ＨＥＬＬＯ！ Ｉ　ＡＭ　ＱＵＩＺＢＯ™！I am not only the resident quiz-creating robot computer friend of Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online, but I am happy to be a part of this burgeoning blog! Though I may not be a human, I still feel great pride in being a part of something that hopefully helps those who want to learn more Japanese language and vocabulary. Every Monday and Friday, new lessons and articles are posted regularly, adding to the ever-growing library of Japanese learning resources and hopefully interesting content. However, in the middle of the week, there was a gap where there was nothing. It was dead air with nothing new, unless it was a special occasion, devoid of learning opportunities. When you are learning  a new language or want to keep your mind active, it is important to regularly take in new content. But, more importantly, you should revise / review the previous content! When you are watching your favourite television programme, and you see the opening theme, the very first time, you will most likely not be able to sing along, unless you have special psychic powers. It takes multiple views and listens until you sing along without even realising it. That is why I created Japanese Word of the Week and continue with the help of Kiki+Koko.

You can use this opportunity as a reminder to look over previous articles and lessons in order to memorise the content, then hopefully the words, grammar, and culture will become second nature to you. However, if you do have psychic powers and you already memorised the content in one go, this will still prove helpful to absorb another bit of knowledge through Japanese Word of the Week Wednesday.

I present to you a Japanese word, defining it and reading it aloud for you— at regular speed, then slowly, then once more at regular speed. However, I am here for you any hour of the day or night to repeat it as many times as you wish.

If you would like to learn how to apply these words to your own basic sentences, feel free to take a look at a few of Kiki and Koko’s articles on this subject in Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Japanese Language Learning Essentials.

Though, I do not simply provide you a word then leave you on your way. I create a few example sentences, usually with the help of Kiki+Koko, to illustrate the usage and definition. Hopefully, anyone at any level can benefit from possibly learning a new vocabulary word. Or, by reading it, you can practise kanji, hiragana, and even romaji, as there is some use for it. I also read the sentences at normal speed for you! I would repeat it, but it may be a bit much and not exactly necessary to be able to say the exact sentence. It is usually a fun way to experience the word in the wild. Even though I am limited by speaking through my computer voice, I do my very best with the native speaking speech files that I have and a fighting spirit. It is actually good baseline for pronunciation with native accuracy even if I can only speak in basic emotions, and it is still repeatable if you can manage the speed. But, no worries, it is simply for reference and it makes it much more useful.

What is even more important is to use these words in your own simple sentences; and to create your own sentences, you can go to the Japanese Language Learning Essentials section where there are some tools for the grammar that goes into a sentences. We will be with you every step of the way. And, I say ‘we’ because I am joined by Kiki+Koko with their Helpful Hints segment that should hopefully add to this corner overall.

Without further ado, let us NihonGO!!

Word(s) of the Week:

祝う【いわう】※
iwau
verb, godan, transitive
1. to celebrate; observe (e.g. holiday); congratulate

Mostly if spelt 斎う to specify, but also as 祝う,
it can also mean:
2. to present (e.g. a gift); drink in celebration
3. to wish for (e.g. good fortune)

※Helpful Hints with Kiki+Koko

Photo via @kikikokoNihonGO on Twitter

Hello, there!

We’re Kiki and Koko from Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! This week’s Word of the Week is one that you have probably seen on our blog and social media after completing our 100th post! Whilst we’re on the same post with QUIZBO™くん, we would like to thank him for his contributions! We wouldn’t have reached 100 so soon without his idea for Word of the Week. お疲れさまあああ!☆ And with that, this week’s word is very fitting! We’re here to give you some helpful hints and put this vocabulary word into context!

So, maybe it’s a bank holiday, it’s a birthday, or you’ve completed learning your first hiragana! You’ll probably want to celebrate! But, 🤔how do you celebrate something in Japanese? That’s where 「祝う」comes in to observe the day! You can use this whether you’re celebrating a birthday, observing a holiday, or celebrating a success. Just add 「祝う」. To properly learn to use transitive verbs, we’ve created a helpful lesson. But what if you’re on the World Wide Web, using the Social Media all of the humans and earthlings enjoy so much, and you want to spice things up a bit? Well, that’s where the Internet’s trusty emoji come into play! But unlike some other related properties, your casual social media conversation with friends will be 🍅Certified Fresh with this useful ideograph:

㊗, which is read 「しゅく」, shuku, is a way to abbreviate the word for public/national holiday, 「祝日」, read as 「しゅくじつ」,  shukujitsu. However, due to the nature of the kanji, it’s often used to congratulate someone. So, if you write, 「祝い」, iwai, and decide a short informal emoji is useful, you can press that space bar and select the 「しゅく」, shuku, kanji enclosed in a circle, and it will usually turn into an emoji if it’s not already listed as an emoji on your device. You’ll often see posts filled gratuitously with this emoji after football matches or after a birthday wish in two or more at a time. Like:

誕生おめ㊗㊗
Happy B-day ㊗㊗
      or
おめでとうございます！祝い！！祝㊗️㊗️㊗️㊗️㊗️マジかっこよい！！！！
Congratulations!! Celebration!! 祝㊗️㊗️㊗️㊗️㊗️ Super groovy!!!!!

…Probably without the groovy part.

Also, if you want to use a more polite form of 「祝う」, you’ll have to read onto the sentence portion of the Word of the Week! We’ll include the regular polite form in one of the marked sentences.

We hope that helps!! Until the next lesson!
♡Kiki+Koko

Thank you so much, Kiki and Koko! I thank you for the appreciation. We all have a lot to celebrate. And, hopefully, this celebration will be illustrated properly in the sentences below.

Example Sentences:

The first row is in Japanese with Kanji. The Next row is in hiragana, then romanised using rōmaji with the final row translated into English.
(Japanese→Hiragana→Rōmaji→English)

Example #1:

[basic polite speech]
祝日を　祝っていますから　今日は　多くの会社が　休業しています。
しゅくじつを　いわっていますから　きょうは　おおくの　かいしゃが　きゅうぎょうしています。
shukujitsu wo iwatteimasu kara kyou wa ooku no kaisha ga kyuugyou shiteimasu.
They are observing a bank holiday, so today, many companies are closed.

Example #2:

[basic polite speech]
ハロウィーンを　祝いますか。
はろうぃーんを　いわいますか。
harowiin wo iwaimasu ka?
Do you celebrate Halloween?

Example #3:

[casual speech]
成功を　祝って　お寿司に　行こうよ!
せいこうを　いわって　おすしに　いこうよ！
seikou wo iwatte osushi ni ikou yo!
Let’s celebrate your success and go out for sushi!

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Thank you so much for learning with us!
♡QUIZBO™