Mon Jan 20th

Sorry I have been a bit slow getting this blog out.
On Monday, we talked about what we do in the Japanese class (jugyou) - kanji no kakikata narattari, nihongo o hanashitari shimasu.

The two key structures here are:
kakikata - how to write.
This is formed by taking the -masu form of the verb, knocking off the -masu and adding kata, it means "how to" or "way of" and can be used for almost any verb.
hanashikata - how to speak /way of speaking
arukikata - way of walking (gait?)
tsukurikata - how to make .....and so on.

The other construction is +tari +tari shimasu.
This is used when you want to say "we do things like ..... and .... and so on" with no particular order (in terms of time) to the activities.
shuumatsu wa terebi o mitari, shinbun o yondari shimashita.
At the weekend I did things like watch TV and read the paper.

This is formed by taking the plain past tense of the verb and adding +ri and then shimasu (in what ever tense is appropriate) at the end.
The plain past is a very close friend of the -te form, it is formed in exactly the same way except with -ta instead of -te.
eg. yonde > yonda
tabete > tabeta
mite > mita
kiite > kiita
itte > itta etc.

I used the listening text and worksheet from Chikara S15 In a lesson http://www.jpf.org.uk/language/exercises/list.php I suggest that you down load the unit and have a look at the other exercises in it.

In the last few minutes we looked at some kanji - revised days of the week and dates in kanji. I asked everyone to look at pages 22-28 of the Teach Yourself Japanese Script and we will go over it again next week. Kei-san will show us how to write the kanji nicely.