高 kou/takai (high/costly/tall)
朝chou/asa (morning)
字ji/aza (letter/character)
秋 aki (autumn)
赤akai (red)
半han (half)
電den/ten (electric/electricity)
開hiraku/akeru (to open)
有yuu/aru (to have/to exist)
時 ji/toki (time)
These are my most recently learned Kanji, have to print more flashcards to get started on a new set. Looking forward to learn more Kanji ^___^v
Recently I’ve been studying Japanese adjectives, I felt like that was missing in my studies and it’s something needed for making sentences (actually I’ve studied them before, but very midly…)
Tim Matheson’s study material has been a great support, since everything is explained in a clear language with good examples and in a logical sequence.
So, there’s true adjectives that end in i and in shii, they remain unchanged despite appearing after or before the noun. Examples are given by me, I hope that there are no mistakes! ^^;
Example: Sabishii (lonely)
Sono kodomo wa sabishii desu (That child is lonely)
Sabishii kodomo wa kouen ni asobimasu. (A lonely child is playing in the park)
Quasi – adjectives (sometimes referred to as na adjectives) have na attached when they come before the noun and drop the na if they come after the noun.
Example: Kirei (pretty)
Kore wa kirei na hana desu (This is a pretty flower)
Kono neko wa kirei desu (This cat is pretty)
These are the basics, to use adjectives properly I recommend (again) Tim Matheson’s work, this time his Japanese Adjectives available in his website http://www.timwerx.net/home/index.htm.
Here they are: the latest Kanji I’ve learned:
今kon/ima (now/ the present)
青ao (i) (blue/green)
新shin/arata/atarashii (new/fresh)
医 I (to cure/to heal)
歩 ayu(mu)/aru (ku) (to walk/to step)
明mei/akarui (light/bright)
空kuu/sora (sky/air/empty)
安an/yasui (inexpensive/safe/peaceful)
会kai/au (to meet)
悪 aku/warui (bad/evil)
I’ve always loved to study History, despite the fact that when I was in school many of my classmates found that it was a geeky thing… Lately I’ve been reading some articles about the Portuguese presence in Japan (The Portuguese were the first European people to ever land on Japan) and amongst many interesting things that I read I found this bit really sweet, it’s about what Francisco Xavier (a Portuguese missionary) thought of the Japanese people.
It’s a quotation from Matsuda (1965) taken from the article “Nambajin: Sobre os Portugueses no Japão” (“Nambanjin:About the Portuguese in Japan) by Daniela de Carvalho. I’ve translated this myself, as accurately as possible:
“The arrival of Francisco Xavier in Japan, as a missionary, is an historical landmark in the encounters between Europeans and Japanese. On April of 1549, Francisco Xavier arrived at Kagoshima in Kyushu (the land of Anjiro) with two Spanish Jesuits. Shortly after his arrival, he wrote to a friend in Goa, saying that from all the pagan people that he had met, the Japanese were the best. According to him, no other people could match them, because the Japanese were very kind and honest and didn’t have any bad thoughts in them. He also wrote that they had a good sense of humor and a surprisingly ambition for fame.”
and here is the original in Portuguese:
I haven’t made any updates for a while, not because I stopped studying but because what I’ve been studying can’t exactly be conveyed into the blog and also ’cause of the lack of time.
I’ve been practicing spoken Japanese and studying grammar, doing written exercises and stuff…I think I reached a point where I really need a teacher… (where’s one?!). Well, I’ll keep doing my best and plan to make more updates soon ^_^
On a different note I’ve been hooked on this site Just Hungry which is owned by Makiko Itoh, the same from Just Bento (which I talked about in a previous post), as I love to cook I’m also loving to learn more about Japanese cuisine ^_^
yumenomelody 