When talking about nationality, you use jin. When saying a nationality, first you say the country, then you add jin onto it. (Remember, the countries have Japanese pronunciations) The word for the United States in Japanese is AMERIKA, so if you wanted to say American, you would write AMERIKAjin. (A more complete list of countries will be listed in the Vocabulary Review) If you wanted to say "I am an American", you would say AMERIKAjin desu, or if you wanted to say you aren't American, you would say AMERIKAjin dewa arimasen. If you wanted to ask "Are you American?", you would say AMERIKAjin desu ka.
A more formal way of asking nationality is Doko no kata desu ka. The word doko means "where". It basically means "What is your nationality?" or "Where are you from?". Remember, kata is the polite way to say "person".
Vocabulary Review
人 Jin- person
人 Nin- person
方 Kata- person (very polite)
何人 Nanjin- what person
何処 Doko- where
アメリカ AMERIKA- America
オーストラリア OOSUTORARIA- Australia
カナダ KANADA- Canada
中国 Chuugoku- China
韓国 Kankoku- Korea
イギリス IGIRISU- England
ドイツ DOITSU- Germany
フランス FURANSU- France
オランダ ORANDA- Holland
インド INDO- India
イタリア ITARIA- Italy
ニュージーランド NYUUJIIRANDO- New Zealand
ロシア ROSHIA- Russia
メキシコ MEKISHIKO- Mexico
スペイン SUPEIN- Spain