て or た?

[RichMusic81]

Hey guys,

I have a question regarding this sentence from Minna No Nihongo Bk. 1, Lesson 16.

The exercise is to join the following into a sentence:

日本へ来ました : 日本語の勉強を始めました。

My answer would be:

日本へ来てから、日本語の勉強を始めました。

My question is in regards to 来ました.

Should it, in this sentence, be 来て or 来た?
The reason I'm doubtful is that the た form hasn't yet been covered in Minna No Nihongo.

Thanks.
Rich.

[NileCat]

It should be 来てから or just 来て, I guess.

日本へ来て、日本語の勉強を始めました。
(A simple structure to link the two sentences like when you use simple “and”.)
日本へ来てから、日本語の勉強を始めました。
(This emphasizes the time-line like “after ～” or “since ～”)

来たから impllies the reason or the grounds like “because ～”.

[RichMusic81]

Thanks for that.
The exercise requires the から, but thanks for explaining the the uses for it.

[richvh]

日本へ来てから、… = After I came to Japan, ...
日本へ来たから、… = Because I came to Japan, ...

Since the exercise is about combining two sentences into one indicating sequence, you need version 1.