You Can Learn the ENTIRE Irregular Verb Group… RIGHT NOW

Sound hard? Impossible, even? Well that’s funny, considering that this category is only made up of two verbs!

する to do

くる to come

Now, these verbs are oftentimes attached to the ends of nouns to create even more verbs. It’s like simple addition but with meanings.

掃除（そうじ）is the noun cleaning

掃除する is “to clean” (ie. do cleaning)

If it helps you to grasp the concept, you can imagine the direct object particle を in between the noun and する. を would be tagging the noun as the direct object that you are performing the action (in this case, “do”) to.

掃除をする = to do cleaning.

掃除する = to clean

These verbs are conjugated how you would conjugate する. There are tons of these verbs. That means, if you already know a lot of nouns, you may actually know tons of する verbs without even realizing it!

The concept with くる verbs is similar, and they are also conjugated how you would conjugate 来る.

来る = to come

連(つ)れてくる = to bring someone along

持(も)ってくる = to bring, to take (an item)

You see how the meanings of these verbs are concepts similar to the meaning of 来る? That is no coincidence my friends. Now all that’s left is learning how to conjugate them.

Using “When” – Noun + のとき

Toki is a noun, so remember: You always connect two different nouns with の particle!

E.g

雨のとき、よくうちで本を読みます。

= When it rains, I often read books at home.

十代のとき、親といつも喧嘩していた。

= I was always arguing with my parents when I was a teenager.

子どものとき、くもが怖かったです。

= When I was a child, I was scared of spiders.

Plain form verb + とき

You can also combine it with plain form verbs. Remember to drop the の in these instances because it is only needed when connecting nouns.

ペイさんは毎日電車に乗ります。仕事に行くとき、買い物に行くとき、友達に会うとき、英会話のレッスンに行くとき、電車に乗ります。

Pei rides trains every day. When she goes to work, goes shopping, meets with friends, or goes to an English-conversation lesson, she rides trains.

tangled-headphone-cord:

And tag with “langblrs unite” as well as the language(s) you’re focusing on, and your native language(s)

Because it’d be really grand if we all had a more closely knit community, yes? With this (provided y’all use the proposed tags) people could find other langblrs more easily

idk I’m feeling kinda lonely

11-14-20 Update

I’ve been grinding rly hard for this past week.

- watching my missed lectures + taking notes

- re-memorizing rusty kana

- studying rusty vocabulary

- learning 5+ new words a day

- I started a notebook that is entirely dedicated to my Japanese studies

- created a study schedule (which seems like it will be a game changer for me, but we’ll see! I’ll share my current schedule and let you guys know how it works out.)

Breakthroughs

- I finally formed a sentence that actually expressed what I wanted to say!! (It went something like… 私は日本語の本があります。。。今日はこれを読みます。I then read like one paragraph out loud to the camera and posted it to my snapchat! lol)

- developed a new notebook system for studying vocabulary that seems to work really well

FuturePlans

- I have soooo many posts coming your way (vocab, grammar, study methods, shoutouts) so stay tuned

- I plan to take my giant wall of sticky note vocabulary down and redo it with new words soon!

- I may or may not be starting a blog (rebelpicnic.com) even though I have no idea what it’s about, I know for a fact that I will be posting about my Japanese learning journey there as well! It’s not open yet but beware it will probably be about a lot of things before I can make up my mind Cx

Goals and Aspirations

- maybe someday I can write diary entrees in Japanese. I would love it if I could find a native speaker to critique them!

- I can’t wait to confuse my friends and family :,3

- the glorious fluency will feel so good rolling off of my tongue (cringe explanation) :,,,333

- understanding Japanese media? um? yes?

- flexing on ppl constantly?

Current Weekly Schedule

I’m currently doing a vocabulary challenge, so vocab is 毎日！(まいにち)(Every day!)

月曜日(げつようび) Monday

Vocabulary and reading

火曜日(かようび) Tuesday

Vocabulary and writing

水曜日(すいようび) Wednesday

Vocabulary — learn less words + catch up on rusty material

木曜日(もくようび) Thursday

Vocabulary and listening

金曜日(きんようび) Friday

Vocabulary

土曜日(どようび) Saturday

Vocabulary and grammar

日曜日(にちようび) Sunday

Vocabulary

A side note that I do take a class for Japanese so I have homework too. This is just what I will be doing on top of my classwork. I may even do more, but I consider this schedule the bare minimum/requirement. It basically helps to guarantee that I’m studying everything with some level of proportion!

a message to u

langblrs hmu and I’ll check out ur page! I’ve been really busy lately but I usually go thru all the pages of my new followers in one sitting cus I can manage my time better that way >< and let me know what you would like to see more of on here :,) love uuuu!

Tips for Writing Sentences in a Foreign Language - for Beginners

Having studied 3 foreign languages at varying degrees of intensity and success - Japanese (I flatter myself to be fluent), Spanish (I can ask some simple questions and possibly crudely insult someone), French (I can say a few well-sounding phrases and then smile & nod when you respond). When beginning studies in languages, one of the most challenging things is to jump from the set beginner phrases from the textbook into creating your own sentences(gasp).

From my own language studies, plus experience TA'ing first year Japanese, I have a few tips for beginners on taking that leap into creating your own sentences. These will probably lean heavily on Japanese because that is the language I have the most experience with, but they are applicable to other languages too.

1. Just start making sentences!

It sounds simple, but it’s the best way to start. Writer’s block? Write about what you are doing, what you want to do, or write an introduction. Worried about speaking? Talk to yourself about what you are doing, what you want to do, or introduce yourself to yourself. You don’t have to write or say anything world-shaking, but getting started is the first step. You can start by modeling sentences you’ve already seen. If you have an example textbook sentence, try modifying it to make your own similar sentence.

PS. Your sentences don’t have to be perfect either. If you notice a mistake later, just go back and correct yourself!

2. Don’t try to translate the phrase from your native language EXACTLY into your target language.

Languages don’t always translate exactly, but also, sometimes your skill isn’t advanced enough to say the same things you can say in your native language. If you don’t yet know the appropriate grammar, vocabulary, or syntax of what you want to say, not being able to say exactly what you want can be frustrating and lead you to feel defeated (personal experience here). Instead, think of how to put the idea you have into a sentence using the knowledge you DO have.

If you have just started learning a language, it might be too much to directly translate “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily” (thanks, Ockham’s Razor). Instead, why not try to translate “Simple is best”?

3. Avoid heading straight for the dictionary if possible when there is a word you don’t know in your target language.

If you don’t have the vocabulary word you need in a sentence, you might be tempted to go to the dictionary and look it up and throw it into your sentence. Whilst TA'ing first-year Japanese, this led to me puzzling and scratching my head over what the student was trying to say in their homework (hey, it’s not my first language either!).

While using the dictionary to learn new vocabulary is obviously a must, when you are just starting out with sentence building it can also be a roadblock. When conjugating verbs is new to you, try using the verbs you do know to explain your idea. If you don’t know a vocabulary word, selecting the right one for your context from a list of words with similar definitions can be difficult. If you don’t quite know how to explain what you want to say, try rephrasing it until you can compose a less complicated sentence. Or break it into several sentences - you can work on complicated sentences when you’re more comfortable with simpler ones!

Another bonus is that learning to explain what you want to say in your target language when you don’t know the vocabulary is a helpful lifelong skill (that I still use today in Japanese). It can be frustrating to not be able to say exactly what you want to say in your target language at first, but if you just keep practicing you will get there.

4. Practice making sentences on the fly.

Writing allows you more time to think out the sentence, go back and make changes, and work things out more slowly. Speaking, on the other hand, is more challenging because you have to make your mouth form the words you are thinking, and do your best to make the sentence make sense to your listener. While writing sentences helps me to remember how to write hiragana/katakana/kanji and reinforces grammar (I learn best by writing it out!), speaking out loud helps your brain and your mouth learn to work together in your target language.

Don’t have anyone to talk to? That’s ok! Talk to yourself. Talk to your imaginary friends. Talk to your pet or your houseplant or your favorite figurine or stuffed animal. Just practice putting sentences together out loud, in real time. I promise you will notice improvement if you practice daily!

5. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes!

But even if you do just throw in the dictionary word and your professor/study buddy/language exchange partner has to ask you what you were trying to say, that’s ok! Making mistakes is ok! That’s how you learn. Don’t be afraid to be wrong, to be mocked and ridiculed.. ok, you most likely won’t be mocked and ridiculed. (If you are, please find new language friends.)

Language learning is about making mistakes. Even now, after YEARS of studying and speaking and even doing interpretation/translation… I make mistakes (gasp). And it’s ok. Ok, sometimes I think about the mistakes I have made in conversation in the middle of the night, but I’m working on that too. One day, you’ll look back, and realize that agonizing over particles and which kanji to use and whether or not you would sound dumb when you were speaking to a native speaker is not the part you remember. You will remember when you could barely write your name in katakana, and realize that suddenly you can talk about your favorite hobby in exacting detail.

6. Don’t practice in a vacuum.

Practicing sentences, written or spoken, on your own is fine! It’s a great way to learn and improve your language skills. But I would recommend not spending all your time studying and practicing in a vacuum. There are lots of online ways to get your writing or speaking corrected (paid or not), and I would recommend taking advantage of them. I have gotten into the habit of using certain words that are too informal or that are not correct in the context I wanted to use them in, and it took a native speaker to point them out since I had become so used to using them (and so sure that I was right). So make sure to practice your language outside of your own head, and you will be able to improve even more.

So, what next?

Get out there and start making sentences! Write them, say them, and just practice. Don’t stress about being perfect or making sentences that will change the course of history… instead, just start making sentences!

頑張ってね！

丁寧語 - Polite Keigo

敬語 (けいご・keigo) is respectful speech in Japanese. 敬語 is based in the social hierarchy that has carried over into modern Japanese society from ancient times. There are three forms of 敬語 - teineigo,sonkeigo, and kenjougo.

丁寧語 (ていねいご・teineigo) is polite Japanese. This is the simplest form of 敬語, using regular grammar and with a structure similar to casual speech. Thus, this is the form of 敬語 first taught to Japanese language learners. This means using the です and ～ます forms rather than the dictionary forms.

です comes after nouns, adjectives, and adverbs at the end of a sentence.

ます is added to the stem of verbs.

Casual vs. Polite

ます系　ます form

Casual → Polite

する → します　to do

行く (いく) → 行きます (いきます)　to go

言う (いう) → 言います (いいます)　to say

です系　copula です

Casual → Polite

本だ (ほんだ) → 本です (ほんです)　(it is) a book

猫だった (ねこだった) → 猫でした (ねこでした)　(it was) a cat

暑い (あつい) → 暑いです (あついです)　it is hot

Example Sentences

I am going to buy a book.
Casual: 本を買いに行く。(ほん を かい に いく)
丁寧語: 本を買いに行きます。(ほん を かい に いきます)

The mobile phone is broken.
Casual: 携帯が壊れた。(けいたい が こわれた)
丁寧語: 携帯が壊れました。(けいたい が こわれました)

What is this?
Casual: これは何だ？(これ は なん だ)
丁寧語:こちらは何ですか？(こちら は なん です か)

See also: Basic Keigo