At a loss

When wondering whether to do something or not first we have the question 'shall' then the term for lost (mayo~) <-- I'll fix this statement sometime soon...

私(わたし)は 今(いま)ワーキングホリデーでオーストラリアに行(い)こうか迷(まよ)ってます。

Some words

I always seem to forget how to say "some (people, things, words, etc)
here's my reminder.

分(わ)からない言葉 (ことば)もある
not-understood words exist.

ie. There are words I don't understand.

いくつか分(わ )からない 言葉(ことば) があります

some not-understood words exist.
ie. There are some words I don't understand.

Because - Therefor

Today the subject is because/therefor.
[だ]から : so, therefore; since, because (から meaning 'from')
なぜなら[ば] : because　(なぜ meaning 'why')

our examples are:

英：I brought an umbrella because it's raining.
日：雨が降ってる - から - 傘を持って来た
日：it's raining - because/so/therefor - [I] brought an umbrella

英：There's clouds - therefor - seems like rain.
英：seems like rain - because - there's clouds
日：雨が降りそう - なぜなら - 曇り

Head Last

Japanese, in my view, is easy to pick up.. ie. the early stages of your Pidgin Japanese shouldn't be too difficult, if you're a native English speaker. The phonetics are not hard and the basic words necessary for essential communication are not too complex.

In later stages you will come across more and more polysyllabic words. This is because of the limited phonetics in the language. Hawaiian is another such language.


As you start to learn more words and make sentences the most challenging concept with Jp (Japanese) is that it is a head last language.

eg. one might say:
Eng: I'm going to the shop, with Tom, at 6.
Jp: with Tom, at 6, to the shop, [I] am going.

Eng: I'll get that, and that, and those, and this. (for instance ordering food)
Jp: that and, that and, those and, this I'll get.

In the next post I'll get a little grittier :)

Japanese - Passive verbs

受身(うけみ)

Active: 先生(せんせい )は　けいこさんを　褒(ほ)めました

Passive: けいこさんは　先生(せんせい)に　 褒(ほ)められました

Conjugates the same as for Causative verbs

Japanese - Causative verbs

Verb conjugation is complex and integral to speaking Japanese.

Today I'll take a look at causative verbs.
as in
make.../ let..., allow...to...

～は　～に　～を　[Vt Causative]

英語(えいご)で
She made him eat.

Confusingly though, the same sentence in Japanese can also mean
"I allowed him to eat." OR "I let him eat."

日本語(にほんご)で

彼女(かのじょ )は彼 (かれ)に食事(しょくじ)を食(た)べさせた

丁寧(ていねい )語 (ご)、「ます」形 (ケイ)

彼女(かのじょ )は彼 (かれ)に食事(しょくじ)を食(た)べさせました

Please let me... / Please allow me to...

[Causative て　form] 下(くだ)さい

すみません。帰( かえ)らせて下(くだ)さい。
すみません。帰( かえ)らせていただけませんか。


Group 1 Verbs

飲(の)みます
飲(の)ませます

Group 2 Verbs

食(た)べます
食(た)べさせます

Group 3 Verbs

来(き)ます
来(こ)させます

いらっしゃい - Welcome, how to read this site

Hi welcome to my small attempt to create a space of my own that helps me, and maybe you, with reading and understanding Japanese.

Firstly I recommend using Firefox to view these pages. Other than loving this browser, my current fave, it also has an extension called Ruby, that allows my XHTML markup text to display furigana. That's small subscript hiragana over/or under Kanji so that you know how they are said.

Without that extension the Japanese text below should show the hiragana in brackets after the said Kanji.

The extension can be found with Google
and I last found it here
nb. It's unsupported but I haven't had any issues with Firefox (1.5 and up) since I installed it.

Let's hope Ruby markup becomes a norm online for helping us all come to grips with Japanese/Chinese characters.

デイモンの日記(にっき)です。

ここで日本語(にほんご)で頑張(がんば)ります。

ふつう、マイミクを使(つか)うんですけど、ふりがなができません。

それで、このブロッグを作(つく)りました。


I also use this site to both provide furigana for Kanji and it can also create the ruby text for you if you are making web pages with Jp content.
Nb. I seem to need to edit the spaces out of the resulting text, please double check your html after doing the translation and inserting into your page.

Hmm now I just have to translate all of that into Jp!!! aaa