Introduction

What's your name?

Let’s talk about some differences between Japanese and English!

In English, we would say I am Maria or He is an American, but Japanese speakers often leave out words like I and he. It's usually understood from context!

Another difference is that the verb comes at the end of the sentence in Japanese. Plus, it doesn't change depending on the person you're talking about. In English, we have I am and She is, but in Japanese, there's just です (desu)!

はじめまして、マリアです。
Hajimemashite, Maria desu.
Nice to meet you, (I) am Maria.

Another way to introduce yourself is to say ...といいます (to iimasu), which means My name is…! It's a verb, so remember to put it at the end.

こんにちは！マリアといいます。
Konnichiwa! Maria to iimasu.
Hello! My name is Maria.
Literal: Hello! (I) am called Maria.

Showing Respect

If you want to talk about someone else, be sure to put さん (san) after their name. It’s a sign of respect! It’s similar to titles like Mr. or Ms. in English, but さん (san) is much more commonly used. It can also be combined with someone’s first name, not just their last name.

ジョンさんです。
Jon‑san desu.
(He) is John.

If you want to say John is American or Maria is Japanese, put は after John or Maria to show that it’s the topic of your sentence! Notice that when it’s a topic marker, は sounds like wa, not ha.

ジョンさんはアメリカ人です。
Jon‑san wa Amerikajin desu.
John is American.

Japanese Writing

Along with hiragana, there are two other writing systems. Katakana is a script just like hiragana. For every hiragana letter, there’s a matching katakana one! Sometimes you’ll even see ones with similar shapes.

Hiragana	Katakana
あ a	ア a
か ka	カ ka
り ri	リ ri
し shi	シ shi
ま ma	マ ma

What’s the difference then? Well in general, hiragana is mostly used for native Japanese words, and katakana is used with foreign words.

アメリカ
Amerika
America

Many words are also written with kanji, a script that uses Chinese characters. Kanji characters don’t represent sounds, but words and ideas!

中国
Chūgoku
China

The pronunciation and meaning can also change based on the word they’re in. For example, 中 is different in the name 田中 (Tanaka) and in the country 中国 (Chūgoku). With kanji, just focus on learning each new vocabulary term as a whole, and pick up patterns along the way.

These three scripts are mixed together when writing Japanese!

アメリカ人です。
Amerikajin desu.
(We) are American.
Literal: (We) are American people.