Japanese Review Lesson 1

To make sure everyone's learning these basic Japanese grammatical patterns and vocabulary, I've decided to make every fifth lesson a review of the previous four lessons. Before we head into the review, however, here's the word of the day...

Word of the Day:

Romaji	Hiragana	Kanji
oya	おや	親

Oya means "parent." Unlike previous words of the day, this particular word has no special meaning, and there is no difficulty in translating it into English. Instead, I chose it to illustrate how interesting kanji can be! The character for oya is a little complicated... with 16 strokes. By breaking it down into its composite parts, however, we can learn a little more about the meaning of the word itself. This character is comprised of three parts: 立 (tatsu -- to stand), 木　(ki -- tree), and 見 (miru -- to look at; to see). If you can't see these three characters within the kanji for oya, try clicking on the character, and it should become more obvious.
The character tells a story about what a parent is -- someone who stands in a high place (e.g., on a tree) and watches over children. Probably a cute picture of my daughter is appropriate here...

And now for the day's Review Lesson!

Review Lesson 1
Lesson 1: I am [noun]. 
In Lesson 1, we learned how to say: "I am [noun]." You should be able to say, for example, "I am teriyaki chicken." Why you would want to say that is beyond me, but the sentence would be: Watashi wa teriyaki chikin desu. And to build on what I mentioned in Lesson 4, you can also say, "Wan-chan is a dog." and "Wan-chan, you are a dog." Both sentences are the same, just with a different context -- Wan-chan wa inu desu. If you are talking to someone about Wan-chan, then the former is the correct translation; if you are speaking to Wan-chan directly, then the latter is the correct translation.

Lesson 2: Asking a Question
Once we learned how to say, "I am an American." the next logical step is to ask someone else what they are. In Japanese, it's really, really easy. Just add "ka" to the end of the sentence. So to change "Wan-chan is a dog." to "Is Wan-chan a dog?" all we have to do is add "ka" to the end of the sentence: Wan-chan wa inu desu ka? (Note that in Japanese there are no question marks... But I add them since this blog is in English and adding them probably makes it easier to understand).

Lesson 3: Eating!
In Lesson 3, I introduced a verb -- to eat. In Japanese, the verb is taberu. Of course, just like in English, verbs need to be conjugated. I introduced the present continuous and its negative form (is/am/are eating; is/am/are not eating) -- tabeteimasu and tabeteimasen. Now you should be able to say:
1. "Tama-chan is eating teriyaki chicken."
2. "Wan-chan is not eating sushi."
3. "Is Tama-chan eating tempura?" and
4. "Isn't Wan-chan eating sashimi?"

Just to check your work, the answers are as follows:
1. Tama-chan wa teriyaki chikin wo tabeteimasu.
2. Wan-chan wa sushi wo tabeteimasen.
3. Tama-chan wa tempura wo tabeteimasu ka?
4. Wan-chan wa sashimi wo tebeteimasen ka? 

Lesson 4: Yes and No
We know how to ask questions (mainly about eating), but we couldn't answer our own questions until Lesson 4. In that lesson, we learned not only how to say "yes" -- hai -- and "no" -- iie; we also learned how to answer questions using a complete sentence! So while the answers to sentences 3 and 4 above could simply be hai or iie, doing so would come across as rude. A more polite way to answer questions 3 and 4 are as follows:
3. (affirmative) Hai, tempura wo tabeteimasu. 
3. (negative) Iie, tempura wo tabeteimasen. Sushi wo tabeteimasu. 
4. (affirmative) Hai, sashimi wo tabeteimasen. Sushi wo tabeteimasu.
4. (negative) Iie, sashimi wo tabeteimasu.

Wait a second! Don't the affirmative and negative sentences for 4 seem switched?! Yes, they do because they are switched, at least from the perspective of a native English speaker. In Japanese, a negative with a negative actually make a positive. In English, when we say, "Isn't Wan-chan eating teriyaki chicken?" We can answer in the affirmative: "Yeah, he is eating teriyaki chicken." or in the negative: "No, he isn't eating teriyaki chicken." In Japanese, "yes" means "yes to what you just said." So if the question is: "Is Wan-chan not eating teriyaki chicken?" then "yes" means "yes, he is not eating teriyaki chicken." Makes sense, huh? But it can also be very, very confusing because it's the exact opposite of what we say in English. So while you could answer simply hai and iie to question 4 above, doing so would mean the opposite of what it means in English. So be careful!!

By the way, here are the answers to the homework in Lesson 4:
1. "Wan-chan, are you a cat?"
Q: Wan-chan wa neko desu ka?
A (aff.): Hai, neko desu. 
A (neg.): Iie, neko dewa arimasen. Inu desu.

2. "Sensei, are you eating sushi?"
Q: Sensei, sushi wo tabeteimasu ka?
A (aff.): Hai, sushi wo tabeteimasu.
A (neg.): Iie, sushi wo tabeteimasen. Teriyaki chikin wo tabeteimasu.

Questions? Post them in the comments. Thanks!