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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Everyone has heard of Japanese cell phones. Today we use the all-mighty cell phone to track down Sakura! In this lesson, we cover two different Japanese telephone greetings, so you don’t want to miss today’s installment of JapanesePod101.com! Tune in and stop by JapanesePod101.com!

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


This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 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.

52 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #30 - Tracking Down Sakura!”

Steve says:

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 :smile:
I love this site and you guys are great….keep up the brillant work.
O-genki de
Steve :-)

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Peter says:

Steve-san, thanks for all the posting! :grin: You’re right about that one. Being polite with a little Japanese goes so far! I have some stories that I don’t even believe, regarding acts of kindness after a few words of Japanese! Invitations to dinner, trips for the day, unbelievable.
You have the perfect attitude, and seem to understand Japan and Japanese people very well.
Also, I tend to agree! Moshi moshi is a great word. But for me, mattku・まったく is my favorite! :lol:

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Sofia says:

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 :mrgreen:

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Steve says:

Irasshaimase Sofia.
I so wished they taught Japanese at my school when I was younger instead of just French and German….not that there is anything wrong with French and German, it was just at the age of 12 my heart was not in it, as I wanted to learn Japanese.
Anyway, I know you will enjoy all the podcasts.
Ganbatte kudasai. (I am not the best in writing Romanji)
O-genki de
Steve :-)

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ロンダ (Rhonda) says:

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)

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Nathan says:

To all of you at JapanesePod101,

I just wanted to drop by to say thank you, once again. I have a 40 minute walk to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and usually manage to listen to 5-6 shows per day. I’ll probably be catching up soon. Whatever will I do then?? ;)

Keep up the good work!

P.S. You always manage to get at least one good laugh out of me per show :D

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Steve says:

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 :-)

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Dorian says:

hajime mashite watashi wa dorian desu, yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

Hey my name is Dorian and im from London, I have to say that I am really enjoying these lessons, I after just recently finding them on iTunes. I was really surprised when I found them, I also wanted to study Japanese in an actual class but due to lack of interest at my University they had to cancel the lessons. They needed a minimum of 6 people for the class and by the end I was the only person that decided to stay. It looks like ill have to try and find somewhere else to do it . I like how your lessons are structured, you make it very easy to follow. I already knew a few words but now they make more sense to me ie what context to use them in. I also found that when watching Anime now I am starting to hear words which I have been learning in the lessons and i can actuall understand them. I really enjoy these lessons and I hope they will continue. Thanks……

BTW i posted the comment here but im only up to lesson 5 lol :grin:

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Kevin says:

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

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Nathan says:

Steveさん、

This page says that you should not need anything other than the built-in Windows XP East Asian text support for Office 2000. You might want to check this page to make sure you have the correct options installed under Windows XP.

If everything looks right and you’re still having problems, I would suggest uninstalling your IMEs, and then reinstalling them following that guide.

Good luck, let us know if it works!

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Scott says:

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?

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JapanesePod101.com says:

Today’s location is Yamagata・やまがた・山形 :grin: Yamagata-shi is capital of Yamagata prefecture, located to the NW of Tokyo. Renown for its skiing in the winter and famous Yonezawa-gyu 米沢牛(beef)! Second to Kobe beef (or so we are told)! :grin:

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Jonas says:

Generally, westerners should keep their normal name order. Thats the least confusing way. Of cource sometimes you have to specify what part of your name is your surname etc. Its even worse when you have a middle name like me :roll: So I usually just use my first and last name

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Jonas says:

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….

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Steve says:

Aaaaaaargh! I tried to do what was mentioned in the link that Nathan-san kindly told me about….but my computer crashed and I had to reinstall Windows XP and I lost everything…..Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
:evil:
Still nevermind…cest le vie.
This may have been mentione before but the

The Hinomaru flag at the top of the page, is it taken
on the summit of Fujisan? I swear I can make out the kanji for mountain and the numbers 3,776, which I assume is the height in Metres above sea level. And that seems about right for Fujisan.

Oh! and Peter-san, When I told my friend that you were pleased with the information about the spider and why it is bad luck at night and good luck in the morning she wanted me to tell you, from her and her mother ‘Dou itashimashite’

Oh! well……must get back to slowly get my stuff back on to my computer…Hehehehehehe! You have to laugh about such things, really.

O-genki de
Steve :-)

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Steve says:

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) :-)

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Nathan says:

スティーブさん、

よかったですね。
Sorry to hear that it crashed the PC at first, but it’s good that it’s working now! When that happens to me, as long as I didn’t lose anything important, I like to just think that it’s a good chance for a fresh, new start ;)

頑張ってくださいね。

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Peter says:

Sofia-san! Thank you for the great post! You made our day! :grin: 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!! :grin:

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! :grin:

Nathan-san! Welcome back! Wow that is some walk! Good thing the lessons are longer this week. :wink: 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!!! :wink:

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!! :grin:

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! :wink: 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!

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Kate says:

All of this discussion about names would be easier to follow (and sound less like an Abbot & Costello routine) if we referred to “family names” and “personal names” instead of “first name last” etc.

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Ike says:

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

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Berin Loritsch says:

Great episode as usual. I’ll second what Kate-san suggested. The way that we keep it straight at work is using the words “Surname” for the family name and “Given name” for your personal name. I had the privilege to work on some software to support U.S. diplomatic efforts. We used those terms so that whether our clients were using eastern name order or western name order we recorded the name properly. “Surname” and “Given Name” are the proper, or formal, way of referring to the respective names. Ironically, Middle name is still referred to as Middle name–probably because middle names aren’t common in the far east. (In the middle east the middle name is always the father’s given name, even for the girls).

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SkyDiver says:

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

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Paul says:

Is there any major difference in actual meaning between ‘ima doku ni imasu ka’ (in this lesson), and ‘ima doku desu ka’ (in beginner lesson 19) when asking people where they are? Would the former simply be considered more polite?

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Sasquatchua says:

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.

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Paul says:

Thanks for the explanation, Sasquatchua.

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Monica says:

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

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Kendo_Ryu says:

Sumimasen, I just wanted to know, what is the name of the song that plays for Sakura-san’s ringtone.
Thankies
Ryu ^_~V

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Alexandre says:

Am I wrong or are the people in this dialog not actually saying anything when they pick up the phone? I would expect someone to actually answer the phone by saying something or is this not the way to do it in Japan? I always thought moshi moshi was what you said when you answered, rather than when calling.

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Mayumi says:

I think “moshi moshi” can be used when you call or answer. If a person who is calling says “moshi moshi,” a person receiving a call would say “hai, [your name] desu,” without saying “moshi moshi.” There can be an opposite case in which a person who pick up a phone says “moshi moshi” before you say something. So, I think it is natural for a person who speak something at first to say “moshi moshi.”

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YAS says:

Hi all

i have a question, after listening to this audio
i am having trouble differentiate the wa and ga particles.
when do you use them?

anyone out there can help? Thanks

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YAS says:

in example found in the grammer points: Kono heya ni hito wa nan nin imasu ka

one can also use: Ano heya ni hito ga nan nin imasu ka

so which one should I use? GA or WA

haha i am confused

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ミニビリー says:

こんばんわ!

Hey guys, I just wanted to thank you and say that you are doing a fantastic job of helping us all understand this すごく日本語!

These lessons are getting ちょっとむずかし now so I was just having a bit of trouble with structures of sentences, and was wondering if you could help me :eek:

Which sentence is correct:
このへやわせんせいにいます- teacher is in this room
せんせいわこのへやにいます- teacher is in this room

or are they both ちがいます :oops:

also was wondering why ‘ga’ was used in the last sentence about いるとねこ

どもどもども!

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Alexandre says:

せんせいはこのへやにいます is the correct answer (don’t forget to you use は).

You are giving information about the teacher, hence せんせいは. The teacher is also the subject of います.

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Alexandre says:

I should say I am also a student (though I do know the answer). Hopefully, a native speaker will confirm my answer for you. :nihon:

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Mayumi says:

Alexandre-san,
Your answer is perfect!! :nihon:

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Kayla says:

Thank you very much for these lessons. I feel as though I am getting better and better. Mina-sama domo arigato gozaimasu!!!!! :kokoro: :nihon:

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sevde says:

konnichiwa!
what is the name of the song which plays when cellphone is called at this audio?
watashi wa suki desu!

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Dana says:

Konnichiwa!
I’m from germany and I just wanted to say that I’m really, really, really grateful for all these lessons! They are a great help. totemo daisuki desu! I’ve always wanted to learn japanese since I really like the language and thanks to you it’s asameshimae! And I’m having a lot of fun listening to the lesson audios, too!
:dogeza: arigatou gozaimasu! :dogeza:

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Jessi says:

Danaさん,
Thanks a lot for your nice comment! We hope you enjoy the future lessons :dogeza:

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Szkrabel says:

今晩は。
The great lesson. But I’ve found some mistakes in the PDF. Statement of Sakura’s father is not exactly the same as in the audio. And there is Natsuko’s father in the translation. And in th Grammar Points instead あります there is 会います.
Best Regards
Jacek

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Mayumi says:

Szkrabel-san,

Thank you for letting us know the mistakes! I fixed them. :wink:

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ケット says:

I’m suprised no one is mentioning about the いる・あるfunctions.

One day in japan I was watching a short program on NHK where they went around asking people (japanese) about prepared items and which would they use

such items were:

Tree
Book
Toy car
Dead Fish
Dog
Teddy Bear

The two that most japanese got wrong were the fish and the teddy bear. They explained that because the fish was dead you use ある although most people asked had used いるfor the answer.

The second was the Teddy Bear, even though it is ある you actually use いる because to a child it is a living friend. Children name and keep stuff animals and treat them as living creature so いる was the correct answer.

Maybe it’s just me, but I found this interesting

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iz says:

Sumimasen, chotto mondai ga arimasu. I just subscribe yesterday and i quite enjoy it. Can i ask sakura san : sakura san, ima doko desu ka?9 Because i heard someone asking question like this. :roll: :roll: thank you.

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Jessi says:

ケットさん,
What an interesting survey! Thanks for sharing :smile:

izさん,
Welcome to the site! Your sentence is perfect :wink:

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tim t. says:

maybe someone already mentioned this …but, Shinjuku means: “new lodgings”.

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Mason S. says:

はじめまして。私輪 Mason です。

レッスンはものすごいよ。

Could I say “みなせんせい” to refer to all the teachers on this site?

Also, this is really a comment, not a question, but it’s very interesting that even a robot would be referred to with います, especially in a high-tech country like Japan. Doesn’t the Shinto faith of Japan teach that ALL things have life?

すごいロボットいますよ。

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Jessi says:

Mason Sさん,
To refer to more than one teacher, you could say:
せんせいのみなさん :)

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Juan says:

I found this article helpful, maybe it will help somebody too. 1/19/2011

“Watashi wa koko ni imasu.” (”I am here.”)

Woah, that’s longer that you’d think. Breaking it down, we’ve got the subject at the beginning, marked by the trusty particle “wa”, then the location where the existing is done in the middle, marked by the new (to you) particle “ni”, and a verb at the end, “imasu”.

“Imasu” is a general-purpose “to be” verb, meaning “am” or “is” as they relate to the existence of something. That is, “I am.”, as opposed to “I am cool.”–the first one declares existence, while the second one declares some property of the person. It’s a subtle difference, but you’ll get the hang of it.

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おう says:

もしもし、鈴木桜です、夏子お願いします。
今夏子はいません。
あ、そですか。
ども有り難うございます。
携帯の方です。
今何処にいますか。
今新宿にいます。ちょうと忙しいです。
またあとで。
お願いします。
また明日ね。

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Nicole says:

Maybe it’s not the most useful question, but would you use いますor ありますfor zombies?

I just wondered. :wink:

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Sam Mason says:

Regarding zombies, since zombies are not real, I would use あります。

If you were writing a horror story, or somehow referring to them in a fictional sense, います would probably work better.

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Motoko says:

Nicole-san, Sam-san,
Thanks Sam-san.
As Sam-san said, います is better. Actually zombies are dead and not real but we use います because they can move like animate lives do.

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