ＨＥＬＬＯ！ Ｉ　ＡＭ　ＱＵＩＺＢＯ™！If you have visited before this instance, you may recognise me as the quiz-generating, vocabulary-reading friend of Kiki and Koko. I am here to assist you in your Japanese language and culture studies which I hope will assist you in achieving your dreams and goals. This is a segment coined: Word of the Week Wednesday. But, what exactly does this mean? Well, not very long ago, there was a gap between Monday and Friday lessons here on Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online that were devoid of learning, other than revision of course. Whilst a break betwixt lessons is useful, it is also important to keep your mind active. That is why the Japanese Word of the Week segment was introduced! This acts as a useful opportunity to learn either a bit of vocabulary or quite a bit of reading and grammar. Or, it can simply act as a helpful reminder to revise / review.

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 Essentials.

During this segment, a Japanese word or phrase is introduced. However, I do not only give you useful definitions, romanisation, hiragana, and kanji, but I also give the pronunciation for you to listen to as many times as you wish. Any time, day or night, you can ask me to say the word or phrase aloud. It is very useful to repeat after me in order to engage you senses for a better learning experience.

Though, this is not the end of learning possibilities. There are also sentences provided that will assist you in building more mental connections to the vocabulary word or phrase. There is no need to repeat after the sentence portion as it is merely for listening practise as well as engagement. However, this is a great way for those from beginning stages to intermediate stages and sometimes further to see examples of sentence structures and grammar. You can even create sentences of your own based on them. At times it can be difficult to generate sentence ideas as a human, and this may spur some form of inspiration and learning. Also, this can assist in reading and writing practise.

Enter and reveal a world hidden in plain sight with our Japanese language and culture lessons and articles.

Because it is written in its original kanji, hiragana,and katana, as well as hiragana, and romanisation, you can use it as a way to practise your romanised Japanese computer input, hiragana writing and reading, or even further beyond. You can cover a line if you need in order to practise without hints.

But, you won’t be without Helpful Hints this Word of the Week Wednesday, as we will also be joined again by Kiki and Koko with, as you may have guessed, their Helpful Hints.

Without further ado, let us NihonGO!!

Word(s) of the Week:

言語【げんご】
gengo
noun
1. language

jlpt n3| common word (常用語) 

Bonus Word(s) of the Week:

言語学【げんごがく】
gengogaku
noun
1.linguistics

jlpt n?| common word (常用語)  not classified

※Helpful Hints with Kiki+Koko

Photo via @kikikokoNihonGO on Twitter

Hello, there!

We’re Kiki and Koko from Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online! During Monday and Friday, we teach you Japanese with useful lessons and articles, and on Wednesdays, we enjoy joining QUIZBO™くん in presenting you new vocabulary to assist you with your Japanese language learning journey! This time, however, we’re not simply going to explain today’s vocabulary, but we’re going to help you with a common issue that happens often with new Japanese language learners!

Now, immersion to an extent is an important part of practising any language. However, Japanese is a bit different to many other languages as it has its own script. Of course, getting used to understanding said characters can be useful by seeing them often. But, if you haven’t ever learnt how to read what you’re immersing yourself in, without any way of actually hearing the reading, then it can be a bit of a puzzle with missing pieces.

We understand the temptation to change something like your mobile phone to Japanese in order to get used to it. But, after a few moments, many beginners who may have no knowledge of kanji, find themselves lost beyond belief, not recognising important notifications or how to spell  certain settings in Japanese. And, with a fun experiment of seeing your entire mobile in Japanese starts to impede on your everyday tasks, the realisation that this may have been a bit early to start converting your entire life into Japanese may become painfully apparent. Don’t worry, though, in time, you’ll get there! But, for now, you’re probably wondering how to change your phone back to English, or your native language. That’s where today’s word comes in to play!

「言語」, gengo, 「言」、meaning say or word, and 「語」meaning language, or wordーSo, we guess in someone’s translation of this kanji, they could call it ‘word word’, but that’s why the subtext of kanji is always so importantーis the key to getting your phone back. No matter the device, there is another word that we’ll try to introduce in a future lesson, and that is 「設定」, settei, meaning settings, which just coincidentally has the same first sounds as settings. As a beginner, you’ll really just have to rely on finding the matching moji in order to navigate. From there, you’ll look for 「言語」, gengo, and it should show you the different languages. However, instead of being in their native scripts, you’ll usually find them in Japanese. If you’re not sure what your native language is in Japanese, just go to our vocabulary  section, scroll down to ‘Countries and Continents of Earth’, for many of them, you can just find your country by continent, and then add 「語」to the Japanese name. (This doesn’t work for EVERY language, but it’s a rule of thumb, and if your language originates from a different country, such as French in Canada, then you would just apply the 「語」to the country of origin.) It won’t be in alphabetical order in Japanese, either as Japanese has its own order. But, if you need just simple English, then look for 「英語」.

Other than that, the only other bit of information you may find useful is that linguistics is simply 「language」with 「study」at the end to create 言語学! It’s oddly very straightforward, making words with multiple linguistic origins in English simplified to kanji and words that are familiar once you progress in your Japanese studies. If you have any questions, let us know, and we’ll try to cover it in a future lesson or corner!

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

Thank you, Kiki and Koko. As a bilingual computer, I can relate to this topic. With luck, this will have hopefully assisted anyone who wants to simply see what their phone looks like in Japanese without the possible fear of being unable to return back to its previous language. At any rate, let us continue to the sentence portion!

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]
来学期のコンピューター科学のクラスの備えがありますか。
種類のプログラミング言語が多いからです。頑張りなさい！
らいがっきの　こんぴゅーたーかがくかの　くらすの　そなえが　ありますか。
しゅるいの　ぷろぐらみんぐげんごが　おおいからです。がんばりなさい！
raigakki no konpyuutaakagaku no kurasu no sonae ga arimasuka?
shurui no puroguramingu gengo ga ooi kara desu. ganbarinasai!
Are you prepared for next semester’s computer science (class)?
Because there are many kinds of programming languages. Do your best!

Example #2:

[basic polite speech]

ちゃんと準備ができた前、スマホで言語を日本語に設定してしまいましたの？ドンマイ！
言語を日本語から英語に戻してほしがったら、デバイスの「設定」アプリで「言語」を見つけて、メニューで「英語」をタップします。
ちゃんとじゅんびが　できたまえ、すまほで　げんごを　にほんごに　せっていしてしまいましたの？どんまい！
げんごを　にほんごから　えいごに　もどしてほしがったら、でばいすの　せっていあぷりで　「げんご」を　みつけて、めにゅーで　「えいご」を　たっぷします。
chanto junbi ga dekita mae, sumaho de gengo wo nihongo ni settei shiteshimaimashitano? donmai!
gengo wo nihongo kara eigo ni modoshite hoshigattara, debaisu no settei apuri de ‘gengo‘ wo mitsukete, menyuu de ‘eigo’ wo tappu shimasu.
Did you end up setting your language on your smartphone to Japanese before you properly prepared? No worries!
If you want to return your language back to English from Japanese, find 「言語」(languages) on your device’s 「設定」(settings) application, and on the menu, tap 「英語」(English).

Example #3:

[casual speech]
言語ってすごい！大学へ進む時、言語学を　学びたいわ。三つの言語を　ちゃんと話したいけど、世界の言語が　あたしの　興味をそそるのです。
げんごってすごい！　だいだくへ　すすむとき、　げんごがくを　まなびたいわ。みっつのげんごを　ちゃんと　はなしたいけど、せかいの　げんごが　あたしの　きょうみを　そそるのです。
gengo tte sugoi! daigaku he susumu toki, gengogaku wo manabitai wa. mittsu no gengo wo chanto hanashitai kedo, sekai no gengo ga atashi no kyoumi wo sosoru no desu.
Languages are amazing! When I go to university, I wanna study linguistics. I want to properly speak three languages, but the languages of the world fascinate me.

🔊Japanese Word(s) of the Week w/ QUIZBO™ | 【読む】+BONUS:【書く】(+Helpful Hints with Kiki+Koko + Companion Lessons )

That is all for today, but you can always have a look at any of our other lessons. Maybe you are interested in another Word of the Week? Perhaps this will be to your liking: 🔊Japanese Word(s) of the Week w/ QUIZBO™ | 【読む】+BONUS:【書く】(+Helpful Hints with Kiki+Koko + Companion Lessons ) This includes some useful verbs, and Kiki and Koko provide their helpful hints for 読む and 書く along with some other lessons that may assist you in your Japanese language learning journey.  But, maybe you would like to see our selection of past Word of the Week segments.  If you may already be familiar with the vocabulary, you can also use it for sentence inspiration, writing practise, or just to enjoy. Feel free to invite your friends and family so you can have even more learning companionship. Either way, we’ll be here to assist you with any questions you have! We hope to see you there!

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