Location words

How to describe one thing regarding to another? We just use の to connect the object and the location. For example:

• Glass is in front of the book.  ガラスは本（ほん）のまえです。 (Glass is book's front)
• Book is on the table. 本は机（つくえ）の上（うえ）です。 (Book is desk's top)

Here are some more location words in a chart:

• なか inside; うえ on; した under; ひだり left; みぎ right.

• まえ front; うしろ back; あいだ between.
• when we use 'あいだ', we can say, the book is in between of glass and flower which is "本は ガラスと花（はな）のあいだです。"

Adjectives

There are two kinds of adjectives, い-adjectives and な-adjectives. I just start to learn adjectives this week, I will come back to this post and add more information next week. Below is the most simple sentence with adjectives.

い-adjectives
ちいさい		Regular	Negative
	Present	ちいさいです	ちいさくありません
		It’s small	It’s not small
	past	ちいさかったです	ちいさくありませんでした
		It was small	It was not small
いい (irregular)	Present	いいです	よくありません
	past	よかったです	よくありませんでした

When it's negative, use く instead of  じゃ. 

な-adjectives
しずかな		Regular	Negative
	Present	しずかです	しずかじゃありません
		It’s quiet	It’s not quiet
	Past	しずかでした	しずかじゃありませんでした
		It was quiet	It was not quiet

Compare with  い-adjectives, な-adjectives is much more simple to use in sentences. Just forget the な, everything else is the same.

Frequency

• あまり　　　　not much
• ぜんぜん  　　  not at all

When you use these two words, you need to make it negative at the end of a sentence. For example: 

私（わたし）はあまり朝（あさ）ごはんを食（た）べません。

I don't eat much breakfast./I don't usually eat breakfast.  (I'm trying to drink some water in the morning at least)

私（わたし）はぜんぜんテレビを見（み）ません。

I don't watch TV at all.   (well, I watch everything online with my PC)

• たいてい          usually
• ちょっと          a little
• ときどき          sometimes
• よく                  often; much

You DON'T need to make the sentence negative when you use these words to describe frequency. And frequency words are adverb, so you can put anywhere before the verb. Here I'm going to use 'ちょっと' to express inconvenience of request or invitation.

A:    明日（あした）に映画（えいが）を見（み）ませんか。

B:　 明日（あした）はちょっと......

(A: Do you want to watch movie tomorrow?)

(B: Tomorrow is a little bit (inconvenience)./ Maybe not tomorrow./ Tomorrow is not good)

I want to mention that, 'ませんか' has the meaning of 'would you like to..?'

Study Japanese in Japan

I'm not only want to learn Japanese, but also want to experience their culture. So I searched and asked people, how can I stay in Japan and learn Japanese efficiently? I got two answers. 

The first one is Japanese language school, that you study in the morning at school for three hours and do whatever you want to do in the afternoon. And most programs in Japanese language school is trying to send you to a good university. This is the way they get reputation. So other than Japanese, they also focus on the test that you need to do in order to go to university. Usually, it's a two-year study, and there is also half year and one-year study.

The second one is Japanese language program in private university. Generally, you study from 9am to 6pm, from Monday to Saturday. And the purpose of this kind of program is mostly for 'training' their perspective student to know more about Japanese and Japan, and prepare for under-graduate or graduate program study in their university. Other than learning Japanese, you can also choose some culture or business courses. And if your Japanese is really good, you could even go to classes like regular students there. Also, you are free to use facility in the university, attend activities, and join in clubs. All of the school I searched, providing this program as a one-year non-degree program.

The second chose is what I want. And I found three schools that I want to go:

1)    Intensive Japanese Language Program (IJLP) in Waseda University

        http://www.waseda.jp/cjl/html/e_study.index.html
        Application Guidebook (PDF file)
        http://www.waseda.jp/cjl/html/dat/download_E/00_guide_in_English.pdf

2)    The Japanese Language Program (JLP) in Keio Univeristy

        http://www.ic.keio.ac.jp/nncenter/en/index.html?url=110.html
        Application Guidebook (PDF file)
        http://www.ic.keio.ac.jp/nncenter/pdf/jlp/10f&11s_guidebook.pdf 

3)    Intensive Japanese Language Program "Bekka" in Doshisha University

        http://www.doshisha.ac.jp/english/education/inbound/bekka.php

Check the website out, if you are interested in them. The deadline to apply April semester is from September to October. And the deadline to apply for September semester is from March to May depends on the school you are applying. I'm preparing to apply the September semester now. And I will share more of my experience later.

Numbers

      As I mention before in the 'University self introduction', I will summary numbers in a table. From the table, we can see, one number has more than one way to say (for example, number 4, 7 and 9), and they be used differently in different situation. This is what we have to remember. Hope this table would help you easier to remember the differences. (For me, those differences are still confusing me when I use it, I need to work more on them.)

	Numbers	Hours	Minutes	~Years old	Months	Days
		‘じ’	‘ぷん/ふん’	‘さい’	‘がつ’	か/にち
0	ぜろ/れい
1	いち	いちじ	いっぷん	いっさい	いちがつ	ついたち
2	に	にじ	にふん	にさい	にがつ	ふつか
3	さん	さんじ	さんぷん	さんさい	さんがつ	みっか
4	よん/し/よ	よじ	よんぷん	よんさい	しがつ	よっか
5	ご	ごじ	ごふん	ごさい	ごがつ	いつか
6	ろく	ろくじ	ろっぷん	ろくさい	ろくがつ	むいか
7	なな/しち	しちじ	ななふん	ななさい	しちがつ	なのか
8	はち	はちじ	はっぷん	はっさい	はちがつ	ようか
9	きゅう/く	くじ	きゅうふん	きゅうさい	くがつ	ここのか
10	じゅう	じゅうじ	じゅぷうん	じゅっさい	じゅうがつ	とおか
11	じゅういち	じゅういちじ	じゅういっぷん	じゅういっさい	じゅういちがつ	じゅいちにち
12	じゅうに	じゅうにじ	じゅうにふん		じゅうにがつ	じゅうににち

I only put numbers that from 0 to 12 in the table, here are some notes for further numbers:

• Numbers – 20 is にじゅう, 100 isひゃく, 1000 is せん, and 10,000 is いちまん。
• Hours – 1:30 is いちじはん (half)
• Minutes – 30 is さんじゅっぷん。
•  ~Years old – 20 is はたち (special, it’s an age that indicate you are an adult now).
• Days – the first ten days are special spelling, and 20^th day is はつか。The rest are pretty much the same as in Hours, and plus にち, except 14^th and 24^th are using よっas 4.

There is something.

～があります/います。

We use 'あります' for something cannot move such as plants, tests, and buildings. And we use 'います' for things that can move such as people, buses, and animals. 

For example, "there is a book." We can say, "ほんがあります."

If we want to say "there is something at X time or X place."We add 'に’after the time or place and put it in the beginning of the sentence. For example, "there is a bank near the park." We can say, "こうえんのそばに ぎんこうがあります." 'こうえん' means 'park', and 'そば' means 'near'. We use 'の' to connect 'park' and 'near', then we add ’に’after them, and put them all in the beginning of the sentence.

Do you remember we mentioned that we put particle 'で' after location words? However, we put 'に' here after location words. Why? The difference is, when you use 'で', it means there is an event taking place. For example, "I took pictures in the park." We use 'で', "わたしは こうえんで しゃしんをとりました。" You were doing something at that place, the event was 'took pictures.'