Mina-san,

Mina-san, today’s location is カーツーム・Kātsūmu - hello to all of our listeners in Khartoum, Sudan!

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

ピーターさん,
OK I have been meaning to talk to you about this for a while. You have such a great knowledge of language, I am always surprised when I hear you say it. And you say it too often. You are setting a bad example for everyone.
The work “unique” means “one of a kind”. Something cannot be “very unique” because it would mean “very one of a kind”. It is either unique or it isn’t. Here are some notes from the web.

Very unique
Unique means “one of a kind,” so something cannot be very unique or quite unique. (It is possible, however, for something to be almost unique.) In such cases, use the word distinctive instead, e.g., “Barry Sanders’ running style is quite distinctive.”

Thanks
John C. Briggs

There’s a 3rd meaning of “unique” in m-w.
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/unique

It just sounds wrong to me to describe something as unique without qualifiers. “This car is unique.” The flow is all wrong. “This car is fairly unique” sounds much better.

If you just substitute “one of a kind” for “unique” you can see if something works or not

“almost one of a kind” (OK)
“very one of a kind” (wrong)

If the word “unique” starts to be acceptable in the diluted form in MW usage 3, it will lose its value in the language.

People have made the word “bad” mean “good”, but that really is not helpful. I think generally we are better off having “good” mean “good” and “bad” mean “bad” and “unique” mean “unique”.
John

BTW: I really liked this lesson… I want to go to Hawaii too!

ピーターさん、
As always, great lesson today. I really think this style of breaking down the sentences is helpful. Particles are forever a struggle with me.
ジョン

OK, I know I have gone on too long, and Eranさん would probably be within his rights to delete me, but I have one more thing to add.

I just searched Yahoo news for “unique” and out of the first 100 articles found, only 1 out of 100 had this comparitive usage of “unique”. This represents a range of authors and editors. Clearly this usage is frowned upon by a wide range of people.

The one “comparative” useage that I saw was, ” completely unique perspective”.

::checking the lesson again, trying to find the UNIQUE part::

JPOD Team:
Can you explain the “mysterious n sound”? I have been noticing this lately and I seem to remember learning something about that . . . . but could you make a point of it in a lesson some time? Or have you done that?

In today’s lesson, “modorimasu ga” in the pdf, as heard became “modorimasun ga” with the “mysterious n”. Can I just say “n” any time??

Lizさん,
The truth is that I shouldn’t be talking about grammar at all. My knowledge of grammar is very poor.

Vickyさん,
Sorry, my comments about “unique” are not specific to this lesson.
ジョン

Johnさん、

Your efforts in the Save Peter Campaign™ are appreciated.

Very very nice!

Alain-san if I read your post correctly, you say your a boy? WOW! I thought you were a girl or am I wrong please correct me!

Now my word truth is being copy! YES I’m very original and unique! S_R_C

PS: Peter-san I understand your accent and everyone else at JP101 stuff so don’t worry ok!

Minaさん,
I cannot miss the opportunity to complain again about the use made of these “comments” for discussing all kinds of topics unrelated to the day’s lesson!
Just for one moment, imagine you are studying one of last year’s lessons (what I am doing every day), look up the comments, hoping to find useful hints on grammar point, vocab, etc., and end up deciphering 90% outdated chat. I think it is a pity, especially since the past lessons represent such invaluable material for newcomers.

So I would suggest the following : could there not be two different “comments” links for each lesson, one restricted to the lesson per se, and another one for general discussion topics. Those discussions are definitely important because they form the link between the whole community of users, but they easily transform into annoying clutter after just a few weeks.
I am not sure of whether this could easily be implemented, or whether other people will like the idea. I personally think it would improve the quality of the learning material offered to new users on the long term.

And many thanks again to the JPod staff for their efforts and responsiveness.

Jean-Michel your right my apologize from my part! but has you can see I also comment on today’s lesson too so I do both comments at a time ok!

To all Newbies, New Comers, Beginners Welcome to the site JP101!! S_R_C

Jean-Michelさん、
　　ごめんなさい。
ジョン

さくらさん、

どっちらクラブにいますか？　 　かぶきちょは。。。。えっと。。ちょっと危ないね。　

Jason-san,
Thanks, as usual!! However, you wrote “gna”, whereas the sound I hear is “nga”. Like desun ga.

I think the major point is that just because the Romanisation of something is ‘ga’ doesn’t neccesarily mean it sounds like ‘ga’ to our ears.

Another stumbling point is the ‘n’ sound. A lot of the time it sounds like ‘m’. And yes, I know the rules for the ‘n’ sound. For example ’shinbun’ often sounds like ’shimbum’. The first ‘n’ changes according to the rules for ‘n’ but the second doesn’t.

I’ve often heard 日本 referred to something approximated to ‘nihong’.

Don’t trust your Romaji, they can lie!

Jimさん, ジョン

Jasonさん,
Regarding Lizさん question, after listening to the lesson again, I thought that what we might have here is
　　　　 もどります　ん　が
where the ん is “explaining the reason” or “please under stand my situation”. I think this fits in the context of the dialogue.
If so, the transcript is wrong.
What do you think?
ジョン

No. It’s the combination g/n sound. If you listen closely, you can hear Sakuraさん do it with other g sounds too. It’s just more pronounced there. Maybe because there’s a pause at that particular が. Not to mention んが would also be ungrammatically.

*”found in” not “found it in.”

Geez, I can’t type this morning.

Jim-san you may be right just until certain point because knowing grammar doesn’t make you unique ok! Everybody can learn grammar, its something common and indispensable we should all know!

Being unique and original means being born with different qualities, do different things, say original words, not follow what everybody does like sheeps, not like the color pink, have a unnatural or unnormal (for some people) characteristics, be different from everybody else, etc

Guess who has all that” I’m not cheering my self or what you to cheer me up but ITS ME”ok

If you disagree then check out my posts, my pages, my pictures, etc and you’ll see for yourself period! S_R_C

Ok, I think we’ve thoroughly beaten the poor horse that is the word “unique” here and what it does and doesn’t or may or may not mean to a bloody pulp. Let’s move on. If anyone wants to continue a discussion about language evolution, feel free to start a thread in the forum.

Sindy, I don’t think there’s a person here who’d deny that you’re unique in the truest sense of the word. Or at least desperately hope so.