THE KAGAMINE SHOW
(corny theme music) It's the Kagamine woooorrrddd shoooowwwww~
「レン」
Welcome to our first official episode! Five of you paid your tickets, and Rin's a little bit happier today.
(Rin is sitting on the couch eating ice cream)
「レン」
Yes, people, we got a couch! And a CHAIR!
(Audience ooos and aaaahhhs)
「レン」
I KNOW!
(Len sits on the chair across from Rin)
「レン」
So, let's start off by reading today's fanmail. Today's is from another anonymous, and she said:
I have a question. Is learning the word in romaji first hurting my learning or helping it? Oh and Rin? *hands ticket money*.
Sayonara!
- KokoroxKiskei
(Rin pocketed the money immediately upon taking the letter)
「リン」
$%^& yeah.
「レン」
And a good question! Before I can answer it, though, I'm going to talk about the four alphabets. Yes, FOUR! Rin, the slides please.
(Rin clicks a remote to project slides behind Len)
The four alphabets are:
(click)
Romajii – which looks like this, but the pronunciation is the key.
(click)
Hiragana – ひらがなですよ、easiest to tell by it's script. The strokes are all curvy-like and used in parts of kanji, as well as for normal, native words.
(click)
Katakana – カタカナダヨネ、the sound system is the same as Hiragana, but as you can see the strokes are sharper and basically just lines. It's used for foreign words, like コーヒー (cohi – coffee) or ケーキ （keki – cake)
(click)
Kanji – 漢字、the picture system, borrowed from the Chinese (Japanese are sneaky, see). These are used for instant visuals in writing. The only problem is that there are so many, and there are even more combinations. For example, this character means "ahead"
先
and this one means "to live"
生
but, when you put them together, you get 先生 (sensei – teacher). So, "born ahead" is literally what sensei means.
「にゃんこ先生」
Damn right.
「レン」
Thank you, Nyanko-sensei. But in real life we would never call our cats sensei.
「にゃんこ先生」
I'm not a cat!
「レン」
That's enough for the slides. Arigatou, Rin.
「リン」
Mhm.
「レン」
So, to answer today's fanmail – finally – I would say don't concentrate on romajii, because you already know it! If you want to learn Japanese, the best way is to learn the characters in THAT order. Hiragana, then Katakana, then Kanji. Anything else to add, Rin?
「リン」
When you know Hiragana and Katakana, you'll be able to pronounce the language right. If you pronounced (cohi) from above as (caw-high) and not (coh-hee) then you should probably study Hiragana.
「レン」
Also, pictures are easy. Notice how 生 (to live) looks like a plant. Depending on how you learn things, Kanji will either be very easy or very hard.
Anyway, let's bring in today's guest!
(Audience claps politely and Shinome Hitomi comes in)
「レン」
Hajimemashite, Hitomi-sensei.
「ひとみ先生」
Hajimemashite.
「レン」
For those of you who don't know her, Hitomi-sensei is the teacher from Loveless.
(Audience goes ooooohhhh)
「レン」
Sorry, but we couldn't afford anyone too famous. Not that you aren't important, sensei!
(Hitomi's cat ears twitch as she blushes, a little irritated)
「レン」
So, what words can you throw at us today, sensei?
「ひとみ先生」
Well, what I hear all the time is "ohayo!" you know.
「レン」
Ah, as a teacher you would hear that a lot, huh?
「ひとみ先生」
Mm. (ん)
「レン」
"Ohayo" means good morning. It's the word you'll hear a lot. If you want to be extra polite (and always go the polite way, in my humble opinion) add ~gozaimasu. Say ohayo gozaimasu to the next person you meet. But never to Bella Swan. EVER.
「リン」
It sounds like the state Ohio.
「レン」
Bella Swan lives in Forks, Rin.
「リン」
That's not what I meant-
「ひとみ先生」
I'm sorry, but what is your cameraman doing?
「レン」
Kaito! Stop shaking the camera!
「KAITO」
Sorry, but this chick keeps poking me-
「レン」
Audience, hentai days are on Saturdays! STOP MOLESTING KAITO. STOP IT!
(Audience boos)
「ひとみ先生」
Do I get paid for coming here..?
「リン」
Kaito don't trip over the-
(credits)
Words - 9
Kohi/cohi (coffee)
Keki (cake – the ke is a bit long, like kehhki)
Sensei 先生(teacher)
Ohayo (Mornin' – I'd only use it casually with friends)
Ohayo gozaimasu (Good morning, polite)
Hentai (pervert – if you're a girl and want help, yelling HENTAI might get you attention. But, train groping is pretty common, so sorry, ladies).
ん(n/m) You might have noticed Hitomi-sensei say this above. It's sort of like agreement but also not, I'll explain it in more detail some other time.
先 (ahead)
生 (to live)
Bonus - "Nyan" in Nyanko-sensei means meow. Cats go nya nya in Japan