Sorry!!!!

Hey guys, I'm sorry, my pc decided to stop working this week so I couldn't post anything. Right now I'm posting from university. It will be half an week till I can get it back. Hold on, ok?

Grammar Study 04

Hello everyone,

Grammar time again. There some basic demonstratives which we didn't talk about. We will go briefly throught them and start the real deal.

There is the adjective demonstrative words こんな、そんな、あんな、どんな which mean "this/that/that(over there)/which kind of". By now you should have a grasp of it already. And the one about location ここ、そこ、あそこ、どこ which refer to place (here, there, over there and where) and these ones have a politer form which is respectvely こちら、そちら、あちら、どちら。

Given that we finish the most common demonstratives we can now move to the relative and reflexive pronoums. And once we finish those we can start our study on the wide range of japanese particles. This will take a while because it is one of my main difficulties.

The reflexive is easy. The word　自分 じぶん does all the work. It is used for any human and any other warm-blooded animal. In normal speach it will never be used for fish, reptiles, insects or objects, tough you see it being used for those in stories. Usually, 自分　is followed by で (condition) or の (possessive)
例えば：
自分でしなければならいんです。
I have to do it by myself.

自分の宿題は自分でしなさいよ。
ぶんのしゅくだいはじぶんでしなさいよ。
Do your homework by yourself!

大抵自分で勉強します。
たいていじぶんでべんきょうします。
I usually study by myself.

It has a slightly different meaning then 一人で ひとりで  which means "alone".

For the relative pronouns it will get a little tricky. There is no equivalent to "who, whom, whose" (when they are relative pronoums) in Nihongo. An example is worth thousands lines of explanation.
例えば：

The man who was running.
There is no equivalent to "who" in this phrase.

Imagine instead it was:
The running man.
走る男
はしるおとこ。

The girl who arrived yesterday.
The yesterday arrived girl.
昨日ついた女の子。
きのうついたおんなのこ。

Got it? It is a well seen characteristic of the Nihongo, there is no relative pronoum because the relative clauses precede rather than follow the words. This discussion waas taken manly from Baron's Grammar of Japanese which is a nice book which i used to study.

That's all folks. See you tomorrow!
Gustavo

Character Exercise 04

Hello guys,

I'm kinda of busy looking for information about opportunities for studying in Japan. So let's go straight to the point today. These are my phrases built with yesterday's words:

飛ぶ　　　とぶ       to fly
鳥が池の上を飛んでいる
とりがいけのうえをとんでいる
The birds are flying above the pond.

塩　　　　しお       salt
敵に塩を送る。
てきにしおをおくる。
To send salt to the enemy. (proverb)

砂糖　　　さとう     sugar
彼女はいつも塩と砂糖を混同している。
かのじょはいつもしおとさとうをこんどうしている。
She is always confusing salt with sugar.

暗い　　　くらい     dark/gloomy
突然、空を暗くなった。
とつぜん、そらをくらくなった。
Suddenly it became dark.

夏　　　　なつ       summer
ヘロヘロになる前に、夏バテ対策をしっかり行い元気に夏乗り切りましょう。
へろへろになるまえに、なつバテたいさくをしっかりおこないげんきなつをのりきりましょう。
Before we get beaten by the heat fatigue, let's take proceed the precautions tightly so we can have a healthy summer.

隣　　　　となり     next to
私たちは隣同士です。
わたしたちはとなりどうしです。
We are next-door neighbors.

飲む　　　のむ       to drink
冷たいものを飲みたくてしょうがない。
つめたいものをのみたくてしょうがない。
I'm dying for a cold drink. (This construction seems so different.)

川　　　　かわ       river
彼女は広い川を泳いで渡った。
かのじょはひろいかわをおよいでわたった。
She swam across the wide river.

言う　　　いう       to say
「おはよう」と彼女は微笑みながら言って。
「おはよう」とかのじょはほほえみながらいって。
"Good morning", said she while smiling.

困る　　　こまる     to worry/bother about
返事に困っている?
へんじにこまっている？
Can't think of an answer?

頼む　　　たのむ     to request
彼女は私にドアを開けるように頼んだ。
かのじょはわたしにドアをあけるようにたのんだ。
She asked me to open the door. (Another weird construction for me)

教室　　　きょうしつ classroom
彼はいつ教室から出ていったのですか?
かれはいつきょうしつからでていったのですか？
When did he leave the classroom?

取る　　　とる       to pick up
来週二日間の休みを取るつもりです。
らいしゅうにかかんのやすみをとるつもりです。
I plan to take a period of two days off next week.

登る　　　のぼる     to climb
私たちは遂にあの山に登ることに成功した。
わたしたちはついにあのやまにのぼることにせいこうした。
We finally succeeded in climbing that mountain.

宿題　　　しゅくだい homework
夕食前に宿題をするのつもりです。
ゆうしょくまえにしゅくだいをするのつもりです。
I plan to do my homework before supper.

時計　　　とけい     watch
本当に時計を直してもらわなければならないんです。
ほんとうにとけいをなおしてもらわなければならないんです。
I really must ask someone to fix my watch.

つまらない boring
そんつまらないことで心配するな。
そんあつまらないことでしんぱいするな。
Don't worry about such boring/insignificant things.

友達　　　ともだち   friend
明日友達と会う予定だ。
あしたともだちとあうよていだ。
Tomorrow I'm going to see a friend.

交番　　　こうばん   police box (huh?)
交番の周りに人がたくさん見た。
こうばんのまわりにひとがたsくさんみた。
I saw a lot of people around the police box.

事象　　　じしょう   dictionary
明日授業に辞書を持ってくる必要がありますか？
あしたじゅぎょうにじしょをもってくるひつようがありますか？
Is there a need for us o bring the dictionaries tomorrow?

来る　　　くる       to come
彼女とここに来るのは何回目になるのたろう。
かのじょとここにくるのはなんかいめになるのだろう。
I wonder how many times I came here with her.

Maybe I should make fewer words on Mondays, it is getting complicated for me heheheh!

Baibai,
Gustavo

PS: Sorry, I'm really in a hurry!

Character study 04

もう月曜日ですね。週末に楽しく過ごしたか？

さあ、即座に勉強しましょうか?　私はかなり眠いですが、今日の言葉は：

飛ぶ　　　とぶ       to fly
塩　　　　しお       salt
砂糖　　　さとう     sugar
暗い　　　くらい     dark/gloomy
夏　　　　なつ       summer
隣　　　　となり     next to
飲む　　　のむ       to drink
川　　　　かわ       river
言う　　　いう       to say
困る　　　こまる     to worry/bother about
頼む　　　たのむ     to request
教室　　　きょうしつ classroom
取る　　　とる       to pick up
登る　　　のぼる     to climb
宿題　　　しゅくだい homework
時計　　　とけい     watch
つまらない boring
友達　　　ともだち   friend
交番　　　こうばん   police box (huh?)
事象　　　じしょう   dictionary
来る　　　くる       to come

Well, we know what to do now, right? Lets build phrases with those words and then tomorrow we take a look at them and see whats right or what is wrong.

Once again I recommend you download and use Anki, and visit Tangorin and WWWJDIC as these tools can help you a LOT and they are totally FREE. :p

じゃ、またね。疲れたなあ。 My bed waits me! =D
Gustavo

Finally it is rainning!!

Hello guys,

Man, finally we got some rain here. Nowadays the heat seems unbearable. But anyway, this week I confirmed that JLPT4 and JLPT3 do not guarantee you can speak with people on the streets. Well, maybe JLPT3 yes, but the yonkyu certainly not. I had this chance to talk to a Japanese and his Australian friend and that became very clear.

Recently I've been growing the ideia of studying over Japan. Right now I'm planning my masteers course on Statistics. I don't think I'll be able to go through the entire course there because I don't want to be that far away from girlfriend. I'll move to another city here in Brazil and she is not going. But being on the other half of the globe with such a timezone difference is on a completaly different level. And also Brazil is really good regarding the the major that I want to master.

But there are these Japanese Government Scholarships for doctorade which are really attractive. Depending on the plans I might try the doctorade, with my gf going for masters, or I can try the research scholarship while she tries the undergraduate program. They seem really receptive, at least on the phonecall.

This week I found out this youtube series of videos on japanese cuisine which are really interesting. Take a look here. After that I rushed and tried to prepare some 牛丼. It tasted good indeed, but the taste should be much different had I used the japanese ingredients like mirin or katsuobushi (bonito flakes).

So guys? How are you all doing? This week we got three more RSS subscribers! I hope things can grow exponentially so we get 100 subscribers quickly =D. Remeber to take a look at twitter for some nice information during the week.

See you monday!
Gustavo