Mina-san,

As mentioned in the podcast, we would like to know if small water heating appliances (apart from coffee makers) are common in your workplace or homes! Let us know!

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

I used to have an electric kettle, but it started to introduce into the water a really weird taste that no cleaning agent could completely removed. So I just threw it away and instead boil hot water whenever I needed it.

I just heat up hot water from micro wave….lazy I guess?

I bought a small electric tea kettle thing that I bought at Walgreens for $10.00. I love using it to heat water when I have guests. It’s very fast. I noticed these in Japan and when I visited England. It’s true, as Vicky said, most Americans use the microwave.

I have never seen these insulated kettles anywhere else than in Japan. At home in Switzerland I use an electric kettle that boils the water and then switches off. My guess was that for Japanese green tea and for pot noodles you don’t need completely boiling water, while for black tea you do. Also, for good black tea you shouldn’t boil water twice, aparently because it looses some of the oxygen dissolved in the water. Interestingly, in the house of my grand-mother in East Frisia (Germany), where they drink black tea all the time, they had water heating systems directly integrated into the water taps, so that you could get boiling water directly on your sink.

I see another pattern… 間違う is to make a mistake,　間違い　is a mistake. 話す　is ‘to speak’, 話　is speech/conversation. におい is a smell,　におう is ‘to smell’.

So is the -masu stem the noun of a verb?

I have never seen the household variety of this appliance anywhere but Japan, but you see larger industrial sized ones in offices in the UK, so people can make hot tea all the time.

Of course, the style is different. They are less high tech and tend to have no electronic displays or components, but they do basically the same thing.

Natsuko sensei is a child of summer: 夏子. Very poetic. Interestingly, I met a lady once whose name was Haruko, or child of spring. 春子.

Hi everybody

here in Germany, an electric water boiler is very common. Basically everyone I know has one at home. It’s also a common appliance in the office too

じゃあ

ステより

I haven’t seen one of those hot water machienes here. Everywhere I have worked, the coffee machiene had a hot water tap right on it. At home, if I want hot water for tea or hot cocoa, I use one of the following: a teapot on the stove, a coffee maker without a filter or coffee, or the microwave.

Driftwood,
The missing word is いる. The sample sentence that Peter used is “Last night, I saw you running down the street.” Well they kind of omitted the street part but the key point here to remember is that the final verb shows the tense of the sentence. So in this case they are saying
(The action that another took )
“Running (down the street)” -　走っている　の

(the time it happened)
“Last Night” - 昨日の夜

(what you did)
“Saw” - 見た

昨日の夜、　なつこさんが走っているのを見たよ！

They used きみbut that is a very informal way of saying you. I would recommend as a beginner to stay away from ever using any form of YOU. If you aren’t sure, just use the persons name. People even use their name when talking about themselves in Japanese.

Also I noticed people in the form here use peoples Kanji names. In Japan when writing emails to people, unless you are 100% sure of the Kanji characters in a persons name most people simply use the Kana as a way to avoid an unpleasant rudeness..

Then again I’m just a salary man so these rules probably don’t apply outside my lifestyle in Tokyo.

ｄｍｒ２１４，
Ｔｈａｎｋｓ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｍｕｃｈ！　ありがとうございます。

Ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ＪＰＯＤ１０１　ｈａｓ　ａ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｎｉｃｅ　ｃｏｍｍｕｎｉｔｙ！

Ａｓ　ａ　ｓａｌｒｙｍａｎ　ｉｎ　Ｔｏｋｙｏ，　Ｉ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｍｕｃｈ　ｒｅｓｐｅｃｔ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔｓ．

お元気で行ってください。

Peterさん

はい、私の事務所で電気温水器があります。
コーヒやおちゃなどを入れにです。

Japanesepod101の事務所では?

ミクジ

All the places I’ve worked for in the US have had water coolers. They have a blue tap for cold water and a red one for hot water to make coffee and noodles. I guess the hot water gets heated as it makes its way to the red tap, since there isn’t a tank of hot water attached to the machine.

in scotland they use an electric tea kettle tha shuts off when it boils. SO, all my family here in the US have electric tea kettles. It’s a staple in all our homes. It’s great for instant soup too. My sister does have the japanese version, which she uses for more formal or party occasions, so that there is hot water stored in there, for whenever someone may need it.

You can get electric kettles here now in the states, pretty cheaply. but, i remember being younger, we would bring an the british electric kettle over to the US and use an electric converter, seeing there was no kettle about. Glad to see America has it now. ^___^