This week I wanted to teach counting in Japanese, as well as a little more!
By the way, to say Japanese as far as the Japanese Language goes you would say Nihongo! Nihon (Knee Hoh N) Go (Goh)
English would be Eigo (Eh E) Go (Goh) Though sometimes it’s slurred and sounds like “Eh go” Like the waffle! Ego 😛
Nihon = Japan and Go = language. Ei = English Go = language (of course!)
Also, for a Japanese person you would say Nihonjin! Which is basically Japan Person as jin = person.
Someone from America though would not be Eijin, we’d actually be Amerikajin! So, if someone was to ask you Amerikajin desu ka? Do you know what they’re asking?
If you remember that Ka asks a question, and desu is basically is/are then you’re being asked here “American are?” or “Are American?” The ‘you’ is something dropped, otherwise you may here “Anata wa Amerikajin desu ka?” which translates to “You American are?” well, the literal translation anyway! They’re asking “Are you American?” here!
You could answer with a simple Yes or No here if you really want, or you can be more specific. “Hai, Amerikajin desu!” or “Yes, I am American!”
Alright! Now on to counting from 1 to 10!
- 1 Ichi (E chee)
- 2 Ni (knee)
- 3 San (Sah n)
- 4 Yon/shi (Yo n or Shee) *NOTE – Shi also means death, so stick with Yon. o.O
- 5 Go (Goh)
- 6 Rouku (Roh Koo)
- 7 Nana/shichi (Nah nah/Shee Chee) *NOTE – When in doubt, go with Nana.
- 8 Hachi (Hah Chee)
- 9 Kyuu (K you)
- 10 Juu (Joo)
Wow! TY for this! I would love to visit Japan someday. The language is so intimidating to me.
Thank you for the Japanese lessons ~ learning a new language is so interesting and fun!
I have a friend who is leaving for Japan and work there for 2 yrs and eventhough I will surely miss her I know that she is in for some very interesting experiences. I will be bookmarking your site. I am amazed and would like to learn a few words here and there as I visit your site.