mercy0001
Apr 06 2009, 01:35 PM
Yay!
Japanese crash course:
I had time so I decided to make this for those who have ordered the demo and are interested in the Japanese language. Feel free to post some other words and expressions. I will update this post a little bit over the coming days.
1. Word Order
Western languages have Subject – Verb – Object word orders:
Example – I / Am / Mercy0001
Asian languages like Japanese have Subject – Object – Verb word orders:
Example – I / Mercy0001 / Am (watashi wa mercy0001 desu)
2. Conjugation of verbs
Verbs aren’t conjugated to the person(s), but to time and various other meanings
Example: desu = I am, You are, He is, We are,…
FFXIII o asobimasu = I play FFXIII
FFXIII o asobimashita = I have played FFXIII
FFXIII o asobimasen = I don’t play FFXIII
FFXIII o asobimasen deshita = I haven’t played FFXIII (yet O_o)
FFXIII o asobitai = I want to play FFXIII
FFXIII o asobimashou = Let’s play FFXIII!
FFXIII o asobaseru = I’l let you play FFXIII
… You have a lot of these endings. They’re helpful but with a lot of exceptions and rules to remember.
3. Writing system
Japanese has 3 writing systems:
- Kanji (mainly used. They’re hard to remember, have different readings and you need to know at least 2000 of them to properly read something … Easy isn’t it?
- Hiragana ( Used for verb endings, special typical words, particles (see below)
- Katakana: Used for Western words. The writing system is fairly easy and the pronounciation Is close to the Western word.
- (Romaji: this is the closest translation from the Japanese characters to the alphabet. With this foreinger’s who could also read the characters, even if they don’t know them. Example: ファイナルファンタジー = Fainaru Fantajī.)
I would at least advise you to learn Katakana. It’s possible to learn how to memorize in one week and is used a lot in games. (FFXIII battle system also.)
4. Particles
Words in Japanese sentences are tied together with particles after the word. Even if you don’t know any Japanese these could come in handy to understand the root of a sentence. Here are some of the mostly used (again like verb endings there are a lot …)
- Wa = marks the subject of a sentence (hiragana: ha)
- O = In dutch it is called “lijdend voorwerp” I don’t know it in English and am too lazy an tired to look it up. It basically marks the word which is used by the verb. (example: Yochi Wada o tabemasu = I eat Yochi Wada)
- De = Marks a place where you are or where an event will happen.
- Ni = marks the place where you’re going to go (example: nihon ni ikimasu = I’m going TO Japan)
- Ni = ni is also used to mark days of the week, numerical time expressions and months.
- E = same as ni for movement (hiragana: he)
- No = connects 2 nouns
- Ka = makes a question from your sentence !! (this is important)
- Mo = means that someone Also does the action mentioned earlier.
- Yo = to state that you really are sure of something (example FFX ga arimasu yo = I really have FFX)
- Ne = used to ask for confirmation at end of your sentence
- To = Means: and, together with.
- Also there is ‘ga’ but consider for now that it is something like wa. Also it means: but (to connect two sentences)
5. Numbers
Numbers are easy in Japanese.
1-10
Ichi = 1
Ni = 2
San = 3
Yon / shi = 4
Go = 5
Roku = 6
Shichi / nana = 7
Hachi = 8
Kyuuu / ku = 9
Juu = 10
11-19 (10+?)
Juuichi = 11 (10+1)
Juuni = 12 (10+2)
Juusan = 13 (10+3)
…
20-90 (2,3,… * 10)
Nijuu = 20 (2*10)
Sanjuu = 30 (3*10)
Yonjuu = 40 (4*10)
…
100-900 (1,2,… *100)
Hyaku = 100
Nihyaku = 200 (2*100)
Gohyaku = 500 (5*100)
Exceptions: sambyaku = 300 // roppyaku = 600 // happyaku = 800
…
Now you could already make some complex numbers:
Kyuuhyaku kyujuu kyuu = 999 ((9*100)+(9*10)+(9)) <Used in Agito trailer at beginning>
1000-9000 (1,2,… * 1000)
Sen = 1000
Nisen = 2000 (2*1000)
Yonsen = 4000 (4*1000)
Exceptions: sanzen = 3000 // hassen = 8000
…
10.000 – 90.000 (1,2,… * man) man = counter for 10.000
Ichiman = 10,000 (1*man)
Niman = 20.000 (2 * man)
…
Japanese hasn’t a counter for millions. They say 100*10.000 = hyakuman …
Now you could form some really sweet numbers:
234567 = 23 *10.000 (nijuusanman)
4*1000 (yonsen)
5*100 (gohyaku)
6*10 (rokujuu)
7 (nana)
= nijuusanman yonsen gohyaku rokujuu nana
I wonder if the combos in XIII will also be so high.
6. The good parts about Japanese + some good websites
As you have seen, Japanese is a difficult language with lots of exceptions, rules and difficult writing systems. Of course there are also some benefits to the Japanese language (no female/male words, no plurals, easy to go sentences, good websites…) Our languages (French, English, German, Dutch,…) are Level 1 languages while Japanese is a level 3 language. Still the language fascinates me and I continue to learn it every day, thanks to great study books, but also with the help of some great website’s. If someone wants some better information I would advise the following websites:
http://www.kanjistep.com/ (http://www.kanjistep.com/)
This is the website where I first learned Hiragana and katakana. It’s a great site with good explanations and examples. Be sure to check it out.
http://thejapanesepage.com/ (http://thejapanesepage.com/)
This is probably one of the best sources to find information on Japanese. It has everything: Good grammar, vocabulary, writing,…
http://japanese.about.com/od/japaneselessons/u/StartLearning.htm (http://japanese.about.com/od/japaneselessons/u/StartLearning.htm)
About.com is a website which I visit a lot because there are a lot of free courses for almost everything. The Japanese section is brilliant and includes a lot of thing. I recommend this to learn something more about Japanese.
http://www.timwerx.net/language/jpverbs/ (http://www.timwerx.net/language/jpverbs/)
This website covers all the Japanese verb endings and is extremely useful.
Here I typed some of the important Kanji you might face during the demo of FFXIII. Feel free to post some more and I will add them to me original post, because I’m still learning and don’t know every kanji yet,
Useful Japanese Words/Kanji/Phrases for Final Fantasy XIII (unordered)
人= Person
友達= Friend(s)
仕事= Job, work
任務= Task
私= I
貴方/あなた = You
貴様/きさま= You (very mean, hateful)
かばん/鞄= Bag,briefcase
靴 = Shoes
武器/ぶき/ウエポン= Weapon
頭／あたま= Head
アクセサリー = Accessories
キャラクタ(ー) = Character
おねがいします/ください = Please (give me)
時間 = Time
映画/ムービー= Movie/trailer
行く= Go
帰る= Return
聞く= Hear, ask
読む= Read
見る= See, look, watch
早く= Quik!, hurry
速い= Fast
全然 = Never
大抵= Usually
時々= Sometimes
でも = But...
子供 = Child
机 = Desk
手紙 = Letter
町 = Town, city
…の時 = When …
会う= Meet
待つ = Wait
どうして= Why?
何 = What?
いつ = When?
どこ = Where?
どれ/どの = Which one/Which…
この/これ = This …/This one
その/それ = That …/That one
だれ= Who?
どうやって= How?
一人で = Alone
右 = Right
左 = Left
前 = Front
後ろ = Back
中 = Inside,middle
上 = On
下 = Under, below
隣 = Next
あいだ = Between
ここ = Here
そこ = There
海 = Sea
天気 = Weather
食べ物 = Food
飲み物 = Drinks
僕 = I (used by men)
旅行 = Travel
新しい = New
暑い = Hot
忙しい = Busy
大きい = Large, big
面白い = Interesting
怖い = Frightening
寒い = Cold
楽しい = Fun
小さい = Small
つまらない = Boring
古い = Old
難しい = Difficult
やさしい = Easy, kind
家 = House
あの… = Um…
嫌い = Dislike
きれい= Beautiful, clean
元気 = Healthy, energetic
静か = Quiet
好き= Like
大嫌い = To hate
大好き = To love
にぎやか = Lively
ハンサム = Handsome
暇 = Not busy
乗る= to ride, to board (airship??)
よる = to perform
出かける= to go out
電車= Train
急ぐ = to hurry
死ぬ= to die
手伝う= to help
入る = to enter
持つ= to Carry, to hold
忘れる = To forget
降りる = To get ooff
開ける = To open
なくす= to lose
始める = To begin
知っています= I know
知りません = I don’t know
持って行く = To take something
世界 = World
Useful expressions:
分かりません = I don’t understand
だから= So, Therefore …
すごい/スゴイ = Cool
はい= Yes
いいえ = No
みんな = Everyone, all
やった = I did it!
もちろん = Of course
大丈夫 = It’s okay, Don’t worry
一緒に= Together
助けて= Help
ありがとう/どうも = Thanks you / Thanks
がんばって = Good luck
〜から= because …
結構です = That wouldn’t be necessary
すぐ = Right away
本当ですか = Really?
残念= That’s too bad
もう= Already (Vanille said this in a screenshot!)
スノウ、早く！ 電車に乗って！
Snow, Hayaku! Densha ni notte! = Snow,Hurry, get on that train!
If you want to know the pronunciation of the kanji and hiragana, visit this link and copy the kanji or hiragana in the textbox. You could translate it to hiragana and romaji:
http://nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/ (http://nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/)
I hope every one is able to read Katakana and know a little bit of Japanese when the demo comes out. If you really are interrested in Japanese, visit http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php (http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php) and buy a good language book. I use Genki, which are personally the best I’ve seen so far because there are a lot of exercises and clear grammar explanations. I’m still learning Japanese, but feel free to pm or mail me (mercy0001@live.be (mercy0001@live.be)) if you have any further questions.
Japanese crash course:
I had time so I decided to make this for those who have ordered the demo and are interested in the Japanese language. Feel free to post some other words and expressions. I will update this post a little bit over the coming days.
1. Word Order
Western languages have Subject – Verb – Object word orders:
Example – I / Am / Mercy0001
Asian languages like Japanese have Subject – Object – Verb word orders:
Example – I / Mercy0001 / Am (watashi wa mercy0001 desu)
2. Conjugation of verbs
Verbs aren’t conjugated to the person(s), but to time and various other meanings
Example: desu = I am, You are, He is, We are,…
FFXIII o asobimasu = I play FFXIII
FFXIII o asobimashita = I have played FFXIII
FFXIII o asobimasen = I don’t play FFXIII
FFXIII o asobimasen deshita = I haven’t played FFXIII (yet O_o)
FFXIII o asobitai = I want to play FFXIII
FFXIII o asobimashou = Let’s play FFXIII!
FFXIII o asobaseru = I’l let you play FFXIII
… You have a lot of these endings. They’re helpful but with a lot of exceptions and rules to remember.
3. Writing system
Japanese has 3 writing systems:
- Kanji (mainly used. They’re hard to remember, have different readings and you need to know at least 2000 of them to properly read something … Easy isn’t it?
- Hiragana ( Used for verb endings, special typical words, particles (see below)
- Katakana: Used for Western words. The writing system is fairly easy and the pronounciation Is close to the Western word.
- (Romaji: this is the closest translation from the Japanese characters to the alphabet. With this foreinger’s who could also read the characters, even if they don’t know them. Example: ファイナルファンタジー = Fainaru Fantajī.)
I would at least advise you to learn Katakana. It’s possible to learn how to memorize in one week and is used a lot in games. (FFXIII battle system also.)
4. Particles
Words in Japanese sentences are tied together with particles after the word. Even if you don’t know any Japanese these could come in handy to understand the root of a sentence. Here are some of the mostly used (again like verb endings there are a lot …)
- Wa = marks the subject of a sentence (hiragana: ha)
- O = In dutch it is called “lijdend voorwerp” I don’t know it in English and am too lazy an tired to look it up. It basically marks the word which is used by the verb. (example: Yochi Wada o tabemasu = I eat Yochi Wada)
- De = Marks a place where you are or where an event will happen.
- Ni = marks the place where you’re going to go (example: nihon ni ikimasu = I’m going TO Japan)
- Ni = ni is also used to mark days of the week, numerical time expressions and months.
- E = same as ni for movement (hiragana: he)
- No = connects 2 nouns
- Ka = makes a question from your sentence !! (this is important)
- Mo = means that someone Also does the action mentioned earlier.
- Yo = to state that you really are sure of something (example FFX ga arimasu yo = I really have FFX)
- Ne = used to ask for confirmation at end of your sentence
- To = Means: and, together with.
- Also there is ‘ga’ but consider for now that it is something like wa. Also it means: but (to connect two sentences)
5. Numbers
Numbers are easy in Japanese.
1-10
Ichi = 1
Ni = 2
San = 3
Yon / shi = 4
Go = 5
Roku = 6
Shichi / nana = 7
Hachi = 8
Kyuuu / ku = 9
Juu = 10
11-19 (10+?)
Juuichi = 11 (10+1)
Juuni = 12 (10+2)
Juusan = 13 (10+3)
…
20-90 (2,3,… * 10)
Nijuu = 20 (2*10)
Sanjuu = 30 (3*10)
Yonjuu = 40 (4*10)
…
100-900 (1,2,… *100)
Hyaku = 100
Nihyaku = 200 (2*100)
Gohyaku = 500 (5*100)
Exceptions: sambyaku = 300 // roppyaku = 600 // happyaku = 800
…
Now you could already make some complex numbers:
Kyuuhyaku kyujuu kyuu = 999 ((9*100)+(9*10)+(9)) <Used in Agito trailer at beginning>
1000-9000 (1,2,… * 1000)
Sen = 1000
Nisen = 2000 (2*1000)
Yonsen = 4000 (4*1000)
Exceptions: sanzen = 3000 // hassen = 8000
…
10.000 – 90.000 (1,2,… * man) man = counter for 10.000
Ichiman = 10,000 (1*man)
Niman = 20.000 (2 * man)
…
Japanese hasn’t a counter for millions. They say 100*10.000 = hyakuman …
Now you could form some really sweet numbers:
234567 = 23 *10.000 (nijuusanman)
4*1000 (yonsen)
5*100 (gohyaku)
6*10 (rokujuu)
7 (nana)
= nijuusanman yonsen gohyaku rokujuu nana
I wonder if the combos in XIII will also be so high.
6. The good parts about Japanese + some good websites
As you have seen, Japanese is a difficult language with lots of exceptions, rules and difficult writing systems. Of course there are also some benefits to the Japanese language (no female/male words, no plurals, easy to go sentences, good websites…) Our languages (French, English, German, Dutch,…) are Level 1 languages while Japanese is a level 3 language. Still the language fascinates me and I continue to learn it every day, thanks to great study books, but also with the help of some great website’s. If someone wants some better information I would advise the following websites:
http://www.kanjistep.com/ (http://www.kanjistep.com/)
This is the website where I first learned Hiragana and katakana. It’s a great site with good explanations and examples. Be sure to check it out.
http://thejapanesepage.com/ (http://thejapanesepage.com/)
This is probably one of the best sources to find information on Japanese. It has everything: Good grammar, vocabulary, writing,…
http://japanese.about.com/od/japaneselessons/u/StartLearning.htm (http://japanese.about.com/od/japaneselessons/u/StartLearning.htm)
About.com is a website which I visit a lot because there are a lot of free courses for almost everything. The Japanese section is brilliant and includes a lot of thing. I recommend this to learn something more about Japanese.
http://www.timwerx.net/language/jpverbs/ (http://www.timwerx.net/language/jpverbs/)
This website covers all the Japanese verb endings and is extremely useful.
Here I typed some of the important Kanji you might face during the demo of FFXIII. Feel free to post some more and I will add them to me original post, because I’m still learning and don’t know every kanji yet,
Useful Japanese Words/Kanji/Phrases for Final Fantasy XIII (unordered)
人= Person
友達= Friend(s)
仕事= Job, work
任務= Task
私= I
貴方/あなた = You
貴様/きさま= You (very mean, hateful)
かばん/鞄= Bag,briefcase
靴 = Shoes
武器/ぶき/ウエポン= Weapon
頭／あたま= Head
アクセサリー = Accessories
キャラクタ(ー) = Character
おねがいします/ください = Please (give me)
時間 = Time
映画/ムービー= Movie/trailer
行く= Go
帰る= Return
聞く= Hear, ask
読む= Read
見る= See, look, watch
早く= Quik!, hurry
速い= Fast
全然 = Never
大抵= Usually
時々= Sometimes
でも = But...
子供 = Child
机 = Desk
手紙 = Letter
町 = Town, city
…の時 = When …
会う= Meet
待つ = Wait
どうして= Why?
何 = What?
いつ = When?
どこ = Where?
どれ/どの = Which one/Which…
この/これ = This …/This one
その/それ = That …/That one
だれ= Who?
どうやって= How?
一人で = Alone
右 = Right
左 = Left
前 = Front
後ろ = Back
中 = Inside,middle
上 = On
下 = Under, below
隣 = Next
あいだ = Between
ここ = Here
そこ = There
海 = Sea
天気 = Weather
食べ物 = Food
飲み物 = Drinks
僕 = I (used by men)
旅行 = Travel
新しい = New
暑い = Hot
忙しい = Busy
大きい = Large, big
面白い = Interesting
怖い = Frightening
寒い = Cold
楽しい = Fun
小さい = Small
つまらない = Boring
古い = Old
難しい = Difficult
やさしい = Easy, kind
家 = House
あの… = Um…
嫌い = Dislike
きれい= Beautiful, clean
元気 = Healthy, energetic
静か = Quiet
好き= Like
大嫌い = To hate
大好き = To love
にぎやか = Lively
ハンサム = Handsome
暇 = Not busy
乗る= to ride, to board (airship??)
よる = to perform
出かける= to go out
電車= Train
急ぐ = to hurry
死ぬ= to die
手伝う= to help
入る = to enter
持つ= to Carry, to hold
忘れる = To forget
降りる = To get ooff
開ける = To open
なくす= to lose
始める = To begin
知っています= I know
知りません = I don’t know
持って行く = To take something
世界 = World
Useful expressions:
分かりません = I don’t understand
だから= So, Therefore …
すごい/スゴイ = Cool
はい= Yes
いいえ = No
みんな = Everyone, all
やった = I did it!
もちろん = Of course
大丈夫 = It’s okay, Don’t worry
一緒に= Together
助けて= Help
ありがとう/どうも = Thanks you / Thanks
がんばって = Good luck
〜から= because …
結構です = That wouldn’t be necessary
すぐ = Right away
本当ですか = Really?
残念= That’s too bad
もう= Already (Vanille said this in a screenshot!)
スノウ、早く！ 電車に乗って！
Snow, Hayaku! Densha ni notte! = Snow,Hurry, get on that train!
If you want to know the pronunciation of the kanji and hiragana, visit this link and copy the kanji or hiragana in the textbox. You could translate it to hiragana and romaji:
http://nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/ (http://nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/)
I hope every one is able to read Katakana and know a little bit of Japanese when the demo comes out. If you really are interrested in Japanese, visit http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php (http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php) and buy a good language book. I use Genki, which are personally the best I’ve seen so far because there are a lot of exercises and clear grammar explanations. I’m still learning Japanese, but feel free to pm or mail me (mercy0001@live.be (mercy0001@live.be)) if you have any further questions.