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Resource listing as many Japanese phrases and sentences as possible

Kawaiicutebunny

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12 Jun 2020
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I'm looking for a book or online resource which lists all and every sentence one could ever need (or as many as possible), ordered in an intuitive way.

For example, there could be a chapter on the verb 'I want', and there is a list of every sentence about wanting something. 'I want to play football' or 'He doesn't want to play football' or 'Yesterday, we wanted to eat ice cream'. Just a list of as many sentences as possible, all translated into japanese.
 
I don't know about anything exactly like what you're looking for, but you can search for phrases on these sites to find matching sentences,

 
I'm looking for a book or online resource which lists all and every sentence one could ever need (or as many as possible), ordered in an intuitive way.

For example, there could be a chapter on the verb 'I want', and there is a list of every sentence about wanting something. 'I want to play football' or 'He doesn't want to play football' or 'Yesterday, we wanted to eat ice cream'. Just a list of as many sentences as possible, all translated into japanese.
Are you going to train an A.I. model?
 
I don't know about anything exactly like what you're looking for, but you can search for phrases on these sites to find matching sentences,


Thank you for suggesting those websites! However they all list only very specific sentences. Whenever I write something very generic (for example, 'I want to play football'), nothing comes up.
 
I'm looking for a book or online resource which lists all and every sentence one could ever need (or as many as possible), ordered in an intuitive way.


As a matter of fact, I am writing the exact kind of book you are looking for. Unfortunately, it is for Chinese, not Japanese. (One of these years I'd like to do this in Japanese too.)

The kind of book you are looking for does not exist. So you need to do what I did: Write your own book. Here is how to do it. Write out sentences in English, then try to write them out in Japanese. Use Google translate if you need to. The important thing is, have native Japanese speakers proof-read your Japanese sentences.

Depending on your Japanese ability, you need to do two books, a beginning book for grammar and an intermediate book for discussion topics. For the grammar book, start with present tense, then add past tense, future tense, I want to, I have to, if-then, present perfect, subjunctive mood, etc. For the discussion topics book, make a list of topics you want to be able to discuss. (I have a list of about 40 topics, if you are interested in seeing it.)

I do everything in question and answer form. Here is an example of what I use for an introduction discussion on sports (in Chinese not Japanese).

Sports

[x] Do you like sports? [1] 你喜欢运动吗? Nǐ xǐhuan yùndòng ma?
Do you mean play sports or watch sports? 你意思是做运动或是观看运动项目?
Nǐ yìsi shì zuò yùndòng huò shì guānkàn yùndòng xiàngmù?
I mean play sports. Do you like to play sports? 我意思是做运动。你喜欢做运动吗?
Wǒ yìsi shì zuò yùndòng. Nǐ xǐhuān zuò yùndòng ma?
Yes, I do. 是的,我喜欢做运动。 Shì de, wǒ xǐhuān zuò yùndòng.
I'm too old to play sports. 我太老了,不能体育运动。 Wǒ tài lǎo le, bùnéng tǐyù yùndòng.
I have a physical limitation. 我是生理缺陷。 Wǒ shì shēnglǐ quēxiàn.
I like to go jogging. 我喜欢慢跑。 Wǒ xǐhuān mànpǎo.
I go running. 我跑步。 Wǒ pǎobù.
Who do you go running with? 你和谁一起跑步? Nǐ hé shéi yīqǐ pǎobù?
I go running by myself. 我独自跑步。 Wǒ dúzì pǎobù.
Do you go running when you have a cold? 你感冒的时候跑步吗? Nǐ gǎnmào de shíhòu pǎobù ma?
No, I don't. 不,我你感冒的时候不跑步。 Bù, wǒ nǐ gǎnmào de shíhòu bù pǎobù.
不,我你感冒的时候没有跑步。 Bù, wǒ nǐ gǎnmào de shíhòu méiyǒu pǎobù.
Why not? 为什么不? Wèi shéme bù?
(Why don't you go running when you have a cold?) 为什么你感冒的时候不跑步?
Wèishéme nǐ gǎnmào de shíhòu bù pǎobù?
You shouldn't exercise when you are sick. 你不应该在生病的时候锻炼。
Nǐ bù yìnggāi zài shēngbìng de shíhòu duànliàn.
Because you shouldn't exercise when you are sick. 因为你不应该在生病的时候锻炼。
Yīnwèi nǐ bù yìnggāi zài shēngbìng de shíhòu duànliàn.
 
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No, learning phrases is just the best way I learn languages.
If so, then I would suggest learning sentence patterns. "I want to play football" follows the same pattern as "I want to play basketball" so there's really no point to having an exhaustive list of all possible combinations of "I want to play <sport>." Similarly "I want to play <flute>" is the same pattern as "I want to play <trombone>" so again there's no need for an exhaustive list of instruments.
 
As a matter of fact, I am writing the exact kind of book you are looking for. Unfortunately, it is for Chinese, not Japanese. (One of these years I'd like to do this in Japanese too.)

The kind of book you are looking for does not exist. So you need to do what I did: Write your own book. Here is how to do it. Write out sentences in English, then try to write them out in Japanese. Use Google translate if you need to. The important thing is, have native Japanese speakers proof-read your Japanese sentences.

Depending on your Japanese ability, you need to do two books, a beginning book for grammar and an intermediate book for discussion topics. For the grammar book, start with present tense, then add past tense, future tense, I want to, I have to, if-then, present perfect, subjunctive mood, etc. For the discussion topics book, make a list of topics you want to be able to discuss. (I have a list of about 40 topics, if you are interested in seeing it.)

I do everything in question and answer form. Here is an example of what I use for an introduction discussion on sports (in Chinese not Japanese).

Sports

[x] Do you like sports? [1] 你喜欢运动吗? Nǐ xǐhuan yùndòng ma?
Do you mean play sports or watch sports? 你意思是做运动或是观看运动项目?
Nǐ yìsi shì zuò yùndòng huò shì guānkàn yùndòng xiàngmù?
I mean play sports. Do you like to play sports? 我意思是做运动。你喜欢做运动吗?
Wǒ yìsi shì zuò yùndòng. Nǐ xǐhuān zuò yùndòng ma?
Yes, I do. 是的,我喜欢做运动。 Shì de, wǒ xǐhuān zuò yùndòng.
I'm too old to play sports. 我太老了,不能体育运动。 Wǒ tài lǎo le, bùnéng tǐyù yùndòng.
I have a physical limitation. 我是生理缺陷。 Wǒ shì shēnglǐ quēxiàn.
I like to go jogging. 我喜欢慢跑。 Wǒ xǐhuān mànpǎo.
I go running. 我跑步。 Wǒ pǎobù.
Who do you go running with? 你和谁一起跑步? Nǐ hé shéi yīqǐ pǎobù?
I go running by myself. 我独自跑步。 Wǒ dúzì pǎobù.
Do you go running when you have a cold? 你感冒的时候跑步吗? Nǐ gǎnmào de shíhòu pǎobù ma?
No, I don't. 不,我你感冒的时候不跑步。 Bù, wǒ nǐ gǎnmào de shíhòu bù pǎobù.
不,我你感冒的时候没有跑步。 Bù, wǒ nǐ gǎnmào de shíhòu méiyǒu pǎobù.
Why not? 为什么不? Wèi shéme bù?
(Why don't you go running when you have a cold?) 为什么你感冒的时候不跑步?
Wèishéme nǐ gǎnmào de shíhòu bù pǎobù?
You shouldn't exercise when you are sick. 你不应该在生病的时候锻炼。
Nǐ bù yìnggāi zài shēngbìng de shíhòu duànliàn.
Because you shouldn't exercise when you are sick. 因为你不应该在生病的时候锻炼。
Yīnwèi nǐ bù yìnggāi zài shēngbìng de shíhòu duànliàn.

When will your book be available? It sounds interesting. Thank you for the advice.
 
When will your book be available?

Unfortunately, my days of teaching in China may be over.

The most important thing about writing this type of book is having a native speaker read it, and make sure it is 'real' Chinese not 'correct' Chinese. For example, the 'real' translation for "She is not here" in Chinese is "不在", which I do not think we will find in any Chinese textbook (and it threw me for a loop the first time I heard a Chinese person say it). (By the way, the word 在 in Chinese can be both a noun and a preposition, which also threw me for a loop for a while.)

Right now I do not have access to any Chinese people, so I have stopped working on the book for the time being.

What level do you speak Japanese at? Have you mastered hiragana and katakana? How many kanji (Chinese characters) can you read and write?
 
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What level do you speak Japanese at? Have you mastered hiragana and katakana? How many kanji (Chinese characters) can you read and write?

I'm just a beginner at japanese. I can recognise all hiragana and katakana and maybe 200 kanji. I can't write most of these characters as it's a lot easier to just being able to recognise kanji than to write it.
 
I can recognise all hiragana and katakana


Bunny,

I am glad to hear you can recognize all hiragana and katakana. That is a great accomplishment and congratulations. But only being able to recognize them is NOT enough. You have to get them down COLD. The hard part of knowing kana (hiragana and katakana) is being able to write them down on a piece of paper while hearing them. Here is what you need to do.

Start doing what I call "dictation practice". Record yourself speaking kana one by one on your electronic device (computer or iPhone or whatever). If you do not know how to record your voice on your electronic device, please do not hesitate to ask, there are plenty of people on this forum who can help you with this.

Then, play back the recording and try to write the kana down on a piece of paper as you hear them. This is harder than you think. Then record yourself saying two kana at a time, three at a time, etc. You need to get to the point where you can write each kana quickly and easily from "dictation".

You also must be able to type kana on your electronic device. For me, I have a laptop with a Windows operating system. I have enabled the ability to type in both Romaji and kana on my laptop. For my word processor I use Microsoft Word, and I have enabled the ability to type in Romaji, kana, and kanji in MS Word. (If you do not know how to enable the typing of kana and kanji on your electronic device, please do not hesitate to ask.)

These two websites are your friends.

Google Translate

Weblio

Use Google Translate to practice writing words in kana and see if they come out right. The website Weblio is more difficult in that it is meant for Japanese people, not people who are studying Japanese, and it requires kana (it will not let you type in Romaji.) It also does not allow for mistakes with 'long' and 'short' syllables in Japanese.

For me, the most difficult thing in writing kana is knowing if a syllable is 'long' or 'short'. For example, the hiragana word for the English word here is ここ (koko) but the word for high school is こうこう (koukou). The word for go ahead is どうぞ (douzo) but the word for bronze statue is どうぞう (douzou). Is the city Tokyo written as Toukyo, Tokyou, or Toukyou? Is the city Kyoto written as Kyotou, Kyouto, or Kyoutou? You need to put in a lot of practice writing words with both 'long' and 'short' vowels. Use the website Weblio to master writing 'long' and 'short' syllables in Japanese.

There are also a lot of words that you find confusing or difficult to write in kana. Also, a lot of English words have been rendered into katakana, the actual way they are written in katakana can be quite surprising and confusing, and the only way to learn how to write them in katakana is to do a lot of 'dictation practice'. Here are some words and sentences in English. See if you can write them in kana:

Hiragana:

Onaka ga pekopeko desu. I'm really hungry.

Oboeteinai desu. I don't remember

kabushiki kaisha incorporated company

Doumo sumimasen deshita. Excuse me; I'm sorry.

Arigatou gozaimashita. Thank you very much.

Rei no you ni kotaete kudasai. Please answer the question as shown in the example.

Niwa ni wa niwatori ga niwa imasu. There are two chickens in the garden. (famous Japanese tongue-twister)

-------

English to 'Katakana English': (In other words, for the word university, write "unibashiti-" (ユニバシティー) not "daigaku".)

McDonald's

communication

coin locker

strawberry, banana, and chocolate special (ice cream treat seen on a menu in Harajuku, Tokyo)

Temple University Japan Campus

Rehabilitation (Write out the long form, not the short form "rihabiri".)

recruitment coordinator

farmer's market

Yakult Swallows (pro baseball team)

influenza

(airport) check in counter

rock and roll

-------

Write out all of the above hiragana and katakana examples, then cut and paste them into Goodle Translate to see how well you did. (If you need help on how to cut and paste, please do not hesitate to ask.)

These 'Katakana English' phrases are especially difficult for beginners, which is why I chose them. If you would like these 'Katakana English' examples recorded so that you can write them as you hear them, please do not hesitate to ask me or someone else on this forum.

One more piece of advice: One of the best ways to become solid in a language is to teach it someone else. Find a beginning Japanese student who does not know kana at all and teach them kana. This will greatly increase your own ability with kana.

Finally, put your study of kanji on hold until you have completely mastered hiragana and katakana.
 
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Bunny,

I am glad to hear you can recognize all hiragana and katakana. That is a great accomplishment and congratulations. But only being able to recognize them is NOT enough. You have to get them down COLD. The hard part of knowing kana (hiragana and katakana) is being able to write them down on a piece of paper while hearing them. Here is what you need to do.

Start doing what I call "dictation practice". Record yourself speaking kana one by one on your electronic device (computer or iPhone or whatever). If you do not know how to record your voice on your electronic device, please do not hesitate to ask, there are plenty of people on this forum who can help you with this.

Then, play back the recording and try to write the kana down on a piece of paper as you hear them. This is harder than you think. Then record yourself saying two kana at a time, three at a time, etc. You need to get to the point where you can write each kana quickly and easily from "dictation".

You also must be able to type kana on your electronic device. For me, I have a laptop with a Windows operating system. I have enabled the ability to type in both Romaji and kana on my laptop. For my word processor I use Microsoft Word, and I have enabled the ability to type in Romaji, kana, and kanji in MS Word. (If you do not know how to enable the typing of kana and kanji on your electronic device, please do not hesitate to ask.)

These two websites are your friends.

Google Translate

Weblio

Use Google Translate to practice writing words in kana and see if they come out right. The website Weblio is more difficult in that it is meant for Japanese people, not people who are studying Japanese, and it requires kana (it will not let you type in Romaji.) It also does not allow for mistakes with 'long' and 'short' syllables in Japanese.

For me, the most difficult thing in writing kana is knowing if a syllable is 'long' or 'short'. For example, the hiragana word for the English word here is ここ (koko) but the word for high school is こうこう (koukou). The word for go ahead is どうぞ (douzo) but the word for bronze statue is どうぞう (douzou). Is the city Tokyo written as Toukyo, Tokyou, or Toukyou? Is the city Kyoto written as Kyotou, Kyouto, or Kyoutou? You need to put in a lot of practice writing words with both 'long' and 'short' vowels. Use the website Weblio to master writing 'long' and 'short' syllables in Japanese.

There are also a lot of words that you find confusing or difficult to write in kana. Also, a lot of English words have been rendered into katakana, the actual way they are written in katakana can be quite surprising and confusing, and the only way to learn how to write them in katakana is to do a lot of 'dictation practice'. Here are some words and sentences in English. See if you can write them in kana:

Hiragana:

Onaka ga pekopeko desu. I'm really hungry.

Oboeteinai desu. I don't remember

kabushiki kaisha incorporated company

Doumo sumimasen deshita. Excuse me; I'm sorry.

Arigatou gozaimashita. Thank you very much.

Rei no you ni kotaete kudasai. Please answer the question as shown in the example.

Niwa ni wa niwatori ga niwa imasu. There are two chickens in the garden. (famous Japanese tongue-twister)

-------

English to 'Katakana English': (In other words, for the word university, write "unibashiti-" (ユニバシティー) not "daigaku".)

McDonald's

communication

coin locker

strawberry, banana, and chocolate special (ice cream treat seen on a menu in Harajuku, Tokyo)

Temple University Japan Campus

Rehabilitation (Write out the long form, not the short form "rihabiri".)

recruitment coordinator

farmer's market

Yakult Swallows (pro baseball team)

influenza

(airport) check in counter

rock and roll

-------

Write out all of the above hiragana and katakana examples, then cut and paste them into Goodle Translate to see how well you did. (If you need help on how to cut and paste, please do not hesitate to ask.)

These 'Katakana English' phrases are especially difficult for beginners, which is why I chose them. If you would like these 'Katakana English' examples recorded so that you can write them as you hear them, please do not hesitate to ask me or someone else on this forum.

One more piece of advice: One of the best ways to become solid in a language is to teach it someone else. Find a beginning Japanese student who does not know kana at all and teach them kana. This will greatly increase your own ability with kana.

Finally, put your study of kanji on hold until you have completely mastered hiragana and katakana.

Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it!

I used to try to remember how to write hiragana and katakana, but I find that after practicing writing them all, after a few days I would forget how to write the majority of them. It was exhausting to just keep trying to practice writing them, only to forget a short while later.
I wonder if I find it hard to do this with hiragana and katakana, how am I supposed to remember how to write 2,000 kanji?

I also find long and short vowels hard to understand, as well as where and when the kanji ー is placed. I learned that this was placed only after a katakana vowel to elongate it, but Japanese people use it after a hiragana vowel all the time, and I have seen Japanese people use it after katakana characters which aren't vowels.

But anyway, that japanese website you suggested seems helpful for someone learning japanese like myself, so I will practice learning hiragana and katakana in the way you suggested.
 
A good example of the difficulty of long and short vowels is the japanese word for good morning (Ohayo).
Do you write it as おはよ or おはよう or おはよー?

I've seen Japanese people use おはよー to mean good morning, but ー should be used with katakana only.
 
A good example of the difficulty of long and short vowels is the japanese word for good morning (Ohayo).
Do you write it as おはよ or おはよう or おはよー?

I've seen Japanese people use おはよー to mean good morning, but ー should be used with katakana only.
おはよう is correct. The others are like spelling cute as kute. Or writing good morning as g'morning. Just style or colloquialisms.

and I have seen Japanese people use it after katakana characters which aren't vowels.
Are you talking about manga?
 
No, but I've seen Japanese people on social media (like twitter) who say they've had beer, and they spell beer using the katakana alphabet with a ー character in the middle of the word.
Ah ok. Well consider the English that you see on Twitter. It's often not representative of correct English. Same thing with Japanese. U no wut i mean? ;-)

Beer is a bad example though because ビール is the correct way to spell it. Or did you mean that they spelled it as びーる? If so they are just being lazy.
 
Yes, perhaps learning Japanese from social media is a bad idea :LOL:

They spelled it the first way. So I guess that means when ー is added after any katakana and hiragana character, it elongates it. Japanese people seem to prefer using it than using the っ character.
 
Small tsu (っ・ッ) is a different thing from the elongation mark ー.

Small-tsu indicates that the following consonant takes up an entire mora; for hard consonants which have instantaneous pronunciation (k, t, p) this means that you form your mouth into the shape of the consonant but stop airflow and remain silent for a full beat and then release the consonant with the start of the next beat.

For soft consonants (s, z) some or all of the consonant mora may be an extended pronunciation of the consonant. From my experience looking at the waveforms of native recordings, it's typically 1/3rd silence 2/3rds consonant for the little-tsu mora at normal talking speeds, but there's a wide variation. In practical terms, it's a momentary stopping of airflow followed by.

So, きっぷ you pronounce 'ki', ending the 'i' by close your lips in preparation for the 'p', hold for a beat and then pronounce 'pu'.

For きって, similarly, but at the end of the 'i' your lips are open and your tongue pressed against the alveolar ridge in preparation for 't'.

For きっさてん you pronounce 'ki', ending the 'i' with a momentary silence filling out the beat with 's' and then pronounce 'sa'.

The elongation mark, on the other hand, indicates that you extend the preceding vowel. Simply, ビール and ビイル would be the same thing, さー and さあ are the same thing. By convention, extended vowels in katakana are marked with elongation marks and extended vowels in hiragana are marked with vowel kana... however in practice, in anything other than formal writing, the methods of indicating a long vowel can be mixed and matched.

As a foreign learner, you should be cautious to break the formal convention only when you've seen natives do so in the same way in a similar context. For example, I've never actually seen ビイル anywhere ... even though it's theoretically possible, correctly pronounced katakana words are rarely if ever spelled this way. Using vowels instead of extension marks is in practice mostly limited to normally-hiragana words written in katakana, or for elongating vowels that are normally short.
 
I used to try to remember how to write hiragana and katakana, but I find that after practicing writing them all, after a few days I would forget how to write the majority of them.


The only way around this is practice. You need to practice reading and writing kana at least 20 minutes a day.

Here is a website that has kana and no kanji. Go down to the links for Princess Kaguya and Momtaro. Copy the kana from the screen and write them down.



Here is another website.



Next is a website that reads kana out loud and you can write them as you hear them.



Next is a website that sings Japanese songs and you can read the kana as you listen to the songs. Click on a song, click on the "Japanese page" link in the upper left corner. At the bottom of the page are two links to sound files. Click on the sound-file on the right side, an you can listen to the song while reading the kana on the page.


I also find long and short vowels hard to understand,


Japanese is a short-syllable polysyllabic language, where the syllables are spoken with a quick, staccato sound. About 800 years ago, the Chinese language was introduced to Japan. The Chinese language is just the opposite, using a much smaller number of syllables per sentence and syllables that are comparatively long. For example, the sentence for "good morning" in Chinese has only three syllables, whereas the Japanese sentence has nine syllables.

The sentence for "I don't want it" in Chinese has only two syllables, whereas the Japanese sentence has seven syllables.

When Japanese people first heard spoken Chinese, they quickly noticed the sounds of the two languages were quite different, including the use of long syllables in Chinese and short syllables in Japanese. The Japanese people developed a way of distinguishing long syllables in Chinese and short syllables in Japanese, which is why we have words like KOKO (a 'Japanese' word') and KOUKOU (a 'Chinese word'). The distinction is very important.

Do you write it as おはよ or おはよう or おはよー?


It is written おはよう. If you see おはよー, I would say it is a type of slang, and you should not use it.

ー should be used with katakana only.

Correct.

What are these topics, if you don't mind sharing?


Intermediate-level topics

Self-intro (quick summary of place of residence, type of personality, hobbies, family, friends, etc.)
Family
Friends
- My friend who has a 'weird' personality
My house/apartment/dorm room
My dream house
Shopping
- Shopping for food
Cooking (how to cook rice, cook hotpot, etc.)
Eating out
Getting sick
Getting injured
Hanging out – free time
- Playing video games ("I made ten million points and the top level!")
- I know how to fix a computer.
- I know how to work on a car, change a tire, change oil, etc.
Typical day, typical weekend
Chores, cleaning, laundry, etc.
Sports, doing and watching (badminton, bicycle, skateboard, skating, ice skating, snow skiing, water skiing, etc.)
- Extreme sports (skydiving, bungee jumping, climbing up the face of a mountain, etc)
Exercising (running, jogging, weightlifting, working out, running 100 meters and 800 meters and 1 kilometer, etc.) ("If I ran 800 meters I would die!")
Music – listening and playing
- I want to learn how to play the guitar, piano, I am learning now, etc.
Watching movies
- Tell the story of a movie, for example, Titanic.
Watching TV
- my favorite T show
Traveling in Japan
Traveling to foreign countries
Transportation (bus, train, etc.)
Car
Money
Weather
- Getting caught in the rain while waiting for the bus
- Dealing with a pickpocket on the bus
- Dealing with bad weather (got caught in a snowstorm, drenched in the rain, slipped and fell on some ice, got heatstroke, got blinded by dust, typhoon damage, etc.)
Pets
Animals
- Exotic animals and pets ("My friend has a pet boa constrictor!" "I want to ride a horse and ride an elephant.")
National holidays
- Summer vacation, etc.
- Japanese New Years. Going to a temple on New Years.
My life story (includes high school life)
- The first thing I remember in my life
- An injury I had as a small child (scraped my knee, fell off my bike, cut myself, burned myself, got an injection, etc. I had my tonsils out.)
- I stole some candy when I was a child.
- My best teacher in elementary school
- My worst teacher in elementary school
College life
- I flunked a test or class.
- The College entrance exam was a nightmare.
Studying English
- My parents force me to study English.
Work
My life plan
My career
- My dream job (be a rock star, astronaut, symphony pianist, president of this university, Prime Minister of Japan, etc.) I want to be a bum and stay home all day!
Fashion
- Shopping for clothes
Getting my hair cut/done
Generation gap
- Arguments I have/had with my parents (especially a girl who argues with them about clothes/money)
Japanese culture
- Food (how to make rice, make gyoza)
- Language
- Chinese characters
- radicals
- Japanese art and paintings
- Japanese 'dance' and stage
- Japanese music
- going to karaoke
- Games – cards, shogi, igo, etc. Japanese New Years card games.
- Japanese history
Pollution
- Air pollution
- Bus exhaust
- Water pollution
- Supermarket plastic bags – good or bad?
- My hometown's environment
Religion
- Buddhism
- Islam
- Christianity, etc., as they are practiced in Japan
Literature
- Tell the story of Momotaro, Hachiko the Dog, etc. Tell only the important points in five minutes or less.
Philosophy
- Shintoism
- Confucianism
 
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Japanese people seem to prefer using it than using the っ character.


The small っ character and characters which create long syllables (ー, い, and う) are not interchangeable. They make up entirely different words. Look at these three examples.

きて ください。Please come here.

きいて ください。Please listen.

きって ください。Please cut (with a knife).
 
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