JAPANESE CORNER (For great beginners):
IF IT SEEMS TOO MUCH DON'T WORRY IT'S EASY THAT'S WHY.
NAMES :
Akio means (to) sparkle, great. A-ki-o
Ryūka means dragon and flower. Riū-ka It's a combination so Ri and ū can't be apart.
Hayashi means forest. Ha-ya-shi
Haneul Yun means heaven, sky and govern, oversee. It's Korean.
Hanzō and Akane ??? means Half and (to) hide in Hanzo case. Akane is written with the madder red kanji. Ha-n-zō(long) A-ka-ne
Hikari Kaneko Hi-ka-li Ka-ne-ko Hikari means sun and Kaneko means gold and child.
Other people names will have their own time of glory when they learn how to write in Katakana cause that's how you write a foreigner name if you won't take a Japanese name.
Sapporo + shi to indicate the city (twin city with Portland,OR and Denver,CO)
Hokkaidō (it's the only prefecture in all of Japan to use -dō which took the meaning of prefecture so you can't say Hokkaidō prefecture or Hokkaidō region)
SOUNDS :
A like french A.
N without a consonant like mmh.
U like french OU.
E like french é.
H- like british non silent H-. If you have troubles understanding this one :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoXlOm641FY
R like L.
KK (double consonant) indicate a pause in the word.
Words written as OU/EE or Ō/Ū indicate a long sound.
Ryū is a combination.
It's a little more complicated than regulars kana. The explanation is that Japanese people needed more than the regular two syllabaires (Katakana and Hiragana) to form words otherwise you limit the number of words way too much. So they invented combination like Ryū or Gyō. We'll learn how to make them later.
A-ki-o Li-o(long)-ka Ha-ya-shi Ha-mmh-zo(long) A-ka-né Hi-ka-li Ka-né-ko
Examples you can put in Jisho.org : Ryū - Hanabi (H/N with consonant) - Anime (A/E) - Gakkō (pausing/long sound) - Ramen (R) - Hontō (H/N without consonant/long sound)
You can also listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1PCl5D-IpU with subtitles to hear the prononciation which is great in it. I'll use this example later too.
SCHOOL SYSTEM:
FRANCE:
Maternelle (2 or 3-6 y.o) Toute petite section (2y.o accepted) aren't everywhere. And you need to be 3 no matter if you're born after September to enter it before the school year starts.
Primaire (6-11 y.o)
Collège (11-15 y.o)
Lycée (15-18 y.o)
A 5-4-3 school system.
USA:
Pre school (2-5 y.o)
Kindergarten (5-6 y.o) Grade 0
Elementary school (6-11 y.o) Grades 1 to 5
Middle school (11-14 y.o) Grades 6 to 8, is more social focused (students focused)
Junior High school (12-15 y.o) Grades 7 to 9, not all states include 9th grade. JHS focus on preparing kids to HS (academic focus)
So if you want to go to JHS, you need to finish 6th grade in MS I guess (please confirm).
Senior High school (14-18 y.o) Grades 9 to 12.
So either a 5-3-4 school system (ES-MS-HS) or a 5-1-3-3 school system (ES-MS-JHS-SHS).
JAPAN:
Same as US with kids being able to enter PS at their birth and 6 years of ES, only 3 of MS and 3 of HS (6-3-3 school system)
kindergarten= yō chi en (literally mean young infancy garden, this one is for kids at least 3 y.o)
Elementary school= shō gakkō (small learning school)
Middle school/Junior High school= Chū gakkō (middle learning school)
Senior High school= Kōtō gakkō/kōkō (High rank learning school, kōkō is informal)
Private school= Shiritsu gakkō (Honor school)
Public school= Kōritsu gakkō (Public set up school)
PLACES:
Dormitories= Kishuku sha (Stop in lodging house)
Gymnasium= Taii ku kan (Body grown building)
Classroom= Kyō shitsu (Teach room)
Bathroom= Yoku shitsu (Bath room)
PEOPLE:
Principal= Kōchō (School leader)
Teacher= Kyōin (Teach member)
Student= Gakusei (Learning life)
Classmate= Kurasume-to
Entrance= Genkan (Occultness barrier - You keep the spirits outside by taking the dirty shoes off)
OBJECTS/CLOTHES:
Notebook= Nōto
Uniform= Seifuku (Rule clothing)
Shoes= Kutsu
Slippers= Surippa
Indoor shoes= Uwa gutsu (Above shoes)
Outside shoes= Undō gutsu (Not sure - Luck Motion shoes/Carying change shoes)
NATIONALITIES/LANGUAGES:
Country in Japanese + jin
Japanese= Nihon-jin
Korean= Kankoku-jin
Américain= Amerika-jin
Country in Japanese + go
English= Ei-go (they make no difference between UK/US English in school, like in French schools)
Japanese= Nihon-go
COLORS:
Red= Aka
Black= Kuro
Blue= Ao
Yellow= Kiiro (Yellow color)
Brown= Chairo (Tea color)
Grey= Haiiro (Ashes color)
Green= Midori
Adjective ? Just add -i : Midorii, Akai (don't forget to separate when you say it, if you don't you're saying another word).
SEASONS:
Spring= Haru
HOURS:
Number + ji (hour)
Number + fun/pun (minutes)
Here the time of the ceremony was 1:30pm/13h30 so 13: jū-san (13) ji san-jū (30) pun. That's it. Just jū-san ji san-jū pun. To say it's ... just add desu at the end.
TIPS: Learn how to write Hiragana/Katakana vowels in a week (doing one table everyday to see if you remember it, then using Anki to remember the reading and writing at least 20 times each for muscle memory - I don't recommend the last method as the first thing you should do).
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