Learn about our growing Japanese Language Learning community made possible by our great listeners! Also, if your coming to Japan, you’ll want to check out our website’s newest feature, the Travel Center. This, plus much more in this week’s edition of JapanesePod101.com news. And don’t forget to be prepared for more praise!
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 12th, 2006 at 6:31 am and is filed under News. 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.
23 Responses to “News #7 - The Travel Center”
japanesepod101.com says:
February 12th, 2006 at 6:40 am
Mina-san・みなさん・皆さん! Hope everyone had a great weekend (And for those of you still enjoying yours, please have a great rest of the weekend! 
)!
We just wanted to thank you for all the reviews, ratings, votes and for spreading the word! 
We have gotten a ton of emails from people saying that they gave us a try because of this and then stuck around!
YOU, the listeners, are directly responsible for this, and we wanted to thank you! Also, we wanted to ask for your continued support, votes, reveiws, ratings, emails, posts, and spreading the word! Remember, YOU, the listeners, are helping to turn Japanese into one of the most popular virtual languages studied!!!
Let’s show the world how fun studying Japanese can be together!
ほんとうにありがとうございます！！
MintyFresh says:
February 12th, 2006 at 8:58 am
And now for local news from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
My friend Kim was at a sushi restarant with about six other people. When the waitress came to take drink orders, Kim thought she would try out her japanese on the waitress. Kim was the second person the waitress asked for her drink order and Kim said お茶を下さい. At hearing this, the waitress said hai and turned around and ran off to get Kim’s tea with out taking anyone else’s drink order. Appreanty kudasai packs a punch.
Minty
Peter says:
February 12th, 2006 at 9:04 am
Minty-san! Great to hear from you! And thanks for the great story!! Got a good laugh out of that one! 
I’ll let everyone know about this!
Keep the great posts coming!
Jonas says:
February 12th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Heh.. I tried the same thing at a japanese restaurant in norway. Turns out the girl was korean, and didn’t understand at all! 
Jonas
Peter says:
February 12th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Jonas-san, how was Sakura’s pronunciation?? Were we 3 for 3?
Jonas says:
February 12th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Peter-san:満点 And 3 times in a row! I feel honoured 
Good to hear you get so many good reviews too! But I guess thats only natural, since you make such a good show 
Steve says:
February 12th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Konnichiwa Minna san.
I just wanted to say Hello. Not heard the last 3 / 4 podcasts, been busy, plus this weekend I visited my parents. But My wife and I , over dinner, were speaking about possibly visiting Japan, this year. It started when I checked my savings and saw that I had a lot more than what I actually thought I had (I am so lazy at checking my bank statements and balance) and she knows it as been something I have wanted to do for a long time…since I was 12 years old in fact….So who knows….I might actually have a great chance to practice what I have learnt. Plus my little gilr keeps telling me she wants to visit Anpanman World and Kitty-chan Land…if it is going to be that kind of trip…then off to the Ghibli museum I go Anyway…it is just all talk at the moment…Apart from that…’Hello Everyone, I hope you are all well’ Now I am going to listen to, what I think are the best Japanese band, ‘Love Psychedelico’
O-genki de
Steve
tony says:
February 12th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Minna, genki?
Just wanted to wish eveyone a great week! I getting ready to print up the PDF’s from the show’s , what a great idea!!
Thanks for the hockey video, it’s great to see, here in st. louis I too am a great hockey fan, I’m watching my Blues right now
My favorite J-pop is also Love psychedelico, I also love Southern All Stars and Mr. Children. What about you guys?
Have a great week, keep up the good work! talk to you soon!!
Mata ne
Marcos says:
February 12th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Hey there again!
Gosh! I need to watch more tv because I was not aware of the Olympics 
Thanks for that awesome pod on the Olympics guys!
By the way, could you guys help me out? I am looking for an English/Japanese dictionary,but I don’t know where to start. Any recommendations would be pretty nice. Also Peter, I used to speak to the tv when I was learning English,but not anymore It helps a lot to speak out loud. Nowadays I practice my English over the net and with my friends here. I am beggining to learn all again with Nihongo now. I have a long way to go yet,but pretty motivated thanks to these podcasts. Nihongo gambare! Matta
Steve says:
February 13th, 2006 at 2:25 am
Just listened to JapanesePod101.com News #7. Thanks for mentioning my name again. どうもありがとうございます。 Japanesepod101.com が大好きです。
Steve
Jonas says:
February 13th, 2006 at 3:00 am
Marcos-san: Hehe, I wasn’t aware about the olympics until recently either Well, I knew it was sometime this year, but not when it started…
Just want to mention a couple of things:
I don’t agree 100% with Peter&co’s translation of gambare as “go” or “win”. As I interpret it, it’s more like “do your best!”. Of course “gambare nippon!” could be translated as “go japan!”(or should, sometimes, to get a more natural translation), but I think it’s beneficial to think of it as “do your best”. E.g. if you translate “Gambarimasu”, you would translate it to “I’ll do my best”, and not “I will gogogo!!”.
Next, you don’t (usually) say “nihongo gambare!”. Gambare is the imperative form of the “gambaru” verb, so “nihongo gambare” would translate to something like “Do your best with japanese!” or “Study japanese!” etc depending on the context. Well, the point is, that you only use imperative when you talk to others(unless you’re speaking to yourself, like “stupid ****, you need to study more!!”, after you get a test back 
). You would probably be better off using the volitional form of the verb (gambarou, gambarimashou).
Ok, lots of rambling here… Hope what I’ve written is understandable! If more explanataions are needed, just say so. I’m sure a podcast covering these subjects will be made too!
Jonas
Marcos says:
February 13th, 2006 at 4:08 am
Thanks for the explanations, Jonas. I am still a beginner in Japanese. I think it’s important to know the words literally in order to understand them right. Thats why it’s important to know the main verbs in Japanese. That lesson on verbs conjugation was really good! I am looking forward to seeing more lessons on verbs,speacially the main verbs in Japanese. You seem to speak Japanese very well,Jonas. If you know any good Japanese/English dictionary,please let me know ok Matta
Jonas says:
February 13th, 2006 at 4:40 am
Marcos-san: I agree. I always try to learn the literal meaning of a word, and not an aproximate translation. Actually, I try to just understand a word, not learn the translation. Thats why sometimes I use japanese words I don’t really understand, but I “feel” what they mean, and I’m able to use them correctly.
As for my japanese, I’m not fluent, but I’m aiming for the 1kyuu (or level1) japanese proficiency test this year!
And dictionaries, if you are looking for a web-based one, I can recommend Jim Breen’s wwwjdic. And if you’re thinking of a more mobile dictionary, how about an electronic one? Check out http://www.casio.co.jp/exword/ or search google for “ex word” (thats my favorite. The interface is in japanese, and it is aimed at japanese students studying english, but it doesn’t take too long to get used to.)
Jonas
Peter says:
February 13th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Steve-san, WOW! That would be great! Also great to have you back! Keep us posted on what is going on!
Tony-san, great to hear that you liked the video! The league they have is pretty cool! Tough year for the Blues, but on the bright side, we can hope for gold in Torino!
Steve-san & Tony-san, I’m looking into the band you guys like so much. To tell the truth, I haven’t heard them. Will let you know. As for me, Mr. Children do the trick at Karaoke!
Marcos-san, yeah, this year’s olympics snuck up on everyone!! 
Jonas-san beat me again to the answer! He is fast!!! His suggestion’s are great! Jim Breen, baby! Great free resource. Personally, if your doing all your studying at home, Breen’s page should do the trick!
And please keep talking to the TV!
Steve-san, after all you do? We really appreciate it!
Jonas-san, come, come. You didn’t know about the winter olympics?? Don’t be modest. Norway will probably add more gold this year through the olympics, than will be mined in her natural borders.
As for our tranlations, if you notice we translate ganbare as go, win, but o-tagai ganbarimashou as Let’s both do our best. When translating, the words alone are not enough, especially in Japanese, so you have to look at the context. And, as for ganbare, it is used often as sporting events with no decided “calls” or decided songs, etc., such as speed skating.
We jumped ahead a bit, but we feel it fit well with the theme of the show.
Marcos-san, we have a lot more in store grammar wise! Just hang in there a bit longer. Just as Jonas-san recommended, Jim Breen and some other useful resources can be found in our supplemental material page on the right side under links.
Jonas-san, thanks again!
Jonas says:
February 13th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Peter-san: Jim Breen, the godfather of japanese language resources and related on the web, huh All students of japanese should be aware of his site.
About the gambare thing, sure, translation isn`t an exact science, so i cant say that you are wrong. But my personal philosophy, and what works for me is to, in the beginning, to think of one word as meaning aproximately one thing. Then, as you hear the word gets used in a different context, you modify your interpretation of that word. Having to many interpretations of one word in the beginning gets confusing(again, this is my view and my experience. Others might have no problem remembering many definitions, and applying them in real life situations). Thinking of “gambare nippon” as “do your best japan”, it still makes sense, right? And then, as you hear this new use of “gambare”, you think someting like “in english, one would say ‘go japan’ instead”, and you modify your interpretation of the word.
Well, this is my view… There’s so many schools of thought, so many philosophies when it comes to language learning, so there is no correct answer in my opinion. Just adding my input, and if someone finds it helpful, good for them! (Thats why I write!)
Jonas
Marcos says:
February 13th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
I agree because I was having the same problem when I was learning English. My English teacher always gave me lots of English words to study. It was a bit strange because the meaning of the words changed all the time when I tried to translate a sentence. Therefore,I was always confused. Language learning is still a big mistery to many people,even for professional ones who work in the field. I dropped out of my English school and decided to study English on my own. I was always searching for better ways to learn English well. Then one day I woke up and, like a flash, a thought came to my mind: ” Why don’t I learn all the words literally instead of just interpreted translations,like renaming all the words I’ve known so far?”. This may sound a little bit weird,but that really works for me too. Also, I used to think in English all the time. Dr. Pimsleur spent almost 40 years trying to find the best method of learning languages. Its kind of even tougher for me because I have to understand English first in order to learn Japanese. Jonas-san, I totally agree with on that issue regarding the literal meaning of the words because I can say for experience with my English too. Since I am studying computer science I use English all the time in programming. Its always useful to know what methods one has to learn languages. See ya around fellas
Kate says:
February 24th, 2007 at 5:01 am
Peter-san, where is this Travel Center you’re talking about? I don’t see anywhere to click for it on the main Jpod 101 page, and the “help center” doesn’t know about it either. Is it something that only appears for registered or paid users? ?
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