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HINAKO'S JAPANESE LANGUAGE SCHOOL 日向子さんの日本語学校 (Hinako-san no nihongo gakko) (( OOC INFO: The purpose of this topic and the ones that will follow is for Factions such as Little Tokyo to be able to use basic Japanese words for adding effect. )) Minasan konnichiwa! Hello, everyone! My name is Hinako and welcome to my online Japanese lessons. Last time we learned some basic grammar and how we can introduce ourselves. At this point, I would like to mention that Japanese is a language that has many complex forms of politeness, depending on who you're speaking to. Let me reference an example of the previous lesson which you can find by clicking HERE. EXAMPLES: My name is Hinako. Hinako desu. (日向子です) Watashi wa Hinako desu. (私は日向子です) Watashi no namae wa Hinako desu. (私の名前は日向子です) Hinako to moushimasu. (日向子と申します) The first two examples roughly translate as I am Hinako. As I said in the previous lesson, remember the formula X wa Y desu, as it will hold the foundation for everything in Japanese. In this lesson, I would like to focus on some greetings. It is essential to know how to greet the other person, depending on their status or the time of day. Let's begin with how to say good morning, good afternoon/evening, and good night. Ohayou gozaimasu (おはようございます) - Good morning (Polite) Gozaimasu can be skipped when talking to someone you want to be casual to. EXAMPLE: Ohayo gozaimasu, Hinako-sensei. (おはようございます日向子先生) Good morning, Hinako-sensei. Konnichiwa (こんにちは) - Good day/afternoon (Polite/Casual) You can use that word to say good day or good afternoon. Konnichi (こんにち) means either day or afternoon, followed by the particle Wa (は), which we introduced last time. The way it is pronounced is kind of tricky. Do you see the double N's in Konnichiwa? ん (Un, N, M) is a letter in the Japanese language that can sometimes be considered silent or as a moan. When followed by a syllable such as Ni, the ん becomes a moan. So, the basic pronunciation of the word is Ko-n-nichiwa. Konbanwa (こんばんは) - Good evening (Polite/Casual) It is exactly the same as Konnichiwa in its pronunciation. Konban (こんばん) means evening, so you are literally wishing someone a good evening, during the evening or nighttime hours. Oyasuminasai (おやすみなさい) - Good night (Polite) -nasai can be skipped to make the word casual. It literally means good night. BONUS WORDS Here are some words you can use throughout your day. Jaa (じゃあ) - Well then / So Usually used when you want to say to someone: Okay, then or Well, see you later. Mata ne (またね) - See you later / Goodbye You can also combine Jaa and Mata ne into one phrase. You can also skip Ne if you want. Jaa, mata ne! / Jaa, mata! - Well then, see you later! Sayounara ( さようなら) - Goodbye Don't use this word unless you are never going to see the other person again, or it's going to be some time until you do. FUN FACT: Ne (ね) is usually used at the end of a phrase, It can either mean "right?" or "it is, isn't it?". You can also use that word by itself when you want to prepare the other person for something you are about to say, or even call them. It's the exact use of the saying "Say... etc etc". So don't be afraid to use it! Thank you so much for reading this blog! 読んでくれてありがとう! Yonde kurete arigatou!

HINAKO'S JAPANESE LANGUAGE SCHOOL 日向子さんの日本語学校 (Hinako-san no nihongo gakko) (( OOC INFO: The purpose of this topic and the ones that will follow is for Factions such as Little Tokyo to be able to use basic Japanese words for adding effect. )) Minasan konnichiwa! Hello, everyone! My name is Hinako and welcome to my online Japanese lessons. Let me tell you a few things about myself first before we get right to the point. I was born and raised in Kyoto (京都), a traditional city of Japan. My passion from an early age was the study of human psychology and behavior, so I dedicated almost half of it to that particular study. Right now I am a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) majoring in Clinical Psychology, and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) majoring in Psychiatry. The need to start this blog came the second time I found myself in Los Santos. It saddened me when I witnessed that the Japanese-American community no longer spoke my native language, and even emerged into the American culture and linguistic standards. Of course, there is no wrong or right with that. But I am a strong supporter of knowing one's history and language. Hence this blog. With no further due, let's get to the first lesson! The very first thing I want to talk about is the phonetics and writing system. Hiragana (ひらがな), Katana (カタカナ), and Chinese characters, commonly known as Kanji (漢字). In these lessons, however, the writing systems will not be included, unless specifically asked to. The writing system I will be using will be common Latin characters, known in Japan as Romaji. Let's take a look at the Japanese phonetic system. It consists of only five vowels. The rest are just syllables with various combinations of vowels and consonants. Take a look at the charts below to get familiar with the sounds, and how they look like in Hiragana and Katakana. *DO NOT GET INTIMIDATED BY THE COMPLEX WRITING. WE ARE JUST FOCUSING ON THE SOUNDS. Now that we got that out of the way, let's begin with the real lesson. We are going to learn... You guessed it! How to introduce ourselves! In Japanese, the sentence structure is reversed. Meaning, that instead of Subject, Verb, and Object as the usual order that the rest of the normal world has (not), we reverse Verb with Subject.. For example: My name is Hinako. In Japanese, it becomes: My name Hinako is. How do we do that? The word for /am-is-are/ is desu (silent U). The word for /I/ is Watashi (私) for women (and in some formal cases by men), and Ore (俺) or Boku (僕) for men. No (の) in Japanese is a particle that indicates possession. And Wa (は) is a particle that marks the topic of discussion. Although it is written as /Ha/, in that case, it's pronounced like Wa. The Japanese word for /name/ is namae. Easy right? So, how do we say "My name is ..."? The structure is as follows: "X wa Y desu". Remember that formula. My name is Hinako. -> Watashi no namae wa Hinako desu. To be fair, there are a hundred ways to introduce yourself. The most common one is to just say [Your name] and add desu. Example: Hinako desu. I'm sorry if this got a little confusing... for these lessons, I want to avoid as much grammar as possible, so we can focus on the essential stuff. (Greetings, etc) Thank you so much for reading this blog! 読んでくれてありがとう! Yonde kurete arigatou!

NEWS • Politics Written by Yunisa DELGADO-FLORES • July 3rd, 2022 — 8:10PM Sun rises on Little Tokyo, committee passes bill to recognize district The Designation of Little Tokyo Act, an act that would give the community-dubbed “Little Tokyo” district in South Rockford Drive it’s name officially, passes the senate committee. The Hinomaru, the Japanese Flag, flying high in the morning following the passing. — Alan Kim, July 3rd 2022 On July the 2nd, the committee of public safety of the San Andreas Senate held a hearing regarding the Designation of Little Tokyo Act of 2022; the act that would make the name “Little Tokyo” official. South Rockford Drive, from Invention Court to Dutch London Street, is home to the highest proportion of Japanese migrants and Japanese-Americans within the city of Los Santos. Los Santos County, according to the findings listed in the act, is home to more than 60,000 Japanese residents. The bill, introduced by Senator Adrian Rossi (R), aims to help a community that he described as having “historically suffered” during the hearing. On the west coast, around 110,000 to 120,000 Japanese Americans, which 70 percent of which were born within the U.S., were sent to camps by Executive Order 9066 in 1941. Those who were sent to camps faced economic struggle on release. Japanese-Americans were sent across the country to different camps, where different camps neighbored both wealthy and deprived areas of the country. Many of those who were relocated to these deprived areas found themselves receiving less education opportunities, had worse housing, and earned less money, reported the Harvard Gazette. Those who found themselves relocated to camps located within San Andreas often migrated to Los Santos on their release. Many found themselves moving to the section of South Rockford Drive that is commonly known as Little Tokyo While efforts have been made to rectify and to support the Japanese-American population nationwide following the internment camps, Japanese-Americans and other Asian-Americans face harassment day-to-day. NBC reported how, in 2021, hate crimes against Asians and Asian-Americans increased 339 percent with cities such as Los Santos, San Fierro and New York hitting record highs. Daichi Saejima, the founder and head of the Japanese American Association (JAA), a non-profit that serves to assist Japanese-Americans within Los Santos, described how he and his community faced issues with police harassment in the past in an interview with the Daily News. He expressed his gratitude to this bill passing the committee and hopes it’s a sign of thing to come. “It means our pleas have finally been heard by the higher powers.” Saejima shared in a response to asking about his opinions on the bill. “We've wanted change, and finally, after our trials and tribulations, we're making steady progress. Us as the Japanese-Americans, we're being treated as equals. Given the rights and acknowledgement we deserve.” During the hearing, Sen Tsujihara and Ian Ichiro Inoue, the niece and nephew of Saejima and fellow members of the JAA, were present as witnesses during the hearing. Tsujihara testified to the struggles Japanese-Americans face in the present day, noting a “systemic oppression” that their community faces and how Little Tokyo and the JAA serves as a hub for support. “Before the internment in the forties, our Japantown was the most prosperous of its kind anywhere in the country.” Inoue said in regards to Little Tokyo and it’s past. “Despite our struggles that we've faced in the years following executive orders and other such issues, Little Tokyo provides not only a vast spread of amenities in the way of corner stores, apartment housing, and any such need that a new family could possibly hope for.” “Formal recognition of our historic district would pave the way to ending the decades long damage done.”, Tsujihara said in the hearing. Senator Kaoru King-Yagami (D), who originally came from Japan, expressed their support for the bill by stating “I hope my heritage, and that of all Japanese-Americans may be able to be proudly displayed into the future with this act.” The bill passed the committee hearing unanimously with Senators Lu (D), Jones (D), Meier (D) and Benson (R) not being present. It now will face a hearing from the senate as a whole, where they will vote to pass it into law. Comments are enabled: Username: Comment: