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Tania's Guide to:

My Japanese Coach

Lesson 7 - Months

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Progress Card
Current: Unit: 1 - Tokyo | Chapter: 2 - Akihabara
This Lesson: Contains: 12 Words(+0)
Score: Rank: Toddler | Mastered Words: 55 / 10 Characters(+5)
Unlock(s): Game(s): N/A | Lesson: 7
...._{Numbers in parentheses are alternate characters from the lesson that weren't required but ARE necessary.}

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Tania's Character Key
...._{"What does that mean? Oh, there it is!" (๑◕ܫ￩๑)}

| Reminders
「 」 | Romaji
Underlined Words | Titles & Links
| [Beginner Hint] Hints understandable to people who have: SOME knowledge of the Japanese months or numbers.
- | A marker that tells you to pause/go on to another character (or separate from the previous one)
[ ] | Pronunciation boxes
| In-Game info, warnings, & tips
@タニア (tania) | My thoughts on the topic or my experience on the topic
Recommendation(s): | Lessons I highly recommend you see or review before this one.

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Before We Begin…
...._{Some quick tips, hints, & advice before we start. (＊☉౪ ⊙｡)}
Ready for months in Japanese~? x3 I'm thrilled they are so easy, you just need to remember a few small 'rules'.

Seriously, this lesson is as easy as one, two, three~ (You'll see what I mean by that.)

Recommendation(s): Lesson 3 - Numbers

MJC's Lesson / Vocabulary
...._{How the vocabulary is introduced to you in the game. (＊☉౪ ⊙｡)}

Haruka starts off the lesson by telling you that the months are listed out by number. Which they are! These are like those counters she mentioned and I explained in Lesson 3 (Numbers)!

Then she goes and gives you all the months while stating "If you remember numbers than these are easy!":

January 「i.chi.ga.tsu」 いちがつ （一月）
February 「ni.ga.tsu」 にがつ （二月）
March 「san.ga.tsu」 さんがつ （三月）
April 「shi.ga.tsu」 しがつ （四月）

Wow, a lot of this goes back to Lesson 3; I mentioned that the numbers four, seven, and nine do change sometimes, and they do, especially with counters, and that happened to four in April. (It also happens to nine in September.) Instead of the usual yon, it's a shi, (instead of kyuu, it's ku); this most likely happens to make the words easier to sound out, otherwise they would be too 'soft.'

May 「go.ga.tsu」 ごがつ （五月）
June 「ro.ku.ga.tsu」 ろくがつ （六月）
July 「shi.chi.ga.tsu」 しちがつ （七月）
August 「ha.chi.ga.tsu」 はちがつ （八月）

Isn't this so easy!? This makes months just as easy as numbers! xD And when you learn them like this it makes dates easier, I always forget which number is for which month on dates, (aside from the obvious beginning and end of the year), but this will help you out!

September 「ku.ga.tsu」 くがつ （九月）
October 「jyuu.ga.tsu」 じゅうがつ （十月）
November 「juu-i.chi.ga.tsu」 じゅういちがつ （十一月）
December 「juu-ni.ga.tsu」 じゅうにがつ （十二月）

Afterwards, she gets you to play the ol' games: Word Search and Multiple Choice.

Then she gives you examples on how to say 'It's_____,' but all it is is adding desu after the month. So: ichi-gatsu desu. / いちがつです。 / 一月です。 / (It is January.)

And that's lesson seven for you! x3 Very short! Don't fret, I'll give you some more examples to help you out~!

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Let's start with creating the date, this involves some Kanji though.
Recommendation(s): Lesson 5 - Days of the Week

You've actually seen all the Kanji for date before in lessons three and five, but now let's go over the date: In English, most formally in papers, we write out the date as (M/D/Y) February 11th, 2013 [Japan's National Foundation Day], and sometimes on questionnaires and applications it's (D/M/Y) in ascending/a rising order. But in Japanese it's just the opposite, they always list the date in descending/a falling order (Y/M/D).

Now the Kanji: In lesson three, where Haruka explains counters, she uses 'nen' （年） as one, it's the counter for year; the actual word for year is 'to.shi.' As for month, we've seen it all over this lesson as 'gatsu' （月）, but it's really 'tsu.ki.' And then day was a vocab word in lesson five, 'hi' （日） but was also used like a counter for the days of the week, like in getsuyoubi or Monday （月曜日）.

As you may have noticed, 'getsu' in 'getsuyoubi' IS the same Kanji for month (tsuki); but it's not being used as month, it's another definition of that Kanji: moon. Just as our Sunday and Monday derived from 'Sun' and 'Moon,' so did the Japanese!
日曜日 - nichiyoubi - Sunday or SUN-Day
月曜日 - getsuyoubi - Monday or MOON-Day
*All the other days of the week  have a similar situation, but that doesn't go with this lesson,

Now then, to formally write out the date as "Today is February 11th, 2013" in Japanese:
(Today 2-thousand.13-year 2-month 11-day is) *rough direct translation*
「kyou wa ni-sen juu-san-nen ni-gatsu juu-i.chi-ni.chi desu」
今日は２０１３年２月１１日です。
-For fun, I'll replace numbers with their Kanji/ sen(千)=thousand-
今日は二千十三年二月十一日です。

Note that NOT ALL of the numbers for day perfectly follow this pattern! These also count as counters, the ones that change are as follows:
First 「tsu.i.ta.chi」, Second　「fu.tsu.ka」, Third 「mik.ka」, Fourth 「yok.ka」, Fifth 「i.tsu.ka」,
Sixth 「mu.i.ka」, Seventh 「na.no.ka」, Eighth 「you.ka」, Ninth 「ko.ko.no.ka」, Tenth 「tou.ka」,
and then the Fourteenth 「juu.yok.ka」, Twentieth 「ha.tsu.ka」, and Twenty-forth 「ni.juu-yok.ka」.
*As for changes in 7's and 9's (this applies to 17th & 27th as well as 19th & 29th), there are: none in 7 - it stays as shichi, but in 9's it's ku instead of kyuu.
**Also remember that four is ALWAYS yokka! Four is yokka, Fourteen is juu-yokka, and Twenty-Four is nijuu-yokka!

And there you go! You can switch that with tomorrow 'ashita' (明日), which is also from lesson five, or yesterday 'kinou' （昨日）, I can't recall which lesson she tells you what yesterday is, but after quite a bit of searching I couldn't find it. *I'll get back to you on that.*
**It's in Lesson 25 - Telling Time*
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As a bonus, let's throw in the previous years, remember the 90's, 80's, 70's, ect? The word for hundred would be 'hya.ku' (百), you'll see it in Lesson 16 - Numbers 3.

So how about asking for birthdays?: What year were you born?
「a.na.ta wa nan nen u.ma.re desu ka」
あなたは何年生まれですか。

1996.
([one]thousand nine-hundred ninety.six-year)
「sen kyuu hya.ku kyuu juu ro.ku nen」
１９９６年。
千九百九十六年。

**And just the plain "When were you born?:"
「a.na.ta wa i.tsu u.ma.re.ta」 あなたはいつ生まれた？
Umare = Born & Itsu = When

There you go~! Be sure to say it like that, as far as I can tell the Japanese don't say 19-96 like we do, they go 1thousand-9hundred-96. Remember that!
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So yeah, now you know the date, yay~! That's all for this lesson, sayounara! さようなら！

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Tania's Gameplay Info
...._{"HOW DO I PASS THIS GAME!? / Why don't I have all my Mastery Points!?" (￣(エ)￣)}

This lesson does have an irregular amount of vocab, so you just need to play both mini games until you master all of them. At least they're easy!

**April and May aren't in Word Search; January and February aren't in Multiple Choice.

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Tania's Study Help
...._{"I just can't seem to remember this one! / Uggh, I keep getting these confused!" (♥ó㉨ò)ﾉ♡}

@タニア [WILL EDIT LATER]

There's no need for me to give you any mnemonics or anything, it's just numbers plus gatsu~