It seems to work fine on my Computer.

Today’s location is London・ロンドン

Ummmm! now the formal PDF file works…..

London….I live near there….Horrible, horrible place I try to not to go too…except for when I go to North London to go too Oriental City.

I love the sound effect at the beginning…You sound lucky to have walked out of that with no injury

I really enjoy these intermediate lessons…but now… 頭がいたいです。(Atama ga itai desu) It is strange…as I know the Japanese as individual words, and even some of the sentences but when spoken at the typical Japanese pace it is almost impossible for me to understand. That is another problem I have being able to make out what is being said..I guess I need to be able to hear Japanese spoken everyday to get used to that. Does anyone else have a similair problem? When I read the PDF files…I normally can understand what is being said….but when spoken..I struggle and it goes *WHOOSH* right over my head.

My uncle married a Japanese woman, who was from Okinawa. This was back in the 1950’s…he was in the US Military and he was stationed there. They divorced before I was born…My uncle is dead now…I am not sure if she is still alive or not…I really would like to meet her…After all, she is my auntie once removed…if that is the correct term?!?!?!

Anyway..a great podcast…I seriously believe these intermediate podcasts are what I really need….it is just a struggle for me that is all….But, who knows…in 20 years time…I shuld be good at them.

Steve,
She is your Aunt, or your Aunt by marriage.

A first cousin once removed are the children of your first cousin, who are second cousins of your children.

As for the intermediate dialogues going through my head with little understanding, yep. Its takes several listenings be fore they dent the stone I have there; however its why I like them. They force me to stop trying to translate word for word like I did Latin.

Thanks for another great lesson! I really enjoyed this one.

Steve san, for me it’s like this: when I hear the intermediate level conversation the first time in ふつう　mode, I understand no more than 10%. When sentences are repeated in ゆっくり　mode, it’s about 30%. These numbers are slightly higher when it’s a conversation using formal speech though. I just listen to them again throughout the week as many times as needed to reach 100% comprehension. 勉強がんばってください。　

Not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet, but I just noticed my playlist with (nearly) all of your videos, podcasts, and extras recently passed one gigabyte!

寿

Gevorg-san,
Feel free to ask away, although I probably won’t be the one answering, since I’ve never been…yet!

Michael-san,
I’m going to give this a try.

へ gets used for motion verbs (i.e. いきます／きます／かえります)
So in this instance 行って is the “Te” form of いく (to go) and that’s why the へ relational is used.

I can go into more detail if I’m not helping.

-Rhonda

Nice lesson, I love these podcasts, they make me really Natsukashii for Japan though!

Kaze’s voice is perfect, he sounds like he’s trying to speak while not opening his mouth, just like a few kyoto senseis I’ve worked with. It’s great listening practice.

Michael, although the particle is pronounced え it is written as へ (kind of like how wa is written as ha)

Michael D.-san - to add to what people have already said, you could replace へ with に in that sentence and it would still make sense. For the most part, you can see them as interchangable, but they do have slightly nuanced differences. You can see the へ and に sections of this page: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/particles2.html for more information. Here’s a small extract from it:

The primary difference between the 「に」 and 「へ」 particle is that 「に」 goes to a target as the final, intended destination (both physical or abstract). The 「へ」 particle, on the other hand, is used to express the fact that one is setting out towards the direction of the target. As a result, it is only used with directional motion verbs. It also does not guarantee whether the target is the final intended destination, only that one is heading towards that direction. In other words, the 「に」 particle sticks to the destination while the 「へ」 particle is fuzzy about where one is ultimately headed.

It may sound complicated from that, but basically, use に if the end place is definate, and へ to indicate things both definative or vague. For example, 沖縄へ行ってみてください。The nuance of へ here is that you may wish to visit other places as well as Okinawa, you may not go to any particular place in Okinawa, or not have a definate plan, much further than you just want to go to somewhere in Okinawa.

Actually the difference between them could be quite a big topic area, so my advice is to just treat them as interchangable.

If you like, consider the difference between the following in English - “I’m heading back home” (へ) and “I’m going home” (に). Reletively speaking, whether you say 家に帰ります or 家へ帰ります, the difference is so subtle it really doesn’t matter for every day conversation purposes.

That was quite a long ramble ね!!

Peter-san, my tennis??? It’s tomorrow morning~~~

Gevorg-san, I don’t think I will know the answer,but wondering what’s the question would be…

I have a Japanese class today, but haven’t study much…should I skip it?

Mata raishuu-
Sakura-san is that correct?

I really like the intermediate lessons. I wish there were more of them.

By the way; Nate-San !
I recently bought a new book to learn Kanji, and I’m very happy with it ! It teaches you the right stroke order, and the pronounciations. Everything You need to know ! The book is actually meant for young children, but it also works with older people ^^.
It’s called ” かんじのれんしゆう “. But of course, you already need to know Hiragana to be able to read the pronounciations ^_^. It has cute pictures in it, what makes it even more fun to learn !

Gevorg☆。

Vicky-San !
Thank you for your attention to my Question ^^ !
Yes… It’s a strange, and complicated Question @_@, No one I asked could answer this Question, so I taught the nice people at JapanesePod would help me ^^.
Oh, I would also like to add that I’m not US Citizen… I’m from Belgium ^^. If you know where that is… It’s Very small.
Thank You for your help Vicky-San !

Gevorg☆。

When you use the word “karada” for “body” only 体 is used, not 身体.
That would be prounounced “shintai”!

The “redaaing” should be reading. Sorry.

Micael D. Casiidy-san.
I have some Chidlrens Japanese books…or rather my daughter has. I think it is best to buy Japanese childrens books that teach Japanese, especially Kanji. But a lot of Childrens Japanese books has some very child like Japanese…which may be fun to read…bnut very good for every day life if your an adult. But by all means buy as it can help to teach simple sentence structure. Mya daughter as an Anpanman （アンパンマン）book that is aimed at teaching English to young children….but it as also helped my little girl to learn some Japanese as well as it as the Japanese and English. I even love that book. I also have a Studio Ghibli Manga book of the film 天空の城ラピュタ。(tenkuu no shiro rapyuuta) Laputa, Catlse in the sky, Which my little girl, when she was not quite three years old, decided to draw all over…Grrrrrrrrrr!
I did borrow some childrens books which they use in Japanese schools to learn my Hiranaga, Katakana and some basic Kanji from and some very simple sentence structures. This did actually help. But again they were aimed at children, so nothing complex or too deep…which is what I personally need.
I must go now…I need to collect my wife and daughter….they went out..and I am stuck inside…NOT FAIR!!!!!
O-genki de
Steve

Vicky-Chan,
I’m still living in Belgium ^^, I’m not in USA.
I’m happy you now where Belgium is ! You even know our flag ! Haha !
*Claps*
But yes, I’m a Belgian Citizen living in Belgium.
Thank you for Wanting to Help me !

Gevorg☆。

Cassidy-san: I got Jazz Up Your Japanese with Onomatopoeia too! It is a good book, but some of the words in there are rarely used. And I have a hard time remembering those kinds of words!!

Nathan(From Ohio)-san: I play go (or igo as it is called in Japan) too! Unfortunately I dont have the time to play lately. Been to some go parlors, but mostly old(40-50 and all the way up to 70ish) are playing

Jonas

Nate-san:

For learning Hiragana and Katakana I recommend the books “Let’s learn Hiragana” and “Let’s learn Katakana” both by Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura, they’re fairly straight forward and simple to follow. When you first start, you may find it helpful to come up with mnemonics for yourself, for example, the way I remembered き (ki) was that it looks kinda like a key!

For Kanji, I recommend Basic Kanji Book 1 and 2, both by Chieko Kano, that’ll get you started on the first 500. If you do one lesson per week then you should know that many in about a year! Good luck!

Gevorg-san:

I don’t think it’s possible for a foreign student to go to a Japanese school without passing level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (very very hard!), but you will most definately be able to go on an exchange program if you go on to study Japanese at University - most places will send you to a Japanese University on exchange for a year, which would be great for you! Though like I said, as it’s a Japanese university, chances are you will be taught in mostly Japanese, so you have to have a good grip on the language before you go.

If you don’t want to study Japanese at university, then there’s always the JET programme, where you don’t need to know any Japanese, and you get to stay in Japan for (usually) a year in exchange for being an English language teacher there.

By the way, I think don’t think Belgium is a very small country, especially when you consider it’s right next to Luxumburg!

Cassidy and Jonas-san:

I also have Jazz up your Japanese with onomatopoeia, I thought it was quite good fun, but like Jonas said, a few of the phrases are very unhelpful, and I can’t think of a situation where I would ever use “my wife always bawls me out because I’m no good at pinching pennies”!!

Haven’t got my japanese IME working in xfce yet, only gnome, and I’m too lazy to log into gnome, so bear with me on the romaji…

The particles “ni” “he” and “de” are all location particles, meaning they come after a location where something happens. “he” and “ni” are directional, so you use it when something moves, like “Tokyo ni ikimashita” or “uchi he kaerimasu”. “de” is used when something happens at a location, e.g. “kouen de asobimasu” (play in the park). “De” is used for “tools/means of doing something”, for example “terebi de eiga wo mimashita” (I watched a movie ON the TV).

The two verbs “aru” and “iru” always takes the “ni” particle, so you say “watashi ha kouen ni iru”, and NOT “watashi ha kouen de iru”.

This was just a simple explanation, but I hope its understandable, and that you got a bit more understaning about then usage of these particles.

Jonas

みなさん、こんにちわ。

Ｈｏｗ　ｉｓ　ｅｖｅｒｙｏｎｅ？　Ｉｔ’ｓ　ｇｒｅａｔ　ｔｏ　ｓｅｅ　all　the　ｃｏｍｍｅｎｔs!!　There　seems　to　be　a　great　community　spirit　here!!
I　have　a　query　about　Kaze　san.　Listening　to　kaze　sans　speech　in　this　podcast　I　really　noticed　his　pronounciation　and　accent　were　a　little　bit　more　stressed　than　usual.　What　do　you　all　think　of　this　statement?

かぜさん,　おじさんきたみたいよ。　（Ｋａｚｅ　ｓａｎ　sounds　like　an　old　man!!)　(*^o^*)　Ｇｏ　Ｋａｚｅ　ｓａｎ！！　Ｐ（＾＾）Ｐ　

みなさん、からだにきをつけてね！(Please　take　care　everyone)

シャノンより。

Thanks very much for the lessons. I’ve just found this podcast, and these lessons are great–amazingly professional. You’re definitely filling a gap with the 中級　material, I hope it continues!

Hi guys,

Got a question, this maybe late but I just listened to the Podcast lastnight.

Is yatte = do (literal) and suru = do (helping verb) ?

in this podcast, shunukero yatte mitai na, how is this translated in enlish word for word?

can we also use shunukero shite mitai na?

Hi Michael,

I believe that is ALPHA MALE in Nihonggo. In romaji, Arufameru.

Thanks.
I knew it was refering to the alpha male comments, for some reason naka was coming out as inside in my brain………..

Michael-san,

中 can indeed mean “inside”, as well as “middle”, “among”… they all have a similar meaning, really

JP-san,

You’ll sound perfectly fine saying してみたい, assuming you use it correctly

ピーターさん：アイスホッケーをやってみませんか。
Piitaa-san: Aisu hokkee wo yatte mimasen ka.
Peter-san: Wanna give ice hockey a try?
かぜさん：やってみたいですね。
Kaze-san: Yatte mitai desu ne.
Kaze-san: I’d like to try it out.
ピーターさん：やってみましょう！
Piitaa-san: Yatte mimashou!
Peter-san: Let’s try it!
かぜさん：やりましょう！
Kaze-san: Yarimashou!
Kaze-san: Let’s do it!
ピーターさん：今週末…
Piitaa-san: Konshuumatsu…
Peter-san: How about this weekend?
*かぜさん：お同意します。(I’m not sure about this one.)
*Kaze-san: Odouishimasu.
*Kaze-san: I approve.
*I’m not sure here. It actually sounds more like odorishimasu, which wouldn’t make much sense, but it could be 小躍りします (koodorishimasu), which would be “I’m jumping for joy” (about playing this weekend). Then again, it could be something completely different

I’m not sure where your last sentence is in the lesson, but I’ll assume yakyou is yakyuu, in which case it would mean “I haven’t tried to play baseball at all recently”.

Hopefully someone can fill us in on Kaze-san’s elusive speech

Oh, I forgot. Peter says “Saikin zenzen yakyuu wo yatte imasen” which translates as “I haven’t played baseball at all recently”

On a personal note, I’ve never played baseball in my whole life

Jonas

Baseball: To get into baseball you need concentrate on the tension/drama between the batter and pitcher.

Nathan and Jonas,

Futari wa saikou desu! Pardon my spelling on “ou”, “uu” or “uo”. They just mix up intermittently.

Thanks for clearing it up. Funny I even reduced MediaPlayer’s speed to “slow” just to understand him and whew, I just didn’t get it.

Thanks To You All!!!

かぜさんの学長（がくちょう）はすっごく面白（おもしろ）いですね。そんな学長がいたらいいよなぁ。羨（うらや）ましいぃ。

I disagree. You want a more literal translation, though it sounds awkward in English, it gets you thinking in the target language better.

As an example:

“Genki desu ka?”
“Hai~! genki”

Many will translate this:
“How are you?”
“Fine”

But then the Hai is confusing. a more literal translation is helpful in knowing what is actually going on.

“Are you well? Are you fine?”
“Yes, I’m fine”

This is a simple example, but translating extra words like “chanto” can be very helpful, even if it doesn’t get translated like that in English.

Thinking in Japanese will GREATLY help comprehension

(continued)

You may not want to stop *thinking* about the sentences literally, but you’d definitely want to move away from pure literal translation when you write it down or say it. Once you know all the words and grammar and such that you’re translating well enough.

I’m all for a more literal translation, even if it sacrifices fluency in my native language, and let my brain do the actual translation, rather than leaving it out…

Well, that would work fine for when you’re just translating for yourself, but if you’re translating something that others are going to read then readability is important.