Japanese Language Learning Tips

Can I speak Japanese?

How about a round of applause for me?

Sir, um…

if you say, “Nihongo hanasemasu ka,”

“Watashi” means you’re asking yourself, “Can I”

“speak Japanese?”

Give me a round of applause. That’s weird, sir.

The grammar is all over the place, sir.

The correct version is “Dashi wa nihongo”

“hanashimasu yo,”

or you can drop the particle

to make it shorter: “Dashi

nihongo

hanashimasu yo” is enough. No need to ask yourself

questions, okay?

And then this one.

Ju-jutoshi gure ka mae.

Jutoshi ki ra ono, onone njotos. I mean, what he really wants to

say is “ten months ago,”

which means “juukage jimae.”

He wants to ask when this program

started being recommended.

Itsuka ka kono yarikataga osusume

sareteiru ndesuka, or itsuka ka kono

yarikataga osusume sareru

you ni nattan desuka.

That's the simple version.

There are other words we can use too.

Just to make it easy

for us to understand, let's use simple words first.

Sorry if you still can't quite do it yet.

No need to ask for

applause, sir. It's okay if

you get it wrong, that's okay.

It's like getting every answer wrong on a test,

but the teacher gives you

a hundred anyway.