Japanese with Manu

Your face is small! 顔が小さいですね。 kao ga chiisai desu ne.

顔 kao - face (right part 頁means head)
小さい chiisai - small (looks like a small 人 person with their arms close to their body)

That's what people here in Japan keep telling me after I got my hair cut some time ago.

At first, I was like ??? wth? Like, small face, is that a new insult? Gotta make it my new gangster name XD

But then I realized it's the opposite. Japanese people love small/cute things. And seeing me after I got a new haircut, the people at my local gym wanted to compliment me.

Even though I have been living in Japan for years, there's still something new/surprising waiting around the corner 😆

How would you react if someone said that to you?

Teaching Japanese brings me so much joy! Today, I had a lesson where we read the first few pages of my book "Reading Japanese for Beginners."

The student had some experience with studying Japanese from a long time ago, so they struggled a little with the first few sentences. But reading through the vocabulary list first and me explaining the background of the words to them, like what はじめまして hajimemash*te (usually translated as "nice to meet you") really means or the kanji of しゃしん 写真 picture/photo, they were like, I have come across these words before, but now, with your explanations, it's so much easier to remember!

They also told me they bought some children's books but couldn't really make much sense out of them.

Today, with the first story in the book, they could finally understand not only single words/sentences, but a whole story.

That's the reason why I wrote this book!

It's for everyone who can already read hiragana and katakana. The additional material does include a romaji version, but it's designed for people who want to practice their kana knowledge and learn new vocabulary and basic grammar.

The introductory section starts with a grammar overview, including all particles, basic knowledge about Japanese sentence structure and verbs (tenses and negation).

Here's a review from a student who started studying Japanese from scratch with me:
I can't believe what a confidence boost this book was for me. When Manu-Sensei asked me if I could read the first page, I thought: hell no I can't read this, it's in Japanese! But not only was I able to read it phonetically with my knowledge of Hiragana and Katakana, I could actually understand what it meant thanks to the clear and simple explanations.

Here's the link to amazon Canada, but it's available on all amazon marketplaces
https://www.amazon.ca/Reading-Japanese-Beginners-Vocabulary-Structure/dp/B0DV4NQ3YF

US:
https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Japanese-Beginners-Vocabulary-Structure/dp/B0DV4NQ3YF/

UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reading-Japanese-Beginners-Vocabulary-Structure/dp/B0DV4NQ3YF

car from a driving school, and is now 'retired' from its duty, enjoying life 😂

Do you remember how you felt when you wrote your first hiragana and katakana? Also, when you realized that you could read your first Japanese words?

Tell me!

I'll start in the first reply :)

Today's breakfast. Doesn't look that fancy, but I love gyoza 餃子 they are originally from China, but the Japanese ones have a thinner wrapping.

It's also worth looking at the kanji!

餃 this kanji already means gyouza, its parts/radicals are 飠(food, to eat) and 交 mixing

子 kanji for child, but can befound in all kinds of words (its meaning is very volatile), for example:

椅子　いす isu chair
調子　ちょうし choushi condition/manner (has also several meanings)
帽子　ぼうし boushi hat
硝子　ガラス garasu (yes, there's also a kanji version of glass as a material - versus グラス gurasu, which refers to a drinking glass only)

Words where it has the "original" meaning:
女の子 (おんなのこ onna no ko female child = girl)
女子(じょし joushi same as above, but more formal)
子猫(こねこ koneko child cat = kitten)
子供(こども kodomo child in general)
Name+子 ko: several female names have ko at the end