Mina-san, this two-parter is like a T.V. drama! Who’s the real bad guy? Taro? Mizuho? Shiho?
Oh the drama!!

This conversation was difficult, so we split it into two lessons. Like Peter said in the podcast, you may have the questions. So fire away!

Sorry, the thing seems to be only an iTunes thing, seeing as how I just listened to the whole thing on the Jpod website. sorry for any inconveniences

I have a question about the usage of の。I know in casual Japanese it is used as a question marker at the end of a sentence like, 「なんで、ばれたの。」But what is the meaning of it in this sentence 「携帯を見たみたいなのよ。」It isn’t a question, is it? Are there any other cases where の is used at the end of sentences where it isn’t being used as a question marker. While I was in Japan I felt like they always added it to the end and I never understood why… Any help お願いします！

デボン さん and everyone,
keep in mind, it’s a feminine speech pattern:
携帯を見たみたいなのよ
(a guy would’ve said 携帯を見たみたいんだよ)
look at it backwards

のよ
you see/the thing is/i’m telling you (emphatically)

携帯を見たみたいだ
it’s apparent he looked at my phone/apparently he looked at my phone

なるほど！ 　I always use ので in the middle of sentences to explain myself but never connected that のだ would be the same at the end of a sentence! I guess I always assumed they would use から instead. Although now that I think about it perhaps のだ(and it’s gender specific versions) may be more popular. In any case, I’ll be using the feminine version. 私は女性なのよ！

I found a good explanation of it (under “The 「の」 particle as explanation”) at this website (although he doesn’t discuss the feminine version):

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/particles3.html#part4

MarkyStar君～どもうありがとうございます！

you’re more than welcome.
but it doesn’t have to be followed by a particle. as you probably know, that よ is just for emphasis.

もちろんだね！

I am wondering the difference between みたい in this lesson and そう　in lower intermediate lesson 3 Looks Like. Could you provide more explaination on this?

Thanks a lot!

Hi there, long time listener first time poster. Just wanted to say this site has been really helpful in my Japanese learning experience. Anyways, in this lesson Peter says that in English we say “How did you get caught” and in Japanese they say “why did you get caught” as in “何でばれたの？” It’s an interesting confusion since i had a similar problem before in my Japanese class. When i was asked “何で仕事へ行きますか？” i answered with “お金が欲しいんですから” to which the teacher bursted in laughter. What she want to ask was how i go to work to which the answer should have been “電車で仕事へ行きます”　So “何で” i guess in formal Japanese is more like “how” rather than “why.” For “why” it is more correct to use “どうして” is what i got out of it. But i understand the confusion since the two people in the conversation are friends and are using casual Japanese. anyways….

they don’t have text messages in japan. cellphones send/receive e-mail.

so you’d just say メール

that’s fine too, but you’d probably only say 携帯メール to make the distinction between your cellphone mail address and computer address. since both are “e-mail,” there’s really no difference other than the device you used to send/receive it.