Monthly Archive for September, 2008

 

 Episode 7 - Particles [19:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Particles, known as joshi, are probably one of the trickiest aspects of Japanese language for a beginner to master. I see countless questions on Yahoo Answers regarding particles. Sometimes I see similarities between English and Japanese but this is one of the cases where this is a Japanese issue that cannot be explained simply. Some say they are like English prepositions but since they occur after the word or subject, they are post-positions. As I’ve mentioned, I’m not a technical person when it comes to language so “preposition” means nothing to me. If you’re not big into grammar like that then you’ve come to the right place. At least I hope so.

Episode Topics:
Particles: to, no, na (mitai na, no you na), de, ya vs. shi vs. mo, wa vs. ga, e vs. ni (no you ni), wo, question particles (ka, wa, no), to ka

Kaa-chan Corner:
Cancelled for a few episodes as there has been a death in the family and my mother has gone back to Japan for a few weeks.

Vocabulary List:
The vocabulary lists are generated from Kaa-chan Corner so there is not a vocabulary list for this episode.

Further Reading:
Wikipedia entry on particles
Japanese Particles
A Guide to the Functions of
Structural Particles in Japanese
Forming Sentences in Japanese: Introducing Particles (for Dummies

Transcript:
Episode transcript PDF (Japanese portion includes furigana) (interviews not transcribed)

Download Podcast:
Episode 7 – Particles

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 Episode 5 - You and I [17:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In the previous episode we discussed honorifics, for which there was almost no bias towards gender. Today however we discuss the various ways to say “You” and “I”, or what you technical people might refer to as pronouns, for which the majority of these words are gender-biased. While some people do cross the gender line, as a foreigner I would suggest avoiding crossing the gender line when you speak or you will come across as being ignorant of Japanese. And as always in Japanese, there are various levels of politeness and to not be polite is to be rude so please be aware to speak casually only with close family and friends.

Episode Topics:
Different ways to say I, me, myself, mine, my, we, us, our, ours: watashi vs. watakushi (atashi vs. atakushi), jibun, ware, ore, boku, kochira vs. kocchi, uchi.
Different ways to say you, your, he, his, she, hers, them, they, their, theirs: anata vs. anta, kimi, omae, otaku, sochira vs. socchi, ano kata, kanojyo, kare, yatsu, koitsu vs. soitsu vs. aitsu.

Kaa-chan Corner:
Religion in Japan: Shinto-ism and Buddhism (mostly in English to help explain to those who are not strong in Japanese)

Vocabulary List:
bukkyo – Buddhism. 仏教 [ぶっきょう]
jinjya – shrine (Shinto). 神社 [じんじゃ]
kitsune – fox, shape-shifting animal in Japanese mythology. 狐 [きつね]
kyoukai – church (Christian). 協会 [きょうかい]
(o)jizou – Jizo, guardian deity of children (Shinto). (お)地蔵 [(お)じぞう]
otera – temple (Buddhist). お寺 [おてら]
shintou – Shinto. 神道 [しんとう]

Further Reading:
Japanese pronouns entry at Wikipedia
Japanese Pronouns
8.1.Pronouns
Japanese Language: Personal Pronouns
Shinto entry at Wikipedia
Buddhism entry at Wikipedia
Kitsune entry at Wikipedia
Jizo Bodhisattva

Transcript:
Episode transcript PDF (Japanese portion includes furigana) (interviews not transcribed)

Download Podcast:
Episode 5 – You and I

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.