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Click here for details about our 33% OFF Summer School Special! Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Join Take-san and Yoshi-san on the densha headed for Kyoto. Quite the nice guy, or quite the handful? You decide! Today’s lesson introduces the -te mo ii Japanese phrase used to ask permission. Check the PDF and Grammar Bank for more detailed information, and be sure to leave us a post!



This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Beginner Season 1 . 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.

27 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #95 - May I?”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Mina-san, Today’s location is カトマンズ・Katomanzu. Hello to all of our listeners in Kathmandu, Nepal! :grin: Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

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Liz says:

Good morning!
This will be good — learning how to ask permission!
Have a great day everyone!! :grin:

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Vicky says:

Good Morning Mina-san!

Liz-san, thank you so much for your email~~~ :wink:
Love U 2!!

Great day!!! :mrgreen:

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Vicky says:

Umm…Eran-san, I made my decision. I decide to follow your opinion. :wink:
Dozo Yoroshiku!

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Belton says:

I looked at the title and thought “why are they doing a podcast about the First of May?”

Oh permission!

(being an uncouth Irishman I probably say Can I rather than May I )

can’t wait for the grammar database to fill up. Great idea.

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Sindy says:

:smile: Thank you JapanesePod101.com, Peter-san Yoshi-san, Sakura-san for keeping my opinion in mind you see today lesson and yesterday lesson are great I love them! I also like 33% you guys are offering that is nice too! Keep it up there is alot of ideas ahead and this is the best Japanese website I ever like so much in my life! :grin:

PS: I really want to apologize to Vicky-san, Daniel-san and all for everything I say before in the World Cup Lesson! I was very angry I even sent a e-mail with my hateness and madness too I know I sounded racist but I wasn’t on my six sense! Now I’m back where I belong JapanesePod101.com! :mrgreen:

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Austin says:

In English, atleast here in the USA, a lot of the times they’ll say “Can I” even when they mean to say “May I.” “Can I” is gramatically incorrect, but it is actually used more often. I wanted to know if Japan is the same way. If you want to know if you may swim can you infact say something like “Oyogeru” or “Oyogu koto ga dekimasu” or is this gramatically incorrect. If it is gramatically incorrect, do people still use it a lot to know if they “may” do something?

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Hugo says:

Oh! This lesson is just what I need because is the same issue of the chapter what I´am studyng for my japanese class. :razz:

I hope what everyone have a real nice summer o winter vacation. :cool:

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Jason says:

I looked at the title and thought “why are they doing a podcast about the First of May?”

XD

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Liz says:

Mina-san,
Do you want a break from studying Japanese?
Look at this (Drum Machine Flash animation by Tokyo Plastic)

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/drum.php

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Austin says:

mmm Liza-san, that was nice. That’s the best flash animation I have ever seen

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Mark says:

Liz-san, that was great! :grin: Thanks for sharing!

JP101 - How do I say “May I have a free subscription?” ;) Just kidding!

Hope everyone had a great day.

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Nathan says:

Liz-san,

Thanks for sharing the link… that one is a classic! :grin:

Vicky-san,

Good morning :grin:

Belton-san,

We can’t wait for it to fill up either! :wink: And like Austin-san said, “can I” is very common, at least where I am from!

Sindy-san,

Thank you for that :grin: And we’re glad you like it here :grin:

Hugo-san,

Ganbatte kudasai ne! :smile:

Mark-san,

Just send Vicky-san a PM :wink:

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Daniel Beck says:

Peterちゃん、

You read the Nikkan, but on the front pages? And I’m sure you read Playboy for the aritcles, right? :wink:

Oh, I heard from a little bird that it’s difficult to understand Takeさん when he’s asked his opinion about the conversation. Seeing as it is a beginner lesson, maybe either Takeさん should answer in English, or his answers should be compeltely translated. What do you all think?

-Daniel B

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Vicky says:

Yeah!!! I love your a little bird Daniel B-san. :wink:

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mikuji says:

Austin-san
I think ‘Can I’ is not GRAMMATICALLY incorrect with respect to ‘May I’, only imprecisely used by English speakers - they often rely on context to understand.
So when in Japanese one distinguishes between “Oyogu koto ga dekimasu” and “Oyoide mou ii desuka” because the content is distinct.
Now here is the wee story for your amusement, using your oyogu (泳ぐ) example:
」泳ぐことができますか?」彼のと言うことでした。事故後で健忘症を罹ってから泳んで見まえんでしたので、分るりました。 今船は沈めとところでした。。 [飛び降りてか、飛び降りなくてか、どうしよう?].飛び降りました。泳ぐことができまた!ぎりぎり逃がしたね。終

健忘症 【けんぼうしょう】(n) amnesia, loss of memory, (P)
罹る 【かかる】 (v5r) to suffer from, (P)
沈める 【しずめる】 (v1,vt) to sink, to submerge, (P)
飛び降りる 【とびおりる】(v1) to jump down, to jump off, (P)
船 (n) ship
逃がす 【にがす】 (v5s) to let loose, to set free, to let escape, (P)

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mikuji says:

ごめん !
It seems that some gremlins entered my little story so I am posting it again.
ご理解とご協力を お願いいたします
Thanks you for your understanding!
mikuji
*****
」泳ぐことができますか?」彼のと言うことはでした。事故後で健忘症を罹ってから泳んで見まえんでしたので、分りませんでした。 今船は沈めとところでした。。 [飛び降りてか、飛び降りなくてか、どうしよう?]飛び降りました。泳ぐことができまた!ぎりぎり逃がしたね。終

健忘症 【けんぼうしょう】 (n) amnesia, loss of memory, (P)
罹る 【かかる】 (v5r) to suffer from, (P)
沈める 【しずめる】 (v1,vt) to sink, to submerge, (P)
飛び降りる 【とびおりる】 (v1) to jump down, to jump off, (P)
逃がす 【にがす】 (v5s) to let loose, to set free, to let escape, (P)

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mikuji says:

Dear JapanesePOD101 team,

I really like the oral based content questions. They are very very useful as I need all the ‘listening in context’ exercise I can get.

Thank you so much for this new feature.

Cheers

Mikuji

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Peter says:

Mina-san, apologies for not posting recently; we’ve been swamped over here! Will be back to address all the posts soon. :grin:
よろしくおねがいします。

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Joshua says:

すみません、
でんしゃ の セリース の なまえ は なん ですか?
ども ありがと ございます、
ジョシュア

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王凱 says:

この電車は特急京都行きでごさいます。すみません、この席は空いていますか。はい、すみません、暑いですね。そうですね。窓は開けてもいいですか。いいですけど、涼しいですね。気持ちいい。今日の新聞ですか。はい、ちょっと見てもいいですか。昨日の株価をチェックしたいんですが。いいですけど。

また、明日。

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Cassandra says:

I hope later lessons spend more time on grammar and less on vocabulary. While I know vocab is important (how can you say anything without it?) grammar is equally or more important. And it’s squeezed into the last 45 seconds of the podcast! Barely explained and then we move on to the next lesson. It’s not enough of an explanation to really understand what is going on, even with the PDF.

I’m working through the back lessons at the rate of about 1 per day. I’m learning a lot but I still feel like some of the grammar concepts are shaky.

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Jessi says:

Hello Cassandra :)
Thank you for your feedback!
I highly recommend that you jump to one of our later series, like Newbie Seasons 2 and 3. These later series were developed with a proper curriculum, and all of the lessons share the same format, where grammar is given the longest amount of time at the end. You’ll find that Newbie S2 and 3 especially are focused on grammar, so it sounds like what you may be looking for ;)

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Cassandra says:

Hi Jessi! Thanks for the suggestion. :D I’ve already gone through Newbie Season 1-3 and most of 4. Eventually, it felt too easy (yay!) which is why I started going through a Beginner season. The て form is pretty new to me, so the grammar in these last lessons is perfect for my level but not explained enough for full comprehension. Is one of the later Beginner seasons around the same level as this season? Thanks again!

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Jessi says:

Hi Cassandra,
Oh, it’s good to hear that you have already gone through most of the Newbie Seasons :)
In that case, I would go onto Beginner Season 4 and 5! (This is the series that matches the format of Newbie S2 and S3). The te-form is introduced in lessons 9-12 in Beginner S4, and is used throughout the rest of the series.
I hope this helps :mrgreen:

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wael says:

these two sentence make me confued

nimotsu mottemo ii desu ka
ni motsu mochimashouka
please help

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Motoko says:

wael-san
Kon’nichiwa.
te-from plus mo ii desu ka means “May I…?” whereas masho ka means “Let’s…” and “Let me…”
When you offer the listener to bring his/her bags, the second one sounds more natural.
If the speaker has been told not to have his bag, this would be natural.
We use te mo ii desu ka when we ask someone a permission or ask questions politely.
ex) (On shop register)Kaado o tukatte mo ii desu ka?
“May I use a credit card to pay it?”
Additionally, Beginner Season4 Lesson15 and Lesson7 cover mo ii desu ka and masho ka.
I hope this helps :wink:

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