The Japanese Words I Have Managed to Retain
In case you were wondering, here the words and sentences taught to me by the underwater robot Japanese instructors I have thus far kept stuck to the brain with some Elmer's and a little duct tape:
English (Eigo)
Japanese (Nihon-go)
Japan (Nihon)
American (Amerika-jin)
Canadian (Kanada-jin)
I (watashi)
Understand (wakarimas)
Don't understand (wakarimasen)
A little (skoshi)
Yes (hai)
No (ie)
Are you (anata wa)
Goodbye (sayonara)
Fine: (genki)
How are you? (ikaga des ka?)
I am fine, thanks (genki des, okagesama de)
Thank you very much (domo arigato gozaimas)
Good morning (ohayo gozaimas)
Good afternoon(konnichiwa)
I understand Japanese a little (watashia Nihon-go ga skoshi wakarimas)
Do you understand English? (Eigo ga wakarimas ka?)
Are you Japanese? (anata wa Nihon-jing des ka?)
I'm not very good (josu jati masen)
Isn't it? (ne)
ka is used most times if the sentence is a question and is placed at the end.
sen makes the sentence negative.
I taught myself fugu which is a poison fish. Although viewed as a delicacy I plan to avoid this little bugger altogether. What if I say something to offend the chef? One wrong slice it's curtains for yours truly!
So, armed above, I can understand and carry a conversation such as this:
Me: sumimasen
Beautiful Japanese girl: konnichiwa
Me: konnichiwa. Eigo ga wakarimas ka?
Beautiful Japanese girl: ie. Nihon-go ga wakarimas ka?
Me: hai. watashi wa Nihon-go ga skoshi wakarimas. josu jati masen.
Beautiful Japanese girl: ikaga des ka?
Me: genki des, okagesama de. anata wa?
Beautiful Japanese girl: genki des. anata wa Amerika-jing des ka?
Me: ie. watashiwa Kanada-jing des. anata wa Nihon-jing des ka?
Beautiful Japanese girl: hai! fugu?
Me: ie! sayonara
I am secure in the knowledge that I can get myself out of a situation where a beautiful Japanese girl offers me poison fish.
I figure "The raccoon has taken my pineapple" is in later lessons.
So let us toss up the official number of Japanese words I know on the Miyagi Tofu Piece Counter™:
Miyagi will consume a piece of tofu for every new word I learn. The counter will be updated accordingly.
