Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Tense in とき clause

I noticed many people are confused about what tense should be used in とき clause. Apparently the textbook explanation is confusing. For now, I want to say only one thing I think you need to remind:
"present tense" in Japanese is not the same as present tense in English. In Japanese, it's mostly a future action. Sometimes it's habitual action. Please have this in mind and go over the example sentences in the textbook again. See if it does make sense now.

For example, if you say おもしろい映画を見るとき笑います。 This sounds strange because it sounds like you laugh when you are about to watch a funny movie. It's because of the present tense that's saying a future action. おもしろい映画を見るとき is referring to a point at which you did not start watching the movie yet. That makes me think why are you laughing before you watch it? Is it out of anticipation? It's weird. You should say 面白い映画を見たとき笑います。Or 面白い映画を見ているとき笑います。

Friday, September 21, 2012

More Doraemon Trivia

Doraemon is a cat-robot.

He used to have ears. But his ears were bitten off by a mouse-robot.

So he is scared of mice.

His favorite food is どら焼き(どらやき)
https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%81%A9%E3%82%89%E7%84%BC%E3%81%8D&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=CuU&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvnse&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=5MBcUKijJ4LA8ASA6IGYAQ&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1094&bih=649

His pocket is called 四次元ポケット(よじげんポケット) - four dimensional pocket.

どこでもドア works like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XMekcu9THMg#t=3145s
 
ドラ as in ドラえもん is a cat's nickname. Other common nicknames of cats are クロ、トラ、ミケ etc.

ドラえもん is a pun for どざえもん, which means a drawn dead body.

Monday, September 17, 2012

How to draw ドラえもん

Here is how to draw Doraemon by a song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksCqV7J_PLE
The song is sung by the first voice actor of Doraemon (大山のぶ代) and the drawing was done by the original manga author (藤子・F・不二雄) who already passed. This is epic!

ドラえもん videos


Here is the link to download the Doraemon video we saw today.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14406494/%E3%83%86%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%81%AB%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AD%E3%83%91%E3%83%B3.mp4

I just found the the same (Ankipan) episode of Doraemon, more recently made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fz4Dnw06HA

Here is the trailer of the remade version of my favorite Doraemon movie. It's really really cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oLPTdEqKA4

Saturday, September 15, 2012

-てくれてありがとう。

We just learned how to say "Sorry for (doing something)." Here is how to say "Thank you for (doing something)" Similar to -てすみません, you can use te-form with ありがとう(ございます。)

For example,
宿題を手伝ってくれてありがとう。(Thank you for helping me with homework)
迎えに来てくれてありがとう。(Thank you for coming to pick me up)

As in the examples, most of the time you use -てくれてありがとう。 We learned -てくれる as one of grammar topic in the lesson.

Here is a song that contains a log of examples of てくれてありがとう。
井上陽水 奥田民生 - ありがとう
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QiB5VxtMP4

Saturday, September 8, 2012

悲しい時


Examples of ~時 expressions, for Genki Lesson 16.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN6PzEDHNFk

Thursday, September 6, 2012

-てあげる・くれる songs

Here are some songs whose titles are all examples of -てあげる・くれる, lesson 16 grammar.

さよならしてあげる ― 上田まり
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmj-SO195ZA&feature=player_embedded

お嫁さんになってあげないゾ ― キテレツ大百科(TVアニメ)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww-Ir_WvFgw&feature=related

ユア メディスン~私があなたの薬になってあげる ― 一青 窈
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8fhZBRUYTo

あなたがいてくれたから ― AKB48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuimplPjA6s&feature=fvwrel

きれいだと言ってくれた ― 宇徳敬子
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKunPNWwTII&feature=related

守ってあげたい ― 松任谷由実
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbsjVANG8Zc

Friday, August 31, 2012

Monday, August 20, 2012

Vocab with L15 Kanji

Please download the kanji vocab file for Lessson 15 of Genki II at the link below.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/14406494/Kanji%20Vocab%20L15.docx

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

5 Rangers

I know I showed this before but it is too good not to share, again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3J9vQC02pI&feature=related

You really should start learning Japanese outside of the textbook, as soon as possible.

Friday, April 27, 2012

たとえばの話

This song contains a lot of  かもしれない expressions and potential form expressions.

たとえばの話 ― BONNIE PINK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDLZNoFaNJE

See the lyric here
http://j-lyric.net/artist/a0019b9/l00afba.html

Monday, April 9, 2012

Read and listen to story books for children

This is a very good learning resource for your listening and reading practice. You can read the story for children as the author read it out loud. Click the book cover on the top to start reading.
http://www.kageki.jp/

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

あげる songs

ロマンティックあげるよ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5xxIq3biq8

Rock you till the dawn ― BONNIE PINK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGarJf06P_A
「く れるならあげるわ」・「くれる人にあげるわ」・「くれるだけあげるわ」
(The collection of random anime in the video is totally unrelated to the song...)

さよならしてあげる ― 上田まり 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmj-SO195ZA

あなたならどうする

What would you do if you got dumped.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVkqBiXuD4s 

She is giving you three options: cry, walk, or die?

Don't Talk to Britney Spears like this


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdvpQRwV4-4

In this conversation (rude), they used a lot of grammar expression we have learned such as んです、し-ending、とか、ことがある、てみる、-てもらう etc.

Friday, March 9, 2012

傘がない

This song contains 「なくちゃ」 and 「だろう」 in the chorus.

傘がない by 井上陽水
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KroTX5chlA

井上陽水 is a very famous, respected singer of J-Pop and J-Folk.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

貴方の恋人になりたいのです

This song by 阿部真央 contains many たい(I want to ...) expressions.

貴方の恋人になりたいのです (I want to be your girlfriend)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS90aE8_dUQ