Learn to Speak Japanese - Basic Conversational Japanese Lessons for Business/Pleasure Applications

Yokoso!

Welcome to my Japanese Lessons.

Have you ever watched an old Japanese samurai movie on the late show? Chances are you thought that everyone was always angry at everyone else and spent a lot of time yelling in monotonous staccato tones. I felt the same way. It was all unintelligible blabber, not a real language. Well, guess what? It is actually possible to make some sense out of the nonsensical language that you hear on Japanese movies, etc. With a little understanding of how the language works, you will be on your way to sounding just like those yelling, sword-swinging samurai of yore.

What I would like to do is provide you with a basic understanding of the Japanese language. It is not meant to replace formal study at an institute of higher learning. Not everything can be covered, but I will do my best to provide language tips that will help you develop your Japanese language skills.

I will be working mainly with "conversational" Japanese in nature; something that you can use right away in certain situations. Learning to read and write can take years.

Of course in order to truly become fluent in any foreign language it is always desirable, if at all possible, to immerse oneself in the language and culture (like what I did - threw away a life in biotechnology for a brave new world). Coming to Japan will do wonders for your language ability if you ever have the chance. I understand that this is not feasible for most people, so I will strive to do my best to provide you with current lessons and examples for study.

Pronunciation in Japanese

Maybe you have recently had a phrase translated for you with the corresponding pronunciation written in roman characters. Or how about a tattoo in kanji (Japanese characters)? That is rather popular these days. But how do you pronounce it so it sounds close to natural? Fear not for help is on the way! In this lesson you will learn a bit about the history of the language and how the language sounds. So sit back, take out your notebook and enjoy the first lesson Japanese Lesson series.

Let's get down to business.

In Japanese there is no clear stress on syllables in words as there is in English. A non-Japanese speaker would pronounce the city of Yokohama as "Yoko-HAA-ma" and the family name Yoshida as "Yo-SHEE-da". In English, stress tends to be placed on the second last syllable of longer words. Not so in Japanese. All syllables are spoken with equal strength and length. A Japanese speaker would say "Yo-ko-ha-ma" and "Yo-shi-da" without stressing any parts.

Try saying the following words without putting any extra strength or stress on any of the syllables:

1. Yokohama 2. Kawasaki 3. Nagasaki 4. Hiroshima 5. Amerika

6. Osutoraria 7. koohii 8. Nippon 9. beesubooru 10. koppu

Some texts say that there are long and short syllables in the Japanese language. I disagree. In most cases the longer sound of a syllable is due simply to an extra vowel placed after the previous syllable. For example Tokyo is actually pronounced like To-u-kyo-u and Kyoto is Kyo-u-to (note here that the final to in Kyoto sounds shorter than the middle to but it is just because it lacks the additional u which makes the sound appear to be longer. Pronounced carefully, the "long" syllable takes twice as long to pronounce as the "short" syllable.

Practice these sounds:

1. biiru 2. biru 3. konpyuuta 4. konpyuutaa 5. koka koora

6. Toukyou 7. Kyouto 8. suteeki 9. ginkou 10. waapuro

There are five vowels in the Japanese language: A, I, U, E, O. These vowels have one sound apiece. Unlike the English "a" which can have the sounds found in cat, crawl, cape, the Japanese A sounds like the vowel found in the word cup. And as a matter of fact, all of the syllables in Japanese are very short and clipped (Suzuki sounds more like S'z'ki). Remember that whenever you see a vowel in a Japanese word it will always have the following sound:

Vowel: a i u e o
Sound: up heat soup left slope

Most consonants sound as they do in English with a few exceptions worth noting: K, G, S, Z, D, T, P, B do not have the puff of air that is associated with same consonants in English. The N is also a very unusual sound as it can actually take on four different sounds, depending on where it is found in the word.

If it precedes a vowel (as in no) it has the normal N sound found in English. Before t, ts, d, n, ch, j it also posses the normal n sound.

If it is found before p, b, m it takes on an m sound.

If it is found before k and g it sounds like ng as in finger.

If it is found at the end of a word, or before all other sounds, it has a nasal sound, similar to the French n as in pain (bread).

There is one other sound that we need to discuss. It is the most difficult sound for foreigners to pronounce correctly. It is the R sound. This sound is not found in the English language. It is a somewhere between the English L, D, R and is a rather short, chopped sound. In this case the tongue quickly flicks the roof of the mouth just in front of the soft upper pallette. This sound takes a lot of practice to get right and in order to pronounce it correctly you need to hear it to be able to reproduce it.

The following chart shows all the possible combinations of consonants and vowels in the Japanese Language. Note that in almost every case (except for n by itself) all consonants are followed by a vowel. This makes the language very easy to pronounce.

a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa wo n

i ki shi chi ni hi mi - ri - - -

u ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru - -

e ke se te ne he me - re - - -

o ko so to no ho mo yo ro - - -

There are some other sounds which are not quite as common, but are actually a slight variation of the main sounds.

They are the Secondary Sounds:

ga za da ba pa

gi ji - bi pi

gu zu - bu pu

ge ze de be pe

go zo do bo po

There are situations where two consonants are together with a vowel.

They produce the following Tertiary Sounds:

kya gya sha ja cha nya hya pya bya mya rya

kyu gyu shu ju chu nyu hyu pyu byu myu ryu

kyo gyo sho jo cho nyo hyo pyo byo myo ryo

Now that you are armed with the correct sounds for the language, why don't you pull out your Japanese Name or Phrase and give the pronunciation a try? with a bit of practice you should be able to get the sounds just right.

One last thing to mention that I found really helps with getting the pronunciation right. Almost all of the sounds can be said without the use of the lips. Think of yourself as a ventriloquist, speaking from a puppet. Don't move your lips, and keep them relaxed. It should help. And practice.

Here are a few simple sentences that you can use for pronunciation practice and begin to memorize for your future use:

Practice Sentences:

1. Watashi no namae wa Ken desu. (My name is Ken.)

2. Kono biiru wa ikura desu ka? (How much is this beer?)

3. Toire wa doko desuka? (Where is the toilet?)

4. Mata ne! (See you later!)

5. Ohisashiburi desu ne. (Long time no see.)

6. Ohayou gozaimasu. (Good morning.)

7. Konnichi wa. (Hello.)

8. Konban wa. (Good evening.)

9. Oyasumi nasai. (Good night.)

10. Koko wa doko desu ka? (Where am I now?)

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The Culture Pocket: A Brief History of the Japanese Written Language

Most scholars believe that prior to the introduction of Kanji from China, there was no formal written language. No one is certain when the script first came to the islands but some believe that it could have been around the first century AD. In the early third century, artifacts have been recovered that depict some form of writing.

Kanji was first used as a system of writing sometime in the late 5th century or early 6th century. It is difficult to set an exact date because of the writings being based on the Chinese calendar which is difficult to interpret. More than likely, Chinese or Koreans who came to the islands to live began using the characters.

In the beginning kanji was more than likely used to represent sounds (phonetics) for loan words from other cultures. Also, the introduction of Buddhism into China and eventually Japan prompted translations of the scripts using the script. Buddhism probably had the greatest influence on the development of the language due to the huge influx of people from the mainland to build temples, translate documents, make statues, tiles, copy sutras, etc.

Around the seventh century it seems that the Japanese people began mastering the language themselves and started to do some work of their own. The language began to make some changes as it took on more than just a phonetic reproduction of foreign words (KUN reading). Eventually it began to be used to represent ideas and concepts.

Chinese and Japanese are completely different. In terms of structure, Chinese is actually closer to English than it is to Japanese. And yet, the Japanese, in their amazing ability to adapt things to their own ideas, were able to take the Chinese and add marks so that it would conform to the Japanese word order. Then the kanji began to take on a second reading, known as the ON reading, as mentioned above. It may be that the Korean language had influenced the development of the Japanese language as both have similar word orders and also use honorific auxiliaries.

In the Nara period (710-784) there was an explosion of Japanese literature. It seems that much of the oral tradition of passing on history was translated into script for the future generations. The language began to become more and more complex.

Hiragana began to be developed around the Nara period as well. It has its roots in the simplification of a cursive-style of writing kanji. This cursive style was mainly used privately among individuals to make notes, letters and other personal documents. For about 1400 years the hiragana had a very large set of letters. In 1900 it was standardized in brushwritten and woodblock-printed forms, mainly for artistic purposes. Because of this, hiragana tends to have a roundish, flowing style and shape.

Officials and scholars continued to use classical Chinese for their work for many hundred years. As the language developed, it became necessary to add notes next to the text to aid in the reading of the texts. This began in the Heian period (794-1192). Because space was limited, scholars began using a shorthand version of the kanji used for pronunciation. This was the beginning of Katakana. In the beginning it was not entirely different from hiragana but over time developed a more square appearance, more scholarly. Eventually the katakana script evolved such that it began to be used solely for writing foreign loan words, or concepts that did not exist in the native Japanese language.

Reference: Japanese Correspondence Course for JET Participants, 1993

- Cameron Switzer, Fukui, Japan

What You Should Know About Your Production BEFORE You Add a Music Soundtrack

Too often choosing the right track from a music
library is like hacking your way through overgrown
jungle with no map and no sense of direction. It's
a time-intensive, hit-or-miss process that requires
listening to multitudes of the wrong selections.

After a while your brain becomes numb and everything
blends together and sounds the same. To further
complicate things, you're often searching for music
right at the project deadline so there is pressure
to find tracks fast.

The fastest way to find the right soundtrack for your
work is to first identify the underlying feeling -
the emotional thrust - of your production.

Many project creators only think about what
STYLE of music they want (i.e. rock, Techno).

A better way to proceed is to look for music based
on the emotional character of your work. When you know
your project's emotional themes, you will cut an
incredible amount of time from your search.

DISTILL YOUR PROJECT DOWN TO ITS EMOTIONAL BASE.

This is what film composers do. After meeting with
the director to discuss the film's meaning and
concept, the composer immerses him/herself into the
film and begins to investigate its emotional
essence.

You can do the same thing. Here is a simple
exercise to try with your own work.

See yourself in each scene as an eyewitness
to what is happening

Become emotionally open to the events that occur.

Freewrite your reactions. (Freewriting is writing
that's done quickly without any self-editing - you
just want to get your ideas on paper in a way that
you'll remember)

After the production is over, take your
freewriting and look for 1-5 keyword phrases that best
describe the emotion(s) of what you've experienced.

This technique will work just as well for a 15
second Flash animation as an hour-length video
documentary. In each case you want to understand
the emotion at the heart of your project so you can
choose music that elevates your viewer's experience.

Here's an example of the process...
Let's say you're giving a 2 hour talk on "Better
Time Management" and you want some background music
to use in your PowerPoint at the beginning, end, and
during the break.

You do the exercise above and here is a sample of
your freewriting...

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

...better time management = organization,
productivity, structure...getting things done
a sense of being in control,- order - stress free
living, flow, mind like water...

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

To derive your emotional keywords from this, look at
the benefits of features like productivity and
organization.

Benefit of productivity - accomplishment
Getting things done - satisfaction, freedom,
liberation
Organization/Order - peace, harmony, well-being

Now begin searching the music libraries listening
for music that highlights feelings of satisfaction,
freedom, that gives a sense of peace, harmony,
accomplishment.

Remember, you're still not locked into any specific
musical style, you're searching for music that will
adequately speak to the emotional content of your
work.

On the UniqueTracks web site we have sorted every
track in our library by its corresponding emotional
keywords. If you need a track to underscore the
feeling of "satisfaction" or "peace", all you have
to do is click a link and you'll be presented with a
listing of all the tracks in our library that
correspond to those feelings.

Click this link to try it yourself -

Once you know the feeling you are looking for,
finding the right track becomes much easier because
through the process of drilling down to the
emotional core of your work you have already
filtered out most of the music choices that don't
apply. You have narrowed your search, created a
map, and a way to avoid getting lost in the
production music jungle

Read this Article if You Like Dolphins

Many people naturally wish our Dolphinfish mammal cousins, they look very nice and friendly and they look to like us too. Well, especially if we give them free fish, while they are in captivity. And to them we are mostly harmless although some human fishermen make in fact acquire them caught in networks as they seek to catch Opuntia tuna fish that the Dolphins are following for food.

Dolphins are highly evolved and their echo sounder plant by bouncing sounds off physical objects and they can experience the differences in their teeth, which are slightly offset. This is an unbelievable ability and very few mammals can make this.

Recently I was talking with a lady who utilize to work with dolphinfish and swim with them. She spent much of her life doing research and studying their linguistic communication and behaviors. She was convinced that they are so highly intelligent that they are perhaps smarter than the norm person by quite a bit.

She also indicated that they liked to play practical gags often and that she felt like they were laughing at her as she attempted to swim with them. Often she said they would play with her as companion, but also sometimes like kid plays with a floating plaything in a swimming pool. Interesting indeed. Think on this tonight.

What is Guitar Tablature and Can I Find It Online?

The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments and the online guitar community probably the most popular of its kind. There are thousands of guitar players connected via online communities sharing guitar tabs, tips and narratives and there are many of websites dedicated to sharing guitar music, tablature and even guitar lessons. Some you have got to pay for, but there's a batch out there for free.

Beginning guitar players and people alike can take advantage of what is available for free on the Internet. It's true, you can really download guitar tablature for free on the Internet. There are literally thousands of pieces available for download, everything from classical and wind music to sway and pop. Try typing "guitar tablature", "guitar tabs" or "guitar sheet music" into your favourite hunt engine. This volition convey up a nimiety of websites which offering music for download. Some sites will bear down a rank fee, but offering samples for free so that you can seek them out. At first it is hard to sift through all the sites and happen one that is suitable for your needs, but lodge with it, and you'll happen exactly what you want.

Some sites specialise in specific music genres, such as as classical or rock. Some sites have got audio samples of the sheet music so that you can actually listen to unknown pieces before you download. In the end you may return to pay a rank fee to take advantage of added services that these sites provide.

But before you make that take advantage of everything that's free. The Internet is such as a great place for picking up guitar fast ones and tips or even learning the instrument on your own.

Start by doing a Google hunt for "Free guitar lessons" (use citation marks) and the top five hunt results will give websites with archives full of free guitar lessons. These lessons are designed with the absolute novice in mind. The advantage of learning the guitar on the Internet is that you can take your lesson whenever you have got got time or are in the temper and you never have to go forth the comfortableness of your ain home. You'll start off with all the basics: larn about the parts of the guitar, larn how it works, larn scales, strumming patterns, chromatic scales, as well as many songs to play. Despite the relative easiness of the Internet, lessons should be taken in the order that they are written.

And remember, your Internet lessons may be free, but they aren't miracle workers, you still have got to perpetrate to a regular programme of survey and practice.

Are Free Music Download Programs-FREE

Before you utilize one of those free music download programmes you may desire to compare them with the legal file-sharing programmes to assist you do a decision.There are many free music download software system programmes available to download free music online. It looks like there are new "Ares download, free music download web sites" entering the Web everyday. Getting a free KaZaA music download is all Iodine here my pupils talking about in class. Asking each other where to download free music or download and fire free music. They speak about sites to happen Inuyasha music downloads, Final Fantasy music downloads, even cell telephone music downloads.Are free music download programs...FREE?It all depends on what you want. Some offering Pro versions which have got no advertisements or pop-ups. But make be cautious with most of the free music download software, they will have got got adware, spyware and pop-ups.KaZaA music download-KaZa Lite music download
Limewire music download
Ares music download
Shareaza music download
WinMX music download
Imesh music download
Free Grokster Download
PoisonedThese programmes are free... but they have some problems. Basically, the difference between free file-sharing programmes and file-sharing programs that you pay for is as follows. With the pay programmes such as as Mp3 Advance, MP3 Music Subscription and DownloadShield, you acquire technical support, no dad ups, no adware or spyware, most offering privateness protection, and your money back if you're not happy with the program. With the totally free music download programs, unless you purchase their Pro version, which some of them are more than expensive than the pay programmes mentioned above, you're pretty much on your ain along with the advertisements and dad ups and don't bury the spyware. It's your choice.

Enjoy Driving with Audio Books

Did you know that A trucker working to the legal limit in the U.S. can rack up to 3,432 driving hours a year—nearly 10 times that of the average New York commuter or enough to listen to the unabridged audio book version of Bill Clinton’s My Life 77 times? (Publishing Trends, Market Partners International, September 2005).

Think of the way audio books could optimize your time management. Audio books can turn the day to a 26 hours day. Yes, audio books can add extra two hours each day. Still not convinced?
Did you know that The average rush hour driver will spend an additional 62 hours stuck in traffic—at standstill—each year and that More than 97 million workers drive alone to work each day.

Well, enough with that pile of useless data, Think about yourself – what have you been doing while driving - Listening to the radio? Making unnecessary calls with your mobile phone? Wasting valuable time?
Now close your eyes and imagine you could read the last edition of the New York Times, Read the last Harry Potter book or learn Chinese – all simultaneously while driving your car. Now open your eyes and stop dreaming, you can do it all now. The only difference is that you are going to use a new method of reading – listening to audio books.

And it is so easy: You may get audio books in different formats from books on tapes and audio books on CD to downloadable audio books. You can get it from different sources – libraries, book and music stores and online audio book sources. You could buy audio books, rent audio books and even get free audio books.
According to eBrain Market Research survey, 71% of the audio book listeners listen to them on long car trips.
Believe me; I couldn’t wait getting into the heavy morning traffic listening to the audio book “IT” by Stephen king. In fact, I couldn’t resist listening to it at home after work. I love audio books.