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SAM BRIER and KEIKO MATSUURA
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright © 2010 Samson Brier
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1453-1 (ebook)
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First edition
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Contents
Welcome to A Japanese Phrase A Day!
TIME (DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS, CLOCK)
AROUND JAPAN: TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT
OUT & ABOUT / STAYING CONNECTED
GOING OUT, ON THE TOWN, & LOVE
How to Download the Bonus Material of this Book.
1. You must have an internet connection.
2. Click the link below or copy paste the URL to your web browser.
http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/japanese-phrase-a-day-practice-pad-downloadable-cd-content
For support email us at [email protected].
Introduction
Welcome to A Japanese Phrase A Day, a desk companion that offers you short, simple, and functional phrases. Whether you’re an absolute beginner or an intermediate-level learner, it will help you bring the Japanese language into your everyday life!
Each page offers you four components:
1. The phrase in Japanese characters.
2. A transliteration using English letters, which gives English speakers a guide to pronunciation.
3. The English translation.
4. A note about the phrase, Japan, or Japanese culture.
Pronunciation
Japanese is easily pronounced by native English speakers, and unlike many Asian languages, Japanese does not have tones. The grammar and characters are the most challenging, and because of this, phrases in this pad are kept short, simple and functional. Plus, you can listen to the audio files for each phrase repeatedly online.
All sounds in Japanese are easily pronounced in English and are almost identical to the way they are pronounced in Spanish.
Below are charts of the two Japanese alphabets: hiragana and katakana. (Together these two alphabets are termed kana.) The former is used to write Japanese words, and the latter is used to write foreign words. Also used to write Japanese are kanji, characters derived from Chinese.
The small hiragana that you will see written over the Japanese characters derived from (and often identical to) Chinese are called furigana. They show you the pronunciation of the kanji below. Furigana are useful guides, but they are only used in text that’s meant for education purposes, like this phrase-a-day pad. Furigana isn’t seen in typical situations.