Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Today we are going to cover something very simple, but very, very useful. Being able to count to ten will make your stay so much easier in lots of different situations. Getting a table at a restaurant or buying the right number of tickets. It can always help and you can also ask for the time if you knew this. So let’s get started.
One in Japanese is ichi, i-chi, ichi, two is ni, ni, three is san, sa-n. san. So far we have for 1, 2, and 3 ichi, ni, san, moving on, 4 is yon, sometimes it’s called shi. yon or shi. Number 5 would be go, go, number 6 is roku, ro-ku, roku, number 7 can be nana, nana or shichi. It depends on the usage and we will go into that a little bit later. So number 7 is either nana or shichi. Number 8 would be hachi, hachi, number 9 is kyū, kyū and lastly number 10 is jū, jū.
That’s a lot to remember in one lesson but let’s go through it again. From 1 to 10, it’s ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyū, jū. Let’s try that again. 1 to 5 first ichi, ni, san, yon, go, 6 to 10 is roku, nana, hachi, kyū, jū. Let’s see if you can say this altogether and say it with me ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyū, jū. Are you getting the hang of it? Hope so. Now here is a little Sachiko Secret. I don’t mean to discourage you but there are many, many ways to say numbers in Japanese. Don’t ask me why, I don’t like it either. So if someone tells you a number and you are not quite familiar with it, you could just patiently ask ichi? ni? san? yon? go? This would let them know that you know one set of numbers but you are not familiar with the set of numbers that they are using or better yet, if all else fails, just use your fingers.
Hold up three fingers to indicate 3, hold up four fingers to indicate 4. Remember, numbers are a universal language. Halleluiah now let’s go over the numbers we did today. Let’s do a simple quiz here. I will say a number and you tell me in Japanese and it’s not in order. Three, did you get it? The number is san. sa-n. san. What about Six? roku. You got it roku. What about Nine? kyū. kyū. That’s number 9.
Let’s try a little bit more. We will go over the even numbers. Two, that would be ni. Four, that would be yon, Six, roku, Number 8, hachi great. You are doing great so far and lastly 10, jū. Now let’s try 1 to 10 altogether. ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyū, jū. All right. That’s going to do it for today. See you later which in Japanese is Matane.

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