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Today we take a gigantic step towards having a conversation, as we introduce how to ask questions. We follow this up with some important adjectives; and finally, we show you how to react to the avalanche of complements you should expect to receive just by coming to Japan. Don’t miss today’s lesson.

Learn how to ask questions in Japanese

Grammar: , | Function: , , | Topic: | Politeness Level:


This entry was posted on Thursday, December 22nd, 2005 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Beginner Season 1 . 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.

57 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #4 - Me Too! And Asking Questions”

JapanesePod101.com says:

coool stuff man

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Nate says:

I’ve just started working my way through this program, and it is both excellent and totemo suteki. doumo arigato, sensei. However, and might be wrong (I just started doing hiragana this week), but I believe that in the notes, the hiragana for the first question (are you Japanese?) reads “anata HA nihon-jin desu ka?” instead of “anata WA nihon-jin desu ka?”. Just a minor note.

Thank you again for putting in so much work to provide such an excellent program.

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Carlie says:

the particle ‘wa’ is written as ‘ha’. Why, I’m not sure, maybe someone can clear that up :D

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Aneesh says:

Aneesh Kumar :shock:

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Joey says:

For Carlie-san and Nate-san, i believe that the ‘wa’ sound is written with the hiragana ‘ha’ because it marks the subject. so if you see “anata wa” (written with the hiragana for ‘ha’) that means that the subject is anata (you). Any other time you see a ‘ha’ that isn’t used for marking a subject, i believe that you pronounce them as ‘ha’. Hope this helps. Yoroshiku!

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marichi says:

this program is just the best im learning so fast!^^ :grin:

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abs says:

I’ve just started, and these lesson are fantastic!

I was wondering if there was a vocab section anywhere, we had some adjectives today (cold, busy etc) but is there anywhere to learn more (tired, hungry, excited, etc etc).

any ideas?

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Jean-Michel says:

You can try this link :
http://www.learn-japanese.info/adjectives.html

Welcome to JPod101!

Jean-Michel

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Sam says:

For some reason the link isn’t working for me.

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Joey says:

which link isn’t working?

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Kurisutofa Kiruton says:

:roll: cool stuff I know how to introduce me self and now i know how to questions some on thanks for the valueabke stuff you guys do oh my american name is Christopher Kirton.

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tampamatt says:

Just a quick note to say how much I enjoy these lessons…I listen at work early all day long. Curiously when does one bow ? I know that must seem so simplistic (certainly to a newbie such as I) but yet upon seeing Kazanori (video #!) bow prior to speaking….I got to wondering what the protocol might be with this essential element of Japanese culture.
Again, doumo arigato many times over..I :kokoro: this podcast!

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Tom says:

This stuff is good but the guy annoys me how he says “Very Nice” after everything that is repeated.

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Hiroko says:

Tom san> Haha :mrgreen: Listen to the latest ones and he doesn’t say “very nice” as much :cool: Now he says benkyo ni narimashita instead :wink:

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Nhisan says:

Konbanwa everyone in japanesepod101! :razz:
Ogenki desuka? I hope you’ve had a nice day.I just finished learning lesson 4. I like it alot :kokoro: .I think it is omoshiroi.When I listen to you guys talking, I feel like I’ve known you for a long time.I always feel that way when I talk to Nihonjin. Your voice is not samui,but very warm. I will try to study every lesson every morning although I am isogashii with school.Wish you guys a nice dream!Mata ne! :nihon:

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Mayumi says:

Nhisan-san,

Itsumo arigatou gozaimasu!! :dogeza:
Thank you very much for your warm comments as always!
Ganbatte ne!! :wink:

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Tommy says:

I have been studying Japanese for quite awhile, but not as seriously as I have wanted to. I just started with JapanesePod recently and have been very impressed with the quality of the lessons.

I just finished taking the Vocabulary Questions for Beginner Lesson 4 and was quite surprised to see kanji and words not covered — or at least I don’t think they were covered — in this or previous lessons. (For example: 反対)

In no way am I complaining. Quite the opposite! I think it’s great that the beginners lessons have components in them to stretch the skills of folks like me who are probably leaning towards intermediate. I appreciate the thought and design that goes into these lessons!

Best regards,
Tom

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Tommy says:

(Adding this comment so that this lesson will show up on my managed posts list.)

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Terry says:

Nhisan, when you say “samui” I believe it’s referring to cold weather, not as a general temperature :)

I’ve gone through the “beta” practices and the normal content/grammar/vocab, but has anyone noticed vocabulary in the questions that are given for us to answer, foreign? I feel like what I’m learning in the lessons isn’t exactly what is given in the content questions in the practice section. Maybe it’s just me…Is there any translations for these questions? I’m getting words I don’t understand and I haven’t fully memorized hiragana and katakana enough because I’m memorizing the Kanji that is given each lesson that it’s making it difficult to not only pronounce words but often to dispher them…it’s too much memorizing for one day! :p

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Claudia says:

私も忙しいです。あなたたちは楽しいです。

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Agatha says:

This is a really good program, nothing beats it. thanks for this, really.

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Mayumi says:

Agatha-san,
Thank you very much for your nice comment! :dogeza:

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アスマ says:

すごいさこれは日本語レッスンです。僕は頑張るぞ。
i’m from kuwait & i find japanese lang. is intersting that’s why i teach myself & also with the help of this amazing site. thank you for making this helpful thank you again.
有難う御座います。

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Mayumi says:

アスマさん、
Thank you for your nice comment!
がんばってください!

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Szkrabel says:

Hi,

I’m Jacek and I’m from Poland. I’ve just started learn Japanese here. There are great lessons and very omoshiroi :grin:
But I have one proposal: is it possible to jump from specific lesson in Learning Center to this page with comments? It would be nice to add a button.
And one question: there is a task in Vocabulary Test “You usually laugh when something is:” and right answer is “omoshiroi”. In my opinion it means rather “interesting, amusing” then “fun”. I think “tanoshii” fits better. Am I wrong?

Best Regards for Everybody and Merry Christmas (today is 2009-12-22)

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Tommy says:

Hi Jacek. I’m Thomas, and I am Porando-kei Amerika-jin. (Polish-American) I am glad that you are enjoying learning the Japanese language. (Your English is great!)

Regarding tanoshii and omoshiroi, when something is funny and makes us laugh, we say it is omoshiroi. When somebody tells a joke that is very lame or not funny, people will say “omoshiroku nai.”

Of course, omoshiroi is used also when something, such as a book or movie (or lesson), is interesting. But when something is not interesting, I more often hear the word “tsumaranai” to describe that condition, rather than “omoshiroku nai.” (But “omoshiroku nai” is also OK to use, it’s just that I hear “tsumaranai” much more often.)

For me, tanoshii describes a more full condition than just the momentary state of laughing. Rather than a momentary thing like a joke or funny statement, tanoshii might describe a visit to a friend’s house, a vacation, or a party. And so a Christmas party could be typically described as tanoshii. If someone says “That Christmas party was omoshiroi,” it means to me that there were many strange and unusual things happening at it.

You are 100% right to say the lesson is “omoshiroi.” The Japanese language (for me) is taihen omoshiroi desu. The condition of “learning Japanese” is better described as “tanoshii.” (The enjoyable and rewarding feeling we have when we are engaged in study.) I am sorry this was so long, but I hope it helped to distinguish the difference.

And so I say to you and your family: Wesolych swiat Bozego narodzenia. Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year!

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Szkrabel says:

Dziekuje bardzo
Thank you very much
どうも有り難うございました。
To wytlumaczenie bylo bardzo interesujace.
This explanation was very interesting.
この説明はとても面白い立った。

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Kat says:

皆さん、はじめまして! I’m Kat, a new staff member at JapanesePod101.com. よろしくお願いします!

Tommyさん: Great explanation of the differences between おもしろい and たのしい. I couldn’t have put it better! :oops:

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nathan says:

there is no free audio on this lesson so i cant even listen to it but on the free description it says free audio ?!? HELP PLZ !?! kthnx

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Mayumi says:

nathan-san,
We have new lessons available for free for three weeks and also the first three lessons of each series are for free. :wink:

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tony says:

oooooo its simple but im no much fluent though
still im use to it :grin:

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Greg says:

hey this was a great lesson i thought i was well enough to start in the newbie section but quicly fount i only knew very little. so i started back on lesson 1. arigatoo gozaimasu for the exellent lesson. and arigatoo to japanesepod101 team for making this so easy to use. hopefully one day i will finish the last lesson and declare that i can speak japanese. I do have one question. When they say desu or masu, the u is almost like its not their. Ive noticed when someone says suki (love) it sounds like they say ski. anyway arigatoo and now im off to lesson 5

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Jessi says:

tonyさん,
Ganbatte kudasai! Good luck with your studies!!

Gregさん,
Good ear! Yes, the “u” sound of desu and masu is usually not pronounced. The same goes for the “u” in “suki” - it is pronounced “ski” like you said.

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Jordy says:

First off I just wanted to let you know that I really love the program! Every spare minute I have I’m spending it on learning Japanese thanks to Japanesepod101.com! Really like the way the lessons follow each other, really nicely organised!

I have a little question though, I was wondering if someone could tell me how I should write (and say) that I’m from the Netherlands?

Watashi wa [Netherlands]jin desu.
私は[Netherlands]人です。

どうも

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Jessi says:

Jordyさん,
Thank you for your kind comments!

To say you are from the Netherlands, you can say:
私はオランダ人です (Watashi wa oranda-jin desu) :smile:

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Olive says:

this lesson was fantastic! :smile:
instead of just learning the lesson I was able to connect it to other lessons and
make my own sentences! very diffrent from the other sites I have used.
-love ya :wink:

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Jessi says:

Oliveさん,
Glad to hear it!! :mrgreen: Thank you!

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Mukund says:

Peter wa omoshidoie desu.

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Kiki says:

I guess I’ll be using 「私も」alot, huh?

「私のともだち」: ねこが好き!
「私」: ほんとう? 私も!

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Daniel says:

ohayoo!

Thank you for the great lessons.

Could you help me with my name and country in Japanese please?

Watashi wa “Daniel” desu.
Watashi wa “South African”-jin desu.

どうも

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Jessi says:

Danielさん,

Daniel = ダニエル (Danieru)
South African = 南アフリカ人 (Minami Afurika-jin)

I hope that helps! :grin:

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Daniel says:

Jessi

ありがとお ございます !

I’ve managed to learn how to type in hiragana font on an english keyboard…. but i don’t know how to make the last “o” in “arigatoo” to look like it should… can you please help?

ダニエル

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Jessi says:

Danielさん,

The last “o” in arigatou is actually an “u”, so you need this one: う

→ ありがとう :mrgreen:

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Yessie says:

Quick question? If someone where to ask me.
“Anata wa isogashii desu ka?” Could I simply answer with a yes or no. Or do I have to say “watashi wa isogashii desu” :???:

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Tommy says:

Hello Yessie.

The short answer to your question is “it depends.”

If you are very familiar with the person asking you the question, you can say “Hai” or “Ee,” or just nod your head while making something that sounds like “Nnnn.”

If the person asking is not so familiar, I think it is advisable to add “isogashii desu” to “hai” or “ee” or “nnn.”

There is never a need to say “watashi” when it is completely clear of whom it is that the question is being asked.

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Mark says:

:mrgreen:

Thanks, v. useful lesson as usual!

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Eric says:

I got a premium account last night, and I have been studying the lessons to test out if I keep this account or not… everything is pretty good, I like the podcasts. Just one problem though, the review questions/quizzes are ridiculously easy and kinda feels like no effort was put into them :/
Example:
Translate - ありがとう!
a) Flying horse
b) Thank you!
c)adj. meaning “to eat fried fish on a Sunday morning”.
d) ceiling mold

You know what I mean? Kinda lacks challenge. Just a heads up :) I’m loving the podcast lessons though!

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Naomi says:

Eric-san
Thank you for your feedback.
That is very true. :grin:

This lesson was created long time ago. So in later beginner series (season 4 5 6) or newbie series(season 2 3..), you’ll find better review questions. :wink:

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lechocolatier says:

ありがとうございます第4課とても面白かった、でも漢字は難しいですけど楽しかった。 :grin:

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おう says:

貴方はノルウエー人ですか。私は面白いです。貴方は忙しいです。彼も忙しいです。彼女は寒いです。彼は楽しいですね。 未だね。

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Florian says:

I’ve a question. Samui is used in regarding of the weather? Then how do you say “i am freezing” or “i am cold” regarding the feeling of freezing and the need to warm up?

Thanks

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Tommy says:

Florian-san: As with English — where we say “I am cold!” just as we say “it’s cold outside!” — in Japanese, samui is used for both weather as well as our physical state of experiencing coldness. Samui desu! could mean “it is cold out” as well as “I am cold!”

There is a potential way to make mistakes in this area regarding another word for cold: “tsumetai.” Tsumetai is used when referring to something physical that is cold. So, you could come in from outside on a very cold day and say “Samui! samui!” — meaning “I am cold!” Your friend then reaches out and touches your hand or arm and, if your skin is cold, might well say “Tsumetai! (cold!)”

It is cold today! (Kyo wa samui desu!) is proper. But saying the wind is cold this way: “Kaze ga samui.” would be incorrect. The correct way is “kaze ga tsumetai.”

Anyway, I hope that was helpful.

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Florian says:

Tommy-san: Arigato gozaimasu! It was very helpful!

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Teo says:

I love your site, really you invested a lot of work! It is helping me a lot!

Best Regards,

Teo.

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Kiera says:

ha is pronounced wa because it is used as a particle. It indicates that whatever is before it the subject of the sentence

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kuroichi says:

thank you
i know most of this
but I’m learning a lot

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