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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 8:00 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.
36 Responses to “Newbie Lesson #28 - Japanese Birthdays”
Tuesday at 8:00 pm
Mina-san! The good news is we found the scoundrels who stole yesterdays newbie lesson. Akihiro held the culprit still while Yuki issued a beat down a la JPod. Marky didn’t need to use his J-Supersuit, おかげさまで.
Wednesday at 11:01 pm
This storyline is reminding me of Bourne Identity.
Wednesday at 11:02 pm
Thank goodness you found that rat! But you should have saved a piece for Kitty-chan! I’m happy that Yuki-san and Akihiro-san meted out punishment appropriately! Sugoi desu!
And now I know Satoshi is a spy!! I had a feeling about that!
Thursday at 4:21 am
Bakaneko, could you tell me more about this “Bourne Identity.” And do you think we have an infringement case against them.
Kitty-chan, haha. Classic! Do you like armadillo? We have lots of those.
And you haven’t seen the last of our rodent issue, and now we know who to call!
よろしくおねがいします！
Thursday at 6:50 am
Peter-san and JP101 crew!
おめでとうございます！
I’m very happy that we have our newbie lesson back!
Thanks to Akihiro-san and Yuki-san that make a punishment for this robber! Anyway I already did a special spell that won’t be forget easy.
Great Newbie lesson, I’m from 1984 so I’m not that old!
Bakaneko-san!
Bourne Identify is a movie right
S_R_C
Thursday at 8:35 am
the voice over preparing us (in japanese) for the slow version and the english translation version was transposed on this one. no big deal though. another great podcast JPod crew.
Thursday at 9:44 am
i’m just happy we got this lesson back. now it’s back to learning japanese as usual!
joshさん、by transposed do you mean pitched up or down? that’s natsuko-san’s usual speaking voice.
marky
Thursday at 10:36 am
I was wondering why it wasn’t available before I left for work this morning. Just curious, after the first dialog, what was the “yo9d0oe” or “yo9d0ot” (it was a bit quick for me to copy by ear, and they sound very similar, these are possibilities my software was spitting out) in there for? That didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the lesson.
-.. . -.- -.-. —.. ..- .-. …-
Thursday at 3:01 pm
chrisさん, what do you mean by “yo9d0oe” or “yo9d0ot?”
Thursday at 7:30 pm
I heard morse in there, right after the full speed japanese. (at about 3:10) That’s the 2 possibilities I was able to come up with for what it says. See the last line of my previous post.
Thursday at 11:19 pm
聞こえてよかったね！For the record,
終身はシドニーで、誕生日秘密だ！
Thursday at 11:36 pm
実は秘密じゃなくて、習字には弱い。
It’s not a secret, I’m just bad at maths.
I can say with less than 100% certainty:
昭和58年の生まれです。1982年。正解かどうかわからない。
I was born in 1982. So I hope my maths is right.
I should say that my 出身 is Sydney, not 終身。
I have some weird EQ filter envelope going on in my lesson… All the mid frequencies drop out at one point, and Peter sounds like he’s underwater… I was checking everything on my computer, and I guess it must be the recording… very House Music though!
Finally, ちょっと意見：Don’t use ‘first name’ and ‘last name’ when speaking about Japanese names. It’s always confusing. When people get into the habit of telling me ‘this is my first name’ it always puts me into a muddle… I always want to ask ’so do you mean first name from an asian perspective, with your last name first, or with your first name first, as we do in the west? Is it your First name or just the name you put first when you’re using an Asian perspective?’ Often I’m talking to someone whose English isn’t so good, so that just completely confuses them. Now whenever I heard ‘last name’ and ‘first name’, my brain just gets the biological equivalent of the windows blue screen of death and I have to reboot to get things running again.
For all you mac users, the blue screen of death is when your computer just stops working, and only starts working again when you kick it repeatedly.
Friday at 3:17 am
maxiewawa-san-
I had the same thing when I played it back on my PDA. At first I thought it was something interfering with my FM transmitter, but it consistently was in the same spot.
I agree completely with first/last name being confusing. This is why I prefer given name and (sur/family) name. Now, if only I were aware of an alternative for middle name.
Friday at 3:32 am
Maxiewawa-san -
I forgot to say you’re off a little. I was born that same year. The following is a line I sent to one of my co-workers a few days ago. I now realize I should have worded it a little differently.
私のたんじょびは昭和57年5月1日です
Friday at 10:52 am
the ‘filter’ effect you heard after the vocabulary was not intentional. that portion of the lesson was recorded later and somehow the high bands were cut on peter’s channel. when i got the recording for post production, i actually went thru and boosted the high end manually every time peter spoke (超めんどくさいなぁ).
when i listened on iPod earbuds it wasn’t so noticeable, but in my Sony MDRV-900’s it was still very noticeable.
申し訳御座いません ｍ（＿T＿）ｍ
marky
Friday at 10:55 am
oh and chris, you actually translated the Morse code? すごい！
that’s pretty cool, cuz i have no idea what it said!
actually, i wanted to have the hospital director use a pay phone, but the Morse code was easier to fake. lol.
does “yo9d0oe” or “yo9d0ot” have any meaning or is it just gibberish?
marky
Friday at 2:32 pm
Markyさん
That’s just gibberish. As far as my decoding at the end (I had my laptop do the work), it was fading out, making the software loose it a bit, and it may have been the start of another letter. E and T are very similar when isolated, E is a dit (short sound) and T is a dah (long sound). I just listened again, and it sounds like my laptop may have been picking up extra noise, as the last charecter my ears are hearing is O (dah dah dah).
The DE KC8UFV at the end of my first post on this topic, however, does have meaning. It is a BIG hint at one of my hobbies, which is regulated here (USA) by the FCC, and in Japan by the MIC, and by similar parts of the government in other countries.
If you are interested in finding out more about that hobby, you might want to check out these sites.
www.jarl.or.jp
www.arrl.org
www.rsgb.org
Friday at 2:42 pm
Peterさん
I think this guy may have been around Maxwell Smart (agent 86), instead of being the Japanese 007. Perhaps we now know the chief’s real name.
Sunday at 8:51 am
Ah, Chris-san!
You are a ham!! CQ CQ
My brothers are both amateur radio operators!! Is that still a good hobby these days when we have IM all over the world???
Monday at 12:20 am
I think the mistake with the slow version and the translation introductions should be corrected, especially since this is a newbie lesson. It’s a quick fix and can be quickly reuploaded. It’s worth the effort.
Thursday at 12:15 pm
You figured me out, Liz-san.
Yes, it’s quite an interesting hobby. ITU region 2 (basically the western hemisphere) just had a fun event this last weekend, called field day. It runs for 24 hours starting at 1800UTC the forth Saturday in June.
I worked 40m PSK31 (a digital mode more (transmitter) power efficient than CW (heard in this lesson with a little QRM (noise))). I made 19 QSOs (Contacts) before I went to bed at about 0500UTC. After I woke up (about 1030UTC) I made a few more contacts on 20m. (40m was kinda dead)
Saturday at 2:19 am
Monday at 10:21 am
Hi, thanks for this lesson, this has to be the best online resource I’ve found for learning japanese. Though I think the japanese for ‘once again and slower please’ in the dialogue was mixed up with the japanese for ‘english translation’.
Tuesday at 2:45 pm
Atolm_Dragon-san,
Thank you for pointing it out.
We’ll fix it as soon as possible.
Tuesday at 2:27 am
Quite an interesting and not-so-newbie lesson, really, underneath it all. Got a question left, though. Just when I was about to think I was finally grasping the concept of people ‘imasu’ somewhere, when you talk about there location, you throw this monkey wrench into the works:
Ima futari wa doko desu ka? -> Where are the two now?
When you want to ask where someone is, location-wise, I had just drilled myself to say something like the following:
Doko ni iru no? (Or “Doko ni iru ‘n desu ka?” and variants). To form, in this case,
Ima futari wa doko ni iru ‘n desu ka?
So, clearly, I don’t think I fully understand, after all. I thought it was rude to use doko + desu like that for people? Like “Anata wa dare desu ka?” Could someone clarify this, onegai shimasu?
Tuesday at 2:43 am
Also interesting is the phrase:
… hanashi ga arimasu -> Lit. Talk = inanimate (needs to) exist; as in “We need to have a talk.”
Clear so far. But when using the verb ‘hanasu’, we use ‘iru’ for the Present Progressive, like:
Denwa de hanashite imasu. -> I’m talking on the phone.
Is there a deeper reason for that? Or is that simply because the Present Progressive always uses ‘iru’ (near as I can tell)?
Tuesday at 12:17 pm
Iwakuraさん
Ima futari wa doko desu ka?
Now two people topic marker where copula meaning “are” question
(Ima futari wa) doko ni iru no (desu ka)?
(Now two people) where location marker exist question marker
Ni iru is actually optional. As long as you have the subject (futari) and the question word (doko), you have your fully-formed question. Doko ＋ desu is not rude or anything like that; think of it as just an alternative way of asking the same question “Where are those two people?”.
You could even shorten it even further and just say: Ima, doko? (Where are they now?) or just Doko? (Where are they?) as long as the other person understands who you’re talking about. When I speak on the phone in Japanese and I’m looking for someone I’m supposed to be meeting, I invariably say “ima, doko?” because “ima, doko ni iru no?” is just longer and more of a pain to say!
Of course if you want to ask the question politely, the best ways would be:
Ima, futari wa doko ni iru n desu ka?
Ima, futari wa doko desu ka?
Remember when in a previous thread I discussed the difference between desu and imasu with you? It’s splitting hairs in this instance, but I would say that “doko desu ka” has more of an immediacy about it, like “Where are you RIGHT NOW?” whereas “doko ni iru?” has the image of someone having been somewhere for a while, and continuing to be there now.
Your assertion that “anata wa dare desu ka?” is rude is indeed correct, but NOT because of the “desu ka” when related to a person, but rather because of the word “dare”, which is considered very direct when speaking to someone face-to-face. A better way to ask the same question (and this is using keigo, or respect language, which is above beginner level and which you most likely haven’t learnt yet): donata-sama desu/deshou ka? which translates to something like “May I ask who you are?”
HTH
Tuesday at 12:19 pm
Ah, my formatting was a bit messed up at the top, so I’ll amend:
Ima futari wa doko desu ka?
(Now) (two people) (topic marker) (where) (copula meaning “are”) (question)
[Ima futari wa] doko ni iru no [desu ka]?
[Now two people] (where) (location marker) (exist) (question marker)
Tuesday at 12:23 pm
Iwakuraさん
As to your second question: in “hanashi ga arimasu” the subject is “hanashi”, or “talk”, which is an inanimate/non-physical NOUN of the verb “hanasu”, which hence takes “aru”.
In “Denwa de hanashite imasu”, the elided subject is “Watashi wa”, or “I”. The verb “hanashite imasu” thus describes the subject, I, who of course is an animate thing, ie. a person. Thus we use “iru”.
The present progressive does nearly always take “iru” because by its nature it describes continuous actions, which cannot usually be performed by inanimate objects.
Tuesday at 1:51 pm
Katさん,
Yes, I remember us talking about ‘desu’ vs. ‘imasu’, like in:
Neko wa desu -> It’s a/the cat.
Neko ga imasu -> There is a/the cat.
So as to say:
Asoko ni neko ga imasu -> There goes a cat.
Which is where I got the idea that you need ‘ni’ + ‘iru’ for its specific physical location (when used in combination with asoko, doko, etc):
Neko wa doko desu ka? -> Where is a/the cat? (in general)
Neko wa doko ni imasu ka? -> Where is the cat? (its specific location)
For some reason, using ‘desu’ to ask about its specific whereabouts still feels a bit awkward to me. Like i would be inclined to say:
Neko wa teeburu no ue ni imasu ka? -> Is the cat on the table? (its specific location)
And not:
Neko wa teeburu no ue ni desu ka?
However, we do say this:
Iwakura desu. -> I am Iwakura.
So, it stands to reason that we can then also say:
Iwakura wa doko desu ka? -> Where is Iwakura?
To simply ask where I ‘am’ (desu), as opposed to wanting to know at which specific location I am manifesting my physical existence (iru). But I guess since ‘doko’ denotes location anyway, asking where someone ‘desu’, in combination with ‘doko’, is inevitably, indirectly, also asking at which location that person ‘is’ (iru).
So, I’ll just remember your part about immediacy. Koko made de ii desu!
And thank you again for taking your take to explain it again.
Tuesday at 4:12 pm
Iwakuraさん、
Quick correction: * Neko wa desu -> It’s a/the cat. -> X Neko desu (you don’t need wa here
)
Asoko ni neko ga imasu -> There goes a cat. -> Correct!
Neko wa doko desu ka? -> Where is a/the cat? (in general)
Neko wa doko ni imasu ka? -> Where is the cat? (its specific location)
-> Both correct!
Neko wa teeburu no ue ni imasu ka? -> Is the cat on the table? (its specific location) -> Correct!
Neko wa teeburu no ue ni desu ka? -> X I should have clarified: you can only use “desu” with locations of animate nouns in QUESTIONS. So your sentence “neko wa doko desu ka?” is perfect, but you cannot use desu to describe location in a non-question statement.
Iwakura desu. -> I am Iwakura. -> Correct!
Iwakura wa doko desu ka? -> Where is Iwakura? -> Correct!
To simply ask where I ‘am’ (desu), as opposed to wanting to know at which specific location I am manifesting my physical existence (iru). -> Haha, great explanation
and nice use of the word “manifesting”, which I don’t see too often…
Monday at 5:11 pm
Wow Chris I was a Ham Op in the 70’s I go my Advanced Licence when I was 16 .
I was WD8EHU A long time ago ..I Loved 2 meters FM .
Thursday at 8:06 am
お名前は高山覚です、昭和四十五年の生まれです。群馬県のご出身です。ご家族が三人います。
家族。
はい、奥さんと娘がいます。
いま二人はどこですか。教えてください。
えーと。高山さん、話があります。高山さんは公安調査庁の役人です。
まず首相に電話します。ちょっと待ってください。
また明日ね。
Monday at 10:44 am
I see the word for “wife” is different than what we’ve seen in a past lesson. How is “oku-san 奥さん” different from “tsuma 妻”?
Tuesday at 10:31 am
Sebastianさん
Great question! “oku-san” is polite and used for someone else’s wife, as in “oku-san wa o-genki desu ka?” (how is your wife?), while “tsuma” is usually used to talk about your own wife, eg. “tsuma wa bengoushi desu” (my wife is a lawyer).
Wednesday at 1:31 pm
Katさん、
That’s interesting! So they’re not really interchangeable. Kinda like はは vs おかあさん, except those share the same kanji, whereas “wife” does not.
ありがとうございます。
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