Oops. Never mind! Just saw them.

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!

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!

Joey-san, thanks for pointing that out! 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! 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！

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

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

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’)

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

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

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

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 . 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.

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

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