I think I have been a bit negative lately, so here is something positive. You probably know the song that goes "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands". There's a Japanese version of that song, and it goes like this:
幸せなら 手を叩こう (しあわせなら てをたたこう shiawase nara te o tatakou)
幸せなら 手を叩こう (しあわせなら てをたたこう shiawase nara te o tatakou)
幸せなら 態度で 示そうよ (しあわせなら たいどで しめそうよ shiawase nara taido de shimesouyo)
さあ みんなで 手を叩こう (さあ みんなで てをたたこう saa minnade te o tatakou)
Translation:
If we're happy let's clap our hands
If we're happy let's clap our hands
If we're happy let's show it with our attitude
So let's all cap our hands
(Actually, as in many Japanese sentences there is no subject so it could be 'we're happy' or 'you're happy'.)
In the song you can see how a verb is changed to suggest it be done, i.e. 叩こう tatakou - let's clap (literally let's hit our hands together). The base verb is 叩く たたく, and to make it a suggestion it becomes 叩こう。Similarly:
示す shimesu - to show or indicate becomes 示そう shimesou - let's show
Another thing to pick up from the song is using なら nara to mean If...:
幸せなら shiawase nara - If (you're) happy
And the main word today is...
幸せ しあわせ shiawase - happy.
Another word for happy is 幸福 こうふく koufuku; you'll notice that the first kanji of that is the one used in 幸せ.)
Now here is a little quiz. Here are some kids singing the song:
But instead of clapping their hands, they're hitting (叩く）something else at the beginning of the song. What are they doing?
