A Beginner’s Japanese Lesson

Prostrate on the plush pillow, I quietly watched Leidi, who sat cross-legged beside me. Her hands moved continuously as she meticulously sorted through textbooks for me. Textbooks? Japanese ones, of course…

‘The “listening and speaking” aspects were perfectly handled by the ‘CHOKER’ around my neck, but my “reading and writing” skills were utterly at an elementary school level… No, wait, even a native Japanese elementary student would surely know more than I do! Ugh… Thinking about it made my heart feel so cold, so frigid I almost wanted to cry. To be outdone by elementary schoolers—I’m a high school student!’

“I considered a ‘cramming’ method, but you don’t seem quite that bright, do you?” Leidi lifted her gaze, casting a glance my way. It seemed the textbooks had been chosen.

“Heh heh… Should I thank you for that…?” I deliberately lowered my voice, returning Leidi’s comment with a theatrical eye-roll. ‘So, being smarter than me is something to be proud of, huh?! Yes… it truly is impressive… I can’t even pretend to be her equal here… Leidi, who can effortlessly speak intricate French and German without her ‘CHOKER’, is actually—incredibly intelligent… What kind of elite education did she receive to become so versatile? She might even know every language, who knows? Wow—it’s really true that there’s no comparison without pain…’

“Regardless, the fundamentals are paramount. Come here; I’ll start by teaching you the entire fifty-sound syllabary.” With that, Leidi beckoned me closer.

“Yes… Teacher Leidi…” I replied, feigning exhaustion, and then, with equally feigned weakness, I wriggled across the bedsheets like a caterpillar.

“Eat that!”

“Ow, ow, ow!” Leidi swiftly ‘pecked’ my head with her hand. Seriously, I’m not actually a caterpillar! And you’re not a bird!

“Are we still playing? Sit up immediately.” Leidi raised her hand once more, addressing me as I clutched my head.

“Alright, I get it…” Tossing the pillow I’d been hugging to the side, I obediently moved closer.

Flipping to a specific page in the book, Leidi pointed to an impressive-looking chart and explained, “The Japanese fifty-sound syllabary is actually quite similar to Chinese pinyin. You can think of the relationship between hiragana and katakana as being like the uppercase and lowercase forms of Chinese pinyin. There’s no need for you to know all the intricate details; just follow my lead, and I’ll get you to a level where you can read light novels.”

“Really? Then I’ll rely on you.” ‘Light novels, huh? That sounds pretty good~ There are so many interesting stories out there.’

“First, there’s this one. It’s pronounced ‘ah,’ like the ‘ah’ often used for a scream in Chinese. The more complex-looking character above is hiragana.” Using her pen as a pointer, Leidi gestured to ‘あ’ and ‘ア’ in the book.

‘As someone who learned Chinese first… these two… how do they look like the sound “ah” at all?!’

“Next, this one is pronounced ‘yi,’ like the ‘yi’ in ‘one, two, three, four.'” As she spoke, Leidi moved her pen to ‘い’ and ‘イ’, to the right of ‘あ’ and ‘ア’.

“Somehow, it really feels like the Chinese character ‘以’ (yǐ). Like the ‘yǐ’ in ‘yǐjí’ (and, as well as).” Pointing at the box for ‘い’, I smiled and glanced at Leidi.

“This character actually evolved from the cursive form of ‘以’ (yǐ). And its corresponding katakana, ‘イ,’ is like the Chinese ‘single radical’ (单立人). Ah, perhaps ‘single person radical’ might make more sense to you.” Leidi explained in meticulous detail.

“Huh? Eh?! So that’s how it is?!” ‘I’m so surprised! It’s like eating a plantain but calling it a banana!’

“You don’t need to be so surprised, do you? Most hiragana and katakana actually evolved from Chinese characters. Look at these few.” Guiding my gaze, Leidi then pointed to the boxes for ‘オ’, ‘カ’, and ‘ニ’. ‘These are completely Chinese characters, aren’t they?!’

“They really are! How do you read these?” ‘My curiosity is piqued now; maybe this will actually be quite interesting.’

“‘オ’ is pronounced ‘oh,’ ‘カ’ is pronounced ‘ka,’ and ‘ニ’ is ‘ni.’ For someone who only knows Chinese, you must find this quite strange, right?” Leidi chuckled as she spoke.

“Yes, it’s very strange! They don’t sound alike at all; the pronunciations are miles away from their Chinese counterparts.” I laughed too. ‘Even if the pronunciations weren’t close to “cai,” “li,” or “er,” I never expected them to be this different. Haha, how interesting.’

“For pronunciation, I’ll go through them with you once. After that, you’ll just keep practicing.” As she spoke, Leidi handed me a notebook. ‘It’s for copying practice, right?’

“Alright, let’s keep going.” ‘Now that my enthusiasm is sparked, I might as well learn properly~’

****

Roughly two hours passed. After constant pronunciation and copying practice, I finally started to familiarize myself with these fifty sounds that so resembled Chinese radicals. While I still couldn’t understand their meanings, I could pronounce them accurately, albeit a bit slowly. Also, despite being called the “fifty sounds,” there are actually only forty-six of them?!

“Ahem, ahem—time for a test!” Feigning two coughs, Leidi wrote something in the notebook.

“Bring it on!” I proudly gave Leidi a thumbs-up. ‘Hmph, hmph~ I still have enough confidence to surpass an elementary schooler!’

“First, take off your ‘CHOKER’; that will affect your pronunciation.” Leidi pointed to my neck, reminding me.

“Oh.” ‘Right, if I wore the ‘CHOKER’, the test results wouldn’t be accurate.’ I obediently removed the ‘CHOKER’ and set it aside.

“How do you read this one?” Smiling, Leidi pointed her pen at ‘こんにちは’.

“Easy, ‘Kou en ni qi wa’!” ‘How’s that? Aren’t I amazing?!’ I looked back at her proudly.

“That Chinese accent is quite strong…” Leidi commented with a perfectly bland expression, deflating my pride.

“Huh? Really? I thought it was pretty good…” ‘Eh… Was I not up to par? I’d been practicing for two whole hours!’

“What about this one, then?” This time, Leidi pointed to ‘だいスイカ’.

“‘Da yi su yi ka’… right?” ‘My voice felt a little timid… Honestly, Leidi won’t scold me, so why am I so scared…’

“Barely acceptable…” Leidi’s expression became incredibly subtle.

‘Ugh—the evaluation is still so low; my pride is truly wounded…’

“Fine, just read this last sentence. You’ll need to practice diligently afterward.” With a wry smile, Leidi wrote down the final test question.

“Understood…” ‘I feel like crying… I still haven’t surpassed an elementary schooler…’

“This is the last one. Read it.” Leidi pushed the notebook towards me, where she had intentionally written ‘レディ，だいすき！あいしてる！’ in exceptionally large characters.

‘Why write it so big…? Never mind, I won’t think about it…’

“‘Le yi di, da yi su ke yi, a yi xi tie lu.'” ‘Eh—’ I silently sighed to myself. ‘Leidi will definitely nitpick my pronunciation again…’

“…”

‘Hmm? Why isn’t Leidi saying anything?’ “Lei, Leidi?” I waved my hand in front of her eyes. ‘She’s not spacing out, is she?’

“Xiaobai, could you say that again?” Covering her face with one hand, Leidi spoke to me in a tone that was hard to describe. ‘What was with that inexplicable sense of anticipation?’

“‘Le yi di, da yi su ke yi, a yi xi tie lu’… Is that alright?” ‘I felt like it was no different from the first time, but I didn’t know what Leidi was thinking.’

“Say it again.” Covering her face with her other hand as well, Leidi requested once more.

“Uh?… Alright. ‘Le yi di, da yi su ke yi, a yi xi tie lu.'” ‘What’s going on? Why does she want me to say this sentence three times? Does it have some special meaning?’

“Haaah—” Covering her face, Leidi took a deep breath before finally looking up. Then— “Xiaobai, what do you want to eat tonight?! Just name it!” Her radiant expression startled me completely…