Alright, as I've stated, I'm using Absolute Pimsleur's Japanese I to help facilitate my learning. I'm well beyond the first unit and, in actuality, I'm almost finished the entire Japanese I. Thankfully, there are two more sets of thirty lessons in the form of Japanese II and Japanese III. However, I won't let the fact I'm farther ahead than most people stop me from posting these transcripts. It allows me to review older material and practice writing out the hiragana.
Of note, I do not use any kanji in these transcripts, but will be in the future. I realize they are beginner lessons and I don't want to overwhelm people. Having the hiragana and katakana should be enough to help you learn the kana first before moving on to kanji. Maybe when I get around to Pimsleur's Japanese II, I'll start using kanji. We'll have to wait and see. Personally, I only know about 100 kanji, so I doubt I'd even be able to fully translate these words to their kanji form without a dictionary.
Anyways, on with the transcript and let me know how you make out with it! I only use the kana for my translations. There is no romanji for those looking. It is pointless to learn using romanji and you will only hinder yourself to do so. The best advice I can give you is:
DO NOT BECOME DEPENDANT ON ROMANJI!
A final note - I'm not perfect and these transcripts will more than likely have mistakes. I don't do full transcripts either, just the new words and sentences (ie I don't transcribe repeats or past lessons' vocabulary and readings). If you see a mistake, let me know and I'll work to fix it.
to help facilitate my learning. I'm well beyond the first unit and, in actuality, I'm almost finished the entire Japanese I. Thankfully, there are two more sets of thirty lessons in the form of 
and 
. However, I won't let the fact I'm farther ahead than most people stop me from posting these transcripts. It allows me to review older material and practice writing out the hiragana.Of note, I do not use any kanji in these transcripts, but will be in the future. I realize they are beginner lessons and I don't want to overwhelm people. Having the hiragana and katakana should be enough to help you learn the kana first before moving on to kanji. Maybe when I get around to Pimsleur's Japanese II, I'll start using kanji. We'll have to wait and see. Personally, I only know about 100 kanji, so I doubt I'd even be able to fully translate these words to their kanji form without a dictionary.
Anyways, on with the transcript and let me know how you make out with it! I only use the kana for my translations. There is no romanji for those looking. It is pointless to learn using romanji and you will only hinder yourself to do so. The best advice I can give you is:
DO NOT BECOME DEPENDANT ON ROMANJI!
A final note - I'm not perfect and these transcripts will more than likely have mistakes. I don't do full transcripts either, just the new words and sentences (ie I don't transcribe repeats or past lessons' vocabulary and readings). If you see a mistake, let me know and I'll work to fix it.
New Vocabulary
すみません
excuse me
すこし
a little
わかり-
to understand (the dash is for conjugations, like ます, ました or ません)
えいご
English language
えいごが
English language (as used in a sentence)
日本(にほん)ご
Japanese language
日本(にほん)ごが
Japanese language (as used in a sentence. As with English, note the use of the particle が)
アメリカ
America
アメリカじん
American
か
spoken question mark (?) when used at the end of a sentence
です
am/are
はい
yes
いいえ
no
わたし
I
あなた
you
Closing Conversation
すみません。えいごがわかりますか。
Excuse me, do you understand English?
いいえわかりません。日本(にほん)ごがわかりますか。
No, I don't understand. Do you understand Japanese?
はいすこしわかります。
Yes, I understand a little.
あなたはアメリカじんですか。
Are you American?
はいわたしわアメリカじんです。
Yes, I am American.
わかりますか。
Do you understand?
えいごがわかりますか。
Do you understand English?
わかります。
I understand.
わかりません。
I don't understand.
いいえわかりません。
No, I don't understand.
日本(にほん)ごがわかりますか
Do you understand Japanese?
日本(にほん)ごがわかります。
I understand Japanese.
日本(にほん)ごがわかりません。
I don't understand Japanese.
すこしわかります。
I understand a little.
日本(にほん)ごがすこしわかります。
I understand Japanese a little.
あなたはアメリカじんですか
Are you American?
あなたはアメリカじんです
You are American.
わたしはです。
I am.
わたしはアメリカじんです。
I am American.
はいわたしはアメリカじんです
Yes, I am American
Notes
は
は is pronounced わ when used as a particle in most sentences. It is fairly easy to distinguish when it is used in this way. It basically sets off the subject of the sentence and usually, but not always, follows it. For instance,
私はカービーです。
The first kanji character is わたし, which, as we saw above, means "I". Above, like here, it is followed by は. Thus, it is pronounced 'wah-tah-she-wah' and not 'wah-tah-she-hah', even though it has the は character. In case you are wondering, the above was "I am Kirby (ka-bi-).". The same principle applies to あなたは, which is "You" above.
With the kanji, you instantly see that は would be pronounced わ in this case. It's a little more difficult, but not impossible to pick it out with all kana characters. A similar, but not present here, example is the particle へ which is pronounced え. Again, this is easy to distinguish, but a little odd when starting out. Don't feel you have to memorize this right away, as I am just introducing it to you for now.
アメリカ
This is katakana, as you should know by now (=p) and it stands for 'America'. When じん is added to the end, it becomes 'American'. Oddly enough, the English language is written with hiragana, while America gets the katakana treatment. I don't personally know the reason behind this though. It seems odd "English" isn't treated as foreign, but I might be missing some random cultural or historical reason behind it being written in hiragana.
か
か, in this case, is the spoken equivilent of a question mark in English. However, it has other meanings and uses in Japanese, so don't assume all か's indicate questions. It's also used as 'or' in sentences. You should be able to easily distinguish when it is a question mark indicator or an 'or', though and future Pimsleur lessons introduce the other meaning for it.
が
が is a particle in most of the sentences above. It indicates the sentence subject or the object of the sentence in most cases. For instance えいご is English, the language, but えいごが is used in most sentences involving it because the が indicates we are talking about English and the verbs will be applied to it. So if someone asks what English is in Japanese, you say えいご, not えいごが, as the が has no real meaning without the rest of the sentence.
すみません
excuse me
すこし
a little
わかり-
to understand (the dash is for conjugations, like ます, ました or ません)
えいご
English language
えいごが
English language (as used in a sentence)
日本(にほん)ご
Japanese language
日本(にほん)ごが
Japanese language (as used in a sentence. As with English, note the use of the particle が)
アメリカ
America
アメリカじん
American
か
spoken question mark (?) when used at the end of a sentence
です
am/are
はい
yes
いいえ
no
わたし
I
あなた
you
Closing Conversation
すみません。えいごがわかりますか。
Excuse me, do you understand English?
いいえわかりません。日本(にほん)ごがわかりますか。
No, I don't understand. Do you understand Japanese?
はいすこしわかります。
Yes, I understand a little.
あなたはアメリカじんですか。
Are you American?
はいわたしわアメリカじんです。
Yes, I am American.
わかりますか。
Do you understand?
えいごがわかりますか。
Do you understand English?
わかります。
I understand.
わかりません。
I don't understand.
いいえわかりません。
No, I don't understand.
日本(にほん)ごがわかりますか
Do you understand Japanese?
日本(にほん)ごがわかります。
I understand Japanese.
日本(にほん)ごがわかりません。
I don't understand Japanese.
すこしわかります。
I understand a little.
日本(にほん)ごがすこしわかります。
I understand Japanese a little.
あなたはアメリカじんですか
Are you American?
あなたはアメリカじんです
You are American.
わたしはです。
I am.
わたしはアメリカじんです。
I am American.
はいわたしはアメリカじんです
Yes, I am American
Notes
は
は is pronounced わ when used as a particle in most sentences. It is fairly easy to distinguish when it is used in this way. It basically sets off the subject of the sentence and usually, but not always, follows it. For instance,
私はカービーです。
The first kanji character is わたし, which, as we saw above, means "I". Above, like here, it is followed by は. Thus, it is pronounced 'wah-tah-she-wah' and not 'wah-tah-she-hah', even though it has the は character. In case you are wondering, the above was "I am Kirby (ka-bi-).". The same principle applies to あなたは, which is "You" above.
With the kanji, you instantly see that は would be pronounced わ in this case. It's a little more difficult, but not impossible to pick it out with all kana characters. A similar, but not present here, example is the particle へ which is pronounced え. Again, this is easy to distinguish, but a little odd when starting out. Don't feel you have to memorize this right away, as I am just introducing it to you for now.
アメリカ
This is katakana, as you should know by now (=p) and it stands for 'America'. When じん is added to the end, it becomes 'American'. Oddly enough, the English language is written with hiragana, while America gets the katakana treatment. I don't personally know the reason behind this though. It seems odd "English" isn't treated as foreign, but I might be missing some random cultural or historical reason behind it being written in hiragana.
か
か, in this case, is the spoken equivilent of a question mark in English. However, it has other meanings and uses in Japanese, so don't assume all か's indicate questions. It's also used as 'or' in sentences. You should be able to easily distinguish when it is a question mark indicator or an 'or', though and future Pimsleur lessons introduce the other meaning for it.
が
が is a particle in most of the sentences above. It indicates the sentence subject or the object of the sentence in most cases. For instance えいご is English, the language, but えいごが is used in most sentences involving it because the が indicates we are talking about English and the verbs will be applied to it. So if someone asks what English is in Japanese, you say えいご, not えいごが, as the が has no real meaning without the rest of the sentence.
2 comments:
There is a mistake in the sentence 5 of the conversation:
you wrote
はいわたしわアメリカじんです。
Yes, I am American.
It should be
はいわたしはアメリカじんです。
Congrats on getting your own domain!
Post a Comment