Another great show! Well done guys

“Pinch Hitter” is a baseball term — it’s when the manager calls in a substitute batter.

Oh…ok Matt-san…that is why the called the dean a pinch hitter as was there to replace…or as a substute for the others that could not come….Yes?

Right. And the phrase “in a pinch” means that you’re in a bad situation, so you call in a “pinch hitter” when the team really needs help.

Blimey!!!! my English is terrible…..I never re-read what I write..and I always notice the mistakes after I have sent my post….

Vicky-san: There is a reason this is a intermediate lesson If it is too hard, wait a few weeks, listen to the beginner lessons, and go back and review this lesson later.

Of course, if you have spesific questions regarding grammar, feel free to ask!

Jonas

Vicky-san. I have just two words to say to you.

Ganbatte Kudasai

Marcus-san,

Welcome to the site! Wow, I really loved that Hifana clip you linked to on your site!

Steve-san,

Don’t worry! I had no idea what a pinch-hitter was either. Some of us just aren’t up to par on our baseball jargon By the way, I noticed your site URL changed. Should I change my bookmark or will both be updated concurrently?

Matt-san,

Thanks for letting us baseball-clueless know

Vicky-san,

こんにちは (konnichiwa)! Japanese for Busy People is quite the popular book. Many people really like it. I think it’s a good idea to listen daily, even if it’s above your level. You’ll pick up new information without even realizing it, and the more exposure you can get to the language, the better! Good job on hitting Chapter 3! I think you’ve got the right attitude, so I’m sure you’ll be catching up to the intermediate podcasts soon!

Also, if I might make a beginner’s recommendation… if you haven’t already, I would suggest learning hiragana as soon as possible. Make sure you learn correct stroke orders, too. Like Jonas-san said, let us know if we can help you in any way!

Thank you Nathan-san!
Yeah I do study hiragana as well. I know 25 letters already, yeah!!!

I know Japanese people don’t say…have a good day.
Can they say….have a nice weekend???
it seems like samething isn’t it?

I gues I could say for now,
Genki de~~~right?

Vicky-san,

Haha, I like your spirit!

Good job on the hiragana! Keep it up! I think if you want to say “have a good weekend”, you could write 良い週末を (yoi shuumatsu o). I think that maybe you wouldn’t say this if you were going to talk with the person during the weekend, though. Maybe Jonas-san or one of the crew can give us some more information.

Ah! Well, I guess I should make sure no one answered before I post so that I don’t look silly

Thanks for the info, Jonas-san!

And now I missed Peter-san!

Good to hear from you Peter-san!

Robert-san, interesting suggestion, we’re always looking for new things to try!
We’re going to look into this!

Nathan-san, you are the man! Keep up the great work! We have to chat sometime, as this one for one post is not too efficient.

waaaaa kyou no kaiwa ga muzukashii desune!! ichi toshi boku wa nihongo benkyou o shite imashite dake. mada, kyou no kaiwa taihen desuyo. nandemo kandemo yokattane. arigatou gozai masu peterkun, natsukochan to kazunorikun!

~アダム

こんにちは皆さん
Hey guys I’ve been reading the posts about the 漢字（かんじ） reading, mmmm…. has anyone thought about “furigana” writing, wouldn’t this be more easy to read, of course you at least need to know the 片仮名（かたかな） characters to use this.

Oh congratulations to Japan on their first gold medal on the winter Olympics, figure skating, Shizuka Arakawa, おめでとうがさいます。

monkey-san
Furigana is the writing of kanji with their kana pronunciation written in small hiragana on top of the kanji. This is used very often in manga books, because it help children to read the kanji.

I own the Kodansha’s furigana dictionary, check this link to see some pages of the dictionary.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4770024800/102-5429504-3256167?v=glance&n=283155
This is a very cool dictionary, and recommend that you get one.

On my last post I stated 片仮名（かたかな） but I meant 平仮名（ひらがな）, sorry.

Today is not my day

Konnichi wa minnasan.

Went to the second hand Japanese book shop, near Oriental City, and my daughter picked up this chidlrens book. Being the person I am I read it and it made me laugh. Maybe Sakura-san and Natsuko-san will read it and find it amusing also.

It is a childrens book, and to give you a clue to what it is about, しーしー (shii-shii) is the Japanese Onomatopoeia for, Ummm! Wee, wee. I thought some of you guys might like to read it…or am I just a big child????

しーしーしー　なんのおと？
ぶたさんが　ぶたさんが、おしっこ　しーしー、おむつで　しーしー。
しーしーしー　なんのおと？
たねきさんが　たねきさんが、おしっこ　しーしー、おきるで　しーしー。
しーしーしー　なんのおと？
くまさんが　くまさんが、おしっこ　しーしー、トイレで　しーしー。
しーしーしー　なんのおと？
うさぎさんが　うさぎさんが、　
しーしーしー　なんのおと？
ノンタンが　ノンタンが、おしっこしーしー。　たいへん　たいへん、おもらし　しーしー。
しっぱい　しっぱい。こんどは　さやんと　さやんと、　おしっこ　しーしー　おまるで　しーしー。
ほらね、これ　ノンタンの　おしっこでーす。

Nathan-san.
Yes I have changed my URL. I think it looks better. I original made the website for my own personal study, but felt encouraged by this site to complete it. so now it is:

http://uk.geocities.com/yasashii_nihongo

So please anyone that wants to, feel free to visit it….But I still feel really embarrassed by it.

But if anyone still wants to see my daughter, Sakura, pretending to be Sadako you can still see it at:

http://uk.geocities.com/doncastlehouse

But be warned, it only allows about 2 views and then Geocities shuts it down for an hour…Grrrrrrr!

Peter-san.
Yes please, I need updating on baseball 野球 jargon, especially as it is so popular in Japan. My uncle in America, loved baseball, so I used to joke with him about it being a girls game and that cricket was a mans game. I used to tell him how the girls at school would play Rounders (which is similiar to baseball) and Netball (which is similiar to basketball) I used to tell him that Baseball and Basketball are just girls games with different names, where as we guys would play real mans sports like cricket and rugby…Hehehehe. Just joking mind you…it was just a bit of banter between us.

Vicky-san.
Yes, Nathan-san is right. Ganbatte Kudasai がんばってください。 Means something along the lines of, keep your chin up, keep at it, do your best. Japanese is a beautiful language and I have been trying to teach myself for many years. I guess on and off since I was 12 years old, which is when my interest in Japan started. Because it was when I was that age they first showed ‘Monkey’ and then ‘The Water Margin’ here on British TV and I just fell in love with them, which lead me to become interested in Japan.

I tend to agree with Nathan-san and RobGillon-san the Romaji that Robert-san mentioned is really hard on the eyes. I think it is best to write fully in Japanese and any Kanji could have the furigana on top. Furigana is really helpful as eventually you will not even look at the furigana as you will know the kanji, and then to combine that with the Kanji close up lessons on this site so you can learn what the kanji means when broken down, can only add to our own personal advancement in Japanese.
Don’t get me wrong. It is a good idea to show where the Kanji, Hiragana and katakana would be if it was not written in Romaji, but there must be another way instead of writing it in higher case and lower case…very hard on the eyes. ごめんなさい　Robert-san.
So actually if it possible, I think it would be a good idea to keep to the normal Romaji script in the PDF files but when it comes to writing Japanese, just write it as normal, and any kanji use furigana on top. Rather than have two different Japanese scripts, as is the case now…if that makes sense?

Oh well…I think I have written enough…sorry to go on.
O-genki de
Steve

steve-san, haha re: your daughters video.
I like how her hair falls off
cute

hmmm .. how come she has watched the ring! scary

Vicky-san, about “have a nice weekend,” we could say “yoi shuumatsu wo”（良い週末を）, but just as Jonas-san and Nathan-san says, it’s not a generally used expression . It’s obviously a direct translation of the English expression, and we use it half jokingly (because it sounds really western ). But personally, I like the expression very much, because it’s nice to say something like that (It’s a pity we don’t have such expression in Japanese.)
What we commonly say at the end of Friday, is “Mata raishuu!” ([See you] again next week!).

Regarding the furigana, I’m not really sure where I stand. I’m not sure that it would really be an improvement, but I’m not sure that it would make it harder on anyone either. I think a lot of my decision would depend on the final product - would the furigana be easily readable, would the text still be visually appealing, etc. I think if anything, I’m inclined to say that it’s better the way it is now because:

1) Those who are reading only hiragana don’t have to strain to read the small furigana.
2) Those who are trying to learn the kanji can still refer to the hiragana section, and this extra effort probably only helps retention.
3) Without the furigana, you can try to force your brain to come up with the reading before checking. You could do this by covering up the furigana as you go, of course, but it is simpler with the two sections.

Truthfully, the only pro that I see for furigana is to save space. While it would be more convenient, I would argue that is not necessarily a pro. In fact, I would say that it would be even better to, instead of referring to the hiragana section, manually look the word up, find it’s reading and meaning, and perhaps even write it a few times in the process.

Steve-san,

That video is great! I showed all of my roommates
I also really liked that story!
And I’ve updated my bookmark for your site!

Robert-san,

Either way, suggestions are good, so keep them coming!

Sakura-san,

Good to see you on the boards

Since we’re on the subject of kanji, I am curious as to which kanji you use for Sakura - if you don’t mind, of course! Also, I think it would be really fantastic if you started including more 擬声語 and 擬態語 since they are such a unique idea to us English speakers. They can really add some pizazz!

Keep up the awesome work!

I agree alot of this is touched upon or reviewed in Japanese II it is great listening review and very good for increasing the recognization of the language. Todays podcast was really good too

Nathan-san: I don’t think 擬声語 is the commonly used word. Most of the time you use 擬音語 and 擬態語.

As for the furigana question, there is one more pro. It takes a lot less time to add furigana than to rewrite everything in just kana

Jonas

PS: I’m not sure about what you mean either, Robert. One thing is sure though. You HAVE to learn kana before you start on kanji.

Nathan-san: Yeah, I would think so… But I’m not sure. Asked my girlfriend, and she doesn’t even know the word (though she knows 擬音語 and 擬態語), so I don’t think it is generally used. Maybe linguists would use it…

Good night! (It is 5pm here, and I havent gotten out of bed yet )

Jonas

Jonas-san,

Thanks for that extra bit of info. 5pm and still in bed, eh? Sounds nice

Ormo-san,

I think we understand the idea he gave regarding how to write the romaji earlier. The trouble I had was with his last post and the issue that is affecting him. Although it seems like he would not know any kana since he is suggesting help with reading romaji, his last post made that unclear. I do, however, agree with you regarding using romaji as a crutch. (I’m sure you were implying knowing the kana before learning the kanji )

Rhonda-san,

As you requested, I have gone through all of the comments on JapanesePod101.com and made a collection of the links (even the odd ones that might not be relevant). I organized them as best I could, so I hope it works for you. You can find them here:

http://del.icio.us/JapanesePod101

I will keep it updated as more links are added. Let me know what you think!

Nathan-san,

I am starting to learn the kana syllabaries, and so far I’m just trying to memorize the characters and read some of the dialogues in the pdf files. I don’t know anything about proper stroke orders yet. You mentioned that you know of resources for that. Could you let me know about some? Arigatou!

さくらさん、

Aha… that’s interesting! I do have another question for you. I have seen Japanese whose name kanji I knew sign their name in katakana (in emails, for instance). My question is, if you don’t know the kanji for someone’s name, would it be more normal to write their name in hiragana or katakana? And yeah, extra early today

ありがとうございます！

Brenda-san,

My pleasure! This site keeps it simple and just gives the stroke order for all of the hiragana and katakana. You can even download all of the movies in a package for each syllabary:

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ssatoru/other/kana/index.html

The following site just goes over the hiragana, but it gives the stroke order, the pronunciation, and a little animation that helps you remember the character. It’s done in Flash, and I’ve noticed that sometimes it can be a little buggy in FireFox, but it’s a good site otherwise!

http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/self/site/hiragana/hiragana.html

I’ll add some more links in the following post!

Okay, this is another RPG syle game that teaches you hiragana, katakana, and kanji (not quite as many as the other game, though). I have actually played this one (haven’t tried the other yet), and it’s not bad at all. It’s a little simpler, too.

http://lrnj.com/

Hope that helps! If you need any other specific types of sites, just let me know!

Nate-san,

It’s the power of our name. You too share this name, so you can excel at anything!!! Haha, just kidding

Actually, I don’t know that much Japanese, but I like to share what I do know! (And the links I have!) Knowledge doesn’t do you much good if you don’t share it somehow, ne?

Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with!

Nathan-san,

Thanks for all the ideas!! I’ll look them up and start having fun!

Nathan-san, I think that’s a really good question! Because I often think about it when I’m writing e-mail to someone whose kanji name I don’t know in business. Since my maiden name was very rare and impossible to come up with from only the sound of it (門叶さくら [Tokanai Sakura]; I still use this name in business actually ), I’ve seen my name written both in katakana and hiragana in e-mail and fax messages I received from different people. But from what I had been actually receiving, it’s hard to tell which is more commonly used. Personally, I prefer my name written in hiragana in such cases (though I don’t mind at all if it’s written in katakana). Maybe because I myself had sometimes written my name in hiragana (とかない) on memos or private e-mail messages, while I had never used katakana except as the furigana for my name. Also, I guess katakana can look a bit out of place when used for Japanese names or words that are not borrowed or “new” words (you know what I mean). So, I tend to use hiragana, but I think both are used by Japanese.
Soredewa mata!

Funny you say that Sakura, this reminds me of once when I asked a Japanese coworker on the word for trash, ごみ(gomi), I found it written in katakana (ゴミ) on a magazine, and I asked why is it in katakana since it is not a foreign word, she told me it didn’t matter it still sounded the same , she told me not to worry, just learn both the kana syllables and your good . I did!.

Just found this: http://pro.tok2.com/~nhg/reserch-2/reserch1-52.htm

It is the results of a questionnaire asking if you write “gomibako” or “trashcan”, with katakana+kanji or hiragana+kanji. It seems that the younger generation tends to use katakana more, and the older generation uses hiragana more. I asked my girlfriend, and she says she uses hiragana