nihongo wo benkyou shitai

OK, this may seem a pretty basic thing to be able to ask, but as you probably know by now, very little is basic in Japanese.

The English is simple: ' Where is the cinema?' - abrupt, but intelligible. Much nicer to ask ' Do you know where the cinema is", or 'Can you tell me how to get to the cinema', or even 'Would you be kind enough to tell me where the cinema is'. You'll probably agree that these all ask the same basic question, but with varying levels of politeness.

Before we go any further, we have to point out something... the example English sentences above all have a question buried inside them. 'Where the cinema is' and 'how to get to the cinema', for example. Having questions within a larger sentence is a Big Thing in Japanese and requires a new bit of grammar. It's time to introduce か and かどうか. Yes, か is the question particle. Yes, it does (essentially) mean the same thing here. The rule of thumb is that if the inner question doesn't use a question word, use かどうか; if it does, use か. Simple eh?

Example....

Do you know how to get to the cinema?

The inner question is 'how to get to the cinema' and it's using the question word 'how'. Looks like this is a job for か.

English: Do you know how to get to the cinema?
Jenglish: [cinema to][how to get][know]?
日本語： 映画館にどうやって行くか知っていますか。

English: I don't remember when Matt's going to Japan.
Jenglish: [Matt][Japan to][when going][don't remember]
日本語： マットさんが日本にいつ行くか覚えていません。

As a foreigner, you'll find the above syntax acceptable and no-one should take offence, but if you really want to do things properly you'll need to hit them with the linguistic equivalent of a Tony Jaa elbow combo (and if you don't know what this is, watch Ong Bak). We will need to use a Polite Request, a submissive verb ('teach' sounds better than 'tell') and we'll top it off with the inner question stuff. Some grammar points first:

Polite request: verb in て form + いただけませんか　（p18 of Richard's cool ーて form verb guide)
where is: どこにある
to teach: 教える

Ready? We'll have the English and polite English...

English: Do you know how to get to the cinema?
Penglish: Would you be kind enough to teach me where the cinema is?
Jenglish: [cinema][where is][teach][polite & humble request]
日本語： 　映画館はどこにあるか教えていただけませんか。

Be warned, this is truly powerful Japanese and should only be used by professionals. In other words, if you use this, the person you are speaking to will assume you are fluent and hit you full speed with their reply. Personally, I'm not ready to wield such power. Good luck.

おやすみ