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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Crammed in tight to a Tokyo bound train during the notorious Japanese rush hour, you may find yourself staring down an oncoming sneeze with nowhere to go. Learn the Japanese necessary to get yourself the strongest cold medicine on the market. Surrounded by super germs, it is just a matter of time before the common cold gets you. Today we give you the Japanese language tools to get the medicine you will definately need! Don’t miss today’s episode!

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


This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2006 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.

33 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #29 - Cure for the Common Cold…Cold Medicine”

Steve says:

Hello and Konnichiwa :-)

Well out of all the podcasts, I hope I never have to use that one. After all going all the way to Japan to visit and explore all the sites and places, only to go down with a cold, and one that is bad enough to buy the strongest cold medicine really would not be a nice thing to happen. :roll:
But seriously, it was another great poscast, but I have a question about the word ‘Kekkoo’

The word Kekkoo which means: fine, pretty and quite such as: Kekkoo na osumai desu ne (What a fine house) can also mean ‘No thank you’…as in: Moo Kekkoo desu (No Thank you) or ‘tabako wa kekkoo desu’ (No Thank you, I don’t smoke)

Is there any difference in tone when you say this word depending on if you want to say ‘Fine, pretty, quite’ or ‘No Thank you’?

It seems to be a strange word…same word, written the same in Hiranaga (There is no Kanji for Kekkoo) and yet two different meanings, so that is why I was wondering if there is a different tone to be used. I have never used a different tone, but my Japanese friends seem to understand ok….but in my goal to speak more natural I would like to know if it is best to change the tone.

O-genki de
Steve

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Steve says:

Oh…and before I forget, thanks for the link, it was really interesting, I think I would struggle to get past 100.:???:

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Peter says:

Steve-san, thanks for the posts as always! It is a versatile word! As far as I know there is no pronunciation change, just changes depending on the context in which it is used. We’ll get our new authority on the subject to chime in tomorrow. Another new surprise coming soon. :wink:

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Alfonso Magaña says:

メキシコからこんにちは。
こんにちは夏子と桜と一徳とぺーたーです、はじめまして、私はアルフォンソ マガニャです、よろしくお願いします。
I’ve been a fan of 日本語 for about 二年, what fascinates me the most about 日本語 is the writing, all this time I’ve been learning how to write it, how to type it on a computer, I bought Japanese learning software, I bought books, I’ve memorized both of the 仮名字 (平仮名と片仮名) I’ve filled a couple of note book of just writing practice, and I memorized about 漢字百文字, I’ve gone pretty far by my self don’t you think?, Despite all this studying I lack something very very important the dialog part, building sentences, slang, here is were Japanesepod101 is helping me a lot and I mean a lot. I work in a Japanese manufacturing plant, hence there are some Japanese people working here, so the other day there was a situation were I spoke out 朝飯前, and they looked at me and asked me where did you learn that?, and I told them Japanesepod101 baby, it was so cool.

You guys are doing a great job in Japanesepod101, ever since I found out about you guys I have been keeping up to date with the clases downloading the lesson notes, practicing everyday, reading writing, I’ve even changed my iPod languaje to Japanese, it is quite funny when you lent your iPod to someone and they try to use it, jajajaja, they’ll look at me with a huge question mark and say I can’t read this.

Anyway great work guys, がんばって下さい。
Greetings from Tijuana Mexico.

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JapanesePod101.com says:

Today’s location is Morioka・もりおか・盛岡 :grin: located in lovely Iwate Prefecture! I can personally vogue for Morioka, as I have been there twice! Japan’s best kept secret. Great food, reimen・冷麺, wanko soba, fun people, and just a great all around trip! For those with the time, it is a highly recommended trip! Wanko soba http://www.wankosoba-azumaya.co.jp/english/speciality.shtml Personal record of 103. Nothing compared to some people, as some people actually had over 400!!!!

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Jonas says:

Good job on your podcasts. Its probably very helpful for people just starting to study. Wish I found something like this when I was starting up.

For 上級 people, I recommend NHK’s site, where you have radio and video news, and TBS who have videos too.

Anyways, I’ll check out this site from time to time :grin:

Best regards,
Jonas, Kanagawa

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japanesepod101.com says:

Steve-san,
First the surprise! As we are always looking to improve our teaching methods, we have recently acquired the services of Mrs. Yuko Sasahara, an expert in her field of Japanese education. We will have more about this on the blog. She is the usage and grammar guru, and an excellent addition to our team. Please check out the blog in a few hours to find out more about this.

In the meantime, here is what the Grammar Guru Sasahara-sensei) had to say regarding your inquiry:
“Kekko” can be used as an adjective, like “Kekkou na osumai desu ne.”, which is very polite. “Kekko” can also be used as an adverb, like “Kono resutoran wa kekkou oishii desu.” And another usage of “kekko” is rejection; “No thank you” is “Kekkou desu.” in Japanese, but you should be careful not to say this too strong, otherwise you offend the other party or you will come across as an arrogant person. “Kekkou” is written in hiragana or the kanji (the kanji is the same for all uses), and is always pronounced in the same way with the same intonation. So, don’t hesitate to use this. :grin:

For more on Sasahara-sensei, please visit our members page! :grin:

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patrick says:

Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to do this daily podcast. This is my first post and I wanted to say that you DO make learning Japanese more fun. I would like to see a podcast on dating in Japan. I have no idea what to say in these situations. I have noticed that even in the US that depending on what region you live in if you ask someone to “Go out with you” they may ask “Where do you want to do?” instead of knowing that you just asked them to be your girlfriend. Like I said, it is just a suggestion for a future show.

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Steve says:

Wow…that is great news :smile: Ureshii desu.
Hajimemashite Sasahara Yuko-sensei. Watashi wa steve desu. Douzo Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Thank you so much (doumo arigatou gozaimasu) for your information on the word ‘Kekkou’ I think maybe sometimes when I use ‘Kekkou’ in rejection I might make it sound too strong, so I will be extra careful to make it sound softer.
What also was a surprise is that there is a Kanji for kekkou. I did not think it was written in Kanji, I have only ever seen it written in Hiragana.
O-genki de
Steve :-)

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Sakura says:

Tadaima!! I’m back :wink: Minasan ogenki desuka?
I’m afraid I didn’t have time to post comments for a while. But I read all the posts. They were all sugoi!
Steve-san, please say hi to little Sakura-chan! I really loved her pictures in kimono.Kawaii shashin wo arigatou gozaimashita :razz:
Scott-san, it might be too late, but about a polite way to decline an offer at Book-Off, the phrase I often use is “今日のところは、いいです” (kyou no tokoro wa iidesu; literally: as for today, no thank you).
Also, Chanun-san and Alfonso-san, thank you for letting us know that you actually used the phrases! こちらもすごくうれしくなります。Please let us know again if you try out some other phrases :grin:
And I can’t mention all, but I really enjoyed reading all your posts. Arigatou gozaimasu! Korekaramo yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

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Peter says:

Alfonso-san, 本当にありがとうございます! :grin:  こちらこそ!初めまして。宜しくお願いします。Thank you for making our day with that story! It is really great to hear stories of how you use Japanese you learn here! Please keep them coming! Please keep the posts coming 日本語, English or Spanish! We have quite a few Spanish speaking listeners!

Jonas-san, Thank you for the great post! I am with you! One of the reasons we are doing this help people avoid the tough situations we faced when starting out! Did you see this??
This is a must have plug-in for anyone studying Japanese and using Firefox. Check it out at http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/

Provided in a post by a listener Scott! If they only had this when we started out!!! Thanks for the recommendations! And please keep checking back as we are constantly adding new features!
宜しくお願いします。

Great idea! There is something similiar here. The word suki・すき・好き we’re planning on taking a look at this. Thank you for the great suggestion!

Sakura-san, great to hear from you! Welcome back! :grin:

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Steve says:

Okaeri nasai Sakura-san
Arigatou, genki desu.
Sakura-chan wa ‘Konnichiwa’ iimashita (I think that is right…sumimasen, watashi no nihongo totemo warui desu…..My Japanese is very bad) anyway Sakura says ‘Konnichiwa’
I am pleased you like the photos :-)
O-genki de
Steve :-)

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Jonas says:

Peter; thanks for the link. I know about it :) But I don’t use firefox… I would, but I just find Opera better for most tasks… Maybe I could install both tho. But..! I use their webpage, and www.popjisyo.com alot. Really helpful.

BTW, you should do a “slang special” sometime!

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chanun says:

Stevesan,
I could be wrong but I think you missed the particle “to” there in that sentence. The reason being the verb “iu” needs the particle ‘to’. So the sentence should have been

“Sakura-chan wa ‘Konnichiwa’ to iimashita”

Please, can some guru verify this?

Arigatou :???:

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Steve says:

Oh….I am terrible at missing out particules…But actually I think the particle should have been を I don’t know…I find particules hard to remember. But thanks so much for your help :-)
Steve :-)

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Peter says:

チャナンさん, the grammar guru has left for the weekend, so we’ll the offical word on Monday, but to is correct. The trouble, however, is I think the wa should be a ga, so we’ll have to so to the grammar guru for the final word.

Steve-san, please keep posting in Japanese it is the best way to learn!

Jonas-san, thanks for the info! I’ll look into it. Also thanks for the suggestion. Yes, how I would like to a lesson on slang!! I’ll keep you posted on this. However, it seems we can learn a lot from you!

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ed says:

I am wondering if there is a phrase in 日本語 that is said when somone sneezes like “bless you” or “gesundheit” ?

ありがとう

エド

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Nathan says:

Ed-san,

“There is no expression in Japanese like “Bless you” when somebody sneezes. In Japan, it is said that if you sneeze, someone is gossiping about you.”

From: http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa111800.htm

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ed says:

ありがとう Nathan-さん

エド

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DenDen says:

Fantastic!

I joined your japanesepod101 because I am tired of going through text books.

I want to thank for explaining gozaimasu. I have read so many books on japanese language and have never come across a definition of gozaimasu being a nicer or more honourable way of saying desu.

I am confronted with this in shops every day and haven’t been able to work it out!

Thank you so much. :mrgreen:

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Eran says:

DenDen-san,

Welcome to JapanesePod101.com! We are glad you found us and look forward to seeing you around. We love comments, feedback, and suggestions so please keep them coming!

Eran

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JapanesePod101 - 2006-02 Feburary Lesson Notes « Before I Die says:

[…] 2006-02-01 Beginner Lesson #29 - Cure for the Common Cold…Cold Medicine 結構 ー けっこう ー pretty, quite なかなか ー quite 風邪薬 ー かぜぐすり ー cold medicine (notice gusuri) 胃 ー い 薬 ー くすり いろいろ ー various, a lot […]

darrell says:

Free Jesus cure for colds, sinusitis, coughs, and more. Please eat with food about 1/3 of a raw garlic clove, and about 1 crisp, raw, Serano pepper, (I remove the seeds), daily, or daily when ill. To cure kidney problems; please break up about 3/4 of a raw garlic clove into a small cup of warm water, let sit overnight, drink it and lots of cranberry juice from frozen concentrate, (add less than the recommended amount of water to increase potency).

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Bassman says:

ピイタアさん、
Thanks for a great site. Although I discovered it quite a while ago, I only recently started listening to the podcasts as I was previously working my way (slowly) through the Pimsleur series of CD’s. Your audio lessons are so much more interesting, informative, and just more fun than the Pimsleur ones. And although I got through all 90 Pimsleur lessons, I started from beginner lessons here, and i’m glad I did because I have already picked up many new things. It’s きょうも べんきょうになりました!
So どうもありがとうございます to you, Sakura san, Natsuko san, Kazanouri san and the rest of the team! I hope I can come to Japan one day!

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Potato says:

–強いです, —安いです, —-結構いいです, appear in this lesson to describe those cold medicine. However, the noun “風邪薬” is followed by the adjective with はin between them. is this a common way to describe something in Japanese?? So, should I say: “この風邪薬は美味いですか?” Another question, is there a website or anywhere to down a program that allow me to type in Japanese. Thank you!!!

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Stevo says:

Hi, Peter Natusuko Sakura etc. I don’t leave comments generally but I’m compelled to stop and congratulate you. I’ve only been studying japanese about a month, but I know so much, bought text books and cd’s etc, and although that stuff sticks, nothing is explained in the same way it does from japanesepod101. It my honest belief this is down to likability. You do make it easier to understand of course but you all have fun and have a great rapport, and we are all sucked in, in a good way, and its great. I’m very thankful to have found this site, and I’ll be sticking with you till I’m fully fluent. I’m studying japanese with a Japanese lady once a week and although I really enjoy the sessions, I actually believe I’m learning more here. I’m doing about 5 of your lessons a day as well as my own text book work and when I go to japan on the 31st I feel I’ll be able to get by just fine. Thanks for the help support and all the hard work! Jaa mata, ste :grin:

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Jessi says:

Stevoさん,
Thank you very much for your kind words! We’re glad to hear that you are finding the lessons helpful. Hope you have a good time in Japan! :grin:

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Richelle says:

Hajimemashite, JapanesePod101 no Minna-san! Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu! Kore wa watashi no daiichi no posuto desu. Oshitsumon ga arimasu yo. I have heard 3 kinds of words that mean “quite/pretty” which are kanari, kekkou, and nakanaka. Can you please explain the difference between these three? Do they have levels of severity i.e nakanaka means quite considerably as compared to kekkou. Can use all three interchangebly on describing severity, distance, taste, feel, etc? Takusan shitsumon, gomenasai. Watashi wa totemo “curious” desu yo. Podokasto kara takusan benkyou ni narimashita. Doumo arigatou gozaimasu. Motto motto oshiete onegaishimasu!

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Mayumi says:

Richelle-san,

Welcome to JapanesePod101.com! :smile:
That’s a tough question. :mrgreen: Nakanaka has an implication of “better than expected.” For example, when you want to say “something is better than you expected,” you can say “nakanaka ii.” If you say “kekkou ii,” it would not mean “very good,” but it’s satisfactory. And “kanari ii” would mean “pretty good.” I hope this would of any help for you.

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Kathy says:

Hi, when we greet to each other and the condition is the same as usual; we will say: Aikawarazu? Is there any kanji for that? (I am just curious!) Thank you!

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Naomi says:

Kathy-san
“as usual”"as always” is 相変わらず(あいかわらず aikawarazu).
If you say あいかわらずです, it means the same as usual. :wink:

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おう says:

風邪薬有りますか。胃薬有りますか。
色々なかなか良い薬有ります。
このは強いです。そのは安いです。あの薬は一番強いです。
有り難うございます。

また今日ね。

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lechocolatier says:

夏子さんplayed very good the role of sick person.i really miss japan but i keep the Japanese sprite by wearing samue and yokata evre day.thanks for the 第29課。

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