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I passed the JLPT level 1 right after that last post, more than two years ago... It's time for a makeover!

日本人の方々もこれからよろしくお願いします〜！

nita's 日本語 ver. 2008

Wow, it's been almost two years since my last post here. Since then, I've actually started going to Japanese school here in Okayama. After a couple months at the school last year, I took the JLPT Level 2 exam and passed, so this year I'm going for Level 1 (the levels go backwards, so Level 1 is the highest level. I guess that way, you don't have to worry about trying to figure out how many levels are left...?)

Anyway, some of the articles we've read in class have been pretty interesting lately, and we get quite a few practice questions for the reading comprehension section of the EJU. Here's one from today dealing with the differences in yes or no questions in Japanese and English:

　「はい」を "Yes" と同じ意味の言葉とみなしている外国人は、否定疑問文に対する返答としての「はい」に戸惑うことがあるのではないだろうか。
　「明日のパーティーに出席しないんですか」「はい、出席しません。」
　このやりとりでは、英語では "No" となるところを、「はい」と答えているからだる。
　日本語の「はい」の、こうした用例は何を表しているのだろうか。英語の "Yes" が自分の返事の内容が肯定文であることを表しているのに対して、日本語の「はい」は質問者である相手の質問内容を肯定することを表しているのである。だから、上の例のように、相手が「出席しないこと」について質問しているときは、「はい」とその内容を肯定した上で、「出席しません」と確認することになる。
　したがって、形式的には否定疑問文であっても、その意味が勧誘であるような場合には、「はい」の後に肯定形がくることになる。
　「明日のパーティーにいっしょに出席しませんか？」「はい、そうします。」

For foreigners [in Japan] who know that "hai" means "yes" in Japanese, it's often confusing when the answer to a negative question is "hai."

"Will you not attend the party tomorrow?" "Yes, I will not go."

Like in this example, where in English, the answer would be "no," it's instead answered with "hai."

What does the Japanese "hai" represent in an example like this? The English "yes" is representing a positive answer on the part of the answerer, while the Japanese "hai" represents agreement with the contents of the question. Therefore, like in the above example, in response to the questioner asking about "not attending the party," the answer, "hai," agrees with the content "not attending" and confirms that that is in fact the case.

In the same way, even if the question itself is negative, if it is negative in a way that is trying to persuade [as is often used to invite someone to do something in Japanese], the "hai" is followed by a positive response.

"Won't you attend the party tomorrow?" "Yes, I will."

This is confusing in either language, but it deals with something inherent in both languages that confuses foreign learners of both languages. After living in Japan for a while, when I went back to visit my family in L.A. for the holidays last year, my sister caught me answering the Japanese way. Even after being able to do that, though, I didn't get a chance to read this question carefully enough in class to answer it correctly. Which I know now that I've had time to read it through slower...

今日のレッスン 9.25.06

レッスン４のれんしゅう：

私の週末
土曜日は私のお母さんの誕生日でした、そういう訳でお母さんに電話をしました。しごとのお休み、そういうわけでテレビのアニメを見ました。朝、スーパーに行きました。肉とたまねぎを買いました。昼ご飯は野菜炒めを食べました。夜、インターネットをしました。日曜日にもインターネットをしました。日本語をべんきょうしました。マフラーを編みました。

Lesson 4 Practice:

My Weekend
Saturday was my mom's birthday, so I called her on the phone. It was a day off from work, so I watched anime on TV. In the morning, I went to the supermarket. I bought beef and onions. For lunch, I had stirfry (from the beef and onions). At night, I went online. On Sunday, I went online, too. I studied Japanese. I knit (started knitting) a scarf.

It doesn't flow that well in translation because we haven't really gone over conjunctions yet, so it's really just a series of disjointed sentences. I actually looked up "so" to make the first two sentences, so I don't know if it's actually correct or not. Here are some new words and phrases for today:

sou iu wake de (そういう訳で/そういうわけで) - so (conjunction)

yasai itame (野菜炒め/やさいいため) - vegetable stirfry
amu (編む/あむ) - to knit

今日のレッスン 9.18.06

今日のレッスンはまだおもに復習しました、でもいいれんしゅうしました。

Today's lesson was still mostly review, but it was good practice.

omo ni (おもに) - mostly, mainly
fukushyuu suru (復習/ふくしゅう) - review (studying)

tatoeba (例えば/たとえば) - for example

Here is the list of majors from the book:

keizai (経済/けいざい) - economics
rekishi (歴史/れきし) - history
kagaku (科学/かがく) - science
ajia kenkyou (アジア検鏡/アジアけんきょう) - asian studies
kokusai kankei (国際関係/こくさいかんけい) - international relations
seiji (政治/せいじ) - politics
bungaku (文学/ぶんがく) - literature
jinruigaku (人類学/じんるいがく) - anthropology

hisashiburi/久しぶり

hisashiburi (久しぶり/ひさしぶり) - it's been a while

本当に久しぶりです〜！

今日から日本語のレッスンをまたはじめました。レッスン１はかんたんでした。「はじめまして。ニタです。私は英語のきょうしです。二十三歳です。どうぞよろしく。」でも、久しぶりに日本語で書きます。覚えていますけど、ちょっとむずかしいね。

Long time no see!

Today, I started Japanese lessons again. Lesson one was pretty easy. "Nice to meet you. I'm Nita. I'm an English teacher. I'm 23 years old. How do you do?" But it's been a while since I'd written any Japanese. I remembered, but it was kinda hard.

As I expected, the first few lessons will be mostly review. Still, I learned some new words. Here are some of the more useful ones:

kyoushi (教師/きょうし) - teacher (when referring to yourself)
gakusei (学生/がくせい) - student (when referring to yourself)
senmon (専門/せんもん) - major (in school)
jisho (辞書/じしょ) - dictionary
ryuugakusei (留学生/りゅうがくせい) - international exchange student
hiku (引く/ひく) - minus (subtract)
tasu (足す/たす) - plus (add)
kotaeru (答える/こたえる) - answer (question)
hiraku (開く/ひらく) - open (book, door)
kyuuri (キュウリ) - cucumber
jagaimo (ジャガイモ) - potato
ninjin (ニンジン) - carrot

My new kanji dictionary is coming in handy just for these posts :)

I really need to review/memorize irregular numbers and things, but the sentence structures for right now are pretty simple, and there aren't many words I don't know. There is a list of majors and occupations in the first lesson, the bulk of which I don't know, but I haven't bought the book yet, so this list is just what I wrote down in my notebook. I might've already posted plus and minus, but I couldn't remember minus (only plus), so they're both on the list, with kanji. Also, I learned "教師" the first day of training, but since I haven't posted since... uh, April... it's also on the list.

The book I'm going to use looks like it moves pretty fast (there's no romaji after the first two or three lessons), and the explanations are pretty good. I'll try to post my progress here as the weeks go on.