Japanese Fluency: reading and work Japanese

01

Two written styles and kanji for work

In simple words

Japanese writing wears two kinds of clothes. Letters and emails wear polite clothes (です・ます). Newspapers, reports and many books wear plain clothes (だ・である). It is the same language, so once you know the plain form from course 6.6.2, you can read both.

Before this course: Japanese Conversation: grammar and kanji growth (course 6.6.2). You can already read hiragana and katakana, about 30 kanji, use particles, the ます-form, adjectives, the て-form and the plain (casual) form. Here you start reading real texts and speaking Japanese at work.

Key facts

です・ます style (polite): emails, letters, speeches, notices for customers.
だ・である style (plain written): newspapers, reports, essays and many books.
A text normally uses one style from start to finish. Do not mix them in one piece of writing.

Meaning	です・ます style	だ style	である style
is a student	学生です	学生だ	学生である
is not a student	学生ではありません	学生ではない	学生ではない
was a student	学生でした	学生だった	学生であった
(I) think	思います	思う	思う
went	行きました	行った	行った

New kanji for work and reading (learn each one inside a word):

Kanji	Word	Reading	Meaning
会社	会社	かいしゃ (kaisha)	company
員	社員	しゃいん (shain)	employee
議	会議	かいぎ (kaigi)	meeting
仕事	仕事	しごと (shigoto)	work, job
電話	電話	でんわ (denwa)	telephone
時間	時間	じかん (jikan)	time
週	来週	らいしゅう (raishū)	next week
午前後	午前 / 午後	ごぜん / ごご (gozen / gogo)	a.m. / p.m.
休	休み	やすみ (yasumi)	day off, break
入出	入口 / 出口	いりぐち / でぐち (iriguchi / deguchi)	entrance / exit
名	名前	なまえ (namae)	name
部長	部長	ぶちょう (buchō)	department head
課	課長	かちょう (kachō)	section chief
読	読む	よむ (yomu)	to read
書	書く	かく (kaku)	to write
聞	聞く	きく (kiku)	to listen, to ask
見	見る	みる (miru)	to see
言	言う	いう (iu)	to say
新	新しい / 新聞	あたらしい / しんぶん (atarashii / shinbun)	new / newspaper
店	店	みせ (mise)	shop
駅	駅	えき (eki)	station
売買	売る / 買う	うる / かう (uru / kau)	to sell / to buy

Example (dialogue)

A: 「この記事、読みましたか。」 (Kono kiji, yomimashita ka? Did you read this article?)
B: 「はい。でも、漢字が多くて、時間がかかりました。」 (Hai. Demo, kanji ga ōkute, jikan ga kakarimashita. Yes. But there were a lot of kanji, so it took time.)
A: 「新聞はふつう『だ・である』の文体ですね。」 (Shinbun wa futsū "da, de aru" no buntai desu ne. Newspapers are usually in the "da / de aru" style, right?)
B: 「そうですね。毎日一つ読むようにしています。」 (Sō desu ne. Mainichi hitotsu yomu yō ni shite imasu. That's right. I try to read one every day.)

Step by step

Make flashcards for the kanji table: the word on the front, the reading and meaning on the back.
Learn five words a day and write each one five times while saying it.
Take three polite sentences you wrote in course 6.6.2 and rewrite them in the だ style: 行きました → 行った.
Rewrite one of them again in the である style: 学生です → 学生である.
Find a short text for learners (for example on the Japan Foundation's IRODORI site) and mark whether it uses です・ます or だ・である.
Check: in each of your texts, every sentence ends in the same style.

LESSON 01Two written styles and kanji for work

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Japanese writing has two outfits: polite and plain."
[Text on screen: 学生です / 学生だ / 学生である] "Gakusei desu, gakusei da, gakusei de aru. Same meaning, different style."
[Text on screen: Emails = です・ます / Newspapers = だ・である] "Emails use desu and masu. Newspapers and reports use da and de aru."
[Host] "Pick one style per text, and stick to it."

Try it now

Write a five-sentence diary entry about your week in the だ style. Then rewrite it in です・ます style as an email to a teacher. Use at least eight kanji from the table.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Japanese Fluency: reading and work Japanese" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Two written styles and kanji for work".

What the lesson teaches:
- です・ます style (polite): emails, letters, speeches, notices for customers.
- だ・である style (plain written): newspapers, reports, essays and many books.
- A text normally uses one style from start to finish. Do not mix them in one piece of writing.
- Meaning - です・ます style - だ style - である style
- is a student - 学生です - 学生だ - 学生である
- is not a student - 学生ではありません - 学生ではない - 学生ではない
- was a student - 学生でした - 学生だった - 学生であった

The exercise I'm working on:
Write a five-sentence diary entry about your week in the だ style. Then rewrite it in です・ます style as an email to a teacher. Use at least eight kanji from the table.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Two written styles and kanji for work" from the course "Japanese Fluency: reading and work Japanese".

Here's what the lesson says:
Japanese writing wears two kinds of clothes. Letters and emails wear polite clothes (です・ます). Newspapers, reports and many books wear plain clothes (だ・である). It is the same language, so once you know the plain form from course 6.6.2, you can read both.

The activity:
Write a five-sentence diary entry about your week in the だ style. Then rewrite it in です・ます style as an email to a teacher. Use at least eight kanji from the table.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

Japan Foundation, IRODORI Japanese for Life in Japan: www.irodori.jpf.go.jp/en/
Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), summary of the levels: www.jlpt.jp/e/about/levelsummary.html

My notes

I learned this

02