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Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2016 7:18 pm
by Zireael
No Arabic yet - I'm definitely poorly today, so NOT 元気 ;)

Let's have some basic Japanese phrases instead.

ありがとうございます arigato gozaimatsu thank you
ありがとう arigato thanks
いいえ ii-e no
元気ですか ogenki desu ka おげんきですか how are you?
元気 ogenki げんき feeling good

I made a chart of hiragana/katakana I know (very lacking :P) and went looking for kanji sites that give not only the kanji but also some example compounds or short sentences.

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2016 12:39 pm
by Zireael
I need to work on my differentiation skills, I mix up あ・お、ち・き・さ.

And now some basic-est grammar:
Particles
か ka question
は wa  topic[1]
が ga subject
を o  object[2]
に ni indirect object
へ e  indirect object[3]
と to and

[1] Uses the ha hiragana, not wa (tripped me up already)
[2] Uses the wo hiragana for historical reasons, the w disappeared sorta
[3] Uses the he hiragana, see above

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 2:49 pm
by Monox D. I-Fly
Zireael wrote: e  indirect object[3]

[3] Uses the katakana by default


Ummm... へ is the hiragana for "he", though it's Katakana is also the same... The Katakana for "e" is エ.

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 12:55 pm
by Zireael
川 kawa かわ river
Kawasaki. Loads of Japanese placenames.
山 san さん yama やま mountain
本 hon ほん moto もと origin, book
Nihon. Yamamoto Isoroku.
小 sho しょ small 
The opposite of 大
目 moku もく me  eye
Little Rino Kasai gazing at the reader sleepily :) Aww, かーわーいー!!

ようこそ  yokoso hello
おやすみ oyasumi good night

おやすみクマちゃん oyasumi Kuma-chan goodnight bear
熊 kuma くま bear
おやすみクマちゃん was the Japanese title of the Polish animated kids' series "Miś Uszatek" from the 70s. Apparently, the Japanese went so crazy about him that they offered to fund a short movie this year. Yes, in 2016 - 40 years after the originals were made!

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:01 pm
by Zireael
Arabic bit that I promised a few days ago (no, I am not shelving my Arabic :D )

New words

faham فهم he understand
madfu'a مدفوع paid
bahasha بهش he searches
shahur شهور months (pl.)
kadilka كذلك likewise
yarakaza تركز concentrate
hafiDa حفظ he preserves, maintains
wa lakinni ولكني however

اخبرني اذا لم تفهم شيء مما قلت tell me if you understand something from what I said

Seeing الكنجي (al-kanji) was the highlight of the message :lol:

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 10:33 am
by Zireael
十 juu じゅう ten
The last one I needed to be able to count to ten - which I do when exercising :lol:

左 sa  hidari ひだり left
右 u/yu  migi みぎ right
These look really samey, no surprise since they represent related concepts.

名 mei めい name
人名 jinmei  person's name
地 chi  earth,place, ground
地名 chimei place name
竹 take たけ bamboo
Takeuchi Taku

見 ken げん mi-ru みる see
早 so/satsu さつ haya-i はやい early
Slightly more complex kanji, one based on 目 and the other on 日.

I counted my kanji yesterday and I know exactly 50! (38 grade 1, 9 grade 2, 3 grade 3). Not all of them have featured in updates since I want to group them somehow :P

Using http://taw.github.io/jrpg/ to check my kana/kanji recognition and jisho.org for looking up words.

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 7:21 am
by Zireael
On the Russian front, my mum spotted a couple of tourist Russian booklets in a store and then helped me pick the best one (since we couldn't find her old Russian booklet she once had - must have gotten lost in one of many moves in her life)

And now for the overdue Japanese notes (I told you I know 50 kanji but not all of them featured in the log):
From Nori's blog:
時 toki とき hour
分 hun ふん  minute
秒 byou びじょう second

から kara from

写真 shashin しゃしん photo
ハカ oyabaka おやはか doting parent
"Baka" = "idiot". I wonder why a doting parent is an idiot?
親 oya おや parent

円  yen えん money

Mostly from Japanese addresses explanation on Wikipedia:
県 ken けん prefecture
市 shi  city
Suffixes after the actual name, for instance Tokyo-shi.
町 cho ちょう machi まち town
Features in town names.
区 ku  ward
Back to suffixes.
丁 cho ちょう town section
Usually as 丁目。
京  kyo きょう capital
In Kyoto and Tokyo.

国 koku こく country
日本国
国際 kokusai こくさい international

I think 3-4 kanji are missing from the list, have to wrap up the notes :P

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:40 pm
by Zireael
Some katakana since I really need to get a hang of it.
ブログ  burogu ぶろぐ blog
オフィシャル ofisharu おふぃしゃる official
グループ gurupu ぐるぷ group
スキー sukii すきい skiing
ジャンパー  jumanpaa じゅまんぱあ (ski) jumper
カー kaa かあ car
Except for the last, it all comes from ski jumpers' pages :)

Four directions + a bonus
閑西 Kansai かんさい Japanese central region 
Kansai Airport - google it. Amazing what the Japanese can do!
閑 kan かん tollgate
西 sai さい nishi にし west
東 to とう east
北 hoku ほく north
南 nan なん minami みなみ south

(Still need to wrap some pieces - I estimate I know 60 kanji now as well as some more compounds)

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 5:13 pm
by Monox D. I-Fly
Zireael wrote: oyabaka おや doting parent
"Baka" = "idiot". I wonder why a doting parent is an idiot?


Wait... Aren't ハ and は read as "ha"? The ones read as "ba" are バ and ぱ? Yes, they are just "ha" with dakuten.

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 7:21 pm
by Zireael
Monox D. I-Fly wrote:
Zireael wrote: oyabaka おや doting parent
"Baka" = "idiot". I wonder why a doting parent is an idiot?


Wait... Aren't ハ and は read as "ha"? The ones read as "ba" are バ and ぱ? Yes, they are just "ha" with dakuten.


That's because in compounds, the second part's initial sound often changes (I don't know the details yet). Mitsubishi, for instance, is written with kanji which normally are read mitsu and hishi. Think of it like ash-shams which has ال influenced by the second part.

(EDIT:And you're right about the dakuten missing :oops: )