10 Facts About Japanese You Should Know Before You Start Learning

Introduction

• Presenter: Sayaka from NihongoDekita
• Purpose: To share essential facts about the Japanese language for beginners.

Fact 1: Types of Characters in Japanese

• Three Types of Letters: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.
  • Hiragana: 46 basic letters representing Japanese phonetic sounds; used for function words, conjugations, and native Japanese words.
  • Katakana: 46 basic letters; used for foreign loan words (e.g., chokoreeto = chocolate).
  • Kanji: Complex characters with both meaning and sound; thousands exist. Recommended to start with Hiragana and Katakana.

Fact 2: Speech Style Changes

• Informal Speech: Used with friends, family, or younger individuals.
• Formal Speech: Used with older people, strangers, or those in higher social positions.
• Emphasis on adaptability in speech.

Fact 3: Sentence Structure

• English Structure: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)
• Japanese Structure: Subject-Object-Verb (SOV)
  • Example: "I eat chocolate" = "Watashi wa chokoreeto o tabemasu."

Fact 4: Making Questions

• Add "ka" at the end of the sentence to form a question.
  • Example: "Jun wa paatii ni ikimasu ka?" (Does Jun go to a party?)
• In informal speech, raise the tone at the end of the sentence.

Fact 5: Omitting Nouns

• Subjects and objects can be omitted if context is clear.
  • Example: "Taberu?" implies "Do you want to eat this?" without explicitly stating "you" or "this."

Fact 6: Singular/Plural Distinction

• Japanese does not distinguish singular and plural nouns.
  • Example: "Ringo" means both "an apple" and "apples."

Fact 7: Gender Distinction

• No need to memorize gender for nouns.
• Unlike languages like Spanish or French, Japanese is gender-neutral in this aspect.

Fact 8: No Noun-Verb Agreement

• No changes in verb conjugation based on the subject.
  • Example: "I do," "she does," and "we do" do not apply in Japanese.

Fact 9: Verb Tenses

• Only two verb tenses: Past and Non-Past.
  • Non-Past can indicate both present and future.
  • Example: "Watashi wa ikimasu" can mean "I go" or "I will go."
  • Context or time words clarify the meaning (e.g., "ashita" = tomorrow).

Fact 10: Irregular Verbs

• Japanese has only two irregular verbs: "kuru" (to come) and "suru" (to do).
• Simpler than English, which has many irregular verbs.

Conclusion

• Encouragement to learn Japanese together.
• Call to action: Like, subscribe, and turn on notifications for more videos.
• Closing remarks: "Matane! Mitekurete arigato!" (See you again! Thank you for watching!)