Alex's basic Japanese questions :help: I've been a little foolhardy, perhaps... in order to give me a push to learn the language myself, I've got the go-ahead from my Head of Department to teach my low-ability 13 and 14 year olds some basic Japanese between now and July. We've had two lessons already, and have covered numbers 1-20. (I'm using this site as a basis for what I'm teaching - it's not going to get more complicated than that - and I've bought a book called Japanese from Zero to help me too). We're now moving on to greetings - so far so good. What I can't find anywhere is the Japanese for "please". Can anyone help? I get the feeling I may be opening a can of worms here... (oh, and I'm not bothering with kanji right now, and am sticking to hiragana, which they love!)
The romanji is onegai, God knows what it is in Hiragana... EDIT: http://japanese.about.com/blsjp7_1.htm has it, with the Hiragana
Why the bloody hell wasn't it in any books that I could find??? Oh well. Thanks M. The Hiragana is おねがい - there's a useful converter to Hiragana and Katakana at http://www.whiteagle.net/jap/r2kconvert.htm that I'm using a lot at the moment...
That whole About.com page could be really helpful, actually - it has an archive of simple phrases, with Hiragana as well: http://japanese.about.com/blsjp.htm
Kudasai Used with the -te form of a verb... Hon wo misete kudasai - Please show me the book To ask that someone doesnt... use the -nai form of a verb, with de koko de tabako wo suwanai de kudasai - please do not smoke here To simply say something please - noun plus wo kudasai biiru wo kudasai - Beer please The best book I have ever found on the subject is "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns" by Naoko Chino
I think onegai shimasu also works and here's a discussion of the difference between it and kudasai... http://japanese.about.com/blqow15.htm ... those two words are closest to "please", but there isnt a direct equivalent, as "please" is implied in a lot of polite japanese language, such is "...mo ii desu ka" (Is it all right if I...) etc.
Oh man, that's confusing :lol: I think I'll leave off answering questions on this thread, since I know even less about Japanese than Alex does, I'll leave it up to the experts
Midori's pretty much nailed it. kudasai (ください) is your general please. onegai shimasu (おねがい します) literally means 'favour do' or "do me a favour" They are somewhat interchangeable in so far as my limited Japanese knows.
There's one basic difference between the two: "kudasai" always has to be used as part of a sentence. "onegaishimasu" can be used alone if the situation of the request is understood. For example, if I sent you a link to a spammer, I could say: "Kore wo yatte kudasai" (please take care of this) or just "Onegaishimasu" (please [take care of this]). "Onegaishimasu" is used more in formal situations but either can be used informally. By the way, feel free to PM me if you have any questions and/or need help. I'm also a teacher (ESL) and I think you already know my Japanese background so I can help you with designing a few core lessons.
The best book to use is Genki: Integrated Course in Japanese. It's extremly helpful and so easy to follow. It's pretty easy to find. Good luck with the nihongo, ganbatte!
I've heard that there isn't English word which means "onegaishimasu". The Japanese use it in various situations, so when we want to use it in English, we have to speak concretely.
No questions as such, just an update. In a bizarre twist, I am now teaching three 75 minute Japanese lessons a fortnight. After Christmas, this is likely to go up to eight. (I still know next to no Japanese but am teaching myself as we go...) To put things in perspective, my degree subject was German. I'm pretty fluent. How many lessons per two weeks do I teach of that? Just one. It's a mad world...
I've been studying Japanese for 5+ years, and cannot recommend the Genki books more- they're A-grade text books, very easy to understand, and the workbooks are helpful also. I used them for a couple years in high school, and ironically enough I'm using them in college now. I'm double-majoring, and one of my majors is in fact Japanese Language and Culture (although called "studies" sigh), so I'm down for answering any questions that come up.
