Konnichiwa and arigatou for a helpful and useful podcast. I have used the phone a few times to talk to my friend in Japan, and it is always good to hear what it should sound like as a refresher. But normally my phone calls tend to be broken Japanese…a few words here and there in Japanese and the rest in English. But to me, even if our Japanese is not perfect, I feel it is always important to at least know how to be polite and to introduce ourselves. and today. I have learnt something new….I normaly say ‘Moshi moshi (name)-san onegaishimasu’ but I really like Moshi moshi, Steve desu. (name)-san wa imasu ka? I will use that next time
I love this site and you guys are great….keep up the brillant work.
O-genki de
Steve

Hi, I’m sofia im 12 years old
and has subsribed to the japanese podcast
i think its amazing
im doing japanese in my high school so thanx for the extra support

Konnichiwa Sofia-san!

That’s so terrific that you are taking Japanese in high school. Like Steve, I wish I had that option when I was in high school. I won’t say how long ago THAT was. We actually have a couple of high school students that are taking our college level Japanese 2 class. Why oh why didn’t I think of that?

Anyway, Sofia-san…Ganbatte Kudasai!!

~Rhonda (ロンダ)

Hello…and konnichiwa minna san.
Can any one help me or give me some advice. On my old laptop which runs Windows 98 and on that I have MS Office 2000 with which I can run perfectly MS Global IME Japanese Imput. But it seems to be that on my desktop which rund Windows XP and I am still using MS Office 2000 the Global IME will not run. I do not really want to go to the expense of buying MS Office XP, so does anyone know of a Japanese Imput system that will work with both Windows XP and MS Office 2000?
O-genki de
Steve

Steve, Try Open Office. It`s free.
http://www.openoffice.org/
I don`t know if it is exactly what you are looking for, but the price is right! Also, if you haven`t tried Tucows for downloads, they might have something useful.
I really enjoy the podcasts; eating yakitori and drinking Suntory Malts and going to a depachika are definitley high on my list of things to do here.
Take care

Just for clarification, if one has a western name, do they still say it in a western style? That is, first name first and last name last? I was told that if a westerner tries to switch them around to be the traditional Japanese way, it causes some confusion. Like if I were to say フォンシリング・スコットと申します, a Japanese person would assume that Scott was my last name.

How do you order your name in a polite introduction, Peter?

Sorry for the double post… Cant seem to find a way to edit my old one. Just wanted to say that my girlfriends mom is from Yamagata Maybe I’ll have a chance to go there sometime. Well, have to be next time I go to Japan. Going home in about a month Been here for 1.5 years, but it feels like I just arrived yesterday….

Fantastic….I am so happy　わたしはとてもうれしいです。　ありがとうございます Nathan-san It works…well on my computer at work, at least.
おげんきで
ステイーブ　(Steve)

Sofia-san! Thank you for the great post! You made our day! It is so great to see someone at your age taking the iniative to learn Japanese! Sugoi!! Let us know if there is anything we can do!!

ロンダさん! Great to hear from you! I’m with you, if only I had thought of that! Keep the posts coming!

Nathan-san! Welcome back! Wow that is some walk! Good thing the lessons are longer this week. As for the laughs, Sakura and Natsuko are so funny! My personal favorites this week are Sakura’s “Grave” in this episode, I still laugh when I hear that. And Natsuko’s “we have to chase them (oni・鬼) out of human districts! We’ll try to keep up the good work, but now there is all this pressure!!!

Dorian-san よろしくお願いします！ Thanks for the great post and for listening! It is great to hear about your iniative. Don’t worry things will pay off big time in the long-run! Any questions please post them on the board, our ever-growing community is working around the clock! Thanks guys! We cannot tell you how happy we were to see listeners helping other listeners when we checked the board today! Thank you for bringing our vision to life!!

Kevin-san, thanks for helping out! 今後もよろしくお願いします！Yes, this weekend will be yakitori and Kirin for us! And we have a great depachika near by! I think I might have to head over there tomorrow.

Nathan-san, thanks for helping out!

Scott-san, great question! Yes, it is interesting dilema! I think it comes down to the good old case-by-case. Case-by-case, being the person who you are talking with. Some Japanese have a great amount of knowledge about foreigners and the name order, while others not such a good idea. The ones without a clue all seem to work at my bank! Jonas-san is right when he brings up the middle name, as that causes all kinds of problems over here!
OK, back to the question. I would say choose the name you want to be called and put that first. You’re probably much better of with Scott as it will be easier to pronounce than your last name. However, in business and formal situations, e.g. if I give a presentation in front of strangers, I tend to put my last name first. Most people will use the last name, and I’ll get a few questions asking which is my last name, but in the end it fits better with the formal situation. In informal situations, I always go first.
In regards to Japanese understanding name order, only once since coming to Japan, did I have a Japanese person actually reverse the order I gave him (I gave him first, last) and then proceed to call me by my last name. But he was a very sharp guy! A mentor I studied with for a year as a research student (the best way to come to Japan, not that I used this method).

Jonas-san, thanks for all the info! You are really know your stuff. If you have the time, definately go to Yamagata! Is really, really beautiful, especially in the winter.

Steve-san great to hear that things worked out!

Konichwa tomodachi no japanesepod101,

Just wanted to drop a note of appreciation to you guys. I am Ike from NYC. currently I work full time and a part time undergrad student, minoring in japanese. My wife is also from Japan and I have had difficulties communiticating with my in-laws for over 6 years now (which prompted my choice of minor). Furthermore, I plan to relocate to Tokyo in about 3 years. Coupled with my classes, these podcasts are really helpful in getting a better command on the language and being able to break that barrier. Much love to you guys, keep up the good work, It is really appreciated.

Domo arigatou

There are some wrong words in the Hiragana section of the Line-By-Line audio.

Paul - Just to correct, where translates to “doko” not “doku”. Anyway, I don’t think it has much to do with politeness directly, I just think that when it comes to teaching beginners, they usually start with “desu” to keep things simple.

“ima doko ni imasu ka” is a little more precise in phrasing what it is you’re asking - “ima doko desu ka” could just as easily translate to “where is it now?” or “where are we?” I think the earlier phrasing was just there to demonstrate the various uses of “desu” and to keep other verbs out of the picture for the time being.

What song is Sakura’s ring tone? Does anyone know? It sounds like Arashi…