First Meeting(2)
Dialogue in Romaji
| Namiko: | Yamada san, konnichiwa. Kochira wa Paul-san desu. |
| Paul: | Hajimemashite, Paul desu. Douzo yoroshiku. |
| Yamada: | Hajimemashite, Yamada desu. O-kuni wa dochira desu ka. |
| Paul: | Kanada desu. |
Dialogue in Japanese
| 奈美子: | 山田さん、こんにちは。こちらはポールさんです。 |
| ポール: | はじめまして、ポールです。どうぞよろしく。 |
| 山田: | はじめまして、山田です。 お国はどちらですか。 |
| ポール: | カナダです。 |
We have learned basic structure: A wa B desu. = A is B.
"Kochira（こちら）" means "this person". When addressing people, "san（さん）" (Mr./ Mrs./ Miss etc.) can be attached. "San" may be used with both female and male names, and either family name or first name. It can not be used after your name when referring to yourself.
"Kuni（国）" means "country". "O" is a prefix used to make nouns honorific. "O" can not be used when referring to yourself. "Dochira（どちら）" is a less direct and more polite way of asking "where". "Doko（どこ）" is a casual way of asking the same question. "Ka" is a sentence ending particle and makes a sentence into a question.
Let's try!
Once you know the structure above, you can make more questions with a little change.
| O-namae wa nan desu ka お名前は何ですか。 | What is your name? |
| O-shigoto wa nan desu ka. お仕事は何ですか。 | What is your job? |
Here are the phrases to answer these questions.
| Namiko (your name) desu. 奈美子 (your name) です。 | I am Namiko. |
| Gakusei (your occupation) desu. 学生 (your occupation) です。 | I am a student. |
Translation for the Dialogue
| Namiko: | Hello, Mr. Yamada. This is Paul. |
| Paul: | How do you do? I am Paul. Nice to meet you. |
| Yamada: | How do you do? I am Yamada. |
| Where are you from? (Literally means, what is your country?) | |
| Paul: | I am from Canada. |
