When something is somewhere, and the somewhere is described with “Ko-so-a” pronouns for places/locations, the following sentence constructions are used.
1. Shokudou wa koko desu. (The dining room is here.)
2. Shokudou wa soko desu. (The dining room is there.)
3. Shokudou wa asoko desu. (The dining room is over there.)
4. Shokudou wa doko desuka. (Where is the dining room?)
The above sentences have enough politeness to speak in public spaces. However, if you make a change on Ko-so-a words, you can say those expressions in more polite speech style as the followings;
5. Shokudou wa kochira desu. (The dining room is here.)
6. Shokudou wa sochira desu. (The dining room is there.)
7. Shokudou wa achira desu. (The dining room is over there.)
8. Shokudou wa dochira desuka. (Where is the dining room?)
Some textbooks say that the sentences 5 to 8 are more polite than 1 to 4. But the difference between “Kochira” and “Koko”, “Sochira” and “Soko”, and “Achira” and “Asoko” is not only the difference of politeness. “Kochira”, “Sochira”, and “Achira” are pronouns of place/location with a nuance of direction. In this regard, there are other Ko-so-a words group that is the casual version as shown below (the third one).
Ko-so-a(-do) words groups as pronoun;
– Koko, Soko, Asoko, and Doko : for places : politeness is normal
– Kochira, Sochira, Achira, and Dochira : for places and directions : politeness is high
– Kocchi, Socchi, Acchi, and Docchi : for places and directions : politeness is low (casual)
You see the double letters of consonants “cc” for the third group. Its pronunciation is quite difficult for a learner of Japanese as a foreign language.
If the consonant is a plosive or affricate, you prepare for the consonant and one-mora silent for the first letter. If the consonant is fricative, the fricative sound leaks for one-mora before the second letter. In the case of Kocchi, Socchi, Acchi, and Docchi, “ch” is a affricate. Therefore, you need to be silent for the first “c”
Kocchi => [ko][c][chi] = three moras, [c] must be silent, but has length of one mora.
At the beginning, you need to learn polite expressions first, and then casual expressions later. For today, practice and remember the following polite sentences;
A : Toire wa dochira desuka. (Where is a toilet?)
B : Toire wa achira desu. (The toilet is over there.)
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 