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Today we add another two phrases to your arsenal. We’re steadily building you a solid foundation, and these phrases are two key blocks. When conversing with someone in Japanese, the questions will come fast and furious, and you can bet that one of these two will be among them. So don’t miss today’s episode.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2006 at 6:00 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.
49 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #14 - Where is Your Hometown?”
Thursday at 6:00 pm
There’s one part here where Peter translated the アメリカのニューヨーク line as just New York, leaving the “America” word out. While it’s common knowledge that New York is located in America, I believe this will baffle and may not be obvious to Japanese beginners since the pronunciation is different to a certain extent. Also Peter mentioned that the listeners can find out more 歌舞伎町 by checking out the website - however not a single piece of information can be found, not even on the lecture notes.
Saturday at 4:53 pm
Hello Michael-san,
You are definately right about this one, actually these two. However, well known cities such as New York, Shanghai, London, Paris, etc., are almost always alright without the country.
The actual translation should be New York, USA.
For all the beginners out there, it is city name followed by the country, e.g., New York, USA.
Kabukicho information, yes, got a bit sidetracked with the new website. Will get something up very soon, in the meantime:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki-cho
Tuesday at 7:39 am
Is there something I need to download to view these files, or do I just click and listen?
Tuesday at 7:47 am
Jude-san,
Thanks for the comment. Just click and listen. Also, you should be able to download the file by right clicking it. Definately let us know if this doesn’t work out. We’ll make sure you get the file.
Tuesday at 2:56 am
There are errors on the .pdf lesson guide: it’s Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Auckland, New Zealand, not San Paulo or Oakland. It’s probably easy to make that mistake though since an ‘n’ is pronounced in ‘Sao Paulo’ and Auckland and Oakland, CA probably have the same katakana.
Great site! I’m trying to relearn the Japanese that I’ve forgotten from high school, and these 15-minute chunks are perfect.
Monday at 2:36 am
Excellent podcast. I’m enjoying it a lot. Just one question though. A sentence in this one was “doko kara kimashita” meaning “where do you come from”. Since that’s a question, should there not be a ka at the end? Just wondering.
Monday at 2:54 am
Davidさん、
True. The sentence should be
doko kara kimashita ka.
However, questions can be formed in Japanese speech by using a rising intonation at the end of the sentence.
doko kara kimashita (rising intonation).
Also, the fact that the sentence begins with “where” pretty much guarentees that this is a question.
As Peterさん says very often, “In Japanese, much is implied, much is assumed”.
I don’t think this would happen in a book. This is more about speech.
ジョン
Monday at 2:59 am
Thanks a lot John. I was sure there was a reason for it, since I thought it unlikely the native speaker was making a basic mistake! Thanks for clearing it up for me.
David
Monday at 4:06 am
Davidさん、
どういたしまして douitashimashite.
ジョン
Saturday at 5:00 am
in the sentence “Anata wa kakoii desu ne” why is there a “NE” and the end? i just started learning japanese like about…3 weeks ago…i really want to learn just so i can feel good about myself and to be able to live in japan for a while…but i find that it is quite hard. but im getting the hang of it. Also i saw a website that said that japanese people don’t use the words “the” or “A” in thier sentences, is that true? if it is, then why? thanks
Saturday at 6:14 am
Amanda さん,
The particle ね is often heard at the end of a phrase in spoken Japanese. It sommehow expresses “the speaker’s request for confirmation or agreement from the hearer about some shared knowledge” (quoted from A dictionary of basic Japanese grammar). It cannot be easily translated into English but it will soon become familiar to you if you follow these podcasts.
Indeed, Japanese have no articles such as “the” or “a”. The “reason” for that is… well some languages use them, others don’t ! (as far as I know, Russian or classical Latin, among others, are in this case).
Wednesday at 3:10 pm
You can’t call “Soccer” football. There are too many different games called “football” in other countries. In Australia football means “Aussie Rules Football”. In the USA football means Gridiron.
Friday at 1:15 am
Hey, you know the whole Nipon versus Nihon thing . . . well me and my father were watching the spanish news and they were talking about the Japanese governement ” El gobierno Nipon,” and then I asked my dad what Nipon meant and he said that it meant that it meant “From Japan,” then I heard the lesson, I wa wondering if you could clear this out for, but besides that, i have to say, that these lessons are wonerful, thanks!
Tuesday at 9:26 am
Hi Gabriela,
It was mentioned in a much later lesson that Nippon is the international way of referring to Japan. Saying Nihon is also correct, but less common internationally.
Thursday at 1:34 am
I have to ask, how would you convert “Great Falls” to katakana/romaji? The part that trips me up is the “LLS”. If I were to say where I’m from, I’d need some help. Amerika no Gareito Faruso? I’m sure it would be easier to say the next largest city (Washinguton Di Shi), but that’s 20 miles away.
Thursday at 3:04 am
Berin-san, thank you for the question:
Great Falls = グレートフォールズ
アメリカのメリーランド州のグレートフォールズ
I use alc.co.jp
The katakana usually appears.
BTW, Maryland, right?
Thursday at 9:47 pm
いいえ バージニア です
(no, it’s Virginia)
アメリカのバージニア洲のグレートフォールズ
Thank you for your help.
For some reason you have to add the www in front of alc.co.jp for it to work. (I had to look it up using google).
ローリチバロンです
Sunday at 4:10 pm
Rofl there is a question in the vocab quiz section that says “What’s the capital of Oslo?” Someone messed it up big time.
Sunday at 4:12 pm
lololol
somebody should fix that. hahahaha. oh, i guess that’ll be me. thanks for pointing that out!
marky
Monday at 11:39 pm
I joined this morning and find it difficult to let go - the site is brilliant and I find the lessons easy to follow - even for a beginner like me.
On lesson 19 vocabulary test -
Noruue no shuto o nan to iimasu ka is translated as “what’s the capital of Oslo”
It’s very kind to give the answer in the question!
Angela
Tuesday at 12:00 am
angelaさん、 welcome aboard!
our new years resolution is tidying up the “kindness” like that.
while you’re here, be sure to check out the recent lessons and the forum to get in touch with the most active part of the community!
どうぞ宜しくお願いします!
dozo yoshiku onegai shimasu!
marky
Tuesday at 9:32 am
おつからさまです!
I have a quick question - this lesson focused on polite 日本語 but when you say;
どこから着ました。 the informal equivalent is どっから来たの。
I assume that どこ&から kind of combine together ?
ありがとう!
Tuesday at 9:33 am
oops i made a mistake with the kanji on the first polite question.
I meant どこから来ました。
Thanks!
Friday at 7:41 pm
Konnichiwa
I’m from Albufeira, Portugal. Is this the correct way to say it?
Porutogaru no Arubuheira desu.
Anyone interested in Portuguese, visit this site for a Portuguese translation of this lesson.
http://aprenderjapones.blogs.sapo.pt/2008/01/31/
Doomo Arigatoo
Sunday at 3:10 am
Hi, thanks again for this podcast. I have a question though,
if I were to say a specified anwser like Toronto or something would this be correct?
Kanada no Ontario no Toronto desu.
thanks
Monday at 9:23 am
ok i have a question
iv noticed that the question word “doko” in the first way to ask someone where are you from “”the text book way”" is placed in the middle but in the other way “”doko kara kimashita”" its placed at first why is that in english we always say the question word at first. and by question words i mean >>>>> “what, why, who, where” xD
Sunday at 11:03 pm
Friday at 5:10 am
A question about “ka”:
Most (all?) questions to date have ended in “ka”, but “Doko kara kimashita?” lacks this particle. Does “doko” (and its kin) negate the need for “ka” when used at the start of the sentence? I know that in other “doko” uses, “ka” is still used, as in “Isu wa doko desu ka?”.
Tuesday at 9:55 am
watermix-san,
A question marking particle “ka” can be omitted in a casual conversation, because if a sentence is spoken with a rising intonation, you can see it is a question. As for a sentence with an interrogative word such as “doko,” it’s easy to know it is a question even if it doesn’t have “ka.”
Wednesday at 7:07 am
ありがと ございます!
Thursday at 2:31 pm
i really love this podcast,
it helped me a lot in studying and understanding the Japanese language.
Arigatougozaimashita………
Thursday at 3:54 pm
Hi guys,
Could someone of you give me the japanese word for German and Iranian in Romanji?
thanks
Thursday at 8:17 pm
AJB san> German-ドイツ語 (doitsu go) Iranian-イラン語 (iran go)
Tuesday at 11:05 am
Umm, What is the meaning of the particle “no” and “go”? Is it for describing a place? And great lessons I’m learning a lot.
Doomo Arigatou gazaimasu.
Wednesday at 1:16 am
Nevermind. I answered the “no” particle.
Thursday at 9:00 pm
thankyouu soo much for all the lessons~
its really helping me ALOT~~~
kep up the good work~
arigatou guzaimasu~~
Friday at 1:47 pm
smoky-san,
Thank you for your nice comment! Really glad to know that!
Thursday at 11:10 pm
今日は
I was wondering if someone could give me the japanese translation for “Holland” or “the Netherlands”, the easiest will do
keep up the good work ^,^
有り難でございます
Friday at 12:45 am
Dictionary here
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1E
おらんだ; オランダ】 (n,adj-no) (uk) Holland
John C. Briggs
Tuesday at 3:56 pm
anyone well versed in katakana?
i am from new jersey. would it be ニュージョーシ?
Tuesday at 4:18 pm
Steven-san,
New Jersey would be ニュージャージー in katakana
Sunday at 9:11 pm
baby modeling agencies? any methods to stay clear of frauds having specialists? every guidance?baby modeling agencies with atlanta region?
Tuesday at 6:27 pm
ご出身は何処ですか。
出身は中国のてんきょです。
また明日ね。
Friday at 6:05 am
Friday at 9:11 am
アニカさん,
I looked up Vishakapatnam, and it is ビシャカパットナム (Bishakapattonamu) in Japanese
Sunday at 10:36 am
My town is not as well-known as New York is. Can I use ‘chikan’ (I do not have a Japanese keyboard setting yet) to explain that I’m close to Zurich in my case? Or is there another adjective fitting better for that situation?
BR,
Nicole
Monday at 10:30 am
Nicole-san,
You can say “[your hometown, Switzerland,” like;
Shusshin wa Suisu no [your hometown] desu.
Or you can also say,
A:Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.
You:Zurich no chikaku desu. “I’m from near Zurich.”
“…no chikaku” means “a place close to ….”
I hope this helps
Monday at 7:57 pm
Motoko-san、どうも有難うございます。
Saturday at 12:26 pm
I’ve always felt like you should give the meaning after each line the first time around in the dialogue.. fallowed with the dialogue spoken straight through afterwords. If I’m going to listen to the dialogue three times wouldn’t be more helpful to understand it every time? I think so. I just read the lesson notes before I listen.
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