Finally able to reply here after a few failed attempts lol

Kind of an interesting lesson, indeed. I think I understand everything, but just to make sure maybe I'll watch the video later on. The sentences weren't at all strangers to me, so an easy beginning for now. Also, I fully understand what you mean about the particles, in Spanish there are lots of words with several meanings, and it's actually quite fun to make literal translations to English due to how ear-bleeding they sound xD

Oh, and yes, we do use the same tones as in English, so you will create no confusion.

Mynamescox44 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
EX Palen :
PoptartSlayerXD :

Apologies for all of the delays lately. I was about to finally finish the video for lesson 34 (which will be two lessons combined into one) when I got a call telling me that my mom was in the hospital, and as you might imagine, I put the video away and headed out to see her.

I'll be staying with her until she gets released which may be tomorrow or it could be a few days from now, depending on what they find and what procedures they choose to run. I'll finish the video and upload as soon as I get back home though.

Oh, man, sucks to hear you started the year like that.

We can wait, so take as much time as you need senpai. Real life is always a priority, even more in situations like this one.

EDIT: One of the words in this lesson (そして) is censored repeatedly in it's Romaji form. This is because it's detected as a swear. It should be read as one word, but here's the Romaji broken into two words in order to bypass unnecessary censoring: soshi te.
This unfortunately happens to at least one other word in the lesson as well あした (ashi ta).

In future lessons this is fixed by writing して, した, and しつ as either shi te, shi ta, and shi tsu, or sh(i)te, sh(i)ta, and sh(i)tsu. Just remember that it's always read as a single word, despite it's appearance here.



Welcome to lesson 34 everyone. This week we're doubling lesson size, and since this is actually two lessons combined, and it's so close to the weekend already, there won't be a lesson posted this coming Sunday. So feel free to take your time with it since there will be something like a ten day period for study of it, but be prepared for a new lesson (hopefully) the next week.

One reason I've been struggling to keep up the pace, aside from life being hectic, is that the lesson formats are changing so much from what they were before that I'm having to figure out how to arrange them as I pass them on to you guys, as they're quite different in the books, but I couldn't legally post carbon copies of those lessons without consent. Bear with me as I figure things out, please.

Now for the lesson.


Phrases:

父も母も (ちち も はは も)
chichi mo haha mo
Both my father and my mother (lit. father and mother also)

高校の数学の先生 (こうこう の すうがく の せんせい)
koukou no suugaku no sensei
High School mathematics teacher

中学校の英語の先生 (ちゅうがく の えいご の せんせい)
chuugaku no eigo no sensei
Jr. High School/Middle school English teacher

大学の経済の先生 (だいがく の けいざい の せんせい)
daigaku no keizai no sensei
College/University Economics teacher

経理の担当 (けいり の たんとう)
keiri no tantou
Being in charge of accounting

[name]さんのお給料の担当 ([name]さん のおきゅうりょう の たんとう)
[name]-san no okyuuryou no tantou
Being in charge of [name]-san's salary

どんな 仕事 (どんな しごと)
donna shigoto
What kind of work

アメリカにいます
amerika ni imasu
To be in the U.S.A.

そして
sos***e
And then, and

仕事 の あと で (しごと の あと で)
shigoto no ato de
After work



Sentences

何人家族ですか。(なんにん かぞく です か)
nannin kazoku desu ka.
How many people are there in your family?

五人家族です。(ごにん かぞく です)
gonin kazoku desu.
There are five people in my family.

何人兄弟ですか。(なんにん きょうだい です か)
nannin kyoudai desu ka.
How many children do your parents have?

三人兄弟です。(さんにん きょうだい です)
sannin kyoudai desu.
My parents have three children.

兄弟は何人いますか。(きょうだい は なんにん います か)
kyoudai ha nannin imasu ka.
How many siblings do you have?

兄弟は二人います。(きょうだい は ふたり
います)
kyoudai ha futari imasu.
I have two siblings.

ご家族は皆さんアメリカにいますか。(ごかぞく は みなさん アメリカ に います か)
gokazoku ha minasan amerika ni imasu ka.
Is your family all in the United States?

姉と弟は両親といっしょにいま東京にいます。(あね と おとうと は りょうしん と いっしょ に いま とうきょう に います)
ane to otuoto ha ryoushin to issho ni ima toukyou ni imasu.
My older sister and younger brother are now in Tokyo with my parents.

それ じ また しごと の あと で。
sore ja mata shigoto no ato de.
See you after work, then.



Grammar:

You already know about particles (obviously) but you might be surprised with how frequently they're used. This week we'll cover some that we've already covered, but in more depth and with some examples so that we can better familiarize ourselves with their usage.


ね (ne)
ね (ne), like ka, is used rather frequently, and you've probably heard it quite a bit if you watch or play things in Japanese (which I definitely recommend. They might not teach you proper Japanese, but you'll hear enough to become more accustomed to the sound and certain words).

Depending on tone, ね (ne) is used to seek or express confirmation.
For example:

おいしい です ね。(oishii desu ne)
It's delicious isn't it?/It's delicious huh? (lit. is delicious, huh?)

そう です ね。
sou desu ne.
Yes it is.


Example 2:

Eirinn : ペィリンさんは猫の人ですよ。(ペィリンさん は ねこ の ひと よ)
Paren-san ha neko no hito desu yo.
Palen-san is a cat-person.

m0ss :そうですね。
sou desu ne.
Is he really (is that so)?

Eirinn : そうですね。
sou desu ne.
Yes he really is (yes it is).

User : なに？
nani?
What?

m0ss : ペィリンさんは猫の人です。(ペィリンさん は ねこ の ひとです)
Paren-san ha neko no hito desu.
Palen-san is a cat-person.

Palen : ニャー！
nyaa!
Meow!

User : ええええええええええええ？！？！？！？
eeeeeeeeeee?!?!?!?
Huhhhh?!?!?!?


Notice that m0ss and I both used ね (ne), but essentially said different things. Think of this like the English word "Really". In fact, let's see part of the above the way it would look in English (since translation tends to alter optional word patterns).

Eirinn - "Palen is a cat person."
m0ss - "Really?"
Eirinn - "Really."

Again, we said the same word (really) but one of us ーindicated by our toneー used the word to ask a question, and the other one, again indicated by tone, used it to answer a question. And as with か (ka), question is indicated with a rising tone, while confirmation is indicated with a falling tone.
Meanwhile user just went full on anime and shouted the world's longest vowel sound in surprise.

Examples
•Seeking agreement
おいしい です ね。
oishii desu ne.
It's delicious, isn't it?

たのしい です ね。
tanoshii desu ne.
It's fun, isn't it?

きれい です ね。
kirei desu ne.
It's beautiful, isn't it?


•Seeking confirmation
テスト は あした です ね。
tesuto ha as***a desu ne.
The test is tomorrow, right?/The test is tomorrow, isn't it?

あした 2017/12/29 ですね。
as***a 2017/12/29 desu ne.
Tomorrow is 2017/12/29, right/isn't it?

Fun fact: I was going to put something more natural sounding here, but my Japanese keyboard automatically corrects as***a to tomorrow's date (and this portion was written on December 28th), so I figured, why not?


•Expressing agreement or confirmation
そう です ね。
sou desu ne.
Didn't see that one coming, did ya?



ね (ne) is also used to get someone's attention, much like the English word "Hey".

「ね、ペィレンさん。いそがしいですか。」
ne, paren-san. isogashii desu ka.
Hey Palen, are you busy? (lit. Hey Palen. Busy?)


You will sometimes hear ね (ne) repeated when used this way.

「ね ね！ペィレンさん！」
ne ne! Paren-san!
Hey! Palen! (lit. Hey! Hey! Palen!)


A few decent English substitutes for ね (ne):
•When seeking agreement or confirmation:
-Isn't it?
-Huh?
-Right?
-You know?
-Yeah?


よ (yo)
So that's all well and good, but what about how I used よ (yo) in the first sentence? As you'll recall, よ (yo) is used for a few different reasons. It can be used to indicate that the speaker is giving new information, much like I did with my revelation that Palen was half cat...or did you guys already know that?

よ (yo) can also be used to add emphasis, kind of like a spoken exclamation point. よ (yo) is used fairly often in colloquial Japanese for this very purpose, and is something of an equivalent to how we stress words in English, or raise our voices slightly, to express emphasis. For example, upon everyone finding out about Palen's feline family roots, he might exclaim in English "This is so embarrassing!", and since the exclamation point can't be expressed in spoken English, he would either speak louder than usual, or by stressing the word "embarrassing".
In Japanese he would simply change 「はずかしいです。」(hazukashii desu -- this is embarrassing) to「はずかしいですよ。」(hazukashii desu yo -- this is embarrassing [yo]).


Please note that, while I did list various possible translations for some of these, I didn't list all of the possible (and correct) translations that I personally knew of, because I didn't want to take up a ton of space and make you read the same thing five different ways each time. lol


Test
Translate the vocabulary phrases and sentences from this lesson into English. :3

父も母も (ちち も はは も)
chichi mo haha mo


高校の数学の先生 (こうこう の すうがく の せんせい)
koukou no suugaku no sensei


中学校の英語の先生 (ちゅうがく の えいご の せんせい)
chuugaku no eigo no sensei


大学の経済の先生 (だいがく の けいざい の せんせい)
daigaku no keizai no sensei


経理の担当 (けいり の たんとう)
keiri no tantou


[name]さんのお給料の担当 ([name]さん のおきゅうりょう の たんとう)


どんな 仕事 (どんな しごと)
donna shigoto


アメリカにいます
amerika ni imasu


そして
sos***e


仕事 の あと で (しごと の あと で)
shigoto no ato de



何人家族ですか。(なんにん かぞく です か)
nannin kazoku desu ka.


五人家族です。(ごにん かぞく です)
gonin kazoku desu.


何人兄弟ですか。(なんにん きょうだい です か)
nannin kyoudai desu ka.


三人兄弟です。(さんにん きょうだい です)
sannin kyoudai desu.


兄弟は何人いますか。(きょうだい は なんにん います か)
kyoudai ha nannin imasu ka.


兄弟は二人います。(きょうだい は ふたり
います)
kyoudai ha futari imasu.


ご家族は皆さんアメリカにいますか。(ごかぞく は みなさん アメリカ に います か)
gokazoku ha minasan amerika ni imasu ka.


姉と弟は両親といっしょにいま東京にいます。(あね と おとうと は りょうしん と いっしょ に いま とうきょう に います)
ane to otuoto ha ryoushin to issho ni ima toukyou ni imasu.


それ じ また しごと の あと で。
sore ja mata shigoto no ato de.


END.
:V



Video


So if you're reading this part, please let me know what you think of the new format, and if you have any suggestions about how it could be improved upon.
Also note that I did not add the accent variations to the video this time, as ね's changes are the same as か's (rising = question, falling = confirmation) and it seemed redundant. If you'd prefer I never skip something, even if it feels redundant, let me know and I'll be sure not to next time.

Thanks for following along in these lessons with me, everyone!


EX Palen : ありがとうございます、ペィレンさん。Your understanding is very much appreciated.

By the way, do you have any preference with what suffix I use for you? I've used both sanand kun, but I don't know if both are fine with you, and I don't want to offend you. lol

Also can I please hear one of those ear-bleeding awful Spanish translations? xD



Summon list:
Mynamescox44 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
PoptartSlayerXD :

That conversation was... amazing. If only the books could be like that instead of the boring conversations they put in, I'm sure many more people would want to learn foreign languages.

I just learnt that kyoudai could be used as children as well. I always thought it was meant to be "siblings" without needing to specify about gender, so I was a bit confused at that part. Everything else was just fine.

We're basically using the same format, just expanded to include more sections, so I'm perfectly okay with it. The only thing needing modifications, in my modest opinion, is the grammar part. It's an immense wall of text occupying way more than any other section, so we should make reading through it a bit easier. I have no problem in keeping it as it is, but overall I think that, if future lessons will also have such a dense grammar section, an easier reading would be welcome by everyone.

I don't really have preferences for any suffix. As it stands, -san would be for formal uses, -kun for colloquial uses and -chan for teasing purposes, so use whichever fits better depending on the situation

And, well, I'm trying my best to destroy my own language, but sadly I can't find any ear-bleeding translation for this lesson. Gomen-nyaasai xD

"Gomen-nyaasai"

I've heard the Japanese love their puns. Some of us here may have to catch up because it looks like he's already assimilating lol

Welcome to lesson number thirty five. This week's lesson will be one lesson in one. That makes sense too, I'm sure.

This week I have a question for you guys, so please be sure to give me your opinion either here or via PM.


Sentences
弟さんは会社員ですか。(おとうとさん は かいしゃいん です か。)
otoutosan ha kaishain desu ka.

Is your younger brother a company employee?


父も母も教師です。(ちち も はは も きょうし です。)
chichi mo haha mo kyoushi desu.

Both my father and my mother are teachers.


父は高校の数学の先生で、母は中学の英語の先生です。(ちち は こうこう の すうがく の せんせい で、はは は ちゅうがく の えいご の せんせい です。)
chichi ha koukou no suugaku no sensei de, haha ha chuugaku no eigo no sensei desu.

My father is a high school mathematics teacher, and my mother is a middle school/junior high school English teacher.


お姉さんも先生ですか。(おねえさん も せんせい です か。)
oneesan mo sensei desu ka.

Is your older sister a teacher also?


[insert name]さんはのご家族は？(insert name]さん は の ごかぞくは？)
[insert name]san ha no gokazoku ha?

What about your family, [insert name]-san?


うちは父は医者で、母は主婦です。(うち は ちち は いしゃ で、はは は しゅふ です。)
uchi ha chichi ha isha de, haha ha shufu desu.

As for my family, my father is a medical doctor, and my mother is a housewife.


[insert name]さんのお仕事は？(insert name]さん の おしこと は？
[insert name]san no oshigoto ha?

What's your occupation, [insert name]-san? (lit. [insert name]san's job?)


私は電気技師です。(わたし は でんきぎし です。
watashi ha denkigishi desu.

I'm an electrical engineer.


[insert name]さんは経理の担当ですね？　([insert name]さん は けいり の たんとう です ね？)
[insert name]san ha keiri no tantou desu ne?

[insert name]-san, you're in charge of accounting, right?


社員のお給料の担当です。(しゃいん の おきゅうりょう の たんとう です。)
shain no okyuuryo no tantou desu.

I'm in charge of employees' salaries.




Grammar
Oh happy day! No, it's not a hymn, it's a grammar intro! :3

よ, remember me?
He just won't leave us alone. よ is back for a third visit. Fortunately it's a short one this time.

As you already know, よ can be used to add emphasis and to indicate that new information is being given by the speaker. However this week we'll see a new side of よseph (yoseph), and probably at least one more bad joke... like よseph. :V


So what new use does our old friend よ have? He can also be used to make an assertion ーone step closer to sounding like a jerk in a whole new language [insert fist pump meme] よし！ (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧


An example of assertions using よ.

Jerk: 「おれ は ジャーク だ。」ore ha jaaku da.
I am a jerk.

Non-jerk:「ほんとに？」hontoni?
Really??

Jerk:「ジャーク だ よ。」jaaku da yo.
(I'm) a jerk (I tell you)! (lit. Jerk) :3

Non-jerk:「そう だ ね。」sou da ne.
So I see. -__- (lit. I see)

Now go forth and use this new knowledge, my fellow aspiring jerks. (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧



の (no)

の(no) has returned as well. He doesn't have much to share with us this time, but we're covering the finer points of his usage.

As you know, の (no) can be used to show possession, such as in わたしのねこ (watashi no neko -- my cat), and it also joins two nouns. However, to be clear we're revisiting it to show how to connect two nouns properly.

Simply put, when two nouns are joined by の, the first noun alters the second.
Examples:

高校の先生 (こうこう の せんせい -- koukou no sensei)
high school [no] teacher.

男の人 (おとこ の ひと -- otoko no hito)
male [no] person.

For longer strings of words
中学の数学の先生 (ちゅうがく の すうがく の せんせい -- chuugaku no suugaku no sensei)
middle school/junior high school [no] mathematics [no] teacher.

Notice that the noun that did the altering came first? All that babbling can be summed up in short by saying that it works the same way that noun altering works in English, such as in the term High school teacher: you wouldn't say Teacher high school. :V




テスト

Fill in the blanks, よ.


弟さん_______ですか。(おとうとさん __________ です か。)
otoutosan __________ desu ka.

Is your younger brother a company employee?


父も母__教師です。(ちち も はは __________ です。)
chichi mo haha _________ desu.

Both my father and my mother are teachers.
(Note: use the word used for teacher in the example in the sentence section. Not sensei)


父は____の数学の先生で、母は____の英語の先生です。(ちち は ______ の すうがくの せんせい で、はは は _________ の えいご の せんせい です。)
chichi ha _______ no suugaku no sensei de, haha ha _______ no eigo no sensei desu.

My father is a high school mathematics teacher, and my mother is a middle school/junior high school English teacher.


お姉さん__先生ですか。(おねえさん __ せんせい です か。)
oneesan __ sensei desu ka.

Is your older sister a teacher also?


[insert name]さんはの____は？(insert name]さん は の ______ は？)
[insert name]-san ha no _______ ha?

What about your family, [insert name]-san?


うちは父は____で、母は____です。(うち は ちち は _____ で、はは は _____ です。)
uchi ha chichi ha ____ de, haha ha ______ desu.

As for my family, my father is a medical doctor, and my mother is a housewife.


[insert name]さんの______は？([insert name]さん の _______ は？
[insert name]san no ________ ha?

What's your occupation, [insert name]-san? (lit. [insert name]san's job?)


私は_______です。(わたし は ________ です。
watashi ha _________ desu.

I'm an electrical engineer.


[insert name]さんは_____の_____ですね？　([insert name]さん は _____ の _______ です ね？)
[insert name]san ha ____ no ______ desu ne?

[insert name]-san, you're in charge of accounting, right?


社員の_______の担当です。(しゃいん の おきゅうりょう の たんとう です。)
shain no ________ no tantou desu.

I'm in charge of employees' salaries.




Done! よし！ (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
That i in yoshi is silent by the way.

Note: I've recorded the audio for the lesson, but it started storming (tornado watch in January?), so I was unable to put the actual video together for fear of my hard drive being destroyed by the lightning, as I already have an unstable power source... which sounds more like a cool fantasy tale of a magical energy core or something, and less like the real life version, which is just that the electricity randomly shuts off sometimes, and storms don't help the matter any.
I'll try to finish and upload it tonight or tomorrow. すみません、みなさん。

Video


Question time:
What do you think about splitting these lessons into smaller, more frequent portions? For example, on weekends we could have a vocabulary portion, and on Wednesdays or Thursdays we could have grammar lessons. Or for that matter, we could do several smaller lessons since we're about to move into actually learning Kanji (did we ever finish Katakana? lol).
The only real advantage to these ideas would be that there's less to be dumped on you at once. If you don't mind it the way it is, that's fine too. I just want to do it however is best for everyone else.

_______________________

EX Palen : lol I wish the books had some more fun with their conversations. Instead I have to go through discussions about work and apartment sizes. Unfortunately for you, you'll be getting those too, as you can probably tell by the sentences we covered this time. Be prepared. :3

I was very confused over the kyoudai thing. Unless I'm mistaken, the difference in the sentence declaring 「きょうだい が ふたり います。」and 「さんにん きょうだい です。」is found in their structure, and thus, their literal translations: "siblings, three exist/(I) have" and "three siblings (there) are". Think of it like saying "I have two siblings" and "there are three siblings in my family" -- it sounds kind of awkward, but it makes a little more sense.
According to the book, sannin kyoudai in that sentence is "treated as a unit" and the speaker is including themselves in the number.

Got it. The new book (intermediate) is more focused on grammar than vocabulary, and in fact, I'm having to jump several pages ahead of where we are with the grammar sections to find more vocabulary to put into the lessons. Perhaps we could just do a lesson that's only grammar so that we can get the two caught up.
I tried using more spacing to make it more digestible this time around, but there was still a decent amount of grammar to cover. Hopefully it helped some anyway.

As for suffixes: duly noted, ペィレンさま.


m0ssb3rg935 : I can't decide if it's cool, or frightening. .___.



Summon list:
Mynamescox44 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
PoptartSlayerXD :

Indeed, the grammar part was easier to read this time around. True is that it wasn't as dense as in the previous lesson, but still I'd like to keep this format with extra spacing.

I personally have no issue in continuing with just a single lesson every week. I honestly can build sentences rather easily (maybe it's because I've gone through that process in three languages already, all of them with their own odd rules) so I skim through that part and only read carefully the grammar for anything new it may contain.

I was just wondering if your books would also teach you Engrish. For those with a look of surprise in their faces: it's not a typo, it's the unofficial name given to English words with Japanese pronunciation and written with its own language of characters. Maybe that could also make it easier for us to get familiar with the use of characters instead of letters, also because those characters seem to be easier to draw ^^

Mynamescox44 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
EX Palen :
PoptartSlayerXD :

Well I started to work on finishing up that video finally and apparently My PS4 decided to eat half of the audio. (; So...yeah. Since these were all words that we've already covered, is it alright with you folks if we skip the video altogether? If not, I can put one together still sometime before the next lesson goes live. Just thought I'd check and see because I was feeling lazy. The truth can hurt. lol

Gotta love how technology's supposed to make everything easier but then you wind up spending more time than you intended because a program didn't wanna function right.

If it's stuff we've already covered, I don't suppose we absolutely have to have the audio for it again. Might be good just to hear it again if it's being used in different contexts or something but I don't suppose it's necessary.

Welcome to lesson number thirty six, where we celebrate a lesson actually being posted on time again by eating confetti and throwing pudding! No, no that is not a typo.

So before we have time for our digestive tracks to bring swift justice upon us for being big enough idiots to swallow so much paper, let's get into the lesson, shall we?


Conversation
Kawashima: 「すずかぜさんは何人家族ですか。」
Suzukaze-san ha nannin kazoku desu ka.

Suzukaze: 「四人家族です。父と母と姉とあたしです。」
yonnin kazoku desu. chichi to haha to ane to atashi desu.

Kawashima: 「そうですか。ご家族は皆さん日本にいますか。」
sou desu ka. gokazoku ha mina-san nihon ni imasu ka.

Suzukaze: 「いいえ。両親は日本にいます。でも姉はいまアメリカにいます。」
iie. ryoushin ha nihon ni imasu. demo ane ha ima amerika ni imasu.

Kawashima: 「へえ。アメリカですか。」
hee. amerika desu ka.

Suzukaze: 「かわしまさん、ご兄弟はいますか。」
Kawashima-san, gokyoudai ha imasu ka.

Kawashima: 「ええ。三人います。姉と妹と兄です。」
ee. sannin imasu. ane to imouto to ani desu.

Suzukaze: 「じゃあ、四人兄弟ですね。」
jaa, yonnin kyoudai desu ne.

Kawashima: 「ええ、そうですよ。」
ee, sou desu yo.




Grammar:

So if we're being honest, all of this lesson has been grammar, but let's lie and say that paper is edible, and this lesson is not just one big grammar lesson. Okay? Good. :V


Up first in the grammar section this week, is how to ask questions using question words (such as what, how, and why).


What did you say?
なに/なん means "what", right?
Wrong. I know we learned that was true many many lessons ago, but forget it. That's a lie, just like the paper thing.

Remember how we said that it's a bad practice to say "This word in Japanese means this in English"? Turns out that's proven true again with the whole なに/なん thing. なに/なん Can indeed mean what, but it can also be used to just imply a certain... whatness to a sentence.
But before this becomes even more confusing than I just made it, how about we see it in action?


なんですか。
nan desu ka.
What is it/he/she? What are they?


何人(なんにん)ですか。
nannin desu ka.
How many people?


何冊(なんさつ)ですか。
nansatsu desu ka.
How many books/magazines?


何人(なにじん)ですか。
nanijin desu ka.
What nationality are you?

Notice that なに (nani) and なん (nan) translated in some of the above questions as "what" but in others they translated as "how many". This is due in part to the fact that there were some fixed terms in there (words that have another word attached to them -- like compound words), but if you view なに (nani) and なん (nan) as strictly meaning "what", that could end up causing needless confusion.

Also note that なに (nani) can never appear in front of the copula です such as in the question なんですか (nan desu ka).
So if "what" appears before です (desu), it will always be なん (nan).



Questionable indeed
Now for more question words, and how to use them to ask questions.


どこですか。/どちらですか。
doko desu ka./dochira desu ka.
Where is it?


いくつですか。/おいくつですか。
ikutsu desu ka./oikutsu desu ka.
How many?/How old are you?


だれですか。/どなたですか。
dare desu ka./donata desu ka.
Who is/are it/he/she/they?


いつですか。
itsu desu ka.
When is it?


いくらですか。/おいくらですか。
ikura desu ka. /oikura desu ka.
How much is/are they/it?


どんなお仕事(おしごと)ですか。
donna oshigoto desu ka.
What kind of job/occupation?


どうしてですか。/なんでですか。/なぜですか。
doushi te desu ka./nande desu ka. /naze desu ka.
Why is it?
I had to put a space between the t and i in doushi te because of the filter on the site detecting it as a swear word. The space normally would not be there.



Note: in the cases where two words were listed with only one translation (だれですか。/どなたですか。for example), the word on the right was the polite form.



Katakana:
Remember that stuff that we were supposed to finish off before we began intermediate lessons and never did? Yeah, I remembered it again.

ラ = ら = ra
リ = り = ri
ル = る = ru
レ = れ = re
ロ = ろ = ro

Here's to hoping I remember to finish these up in the next lesson!


Test:

Section A. Write the following questions in Japanese.

1. What is it?

2. Where is it?

3. Who are they?

4. When is it?

5. How old are you?

6. How much is it?

7. Why is it?

8. How many?

____________________________________

Section B. Match the Katakana to it's Hiragana counterpart.

1. ラ

2. リ

3. ロ

4. レ

5. ル



A. ろ

B. ら

C. れ

D. る

E. り



End of lesson. :V

Video

__________________________________

EX Palen : Okay, good. Glad to hear the added spacing helped.

Aside from loan words (like コンペューター konpyuutaa for example), no, it doesn't have that. If that isn't what you mean, then I suppose making our own for fun and educational purposes could be done if it would help anyone.



m0ssb3rg935 : Alrighty, I'll go ahead and try to upload a video for this lesson and the last one tomorrow. I failed to work on the lesson before today, so getting it and the recording and such done in time to post it was out of the question unfortunately.




Mynamescox44 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
PoptartSlayerXD :

And once again, praise Spanish for allowing everything to be read as it is written, it all makes sense fast without sounding awfully. Curse it as well, because being used to that premise complicates learning new languages incredibly, but always praise it first

We saw the first use of personal pronouns in that conversation, and while I could go ahead and ask about them, I'll be patient and wait for them to be covered. You know, because my question could be naturally answered in a future lesson and all that stuff >.>

I wasn't talking about loan words, but simply English converted into its own language of characters like displayed in some anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! the most prominent one. With that, you wouldn't be learning new words, just how to write English in the way of characters. I guess that such knowledge is only (and at most) taught in Japan so they can learn English, and if that's true, the rest of countries, mainly the English-speaking ones, totally need to catch up.

Hint: how about writing is as doush(i)te? After all, while that i is present it is not pronounced (or can be omitted, at least).

Welcome to lesson number thirty seven!
Mini lesson inbound.


Grammar:
Know what is probably one of the scariest sounding words to non-language buffs when learning a new language? Copula. Another scary word to language learning noobs? Conjugation. Know what we're gonna learn today? How to conjugate copula!

That's right! We're going to learn how to conjugate the copula です (desu) into it's て(te)-form! Prepare yourselves! It's going to be... much simpler than it sounds, actually. lol


Copuhuh?
"Eirinn, what's a copula?" I hear you asking. To which, my dear friend, I respond thusly: That's a very good question, and I'm glad that I finally get to introduce you to the て(te)-form of the copula です (desu) today. I've been looking forward to this lesson for a few months now honestly.

Also ignore the fact that I sidestepped your question entirely -- it isn't because I'm not 100% sure about what exactly a copula is. It connects things...and...stuff. So yeah.


です (desu), as you know, communicates the idea of being (E.g. I/we/he/she/they/it am/is/are/will). So to say "I am a college student." You could say 「私(わたし)は大学生(だいがくせい)です。」(watashi ha daigakusei desu).


Simple enough.


But what if you also wanted to tell the person you're speaking with "My younger brother is a high school student" as well? You could say:
「弟(おとうと)は高校生(こうこうせい)です。」(otouto ha koukousei desu.)

Again, simple, right?

Simple, aye. Natural? Not so much. You just made two related points using two different sentences: "I'm a college student. My little brother is a high school student." It sounds awkward, and like a Japanese language noob....which everyone here --myself included-- is, but we don't want to sound like newbies forever, so how do we fix this? By connecting the sentences using the て(te)-form of です (desu).

This particular conjugation of です (desu) is literally (probably) going to be the easiest thing you'll ever learn in Japanese.
To obtain the て(te)-form of です (desu), just drop the す (su). Yes, the て(te)-form of です (desu) is just で (de). Using it is almost equally simple too, fortunately.


So how can this new form of です (desu) help us to make the statements above sound more natural and fluid? Easy: it connects the two sentences, turning them into one. It works much the same way that the word and does in the English sentence "I played a game and drank some tea."


So let's apply it to the two sentences we made in Japanese.

「私(わたし)は大学生(だいがくせい)で、弟(おとうと)は高校生(こうこうせい)です。」(watashi ha daigakusei de, otouto ha koukousei desu.)

"I'm a college student, and my younger brother is a high school student."

One more time:

「私(わたし)はサラダです。」and「兄(あに)はミルクです。」with the help of the て(te)-form of です (desu), become「私(わたし)はサラダで、兄(あに)はミルクです。」
(watashi ha sarada de, ani ha miruku desu.)

Maybe you'll recall all of these words from prior lessons. I'll leave you to translate them on your own.

And no, the above statement, when translated, does not make sense. lol It's a bit of a call back to an old joke I made.




Katakana:

Alright, we're finishing up the Katakana finally. Sorry all of the delays with that. I'm going to summarize all of the kana in one post at some point during the week for easy reference.
ヤ = や = ya
ユ = ゆ = yu
ヨ = よ = yo
ワ = わ = wa
ヲ = を = wo
ン = ん = n

When you feel comfortable with your knowledge of the Kana, let me know and we'll move into some basic Kanji.


Question: Should I make a picture or video guide showing the stroke order of each Kana? Those are available online elsewhere, but it might also make sense to have them here with everything else if you guys would find it useful. Let me know.



Workout:
Join the following sentences using the て(te)-form of です (desu).

1.「私(わたし)の猫(ねこ)は黒い(くろい)です。」(watashi no neko ha kuroi desu)
My cat is black.

「私(わたし)の狗(いぬ)は白い(しろい)です。」(watashi no inu ha shiroi desu)
My dog is white.


2.「父(ちち)はしょぼうしです。」(chichi ha shoboushi desu)
My father is a firefighter.

「母(はは)は医者(いしゃ)です。」(haha ha isha desu)
My mother is a medical doctor.


3.「兄(あに)は大学生(だいがくせい)です。」(ani ha daigakusei desu)
My older brother is a college student.

「私(わたし)はニートです。」(watashi ha niito desu)
I am a NEET.


_________________________________

That does it for this week. It's a short lesson, but the reason for that is threefold: First there's a good chunk of grammar to be covered in this book and it doesn't balance out with the amount of vocabulary we have to cover (so there will likely be a few more lessons that are similar in size and content to this one in the future).

Next, I'm in the middle of a long and challenging test section of the book myself, and most of my time that I have available to devote to language studies has been going toward clearing said test.

Finally, I fell pretty far behind with the videos for the lessons, and only got around to getting the videos for the past two lessons uploaded a day or so ago (they're linked in their respective lessons now by the way), and it's too late in the week now to put two full lessons and their videos together before Sunday night, and I didn't want to skip an entire week's lesson again, so I decided that a smaller lesson was a decent compromise.

Regardless, I'll have begun the next lesson before you read this message, so hopefully we'll be able to get a full lesson up on Sunday.


__________________________________

EX Palen : What was the question? If it's what I'm thinking it might be, it hasn't been addressed in the book yet, and I'm over halfway through it. I suspect it won't be, and that if it is, it won't be for a while yet. I don't want to assume that I know and answer the wrong question though. lol If it's "What's the appropriate first person pronoun for a cat person" I'm afraid I don't know yet. Gomen.

Okay, yeah I'm fine with that. We could give it a bit of a test run and see how we like it. Can't hurt, and it might help with the learning process. Additionally I've found a few games that teach kana, like Japanese dungeon on Android (I did find one mistake though, and I only played a few battles, so I can't vouch for it's accuracy). They're handy.

I could write it that way, yeah. The other way wasn't bad either since it separates where the conjugation for that verb begins (happy accident. lol). That's skipping several lessons ahead though, so perhaps your way would be best.


Summon List:
Mynamescox44 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
PoptartSlayerXD :

Well, not the hardest of lessons, but still some interesting things to know about. Seeing how dense the other lessons can be, having a "break" like this every so often will surely be welcome.

My question could perfectly be what you're thinking it may be, but telepathy is not my forte so I can confirm it's about personal pronouns. Not only about oneself, but the rest of personal pronouns as well because all have different kinds or forms they can be used as. It's kind of awkward we still don't know how to refer to ourselves or someone else yet we're learning to build sentences, so I do hope it gets covered before we reach the next level.

Summon list:
Mynamescox44 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
EX Palen :
PoptartSlayerXD :


There are two things I want to ask about before going any farther on the next lesson:
1. Have I fully communicated the difference between は(ha) and が(ga), and when to use each yet? I've touched on it before, but it's in this lesson as well, and if you guys already get it, I won't bore you with it again.

2. As you'll recall, we had a sort of aptitude test at the end of the first book. Well, this week we finish the first unit of the second book, and it has tests to take to make sure that you're ready to move forward. If I post a test for this, will it be used?

Welcome to lesson number thirty eight. In this lesson we'll revisit some particles, and take a very crucial step toward sentence building. You probably have a lot of this down, but if you don't, this lesson should be the one to help you get it down. If you do know it already, this lesson will serve as a refresher to help keep you sharp, so win win, right?



Grammar:
Wow this is going to be a busy one: we have three particles to tackle. The trick? We're tackling them all at once.
Thankfully they're particles we've covered before, but we're going back to cover them in more detail this time.

The particles we're revisiting today are:
に(ni)
は(ha)
が(ga)

You already know the basic usage of all of these, with に(ni) marking a location or indicating a direction (movement), は(ha) of course marking the subject and being pronounced wa when used as such, and が(ga) being used as an identifier. This week however, we're going to see them used and learn when and how to use them properly. In fact, let's look at some examples now.

Method 1: Using に(ni) to indicate who or what is in a given place.

車(くるま)に誰(だれ)がいますか。(kuruma ni dare ga imasu ka)
Who is in the car?

車(くるま)に母(はは)がいます。(kuruma ni haha ga imasu)
My mother is in the car.


Method 2: Using に(ni) to indicate where someone or something is.

お母さん(おかあさん)は何処(どこ)にいますか。(okaasan ha doko ni imasu ka.)
Where is your mother?

母(はは)は車(くるま)にいます。(haha ha kuruma ni imasu.)
My mother is in the car.


Notice the difference in these two usages of に(ni)? No? Good, because there was only one usage of it. All that changed was the sentence structure -- に(ni) still followed the location (car). And you'll find that, in every sentence where the particle に(ni) is used to mark location, it always comes immediately after the location, without exception.


So what did change if not に(ni)? Look closely at the order of the words in each example:

1. 車(くるま)に母(はは)がいます。(kuruma ni haha ga imasu)
My mother is in the car (in the car is my mother. Or, The person in the car is my mother).

2. 母(はは)は車(くるま)にいます。(haha ha kuruma ni imasu.)
My mother is in the car.

The first sentence puts the car at the beginning of the sentence, and the second puts the speaker's mother at the beginning of the sentence. In the first sentence the speaker is telling the listener who is in the car ("the person in the car is my mother") and in the second sentence they're telling the listener where their mother is.

An important thing to note that we haven't mentioned heretofore (underused words can make you sound much smarter than you actually are) is that answers retain the same word order as the questions that they answer, which explains why the answers in these examples did so.


Again:

Where is the television?

テレビは居間(いま)に有ります(あります)。(terebi ha ima ni arimasu)
The television is in the living room.

What's in the living room?
居間(いま)にテレビが有ります(あります)。(ima ni terebi ga arimasu).
The television is in the living room (lit. In the living room is the television).



は(ha) or が(ga)?

You may have noticed that in the questions regarding the listener's mother, we used が(ga) in the first instance, and は(ha) in the second one. The reason is simple: in the first question we were seeking identification of the person in the car, and as such, asked using が(ga), the identifier particle.

In the second question we knew the identity of the person we were talking about, and so defaulted to the topic particle は(ha).

It's that simple: は(ha) when you know who or what the topic is, が(ga) when you don't.



Positioning positions

So there are these things in technical language speak that are called prepositions, and there are these other things that are called postpositions. Man I'm smart. :V
Those of you who speak...well, anything besides English, will likely have an edge here on the rest of us. You see, if you haven't noticed, Japanese particles often function like postpositions. In fact, に(ni) is one such particle. It typically translates as in, or to, in English, which as you know, are prepositions -- that is, they come before the word they apply to. に(ni) however, comes after the word it applies to, making it a postposition.

Examples:
English: I'm in the car.
Japanese: 私(わたし)は車(くるま)に居ます(います)。(watashi ha kuruma ni imasu)
lit. I car (the) in am.

English: My mother is in the living room.
Japanese: 母(はは)は居間(いま)に居ます(います)。(haha ha ima ni imasu)
lit. Mother living room (the) in is.


In fact, due to the nature of particles and Japanese sentence structure as a whole, Japanese sentences can typically be read backwards, with the exception of the subject and any particle attached to it (which should be read first), and the verb (which goes at the end of a sentence), to obtain the proper word order for an English translation.

If that didn't make sense, let me know and I'll attempt to clarify things in the next lesson.




Welcome our new teacher (Not really)

It's been suggested that we should try learning kana by using them to spell English words, thus learning their pronunciations and how they're written by spelling words we're already familiar with, like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, floccinaucinihilipilification, and hepaticocholangiogastrostomy total, music, and social.

And with that I'd like to ask everyone to say hello to our newest teacher: Ms. Appropriation! See what I did there? "Miss Appropriation"? Because we're misappropriating the kana in this section? No? Alrighty then.


Anyway, since we have some sounds that can't be properly mimicked by kana (such as consonant clusters, words that end with consonant sounds, the letter L, etc.) these, er... appropriations... will not be perfect mirrors of the English words they represent, but more of a loan word, like ゲーム (geemu) for example.


Alright let's get started. Feel free to pitch your own words back in your replies. Might as well make a game of it, yeah?

1. わし (washi -- wash)
2. かる (karu -- car)
3. なう (nau -- now）
4. ぼい (boi -- boy!)

Now for some that don't sound like an angry Japanese man shouting at the car wash.

5. あさむ (asamu -- awesome)
6. えゔり (evri -- every）
7. おぺん (open -- open (lol))
8. いくある (ikuaru -- equal)
9. うぷさ (upusa -- oops)

The Kana above cover the pronunciation of all of the vowels: あ (a), え (e), お (o), い (i), and う (u). Note that these are not real loan words in Japanese -- they're just words we're making up to show examples of the Kana pronunciations.

Also note that we actually used the ultra rare Kana ゔ (v). This is almost never used in Japanese, as the letter V is very difficult for Japanese people to pronounce, so they usually replace ゔ (v) with a B sound, such as pronouncing DVD as DBD, or Value as Balue.


Good news: that marks the end of the first section of the Intermediate course. We're 20% of the way through already! It's going to get much more complex over the next few sections though, so be prepared. :3 Next time we'll take the test that covers the most important aspects of what we've learned so far. Do yourself a favor and take it, and retake it until you get 100% or I put another lesson up, whichever comes first. The reason I say that is because the rest of the material carries on with the assumption that you're up to speed with all of the key points laid out up until now.


So yeah, another shorter lesson plus an extra long wait to get it. I apologize for the delay. As I said elsewhere, the lessons will no longer be released every week, but they will definitely continue so long as you guys show interest in them. However this gap was longer than I had anticipated even still, so it should by no means be taken as indicative of the rate of future lesson releases.

As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to post them below, or message me.




_________________________________


EX Palen : There are indeed many first and second person pronouns, but the literature has yet to cover any of them except for 私 (watashi) and 僕 (boku) and I'm finishing up Unit 3 of the second book.
However I have done research outside of the literature to supplement what I'm learning from it and fill in the gaps that it leaves. I'll pass along what I've learned about these pronouns so far (using Romaji in this list because I have to hurry and get to sleep, and typing in Kana, Kanji and Romaji is time consuming):
•watashi = polite and gender neutral first person pronoun.
•boku = masculine first person pronoun. I believe it's a little more casual than watashi, but not "rough" or rude usually. Often used by young men.
•atashi = feminine first person pronoun. Typically used by young women, not older ones.
•ore = masculine first person pronoun. Not terribly polite, so avoid it for the most part.
I've heard a few others, but they're almost all more rude than "ore" even.

•anata = polite second person pronoun. It's the most polite second person pronoun, but shouldn't be used unless necessary. The listener's name should be used instead whenever possible, as even polite second person pronouns can seem cold, distant, or rude if used instead of someone's name.
•kimi = somewhat rude second person pronoun, it carries a sense of condescension as I understand it.
Again, there are others, but I only know these two personally.

Something to note is that in anime and songs it isn't unusual to hear a girl refer to herself as boku, but it's extremely rare to hear in real life. Also it isn't unusual to hear kimi used in songs, but it's not good to use it in real life. kimi is likely used in songs because the identity of the person being spoken to in the song is typically not expressed, and kimi is easier to fit into a song's lyric timing than anata since it's only two syllables instead of three.

Hopefully I didn't just repeat a bunch of stuff that you already knew. lol



Summon list:
Mynamescox44 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
PoptartSlayerXD :

Well, Spanish-speakers don't have an edge with postpositions because we have nothing like that, or at least I fail to see when do we use them, of course assuming I'm getting the correct understanding of what they are. Don't worry, I'm as confused as you might be after reading this <<

I absolutely love our new teacher. Not only do we get to know the pronunciations in Japanese, which is very welcome for English-speakers due to the differences, but we also get to train in the use of kana characters. It's always funny to see how some foreign words sound in Japanese, so I'd gladly learn the full kana "alphabet" by using this method.

Thanks for that research with the personal pronouns. I had my own thoughts about it, but you just confirmed them. Still, I'd like to note a few things:
-in the anime, pronouns often go in pairs. Those who use a certain first person form utilize a certain second person one: watashi with anata, boku with kimi and ore with omae. Exceptions exist, though, but it gives us a hint on the different "levels" of politeness of these pronouns, which I think it's the only real thing we could learn from anime that can be applied to real life in this language.
-boku could actually be the counterpart to atashi, and both then "evolve" into watashi. Maybe the anime is a wrong source for this one, but seeing how users of boku (despite not being that young anymore in some cases) utilize a wide array of polite suffixes makes me think it could actually be accepted.
-female anime characters using boku are normally portrayed as being androgynous (though exceptions exist). I'd say that it would be possible in real life for girls to use boku though only privately, just like some other characters in the anime change from ore to boku or watashi depending on who they're talking to or the situation they're in.

It would also be interesting to research the forms for the plural pronouns, because I've heard there could be suffixes to imply more than one (person or whatever) besides having specific pronouns for "we" and "us". I haven't heard of a pronoun specific to the plural "you", which would make this search even more interesting.

Welcome to sorta lesson number 2! In this lesson we'll...not actually have a lesson. It's just a test. Nothing to learn here, people. And this is the second time that we've done this so... yeah.
Drat you, Eirinn. If you have to explain it, it isn't funny.


Pretest 1:
Note: when it says "Polite" in reference to a word for a family member, it means the form that you use when speaking of someone else's family member. I opted for this instead of the former "one's own" and "someone else's" due to the fact that you typically use the polite form when speaking to your family member (albeit, some alter them in favor of the more "cutesy" versions) and not just when speaking of someone else's family member, with the exception of the polite forms of younger brother and sister, child, and son or daughter.


Vocabulary recall:
1. Father
2. Father (polite)
3. Mother
4. Mother (polite)
5. Older brother
6. Older brother (polite)
7. Older sister
8. Older sister (polite)
9. Younger brother
10. Younger brother (polite)
11. Younger sister
12. Younger sister (polite)
13. Grandfather
14. Grandfather (polite)
15. Grandmother
16. Grandmother (polite)
17. Husband
18. Husband (polite)
19. Wife
20. Wife (polite)
21. Child
22. Child (polite)
23. Son
24. Son (polite)
25. Daughter
26. Daughter (polite)
27. Cousin
28. Family
29. Parents
30. Siblings
31. Married couple
32. Relatives
33. House, one's family, one's home
34. Place of origin, hometown


Section 2.
1. Junior high school
2. High school
3. University/College
4. Teacher
5. Mathematics
6. Economy
7. Economics
8. Housewife
9. Job
10. Work
11. Company
12. Company employee
13. Bank clerk
14. Web designer
15. Engineer
16. Electrical engineer
17. (business) administration, accounting
18. Salary


Section 3.
What are the proper honorific prefixes for...
1. Family
2. Siblings
3. Name
4. Telephone
5. Job, work
6. Parents
7. Married couple
8. Relatives
9. Salary


Section 4.
1. When
2. Where
3. Where (polite)
4. Who
5. Who (polite)
6. What kind
7. Why
8. How much
9. How much (polite)
10. How many
11. How many (polite)
12. How many people
13. How many books
14. What nationality


Section 5: Verbs.
1. To be
2. There is/there are, to have, to exist (animate)



Refresher:

が: identifies a subject (person, animal, etc.)

は: marks a topic; replaces が in yes/no questions and negative statements.

の: connects two nouns; shows ownership.

も: too, also, both...and.

に: marks a location.

か: used for asking questions; used to express surprise.

ね: used to seek or express agreement or confirmation.

よ: used to make an assertion; used to express that the speaker is giving new information; used to add emphasis.

で: the て(te)-form of です(desu).



End of pretest.



Section Test 1: Particles
A. 子ども___居ません。(こども __ いません)
kodomo __ imasen.
I don't have any children.

B. 会社__お給料__店頭。(かいしゃ __ おきゅうりょう __ たんとう)
kaisha __ okyuuryo __ tantou.
In charge of salaries at the company.

C. 東京__親せき__居ます。(とうきょう __ しんせき __ います)
toukyou __ shinseki __ imasu.
(I have) Relatives in Tokyo.

D. 経済学__先生です__。(けいざいがく __ せんせい です __)
keizaigaku __ sensei desu __.
An economics professor? (mild surprise)

E. 娘__会社員です__。 (むすめ __ かいしゃいん です __)
musume __ kaishain desu __.
My daughter is a company employee. (assertion)

F. 息子さん__エンジニアです__。(むすこさん __ エンジニア です __)
musuko-san __ enjinia desu __.
Your son is an engineer, right?

G. 姉__妹__主婦です。(あね __ いもうと __ しゅふ です)
ane __ imouto __ shufu desu.
Both my older sister and younger sister are housewives.



Section Test 2: Question words

A. ご主人は__ですか。(ごしゅじん は __ です か)
goshujin ha __ desu ka.
Where is your husband?

B. 従兄弟は__居ますか。(いとこ は __ います か)
itoko ha __ imasu ka.
How many cousins do you have?

C. ペレンさんは__ですか。
paren-san ha __ desu ka.
What nationality is Palen-san?

D. このジャケットは__ですか。
kono jaketto ha __ desu ka.
How much is this jacket?

E. あの男の人は__ですか。(あの おとこ の ひと は __ です か)
ano otoko no hito ha __ desu ka.
Who is that man?

F. パーティーは__ですか。
paatii ha __ desu ka.
When is the party?

G. お名前は__ですか。(おなまえ は __ です か)
onamae ha __ desu ka.
What is your name?



Section Test 3: Honorific prefixes

A. __家族 (かぞく) kazoku

B. __仕事 (しごと) shigoto




Section Test 4: connecting sentences with で(de)
Use で(de) to connect the sentences.

A1. ペレンさんはスペイン語をわかります。(ペレンさん は スペインご を わかります)
paren-san ha supeingo wo wakarimasu.
Palen-san understands Spanish.

A2. ペレンさんはスペインに居ます。(ペレンさん は スペイン に います)
paren-san ha supein ni imasu.
Palen-san is in Spain.


B1. エィレンさんはアメリカ人です。* (エィレンさん は アメリカじん です)
eiren-san ha amerikajin desu.
Eirinn-san is American.

B2. エィレンさんは英語を話します。* (エィレンさん は えいご を はなします)
eiren-san ha eigo wo hanashimasu.
Eirinn-san speaks English.


*Note: I spoke of myself in the third person for the sake of the test question. Normally you wouldn't attach さん(san) to your own name, as it would come across as arrogant.


Section Test 5: translation time

A. Both my Older brother and my younger brother are students.

B. Watanabe-san is Japanese, and is a company employee.



EX Palen : I nearly tried to summon you by typing "Palen-san". lol Too much Japanese Lesson writing.

Yeah, it basically comes down to whether you say "I'm going to play a game" or "I'm going play to a game". The second one uses "to" as a postposition by putting it after the word it applies to. So if you would put To before Play in that sentence in Spanish, then Spanish uses prepositions, but if you would put it after Play, it would be a postposition.
Why did that sound so much simpler in my head? lol

It's fun to toy around with anyway. I wonder how many Japanese professors would die if they saw us doing that though. xD

Very true. I recently watched an animé where the protagonist always used ore to refer to himself, and omae to refer to everyone else. It gave him this odd air of arrogance that actually didn't fit him at all, but he was seen as a delinquent so that might explain some of his vocabulary.
I, like you, suspect that there's a link between the pronouns, but can't say for sure yet.

I'm not sure about that either. I don't think there will be any pronouns to indicate plurality simply because the other nouns don't differentiate between singular and plural (like Ane ha hitori imasu meaning I have one older sister, and Ane ha futari imasu meaning I have two older sisters). It seems that if one form of a noun is both singular and plural, then all forms would be, but that's an assumption at best.



_____________________________________
Summon list:
Mynamescox44 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
PoptartSlayerXD :

Coming back from a four-day trip, with many things to retake in real life due to the absence, and I see this thorough test ahead. Well, I guess that's an average Monday, right?

I honestly don't know if my mind will have any free spots for this test anytime soon. I have a very busy week ahead of me, and I'll have to be very careful to sort it out without consequences, so I guess I'll save myself for a time where I'm a bit less busy. At its latest, it should be around June, but things can still change.

I had a very slight chance of actually using Japanese during that trip I mentioned, and since I can repeat said trip next year (maybe not to the same location, but with the same purpose) I'll have to get myself ready should I need to use Japanese. Not sure if I already have everything I need for a short interaction, but the more I can learn the better, so let's keep the lessons coming.

Lesson number thirty nine
Everyone recovered from that massive test section? No? Good. :V Time for more lesson!

In all seriousness, I'm very sorry for the delay. I promise I'll do my best to not let a gap that big happen again. Thanks for your patience, guys.
Additionally, given the long delay, this lesson will seem rather short, but it does pack a lot of things to learn. In fact we have a full vocabulary section plus our grammar section is almost a second vocabulary section this time. So hopefully it helps offset some of the wait, having so much yo learn this time.



Vocabulary:
毎日 (まいにち)
mainichi
Every day

今日 (きょう)
Kyou
Today

明日 (あした)
ashi ta (as always, I had to put a space where it didn't belong because of the censor)
Tomorrow

昨日 (きのう)
kinou
Yesterday

あさって
asatte
The day after tomorrow

おととい
ototoi
The day before yesterday

平日 (へいじつ)
heijitsu
Weekday

週末 (しゅぅまつ)
shuumatsu
Weekend

今週 (こんしゅう)
konshuu
This week

来週 (らいしゅう)
raishuu
Next week

先週 (せんしゅう)
senshuu
Last week

朝 (あさ)
asa
Morning

昼 (ひる)
hiru
Noon, Afternoon

夕方 (ゆうがた)
yuugata
Early evening

夜 (よる) 晩 (ばん)
yoru Or ban
Evening, Night



Grammar:
Remember the Counters (measure words) we learned several months back? 冊 (さつ) for counting books, magazines, and photo albums, 台 (だい) for counting machines, and 杯 (はい) for counting liquid food and drinks. Well, as it turns out, Japanese has a lot of counters, and we're going to learn a few more now, as well as refresh our memory on the three mentioned above.

Note that there are some numbers that require a slightly altered version of their counter, but if it helps any, they tend to be the same numbers (1-3, 6, and 8) and their alterations are often similar (ie. hai - pai for one, bai for three; hiki - piki for one, biki for three, etc).
Now let's start off with the three we know.

Bound objects
冊 (さつ)
一冊 (いっさつ - issatsu)
二冊 (にさつ - nisatsu)
三冊 (さんさつ - sansatsu)
四冊 (よんさつ - yonsatsu)
五冊 (ごさつ - gosatsu)
六冊 ( - rokusatsu)
七冊 (ななさつ - nanasatsu)
八冊 (はっさつ - hassatsu)
九冊 (きゅうさつ - kyuusatsu)
十冊 (じゅうさつ - juusatsu)

Mechanical objects
台 (だい)
一台 (いちだい - ichidai)
二台 (にだい - nidai)
三台 (さんだい - sandai)
四台 (よんだい - yondai)
五台 (ごだい - godai)
六台 (ろくだい - rokudai)
七台 (ななだい - nanadai)
八台 (はちだい - hachidai)
九台 (きゅうだい - kyuudai)
十台 (じゅうだい - juudai)

Liquids in cups, glasses, or bowls
杯 (はい)
一杯 (いっぱい - ippai)
二杯 (にはい - nihai)
三杯 (さんばい - sanbai)
四杯 (よんはい - yonhai)
五杯 (ごはい - gohai)
六杯 (ろっぱい - roppai)
七杯 (ななはい - nanahai)
八杯 (はっぱい - happai)
九杯 (きゅうはい - kyuuhai)
十杯 (じゅうはい - juuhai)

People
人 (にん)
一人 (ひとり - hitori)
二人 (ふたり - futari)
三人 (さんにん - sannin)
四人 (よにん - yonin)
五人 (ごにん - gonin)
六人 (ろくにん - rokunin)
七人 (ななにん, or しちにん - nananin, or shichinin)
八人 (はちにん - hachinin)
九人 (きゅうにん - kyuunin)
十人 (じゅうにん - juunin)

Thin, flat objects
枚 (まい)
一枚 (いちまい - ichimai)
二枚 (にまい - nimai)
三枚 (さんまい - sanmai)
四枚 (よんまい - yonmai)
五枚 (ごまい - gomai)
六枚 (ろくまい - rokumai)
七枚 (ななまい - nanamai)
八枚 (はちまい - hachimai)
九枚 (きゅうまい - kyuumai)
十枚 (じゅうまい - juumai)

Long cylindrical objects
本 (ほん)
一本 (いっぽん - ippon)
二本 (にほん - nihon)
三本 (さんぼん - sanbon)
四本 (よんほん - yonhon)
五本 (ごほん - gohon)
六本 (ろっぽん - roppon)
七本 (ななほん - nanahon)
八本 (はっぽん, or はちほん - happon, or hachihon)
九本 (きゅうほん - kyuuhon)
十本 (じゅうほん - juuhon)

Animals
匹 (ひき)
一匹 (いっぴき - ippiki)
二匹 (にひき - nihiki)
三匹 (さんびき - sanbiki)
四匹 (よんひき - yonhiki)
五匹 (ごひき - gohiki)
六匹 (ろっぴき - roppiki)
七匹 (ななひき - nanahiki)
八匹 (はっぴき - happiki)
九匹 (きゅうひき - kyuuhiki)
十匹 (じゅうひき - juuhiki)

It seems overwhelming at first, but once again, aside from a few rare exceptions, the"abnormal" ones as it were, are usually the same ones and share the same changes. Stick with it, and you'll get it down soon enough.


Test:
Match the vocabulary.

A. 毎日 (まいにち) -- mainichi

B. 今日 (きょう) -- Kyou

C. 明日 (あした) -- ashi ta

D. 昨日 (きのう) -- kinou

E. あさって -- asatte

F. おととい -- ototoi

G. 平日 (へいじつ) -- heijitsu

H. 週末 (しゅぅまつ) -- shuumatsu

I. 今週 (こんしゅう) -- konshuu

J. 来週 (らいしゅう) -- raishuu

K. 先週 (せんしゅう) -- senshuu

L. 朝 (あさ) -- asa

M. 昼 (ひる) -- hiru

N. 夕方 (ゆうがた) -- yuugata

O. 夜 (よる) 晩 (ばん) -- yoru, Or ban



1. Noon, Afternoon
2. Yesterday
3. Early evening
4. The day before yesterday
5. Weekend
6. Morning
7. This week
8. Today
9. Weekday
10. Next week
11. Last week
12. Every day
13. Evening, Night
14. Tomorrow
15. The day after tomorrow


Video
My apologies for the noise in the background: the television in the other room while I was recording was pretty loud. Also my pronunciation on a few are "meh", namely 毎日 (まいにち) which for some reason sounded like a hic speaking Japanese (should be ma-i-ni-chi, not mah-i-ni-chi), and おととい where I made the first o into a long vowel. My apologies for these errors -- I have no idea where my brain was. lol



Finally, a question: do you guys actually use the tests in these lessons, or not? I don't remember if I've asked this before or not. I put the tests in there because I like using them to test my retention, but I get that everyone learns differently, so if they aren't helpful, just let me know and I can omit them.

Thanks for following these lessons with me.

______________________________

Mynamescox44 :
m0ssb3rg935 :
deggle :
SacredShadow :
Sanspai :
sevencube3 :
Jygin :
Frodlex :
Zlinqx :
tytytec04 :
lordbelial669 :
A user of this :
EX Palen :
PoptartSlayerXD :