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Welcome back everyone! Hope you enjoyed your holidays! It’s the first lesson of the New Year, and we start the year off right! Today we introduce the all-important word for LIKE! Whether you’re coming to Japan or already here, this word is a must! For everyone out there who likes Japanese food, this is the word you want to know so that you keep getting more of it! Don’t miss today’s episode! The lesson notes for this lesson are strongly recommended for this lesson, as we introduce lots of new words!

Function: | Topic: | Politeness Level:


This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2006 at 5:05 am 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.

62 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #11 - I like It!”

JapanesePod101.com says:

I’m still hoping for the notes for this lesson :grin: I can add mine if you wish, but they are all phonetic. Cheers, Marc.

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Marc Colbeck says:

Oops. Never mind! Just saw them. :oops:

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Peter says:

マークさん,
All the notes should be there. Let us know if you can’t find any!
Peter

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Joey says:

I noticed a few errors in notes:
under the Hiragana-Ban section that includes watashi and anata, the notes have Sakura-san saying, “あんた” instead of “あなた”, and in the survival phrases 1 notes under the romaji pronounciation of “いいえ”, it says “lie” instead of “iie”
Thanks everyone for these podcasts! Keep up the great work!

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Burado says:

It says Iie, to follow the pattern of capitalizing the first letter of each vocabulary word. ^_^; The capital “i” resembles an “l” and is deceiving. As for the notes on Sakura-san, I’m not so sure.

-Burado (Brad)

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ilya says:

I’m sorry! I haven’t got your goodbye phrase! I understand あした=明日、but what is it wrapped in? I hear また明日ね, is it correct?

Thank you for great podcasts! This is best way of learning Japanese I know!

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Jonas says:

Ilya-san: haven’t listened to this podcast, but that sounds correct. “mata ashita ne” would mean something similar to “see you tomorrow”. So I dont think theres anything wrong with your hearing :)

Jonas

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Peter says:

Joey-san, thanks for pointing that out! :oops: You definately don’t want to go around saying that to people, as it is very abrasive!!! It has been corrected.

Burado-san, thanks for the help! :wink: Please keep the posts and help coming!

Apologies about the delay in responding! Won’t happen again.
Yoroshiku O-negai Shimasu!.よろしくおねがいします!

Ilya-san, you got it! また明日ね! Yes Mata- later, Ashita- tomorrow, and ne. “See you tomorrow.”
Please notice that the girls (Natsuko and Sakura) tend to use ne-ね at the end, while Kazunori (our Alpha-male) tends not to. Adding the ne, makes the phrase a bit femine. Guys would probably say just また明日.
Thanks for the complement! We try our best to show people how fun Japanese can be! I know from personal experience (over 10 years), the way Japanese is presented in education no way reflects how fun this language is! All we do is show people this! It is you listeners that have picked up on this, so ありがとうございます! :grin:

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Peter says:

Jonas-san! WOW, you’re fast! :shock: Check your g-mail! :wink:

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Jonas says:

Thanks to the comments feed :) I get a little popup thingy whenever anyone leaves a comment! *checking gmail*

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EM says:

Hi, I have a question about pronunciation. I notice that Sakura seems to pronounce が with a slight “n” sound at the beginning, so that it comes out sounding like “nga.” Am I nuts and just imagining this or is this the right way to pronounce が when it is being used as a particle in a sentence?

Thanks, and I love Japanesepod101. Keep up the good work.

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Sergiu says:

Actually, I often hear “na” instead of “ga” because of the strangeness of the sound
That’s when I listen to anime

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marichi says:

can anyone explain to me why its “Nihon GA suki desu ka?” and not WA? :???:
and by the way!^^ thank you so much for japanesepod101!

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maxiewawa says:

With the ‘nga’ thing…

Just because the romanization says ‘ga’ doesn’t mean it sounds like a ‘g’ as we know it.

Lots of people pronounce the ‘ga’ that way, I guess you have to get used to it.

Another tricky syllable is ‘n’. Sometimes it sounds like a ‘ng’ (lots of people say ‘nihong’ for ‘Japan’) and sometimes it sounds a little like an ‘m’ (book sometimes sounds to me like ‘hom’)

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John C. Briggs says:

Marichiさん、
   Yes these particles are a little tricky. The GA particle in particular has many uses. I have a book on japanese particles and most particles only have 1 or 2 pages of explanations. The GA particle has many uses.
I think that in this case, you just need to know that GA is used with likes and dislikes
watashi wa ta-ki- GA daisuki desu.
I love turkey
watashi wa ta-ki- GA suki jya arimasen.
I do not like turkey.

Hope this helps.
Thanks
John C. Briggs

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John C. Briggs says:

Marichiさん、
Perhaps the following from Naoko Chino’s “All About Particles” would be helpful.

13. Indicates the object of verbs and adjectives of emotion (suki da, kirai da, ureshii, kanashii, kowai, shinpai suru, etc). Compare the use of o (#18, no.5) with verbs in the -tai and -garu forms.
私はモーツァルトが大好きです。
Watashi wa Moutsaruto ga daisuki desu.
I love Mozart.

ジョンさんは納豆が嫌いです。
Jon-san wa nattou ga kirai desu.
John doesn’t like fermented soybeans.

秋になると台風が心配です。
Aki ni naru to taifuu ga shinpai desu.
In the fall, typhoons are a worry (a problem).

花子はこんなすばらしいプレゼントをくれたんですよ。 その気持ちがうれしいです。
Hanako wa konna subarashii purezento o kureta-n desu yo. Sono kimonchi ga ureshii desu.
Hanako gave me this wonderful present. I’m so pleased by her thoughtfulness.

Hope this isn’t too much
じゃ また
ジョン

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Iain says:

OK, I’m confused now!

Skipping forward a couple of lessons to #13, we have the phrase (from the lesson notes);
Sushi wa suki desu ka?

If ‘ga’ is associated with likes/dislikes, why is ‘wa’ used in this case instead of ‘ga’?

Domo arigato!

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John C. Briggs says:

Lainさん,
Yes, it is fustrating to deal with は and が. Let me see if I can help.
あなた は すし が すき です か。
Means,
Do you like sushi?
Here the subject is marked by は. The subject is often dropped, so we have
すし が すき です か。
but this still means, do you like sushi. If we look at your example
すし は すき です か。
now すし is marked by は and is the “topic” of the sentence. I think we can think of this as
Is sushi liked?
This is an indirect question. It implies, Do you like sushi?, but asks in a more general way.
If I messed up this explanation, hopefully someone with better knowledge will correct me.
Thanks
ジョン

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Iain says:

Thaks for the explanation John, I appreciate it :)

It does help but I’m still struggling a bit when I try to apply it to other examples!

I think this is one I have to accept that I don’t understand fully at the moment and hopefully will become clearer as I progress.

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John C. Briggs says:

Lainさん,
Right, が and は are difficult to get right. I struggle with this too. Hopefully time will make it clear for both of us.
ジョン

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Tootsie Roll Samurai says:

Watashi Wa Japanesepod101.com Ga Suki Desu. :kokoro:

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Damian says:

Ahhh…. I really like this site but I’m new, just started studying japanese. I don’t really understand the “ga” and “wa” differences and I cannot read kanji or any other form of japanese, only Romaji :( …. does anyone know how I can learn the kanji? I saw the kanji close up but I did not understand that either……. perhaps I’m not using it correctly :D . Anyways please help. Thank you very much and this site is the best….. all the podcasts that I’ve listened to until now are all excellent and entertaining. Arigato gozaimasu.

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Sasquatchua says:

Hey Damian,

While I haven’t “learned” kanji in the “Pass the JLPT” sense, I have learned to recognize quite a few and I can recommend a few things for remembering kanji. The key is in learning how to recognize the radicals. Once you recognize the radical for “woman” 女 and “child” 子 for example, you’ll find it’s a lot easier to come up with a way to remember “to like” aka suki as 好き. It doesn’t seem like such random memorization anymore, you know?

Anyway, sources that helped me:
http://lrnj.com/ - last time I messed with this, it didn’t teach you how to pronounce kanji, but it did teach you how to recognize their more common meanings. But I haven’t used it in a couple years.

Kanji Pict-o-graphix: A pretty common book that also teaches you the origins of the picture and/or teaches you little things to help you memorize.

http://web.uvic.ca/kanji-gold/ - Kanji Gold. A downloadable app for windows that’s a little flashcard database program.

Learn hiragana. Aside from making it easier to learn Japanese, most manga and some videogames (such as the Japanese version of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the DS) have furigana, which is the pronunciation of the kanji written alongside in hiragana. Being able to read hiragana is extremely useful in being able to translate Japanese text - even knowing where words end, what’s probably an adjective, etc. will help in translating kanji.

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markystar says:

i don’t know why someone hasn’t done this yet….

but since they were talking about Mos Burger in the podcast, i thought it would be a good idea to post a link for those of you who have never been to japan.

http://www.mos.co.jp/index.html

:cool:

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Greg says:

Hi, this is my first post, though I’ve been using the site for a while.

I am wondering why there is no reference to iie desu, rather than using suki desu. My tutor here in Kyoto explained to me that most books just talk about suki desu, but that there is a more emotional thing implied with suki-desu. For example, if you say “anata wa suki desu”, then the other person may misunderstand. My tutor has told me to only use suki desu when I am talking about something that I am very emphatic about and not when I am talking to, or about people.

Comments?

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Sylvie says:

Hi,
I’m wondering why you don’t use the particle no in Japanese food. Shouldn’t you say Nihonnoriori for food from (or of) Japan? Or Tainoriori for thai food. Or are these here adjectives?
By the way, how do you write in hiraganas on the computer (MacOSx)?
Thanks
Sylvie

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palmist81 says:

:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:

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tim t. says:

hey my first comment! is it true that the “mos” in mos burger represents “mountain, ocean, sun”? i think this is true. http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-images/smilies/icon_dogeza.gif

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tim t. says:

oops… :dogeza:

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JKid says:

tim t-san,
Yep, your right. :) I didn’t know this myself until I looked around after reading your comment :)

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jimmy says:

ok i get what nani mean but when you ask someone do you like this you add “ga” to nani right?

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paige says:

in this lesson, they use は after all words, like 豆腐は、刺身は、 but in last lesson, they use が after the words, like 日本が、日本りようりが、when you use は、when you use が?
thanks.

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May says:

a classic question !! は VS が :mrgreen:
I sometimes get confused about it too. :grin:

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fish says:

what is a NA-adjective?

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JKid says:

Fish-san,
In Japanese there are two types of adjectives, known as “i adjectives” and “na adjectives”. See http://www.guidetojapanese.org/adjectives.html for more information. :)

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fish says:

thanks Jkid. It is a great site!

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Gareth says:

Is it just me or is the dialog the wrong one?

It doesnt follow the notes at all, has nothing to do with liking things either, its on about prices and the “ebi” being to takai!

Just thought you should know!

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jack says:

what’s the difference between すきじゃありません・すきではありません。I actually thought it was the former and not the latter, but the latter is the example in the notes. Thanks in advance.

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Jessi says:

jackさん,
The meaning is exactly the same - the では can be shortened to じゃ :smile: Using じゃ is a little bit more casual, but you’ll hear this form a lot!

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Nicholas Sumas says:

I have a question. Why don’t you use NO when describing japanese food?

nihon ryouri vs nihon no ryouri? You would describe a Japanese car as Nihon no kuruma, correct?

Thanks in advance.

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Nicholas Sumas says:

Another question. This lesson really uses soft vowels. (As in you would say “ski” instead of “suki”

Is there a hard, fast rule in whether you pronounce the entire string or if the vowel is soft? I pretty sure it has to do with what sound comes next, but I haven’t seen it charted out before.

Thanks in advance.

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Claudia says:

日本語がとても好きです。

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Jessi says:

Nicholas Sumasさん,
Good question! The rule is that when the “u” and “i” vowels come between “voiceless consonants”, which are k, s, sh, t, ch, h, f, b, and p, they are hardly pronounced. The “u” in desu and masu is also silent, so desu sounds like “dess” and masu sounds like “mass”. I hope this helps you!

Claudiaさん,
私も! :kokoro:

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George says:

Peter puts so much emphasis on u’s, he says sUki instead of “sss”-ki.

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tony says:

uh…..i think i wasnt paying attention but imma do it again :cry:

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hidaeki2150 says:

The structure of the JP101 lessons seems a bit strange. “Traditional” material would usually give you the negative forms of expressions too, but I have not yet heard such in the first 11 lessons. Sore wa suki ja arimasen :sad:

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Farizu says:

i’ve got a question regarding the -na particle. the lesson notes state that its used with adjectives but the example they used was the word “suki” as in ” suki na hana wa nan desu ka?”, where “suki” is a verb. so can it be used for verbs also to describe a current “state” or is suki an exception in japanese where its also verb? any help is much appreciated. Thanks :D

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Jessi says:

Farizuさん,
“Suki” is actually an adjective in Japanese (whereas in English, “like” is a verb) :) You can think of it as literally meaning “liked” or “likeable”. That’s why we need to use “na” after suki!

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Farizu says:

@ Jessi
Thanks a bunch. That cleared up a lot of things:)
But i have another question though, is this phenomenon where english verbs are actually adjectives in japanese common? or is there a set of rules that we can follow to determine the lexical category of a word in japanese? Thanks :D

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Jessi says:

Farizuさん,
I would say that it’s actually not that common - it just happens to be the case for common words like “suki” and “kirai”. I can’t actually think of any others at the moment.
One thing to keep in mind is that all Japanese verbs end in “u”. The last syllable could be any one of the following: ru, su, tsu, mu, bu, nu, ku, or gu. If you see a word that ends in one of these, chances are it is probably a verb. (There are words that end in these syllables that aren’t verbs too though, so be careful) :)

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Kathy says:

I just found the following sentences from the notes and got confused:
私はイタリア料理が好きです and ジョンはインド料理は好きですか
Why in the second sentence we use WA instead of use GA after the 料理? I thought if we use the verb 好き, the partical GA will be used all the time. Do I understand correctly? Thank you!

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Kat says:

Kathyさん: Thanks for your comment! Uh oh… you just put your finger on one of the hardest things to explain in Japanese grammar - the difference between ‘wa’ and ‘ga’! (Well, I think so, anyway!)

私はイタリア料理が好きです - (As for me,) I like Italian food.

This sentence is just a statement of preference. You could be emphasizing the fact you like ITALIAN food rather than any other kind of cuisine, but those other cuisines have not been mentioned. You are not comparing Italian food to anything else, and Italian food has not been the topic of discussion up until now.

ジョンはインド料理は好きですか? Does John like Indian food? / John, do you like Indian food?

When you use ‘wa’ rather than ‘ga’ in a sentence like this, it can be for several reasons.

1. You’re comparing Indian food to other types of cuisine. For example, John may have just said that he doesn’t like Thai food, so you respond by asking if he likes Indian food (instead).

2. You’re referring to something (Indian food) which has already been mentioned. For example, the previous discussion may have been all about a really good Indian restaurant, and then you ask John if he likes Indian food (as a continuation of that).

But generally I would say you should stick to ‘ga’ when pairing it with ’suki’ for now, as you will never be ‘wrong’ when doing so, and your meaning will get across.

Hope this helps! Please feel free to ask any further questions you may have. (’-'*)♪

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Kathy says:

Katさん, thank you for your patient explanation and suggestion; it eases my struggle with the Japanese grammar, especially when to use the certain particle. Thank you very much! Ja Mata Ne!

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Paula says:

Help! I’m new to this. I just signed up for the 7-day trial, and I can’t view the Lesson Notes. It keeps on saying SERVER IS NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS MOMENT. IT MAY BE OFFLINE. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER. Is it because I’m still in the trial period?

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JapanesePod101.com says:

Paula, sorry for the inconvenience. This sounds like a temporary network hiccup. I am able to download the Lesson Notes now. Are you still facing these issues?

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paula says:

I can view the lesson notes now! It works without a hitch. Doumo Arigatou!

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Francesco Gallarotti says:

My wife, who is Japanese, corrected the short dialogue saying that instead of が in the first two questions?
she says that if you say ピーターは日本が好きですか it’s correct, but if you remove ピーターは then we should say 日本は好きですか

Can someone explain this in detail? I understand that the difference between は and が might be a bit difficult to explain, but I believe that a good beginner class should focus on this difference.

I have heard that は marks the topic of the sentence and I have heard that が is used to mark the topic when there is a change of topic in the discussion (i.e. if we have been talking about Italian food until now and then I want to switch to Japanese food then I would use が)

I have also heard that が is used to mark, to stress, to underline the object of a sentence. For example if you ask me if I like Italian food and I want to reply that no, I don’t like Italian, but I like Japanese food, I could say: いえ、日本料理が好きです。

Please advise :)

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Francesco Gallarotti says:

This message is for Peter - not sure if he is still around.
I first listened to this lesson a few months ago, just before my trip to Japan with my wife to visit her family in Nagoya. The one thing I remembered about this lesson was, guess what? Mos Burger!! So, while driving, I saw a Mos Burger and asked my wife to stop and have a try. I can now say, like you, 私はモスバーガーがとても好きです!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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おう says:

私は日本語が好きです。
貴方は何が好きですか。
また明日ね。

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lechocolatier says:

私は地中海料理が好きです。

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アニカ says:

:grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: I am from India!!!!!!! :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:

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Phillip Lober says:

Little typo in the lesson notes on the grammar points. You specified to put a “na” particle, hehe.

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