Recap of step 1: You learned word order (verb follows subject) and that nouns lack number, gender and case and that verbs lack conjugation; you also learned the first 3 rows of hiragana. By the end of Lesson 1 you will know all the hiragana.
Where was the first place you stopped (including to take a break or call it a day) and why?
How long did that session take you?
Were there things that were confusing or hard to follow etc
What did you think of placement of new vocabulary?
Were there things that were particularly enlightening, pleasant or interesting, etc
How & where did you work?
(How) do the lessons work on an iPhone/smart phone?
Lesson 1, Step 2
Hover your mouse over a linked word for a pronunciation hint; more detailed explanatory notes follow the exercises.
Structures and Concepts
Particles
A particle is a small word added to the end of a noun. Particles indicate the role a word plays in a sentence. Step 2 introduces the following particles:
は("wa")
topic indicator;'as for', 'at least'
の (no)
indicator of belonging
か(ka)
question indicator
Note: The symbol "は" is pronunced 'wa' when used as the topic particle, or in the conjunction 'では'.
Otherwise, it is pronounced 'ha'.
Politeness
(see end notes for a more in-depth discussion of 'politeness'.)
Two forms of the verb are presented. The polite form, also called 'teinei' or 'desu/masu' is to be considered the default. A second form, sometimes call the 'dictionary form' is presented for the sake of recognition.
〜さん ("san") is an 'honorific', a suffix that functions like a title (Ms., Mr. etc). 'さん' can be considered the default honorific.
Sentence Form, "Topic Sentence" - Noun1 は Noun2 です。
This sentence form links the noun marked with 'は' to another noun using the verb 'to be'.
"では" contracts colloquially to "じゃ".
("じゃない" is presented here for reference.)
("じゃ" is one of a group of sounds written using a large kana followed by a small one. The full set will be treated in step 3.)
Writing
Learn the next two rows of hiragana. After this you will know half of the hiragana.
た
ち
つ
て
と
な
に
ぬ
ね
の
ta
chi
tsu
te
to
na
ni
nu
ne
no
In the lessons you will see some kana marked with two small slashes, for example, だ、ざ、が. These marks have the effect of softening the initial vowel.
が
ぎ
ぐ
げ
ご
ざ
じ
す
ぜ
ぞ
だ
ぢ
づ
で
ど
ga
gi
gu
ge
go
za
ji
zu
ze
zo
da
ji
dzu
de
do
Vocabulary
New words are presented at the end of each form-unit, indicated by color. A searchable, sortable vocabulary reference is being implemented.
Lesson 1, Step 2, Sentence Patterns
The angular characters are katakana, used for foreign words. In these examples they are the names of non-Japanese people.
Frequent listening to the audio will make the step-end exercises (much) easier.
ぶん の かた 1 sentence forms
わたし は はやし です。
わたし は チェン です。
はやしさんは にほんじん です
チェンさんは ちゅうこくじん です。
[わたし I, me] [チェン "Chen"] [にほんじん Japanese person] [ちゅうこくじん Chinese person]
Note on pronunciation:
In the standard dialect the the 'u' sound is de-emphasized, or elided. Thus です (desu) is pronounced "dess"; がくせい (gakusei) is pronounced 'gaksei'. Compare the audio to the written material and note these occurrences.
Note on punctuation:
The full-stop (period) is written '。' and the comma is written '、'. Questions are correctly or formally punctuated with '。'; the question particle (か) renders the question mark redundant. However, informally, '?' is sometimes used with questions.
End of Step 2
END NOTES for Lesson 1
Politeness
Broadly speaking, there can be considered three levels of politeness in Japanese: standard, familiar and keigo. The standard is sometimes called the 'Polite Form' and is also referred to as the 'desu/~masu' form. It is used with people you do not know intimately and is to be considered the default form.
The familiar form, sometimes called the 'dictionary form' is provided in the initial lessons for the sake of recognition.
Keigo might be called 'high politeness'. It uses special vocabulary and grammatical forms. It is an advanced study and mentioned here for reference.
As the lessons proceed most units will include some information about politeness.
Suggested reading: "Minimal Essential Politeness" by Agnes Niyekawa.
The Topic Marker (wa)
The topic marker indicates that the speaker is referring to something with which he or she is familiar, and about which s/he can make an assertion. 'Wa' contains the implication that there may be other people or things about which this is also true, but in the current sentence, the focus is on the person or thing marked with 'wa'. (See E.H. Jordan, "Japanese, the Spoken Language")
Although nouns marked with 'wa' might seem like the grammatical subject of the sentence, a topic-noun is something different. Be careful to distinguish topic from grammatical subject.