That’s great news! おめでとう日本！

Another great podcast. The post office seems like it would be an intimidating place, but these survival phrases would definitely come in handy!

I’ve listened to the lesson now - it was relaly good! I didn’t know that you can’t get envelopes at the post office… Can you also get jiffy bags / larger envelopes for packages at convenience stores?

こんにちは、みんなさん！

It´s great to be here to say a great thank you for all the Japanesepod101´s team and say that you are doing an awesome here. I wish I could make part of your team for anything you need, but I´m a Brazilian, so I´m not a English native speaker but Portuguese But I´m available if you need my help somehow.

Well, continuing what I was talking about, I hope that your marvelous job continue forever I´m following the lessons in the order they were made. I´m in the Beginner #8.

One more time, ありがとうごさいます。がんばってね！

Claudenir

P.S.: Since I start to learn Japanese I notice that sometimes the Japanese “r” is pronounced nearly as the Spanish “l” and sometimes like a Portuguese “r”. I wish to know how can I move the tongue to sound like the Spanish “l”. I think it´s very nice ^_^

Claudenir-san - Just because you’re a native Portuguese speaker doesn’t mean you can’t be a great part of this community, just come along and post on the boards whenever you like!

As for the Japanese “r” sound, when I first started, my native Japanese speaking teachers said if you put your tongue behind your teeth, as if you’re going to say an English “l” sound but then say “ra” then that’s the proper way. It does sound quite nice, I have to say, but I notice that most Japanese people either tend to say a full “ra” sound or even a full “la” sound without going in between at all, so it’s completely up to you how you say it, in my opinion.

Hope that helps

Claudenir-san, just a quick note about みんな. When you attach an honorific like さん to it, the first ん tends to get dropped. So you want to say みなさん　not みんなさん.

Jay-san - I think, but am not sure, that you’re talking about when people say “ga” as in “but”, in which case, it is completely normal for it to come out sounding anything from “ga” to “na”… it was explained to me why, but I can’t remember the precise reason. The basic gist was that when you say “desu ga…” you have to really force it to make a proper “ga” sound natural, so you have to use something a bit more nasal.

This is one of those things which isn’t easily answered in text, and maybe Peter and the gang will actually give examples of this on the air!

Quick question on the lesson notes: why is 一日 written as いちにち and not ついたち?

Then ふつか, みっか, and so on are both for the day of the month and for number of days? I’ve always been bad at day counters.

re g

yes it is used a lot for “ga” but I have also heard it on “sugoi” “eigo” “sugihara (a name)”. ie, sungoi, eingo, sungihara. (again, from female speakers). I’m assuming its just a “style” of speech more than an actual rule… They have the ng sound in maori too (a cat is a ngeru)

I want to have as little an accent as possible so this is very interesting for me Also been trying to get my head around the specific intonations for some words. I remember in one of the lessons peter said that saying the name sakura is different than saying the flower sakura. omoshiroii!! Accents on syllables having more to do with pitch than length.

Just some quick responses… I will follow up later with links and such if needed

Nicole-san, Rob-san,

No more excuses to be intimidated!! Rob-san, I know that you can get large envelopes, boxes, packing supplies, and such at some convenience stores, but I am not sure how common it is. Some convenience stores accept packages for shipping, as well. These are where you’ll most likely be able to find the larger assortment of mail supplies, of course.

Steve-san,

Seeing as how they manage to send out millions and millions (actually I believe I read in the tens of billions) New Year’s postcards all within the first few days of the New Year… I would say, yeah, they can be pretty efficient

Claudenir-san,

Welcome to the community!! The more you listen to native Japanese and attempt to imitate, the better your pronunciation will become

Jay-san, Jason-san,

I believe NHK trains its news announcers to pronounce certain g’s with the ng nasal sound. I’m not sure on their guidelines, but I don’t think that there is an “official” Japanese guideline. I know that it’s not just their lone ga’s though, as certain words are supposed to begin with the nasal sound (in their guidelines). Frequent use is actually a notable feature of Tokyo style Japanese, I believe - of course, it is used elsewhere as well, though. Personally, I think that it is safer to pronounce all g’s without the nasal sound, and as you hear more Japanese, you will get a feel for words that more often take that sound. I think that if you try to pronounce all of your g’s nasally, it will sound a bit odd.

Jason-san,

Rob-san is correct. ついたち is used for the first day of the month only (aside from a slightly different usage when referring to the lunar calendar). The other exceptional-reading day counters can be used for both the month days and counting days, as you and Rob-san said.

awesome!! Well I am not at this level at the moment but the shows are always entertaining. Great Work Peter and Sakura!!

Thank you Nathan and Sakura for the information. I really was surprised to hear that you can’t get envelopes/jiffy bags/bubble wrap etc from the post office, especially seeing as how huge the post-office is as a business, but it’s good that you can also get so much from convenience stores etc. Again, thank you for the info!

Sakura-san.
Thanks for the information.

Hey Japanesepod101 team,
I have been living in Japan for almost a year and though my work place doesnt require Japanese because everyone can speak english there, and not to say i get very Isogashi ….lol…I didnt manage to learn so much …until i started listening to ur podcasts …i think the survival phrases are superb ! Okage sama de …now i can understand what is hurled at me at the resturants and its good feeling.
Thank you again, you are doing a great job !

If you want to send by airmail, just write the word “AIRMAIL” in RED ink on the front of the envelope. No Japanese required.

This website is really cool. I wish I knew this website when I cam e to japan 1.5 years ago. I had to learn Japanese the hard way.

But it’s never too late to learn more.

Thanks!! Gambatte!!