Going to the Japanese Radio after only two months with us

Brian Baldwin and his wife Janell have started Japanese with us this year in June.

They are very passionate about learning languages and are willing to use Japanese anytime in any situations. This is a great way to speed up your learning and considerably improve.

Brian and Janell are using Japanese when shopping, when going around the island, and meeting people in the street etc.

We thought it was a very interesting approach, and it is funny to see how surprised Japanese people are when suddenly engaged into conversation just for the fun of having a conversation.

We were really surprised however, when Brian told us he had volunteered to appear on  Japanese radio to present the Flight Line Fair in Futenma Airbase to the Okinawan public.

The show was about giving information about the event, what performances will be held, what planes will be exhibited. The radio DJ, being himself a plane fan, wanted Brian to talk about plane specificities and what they are used for.

Our first thought was: “This is definitely too much! After having learned for only two months…impossible!”

On a second thought, though, we decided to do it as it was challenging and exciting, something that has not been done before.

We prepared with Brian, asked him what he wanted to say, made him rehearse the key topics that would be discussed during the program….We met with the DJ, and we exchanged ideas…

On the day of the program, Brian did a great job. He was able to say everything he wanted to say about the fair, without the help of an interpreter.

We were very happy about the way the program went, and we all went out after for a well-deserved drink with all the protagonists of the show.

We believe that Brian’s adventure can be an example to encourage students to use Japanese language as much as they can.

You do not have to volunteer to appear on a TV or radio program. Just try to use your Japanese most of the time and in many different situations.

And if you are afraid of making mistakes, not understanding what people say, or being scared of talking, remember that once upon a time in Okinawa, there was someone crazy enough to appear on a Japanese radio after learning the language for only two months.

Thank you Brian and Janell, for this new experience! We are looking forward to new adventures with you!

Okinawa Teishoku-ya in Okinawa City: Daruma

Daruma is a very good and cheap teishoku-ya in Okinawa City.

A teishoku-ya (定食屋●ていしょくや) is a Japanese set meal restaurant that usually offers regional dishes accompanied with a bowl of rice, some miso soup and a glass of tea.

Here in Daruma like in many other teishoku-ya restaurants in Okinawa, senior ladies are doing everything from cooking to accounting! 

If you want a taste of Okinawan cuisine, this is the place you want to try!

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for directions.

What to expect?

When you enter the restaurant, the ladies might inquire about the number of people you are. Most of the time, they will not, as they are too busy with the service. In that case, you can sit wherever you want.

If they ask you about the number of people, they will probably ask

"nanmei sama desu ka"　なんめいさまですか　（何名様ですか）

If you are one person, answer "Hitori desu". ひとりです（一人です）

Two people, "Futari desu"　ふたりです（二人です）

Three people, "San nin desu"　さんにんです（３人です）

Four people, "Yon nin desu"　よんにんです（４人です）

And so on. Check the lesson about Japanese counters for more details. (coming soon)

Then they will show you to your table. The restaurant is not really crowded so most part of the time you are able to sit where you want to. If you don't find any seats (that is very rare with this place, but it could happen), you will just have to wait a short time until someone leaves.

If you want to sit at a particular table, you can ask for it. 

Zashiki　ざしき（座敷）= Tatami mats If you want to experience Japanese traditional style, choose this one.

Teeburu seki　テーブルせき　（テーブル席）= Regular Table

If they show you to a table seat, and you want the tatami, ask them: "Zashiki demo ii desu ka".

ざしきでも　いいですか　（座敷でもいいですか）

Let's have a look at the menu!

As you can see on the picture, the menu is translated in English, therefore it should be easy to understand what is going on. However, the ladies will not bring you this menu if you don't ask for it. You have to ask them to bring it so that you can see what they offer.

Menyuu arimasu ka?  メニュー、ありますか

Do you have a menu?

Now here is the tricky thing, you cannot order from your seat.

You must go to the ticket machine for that.

Here is the picture of the machine.

After you have decided what you want to eat, look at the dish number on the menu. For example, on the picture  of the menu above, you can see that the fried chicken and soba meal is tagged with number 45.

Go to the machine and look for number 45. You can see on the menu that this item costs 650 yen.

When you stand in front of the machine, you will have this (see picture below) on your right, so that you can check what number was the dish you want to eat, in case you have forgotten.

Insert the money and push the button. On the left you can insert coins (note that 5 yen and 1 yen coins are not accepted) and on the right (紙幣入口●しへいいりぐち shihei iriguchi), you can insert bill (all Japanese bills are accepted).

The round button in the middle, とりけし torikeshi, is when you want to cancel the operation. Push it and the machine will give you your bills or coins back.

If you need a receipt, push the button 領収書 （りょうしゅうしょ Ryooshuusho）, that you can see on the upper right of the picture.

Now look at the picture below.

On the left is the 券取出口（けんとりだしぐち Kentori dashiguchi）. This is where your order tickets will appear after you pushed the button. On the right is the 硬貨取出口（こうかとりだしぐち Kooka tori dashiguchi）, where your change will come out.

After you bought a ticket, and if you put more money than the amount needed, your change will not come out of the machine straight away. You can push the button in the middle, おつり●返却 Otsuri ●henkyaku, or you can wait a few seconds and it will come out automatically.

Now there is something you must be careful with. As you can see on the picture below, there is a touch panel on the left of the machine, with numbers on it (one to four).

These numbers correspond to the number of tickets you want to buy.

However, this DOES NOT mean that if you have four tickets to purchase, you can push where it reads 4枚 on the screen. If you push 4, it will give you four tickets of the SAME order, i.e. you will get four tickets of order number 45. 

Unless you want to order four tickets of the same dish, do not touch these buttons, and order each ticket one at a time.

Once you are done, give the ticket to one of the lady.

One last thing you must be careful of.

If you look at the menu again, you can see that fried pork is number 45 and fried chicken is also number 45.

Wow, does that mean I will have to eat both chicken and pork?

No, they are different dishes, but they cost the same amount, so I guess our friendly ladies found it more convenient to put them on the same number. You have many dishes on the menu that have the same number therefore be sure to check them before ordering.

If you want chicken and not pork, you must precise it when you give the ticket to the lady.

Tonkatsu, onegaishimasu とんかつ、お願いします。

Or chikin, onegaishimasu.　チキン、おねがいします。

The ladies understand English, so you can say "Pork" instead of "tonkatsu". Don't forget to say a nice and friendly "onegai shimasu".

Time to eat!

The lady will bring you ice "mugicha".

Mugicha (麦茶) is roasted barley tea, a caffeine-free roasted grain infusion made from barley.

It is very refreshing, especially after a hard day work in the Okinawan summer heat.

Mugicha is free refill. If you want another glass, you can help yourself at the yellow container.

Your order should come in a timely manner.

If you want to add spice to your food, you will find different bottles on your table, as shown in the picture below.

The redder and smaller bottle is Shichimi Toogarashi (七味唐辛子),  literally "the seven flavored spices", it is red cayenne pepper mixed with other spices.

The other one in the background is Shima Toogarashi Kooreeguusu (島唐辛子コーレーグース). It is Chile pepper soaked in Awamori rice liquor. A speciality of Okinawa. But it is very hot, so be careful not to use it too much (unless you were a dragon in a past life).

The big red one on the left are "beni shooga- 紅生姜" (prickled ginger). You can add a few on your meat or in the soba.

The one in the middle is the sauce you can use for fried food, such as "tonkatsu" (fried pork).

The one on the right is soya sauce, 醤油 (shooyu).

As I said at the beginning of this post, the Teishoku style restaurant is a set meal restaurant. Rice and miso soup will be automatically served with your order.

However, if you do not want any rice or soup, say it when you order.

I don't want rice= O kome nashi de onegai shimasu.　おこめなしでおねがいします　（お米なしでお願いします。）

I don't want miso soup=  Miso shiru nashi de onegai shimasu. みそしるなしでおねがいします　（味噌汁なしでお願いします）

And so on.

The "onegai shimasu" is used when making a request or asking for a favor to someone.

When you ask for water or something to buy, you would rather use "kudasai".

I want some water= "mizu o kudasai"　みずをください　（水をください）

I want this = "kore o kudasai"　これをください

I want some tissue paper=　"Tishu o kudasai"　ティシュをください

Enjoy your meal and let me know if you liked it!

Here is the address of the restaurant

Yamazato 2-13-20

Okinawa City

沖縄県沖縄市山里2-13-20

098-932-8840

Lesson 2 - Negative sentences and nationalities

In the previous lesson, we learnt that the word "desu"（です）, must be placed at the end of the sentence.

We studied affirmative sentences such as "I'm John".

How would you say it again?

1) I am John

______________________________


Good job! Remember to scroll down at the bottom of this page to check the answers.


What about if someone calls you John but your name is actually James. Who the hell is John?

What you need to do is to turn the word "desu" into its negative form.

Now, there are a few ways to express "desu" at the negative way. Today we are going to learn three ways.

1) dewa arimasen　ではありません
2) ja arimasen　　　じゃありません
3) ja nai desu　　　じゃないです

They are all polite way of expressing the negation. However, the first one is very standard. The second one is almost the same but the "dewa" is contracted in a "ja". The third one is more spoken language but it is still polite.

Note that in Okinawa you will rather hear "ja nai desu"

2) How would you say "I'm not John! I'm James!"

____________________________________________


Did you get it correctly?

If you added "san" after John, it is a mistake, because you are referring to yourself in this sentence. You will use "san" only when addressing other people.

One more important thing that you need to remember. In most of Japanese sentences, the subject "I" or "you" is omitted.
You don't hear Japanese people say "watashi wa, watashi wa, etc" as we would use "I" in English.

Japanese people understand the subject out of context. Most part of the time, if you don't have any indication of subject in a sentence,  it means that the speaker refers to himself/herself.

Let's take an example from our sentence above.

"I'm not John! I'm James!".
This sentence in a more natural Japanese way would be as follow

"John ja nai desu! James desu yo!"　ジョンじゃないです！ジェムスですよ！

The "yo" at the end of the sentence emphasizes the fact that you are James and not John.
What I want you to understand here, is the fact that the interlocutor will understand naturally that you (the speaker) are referring to yourself.

Why? Probably because he/she is the one who made the mistake to call you John in the first place. Then, because it wouldn't make any sense to translate this sentence using "you"

"John!
- You're not John! You're James!"

Right? it doesn't make any sense. Therefore, we understand naturally that the speaker refers to himself/herself

"John!
- I'm not John! I'm James!"

3) How would you say "I'm not a student. I'm a teacher"

Student= gakusei　がくせい　学生
Teacher= Kyooshi きょうし　教師

(if you want to use Sensei instead of Kyooshi, it's fine. I will explain the difference between these two terms in a different post)

_______________________________________________


Let's talk about nationalities now.

The names of countries  in Japanese are for the most part spelled with the "katakana" alphabet.

The "katakana" alphabet....what is that?

There are three writing systems in Japanese.

The Kanji, the Hiragana, and the Katakana. I will explain about them in a different post.

Briefly, the Kanji are the Chinese characters, the small complicated drawings that look cool on a t-shirt or in a tattoo. There are thousands of them.

The Hiragana and Katakana alphabets are simplified alphabets. They have each about 50 characters.
The katakana alphabet is mainly used to write words that have a foreign origin.

Soccer =　サッカー　=Sakkaa
Table=　テーブル　= Teeburu

and so on.

The name of the countries are therefore a transliteration of the English word (or another language) in the katakana alphabet.

For instance

The United States of America=　アメリカ　=Amerika

Note that I spell "America" with a K, not because I am a complete illiterate (don't leave me now!), but because it is actually the way you would write the Japanese pronunciation of "ka" in the Roman alphabet.

France=　フランス　= Furansu
Spain= 　スペイン　=supein
Italy=　イタリア　＝ itaria

Same here, I'm using R instead of L. It is not a mistake.
And note that the Japanese use the term Italia and not Italy. Not all countries' names are expressed with their English equivalent.

For instance, Germany would be Doitsu　ドイツ
based from the German word Deutschland

Brazil, Burajiru　ブラジル. Russia, Roshia　ロシア. Canada, Kanada　カナダ　 United Kingdom, Igirisu　イギリス... yes, this last one is weird.

To state your nationality, just add "jin"（じん、人） after the name of your country.

If you are French, you are a Furansu-jin　フランス人
If you are from Germany, you are a Doitsu-jin　ドイツ人


4) How would you say "I am American"?

_________________________________



Good job!

There are a few countries that do have a Japanese name. These are the countries that have a deep History with Japan.

I'm thinking about China.
China is Chuugoku　 ちゅうごく　中国

As you can see, China is written in Kanji.

It is also the case for

Korea= Kankoku　かんこく　韓国
North Korea= kita choosen　きたちょうせん　北朝鮮

The last thing we are going to say in Japanese in this lesson is

5) John is not Chinese. He's American!

_________________________________

Did you guess correctly?

Note that in this sentence we must specify the subject as we are referring to a third party. However, if John were the topic of the conversation and we had talked about him in the previous sentence, I would not need to say "John san wa..."

Look up in the English Japanese dictionary to find how to say your nationality!

In our next lesson, we are going to talk about how to make questions in Japanese, and by the way, if you have any, please feel free to contact me at

japanese.lessons.okinawa@gmail.com

__________________________________________________________________________

Answers

1) Watashi wa John desu

　　わたしはジョンです。

2) Watashi wa John dewa arimasen. James desu.

　　わたしはジョンではありません。ジェムスです。
　　
    or Watashi wa John ja arimasen.　わたしはジョンじゃありません。
    or Watashi wa John ja nai desu.　わたしはジョンじゃないです。

3) (watashi wa) gakusei dewa arimasen. Kyooshi desu.

　　わたしはがくせいではありません。きょうしです。

　　わたしは学生ではありません。教師です。

   or Gakusei ja arimasen.
    or Gakusei ja nai desu

4) Amerika jin desu.
　　
　　アメリカじんです。

　　アメリカ人です。

5) John san wa Chuugoku-jin ja nai desu. Amerika-jin desu yo!
　
　　ジョンさんはちゅうごくじんじゃないです。アメリカじんですよ！
　　
　　ジョンさんは中国人じゃないです。アメリカ人ですよ！

Okinawa Soba in Ginowan - GON

Gon is a soba restaurant in Ginowan that specializes in Okinawan soba. I am not a big fan of Okinawan soba. However I do recommend this one as it tastes very good!

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for directions.

Why is it good?

The soup used with Okinawan soba is usually made from pork, which gives the soup an oily quality. In Gon, they don't seem to use it (or maybe in smaller quantities) and the soup is mainly made using Katsuo-bushi (かつおぶし), dried and smoked bonito flakes. The soup has a light texture, "assari shita suupu" (あっさりしたスープ), as opposition to "kotteri shita suupu" (こってりしたスープ), a soup with a thick texture such as the soup used for Ramen.

What to expect?

When you enter the restaurant, they will inquire about the number of people you are.

"nanmei sama desu ka"　なんめいさまですか　（何名様ですか）

If you are one person, answer "Hitori desu". ひとりです（一人です）

Two people, "Futari desu"　ふたりです（二人です）

Three people, "San nin desu"　さんにんです（３人です）

Four people, "Yon nin desu"　よんにんです（４人です）

And so on. Check the lesson about Japanese counters for more details.

Then they will show you to your table.

If you want to sit at a particular table, you can ask for it. 

Zashiki　ざしき（座敷）= Tatami mats If you want to experience Japanese traditional style, choose this one.

Teeburu seki　テーブルせき　（テーブル席）= Regular Table

Kauntaa seki　カウンターせき　（カウンター席）= Counter seat

If they show you to the counter seat, and you want the tatami, ask them: "Zashiki demo ii desu ka".

ざしきでも　いいですか　（座敷でもいいですか）

 Note that they might not be able to accede to your request sometimes as they have so many customers every day.

Also, if you are by yourself, they would rather have you sit  at the counter.

As you can see in the picture below, the tatami are on the left, the counter seats in the middle and the table seats on the right.

If you choose the Zashiki, don't forget to take off your shoes.

Let's have a look at the menu!

From left to right

You have Mix Soba on the left.

This is a combination of the three type of meat  (see after) they offer in their menu.

Soki Soba are stewed pork spare ribs usually with the cartilage still attached, but boiled to the extreme so meat and cartilage are very soft.

Nankotsu Soba -  Pork with cartilage, this type is usually hard.

San Mai Niku Soba (three layer meat) - Thick slices of pork belly. This is the one I usually order; easy to eat, and delicious.

If you don't like meat, order the one on the right : Kake Soba- Just noodle without meat.

They usually top it with "Kamaboko" (a type of fish cured surimi), "negi" (sliced green onions), and the red strange thing on the very top would be "beni shooga" (prickled ginger).

If you don't want something in the topping, say it when you order.

I don't want green onions= Negi nashi de onegai shimasu.　ネギなしでおねがいします　（ネギなしでお願いします。）

You don't want ginger= beni shooga nashi de onegai shimasu. べにしょうがなしでおねがいします　（紅ショウガなしでお願いします）

And so on.

The "onegai shimasu" is used when making a request or asking for a favor to someone.

When you ask for water or something to buy, you would rather use "kudasai".

I want some water= "mizu o kudasai"　みずをください　（水をください）

I want this = "kore o kudasai"　これをください

I want kake soba=　"kake soba o kudasai"　かけそばをください

On the upper right of the menu is the rice menu. You can choose rice bowl, or Onigiri-type rice (salty riceball). Personally, I don't eat rice with soba.

And below that, you have the drink menu. From top to bottom are the soft drinks. They cost each 160 yen

You have Kora (coke), Karupisu (kind of yoghurt water), Orenji (Orange juice), Ramune (Lemon pop), Shiikwaasaa (Okinawan tangerine, very sour), Aisu Koohii (Ice coffee), and Sanpin Cha (Okinawan Jasmin tea).

The last drink at 550 yen is Orion Beer.(Orion Biiru)

On the bottom right are the information about the restaurant: they are open from 11.00 to 20.00 but they close earlier if they sell their whole stock of noodle for the day.

They also have information of the two other restaurants they have on the island.

Time to eat!

If you need water, it is self service, you can help yourself. The waiter will bring you your first glass of water anyway.

If you have little children with you, you can borrow one of the baby seats they have in the tatami room. You don't need to ask for permission.

When they bring your order, they will also give you this.

This is your bill. It will be face down as it is customary in Japan.

On the picture below, on the left you have black chopsticks. Help yourself.

You also have two type of spices that you can add to the soup if you like spicy food.

The first one (the redder and smaller one) is Shichimi Toogarashi, literally "the seven flavored spices", it is red cayenne pepper mixed with other spices.

The other one is Shima Toogarashi Kooreeguusu. It is Chile pepper soaked in Awamori rice liquor. A speciality of Okinawa.

Go easy with that one. Seriously. Try only a few drops to taste it first or you are going to waste your day. Mark my words.

When you're done eating, take your bill and go to the register. A staff should come immediately.

If they don't, you can say aloud: "okaikei onegaishimasu". おかいけいおねがいします　（お会計お願いします）

Kaikei is the bill, literally it means "the count "

There are other way to say the bill: okanjo onegaishimasu. おかんじょうおねがいします。（お勘定お願いします。）

Then, if you haven't put too much Chile pepper in your soup, you can say "gochisoo sama deshita" (thank you for the meal) and leave.

ごちそうさまでした。（ご馳走様でした）

Let me know if you liked it!

Here is the address of the restaurant

Isa 4-2-14

Ginowan City

沖縄県宜野湾市伊佐4-2-14

What you will learn in the Beginner Adult Course

How to formally introduce yourself and other people

How to talk about your family

How to ask about places, about things

How to orientate yourself

How to count in Japanese

How to ask about prices, telephone numbers

How to ask the opening hours of shops, restaurants
How to place an order

How to tell the time in Japanese

How to ask about trains, bus, taxis….

How to give instructions to your taxi driver

How to make invitations and exhortations

How to politely inquire about things, situations

How to describe things and people

How to say no politely

How to express what you like and dislike
How to express what you want to do

How to talk about the past

How to make comparisons

How to ask permission and express interdiction and obligation

How to ask someone to teach you how to use something

How to use the Japanese ATM machine

How to describe your symptoms when you go to the hospital

How to ask about people’s hobbies

How to use Japanese casual language

How to express thoughts and opinions

How to inquire about real estate at a housing agency

How to express condition

How to say your farewells when you leave Japan

Lesson 1 - The Particle WA

How do you say Me in Japanese?

If you answered Watashi wa (わたしは), well you are right and wrong at the same time.

Watashi wa is actually an incomplete sentence. Watashi wa by itself does not make any sense.

The wa (は) after watashi in watashi wa is a particle that indicates the subject or the topic of the sentence.

Therefore, to say Me or I in Japanese, we would say Watashi and watashi only.

わたし Watashi

Wait a second, what is a particle?

Particles are one, or sometimes two Japanese letters that follow a word. The purpose of the particle is to define the role of the word it follows, the role it plays in the sentence. The particles are always positioned after the word they are attached to.

Particles are like body joints. The words are bones, but bones only cannot make the body move. They need joints. Particles articulate the sentence and give it its full meaning.

In this lesson, we will talk about the particle wa only.

The particle wa (は) indicates the subject of the sentence. When I start my sentence with watashi wa, the interlocutor knows I am about to say something about myself, to express what I did or I am going to do. The particle wa after watashi indicates that I is the actor of the verb in the sentence.

If you know how to read hiragana you have noticed that the letter used for the particle wa is actually the letter ha　(は). This is something that often occurs when we write particles.

Ok, enough talking. Let’s actually use it in a sentence.

The first thing you might want to use the particle wa (は) for is stating your name. That might indeed be useful.

My name is David. So if I want to say “I’m David”, I would start with Watashi wa David.

(わたしはDavid)

Good, however our sentence is still incomplete here. To finish a sentence in Japanese, we need a verb that explains what is the action being performed. Here, we are not really doing an action. We are just being David.

So, we are going to use the word Desu ですat the end of our sentence.

I don’t want you to think that Desu is the equivalent of the verb Be in English, because it’s not.

Actually, one of the things I will often ask you not to do in this course is trying to think in the English sentence pattern when building a sentence in Japanese.

The structure of the sentence in Japanese is the complete opposite of the English structure or other Germanic and Latin based languages. In other words, do not try to copy the English words order and paste it in the Japanese sentence or you would do what I call a “Google translation”, and your sentence would not make any sense.

Desu is a polite word you would use at the end of the sentence when you don’t have a real verb.

So, we have the subject, Watashi, followed by the particle for the subject, Wa.

Then my name David.

And at the end, Desu.

わたしはDavidです。

Watashi wa David desu.

Now, it’s your turn. How would you say your name?

Very good!

We can use this sentence pattern to express many things.

For instance, if you want to say your profession, and let us pretend that you are a company employee.

A company employee= Kaisha in　かいしゃいん（会社員）

Try to make the sentence by yourself now. Look for the answers at the end of this lesson.

1) I am a company employee

    -------------------------------------------

If you are a housewife ( yes, housewife is also a profession, actually a full time position without remuneration)

Housewife = shufu　しゅふ（主婦）

2) I am a housewife
   
    ---------------------------------------------

Now, the last thing we are going to do in this lesson is stating information about a third person. Since we are learning about professions, we are going to try and say Mr John is a company employee.

One thing you must know before we try it, people’s names must be used with San （さん） after their names. San is a mark of respect to the person we are referring to.

3) Mr John is a company employee.

     ---------------------------------------------

Check the correction at the end of this lesson. Did you get it correctly? Or did you forget to put the particle wa after John san?

San is also used for ladies. There is no Mister or Miss in Japanese. So if you want to say

4) Helena is a doctor.  (Doctor= Isha)　いしゃ（医者）

    -------------------------------------

Did you have it right?

Look in the English Japanese dictionary to find how to say your profession and apply this pattern to say it.

In our next lesson, we are going to talk about countries and nationalities, using the same sentence pattern. We are also going to talk about how to express negation.

http://japanese-lessons-okinawa.blogspot.jp/2015/09/lesson-2-negative-sentences-and.html

If you have any question, please feel free to contact me at

Japanese.lessons.okinawa@gmail.com

                                                                                                       
Answers to the drills

1) Watashi wa kaisha-in desu
　　わたしは　かいしゃいん　です。
　　わたしは会社員です。

2) Watashi wa shufu desu
　　わたしは　しゅふ　です。
　　わたしは主婦です。

3) John san wa kaisha-in desu
　　ジョンさんは　かいしゃいん　です。
　　ジョンさんは会社員です。

4) Helena san wa isha desu
　　エレナさんは　いしゃ　です。
　　エレナさんは医者です。