Loving the dark
roasted bean ...
roasted bean ...
the teaching ...
and the learning ...
and, one day, the earning ...
and the learning ...
and, one day, the earning ...
Konnichi wa, mina san. こんにちは , みな さん.
It's time to build our vocabulary. The more words you know in Japanese the better able you will be to speak and understand it. So, today we're going to learn words relating to family. In Japanese, there are different ways to say the family terms depending upon if we're referring to our own family or someone else's family. Mainly, when referring to someone else's family we use more polite words and honorific terms. Check out the table below:
I've included the kanji so you can see what it looks like. But not to worry, we're not going to focus on kanji today. Also, there are additional words for the family members in the chart above that I haven't listed. Check the sources below to learn the alternate words for family members. Just remember, whatever term you use, make sure you're using the correct politeness level.
According to Wikipedia*, "The Japanese language has many honorifics, referred to as keigo (敬語, literally "respectful language"), parts of speech that show respect. Their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank." As you can see, when talking with someone (outside of your family), you refer to your own family in the familiar (or humble) terms. And, when you refer to someone else's family you use the honorific, or polite, terms. It's the difference between saying, for example, grandma or grammy (when it's your grandmother) and Grandmother Smith (when it's the Smith family's grandmother). You wouldn't say, "How's your Granny doing?" to Mr. Smith whom you've just met at work, right? You'd be more polite. Now in some of the honorific forms (someone else's family), you see the ending さん, or san. This ending shows respect to the person referred to. [When talking directly to someone else's family it gets more complicated. We'll be going over that in upcoming posts. ] In the familiar, or humble, forms (your own family) you may see the ending ちゃん, or chan, which is a term of endearment. You can add the term ちゃん to a couple of the other family terms (your family) as well. For example, aunt and uncle would be おばちゃん, oba-chan, and おじちゃん, oji-chan. Adding the chan ending makes the term more familiar, while leaving it out makes the term more formal. [When talking directly to your own family this changes as well. Again, we'll work on this in later posts.] Pay close attention to the words for aunt and uncle, and grandmother and grandfather because they have similar spellings but are pronounced differently. For example: おば oba means aunt おばあ obaa means grandmother (hold the ah sound longer) おじ oji means uncle おじい ojii means grandfather (hold the ee sound longer)
Okay, here's a video from Japanese101.com. It is a bit advanced, however it's good pronunciation practice. And any chance you get to have the language in your ears is good. We'll be going over the rest of the family words in Part 2 so you can get a head start in hearing and seeing them.
Here's your free practice writing worksheet for this week:
Okay, that's it for this week. Oh, wait! That's right, I almost forgot. Here's this week's Kanji to practice:
一 いち ichi = one (the number one) It's is drawn as a straight horizontal line from left to right. Okay, now that's it for this week. Thank you for reading and learning with me. I'll meet you back here next week for All in the Family, Part 2. Mata ne!
Sources:
*Wikipedia entry on Keigo Wiktionary Appendix: 1000 Japanese Basic Words And, of course, Japanesepod101.com
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