About our Printer-friendly lesson notes
Follow along to our award winning lessons with detailed PDF Lesson
Notes! These easy to print notes take a closer look at the grammar
point and vocabulary words presented in the audio lesson. Plus,
read more about
language101 cultural topics related to the lesson.
Re-activate or upgrade your account to access the PDF Lesson
Notes today!
Kanji Close-Up
Take a closer look at the kanji characters used in the lesson
Dialogue with the Kanji Close Up Practice Sheets! You'll learn the
meaning, readings, and stroke order of each character. Plus,
improve your writing with kanji stroke order practice sheets!
Re-activate or upgrade your account to access the Kanji Close Up
Practice Sheets today!
About our Review Audio Tracks
Listen and repeat with the Review Track. Hear the lesson
vocabulary and main phrases and repeat after the native speaker -
it's the best way to perfect your pronunciation!
Upgrade your account to access The Review Track and start
perfecting your pronunciation today!
About our Lesson Audio
Our team of
Japanese language specialists have been releasing new audio and video
lessons weekly since 2005. That's a lot of
Japanese language learning! All lessons are free for the first 2 weeks
before going into our Basic and Premium Archive.
Re-activate or upgrade your account to access every single
lesson we've ever created today!
About our Dialog Audio Tracks
The audio lesson is a comprehensive, easy to use lessons that
makes learning Japanese fun for anyone.
Each audio lesson contains can be downloaded in seconds
to your computer, iPod, phone, or mp3 player so that you can learn quickly and be speaking Japanese in no time at all.
The audio lesson is your ticket to learning to speak
Japanese with confidence and accuracy, and from your very first lesson!
About our Dialog Audio Tracks
Don't have enough time for an entire lesson today? Listen to the
Dialogue Only Track to hear the native Dialogue. Listening to a
little bit of
Japanese everyday, no matter how much, will greatly improve your listening
comprehension. Guaranteed!
Upgrade your account to access the Dialogue Only Track and other
Premium Tools today!
About our Grammar Audio Tracks
Tackle grammar head on with the lesson Grammar List. We break
down the grammar piece by piece so you fully master the structure
and formation.
Upgrade your account to access the Grammar List and other
Premium lesson tools today!
About our Videocasts
Our team of
Japanese language specialists have been releasing new audio and video
lessons weekly since 2005. That's a lot of
Japanese language learning! All lessons are free for the first 2 weeks
before going into our Basic and Premium Archive.
Re-activate or upgrade your account to access every single
lesson we've ever created today!
About our Learning Center
Listen and read the line-by-line breakdown of the lesson
conversation with this Premium Tool. Listen to each line as many
times as you need until you fully understand the conversation and
pronunciation. Line-By-Line Audio Transcripts are the perfect way
to improve your comprehension - fast!
Upgrade your account to access Line-By-Line Audio Transcript and
other Premium lesson tools today!
About our Videocasts
Our team of
Japanese language specialists have been releasing new audio and video
lessons weekly since 2005. That's a lot of
Japanese language learning! All lessons are free for the first 2 weeks
before going into our Basic and Premium Archive.
Re-activate or upgrade your account to access every single
lesson we've ever created today!
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”
at 2:51 pm
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.
at 1:54 pm
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!
S_R_C
at 9:37 pm
He said Chinese characters…
at 3:35 am
How long have you been doing the lesson on here?:???:
at 12:50 am
About 1 year of study, mostly on weekends.
at 4:31 am
Watashi wa genki desu yo!
at 12:00 pm
welcome!! welcome!!
marky
at 5:13 pm
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!
at 8:17 pm
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
Mata ne
at 4:25 am
One question.
Where do I have to start. At the newbie or intrduction phase??
Thanks.
at 8:23 pm
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/
at 3:55 am
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.
at 2:52 pm
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!
at 4:00 pm
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
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
The podcast is amazing by the way.
at 12:22 am
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
at 7:39 pm
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.
at 3:49 am
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!!!”
at 2:47 am
ohayou!
ogenki desu ka?
at 10:03 am
markkaiさん,
Ohayou gozaimasu!! Genki desu!
at 8:43 am
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
at 9:27 am
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.
So it would be: こんばんは
And we usually say みなさん or みんな, instead of just みな by itself
at 8:31 pm
How do say/pronounce cloud nine in japanese?
at 9:51 am
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”?
at 12:00 am
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)
at 2:37 pm
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!
at 7:07 am
Hey um I can not absorb the knowledge like many other people.
Is there any way you can make this easier?
at 2:05 am
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.
at 1:20 am
Hajimemashite
The site is so good and i want to learn Japanese sometime in future,at the moment is little early !
domo arigato gozaimasu !
at 2:52 am
Sugoi!! This website is perfect. Definitely feel like I am learning a lot!!
at 3:42 am
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!
at 1:16 pm
Moshimoshi? Or in case would I say ohayoo?
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!!!!!
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…
Konbanwa,
-Harumi ^_~
at 1:18 pm
Sorry, tablet changed that third domo to como.
at 4:49 am
Gozaimasu? Maybe?
at 10:20 am
gorillaztin71harumi-san
So it’s safe to stick to Ohayou gozaimasu (good morning) Kon’nichiwa (hello) and Konbanwa(good evening).
Kon’nichi wa.
Moshimoshi is “hello” but mostly used on the phone.
Thank you for your comment.
at 4:21 am
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。
at 11:19 pm
Konbanwa Minnasan

i just wanna say..
this lesson’s great !!!
sugoi desu ne….
at 11:17 am
I’m loving it. Has all exercises I need and a lot of other useful learning tools
at 8:21 pm
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
at 8:23 pm
plus two よ’s at the end of the sentences, don’t know where they went… : P
at 2:04 pm
This lesson was Sugoi!!!
I love it and I can’t wait to use bacchiri and zekkochou!
I forgot to ask in the previous lesson, what is my name in Japanese?
at 10:30 am
Karri-san,
Lerisha-san,
Thank you for your comment
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.
at 11:34 am
Hai! this helps alot!! Domou Arigato Gozaimasu!!
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。
at 10:17 am
Lerisha-san,
You have twitter friends! that’s really good to practice Japanese
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
at 6:15 am
this is the best way to learn Japanese
. i have learned so much in just 3 lessons.
thank you!
japanese101 is the best
at 2:56 pm
Konbanwa
I was just wondering what my name would be in Japanese, and how it would be pronounced.n
at 11:08 am
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.
at 6:33 am
Thank you very much Motoko! It helped a lot and now I can introduce myself the correct way.
at 1:13 pm
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?
at 3:35 pm
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.
at 12:35 pm
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)
at 4:31 pm
SUGOI! Boku wa bacchiri desu!
I finished Intro Lesson 3
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.
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
Now, onto All About series.
Matta ne!
at 10:55 pm
Jay-san,
Yes, you’re right about “ohayo” and “oyasuminasai”
Thank you very much for a lovely comment!
Miguel Marfori san,
Glad to know you loved our lessons!!
We’ll try our best to keep it up, so please enjoy learning Japanese with us!
Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
at 5:43 pm
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?
at 5:55 pm
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…
Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
at 6:31 pm
Arigato gozaimasu
at 2:27 pm
Hello Briga,
You’re most welcome!
Keep learning and feel free to ask your questions, if any.
Cheers,
Neha
Team JapanesePod101.com
at 4:51 am
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
at 9:34 pm
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”.
Don’t worry too much!
Hope it helps!
Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
at 5:40 am
Natsuko-san,
That helps tremendously! ありがとうございます!
at 6:53 pm
Skyler-san,
どういたしまして!
Glad I could help!
Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
at 2:24 am
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!!
at 12:52 am
emsings4600-san,
sure I’d be happy to help you!
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!
Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
at 5:18 am
Ah!! Okay thank you! That helped a lot
at 3:04 pm
emsings4600-san,
you’re very welcome!!
Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
at 7:46 am
hajimemashite.
Watashi wa, Kasper desu.
Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu
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?
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.
at 10:06 am
hajimemashite! watashi was, anjerina desu!
Yoroshiku onegai.
Thank you so much for these wonderful lessons JPOD crew i love it!
at 10:16 pm
> 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
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!
(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