Typo in Katakana line in Lesson 1.1 transcript?

Konnichiwa! I've just purchased Rocket Japanese, and have worked my way through all the section 1 material, and was going back (having learned all the hiragana and katakana) and reading the scripts on the hiragana/katakana tabs... and in Lesson 1.1, the following appears: Sayaka さやか　です。　ケニー　さんは、　どこ　から　きました　か　？ Now unless I'm mistaken (which may very well be) the 'ha' character は appearing after さん seems to be superfluous. Is that just a typo, or is there a reason it appears in Keni-san where it never seems to appear anywhere else? Domo Sumimasen, Todd

konnichiwa ! は (ha) is a topic marker particle. If you look at the romanji part of the conversation, you'll see that it's read "wa". As I said, it's a topic marker and it is put right after something to suggest that the sentence is about that particular thing. For example we have: このおもちゃはかわいいです(kono omocha WA kawaii desu) which means: this toy is cute. The "ha" tells us that the rest of the sentace referes to the toy, easier said: the toy is our topic. Sorry, I'm not very good at explaining things, but I hope this helped. Coddo

Coddo-san, konnichiwa! I understand the use of は (ha) as a topic marker (and said "wa", which is very interesting actually! If anyone knows why that's said that way, I'd love to know it). The reason I posted, though, was that there is no "wa" said in that particular line. Sayaka-san is merely saying "Keni-san, doko kara ki mashita ka?", i.e. Kenny, where are you from? I wouldn't have thought the wa was needed in a question using direct address, but I certainly have insufficient experience to be sure of that. So if it's not a typo in the kana version, is it a mistake in the romaji? Should that line in the romaji version be saying "Keni-san wa, doko kara ki mashita ka?" One way or the other, the romaji and the kana versions don't match up in that lesson... Todd

you should have said it like this the first time and I probably would've understood what the problem was. I checked the conversation both in audio and written and you're right, this is quite strange. In the romanji section it's not written and in the conversation Sayaka-sensei doesn't say it either, only in the kana section the "ha" is used. Gomen nasai for the misunderstanding.

Konnichiwa minnasan! After reading your comments... yes you are entirely correct. I will change the written kana transcript and take out 'wa'. In spoken Japanese, we generally omit particles if the sentence makes sense without it. So, in this sentence, both: "Keni-san, doko kara ki mashita ka?" and "Keni-san wa, doko kara ki mashita ka?" translate equally to "Kenny, where are you from?" I apologize for this minor mistake - and for the confusion this may have caused. - Sayaka :)