is easily pronounced by native English speakers, and unlike many Asian languages, Japanese does not have tones. The grammar and characters are the most challenging, and because of this, phrases in this pad are kept short, simple and functional. Plus, you can listen to the audio files for each phrase repeatedly online.
All sounds in Japanese are easily pronounced in English and are almost identical to the way they are pronounced in Spanish.
Below are charts of the two Japanese alphabets: hiragana and katakana. (Together these two alphabets are termed kana.) The former is used to write Japanese words, and the latter is used to write foreign words. Also used to write Japanese are kanji, characters derived from Chinese.
The small hiragana that you will see written over the Japanese characters derived from (and often identical to) Chinese are called furigana. They show you the pronunciation of the kanji below. Furigana are useful guides, but they are only used in text that’s meant for education purposes, like this phrase-a-day pad. Furigana isn’t seen in typical situations.
Keep in mind that all Japanese consonants are followed by a vowel (for example, Ka, Ki, Ku, Ke, Ko). The letter N is the only exception. N can be followed by a vowel, can be repeated in the middle of a word, and it can end a word.
Also, note the short line that is on top of some vowels from time to time. This means that the vowel is long (that is, the sound is held twice as long when you say it); otherwise it is short.
VOWEL SOUNDS
A sounds like the a in ah
AI sounds like the y in by あい / アイ
I sounds like the e in be
U sounds like the oo in boo
E sounds like the e in best
EI is a long A sound, like the ay in day えい / エイ
O sounds like the o in open
Hiragana and Katakana
On the following pages are all the kana “letters” and sounds. In these charts, each sound’s hiragana is shown to the left, and its katakana is shown to the right.
Welcome to A Japanese Phrase A Day!
Each page offers you four components:
1) the phrase in Japanese characters;
2) a transliteration using English letters, which gives English speakers a guide to pronunciation;
3) the English translation; and
4) a note about the phrase, Japan, or Japanese culture.
Tear off a page each morning on your way to work, to school or to the cafe, and practice it a few times throughout the day. Once you’ve memorized it, use the back to make notes or a to-do list...or practice your Japanese writing!
About the Authors
Sam Brier is the founder and director of Academic Experiences Abroad (AEA), which provides customized study abroad programs for university initiatives to Asia (www.AEA-Asia.com). Part of the proceeds from this practice pad will go toward educational scholarships and grass-roots initiatives, which can be found on the website. Sam lived in Osaka from 1995–1997 as an English teacher on the JET Program, and he returns to Japan as often as he can. He is also author of A Chinese Phrase A Day Practice Pad and Lao Basics . Sam, his wife Linh and their son Dashiel are based in Portland, Oregon.
Keiko Matsuura specializes in second language acquisition for students of Japanese. She has been teaching Japanese since 2000 at schools and at universities in Japan and in South Korea. She is currently a full-time Japanese associate professor at Pusan University of Foreign Studies (South Korea) and is in charge of beginning to advanced levels. Keiko is from Kobe, Japan, and currently lives in Pusan with her husband and child.
Audio files for all of the Japanese Phrase A Day entries are available online. Listening and repeating after the native speakers will help you to polish your Japanese. Visit www.tuttlepublishing.com for the audio files.
SMALL TALK
Days 1–31
おはよう。
Ohayō. (casual form)
おはようございます。
Ohayō gozaimasu. (polite form)
Good morning.
————————— LANGUAGE NOTE —————————
Japanese has three writing systems: two different “alphabets” (actually syllabaries: one for Japanese words, called hiragana, and one mainly for foreign words, called katakana) plus kanji, characters originally from China. All three of these can be used in one sentence.
(O)genki desu ka?
How are you doing?
Genki desu. ○○
-san wa (ogenki desu ka)?
I’m good. And you?
————————— LANGUAGE NOTE —————————
To be polite, it is common to place an “o-” before some terms when talking with people who are not close to you (in terms of relationship). When talking with someone close to you, you can omit the respectful “desu ka? ですか” at the end.
The ○○ takes the place of “____.” (In this case, it indicates where to insert the name of the person you’re speaking to.) You will see these anywhere you’d expect to see a blank in English sentences.
こんにちは。
Konnichiwa.
Hello. / Good afternoon.
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