Introduction to Essential Japanese : Lesson 5 - 自己紹介 (Self Introduction)

Time to commence Lesson 5 of "Introduction to Essential Japanese"!

For the past 4 lessons, just to recap, we've went through all that's there in the building blocks of Japanese - Hiragana and Katakana.

But nothing's complete without knowing how to express it. You can't be just going "あ、あ、あ" like what a baby does every day, can you?

So let's start conversation proper - to learn, to understand and to use Japanese in everyday speech. *applause please*

In Japan, as you would probably know from anime, courtesy and politeness is crucial. Thus, the following lessons will be mainly conducted using 丁寧語 （ていねいご）, or polite speech as what we call it in English.

With that set, what's the first thing you do when you meet someone for the first time? That's right, self-introduction, or at least, a "Hello".

Let me start with my introduction first.

初（はじ）めまして。私（わたし）はメロディー（Melody)です！どうぞよろしくお願（ねが）いします！Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Merodii desu! Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

That's the simplest introduction you can ever have. Breaking it down bit by bit,

初（はじ）めまして --- Nice to meet you (for the first time)

私（わたし）はメロディー（Melody)です --- I am Melody. (Note that は is pronounced as wa (わ）when used as a particle)

どうぞよろしくお願（ねが）いします！ --- Thank you very much/Please Take care of me! (For Chinese fans, this translates best to 请多多指教)

It's possible to substitute phrases from your introduction though,and you can sort-of mix-and-match some of these following phrases...

Saying Hi/Nice to meet you (Pick one):

こんにちは！ - Good Afternoon / Hi

Konnichiwa

!初（はじ）めまして - Nice to meet you

Hajimemashite

More about yourself (pick any amount):

私（わたし）はメロディーです。 -- I am Melody.

Watashi wa Merodii desu

(Optional, if you have a long name): XXを呼(よ）んでもいいですよ！ --- You can call me XX!

xx wo yondemo iidesu yo!

メロディーと申（もう）します。 -- My name is Melody (more polite)

Merodii to moushimasu.

今年（ことし）十八歳/才（じゅうはっさい）です。 -- I'm 18 this year. (Note: This is not my true age.)

kotoshi jyuuhassai desu.

日本からです。 --- I am from Japan (Note: Neither am I from Japan)

Nihon kara desu.

趣味（しゅみ）はアニメを見る、本を読むことです。 --- My interest is watching anime and reading books.

shumi wa anime wo miru, hon wo youmu koto desu.

Conclusion (pick one):

どうぞよろしく -- Please take care of me

douzo yoroshiku

More formal:（どうぞ）よろしくお願いします --- Note that adding どうぞ makes it even more formal and polite.

(Douzo) yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Even more formal: どうぞよろしくお願いいたします (This is usually used in very formal, business occasions or in books, and rarely used in everyday life)

これからお世話(せわ）になります。--- I'll be in your care from now on/Please take care of me

kore kara osewa ni narimasu

That was a long post, but I hope everyone had got it! 

Here is a short clip of Ichinose Kotomi's introduction. Enjoy! ^^(Introduction starts at 11:14 and ends at 16:33)

http://youtu.be/tHwn8UCemA0?t=11m14s

Note : I'm sorry if there's any wrong words D:
I'm learning here, too! :)

Introduction to Essential Japanese - Lesson 4 : 濁音と半濁音 (Dakuon and handakuon)

And now it's time for Lesson 4 of "Introduction to Essential Japanese"

I'm sure many of you are starting to get bored by these hundred new caveman-like "drawings", so this will be the final lesson on Hiragana and Katakana.

The final lesson covers 濁音（だくおん）and 半濁音 （はんだくおん）

Probably you would have heard of it already - just that you don't realise it.

Let me give you the most widely known Japanese phrase - 頑張って（がんばって）(Ganbatte)

Besides the って that we've covered previously on Lesson 3 (促音）, you will also see が and ば. Notice the 2 tiny line-like characters on the top right corner of the character? That is the 濁音 "symbol".

In essence, it changes the pronunciation of the consonant.

か (ka) becomes が (ga), は (ha) becomes ば (ba)

For more such characters, please refer to the attached image!

edit: the 半濁音 for katakana ha (pa) should be パ, sorry for the mistake. Thanks Eka Kurniawan !

Do note that ち (chi) becomes ぢ (di) like other characters that begin with "t", and even though づ (du) is pronounced similar to ず(zu), you will need to type "du" to get づ. Don't worry though, づ is less commonly used that ず.

Now that we've finished 濁音, you would probably get reminded of this small symbol ° that looks like a degree symbol. So what is this? You can call this a relative of the 濁音 or anything, but this is 半濁音 （はんだくおん）, just that learning this is MUCH easier than 濁音. This is because 半濁音 is only applicable to one line (5 characters) - the は line.

は(ha)ー＞ぱ(pa)

ひ(hi)ー＞ぴ(pi)

ふ(fu)ー＞ぷ(pu)

へ(he)ー＞ぺ(pe)

ほ(ho)ー＞ぽ(po)

and that's all for 半濁音.

Similar to 浊音, 濁音 is applicable to BOTH hiragana and katakana. (Good thing is that you won't need to learn anything new - just add 2 strokes / a circle and you're done :P )

Now that you've followed me thus far, here is a picture with some words containing 濁音 and 半濁音. Enjoy!

And here are 3 Code Geass wallpapers that sums up the past 4 lessons ^^

http://bcs.duapp.com/my-geass/qoloWYb8rL.jpg

http://bcs.duapp.com/my-geass/DrgCJ7iVdz.jpg

http://bcs.duapp.com/my-geass/DYDGqQJ2M0.jpg

Finally, if you haven't saw it the last time, here is a very Moe video to recap your Hiragana and Katakanahttp://youtu.be/9m4aChUgeoE?t=24s(Voice: Kugimiya Rie)

Enjoy ^^