Mina-san, Don’t miss this opportunity to save 50% on any one-year subscription! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

葉 = は
ごめんね

Liz-san,

A teacher once told me that no question is a stupid question If you currently have a subscription you can still take advantage of the offer. Your new subscription will start AFTER your current subscription ends (assuming you are paying with a credit card). So, for example, if you currently have a 12-Month Premium with the following dates:

07/04/2006 - 07/04/2007

You can sign up for another 12-Month Premium using the 50% offer and the dates of this new subscription will be:

07/04/2007 - 07/04/2008

Note: This is the only the case if you use credit card as your payment method as PayPal does not support future dates for subscriptions.

I hope this helps.

Eran

I like the new interaction very much. One of the reasons I took advantage of your distcount offer is to upgrade so I could get flashcards, quizs, etc. The more interaction I can get the better.

Thanks for all you do. すばらしいです!!!

Stewart

Peter-san, Sakura-san, Yoshi-san, Chigusa-san, and all of the awesome people at JPOD101. Sorry I missed the big anniversary, but I wish you all the best for the coming year and a BIG arigatou gozaimasu for all of your hard work in making JPOD101 the best thing to come along since sliced bread.

Have a great 2007!

ネイト

Happy birthday J-pod 101! You’ve come so far in a year! Congratulations!

ohhh I forgot Thank You for the SKYPE tips again I already download it since the last time (ilove video 4 where Yoshi-san was talking to Mike-san).
I love it and enjoy it very much but they would soon going to charge us a fee for using it, too bad! Remember “Nothing is free in this world” S_R_C

Hi Jean-Michel-san,

The audio content (formal / informal) can be accessed from the Lesson Directory within the Learning Center. While this is not the most ideal placement, I can promise you that the new and much, much improved version 2.0 of the Learning Center (due to roll out in the not so distant future) is going to make things a whole lot better.

Eran

I really like the interaction of this lesson. It helps me to think about and own what I am saying much more than only repeating what I just heard. Great feature!

Making me talk back to my iPod - great!!!!

I really like the quizzing - it makes me think quickly and I actually got most of them right. I think some of this is actually sinking in!!

Hearing at the lesson audio again I’m surprise to be learning all about politeness of the Japanese students and teachers I didn’t knew all that!

Now I know that not just the beginners lessons but I also need this Newbie lessons too. WOW! S_R_C

PS: Hey thanks for the drills and for mentioning New York City my actual home sweet home now. Keep it up!

[…] Newbie Lesson #2 starts by going back and covering 「お早う東京」, which was introduced in the previous lesson. […]

Also, “konichi wa” was missing too.

-Robin

Hey Michael,
You’re question about word order is a good one. In Japanese, those two sentences actually mean the same thing–it’s equivalent to “Hello, Professor Smith” and “Professor Smith, hello (how are you doing)”. The word order just gives slight emphasis to whatever part comes first, but for practical purposes, those two sentences are identical in meaning. It has nothing to do with formal/informal language, but good guess, because so much of Japanese does deal with formal/informal relationships!

Brian S.

Hi .. I know this lesson is pretty old but it seems the iLearning center Notes are not pointing to the correct audio file name. The “Play entire lesson” is pointing to “Newbie Lesson #2 - Long Distance Skype” while the mp3 file name is only “Long Distance Skype”. I manually modified the text file titled “FullLessonLink.txt” to point to the right mp3 title and that fixed the problem. I have also seen the same problem with other lessons.

Cheers,
Moh

hey!jpod peolple! love the drills.

who’s we?!

WE like him!

“No” is the possessive particle.

“Watanabe-sensei” is a title. When you address that person, you might address him as “watanabe-sensei”.

But by waying “sensei no watanabe” he is saying “a teacher called Watanabe”. You probably wouldn’t address him that way.

I hope this makes it a little clearer!

Konnichi wa!
I’m slightly new to Japanese, but their lessons are very good. They stick in my head, when other sources are hard to memorize! This lesson is great about the daytime, when I had to greet the person in the peticular way– lovely! More stuff like that would very nice.

Arigato-gozaimasu!

Dean Collins

ohaiyo gozaimasita.
Thank you for your informative lesson. I’m listening to Newbie course over and over. It’s really helpful for me.
I’ll master Japanese.

it’s translated as be kind to me, but it is a common phrase meaning “please” or other things you can’t Translate into English. think of it as You All Come Back Now (but more polite in this Case!!

this site is really amazing! i always thought japanese would be very tough but with japanesepod’s help, it gradually became fun and easy!

merci

oh, you bet. you see, i am very much fond of japanese anime, especially naruto so i thought learning japanese would be much more comfortable than reading the english subtitle.

i really enjoyed every lesson. i wonder if Yamaguchi-sama is single.

i know this is old and this comment wont shape the curriculem (spelt wrong?) but ive been learning japanese just from your site for about 3 days now and ive got a basic volcabulary of about 30 odd words and i can write abit of hiragana so this helped so much and thanks for the help…im sure japanesepod101 is probaly better than any lesson ill find in my area (im 13 so i cant get lessons yet) this helped so much so thanks alot!

Just a question regarding the use of the two ways of saying excuse me that have been introduced in Newbiw Lesson 1 and 2: When would I use ’sumimasen’ (in its apologetic connotation) and when would it be more appropriate to use ’shitsurei shimashita’?

Thanks!

kcgt-san,

You can use “sumimasen” in most cases where you want to apologize. But, when you behave in bad manners, “shiturei shimashita” would sound more natural. Because “shitsurei” is made up of “shitsu” which means “to lose” and “rei” means “courtesy.”

Mihara-chan-san,

Thank you for your warm comments!

I’m really loving the teaching style so far. I’ve loved the Japanese language since I was about 13, but never got round to learning it. There is only so long I could go without delving into it though, and this site is proving to be the perfect way to get me off the ground!

I have been on this website now for 2 days and i am very impressed with the way lessons are structured. I started off using books sugested to me by a friend, but i didn’t feel that i was getting much back out of them.
I happened to stumble across Japanesepod101 while searching for other learning alternatives, and so decided to try it; I feel that i have learned more from the website that i ever managed from the books!

Arigato-gozaimasu for all the hardwork you guys have put in.

Scott

I actually stumbled across your website since I am trying once again to learn Japanese. I am an American but have a whole other half of my family living in Japan - one could say I am a “NISEI”.

Ironically, I haven’t been taught by my mother as a child growing up as she was too concerned with English immersion and trying to fit in here. This made my correspondence and phone conversations with family members difficult as my mother is the mediator.

It will be very awkward when the day comes and I can not rely on her to interpret any longer - now I am left to trying to teach myself the language.

I’ve tried many times with different systems and looked into some of the college courses (but time is a factor and college days fall on work days - hence I didn’t learn).

Glad I found your site - am currently getting the feel for the free Ipod and definitely consider signing up for at the very least the Premium and push myself daily.

Thanks for your site.

First, thank you for these delightful lessons. I have recently joined a church with a large Japanese population, and while there is certainly no pressure for me to do so, it seems that the courtesy of learning at least some of the language of my new friends would be appropriate.

I don’t know if it’s too late to let you know about this, but there is a typo on the Kanji close-up: The word “gratitude” is spelled “graditude”.

I very much enjoyed this lesson.　I’ve heard 失礼しました before but never understood the meaning until now. I like the sound of this expression very much, it has a nice ring to it. Thanks once again

Thank you Mayumi-san, I appreciate the feedback. It is a good thing to know when 失礼しました is most useful. I have also been able to pick up on simple sentence structure well enough so far, it is in a way a joy to discover these things about the Japanese language. I have never enjoyed learning a language as much as I have Japanese.

Even though my knowledge of the language is still limited, I find it a great strenght that I learned hiragana a few years ago, this gives me a big confidence boost when going over material and remembering vocabulary. Your Kana Recognition Practice Tool has been a wonderful refresher for those less commonly used kana. Thank you again.

Taha-san,
Thank you for your kind words! Glad you found us and are enjoying the lessons - best of luck with your studies!

J-san,

Thank you for your nice comment! We have tons of lessons! Please enjoy learning with us!

Sanさん,
The “wa” in konnichi wa and konbanwa is actually the particle wa, so in the past they were actually saying something about “today” and “tonight” - for example, as a greeting they might say “Today is hot, isn’t it?”, which would start with “konnichi wa~”.
In the phrase “ohayo gozaimasu”, though, they aren’t talking about that morning, so I guess that’s why there isn’t a “wa”

I’m learning to write hiragana and this lesson the symbol used to write the syllabal “wa” is diferent that the one I learned( which the symbol they used was for “ha” and not “wa”). Is there a reason a diferent symbol was used or did I learn the wrong symbol?

If anybody knows I would sure apperciate it.

Domo arigato gozaimasu.
Shane

Hey there, Love your site. A lot more fun and id say faster than my copy of Rosetta stone. Anyways. On newbie lesson season 1 lesson 2. In the lesson notes where やまぐち says, “わたなべせんせい、ニューヨークはよるです。” Why does she say, “わ” yet the notes say, “は”? Is this an error? I’m fairly certain this isn’t an error, but why is this? . Sorry to waste your time keep up the good work .

ほぜふ ぱありす

nicolasharples.
ADD ME ON SKYPE!
i love japanesepod101.

Hilda-san
Konnichiwa!
We’re glad you liked our lessons!!

Iwakura-san-san,

Thank you for your nice comment! Glad to know you are enjoying our lessons! Have you checked our forum? If you haven’t, please be sure to go to “Japanese Anime & Manga” session in our forum.
http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10

Steveさん,
Thank you for your kind words!! We’re really glad to hear that you are enjoying the lessons I have added “asa” and “hiru” to the vocab list of this PDF!!

Ohayou goziamasu Kat-sensei!
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

(I actually know what all that means, incredible really )

Is the O word for Americans/Europeans like the N word for certain ethnic groups…while it would be highly offensive to be used AT them by some people, being used BY them would be ok?

For instance, I am white and from London, I never say the N-word, as there is no situation where i feel my repeating that word would not be offensive if over-heard by someone else….but saying that, I live in a poor part of London and I hear the word an awful lot spoken by youths speaking to each other.

While it is highly offensive and pejorative as far as I am concerned, for the group themselves they don’t seem to see the word that way.

Is the O word like that?

Katさん,

Sou nan da! Shibaraku desu ne! I wasn’t really gone, actually. I simpy decided I wanted to learn hiragana first (which I did) before stumbling onto more words whose pronunciation I couldn’t look up. I’m still a newbie, of course; but thanks to you, and all other folks at japanesepod101, at least I’m now well past my “Dozo ‘break’ onegai shimasu!” phase. I understand now why you use ‘ga’ with ’suki’, and ’suru’ with ‘kanben’. So, thank you all!

In fact, I was just experimenting with ’suru’. Would the following be correct?

Anime wo miru no wo totemo tanoshimi ni shite imasu!
I’m totally looking forward to watching Anime!

I realize an extra NO needs to follow ‘miru’ here (verb + ‘tanoshimi ni’ phrase). And the ‘wo’ following the ‘no’ should be correctly placed, too. I’m just not entirely sure on the first ‘wo’ after ‘Anime.’ I think it kinda needs to be there, as ‘to watch something’ generally goes with ‘miru’ + ‘wo’.

Korekara osewa ni narimasu!

Steveさん
Ohayou gozaimasu! Thanks for your comment! Just to back up what Jessi said - I should have been clearer that I was saying “the o-word” in an ironic way (tone of voice never comes across very well on the internet, does it?! )… It’s nothing like as offensive as the n-word in English, but is more like calling someone a “nerd with no life outside anime”… and hence when you say “otaku desu!” to refer to yourself (or indeed someone else), you’re simply dissing yourself (or that other person) ! Sorry for the confusion!

Iwakuraさん
Wow, your grammar is really coming along at a rate of knots! Ganbatte kudasai! Jessi and I were amazed & delighted at your perfect use of “miru no wo” which is actually quite an advanced usage (you could also say “miru no ga”).

しつれいしました、just practising…

ぉはよう、Tokyo.
こんばんは、Moscow. (Moscow はよるです.)

Dipterixさん,
Good work!

Jocelynさん,
Glad you liked the drill! We’ll be including more in future lessons

Anais,

If you are using Microsoft IME Japanese then it is simply the - key that is at the top of the keyboard after the numbers and before the = key.　　You have to place the keyboard into Japanese, then choose Full-Width Katakana and then use the dash key…

テーブル

te-buru

I think the Large Dash is simply an elongation of the vowel sound.

テーブル

te-buru

In this example you would “say” Teeburu ….remembering that in Japanese the Te sound is Teh with the E as in Edge.

That is my understanding of it anyway and as you can imagine as I am on this site, I am just a learner too.

Steve-san
Thank you for helping Anais-san. You’re right.
Anais-san
Here’s some examples of long sound.
English word → Japanese pronunciation → writing
art → aato → アート　(you should type “A-TO”)
keyboard → kiiboodo → キーボード (KI-BO-DO)
sweater → seetaa　→ セーター(SE-TA-)
suite → suutsu　→　スーツ（SU-TSU)

Anais-san,

Nearly correct. You said ‘wakarimashite’. ‘Mashite’ actually *does* exist. It’s the -te form of the auxiliary verb ‘masu’. You’ll find it in expressions like “Dou itashimashite!” (’itatsu’ is the humble form of ’suru’; so, instead of ‘itashite imasu’ it becomes ‘itashi + mashite’: doing; like ‘hajimete imasu’ -> ‘hajime + mashite’). But it’s a fair bet you really just meant: わかりました (wakarimashita) -> “I understood.” Or just わかります -> “I understand.”

Indeed, in Hiragana the “—” isn’t used to elongate vowels. Instead, you add a ‘u’. Like: どうぞ (= douzo).

Jesse-san & Kat-san,

While i’m in this thread anyway, remember above? I had made the following sentence:

“Anime wo miru no wo totemo tanoshimi ni shite imasu!”

Lately, however, I’ve been experimenting with ‘koto’ a lot, as an alternative to nominalizing verbal phrases. Like:

Nihongo wo hanasu koto ga dekimasu.
I can speak Japanese.

Or,

Ebi wo tabeta koto ga arimasu ka?
Have you ever had shrimp?

So, likewise, it seems I should be able to rephrase my above sentence as follows, ne?

Anime wo miru koto wo/ga totemo tanoshimi ni shite imasu!

Or even just,

Anime wo miru koto ga totemo tanoshimi desu! (little less formal)

Thanks for your time, as always.