皆さん、today’s location is Mekishikoshitii・メキシコシティー！ Hello to all of our listeners in Mexico!

We are still looking for a part time (very flexible schedule- a few hours a week) Native English Speaking Female with Japanese Language skills. Know anyone who might be interested? Please let us know, or let them know.　よろしくお願いします！

Bryan-san, thanks for the post! Great to hear from you. As last week and this week have been beyond hectic, my presence on the board has diminished, but I’m looking forward to big things on the big board from here on out! Please let us know what you think of the lesson when your done! Yoroshiku.

Another very helpful lesson! Keep it up, everyone! I can’t believe there’s a post office on top of Mt. Fuji!

Hi, again, Tom!
Maybe she actually says, “Hai, Japanese pod o ichi maru ichi de gozaimasu”, with “o” after “pod”.

Oops, seems I was 2 min late

Hi　みなさん
Hope everyone is feeling genki. I’m still a little behind in the lessons but rapidly catching up but wanted to ask… what has happened to the informal bits? It seems rude to ask as this is such a great community and Peter and everyone does such a good job but I wondered if the informal bits will come back?
Take Care
Mark

How quickly you receive posts on the new lessons.
Nice job! Peter, my wife says she knows your voice from
Japan TV here in the US. (I think I know who she is referring
to, but I don’t watch Japan TV quite as much.
Nice you can do these shows and get personal with all of us.
Steve

I just wanted to commend Takase-san (高瀬?) for sticking with the naming convention she feels most comfortable with. In the Japanese circles I have been in, addressing people by their family name is much more common than using given names (本人によります–it depends upon the individual’s preference), and one can be surprisingly close friends and still address one another by last names. Therefore, it’s very good for Jpod listeners to be exposed to this facet of Japanese culture, as well.

Is there a rigid age cut off (e.g. before/after coming of age ceremony) or is its use defined by the relative ages of those involved?

No, not really. What the use of an -chan, and any honorific really, comes down to is the relationship between the two people. For -chan, if the age difference is fairly big, say between a teenager and a child or a 40 year old and a teengaer, then yes you could say it’s use in these cases would be mainly because of their relative ages. However, it’s often used between people of similar ages to express closeness and/or affection.

Tom-san, thanks for the question! I believe you can also find the answer in Beginner Lesson #7 when we introduce the new intro. Let us know if this was helpful.

Nicole-san, don’t forget to bring money for a postcard, unlike some people around here!

Liz-san, thanks for helping! Keep the great posts coming.

Penelope-san, thanks for helping too! We have your email, and we haven’t forgotten. We just a bit backlogged. Yoroshiku.

Mark-san, thanks for the post! Yes, being American, I am familiar with this system too. Perhaps others could let us know what’s going on in their countries.

Steve-san, I didn’t think anyone would recognize me from the 7 o’clock Japanese news! I thought I got my coat completely over my face, as I was wisked into the patrol car, but I guess they picked up some audio. But on a serious note, have never been on Japanese TV. But never say never, .

Nick-san, great to hear from you! Thank you again for the slang; we loved it! I think Jason-san and Nathan-san explained it pretty well. Please keep the questions coming.

Bob-san, still working on the blog photo, just a bit longer. Yoroshiku! Thanks for the post. Yes this is quite an interesting point. Compounding this, sometimes Japanese will give a first name to foreigners, but a last name to other Japanese! So if it’s you and a Japanese friend and another Japanese comes along, you (the foreigner) might get the first name on introduction, while the Japanese with you gets the last name! Did that make sense?

Horacio-san, hello! Can’t wait to visit your shusshin! Heard lots of great things about it! By the way, what an interesting development in sports these days. Mexico beats the USA in baseball and the USA beats Mexico in soccer! WOW! The reason the girls chose Mexico City is to say thank you for helping Japan win the WBC. Your country is very popular here these days. Great time to visit!

Jason-san, as always, great job; thanks! Keep up the great posting!

Nathan-san, you are the man! Thank you!

Sakura-san - Thank you for this site! I especially liked the recipe for Okonomiyaki! I am thinking of trying to make some later today, possibly tomorrow! I hear it’s very hard to make though, I have a Japanese friend who made about 500 for the Japan Day festival we had recently, and she said it was hard work, but she eventually got the hang of it and they stopped falling apart after a few tries!

Nope…seems I have made a mistake….the quote was meant to have been:

“101 is a name for a type of class that teaches the basics of a subject.”

Hello all,

I have one question… what does the voice says in the beginning of each episode? I don’t get it this fast. Can you please explain it in the next lession?

Thanks!
Tom

Minnasan, Konnichiwa!!!

Juding from the posts, I’m off to listening to another great lesson.
Lots of lessons to catch up!!!

Mata Ne,
JP

This isn’t a question to do with the lesson, but I thought here would be the best place to ask. What is the format of the word なんて. I have heard a sentence スキーなんて簡単ですよ which was explained as “skiing is a piece of cake”. I also recently heard どちら様なんてか which was explained as “who the hell is it?”. My question is, is there a good single explanation of what なんて means? Thank you for any help.

Hi Friends,

I am so happy to see you guys using some of the XHTML features. Just don’t get too good as I may lose my job Just a reminder for those of you who want to use the “quote” feature, here’s the correct syntax:

<blockquote cite="Name of Person You Are Citing">This is where you put the quote!</blockquote>

All the best,

Tech Guy

What is the format of the word なんて. I have heard a sentence スキーなんて簡単ですよ

When it’s used like that, (thing)なんて, it means “something/things like (thing)”. So your example sentence would tranlsate to something like, “Something like skiing is easy.” It’s very colloquial. I *think* it’s short for 「なんということは」. Don’t quote me on that though. It’s used a lot to bring attention to what you’re talking about. I wrote this on another thread:

夏子（なつこ）さん、それはひどいですよ。ピーターさんのセリフを取（と）るなんて。

I would translate this, “Natsuko-san, that’s mean! Taking Peter-san’s line like that.”

Jason-san - Thank you for the answer, I hear it all the time, but couldn’t find a satisfactory answer anywhere on the internet, so thank you for that!

Is that spam I see?

Hi,
In the podcast they mentioned yasumi but never explained what it meant! Also, what was the word for smile again? I thought it was in the pdf but it wasnt! Thanks! Wow all the posts have been from 2006!!!

Thanks for saying mekishiko shity, I though you have forgot México, anyway I think no one is going to read this comment.
Thanks again and see you later.
BTW; you are amazing!!!!!