Where are you from in Japanese

Japanese: たなか: スミスさん　は　アメリカじん　です　か。 スミス: いいえ、イギリスじん　です。 たなか: イギリス　の　どちら　から　です　か。 スミス: ロンドン　に　すんで　います。　たなかさん　は　どちら　から　です　か。 たなか: きゅうしゅう　です　が、　いま　とうきょう　に　すんで　います。
Romaji:  Tanaka .. Sumisu san wa Amerika-jin desu ka? Sumisu Iie, igirisu-jin desu. Tanaka Igirisu no dochira kara desu ka? Sumisu London ni sunde imasu. Tanaka-san wa dochira kara desu ka. Tanaka Kyuushuu desu ga, ima wa Toukyou ni sunde imasu.	English:  Tanaka .. Are you an American? Smith No, I am British. Tanaka Where from, in Great Britain, are you? Smith I live in London. Tanaka, where are you from? Tanaka Kyuushuu, but now I live in Tokyo

Vocabulary

• In Japanese, it is marked what country you come from by adding the ending ‘-jin’ to the country. For example, a Swedish person would be a Suweedenjin, and a French person furansujin. See a table of some countries in the end of the chapter.
• The word ga is used in the end of a sentence to express a hesitation or to soften the sentence. Often it can be translated with but or though.
• The word ni is in this case a marker for a place. It is used for expression of where you live (sunde imasu/sumu/sumimasu), and can also be used to mark the place being at, coming to or going to. E.g. gakko ni ikimasu (to go to school) or koko ni kimasu (to come here).
• sunde imasu is the present progressive form of sumimasu, “to live”.
• The word kara is a marker for origin. The pattern is “… A kara …” . E.g. (I) came from Japan, “nihon kara kimashita” or a car from America, Amerika kara kita (=kimashita) kuruma.
• Also note that the way Japanese answer yes or no on questions may differ from the way it is in your country. When Japanese say yes “Hai“, it is an affirmation of the question and no, “Iie” means not agreeing to the question. This may be confusing if the question is negative. E.g. if the question was “Are you not Japanese?”, ”Nihonjin dewa arimasen ka?“, the answer ”Hai” would mean that you are not Japanese.

List of Countries