です / じゃりません and はい / いいえ

Ok, so this blog is more like a personal log, since I hate hand-writing things. But I figured it doesn't hurt much to let other people see it too (if anyone even reads this blog that is). Anyway, learning some grammar finally. Learned a few words as well, 3 of which I kind of already know, and 1 of which I did not... all of which I learned how to properly use in a simple sentance/question. It's actually more than 4, but the 4 are the main ones.

Anyway, the words are: です (desu)　じゃりません (jarimasen)　はい (hai (yes))　いいえ (iie (no))　か (ka). Now はい and いいえ are pretty easy; simple yes or no. です basically means "it is" while じゃりません is the opposite, or "it is not". And lastly, か is used at the end of a sentence to make it a question; the same as a "?" in English.

There're also a few nouns I've learned:
ぶどう = grapes
みかん = tangerine
いちご = strawberry
かぶちゃ = pumpkin
りんご = apple
もも = peach
ねこ = cat
いぬ = dog

So in other words, to ask if something is a dog ("Is it a dog?") I would say "いぬ　です　か". and to respond, I would say "はい、いぬ　です" if it is, or "いいえ、いぬ　じゃりません" if it isn't. Pretty simple really. Basically it's the way Yoda speaks... for the most part.

I've also started learning some 感じ　（かんじ (kanji)）. Or more accurately, Kanji particles. The actual kanji will be a little different, and I haven't gotten to it just yet, so that'll be another post. Anyway, short post this time, but that's what I've been learning so far.

ひらがな！

Ok, been a little while since last post, so figured it was time for another. Anyway, been kinda busy with work, so haven't gotten as far as would like. I have, however, finished the free lessons for ひらがな (hiragana) at Textfugu.com and now simply need to make enough to get a subscription (doing lifetime rather than monthly since it makes more sense). Learning the ひらがな was actually quite simple once I learned all of the standard kana. The だくてん (dakuten) and combination hiragana pretty much contain the same characters with a very minor difference that changes the way they sound. For example か (ka) becomes が (ga) by adding the " to か. This is called a Dakuten. They're really quite easy to learn since they follow the same pattern as their base kana... the K column becomes G column, T becomes D, etc. The only difference is with the H column, which can become B or P. For example: ひ (hi)　び (bi)　ぴ (pi)。 If you notice on the last one of those 3, the " is instead a small circle. This only happens with the H column to make P sounds. Other than that, it's pretty simple... just have to look for the little だくてん mark and recognize what it's changed to.

The one that's a little bit harder are combo hiragana, but even these are fairly simple, as they use the base kana combined with a small　や (ya)　ゆ (yu) or　よ (yo), like so: しょ to make different sounds; in this case sho, which is shi - i + yo - y = sho if you were to write it like a math equation. Basically, you remove the vowel sound from the base kana and replace it with the one from the や　ゆ　or　よ。 Note: I'm still unsure why Japanese periods are hollow... but it's kinda cool IMO。 There are some cases, however, where you do not remove the Y sound. きょ for example is pronounced Kyo. I'm not certain, but I believe this applies to all single consonant sounds (ka, ni, ma, to, etc.) and not to 2 consonant sounds (shi, tsu, chi, etc.). And to make them just a little more interesting... they too can use だくてん　(dakuten), such as びゃ (bya).

One last kana that can be a little confusing is the small つ (tsu). Which provides for double consonants. For example, nippon would look like this: にっぽん　rather than: にぽん. The hardest part about this one is knowing when to use it and when not to. Actually speaking a word with the small tsu is quite easy... you simply do a quick pause on the consonant sound that is used, then finish the word starting with that sound again. Kind of similar to to saying "Bookkeeper" with 2 K sounds.

There were a few other bits of info, but for the most part it kind of repeated the use of some key words that are seen a lot in Japanese grammar, like です (desu (typically pronounced des)). Now that I'm done with the free ひらがな lessons, I will probably try to learn カタカナ　（かたかな (katakana)） until I can afford my subscription. Anyway, That's pretty much all for now. Since PSN is down, I've been kind of bored outside of work and Japanese learning. Been on a White Knight Chronicles drive for some reason and really tempted to pick up the Japanese version. Just wish I knew more words so I could understand them. Oh well. Farewell (さよなら) for now!