L104 - Where from?

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L104 - Where from?

Learn how to ask where someone comes from, and to say where you are from. This will give you the perfect ice breaker for starting up a conversation.

Key Content

Topic:	Introductions, countries, where from
Grammar:	の (no) : possessive marker (particle) から (kara) : from に (ni): location marker (particle) が (ga) : hesitation or softener marker (particle)

Dialogue

This dialogue takes place after Smith and Tanaka just have met. They have introduced themselves, and now it's time for the next step in the conversation.

Japanese:

たなか: スミスさん　は　アメリカじん　です　か。

スミス: いいえ、イギリスじん　です。

たなか: イギリス　の　どちら　から　です　か。

スミス:
ロンドン　に　すんで　います。　たなかさん　は　どちら　から　です　か。

たなか:
きゅうしゅう　です　が、　いま　とうきょう　に　すんで　います。

Romaji:

Tanaka .. Sumisu san wa Amerika-jin desu ka?

Sumisu Iie, igirisu-jin desu.

Tanaka Igirisu no dochira kara desu ka?

Sumisu London ni sunde imasu. Tanaka-san wa dochira kara desu ka.

Tanaka
Kyuushuu desu ga, ima wa Toukyou ni sunde imasu.

English:

Tanaka .. Are you an American?

Smith No, I am British.

Tanaka Where from, in Great Britain, are you?

Smith I live in London. Tanaka, where are you from?

Tanaka Kyuushuu, but now I live in Tokyo

Vocabulary

じん	-jin	suffix meaning 'coming from'
イギリス	igirisu	Great Britain
どちら	dochira	where
の	no	grammatical construct meaning belongs to
から	kara	from
すんでいます	sunde imasu	is living (residence)
に	ni	marker for place
が	ga	but (this is when used in the end of a sentence. But note that が is used in many other cases, for example as a subject marker, as described in the Language Reference on Particles and briefly in L102 - This is.)
いま	ima	now

Lesson Notes

In Japanese, it is marked what country you come from by adding the ending '-jin' to the country. For example, a Swedish person would be a Suweedenjin, and a French person furansujin. See a table of some countries in the end of the chapter.
The word ga is used in the end of a sentence to express a hesitation or to soften the sentence. Often it can be translated with but or though.
The word ni is in this case a marker for a place. It is used for expression of where you live (sunde imasu/sumu/sumimasu), and can also be used to mark the place being at, coming to or going to. E.g. gakko ni ikimasu (to go to school) or koko ni kimasu (to come here).
sunde imasu is the present progressive form of sumimasu, "to live".
The word no is a marker (particle) for something belonging to another thing, you can read more about possessive form no in the article Possessive Form.
The word kara is a marker for origin. The pattern is "... A kara ..." . E.g. (I) came from Japan, "nihon kara kimashita" or a car from America, Amerika kara kita (=kimashita) kuruma.
Also note that the way Japanese answer yes or no on questions may differ from the way it is in your country. When Japanese say yes "Hai", it is an affirmation of the question and no, "Iie" means not agreeing to the question. This may be confusing if the question is negative. E.g. if the question was "Are you not Japanese?", "Nihonjin dewa arimasen ka?", the answer "Hai" would mean that you are not Japanese.

List of Countries

In Japanese, the Kanji for country can be read read koku. But if you talk about a/any country, the reading kuni is used. The same kanji is used in many words. For example is foreigner gaikokujin, literally meaning outside-country-person, and kokusai, which is the word for international.

アメリカ	Amerika (or beikoku)	USA
ちゅうごく	Chuugoku	China
ドイツ	Doitsu	Germany
イギリス	Igirisu (or eikoku)	UK
かんこく	Kankoku	South Korea
きたちょうせん	Kita chousen	North Korea
にほん /にっぽん	Nihon / Nippon	Japan
オーストラリア	O-sutoraria	Australia
スウェーデン	Suwe-den	Sweden
タイ	Tai	Thailand

Links

Check out the full list of Country and Region Names in Japanese.
Also, check out the list of Language Names in Japanese.
When you feel ready, continue to the next lesson.

Comments (55)

What's going on is that the item being defined is being forced to display on several successive lines. In Japanese writing, there are no word breaks, so a break can occur "in the middle of a word." I have increased the width assigned to this column so that it should display on one line for most people, but this will depend on browser settings. I did not know how to force the column to be wide enough to contain the longest text. Johan or Daniel, please correct my "correction" of this problem.

In the vocab section, sunde had its "de" on the botton\m line... also for igirisu. Imasu has no definition.
Thanks for even bothering to upload the lesson :D

What is the difference between dochira and doko? thanks =)

can someone tell me how to write my name in Japanese

Yes, your name is written as follows:
サマンサ - Samansa

In fact, this name is very famous among my generation because of an American TV show. I don't know the original title, but it's a comedy about a wife who is witch named Samantha, and her husband called her "Sam".

Shizu

Your name in romanji would be Sa-ma-n-sa and it's pronounced exactly as it looks.

8-) 8-) can you tell me how you would pronounce my name in japanese??? my name is SAMANTHA. thank you!!! 8-) 8-)

So my name is Yolandie...

Pronounced You-lun-dee. Also, I am South African.

What would that be in Romaji?

arigatou gosaimashita :)

So, your name would be written:
ジョベル - joberu
It sounds nice ;)

"jo" is like "jo" in "Jolie" (Angelina Jolie) while "belle" is pronounce like "bell" silent "e". I think it is similar with "desu" which is pronounce as "des", silent "u".

Well, the part "belle" is still mysterious to me.
Expressing your name in Japanese romaji or katakana depends on how to pronounce in your native language. So, if it's pronounced like:
jo - like English "jo" from "John"
belle - like Italian word "belle"
ジョベッレ - joberre
But if "belle" is pronounced like French language, it would be:
ジョベル - joberu
And in other language, "e" is pronounced like unclear "u", so I need to know how to pronounce more detailedly.
I hope you understand what I mean.

In addition, Jobelle is pronounce in two syllables only jo and belle ;)

"J" in jobelle is pronounce as "j" in the word "jump".
Arigatou

Well, "jobelle" is a bit difficult because I don't know how to pronounce "j" in your native language. It's pronounced like "j" from English word "jump" in Japanese, but in some languages it's pronounced like "y" from English word "you".
Besides, "elle" is pronounced in different way depending on languages, so could you please tell how to read/pronounce your name?

What is my name in japanese?
I am jobelle.

i think that the link "possessive form" doesn't work :)

Yes, "(A wa) B ni sunde imasu" always means "(A) lives in B." Since it is already clear from the first sentence that you are talking about yourself, it is correct not to repeat "watashi wa."

if I wrote ;
Watashi wa Indoneshia-jin desu
Jakarta ni sunde imasu.

is it right? the use of the "sunde imasu"?
or it only works when someone ask you?

Why is there no ?(question mark) at the end of the sentence "Tanaka-san wa dochira kara desu ka." is that a mistake or is it on purpose ?

Is Kyuushuu actually a name of a city ?

Why are there so many lines of Japanese letters in the Vocabulary comparing to the number of English translations ? Are there missing words or are those just different ways of writting it?

And last thing there is a mistake in the sentence "In Japanese, the Kanji for country can be read read koku." Read is written twice ;)

THANK YOU FOR ANSWERS! Sorry to bother you, but I like to have things clear, that helps me understand much better. Arigatou Gozaimasu

watashi wa torukojin desu!

watashi wa mekichikojin desu!!!

Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu! XP

I now know what Nippon is in the game Okami. Lol

私はカナタじんです。

サウジアラビア - sauji arabia - Saudi Arabia
サウジアラビア人 - sauji arabia jin - saudi

オーストラリア人 - oosutoraria jin - Australian
中国人（ちゅうごくじん） - chuugoku jin - Chinese

Sorry for being late in replying!

nankokujin desu ka

Watashi wa chuugoku-jin desu. Nani jin desu ka? Am I right about that sentence?

Watashi wa O-sutoraria-jin desu! Did I get that right?

how do you say Saudi Arabia and Saudi??

Arigato :D

watashi wa korobia-jin desu
i think that mean im from colombia hopeffuly :D
this is reallyt helping me thanks

it's bit confusing..

Watashi wa doitsujin desu!
Watashi wa doitsujin to desu ka?
Sumimasen!
Watashi wa amerikajin da yo.
Watashi wa nihongo ga suki da yo.

コロンビア - koronbia

how is colombia said in japanese

India = インディア = indeia (older form 印度 = インド = indo)
Indian = インディアン = indeian, 印度人 = いんどじん = indojin

how is India n Indian said in Japanese?

Malaysia = マレーシア = mareeshia

What about Malaysia??
Is it Marajia?? and Marajia-jin (Malaysian)??

@kristian_goody,

Philippines - Firipin
Filipino - Firipin-jin

Hope I helped you. ;)

konnichiwa!
how do you say Philipines and Filipino in japanses?

arigato!

Thank you for catching this.

Just cause I'm a bit OCD on this, you misspelled Foreigner before gaikokujin

シンガポール人 - shingapooru jin

so if its singaporean(nationality)...it will be singapooru jin in japanese right?

ArashiKawaii-san,
ノルウェー - noruwee - the country
ノルウェー人 - noruwee jin - the nationality

Shizu

Shizu-san gave me the correct spelling:
ウラジオストック = urajiosutokku

Hontou ni muzukashii desu ne-- that's really hard. Probably something like buradobosutoku. :)

How will be Vladivostok city in japanese?

Thanks!

How do you say that in japanese????

hi,
how would Norway and Norwegian(nationality) be in Japanese?

:)

i dunno anybody here....... :oops:

Hi Johan,

thanks a lot,Russia and Russian Federation are the same. someone choose what he/she like.

Russia as the country is written 露西亜 or ロシア (roshia), Russian people are ロシア人 (roshiajin) and the Russian language is ロシア語 (roshiago). I am not sure about the difference of Russia and Russian federation though.

hi,

how will be Russia and Russian Federation in japanese?

what is the correct form for Russian (as nationality)?

Thanks !
:)

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