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! Agnes is dress shopping in a trendy Tokyo fashion boutique. She meets a very special sales associate who helps her find the perfect outfit! This lesson will teach you useful shopping phrases and will introduce the grammar point, mieru, used to describe how things look. Keep this one on your iPod when shopping in Japan! After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com and leave us a post!

Grammar: | Function: | Topic: , | Politeness Level: , ,


This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Intermediate 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.

28 Responses to “Intermediate Lesson #57 - My Tokyo Traveblogue - Day 14”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Mina-san, things are moving quickly for Agnes-san! I wonder if she’ll be ready for the big date with the doctor?

avatar
doraemon says:

that whispering at the beginning scared me :shock:

much prefer the other shop assistant, this one is far to “normal” for my taste!!!! :lol: although he does try complimenting.

Does anyone know how to respond to compliments? Is there a way to tell someone they are “smooth talking”?

Happy weekend, all!

avatar
Chris says:

I listened to this lesson on my way to work this morning. I think this sales rep is much better than the one Kinoshita had. This rep seemed to actually pay attention to the customer, instead of simply showering them with compliments. (Kinoshita’s rep seemed kinda pushy to me). With me, Kinoshita’s rep would have lost the sale, while this rep probably would have got it.

avatar
markystar says:

Chrisさん、 i’m with you. actually, i wonder if Kinoshita will just slap that sales clerk in the face.

doraemonさん、was this guy so normal? :lol: i could hardly edit this listen because the voice is so comical.

actually, in both of these levels i have to give it up to the voice actors for really bringing these characters to life.  on paper, they are quite plain.  but in the audio i found them really entertaining!
marky

avatar
doraemon says:

Chris-san,
You are right, of course :razz:

Markystar-san,
Yes, far more subdued than the last guy who would fit perfectly into an Austin Powers movie. As a hairdresser maybe :mrgreen:

Now, still trying to work out how to say
-smooth talker
-react to compliments
- add “groovy baby” to the list for now :lol:

Happy weekend Markystar-san!

avatar
kitty-chan says:

These are the funniest sales people ever!
I’m still a newbie so I don’t catch a lot, but I can not wait to shop in Japan now!!! :mrgreen:

avatar
Olorin says:

「見える」と「〜そうです」のちがいがあまりわからないので、誰か教えてくれませんか?  I believe that ~soudesu is for inference based on actual visual evidence, while ~mitai is for inference based on hearsay evidence. So, is mieru more of an observation, rather than an inference? I guess “futottemieru” is just “you look fat”, while “sabishisoudesu” is “based on what I see, I believe that you are lonely”? I hope someone can confirm or clarify this. ありがとう。

avatar
markystar says:

be careful too,
寂しいそうです  people say you are lonely
寂しそうです you look lonely

avatar
Chris says:

marky-san, doraemon-san -
You quiclky learn what tactics work, and what ones don’t when you do sales. At the beginning, i was proverbially slapped in the face a few times. (not literally, there’s a phone line seperating me and the customer)

avatar
Robert says:

Great points in this lesson really good and realistic. Better salesman too.Thanks for the good follow up explanations .

futotte miemasuka —this is great you hear this from the size zero brigade too!!

avatar
Vicky says:

I got scared Sakura-san’s horror version voice……. :oops:

avatar
Sindy says:

JP101 Crew and Listeners! :wink:

Olorin is that really your name, no wonder why your:

寂しいそうです :shock:
寂しそうです :shock:

Marky-san thank you for telling us the correct way! :cool:

Vicky-san! :wink:

It’s ok! I’m here, calm down! :mrgreen: S_R_C

avatar
Harry says:

Great lesson. I’m getting really emotionally involved.

At the risk of being pedantic, I would like to point out that スマート has a similar meaning to ’smart’ in British English (not all 外来語 comes from America).

avatar
maxiewawa says:

Nice one Harry. I’d also like to point out アルバイトfrom the German word ‘Arbeit’, meaning ‘work’.

avatar
maxiewawa says:

エスカルゴ is another one I just remembered! It’s from the French ‘escargot’ meaning ’snail’. My girlfriend was talking to me (in English) and dropped it in. She assumed it was English because it’s a katakana word; I had to stop her and asked her why she was suddenly speaking French!

avatar
Robert says:

on the subject

also from Germany
rentogen–X ray  レントゲン
arubaito–part time job  アルバイト

from Portugal
pan      パン

from Holland  
kiosk      

my favourite borrowed word / influence from somewhere else is sebiro from Saville Row in London means suit!!
As most know we do not say we are wearing a Saville Row!!

how this came about does anyone know? guess its back to the Meiji time.

however there is kanji for sebiro its 背広

avatar
markystar says:

from french ピマン green pepper

from dutch, german カルテ medical chart

i heard that 天麩羅 (てんぷら) came from portuguese too (but since it was so long ago there is kanji for it). i never heard what word it came from, but when i checked Wiki it said it came from the latin phrase “ad tempora quadragesimae” which means ‘in the season of the 40’s’ meaning 42 to days to easter in which time catholics can’t eat meat. so if this Wiki is accurate, the portuguese were battering up veggies and the buddhist japanese were probably jumped on that right away.)

marky

avatar
Robert says:

Found this while we were on the subjetc .
Here is a list of imported words in Japanese that do not come from English. Chinese words are of course excluded (too many of them).

From Portuguese
てんぷら(also spelled 天麩羅)
タバコ (also spelled 煙草), from “tabaco”
金平糖 from “confeito”
合羽 from “capa”
クリスト from “Christo”
パン from “pan”
ボタン from “botao”
オランダ from “Olanda”
イギリス from “Inglez”
ミイラ from “mirra”
サンバ from “samba”
From Dutch
ランドセル from “ransel”
カン (also spelled 缶) from “kan”
ビール from “bier”
コーヒー from “koffie”
アルコール from “alcohol”
メス from “mes”
ペンキ from “pek”
オルゴール from “orgel”
ゴム from “gom”
ガラス from “glass” (only used for the material, otherwise グラス)
ニス from “vernis”
サテン from “satijn”
ホック from “hoek”
コルク from “kurk”
アルカリ from “alkali”
モルモット from “marmot”
カトリック from “katholick”
ベルギー from “Belgie”
From German
ビールス from “Virus”
ワクチン from “Vakzin”
アレルギー from “Allergie”
エネルギー from “Energie”
ホルモン from “Hormon”
クレゾール from “Kresol”
ギプス from “Gips”
レントゲン from “Roentgen”
ノイローゼ from “Neurose”
カルテ from “Karte”
リュックサック from “Rucksack”
メトロノーム from “Metronom”
カフェイン from “Kaffein”
ニコチン from “Nicotine”
ナフタリン from “Naphthalin”
アルバイト from “Arbeit”, which just means “work”
ゲレンデ from “Gelaende”
ゼッケン from “Zeichen”
テーマ from “Thema”
タクト from “Taktstock”
From Russian
イクラ from “ikra”
ノルマ rfom “norma”
インテリ from “intelligentsiya”
ペチカ deom “pechka”
From Spanish
マリファナ from “marijuana”
ゲリラ from “guerilla”
カナリア from “canaria”
フラメンコ from “flamenco”
サルサ from “salsa”
ルンバ from “rumba”
タンゴ from “tango”
From French
(センチ)メートル from “(centi)metre”
アンケート from “enquete”
クーデター from “coup d’etat”
ズボン from “jupon”, which means “briefs or skirt” in French, but “trousers” (BrE)/”pants” (AmE) in Japanese.
マント from “manteau”
ルージュ from “rouge”
ブルジョア from “bourgeois”
エチケット from “etiquette”
リムジン from “limousine”
バカンス from “vacances”
シネマ from “cinema”
ジャンル from “genre”
コンクール from “concours”
デッサン from “dessin”
ビオロン from “violon”
アンコール from “encore”
ルーレット from “roulette”
グロテスク from “grotesque”
カロリー from “calorie”
グルメ from “gourmet”
アラカルト from “a la carte”
カフェー from “cafe”
カフェオレ from “cafe au lait”
ショコラ from “chocolat”
クロワッサン from “croissant”
エクレア from “eclair”
タルト from “tarte”
ガトー from “gateau”
パルフェ from “parfait”
ババロア from “bavarois”
フォンデュ from “fondue”
フォアグラ from “foie gras”
ヒレ from “filet”
マリネ from “marine”
ソテー from “saute”
ムニエル from “meuniere”
ルー from “roux” (in cooking)
コンソメ from “consomme”
ピラフ from “pilaf”
マヨネーズ from “mayonnaise”
オムレツ from “omelette”
クレソン from “cresson”
ピーマン from “piment”
ブーケ from “bouquet”
セロハン from “cellophane”
アトリエ from “atelier”
スイス from “Suisse”
From French via English
(different pronunciation)
デビュー from “debut”
アマチュア from “amateur”
クレープ from “crepe”
ナイーブ from “naive”
From Italian
イタリア from “Italia”
パスタ from “pasta”
スパゲッティ from “spagetti”
マカロニ from “macaroni”
ピッザ from “pizza”
リゾット from “risoto”
サラミ from “salami”
コンチェルト from “concerto”
フォルテ from “forte”
ソロ from “solo”
デュオ from “duo”
トリオ from “trio”
ピアノ from “piano”
ヴィオラ from “viola”
チェロ from “cello”
チェレスタ from “celesta”
バレリーナ from “ballerina”
From Latin
ウイルス from “virus”
ユダヤ from “Judaea”

avatar
Harry says:

Great work guys. Very happy to have triggered such a lively debate.

avatar
Robert says:

I neve thought about it and nobody said it that IGIRISU came from Portuguese. Ask that one in the pub?

avatar
markystar says:

I never heard that before too, but It makes sense tho. Inglez sounds more like イギリス than イングランド and the Japanese had very minimal contact with the English in the 戦国時代 but they had a lot of contact with the Portuguese and Spanish.

avatar
Bob1 says:

Thanks, Robert. I had often wondered which language ランドセル came from. So, it was Dutch.

Most loan words for science also come to Japan prior to WWII also came from German, or in a few cases, Dutch. The example of virus has already been listed, but I think it is also true for:

ナトリウム from natrium, (Na, sodium)
ゲル from gel, with the German hard “g” not the “jell” pronunciation of English

avatar
annie says:

Actually, I’d argue that レントゲン doesn’t come from the German language, as it’s the inventor’s name. (Same with ホチキス)

My favorites are the 和製英語 (わせいえいご)
Words that come from English, but have no (or different) English meaning… like コンセント. (which means outlet or plug, not consent)

avatar
markystar says:

ホチキス is from a person’s name? wow! i always wondered about that one. :mrgreen:

marky

avatar
JapanesePod101.com says:

I thought the Japanese word パン came from the French word “pain” (pronounced like パン). Wow. We do live in a small world, don’t we?

Sachiko

avatar
Kriffix says:

“Smart” means “looks good” when talking about clothes, atleast in British English anyway.

avatar
Wai Huan says:

Hmm.. Just wondering what does the word “ゴキブリ”(which means cockroach in english) comes from? :neutral:

avatar
Naomi says:

Wai Huan-san
ゴキブリ is a Japanese word, but it’s often written in Katakana or Hiragana since the Kanji 蜚蠊 is too difficult. :wink:

According to the dictionary ごきぶり comes from “御器かぶり” 
御器⇒honorific prefix go plus bowl
かぶり⇒the old expression to mean”to bite”
Cockroaches bite(eat) not only the food but also the bowl contains the food… That’s why they got this name…. Pretty disgusting trivia, isn’t it?
Ew! :shock:

avatar

Leave a Reply

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