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 Don't worry about not knowing the translation of each individual word. This we will do later.

 At that point I'm sure it will just be a confirmation of what you have already figured out.

 Important:

• Try and figure out what each word means.
  
• This will serve to help fix them in your memory.

 Let's now go on to step 2.

• Just do the above three times, from beginning to the end of the dialogue.
• Remember, you are only reading it at this point.
  

 Step 3.

1. Look at the first Japanese sentence and then, read it in to yourself.
2. Say it, or think it, without looking at the sentence.
   

You could look at the ceiling while you are saying it, or if you are doing it with a partner, look at your partner and say it.                

 Step 4

• Do the above three times               
      

 Step 5.

• Go to the next Japanese sentence and repeat Steps 3 and 4 on it.
                  

 Step 6.

• Continue doing this to the end of the conversation.
  
  

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Let's change some more words

         Step 10A. Read the below first dialogue, without looking at the Japanese translation.

                          1. Look at the first English sentence and then say the sentence in Japanese.

                          2. Look at the next English sentence and then say the sentence in Japanese.   

                          3. Continue like this until the end of the dialogue.  

                          4. Look at the Japanese dialogue in Romaji at Step 1, to check if you got it right.

Let's do it one more time

         Step 10B. Read the below first dialogue in Romaji, without looking at the Japanese

                                translation.

                          1. Look at the first English sentence and then say the sentence in Japanese.

                          2. Look at the next English sentence and then say the sentence in

                              Japanese.                  

                          3. Continue like this until the end of the dialogue.  

                          4. Look at the Japanese dialogue in Romaji at Step 1, to check if you got it right.

 You may have noticed that the Japanese construction of sentences is a little different from the English.

• The English construction generally follows the Subject-Verb-Object form. As in, I eat bananas.
  
• Whereas the Japanese construction generally follows the Subject-Object-Verb form. As in, I bananas eat.
• Plus the Japanese tend to leave out the subject part. Leave the subject in for now, it's good practice.
  
• Sentence construction is basically backwards!

 This is why learning some conversation first, before moving on to a formal study of the language, is a must.

 This practice will get your mind used to thinking in this backwards sequence.

 This adjusting to thinking backwards can be quite tricky, especially if it is a complex sentence.

Grammar Point!

 The plurals of words are not recognised in Japanese. The nouns don't change at all to reflect this.

 The very useful "a," to indicate the singular. Omitting it, followed by tagging an "s" on the end of nouns, is  non-existent in Japanese.   

 Consequently, you often don't know if the speaker is talking about one banana or a thousand.

 If the speaker feels it important enough to make the distinction then he will use a special construction.

 We will cover that later.

A note on "you"

The translation of this very useful English word "you" is anata. However, in actual practice, the Japanese very rarely use it. They either just totally drop it from the sentence, if it is obvious from the context, or they use the person's name and just attach "san" to it.

For example, Peter-san. Mr Hayashi becomes Hayashi-san, Keiko Hayashi becomes Hayashi Keiko-san or just Keiko-san, depending on how close you are. This "san," you can use for both male or female. If you want to be really polite, then use "sama" instead of "san."

So you have this choice, to use it or not to use it. I personally don't think there is anything wrong with using it. Especially if you are like me and have a terrible memory for names. I have never had a problem with using anata. The only down side to using it is that people will certainly know that you are not Japanese.

Anyway, I have kept it in the dialogues for practice.

Now you have finished the first dialogue in Romaji

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