Jikoshoukai - "self-introduction"

A. The first, quick way, to introduce yourself.

1. Hajimemashite - “nice to meet you”

 comes from the verb hajimeru , which means "to start,"
 hajimemashite implies beginning or doing something for the first time
 This word does not literally mean “nice to meet you” but it’s one of the many “set Japanese
phrases” that are used without thinking

2. Watashi wa (name) desu – “I am (name)”

Watashi no namae wa (name) desu – “My name is (name)”

(name) desu – “I’m (name)”

 Most casual way

3. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu – “Please treat me well”

Hajimemashite. Watashi wa (name) desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

B. The second way to introduce and talk about yourself.

1. Hello, nice to meet you.

“Hello” – konnichiwa
“Nice to meet you” – Hajimemashite

2. “My name is ……” - (name) desu.

3. “I am from …….” - (Place) kara kimashita.

 Use it to say where you’re from.
 Or, you can mention your ethnicity or nationality instead.

4. “I am …… years old.” - (age) sai desu.

5. “I am a (student/occupation)” - (position) desu.

 “I am a student” - gakusei desu.

 “My job is ….. “ - Watash no shigoto wa (job) desu
 “I’m doing (job),” - (Job) o shiteimasu
 as if you’re answering “What do you do.”

6. “I’ve been learning Japanese for…” - (time) kan nihongo o benkyou shiteimasu.
example: 1 year. Ichi nen kan nihongo o benkyou shiteimasu.

7. “Please treat me well” - Yoroshiku onegaishimasu

Konnichiwa, Hajimemashite. Watashi wa (name) desu. Amerikajin desu. (age)

sai desu. Shigoto wa (job) desu. (Time)kan nihongo o benkyou shiteimasu.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
 Word Order

In English, the sentence is structured like:

Subject + Verb + Object

For example,

“I (S) eat (V) sushi (O).”

But in Japanese, the structure is like:

Topic / Subject + Object + Verb

♡
Verbs always come at the end.
E.g

Watashi wa sushi wo taberu.

Let’s break each word down.

1. watashi = “ I ” is the subject / topic in this sentence.

 wa - indicates the topic of a sentence.
- “topic marker”
- For now, just remember this は (wa) as “speaking of / as for ~”.

 watashi wa = “Speaking of I / me”

This is the opposite of English word order.

In English, you say “speaking of” first, then “me”.
In Japanese “わたし I / me” comes first and then “は speaking of”.

2. (sushi) comes. It’s the “object” in this sentence.

Then comes another particle wo.

 Though we type like WO, you pronounce like “O”. Exactly the same as “お o”.
 The differences are that お (o) is used in a word while を (wo) is used only as a particle.
 It’s showing what the OBJECT is in this sentence.
 If you see sushi WO, you can immediately know that SUSHI is being eaten.

In Japan, I SUSHI EAT! ;)

Actually since we omit “I (わたしは)”, it would be like
“In America, you eat sushi. In Japan, SUSHI EAT!!!!”

3. Then finally, you put the verb at the end.

 taberu = “to eat”

Sushi wo taberu
So remember, the Japanese order is: S O V!!
If you remember the rule

Object を Verb,
you can make any sentence!

(I) drink tea.

Tea を drink!
おちゃをのむ。 Ocha wo nomu
(I) watch TV.

TV を watch!
テレビをみる。 Terebi wo miru

Remember, the particles are always placed after the word that is indicated.
So the sentence “I watch TV” = 「テレビをみる。」
The を particle shows what the object is, so the word “TEREBI =TV” is the object here.
Not what comes after – みる (miru).

Here are more examples of particles.

Particle “ に (ni) “. This one is basically the same as English “TO“, indicating <direction>.
If you want to say “I go TO the store.”
Just like the sentence “I eat sushi” becoming -
> “SUSHI (particle) EAT” in Japanese order, you want to change the order of words here too.

Now let’s make the sentence “I go TO the store”.

Remember? We omit the subject (I) and also we want to put the verb at the end.
Therefore the only word left is the word “store”.
So we place the word “store” at the beginning.
おみせ (o-mise) = store
Then we want the particle “TO”, which is “に (ni)” in Japanese.

Just like we put the particle を after すし, let’s put this に particle after the word “おみせ”, shall we? :)
” おみせに ” omise NI = “TO the store“.

Then finally the verb!

おみせにいく。 Omise ni iku = (I) go to the store.