Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Today we bring you part two of our cell phone series. Yesterday you heard one side of the Japanese voicemail system, today we bring you the other! Tune in to hear the girls’ side of the story, and make sure you grab the bonus audio for a special appearance by the one and only… well, you’ll just have to see! In today’s grammar point, we introduce you to baai - “in the case of…” - so be sure to tune in!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 9:56 pm and is filed under Beginner 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.
36 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #98 - Cell Phone #2”
JapanesePod101.com says:
July 19th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Mina-san,
Omatase shimashita! Today’s location is オタワ・Otawa - hello to all of our listeners in Ottawa, Canada!
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Michael D. Cassidy says:
July 19th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
A question, hopefully not too dumb, how does one know when you can stop using formal language and swiutch to informal? what’s the signal?
Vicky says:
July 20th, 2006 at 12:04 am
Michael D. Cassidy-san, when they said ” Q ” then you can start to use informal. 
Kidding~~~
I think it depends how much you are comfortable with others or the ages between a part.But I’m sure OUR Jason can give you a better idea.
Where were you yesterday? We were looking for you~~
30 comments today!!!
I did my parts alredy. 
Have a good day~~~
Ja Ne!
Michael D. Cassidy says:
July 20th, 2006 at 1:16 am
Yo Vicky! I wanna sound just like my president: Bush just like a Rock only dumber. Saw that on a brumper sticker the other day.
I was going nuts trying to find in the :
おかけになった電話は電波の届かないところにあるが、電源が入っていないためかかりません。
Some mornings work gets in the way of my studing Japanese - the last two days have been like that. So after listening for 10-15 times it suddenly dawns on my flat-lined brain what was going on.
Mark says:
July 20th, 2006 at 2:32 am
::Looks out the window::
Did you guys send the rain over here?? 
Please don’t rain today! 
OUR Vicky-chan at it again… what is this nonsense about 30 comments? 
Have a great day!
Vicky says:
July 20th, 2006 at 2:55 am
Hehehe….I like to have some goals so why not over 30s??
I haven’t check the informal audio yet. My company doesn’t let me download it, why why why?? 
Anyway surprised informal ending???
When I called Japan, voicemail sounds much harder than today’s lesson. I really freak out and ended up hang off instead of leave the message. 
Can’t wait to hear informal audio.
PS. Here is TX, pretty nice sunny weather please do not send rain over here. 
Liz says:
July 20th, 2006 at 3:53 am
I can’t even imagine how bad the rain must be in Japan right now. My friend’s baseball team has had two games in a row rained out. 
You guys! So sorry to hear you’ve been sick! Have lots of miso soup and start getting some more sleep.
I still say when I called Japan the voice said, “hanashite kudasai”. Hmmm???
The vocabulary is coming so fast and furious that I’m starting to get overwhelmed. Hey, maybe the Beginner Lessons have really evolved into Intermediate.
Or maybe the reason I can’t keep up right now is that Tenchibo-san in the Forum told me about Hana Yori Dango, which I watched on Youtube and wasted a bunch of time. Then Jason-san (yes, OUR Jason!!) helped me download BitTorrent and now I’m downloading Hana Yori Dango hour long films with beautiful quality and listening to all kinds of informal Japanese with English translations. 
See, I really should study!!!
JPOD Team: please get well. Yoshi-san, don’t get sick!!
Daniel Beck says:
July 20th, 2006 at 4:48 am
Sakuraさん、
I noticed that you pronounced 場合 「ば・わい ba-wai」。Were you deliberately exaggerating for us non-native speakers, or is that how you pronounce it. Most times I hear 「ば・あい ba-ai」from others.
Before every else besides Sakuraさん answers, yes I know that 「あ＋あ a+a」 often comes out 「あ＋わ a+wa」。I just haven’t noticed it with this particular word before.
Markさん、
Regarding Our Vickyちゃん:
She is an outstanding evangelist (I don’t mean in the religious sense). And I’ll tell you this, if you want promotion, she’s your gal! 
-Daniel B
Sindy says:
July 20th, 2006 at 4:55 am
Yesterday and Today we had two hot days in 100′ F 40′C here in New York City I knew no one deer to come here right! 
I think that nothing compares with what you guys said in Chicago and TX! Again great cellphone lesson # 2 keep it up and before I forget I’m really enjoying my free 7-day trial! S_R_C
Mark says:
July 20th, 2006 at 5:16 am
Danielさん、
I know Vickyちゃん is great for the community We had 30+ comments in these recently, I don’t know what happened why we’re back to around 20-25. I’ll talk to her about promotion.
Mina-san,
I think it’s quite odd that Florida seems to be one of the cooler areas in the US right now. I hope everyone is faring well with the heat and rain.
Nathan says:
July 20th, 2006 at 5:17 am
Michael-san,
On the fourth night of the month, if a candle is placed in the second window, you will know it is time. I will assume you are talking about figuring out when you become close enough with a friend/colleague to begin using informal Japanese. I don’t profess to know, but I don’t think there is a set equation. A good sign is if they start using the informal I think it is good to remember that no matter where people are from, they are people and have plenty of similarities. As a human, you have an intrinsic sense of human relationships, so when you feel more comfortable with a person, it should be okay. Of course, there are other factors as Vicky-san mentioned, like age, group, etc.
Vicky-san,
I really liked this informal
Liz-san,
Ganbatte kudasai
Daniel-san,
I believe the wa sound is pretty common with this word.
Vicky says:
July 20th, 2006 at 5:24 am
Ah…I haven’t check the informal yet. You might be just teasing me Nathan-san, knowing you!!! 
You guys are lucky I’m not that busy today.
Speaking of promotion Daniel-san, let me help you abit today.
Hang on there~~~
Daniel Beck says:
July 20th, 2006 at 5:42 am
Kudos to Nathanさん、 Lizさん、 JockZonさん、 Daniel Cさん、 Solviさん and Markさん for leaving comments on my review of JP101 on my blog. And especially kudos to Our Vickyちゃん for her comments and recruiting!
Gotta love the community!
If anyone else wants to read it and leave a comment, you can click on my name above and scroll down, or go straight to that post here:
http://tinyurl.com/zuvxm
-Daniel B
Vicky says:
July 20th, 2006 at 5:55 am
Yeah!!! the half way is done. We can do it!!!
Is that true informal had shakespeaere takashi-san???
Ah…I want to hear it!!!
Liz says:
July 20th, 2006 at 6:04 am
Daniel-Beck-san,
I just knew you woud say Yoshi, Yoshi, Yoshi — blah, blah, blah!! 
But I went ahead and wished him well anyway!
Ooooh, what I have to put up with just to be nice!
Daniel Beck says:
July 20th, 2006 at 6:06 am
Nathanさん、
Regarding informal, I can barely even speak formal anymore. And few people speak formal to me. I have to be real careful when talking to people I should show respect too, like police officers.
Thank you for your input regarding “ba’ai”. However, I would like to hear from Sakuraさん or another native Japanese speaker. Sakuraさん？ 
-Daniel B
Daniel Beck says:
July 20th, 2006 at 6:10 am
Yes Our Vickyちゃん、
Shakespeare Takahashi makes an appearance. Yes, it was funny!
Take Take Take…blah blah blah…
Jason says:
July 20th, 2006 at 7:00 am
A question, hopefully not too dumb, how does one know when you can stop using formal language and swiutch to informal? what’s the signal?
Shimizu-sensei once told us it’s just something that when the time is right you just kinda know. The notable exceptions being with people significantly younger than you or people who work under you where using 丁寧語 is up to you. And then there are cases when you shouldn’t use informal at all. Like teacher, your boss, etc. Well, I guess you could for them too if you had some sort of special relationship with them or knew for sure they were ok with it.
Jason says:
July 20th, 2006 at 7:02 am
Oh, and with people around your own age, I imagine the time between formal->informal is considerably shorter with a lot of people. Especially in school/college..
Liz says:
July 20th, 2006 at 7:13 am
Dear JPod team,
Excuse me,but why do you always say, “Omatase shimashita!?:???: Your posts have been quite early in the day (in the U.S.) as they always were Just wondering and just trying to help Vicky’s goal of 30 posts today.
Vicky says:
July 20th, 2006 at 7:18 am
yeah OUR Jason!!!
Can you also help me with download BitTorrent mean by Liz-san?
Daniel Beck says:
July 20th, 2006 at 7:35 am
Well, I asked my wife (she finally woke up ) about ba’ai. She said she thought ba-wai is pretty uncommon. Hmm…
Lizさん、
You know I HAVE to tease you, right!
-Daniel B
Jason says:
July 20th, 2006 at 7:37 am
Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever heard it pronounced “bawai.”
Hugo says:
July 20th, 2006 at 8:30 am
Oh right! Amazing as always, Japanespod101.com rocks!
Greetings to everybody!
Peter says:
July 20th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Mina-san, regarding bawai, I’ve definately heard it pronounced this way. The same word, just pronounced a bit different.
Daniel says:
July 20th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Peterちゃん、
Of course you have, you work with Sakuraさん！
Just kidding. I wasn’t doubting that some may say it that way, but I’ve been in Japan nearly 13 years, and that was the first time I noticed it.
Mark says:
July 20th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Lizさん… should I help Vickyさん with her goal?
Oops! One more…
Vickyさん - I didn’t understand your question. You or Lizさん need help with Bittorrent?
Jonas says:
July 20th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Liz-san: It is standard in Japanese to say omatase shimashita, even if you are right on time especially if you are delivering a service to customers. That is just the way things are over here…
Vicky says:
July 20th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Hahaha….good jobs guys!! We made over 30 comments! What a great day.
Wow Peter-san, you leave the comments too? How’s over there. You know what I mean~~~
Jonas-san, don’t feel lonely. They will all come back!!
Great day guys, let’s do it again tomorrow.
Now I can sleep with smile….
Belton says:
July 20th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
re: informal speech,
I have one friendship where it’s mostly informal usage but I’m still called -san, and another where I’m not -san and sometimes anata but the launguage is masu-desu!?!
But I think English is similar in some ways (if not as seemingly codeified) as to how familiar you are.
(I’m sure President Bush didn’t start out greeting Blair : ” Yo Blair! ” )
The problem I’d have (apart from being a man, a grave handicap in working out social nuances! ) is trying to gauge reaction and appropriateness in an unfamiliar language and culture. 
It’s why I think the masu-desu is the standard form when teaching Japanese as it’s the safest in most situations.
So Vicky-san will the bar be rising to 35 Comments next?
Laura says:
July 20th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
I also was wondering about when to switch to informal too after the cell phone lessons. Figured that I’ll just let the native speakers take the lead on that until I get a feel for it. It’s a bit like English - knowing when your relationship is at the point where you can joke around rather than being nice and polite all the time. Typical “people” stuff.
Speaking of social nuances, I wonder if it’s any harder being borderline autistic or aspergers in Japan, or whether all human communication is so nuanced that it’s all equally difficult.
As for the ketai meeting, don’t make poor Yoshi wait and wait and have nothing happen. Yoshi, if you come to San Francisco, look me up. ^^
Belton says:
July 21st, 2006 at 12:40 am
Figured that I’ll just let the native speakers take the lead on that until I get a feel for it.
I was thinking that until I remembered that plain is for equals or people of lesser status.
A teacher might use plain to you but you would use desu - masu to them if not honorific / humble forms.
Also the switch from masu to plain is gradual, I think. Rather than masu form one day and suddenly plain form the next.
I wonder if it’s any harder being borderline autistic or aspergers in Japan, or whether all human communication is so nuanced that it’s all equally difficult.
Is it easier because there is a set form to follow or harder to understand what those forms are? Or are the nuances very subtle because of this. Interesting.
Maybe it’s easier for foreigners because no-one expects them to get it right.
高山是真 says:
February 24th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
This is honestly the first time I’ve laughed out loud at a J-pod dialogue. Someday Shakespeare Takahashi is going to become an urban legend.
Some of the stuff in here like ‘o kake ni natta denwa’ and ‘o azukari shite imasu’ is certainly above what I’d consider “beginner,” and is more than likely going to leave some students scratching their heads. With any luck this is addressed in future lessons. Another note is that in the dialogue where they say [i]tokoro ni aru ka[/i] the transcript says [i]ga[/i]. Changing [i]ka[/i] with [i]ga[/i] alters the meaning here, so watch out.
Almost to triple-digit lessons! Catching up to the modern stuff, day-by-day, lesson by lesson.
高山是真 says:
February 24th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Do forgive my use of BBCode. Apparently it’s become a habit.
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