白帯
White belt
White belt students at 千葉センター are new to Japanese language study and have not yet mastered hiragana and katakana. All students are expected to practice daily for a bare minimum of at least 15min per day everyday; excellence is a habit! Beginners should focus daily self-study on flashcard apps for hiragana and katakana (such as Pastel Daily Kana Quiz app) and YouTube videos. All students should listen to Japanese native speakers talking naturally at least twice per week; for beginner students the grammar and vocabulary won’t make any sense at first… the goal is simply to get to know the sounds and rhythm of Japanese language
New students know little to no kanji but start learning kanji on day one via smartphone text input; the focus however is on hiragana and katakana mastery. All students must install the Japanese rōma-ji smartphone keyboard before attending class. Everyone learns to do Japanese text input using the predicted text to avoid spelling errors.
New students are first taught how to do a self-introduction, basic polite phrases, and days of the week. The rote memorization aspect of these phrases makes it easy to practice outside of class.
We use the Discord server #class-lessons channel to practice reading and keyboard text input during class; it’s like a virtual chalkboard.
There is not a huge amount of vocabulary to learn at the white belt level because students are focusing their daily self-study time on mastering all hiragana and katakana using multiple different learning resources.
At the beginning of class, we always do our self-introduction to warm up and help remember personal details of our colleagues. We do so at the beginning of all classes, even the advanced level.
Self-introduction (practiced at the beginning of each class)
My name is _____
name in katakanaと申します。
TO MOUSHIMASU
Nationality人です。
JIN DESU
hometown出身です
SHUSSHIN DESU
country/city/state of residenceに住んでいます。
NI SUNDEIMASU
I make the request that you treat me well.
よろしくお願いします。
YOROSHIKU ONEGAI SHIMASU
Examples:
こんにちは！ジュリアンと申します。アメリカ人です。セントルイス出身です。シカゴに住んでいます。よろしくお願いします。
KONNICHIHA JURIAN TO MOUSHIMASU. AMERIKAJIN DESU. SENTORUISU SHUSSHIN DESU. SHIKAGO NI SUNDESIMASU. YOROSHIKU ONEGAISHIMASU.
Hi! My name is Julian. I’m American. I’m from St Louis. I live in Chicago. I make the request that you treat me well!
こんばんは！ブランドンと申します。アメリカ人です。シカゴ出身です。よろしくお願いします。
KONBANHA. BURANDON TO MOUSHIMASU. AMERIKAJIN DESU. SHIKAGO SHUSSHIN DESU. YOROSHIKU ONEGAI SHIMASU.
Good evening! My name is Brandon. I’m American. I’m from Chicago. I make the request that you treat me well!
In-class phrases
すみません! SUMIMASEN! Excuse me!
すみません! 質問があります! SUMIMASEN! SHITSUMON GA ARIMASU Excuse me! I have a question.
もう一度お願いします MOU ICHIDO ONEGAISHIMASU One more time, please!
お世話になります O SEWA NI NARIMASU I rely on your kindness.
Filler phrases
えっと〜 E to~
あの〜 Ano~
End of class phrases
ありがとうございました ARIGATOU GOZAIMASHITA Thank you (past tense)
お疲れ様でした OTSUKARESAMA DESHITA You are honorably tired (past tense)
よろしくお願いします YOROSHIKU ONEGAI SHIMASU I make the request that you treat me nicely
Days of the week
日曜日 Sunday (sun) NICHI YOUBI
月曜日 Monday (moon) GETSU YOUBI
火曜日 Tuesday (fire) KA YOUBI
水曜日 Wednesday (water) SUIYOUBI
木曜日 Thursday (tree) MOKU YOUBI
金曜日 Friday (metal/gold) KIN YOUBI
土曜日 Saturday (earth) DO YOUBI
Greetings
おはようございます Good morning! (used until around 10:00am)
OHAYOU GOZAIMASU
こんにちは Good day! (10am-5pm or so)
KONNICHIHA (HA character is written but is pronounced WA)
こんばんは Good evening! (after 5pm or so)
KONBANHA (HA character is written but is pronounced WA)
おげんきですか？How are you?
OGENKI DESU KA?
げんきです。I’m good.
GENKI DESU
まあまあです。I’m so-so. (can include simply being humble)
MAA MAA DESU
そうですか？ Is that so? Oh, really? (receiving new information)
SOU DESU KA?
そうですね。That’s true, isn’t it./That’s a good question. (agreeing)
SOU DESU NE
そうですよ。Yes! That’s right! (there was uncertainty) I assure you that’s true.
SOU DESU YO
いいですか? May I? / Is it OK? / Are you OK?
II DESU KA?
いいですね。That’s nice. / Good! / Glad to hear it. / Great!
II DESU NE
いいですよ。Yes, you may. / It’s OK.
II DESU YO
そうですか？いいですね。 Oh really? That’s nice.
SOU DESU KA II DESU NE
なるほど As expected. / That makes sense. / Of course. (new information that follow from what you already know)
NARUHODO
すみません Excuse me / I’m sorry / Thank you (ie, “excuse me for making you do that for me”)
SUMIMASEN
ごめんなさい I’m sorry
GOMEN NASAI
ありがとうございます Thank you (present tense)
ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU
ありがとうございました Thank you (past tense)
ARIGATOU GOZAIMASHITA
よろしくおねがいします Please treat me well/nicely.
YOROSHIKU ONEGAI SHIMASU
おねがいします Yes, please do that. / I request that you do it./ Yes, please！
ONEGAI SHIMASU
おつかれさまです。(お疲れ様です) You are honorably tired (still working hard - present tense)
OTSUKARESAMADESU
おつかれさまでした (お疲れ様でした) You are honorably tired (finished working - past tense)
OTSUKARESAMADESHITA
しつれい (失礼) rudeness (literally “to lose etiquette”)
SHITSUREI
しつれいしました (失礼しました) I’m so sorry to have disturbed you. (“I made a rudeness”)
SHITSUREI SHIMASHITA
しつれいします (失礼します) Pardon me but I will interrupt. / I’m sorry I’m about to disturb you. / I am sorry to be disturbing y’all by entering/leaving. (“I will make a rudeness”)
SHITSUREI SHIMASU
どうぞ Please go ahead. / After you! / Take some! / Go right ahead and start! / Here you go!
DOUZO
だいじょうぶですか？(大丈夫ですか?) Is it all good? Are you all right? Is everything fine?
DAIJYOUBU DESUKA?
だいじょうぶですよ。(大丈夫ですよ) It’s all good. It’s OK. I’m OK. It’s sufficient.
DAIJYOUBU DESUYO
けっこうです (結構です) Enough/Sufficient. No, thank you.
KEKKOU DESU
______がすきですか？Do you like _____?
_____GA SUKI DESUKA?
すきです。I like it.
SUKI DESU
だいすきです。I love it.
DAISUKI DESU
ちょっと A little bit. (used to politely decline)
CHOTTO
Kanji based vocabulary
女 ONNA female
男 OTOKO male
(needed for restroom signs)
日本 NIHON sun - origin
Japan
日本人 NIHONJIN sun - origin - person
Japanese person
日本語 NIHONGO sun - origin - language
Japanese language
Cities:
東京 TOUKYOU East capital
大阪 OOSAKA big hill
京都 KYOUTO capital - capital
Names:
田中 TANAKA rice paddy - center
小林 KOBAYASHI small grove
山本 YAMAMOTO mountain - source/origin