Japanese lesson (1): "Arigatou" as the right way to express a "Thank you"

http://www.siuyee.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/arigatou2.jpg

For the total newbies, there is a Japanese word that is so often used to mean "thank you." You pronounce it something like "AH-ree-GAH-toe"  (you can hear its pronunciation often in anime of course :p)
It is often typed as "arigatou" amongst the many anime fanatics I've come across.

You will often see me type it as "ありがとう" as this is the, more or less, "spelling" way that any Japanese person would usually write/type down. It is also a great way to get away tricking people (that is the average-Joe-in-the-U.S.-with-next-to-no-Japanese-background) into thinking you know Japanese  :p

A rule of thumb: the longer you say "thank you" the more polite you are.
This can apply to any Japanese sentence. On the top of my head, there are 5 ways to say "thank you" (1 being informal to 5 being the most polite)

1. domo (not something you would use on a professor or a superior in the workplace; more-so to someone you're close to)
2. arigatou (more general)
3. doumo-arigatou (general)
4. arigatou-gozaimasu (more to a stranger)
5. doumo-arigatou-gozaimasu (to someone of high status than yourself or just want to be extra polite)

You can also use "sumimasen" as a sort of thank-you but it's more geared to an apology or "excuse me" sort of translation.

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Speaking of Kokia... KARMA

from the wonderful world of Gendou.com, I noticed that Kokia did (as in composed, sang, and arranged) "Karma" from an anime called Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ which has just released in April and is still ongoing in Japan.
It's a beautiful, angsty song and seems to be fitting for the anime (which I will be watching some time in the future)
click on that image at the start of this post to get "Karma"
OR you can get your hands on Kokia's Karma's single here
Enjoy!
Comment for feedback and/or if you took/tried out the song.
ありがとう

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コキア - A Kokia Review

http://www.ikikata.se/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/kokia1.jpg

So, out of my experience, Kokia is quite compareable to Akino Arai. It has a sort of "etheral" sort of genre in most of her songs
But more specifically, she's a Japanese songwriter from Tokyo. She's been lately found touring in Paris, France.
Kokia is a wonderful singer that can get away singing without some kind of background music if she wanted to. However, the music definitely enhances her voice.

So, what i'm giving is an opportunity to get your hands on her promotional video called 人間ってそんなものね aka "Ningen tte Sonna Mono Ne" and "Humans are Like That". It's overall my most favorite song by Kokia. If you look up the lyrics, it gives the vid even more meaning.
Anyway, please enjoy Kokia's Ningen tte Sonna Mono Ne

I encourage you all to please comment when you decided to download this for I uploaded this file and would like to hear your feedback. どうも
P.S. if you ever decide to support her work, I would suggest buying this and/or this as these have that very song in it. FYI, her actual, birth name is Akiko Yoshida "Her stage name "Ko" + "Ki" + "A" was inverted from her real name 亜紀子 ("A" + "Ki" +"Ko")"
It makes me wonder if she knew that Kokia was also a pretty flower :3

You can youtube here if you want.

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