Japanology - KU Leuven

 In this post, you'll see how to say every month of the year correctly, and also learn to say 'days of the month', like the 4th of October, for example. *Never よんがつ , なながつ or きゅうがつ for April, July and September. There are two ways to count in Japanese. The way we are all familiar with - with Japanese pronunication: いち、に、さん、よん/し、ご、ろく、なな/しち、はち、きゅう/く、じゅう。 But this way of counting are just for figurative things such as age, the time, numbers. The following way of counting is for saying quantities, such as a number of apples, for instance. The pnounciations are of Chinese origin. ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ、よっつ、いつつ、むっつ、ななつ、やっつ、ここのつ、とお。 So, it's not さん x apples, but みっつ x apples. The numbers for this counter are written the same in Kanji as the one we're familiar with at first. The same goes for the day of the month. Not in a sentence context like 'today is the 4th of October', but if you wanna talk about a day of the month in itself. Then, you'll say 'よっつか' (ka = 日 =...

The meanings to every word on pages 4 and 5 from Modern Japans I: Taalbeheersing - Lezen (reading). You are not required to study these, but it's always good to be able to know a few extra words :> or if you missed some meanings when writing them down in class, or just if you wanted to study these, still.

During the first unit of Kanji, we learn to write the numbers 1 thru 10. Here they are, written with the correct stroke order and some memory aids. いち, に and さん are easy. Write every line from left to right and make sure the length of each stroke is similar! Like in 3, the line in the middle should be the shortest, followed by the top most line, and then the bottom most line. End the stroke a little higher than where it started for beauty. し or よん. Start the stroke where each number is. First a vertical stroke down, then a cornered line on top, followed by a downwards sweep on the left, and a cornered 'L' shape next to it within the box. Close the box up at the bottom at the end. A good way to remember that this is よん is by imagining a pictogram of a window, which is split into 4 windows, or maybe that with curtains. When writing ご, make each line end a little higher for beauty as well. The third stroke has a sharp corner with no flow to it. Notice how it kind of looks like a 5...

*For posts regarding the subject 'Modern Japans I: Taalbeheersing: Schrijven' (writing), one single post for each unit (deel) will be posted and updated over a short period of time, until we've covered the entire thing. しんぶん - newspapers in Japan can have articles written horizontally from left to right, or vertically from right to left, top to bottom.  Knowing where the small っ - in words like ざっし (magazine) - is placed is also crucial when writing. Let's say you're using mathematical paper with squares to write your Japanese. Take one square, split it into 4 and write the small っ in the bottom left, smaller square now. In a text written horizontally, read from left to right like subs, at least. When writing a text vertically, place the small っ in the top right corner of the square. These rules also apply to the small ゃ,ゅ and ょ letters. Speaking of which, only letters from the い～ Hiragana row can be extended with ゃ,ゅ and ょ. Examples: きゃ = kya, not kiya.　ぴょ = pyo. e...

 Through prefixes and suffixes, you can expand your Japanese vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and form new words, sentences, etc. 1.1 HONORING PREFIX お～ AND ご～ Both are used to specify that you are talking about something related to someone involved such as 'your', when talking to someone else. お～ is used for authentic Japanese words, and ご～ for words that are semi-Japanese and originate from languages like Chinese. For example: 'my friend' is simply ともだち. 'Your friend' is おともだち. 'My country' is くに, and 'your country' is おくに. せんもん (meaning subject/specialization/class) is a word of Chinese origin. When referring to a subject you yourself take, you use 'せんもん', but when referring to someone else's subject, use 'ごせんもん'. NEVER use the prefixes お～ and ご～ when talking about yourself! That's just wrong. ___________________________________________________________________________________ 1.2 NATIONALITY SUFFIX ～人 (じん) 人 is the kan...

 The counter for 'hour' is the suffix ～じ. For minutes, use the suffix ～ふん / ～ぷん after a number. You can say it's half past XX hours in two ways: XX:30 = XXじ　さんじっぷん XX:30 = XXじ　はん You usually won't need to specify the time of day (AM, PM) thanks to context, but they are good to know: ごぜん = AM - before noon あさ = AM - in the morning, specifically ごご = PM - post noon FOR EXAMPLE: 5am = あさごじ / 9am = あさきゅうじ or ごぜんきゅうじ / 5pm = ごごごじ