Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2

49 五年、行きました。 Go-nen ikimashita . I went there for five years. 五年ごろ行きました． Go-nen-goro ikimashita. I went there around the year 5. 五年ぐらい行きました . Go-nen-gurai ikimashita. I went there for about 5 years. 7-2-2 Counting age: ~ sai for people and animals, ~ nen for others ~ sai 才 is used to express the age of people and animals while 〜 nen 年 is used to express the age of inanimate things. Note the sound change of /sai/  /ssai/ with the numbers 1, 8, and 10. People’s age are also expressed by the classifier ~ tsu , and hatachi is the special form of this series for a twenty year old. To ask how old someone is you can use one of the following. The last one is polite. 何歳ですか。 Nan-sai desu ka. ( 年は ) いくつですか (Toshi wa) ikutsu desu ka. ( お年は ) おいくつですか。 (Otoshi wa) oikutsu desu ka. (Polite) Babies that are less than one year old are counted by days, weeks and months. It’s often pointed out that Japanese society is very much age conscious. Age determines many things including interpersonal relationships. Even just one year of difference in age usually results in seniority status and affects how people talk to each other. Therefore it is not uncommon to ask someone’s age when meeting him/her for the first time. When you ask any personal questions, it’s safer to first say shitsurei desu kedo ‘ It’s rude of me to ask this, but…’ 7-2-3 Japanese Calendar There are two systems of naming years in Japan. In addition to the western calendar ( 西暦 せいれき ), Japan uses its own calendar ( 元号 げんごう 、和暦 わ れ き ) ． The latter is often used in official documents. The Japanese year designations are based on the year of the reign of the emperors. When one emperor dies and a new emperor ascends to the throne, a new period or era starts. The first year of a period is called gan-nen 元年 がんねん . The years are named and counted with the Chinese numbers plus 〜 nen. The most recent periods include: Meiji 明治 め い じ 1868-1912 Taisho 大正 たいしょう 1912-1926 Showa 昭和 しょうわ 1926-1989 Heisei 平成 へいせい 1989-present It may be handy to remember your birthday according to the Japanese calendar.