Is this a deliberate change from “This Week” to “This Weekend”?
Thanks
John C. Briggs

“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

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!

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.

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。

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.

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?

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!