Mina-san,

What kind of birthday did you have this year?

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

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??

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.

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!

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。

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.

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

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

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.

….and why ?

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!

thanks i got it !

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

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?

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

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

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!