Learn intermediate Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Showdown in Big Tokyo as today the two lawyers come face-to-face. Dinner for two, turns into dinner for three, followed by fireworks for desert! Don’ t miss the latest edition of intermediate Japanese with JapanesePod101.com.
This entry was posted on Friday, April 14th, 2006 at 8:40 am and is filed under Intermediate Lessons. 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.
50 Responses to “Intermediate Lesson #11 - Lawyer Meets Lawyer”
JapanesePod101.com says:
April 14th, 2006 at 8:46 am
皆さん、today’s location is ロサンゼルス「ロス」! Hello to all our listeners in Los Angeles and the US. 
よろしくお願いします！
Peter says:
April 14th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Hello everyone! Hope you had/are having/will have a great Friday night wherever you are!
Just want to thank Natsuko, Chigusa and Take for today’s show, as it was something else!! You guys are amazing. The studio was packed today, and well worth it. Hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did.
BTW, the word I was looking for was wine steward. Probably should know it, but they don’t have one at the Denny’s I eat at. (Yes, they have Denny’s here. 
)
Apologies to French speakers every where! Probably should not have even attempted it.
宜しくお願いします。
Liz says:
April 14th, 2006 at 9:10 am
To Mina San at Japanesepod101.com!
おめでとう for another great podcast!! My favorite part was the “sob” music background while Tanabe was explaining himself. 
I still remember Tanabe’s lecherous laugh, “Mu-fu-fu-fu”. Nice job, Take!
You didn’t have romaji this time. 
Oh, well, it is supposed to be “Intermediate”.
Thanks for all the great vocabulary! ありがとうございました
Nathan says:
April 14th, 2006 at 9:23 am
Liz-san,
That’s my favorite part, too! I absolutely love it! I have to keep repeating that part!! Haha, good stuff
By the way, I just updated the mp3 tag and it should include the romaji in the lyrics
Michael D. Cassidy says:
April 14th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Wine Stewart = sommelier
usually wears a small disc on a chain around their neck to sip the mine
Orlina says:
April 14th, 2006 at 9:58 am
Michael san, that was what I was going to say
And Peter-san^^ French people usually love when english people speak in french with their so cute accent 
Kawaiiiiiii desu^^
… 
Hen na Gaijin says:
April 14th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Sounds like Japan is dangerously low on lawyers! The exam sounds pretty hard, not to mention being full of hard Kanji. Do you suppose they allow reciprocity?
Tonabe-sensei’s moment of “honest reflection” was perfect. It seems that countless Japanese shows include just such a scene, so it’s kind of a culture lesson also. Seems like all the shows also lay the “piano for a rainy day” track over top. I could practically see the slightly out-of-focus memory montage.
BTW, I’ve never heard the usage of __(name)_ esquire to refer to an attorney in spoken English, but I understand that we are doing so here as an approximate translation of sensei. I have heard plenty of other words referring to lawyers, but they are inappropriate to this forum!
Liz says:
April 14th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Orlina-san:
That was so interesting that French people think Americans’ accents are cute! I thought they would think our accents are ugly. 
As for Americans, we think the French accent of English is beautiful!! It sounds to us as if they are always talking about love, so romantic! 
Nathan-san:
Thanks, but I still can’t find the romaji. How do I get to it? Thanks.
Nathan says:
April 14th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Wine steward… Peter-san beat you both to it
Liz-san,
It is in the mp3 tag info - you can view it in iTunes by right-clicking the file, choosing Get Info, and clicking the Lyrics tab. Or if you use Windows Media Player 10, it will come up when you play the file unless you have captions disabled. It’s also the part that you see when you click the middle button twice on your iPod while listening. Let me know if you still need help!
Orlina-san,
I have a link just for you Give me a couple minutes to get it and I’ll post
変な外人さん、
I say esquire all the time!!
Nathan says:
April 14th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Orlina-san,
Here you go… from the 日本ソムリエ協会 (Japan Sommelier Association), a clip from a video seminar featuring a French guest speaker. You get to hear the French translated into Japanese The speaker is Nicolas Joly from Savennières. Maybe the content isn’t too interesting, but I thought you might find the French to Japanese interesting
http://www.sommelier.jp/vtr/vtr002b.wmv
And I know everyone wants to visit the Japan Sommelier Association site
Liz says:
April 14th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Nathan-san,
Thank you very much, but I’m sorry to say nothing worked for me.
I’m a Mac User, so the right click thing doesn’t apply, but I tried Get Info while holding the Option key, the Control key, and the Command key. Also, even though I updated my iPod with the latest Update from iTunes, the middle button did not reveal any romaji. 
すみませn
Nathan says:
April 14th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Liz-san,
Did you actually delete the lesson and then redownload it? It won’t update unless you actually get a new copy of the mp3 (I posted the updated mp3 just a bit after you downloaded the original). If no, delete the file in iTunes, and then redownload (you might have to use the little arrow next to the JP101 podcast to go to the Music Store and click Get Episode for the lesson you delete). Let me know!
Daniel says:
April 14th, 2006 at 11:46 am
That music! Hilarious!
Peterさん、
It’s funny that you write “we have Denny’s here too.” Most Japanese who haven’t been overseas are surprised to find out that Denny’s isn’t from Japan.
Lizさん、
As a Mac user, when you read “right-click” and don’t have a two-button mouse, translate it as control-click. In this particular case, you can select the file, and type command + “i”.
Hugo says:
April 14th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Very interesting Nathan-san! My mother studied Frech in the school (she don´t remeber much now), Frech is a very nice a sweet lenguage. 
Peter-san and everbody in Japanesepod 101, as always great work! Nice and instructive!
Someday I think to work in Japan as Philosophy and Psychology teacher and the number of kanji needed must be very high!
Liz says:
April 14th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Nathan-san,
I really appreciate your on-going care and concern.
I deleted Lesson Number 11 from iTunes and I clicked Update, but nothing happened. So, I went to the iTunes Music Store, and guess what?? No Lesson Number 11.
Undeterred I downloaded the mp3 from the website, holding down the control key (thanks Daniel-san) and the mp3 file ended up in my iTunes library. I can’t get it to go into my Podcast folder, of course.
So, I held down the Command key and “i” and, guess what? I saw the romajii!!
I finally saw the romaji that Nathan-san uploaded, but what about iTunes Music Store not having this lesson? Hmmm??? Huh???
Nathan says:
April 14th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Daniel-san,
Thanks for the Mac advice. I used to do Mac support, but those were LCII’s, so it’s been a while
Hugo-san,
Glad you liked it Don’t worry about the numbers… studying kanji is fun!
Liz-san,
Glad you got the romaji. The iTunes Store is usually a little slow to update, even though the feed updates as soon as the lesson is posted. It should show up in the iTunes Store before too long and then you will be able to add it to your Podcast library. Sorry for the trouble!
Liz says:
April 14th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Nathan-san,
Thanks! I often expect things to happen fast and I need to slow down!
Rhonda says:
April 14th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Hi all…
It’s been a while for me for posting, but I’ve been right here with you all along!
I have a question for those folks who are at intermediate level and above regarding electronic dictionaries. I see they are awfully pricey, and I’m curious to their “real-world” usefulness. Do you have one? Do you use it? Was it worth the price? At what point in your Japanese studies did you buy one?
Right now I have Kodansha’s Furigana Japanese Dictionary. I’m starting a new quarter of Japanese (no longer doing the assistant thing, although I already miss that), and my new class will have a lot of translation assignments, so I wanted to get some thoughts.
I realize that everyone is different and will have differing opinions about them, but any information you have on how you use it, like it would be helpful. Thanks all!
I’m going to miss JP101 next week…hope I don’t go through withdrawals…
-Rhonda
Nathan says:
April 14th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Rhonda-san,
I’ve never actually owned one, so get lots of other opinions, but from what I’ve heard they are very, very useful. They tend to be more useful the more Japanese that you know, though. The more English-friendly they are, the less comprehensive they tend to be. Jonas-san, as well as a few others I know, seem to recommend this one:
Clienad says:
April 14th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
I have a G55 wordtank that i think is awesome. It is alot smaller than carrying around my old dictinaries and has plenty of search options and so it makes a great tool to carry around. I would advise getting a dictionary with a handwriting stylus if you can afford it as it is so much easier to search for kanji if all you have to do is write it.
so if youve got some disposable cash id get one but if not your just going to be using it the same way as a dictioanry anyway so it isn’t essential but it does help when some one says something you dont understand to just whip it out and quickly find the meaning in japanese and english with little fuss. or when yuo find a word in a book tis quick efficient and usefull.
i say consider it very carefully before you buy and beware the import duties that youll have to pay if getting it form overseas.
Clienad says:
April 14th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
p.s
great show guys. this week was tough too. a fair few words entering my vocabulary there.
Review of dictionaries.
http://www.notestomyself.net/notes/2004/08/word_tank_g50.html
more uptodate review.
http://quinlanfaris.com/?cat=3
Brenda says:
April 15th, 2006 at 6:17 am
I always look forward to the latest installments in your continuing series. The intermediate lessons are difficult for me, but I learn a lot of interesting vocabulary. And the stories are great! I am now giving updates to my husband and son on the continuing saga of the graduation trip. We’re all awaiting the next installment. Keep up the great work!
Orlina says:
April 15th, 2006 at 8:05 am
Nathan-san, thank you so much for the video^^
It’s interesting (well it’s also disturbing, because the man has the very same voice than the teacher who explained me this phenomenon (Photosynthesis) 2 years ago )
And I would agree with Liz-san, it’s a complete contrast of styles 
French is the only language I prefer to write than to speak… I don’t find it beautiful to hear 
And Hugo-san, good luck if you want to become a Philosophy and psychology teacher in Japan…
(well I’m thinking about becoming a Philosophy’s teacher but in UK. for I’ve always wanted (before finding out that Philosophy was a so Omoshiroi subject ) to become a French teacher in an english country!…)
And Peter-san, I’ve been listening to a few of the old lessons last night, and because you’re so funny, I’ve been caught at 3 a.m laughing in my bed with my i-pod by my parents
Jpod101 is the insomniacs’ best friend
Peter says:
April 15th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Orlina-san, thanks for the great post it made me smile at 4am! Yep, I’m usually up until all hours of the night on this side of the planet. You’re parents should probably be more concerned with the fact you can understand my humor! That means we think alike!!
皆さん、Will be back with more posts in the morning…actually, in the afternoon. But don’t tell tech guy! We’re all supposed to be working 24 hours.
Daniel says:
April 15th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Thanks for the great course!
While learning the vocabulary I realised that there is no romanji anymore.
It would be great if you could still post romanji for intermediate lessons. It’s just so much faster to learn the vocabulary. Many thanks in advance.
Daniel Beck says:
April 15th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Uh oh. There are at least 2 Daniels now.
I’ll go ahead and add my last name.
これからもよろしく！
Daniel Beck
Clienad says:
April 15th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Sorry to stamp on your point there Daniel but its a personal beef of mine against romaji.
I think that romaji should not have been used at all in an intermediate lesson. I am affraid you can’t find anything worth reading in romaji past basic text books so it is, in effect, teaching you a load of words you can never use. Besides kana are not that difficult to learn so I would suggest only kana/kanji and infact I would preffere only furigana’d kanji. I understand that some people refuse to learn to read but I think it would be benificial in the end.
p.s
hehe It seems there are more than three Daniel’s here im one too.
Daniel_C
Clienad says:
April 15th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
p.p.s
If you were wondering yes I find it difficult to put “e” before “i” even when spelling backwards.
Daniel Beck says:
April 15th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Daniel_Cさん、
So, what does Clienad mean?
And for the Daniel is the post before mine, how will you distinguish yourself?
Daniel Beck
Daniel Beck says:
April 15th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Oh, I get it. Clienad is supposed to be Daniel C backward. You know, you can “correct” it.
Hmm…should I take the handle Bleinad? Nah!
Daniel Beck
Clienad says:
April 15th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Nah its become my tag now. I never could remember to put the “e” before the “i” and every one forces it to be clienad even if it was spelled correctly (It would seem we seriously don’t like e before i words in english) so I just gave up hehe.
Yup thats your handle hehe from now on your Blienad to me.
クラエナド
Rhonda says:
April 15th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Nathan-san and Clienad-san (Daniel-san)-
Thank you for the helpful info regarding the electronic dictionaries. I really appreciate it! I hope to hear some more opinions regarding the matter, maybe before we have our “holiday” week. In the meantime, I’ll keep using my Kodansha…Thanks!
-Rhonda
Jason says:
April 15th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
Someday I think to work in Japan as Philosophy and Psychology teacher and the number of kanji needed must be very high!
Somewhat related: you should try reading the Bible in Japanese (聖書/せいしょ).
Though I realize there’s a lot of beginners here, I very very strongly discourage anyone to become dependent on rouma-ji. Try to resist the urge to use it even though it’ll be much easier and faster to read at first.
Daniel André says:
April 15th, 2006 at 11:26 pm
Minasan
To distinguish the Daniels, I’ll add my second name from now on.
I absolutely agree that it’s helpful to use kana early on (besides, I lived 2 years in Tokyo, studying Japanese since 3, and in the meantime I am quite secure and fast in reading kana). Nevertheless, while studying vocabulary I find it helpful to use also romaji. Might be personal, too, but it speeds up my personal vocabulary learning time.
Therefore I would appreciate, if - as an option - there would be still the vocabulary list for the intermediate classes next to kanji/kana also in romaji.
Clienad says:
April 16th, 2006 at 2:36 am
Then it should be quite simple for you to re-write it in romaji again if you so desire. However, I feel that it is habit forming to keep people who are at this level of speaking dependant on romaji. in fact iwould have said to avoid it in the basic sessions but it is difficult to teach how to write from an audio source so I let it slide.
Clienad says:
April 16th, 2006 at 2:59 am
However having said that if you feel it helps then I dare say that it may help others. So I guess it comes down to a matter of prefference in the makers. its upt to them if they wish to teach reading comprehension at the same time as listening.
Clienad says:
April 16th, 2006 at 3:07 am
Rhonda:
Glad to be of assistance. paper dictionaries are always good but if you want to search for j-e and e-j it becomes difficult as the number of words is limited to the size of your book/ pockets. here the dictionaries are more comprehesive than that too. They can also search for such things as kanji meanings, idioms/ expressions, has japanese and english entries for words and have many more example sentences than can fit in a pocket dictionary. but for the price they had darn well better be.
I have one so I already made my choice but if your happy with the way your workflow is now then there probably is no need to change.
Clienad says:
April 16th, 2006 at 3:18 am
I should let it rest but i can’t im sorry. To illustrate a point
エマジン エフ ア ジャパンイズ パーソン ワス ツ ラーン エングリシュ イン カタカン オーンリ？ ウェアド アクセント ノ？
imagine if a japanese person was to learn English in katakana only? Weird accent no?
Orlina says:
April 16th, 2006 at 5:29 am
Peter-san, you’re always welcome^^
Well if we have the same humor i’m so sorry for you !
My friends are all desesperated!
I think that if they have to learn just a word in japanese it would be ’samu’
R says:
April 16th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
Nathan-san,
Interesting video, but it looks like the french guy is translating from japanese!
Sébastien says:
April 17th, 2006 at 10:31 am
hi minna-san !
I’ve also watched that video showing a French expert who is trying to explain to a Japanese public how the “holy fruit” technically grows.
My comment ??? How pitiful, I must admit ! This French guy is actually explaining a mere biological reaction that you should have learned at school, say when you were around 14 years old.
So, this show isn’t really worth being watched, unless you want to laugh a little…In short, he is saying that 90% of the quality of the wine is due to the solar condition of the land. Well, it is true that it is important, but not that much !!! Please, trust me ! I live in “Alsace”, a French region between France, Switzerland and Germany, which is famous for its white wines ! , by the way, you definitely have to try them, and even come here to discover this wonderful area ! So, I would say that I’m a little interested in that field…
That’s why I must add that you have to take into account the type of ground, the rain, the knowledge of the “vigneron”, etc.
To conclude - at last ! - I rather think that guy can’t help taking weird emphasis and lyrical accent !
Sébastien says:
April 17th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
just one more thing…don’t worry, I’ll be short…
Well, according to that poetic French “Dionysos”, sun accounts for 90% of the grape quality.
however…: sun is free + “sun accounts for 90% of the grape quality” = wine is cheap !!! hmmm…
Granted that it is true, how could you rationnaly explain Take-san’s reaction - -after he heard that Chigusa-san ordered 3 bottles of Romane Conti ??? (Ha ha haaa !!! haaa !!!)
Anyway, I’d like to hail the great, the fabulous performance of Take-san in this podcast ! don’t let you cornered by the girls ! gambatte kudasai !!!
Ja ne !
Nathan says:
April 17th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
Rhonda-san,
Glad I could be of some assistance
Clienad-san,
I agree, it’s best to never become dependant upon romaji. The best course of action is to learn the kana from the start, but of course not everyone will do so
R-san
Sébastien-san,
Thanks for the interesting comments… you have a much greater appreciation for wine than I (who has never tried it)
George says:
April 19th, 2006 at 11:27 am
I was wondering on the little side conversation where “en o kiru” was used. Peter says “en o kirimashou ka?”and then Natsuko says “en kiraremashita”. Was that “Should we fire her?” and “I was fired!”. Is that commonly used for firing someone from a job? I seem to recall hearing “kubi ni naru” or “kubi ni suru”. Just curious. This converstion was a lot of fun. Thanks for the great work. Looking forward to v2.0.
Andrew says:
April 21st, 2006 at 6:04 pm
In the dialogue, もうすでに聞いていますから was used. When I produce Japanese, I want it to sound natural; however, there are many areas that I still need to “naturalize.” This is an example: why is “kiite imasu” used instead of kiita? I would have probably incorrectly used mou sude ni kiita. How do I know when to use which one?
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