Lemon!

I like doodling and making graphics. :)

[reiko-remon]

恋空/Koizora

Sky of Love

[reiko-remon]

Saying ‘I love you’ / confessing your feelings can be complicated in any language! 

In Japanese it’s more common to hear people say 好き / suki rather than 愛している / aishiteru to their partner. Maybe you’ve heard  好き / suki a lot in Japanese dramas!

Additionally 好き / suki is actually classified as an adjective (na-adjective) and 愛する / aisuru which is the dictionary form of  愛している / aishiteru is a verb. 

[reiko-remon]

Hey, I just found your blog and loved it :D. Do you know any good sites about learning japanese? I've tried to find but they are so confusing ㅠ_ㅠ.

Hello nitoaryuu! Thank you for the question! ( ^ ^ )

I actually have quite an extensive list of helpful websites, many of which are run by the staff at Japan Foundation’s Japanese-Language Institute in Kansai, Japan!

文法 / Grammar

- まるごと＋

文化 / Culture

- Web Japan

- Nippon.com

- エリンが挑戦！日本語できます。

ひらがな・カタカナ / Hiragana & Katakana

- Ultimate Kana Challenge

- ひらがなトレーナ

漢字 / Kanji

- Kids Web Japan

- Kanji Repeater

- Tangorin

ウェブサイトを読みます / Reading Websites

- YOMOYOMO

いろいろな言葉 / Various Words

- アニメ・マンガの日本語

- LanguageGuide.org

[reiko-remon]

「希望と絶望」/ Hope and Despair

[reiko-remon]

More Japanese onomatopoeia words - Animal edition! (^^ )

Bonus:  こけこっこー (kokekokko) - rooster 

[reiko-remon]

Japanese Onomatopoeia Words~

[reiko-remon]

家のペット - House Pets

[reiko-remon]

四季（しき）- The Four Seasons

[reiko-remon]

Lesson 3: The 「は」 Particle and Self-Introductions

Hello everyone! 

First, we're going to look at the hiragana は when it is used as a particle. You all should know by now that this is the hiragana for 'ha'. But when it is used as a particle, it is pronounced as 'wa' like わ.

は can be used as a topic marker. It can me 'am', 'is', 'are', etc. 

For example: 

ねこ　は　かわいい　です。 

(The cat is cute.)

Self-Introduction

Time to learn how to introduce yourself in Japanese! I'll also add some basic vocabulary you should learn. 

私（わたし）: I 

僕（ぼく）: I (usually, only boys use this, わたし is more polite)

あなた : You 

君（きみ）: You

彼（かれ）: He

彼女（かのじょ）:She

名前（なまえ）: Name

これ : This

それ : That

そうです : It is right.

ちがいます : It is wrong.

When you meet someone for the first time, you should say はじめまして: It means 'how do you do' or 'nice to meet you', but it's not a greeting you use on a daily basis with someone you are already familiar with. The literal translation for はじめまして is 'for the first time', so it would be very odd to say that to someone you've already met!

To state your name, you say: 私（わたし）は NAME です。which literally means "I am NAME." (Yes, insert your name where I've written 'NAME')

Or you can say: 私（わたし）の 名前（なまえ）は NAME です。which means "My name is NAME." 

の is a possessive particle in this sentence. 

To say your age: 私（わたし）は NUMBER さい です。which means "I am NUMBER years old". (Insert your age where it says 'NUMBER')

Most people finish their introduction with よろしくおねがいします. It can be translated to 'pleased to meet you' or 'please take care of me' or 'let's treat each other kindly', etc.

Here's my introduction! (I'll keep it all in hiragana)

はじめまして！わたし の なまえ は れもん です。じゅうなな さい です。どうぞよろしくおねがいします！

(How do you do! My name is Lemon. I'm 17 years old. It's nice to meet you!) 

Isn't it a bit hard to read without kanji? Because all the hirgana is clumped up and you can't tell which is the topic and which is the particle. Haha, this is why kanji is useful! But we'll introduce kanji later one when you are more familiar with the Japanese language. 

Anyway, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to message me. Happy learning!

がんばってね～

[reiko-remon]

Lesson 2: Basic Greetings & Expressions

こんいちは！I hope you studied up your kana from lesson 1! ( ^ ^ )

I'll only be using kana and no kanji for the first few lessons to keep things simple. 

First, let's look at some basic greetings and expressions.

These are quite simple and used very often. You might have already heard these from watching anime! Also if you scroll through my blog, you may find the images I put up of these greetings and that may help you remember. 

- はい/いいえ (yes/no)

- こんにちは (hello/good afternoon)

- おはようございます (good morning) You may also use just おはよう for a more casual 'good morning'. But when greeting your せんせい (teacher) or superior, you should use the full greeting~

- こんばんは (good evening)

- おやすみなさい (good night) Again, you can shorten this greeting to just おやすみ to make it more casual.

- さようなら (good bye) 

- じゃ、また (see you later)

- ありがとうございます (thank you very much) This is a polite way to say thank you. Adding どうも before the phrase makes it even more polite! Shortening it to ありがとう is more casual. Sometimes, girls add ね to the end (ありがとうね) to make it sound a bit more cute and casual. Similarly, guys sometimes add な (ありがとうな) to sound more casual. 

- どういたしまして (you're welcome)

- すみません (excuse me) It's a very common and quite mild apology. The meaning can change depending on the situation. Usually, it means 'sorry' or 'excuse me' but in some circumstances, it can mean 'thanks'. 

- ごめんなさい (i'm sorry) There are many variations of this phrase. ごめんなさい is used with people you are familiar with but it is more formal than ごめん. ごめん is very informal and casual. Again, sometimes girls add ね to the end of ごめん and guys add な. (ごめんね/ごめんな)

- いただきます (giving thanks before a meal)

- ごちそうさまでした (giving thanks after a meal)

- いってきます (i'm off)

- いってらっしゃい (take care)

- ただいま (i'm home)

- おかえりなさい (welcome home)

My previous posts/images about these expressions here, here, here, and here~

- はじめまして (nice to meet you)

- よろしくおねがいします (let's treat each other kindly)

I will talk about はじめまして and よろしくおねがいします in lesson 3 when I teach you how to introduce yourself in Japanese.٩(^ᴗ^)۶

Let's learn how to say 'how are you?' and 'i'm doing fine'. 

'げんき' means 'healthy'. So to ask how someone is, you say 'おげんきですか？' お before げんき makes the questions more polite. です can be defined as 'am', 'be' or 'is', and is only used at the end of sentences. It adds politeness to the sentence as well. And か turns a sentence into a question. 

To say 'I'm fine', you simple say 'げんきです' (am healthy/good/fine). You can add 'わたし は' (i am) before the sentence (わたしはげんきです). To ask 'and you?', it is 'あなたは？' (you are?). [Note: は is pronounced as wa because it is being used as a particle.]  

Your turn! See if you can translate this short conversation:

たなか：おはようございます。

みのり：おはようございます。おげんきですか？

たなか：はい、げんきです。ありがとうございます。あなたは？

みのり：わたし も(this particle means also/too) げんきです。

How did you go? Easy right? Click here to check your answer~

Anyway, keep practising your hiragana and katakana~ Start memorising these greetings and expressions. And of course, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me! 〜(￣▽￣〜)

Happy learning~! がんばってね～

[reiko-remon]

Essential Japanese phrases/words part 2

Short and simple phrases to know if you don't know how to speak Japanese and are going to Japan. 

[reiko-remon]

Essential Japanese phrases/words part 1

はい is pronounced like 'hi' like you are greeting your friend! いいえ is pronounced like 'eee-eh'. Nice and simple! ( ^ ^ )

[reiko-remon]

More adjective endings! Previous post on adjective endings and their tense here~

As always, when using な adjective, do not put the な after the adjective. For い adjectives, leave the い.

For polite form, just add です before から.

[reiko-remon]

Lesson 1: Pronunciation and Kana

Learning Japanese kana is essential when learning the Japanese languages. Japanese actually has 3 alphabets: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. In this lesson, we will learn about hiragana and katakana - also known as kana together. Learning kana not only helps you read Japanese text, but it also helps in improving your pronunciation. 

Pronunciation

Japanese pronunciation is actually very easy! All kana characters end with a vowel (except for ん/ン which is n) and there are no tones in Japanese. Here are the 5 vowels (in hiragana) with the pronunciation in the brackets:

A あ (ah)

I い (ee)

U う (ooh)

E え (eh)

O お (o)

Consonants before vowels do not change the end sound. Eg. KA か is pronounced as 'kah', just like あ but with a K before the A.

Kana chart here:

[For high resolution, click here.]

When used as particles, は is pronounced as wa and へ is pronounced as e. を is sometimes pronounced as o. Particles are easy to detect but we will talk about it more in another lesson. 

As for katakana, there are no characters that are used as particles. Katakana is used mostly when creating foreign words. Eg. ice cream is アイスクリーム (aisukuriimu). It sounds like English doesn't it? Another example: メイクアップ (meikuappu) is make-up. 

That's it for this lesson! Thanks for reading and feel free to ask me any questions. I personally think learning hiragana before katakana is easier, also I think hiragana is more important. But you should learn both! As for remembering the characters, I don't have an easy way to share for you but you can try using flashcards or try to utilise association. (^ ^)

Happy learning~! がんばってね～

[reiko-remon]

In my japanese classes we learned that the な adjectives negative past form is (~じゃありませんでした）not （~じゃなかった）, whats the difference?（＾◇＾）

こんにちは！Thanks for the question. (^ ^)

Firstly, ~じゃありませんでした is more polite than ~じゃなかった.

It’s simply the conjugation of  the verb ある. 

If you add です at the end of ~じゃなかった, it will make it polite. Eg.静かじゃなかったです。(It was not quiet) is the same as 静かじゃありませんでした。

You can also use では (pronounced like dewa) instead of じゃ. It means the same thing. 

I chose not to add these into my original image to keep it nice and simple but it’s good to know this too. 

P.S. You can also use these な adjective endings at the end of NOUNS. 

[reiko-remon]

Adjective endings!

Examples:

い adjective '可愛い (かわいい)' Present: かわいい - cute Past: かわいかった - it was cute Negative: かわいくない - it's not cute Past negative: かわいくなかった - it was not cute

な adjective '好き (すき)' Present: すき - like Past: すきでした - i liked Negative: すきじゃない - i do not like Past negative: すきじゃなかった - i did not like

[reiko-remon]

More adjectives!

[Note: 寂しい can also be pronounced as 'samishii']