Semester 2 Week 2 Part A

Konnichiwa minasan. O genki desu ka? (How are you?)

I hope that everyone enjoyed the last couple of sessions. I got a fair bit of feedback from people which liked it so for now I'll stick with a similar format.

Okay, so now we're onto week 2. Fortunately my tutors said they're fine with me staying in my new class. Yay! :D

Let's start off with some Kanji! Remember the parts in the brackets must be written in Hiragana as the Kanji only covers the part of the word outside of the brackets.
Kanji

1. 記 = Shiru(shimasu) = To Record
2. 誌 = Shi = Magazine
3. 起 = O(kimasu) = To Get Up, Arise
4. 寝 = Ne(masu) = To Sleep, lie down *(lie down means to do so without sleeping)
5. 部 = Bu = Part, Section
6. 屋 = Ya = House, Store (House in the sense that it is not your own)
7. 働 = Hatara(kimasu) = To Work, Operate
8. 走 = Hashi(rimasu) = To Run
9. 泣 = Na(kimasu) = To Cry
10. 笑 = Wara(imasu) = To Smile, Laugh
11.  歌 = Uta(imasu) = To Sing, Song

Nagara

Now onto something useful, the word Nagara. This is used when saying you are doing something at the same time as something else, For example, watching Tv while eating dinner. Think of Nagara as 'while' or 'at the same time as'. Nagara is used with a 'stem'. Remember from last weeks session, a 'stem' is where we remove the 'masu' of the verb. So for example, we get 'to watch' which is 'kimasu' and it becomes 'kinagara'. You can do this with any 'masu' word. Remember that 'masu' words are verbs. 
Examples of verb being changed: 
1. Yomimasu becoming Yominagara
2. Kikimasu becoming Kikinagara

Example Sentence

Here we learn how to use Nagara as part of a sentence.

In Japanese: Watashi wa terebi O minagara bangohan O tabemashita
In English:    I watched TV while eating dinner.
Lets break the sentence down into each word.
1. Watashi = I
2. Wa / は = particle which marks the 'topic' of the sentence, in this case 'I'.
3. Terebi = TV
4. O / を* = particle which marks the 'object/s' of the sentence, in this case TV.
5. Minagara = Mimasu converted to Minagara for the purpose of the sentence, See above for explanation.
6. Bangohan = Dinner
7. O / を* = Same as Above. Particle which marks the 'object/s' of the sentence, in this case Dinner.
8. tabemashita = Past tense of Tabemasu. Tabemasu means 'To Eat'.

* を is the Hiragana for the particle O. This is very different to the 'normal' Hiragana O which is お

The End

Well that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. If you have any feedback, please leave a comment.

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