O namae wa nan desu ka?

What is your name? - O namae wa nan desu ka?

My name is ___________.  - Watashino namae wa __________ desu.

It's nice to meet you.  - Hajimemashite.

Our first Japanese Club meeting was all about names! First, students chose their very own Japanese name! When I am speaking to students in Japanese, it is much more natural to call everyone by a Japanese name and also lets students feel like they are becoming a part of the Japanese culture!

Ms. Kaufhold's Japanese name is Mei Sensei. "Sensei" means teacher. Japanese have titles for different people. Here are some examples:

sensei - teacher
san - Mr. or Ms.
chan - little girl, or close friend (female)
kun - little boy

We all made nametags and practiced writing our new names in Hiragana. There are three types of written language in Japanese. One is Hiragana, used for writing Japanese words. Another is Katakana, used for writing foreign, or non-Japanese words. The last one is Kanji, or characters that represent a whole word. First we will be focusing on hiragana and katakana, as these are based on sounds and are much easier to learn than Kanji!