森の安藤

Mr. Ando of the Woods

Now that you know the difference between the Japanese “alphabets” and how / where they are used, it’s time to start learning the first one (hiragana… not romaji, right?). This is going to help you build a great foundation for your Japanese learning and pronunciation. This will probably be the most painful bit of Japanese learning, but once it’s over it’ll be smooth sailing.

Before you get started, though, take a look at this video, about a man pretending to be a penguin. I mostly hope you enjoy it (don’t worry about studying every single moment of the video), but I did want to point some things out in it to show you some of the stuff you just learned in action. Plus, you’ll be using this video again a little later, so it’ll be good to familiarize yourself with it.

Here are some of the things in the video that you kind of know about already (thanks to this last chapter). It’s okay if you didn’t catch any of them, I just want you to know that they exist!

  • Lots of Onomatopoeia (do you remember which “alphabet” is used most often when doing onomatopoeia?). See if you can find these.
    • “Pero Pero Pero” is the sound of licking.
    • “Buru Buru” is the sound/feeling of his cell phone buzzing.
    • “Peng Peng” (actually “pen pen”) is the sound they use for penguin sounds. Not sure if it’s actually an “official” penguin sound (need to hear a penguin making sounds first), but it’s more of a play on the word “Penguin” where it uses the first part of that word as the sound that Penguin’s make… You know, kind of like how “pikachu” says “pikapika.”
  • When they talk to Ando-san, they use “san” on the end of his name. Do you remember which “alphabet” you use to write name-suffixes like that? Ando-san, Koichi-san, [yournamehere]-san.
  • “Pengin” is the Japanese word for “Penguin.” It sounds suspiciously like the word “penguin” though, and that’s because it’s a loan word. What would this (foreign) loan word be written in?

After that relaxing break hanging out in the woods with Mr. Ando, it’s time to review. On to your first practice page! Good luck!

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