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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! In today’s lesson, we have a formal conversation in the workplace between two shain, or company employees. The boss is angry and we’re going to find out why. We will practice using no as a nominalizer. After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com and be sure to leave us a post!
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Beginner Season 1 . 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.
31 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #160 - Office Mistakes”
Tuesday at 6:30 pm
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!
Tuesday at 11:46 pm
i have a tea kettle in my home, but there is a vending machine across the street with hot tea in it, so i just use that. (笑)
Wednesday at 12:20 am
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.
Wednesday at 3:52 am
Finally it’s working! Thx Eran-san
Wednesday at 3:53 am
I just heat up hot water from micro wave….lazy I guess?
Wednesday at 4:01 am
Mina-san,
Apologies for the temporary downtime some of you experienced earlier today. Our hosting provider had a glitch that we addressed and corrected.
Thanks for your support, understanding and apologies for the inconvenience.
- Eran
Wednesday at 4:05 am
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.
Wednesday at 6:15 am
We don’t have those appliances here!!!
We have those coffee and tea machines, but I’ve never seen you with hot water from what I remember. I love those instant noodles and listening to this podcast really made me want to try that.
So, this was based on a true story… I wonder who did it, really would like to know
また
Wednesday at 7:22 am
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.
Wednesday at 8:14 am
In Norway it’s very common with what we call “vannkoker”, directly translated “water boiler”, which switches off after boiling the water.
Wednesday at 9:02 am
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?
Wednesday at 3:01 pm
For those who don’t know what the appliance mentioned is, there is a picture at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_water_boiler
It keeps the water at a really hot temperature at all times and all you do when you need boiling hot water is to push a button. It doesn’t seem to be very popular here in Australia (with the exception of some Asian families).
Wednesday at 4:29 pm
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.
Wednesday at 5:22 pm
みなさん こんにちは!
I’m a fairly new listener and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do but I LOVE your site!
I do have a question regarding the final conversation between Peter san and Natsuko san. I believe it was ”I saw you running down the street last night.” I think I heard Natsuko san say:
”昨日の夜きみが走って xx のを みたよ”
I wasn’t sure what follwed the ”走って” and the
”のを”
Thanks for helping me out here!
Also, to answer your question: at work, we have a drip coffee machine that has a hot water dispenser. At home, I use a Zojirushi hot water pot (electric dispense) that I use to remind me of being in Japan! It’s cheaper than flying over there
Finally, what is the kanji representation for Natsuko san’s name?
なつこの声はとてもすごいですね。
ありがとうございます。
みなさん きをつけて。
じゃまた。
じゃまた。
Wednesday at 7:12 pm
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.
Wednesday at 10:55 pm
i’m in the US and water boilers are generally uncommon here, except for among college students. In my undergrad days (in California) a lot of people had them because you can easily use them to make instant ramen (and it’s much cheaper than buying a microwave).
Here in Boston too, I know that they are not uncommon among college students. Again I think the main purpose is to make ramen, etc but i’ve discovered there are other uses too.
My officemate is from the UK and so we have one in our office to make tea. I also used to drink lots of tea and I have one at home (made by Rival, who also makes the famous Crock-Pots), but now I use it to mostly to make hot cocoa and instant oatmeal for breakfast. In my opinion it’s a lot faster/safer/more convenient than using the microwave.
Thursday at 1:16 am
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
Thursday at 3:25 am
I was about to say I hadn’t seen such kettles in the UK, but then realised there’s one at work. Not very common though.
Thursday at 4:49 am
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.
Thursday at 11:05 am
Maxiewawa,
ありがとう ございますre: 夏子せんせいの名前。
じゃまた。
Thursday at 11:56 am
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.
Thursday at 3:02 pm
dmr214
Thursday at 3:04 pm
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。
Thursday at 9:48 pm
Mina-san, as Sölvi said, it’s also common in Sweden to have a “vattenkokare” - “water boiler”. I have never used the microwave for heating water
Thursday at 10:57 pm
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
Friday at 11:22 am
Is 事務所 a common word used by people in Japan for office?
Saturday at 3:02 am
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.
Saturday at 9:09 pm
dmr214-san, thank you for the question.
I think “事務所-jimusho” is used for a relatively small office that does a specific work. If you want to be more general, “会社-kaisha” is more common for office.
I hope it’s helpful!
Monday at 12:28 am
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. ^___^
Saturday at 10:29 pm
[ 他の人がいると思って。。。しまった!]
I am puzzled with this sentence, can you pls explain it?
“Why use “思って” not “思った”(たform for past tense), when it is “I thought…”.
thank you!
Friday at 8:08 am
sorry to keep bugging you… “lesson notes lite” please.
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