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This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2006 at 7:02 am and is filed under Intermediate 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.
45 Responses to “Intermediate Lesson #2 - Meet Hideo and Mel!”
Friday at 7:02 am
Good podcast
I like starbucks too! the chocochips cookies are great, together with the caramel machiato. I use “girigiri safe” and “maji de” alot, hehe. Girls often say “rakuchin” instead of “Rakushou”, right? I use “un” all the time…. even when I speak norwegian with my friends, or my family on the phone! and stuff like “eto” “ano” etc… i even told my dad “chotto matte” once… He replied to me in chinese @_@ (he studies chinese…) and I actually learnt a new word today! “baribari”. Thanks
My only comment is that Sayuri uses “kashira” a lot.. Maybe you should inform of how to use, and who uses this word. (For those who wonder, it is a girls word… Guys, dont use it! And even girls dont use it that much anymore) All in all, another great podcast
Keep it up! Jonas
Friday at 9:39 am
Today’s location is Chiba・ちば・千葉 the captial of Chiba prefecture!
Chiba is a home to a huge seaport, and Disneyland is close by (after 6pm the prices are very reasonably and it is much less crowed!
) Spend some time at the near by park before heading over at 6.
About today’s lesson!
1) As Jonas pointed out Kashia・かしら should not be used by guys, as it is a girls word. We’ll have a bonus track explaining this slated for release tomorrow! Jonas asks and we deliver, but we need a little sleep this week!
2) Today’s lesson is extremely long because we included the polite form for comparison. We think that this is very important for you as some of you may not have experienced the drastic difference between the different forms of Japanese. Remember! Today’s conversation is that of 3 young friends talking together, so it is extremely informal and casual!!! This is not appropriate Japanese for talking with professors, strangers, at the office, etc. Every week will be a different situation, and the key is to realize and pay attention to what form of Japanese is used.
Please compare the difference of Sayuri’s dialogue this week and last week.
3) As this lesson was so long, we have come up with something special for you guys! Please check back tomorrow for your surprise.
4) For those of you who listened to the lesson, and said where did that come from!!! The Japanese level (grammar and sentence structure) in this dialogue in NOT particularly advanced. However, the vocab and words used are very casual and not found in most textbooks, hence your unfamiliarity with them. We are confident that if you listen to the dialogue a few more times, things will fall into place. Remember, this conversation is as close as you’ll get to a conversation with young people without actually participating. This phrases and expressions are part of daily conversations, and extremely practical!
5) We would like as much feedback about this lesson as possible. In particular, did you like the casual vs. formal dialogues. Would you like the formal version seperate? Would you like the vocab seperate? Would you like a more detailed explanation of various grammar structures? Was this lesson too long? Or as there is only one intermediate class a week, the long lesson was fine? Please let us know! Remember, we’re a reflection of you.
Now, about this lesson. We’re still not sure how Peter got Sasahara-sensei to SSA (Sasahara-sensei approve) this lesson, but we’re launching an investigation! We over heard some of the conversation, but we’re currently questioning and talking to staff. So if anyone has any info, please let us know!
よろしくお願いします!
Friday at 10:24 am
Jonas-san, great points again! Thanks! Yes, today’s lesson was filled to the brim with very practical Japanese!


We’ll see, they were a little pricey!
I am looking into the “rakuchin”, as I personally haven’t heard it.
Un, is very tough to lose! And, brings about looks of surprise as in the US your usually quiet when someone is talking! You can imagine me, うん、うん、うん. Culture shock at its finest.
On the phone, chotto matte, yes, and nani often!
Once said Sumimasen to an airport employee in the states!
Wow, Chinese very nice!
バリバリ funny word!
I also like モリモリ when i go to subway, i sometimes say pickles モリモリ! And they laugh and give me a lot!
Will have the kashira bonus clip out tomorrow, it was actually in the podcast, but eventually wound up on the editting room floor, along with my SVO!
As always thanks for the support! And by the way, I ll mail soon.
Today we were looking at some kitchen studios.
Friday at 10:48 am
Hi there…Happy Friday!
I actually haven’t had a chance to completely finish the lesson yet, since my commute is not that long (which, most of the time, I’m grateful for). Today though, I ended up sitting in my parking garage at work for a few minutes to get a little more in.
I definitely enjoyed the casual dialog, because I would like to be able to learn “real world” usage, with the caveat that it is not to be used to your boss or people you don’t know.
Although, yes, at first listen, I was feeling a little like, “hmmm…maybe I’m not ready for intermediate, and I’m somewhere in between.” By the 2nd listen, I was starting to pick up bits and pieces, so I’m sure that’s probably right where I should be with it, especially with the informal speech being completely new to me.
I am also very interested in learning the grammar, but I would be fine with that going into the lesson notes. I don’t mind the intermediate lessons being longer, especially since, as you mentioned, they would be once a week.
Overall, I’m very excited by the intermediate lessons. ありがとうございます!
〜ロンダ
Friday at 11:02 am
Hi
I will leave Mexico on Feb 16th, and I’m going to stay 3 days in LA, then fly on sunday to NRT and arrive Tokyo-Shinjuku monday feb 20th… so I’m hopping the chapter on bodylanguage will arrive to my iPod before I leave MTY (Mx)
I will stay only until saturday 25th (have to work
)… I hope we can have the chance to meet in Tokyo… so you can see I’m actually sticking to the very basics in Japanese (kidding)
…
I loved todays practice… Listening to that level of Japanese makes me long I had more time to spend in Japan to really get to know this amazing culture and language… anyway… time will come… somewhen…
I learned the Un… When I lived in Germany (1 year) everybody used to say mh mh mh as the other person was talking… I think this “Un” is kind of the same…
Until then… Matane
PS. If you have interest in any kind of Mexican (or LA) souvenir, let me know and I will bring it to you… thats the less I can do for you after all the wonderful work you have done with this podcast. Hasta la vista, bye.
Friday at 11:43 am
Did someone say Chiba?
My wife is from Chiba! Actually she’s from the town of Toke, which if you draw a line directly across the narrowest part of the peninsula that makes up Chiba prefecture, Toke is right in the middle.
We’ve been married for about 8 years and we go back often (we live in the US). Her English is about as good as my Japanese is bad (which is really bad!). Her score on the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) was 930 and that was years ago! So that gives you an idea how poor my Japanese is.
My in-laws have been scolding her for not teaching me enough Japanese ever since we got married. Well, you are helping me change that and I just wanted to say thanks. I’ve tried language tapes before, but I always give up after a short while. You guys are different. You make it so much fun!!
I’m listening to all your podcasts while I’m at work (I’m about a month behind right now) and printing all the pdf files and keeping them in a binder as a study referrence. If there is anything I can do to repay you please let me know!! You all are the best!!!
Friday at 12:09 pm
I want to thank-you so much for doing these podcasts! I really appreciate all the work you put into it. I spent a year in Japan and I wish I had the chance to study your survival phrases at the time - they would have been so useful! I managed to learn most of them but it took a long while. I’m working at home now in Canada but trying to learn more Japanese in case I get the chance to go back. This lesson was quite a challange for me but it’ll give me something to work on for the week. I don’t mind the length if it’s only once a week. Thank you also for including the hiragana and kanji in the lesson notes. I enjoy the kanji of the day too. Keep up the good work!
Friday at 4:51 pm
H there again people!
Jaa matta
Very nice lesson and lots of useful words! Where else could we learn real Japanese that easy? Answer: on japanesepod101! I have built up a large vocabulary and speaking Japanese faster than even my friend whos studying at a private school. Its because here we hear real Japanese. Doumo arigato gozaimashita
Watashi wa Nihongo o suki desu yo
Friday at 6:35 pm
Jonas-san, thank you for your comments! “Chotto matte” and your father’s Chinese reply、すごいですね
お父様も言語にお詳しいんですね。
I’m impressed. “Rakuchin,” which originally was a children’s word, is also a word for “easy.” It is, as you say, more fequently used by girls, but boys used it a lot, too (e.g., Kono isu ha sugoi rakuchin danaa). “Rakuchin” and “rakushou” can often be used in the same situation, but there is a slight difference in meaning. “Rakuchin” means the process is easy or you feel comfortable (e.g., going on a package tour instead of planning out the trip yourself (rakuchin na tabi)), while “rakushou” means you can win or achievie something without much effort (e.g., going up this hill by bicycle is easy for me (kono saka ha rakushou)). So, for ronbun, both can be used depending on whether the focus is on the process or the accomplishment.
Guys say “kana” instead. Since young girls are coming to prefer using less female language, female-sounding language such as “kashira” may be used more often by girls with an ojyosama-ish (well-brought up?) atmosphere or girls who try not to use boyish language. I think this sense of trying not to use boyish language develops as you get older, while when we are younger, we try to sound cool by using boyish language. So if you compare high-school students and college students, you are likely to find more college girls using female language than high-school girls. And I think such female language is used in an informal and friendly but not too intimate relationship. In a real situation, more college girls are likely to say “daijoubu kana” where Sayuri said “daijoubu kashira,” but from details like this, you can imagine that she’s not the type who would say “majide”
(But I must admit I myself use “majide” a lot
though I try to use “hontoni.”)

So I can’t tell if I agree with them all, but I thought it might give you some idea. I hope it helps.

I didn’t expect to hear “rakuchin” here, wow
Also, thank you for pointing out about “kashira.” You are right. Guys don’t use it!
Sorry for this long comment. It was such an interesting topic to talk about. Thanks Jonas!
Rhonda-san, thank you for your comment! We are still at a stage of trying out different things for this chukyu level, so a comment like yours will help us a lot in developing our future lessons. Istumo arigatou gozaimasu
Dr Lalo-san, you are leaving soon! Actually, we may not be able to provide lessons on body language before you leave, here is a site I found on Japanese gestures. Sorry, I haven’t read through the whole thing
http://lov-e.com/RLSArticlesfolder/JBL1.html
Don’t forget to check our Travel Center for the temperature in Japan and all
Eriku-san, thank you for your wonderful post. Arigatou gozaimasu. I hope you can surprise your wife’s family and relatives with your Japanese the next time you come to Japan
Teresa-san, thank you for your helpful and encouraging post. 是非参考にさせていただきます。
みなさん、ありがとうございます。これからもコメントどしどしお寄せくださいね
Friday at 6:39 pm
Hi, Marcos-san, itsumo arigatou gozaimasu!
私たちも、これからもっともっと頑張っていこうと思います。
またね
Friday at 7:30 pm
I thought I should add something else about my post above about “kashira.” I mentioned that young girls often use boyish language to sound cool, but most of their language is neutral sounding, and they use boyish words sometimes to
We’ll check out more about it with Sasahara sensei!
spice it up. And as they get older, (not all people, but some people) come to sprinkle in feminine expressions in their neutral-sounding language.So, it’s perfectly fine for grown-up ladies to use neutral expressions only (many people do). But occasional use of feminine expressions might be nice to soften the sound of the conversation
I also mentioned that it’s not used when the relationship is very very close, but come to think of it, it might depend on the character of the person speaking it (a very feminine person might use it).
So, this is MY view of “kashira”
Jaane!
Friday at 8:20 pm
Peter-san; My ex-girlfriend used “rakuchin” alot, so I guess I picked it up from there.
Morimori is a nice word too. Sometimes use it, hehe.
)
Oh, I’ve had the same airport-experience as you! Going back from Japan to norway, after staying in Sapporo for 6 months, I told the norwegian stewardess first “sumimasen” them “excuse me?” before finally ariving at “unnskyld?” (i guess you get the meaning
Well, I’ll wait for your mail
Sakura-san; 詳しく説明してくれてありがとうございます!「らくちん」と「らくしょう」の違いはじめて知った。まぁ、なんとなく分かったけど、お陰でこれからちゃんと区別できます。
うちの家族結構すごいですよ。親父は中国人と再婚して、そのため今大学で中国語を勉強している。そして弟も大学通ってるし、母ちゃんも針治療を勉強。
ところで、僕の大学で「~かしら」を言う女性一回も見たことがないですよ。彼女のお母さんはたまに使うけどね。
いつも素晴らしいポッドキャストをいただいてありがとうございます。
これからもよろしくお願いします!
ヨーナス
Friday at 9:35 pm
Hey JapanesePod!
I haven’t really listened through this one yet since I’m still catching up (and trying to resist going out of order), but I can tell I’m definitely going to love it!
Sakura-san!! Great, great, fantastic comments! That’s good stuff, right there. Discussion about these little things always tends to bring lots of great information to light. Keep it up!
As always, thanks a million, JP101 crew!
Saturday at 3:46 am
I’d just like to answer the questions posed above.
“did you like the casual vs. formal dialogues”
Yes, I thought it was helpful to hear both. I also thought it was helpful to hear casual both with and without background noise, to give it more of an authentic feel first time round, then really concentrating on it second time.
“Would you like the formal version seperate?”
I think it worked very well as it was, so no need to separate it in my eyes!
“Would you like the vocab seperate?”
Again, I think the way the PDF’s are set out are very helpful, and don’t really need changing.
“Would you like a more detailed explanation of various grammar structures?”
I think the only one that people may have found difficult is the ばかり structure, but I think it was adequately explained in the lesson, with a good breakdown of how to form it, followed by a few examples.
“Was this lesson too long?”
Not at all! Like you say, there is only one intermediate lesson a week, and seeing as there’s so much good information in it, if it were any shorter, I think it would have been at the cost of the quality of the cast. So long as you lot don’t mind doing such a long lesson, I’m sure everyone appreciates it!
And on a separate note, I think it’s a good format, having one intermedate lesson per week… I don’t suppose you guys would consider maybe doing one advanced lesson per month, for example? I think some listeners may appreciate the level of the cast stepping up another level, but alike the format of the intermedate lessons, an advanced lesson could be like a rare treat! What do you guys think?
Keep up the good work everyone, the cast is, as ever, just great!
Saturday at 7:24 am
Thank you for your fine job. I really enjoy listening your daily lessons. I listen your podcast when going to works with my bicycle.
This one was pretty difficult, but also full of interest.
Perhaps you could think making from time to time a lesson ‘repeat after me’ style: I often wants to repeat the perfect pronunciation of Natsuko, but it’s hard to pause my MP3 when driving my bicycle
Keep on that good works.
PS: I’m not english native, so forgive my poor english.
Saturday at 8:15 am
ロンダさん、 thanks for making out day!
The part about sitting in the car to get the extra few minutes was great!
Lalo-sensei! Thank you for the update. Please keep us updated, and email us with you plans!
Eriku-san, thanks for the great post! Wow a 930!! That is impressive! Please stick with us, we are hoping to get a post from you in 6 months saying how surprised your inlaws were!
Please keep listening! And let us know if there is anything we can do.
Teresa-san, yes, a lot of the material is based on daily experiences that have given me trouble and remained in my long term memory, so I am sure you can relate.
I also remember how painful Japanese school was, so we try hard to break the rules.
But that is why we have Sasahara-sensei, she keeps us in check!
We have a lot more in store to get you ready for your next trip.
Marcos-san! Great to hear from you! And thanks for the great story! Thank you for listening everyday!!
So great to hear that your making such progress! Keep up the great work. 
Almost all the time ga comes before suki or kirai. Well get into this later! Keep up the great work!
ps Nihongo ga suki desu yo!
Sakura-san!!
Great to hear from you! Keep the great posts coming, but please stop making my English look bad!!
Can you make a mistake or two to make me look good?
Jonas-san, thanks for helping with “rakuchin!” And the story with the Norwegian stewardess was great!
Nathan-san! Feel free to skip to intermediate as they are seperate from the lessons!
Rob-san, Thanks for posting! I owe you and email, もうすこし待って下さい。Thanks for the feedback it was great!
The advanced lesson suggestion is a very valid one, and we’ll have an 打ち合わせ about it on Monday. I actually wanted to do one to learn myself!
We also have lots more in store. Please keep the posts coming.
Alexandre-san, first, your English is great! No problems what so ever! Also feel free to write in Japanese too!
Thank you for your suggestion. Have you tried repeating along with Natsuko? As it is said 3 times, once, breakdown, and again, you could say it at the same time Natsuko does, how does that sound?
Saturday at 8:16 am
Wow! I think I really overused the icons in the last post!
Saturday at 8:35 am
Peter-san,
Good idea, I think I may just have to do that! (You’ve forced me to give into my temptation!)
And if I didn’t restrain myself, I’d probably have emoticons after each sentence (or more)
Sunday at 4:00 am
Hi. I asked some of my friends about this interesting topic of “kashira.” And what they said is that they tend to use it intentionally when they want to sound a bit “jyohin” (elegant?). So, while I have been using it without such an intention, I seem to be “shousuuha” (minority). Oh-oh
Gomennasai. So, please consider my earlier explanation about “kashira” and feminine language as what applies to Sakura rather than Japanese people in general 
Minasan doumo arigatou!
Jaane!
I have this kind of discussion with my colleagues about English language almost everyday (and I love it), but not about Japanese. Sugoku omoshirokatta desu
Sunday at 4:28 am
さくらさん:彼女はメールとかでちょっとふざけた感じでたまに使うって。
ヨーナス
Sunday at 8:55 pm
I think you’re doing a great job keeping it fun and providing interesting, educational content.
Now, to be pedantic, I have to reproach you over two of the translations into English. First, the plural of thesis is thesES. It rhymes with fec–strike that–species. Second, “I also don’t understand.” You’ve been in Japan too long m’ boy. Perhaps you used that strained English to impart the structure of the Japanese sentence, but we would never say it that way spontaneously. What would we say? “I don’t know EITHER.”
Oops, that juxtaposition sounds like an Abott and Costello routine . . .
Sunday at 9:07 pm
ヨーナスさん、ガールフレンドの方にも是非宜しくお伝えくださいね
いつもありがとうございます、って
Sunday at 11:43 pm
Bob-san, thanks for pointing that out! The editting section had a bad week.
And you’re right on the second one, just used for emphasis. Trust me when I say, “I don’t know either,” is phrase I use daily!
Monday at 1:41 am
Hey everyone!
I just want to thank you all for helping me with Japanese. I’m living in Japan and find this pod cast very helpful. It’s very easy to survive here with only the survival phrases. So getting something new to listen to everyday really helps me get in gear and stay focused on studying.
I finally got caught up yesterday.
The intermediate lesson was fantastic. The first time I listened to the casual conversation I didn’t really get what was going on, but I understood more of the formal conversation, I guess I’ve been studying out of textbooks too long. But the second listen of the casual conversation was much easier.
As for the questions you posted earlier Peter:
“Was the lesson too long?”
The lesson wasn’t too long. It was a good length actually. Sometimes I feel as if the 10 minutes lesson is too short.
“Do I want the vocab, formal dialogues, casual dialogues, separate?”
Well, I must say it would be nice to have track marks to skip to the grammar or vocab parts of this lesson, just because of the length. But I don’t know how hard that is to put into a pod cost and I know all of you are working incredibly hard putting these together for us. I don’t see the need for separate pod casts though.
Monday at 2:59 am
WOW!!!! That is hard! I will have to sit down a listen to this podcast a few times. If that is intermediate, then I have no chance when it gets harder. It all went over my heard *WHOOSH!* Hehehe! Please give me 10 years to learn this podcast…then I promise I will catch up with the rest afterwards.
Jaa mata
Steve
Monday at 8:06 am
Lance-san, thank you for listening! We’re really glad you liked the intermediate lesson! It is packed with practical expressions for speaking with intimate friends! Your point about the formal conversation was just what we expected! Yes, we know that many people are much more familiar with the polite form, so we feel it is important to introduce everyone to more casual conversations. This is tricky, as we have to be careful about how we do it, but we are confident we have a winning solution!
Thank you for the suggestion! We’ll take a look at it.
Steve-san, you can do this! Sit down with the notes, and go over them. You will definately surprise yourself!
頑張ってください!
Monday at 4:22 pm
I love Japanese101 podcasts. I’m trying to learn as much Japanese as I can before visiting Japan again in May this year. I wanted to know what Sakura is saying at the beginning of the program when she says: Kono bangumi wa… (this program is brought to you by Erklaren). They seem to say this in TV commercials alot.
Ross
Los Angeles
Monday at 7:57 pm
She says “kono bangumi ha Erklaren ga o-okuri-shimasu”. If you wonder about the verb here, it’s the humble polite form of “okuru”, which is created by taking the “masu-stem” of the verb, adding “o” in front and “suru” at the end.
What they say on TV(not commercials, but before a program starts or ends) is something similar: Kono bangumi ha goran no sponsaa no teikyou de ookurishimasu.この番組はご覧のスポンサーの提供でお送りします。
I’ll leave it as a challenge for you you to decifter the meaning
Jonas
Wednesday at 12:54 pm
How can I get this onto my iPod?
Wednesday at 2:42 pm
In the lesson you used 今週 when referring to this weekend. In cases like this, when people say 今週, do the 相手 automatically assume the speaker means this weekend instead of this week?
Thursday at 10:32 pm
konshuu = this week
konshuu matsu = this weekend.
As for the lesson… I have one month of catching up to do, but I’ve been learning Japanese for a year and this was the perfect level. I’m a little weak on vocab but combining the vocab and grammar together i learned in this lesson was amazing.
Monday at 9:58 am
This was a perfect lesson in my book. I Japanese for several years awhile back and have been using your podcasts as refreshers. This was the first podcast in which I learned a lot and a lot of what I learned I wouldn’t be able to find in a textbook. Textbooks seem to avoid contemporary speech and cultural references like Starbucks and snowboard, but if you’re a visitor to Japan these are exactly the types of terms you need to know. At first the speech in the lesson seemed a bit fast, but then I latched on and appreciated the opportunity to really test my skills. Thanks a bunch. I’m still catching up but now that I’ve found that you’re doing these intermediate lessons I’m going to be listening more regularly!
Wednesday at 11:27 pm
Andrew-san, nice catch! We probably should have said 今週末 (konshuumatsu) “this weekend,” but since the lesson was on a Friday, 今週 (konshuu ) “this week” also seems to work. Thanks for the post.
Tintin-san, thanks for helping and posting! Great to have you.
And, welcome to the community. Please keep the posts coming.
Ken-san, welcome back! Great to have you and thanks for posting. We hope to add a lot more material for intermediates in the near future. Yoroshiku!
Thursday at 6:27 am
I have a question about the difference between kimochi ii and ii kibun. While I think it is true that kimochi (ga) ii is physical and ii kibun is mental I am not sure about kimochi (ga) warui.
I think that kimochi warui, or kimoi as often used in slang, can refer to a mental or physical feeling or even a physical feeling brought on by a mental response. kimoi (kimochi ga warui) is more directly translated as “gross” in English.
Any thoughts?
Thursday at 12:52 pm
So, I know this is an old lesson, but if anyone can help me with this, I would be appreciative:
Hideo and Mel both say “わからない” when asked about Yoko, and this is translated as “I don’t know.” I had always learned “しらない。” for “I don’t know” and “わかる” as being “to understand” rather than “to know”, “しる”. I suppose it might be only a slight difference in nuance, but I’ve been saying わからない (and meaning to get in the habit of わかりません - I haven’t been as polite as I ought to) when, as often happens, my ears fail me and something someone over here says is more than I can quite get, so I wanted to be sure I had this right.
Friday at 1:53 am
Gerry, I’m no expert, but I think しる is specifically “to know”, whereas わかる can be both “to know” or “to understand”. e.g. ”Peterさんは黒人です。” ”まじで。。。しらなかった。” You can’t use わからなかった in that situation.
I don’t know.. probably safest to stick to しる = “to know” and わかる = “to understand”
JPod101 のみんなさんこんにちは、thank you so much for creating such a great program! I discovered JPod101 a couple of weeks ago and have been listening to it on my commute to work every day since! I am the one who wrote a review on Yahoo! Podcast about you ppl’s voice being sexy and all
(It’s true, very sexy!)
I just finished this lesson, I wasn’t surprised that I could understand most of it the first time around. I studied Japanese for 2 years in high school here in the US, continued in college (Univ. of Washington) until the first quarter of 2nd year Japanese, where I flunked it spectacularly!! I still blame it on the teacher, she was native Japanese but wasn’t a Japanese Language Professor. I can’t put it any better than what my classmate had said: “I used to LOVE Japanese, but she (the professor) had ruined it for me and now I hate it.”
After that, I stopped studying but continued to watch anime and tv dramas and read mangas and played games. Nowadays, I can understand a lot when I read or listen, but I can’t speak or write very well. Your JPod101 is helping me A LOT in that department! You see, although I have Japanese friends here in New York, I mostly speak to them in English because they’re here to learn English. I don’t get to practice speaking in Japanese ever. Now, I can listen to your conversations and pretend I’m talking with you guys (in the subway no less!)
So, thanks!! My only complaint is that the beginners lesson are a little slow, but I guess u’ll start picking up the pace from here on.
You know what will be great though? A chat room!!!! I’ve never been on an internet chat room, but if there’s one for JPod101, I’d be on there everyday!!!
I hope you guys will read this post… I wonder if you guys have a way to view all recent comments, since I don’t see you guys reply to old lessons much. BTW, Jpod101 のWebチームは、ニューヨークにいるでしょう? 僕はヤフーの社員ですけど、お前だちに応援あげたいんです。ぼくにe-mailしてください。
Jpod101 のおかげで、ほんとに感謝しています。
Friday at 2:21 am
Well, I doubt Gerry will read this… but for the benefit of everyone else.
しらない/しりません。 means i have no idea, or I have no knowledge of that.
わからない/わかりません means I don’t know, or I’m not sure I know.
Just like you ask “Do you know/understand English?” instead of “Do you have any knowledge of English?”
Obviously しらない can be less polite than わからない in many cases, so if you’re just starting off, only use しらない if someone asks you a question using it unless you’re sure you know.
Friday at 2:31 am
I checked the little email box, so I did see it! But, I’m not living in Japan anymore so it’s a considerably less pressing issue.
And actually, my host mother tried to explain it to me because I was saying しらない when she asked what I wanted for dinner. Her English wasn’t very good, of course, but she said something like, しらない is “I don’t know that.” and わからない (incidentally, I heard わかない, which I think is an abbreviation akin to “I dunno” a whole lot while I was there) is more like, “I can’t figure it out.” If you leave out the English nuances it sounds like that works fairly well.
Thanks for the advice, both of you!
Friday at 5:41 am
Oh, I have an error to report! rakusho in this lesson’s notes had the kanji - 落書. It should actually be 楽勝 (らくしょう)。
Tuesday at 2:08 am
Small Error in PDF
In the 13 line of the PDF in the English section.
“Sayuri: Continuously working on my thesis. I’ve just handed it in. Oh it was”
This is cut off at the end. I Think it should be “Oh it was rough.”
Thanks
John C. Briggs
Tuesday at 2:12 am
Translation question.
Is this deliberate. In the hiragana you have
こんしゅうスノボは?
but in the English you have
How about going snowboarding this weekend?
Is this a deliberate change from “This Week” to “This Weekend”?
Thanks
John C. Briggs
Thursday at 11:40 am
As a former employee of Sutaba, I would like to note that we just call it a “mocha”, not a mocha latte
. In Japan do they call it that? I live here but I don’t have any Starbuckses around me! Alas.
Monday at 12:54 am
Hi, folks!
Just a comment about a point in the notes: It is talking about “kana”, and it uses the example;
寒い かな・samui kana
- I wonder if something is cold
寒かった かな・samukatta kana
- I wonder if something was cold
I don’t feel I’m in a position to correct 先生、 but seems to me that samui kana would be better as I wonder if it is cold (as in weather, or temperature in a room, etc.) When something is cold (a drink, water, ice, some frozen food or ice cream, etc) it is tsumetai.
Also, in the notes, it has for vocabulary;
ところで ところで dokoro de by the way .
Seems the romaji should be “tokoro de”.
Cheers!
Monday at 9:28 am
Martinさん,
Thanks for bringing that to our attention!
I think you made a very good point! I have altered the lesson notes to reflect that
Thursday at 6:18 am
I wanted to leave a quick note regarding Intermediate lesson 2. I really liked that you provided a comparison between the casual and formal dialogues. In my past studies I have always wished such a comparison would be provided. You guys were spot on with this one! As additional feedback, i’m not sure that at the intermediate level it’s really necessary to sound out the words so slowly. I can understand where this would be necessary in more basic levels but my sense is that most intermediate students might become impatient with the slow pronunciation section. I could be wrong and perhaps it’s better for you to offer it than not. Thanks again for a great lesson!
~Rin
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