Mina-san,

Today’s location is セントルイス・Sento Ruisu. Hello to all of our listeners in Missouri!

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

Michael-san, please check out the informal!! You won’t be disappointed.

i’ve been reading alot of philip k. dick lately.
i met asimov briefly at ny times magazine about 20 yrs ago

his hair was crazier than even mine

Arf…
I would be glad if there were a robot to take my exams for me!

**and hello mina-san…it’s been a while, huh?

Daniel-Beck-san,
Aren’t you going to congratulate everyone for saying “san” all the time?

And it’s “Saint Louis”!!!

Hey, I have a question about R’s. Sometimes I hear the japanese R pronounced as a cross between an L and an R. A good example would be the song “Giri Giri.” But I’ve noticed on most these podcasts the R is pronounced closer to the english R sound. Is this just a difference in dialects? If so, which is way is more common?

Austinさん、

The Japanese “r” is not the same as an English “r”. With the English “r”, the lips are curved. With the Japanese “r” the lips remain flat. But unlike “l”, the tip of the tongue never touches the tooth ridge. Japanese “r”s can also sound a little like “d”.

-Daniel B

Cassidy-san: When you in Japanese day “どこが〜” in a context like this (どこがすごいですか。), you actually ask “what aspect of this thing is amazing/cool.” So more than “where”, “what” is a closer translation (but I guess with some goodwill both could pass)

Did this make sense?

Jonas

giovanni-san,

I can’t find the link now, but I thought I had read something mentioning that there was a press release saying that the name was not related to Asimov, although it may be too close to be a coincidence I love Asimov’s Foundation series, myself

Michael-san,

In addition to what Jonas-san said, there are other instances in which doko is used instead of a different question word that would be seemingly more natural for English speakers. For instance, when asking about the teams playing in a sports event, rather than using dare, you would use doko. And in today’s lesson, there was the case of asking about the good aspect of something (or someone).

Orlina-san,

Good to see you around! We miss you How are your exams going?

Daniel-san,

It’s in romaji because we like to let the listeners do a little bit of guesswork sometimes

Vicky-san,

Congrats to Korea

Austin-san,

As Daniel-san said, the “r” is different in Japanese. However, you should also note that just like anywhere else in the world, there will be differences among individuals, as well as regions. Some of our voice actors/actresses have an “r” sound that sounds quite close to the English “l” sound at times, which is supposed to be generally quite difficult for native Japanese speakers to form. It is good to listen to many different speakers so that you can have a general feel of the sounds, as well as a realization that we are all individuals and will have our own individual differences

Cindy-san,

Thanks for the report! I’ve heard it’s humid here in Japan, but coming from Texas, it still feels quite nice to me

Jonas-san,

I love you.

Vicky-san,

I guess so I just replied

Nathanさん、

re: romaji place names. Shyeah right!

re: “l” & “r”: Good point. This is especially true of singers. They will often deliberately make “l” sounds for all “r”s, despite being Japanese words. A prime example is the oldie-but-goodies Chage & Aska.

re: Jonas: Hmm… a little too much information, methinks.

-Daniel B

Hi everyone at JapanesePod,
I’ve been listening for a couple of weeks now, just wanted to let you know I am really enjoying it…especially with the informal track…it helps me to (finally) get a better feel for the differences between the more formal and informal styles of Japanese. But what a rebellious robot!

Keep up the good work!
Ilze

PS Hope to hear how the “reunion” saga continues too!

Orlina-san! 久々！Great to hear from you! I’m sure you’ll do fine!

Ilze-san, welcome to the community! It is so great to hear that you are checking out the informal tracks! Yesterday’s was really great, as Yoshi did a great job.

Austin-san, apologies for the late reply. Starting around intermediate lesson #4 Kaze appears. The way he speaks is typical of many Japanese guys, not so clear. It’s quite good practice as you will encounter many people who speak like this. よろしくお願いします。

More exciting robot news! Robot sex:

http://www.zprod.org/zLab/sexedRobots.html

Nathanさん、

気持ちわるい。

I have trouble understanding what happens at the end of the informal track… Any hints ?

Nathan-さん,

What I think I get is :
The first line of the robot, it says it’s unpleasant.

In take’s answer I get that something must be done quickly (putting something?), but I don’t get the middle kanji.

I don’t get the robot reply.

Take answers that it is not a joke and the robot must do something.

The robot has got issues relating to itself and the trash.

Take says the robot musn’t complain (?), and says something about the battery of the robot (??).

The robot says it has understood the order and that it will do the thing.

I guess I might be completely off track.

Peter-san is making jokes about women talking too much? Wa ha ha ha! That’s too funny.

I gotta go check out that Dry-mon. ^^

Troyさん、
Does seem like they forgot the introduction like “and now with the translation.” I think the “random” guy is Nathanさん. Really not that many Americans at JPOD.
じゃ　また
ジョン

This is driving me crazy. Does this

自分のゴミは自分で捨てて下さい

mean “take the garbage out yourself”?

Can someone “break this one down” for me?

ありがとうございます。

一