This new vocabulary course focuses on the names of countries.
The list extends to 80 country names, we will leave from Canada to go to Japan by crossing the American continent from North to South, then the European continent, will then come Africa to finish on Asia. Of course you do not have to learn them all at the first try (besides I doubt that you will get there at once). Learn them little by little over several days and it gonna be OK.
There is not much else to say except that all of these country names are obviously based on English. These are foreign proper names, which is why the Japanese write them in katakana. Pay attention to the names that contain an extension, do not confuse Austria with Australia either because the two katakanized names are very similar. Finally, pay attention to names like "South Africa" which is said 南アフリカ with the kanji of 南 . みなみ which means "the south". There are indeed some names of western countries which contain kanji, it is rare but there are some. To say "the United States of America", know that the Japanese very often say アメリカ like us when we say "in America" to speak of the United States, although geographically speaking America is a continent including several countries. The official full name is アメリカ合衆国 . アメリカガッシュウコク, which literally means "the United States of America". Save this term if you want, moreover I recommend it but keep in mind that in 99% of cases, the Japanese say アメリカ.
With these 80 countries, I suppose you will find yours with a little luck and that you will be very happy, and so much the better if it is.
I would like to clarify that this course has an exclusively didactic objective. I chose these 80 countries at random, no choice was motivated by any geo-political or other will.
カナダ
. Canada
アメリカ合衆国 .
アメリカガッシュウコク
. the United States of America
アメリカ
. United States
メキシコ
. Mexico
ガイアナ
. Guyana
ブラジル
. Brasil
アルゼンチン
. Argentina
チリ
. Chili
ペルー
. Peru
コロンビア
. Colombia
ベネズエラ
. Venezuela
ウルグアイ
. Uruguay
スリナム
. Suriname
エクアドル
. Ecuador
パラグアイ
. Paraguay
グアテマラ
. Guatemala
キュラソー
. Curaçao
フランス
. France
スペイン
. Spain
ポルトガル
. Portugal
イギリス
. the United Kingdom / Great Britain
イングランド / 英国 .
エイコク
. England
アイルランド
. Irland
ベルギー
. Belgium
スイス
. Switzerland
ルクセンブルグ
. Luxembourg
イタリア
. Italy
ドイツ
. Germany
オーストリア
. Austria
ギリシャ
. Greece
オランダ
. the Netherlands
デンマーク
. Denmark
フィンランド
. Finland
スウェーデン
. Sweden
ノルウェー
. Norway
ロシア
. Russia
ウクライナ
. Ukraine
ポーランド
. Poland
ルーマニア
. Romania
ハンガリー
. Hungary
モンテネグロ
. Montenegro
エストニア
. Estonia
ラトビア
. Latvia
リトアニア
. Lithuania
セネガル
. Senegal
コートジボワール
. Ivory Coast / The Ivory Coast
コンゴ
. Congo
カメルーン
. Cameroon
ケニア
. Kenya
ガボン
. Gabon
マダカスカル
. Madagascar
カーボベルデ
. Cape Verde (from Portuguese "Cabo Verde")
南アフリカ .
みなみアフリカ
. South Africa
ジャマイカ
. Jamaica
オーストラリア
. Australia
ニュージーランド
. New Zealand
トルコ
. Turkey
シリア
. Syria
イスラエル
. Israel
カタール
. Qatar
ドバイ
. Dubai
アルジェリア
. Algeria
チュニジア
. Tunisia
モロッコ
. Morocco
エジプト
. Egypt
イエメン
. Yemen
ビルマ
. Burma
マレーシア
. Malaysia
モンゴル
. Mongolia
スリランカ
. Sri Lanka
シンガポール
. Singapor
インド
. India
タイ
. Thailand
インドネシア
. Indonesia
ラオス
. Laos
カンボジア
. Cambodia
ベトナム
. Vietnam
フィリピン
. Philippines
中国 .
チュウゴク
. China
韓国 .
カンコク
. South Korea
日本 .
ニホン
. Japan
Seventy-five country names are a lot. Aside from "the United States of America", "England", "South Africa", "China", "South Korea" and "Japan", all other country names are in katakana, so as long as you know your kana there will be no problem. Do not hesitate to revise them if necessary.
Also be careful to make the difference between the name オーストリア. Austria and the name オーストラリア. Australia. The two are similar but there is a little difference in kana. Also pay attention to some names that contain pauses that we do not necessarily perceive in the English version as in モロッコ. Morocco. Note that in English, we have two "c" which translates into a pause in Japanese.
Finally, the sound [u] results in a lengthening as in シンガポール. Singapore, カメルーン. Cameroon, ルーマニア. Romania.
Also be careful not to confuse イギリス. the United Kingdom / Great Britain with イングランド. England.
Before leaving you, we need to address one last point. This course is very important - like all vocabulary courses for that matter - but already know that you will have to come back to it once we have finished season two because before tackling season three, we will follow up on some vocabulary lessons related to countries name.
I’m not telling you more for now but at least remember that.
With that, I leave you to your revisions. Take the opportunity to revise your kana, do not hesitate to go back to revise the vocabulary that we studied previously because in the next vocabulary course, we come back to words in kanji.
Introduction