Today’s location is Gifu・ぎふ・岐阜 is capital of Gifu prefecture famous for three popular Japanese pastimes: hiking, skiing and hot springs.

Hello Jonathan-san!

Bonus track will be out shortly!

OMG! Our whole editing team has been fired, and I just called Natsuko to get down to the studio ASAP!!!! I don’t know how that happened, but we owe everyone a big apology!

Wonder if anyone else even noticed probably not, hehe. Just me that have a special interest in linguistics, so I notice stuff like that right away. The podcasts are generally superb in quality, and it is human to make mistakes… So dont fire ALL of your editing staff… Leave atleast 1 person （笑

Jonas

Thanks! I have to admit I love grammar

Just stopping by to say hi, as you guys use to say…
I’m Diego and I’m writing from my hometown, Milan, Italy.
Thanks to your daily lessons I’m both improving my japanese a lot and keeping up my skill in english language.
Thank you! I think your method is very useful, and also… entertaining.

Keep up the good work!
Bye! ^^/

[Maybe this was not the right place for such a message. If it’s so, I’m sorry, but I’m at work and quite in a hurry!]

Hey there!
I downloaded the podcast,but I didn’t listen to it yet because I was a little busy at work. I am listening to it right now. Nice work again guys! I can’t wait to practice Japanese verb conjugation with the bonus lesson. I think you should employ Jonas too Peter because he is a whiz guy But, please don’t fire anyone Jaa matta

mama mia

I just noticed through iTunes that JapanesePod101.com is listed as #8 on the Top Educational Podcasts. Congratulations! Well deserved!!

おめでとうございます！

〜ロンダ

Aaaahhhh, yes, conjugation!, mmmm, I’ve been practicing for a while to conjugate verbs, but I haven’t been able to get it right, It looks simple but I can’t seem to get it lodged in my head.

I look forward to more classes regarding conjugation, should be very interesting and fun.

メキシコからこんにちは。

Peter-san, Sakura-san, minnasan, konbanwa! 9.30 pm here…
I’d like to thank you all for your warm welcome! Arigatou gozaimasu!
I really enjoyed this lesson. It’s true, Japanese conjugation is quite simple. Now I understand why my japanese friends are going crazy trying to study italian grammar! ^^”
I can’t wait for the next lesson!
I use to listen to you while driving to and from my law firm, so: “see” you tomorrow morning!
Mata ashita!

PS: Peter-san, your surname tells me your’re a little bit italian, too. ^^

アルフォンソさん、ありがとうございます！ちゃんと発音できてよかったです You are right about らりるれろ sounds in Japanese. The consonant is kind of inbetween “R” and “L” (it seems to be called alveolar lateral flap). The tongue is not rolled as in “R,” but not touching the back of your upper teeth as in “L.” The tongue touches the bump behind your upper teech, or the alveolar ridge.
So it’s very hard for we Japanese to make the distinction between “L” and “R” when we learn English Thank you for your comment!

I was just wondering, what is the difference between saying “tabemasen ka” and “tabemashou”?

For the most part, these two expressions are semantically equal, but the difference lay in the way you convay the question/invitation. As a rule of thumb, negative endings, when used in an invitation, are more polite than positive endings.

The -mashou form of the verb is generally translated as “lets -verb-”, so “isshoni tabemashou” would be “lets eat together” and “isshoni tabemasen ka” would translate as “Shalln’t we eat together?”

-mashou forwars your opinion in a stronger way than -masen ka.

Hope this helps!

Jonas

Hi, I am new to your podcast and I love it!

I keep trying to download the bonus mp3 for this lesson but it says there is an Error with the file. Is there anyway to fix this problem?? I would really like to have the bonus lesson.

Thanks!

Hi, thanks as always for the excellent podcast… I’m catching up (I hope )

A question about the pdf notes, when there are questions like なんでですか, you add a question mark at the end. Is it appropriate as the か is already here to say this is a question ?

I’ve seen question marks in my lessons, so I know they are used in japanese, like in お酒?, but can you clarify when we should write them ?

Peter & Natsuko,

I have now listened to your podcast for a week and I have learned more about basic Japanese than after spending 5 weeks with the “Genki” textbook my wife bought at Kinokuniya in Los Angeles. I have no idea why so many academicians think throwing a mass quntity of information at a student is the best thing to start out with.

This is particularly relevant in the study of Japanese, as so many of the words sound so incredibly similar. Your methodical, fun lessons are wonderful and exactly what I was looking for. Plus, I can tell you are all very nice people!

My wife’s grandfather lives in Tokyo and does not speak any English so I am trying to learn so we can communicate a little better. He was an ace pilot in WWII so I have a lot to gain by trying! He is also very funny.

I’ll post some more as the lessons go on but I finally wanted to get something up. Peter, you deserve a lot of props. Maybe I can buy you an Asahi when we show up in the land of the rising sun.

Mata Ashtanee,

Chris in NYC

Technically, hiru no jikan translates to lunch time, while hiru gohan means “lunch” - the meal itself. However, there are a lot of situations where you could use either, I think… but not all.

I don’t think you could say “hiru no jikan wo tabemasen ka?” to invite someone out, for example.