/10/the-very-basic-guide-to-russian.html