TIL: Pimsleur 1-9, Human Japanese Ch:10 (1/2)

I’ve been cooped up a lot since the kid was born, and recently focusing a lot on either Japanese, or on Houdini. So it was a nice change of pace to get a chance to catch up with some of the gang from college on Wednesday night. I managed to do some Japanese during lunch that day, but visits made me miss out on my nightly update.

It’s satisfying to finally be doing some jogging on the treadmill. It’s amazing how difficult even that is after a long period of no exercise! I’m definitely trying to ease into it since I know I’m not in shape, but even after 3 weeks I’m starting to see some results. So far the hill settings with a weight vest have been enough, but I’ve managed to lose 5lbs so far, and Wednesday was the first time I’ve actually done any jogging in a longtime. Another couple of weeks and I should be able to do some solid jogging for the whole 30 minutes!

And of course, the Pimsleur Japanese that I learned included:

Vocabulary:

    に – The particle (に): can be used to mark the direction, time, or the indirect object of a Japanese sentence. For example, “I’m leaving at 3 o’clock” (watashi wa sanji ni hanareru).
    いちじ – 一時 – one o’clock
    一 – one (already covered in Human Japanese)
    二 – two (already covered in Human Japanese)
    八 – eight (already covered in Human Japanese)
    九 – nine (already covered in Human Japanese)
    時 – o’clock
    ビール二本 – two beers (It seems that I have to use 二本 in order to specify to Google Translate that I mean two beer. Typing simply にほん results in a translation of Beer Japan… which makes perfect sense if taken out of context. So I need to try to remember that 本 is the counter…. but more specifically 二本 is easily identifiable as two, while 日本 is easily identifiable as Japan.)
    それとも – or (this specifically is used at the start of a sentence, while か is used mid sentence.
    も – “too” or “also”. It expresses agreement or similarity… I also like apples.
    わたしと – with me
    と – with. (と is used to say and or with.). It can connect two nouns, but it cannot be used to connect phrases or clauses. ie: I like apples and cheese.
    わかりました – understood (ます is present tense, while ました is past tense. There is no future tense.)
    します – to do
    なにかのみませんか。 – Won’t you drink something?
    それともひるごはんをたべませんか。 – … or, won’t you eat lunch?

Human Japanese

I think it’s a great idea to be learning from different sources simultaneously! It seems like there’s some overlap between Pimsleur, Human Japanese, and Influent. I didn’t really plan ahead for that, but it’s great that that’s how it worked out. Human Japanese this time around, is about Times and Seasons… which is great since I’d just listened to times yesterday with the above Pimsluer vocabulary.

Now of course, Human Japanese hasn’t gotten to discussing kanji at all yet, but I’m trying to pick some of it up. It helps, because when typing, I’m able to get recommendations… which when I combine with dictionaries can tell me if I’m getting it right.
日 for example, is grade 1 kanji, which is used for “day”. It also means “sun” which I’m assuming is why it’s used in the land of the rising sun… 日本. It is a little confusing though, since the character by itself has no pronunciation that seems relevant to the Hiragana below. Just as interesting, is that the word for the nation, has no official pronunciation!

    おととい – 一日 – the day before yesterday. I think this is interesting as it’s literally “one last day” in kanji
    きのう – 昨日 – yesterday or “last day”
    ゆうべ – 昨夜 – last night
    けさ – 朝 – this morning or literally “now morning”
    きょう – 今 - today or literally “now day”
    よる – 夜 – night. is taught in grade 2
    あした – 明日 – “tomorrow day” can by typed easily as “min”, means “next”. The i, is not really pronounced, and becomes a “whispered vowel”. It sounds like ash’ta.
    あさって – 明後日 – the day after tomorrow. means”later, afterwards, future, etc.

I don’t think I’m going to be remembering the kanji. Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to confuse myself with them yet. Apparently おととい and あさって are used fairly frequently.

    にちようび – 日曜日 – Sunday – 日 means sun
    げつようび – 月曜日 – Monday – 月 means moon
    かようび – 火曜日 – Tuesday – 火 means fire
    すいようび – 水曜日 – Wednesday – 水 means water
    もくようび – 木曜日 – Thursday – 木 means wood
    きんようび – 金曜日 – Friday – 金 means gold
    どようび – 土曜日 – Saturday – 土 means earth

It seems that Japan adopted a 7 day week as early as 1007, though didn’t use the fully western-style calendar until during the Meiji era. I get easily distracted from just studying the basics 😀

    せんせんしゅう – 先々週 – the week before last, is a repetition kanji or “ideographic iteration mark”, it means that the kanji just before should be repeated. The pronunciation changes according to the kanji being repeated, but a lot of the time, the second kanji will be pronounced like the first one, but with a dakuten (hi->bi, to->do, ha->ba). It often makes a word mean “more than one of that thing”.
    せんしゅう – 先週 – last week, means “previous”
    こんしゅう – 今週 – this week, means “week”
    らいしゅう – 来週 – next week, means “next”
    さらいしゅう – 再来週 – the week after next, means “again”
    せんせんげつ – 先々月 – the month before last, means “moon” in the context of the days, but it also means “month”
    せんげつ – 先月 – last month
    こんげつ – 今月 – this month
    らいげつ – 来月 – next month
    さらいげつ – 再来月 – the month after next

So while referring to months as moments in time… as above… we use the word げつ((月)). But when referring to the month as a suffix/counter we say がつ((ALSO 月)) instead. Different pronunciation, same kanji.

    いちがつ – 一月 – January
    にがつ – 二月 – February
    さんがつ – 三月 – March
    しがつ – 四月 – April ((NOTICE: the use of し, rather than よん))
    しちがつ – 七月 – July
    くがつ – 九月 – September

My brain can only handle so much intake at once…. but in addition to the modern names, which are simply counted months, there are also old names on the months. Months 4, 7, 9 use the rarer form of the number for some reason.

    おととし – 一昨年 – the year before last, 一昨 is used just like when talking about the day before last
    きょねん – 去年 – last year, is new
    ことし – 今年 – this year, 今 is used just like when talking about today
    らいねん – 来年 – next year, 来 is used just like when talking about next week
    さらいねん – 再来年 – the year after next, 再来 is used just like when talking about the week after next.
    まい~ – a prefix that means “every”
    まいにち – 毎日 – every day is the same as “sun” which is used in Sunday.
    まいしゅう – 毎週 – every week
    まいつき – 毎月 – every month
    まいとし – 毎年 – every year

It looks like there’s still quite a bit to go in this chapter, and it’s currently 1:33am…. so I’m going to call it quits here for the night.

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