Saturday Japanese classes!

こんにちは！

Registration has now opened up for the 2018 Leaving Cert class! (September 2016 - May 2018) The Saturday classes are available in Dublin city and Cork city. 

Register here at : http://www.languagesinitiative.ie/languages/japanese/japanese-student

レビンーセートのテスト！

こんにちは！

I'm just after finishing all three of my orals including my Japanese one! It was たのしかったですね！My examiner was a sweetheart and it was definitely my favourite oral exam by far. I got my favourite speech, 日本に行ったら, but sadly I got my least favourite picture, the しゅうがくりょこう! たいへんでつね！

I'll be starting to post tips for the Japanese oral for the 2017 crowd, who I will be glad to share my notes with! I'll also be putting up some sample essays of what you could prepare for the 2016 written exam aswell. 私はいそがしいでしょう!

きっとかつ！(Kit-kats)

Hello again!

I'm just after finishing my mock Leaving Cert exams and I had to say goodbye to one of my lovely Japanese subs, Ueno せんせい, last Tuesday. As a going away gift, she gave us all green tea flavoured kit-kats.

 I hadn't a notion of what it meant until I decided to research the kit-kats online! So in Japan, you give kit-kats to students doing university entrance exams, the Japanese  equivalent of the Leaving Certificate. The kit-kats are pronounced きっとかつ in Japanese, which is also Japanese for good luck!

In Japan, they have many unusual flavours of Kit-Kats, including green tea, strawberry cake, white chocolate and blueberry. Isn't that way more interesting than just plain milk chocolate? Maybe someday when I go to Japan, I'll just buy all the different kit-kat flavours. おいしいです！ 

Update!

Hi guys I'm delighted to say I've officially finished the Leaving Cert Japanese course! I still have a long way to go in terms of my oral work and my exam techniques but I'm almost there! Which means hopefully a lot more blog posts in the coming months :) 

What I would like to do in 東京 (Tokyo)

こんにちは！

As a part of my Japanese homework, I've been set an assignment to do a Tokyo web quest! I have to write a little account of what I'd like to do in Tokyo in 200 character max. It's pretty impossible for me to write so little about Tokyo so I've decided to impart the rest of my knowledge onto my blog 💕 

Fun facts about Tokyo

- Tokyo has a population of 38.7 million people.

-Tokyo is actually not considered a city, it's actually a metroplian prefecture.

- Tokyo is located in Eastern Japan in the Kantō region (Yes, this is where the Kanto region in Pokemon comes from)

    Kantō Region

                

                Kanto Region

- Since Tokyo is such a famous city, it is the setting for the majority of films set in Japan, including the upcoming Transformers 5!

- Japanese is the main language of Tokyo, but many people have English as a second language. In fact, many Japanese businessmen use English in work!

Places I'd like to go to

1. The Shibuya Crossing

2. Tokyo Disney 

3. The Pokemon Center

4. Hachiko Statue

(Of course, I do not own any of these photos and I thank the websites that let me use them)

In the end, I managed to choose going to Tokyo Disneyland for my essay and managed to look up information about all the different princesses including シンダレラ！

Katakana and Kanji charts ❤️

So I was on WeHeartIt.com again and I came across the adorable Japanese character charts again! They're handy to keep on your phone just in case you need a 'lil help with your Hiragana and Katakana!

1. 

Here's the Hiragana chart I posted up a few days ago

2. 

Here's a Katakana chart with a little guest appearance from Totoro-San from My Neighbour Totoro!

3. 

This is a pretty handy chart for learning basic kanji you'd end up using quite a lot. All of them except for 曜(よう) are on the Leaving Cert Japanese course. The kanji 日 and 本 make up 日本 which is Japan! Kanji such as 月 and 火 are used with 曜日 to make days of the week! E.g. 月曜日(げつようび) is Monday! It's meaning is actually Moon Day.

日本語の勉強！

Sorry guys for not posting much lately I've had a lot going on! Currently I'm finishing up on school work for Christmas and studying for my Pres, so blog posts will be few and not too often for a while! 

But on the bright side I'm planning a few extra posts on the side such as ones on まんが and アニメ and even the day I spent in Chinatown in London! Hopefully they'll all be on your way soon enough 😄😄

ごめなさい❗️ (I'm sorry!)

Ten-tens

Now that you know your basic Hiragana and Katakana, you should now learn the Ten-ten for the characters. Ten-ten are added to characters to make a new one, for example, か(Ka) becomes が(Ga). Here's a list of what lines take Ten-ten and what they turn into :

Ks turn into Gs with Ten-ten

か-が    カ-ガ

Ss turn into Zs with Ten-ten

さ-ざ     サ-ザ

An exception to this is し/シ(Shi). Adding Ten-ten makes this じ/ジ(Ji)

Ts turn into Ds

た-だ     タ-ダ

*THE H LINE*

The H line is very special. It takes Ten-tens but it also takes a different symbol, a little dot at the top of the character. This is called a Handakuten. The Hs are the only characters that take this.

Hs turn to Bs 

は-ば    ハ-バ

Hs turn to Ps

は-ぱ ハ-パ

Hiragana Part 1 (Vowels, Ks, Ss, Ts and Ns)

The basic Hiragana alphabet has 46 characters. This includes the 5 vowels, a 'N' characters  and 8 lines of characters. I've included a tiny pronunciation guide at the end of each Hiragana in order to help you pronunciate it. E.g. The あ(A) character is pronounced like the A in 'Antenna' 

The Vowels

A = あ This looks like an antenna on top of a roof. So this is A for Antenna.

I = い This looks like the 'ii' in Hawaii. This is i for Hawaii.

U = う this one possibly needs a picture to explain. This looks like an old woman, bending over. A twig falls on her back and she says 'Ooph'. This is U for 'ooph'

E = え this character looks like a h with a extra dot. This is E for an extra dot.

O = お (this one needs a picture too) Imagine this is a golf course. The top bit of the character is the flag and the bottom half is the course. The golf ball is on on the green. This is O for on the green. 

 

The 'K' line

Ka = か this looks like a car driving off a cliff. This is Ka for car.

Ki = き this looks like a key. This is Ki for key. 

Ku = く This looks like the beak of a cuckoo bird. This is Ku for cuckoo bird.

Ke = け This looks like a keg of beer. This is Ke for keg.

Ko = こ This looks like a coin. This is Ko for coin.

The 'S' line

Sa = さ this character looks like a Samurai's sword! This is Sa for Samurai's sword.

Shi = し This looks like a girl's hair. This is Shi for 'She has lovely hair' 

Su = す This is a little seed in the ground. It will grow soon. This is Su for soon.

Se = せ This is a couple watching the sunset. This is Se for sunset.

So = そ This looks like a stitch you'd sew with a sewing machine. This is So for sew.

The 'T' line

Ta = た the first half of this looks like a 't'. If you add a line to the second half of it, you get an 'a' this is Ta for 'ta'

Chi = ち This looks like like a cheese ball on a stick. This is Chi for 'cheese ball' 

Tsu = つ this looks like a man's very big nose. When he sneezes, he goes tsu. This is Tsu for 'tsu' 

*Alternatively, you could also remember つ as a harbour wave. It would then be Tsu for tsunami.*

Te = て this is a broken tennis racket. This is Te for tennis racquet.

To = と The curved bit is your toe. Ouch, you've a thorn in your toe! This is To for toe.

The 'N' line 

Na = な this is your Nan kneeling down to pray at a cross. This is Na for Nan.

Ni = に This looks like your knee. This is Ni for knee.

Nu = ぬ This is two chopsticks stuck into a bowl of noodles. This is Nu for noodles.

Ne = ね this is a weird basketball net. You're never going to get the ball in. This is Ne for never.

No = の this looks like a fancy n. It's not that difficult. This is No for not.  

That's the first set of Hiragana for today. Please leave comments if you need more help with remembering them or if you come up with better ways. Most of these came from my Japanese teacher and her flash cards. 

Leaving Cert 2016

Hi, my name is Emma and I'm a leaving cert Japanese student! (^.^) I'm currently bogged down with studying so I thought I would make this blog to revise the basics of the language to help other learners like myself. I hope this helps a little!

Emma X