Japanese Lesson 4: Yes and No

Hello Japanese language enthusiasts! Sorry for not posting about Japanese recently... Here is your next lesson -- how to answer the questions you learned to ask in the Lesson 3. But before we get into the grammar, here is  your Japanese 

Word of the Day:

Romaji	Hiragana	Kanji
ronin	ろうにん	浪人

The first character, "rou" (I put a 'u' after "ro" to show that it's a long 'o' sound; the long 'o' is often written: ō), literally means "wave" or "wandering." The second character, "nin," means "person." It's actually the same character as the "jin" in "amerikajin" (American) and "nihonjin" (Japanese). Same character, same meaning, but different pronunciation. The word "ronin" originally meant "masterless samurai." There's a movie that some of you may know called "Ronin."
Today the word is commonly used to mean something else (not surprising since the class system in Japanese society was abolished in the late 1800s). It now refers to students who graduated from high school but failed to gain entrance into the college of their choice. Instead of matriculating in their second or third choice for university, they opt to attend a "juku" (i.e., cram school) and study for another year in order to hopefully pass the entrance exam the second (or even third!) time around. 

Review of Lesson 3: Grammar and Eating

Last time, we learned how to say the word "to eat" -- "taberu" and to conjugate it: 
In present continuous form -- tabeteimasu is "am/is/are eating." 
And the negative form -- tabeteimasen -- "am/is/are not eating." 
The answers to last week's homework is as follows: 
1. "I am not eating a cat." --> "Watashi wa neko wo tabeteimasen." 
2. "Are you eating teriyaki chicken?" --> "Teriyaki chikin wo tabeteimase ka?"


Note again that the answer in the second sentence doesn't include the word "anata" for "you" -- since it's understood from the sentence/context that you are asking the person to whom you are speaking. If it isn't clear, you would generally use their name or title. For example, if they're your teacher, you'd address them as "sensei." 
The sentence in number 2 above would then be: "Sensei, teriyaki chikin wo tabeteimasu ka?" That sentence could be translated in two different ways in English, depending on the circumstances. It could mean: (a) "Sensei, are you eating teriyaki chicken?" but it could also mean (b) "Is sensei eating teriyaki chicken?"

Japanese Lesson 4: Yes and No

Now on to today's lesson! We recently learned how to ask a few different questions: 
1. "Wan-chan, are you a dog?" --> "Wan-chan wa inu desu ka?" 
2. "Are you American?" --> "Amerikajin desu ka?" 
3. "Are you eating teriyaki chicken?" --> "Teriyaki chikin wo tabeteimasu ka?"

How would Wan-chan, or whomever you are posing the questions to, answer? The Japanese word for "yes" is "hai"; "no" is "iie." So you could simply answer "hai" or "iie" to any of those questions, and you would be perfectly understandable. You might also come across as terse and somewhat rude... 
Better would be to answer in a complete sentence. "Wan-chan wa inu desu ka?" is answered in the affirmative with "Hai, inu desu." Literally, "Yes, am a dog." Note that the subject "watashi" is totally unnecessary. As I mentioned in the previous section reviewing Lesson 3, the same question could be posed to a third person about Wan-chan -- i.e., If you ask Neko-chan: "Wan-chan wa inu desu ka?" it would mean "Is Wan-chan a dog?" Neko-chan would then reply "Yes, he is a dog." The answer would be exactly the same in Japanese, because the subject is dropped! Neko would simply respond: "Hai, inu desu." Voila! To recap: 
You: "Wan-chan wa inu desu ka?"
Neko/chan or Wan-chan: "Hai, inu desu." 

What about saying no? Well, imagine you are asking a French person if they are American. The conversation would go something like this: 
You: "Sumimasen ga, amerikanjin desu ka?" 
Jacques: "Iie, furansujin desu." 
Translated, that goes: 
You: "Pardon me, are you American?"
Jacques: "No, I am French!"

But what if he wanted to be absolutely clear that not only was he French, but he was not a dual citizen with America? Then the conversation would proceed something like this: 
You: "Sumimasen ga, amerikanjin desu ka?" 
Jacques: "Iie, amerikajin dewa arimasen. Furansujin desu." 
Translated, that goes: 
You: "Pardon me, are you American?"
Jacques: "No, I am not American. I am French!"

Your homework:
1. Ask Wan-chan if he is a cat. Figure out some possible answers. 
2. Ask your sensei if he or she is eating sushi. Of course, he or she is not eating sushi, but teriyaki chicken. Figure out some possible answers. (Note: You should be able to figure out how to say "No, I am not eating sushi." from what you know... but it may be a little tricky!)

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments!