This feature requires an Active Premium subscription. Sign in or register for a 7-Day Free Trial today. Click link for more info.
This feature requires an Active Basic subscription. Sign in or register for a 7-Day Free Trial today. Click link for more info.
By Type:

Ascending Descending
By Month:

Ascending Descending
By Keyword:

Ascending Descending
Level: Introduction

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! JapanesePod101.com is an innovative and revolutionary approach to mastering the Japanese language at your own pace - take the classroom with you, and spend as much time as you need on each lesson! Today’s lesson gives you another taste of our Beginner Lessons series. The previous lesson got conversation started with a stranger, and this one will get you started with someone you already know! Today we work on asking how someone is doing, and we give you some really fun responses that you won’t find in a textbook - along with the textbook answer, of course! After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com for more materials, and be sure to leave us a post!

Learn how to say


Save 25% on Basic or Premium Subscriptions til 5/31!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 17th, 2005 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Introduction . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

67 Responses to “Introduction Part 3 - On Cloud Nine”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Oh, this is fantastic. Sugoi desu ne! The introduction series was an excellent idea, and I’m certain that it will bring in the iTunes surfers. Thanks JPOD crew for everything that you do, and for making my commutes to/from work so much more meaningful. Daniel L.

avatar
Sindy says:

Yeah Daniel-san I agree with you this is great! and its all thanks to JP101 with out them I don’t know what I have done! :mrgreen: :wink: S_R_C

avatar
Andy says:

He said Chinese characters… :lol:

avatar
Demon D says:

How long have you been doing the lesson on here?:???:

avatar
Daniel L says:

About 1 year of study, mostly on weekends.

avatar
jeanne says:

Watashi wa genki desu yo!

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

welcome!! welcome!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

marky

avatar
Judita says:

Hey, can anyone tell me how you spell the last answer to genki desuka? As in, is it ばっちりです、ぱっちりです、ばちりです or ぱちりです?Thanks!

avatar
Carla says:

Hajimemashite!!!

I am portuguese and I am enjoying so much hearing and learning japanese with japanesepod101 lessons that I made a blog where you can read what is said in the lessons with the meaning in portuguese.

Anyone interested in Portuguese, visit the above site for a Portuguese translation of this lesson.
http://aprenderjapones.blogs.sapo.pt/2008/01/12/

Doomo Arigatoo :dogeza:

Mata ne

avatar
mario says:

One question.
Where do I have to start. At the newbie or intrduction phase??
Thanks.

avatar
エミリー says:

I found these links in the Forum, they same like pretty good places to start!

http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2704

http://www.japanesepod101.com/toc-beginner

There are like 600 lessons already with different levels, so you should probably test your level here. I did and followed my level until I wanted to try some other things and now i follow my level and all the new lessons.

LEVEL CHECK IS HERE:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/help-center/the-courses/

avatar
Matt says:

I really enjoy these lessons and their structure. Compared to Pimsleur, which can be too heavy on repetition, you learn a lot in the space of 10 minutes.

One request though, is it possible to get a “full” transcript of the lesson? In this lesson there was some phrases introduced at the end using sugoi and bacchiri. These words are in the vocabulary but the phrases, which are best as you learn the words in context, are missing.

avatar
Douglas says:

o link está quebrado… o arquivo que aparece só tem 4 segundos de duração… alguém tem esse arquivo completo??
obrigado!

the link is broken… the that apears has just 4 seconds of duration…
has somebody the complete file??
thanks!

avatar
Orenji says:

I know, it’s slightly out of time for me to be commenting on one of the earliest jpod101 lessons but I’ll never improve If I don’t ask :D

So here goes, my question is:

In the context of ‘… wa sugoku genki desu’ or ‘… wa genki desu ka’, genki seems to roughly resemble ,the english word, ‘healthy’ which is an adjective. And obviously the adverb, sugoku, compliments and reinforces the emphasis on ‘genki’. My point being, could I say ‘… wa batchiri sugoku desu’? which should function just as ‘… wa sugoku genki desu’ does.

Hope someone can get back to me soon :D
The podcast is amazing by the way.

avatar
Sasquatchua says:

Orenji-san,

You’ve almost got it, there’s just one minor grammatical step going on here. “sugoku” is indeed an adverb, but it comes from “sugoi”, which is an adjective. Japanese have two classes of adjectives, and sugoi is considered an “i” adjective because it comes from the group that all end in an extra い - “i” character. To take an i adjective and transform it into an adverb, you drop the “i” and add “ku”. So you would say “… wa batchiri sugoi desu” because “sugoi” is not functioning as an adverb here.

Incidentally, “genki” comes from the other group, the “na” adjective group. These are also known as adjectival nouns, because in their base state (genki) they function as nouns, but they become adjectives by adding “na” on the end.

Hope that wasn’t too much info!

Sasquatchua

avatar
Orenji says:

ummm my bad, the sentence:

My point being, could I say ‘… wa batchiri sugoku desu’? which should function just as ‘… wa sugoku genki desu’ does.

was actually meant to say:

My point being, could I say ‘… wa batchiri genki desu’? which should function just as ‘… wa sugoku genki desu’ does.

‘… wa batchiri genki desu’ would mean perfectly healthy right ? or would it be ‘…batchiriku genki desu’ or some other grammatically twisted kind of thang.

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

i think to sound natural, you just wouldn’t combine them at all.

ばっちり is kind of it’s own word, right? so it means, like “on the ball” or “perfect.” but to be honest, i don’t hear this word a lot. it’s very バカ丁寧 (ridiculously polite). so if you want to use it in a good (and funny way), i’d recommend following the way peter does it. just ばっちりです! (bacchiri desu!!!) if you start combining with with other standard phrases, it will just sound unnatural.

of course, you can say sugoku genki desu yo! but you can also say sugoi genki desu yo! these are common phrases. using bacchiri is not so common, it’s more for comedic effect (peter’s flavor) and i think it’s best left on it’s own.

if you really want to combine them, try 2 sentences…

bacchiri desu!
sugoi genki desu yo!

“i’m on top of the world! and i’m REALLY genki!!!” :mrgreen:

avatar
markkai says:

ohayou! :wink: ogenki desu ka?

avatar
Jessi says:

markkaiさん,
Ohayou gozaimasu!! Genki desu! :mrgreen:

avatar
zehra says:

konbanwa mina!
o-genki desu ka?
Oyasuminasai

in Japanese: ( i hope it’s right, i used the Japanese keyboard)

こんばんわ みな!
お元気ですか?
おやすみなさい

avatar
Jessi says:

Zehraさん,

Nice job! In Konbanwa, though, the last “wa” ia spelled は!
This is a special rule for the “wa” in kon’nichi wa and konban wa. :smile:
So it would be: こんばんは :grin:

And we usually say みなさん or みんな, instead of just みな by itself :cool:

avatar
Chris says:

How do say/pronounce cloud nine in japanese?

avatar
Paige says:

when you use ‘bachiri’ or ‘zekkouchou’ can you use it for other things like
“kyou wa bachiri/zekkouchou desu” or
“tabemono ga zekkouchou desu” or can it only be used for “ogenki desu ka”?

avatar
Hakumai says:

In the dictionary, 凄い can mean both terrible, dreadful or amazing, great.
Since they can have opposite meanings, how do you know which one
the speaker mean? (In Chinese, 凄 only means sad, tragic, etc. So I am
really surprise that in Japanese, it can mean great, amazing)

avatar
Mayumi says:

Hakumai-san,

I think when we say “[something/someone] wa sugoi” we usually mean it in a positive meaning, such as “great.” あの人はすごい = “That person is amazing!”

When you use it adverbially, like すごく寒い meaning “terribly cold” or すごくきれい meaning “very beautiful,” it is used to mean “extremely.” So, a good or bad meaning would depend on the following adjective.

When it is used before a noun, like すごいくるま or すごい本, you need the context to know whether it is a good or bad meaning. Or, the way of saying like intonation or the voice might help.

I hope this would of any help! :wink:

avatar
Sora says:

Hey um I can not absorb the knowledge like many other people. :oops:
Is there any way you can make this easier? :neutral:

avatar
Prabir Kr.Sarkar says:

Hi, I LIKE TO LISTEN JAPANESE LANGUAGE VERY MUCH.THOUGH IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO FOLLOW THEIR MOTHER TONGUE QUICKLY,YEY I TRY TO UNDERSTAND LITTLE BY LITTLE SO THAT I CAN AQUIRE PROFICIENCY GRADUALLY
TO UNDERSTAND THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE.

avatar
MegaGrifos says:

Hajimemashite
The site is so good and i want to learn Japanese sometime in future,at the moment is little early ! :roll:
domo arigato gozaimasu ! :cool:

avatar
megan says:

Sugoi!! This website is perfect. Definitely feel like I am learning a lot!!

avatar
PiGz says:

hi all!!

ARR i have a very good question!! how do i say my name in japan

phan kiah how

any ideal anyone haha

watashiwa ______ desu. ^^ pls help me out

CHEERS!

avatar
gorillaztin71harumi says:

Moshimoshi? Or in case would I say ohayoo?
Anyway,
Watashi wa no namae Harumi desu.
Ika ga osugoshidesu ka? Watashi wa baai ni wa, fushigi ni omotte ita, subarashii kotodesu.
I hope that was right, I copied everything after my name is Harumi off of Google:/ sorry if I mislead you… :oops: I did take karate, and I knew moshimoshi from a website, I didn’t know if you used it online or just on the phone. I know several different hello s. Ohayoo, ohayoo gozai masu, moshi moshi, konnichiwa, etc. I forgot good evening…I’ll look it up though….konbanwa. now I’m learning A LOT more from here, domo arigato japanesepod101! Domo domo como arigato! I hope to live in Japan one day. Once again though, with even more feeling, domo!!!!!

Konbanwa,

-Harumi ^_~

avatar
gorillaztin71harumi says:

Sorry, tablet changed that third domo to como.

avatar
gorillaztin71harumi says:

Gozaimasu? Maybe?

avatar
Naomi says:

gorillaztin71harumi-san
Kon’nichi wa.
Moshimoshi is “hello” but mostly used on the phone. :wink: So it’s safe to stick to Ohayou gozaimasu (good morning) Kon’nichiwa (hello) and Konbanwa(good evening).

Thank you for your comment. :razz:

avatar
おう says:

お元気ですか。
はい、元気ですよ。
お元気ですか。
はい、絶好調です。
はい、ばっちりです。
はい、凄いです。
はい、まあまあです。

avatar
Inoue says:

Konbanwa Minnasan :grin:
i just wanna say..
this lesson’s great !!! :mrgreen:
sugoi desu ne…. :grin: :roll:

avatar
Jackfowl says:

I’m loving it. Has all exercises I need and a lot of other useful learning tools

avatar
Karri says:

おげんきですか。

はい、げんきですよ。

おげんきですか。

はい、ぜっこうちょうです!
ばっちりです!チョコレートはだいすきですよ。

すごいいですね!

lol

avatar
Karri says:

plus two よ’s at the end of the sentences, don’t know where they went… : P

avatar
Lerisha says:

This lesson was Sugoi!!! :grin: I love it and I can’t wait to use bacchiri and zekkochou! :grin: I forgot to ask in the previous lesson, what is my name in Japanese?

avatar
Motoko says:

Karri-san,
:lol: :lol:

Lerisha-san,
Thank you for your comment :wink:
Your name would be レリーシャ or レリシャ depending on what you like to be called.
The first one has long sound like “Reriisha” and the second one is “Rerisha”
I hope this helps.

avatar
Lerisha says:

Hai! this helps alot!! Domou Arigato Gozaimasu!! :grin: I have another question! I have a Japanese friend on twitter and since I am still learning not only how to speak it but read it as well, I need help translating. Can you translate this for me?

おれをふぉろーしたからにはおまえも四魂のかけら探すの手伝えよっ。

avatar
Motoko says:

Lerisha-san,
You have twitter friends! that’s really good to practice Japanese :wink:
OK, so your friend likes comics/animation “Inu Yasha” doesn’t he?
It literally means that “Now taht you follow me on twitter, you should help me to find “Shikon no Kakera”, the Shikon Jewel shards!!”
Your friend used a metaphor to say “Thanks for following me and keep in touch.”
I hope this helps :grin:

avatar
Hamza says:

this is the best way to learn Japanese :cool: . i have learned so much in just 3 lessons.

thank you! :wink:

japanese101 is the best :grin:

avatar
Avery Johnson says:

Konbanwa
I was just wondering what my name would be in Japanese, and how it would be pronounced.n :smile:

avatar
Motoko says:

Avery Johnson-san,
Kon’nichiwa!
Your name is spelled エイヴリー・ジョンソン and pronounced “Eiburii Jonson.”
I hope this helps. :grin:

avatar
Avery Johnson says:

Thank you very much Motoko! It helped a lot and now I can introduce myself the correct way. :grin:

avatar
Juan Zuluaga says:

Hello everyone.

I just have a few questions.

1. In the phrase “Hai, zekkōchō desu!” or “Hai, bacchiri desu yo.” can the sentence-ending particle “yo” be used? For example. Hai, zekkōchō desu yo! or Hai, bacchiri desu yo. Is yo only used with not as strong words such as genki? Is yo similar to an exclamation point (!)?

2. What’s my name in Japanese? Also, sometimes I use my middle name so it would all be Juan Esteban Zuluaga. How does one use their middle name in Japanese?

avatar
Motoko says:

Juan Zuluaga-san,
1. As you say, this yo is similar to an exclamation mark (!) and it is used to indicate that a statement of certainty.
2. Your name is spelled as ホアン・ズルアガ (Ho-a-n Zu-ru-a-ga).
Unfortunately we don’t have middle names so we have only first name and family name.
I hope this helps.

avatar
Watashi Jay des. says:

i like how you always say “ohayo” in the beginning. :) i think this means good morning right? and if my memory serves me “oyasuminasai” is goodnight? heh thanks for these awesome lessons, will definitely consider a paid membership ^^ watashi nehong go ga skoush wakatimas. (spell fail lol)

avatar
Miguel Marfori says:

:mrgreen:
SUGOI! Boku wa bacchiri desu!
I finished Intro Lesson 3 :D Finally!
Sore deki matta.

Well, I’ve learned a lot from these three lessons. Man… it feels good. Now I know some good phrases to use when I’m eating (itadakimasu), when I’m responding to how are you? (zekkouchou desu! genki desu yo! bacchiri desu! sugoku genki desu you!), when I want to thank for the fine meal (gochisousama), when I know something is yummy (oishii), when something isn’t so good gor me (maa maa), when I want to make a toast or just tell everyone cheers (kanpai) or when I’m going to introduce myself (hajimemashite? watashi wa Migueru desu. Yoroshiku o-negaishimasu)

So yeah, it’s great ;) Finally, finished 1 series of JPOD101.
Now, onto All About series. :D And then… i’ll go ahead with the Beginner lessons. I’ll take one Japanese Culture Lesson once a week so I can study my basics. All right Japanese Pod 101, keep it up :D

Matta ne!

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

Jay-san,
Yes, you’re right about “ohayo” and “oyasuminasai” :grin:
Thank you very much for a lovely comment! :wink:

Miguel Marfori san,
Glad to know you loved our lessons!! :grin:
We’ll try our best to keep it up, so please enjoy learning Japanese with us! :wink:

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

avatar
Briga says:

Konnichiwa :)

If somebody is asking:
“o genki desu ka?”
And I want to say that I’m not doing great, what should I say then?

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

Briga-san,
If you’re not doing great, but doing okay or so-so, you can say “maa maa desu”.
If you’re NOT fine at all, “genki dewa arimasen”. But you’ll be asked what’s wrong then… :mrgreen:

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

avatar
Briga says:

Arigato gozaimasu :)

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

Hello Briga,

You’re most welcome!

Keep learning and feel free to ask your questions, if any.

Cheers,
Neha
Team JapanesePod101.com

avatar
Skyler says:

Sensei, kon’nichi wa.
Hajimemashite.

Thanks for the lessons! I was wondering if you could answer a couple questions for me. Here they are:

1. Can you attach “sugoku” to “sumimasen” (sugoku sumimasen) to convey that you are really, really sorry about something? Or, what would be the proper way to say that you are extremely sorry?

2. This might be more of an advanced question, but how would you write a sentence if you have multiple verbs being performed by one or more people? For instance, there is a popular song that goes, “I’ll stop the world and melt with you.” In Japanese, would a literal translation of that sentence be, “the world stop and with you melt” with “I” being inferred in the beginning? Sorry for such a technical question.

3. Finally, I have heard that your first name is rarely used in Japanese culture, except by family members. So, if I introduced myself to someone in Japan, am I supposed to use my last name? And, if the person shared his last and first name, can I use either one or do I have to use the last name?

Thank you very much,

Skyler King

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

skyler-san,
1. unfortunately, we don’t say “totemo sumimasen”.
When you’re VERY sorry, you should say “hontou ni sumimasen” or “makoto ni moushiwake gozaimasen”. When you use “sumimasen” and you actually want to say like “I’m very very very sorry”, you can repeat “hontou ni” and say,
“hontouni hontouni sumimasen”. I’d recommend you not to repeat more than twice though…”hontou ni ” means “really”.

2. When you want to use two or more verbs in one sentece, you can do just like English. “I’ll stop the world” is the first to be translated (it doesn’t have to be changed to “the world stops”), and then “(I’ll) melt with you”.

3. Probably in very old time, it was not very common to call people by first names, but lately it’s becoming more and more common. Among friends and close poeple outside family also call each other by names. Only when you call someone older than you, you should pay respect and, unless s/he tells you to call him/her in specific way, you should either call him/her by family name + “san” or first name + “san”. :wink:
Don’t worry too much! :wink:

Hope it helps!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

avatar
Skyler says:

Natsuko-san,

That helps tremendously! ありがとうございます!

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

Skyler-san,
どういたしまして! :grin:
Glad I could help!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

avatar
emsings4600 says:

I heard him say “sugoku is the _____ form of sugoi” did he say admirable form? I couldn’t tell. Can you please help me with what the difference is between “Sugoku” and “Sugoi” and what word should be used when answering “O-genki desu ka?”

Thank you!! :)

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

emsings4600-san,
sure I’d be happy to help you! :smile:

The main difference between “sugoku” and “sugoi” is whether or not it modifies
following word. For example,
A: o-genki desu ka?
B: sugoku genki desu.
Here “sugoku” modifies (i.e. emphasises) “genki”, meaning “VERY fine”.

A: (what languages do you speak?)
B: (I speak English, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Italian, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Turkish and Persian.)
A: (serious!?) sugoi desu!!
As you see, this person A just says “sugoi desu”.

The word “sugoi” is an adjective, so when it modifies a following word,
it becomes “sugoku” such as “sugoku atsui” (= very hot) and “sugoku omoshiroi”
(= very interesting).

Hope it helps! :wink:

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

avatar
emsings4600 says:

Ah!! Okay thank you! That helped a lot :smile:

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

emsings4600-san,
you’re very welcome!! :grin:

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

avatar
Kasper says:

hajimemashite.
Watashi wa, Kasper desu.
Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu :wink:

Would you thank for the lesson in Japan? like “thanks for teaching me” or when you are done training (sport) “thanks for training me”? And what would that be in Japanese? :smile:

Btw I’m wondering, in the review video in the second round (where you are going to translate from english to japanese) the second word/frase: “Nice to meet you” ain’t that hajimemashite? because afterwards it says “yoroshiku o-negai shimasu” which is if i’m right: “please be kind to me”. Don’t know if someone has already pointed that out. :smile:

avatar
angelina says:

hajimemashite! watashi was, anjerina desu!
Yoroshiku onegai.
Thank you so much for these wonderful lessons JPOD crew i love it! :wink:

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

> Kasper-san,
I think you can say “past tense” of “thank you”: arigatou gozaimashita.
You can use this phrase to thank for anything (sport training, study, etc.)
which has already given/done.

You’re right; “yoroshiku onegai shimasu” is often translated as “please
be kind to me”. However, both “hajimemashite” and “yoroshiku onegaishimasu”
actually doesn’t have real translations in English. It’s not the same
thing as “nice to meet you”, but it’s also true that there’s no equivalent
phrases in English :sad:
I’ll share your feedback with my team to discuss about it. Thank you!

> angelina-san,
thank you for a lovely comment!!
Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Natsuko desu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu! :wink:
(The last one is usually with “onegai shimasu”, not jsut “onegai”. If you want to say it casually, it’s “yoroshiku”)

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

avatar

Please Sign In to leave a comment.

:mrgreen: :neutral: :twisted: :shock: :smile: :???: :cool: :evil: :grin: :oops: :razz: :roll: :wink: :cry: :eek: :lol: :mad: :sad:

Posting in Japanese? Leave a translation. It's good practice and helps others.