Using って or て in place of と in speech

In Japanese, it is very common to short form pronunciation in speech. 　と in casual conversation can be replaced by　って　or　て.

• 使用禁止は使うなって（と）いう意味です
• あそこに　「とまれ」って（と）書いてあります

て is used when the previous word before と is an ん.

• このかんじは何て（と）読むんですか。

Compound Words – 合成語

Compounds words are simply words formed by combing two words together. This very common in the Japanese language, especially in sign boards.

• 私+達  = 私達 (we)
• 日本+人 = 日本人 (Japanese)
• 日本+料理 = 日本料理 (Japanese cooking)
• 乗る+換える = 乗り換える (to transfer)

1) ～ 口　（ぐち）

口　(くち） by itself means mouth. When used in a compound word it means a location or  direction. Its used with a noun + 口 or verb (masu-form) + 口。

Commonly seen in train stations indicating the location of the exit:

• 東口 (east gate)　　西口 (west gate)　　南口 (south gate)　　北口 (north gate)　　中央口 (central gate)

or direction of exits

• 出口(exit)　入口(entrance)　上り口(up-going stairs)　下り口(down-going stairs)
• 窓口  means ticket window (location)
• 非常口 means emergency exit, very important!

2) ～　中　（じゅう）

中 by itself means center or the middle location, but when used as compound word, has 2 meanings in general. The first means throughout that time period when the word is a time period + 中. Commonly used examples:

• 一日中（all day long）　一晩中（all night long）　一年中（throughout the year）

Ex: 朝から一日中コンビューターをつかっていたので、目が疲れてしまった。

3) 　～　中　（ちゅう）

The second meaning shows an action which last for a certain period of time. However, only a limited number of nouns and verbs can be be used in such construction.

• 食事中(while eating) 　出張中(in business travel)　電話中(while on the phone)　試験中(during exams)

Ex: 部長は今、タイへ出張中なので、帰りましたら、すぐご連絡いたします。

Most commonly see in restaurant

• 営業中(in business)    準備中(in preparation)

Some exceptions that cannot be used:

• 心配中　びっくり中　結婚中　招待中   輸入中　輸出中　出発中

Additional infomation:

• A noun indicating a location + 中 means throughout that place.

Ex: この新聞は世界中で読まれています (this newspaper is read throughout the world)

• A time period + 中に means within that period of time

Ex: 来週中にレポートを出してください (Please submit the report by the end of next week)

• A time period + 中は means all through that time period

Ex: 土曜日の 午前中（ちゅう） は家にいます。 (I am at home on Saturday morning)

Japanese Dictionary for Palm/WinMo

Having been both users of plam phones (treo 650/centro) and Windows Mobile phone (Treo Pro), having a good japanese dictionary is surely an important addition for those studying Japanese and needs a quick reference to those difficult kanji.

For Palm OS, I found that PADICT is quick, easy to use and more importantly free. You can also search for kanji by writing on your screen. However, the dictionary is not as comprehensive as I would love it to be, but it is good enough for most of my needs.

For WinMo, I have tried 3 japanese dictionaries:

• EBpocket -> could not get the fonts working properly nor the dictionary to work
• Declan Japanese Dictionary –>totally useless, don’t work at all, plus it needs a larger screen then my Treo Pro has

I finally settled on PocketDictionary, together with JapaneseInput, both are incredibly free.  Together they offer the  japanese/kanji input dictionary experience on Treo Pro for me so far. Further the dictionaries are based on the famous Jim Breen’s dictionary.

Learning Japanese Conjugation of Verbs

For many beginners in the Japanese language probably one of the most complex structures are the verbs. The Japanese verbs plays an important part of understanding the speaker’s intentions. Hence, the verb is conjugation (AKA changed) into various forms to express intentions of “to want”, “to become”, “probably will”, “may want”, etc.

The confusion

Now, for the first-half of my self-learning, I could not figure out how godan (五段) verbs and ichidan (一段) verbs were conjugated (AKA changed) and why verbs like:

- nomu (のむ, to drink) become nonde (のんで, drink) or,
- arau (あらう, to wash) becomes araimasu (あらいます, to wash in polite form) and aratte or,
- why aruku (あるく, to walk) becomes aruite (あるいて, walk).

To me, it looks like the entire verb was changing and it was just baffling. I was forced to memorize each verb and each conjugation which became a bottleneck and was just really silly and ineffective way of learning.

Learning Japanese II

This was some 2 months ago:

I have finally internalised the number system and don’t need to translate it in my head. I normally take this as a good process. Before this, I would have to translate each number painfully into English (or Chinese) first before I could understand it. This movement signifies that the language jump has suceeded and learning should be easier going forward. So now, I will know how much a store keeper is telling me and fork out the correct amount, without having to look at the figures at the cash register.

Just as you thought you’ve got it..

Well, I’ve finally completed my Hira/Kata self-taught training and now can effective read most of the Japanese words, especially during lunch and reading the menues.

Now comes the shocker.. Just when you thought that you can pronounce and read Japanese with Hira/Kata… you realise that more than 50% of the written forms are in Kanji!! Now, of course, I know more or less what that Kanji means, but how do you actually pronounce them? You can’t go to a restaurant and start speaking in Chinese, although some Japanese may know that actually Chinese pronounciation of those Kanji words. Damn, another road block to ordering food!

Kana Kanji Romanji

Excerpt from Self-Study Kana Workbook publised by AOTS

Origin of Kana

In ancient times, when no writing system had yet been developed in Japan, Japanese people tried to use kanji from China, which was a nation of advanced culture and learning, to write the Japanese language. Since Chinese and Japanese are totally different in pronounciation, however, it was difficult to adopt the kanji as they were to express the sounds used in Japanese.

Hiragana lettters were thus developed to record the sounds used in Jpaanese in written form, by modifying and simplifying kanji to make them easy for everyone to write. They have a round shape. Katakana letters, on the other hand, were derived from a part of kanji, and they are comprised of straight lines and angles. Both writing systesm were created some 1,000 years ago

To the beginner, learning Japanese will seem an undaunting task. However, its not that difficult to learn (Hiragana and Katagana, let’s ignore Kanji for the while). Essentially, there should only be about 40 characters to remember. The rest are derived from those 40 characters by adding a small double dash or a small circle. For example, “?” (ta) with double dash, “?” becomes “da”.

The trouble begins when you add Katagana to it. Now you have to remember around 80 characters. So for everyone character in Hiragana, you have to remember the Katagana form. And worst of all, they can be very different to each other, so you cannot really derive that Katagana form from Hiragana form all the time. For example, the character “shi”, “?” (hira) and “?” (kata), both forms looks totally different from each other.