こなばんは！私はローイレズリー。私はじゅごさいです。私はスコットランド人です。
I come from the West coast of Scotland and I find your podcasts a great help, in addition to the weekly Japanese classes that i attend. It is really encouraging when I listen to your podcasts and realise that I already know quite a lot of basic vocabulary but I feel really pleased with myself when I learn new, interesting vocabulary through your podcast! I find this podcast a great help as aside from my weekly classes, there is not a lot of Japanese resources that I, as a teenager who is still at school, can make full use of. I’ve not listened to all your programs yet but I do intend to and just hope that they are as promising as the first four episodes!Keep up the good work! どもありがとうございます！

hajime mashite watashi wa doorian desu, yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

Hey my name is Dorian and im from London, I have to say that I am really enjoying these lessons, I after just recently finding them on iTunes. I was really surprised when I found them, I also wanted to study Japanese in an actual class but due to lack of interest at my University they had to cancel the lessons. They needed a minimum of 6 people for the class and by the end I was the only person that decided to stay. It looks like ill have to try and find somewhere else to do it . I like how your lessons are structured, you make it very easy to follow. I already knew a few words but now they make more sense to me ie what context to use them in. I also found that when watching Anime now I am starting to hear words which I have been learning in the lessons and i can actuall understand them. I really enjoy these lessons and I hope they will continue. Thanks……

BTW i posted the comment here because this is where im up to in the lessons lol

You can use “karera” eve if you’re talking about a mixed group. But you can only use “kanojora” if there are only girls in the group.
Next question!

Jonas

Hi, Ingeborg!
I’m Norwegian too
Unfortunately, there is no Japanese support on the computer I’m on, but I’ll give you the roumaji. Norway is “noruwee”, and it’s written in katakana.

I’m a student at Glasgow University in Scotland and I stumbled across this site on YouTube (of all places!) I’ve since become a dedicated, part-time, online student and I particularly love Beginner’s Lesson #3 - mainly because of the grammar! I study English Language, which covers many aspects of linguistics as well as the basics you need to achieve a good understanding of linguistics like phonetics, sociolinguistics and grammar. So even though I’m interested in historical linguistics (Old English, Old Norse, manuscripts and medieval literature), this website provides a fascinating and fun insight into how other languages work! I used to be quite put off by learning Japanese (mainly because of the honorific system - it scared me) but you guys make it enjoyable.

Thanks Peter, Natsuko and Kazunori!

Hi,
I´m here toady with a second question. Because of my coming from the Czech republic I would be interesting in finding out the word for “Czech republic” and its pronunciation in Japanese as well. Once again thanks a lot.

Hi,

初めまして。Yalvora (however one writes that in Kana) です。どうぞ宜しくお願いします。

I love to listen to the lessons during my drive to work and then I go through the lessons at home. I try to learn the Kanjis as the are introduced in the lessons and I would like to know how one usually writes “anata”. In the dialog it is written in hiragana あなた, but in the vocabulary it is 貴方. Which on is the usual way to write “anata”?

This is something that confuses me in other lessons as well. For example, in a previous lessons, in the dialog write-up, yoroshiku is sometimes written in hiragana　よろしく, but then in the vocabulary word with the Kanji for yoro 宜しく ! Or Konnichiwa, written こんにちわ or 今日わ?

How do I know the correct spelling?

Thanks a lot (I hope I still get an answer, it is a fairly old lesson) ,

Yalvora

Thanks for these podcats they are a great help I tried reading Japanese to learn but I did not know how to pronounce it now with your help I writing down how to pronounce it and what it means thanks! XD

konichiwa. Hajimimashite, watashi wa Jonathan-san desu. Watashi wa Igilisu-gin desu. Japanesepod DAI SUKI DES!! Doomo arigatoo!

Ok, back to Eigo - oops I mean English! I’ve just listened up to Lesson 3 and I can’t thank you enough! I’m living in Japan with my Japanese girlfriend and these lessons are making my life much easier. I’ve taken face-to-face lessons previously but these podcasts are actually much better for me at this time and at this level. I’m gonna have a butchers at your premium content deal - as it is Golden Week after all!

Seriously, well done!

こにちわ！

Hello! How can you burn these podcasts onto cd or transfer them onto an MP3 player ? As I listen to them I save them onto a playlist, but it would be more conveniant in a cd or mp3, because then I could listen to them at school and when i’m out and about.

Arigato!!!

ariaさん、 i asked the same question a while ago. and hopefully, some can back me up on this. 　あなたがた is a very formal form (you might compare it to わたくし), both are used, but most by old people in very formal situations. if you look at the kanji for あなたがた、there are 2 ways to right
short form: 貴方々
long form: 貴方方
the second form shows the history of this word. it’s 貴方 which means ‘your side’ plus ‘方’ which is a polite way to say ‘this person’ — it’s less direct than この人 or something.
for whatever reason, it’s used as a plural and because of general disuse it has (or i’ve been told) a certain ‘overly lavish’ or ‘flagrant’ nuance.
in general, we should refer to the listening party as ‘あなた unless we are very comfortable with each other. even more so, we should be careful when using extremely polite forms, it may come across as too much.

Ace,
in general, men use ‘watashi,’ ‘boku’ and ‘ore.’
it all depends on who you’re talking to. in formal situations, ‘watashi’ is best and you’ll never offend anyone with this. ‘boku’ is also ok in polite and casual situations. personally, i recommend that you stick with these two only.
‘ore’ is very strong, and can be considered rude or crass if the people you’re speaking to aren’t cool with you using that.
also, i’ve often heard my japanese friends laughing at foreigners who use ‘ore.’ so, unless you’re a really good speaker, i recommend avoiding this one for the time being.

for a guy speaking to others, in general, it’s best to avoid saying ‘you’ at all. it’s considered too direct. so use the person’s name and attach an honorific suffix like ’san’ at the end.
as for ‘kimi.’ only use this with people you’re cool with (and are cool with you). otherwise it would be a bit presumptuous. ‘anata’ is always safe, but my personal recommendation is to stick to names plus ’san.’ it sounds really natural, and it will never put you in an awkward situation.

Ace-san, “kimi” isn’t too bad. I’ve heard it in love songs (sung by guys) before.

Just to notice, I believe that it is not neccessary to tack on the -san, etc. after your name when introducing. To be formal, you will have to say your last name before your first name, and then there’s the informal way of just your first name, but -san, -kun, -chan aren’t used when introducing. Am I correct?

I’m still confused on the -san stuff, though. I learned that -kun is for men, -san is for woman, and -chan for kids or close relations, but I’ve also heard -san be used with men, too?

Carla, doumo obrigado gozaimasu.

What’s the difference between -達 and - ら? For example, I’ve seen both 僕達 and 僕ら.

I’m about to ask the same question as Elizabeth.
What’s the difference between ‘bokura’ and ‘bokutachi’?
I have read some sentences using ‘bokura’ translated as ‘we’ and the some goes with ‘bokutachi’.
I hope you can help. Thank you.

Firstly, I’d just like to say that I’ve been studying Japanese on and off for about two or three years now and previously to JapanesePod101, I’d learned little more than hello, goodbye, thank you, and a few other words I’d picked up from watching Kurosawa Akira films. I had a Japanese teacher in high school, who was Chinese, and was not a good teacher. Next semester I’ll be studying Japanese at the university level, so this will hopefully be a great tool to supplement my lectures. Now, I’d tried everything–I’d bought three different “teach yourself Japanese” type books–one with 12 conversational CDs–but it just seemed scattered and unorganized. In three days of using JapanesePod, I’ve already mastered 20 kanji, the hiragana alphabet, and lessons 1-3. I commit no fewer than 2 hours daily to this website, mainly because I am majoring in Teaching English as a Second Language and will relocate to Japan in two years after I attain my degree. So far, this program has been a godsend; you really just can’t beat the mobility offered by the iPod downloads and the text supplements in the lessons. I also noticed that, unlike virtually every other Japanese language teaching program out there, JapanesePod101 gets you started on Kanji right off the bat, which, although I thought it would be more difficult, seems almost to make things easier. I’m already supplementing 私 for わたし and 貴方達 for あなたたち when I practice writing the lessons. And did I mention, I haven’t had to make a single flash card yet? So, Peter, Natsuko, and Kazunori, どうもありがとうございます!!!

Okay, now about this lesson in particular. I have a couple of questions maybe someone can answer. Firstly, in the past two beginner lessons, the kanji we’ve learned have each represented an individual or series of sounds, but I notice that with 貴方, the characters aren’t broken down individually, and only collectively spell あなた. Why is this? Do the kanji have to accompany each other, or do they each mean something separately?

Another thing I found is that kanji for “he” and “she” is the same–彼–until you add the “jo” suffix or second character to make it female. Because I’m somewhat of a linguist and impossibly curious, I want to know why adding 女 to 彼 changes the sound of the kanji from “kare” to “kano”.

My last question (thanks for bearing with me) is the word “watashitachi”, meaning “we”. Up until now, my understanding was that 我々 or われわれ meant “we”. Are they both different terms for the same thing? Is one slang and the other more polite? Or am I totally off the mark?

Any explanations and information on these questions would be enormously appreciated.

じゃね、
アイゼン

アイゼン-san,

A set of characters which aren’t broken down individually in reading them, like 貴方(anata) is called “Jukujikun.” 熟字訓(jukujikun) is allocated to one reading as a set of characters. For example, 明日(ashita), 昨日(kinou) or 梅雨(tsuyu; rainy season)

According to the dictionary, 彼 originally has a meaning of the third person. After English came in, 彼 is allocated to “he” and then 彼女is come up with to mean “she.”

私達(watashi-tachi) and 我々(wareware) both mean “we.” 私達 is the word usually used to mean “we”. It seems to me that 我々sounds like a word for army or very formal public speech by a politician or president of a company.