Months

Hey guys! I know its been a while but I've been busy with my school studies. I'm a junior now and in the world of academics and the nerd world, its the most important year of high school. I'm getting ready to take my SATs and AP exams (ewwww!) in about 3-4 months. So I'm really busy. But anyways what I was trying to say is that in Japanese, months are written in kanji or in hiragana. Just like in the English language, knowing your days of the month is very important in communicating on paper and in speaking. I think the best way of explaining what each month is in Japanese is by showing you a chart in kanji and hiragana form. The katakana form will not be shown because it is not from the English language but from the Japanese language itself. (Katakana is only used when writing English words into Japanese words or I guess writing English words into the Japanese writing system). The video above will supplement on the months in which you can listen to how each month is pronounced. Enjoy!  

Month                  English                     Hiragana              Romaji

一月                  January                            いちがつ               ichi-gatsu

二月                  February                          にがつ                   ni-gatsu

三月                  March                              さんがつ               san-gatsu

四月                  April                                  しがつ               　shi-gatsu

五月                  May                                  ごがつ                　go-gatsu

六月                  June                                ろくがつ               　roku-gatsu

七月                  July                                 しちがつ               　shichi-gatsu

八月                  August                                はちがつ       　　 hachi-gatsu

九月                  September                         　くがつ               ku-gatsu

十月                  October                         じゅうがつ               juu-gatsu

十一月              November                  じゅういちがつ               juu-ichi-gatsu

十二月              December                  じゅうにがつ            　　 juu-ni-gatsu

*Months are basically numbers (1~12) + gatsu. Pay attention to April, July and September. April is shi-gatsu not yon-gatsu, July is shichi-gatsu not nana-gatsu and September is ku-gatsu not kyuu-gatsu. The months are an example of irregularity found in numbers or as it is called when a number can be said in two ways but used differently because shi-gatsu in Japanese literally means 4^th month.

To elaborate on this a little further……

*Both 'shi' and 'yon' are used for counting in Japanese. The reason there are two sounds is because there are two counting methods. When the Japanese asked the Chinese to teach them the characters, they often times adopted some form of Chinese sounds with the character. This dramatically changed the Japanese language long ago. 

Now there are two main ways of counting in Japanese (1-10). The original system was hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yottsu (where yon comes from), itsutsu, mutsu, nanatsu, hatsu, kokonotsu, and tou. The adopted method from the Chinese sounds is ichi, ni, san, shi. go roku, shichi, hachi, kyuu, juu. (I will explain on this counting method later).

Now there are two reasons for four and seven being different. First off 'shi' and 'shichi' sound alike. To avoid confusion, many often use 'yon' and 'nana' to differentiate. Also, 'shi' means death in Japanese and just like we don't have a 13th floor in the West, many places don't have a 4th floor here in Japan. 

Now some cases, shi and yon are completely enterchangable. You can count 'ichi, ni, san, shi... or 'ichi, ni, san, yon...'

When it comes to counters (stating a specific number of nouns) it may or may not be interchangeable. 

Shigatsu (literally "4th Month" i.e. April). You CANNOT say 'yongatsu.' 

Lesson 3: Numbers

Kanji Hiragana  Romaji  English

 零        ゼロ / れい          zero/rei       zero

一                いち                                   ichi           one

二             に                       ni           two

三                 さん                                        san           three

四             よん / し                            shi           four

五                ご                           go            five

六                   ろく                                         roku          six

七                 なな / しち                     shichi/nana   seven


八                 はち                                     hachi         eight

九                 きゅう / く                         ku/kyuu       nine


十                じゅう                                 juu           ten

百                ひゃく                  hyaku        hundred

千              せん                 sen           thousand

万               まん               man           ten thousand

Lesson 2 continuation: Japanese Alphabet Part 3: Kanji

Kanji: This writing system is the hardest out of the three Japanese writing systems because of the stroke order and the overall difficulty to master a writing system where a character can have several different meanings. The japanese term Kanji literally means Han characters or Chinese characters.

Lesson 2: The Japanese Alphabet Part 1: Hiragana ( ひらがな)

Hiragana: one compenent of the Japanese writing system along with Katakana, Romaji and Kanji. The first step to learning how to read Japanese, is to learn the 46 Hiragana characters. By starting with the first character that you see on the chart.

** This is all the property of Learn Japanese Free at www.learnjapanesefree.com/japanese-hiragana.html**

The Hiragana language is used for native words from which no kanji is used.

Fun tips to help you in learn Japanese

Although the basis of studying a language is usually memorizing vocabulary, speaking regularly, writing practice and listening intently. You can learn more vocabulary by simply doing other things that help you to learn a language like:


***If you have trouble finding any of these resources, here are some good sites or places to find them.


1. Listening to Japanese music.

• Utada Hikaru
• Ayumi Hamasaki

2. Reading Japanese Manga or children's books.

• Barnes and Noble
• Books a Million

3. Watching Japanese Anime and Dramas.

• Youtube.com
• Mysoju.com-there are also many other asian dramas besides Japanese dramas and all the dramas are english subbed.
• Viikii.com-another good site that is a lot like Mysoju.com

Itazura na Kiss

Vampire Knight

   






































If you have trouble finding any Japanese Anime to watch, here are some that you can start with:

1. Vampire Knight
2. Itazura na Kiss
3. Fruits Basket
4. Mermaid Melody

4. Japanese Dramas

• Hana Yori Dango*
• Mei-chan no Shitsuji*
• Ohitorisama*

*These Japanese Dramas are worth watching! They're so funny,romantic, and the storyline to each of these gets boring while watching but for the most part it can really get you motivated to learn Japanese.

5. Speaking to native Japanese speakers.

Lesson 1: Greetings

The first day of Japanese 1 Class, I learned the Greetings. Greetings are important because that's the first word that comes out of a person's mouth regardless of what language that person speaks. 

*There are two forms of words when it comes to Greetings: polite and familiar form. The polite form is used when talking to people who are older than you or a superior. If you want to know more about the polite forms of the Japanese language this is a good site to read. http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japanese/polite.html

Polite Form                Japanese              Romaji                    

Hello/Good afternoon      こんにちは               Konnichiwa

Good morning              おはようございます         Ohayoo gozaimasu

Goodbye                   さようなら              Sayoonara

Good Evening              こんばんは               Konbanwa

Good night                おやすみなさい            Oyasuminasai  

*Thank you                ありがとうございます        Arigatoo gozaimasu

*The extreme polite form of Thank you very much is Doomo Arigatoo gozaimasu (どうもありがとうございます). 

Familiar                  Japanese            Romaji    

*hello/good afternoon     こんにちは           Konnichiwa


Good Morning              おはよう             Ohayoo


*Goodbye                  さようなら           Sayoonara              
*Good Evening             こんばんは           Konbanwa


Good night                おやすみ             Oyasumi


Thank you                 ありがとう           Arigatoo


*These words remained the same. 

Hello!

Hi, my name is Rebecca Lee and I am a rising junior in high schoool. I decided to create a Japanese Language blog to help other japanese language students or anyone who is interested in learning japanese. Although I'm only going to be a japanese level 3 student, I will use the knowledge I have gained from my teacher and help others like me. So if you have any comments feel free to ask me any questions. However, I might not be able to answer all the questions you have regarding the japanese language but I will try my best.