Japanese FOR DUMmIES ‰ 2ND EDITION by Eriko Sato, PhD Japanese FOR DUMmIES ‰ 2ND EDITION Japanese For Dummies®, 2nd Edition Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. 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If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Control Number: 2012947693 ISBN 978-1-118-13071-1 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-05385-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-05618-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-21861-7 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Eriko Sato, PhD, is Director of the Teacher Certification Program for Japanese and the Pre-College Japanese Language Program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she has been teaching Japanese language, linguistics, and pedagogy since 1995. She authored the previous edition of Japanese For Dummies (Wiley), as well as Contemporary Japanese: A Textbook for College Students (Tuttle) and Japanese Demystified (McGraw Hill). She also coauthored My First Japanese Kanji Book (Tuttle), Essential Japanese Grammar (Tuttle), and Basic Japanese (Tuttle). Author’s Acknowledgments I want to thank all the wonderful editors at Wiley. My heartfelt thanks go to the project editor, Jennifer Tebbe, and the copy editor, Megan Knoll, for their amazing editing skills, professionalism, and kindness. I enjoyed working with them throughout the project. Additionally, I am indebted to the two technical reviewers, Hiroko Chiba and Allen Kidd, who offered numerous valuable suggestions from a variety of viewpoints. Special thanks to Constance Carlisle for creating the audio recordings for this book, and to Wiley’s executive editor, Lindsay Lefevere, and my agent, Grace Freedson, for helping me get engaged in the Japanese For Dummies projects. I also want to thank my students at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and in its Pre-College Japanese Language Program for giving me the most valuable input, inspiration, and insight. Finally, I wish to thank my husband, Yimei, our daughter, Anna, and my family in Japan for their support and love. Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites Project Editor: Jennifer Tebbe (Previous Edition: Kathleen Dobie) Executive Editor: Lindsay Sandman Lefevere Copy Editor: Megan Knoll (Previous Edition: Mike Baker) Assistant Editor: David Lutton Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen Technical Editors: Hiroko Chiba, Allen Kidd Vertical Websites: Melanie Orr, Marilyn Hummel CD Producer: Her Voice Unlimited, LLC Editorial Manager: Christine Meloy Beck Editorial Assistant: Alexa Koschier Art Coordinator: Alicia B. South Cover Photo: © iStockphoto.com/ David Kerkhoff Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Sheree Montgomery Layout and Graphics: Carrie A. Cesavice, Joyce Haughey, Brent Savage, Erin Zeltner Proofreaders: Jacqui Brownstein, Melissa Cossell Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC Illustrator: Elizabeth Kurtzman Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher David Palmer, Associate Publisher Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Composition Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Contents at a Glance Introduction .............................................................. 21 Part I: Getting Started ................................................. 7 Chapter 1: Japanese in a Nutshell ....................................................................................9 Chapter 2: Checking Out the Japanese Sounds and Scripts .......................................17 Chapter 3: Warming Up with Japanese Grammar Basics ...........................................33 Chapter 4: Starting with Simple Expressions ...............................................................61 Chapter 5: Getting Your Numbers, Times, and Measurements Straight ..................77 Chapter 6: Speaking Japanese at Home ........................................................................99 Part II: Japanese in Action ....................................... 117 Chapter 7: Getting to Know You: Making Small Talk .................................................119 Chapter 8: Asking for Directions ..................................................................................131 Chapter 9: Dining Out and Going to the Market.........................................................147 Chapter 10: Shopping Made Easy ................................................................................163 Chapter 11: Going Out on the Town ............................................................................183 Chapter 12: Taking Care of Business and Telecommunications..............................199 Chapter 13: Recreation and the Great Outdoors .......................................................219 Part III: Japanese on the Go ..................................... 233 Chapter 14: Planning a Trip ..........................................................................................235 Chapter 15: Dealing with Money in a Foreign Land ...................................................245 Chapter 16: Making Your Way Around: Planes, Trains, Taxis, and More ...............257 Chapter 17: Finding a Place to Stay .............................................................................275 Chapter 18: Handling Emergencies ..............................................................................291 Part IV: The Part of Tens .......................................... 309 Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Pick Up Japanese Quickly .................................................311 Chapter 20: Ten Things Never to Say in Japanese.....................................................315 Chapter 21: Ten Favorite Japanese Expressions .......................................................319 Chapter 22: Ten Phrases That Make You Sound Fluent in Japanese ......................323 Part V: Appendixes .................................................. 327 Appendix A: Mini-Dictionary ........................................................................................329 Appendix B: Verb Tables ..............................................................................................349 Appendix C: On the CD..................................................................................................359 Appendix D: Answer Key ..............................................................................................363 Index ...................................................................... 365 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................1 Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2 What You’re Not to Read ................................................................................4 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................4 How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................4 Part I: Getting Started ............................................................................4 Part II: Japanese in Action ....................................................................5 Part III: Japanese on the Go ..................................................................5 Part IV: The Part of Tens .......................................................................5 Part V: Appendixes ................................................................................5 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................5 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................6 Part I: Getting Started .................................................. 7 Chapter 1: Japanese in a Nutshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Discovering Basic Japanese Sounds and Script ..........................................9 Getting a Grip on Basic Grammar ................................................................10 Easing into Common Expressions ...............................................................10 Counting on Numbers ...................................................................................11 Speaking Japanese around the House ........................................................12 Using Japanese in Social Scenarios .............................................................12 Making small talk .................................................................................12 Asking for directions ...........................................................................13 Eating out and buying food.................................................................13 Going shopping ....................................................................................13 Exploring entertainment opportunities ............................................13 Doing business and communicating..................................................14 Enjoying sports, hobbies, recreation, and more .............................14 Tackling Travel-Related Topics ...................................................................15 Preparing for a trip ..............................................................................15 Making sense of money .......................................................................15 Getting around with local transportation .........................................15 Securing a place to stay ......................................................................16 Taking action during emergencies ....................................................16 Japanese For Dummies, 2nd Edition xii Chapter 2: Checking Out the Japanese Sounds and Scripts . . . . . . . .17 Pronouncing Basic Japanese Sounds ..........................................................17 Vowels ...................................................................................................17 Consonants ...........................................................................................19 Sounding Fluent .............................................................................................20 Don’t stress ...........................................................................................21 Watch out for pitch and intonation ...................................................21 Get in rhythm .......................................................................................22 Keep your speed up .............................................................................23 Introducing the Japanese Scripts ................................................................23 Kana .......................................................................................................23 Kanji .......................................................................................................27 Chapter 3: Warming Up with Japanese Grammar Basics . . . . . . . . . .33 Using Appropriate Speech Styles ................................................................33 Forming Sentences ........................................................................................34 Ordering the words correctly ............................................................34 Marking nouns with particles .............................................................35 Telling the topic ...................................................................................38 Dropping understood words ..............................................................39 Asking Questions ...........................................................................................39 Yes/no questions .................................................................................40 Content questions ................................................................................40 Getting a Handle on Pronouns .....................................................................42 Demonstrative pronouns ....................................................................42 Personal pronouns ..............................................................................44 Working with Verbs .......................................................................................45 Understanding basic verb forms .......................................................45 Doing the conjugation thing ...............................................................47 Speaking politely with –masu .............................................................50 Introducing the Verb Desu, to Be ................................................................51 Describing People and Things with Adjectives .........................................53 Using Adverbs to Describe Your Actions ...................................................56 Creating adverbs from adjectives ......................................................56 Perusing pure adverbs ........................................................................56 Turning to sentence-like adverbs ......................................................57 Expressing Moods and Attitudes .................................................................57 Chapter 4: Starting with Simple Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Beginning (And Ending) Conversations ......................................................61 Addressing friends and strangers ......................................................61 Greeting all day long ............................................................................64 Saying goodbye ....................................................................................65 Making Introductions ....................................................................................66 Introducing yourself ............................................................................67 Introducing your friends .....................................................................67 Asking people their names .................................................................69 Being polite with o- ..............................................................................69 xiii Table of Contents Finding Out About Your New Friend ...........................................................70 Asking people where they’re from.....................................................70 Talking about your language skills ....................................................72 Expressing Gratitude and Regret .................................................................74 Showing gratitude ................................................................................74 Apologizing ...........................................................................................74 Speaking about Speaking: The Verb Hanasu ..............................................75 Chapter 5: Getting Your Numbers, Times, and Measurements Straight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Ichi, Ni, San: Counting in Japanese ..............................................................77 Numbers from 1 to 10 ..........................................................................77 Numbers from 11 to 99 ........................................................................78 Numbers from 100 to 9,999 .................................................................79 Numbers from 10,000 to 99,999 ..........................................................80 Numbers over 100,000 .........................................................................81 Expressing amount or quantity with counters ................................81 Indicating ordinal numbers with -me ................................................83 Telling Time ....................................................................................................84 Noting hours and minutes ..................................................................84 Talking about time ...............................................................................87 It’s a Date! Delving into the Calendar ..........................................................88 Talking about the days of the week ...................................................88 Naming the months and counting them up ......................................89 Counting the days ................................................................................90 Counting the weeks .............................................................................92 Reeling off the years ............................................................................92 Specifying dates and times .................................................................93 Familiarizing Yourself with the Metric System ..........................................97 Chapter 6: Speaking Japanese at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99 Taking a Tour of Your Home ........................................................................99 The kitchen .........................................................................................100 The dining room .................................................................................101 The living room ..................................................................................102 The bedroom ......................................................................................102 The bathroom.....................................................................................103 The laundry room ..............................................................................104 The storage room ..............................................................................104 Home Is Where the Food Is ........................................................................107 Getting cooking ..................................................................................107 Using two verbs at the table .............................................................107 Considering proper table manners..................................................108 Enjoying foods of all kinds ................................................................109 Talking about foods you like and dislike ........................................111