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Lesson 5: Self-Introduction

Why This Lesson

In Japan, every new relationship starts with a self-introduction (jikoshoukai). Whether in a classroom, office, or social setting, you will be expected to introduce yourself. This is your most important complete sentence in Japanese.

Goal

Construct and deliver a complete self-introduction: your name, where you are from, and "nice to meet you" — in correct Japanese sentence order.

What You Gain

After finishing, you can confidently introduce yourself to any Japanese speaker using proper grammar structure (Topic + wa + Information + desu).

Building Your Self-Introduction

Japanese sentence structure is different from English. The verb comes last. Learn each building block, then put them together.

わたしは watashi wa "I am..." (topic marker)
です desu "am / is" (polite copula)
からきました kara kimashita "came from..." (origin)
どうぞよろしく douzo yoroshiku "Please be kind to me"

Complete Introduction Example

はじめまして。わたしは [Name] です。[Country] からきました。どうぞよろしく。

"Nice to meet you. I am [Name]. I came from [Country]. Please be kind to me."

Practice: Sentence Structure

Test your understanding of the introduction structure.

1. "I am Alex" in Japanese word order is:
Alex です わたしは
わたしは Alex です
です わたしは Alex
わたし Alex は です
2. What does "です" (desu) do in the sentence?
Marks the topic
Means "from"
Polite "am/is" at end
Means "please"
3. "I came from London" = ロンドン ___ きました
は (wa)
から (kara)
です (desu)
に (ni)
4. Which phrase do you say LAST in a self-introduction?
はじめまして
わたしは...です
からきました
どうぞよろしく
5. Listen to the full introduction: — How many sentences are there?
2
3
4
5
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