Yesterday in a quoted explanation there were two sentences that I didn’t fully explain. So let’s do it now!
“toshokan ni ikimasen ka”
would you like to go to the library?
“toshokan ni ikimashou ka”
shall we go to the library?
We talked about the difference between these forms yesterday. What part do you think means “library”?
図書館 = としょかん = “toshokan” = library
に (ni) is a connecting word in this sentence. We’ll probably talk about it later in the year.
The past two days I used images from a Japanese movie called Shall We Dance? (1996).
In that movie’s title the word dance is not 踊り (odori) but ダンス (dansu).
ダンス (dansu) uses katakana, which is a sort of alphabet system often used for foreign loan words in Japanese.
The movie is more about a Western style of dancing than a traditional Japanese style, so the word ダンス (dansu) is used instead of 踊り (odori). It is common for Japanese to use a different term for the Western style of something and for that term to be a phonetic pronunciation of the Western word, using the katakana “alphabet”.
Today’s image is some shrimps. When I lived in Japan I ate a lot of these and they are delicious. Tomorrow I will tell a story about these that is related to dancing. How?! You will have to wait and see!