Mina-san, Mina-san, today’s location is 地盤・jiban - hello to all of our listeners on… the ground (it was shaking while we were in the studio)! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

I have heard other explanations for the grammar point. しか can be thought of as “but” or “only”. It can be used as an emphasizing word in a in sentences with numbers. Compare:
There were as many as ten people
　十人もいました。
There were ten people.
十人がいました。
There were as few as ten people
十人しかいませんでした。
So in each case there are the same number of people. But in the first case it seems to be an unexpectedly large number （も） and in the last case it was an unexpectedly small number (しか）.
また　ね
ジョン
P.S. Jasonさん’s corrections might soon follow.

I can’t find 遺灰 either. It is notably absent from the JPOD dictionary!!!
ジョン

Hello, mina-san,
As always, these lessons really make us like we can learn anything! It’s a awesome job.
By the way, I was wandering through the archive and I saw some months ago, a calling for Brazilian listeners. I was away in the time it was made, but I would like to be at your disposal. I would like to make anything I can for the JapanesePod101.com. Well, till next time!

Claudenir

ただいま！I don’t know if this is the right place to put it, but, anyhow…
flew to Rome for the JLPT4. Lots of thanks to everybody who patiently answered my bunch of stupid grammar questions in the forum, (particularly Bueller and Jason, thanksthanksthanks ), without you I would never have made it.

I tried lots of past years tests, and there were no surprises in the 1st and 3rd part of the JLPT. For the listening section, I had only rather bad-quality recordings of last tests and didn’t understand much on those, and thought I had to make it without points from the listening part. Surprise at the real test: hey, I understand what they’re talking about! Very very nice feeling.

Weak points?
Obviously: I don’t take japanese courses and didn’t even bother to buy books because there is so much stuff on the web and in the learning center here. I just stumbled upon jpod last may, to learn a new language.
So, of course, verb forms are a problem: you need to drill those, which I didn’t until when cramming. It was Ok for the test but remains definitively a weak point.
Maybe some stupid program to rehearse those forms would be cute in the learning center.
The grammar bank is fine, but some entries labeled as JLPT3 are actually level 4. More extensive explanations for the constructions would be better, but I guess everybody else here has some actual real teacher to give those… (but luckily there are our grammar gurus here to help me).

But I think the real achievement of jpod is NOT to get all of us safely through the JLPT (though, just for extra-safety, keep your fingers crossed ).
It is rather that people like myself, who were not in particular thinking of learning japanese, get interested in the language, but also the culture, the people, life “there”. Independently of how much japanese they will know later on, they will know about other cultures, other people and maybe bring that knowledge even to others. That is far more difficult to achieve. I tried even the test, but so many more people here will just listen in on the podcasts, maybe never post but still have fun, get to know some little (or big) piece of japan. That’s really great

Oh yeah… did I mention I got a whole bunch of level 3 study material from a guy next door at the JLPT

Hey John, that’s so nice - then I don’t need to feel lonely

Johny boy!

Tadaima. I am back from my abscence. I have not really been gone though, just lying low and watching you all comment Excellent lesson, but I don’t really get it. Some more examples would be nice. In addition, I would like to know why “hyakunin shika hito” was used and not only “hyakunin shika”?

Jya, mata.

John C. Briggs-san, don’t forget to wear the special glasses I gave you. It works pretty well sometimes. Especially today’s comment.

Here is 6 pm badly checking today’s lesson. Can’t wait. How we are going to live without jppod eh???

Seanさん、

I think you may have hurt some feelings with that one.

I have to agree though. It was more distracting than entertaining.

Google is your friend
Pour ihai 遺灰, on trouve par exemple:
遺灰ダイアモンド which seems to be a diamond made with your loved one’s ashes. It can also be your pet’s ashes!

http://www.ihai-diamond.com/

Dan R, Sean and Daniel B >> I could agree at some people may consider the accent annoying. I must say though that as a non native english speaker, it wasn’t harder nor easier to understand.

We shouldn’t get too angry with them becaue it was only this once there was an accent.

I’m with you guys. Too bad it wasn’t Peter giving the native English speaking voices. The fake accents were overly distracting. Hopefully Peter doesn’t miss any more.

ヴィッキ with or with out your glasses no one can win with my truths ok!

Solvi-san you don’t need Vicky-san glasses ok your fine!

Alain-san I agree with you google is our friend but only until certain point ok so don’t get confident! S_R_C

I will NEVER target Solvi-san, you ( ヴィッキ) or other listeners. I can see and recognize the real good listeners of JP101 that are worth it and I’m proud of them too ok!

I’m not blind and if you keep supporting the non good listeners by sharing your glasses, they will always be fake and will never get to see the truth (reality)! S_R_C

PS: Its your choice ヴィッキ, so do what ever your heart tells you to do ok!

Hello everybody.

Is anybody having the same problem???

When the transcripts come in Kana, my iPod hasn’t been able to recognize it. It all comes in some strange symbols. I use a Mac computer and have no problems with Kanas nor Kanjis. I don’t know what is wrong.

Is this just with me??? Is there any way of fixing it up???

Thanx

I can make a list of all the great real good listeners of JP101 that are worth it and I’m proud of them! but its too large to post here!

You should know who you are if not I’ll tell you ok!
Thanks!

PS: JP101 staff have also great people out there worth it too! S_R_C

Jason-san

I use the video iPod (the 5th generation). The problem is that my iTunes has also shown the same strange symbols.

I’ll copy bellow what appears when I select the “lyrics” lable:

Kana:
≠Ä≠ñ≠¢≠ñ™F≠¢≠ç≠Á≠µ≠á≠¢≠Ü≠’™B
≠«≠á≠–™F≠ç≠¢≠°≠Â≠í≠∏≠µ≠Ì≠¯≠Á≠±≠ñ≠T≠O≠Ë≠ñ≠«≠Ë≠ñ≠Ñ≠Å™B≠Â≠Ü≠Æ≠¢≠Á≠µ≠å≠É≠µ≠ñ≠±≠ñ≠è≠å≠±≠€≠Æ≠¨≠È≠¶≠Æ≠±≠ë≠Ö≠à≠€≠¢≠¿≠Ç≠¢≠«≠∏≠¢≠ñ≠Å≠·™B

It’s really strange because I didn’t have this problem before.

I’m using the latest version of iTunes. I think this is when it all started. But anyway, in other programs, when kana is used to introduce words that are translated, they appear normally.

Example:
Vocabulary・Goi・ごい・語彙:
Hisashiburi・ひさしぶり・久しぶり – Long time no see, It’s been a long time since…,
Hisabisa・ひさびさ・久々 – Been a while!

Any clue about what is going on???

Thanks for your help

Jason-san

The problem is not just me then. Anyway, thanks for helping me out.

Yorishiku onegaishimasu!!!

i agree about the accents on this one. they were a tad distracting…

as for Atami　（熱海）, i was excited to hear it mentioned in this Podcast. i’ll be staying in a Ryokan in Atami for Christmas! woo-hoo! 楽しみだぜ！（笑）

マーキー

I found the accents humorous. Although I agree it should not be used everytime, it makes it feel like the Jpop cast enjoys themselves. Work such as that, always feels more refreshing than the “serious and professionial approach” That is not to say Jpop is not professional or serious, just not as uptight has everyone else.

Timさん,
Let me give this a try.
いちまい is one ticket
も is more than
ございません is like ありません and means doesn’t exist.
So
one ticket, more than, doesn’t exist.
In other words, there is only one ticket.
Hopefully this is right.
じゃ　また
ジョン

Timさん、
Sorry for my error.
After discussing this with Jasonさん, I have discovered that this is really a mistake in the PDF. Probably the Japanese didn’t come out as intended.
Now I see in the lesson that there are actually three times that this type of phrase occurs in the dialog
　1) そのひは　きっぷ　が　いちまい　しか　ございません
　2) そのひは　きっぷ　が　いちまい　も　 ございません
　3) そのひは　きっぷ　が　いちまい　しか　ございません
and the translations are
1) only one ticket is available
2) only one ticket is available for that day as well
3) only one ticket is available
So probably in the second case, the　も was intended for the day rather than the number of tickets i.e. そのひも. Perhaps they may have intended the Japanese to be.
2) そのひも　きっぷ　が　いちまい　しか　ございません
So your translation of も is correct, but I think Jasonさん discovered the more likely intended meaning of the authors.
じゃ また
ジョン

Just started listening to these lessons.

Is there a mistake in the translation of next week as rai getsu?

cheers

Can someone explain to me the grammar point for 「新婚旅行と同じところへ」in the first line of the customer? What is going on here? Particularly with the と. Does it mean “as” here?

かんじ を つかえば グァム は 何 ですか
What’s the Kanji for Guam?

Mikeさん,
It looks like Guam in kanji would be 瓜姆島 (a lot of country names do have kanji that represent them, but are hardly ever used), but it’s almost always written in katakana like most other country names: グアム (Guamu)