Benny Lewis's Blog, page 43
February 2, 2020
How to Learn the Vietnamese Alphabet: An In-Depth Guide
What’s more, the written language is covered all over with diacritics (accent marks). You'll often see multiple accents per word, or even per letter. It can be difficult for your mind to process if you’re not used to it, and it's far from obvious how to pronounce words like đở, một, or người.
But don't get too discouraged. The Vietnamese alphabet might seem tricky, but it's still far easier than learning a completely new writing system like that of Thai, Japanese, or Korean. If you're familiar with the Latin alphabet then you're already 90% of the way to being able to read Vietnamese. And I promise, the remaining 10% is not as difficult as you may think.
In this article I'll explain why that's the case, and teach you everything you need to know to start reading Vietnamese with ease.
The Vietnamese Alphabet: A Historical Introduction
Vietnamese used to be written using a pictorial system called chữ nôm that's similar to modern Chinese characters. These days, chữ nôm is all but dead. Modern Vietnamese uses a Latin-based alphabet called chữ Quốc ngữ ("national language script") which was originally devised by Portuguese and Italian missionaries in the 16th century.
Chữ Quốc ngữ has 29 letters and here's what they look like:
(Note that Vietnamese doesn't use the Latin letters F, J, W, or Z)
This might look complicated, but there's good news: Vietnamese spelling, unlike English spelling, is highly consistent and unambiguous. Once you learn the rules, it's relatively easy to figure out how a written Vietnamese word should be pronounced. And how a spoken word is spelled.
Before I explain what those pronunciation rules are, I want to address the number one question that new learners of Vietnamese always ask:
Why Do Some Vietnamese Letters Have Two Accents?
A very distinctive feature of Vietnamese writing is that some letters are written with two accents -- like the "ế" in the word tiếng ("language").
In my experience, this is a major point of confusion for beginners that it's worth addressing before we go any further. If I don't clear things up now, it will be harder to explain later.
The problem goes back to those missionaries who wanted to write Vietnamese using the Latin alphabet. That alphabet only has five symbols for vowels - a, e, i, o, and u - which isn't nearly enough to cover all the different vowel sounds of Vietnamese.
They could have used the same symbol to represent multiple sounds, as is common in English. (E.g. "a" is pronounced differently in the English words mat, mate, and car.) Or they could have invented some entirely new symbols that look nothing like a, e, i, o and u.
Instead, they decided to add six new letters: ă, â, ê, ô, ư, ơ.
These new symbols should not be thought of as "a with a hat" or "u with a hook/tail". In Vietnamese they're considered to be completely separate letters from the five "normal" Latin vowels.
They're listed separately in the dictionary, have their own names, and are pronounced differently. For example, e is pronounced like the "e" in the English "get", and ê is (roughly) like the "ay" in "hay".
So that explains the "hats" on ă/â/ê/ô, and the hook thing (technically called a "horn") on ơ/ư. You'll never see those symbols on any letters apart from the ones I just mentioned, so you'll never see an "i" with a hat or an "a" with a horn.
You'll also never see these three diacritics in combination with each other. So, for example, no Vietnamese letter has both a circumflex (ˆ) and a breve (˘).
When would you put two accents on one letter? Before we can finish this long explanation, I need to explain another essential aspect of Vietnamese speaking and writing:
How to Read and Write Vietnamese Tones
Vietnamese is a tonal language. By changing the pitch of your voice, you can completely change the meaning of a word.
For example, ba, said with a flat tone, means "three". Pronounce it with a rising tone, as if you were asking a question in English, and it means "governor". Pronounce it with a low, throaty tone and it means "randomly".
Tones are hard for a native English speaker to master. A full explanation of how to pronounce them is beyond the scope of this article. For now, you need to know that Vietnamese has six different tones. Try watching this short video for a quick introduction to how they sound.
In many tonal languages (e.g. Chinese), the writing system doesn't provide much information about which tone to use for a given word. Or the tone might be encoded in the written word, but the rules for figuring it out are very tricky and convoluted (as in Thai).
Here's the good news: reading Vietnamese tones is very easy. This is because the tone is clearly denoted using one of five accent marks. There are five such symbols for the six tones, because the "flat" tone is denoted by having no accent mark. Four of the tone symbols are written above the vowel, and one is written below.
In full, the six tones and their symbols are:
Tone name
symbol
example word
ngang ("level")
(none)
ma ("ghost")
huyền ("deep")
`
má ("mother")
sắc ("sharp")
´
mà ("which")
nặng ("heavy")
̣
mạ ("rice seedling")
hỏi ("asking")
̉
mã ("horse")
ngã ("tumbling")
˜
mả ("tomb")
Again, I can't precisely explain in writing how the six different tones are pronounced. For now, just understand that they are pronounced differently.
Also note that in southern Vietnam, the "tumbling" tone isn't used. Southerners pronounce mã the same as mả, although they're still written differently.
So take the letter e, which as I've already explained is pronounced like in the English "get" or "bet". Depending on the tone, this could be written e, é, è, ẻ, ẽ, or ẹ.
A syllable can't have more than one tone, so you'll never see two tone marks on the same letter. E.g. the hổi and ngã symbols ( ̉ and ~) would never be used together.
However, you can add a tone symbol to an "accented letter" like ă, ê, or ư. This is the only occasion on which a Vietnamese letter can have more than one accent. So ế, ỗ, ợ, and ữ are all valid, to give just a few examples.
Note that tone marks are only written on vowels. You'll never see ´ or ~ written above a consonant. But note that "y" is considered a vowel in Vietnamese, so ý, ỳ, ỷ, and ỹ are valid combinations.
So, in summary: there are two types of "accent marks" in Vietnamese. First, there are the accents on ă, â, ê, ô, and ư, which tell you that you're dealing with a different vowel from the equivalent with no accent. Second, there are the tone marks: é, è, ẻ, ẽ, ẹ, which can appear on any vowel, including the six vowels which already have some kind of accent mark. A vowel can have one accent from each category, as in ể or ộ - and this is the only circumstance in which a Vietnamese letter can have more than one accent mark.
Hopefully this long explanation has made things crystal-clear. That's the last thing I'll say about Vietnamese tones, or the accents used to write them.
Now it's finally time to explain how the individual letters of the Vietnamese alphabet are pronounced.
How to Pronounce Vietnamese Letters
There are a few things to understand before explaining how each Vietnamese letter is pronounced:
Firstly, some letters are pronounced very differently in northern Vietnam compared to in the south. Where differences exist, I'll explain both pronunciations.
Secondly, the pronunciation of some consonants changes depending on whether they're at the beginning of the end of the word. Again, I'll do my best to explain this in the table below.
Also: you know how the combinations "th", "sh", and "ch" have special pronunciations in English? That is, a "th" is not simply the combination of a "t" and an "h", but its own separate sound. The same thing exists in Vietnamese; certain combinations of letters have their own pronunciations, which will also be given below.
Finally, a word of warning. Vietnamese is not an easy language for English speakers to pronounce. Several of its vowels and consonants have no equivalent in English, and it can take a lot of practice to get them right and have native speakers understand you.
There's only so much I can explain in writing; make sure to listen to recordings of each, get help from native speakers when possible, and above all, keep practicing. You'll get there eventually.
The following is a rough guide to the pronunciation of every Vietnamese letter, or combination of letters. I include the IPA symbol for each letter - if you don't know what IPA is or how to read it, see my previous article on the topic).
Letter
IPA
Description
A a
/a/
Like the "a" in "cat"
Ă ă
/ă/
Like "a", but shorter
 â
/ə̆/
Like the "ir" in "bird" or "work", but shorter
B b
/ɓ/
An "implosive b" sound. (See below for more about implosives.)
C c
/k/
Like an English "k"
D d
/z/ (northern), /j/ (southern)
Like a "z" in northern Vietnamese, and a "y" in Southern Vietnamese. Make sure not to pronounce this like an English "d" - this is a common mistake among beginners!
Đ đ
/ɗ/
An "implosive d" sound. (See below for more about implosives.)
E e
/ɛ/
Like the "e" in the English "get" or "bet"
Ê ê
/e/
Like the "ay" in the English "say", but not diphthongised (see below)
G g
/ɣ/
Like a "softer" English "g". Identical to the "g" in Spanish words like hago. Sometimes written "gh"; see below
Gi gi
/z/ (northern), /j/ (southern)
Like a "z" in northern Vietnamese, and a "y" in Southern Vietnamese. Note that this is exactly the same as a Vietnamese "d"
H h
/h/
Same as the English "h"
I i
/i/
Like the "ee" in the English "bee"
K k
/k/
Same as a Vietnamese "c", i.e. an English "k". See note below about when to write "c" and when to write "k"
Kh kh
/x/
A raspy "h" sound, like the "ch" in the Scottish "loch"
L l
/l/
Same as the English "l"
M m
/m/
Same as the English "m"
N n
/n/
At the beginning of the word, this is pronounced the same as the English "n". At the end of the word, northerners pronounce this like an "n", and southerners like an "ng"
Ng ng
/ŋ/
Like the English "ng", as in "sing". The difference is that, in English, the "ng" sound only ever comes at the *end* of a syllable. In Vietnamese it can also appear at the beginning of a syllable/word. Sometimes spelled "ngh"; see below
Nh nh
/ɲ/ (beginning of word), /ŋ/ (end of worth, northern), or /n/ (end of word, southern)
At the beginning of a word, this is pronounced like a "ny", or the Spanish "ñ". At the end of a word, it's pronounced like an "ng" in the North, and an "n" in the South
O o
/ɔ/
To Brits, Aussies, and New Zealanders, this is like the "o" in "hot". To Americans, it's more like the "ou" in "thought"
Ô ô
/o/
Like the "ow" in "below", except not diphthongised (see below)
Ơ ơ
/ə/
To my British ear, this sounds exactly like the "ir" in "bird" or the "ur" in "fur"
P p
/p/
Like an English "p". Only ever occurs at the end of a word, except in "ph" which has a different pronunciation (see below)
Ph ph
/f/
Like the English "f". Only ever seen at the beginning of a word
Qu qu
/kʷ/
Like the "qu" in English, e.g. "queen"
R r
/z/ (northern), /r/ (southern)
In the north, like "z", or like the "s" in "vision". In the south, a "tapped r", as found in Spanish or Portuguese, and like the "tt" in the American pronunciation of "butter"
S s
/ʃ/ or /s/
Like the English "s". In the North, often pronounced like an English "sh".
T t
/t/
Like an English "t" (almost - see below). In the south, often pronunced as a "k" at the end of a word.
Th th
/tʰ/
An "aspirated" t (see below)
Tr tr
/tɕ/
Like an English "ch"
U u
/u/
Like an English "oo", as in "shoot"
Ư ư
/ɯ/
This vowel is very hard to pronounce. I give a detailed description below
V v
/v/ or /j/
Like the English "v", although southerners often pronounce it like a "y".
X x
/s/
Like the English "s".
Y y
/i/
Like the "ee" in the English "bee". (Same as the Vietnamese "i")
As you can see, there's a lot to learn! Here are a few other things to note:
How Do You Pronounce "ư" in Vietnamese?
Of all the vowel sounds in Vietnamese, by far the one that English speakers find hardest to pronounce is "ư".
Linguists call this the "close back unrounded vowel", and if you go to Wikipedia you can hear a recording of it. My best explanation of how to pronounce it is this:
Position your tongue and lips as if you were going to say an "oo" sound, as in "shoot". Notice that your tongue is high and back in your mouth, and your lips are rounded.
Without moving your tongue, spread your lips wide into a smile.
Make a noise! With your tongue in the "oo" position and your lips wide, you should make a perfect "ư"
How Do You Pronounce "ê" and "ô" in Vietnamese?
In the table above, I told you not to "diphthongise" the "ê" and "ô" sounds. But what does that actually mean?
This is actually the same advice that's required when learning how to pronounce the "ê" and "ô" sounds in Portuguese, or the "e" and "o" sounds in Spanish. For example, see tip number 2 in this list of pronunciation tips I wrote for Spanish learners -- the exact same point applies here.
Essentially, a Vietnamese ê is like the "ay" in "way", and the Vietnamese ô is like the "oe" in "toe". Except, when we say the words "way" or "toe" in English, we move our tongue throughout the course of the vowel. This is because the "ay" and "oe" sounds are actually two vowels combined into one; what linguists call "diphthongs".
When saying ê and ô in Vietnamese, however, you mustn't move your tongue like this. Start saying the "ay" or "oe" sounds, but only say the first part; keep your tongue still.
"K" vs "c", "G" vs "Gh", and "Ng" vs "Ngh"
"K" and "c" sound the same in Vietnamese. How do you know which one to write? The rule is very simple:
Before an i, y, e, or ê, write "k" - as in kem (cream)
Before any other letter write "c" - as in có (to have)
Similarly, "g" and "gh" are pronounced the same, as are "ng" and "ngh". The rules are the same for both pairs, and only slightly different from the k/c rule:
Before an i, e, or ê, write "ngh" or "gh" - as in nghe (“to hear”) or ghe (“to hit”)
Before any other letter write "ng" or "g" - as in Nga (“Russia”) or gái (“girl”).
Vietnamese Implosives
Two of the most tricky sounds in Vietnamese are the "b" and "đ" consonants. (Remember that "d" in Vietnamese, without the line through it, is nothing like an English "d".)
"B" and "đ" aren't like the English "b" and "d" (although if you pronounce them in that way, you'll probably be understood). Instead, they're what's known as implosive consonants.
What does that mean? Well, according to Wikipedia:
Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants ... with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs.
Get it? I thought not. It's hard to explain. But you can start by listening to these clips to get an idea of what the "b" and "đ" sound like:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47alW1vW9-E
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edU6cGBXtTQ
The best way I have found to describe the Vietnamese "b" and "đ" is this: say a regular "b" or "d", but as if you're breathing in rather than out.
That's not a physiologically accurate description of what's happening, but it's kind of what it feels like.
For a more detailed description of implosives (and other unusual sounds, including some that aren't found in Vietnamese), try this video.
The Difference Between 't' and 'th' in Vietnamese
Another tricky thing for English learners of Vietnamese is the difference between the "t" and "th" sounds.
If you want to get a deep understanding, I suggest looking up the linguistic concept of "aspirated vs. unaspirated consonants". I wrote a little about this in my article on the International Phonetic Alphabet.
For now, here's the basic idea: the Vietnamese t is pronounced a bit "harder" than an English "t". By that I mean that it's less "airy"; sort of halfway between an English "t" and English "d".
The Vietnamese th, on the other hand, is much "softer". (In linguistic terms, it's aspirated.) Say the "t" sound, but with a bit more air behind it than you would for an English "t".
One way to think about the Vietnamese "th" is to pronounce it like it's spelled. I don't mean pronounce it like an English "th", which is something completely different - I mean "pronounce it like an English "t", followed immediately by an English "h".
Listen to native speakers, keep practicing, and you should pick up the difference fairly quickly.
Closing Your Mouth/Puffing Out Your Cheeks
There's one last thing to note. When you talk with Vietnamese people, you'll notice they sometimes puff out their cheeks when they speak. You'll notice this, for example, with the word không, which means "no".
This happens with words that end in -ong, -ông, or -ung. The "ng" is still pronounced, but you simultaneously close your lips and make an "m" sound, too. So the full pronunciation of không is something like "kh - ô - ng - m".
As for why the Vietnamese tend to puff out their cheeks in an exaggerated manner when they pronounce this sound, I have no idea. But do it yourself if you want to seem more convincing as a Vietnamese speaker.
You Can Learn the Vietnamese Alphabet!
This covers the basics of Vietnamese spelling and pronunciation -- although, as we've seen, things really aren't that basic! There's a lot to take in.
However, if you work hard at it, I promise it'll pay off. In fact, as someone who has lived in Vietnam, I can tell you this: it's amazing how little Vietnamese you need to learn for the locals to be extremely impressed. So few người nước ngoài (foreigners) in Vietnam bother to learn any of the language at all that if you can even say (and pronounce) the absolute basics, Vietnamese people will treat you like a linguistic genius.
So I hope that the above guide is a useful starting point. Have fun as you learn the Vietnamese alphabet!
And if you have any thoughts, suggestions, complaints, or observations, we'd love to hear them in the comments.
The post appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
January 26, 2020
Language Mentors #9: Scott H. Young (Ultralearner & Bestselling Author; Speaks 7 Languages)
“Everything that seems impossible now will seem trivial with enough patience and practice. Don’t give up.” - Scott H. Young
As a slow-cook learner, I’m fascinated by people who take the bullet train to language learning. That’s why I was intrigued to peer inside the mind of Scott H. Young.
Scott rose to autodidact stardom when he learned MIT’s 4-year computer science curriculum in less than twelve months. Next he taught himself four new languages in a year. He speaks English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, French, Portuguese, Korean and some Macedonian.
Such extreme self-improvement projects may seem outside the realm of most of our capabilities, but Scott believes that the principles and methods that he and other ultralearners employ are essential tools for anyone who wants a competitive edge in the fast-changing, aggressive workplace.
In his book ULTRALEARNING: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career , Scott shares how basic strategies that he and other ultralearners embrace can give anyone the edge in organizing and executing a plan to learn something new deeply and quickly—and without teachers or tuition.
You can learn more about Scott and his ultralearning tips on his website. Let’s dive in and find out the language learning secrets of a fella who learned four languages in 12 months.
[caption id="attachment_28425" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Scott chatting in Spanish with Benny Lewis, founder of Fluent in 3 Months.[/caption]Language Mentors: Learn a New Language in 90 Days
Language Mentors is our popular series where we interview polyglots, language teachers, language learners and even folks from outside the field of language learning. We’re getting straight to the point, asking for their top tips on language acquisition, steadfast motivation, and rapid learning.
We want to give you the inside scoop on what it takes to learn a new language, fast (in as little as 90 days).
We’ve actually seen hundreds of people learn a new language to conversational level in just 90 days. You can do it too by putting what you learn from our Language Mentors into practice.
And if you need extra support, then join us in the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge where you’ll make lots of new friends who share your goal of learning a new language fast (plus you’ll have a 15-minute conversation in your new language after 90 days -- we guarantee it).
Read on to learn some of Scott’s language learning hacks. And get to know some fun facts about a creative polyglot at the same time.
The goal of the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge is to have a 15-minute conversation in a new target language in 90 days. What are the top three activities you would advise to accomplish this goal?
Find a good tutor online through italki.com or another service. Set up intro lessons with 3-5 people and pick the person you feel the most comfortable with. Having a good person to practice with is essential, and if you enjoy chatting with someone and feel supported it can go a lot further than just 15 minutes.
Learn how to pronounce the language when you see it written down, romanized if necessary for languages where reading the alphabet/symbols are difficult. This will allow you to use Google Translate and dictionaries to fill gaps in your understanding.
Write out 10-20 sentences that you’d like to be able to actually say. This should be enough with Google Translate to have your conversation a lot earlier than ninety days, if you’re willing to take it super slow and be okay with pausing while you look things up. Good sentences are introductions, a few questions, “where do you live?” “what is your work?” and a few common answers in the affirmative. Realistically, if you’re prepared to take it slow, this can probably be done after a few hours of prep. Then you can use that foothold to figure out what sentences and words you need that you don’t already know, which can be better than trying to memorize vocabulary from a list.
What’s your favorite place for studying a new language?
If we’re talking about studying, with a book, app or course, then I like going to the coffee shop to study.
A great thing to do is to practice with people during your daily life. If you do get the opportunity to travel to learn a language, you can use it everywhere.
I highly recommend finding a partner who will practice with you (they don’t need to be a native speaker) and then you can try chatting to each other while you do other, fun things. This will give you exposure to more vocabulary and situations than you would if you just sat in a room all day.
[caption id="attachment_28428" align="aligncenter" width="718"]
Scott practises his Chinese over lunch.[/caption]Your best memories of a language win?
Going on dates in Spain and giving a live talk to a room full of reporters in Beijing would definitely be up there. I can also remember arriving in Seoul and checking in with the caretaker at our Korean dormitory, struggling to communicate in Korean (she didn’t know any English). It was only after a couple of months that I learned enough to talk to her that I realized she was actually born in the Korean part of China, and knew Mandarin fluently, which we could have used to talk to each other except neither of us thought the other could speak it!
What are your favorite activities to do in one of your target languages?
Skype conversations are one of my favorites, just because it gives me a glimpse into what’s happening in other parts of the world without having to travel. It always feels a bit like a vacation to hear about what’s happening in Korea or Brazil over the computer. Otherwise, I like going to restaurants, hanging out and watching movies.
[caption id="attachment_28426" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Scott during a lesson with his Chinese tutor.[/caption]What are the top three roadblocks you see learners face?
Fear is the biggest one. It’s really difficult at first to face down the awkwardness of suddenly losing all of your language abilities. Add to this that some people can be discouraging when you try to speak and it can really psych people out. I think if you can overcome the fear it can make a big difference in your learning progress.
The second problem is insufficient opportunities to use the language. This isn’t an issue if you travel to a place that speaks it, but it can plague at-home learners because using the language is rarely “necessary” and it’s often not efficient for a communication situation in the beginning.
A final problem is that some languages have a large set of cultural and linguistic knowledge that departs from English and it can make the memory burden of learning a new language more difficult.
And what are your tips for dealing with those roadblocks?
My favorite suggestion is simply to use the No-English rule, either completely (if you’re traveling) or for specific contexts. Yes, it does make it scary, but once you memorize the words for “I have a project where I’m trying not to speak English” and you tell that to people, the vast majority are supportive of you. This can be a little scary at first, but it’s much, much easier in the long-run because people adapt to you and then you get to practice all the time with less friction. If you can’t do it 100%, at least define it for certain situations. You and your spouse, for instance, could have a No-English rule at home, to practice a language, even if you use English for work or with other friends.
For the second problem, it’s all about creating opportunities to use your target language. I like Skype, because it’s convenient, but also language meetups since those tend to be fun and casual.
For the final problem, I suggest investing in applications like Anki to help you build up that foundation in the other language if you feel overwhelmed with the memory burdens.
[caption id="attachment_28427" align="aligncenter" width="712"]
Scott reading a Spanish book.[/caption]What are your favorite TV shows for practicing a language?
If I’m beginning a language, I really like to watch shows I’ve already watched in English dubbed into the language I’m learning. It takes a lot of the pressure off since you already know the plot, so you never get lost if you misunderstood something. I watched reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation when learning Spanish. This can be harder in other languages (Chinese, for instance, rarely does dubbing unless it’s for children, so I ended up practicing on Dragonball Z).
What are the most challenging things you do in your target language?
Funny story, when I was in China, I was doing a bit of work with the publisher of my book there and I was going back from their offices to my AirBnB. They had gotten me the cab and were being quite protective of me (making sure I didn’t get lost or confused with things), so when I got a telephone call I immediately assumed it was someone from the office and after hearing a few sentences replied, “Yeah yeah, it’s okay, I’m almost home, don’t worry.” The person asked me to repeat, so I did, and after a bit of confused back and for the person said, “Wait are you a foreigner?” and I suddenly realized it wasn’t my publisher at all, but a telemarketer trying to sell me on mortgage payments! So yeah, phone calls can be tricky.
I would say movies and television are also difficult. I can converse, but then when I try to watch a movie it feels like everyone is mumbling all of a sudden.
What are your top three pearls of wisdom for language learners?
Speaking is a habit, the more you can make it automatic to use the language, the faster you’ll improve.
Everything that seems impossible now will seem trivial with enough patience and practice. Don’t give up.
Maintenance matters more in the long-run than learning. Find ways to keep practicing, long after you’re “done."
What about You?
Which of Scott’s tips resonate most with you? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section.
A big thank you for Scott for sharing his thoughts and winning strategies with us.
To learn more about Scott, you can visit his website.
Want to learn a new language in 90 days? Come join us in the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge.
The post Language Mentors #9: Scott H. Young (Ultralearner & Bestselling Author; Speaks 7 Languages) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
January 23, 2020
Japanese Grammar Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide
Japanese grammar patterns are quite different to those we have in English, and there is a lot to learn. Things you may not even realize are grammar patterns in English, you have to learn in Japanese. For instance, in English, we can say “I want to _.” Yes, it’s a grammar pattern, but it’s a simple one, and more a matter of learning vocabulary. Japanese grammar rules are different. That same phrase in Japanese requires learning how to conjugate the verb.
Sounds a bit confusing, right?
Don’t worry, after you read this, it won’t be anymore. I’m going to demystify Japanese grammar, and make it easy for you to understand!
Getting Started with Japanese Grammar
Before we start learning actual Japanese grammar patterns, there are a few things you need to know about the Japanese language. If you haven’t gotten very far in your Japanese studies yet, then here are the basics.
The Basic Japanese Sentence Structure -- The Verb Always Goes At the End!
Japanese sentence order is different than in English and takes a little bit of practice to get used to. In English, the basic sentence order is subject - verb - object. Example: I play sports. “I” is the subject, “play” is the verb, and “sports” is the noun.
But in Japanese, the order is subject - object - verb. That same sentence in Japanese looks like: 私は (“I”, subject) スポーツを (“sports”, object) します。(“to do/to play”, verb). There are particles in there, too -- which we’ll talk about in a minute -- but that exact sentence in English would look like “I sports play.”
The handy thing is, every other part of the Japanese sentence is flexible. If you add a location, a time, a preposition, etc., they can go anywhere in the sentence. As long as you mark them with the correct particle and the verb goes at the end, you’re good to go. So, the key to remember here is: the verb always goes at the end.
You can also omit the subject usually, and it sounds more natural to do so.
Japanese Verb Tenses and Verb Classes
In English, there are three basic verb tenses: past, present, and future. But in Japanese, there’s only present tense and past tense.
Wait, what? How do you talk about the future then?
Simple. You add a time to your sentence!
For instance, the sentence 大学に行きます (daigaku ni ikimasu) could be either “I go to university/college” or “I will go to university/college.” But if you wanted to make it clear if this is present or future tense, you would add something like 今大学に行きます (ima daigaku ni ikimasu, “I go to college now”) or 明日大学に行きます (ashita daigaku ni ikimasu, “Tomorrow I will go to college”).
A cool thing to note about verbs in Japanese: they don’t change based on who is performing the action! In English, or especially Romance languages like Spanish, the verbs change based on the person performing the act. “I go” becomes “she goes” or yo habla (“I speak” in Spanish) becomes tu hablas (“you speak”). This is one of the easy parts of the Japanese language. 行きます (ikimasu) is always the same no matter if I perform the action, you do, or they do!
There are also three different types of verbs in Japanese. る-verbs, う-verbs, and irregular verbs. る and う verbs are verbs that end in either る or う, and their conjugation changes based on which ending they have. Be careful though: some verbs that end in る are actually う verbs! We’ll get to this more in a moment, but let’s talk about irregular verbs first.
There are only two irregular verbs in Japanese. These verbs are する (suru, “to do”) and 来る (kuru, “to come”). They’re common verbs though, so you’ll get used to them quickly.
Understanding Japanese Formal and Informal Speech
Speaking of 行きます, that is the standard polite form of Japanese. It’s the form that you can use with anyone, and you’ll always sound polite.
Standard, polite Japanese, or formal Japanese, uses the -masu verb ending. 行きます, 食べます (tabumasu, “to eat”), 飲みます (nomimasu, “to drink”), 読みます (yomimasu, “to read”)... All these verbs are in formal form, using the -masu ending.
Informal speech is simple and doesn’t conjugate in present tense. Informal speech uses the dictionary or infinite form of the verb! So 行きます in informal speech is its dictionary form, 行く (iku). The same is true for the others listed above: 食べる (taberu), 飲む (nomu), 読む (yomu).
So when you look up a verb in the dictionary, then it’s in its basic form, and can be used the same way to speak informally. Easy!
Japanese Gender and Counters
Here’s another easy part of Japanese: there are no genders for words! So you don’t have to worry about learning which words are feminine or masculine like in Romance languages such as French or Portuguese.
Some words or phrases are more often used by men or women, though. For instance, a woman might use すごいね (sugoi ne, a popular, multiuse word meaning “cool” or “great”), but a man might shorten it to sound more masculine and say すげー (suge-).
As for counters, there are many specific words or suffixes used to count objects in Japanese. We’re not going to get into that here, because it’s quite a complex topic. But know this is a grammar rule you’ll want to come back to later when you get deeper into your studies.
Japanese Verb Conjugation
Okay, remember how I said there are る-verbs and う-verbs? This is important to learn because it determines how you conjugate these verbs.
For る-verbs, like 食べる, you drop the る and add -ます (-masu) when you’re making the verb formal. This is always the same for all る-verbs. 見る (miru, “to see”) becomes 見ます. 寝る (neru, “to sleep”) becomes, you guessed it, 寝ます.
う-verbs, on the other hand, conjugate a bit differently. For these verbs, you only drop the final う, and then add -います. If you know your hiragana and katakana chart, you can think of this as changing the end syllable from the u-row to the i-row. This is easier to think about than dropping u and adding -imasu, because in Japanese, we would have to write a different hiragana character altogether. When romanizing it in English, we only change one letter, so it gets confusing when writing.
Here’s an example: 飲む, romanized nomu, ends in “mu”. If we romanized it, we would drop the “u” and add “imasu” to get nomimasu. However, in Japanese script, we would be changing the entire character from “mu” to “mi”: む → み. So it reads 飲みます.
This is the same for all う-verbs, though. 行く (iku) ends in “ku” but changes to 行きます (ikimasu). く becomes き. 読む (yomu) changes from む (mu) to み (mi) and becomes 読みます.
Note that when you drop -masu, you get the verb root. Yomi is the root form of yomu or yomimasu. Tabe is the root of taberu or tabemasu. This is good to know for changing up the ending to make new forms and meanings.
Forming Questions in Japanese
To form a question in Japanese is super simple: you add か (ka) to the end of a formal sentence. So 行きますか (ikimasu ka) means “You go?” Or you could say 名前は何ですか (namae wa nan desu ka) for “What’s your name?” Desu + ka is a common way to turn a statement into a question.
In informal situations, though, you can just raise the intonation at the end of the sentence.
For writing, you typically don’t use a question mark in Japanese. The “ka” itself is the question mark. But for those informal sentences that you write in Japanese, you can add “?” at the end. So 名前？ (“Your name?”) is normal, but you would use a Japanese period, called the kuten or maru (“circle”), for the full formal sentence, 名前は何ですか。
Japanese Particles
Japanese particles are used to mark what function a word has in a sentence. There are quite a few particles, but the most common ones are は, が, and を.
は, said “wa” instead of “ha” when used as a particle, marks the subject of a sentence. 私はケイトリンです means “I am Caitlin” and は marks 私 (“I”) as the subject. But, I could also say ケイトリンです and leave off the subject because it’s understood.
が is also used to mark the subject of a sentence, emphasize the subject, or used to connect two sentences with “but.” It’s also often used to connect いるand ある to a sentence to say something “exists.” For instance, たくさんコーヒーがある (takusan ko-hi- ga aru) means “There is lots of coffee.”
を marks the direct object of the sentence. It usually follows nouns or phrases and often comes right before the verb (especially in simple sentences). 本を読みます (hon wo yomimasu) means “I read a book” (the subject, "I," is omitted). を marks 本 as the object that I'm reading.
Possessive Form in Japanese
Possessive form in Japanese uses the particle の to connect two nouns. For instance, 私の犬 (watashi no inu) connects “I” with “dog” to mean “my dog.”
But this can also be used to connect descriptions to nouns. 東京大学の先生 (Toukyou daigaku no sensei) connects “Tokyo University” to “teacher”, and means “a Tokyo University teacher.”
The description, modifying, or possessive noun comes first.
“Because” in Japanese
If you want to make longer sentences and explain a situation, you can use the word から (kara) to connect them with “because.” For example, you could say お腹が空いた。食べます。(Onaka ga suita. Tabemasu.) or “I’m hungry. I will eat.” That’s fine, but you could make it sound more natural by adding から: お腹が空いたから、 食 べます。(“I’m hungry, so I’ll eat.”) You add the reason first: Because you’re hungry, you will eat.
“There is” and “There isn’t” in Japanese
A simple grammar pattern in Japanese is がいる / がある. いる (iru) describes the existence of living things, such as people and animals (although not plants). ある (aru) is used for non-living things. An example: 犬がいる. (inu ga iru, “There is a dog.”) or 本がある (hon ga aru, “There is a book.”) For the formal version, use います and あります, adding the -masu ending.
If there isn’t a dog, you would say 犬がいません (inu ga imasen) or 本がありません (hon ga arimasen). That’s the negative form of the -masu ending. You add -masen instead to make it negative!
“Let’s”, “Shall we” or “Would you like to…” in Japanese
Remember those verb stems we talked about? Well, you can add -mashou to any verb stem to add “let’s.” 行きましょう means “Let’s go” and 食べましょう means “Let’s eat.”
If you add か, you make it a question. 食べましょうか then means “Shall we eat?”
But a more polite way to ask someone would be to use the negative form, -masen + ka. So, this looks like 食べませんか, “Would you like to eat?” This form is more polite because it’s not presuming or pressuring the other person. It’s more like asking, “You wouldn’t want to eat, would you?”
“Want” in Japanese
Here’s another verb ending in Japanese that modifies the meaning. If you want to say you want to do something, you add -tai to the verb stem.
Let’s look at the words we’ve been using again. 行きたい means “want to go” and 食べたい means “want to eat.” You go use this with any verb!
If you want a noun, though, the grammar is noun + がほしい (ga hoshii). So if you want a new car, you would say 新しい車がほしい (atarashii kuruma ga hoshii).
“And… And….” in Japanese
Another way to create more complex sentences. Use the particle や to link nouns when giving an incomplete list of examples.
Let’s say you’re trying to tell someone all the sports you play. In English you might say, “I play basketball, baseball, soccer, etc.” But in Japanese, you would use や to connect each of those sports in place of a comma, and you don’t need a word for “etc.” because the や implies it. So it looks like: バスケットボールや野球やサッカーをします。(basukettobouru ya yakyuu ya sakka wo shimasu).
“Plan to do” in Japanese
If you’re planning to do something in the future, you can add つもり to the informal form of the verb.
If you plan to go to the movies, you could say 映画を行くつもりです。(eiga wo iku tsumori desu) If you plan to study, you say 勉強するつもりです。(benkyou suru tsumori desu)
“Maybe,” “Probably,” and “Only” in Japanese
You’ll hear these all the time, so they’re good to know! 多分 (tabun) means “maybe” and can be used on its own to answer a question, or attach to a sentence. It’s usually used at the beginning of a sentence, like 多分映画を行く (tabun eiga wo iku), which means “Maybe I will go to the movies.” Tabun is usually used in a 50/50 situation. It could go either way.
“Probably” is でしょう (deshou). This is always placed at the end of a sentence and isn’t used on its own. If you want to say you’ll probably go to the movies, you’d say 映画を行くでしょう。(Eiga wo iku deshou). You can add it to verbs, nouns, or adjectives at the end of a sentence. Use it if you’re 80% sure.
“Only” in Japanese is だけ (dake). Like deshou, it can attach to verbs, adjectives, or nouns. 一つだけの本がある (hitotsu dake no hon ga aru) means “There’s only one book.” 映画を行くだけです (eiga wo iku dake desu) means “I will only go to the movies.”
Master Japanese Grammar
I know learning grammar can be pretty dry, but having an understanding of some basic grammar in any language gives you a good head start. Then, when you’re listening to conversations, you can pick up the grammar more naturally. Especially when it comes to verbs -- if you know how verbs conjugate, then you’ll understand them when you hear them in their conjugated form.
Many of these Japanese grammar patterns are on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N5, which is a measurement of basic Japanese skills. If you’re interested in learning more to prepare for it, learn the N5 Kanji or listen to JapanesePod101. You’ll learn more grammar and Japanese expressions to help you start speaking now!
The post Japanese Grammar Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
January 19, 2020
Things in Spanish: 137 Spanish Words You Need to Know for Everyday Stuff
Like how about telling your new Spanish friends you must have your coffee first thing in the morning. Or how about trying to immerse yourself at home and talk about las cosas en tu casa -- the things in your house. Maybe you’re doing this to help teach your kids Spanish. Or you’re trying to learn how to talk about things around the office so you can someday work abroad.
Whatever your reason is for learning, you have to know how to chat about a lot of things in Spanish. Starting with some common everyday vocabulary is a great place to start! You’ll be able to talk about things you encounter in your day-to-day routine, in other words, the things that are most relevant to you.
So, I’ve created a list of cosas en español to get you going and beef up your vocabulary based on a “usual” daily routine. Not all these words will be relevant to you, though. Maybe you have fur babies instead of tiny humans or you work from home or travel instead of going to the office. That’s fine! Skip those words if you don’t think you’ll need them. It’ll only slow you down trying to memorise words you don’t need. Instead, take this as a starting point to brainstorm or look up the word you would need instead of the one on the list. Maybe that morning coffee isn’t brewed in a coffee pot, but with a French press. Or you drink loose-leaf tea instead. Well, learn those words then!
The point is, today we’re going to learn a bunch of things in Spanish and need to focus on the words we’ll use most. Take this opportunity to expand your vocabulary so you can talk about more topics and daily routines in your life!
When You Wake Up: Things in Spanish for the Morning
Do you get up right away in the mañana (“morning”), or do you hit snooze on your despertador (“alarm clock”) many times? One of the first things I need in the morning is a fresh cup of café (“coffee”) from the cafetera (“coffee pot”). Maybe you drink té (“tea”), or start off with a healthy cup of aqua y limón (“water and lemon”).
After rehydrating, it’s time for breakfast, desayuno! Huevos y tocino (“Eggs and bacon”) or fruta fresca (“fresh fruit”) make a healthy start to the day. What other breakfast foods do you like? Here’s some vocab for around the kitchen:
Pan: Bread
Rosquilla: Bagel
Mantequilla: Butter
Naranja: Orange
Fresa: Strawberry
Azúcar: Sugar
Leche: Milk
Jugo: Juice
Licuadora: Blender
Tostadora: Toaster
Horno: Oven
Microonda: Microwave
Congelador: Freezer
Nevera: Fridge
Estufa: Stove
Plato: Plate
Cuenco: Bowl
Tenedor: Fork
Cuchara: Spoon
Cuchillo: Knife
Vaso: Cup
Getting Dressed: Clothes and Toiletries in Spanish
Besides knowing your body parts in Spanish, you may want to talk about things you’ll need for your cuerpo y salud (“body and health”). If you’re travelling and forgot your pasta dental (“toothpaste”), you can ask the hotel for some complementary artículos de tocador, “toiletries”.
But on a normal day, you’ll need to tomar una ducha (“take a shower”) and vestirse (“get dressed”).
Baño: Bathroom
Ducha: Shower
Armario: Closet
Ropa: Clothes
Camisa: Shirt
Pantalones: Pants
Calcetines: Socks
Zapatos: Shoes
Chaqueta: Jacket
Traje y corbata: Suit and tie
Vestido: Dress
Falda: Skirt
Papel higienico: Toilet paper
Toalla: Towel
Toallita: Washcloth
Jabón: Soap
Lavado de cuerpo: Body wash
Champú y acondicionador: Shampoo and conditioner
Desodorante: Deodorant
Maquillaje: Makeup
Crema facial: Face cream
Loción corporal: Body lotion
Maquinilla de afeitar: Razor
Cepillo: Hairbrush
Cepillo dental: Toothbrush
Heading to Work and Office Vocab in Spanish
Time to head to your work, or your trabajo. Where I currently live in NYC, most New Yorkers take the subterraneo or metro -- the subway. But maybe you drive to work in your coche (“car”) or catch the autobús (“bus”, of course). If you’re eco- or health-conscious, riding your bici (“bike”) to work is the way to go.
Once you get to the oficina (“office”), what’s the first thing you do? Head to your escritorio, your desk? Do you first check in with your jefe or jefa (your boss), or read your mensajes (“messages”)?
Also, you should know that despacho is more commonly used for “office” in Spain and some other Spanish-speaking countries. But oficina is understood anywhere.
What other things in Spanish should you know in the office?
Empresa: Company
Reunión: Meeting
Compañero: Coworker
Ordenador: Computer
Teclado: Keyboard
Informe: Report
Factura: Invoice
Bolígrafo: Pen
Lápiz: Pencil
Papel: Paper
Teléfono: Telephone
Impresora: Printer
Enfriador de agua: Water cooler
Archivador: Filing cabinet
Sala de descanso: Breakroom
Eating Out
Besides talking about the weather, food and drinks are a universal conversation starter. I personally love the rich food culture in Spain, and taking time for sobremesa -- chitchat “over the table” with good company and good food.
Here is some common food vocabulary to know. Also, if you have food allergies, you should make sure to memorise those words first! Then you can use the phrase Soy alérgico al ____ to let the server at a restaurant know.
Comida: Food
Almuerzo: Lunch
Cena: Dinner
Bocadillo: Snack
Postre: Dessert
Carne: Meat
Verduras: Vegetables
Arroz: Rice
Queso: Cheese
Ensalada: Salad
Pastas: Pasta
Sopa: Soup
Jamón: Ham
Pescado: Fish
Res: Beef
Pollo: Chicken
Cerdo: Pork
Mariscos: Shrimp
Cacahuate: Peanut
Champiñón: Mushroom
Tomate: Tomato
Cebolla: Onion
Patata: Potato
Ajo: Garlic
Frijoles: Beans
Trigo: Wheat
Sal y pimienta: Salt and pepper
Hierbas y especias: Herbs and spices
Las bebidas: Drinks
Cerveza: Beer
Vino: Wine
Cola: Soda
Restaurante: Restaurant
Cuenta: Check
Menú: Menu
Camarero: Server
Orden: Order
Around the House
Heading home after work, you’ll unlock your puerta (“door”) with your llave (“key”). Do you first watch televisión (“TV”) on the sofá (“couch”)? If you have kids, maybe you spend time together playing with juguetes (“toys”). Or, play fetch with your perro (“dog”) outside on your césped (“lawn”).
Especially if you’re trying to teach your kids Spanish at home, knowing vocabulary for things around your house will be helpful. You can start speaking to your children in Spanish and encourage them to learn what’s around them as well. Try labelling things with sticky notes so you see the Spanish words every time you look them!
Ventana: Window
Mesa de café: Coffee table
Mesita: Side table
Sillón: Armchair
Piso: Floor
Lámpara: Lamp
Alfombra: Rug
Cama: Bed
Almohada: Pillow
Manta: Blanket
Lavandería: Laundry
Cuarto de lavado: Laundry room
Cuna: Crib
Perrera: Kennel
Caja de arena: Litter box
Estante: Shelf or bookcase
Espejo: Mirror
Habitación: Bedroom
Sótano: Basement
Escalera: Stairs
Hobbies and Entertainment
Last, let’s look at some ways you unwind at the end of the day and spend your tiempo libre (“free time”)! “Hobby” in Spanish is pasatiempo. So, what do you enjoy doing? Do you like to cook, cocinar? Or are you a fan de los deportes (“fan of sports”)? In Spain, fútbol -- “football”, or “soccer” in the US -- is a major event. Friends, or amigos, get together for good food, cerveza, and a fun time yelling at the TV.
Maybe you prefer quieter activities like reading, leer. Or you prefer rock and roll, and enjoy tocar un instrumento musical (“playing a musical instrument”). If you’re a movie buff, then you enjoy cine (“movies”), or perhaps teatro (“theatre”).
Here are other hobbies to talk about:
Nadar: Swimming
Pescar: Fishing
Baloncesto: Basketball
Béisbol: Baseball
Ejercicio: Exercise
Correr: Running
Coleccionar: Collecting
Videojuegos: Video games
Dibujar: Drawing
Pintar: Painting
Arte: Art
Aprendizaje de idiomas: Language learning
Jardinería: Gardening
Voluntaria: Volunteering
Meditación: Meditation
Excursionismo: Hiking
Tejer: Knitting
Bailar: Dancing
Know Your Things in Spanish
Now you’re well on your way to knowing “all the things” in Spanish! Memorise what’s relevant to you, look up the things that were missing, and ignore the rest. Don’t waste your time on things that you don’t encounter on a regular basis! Instead, take this list as an idea of daily routines and what you should learn. It’ll help you fill in any gaps in your speech, and recognise an area you may be weak in. If you’re very comfortable talking about your hobbies but never thought to learn how to say things around the kitchen, learn now. Take this opportunity to expand your vocabulary!
Then, take some time to learn how to absorb Spanish like a sponge and seek out a Spanish language exchange partner. Make use of effective study habits and then use these new words in conversation. You can also learn some of my favourite Spanish language hacking techniques!
If you’re ready to expand your Spanish abilities even more, make sure to check out SpanishPod101. One of my favourite methods for expanding my vocabulary and phrases is listening to podcasts. You learn new words in context with dialogues by native speakers. And SpanishPod101 is sorted by level, topics, and more!
What things pop up in your day-to-day routine? Did this list help you realise some things you didn’t know? Share your thoughts with me in the comments.
The post Things in Spanish: 137 Spanish Words You Need to Know for Everyday Stuff appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
January 16, 2020
How I Learned Fluent Spanish and English the Hard Way (It’s Also the Best Way!)
The teacher said something, but I couldn’t quite grasp it in my state of alarm. Not that I could have understood, anyway, since he was speaking in English. The only thing I was totally sure of is how furious I was that day during my sixth-grade year. It was Sunday, I only had top grades in language classes, and I was never going to need the Spanish numbers from one to a hundred in my life anyway. So why was Dad insisting so much?
At some point, my tongue unknotted, and I managed to say a few sentences to my already bored public: “My name is Alice. My favorite color is blue. I am thirteen years old.” The grandiose result of two years worth of high grades in middle school language classes.
By the way, I was the foreign student. The thirty others were locals. They spoke Spanish and English. I did not.
As I sank in my chair and wished I could disappear into a mousehole, I wondered how I was going to get through the year.
Prologue: The Experience Which Gives Me Some Credit
I am naturally bilingual, born to a French mother and an Italian father. I spent my entire childhood juggling between the two languages instinctively: French at school during the year, Italian during summer vacations at my grandparents’ house, and both at home. I completed my whole primary education in France, and I was halfway through middle school when my father sat me and my two siblings on the couch to give us the news that would 180 our lives: we were moving to the Dominican Republic.
First, the concept did not pass. Then, we metaphorically turned green.
Where was the Dominican Republic? What would this mean for our lives? Was he being serious serious?
A few months later, I was standing in the middle of a classroom of thirty Dominican students, failing to introduce myself.
While my parents had considered enrolling my siblings and I in a French-Spanish school, they had finally opted for a Spanish-English one. The objective was brilliant: we would end up speaking four languages.
What was a little less shiny was the way to the goal. How could we be expected to follow a regular academic curriculum while we couldn’t understand what was said around us?
The first two weeks were exhausting. I did not understand the lessons and I was left out of conversations during breaks. I got cross trying to express myself because I didn’t grasp the concepts and was too afraid of misusing the wrong words. I came back home and either cried or promptly fell asleep. Adaptation absorbed all of my energy.
The month after that, I made a small amount of progress. I was able to understand more of what I was being told, but only if the sentences were kept short and to the point. Reading was okay, as long as I had enough time to read each passage twice and look up words in the dictionary. Jokes, idioms, and figurative language were out of my reach, and it was painful to see everyone laughing at something and not knowing what they were honking about. Speaking was still a no-go except when I was forced to, but even then it was mortifying because I got mocked. Since homework was a little easier, I crammed grammar and writing sessions in my afternoon schedule.
After two months, I started using my Spanish and even drawing connections between my native languages and those I was learning. Reading got easier in Spanish, but not in English. It was still nearly impossible to say anything in English. I took too long to translate my French thoughts into English sentences, and people got bored of waiting, which made me nervous, even more conscious of my wording, and even slower. A vicious circle.
After three months, I was the best at written work in my class. All the extra study I was doing at home was paying off. My brain still had to work at a hundred miles an hour, but I was forming thoughts directly in Spanish instead of translating them from my native languages. I got better at conversations, but the trauma from the first two months had made me somewhat introverted, so I didn’t say much anyway, which is probably the reason why I struggled with pronunciation for long.
Six months went by and I was finally totally comfortable with doing somethings in Spanish. I started working more on my English, which wasn’t too bad, but since I was surrounded by a majority of Spanish-speaking people, I mostly left it aside. It took me two years to polish my English through reading, watching TV, listening to music, and, finally, conversing.
Despite feeling like I would not survive this new life, I made it through. Much better than I had thought I would in the rare moments when I give myself some credit. Truth is, I am very thankful for all the hard time I went through in high school. I am glad I left my cozy life in France. I am glad I passed for an idiot for most of my eighth grade, because I am now proudly quadrilingual, as fluent in English and Spanish as I am in French and Italian.
The Best Language Learning Strategy
Looking back to the two years I had in this bilingual school is quite hard now. I’m pretty sure that my brain got so saturated that it decided to leave memories out or it would short-circuit, so moments come back in hazy flashbacks:
The two hours long Math-in-English homework sessions during which I literally was decoding a new language;
The stuttering while trying to speak;
The sweating when interacting with a teacher, sure that I was missing out on 51% of what I was being told;
My classmates’ sneering and mockery because I was “too slow” or pronounced words wrong;
The stressful trips to the supermarket (because my usual interactions were school-based) where people talk even faster;
The zoning-out in front of the TV shows.
There are many more of those moments. They felt like torture. But now that I am able to use my quadrilinguality as an asset for work (I am a reporter in both French and English and have done translation work in most of my language combinations) I realize that I have used the best language learning strategy unknowingly.
I had top grades in middle school language classes, which have turned out to be close to useless.
I have used language apps, but they have turned out to be shallow and not cover language learning completely enough.
I have taken language classes with particular teachers, but they didn’t help me to develop any lasting ability to communicate.
Two words sum up the best language learning strategy: full immersion.
Take a Deep Breath and Dive
Full immersion is hard and scary, but it is the quickest way to learn a language effectively.
The primary purpose of learning a new language is being able to use it to communicate, either passively (reading books, watching movies, understanding songs, etc.) or actively (having conversations, interacting through emails, etc.).
For that, you don’t need to only learn vocabulary, like most language classes and language apps try to convince you. Handling a language correctly revolves around a web of skills, which include:
constructing complicated sentences;
understanding double meanings, inside jokes, inappropriate use of words, etc.;
pronouncing words correctly;
knowing and using idioms;
getting used to the language’s melody (the way accents work, or the right way to cut syllables out);
thinking in that language.
This last one is perhaps the most important if you want to achieve full fluidity in a language. The moment you start dreaming in your target language is the moment you know you are doing it right.
None of these skills can be developed if you only take an hour-long class every once in a while. Your brain needs to be put in proximity with your target language the most often possible to absorb and develop those skills, which is why full immersion works the best.
However, full immersion doesn’t necessarily mean you have to move to a country where your target language is spoken. It surely is quicker this way, because you are forced to use your target language all day, but it is totally possible to imitate this experience right from the comfort of your living room. It just requires a lot of discipline, a ton of work, and the right instructions.
Breaking Down the Strategy
What full immersion is all about is submitting yourself to an incoming stream of random information and interactions. Think about your daily life, when you might:
study/work
make small talk at the grocery store
hear commercials in the metro
look up food recipes
watch the news on TV
read articles on blogs/news sites
discuss something with your friends/neighbors
You need to be able to do all these things in your target language by the time you say that you “speak” that target language. And since our society loves the “fake it until you make it” saying, that is exactly what you should do.
Essentially, full immersion can be summed up to:
Considering mistakes as your best friends;
Basing your learning on a broad range of topics;
Using music as an ally;
Engaging in small talk and being curious;
Measuring your comprehension using TV programs;
Reading everything and anything;
Stop hating writing.
Consider Mistakes Your Best Friends
Mistakes are your best friends, in part, because they’ll help you improve. They’re going to stick around so much that they’re the ones you’ll see the most during your learning. You would only slow yourself down if you hated them.
This is perhaps one of the biggest barriers to language learning. Because people are afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at, or looking like fools, they refuse to try it. What they miss is how normal making mistakes is. I am sorry to break to you, but we all make mistakes even in our native language! How mindblowing is this? By mistakes, I mean stuttering, mispronouncing, misconjugating, misusing words, misspelling, etc. If we already do those in a language which we’ve “mastered”, how can we expect things to be different when we learn a new one?
Beware the cliché Mistakes are okay! In fact, they’re even more than okay. Failing stings, but it's the best way to remember what not to do next time. When you make a wrong step, the memory of it remains vividly impressed on your brain. It’s a self-defense mechanism that allows you not to trip twice with the same stone.
In all honesty, this truth falters a little with language learning, because you have so much to do at the beginning that it is impossible for you to remember every mistake you make. However, there will always be a little bell ringing in the back of your head when you’re about to repeat the faux pas, and with time it will sink in until you don’t need to think about it anymore.
Base Your Learning on a Broad Range of Topics
After my father had gotten so focused on making me learn the Spanish numbers from one to a hundred when I was in the sixth grade, I had classified the matter as useless… until I had to go grocery shopping in the Dominican Republic. I was very happy I knew the numbers at that moment.
Another example: studying Science in the English language in the eighth grade was torture. Yet, it turned out to be a lifesaver when I went to pass the SAT with outstanding scores.
One more because three is the perfect number: at the age of fifteen, I played tennis and got coached by a Czech woman who only spoke English with me. Sometimes, I found it as painful to understand her instructions as it was to carry out the physical activity. Later, I converted this experience into an asset for my professional life and have found a job as a tennis reporter in English.
No knowledge is useless when it comes to learning a new language. In fact, the more diverse your learning sources are, the better. In addition to the actual “power” of having multi-topic capacities, it will make you feel much more at ease so that you are able to understand/cover different subjects, and your mind will develop connections more easily.
Because you never know what kind of words you might end up needing when using your target language, you should consider this: everything you know in your native language, you should learn in your target language if you aim at proficiency.
Wildlife, fashion, economy, Math or Science… All topics are valid.
Use Music as an Ally
Because music is a means of expression before being an art, it can also turn out to be a fantastic tool on your language-learning journey.
First, song lyrics are varied, so, once again, it’s all about diversifying your learning sources. Second, music prompts you to willfully learn words and sentences and to work with your target language in a new cadence. Because it is very hard to resist singing a good song, you’ll get used to repeating the verses over and over, helping your tongue, lips, and vocal chords get used to these new combinations of sounds.
Ballads, pop, or blues are a good place to start because they feature repeated choruses and are easier to follow, but even trap, rap, or any scrap is good.
Disclaimer: Don’t mind the foul words that might pop up. I’ll be honest with you: it’s good to learn them first, so you’ll have a clue when to be offended if someone calls you a bad name when you’re stuck in traffic.
Engage in Small Talk and Be Curious
When Sherlock Holmes works on a new case, he usually talks with someone related to the mystery to open up or narrow down his field of research. It doesn’t matter if it is the victim, someone related to them, or barely a second-hand witness. Sherlock gets them to talk. He asks about the case itself, but he most often pays attention to little bits and pieces of behavior and/or background story that don’t have a direct link with his investigation. And a majority of the time, those seemingly inconspicuous details play a great role in the outcome of the case.
Have you ever thought about the power of innocent everyday conversations? They root in variety. As a language learner, you should metaphorically put on your deerstalker, grab a virtual pipe, and get Target-Language-Speakers to talk.
It can be friends, family members, or just people whom you know to speak your target language. Open up your dialogue with “Hey, I’m curious about…” and ask a random question. This is like digging a gold mine for words, expressions, sentence construction, but most of all, accent use and speech melody. There is no better way to learn spoken language than by interacting with people who are not teachers and do not use an academic or formal version of the language.
By speaking with a woman who has children, you could not only learn vocabulary about family and childcare but also get used to hearing your target language in a patient, female voice. By asking questions to an elderly man, you might draw a deeper understanding of the weather or newspapers while getting used to chewed syllables or rarely used words.
People love to talk, and you have to love to listen if you want to add a new language to your CV.
Alongside this, improvised conversations are also the best time to improve your own speech and pronunciation. Since they happen in an informal setting, these dialogues will make you a little more at ease about any possible stuttering or momentary amnesia. Use the words and expressions you’ve learned to absorb them better and fully understand how to handle them. In this type of situation, remember that mistakes are okay.
Measure Your Comprehension by Using TV Programs
Having conversations with people is a tremendous way to practice your target language understanding, and it becomes easier as time goes by and your skills improve. Plus, you can always ask a person to slow their pace or repeat a sentence you haven’t fully understood.
With television, you can’t do that.
TV programs are the ultimate test to measure how well you’re doing at understanding your target language. People on TV, be they actors or news reporters, talk fast and talk a lot. They will not wait for you to pick up on what they’re saying. In addition, there is always some noise going on in movie scenes, which means that your comprehension does not only rely on grasping whole sentences, but rather a mix of second-guessing, lip-reading, and word-by-word understanding.
Most people who learn a new language start considering themselves fluent in that language when they manage to understand news broadcasts.
Read Everything and Anything
During my time at the bilingual school, the effort I put into learning English was considerably less than into learning Spanish (which was more urgent since I was living in a Spanish-speaking country). Consequently, I only improved my passive understanding in English, but not my active expressivity. In a conversation, I was twice as good at listening compared to talking.
After two years spent in the bilingual school, I switched to homeschool. I studied 10th grade with a Dominican program, which meant that my entire curriculum was in Spanish. This could have meant a catastrophic drop in my already limited skills in English.
However, since I had more time to spend in extracurricular activities, I picked up my abandoned hobby of reading (whose space has been filled with extra-homework since my arrival in the Dominican Republic) and I chose to read the original versions of books by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and JK Rowling. Consequently, my English improved dramatically.
Reading benefits you by polishing your rough knowledge of sentence formation. When you read, you have time to analyze the construction of the text, you can study it repeatedly, until you fully understand how word combinations work. For example, this is how I have learned the correct use of pronouns and prepositions, which often depends on “how right the sentence sounds” rather than on grammatical rules.
This useful reading doesn’t only include novels and fiction, or typical language cheat sheets. It is also magazines, blogs, newspapers, textbooks… Even food labels or user instructions. In fact, those last two turn out to be even better: their formal tone and specialized vocabulary make them harder to decipher, but who harder is better.
Stop Hating Writing
If you’re on bad terms with your handwriting (or the act of taking notes), this is the time for a truce. Forming thoughts on paper is a solid preparation for speaking them out loud. Taking notes is the best way to remember the information you learn: your brain will associate the motions with the words, which will make the memory more lasting.
During the first months of your language learning adventure, you should always, always, carry a notebook with you. It’s very important to write down what you need/want to remember. Copying a tricky word or rule several times is also a valid technique to strengthen your familiarity with it. I’m five years into English learning, but I still can’t read if I don’t have a sheet of paper and a pen next to me to jot down sentences and definitions. Then, I always keep them within reach when working.
If you write, you won’t forget. It’s as simple as that.
Let’s Sum It Up
Learning a new language requires a lot of work, time, and energy. However, when you know what it takes, and you know how to get on the job, you’re guaranteed success.
If your target language is a real goal, you can implement the best language learning strategy: full immersion.
It basically relies on:
Considering mistakes your best friends: failing stings, but it will help you to remember.
Basing your learning on a broad range of topics: everything you know in your native language, you should learn in your target language.
Using music as an ally: music prompts you to willfully learn words and sentences, and to work with your target language in a new cadence.
Engaging in small talk and being curious: this is like digging a gold mine for words, expressions, sentence construction, but most of all accent use and speech melody
Measuring your comprehension using TV programs: while person-to-person interaction can be adapted to your pace, television broadcasts will force you to speed up your understanding.
Reading everything and anything: when you read, you have time to analyze the construction of the text, you can study it on loop until you fully understand how word combinations work.
Stop hating writing: your brain will associate the gesture to the words, which will make the memory more lasting
The post How I Learned Fluent Spanish and English the Hard Way (It’s Also the Best Way!) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
January 15, 2020
How to Learn a Language with Virtual Reality
And that’s why I’m so excited about VR as a tool for learning languages.
In this article, I will summarise the benefits and drawbacks of learning languages in VR, comparing VR to other methods of learning, before going through my favourite VR apps for 2020.
It’s a new decade after all so why not explore a new technology?
What is VR?
VR immerses users in a fully digital environment through a headset or surrounding display. This environment can be computer-generated or filmed with a 360-degree camera. Many readers are probably familiar with the technology, known more for its simulated rollercoaster rides, than its educational apps.
The technology has been called the "next major computing platform" by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. He predicts VR (and Augmented Reality) is set to become as integral to most people's daily lives as smartphone technology is today.
Oculus, a major VR headset manufacturer, was acquired by Facebook in 2014 and has since developed some truly remarkable hardware. Their most recent headset, the Oculus Quest, is a standalone VR headset (no PC, no wires) that gives users access to a wide selection of entertaining games and experiences.
It's also common to slide your phone into a headset and use this for VR experiences. The Samsung GearVR was popular for a few years, but these phone-based headsets are being phased out by manufacturers in favour of more sophisticated devices such as the Oculus Quest.
VR technology is still in its early stages, with a limited but growing user base and a group of dedicated enthusiasts, like myself, who see the potential revolution this technology offers.
What Makes VR Different?
One of my early experiences in VR was with The People's House , a documentary about the White House set in the last few months of Barack Obama's administration. I sat, wearing my pyjamas, listening to Obama's eloquent voice against the backdrop of a gorgeous 360 timelapse from the White House lawn. I could turn and look wherever I wanted to. Suddenly, I was transported inside the building and was sitting two meters away from President Obama himself. He looked into my eyes and shared his experience of working and living in this historic building. I was engrossed, entertained, and embarrassed that I was in my pyjamas while in the presence of a US president!
[caption id="attachment_28596" align="aligncenter" width="650"]
Image courtesy of Felix & Paul Studios[/caption]I had never felt immersion like this before from any video or cinema experience. I was physically sitting in the UK, but my mind believed wholeheartedly that I was at the White House having a one-to-one conversation with President Obama.
This level of immersion is what VR can offer!
Unfortunately, I can only give you a glimpse of the experience through my words -- you have to try it to fully appreciate it.
This immersion makes VR a perfect tool to accompany your language learning. Immersion in your target language through realistic scenarios, would normally only be possible by going to the country and is a great tool for learning quickly and effectively.
Why Learn in VR?
VR has been shown to improve students’ test results by providing a more meaningful and memorable learning experience. Schools and corporations are increasingly turning to VR to develop experiences that give direct scenarios that students or employees might encounter, and which are normally impossible to simulate in a training environment.
[caption id="attachment_28597" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Image courtesy of Osso VR[/caption]VR trainees can practise their required skill, whether it's public speaking or medical surgery, in a virtual environment that closely resembles the real thing. These simulations can create the anxiety and emotions one can feel when carrying out the activity for the first time, but without the consequences.
How many language learners freeze up and become anxious when first speaking a foreign language to a native speaker? I know I have.
There's a big difference between speaking out loud during a pause in a podcast and actually replying to a question asked by a vendor in a busy market when you first arrive in a foreign country.
This gap in experience can be bridged in VR with authentic and relevant simulations.
The simulations available in VR range in intensity. Looking someone in the eyes (it really feels authentic in VR) and experiencing the sights and sounds of a busy environment can provoke the same overwhelming feeling that you feel when first speaking a foreign language. On the other hand, a poorly animated and difficult to use VR simulation will only frustrate you and cause you to take off the headset, having learned nothing. In these early days of VR, there are still developments needed to make this a truly transformational teaching technology.
Some apps can check pronunciation using voice recognition, but the reliability of this is still far from perfect. A real human teacher will probably always be better. However, the voice recognition may be ”good enough” for some learners and the machine learning systems are steadily improving.
What's the Difference Between VR and Other Language Apps?
VR is a lot less convenient than most mobile apps. There are VR headsets you can slip on without connecting to a PC, like the Oculus Quest or lower-priced Oculus Go, and these reduce the friction of getting into a virtual environment. But putting a headset on is a lot harder than thumbing through Duolingo on your phone.
Five minutes queuing at the bank is better spent with Duolingo than putting a VR headset on… and you'll get a lot fewer stares!
VR is more useful for those focussed periods of study when you want to be transported into a realistic foreign environment, and really push yourself in challenging simulations. You are fully engaged with the environment that surrounds you, with no distraction from other apps or the internet in general. This makes your time in VR much more focussed than your time spent using most mobile or desktop software.
The 3D sensory experience that surrounds you in VR activates your wonder and curiosity, just like the feeling you get when exploring a foreign country. And the best part is, you don't have to travel for hours to get this immersion -- you can do it from the comfort of your home!
Not all VR language learning apps are created equal, just like mobile apps aren't suited to every style, so choosing the right one is essential when getting started.
As of 2020, I see the various VR language learning apps as fitting one of three styles:
Animated Worlds
Social Scenarios
Simulated Real-Life Encounters.
The next part of the article will go through the different types of apps, detailing the benefits and disadvantages of using them.
Learning a Language with VR: Animated Worlds
These are apps that place the VR user in an animated world, where they are taught vocabulary by cartoon characters, often with robotic voices.
There are a few apps available, including House of Languages and Busuu, but these are limited and don't offer much to your average user. They are free though, so worth checking out if you're on a budget!
Mondly, with its popular mobile app and desktop site, was one of the first companies to build a VR language learning app in 2017. It is frequently updated and has the widest range of languages compared with any other VR app.
You choose your native language and your target language and it has three sections:
Vocabulary
Conversation
Multiplayer
Vocabulary places you opposite an animated lady who mainly speaks in your native language and then tells you the word you're learning in your target language. Seeing an animated elephant squirt water from its trunk is entertaining, but spending ten minutes on eight words is not the most efficient way to learn. I'd also rather the whole experience was in my target language, or at least had the option to change this, but currently, this isn't possible.
The main issue is the mixture of real and robotic voices depending on the exercise. This can feel unnatural and doesn’t have the expressiveness required for language learning. I also noticed a couple of mistakes in pronunciation made by these robot voices. The voice recognition was not great either, and didn't even recognise my native English at times.
The Conversation section puts you in a scenario, such as a hotel reception or restaurant and you interact with an animated being. You can set the difficulty of the encounter, which changes whether you see the “Things you can say” box or not. There is a set of responses you can give, which is fine for practise but doesn’t capture the true richness of a foreign language encounter. For example, when the taxi driver said my ride was $20 and I replied, "here's $100, keep the change", he didn’t understand me because it wasn’t one of the set responses. But I'd expect even a fictional taxi driver to be grateful for such a generous tip! Note: I'm only this generous with my virtual money!
MondlyVR is a great tool to practise with but it isn’t something essential for language learners… Yet. It is great for someone who is going on a short trip away and wants to learn a few basic phrases in the local language to help them with some standard activities.
The Multiplayer section of MondlyVR is in Beta, placing you in a room with avatars of other real people and learners of the language. I couldn’t find anyone to speak to in either Spanish or English – I suppose there just aren't enough people using the app for this to be useful yet. However, this SocialVR aspect brings us nicely to the next type of app I'd like to consider.
Social Scenarios in VR
The Silicon Valley start-up, Immerse, offers a VR play space with various environments including airports, offices, and an average American home. For now, it has English lessons only and is tailored towards businesses, mainly in Japan and Korea.
I went through a tech demo with the Immerse team, who explained how it works. Multiple students in VR login to a specific teacher's area. The teacher is trained on the platform using a desktop computer, so they can lead a class through the tailored lesson plans for each of the scenarios. Students can watch interactions between animated characters (with recorded human voices, not robots!) and the teacher can explain any new vocabulary or questions the students might have. The VR space allows for more focussed learning with fewer distractions than normal online lessons.
The VR world is beautifully designed and very intuitive, and having curated VR spaces for interaction in your target language in teacher-led scenarios is a fantastic idea.
It is only available for English students from Asia who can arrange a free consultation.
However, there are other open VR platforms where you can interact with avatars of real people and speak to them. These apps are called SocialVR and the most popular platforms are VRChat, AltspaceVR, and Rec Room. These virtual spaces are not tailored towards language education, but communities of language learners could meet in standard or custom-built areas to practise their languages.
If anyone does this, please get in touch! I'd love to hear about it!
Simulated Real-Life Encounters
The final type of VR experience is one where a scene has been filmed using a 360 camera and the student feels like they are talking to a real person, not an animated character. I find these experiences the most immersive in VR, like the Obama meeting that I mentioned earlier.
ImmerseMe has several 360 scenarios that seem like they'd be very fun to practise with in VR. However it currently has no VR support, as of early 2020, so I can't consider it as a VR app.
Panolingo has a mobileVR app for teaching English, using 360 panoramas. This is a great way to learn English but the lack of an App for any major VR headset is a real limiting factor.
Finally, there’s the app my team at Morning Calm Productions has been developing.
We've created Dynamic Spanish, which utilises an immersive 360 environment to teach you Spanish from scratch. The VR-led course is supported by worksheets, vocabulary recall games, listening activities, and transcripts outside of VR, too.
Dynamic Spanish is available for Oculus headsets and GearVR, and involves a series of 360 video lessons. You prepare by learning and practicing your speaking and listening skills in a fully immersive classroom before you step out onto the streets of Valencia to engage in roleplay-based encounters.
The Dynamic Spanish Starter Pack is for beginner Spanish learners to start their language learning journey.
Summary
VR is a new technology that offers a lot of promise in the self-taught education space. It can place users in simulated scenarios so they can practise their languages in realistic environments.
There are no killer VR apps for language learning yet, but as the technology becomes more widespread, this new decade could see the start of full language immersion from the comfort of your living room
It's a very exciting time for language lovers!
Please share any experience you have using VR to learn languages below.
The post How to Learn a Language with Virtual Reality appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
January 9, 2020
90 Japanese Adjectives to Add Color to Your Conversations
As a beginner, it can be frustrating to only be able to express yourself in basic “noun + は + noun + です” or “noun + を + verb” grammar format. Saying things like, “There is a dog” (それは犬です。) and “I study Japanese” (日本語を勉強します。). You want to be able to express a lot more! To be able to say things like “It’s a huge, cute, fluffy dog!” And how about describing things? To say something is “beautiful,” “tasty,” or “amazing.”
Once you start learning Japanese adjectives, you can suddenly express a much wider range of thoughts and feelings. It feels really satisfying!
You’ll need to learn a bit of Japanese grammar with these adjectives, but I’ve saved that for the end. For now, as you look over these words, pay attention to which ones end in い and which ones end in な. These are the two main types of Japanese adjectives, and we’ll discuss how to use each one.
Also, here’s a quick study tip. Although I separated positive and negative feelings as adjective categories, it’s best to learn opposite adjectives as pairs. It’ll be easier to memorize and recall them if you learn them together. And if you forget one, you can use the negative form of the other to say the same thing! For example: “yummy” and “yucky.” If you forget the word for “yucky,” you can say the negative form of “yummy” for the same meaning: “not yummy.”
Japanese Adjectives for Positive Feelings
There are many common adjectives for expressing positive feelings in Japanese. But these listed below will give you a lot of mileage. One of the most common, すごい, means “amazing” but it’s used to say everything from “That’s really cool” to an indifferent “Oh, I see.” It’s often used on its own as a general response to just about anything. And please, take note: すごい is often shortened to a more casual すげー to sound more masculine.
Good: 良い (yoi)
Amazing: すごい (sugoi)
Cool: かっこいい (kakkoii)
Correct: 正しい (tadashii)
Simple: 簡単な (kantan na)
Kind: 優しい (yasashii)
Happy: 嬉しい (ureshii)
Energetic: 元気な (genki na)
Enjoyable: 楽しい (tanoshii)
Wonderful: 素晴らしい (subarashii)
Another cultural note about these adjectives is that 素晴らしい is often used to say “lovely” or “beautiful” as well. It’s more common to use this adjective than 美しい (“beautiful,” which you’ll see down below) because 美しい is a bit heavier and poetic.
Japanese Adjectives for Negative Feelings
Here is the list of opposites to the words above. Words like ひどい and ダサい are quite strong and insulting when used to describe people. But ひどい is often used to describe a terrible, unlucky, or unfortunate situation, like how すごい is used to describe any good situation. Similarly, you can use 最低 (saitei) to say something or someone is “the lowest, the worst.”
Bad: 悪い (warui)
Horrible: ひどい (hidoi)
Lame: ダサい (dasai)
Wrong, Incorrect: 間違った (machigatta)
Difficult: 難しい (muzukashii)
Mean: 失礼な (shitsurei na)
Sad: 悲しい (kanashii)
Lazy: めんどい (mendoi)
Boring: つまらない (tsumaranai)
Awful: 嫌な (iya na)
You’ll notice that 間違った means “wrong,” but it doesn’t end in い or な. That’s because this is the past tense adjective form of the noun 間違い (machigai, “mistake, error”). This adjective is only used in the past tense because to be “wrong” or “incorrect,” you must have already done the action or given the answer that is wrong.
Japanese Adjectives for Size and Weight
Now let’s talk about describing what something looks like! For instance, if you wanted to say the “big, fluffy dog” as we talked about earlier, you would say 大きくてふわふわ犬 (ookikute fuwafuwa inu). Now, descriptive words for describing things like texture, such as fluffy, are often used with Japanese onomatopoeia. ふわふわ is an example of onomatopoeia. That’s out of the scope of what we’re talking about here, but onomatopoeia is a perfect next step to learn!
Big: 大きい (ookii)
Small: 小さい (chiisai)
Tall: 背が高い (se ga takai)
Short: 背が低い (se ga hikui)
Wide: 広い (hiroi)
Narrow: 狭い (semai)
Thick: 太い (futoi)
Thin: 細い (hosoi)
Heavy: 重い (omoi)
Lightweight: 軽い (karui)
Note that “thick” is often used to say “fat” as well, so be careful with that word. And the kanji 背 means “back” or “spine.” So when you say 背が高い, you’re literally saying “long spine” or “short spine” to describe height!
Japanese Adjectives for Color
Not all Japanese colors are い or な adjectives. So, if you want to use them as adjectives, you combine them to the noun using the particle の. For example: ピンクの花 (pinku no hana, “pink flower”).
The colors which are い adjectives can be changed into nouns simply by dropping the い. So, 赤い becomes 赤.
Red: 赤い (akai)
Orange: オレンジ (orenji)
Yellow: 黄色い (kiiroi)
Green: 緑 (midori)
Blue: 青い (aoi)
Purple: 紫 (murasaki)
Pink: ピンク (pinku)
Black: 黒い (kuroi)
White: 白い (shiroi)
Grey: 灰色 (haiiro)
Brown: 茶色 (chairo)
A couple of kanji notes that will help you remember “grey” and “brown.” The kanji 灰 means "ash." And 茶 means "tea." The second kanji in both, 色, means color. So they read as “ash color” and “tea color.”
Japanese Adjectives for Distance and Speed
You can use these adjectives to express length, depth, distance, and speed. But note that 短い is “short,” but it’s not used to call someone short. You can describe objects with 短い, though, or things like hair: 髪が短いです。(Kami ga mijikai desu.)
Long: 長い (nagai)
Short: 短い (mijikai)
Far: 遠い (tooi)
Near: 近い (chikai)
Deep: 深い (fukai)
Shallow: 浅い (asai)
High: 高い (takai)
Low: 低い (hikui)
Fast: 速い (hayai)
Slow: 遅い (osoi)
遅い can also mean “late,” as in to show up late to an appointment, or to describe the late hour (遅い時間 - osoi jikan).
Japanese Adjectives for Quantity and Intensifiers
These adjectives are extremely useful. They allow you to express quantity without specifying a number -- which is very helpful if you forget your Japanese numbers or the counters that go with them!
Many: 多い (ooi)
Few, less: 少ない (sukunai)
A little: 少し (sukoshi)
A lot: たくさん (takusan)
Enough: 十分な (juubun na)
Lacking, not enough: 足りない (tarinai)
たくさん doesn’t end in い or な, but it’s still an adjective. Like with colors, you’ll use の to connect it to nouns.
Japanese Adjectives for Characteristics
You’ll use and hear these adjectives all the time, so make sure to memorize them! A couple not listed below that are extremely common: やばい (yabai) and うまい (umai). These are a bit casual and used as Japanese slang words. やばい can be used to say something is awful or amazing. And うまい means “good,” and it’s often used instead of おいしい (listed below), to say something tastes yummy.
Delicious: おいしい (oishii)
Disgusting: 不味い (mazui)
Beautiful: 美しい (utsukushii)
Ugly: 醜い (minikui)
Expensive: 高い (takai)
Cheap: 安い (yasui)
Hot: 暑い (atsui)
Cold: 寒い (samui)
New: 新しい (atarashii)
Old: 古い (furui)
Fresh: 新鮮な (shinsen na)
Rotten: 腐った (kusatta)
Bright: 明るい (akarui)
Dark: 暗い (kurai)
Clean: 清潔な (seiketsu na)
Dirty: 汚い (kitanai)
Soft: 柔らかい (yawarakai)
Hard: 硬い (katai)
Strong: 強い (tsuyoi)
Weak: 弱い (yowai)
Safe: 安全な (anzen na)
Dangerous: 危ない (abunai)
Wet: ぬれた (nureta)
Dry: 乾いた (kawaita)
Quiet: 静かな (shizuka na)
Noisy: 騒々しい (souzoushii), うるさい (urusai)
Busy: 忙しい (isogashii)
Free: 暇な (hima na)
Cute: 可愛い (kawaii)
Pretty: きれいな (kirei na)
Scary: 怖い (kowai)
Round: 丸い (marui)
Sharp: 鋭い (surudoi)
You’ll notice that 高い is listed here again -- it means both “expensive” and “tall/high.” And as for the adjective “noisy”... Well, 騒々しい means “loud” and “noisy,” but stating it as a fact. うるさい is used to describe something or someone who’s loud, annoying, obnoxious, picky, or fussy. So it has the connotation that whatever is “noisy” is also irritating.
How to Use Japanese Adjectives: A Quick Grammar Lesson
Now, let’s learn how to use these adjectives in sentences. As I mentioned, there are two forms of Japanese adjectives: い-adjectives, and な-adjectives. Unlike English, Japanese adjectives conjugate to fit the sentence. The positive, though? If you already know basic Japanese verb conjugation, then this is fairly simple.
い-adjectives in Japanese
い-adjectives can simply drop in front of a noun as is, or be added to the end of a sentence and conjugated to fit the tense.
For example, if you wanted to say “dirty socks,” you would just drop the adjective 汚い in front of the noun, socks - 靴下. So you get 汚い靴下.
But if you wanted to say “My socks are dirty,” you’d say 靴下が汚いです. Since this is in the present tense, all we have to do is add です to the end, which is the helping verb “is” or “to be.”
If you wanted to express it in the past tense, you drop the い and add かった, like casual-form verb conjugation. So, 汚い becomes 汚かった (kitanakatta). For negative and past negative, drop the final い and add くない (present) or くなかった (past). Again, 汚い would become present negative 汚くない (kitanakunai) or past negative 汚くなかった (kitanakatta). In formal situations, you can use ありません instead of ない: 汚くありません (kitanakuarimasen).
Remember how I told you this comes in handy if you forget the opposite word? If you forget the word for “clean,” you can just say “It’s not dirty” or 汚くないです.
If you want to join two adjectives, you drop the い and add くて to the first adjective only. So, let’s use 汚い靴下 again. Maybe these dirty socks are also stinky (臭い, nioi). So, we would drop the い from 汚い and change it to 汚くて. Then add the second adjective and noun: 汚くて臭い靴下 (kitanakute nioi kutsushita).
な-adjectives in Japanese
な-adjectives, like い-adjectives, conjugate when placed at the end of sentences. But when used directly before a noun, they’re used as-is. So, let’s use 元気な as an example. If I wanted to say an “energetic child,” I would say 元気な子供 (genki na kodomo). But if I wanted to say “The child is energetic,” I would drop な and add です: 子供は元気です (kodomo wa genki desu).
To make this negative or past tense, you would conjugate the verb です like you normally would. でした (past), ではありません (present negative), ではありませんでした (past negative). In casual form, this would be だ (present), だった (past), じゃない (present negative), and じゃなかった (past negative).
To combine two な-adjectives, you only have to add で to connect them. So, if the child is energetic yet quiet, you could say 子供は元気で静かです (kodomo wa genki de shizuka desu).
Color Your Sentences With Japanese Adjectives
Now you know all the basics of Japanese adjectives! Make sure to practice them with your Japanese language exchange partner so you get the hang of conjugating them fast.
And if you’re looking to learn more Japanese, JapanesePod101 is a great place to start. You can learn more vocab and grammar in context while listening on the go!
What other adjectives would you add to the list? Share them in the comments!
The post 90 Japanese Adjectives to Add Color to Your Conversations appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
January 5, 2020
20 Basic Portuguese Phrases for Travellers and Tourists
Whichever Portuguese-speaking nation you want to visit, you'll have a much richer experience if you get some basic Portuguese phrases under your belt before you board the plane.
As I never grow tired of saying on this blog, travelling with English alone is extremely limiting. You don't have to become fully fluent in every Portuguese dialect to have fun on a short trip to Brazil, but even a small bit of effort to learn the most common Portuguese phrases can make a big difference to your trip, and to how locals perceive you.
My favourite place to start learning a language is with a phrasebook. They're a great way to get a basic introduction to the language and learn the most essential expressions without having to worry about grammar rules or verb conjugations or the finer points of the imperfect passive subjunctive.
But if you don't have time to study an entire Portuguese phrasebook, start with the following essential Portuguese words and expressions and you can't go too far wrong.
And if you want to get more in-depth with Portuguese, check out my favourite resources for learning Portuguese.
"Hello" in Portuguese - Olá/Oi
There are many different ways to greet someone in Portuguese. The most important one to know is olá, which simply means "hello".
In Brazilian Portuguese, the word oi is very common as well. Oi is a more casual way to greet someone, like saying "hi" or "hey" in English.
Oi is not so common in Portugal.
"Excuse me" in Portuguese
The phrase "excuse me" serves a few different functions in English.
First of all, it can be used to get someone's attention. A polite way to do this in Portuguese is to say com licença or simply licença.
Licença is also what you'd say if you were pushing through a crowd; it's a polite way to ask someone to step out of your way.
"Excuse me?" can also mean "can you please repeat yourself?" In Portuguese, you can accomplish this with a como? or o que disse?
Or, if you're in Brazil, you can use a word we've already seen: oi. While oi pronounced with a flat tone means "hi", as mentioned above, you can also say it with a rising tone -- oi? -- to ask someone to repeat themselves.
"Good Morning", "Good Afternoon" and "Good Night" in Portuguese
Three essential phrases to know in Portuguese are bom dia, boa tarde, and boa noite, which respectively mean "good morning", "good afternoon", and "good night". Which one you use depends, obviously, on the time of day.
Bom dia literally means "good day", but you only ever use it in the morning, i.e. before midday.
Newcomers to Portuguese often struggle to pronounce bom - the masculine form of the adjective "good" - correctly. From the spelling, you'd think it was pronounced like the English word bomb, but this is dead wrong.
The -om ending actually represents a nasal vowel. This means that, instead of closing your mouth like you would for a normal "m" sound, you only say the "o", but you let the air out through your nose as well as your mouth.
If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry -- this is a tricky thing for beginners to master. As a starting point, just pronounce bom like the English word "bong". This is much closer to the correct pronunciation than "bomb" is.
After midday you can’t say bom dia anymore; instead, you must use boa tarde in the place of of bom dia. Then, after 6 pm, you say boa noite ("goodnight").
"Goodnight" in English isn't really a greeting; you'd normally only say it to someone who is about to go to bed. Boa noite can carry this meaning in Portuguese, but it can also be used as a greeting, or as a more generic way of saying "bye".
What about "good evening"? The distinction between the "afternoon" and "evening" doesn't exist in Portuguese. There's only the tarde and the noite.
It's easy to remember which one to use: between midday and 6 pm, it's the tarde. From 6 pm onwards, it's the noite. Simple!
"How are you?" in Portuguese
After you've greeted someone with an olá or bom dia, follow it up with a como vai? ("how are you?").
You'd typically respond to como vai? with a simple bem ("well").
Or instead of como vai? you can use tudo bem and tudo bom. Both of these expressions mean "everything (is) good", and they can be both a question and a response.
What I mean by that is, to say "how are you?" in Portuguese, you can say tudo bem? or tudo bom? And if someone asks you either of these questions, you respond with the one that they didn't say.
I.e. if someone asks you tudo bom?, you reply with tudo bem!. If someone asks you tudo bem?, reply with tudo bom!
"Yes" in Portuguese
"Yes" in Portuguese is sim. Like bom above, sim contains a nasal vowel. To a first approximation, it sounds like the English word "sing".
However, in Brazilian Portuguese specifically, the word sim is almost never used. This isn't because Brazilians are a disagreeable bunch - it's just a quirk of their dialect. Saying sim when someone asks you a question is quite unnatural.
So what should you say instead of sim? The trick is to repeat the word from the question. It's best illustrated by example:
Você está com frio? - "Are you cold?"
Estou - "I am"
Você gostou do filme? - "Did you like the film?"
Gostei - "I liked (it)".
Você fala português - "Do you speak Portuguese?"
Falo - "I speak (it)"
It's easy to get used to.
Note that in European Portuguese, people aren't so shy about saying sim. You can still respond by repeating the verb in the manner above, but there's nothing wrong with simply saying sim instead.
"No" in Portuguese
Of course, you might not always want to say sim, even in Portugal. In this case, a simple não, which means "no", will suffice.
Você está com frio? - "Are you cold?"
Não - "no"
Você gostou do filme? - "Did you like the film?"
Não, foi uma bosta! - "No, it was crap!"
Você fala português - "Do you speak Portuguese?"
Não falo - "I don't speak (it)"
Mentira! - "Liar!"
"Where is ... ?" in Portuguese
If you're a tourist newly arrived in a Portuguese-speaking country, you might struggle to find your way around. If so, ask for directions using onde está ...? - "where is ... ?"
Here are a few things you might ask, and this is a good opportunity to note some of the vocabulary differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese:
Onde está a estação de trem? - "Where is the train station?" (Brazilian Portuguese)
Onde está a estação de comboio? - "Where is the train station?" (European Portuguese)
Onde está o banheiro? - "Where is the bathroom?" (Brazilian Portuguese)
Onde está a casa de banho? - "Where is the bathroom?" (European Portuguese)
Onde está o ponto de ônibus? - "Where is the bus stop?" (Brazilian Portuguese)
Onde está a parada de autocarro? - "Where is the bus stop?" (European Portuguese)
(Note that, due to the dominance of Brazilian media and entertainment in the Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese people are far more familiar with brasileirismos - Brazilian words and expressions - than Brazilians are with portuguesismos.)
"Please" in Portuguese
By learning a bit of Portuguese for your travels, you're being a little more respectful and polite than you would be by assuming that everyone you need to talk to already speaks English.
With that in mind, it's time to learn a word that's essential for etiquette in just about every language: "please"!
To make a sentence or request more polite in Portuguese, stick por favor - "please" - on the end.
So for example, if you're a restaurante and you want to ask for the conta (bill), you could say this to the moço (waiter): Você pode trazer a conta, por favor?
"Thank you" in Portuguese
Now that you know how to say "please", it's time to learn the other essential phrase that will make your Portuguese more polite: "thank you".
The way to say "thank you" in Portuguese depends on your gender. If you're male, say obrigado. If you're female, say obrigada. Often this is shortened to a simple 'brigado or brigada.
Just like English has "thank you", "thanks", "cheers", and more, there are a few different ways to thank someone in Portuguese. You can get by with obrigado/obrigada alone, but see this article for a more detailed explanation of all the alternatives.
"Bye" in Portuguese
We've covered "hello". What about "goodbye"?
As in English, there are a few different ways to say "bye" in Portuguese. The most useful to know is tchau. It’s pronounced exactly like the Italian ciao, from which it's derived.
Another way to say goodbye is adeus, which is more formal. It literally means "to God". You may have noticed that adeus is similar to adios, the Spanish equivalent which is increasingly used these days in English. So that makes adeus easy to remember!
That’s Plenty of Portuguese Phrases to Get You Started!
I hope you enjoy your time in the Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) world. I certainly enjoyed my time in Brazil - enough to make me visit again and again! Maybe you’ll be the same.
The above phrases won't turn you into a fluent falante (speaker) of Portuguese, but they're a start. I hope you have as much fun with the Portuguese language as I have.
What other Portuguese phrases are the most important for a beginner or a tourist to know? When you were first learning Portuguese, was there anything in particular you struggled with? Is there anything important that I've missed here?
I'd love to know what you think. Just let me know in the comments below.
The post 20 Basic Portuguese Phrases for Travellers and Tourists appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
January 2, 2020
Language Mentors #10: Luke Korns – World Traveler, Continuous Documentary Maker (for 2+ million subscribers)
"Ordering food is the first thing I like to learn in my new languages and waiters are always patient and flattered that you even tried! No pressure." - Luke Korns
I’m really excited to have interviewed Luke Korns for our Language Mentors series!
From a young age, Luke Korns wondered how movies were made and couldn't wait to get his hands on his first camera.
Then in 2011, he decided to create a YouTube channel that would be a continuous documentary sharing his adventures, weird thoughts, and creative ideas. Since then, his channel has grown to have more than two million subscribers.
Luke now travels the world as he creates his continuous documentary. He says:
"I'm a person who moves around a lot. I'm obsessed with other worlds and doing all I can to access them. I'm a filmmaker in order to maintain my ideas and adventures which otherwise would be lost in time, forgetting things is one of my biggest fears! This is one of the top motives that inspires me to take out my camera and capture the moment!"
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Luke in the middle of the wilderness in Norway.[/caption]You can find Luke on YouTube. He also has a Spanish language YouTube channel.
Language Mentors: Learn a New Language in 90 Days
Language Mentors is our popular series where we interview polyglots, language teachers, language learners and even folks from outside the field of language learning. We’re getting straight to the point, asking for their top tips on language acquisition, steadfast motivation, and rapid learning.
We want to give you the inside scoop on what it takes to learn a new language, fast (in as little as 90 days).
We’ve actually seen hundreds of people learn a new language to conversational level in just 90 days. You can do it too by putting what you learn from our Language Mentors into practice.
And if you need extra support, then join us in the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge -- where you’ll make lots of new friends who share your goal of learning a new language fast (plus you’ll have a 15-minute conversation in your new language after 90 days -- we guarantee it).
Read on to learn some of Luke Korns’s language learning hacks. And get to know some fun facts about a creative polyglot at the same time.
What is your favorite place to study a new language?
My favorite place to study a new language would be anywhere with a speaker who has a goal to learn English, and that's the extent of it. It could be in a coffee shop, the beach, on a long midnight walk.
I feel as if I learn the most with a partner who is as passionate as I am to learn a language. Sharing our struggles and correcting each other to me are extremely valuable.
[caption id="attachment_28553" align="aligncenter" width="652"]
Luke climbed up to the top of this construction in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.[/caption]What are your top three favorite study tools when you first start learning a language?
A notebook because I see the value in physically writing down notes.
Duolingo because it's Duolingo.
And an app called Tandem which is used to connect with language partners all around. This debunks the myth that you have to immerse yourself in another culture to advance in a language and I love that!
What are your top three favorite memories of a language win?
Being in Costa Rica and having my first conversation in Spanish even though I understood less than half and I'm not even entirely sure what the general topic was but communication was achieved!
Having a deep conversation with my friend and totally forgetting I was speaking a second language.
When an old lady at the store asked me what part of Peru I was born in. (Her hearing must have been shot because my gringo accent is quite prevalent, but I was flattered anyway!)
[caption id="attachment_28554" align="aligncenter" width="822"]
Luke Korns exploring South Korea with one of his best friends, Julian Latif.[/caption]What are your top three favorite activities to do in one of your target languages?
Order food because it's the first thing I like to learn in my new languages and waiters are always patient and flattered that you even tried! No pressure.
Meet new people! In arguably every introduction, the same five template questions are asked and I can expect them and practice my answers!
Do normal everyday activities that I would do with my American friends. I love losing the idea that I'm speaking a foreign language.
What are the top three roadblocks you see learners face?
Being insecure about your accent and errors.
Understanding some people perfectly but struggling immensely to understand others.
Losing yourself in conversations due to the rate at which natives speak.
What are your top three keys for dealing with those roadblocks?
Realize that nobody cares. Put yourself in their shoes, if someone was struggling to speak English to you, provided you are not a terrible person, you would never belittle their attempts and you would do everything in your power to understand them through their errors and accent.
Meet more people . There are dozens of different styles and flows people use when speaking a language, and although this makes cracking every aspect of the language all that more difficult, I think it's what makes language so cool. STYLE.
Listen to key points, you can dominate and be active in most conversations given just the basic idea. This isn't failproof, of course, but you'd be surprised how active you can be in a conversation without understanding every point and sentence.
What are your top three relaxing study habits for laid back days?
Listening to music. I'm not a fan of watching foreign films and TV when I'm trying to relax as I always feel like my top effort has to be given to comprehension -- depending on my level.
Going over old notes. I always am surprised how many words I have forgotten that I can reactivate simply by glimpsing over them.
Reading, if the language has a Latin-based script. Reading, to me, is by far the easiest way to practice because there's not strain on accent and speed. You go at your pace in your voice.
What is your favorite YouTube channel for learning a language?
For Spanish it would be SuperHolly, she makes tutorials for English speakers learning Spanish and is also a friend of mine!
What are your top three favorite cities?
Lima, because I moved there on a whim without doing an ounce of research and it ended up being the coolest place I've been to. (It took me a few months to realize how cool it was though.)
Tokyo, it's just another planet there.
New York City, probably the most linguistically diverse city on the planet and something about that melting pot energy makes me excited.
[caption id="attachment_28555" align="aligncenter" width="825"]
This was taken on one of Luke's last days of his year long stay in Lima, Peru.[/caption]What are the most challenging things you do in your target language?
Talking on the phone, without visual context clues -- it's difficult! Not to mention phone quality has never been anywhere near top-notch.
The clarity at which people speak! For me, speed wasn't the challenge itself, but how words are meshed together. It is how humans naturally speak, but really hard to crack if you're not native!
How do you keep yourself motivated during an intensive language mission?
Just keeping in mind that the learning graph has ups and downs and plenty of plateaus. It's all part of what makes the end goal. Also, keeping in mind that my goal is to communicate, not to be perfect.
What surprises has learning a new language given you?
My personality seems to slightly change in every language I attempt to speak. It's fun and completely unintentional.
Sometimes without even trying I'll start to think in Spanish, and then I become conscious of it, and then, can't stop.
What about You?
Which of Luke’s tips resonate most with you? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section.
Want to learn a new language in 90 days? Come join us in the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge.
A big thank you for Luke for sharing his thoughts and winning strategies with us.
To learn more about Luke, visit his YouTube channel.
The post Language Mentors #10: Luke Korns – World Traveler, Continuous Documentary Maker (for 2+ million subscribers) appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.
December 29, 2019
25 Essential Japanese Phrases for Travellers and Tourists
Learning even a few travel phrases in Japanese will break down a lot of barriers during your stay.
Japan is becoming more foreigner-friendly -- you’ll notice updated signage includes English in main cities. And many Japanese people have spent some time learning English in school. But most people aren’t comfortable talking in English.
Japanese people know how hard it is to learn their language. They highly respect anyone who tries to learn and they appreciate your effort. Your willingness to try speaking Japanese will encourage them to try speaking the English they know. It’ll help you get by, and make your stay much more enjoyable.
Besides, it’s incredibly rewarding to visit a foreign country and connect with locals in their native language. And it shows a lot of respect for their culture, which the Japanese highly value.
So here are 25 essential Japanese phrases for all you travelers out there. All these phrases will be in formal, standard Japanese speech so they’re appropriate in any situation.
If you blast through these and you’re ready to learn more, check out JapanesePod101. It’s the best podcast for learning Japanese, with courses dedicated to learning Survival Japanese -- everything you need to know in Japanese to get by. Plus, there are culture classes, beginner to advanced lessons, and more. It’s definitely my favorite for getting started.
Okay, let’s start speaking Japanese!
1. “Hello” in Japanese - こんにちは (Konnichiwa)
In Japanese, you can greet someone with こんにちは. It means “hello,” but there are many ways to greet someone in Japanese.
Konnichiwa also translates as “good afternoon,” so it’s best used during the day. In the morning, you can use おはようございます (Ohayou gozaimasu), and in the evening, こんばんは (konbanwa).
Konnichiwa actually means “This day is…” but it’s used now to say hello.
2. “Please” in Japanese - ください (Kudasai)
There are a couple of ways to say “please” in Japanese. The most universal one is ください. It means “please,” and you’d use it to ask a favor of almost anyone.
For instance, if you’re at a restaurant, you can say メニューをください (Menyu- o kudasai) to say “Please give me a menu.”
If you want to be more polite, you could use お願いします (Onegai shimasu). Either version of “please” is okay, but this one is better if you’re asking something of someone with higher status, or if you’re asking for a service. At a restaurant, both ください and お願いします are acceptable. Another example: if you’re ready for the check, you say お会計お願いします (o-kaikei onegai shimasu).
Unlike English, where “please” can be at the beginning or end of the sentence, it always comes at the end of the sentence in Japanese.
3. “Thank You” in Japanese - ありがとうございます (Arigatou gozaimasu)
To thank someone in Japanese, you say ありがとうございます. That’s the most common way.
But maybe you learned “thank you” was “Domo arigatou, Mr. Roboto.” from the song. どもありがとう does mean “thank you” as well, but more like “Thank you very much.” And it’s a little less formal without the ending ございます (gozaimasu).
4. “Excuse Me” in Japanese - すみません (Sumimasen)
When you want to get someone’s attention, you can say すみません, followed by your question or request.
You can also use this to ask someone (politely) to move, or even to apologize in place of “sorry.”
5. “Let’s Eat” in Japanese - いただきます (Itadakimasu)
いただきます is a unique Japanese phrase. It’s used like “let’s eat” in English or “bon appetit” in French. But it’s original meaning is “I humbly receive” and it’s always said before every meal, even when you eat alone. It’s a way to give thanks for the food, almost like saying grace.
When eating with others, it’s the signal to begin eating. You clap your hands together in a prayer position and say “いただきます！”
But, if you wanted to suggest grabbing a bite to eat, the polite way to ask would be 食べませんか (Tabemasen ka, “Would you like to eat?”).
6. “Thank You for the Food” in Japanese - ごちそうさまでした (Gochisousama deshita)
After a meal, you always say ごちそうさまでした. It means “thank you for the food,” and you’d say it to whoever treated you to your meal or cooked your food. Even if you paid for or made your own meal, you say this as an expression of gratitude to have food to eat.
7. “One” in Japanese - 一つ (Hitotsu)
There are two different ways to count in Japanese, but for most basic phrases you’ll need to know “one” as 一つ. Hitotsu is the universal counter for the number 1, meaning you can use it to specify how many of anything you want or have.
The phrase 一つをください (Hitotsu o kudasai) means “one, please.” You can use it to ask for one ticket, one pastry, one of anything while you’re out. Simply point and say Hitotsu o kudasai.
8. “Yes” and “No” in Japanese - はい (Hai) and いいえ (Iie)
To say “yes” in Japanese, you say はい and “no” is いいえ. Both of these are the polite, formal way to say them. However, you’ll more often hear うん (un) and ううん (uun) even though these are informal. Since you’re learning the basics, stick to hai and iie for now, but just know you may hear un and uun from others.
There’s another way to say “no” that’s more common because it’s less direct than iie. I’ll get to that in a moment.
9. “What’s Your Name?” in Japanese - お名前は何ですか (O-namae wa nan desu ka)
In Japanese, you can ask for someone’s name by saying お名前は何ですか. “Ka” is a question particle, so it takes the place of “?” at the end of a sentence in Japanese.
When replying, Japanese people say either only their last name or their last name and then first name. If you want to answer this question, you can simply say your name followed by です (desu). So here's how that exchange might look:
“お名前は何ですか。” (O-namae wa nan desu ka)
“たけうちなおこです。お名前は何ですか。” (Takeuchi Naoko desu. O-namae wa nan desu ka.)
“サカサスケイトリンです。” (Sakasasu Keitorin desu.)
In that example, the other person is Naoko Takeuchi (if only I was so lucky as to introduce myself to the creator of Sailor Moon!). But in Japanese, she’s known by her family name first: Takeuchi Naoko.
As a 外国人 (gaikokujin, “foreigner”), I could say my name as either Keitorin Sakasasu or Sakasasu Keitorin. Either way is fine.
After meeting someone, it’s respectful to say よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegai shimasu, “Nice to meet you.”)
10. “How are you?” in Japanese - お元気ですか (O-genki desu ka)
In Japanese, you can ask someone how they are with お元気ですか. But it’s more common to say お元気でした (O-genki deshita), which is past tense for asking someone “How have you been?” You don’t often ask how someone is doing in Japanese, but rather how they have been since you’ve seen them last (when it’s been a while).
11. “I’m Sorry” in Japanese - ごめんなさい (Gomen nasai)
To apologize in Japanese, you can say ごめんなさい (gomen nasai) or ごめんね (gomen ne). Gomen ne is more casual, but still quite common even in semi-formal situations. すみません (Sumimasen) works, too, or you could ask someone “Excuse me” and then follow with “Sorry” - ごめんね！
12. “What’s This?” in Japanese - これは何ですか (Kore wa nan desu ka)
Chances are, in Japan, you’ll stumble across some wild and totally different things. There are a lot of things unique to Japanese culture, from the toilets to the vending machines. So this is a good phrase to have ready!
If you don’t know what something is, ask これは何ですか and someone will explain it to you or help you out.
13. “I Don’t Understand” in Japanese - わかりません (Wakarimasen)
Still don’t know what that thing is? Or is someone trying to talk to you in Japanese, and you don’t follow along? Then reply with ごめんなさい。わかりません。(Gomen nasai. Wakarimasen).
Don’t be embarrassed to explain that you don’t understand. It won’t hurt the other person’s feelings -- and you’re just starting out! It’s better to be honest than to run into trouble because you pretended to understand.
14. “What Does _ Mean?” in Japanese - は何意味ですか (*__ wa nan imi desu ka*)
Didn’t understand a certain word in particular? You can then ask “_は何意味ですか. “ Insert the word you didn’t understand into the blank.
For instance, if someone told you that thing in the vending machine is a 傘 (kasa), and you don’t know what kasa means, then you can ask 傘は何意味ですか (Kasa wa nan imi desu ka). The other person can either explain it’s for rain -- “雨のためですよ” (Ame no tame desu yo) -- or they’ll tell you “umbrella” if they know it in English.
15. “Say it Again More Slowly, Please” in Japanese - もう一度ゆっくり言ってお願いします (Mou ichido yukkuri itte onegai shimasu)
If you still don’t understand or can’t keep up, use this phrase. Japanese people talk very fast, and the words can run together easily. So if you didn’t understand because you need to hear it slower, say すみません、わかりません。もう一度ゆっくり言ってお願いします (Sumimasen, wakarimasen. Mou ichido yukkuri itte onegai shimasu).
Or, you could shorten it to ゆっくりお願いします (Yukkuri onegai shimasu). This is just “more slowly, please.”
16. “How do you say ?” in Japanese - _ は日本語で何と言いますか (*__ wa nihongo de nan to iimasu ka*)
If you don’t know the word for something in Japanese, you don’t have to completely revert back to English! You can say _は日本語で何と言いますか and fill in the blank with the English word.
Using our umbrella example again, you could say “Umbrella は日本語で何と言いますか” and the other person can tell you it’s kasa.
17. “Do you speak English?” in Japanese - 英語を話せますか (Eigo wo hanasemasu ka)
You can ask someone if they speak English with 英語を話せますか. You could use this phrase with any language, and swap out eigo (“English”) for any other language. 日本語を話せますか (Nihongo wo hanasemasu ka) means “Do you speak Japanese?”
If you’re really trying to learn the language, not just get by briefly on a trip to Japan, then I would encourage you to keep trying to speak only in Japanese. This is your chance to learn and really speak! Don’t waste it by reverting back to English. You can always use phrases like the last one - “_は日本語で何と言いますか” - over and over again to learn how to say what you need!
18. “Where is ?” in Japanese - _ はどこですか (*__ wa doko desu ka*)
If you’re lost or looking for something, and all the signs are in kanji that you can’t read yet, then ask someone for help with “_はどこですか.” Some words you might want to fill in the blank with:
トイレ (toire) - Bathroom
駅 (Eki) - Train station
地下鉄 (Chikatetsu) - Subway
バス停 (Basu tei) - Bus stop
ホテル (Hoteru) - Hotel
地図 (Chizu) - A map
入口 (Iriguchi) - Entrance
出口 (Deguchi) - Exit
レストラン (Resutoran) - Restaurant
19. “How Much is This?” in Japanese - これはいくらですか (Kore wa ikura desu ka)
When you’re out shopping, you can find out the price of something by asking これはいくらですか. Keep in mind yen -- represented by 円 (en) in Japan -- is like counting pennies. If someone said 1000 yen (sen en in Japanese), that’s actually about $10.
20. “It’s a bit…” in Japanese - ちょっと… (Chotto…)
Ah, yes. The universal phrase, ちょっと. Chotto means “a little” or “a bit.” As a phrase by itself, it shows hesitation, and means “It’s a bit… (inconvenient, not good for me).”
You’ll hear this phrase used in place of no (iie) more than you hear a direct “no.” One thing you’ll learn is that Japanese is not a very direct language, and relies heavily on context and body language.
So, if you asked how much something was with “これはいくらですか” and it was too expensive, you can say “Aaa… chotto…” to say “Ah, that’s a bit pricey.” To be more direct, you could say ちょっと高い (Chotto takai), “It’s a bit expensive.” You may be able to score a cheaper price by being direct, but directness like that isn’t considered polite.
21. “What do you recommend?” in Japanese - おすすめは何ですか (Osusume wa nan desu ka)
If you don’t know what’s good at a restaurant or shop, you can ask someone おすすめは何ですか to get their opinion.
This is a nice phrase to know because then you can ask locals what’s good around here, where you should eat, or what the house specialty is. It’s a good way to truly experience the country!
22. “Does this go to __?” in Japanese - これは＿＿に行きますか (Kore wa _ ni ikimasu ka)
This is another helpful phrase to know if you plan on using any of the public transportation. The train system can be especially confusing, so if you’re not sure you’re hopping on the right line, ask! “これは＿＿に行きますか” will get a yes or no answer from someone. Fill in the blank with the destination of where you want to go.
23. “Do you have ?” in Japanese - ＿＿はありますか (* wa arimasu ka*)
If you’re looking for something, you can use the phrase “＿＿はありますか” to ask. But this is also helpful if you’re at a restaurant and you’re wondering if they can meet your dietary needs. For instance, if you’re vegetarian, you could ask ベジタリアンメニューはありますか (Bejitarian menyu- wa arimasu ka).
If you can’t eat something specific, use the phrase “は食べられません。” ( wa taberaremasen) For example, I can’t eat gluten. So I could say グルテンは食べられません。(Guruten wa taberaremasen.) If it’s an allergy, you can say にアレルギーがあります。 (* ni arerugi- ga arimasu.*)
Here’s a few things you may not be able to eat:
肉 (niku) - Meat
牛肉 (gyuuniku) - Beef
豚肉 (butaniku) - Pork
鶏肉 (toriniku) - Chicken
ピーナッツ (pi-nattsu) - Peanuts
小麦 (komugi) - Wheat
卵 (tomago) - Eggs
大豆 (daizu) - Soy
魚 (sakana) - Fish
貝類 (kairui) - Shellfish
乳製品 (nyuuseihin) - Dairy
24. “Can you take my picture, please?” in Japanese - 写真を撮ってもらえますか (Shashin wo totte moraemasu ka)
Of course, you’ll want to capture your journey to Japan! So if you’re walking about and need someone to take your picture, you can politely ask them for the favor with 写真を撮ってもらえますか. Or you could simplify it with 写真ください？ (Shashin kudasai?)
25. “I’ll have a beer to start, please” in Japanese - とりあえずビールをください (Toriaezu bi-ru wo kudasai)
This classic phrase is a must-know. Anytime you go out in Japan, you’ll hear people say とりあえずビールをください, or just とりあえずビール (Toriaezu bi-ru)! It’s such a set phrase, everyone picks it up quickly. Drinking culture is a big part of Japan, and it’s rude to turn down a drink. Usually, everyone starts off the first round with beer, which is why this phrase is so common. When it’s time to toast, say かんぱい！(Kanpai, “Cheers!”)
Enjoy Your Trip to the Land of the Rising Sun with these Japanese Phrases!
These Japanese phrases will help you put the right foot forward during your stay in Japan, and help you have a deeper cultural experience.
Can you think of any other helpful Japanese phrases for travelers to know? Share them in the comments! 気を付けて (Ki wo tsukete) -- or “Be safe!”
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