This feature requires an Active Premium subscription. Sign in or register for a 7-Day Free Trial today. Click link for more info.
This feature requires an Active Basic subscription. Sign in or register for a 7-Day Free Trial today. Click link for more info.
 
By Type:

Ascending Descending
By Month:

Ascending Descending
By Keyword:

Ascending Descending

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Today we bring you a conversation between a husband and wife. Normally, a couple would speak very informally to each other at home, but today the husband is speaking very formally for some reason. Perhaps it has to do with today being his wife’s tanjoubi, or birthday?

Tune in to this newbie Japanese lesson to find out! You’ll also master the ways to use the most polite of Japanese linking verbs: de gozaimasu. After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com, and be sure to leave us a post!

 

Grammar: | Politeness Level: ,


This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Newbie 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.

74 Responses to “Newbie Lesson #15 - When’s Your Birthday?”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Mina-san, What kind of birthday did you have this year? Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

avatar
andy says:

My 37th.

avatar
Mayuko says:

My company helds a small birthday party every month. If your birthday is in March, you are invited to the party this month! They give you a birthday present too, and it’s usually sweets or something to eat.

I don’t think it’s common in Japan, but do you have such things in your working place??

avatar
Alan says:

I haven’t had my birthday yet this yet. Its August 3rd, so you can put it in your diaries :lol:

Mayoko-san, In my last job we brought cakes into work on our birthday and treated our colleagues. It sounds the wrong way round, but over the year, we got to eat lots of cake.

avatar
Vicky says:

I was pretty sick on B/day that I wasn’t even able to talk. The saddest and sickest day of my life was my B/day this year. :cry:

avatar
Robato says:

I went to Barcelona from Edinburgh cos my good friend lives there and we both have the exact same birthday, same age .We had a barbecue together at his house with friends looking over to the city of Barcelona.

とても楽しかったです。

avatar
Liz21 says:

The weekend of my birthday was when Gillian (Japanesepod listener, who I had never met!) came to visit from England! We had such a great time touring Chicago! :grin:

avatar
Devon says:

When he says, “今日はお忙しいですよ。” is the 「お」just a part of 敬語? I spent my last birthday in Japan! 楽しかったよ!

avatar
markystar says:

:mrgreen:

i had big plans for my last birthday, but i left my 携帯 (cellphone) on the train the night before. when i got it back the next day, i had many calls from my friends to go do something. oh well…. :mad:

devonさん、
you are correct about 「今日はお忙しいですよ」!
it is very, very polite. やっぱり警護ですね。

avatar
bakaneko says:

Mayuko-san,

anata no o namae wa kanari suteki desu ne.

avatar
Hyunwoo Sun says:

Haha. It was a very interesting lesson. :wink:
楽しいレーソンでした。

I’m still waiting for my birthday to come. :D

avatar
JockZon (JZ) says:

It’s nice to hear these newbie lessons to review the knowledge you already got :mrgreen:

Myself, I’m turning 18 next thursday :wink: Ureshii na

/JZ

avatar
Abrassart says:

Late (or early) “Tanjobi Omedeto!” to everyone :lol:

avatar
João Paulo says:

Like Peter-san said… is this a newbie lesson??
Dou iu kaze no fukimawashi!!!
Full of information, lots of novelties and yet simple. How can you guys do it?

My last bday, well… from what I remember I simply worked. At night, some friends of mine invited me out for a pizza and I didn’t have to pay anything. That was nice from them.
We had a good time 2gether.

Mata :razz:

avatar
hatori says:

bakaneko sun kono e _mail wa watashi no des . mrpm1984@yahoo.com . sumimasen please call me . onegaishemes

avatar
lulu_chan says:

桜さんーおそくなりましたがおめでっとう!
PeterさんーYour birthday is one day after mine! september 29! ahh, fellow libran. ^____~

Alansan- my dad’s birthday is the 3rd of August too. CAn’t forget yours now. ^__~

avatar
J.D. says:

Dou iu kaze no fukimawashi!!!

I would interpret this as “What change in the wind is this?” Not only is it more literal but it retains the meaning of surprise at a change in behaviour.

avatar
alex says:

Hi guys,
may be i am wrong but I hear the otto in the dialogue of this lesson saying: Watashi GA tsukurimas yo but on the PDF I read Watashi WA tsukurimas yo. Please which one is right?

avatar
alex says:

….and why ?

avatar
Hyunwoo(ヒョヌ) says:

Alex,

I think you’re right. :D It’s “watashi GA” in the audio. The PDF and Learning Center says it’s WA, but in this case GA is correct.

Team JPod ~~ come and take care of this typo, please :-) :dogeza:

avatar
Hyunwoo(ヒョヌ) says:

Oh, as to your question of “Why?”

GA is often used as an answer to “WHO IS” doing something (with the emphasis on the subject of the action)

and

WA is often used to mean “As for (me/him/her/you/…)” as answer to “what is your position on this?” “what about you?”

Examples)

A: Who did this?
B: “watashi -GA shimashita.” (I didn’t do it.)

A: Do you know him?
B: No… I don’t know him. But I know this person.(=kono hito WA shitteruyo.)

A: Do you speak Chinese?
B: Chuukokugo WA hanasenai(= As for Chinese, I can’t speak it.)

I hope this helps! :D

avatar
Hyunwoo(ヒョヌ) says:

sorry :-) wrong translation for the first example sentence.
” I didn’t do it ” —> ” I did it. ” or ” It’s me who did it. ”

:D Anyway, I hope you get this idea. :dogeza:

avatar
alex says:

thanks i got it !

avatar
Mayumi says:

Alex-san,

Thank you for letting us know the mistake in the PDF.
I fixed it.

Mayumi

avatar
一 (ハジメ) says:

slowly working my way through the newbie lessons (sorry, this was not a newbie lesson!) :smile:

How is “I am the same as always” said? I had trouble transcribing from the audio:

いつもの同じだよ

it sounded like: いつもとうなじだいよ but that doesn’t seem right.

有難う御座います

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

一さん、

You are almost right!  It should be “いつもと同じだよ.”  :wink:
Mayumi

avatar
Mihara-chan says:

It seems like this lesson had a little too much info in it. No problems, I just thought I might say, since it has so much, you cannot elaborate as much on each one…

Do you understand me? :oops:

avatar
Mayumi says:

Mihara-chan

Thank you so much for your feedback! :dogeza:

avatar
Denice says:

Hello Mina-san!

This is my first post to the Japapnese pod website. I’ve been studying the newbie lessons on the website for some months now. I’m enjoying this immensely! I’ve always wanted to learn another lanugage and jPod is making learning Japanese really fun!

Anyway, let me stop blabbing away. I have a question about this lesson. When it’s time for the phrases “Moichido onegaishimasu” “Yukkuri onegashimasu” there is a connecting phrase in between them. It sounds to me like it is “Condo wa”. What does that phrase mean and am I hearing it right?

Shisureishimashita if I spelled the phrase wrong! :oops:

Thanks for the great website! It’s helping to make a dream of mine come true!

Sincerely,
Denice

avatar
Sasquatchua says:

Denice,

the “-do” at the end of “mo ichido” means a time… not like minutes and seconds but like an instance or event. Like in English saying “I want to go one more time.” So in “Mo ichido onegaishimasu” you have:

Mo = again
ichido = one time
onegaishimasu = please / request

for “kondo wa”, the “kon-” prefix means “this one”… meaning this as opposed to last or next. This week is “konshuu”. This month is “kongetsu”. Kondo therefore means “this time”, and the “wa” is the object marking particle.

Kondo wa yukkuri onegaishimasu = this time, slowly please

avatar
Sasquatchua says:

Sorry, not the object marking particle - “wa” is the subject marking particle.

avatar
Denice says:

Sasquatchua-san,

Thanks so much for explaining the phrase to me. Now I can write it down in my notes and practice it along with the others!

Thanks again for the wonderful japanese lessons! :dogeza:

Denice :grin:

avatar
Beki says:

Konnichiwa, mina-san. Beki desu.

Tanjoubi omedeto Peter-san! It’s my first time listening to this lesson, what a coincedence! I’ve got a long way to go, but these lessons really help. Doumo arigatou gozaimasu!

avatar
JKid says:

Beki-san,
Glad to hear you’re enjoying the lessons. Just keep on chugging along. :)

avatar
Leon says:

Minasama Konbanwa,

I’m quite confused about the “wo”. How do I use it?!!

avatar
Mayumi says:

Leon-san,

Konnichiwa!
As in “hon o yomu (to read a book)” or “terebi o miru (to watch a TV),” “o” is used to mark an object. So you can use like “[something] + o + [transitive verb].”
Gambattekudasai!! :smile:

avatar
Leon says:

Oh, thanks a million for that explanation, therefore the “wo” is almost like the “o”?

Domo arigatou gozaimasu!

avatar
Mayumi says:

Leon-san,

The object marking particle “o” is written in hiragana as “を.” To separate を and お, を is written in romaji as “wo.” But, when we speak を in a sentence, the pronunciation is the same as “o.” So, in our lessons, we use “o” for the object marking particle を. :nihon:

avatar
Andrea says:

:dogeza:
The question of “o” and “wo” is what i want to ask.
Now i understand,
the words are both “を”,
just it was written as “o” in pdf at begin, and since lesson 15, it was written in romaji as “wo”, haha,
I got it, thank you!

avatar
Andrea says:

Hi, I have a question,
in the conversation, romaji in the PDF,

line 8,
“gogo no ichi-ji ni..”, there’s a “no”,

and line 9,
“yoru shichi-ji ni…” there isn’t a “no”,

so.. must it be “gogo NO ichi-ji” and “yoru shichi-ji” ??
can i say “gogo ichi-ji” or “yoru no shichi-ji”?

thank u! :roll:

avatar
Mayumi says:

Andrea-san,

> it was written in romaji as “wo”
Thank you for letting us know. I fixed it. :dogeza:

About your question, you can say it in both ways, “gogo ichi-ji” or “yoru no shichi-ji.” :wink:

avatar
Maria says:

Konbanwa mina-san! :grin:

Great and useful lesson, you guys really make japanese interesting and fun to study!! But I agree with Mihara-chan, there is a little too much info in this one (this was my facual expression at the end of the lesson: :shock: ) … That much info has raised a few questions:

1) So gozaimasu is a politer form of desu - got it. But what’s the de-particle (the phrase is “ku-ji yonjuugo-fun de gozaimasu”)? I know it can be used to indicate the place of something and to say “in”, like in the phrase “eigo de nan to iimasu ka?”. But what does it do here?

2) In the previous newbie lesson, Making the Grade, you mentioned the word for hard, muzukashii, and the word for easy, yasashii. But in this lesson, yasashii means “nice”! Does it have two meanings or am I missing an important point?

3) What exactly does the ni particle mean? I already think I know the answer, but I just wanted to make sure that I got it right; “gogo no ichi-ji ni” means “AT one o’clock in the afternoon”?

4) I don’t fully understand the inferences in the last two sentences. The husband says: “Kyou wa o-isogashii desu yo.” Peter-san and Sakura-san explained that the subject inferred here was the wife. How come it’s not the day (=today is going to be a busy day)? (I just cheked the transcript, and it actually does say a busy day…) At the wife’s last sentence it’s the same: “Kyou wa yasashii ne!” Again, I’d say that’s about the day - “today is going to be nice”, but Peter-san and Sakura-san say that the husband acts as the inferred subject - making the sentence mean “you’re (going to be) nice today”. Are both ways of interpreting possible? And if so, is it completely impossible to know which one is the right one?

I hope you don’t mind me asking so many (stupid?) questions! :oops: And I hope someone will be able to answer!

Doumo arigatou gozaimasu in advance! :dogeza:

//Maria

avatar
Jessi says:

Mariaさん、
Don’t worry about asking too many questions! That’s how you learn! :wink:

1) It might be better to think of “de gozaimasu” as the polite form of “desu”. “Gozaimasu” just by itself is the polite form of “arimasu”. (it might have been a bit confusing the way it was explained).

2) Yes, yasashii has two meanings: “easy” and “nice/kind”. When written, they use different kanji but in conversation, it just has to be figured out through context.

3) “Ni” is combined with certain time phrases to indicate a point in time - so like you said, “ichi-ji ni” is “AT one o’clock”. It’s also used after days, months, and years! (like kayoubi ni, ichigatsu ni, 2007-nen ni, etc.)

4) About “kyou wa o-isogashii desu yo”… yes, it refers to the wife. “Today is a busy day” means that it’s busy FOR someone, right? In this case, today will be a busy day for the wife.
And one more thing - another way we can tell that it refers to the wife (as opposed to, say, the husband himself) is the usage of “o” in o-isogashii - this is an honorific marker that you would never use to talk about yourself.
As for “Kyou wa yasashii ne”, we have actually changed the translation to a better one. The meaning is the one that Peter and Sakura were talking about: “You’re really nice today!” I’m not sure that yasashii would be used to describe a day.

I hope these answers have helped you! Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more questions :smile:

avatar
Maria says:

Jessi-san,
Thank you so much for the quick reply!

1) Okay, I see.

2) That makes sense. Got it!

3) I think I understand… so when you use ni after for exapmle a year, for instance 2007-nen ni, it means “in 2007″?

4) Okay, great explanation! But… at first I thought the first sentence (”kyou wa o-isogashii desu yo”) might have an inferred “we”, making it mean “today is a busy day (for us)”; but because of the honorific o- it’s absolutely certain that it refers to the wife, because the husband wouldn’t use it to refer to himself (even when refering to himself AND the wife)? Just want to make 100% sure that I understand it correctly! :lol:
“Kyou wa yasashii ne” is perfectly clear now.

Once again, doumo arigatou gozaimasu in advance!!
//Maria

avatar
Virgil Lorenzo says:

Petersan,

The text has O but you read it as wo. Is there a rule to govern this?

avatar
gate says:

:cry:
I cannot download the lesson notes, it keeps coming up blank

avatar
Mayumi says:

Gate-san,

Could you download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader from the link below and try it again? :dogeza:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html

avatar
Sivasakthivel says:

Peter-san
おそく なりましたけぢ お誕生日 ありがとう ございます

みなさん 
   今年の 誕生日 は とくべつな 誕生日 でした。 けっこん した あと はじめての 誕生日 でした。 家族 で みんさん と パーティー を しました。 ”The Monk who sold his Ferari” 本は いもうとに もらいました。 まだ よんでない。 ケーキ も うち で きて たべました
たのしかった です
よろしく
Siva

avatar
Naomi says:

Sivasakthivel-san
:kokoro: :kokoro: :kokoro: おめでとうございます!!!! :kokoro: :kokoro: :kokoro:

avatar
James says:

I just received a “Lesson Not Found” message when I went to the learning centre. Also the PDF file for the lesson review just showed up as a blank template. Anyone else with this problem?

avatar
Mayumi says:

James-san,

Thank you for pointing out this issue! I fixed the learning center, and also create a new type of lesson note called “Lesson Notes Lite.” Can you try this PDF, please?
Thank you!

avatar
James says:

Thanks very much… I did try with a different computer and the latest version of Adobe and the regular Lesson Notes worked ok. But for my computer at home the Lesson Notes Lite are much appreciated!

avatar
Iwakura says:

Itai-yo! this was a toughie! Got just a few questions left.

1) As for “Kyou wa yasashii ne,” suppose ‘yasashii’ could be used to describe a day as well (which, it seems, it cannot, judging from the above convo), would the wife otherwise have said: “Kyou wa o-yasashii ne”? In other words, is the honorific ‘o’ prefix left out because ‘yasashii’ can’t be used to describe a day to begin with?

2) I’m seriously tripping over this “Dou iu kaze no fukimawashi” phrase! So, I looked up ‘fuki,’ and it says ‘unexpected/accidental.’ So far so good. But what does ‘iu’ (= to say) do here? I know you could say “Dou iu koto da?” (To mean like: What are you talking about?). But how does the verb ‘iu’ function here? Or can ‘iu’ be used like we would use ’said of = is called’ in English? It would make sense. Then you’d get something like: “How is this unexpected direction of the wind called?” Or simply: “What is this unexpected direction of the wind?” It’s hard to fit in ‘iu’ in any other fashion, really.

Thank you.

avatar
Kat says:

Iwakuraさん

1. The construction ‘o-yasashii’ does exist in very formal Japanese, but a (modern-day) wife would not use it to her husband. ‘Yasashii’ cannot be used to describe a day; as Jessi mentioned above, however, with different kanji it can be used to describe exams or tests (’easy’). The use or exclusion of honorific prefix o- and the fact that ‘yasashii’ cannot be used to describe a day have nothing to do with each other.

2. ‘Dou iu kaze no fukimawashi’ is an idiom (and is really not beginner level - I think Sensei was having some fun throwing it in here :mrgreen: ) meaning ‘What’s got into you?’ or literally ‘What kind of wind is blowing?’ As with idioms in any language, breaking it down into its separate parts is not going to help you very much. You’re right that ‘dou iu’ means broadly ‘what’ or ‘what kind’. This function of ‘iu’ is intermediate level, so if possible I would really recommend that you not worry about it right now at your current stage… but you’re right that it equates to something like ‘be called’ in English. Your translation is right: “What is this unexpected direction of the wind?” :cool: Idioms are of course the last thing one masters in a foreign language, so don’t worry too much about them at the moment. :smile:

avatar
paula paurillo says:

:razz: konbanwa

avatar
Salivia Baker says:

I tried to catch the belated birthday phrase. Can you tell me if this is correct:
遅くなりましたがけどお誕生日おめでとうございます.
Thank you

And man that is a fast lesson. Normally I don’t have any problems understanding the native speed but this time. oh my! The husband’s parts anyway. Japanese women seem to speak more clearly then man.

avatar
Jessi says:

Salivia Bakerさん,
In your sentence, you have both が and けど, but you only need one or the other. They both are okay :smile:

avatar
Salivia Baker says:

Than you for your fast reply.
So it’s either 遅くなりましたがお誕生日おめでとうございます or 遅くなりましたけどお誕生日おめでとうございます.
Is there a difference in the usage?

avatar
Mayumi says:

Salivia Baker-san,

遅くなりましたが sound more formal than 遅くなりましたけど. :wink:

avatar
Salivia Baker says:

And here I suspected the opposite XD

Thank you again. This helps a lot :)

avatar
Angry Katie says:

私の誕生日は十月十八日です。 明日から29歳になります。 年をとっているね! 

avatar
Kat says:

Angry Katieさん: 10月18日?それじゃ、お誕生日は...今日ですよね!おめでとうございます!29歳はまだまだ若いですよ!♡ I hope you have a lovely day today! (’-'*)♪

avatar
Angry Katie says:

Katさん - ありがとうございます!!

avatar
Bourboutella says:

Hello,

I was wondering about the Kanji list. I could not find neiter “伎” nor “誰” in my Kanji Flashcard sets (White Rabbit Press) that are containing nearly 2000 kanji up to JLPT Level 1.
Are those often used kanji? What I am actually missing in the newbie sessions are kanji appropriate to the level taught.

avatar
王凱 says:

誕生日おめでとございます。
ありがとう、お早う、いま何時ですか。
今三時三十分ですよ。
朝ご飯を食べます。かなり遅しです。
私は朝ごはんお作ります。
作ろよ。どういう風の吹き回し。
更に、五時に私たちは歌舞伎を煮ます。
そして、六時にフランス料理を食べます。
忙しいですよ。
私は嬉し。今日は優しいね。

まだ明日ね。

avatar
kaitlyn says:

:shock: is this a newbie lesson? i’ve listened to this 3 or four times already :shock: and i still dont get it well…. :neutral:

avatar
Jessi says:

Hi Kaitlyn!
If you find this series a bit difficult, I recommend listening to our Absolute Beginner Season 1 series: http://www.japanesepod101.com/index.php?cat=48 :smile: :smile:

avatar
kaitlyn says:

thank you^^ i’ve listend to the ones there so far, they’re really good and helped me alot. Keep up the great work :grin:

avatar
Jane says:

i tried to look at the lesson notes but its not working. :cry: i did it before (only once) and it worked, but when i tried it again it said something like. error with your adobe thing… idk :cry: :cry:

avatar
Pavel says:

Konnichiwa, mina-san!
Pretty fast speed lesson)
I’ve already listened dialog 10 times, and it’s not the end!

avatar
Valerio says:

こんにちは皆さん。

今年わたしの誕生日の今日は病院にでした。

I hope it’s correct.

ありがとうございます。

avatar
Motoko says:

Valerio-san,
こんにちは!
今年 Valerioさんは誕生日の日に病院にいました か?
Were you in the hospital on your birthday this year?
大変でしたね! That’s too bad. :sad:

avatar
Valerio says:

はいわたしはいちがつじゅうしちにちからにがつじゅういちにちまで病院にいました。
おかげさまででも今は元気ですよ。

ありがとうございます。

avatar
Motoko says:

Valerio-san
ながいですね :shock:  でも元気でよかったです :grin:

avatar

Leave a Reply

:mrgreen: :neutral: :twisted: :shock: :smile: :???: :cool: :evil: :grin: :oops: :razz: :roll: :wink: :cry: :eek: :lol: :mad: :sad: