Greetings. What's your name? How are you？

Here are manga marker sketch samples of what the characters say:

The big guy with two teeth says 「こんにちは」(reads as "Konnichiwa") which means "Hello" or "Good afternoon". So the small guy below replied and said back to him 「こんにちは」.

By the way, the small guy looks surprised as the big guy with two teeth is very lively. Now who do you think the big guy with two teeth reminds you of? ^___^

Here you can see three cats. The cat on the left is asking for the other two cat's names. He asked them 「お名前は？」（おなまえは）(Reads as "O namae wa")which means "What is your name?"

The small cat replied 「クッキーです」(Reads as "Kukkii desu") which means "It's Cookie" or "I'm Cookie" and the squinty eyed cat replied 「ミャミャです」（Reads as "Mya Mya desu") which means "It's Mya Mya" or "I'm Mya Mya".

Here you can see two school students seeing each other everyday maybe before or after school.

The boy asked the girl 「お元気ですか？」（おげんき　ですか）（Which reads "O genki desu ka") which means "How are you?" (Literally it means "Are you energetic?" or "Are you healthy？"）. So the girl replied 「あたしは元気です」（あたしは　げんき　です）（Which reads as "Atashi wa genki desu") which means "I'm fine" or "I'm fine thank you" (Which literally means "I'm energetic" or "I'm healthy"）.

Okay! Now that you've seen the greetings and the conversations in the above manga, now to proceed...

Starting with greetings:

おはよう／おはようございます　ー　Good Morning

こんにちは　ー　Good Afternoon/Hello

こんばんは　ー　Good Evening

Let me explain the literal translation for each words above (I hope this is not too complicated for you):

おはよう　ー　Litereally means "You're early"

Because the kanji for 「おはよう」is written as 「お早う」, it actually means "You're early" because of the word 「早い」（はやい）（Which reads "Hayai")　Which means "Early". When you say 「早く!」（はやく）（Which reads "Hayaku") It means "Hurry up!"

If you want to say "Good Morning" in Japanese in a polite way, you add ございます At the end.

That's why some people say 「おはよう　ございます」

こんにちは　ー　Literally means "Today is"

Now some of you who just started learning Japanese might say I wrote something in Japanese wrong because some of you might think it's written as 「こんにちわ」. But the correct way to write it is 「こんにちは」。

Sure these days, on the internet, people who are close to my age type 「こんにちわ」Instead of 「こんにちは」Because of the sound of the word or how it's pronounced.

Now if you see something that's written as こんにちは, Some of you might think it's read as Konnichiha... Yes... It does seem like that. But no... Because in a sentence, when you see the letter は　Instead of reading it as HA, you read it as WA. Which is something I might explain later on.

It's because the kanji written letters for こんにちは　is 今日は 。The kanji for 今日　can also be read as きょう（Kyou) which means "Today".　Now you know why... That is why I rather write it in hiragana which is こんにちは So that I can avoid the confusion... sort of...

But what's important is that you read こんにちは　As KONNICHIWA not KONNICHIHA.

こんばんは　ー　Literally means "Tonight is" or "This evening is"

The same case as こんにちは　Because the letter は　At the end. Because the word こんばん　Means "This Evening" or "Tonight" which is written in kanji as 今晩。So if you write こんばんは　In kanji, it would be 今晩は　Which is why (AGAIN) I rather write it in hiragana.

Before I proceed to the next lesson, I want everyone to practice this with their parthers:

Person A: 「こんにちは。」

Person B: 「こんにちは。」

Person A: 「おげんき　ですか？」

Person B: 「げんき　です。Person Aは？」

Person A: 「わたしも　げんき　です。」

＊NOTE: You can substitute "Person A" and "Person B" with anyone's name or your name. Because this is just for example and practice.

To ask someone for his/her name:

Person A: 「おなまえは？」

Person B: 「わたしの　なまえは　さくら　です。」　Or　「さくら　です。」

There are many ways to tell someone your name when they ask for your name.

You can say 「わたしは　（Insert name here)　です」　Or　「（Insert name here)　です」

The polite way to say it is 「わたしの　なまえは　（Insert name here)と　もうします」

（Watashi no namae wa (Insert name here) to moushimasu)

Here's another example:

Person A: 「おなまえは？」

Person B: 「みゆき　です。おなまえは？」

Person A: 「ゆみ　です。」

After you ask for his/her name, of course he/she will ask for your name.

For this kind of greetings or conversation, in the morning, you say おはよう　Or おはよう　ございます

In the afternoon, you say こんにちは

In the evening, you say こんばんは

So please practice with friends, family members, or whoever you want to practice with.

And before you do, here's an explanation on the Japanese sentences you use for a conversation.

私は学校へ行きます

（わたしは　がっこうへ　いきます）

Some of you might think that it's read as "Watashi ha gakkou he ikimasu" But it's actually read as "Watashi wa gakkou e ikimasu".

In a sentence, the way you read the letter は　And へ　Changes. In a sentence, instead of reading them as HA and HE, you read them as WA and E.

I know it's complicated to understand at first, but once you get them, you'll get the used to them. I know I did.

Maybe next time I'll post lessons on different ways to say "I", "Me", "You" and "Introducing yourself to someone".

If you have any questions, you can send me an email. But don't forget to put the subject or topic as "NIHONGO".

じゃ　また　（See you again)