日本語 - Week 17 (Contemporary Japanese Vol. 1)

The book I am using is Contemporary Japanese Vol. 1 by Eriko Sato from the Tuttle Language Library. Volume 1 of the book has 61 lessons. Target end date is April 14, 2012.

Instead of doing the Kanji and the vocabulary, I have decided to focus on the exercises, at least for the video. I’ll leave the Kanji to you, hahaha.

MONDAY: Lesson Forty One – テープをかして下さい

For the Japanese equivalent of the verb to bring you have to use the verb for to hold もつ and then attach a verb of motion depending where the bringer is headed to. If the person bringing something is headed towards you, then that would be もって来る. If the person is taking something away from you that would be もって行く. As for entering and leaving an office or some personal space, you could use the expression しつれいします to say excuse me or to advise that you are entering or leaving.

TUESDAY: Lesson Forty One – テープをかして下さい

Use the –te form with 下さい for a request. This is very useful and I think this is one of the most common uses for the –te form. If you want to ask someone to eat, you could use that verb in –te form and add this ending, which would give you 食べて下さい. To suggest something, you could also use the ending ましょうか which is one way of inviting someone to do something. In this case, Shall we eat would be 食べましょうか.

WEDNESDAY: Lesson Forty Two –もう少しきれいに書いて下さい

The book says that the expression いいです could be used to say no, in some contexts. In effect it seems to mean, No, it’s alright. A possible scenario would be when you would like the cashier to keep the change. Just tell her this when you decline. Adverbs and adjectives! First, the adjectives 早い and 速い are pronounced the same way but the first one means early and the second one means fast. Take note of that, although I don’t think it would really matter in conversation, unless it’s through chat!

THURSDAY: Lesson Forty Two – もう少しきれいに書いて下さい

Continuation of adverbs and adjectives! We already talked about adjective ending in –i or –na. Adverbs also have their endings! They mostly end in –ku, and an adjective ending in –i could become an adverb if you get rid of the –i and replace it with a –ku ending. Examples? 早い becomes 早く. What if we have a –na adjective? Change it to –ni. しずかな becomes しずかに. Easy!

FRIDAY: Lesson Forty Three – この道をまっすぐ行って下さい

How do you turn a proper noun into an adjective? In Japanese, you attach the suffix ~という to the proper noun and it is immediately followed by the noun it is modifying. How does that happen? For example, a Japanese person called Mr Yamada would be 山田さんという日本人. A breed of dog called Akita would be AKITAという犬. I am also wondering why we could not just use の instead. I guess proper names are special that way.

                                                                                                                                                  

For next week I would be covering lessons forty three to forty five. We can do this guys! The goal is to pass the N5 examination of the JLPT in December 2012! =)