this and that

I've just had one month's worth of Japanese lessons. We've started on basic greetings, everyday words, common questions, numerals and family members. Hiragana is also part of the lessons - we have drills every week!

Japanese grammar can be quite confusing, so we're asked to not translate directly. Not only that, for our version of "this" and "that", the Japanese have 12 words - depending on what "this" and "that" points to, on the order of the sentence and whether a polite version of the word is used. So far, this is what I've learnt :

kono, sono, ano
kore, sore, are
koko, soko, asoko
kochira, sochira, achira

Updates - 14th Oct 2005
The first word in the 1st two rows refer to an object very near to the speaker, whereas the 2nd refers to something not so near and the 3rd to something far away.

For example :
Kono(Sono) hon wa Kim-san no desu = This(That) book belongs to Kim
Kore(Sore) wa Kim-san no hon desu = This(That) is Kim's book

The first word in the last 2 rows refer to a place very near to the speaker, and ditto for the rest. Both rows are similar except that the last row is a polite version of the 3rd.

For example :
Koko wa uketsuke desu = Kochira wa uketsuke desu = This is a reception desk

When asked about the differences, our sense asked us to just oboeteikudasai!

Oh boy, I love Nihon-go :p