Second meeting: Lesson 1, Konnichiwa (こんにちは/ Greeting Expression)

On this meeting, the first thing that we learn is about Japanese writing letter. For our information, Japanese have 3 types of writing character which is Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. For usual writing which the word come from originally Japanese, they will use Hiragana. For Katakana they use for foreign word such as ハンバーガー (hanbaagaa/ hamburger) which the word not originally Japanese or other example such as people name just like me. Faris will be write using katakana instead of hiragana which it writes as ファリス (Farisu). Sensee told us that it is really heart breaking if we use hiragana to write our name. 😅hehe.

Next, is about Japanese grammar. It is just a brief about it grammar such the word arrangement, the connector and capula. Usually, in Japanese language they will start with nouns instead of verb. For example, if we want to say, ‘I am eating a rice’ it will be ‘watashi wa gohan wo tabemasu’ or ‘わたしはごはんをたべます’. The word tabemasu which mean eating at the end of sentence. ‘wa’ and ‘wo’ as the particle of connector. The word ‘wa’ is write as は(ha) instead of わ(wa). This is special for connector and some other words. Other than that, masu in the end of the word tabemasu known as capula.

After that there we go to lesson 1 which about greating expression. Greeting is considered as one of basic manners in Japanese community. Starting from early age, a child is encouraged to greet people around them. It is considered as an early lesson and to some extent a personality is also judged by his/her greeting habit. Greeting in Japanese could be categorized timely and occasionally.

The timely greeting is very much similar to Malay or English.

Eg:

おはようございます Ohayoo gozaimasu

こんにちは Konnnichiwa

こんばんは Konbanwa

おやすみなさい Oyasuminasai

Meanwhile, the occasional greetings are broader in a way that Japan has specific greeting in many occasions. Some are very similar to Malay culture, and some are different due to cultural differences aspect.

Eg:

Self-introduction

はじめまして hajimemashite

Leaving and coming home

いってきます itte kimasu

ただいま tadaima

おかえりなさい okaerinasai

Completing work/ leaving work place

おつかれさまです otsukaresama deshita

おさきにしつれいします osakini shitsurei shimasu

Before and after eating

いただきます itadakimasu

ごちそうさまでした gochisoosama deshita

Encouraging

がんばってください ganbatte kudasai

Apologizing

すみません sumimasen

ごめんなさい gomennasai

That’s all and the end of the second meeting.