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 Japanese (nihoŋɡo) is a language spoken by over 130 million people in  Japan.

Kanji  The Japanese language has three scripts:
  (1) Chinese characters called  kanji (漢字)    (2) hiragana (ひらがな or 平仮名)    
  and  (3)katakana (カタカナ or 片仮名). The Japanese language is written with a  
  combination of these three scripts.Japanese word order is classified as Subject
  Object Verb. The verb must be placed at the end of   a sentence.
      
  I eat rice.  私(Subject) は ご飯 (Object) を食べます(Verb).
  Watashi(Subject) wa Gohan (Object) o Tabemasu(Verb).
  Watashi = I  Gohan = Rice  Tabemasu = eat
 Some Important characteristic of Japanese Language

No Articles
There aren't any articles--"a", "an", and "the" are nowhere to be found. So, in the sentence
これはオレンジです。
“Kore wa orenji desu”
It (Kore) is an orange (orenji) desu.
there is nothing that takes the place of "an" in the English "an orange". It's just "orange".
Japanese may not have articles, but they do have something usually called a "particle".

Particles
Particles are little words with no meaning that are used to mark different parts of a sentence or connect words. "Wa" is a particle used to mark the subject of a sentence. It comes after the subject.
In the sentence“Kore wa orenji desu”,"Kore", which we know is the subject not only because it is at the beginning of the sentence, but also because it is followed by "wa". 

To be verb
"desu" is the general "to be" verb in Japanese, so it's very useful. It covers the same ground as "is", "are", and "am" in English.

The "u" at the end is usually not pronounced (much, anyway). So you'll usually hear "des" instead of "desu", and it's ok to say it that way.

 
   

Usage of I (Watashi)


"Watashi wa [something] desu." ("I am [something].")

Watashita wa gakusei (Student) desu  =  I am a Student.

Watashi wa Hasan Desu.    =  I am Hasan.


Use of の "no":
"Watashi no" ("Mine")

"Watashi no [something]." ("My [something].")  
Watashi no tomodachi (Friend) desu   = He is my Friend

"[Something] no [something]." ("[Something]'s [something].")
Watashi no namae wa Hasan desu  =  My Name is Hasan

or "[Something] no [something]." ("[something] of [Something]."
"Watashi wa Gakko no sensei desu."

Here's one more example, this time where both the subject and object use "no":
"Ginko (Bank) no okane (money) wa minna no mono desu." =
Bank’s money is everyone’s thing.

Remember your useful nouns for this and that:
"kore" = "this"
"sore" = "that"
"are" = "that over there"
"dore" = "which"

And equally handy adjectives for this and that:


"Kono [something]" ("This [something]")
"Sono [something]" ("That [something]")
"Ano [something]" ("That [something] [over there]")
"Dono [something]" ("Which [something]") 


And a couple of ways to say "you" (including just using a person's name):
"Anata wa [something] desu" ("You are [something].")
"[Name] wa [something] desu" ("You are [something]." --if you're talking to Name.) 


Let's combine several of the things from this and past lessons into one cool sentence:


"Kono kaban wa anata no mono desu." This is your bag
"Kare (He) wa kono kaisha (company) no yakuin (employee) desu."
He is the employee of this company

Katakana

Hiragana
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