Everything that is linked to

!0 Japanese Whats to learn BEGIN HERE.doc (this document)

is posted here:
http://users.bestweb.net/~siom/martian_mountain/JCP/
The basic documents, including '!0 Japanese Whats to learn BEGIN HERE.doc'
are contained in:
JCtexts.7z
(60 files: .doc, pdf, .htm)
There are many subfolders in
http://users.bestweb.net/~siom/martian_mountain/JCP/
the info about the content is to be found in:
! JCP info folders and files.txt
If you unpack them properly, everything should work all right.
Some of the content in
http://users.bestweb.net/~siom/martian_mountain/JCP/
was posted on mediafire before, but they kept deleting the stuff, so I had to reupload it.
Have a look here, too.
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=7082
!0 Japanese Whats to learn BEGIN HERE.doc this document
Your computer must be capable of displaying Japanese characters.
A compilation of free online resources, PLUS learner-friendly little somethings.
(pro publico bono, compiled by a non-native speaker of English, so bear, or should I say bare, with me)

My Granny has started learning Japanese; thats why she has drawn a road map for herself. She always likes to
know what Paradise she is stepping into. Or, to put it in plain Broken English, she wants to know what there is
to learn.
Meet my granny:
28.flv or hito no inoti.avi
CONTENTS (click)
Abbreviations..........................................................................................................................................................1
Tools........................................................................................................................................................................2
Your computer must be capable of displaying Japanese characters....................................................................2
Japanese learning tools........................................................................................................................................2
General....................................................................................................................................................................2
Pronunciation (Hatuon) .........................................................................................................3
Grammar (Bunpou) ...............................................................................................................3
Parts of speech .......................................................................................................................3
Inflection grammatical categories:...................................................................................................................4
Syntax..................................................................................................................................................................5
Basic grammar explanations with line-by-line audio:.........................................................................................5
Writing: kana and kanji..........................................................................................................................5
About Japan.............................................................................................................................................................7
How to learn............................................................................................................................................................7
I believe:..............................................................................................................................................................7
Tools:...................................................................................................................................................................8
How:....................................................................................................................................................................8
How much time it takes.......................................................................................................................................8
Japanese Grammatical Vocabulary (audio if available)..........................................................................................8
Wikipedia online links..........................................................................................................................................9
Japanese language...............................................................................................................................................9

Japan topics.........................................................................................................................................................9

Abbreviations
English terminology rough equivalents, often misleading
You should be familiar with these notions (in English):
parts of speech verb, noun, pronoun (personal, demonstrative, relative), preposition, adverb
parts of a sentence predicate, subject, in/direct object, attribute
Japanese terminology somewhat cumbersome for the beginner (kanji, kana - no consonant characters (k, p, m, etc)
(no generally accepted English terminology for Japanese grammatical terms)
Caution: the same terms used by various authors may refer to different grammatical forms. Some grammatical forms can be classified
differently, too.
Gr Japanese Terminology.doc (audio, if available)

V Verbs (dousi) (n,adj-no) (ling) verb; (P) .mp3

A-i Adjectives (keiyousi) (n) (ling) (true) adjective; i-adjective; (P).mp3
N Nouns (meisi) (P); (ok) (n) (ling) noun; (P) .mp3
AN Adjectival nouns or na-adjectives (keiyoudousi) (n) (ling) na-adjective
(adj-na); quasi-adjective; adjectival noun; nominal adjective.mp3
C the Copula ( de aru, da, desu) is/are/am to form a predicate N+C, AN+C; A-i+ desu politeness
only
Links, blue, underlined (you can edit it, if it bothers you):
.m3u8 Unicode playlists (file names in Japanese)
.m3u playlist (file names in Latin letters)
(WinAmp, etc if necessary, check Manual playlist advance (Ctrl + P)
T links to more texts with line-by-line audio.
Table V A English.doc
!0 Japanese Whats to learn BEGIN HERE.doc

lit. - literally
irr. - irregular

Tools
Your computer must be capable of displaying Japanese characters.
FOLDER Tools and info (click to open the folder)
no special physical keyboard necessary, IME software is needed
You can type in Japanese even with an English keyboard.
Japanese Input on Windows XP.htm
12 Japanese IME Tips\! info.htm
Touch_typing.htm
encoding Unicode UTF-8, Shift_JIS
Wikipedia\Japanese language and computers.htm
Wikipedia\Wpuro rmaji.htm
Wikipedia\Mojibake.htm
AppLocale.htm
FONTS
The printed form, and even more so the digital form, of Japanese characters can differ quite a lot from the written form, use a
calligraphic font if youre going to write by hand
HGSeikaishotaiPRO calligraphic font HGSSikaishotaiPRO calligraphic font\HGRSKP.TTF
MS Mincho computer font
KanjiStrokeOrders.ttf font, copy to Windows\Fonts


Software for different files: audio, text, video, etc.
EPWING dictionaries ebwin303cu.exe a proggy to make them work
Japanese learning tools
Japanese Learning Tools Screenshots.htm

General
not related to Chinese, completely different
immense Chinese cultural influence
kanji Chinese origin
(n) Chinese characters; kanji; (P).mp3 lit. Han(Chinese)-character/s
(P); (n,adj-no) Japanese (language); (P) .mp3 lit. sun-root-language
(P); (n) native Japanese words (especially as opposed to Chinese and other foreign
loanwords); (P).mp3 lit. Japanese-word/language
(n) Chinese word; Sino-Japanese word; (P).mp3 lit. Han(Chinese)-word/language
(n) (ling) borrowed word; foreign origin word; (P).mp3 lit. outside-comeword/language
wago Japanese: pronunciation, grammar, 40% vocabulary
kango Sino-Japanese. 50/% vocabulary
gairaigo foreign (Portuguese, Dutch, English,) 10% vocabulary, some foreign sounds
some classical still used zu ni, nu
(Wikipedia off-line:)
Japanese language.htm
Yamato kotoba.htm
Sino-Japanese vocabulary.htm
Gairaigo.htm

Pronunciation (Hatuon)
(n,vs,adj-no) pronunciation; (P).mp3
H Hatuon.doc FOLDER !Hatuon
mora (a beat, unit of rhythm), long/short vowels, whispered vowels, double consonants, pitch accent, rendaku,
assimilation in pronunciation of kanji, colloquial contractions, dialects (standard Tokyo),
homophones (the rule, not an exception, thats why kanji are necessary; English: write, rite, right, a right,
Wright)

Grammar (Bunpou)
(n,adj-no) (ling) grammar; syntax; (P).mp3
no articles, no plural, no grammatical gender, no cases, no persons, no modal verbs, no relative pronouns,
no personal pronouns (= an open subgroup of nouns)

Parts of speech
(n) (ling) part of speech; (P).mp3
inflect (change):
V (dousi); A-i (keiyousi); C copula (de aru, da, desu, de irassyaru, de gozaru, na)
dont inflect:
N nouns; AN (adjectival nouns, na-adjectives, keiyoudousi);
particles (josi) (n) (ling) particle; postposition; (P).mp3;
Particles go after what they modify. Japanese_particles (Wikipedia)
!Particles colby.edu index introduction.doc FOLDER AUDIO + T

adverbs (a huge subgroup of onomatopoeia giseigo or giongo, gitaigo, gijgosound symbolism.htm);

numerals and counters; Japanese numerals.htm Japanese counter word.htm
pronouns ko-so-a-do Japanese_grammar#Demonstratives (online)
conjunctions
interjections
V (verbs) (n,adj-no) (ling) verb; (P) .mp3
2 regular groups:
V-u (drop -u, Vp-ta past stem created separately);
V-ru (drop -ru)
Table V A English.doc
Essential Stuff Verbs PLUS.doc

A-i (adjectives) (n) (ling) (true) adjective; i-adjective; (P).mp3

(end in a vowel (but not e) +i, drop -i to conjugate (it is a verb: good-is, big-is, etc)
Essential Stuff Adjectives PLUS.doc

C The Copula, only with N + C, AN + C to form a predicate, not an independent word

Copula.doc

C = (roughly) is/am/are etc, but only A is B, and never There is (existence iru for animate, aru inanimate),
not is as in is good, etc, A-i are used (but AN+C)
V naru (become) is often used where the English use is.
Copula: de + V aru ( aru irr. plain negative nai is an A-i)
C can be split by particles ha(wa) and mo.
man also is (and...), woman also is (Im both a man and a woman)
dewa nai colloquial phonetic assimilation deha (dewa) ja

Inflection grammatical categories:

Table V A English.doc
Essential Stuff Verbs PLUS.doc
Essential Stuff Adjectives PLUS.doc
Copula.doc

tenses:
informal (plain) present/future (non-past, dictionary from): V-u, V-ru; A-i; C (de aru, da)
formal (polite addressative respect for people spoken to): V-i/mas-u; A-i/AN/N + desu
informal past: V-ta (ta, da, ita, ida, tta); A-katta; C de atta, datta
formal: V-i/masita; A-katta desu; AN/N + desita
negative:
informal: V-a/nai, V-a/nakatta; A-ku nai A-ku nakatta; C dewa/ja nai, dewa/ja nakatta
formal: V-i/masen, V-i/masen desita A-ku arimasen,desita;
C dewa/ja arimasen,desita dewa/ja nai desu dewa/ja nakatta desu
(questions just add ka at the end or intonation)
conjunctive forms (no tense, no politeness) connect sentences or add auxiliaries:

1. V-i/0 (also noun); A-ku (also adverb); C de ari

2. V-te, V-naide; A-kute, A-nakute; C de, de atte, dewa/ja nakute
conditionals:
V-eba, V-reba; A-kereba
Vtara; A-kattara; C dattara
Sentence + to
Sentence + nara
volitional:
V-ou, V-you (Ill, Lets, Shall I)
passive:
V-areru, V-rareru (also honorific), all become V-ru verbs
causative:
V-aseru, V-sareru (make, allow), all become V-ru verbs
potential:
V-eru, V-rareru (can, be able to), all become V-ru verbs
imperative: V-e, V-ro (do!)
prohibitive: V-una, V-runa (dont do!)
V-i/tai
(I want to V, do you want to V?) its an A-i
V-i/tagaru
(s/he wants to V)
V-i/nagara
(while, doing V1 and V2)
alternative: V-tari; A-kattari (do things like..., sometimes this... sometimes that..)
V-tarou, A-kattarou (probably, past)
V-umai, V-rumai (probably not)
V-i/nasai (do!, more polite than V-e, V-ro)
Vte kudasai (do, please, polite)
Vnaide kudasai (dont do, please, polite)
Politeness levels:
informal (with family, friends; no masu, desu forms)
formal addressative respect for people spoken to (predicate at the end masu, desu)
deference respect for people spoken about (can be plain and addressative)
honorific about higher status V o-1 ni naru; C de irassyaru
humble about yourself and in-group V o-1 suru/itasu; C de gozaru
Some V form honorific/humble forms irregularly separate words.
irregular: V kuru (come) 074.m T, suru (do) 100.m T, N-suru
iku (go) 139.m T irr. past itta, aru (exits, be) irr. negative nai;
honorific: gozaru, irassyaru, kudasaru, nasaru, ossyaru (irr. nasai, nasaimasu etc)
Some V form honorific/humble forms irregularly separate words.
iu (say) 018.m T /yuu/ irr. pronunciation
some V-ru -zuru/jiru
yari morai dousi
Giving-receiving verbs: ageru, sasiageru, yaru, kureru, kudasaru, itadaku, morau
Semi-auxiliary verbs: -te iru, -te aru, -te oku, -te miru, -te simau, etc
Transitive-intransitive verbs
Syntax
Basic Sentences.doc FOLDER AUDIO
The topic-comment structure
Predicate: V, A-i, N/AN + C (de aru, da, etc)
predicate always at the end of a sentence (+ particles, if needed)
The modifier before the modified (particles after)
V (plain) N
A-i N
AN na N ( na = attributive form of C da)

N na/no N
plain sentence N
Particles: 1. after N, 2. between sentences, 3. after sentences
1. ha(wa) topic, ga subject, wo(o) direct object, to citation, etc 3. ka question, etc
Nominalizers (abstract nouns): no, koto, mono, toki, hazu, beki, tumori, etc
Sentence endings: you da, sou da, no da, darou, koto ga aru, hou ga ii, ka mo sirenai, rasii, etc
V-nakereba naranai must (lit. if dont do V, wont become)
V-te mo ii/yoi may, allowed (lit. doing V also good)
V-te ha(wa) ikenai - may not, not allowed (lit. as for doing V, cannot go)
Fe/male speech
uti soto in-group out-group
Basic grammar explanations with line-by-line audio:
Table V A English.doc + more tables with links to audio, explanations, etc
Basic Sentences.doc FOLDER AUDIO
Essential Stuff Verbs PLUS.doc
Essential Stuff Adjectives PLUS.doc
Copula.doc
Hugo Japanese In Three Months.doc FOLDER AUDIO ! Grammar 1-135 231files 1h 17min.m3u
Visualizing Japanese Grammar.doc FOLDER ! 1-66 1h20min.m3u8
Essential Japanese Verbs list.doc FOLDER AUDIO 250 verbs, forms + example sentences and dialogues
Essential Japanese Verbs.doc FOLDER AUDIO ! All files VF SD KS PU 3942files 7h 15min.m3u
JP101Grammar Bank wsio.doc ! 44min.m3u 1437 files FOLDER AUDIO
!Particles colby.edu index introduction.doc FOLDER AUDIO + T joshi
Kaiser - Table 19 Personal pronouns and suffixes, Family.doc

FOLDER Grammar (click to open the folder

Writing: kana and kanji

(no spaces between words, no capital characters), vertical and horizontal texts
.flv T.mov writing with a brush
Wikipedia\Japanese writing system.htm

! (P); ; (P); ()(ok) (n) (1) language; dialect; (2) word; words; phrase; term;
expression; remark; (3) speech;.m3u8
Hiragana First Step.doc
Katakana First Step.doc
FOLDER !kana (click to open)
KANA (lit. assumed/borrowed name )
two syllaberies, they represent sounds only:
Hiragana, Katakana (they represent the same sounds)
gozyuuon lit. 50 sounds (46 basic characters) .m3u8

HIRAGANA 50on (sound, stroke order).swf

Kana evolved from kanji, the meaning was discarded, the sound was left.
Katakana lit. one-sided kana (angular shapes) only one part of a kanji was taken.
Hiragana lit. flat/ordinary/cursive kana a whole kanji in cursive shorthand style
(P); ; (oK) (n) (uk) (See 1) kana; Japanese syllabary (e.g. hiragana, katakana);
(P).mp3 lit. assumed name
(P); (ok); (ok) (n) alias; pseudonym; pen name; nom de plume; (P).mp3
(n) (uk) (See ) hiragana; cursive Japanese syllabary used primarily for native
Japanese words (esp. function words, inflections, etc.); (P).mp3
(P); (P) (n) (uk) (See ) katakana; angular Japanese syllabary used
primarily for loanwords; (P).mp3
.m3u8
KANJI: (n) Chinese characters; kanji.mp3 lit. Han-Chinese character
pictographs, ideographs, logographs
strokes, bushu (radicals, and variations), components (bushu + phonetic hint)
(n) radical (of a kanji character); .mp3
on-yomi, kun-yomi (and mixtures; nanori, ateiji, gikun)
each kanji has usually at least two readings, but, very often, the same kanji in different words has similar
meaning
jouyou list, etc
My granny says that it doesnt really matter what kind of reading it is, what matters is how to pronounce WORDS in sentences. You'd
better listen to everything you're learning. Neither kana nor kanji mark pitch accent, by the way.

!Kanji Eng.doc introduction

!K Busyu (table to print).doc !K Busyu (table to print).pdf
!K Walsh. Len - Read Japanese TodayPLUS.doc
!K Kanji kaku - strokes.doc
!K Busyu214 Radicals Japanese names.doc explained thoroughly
!K Kanji terminology.doc
FOLDER KANJI (click to open the folder) contains many tools
Japan-studies\index-7.htm Kanji info
Outline of Japanese Writing System Jack Halpern.htm
How to Learn Kanji Matthew Ward.doc
2011 GSF Jouyou Kanji.html
Punctuation
Wikipedia\Japanese punctuation.htm
ROMAJI (Japanese spelt in Latin (Rome) letters)
Hepburn (for English speakers)
(non-Japanese sources) books, Wikipedia, Google, etc
kunrei-siki
Nihon-siki one-to-one correspondence between Nihon-siki and kana
phonetic analysis
grammatical analysis
typing Japanese
Wikipedia\Romaji.htm
romanization_system.htm

About Japan
Rimer, J. Thomas - A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature.pdf

Sex_in_Japan sel.avi
Japan_map.jpg flag anthem.pdf Kimi ga yo.doc !.m3u Japanesemap-e.html !.m3u
burakumin\burakumin.html
Gritzer, Charles +2 - Japan (Modern World Nations).pdf
Ellington, Lucien - Japan (Asia in Focus).pdf
Goto-Jones, Christopher - Modern Japan A Very Short Introduction 2009.pdf
Brief History of Japan.htm
Andressen, Curtis - A Short History of Japan From Samurai to Sony.pdf
Gordon, Andrew - A Modern History of Japan From Tokugawa to the Present.pdf
Henshall, Kenneth G. - A History Of Japan From Stone Age To Superpower pdf.pdf
Meyer, Milton W. - Japan A Concise History.pdf
Tsutsui, William M. - A Companion to Japanese History (Blackwell).pdf
Sugimoto, Yoshio - An Introduction To Japanese Society.pdf
Tipton, Elsie K. - Modern Japan A Social and Political History.pdf
Ellington, Lucien - Japan A Global Studies Handbook.pdf
Kingston, Jeff - Contemporary Japan History, Politics, and Social Change since the 1980s.pdf
Frommers Japan, 2008, 9Ed.pdf
Frommers Tokyo, 2008 10Ed.pdf
Top 10 Tokyo - Eyewitness Travel 2009.pdf
Lonely Planet Japan (Country Guide) 2007.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Japan

How to learn
I believe:
I believe that language is a system of interdependent elements.
I believe in personally relevant massive comprehensible exposure.
I dont believe in learning anything without listening.
I dont believe in memorizing.
I dont believe in speaking/reading/writing without consciously learning pronunciation (phonemes, minimal
pairs, pitch accent, rhythm, intonation).
Tools:
Japanese Learning Tools Screenshots.htm
parallel e-texts in vertical columns + matching professional (line-by-line) audio
columns for beginners:
kanji without furigana spaced hiragana English audio links grammar, vocabulary links
mouse-over pop-up dictionaries
(Unicode) playlists
reference grammars, preferably e-texts with line-by-line audio and many example sentences
How:
It is about learning entirely on your own. It is how I learn languages.
1. get a general idea what there is to learn very important. Japanese is not difficult, it is different.
2a. learn about pronunciation, learn how to recognize Japanese sounds (phonemes, pitch accent, etc)

2b. learn kana (hiragana gozyuuon HIRAGANA 50on (sound, stroke order).swf first, listen and look, learn stroke order
it shouldnt take more than one/two hours to be able to recognize all the symbols)
3. get a thorough idea of how kanji work they are a blessing not a curse, not random strokes, learn how to
recognize 214 classical radicals and variations (they are building blocks of kanji), learn their Japanese names,
learn stroke order rules
4. learn to quickly recognize basic conjugations (V, A-i, C copula) and sentence patterns (listen and look)
L-R (LR, mLR) (multilingual)LISTENING-Reading:
! L-R the most important passages.htm FOLDER L-R about
5a. L-R native materials (if possible)
5b. simple natural listening (even handbooks for beginners), do natural listening as often as possible (chores,
commuting, etc)
6. L-R concentrate on listening through both audio, translation and J e-text
When you understand what you hear (a passage/phrase/paragraph), concentrate for a moment on the written
text: listen (dont stop listening, loop) and look at the J text, see if you can identify words, grammar, kanji
components; dont try to memorize anything, if something is too difficult, just skip it, only read the translation
and listen; if you think your pronunciation is good, you can repeat after the recording here and there
7. get to the stage of natural listening to relatively difficult texts
8. concentrate on pronunciation/speaking by repeating after the recordings: listen-repeat, listen-look-repeat,
listen-look-repeat-type
9. concentrate on reading: listen-look-repeat-type, look-listen, look-read, look-read-(repeat)-type
10. do natural listening and reading, speak to yourself
11. listen-look-repeat-write by hand (if you need to, or like to)
How much time it takes
1. Ninety seconds a minute.
2. Everything youve done or havent done ever since you were born influences how enjoyable or miserable,
fast or painfully slow, your learning will be.
If you have hardly ever set your own goals, if you have hardly ever learnt anything on your own, if you have
never read a novel worth reading, if you cannot tell your verbs from your adjectives, your vowels from your
consonants, if you dont get enough sleep regularly, if you think your time is to fritter away and kill mercilessly,
you cant expect miracles.

Japanese Grammatical Vocabulary (audio if available)

Gr Japanese Terminology.doc

Wikipedia online links

Japanese language

Japanese language
Stages

Old Japanese Early Middle Japanese Late Middle Japanese Early Modern Japanese Modern
Japanese

Dialects

Hokkaid Thoku (Tsugaru Kesen Yamagata) Kant (Ibaraki Tokyo) Tkai-Tsan

(Nagaoka Nagoya Mino Hida) Hokuriku Kansai Chgoku Umpaku Shikoku (Iyo
Tosa Sanuki) Hnichi Hichiku (Saga) Satsug Hachij Okinawa

Literature

Classical Japanese Books List of classic texts List of writers Poetry

Writing

Logograms Kanji Kanbun

Kana

Hiragana Katakana Furigana Okurigana Gojon Man'ygana Hentaigana

Orthography

Punctuation Japanese orthography issues Kanazukai Historical kana

orthography Jdai Tokushu Kanazukai Modern kana usage Yotsugana

system

Japanese grammar Verb conjugations and adjective declensions Consonant and vowel verbs
Grammar and Pronouns Adjectives Possessives Particles Topic marker Counter words Numerals
vocabulary Native words (yamato kotoba) Sino-Japanese vocabulary Loan words (gairaigo) Honorific
speech Honorifics Gender differences
Phonology

Pitch accent Sound symbolism Rendaku

Romanization Hepburn Nihon-shiki Kunrei JSL Wpuro rmaji

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Japan
Japan topics
Eras
History
Politics

Paleolithic | Jmon | Yayoi | Kofun | Asuka | Nara | Heian | Kamakura | Muromachi | Azuchi-Momoyama | Edo | Meiji |
Taish | Shwa | Heisei
Economic history | Educational history | Military history | Naval history | Meiji Restoration | Occupied Japan | PostOccupation Japan
Constitution | Government | Emperors | Imperial Household Agency | Prime Ministers | Cabinet | Ministries | Diet of
Japan (House of Councillors House of Representatives) | Judicial system | Elections | Political parties | Foreign relations
Clothing | Customs and etiquette | Education | Festivals | Food | Holidays | Language | Religion

Culture
Architecture | Cinema | Literature | Music | Theatre (Noh Kabuki Bunraku)
Art
Economy Primary sector | Industry | Currency | Tokyo Stock Exchange | Communications | Transportation (Shinkansen Tokyo
Other

Metro Railway companies)

Demographics | List of Japanese people