This course aims to deepen things that we have already seen during this season and that I have deliberately left out so as not to overload you with information. Now that we are almost at the end of season two, I can finally take the opportunity to expand and introduce you to some new things.
First, we will see together how to express dual nationality in Japanese. Quite simply. This may seem like a completely silly question and yet, I have discovered a lot of very interesting things on the subject.
Next, we will see how to establish someone’s place of origin. You already know how to express origin and belonging with the particles から + の, today, you will discover that there are other turns of phrase to express both the origin and belonging as well as the place of origin of someone or the place of creation / birth of a fruit, a vegetable, a dish, a pastry...
This course is much lighter than the previous ones. There will be some new vocabulary words to learn but nothing difficult.
Let’s get started without further ado.
Well, for a long time now, you know how to say « I am French » or « I am Belgian » or even « he / she is Finnish » and all the same. You know how to say what nationality you are in Japanese.
But what if you have dual nationality ? Imagine, for example, that you are Franco-Japanese, how are you going to say it in Japanese ? Several possibilities are available to you, you can say :
私は日本人とフランス人だ。
I am Japanese and French. / I am Franco-Japanese.
This sentence is arguably the first one that came to mind for many of you, and it is grammatically correct. It is quite possible to present your dual nationality in this way.
I now present to you another formulation to say more or less the same thing :
私は日本とフランスの国籍だ。
I am of French and Japanese nationality. / I am of Franco-Japanese nationality.
We find a word that we saw in a previous lesson : 国籍 . コクセキ which means « the nationality ». Note the use of the particle の.
However, we can also write more simply :
私は日本・フランス国籍だ。
Finally, I now present to you a third formulation to say substantially the same thing as the two previous ones :
私は日仏国籍だ。
I am of French and Japanese nationality. / I am of Franco-Japanese nationality.
I can also formulate more simply, without the word 国籍 . コクセキ if the context of the sentence leaves no room for doubt :
私は日仏人だ。
What do we have above ? We have the word 日仏 . ニチフツ which means « Franco-Japanese ». We have the kanji 日 which refers to Japan (日本) and we have the kanji 仏 which refers to France. No doubt most of you are wondering how this kanji can refer to France. A little explanation is in order.
The kanji 仏 in purely Japanese is pronounced ほとけ, which simply means Buddha. And by some process, that same kanji ended up in the word 仏国 . ブッコク which is one of the Japanese names for France. Well, I’ve always taught you that France, in Japanese, is said フランス. It’s a foreign word from the Japanese perspective, so we write it in katakana. However, there is also 仏国 . ブッコク which is much less used in Japan but it still exists. Literally we could translate as « the land of Buddha » but quite frankly I don’t see the connection.
Regardless, we find the kanji 仏 in the word 日仏 . ニチフツ which means « Franco-Japanese ».
So we have five possible formulations that I put for you below :
私は日本人とフランス人だ。
私は日本とフランスの国籍だ。
私は日本・フランス国籍だ。
私は日仏国籍だ。
私は日仏人だ。
Let’s take a closer look at the third sentence above. This is possible because the names of the two countries, Japan and France, both have a kanji version. We saw in a vocabulary class at the end of season one that there are other countries that have kanji writing. This is the case of England which can be written 英国 . エイコク in kanji and イングランド in katakana, from English « England ».
So, if I mean, for example : He is Anglo-Japanese. I can say it and write it five different ways :
彼は日本人とイングランド人だ。
彼は日本とイングランドの国籍だ。
彼は日本・イングランド国籍だ。
彼は英日国籍だ。
彼は英日人だ。
However, what to do when at least one of the country names does not have a kanji version. You can say it and write it three different ways. If I mean, for example : She is Spanish-Japanese.
Take a look at the examples below :
彼女はスペイン人と日本人だ。
彼女はスペインと日本の国籍だ。
彼女はスペイン・日本国籍だ。
Here ! If there is no kanji version for at least one country name, we can say and write it in only three different ways.
Another example. If i mean : She is Franco-Chinese.
Take a look at the examples below :
彼女は中国人とフランス人だ。
彼女は中国とフランスの国籍だ。
彼女は中国・フランス国籍だ。
彼女は仏中国籍だ。
彼女は仏中人だ。
Phew, here it is ! I hope you understood this whole dual nationality thing in Japanese correctly. By the way, the word « dual nationality » in Japanese can be translated as 二重国籍 . ニジュウコクセキ.
Obviously, ships/boats and planes also have nationalities, but when we talk about ships/boats and airplanes in Japanese we use the particle の of possession.
フランスの船だ。 → It’s a French boat.
デンマークの船だ。 → It’s a Danish boat.
And so on. We have not yet seen the vocabulary course on the airport, airplanes and all the lexicon that revolves around it, but you should already know that I am preparing two vocabulary courses on the subject for the third season. Yes, two courses because there is a whole very important vocabulary to study. So, I preferred to save that for the next season, as this second season is already busy.
Before moving on, I would like to make a little aside on language dictionaries. The basic idea is the same as for nationalities but everything is much simpler.
Take a look at the examples below :
日仏辞書 . The French-Japanese dictionary
フランス語-日本語辞書 . The French-Japanese dictionary
英和辞書 . The English-Japanese dictionary
英語-日本語辞書 . The English-Japanese dictionary
フランス語-英語辞書 . The French-English dictionary
フランス語-スペイン語辞書 . The French-Spanish dictionary
英語-スペイン語辞書 . The English-Spanish dictionary
フランス語-ポルトガル語辞書 . The French-Portuguese dictionary
英語-ポルトガル語辞書 . The English-Portuguese dictionary
スペイン語-ポルトガル語辞書 . The Spanish-Portuguese dictionary
日中辞書 . The French-Chinese dictionary
フランス語-中国語辞書 . The Chinese-Japanese dictionary
フランス語-ドイツ語辞書 . The French-German dictionary
日独辞書 . The German-Japanese dictionary
ドイツ語 - 日本語辞書 . The German-Japanese dictionary
And the list is still long. We could go on for a long time. I would now like to draw your attention to the word below :
英和辞書 .
エイワジショ . The English-Japanese dictionary
Here, the kanji 和 refers to Japan. This is how it is written when we talk about the English-Japanese dictionary. Learn it by heart.
Also note that in the examples above, I have used the word 辞書 . ジショ for « the dictionary ». But I could very well have used the word 辞典 . ジテン which is also very common.
Before concluding, I end on one last point. We saw in the lesson on the recap of Japanese particles that we can add the particles から + の to add origin and belonging. To refresh your memory, I give you below the examples that we had seen together:
私はウェンディからの手紙を読む。
わたしはウェンディからのてがみをよむ。
I read Wendy’s letter.
You know it now, you have to understand the sentence like this: I read the letter from Wendy.
I give you below another example that you also know:
マンゴーとはインドからの果物だ。
マンゴーとはインドからのくだものだ。
Mango is a fruit native to India.
Thus, to mention the origin of something (a letter, a postcard, a fruit, a vegetable…) if it is not a human being, we use the particles から + の. However, know one thing. When you want to mention the origin of a fruit, a vegetable, a dish, a pastry... in the sense of the place of birth, of creation of the said fruit, vegetable, dish, pastry..., you can also use the kanji 産 like this:
[Place name (country, region, city, town, village, etc.)] + 産 . サン + [Fruit / Vegetable / Dish...].
I now give you an example:
フランスでのスペイン産ライチ1キロの平均価格はいくらですか。
フランスでのスペインさんライチ1キロのへいきんかかくはいくらですか。
What is the average price of a kilo of lychees from Spain in France?
You can also use the word 原産 . ゲンサン like this to get a sentence with the same meaning:
[Place name (country, region, city, town, village, etc.)] + 原産 . ゲンサン + の + [Fruit / Vegetable / Dish...].
I now give you an example:
これらのスターフルーツはスペイン原産の果物です。より正確にはアンダルシアから。
これらのスターフルーツはスペインげんさんのくだものです。よりせいかくにはアンダルシアから。
These carambolas are fruits of Spanish origin. More precisely from Andalusia.
Same with the word 発祥 . ハッショウ like this to get a sentence with the same meaning:
[Place name (country, region, city, town, village, etc.)] + 発祥 . ハッショウ + の + [Fruit / Vegetable / Dish...].
I now give you an example:
ザバイオーネはイタリア発祥のデザートです。
ザバイオーネはイタリアはっしょうのデザートです。
The zabaione is a dessert of Italian origin.
All this you know how to do. Now if I want to say what place a person is from, here is the pattern to follow:
[Place name (country, region, city, town, village, etc.)] (+ の) + 出身 . シュッシン.
The word 出身 . シュッシン means « the origin, the place of birth ». The particle の is often occluded.
Note that we are talking here about establishing someone’s place of birth, not their nationality!
I give you an example sentence below:
私達の英語の先生グレイソンさんはミュンヘン市出身だ。
わたしたちのえいごのせんせいグレイソンさんはミュンヘンししゅっしんだ。
Our English teacher Mr. Grayson is from the city of Munich.
We use the particles から + の to add origin and belonging. With から + の, we can express both place of origin and belonging, whether we are talking about a human, a fruit, a vegetable, a dish, a drink, a pastry...
Then come 産 . サン, 原産 . ゲンサン and 発祥 . ハッショウ. They make it possible to mention the origin of a fruit, a vegetable, a dish, a drink, a pastry... in the sense of the place of birth, of creation of the said fruit, vegetable, dish, drink, pastry… They are not used to mention the provenance, the place of origin of a human being.
[Place name (country, region, city, town, village, etc.)] + 産 . サン + [Fruit / Vegetable / Dish...].
[Place name (country, region, city, town, village, etc.)] + 原産 . ゲンサン + の + [Fruit / Vegetable / Dish...].
[Place name (country, region, city, town, village, etc.)] + 発祥 . ハッショウ + の + [Fruit / Vegetable / Dish...].
Finally, the word 出身 . シュッシン means « the origin, the place of birth ». The particle の is often occluded. This word is used to mention the provenance, the place of origin of a human being.
[Place name (country, region, city, town, village, etc.)] (+ の) + 出身 . シュッシン.
Now here are some new words:
産 . サン + 地 . チ → 産地 . サンチ . The place of production
原産 . ゲンサン + 地 . チ → 原産地 . ゲンサンチ . The place of origin
発祥 . ハッショウ + 地 . チ → 発祥地 . ハッショウチ . The cradle (meaning « the place of origin »)
出身 . シュッシン + 地 . チ → 出身地 . シュッシンチ . The origin, the birthplace
The penultimate lesson of the season. We are almost there. Yes, there is only one last lesson left and this season will finally be over.
And what would a course be without exercises ? Well, you have courses without exercises sometimes... but there are indeed exercises to do for this one. Theme and version, as always !
This course is now over, thank you for reading it and I also thank you for being here throughout this second season. Continue to be diligent in your work, do not give up and you will make progress, I guarantee it.
And below, the vocabulary.
Happy Homework to everyone.
ライチ
. the lychee (from English)
スターフルーツ
. the star fruit (from English)
アンダルシア
. the Andalusia (from English)
ザバイオーネ
. the zabaione (from Italian)
産 .
うぶ .
サン
. the innocence / produced by; origin, birth
原産 .
ゲンサン
. the origin
発祥 .
ハッショウ
. the origin
出身 .
シュッシン
. the origin, the place of birth
産地 .
サンチ
. the place of production
原産地 .
ゲンサンチ
. the place of origin
発祥地 .
ハッショウチ
. the cradle (meaning « the place of origin »)
出身地 .
シュッシンチ
. the origin, the place of birth (already seen in an exercise)
Note : in Japanese, the word スターフルーツ has a kanji synonym: 五斂子 . ゴレンシ. The kanji version is little used.
Introduction