Last week on "Just Another Gaijin...", I talked about where my interest in studying Japanese came from, tried to explain the difference between a syllabary and and alphabet, and introduced five basic Hiragana characters. The response to this was way more interest than I anticipated, so I'm back for a second round of blogging/musing about my efforts to learn this language effectively enough that I can hold conversations slightly more advanced than telling time and asking where the bathroom can be found.
Incidentally, even if you hate languages that are not native to your part of the world, I think it's vitally important to learn how to say, "Yes", "No", and "Where is the bathroom?" in as many different tongues as you can master. In case you ever find yourself in Japan (or somehow surrounded by people who only speak Japanese), here's a quick and handy cheat sheet!
Yes: はい ('Hai')
Sounds like you casually greeting an acquaintance, ie: 'Hi'.
No: いいえ ('Iie')
Sounds like a short yelp followed by confusion, ie: 'Eee-eh?' Incidentally, this can also be used as a sort of informal 'you are welcome', which makes perfect sense once you realize it makes no sense whatsoever.
Where's the bathroom?: お手洗いはどこですか? (Otearai wa doko desu ka?)
Sounds like the worst tongue-twister imaginable at the moment you need such vital information.
Ideally the response you want is either 'koko desu', which means 'right here' (near the speaker), or 'soko desu', which means 'right over there' (near the questioner). An apologetic expression coupled with 'asoko desu' probably means a shopping trip for new underwear is in your future, because that bathroom is 'all the way over there, nowhere near either one of us' and you better start running. Who knew one little 'a' sound could portent such disaster?
Well, besides you now, of course.
Stay well, friends. Keep calm and benkyou shimasu on!