Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Lesson 1 Exercises

I almost missed the lesson exercises since the link was at the top of the page before the actual lesson and not at the bottom after it, which is when you would normally do the drills to practice what you've learned. (App design flaw? Hmm...) Anyway, I imagine the exercises would be rather hard for someone who can't read kanji or hiragana, so I'm going to write it in romaji.

But first, some additional vocabulary words:

1. 大人 - otona - adult
2. 子供 - kodomo - child
3. 車 - kuruma - car
4. 先生 - sensei - teacher
5. 学校 - gakkou - school
6. 小学校 - shougakkou - elementary school
7. 中学校 - chuugakkou - middle school
8. 高校 - koukou - high school
9. 大学 - daigaku - college

(Note: I'm only adding kanji to my list of vocabulary words. There are still other vocabulary words in this lesson, but they're in hiragana such as "sore", "kore", etc.)

Conjugation Exercise 1

sore (that)
declarative = sore da (is that)
negative = sore janai (is not that)
past = sore datta (was that)
negative-past = sore janakatta (was not that)

otona (adult)
declarative = otona da (is adult)
negative = otona janai (is not adult)
past = otona datta (was adult)
negative-past = otona janakatta (was not adult)

gakkou (school)
declarative = gakkou da (is school)
negative = gakkou janai (is not school)
past = gakkou datta (was school)
negative-past =gakkou janakatta (was not school)

tomodachi (friend)
declarative = tomodachi da (is friend)
negative = tomodachi janai (is not friend)
past = tomodachi datta (was friend)
negative-past = tomodachi janakatta (was not friend)

gakusei (student)
declarative = gakusei da (is student)
negative = gakusei janai (is not student)
past = gakusei datta (was student)
negative-past = gakusei janakatta (was not student)

Conjugation Exercise 2

1. Is college. = Daigaku da.
2. Is not high school. = Koukou janai.
3. Was teacher. = Sensei datta.
4. Is adult. = Otona da.
5. Was not child. = Kodomo janakatta.
6. This was the way it was. = Kou datta.
7. Wasn't that over there. = Are janakatta.
8. Is not middle school. = Chuugakusei janai.
9. Is friend. = Tomodachi da.
10. Was not car. = Kuruma janakatta.
11. Was this. = Kore datta.
12. That's not the way it it. = Sou janai.

Question Answer Exercise

Q1) Tomodachi? - Is friend?
A1) Un, tomodachi. - Yes, is friend.

Q2) Gakkou? - Is school?
A2) Uun,  gakkou janai. - No, is not school.

Q3) Sore datta? - Was this?
A3) Uun, sore ja nakatta. - No, was not this.

Q4) Sou? - Things are that way?
A4) Un, sou da. - Yes, things are that way.

Q5) Kore? - This?
A5) Uun, Sore janai. - No, is not that.

Q6) Sensei datta? - Was teacher?
A6) Un, sensei datta. - Yes, was teacher.

Q7) Shougakkou datta? - Was elementary school?
A7) Uun, shougakkou janakatta. - No, was not elementary school.

Q8) Kodomo? - Is child?
A8) Un, kodomo. - Yes, is child.

(Please note that all sentences have been translated literally without the use of articles "a", "an" and "the" which do not exist in Japanese. Tae Kim assures us that learning Japanese grammar from a Japanese person's point of view, not an English-speaking person's point of view, is more effective in building a strong language foundation.)

Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Lesson 1 Notes

So Lesson 1: Expressing State-of-Being of Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar was fairly easy. I learned four new vocabulary words:

1. 人 - hito - man
2. 学生 - gakusei - student
3. 元気 - genki - healthy; lively; well
4. 友達 - tomodachi - friend

(To simplify things, I will use the romaji and not the kanji of these words from here on.)

Then I learned to conjugate them into the following words:

hito da - person (declarative positive non-past tense)
hito datta - was person (positive past tense)
hito janai - not person (negative non-past tense)
hito janakatta - was not person (negative past tense)

gakusei da - student
gakusei datta - was student
gakusei janai - not student
gakusei janakatta - was not student

genki da - well
genki datta - was well
genki janai - not well
genki janakatta - was not well

tomodachi da - friend
tomodachi datta - was friend
tomodachi janai - not friend
tomodachi janakatta - was not friend

(There is no "a", "an" and "the" in Japanese so they are omitted in the translations making them sound funny. Don't mind that.)

My handwriting sucks, I know. I haven't practiced writing
Chinese characters since high school. ;-p

There are only non-past and past tenses since both present and future tenses are expressed the same way in Japanese. You just figure it out through the context in which it is used. Furthermore, the positive and negative of each word has different forms.

It's not that hard to understand, really. Tae Kim advocates learning the plain forms of Japanese words before learning the polite form like most textbooks and lessons teach. I'm quite excited for lesson two next week. For now, I'll keep using the four new words I've learned to make sure I remember them. Ooh, I feel like I'm back in school. Haha! ;-D

Skipping Pimsleur for Tae Kim Today

As I was cleaning up my iPad this morning, I rediscovered this app called Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese Grammar that I downloaded a long time ago. I opened it to see whether or not I should delete it along with the other unused apps that were cluttering my device and decided to keep it. So now I plan to study one lesson a week to supplement my Pimsleur audio lessons. (To be honest, I haven't been progressing on Pimsleur Japanese Level 3 since I've just been typing up notes for level 1 lessons. But it's good that I got to review old lessons.)

I like that Tae Kim's guide is visual. I can learn the kanji to vocabulary words as I'm learning how to construct grammatically correct sentences with them. I think I discovered the website first and downloaded the IOS app afterwards. They also have an Android app for those interested. Here's their website: Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese

Learning Nihongo, The Japanese Language

The desire to speak Japanese is something that slowly developed as I watched my very first anime Rurouni Kenshin (a.k.a. Samurai X) more than ten years ago. I remember buying three books as a result of wanting to watch Rurouni Kenshin in its original language without subtitles:

• Speak Japanese Today: A Self-Study Program for Learning Everyday Japanese
• Learn to Speak Nippongo the Easy Way
• Basic Japanese

Sadly, I didn't get very far with the books as it soon proved too difficult to actually learn the correct pronunciation of the words by just reading them. And I tucked away the books and contented myself with watching anime English-dubbed.

Then about a year ago, I went through a "revival phase". As I watched more and more anime, I began to feel the sparks of interest in Japan once more. This time, I wanted to actually travel to Japan and experience the Japanese life that I saw so often in anime. And before I knew it, I was all fired up to learn Japanese again. I did some research and discovered the Pimsleur approach to learning Japanese which consists of the following comprehensive courses:

• Pimsleur Japanese, Comprehensive Level I for Beginners
• Pimsleur Japanese, Comprehensive Level II for Intermediate Learners
• Pimsleur Japanese, Comprehensive Level III for Advanced Learners

Each level has 30 lessons, and you are supposed to tackle one lesson each day, but you're also not supposed to proceed to the next lesson until you've mastered at least 80% of the previous one. I started the first course for beginners some time last year. My progress was very slow during the first several lessons. There were times when I had to repeat a single lesson for more than two weeks. I began to get frustrated, and I reached the point of giving up.

Luckily, I decided to give it another try after a long hiatus. To my surprise, I still remembered my past lessons. And the lesson that had been giving me so much trouble actually seemed easy this time! (The wonder of the human brain!) My mind began to slowly grasp the nuances of the Japanese language, and the succeeding lessons became easier to understand.

I am currently on lesson 19 of Pimsleur Japanese Level I, and I am very excited about what I have learned so far. I also like that it's in audio format so I can actually get to hear the correct pronunciation of the words, and I can simply listen to it on my mp3 player while doing something else. No textbooks, no written drills, no hassle. In the future, I will be posting notes on the lessons that I have already mastered as part of my review.

I believe that learning Japanese will add value to my experience in Japan. Being able to communicate with the Japanese people will be a great learning experience indeed.