Day 8: Human Japanese

Chapter 12
This chapter dealt with the question marker か. This was pretty simple since I already knew about the function of か and how it turns a sentence into a question when added to the end of the sentence. They also introduced そう in this lesson which means "that way/so" as a way to respond to a question. The third thing introduced was 何 (なに / なん) meaning "what."

Chapter 13
This was a vocabulary lesson titled "A Stroll Through Town."

Vocabulary:
店 - みせ store, shop
レストラン - restaurant
スーパーマーケット - supermarket
スーパー - supermarket (abbr.)
ゆうびんきょく - post office
えき - train station
コンビニ - convenience store
こうばん - police box
ぎんこう - bank
-や - store suffix
パン - bread
パン屋 - bread store (bakery)
やさん - person who works at store
ほんやさん - bookseller

き - tree
くさ - grass
はな - flower
かわ - river
みずうみ - lake
やま - mountain
そら - sky
たいよう - sun
くも - cloud
あめ - rain

じてんしゃ - bicycle
バイク - motorized cycle
オートバイ - automatic bicycle (motorcycle)
くるま - car
たくしい - taxi
バス - bus
バス停 - ばすてい bus stop
電車 - でんしゃ train
ちかてつ - subway
みち - road

Chapter 14
We switch back to grammar in this chapter. HJ talks about the は particle.

Vocabulary:
わたし - I/me
あなた - you
ともだち - friend
ひと - person
そのひと - that person
-たち - pluralizer
-さん - polite name suffix

Normally, any noun in Japanese can be interpreted as one or many. For example 犬 could be one dog or many dogs. However, there's a special case for people. You can use たち after a type of person to indicate more than one. For example せんせいたち means "the teachers."

In the case of さん, you would attach it to any person's name. However, for friends and coworkers (in the same company), you need not use the さん suffix as coworkers are considered a sort of family.

"You" is not commonly used in Japan. More often, the Japanese use the persons name instead of a pronoun to refer to "you." あなた is usually used when you don't know the person's name or you just met them and forgot their name.

And then the lesson goes into the conjugation of です which I already know.

Cultural Note: Trains
In this lesson note, it talks about how the Japanese commute to school or work via the extensive train system. Bicycles are seen all over Japan as a way to get to trains, and some commuters even have two bikes, one to get to the train, and one waiting after getting off to get to their workplace.

The biggest train in Japan is the JR and the fastest is the bullet train (しんかんせん) that can travel at 300 km/h. As a tourist, you can purchase a train pass that lets you ride any of the trains for an unlimited amount per day until it expires.

Day 8: Kanji Practice!

The words I did today were:
社 - シャ office
空 - そら sky
読む - よむ to read
外 - ガイ, ゲ outside

Day 8: Anki

Words that I remember:
読む - よむ to read
畳 - たたみ tatami
床 - ゆか wooden floor
お箸 - おはし chopsticks
障子 - しょうじ sliding paper door
冷蔵庫 - れいぞうこ refrigerator
布団 - ふとん futon
カウチ - couch