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8th Kyu Language Tutorial
Vocabulary
You must be able to count to 10 in Japanese. The numbers are as follows.
Click here to open a video file that counts to
ten in Japanese.
| 1 |
Ichi |
| 2 |
Ni |
| 3 |
San |
| 4 |
Shi |
| 5 |
Go |
| 6 |
Roku |
| 7 |
Shichi |
| 8 |
Hachi |
| 9 |
Ku |
| 10 |
Ju |
Memorize the following vocabulary words.
| Sensei |
Teacher |
| Sempai |
Senior (in rank). This is a noun. |
| Hai |
Yes |
| Iie |
No |
| Hajime |
Begin. This is a verb in the imperative mood. |
| Matte |
Pause. This is also a verb in the imperative mood. |
| Yame |
Stop. This is a verb in the imperative mood. |
| Hidari |
Left |
| Migi |
Right |
| Te |
Hand |
| Katana |
Sword |
| Tegatana |
Handsword. When combining tow nouns to make a compound
noun, the Japanese often change the initial sound of the second word in the
compound. That happens here. Instead of tekatana, they say
tegatana. |
| Shoumen |
Forward or Front |
| Ate |
A strike or blow. From the infinitive ateru, to hit.
This is where Atari (as in the video game maker) got its name. In
colloquial Japanese, atari can mean, "I got it!" |
| Shoumen ate |
A technique name. |
| Oshi |
Pushing. From the infinitive osu, meaning to push. |
| Taoshi |
Toppling. From the infinitive taosu to topple of knock
over. |
| Oshi taoshi |
A technique name |
| Kote |
A gauntlet (the metal glove used by an armored knight or
samurai). |
| Hineri |
Twisting or turning. From the infinitive hineru, to
twist or to turn. |
| Kote Hineri |
A technique name. |
| Kouhou |
Behind, from behind, backward |
| Ukemi |
Fall |
| Kouhou ukemi |
A back(ward) fall. |
| Yoko |
Side |
| Yoko ukemi |
A side fall. |
| Dori |
Grabbing, a grab. |
| Kata |
one, single |
| Katate |
one handed, using one hand |
| Katate dori |
one handed grab |
| Unsoku |
footwork exercises |
Grammar Section
Japanese strictly speaking has no “to be” verb. Rather, there is something
called “the copula,” the etymology of which I hope has nothing to do with
copulation. The copula in its polite form is desu. Desu comes at the end of a
sentence because in Japanese the verb always comes at the end of the sentence.
That is, a Japanese sentence follows the order, Subject Object Verb, whereas an
English sentence goes, Subject Verb Object. So, the English sentence that reads
“John ate the dog” would in Japanese have the order “John the dog ate“. It’s
kind of like some Shakespeare you may have read and very much like the
ass-backward way that the Yoda character talks in the Star Wars movies. Let’s
practice using the copula. Or should I say, “let’s copulate”?
| Aikidou desu. |
(It) is aikido. |
| Sensei desu. |
(He) is sensei, or (There) is sensei. |
| Pen desu. |
(It) is a pen. (Yes, the Japanese word for pen is
pen.) |
| Maakaa desu. |
(It) is a marker. (The Japanese mispronounce our word for
marker. |
In the above sentences, notice that there is no subject. That is
why in the English translations, I have put the subjects into parentheses. This
is part of Japanese, part of being discrete. Subjects are often only implied.
You are supposed to understand the subject from context.
To ask questions in Japanese, you put “ka” at the end of what would otherwise be
a declarative sentence.
| Aikidou desu ka? |
Is (it) aikido? |
| Sensei desu ka? |
Is (he) the teacher? |
| Pen desu ka? |
Is (it) a/the pen? |
Notice how I have translated the last example sentence. There is
no equivalent in Japanese to the English grammatical concept of definite and
indefinite pronouns. That is, Japanese is much more ambiguous in this way as it
is in often failing to mention the exact subject about which you are speaking.
So there is no mental distinction to a Japanese speaker between “a dog” and “the
dog.” Along these lines, it should not be surprising that Japanese also has not
concept of singular versus plural nouns. That is, Japanese does not have the
difference in meaning that we have between “Dogs are good” and “The dog is
good.” The former expresses the idea that the whole category of dogs (i.e., all
dogs everywhere) is good, whereas the later expresses only that a particular dog
is good. This is also why native Japanese speakers have hard time pluralizing
English verbs. They often say things like, “Dog are good,” or “The dogs is
happy.” This stems directly from their being no plurals in Japanese and their
not being familiar with inflecting verbs and nouns to deal with plurality.
Translate the following
1) Is that kote hineri?
2) Is that sensei?
3) It’s a pen.
4) It’s sensei.
5) Yes, sensei!
6) Yes, sempai!
7) Is that a hand sword?
8) That is shoumen ate.
9) It’s the right (side).
10) Is it the left?
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