Japanese Language - Tumblr Posts
「日本語」 - (nihongo) means Japanese language.
Here is my first everyday kanji lesson!
「鉛筆」 - えんぴつ/enpitsu - pencil ✏️
「不思議」 ふしぎ/fushigi - Wonder, mysterious 🔮✨️
Today is April fool day and we wrote a test lol 😆
桜前線 「さくらぜんせん」 (sakura zensen) 🍒🌸
It means the cherry blossom front. The Japan Meteorological Agency records the opening and full bloom of the blossoms from Kyūshū in late March to Hokkaidō in the middle of May. I wrote this kanji because the cherry blossom season has started in Japan.
The cherry blossom front between Kyushu and Kanto, 2007
皐月 (sa-tsu-ki) "May"
Like many countries, Japan uses a 12-month calendar. The names are very simple. January is 一月 (ichi-gatsu, literally "Month one"), February is 二月 (ni-gatsu, "Month two"), etc.
However, before the Meiji Restoration (mid-1800s) it was common to use an older 12-month system. These months’ names referenced the weather and the seasons (similar to the French Revolutionary calendar).
May is called “Satsuki” in this old Japanese calendar. “皐” is a substitute for “早苗”, which refers to young baby seedlings of rice, signifying the beginning of the rice-growing season.
Studio Ghibli fans will recognise "Satsuki" as the name of the older sister in "My Neighbour Totoro". The younger sister is, of course, called "Mei".
I've put together a collection of four Japanese expressions, each formed with a pair of kanji.
[GENKI Lesson 1] Nice To Meet You - HAJIMEMASHITE - はじめまして
So, I recently started picking up Japanese (for the 100th time) and found this adorable channel that teaches the language. 💖😽🇯🇵
Сертификат приехал домой!...
My certificate came home!!...
🇯🇵 duo lesson notes
おいしい日本りょうり tasty/delicious japanese food 父はよく日本りょうりを食べます。 My dad often eats Japanese food. 母とすしやに行きます。 I'm going to a sushi restaurant with my mom.
Gonna need this too.
37/100 japanese vocabulary
厚紙 あつがみ cardboard, thick paper
検査 けんさ inspection (e.g. customs), examination (e.g. medical)
混線 こんせん crossed wires, confusion
確かめる たしかめる to ascertain
得点 とくてん scoring
飲み水 のみみず drinking water
表紙 ひょうし cover (of a book, magazine, etc.)
夫妻 ふさい husband and wife, married couple
再び ふたたび once more, a second time
文集 ぶんしゅう anthology
Learning Japanese, just barely getting into the Genki workbook. Is anyone else starting to learn? Is there a discord group? I would like learn With people to help motivate me 😔
My point still stands, especially with how differently this kind of braille works from most other kinds. I think this form could possibly work with Ainu, with even the consonants being shown as above in standalone form (meaning sans the vowels) as unlike the kana form, this would have an easier time handling the phonetics inside. The ‘ye’ syllable would of course be written as -y- and then the kana e from its row. This may even hold true if a few new vowels were added into the equation, albeit in new combos. The one question is how to handle the allophony between s/sh & c (ch/ts).
Japanese Braille (and why it’s easier than written Japanese)
Okay, so I thought I’d write a post about a topic that’s really close to my heart, being a Legally Blind person: Japanese Braille.
There are 1.64 million people in Japan with an Uncorrectable Vision Impairments, 187,000 of which are listed as Blind.
Japanese Braille sounds really difficult, but in reality it’s not actually that hard! Especially once you get a few hundred Kanji in, learning Japanese Braille is honestly super simple.
First of all, a note: Japanese Braille (99% of the time, at least) is completely phonetic; there’s no differentiation between Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji like there is in Written Japanese.
Additionally, it follows really basic patterns; with the exception of a few Punctuation-type characters, you basically only have to learn 21 basic pieces, as everything else follows basic patterns beyond that.
First off, the vowels:
All other Syllables use these same Vowels, in the same places
Following this, there comes all of the Consonants
Note that the vowels are in the exact same spot as in the AIUEO characters, just with an added mark for the Consonant.
Here is probably a good place to point out: Dakuten is marked by a single dot on the middle of the right side of the cell, placed BEFORE the character that gets changed by the Dakuten (Handakuten is the same, except the dot was lowered to the bottom right of the cell)
You’ll note that this brings us up to 14 characters…. where are all the rest?
If you’re observant, you’ll note that Ya, Yu, Yo, and Wa and (W)o are missing from the chart here. That’s because these 5 characters break the rules, just a little bit.
(Note that the Wi & We characters are only there for Ancient Japanese; don’t worry if you never learned them before, they’re gone from Japanese now)
Note that the -y- character there is placed BEFORE another consonant to make it a _y_ version of it (i.e. put it before Ka to make Kya), and that the -w- character is used to make all the irregular Little Characters (i.e. put it before Ha and you’ll get Fa).
There’s 2 more characters to learn, and they’re pretty easy.
They’re made for doubling consonants, and doubling vowels respectively
For example, putting a Sokuon before Ka makes Kka, and a Chouon AFTER A makes Aa
Anyways, that covers all the fundamentals of Japanese Braille, hopefully enabling even more people to make Blind Literacy possible, in an entire other language!
time
過去 (kako) - the past 昨年 (sakunen) - last year 先月 (sengetsu) - last month 先週 (senshuu) - last week 昨日 (kinou) - yesterday 今年 (kotoshi) - this year 今月 (kongetsu) - this month 今週 (konshuu) - this week 今日 (kyou) - today 今 (ima) - now 現在 (genzai) - the present 明日 (ashita) - tomorrow 来週 (raishuu) - next week 来月 (raigetsu) - next month 来年 (rainen) - next year 未来 (mirai) - the future
i love seventeen's pet names bc cheols dog is kkuma which means bear in Japanese and wonwoos dog is seol so her full name is jeon seol which also means legend in korean and then seungkwans dog is bookkeu which means shy in korean but also has boo in the name bc boo seungkwan and dks dog is named uju which means universe and mingyus dog is named aji which im p sure is short for gangaji which means puppy in korean and and and
Learning katakana is so hard for no reason because it sounds just like the english word but you don't realize until you know what it means. Like if I said "sutukesu" would you automatically realize what it is?? No but when you know it means suitcase it's really fucking obvious isn't it
And "kureyon" means crayon. It's so simple. I learnt it a few months ago and at the time it took like 5 minutes of struggling until my tutor said it (I have to read it out and then translate it, she didn't say it before). I always go one syllable at a time but with katakana it's so much simpler when the words are fast. It was literally:
"ku-re-yo-n???"
".....kureyon"
"OH CRAYON??"
I was sounding it out like I'd never heard a word in my life. And you know the second you figure it out you will feel stupid. (It literally sounds just like crayon when it's said fast enough I'm still mad I didn't get it)
I learnt "macudonarudo" today and I was struggling. It's fucking McDonald's.
Other simple words that I was clever enough to actually figure out without being a moron for 10 minutes are "kare" (curry) "baiorin" (violin) and "pa-ti" (party)
Hey I'm learning Japanese and I have a lil question that I was too embarrassed to ask my tutor so
Ik you say ga arimasu for non living things and ga imasu for living things but what ab like dead things? Like if I found a dead guy would I still say ga imasu?
Same with like if an umbrella came to life, is that still ga arimasu? Does it make a difference if the umbrella doesn't know it's an umbrella?
I'm learning Japanese and it's a video call thing, every time me and my tutor go through the "I don't want to hang up first because it's rude" thing but I'm more anxious than her so I literally wait for her to leave every single time. I'll have my finger over the leave button and just wait for her so I can leave too. It takes like a minute and we sit there in silence until she leaves
Also today she asked me what I like to drink and I tried to say water (mizu) but I accidentally said Miru (which means look) and she was very confused. She asked if I was trying to say milk and I had to awkwardly go "...water??" like I was very new to the concept of liquid and didn't know how to say it