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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?”
Monday at 6:30 pm
Mina-san, What kind of birthday did you have this year? Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Monday at 7:13 pm
My 37th.
Tuesday at 12:26 am
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??
Tuesday at 3:09 am
I haven’t had my birthday yet this yet. Its August 3rd, so you can put it in your diaries
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.
Tuesday at 3:50 am
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.
Tuesday at 4:29 am
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。
Tuesday at 6:14 am
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!
Tuesday at 9:27 am
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!
Tuesday at 9:59 am
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….
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。
Tuesday at 2:03 pm
Mayuko-san,
anata no o namae wa kanari suteki desu ne.
Tuesday at 4:22 pm
Haha. It was a very interesting lesson.
楽しいレーソンでした。
I’m still waiting for my birthday to come.
Tuesday at 5:26 pm
It’s nice to hear these newbie lessons to review the knowledge you already got
Myself, I’m turning 18 next thursday
Ureshii na
/JZ
Tuesday at 8:43 pm
Late (or early) “Tanjobi Omedeto!” to everyone
Wednesday at 1:25 am
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
Monday at 6:55 am
bakaneko sun kono e _mail wa watashi no des . mrpm1984@yahoo.com . sumimasen please call me . onegaishemes
Monday at 6:43 am
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. ^__~
Monday at 2:07 pm
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.
Saturday at 11:11 am
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?
Saturday at 11:16 am
….and why ?
Saturday at 11:16 am
Alex,
I think you’re right.
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
Saturday at 11:22 am
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!
Saturday at 11:24 am
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.
Saturday at 11:30 am
thanks i got it !
Monday at 11:56 am
Alex-san,
Thank you for letting us know the mistake in the PDF.
I fixed it.
Mayumi
Sunday at 3:06 pm
slowly working my way through the newbie lessons (sorry, this was not a newbie lesson!)
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
Monday at 2:53 pm
一さん、
You are almost right! It should be “いつもと同じだよ.”
Mayumi
Monday at 5:26 am
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?
Friday at 2:35 pm
Mihara-chan
Thank you so much for your feedback!
Thursday at 11:46 pm
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!
Thanks for the great website! It’s helping to make a dream of mine come true!
Sincerely,
Denice
Friday at 6:45 am
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
Friday at 6:47 am
Sorry, not the object marking particle - “wa” is the subject marking particle.
Saturday at 3:17 am
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!
Denice
Thursday at 10:40 pm
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!
Friday at 1:13 am
Beki-san,
Glad to hear you’re enjoying the lessons. Just keep on chugging along.
Thursday at 8:14 am
Minasama Konbanwa,
I’m quite confused about the “wo”. How do I use it?!!
Thursday at 10:12 am
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!!
Thursday at 11:29 pm
Oh, thanks a million for that explanation, therefore the “wo” is almost like the “o”?
Domo arigatou gozaimasu!
Friday at 3:17 pm
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.
Tuesday at 4:05 pm
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!
Tuesday at 6:30 pm
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!
Wednesday at 3:51 pm
Andrea-san,
> it was written in romaji as “wo”
Thank you for letting us know. I fixed it.
About your question, you can say it in both ways, “gogo ichi-ji” or “yoru no shichi-ji.”
Monday at 9:10 am
Konbanwa mina-san!
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:
) … 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!
And I hope someone will be able to answer!
Doumo arigatou gozaimasu in advance!
//Maria
Monday at 2:13 pm
Mariaさん、
Don’t worry about asking too many questions! That’s how you learn!
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
Monday at 5:47 pm
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!
“Kyou wa yasashii ne” is perfectly clear now.
Once again, doumo arigatou gozaimasu in advance!!
//Maria
Friday at 12:02 pm
Petersan,
The text has O but you read it as wo. Is there a rule to govern this?
Monday at 11:46 am
I cannot download the lesson notes, it keeps coming up blank
Monday at 2:26 pm
Gate-san,
Could you download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader from the link below and try it again?
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html
Thursday at 7:23 am
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
Thursday at 11:26 am
Sivasakthivel-san
おめでとうございます!!!!
Tuesday at 9:51 pm
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?
Wednesday at 2:46 pm
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!
Saturday at 10:57 am
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!
Thursday at 9:39 am
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.
Monday at 12:21 pm
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
) 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?”
Idioms are of course the last thing one masters in a foreign language, so don’t worry too much about them at the moment.
Friday at 12:31 am
Tuesday at 10:51 pm
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.
Wednesday at 9:47 am
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
Wednesday at 11:19 am
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?
Wednesday at 2:13 pm
Salivia Baker-san,
遅くなりましたが sound more formal than 遅くなりましたけど.
Wednesday at 10:05 pm
And here I suspected the opposite XD
Thank you again. This helps a lot
Monday at 2:05 am
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!
Monday at 10:27 am
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! (’-'*)♪
Wednesday at 3:03 am
Katさん - ありがとうございます!!
Sunday at 2:10 am
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.
Monday at 5:40 am
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。
Thursday at 3:30 am
Thursday at 10:40 am
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
Friday at 12:49 pm
thank you^^ i’ve listend to the ones there so far, they’re really good and helped me alot. Keep up the great work
Tuesday at 3:00 am
i tried to look at the lesson notes but its not working.
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
Sunday at 1:51 am
Konnichiwa, mina-san!
Pretty fast speed lesson)
I’ve already listened dialog 10 times, and it’s not the end!
Wednesday at 5:34 am
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。
Friday at 9:37 am
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.
Friday at 10:58 pm
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。
Monday at 12:10 pm
Valerio-san
でも元気でよかったです
ながいですね
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