Wait a minute

• Basic espressions
  
• Nationality
  
• Two more particles: yo and ne
  
• Kara
  
• Some more useful words
  
• How are you doing so far?

Basic expressions

All of this time, you've been going along learning Japanese vocabulary and grammar, but there's a chance that you don't even know simple Japanese greetings yet (through no fault of your own). So here they are, learn them well:

ohayou (gozaimasu) - good morning
konnichi wa - hello
konban wa - good evening (said when meeting someone)
oyasumi (nasai) - good night (said when departing)
hajimemashite - I'm pleased to meet you, how do you do?
sayounara - good bye
dewa mata - good bye, later (more informal than sayounara)
jaa mata - see you later (more informal than dewa mata)
(doumo) arigatou (gozaimasu) - thank you (add the words in () to increase politeness)
dou itashimashite - you're welcome, don't mention it
(o)genki( desu ka)? - how are you? (lit. are you well?)

Not the shortest list in the world, but an important one.  Learn those expressions well as soon as you can.

Nationality

Another important topic you should know before we go any further is the way to express nationality.  In English, we use suffixes like -ish, -ese, -an and sometimes it's completely irregular (Holland<->Dutch?)  In Japanese, you simply add the suffix -jin to the name of a country:

Amerika + jin = Amerikajin      American person
Nihon + jin = Nihonjin               Japanese person

these words are always nouns (in English they're sometimes used as adjectives), and they only apply to people(not cars, etc.)

Supeinjin desu ka.   (Are you Spanish?)
Iie, Itariajin desu.    (No, I'm Italian.)

Countries

Of course you'll need to know some country names before you can talk about nationality. Here's a list of countries you're more likely to hear about (or talk about). It'd be a good idea to learn as many of these as possible. If I've omitted any important ones, please let me know on the JIP bulletin board or e-mail me at JIPGuy@excite.co.jp. All of these country names can convert into nationality by adding the suffix -jin.

amerika - America
chuugoku - China
doitsu - Germany
furansu - France
itaria - Italy
igirisu - England/Great Britain
kankoku - Korea
nihon - Japan
suisu - Switzerland
supein - Spain
roshia - Russia

More on Particles

The particle NE

The particle ne is a sentence particle, that means that it's used at the end of a sentence in the manner that ka is.  It means "eh?" or "right?"  As a way of looking for agreement, sometimes rhetorically.

Examples:

Ano tatemono wa takai desu ne.
[That building as for tall is huh?]
That building is tall, isn't it?

Nihongo no hon o yonda ne.
[Japanese language attribute book oj read right?]
You read the Japanese book, didn't you?

The particle YO

The particle yo is also a sentence particle, and it is used to assert (usually strongly) some information that the speaker believes that the listener does not already know, perhaps to explain something that the listener is questioning.  It is similar to the English expression "you know."

Example:

Biifu o tsuku ka.  Kyou sakana o katta yo.
[Beef oj make?  Today fish oj bought you know.]
You're going to make beef?  I bought fish today, you know.

Kara

Kara is a very important particle that literally means "from," but in Japanese it can idiomatically mean "because."  To use it this way, just put it after a verb or adjective expressing the reason, and express the consequence afterward.  Kara is called a clause particle because it follows a chunk of words that wo