Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! “My name is …” “I am a(n) …” How often do you say that? How often have you heard that? Whether you’re speaking Japanese or English, you cannot start a conversation and meet someone new without a few basic pieces of information. “I’m a jeweler.” “I’m a lumberjack.” “I’m a mortician.” The more you are able to tell someone about yourself in Japanese will help the person to remember your name in the future. However, if it’s the first time you meet someone, you may want to add, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Of course, it’s always possible that it won’t be a pleasure at all, but it’s best to assume the best about all acquaintances until they prove otherwise. And it’s very important to be polite in Japan where levels of politeness are embedded directly in the language. And after this Japanese lesson, you’ll be ready to jump right in there and strike up a conversation with anyone you meet in Japan!!
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Newbie lesson will have you introducing yourself in Japanese to one and all in no time flat. You’ll learn how to give your name, tell people where you come from, and tell them your occupation in Japanese. That’s a lot of conversational power packed into just one Japanese lesson. Such is the norm at JapanesePod101.com. Visit us at JapanesePod101.com where you will find many more fantastic Japanese lessons and learning resources! Leave us a message while you are there!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Newbie Season 2 . 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.
65 Responses to “Newbie Lesson S2 #1 - Nihongo Dōjō - Conversation Starters: Meeting New People in Japan Made Easy!”
Tuesday at 6:30 pm
Mina-san, a dōjō is a martial arts training hall where you learn all the fundamentals and steadily prepare yourself to become a master. It’s purpose isn’t only getting the skills but also learning discipline and focus. We hope our Nihongo Dōjō lays out the fundamentals for you to become a Nihongo Master!!!!!!
Tuesday at 8:32 pm
I’m looking forward to hearing more from this character!!
kitty-chan
Tuesday at 11:06 pm
Kitty-chan, Fabrizio is a great name, and you are in for some really great voice acting from Yoshikai throughout this series.
楽しみにしてください!
Tuesday at 11:21 pm
Yoshikai was hilarious in this lesson
Naomi was good too, her voice is very soft and easy on the ears.
The pitch accent stuff was useful as well. Are there any patterns to this, or is it on a word-by-word basis?
I usually try to copy the voice actors, but I’m pretty sure I’ve picked up some less than masculine intonation from Natsuko
Tuesday at 11:27 pm
Javizy-san, he only gets better!
Naomi-sensei is really good too! And we’re finally on to pitch accent! I am really excited about this too, and this series will include a lot.
As for your last comment…priceless!!! I’ll be sure to let Natsuko know!
Wednesday at 12:19 am
peter is totally right.
he only gets better!! 
yoshikai is my god. every time i have more and more respect for him. and as for pitch accent, yoshikai’s slow readings are completely pitched.
if you wanna practice guy-style japanese, i recommend repeating his lines. i memorize some of his more useful or wittier lines and get 超日本人っぽい instead of the meaningless 上手くなりましたね in reply.
Wednesday at 4:31 am
He does a good yakuza style voice with the rolling R’s (something that has cracked me up since seeing Samurai Champloo), but I don’t think his Fabrizio and Kinoshita’s shop assistant characters have the masculine edge I’m looking for
I’ll be sure to give it a go in future
Wednesday at 5:57 am
Have you noticed that everybody at “Style you” have a season and a cardinal point in their name?(I remembers me a little bit a manga called ichigo 100%) Fabrizio is the only one who does not fit in the group.
Wednesday at 6:53 am
Naomi先生、
That was nice! Very very nice!
As has been mentioned above, your voice is easy on the ears. It is hard to overstate how important it is that the hosts and voice actors be pleasant to listen to. In that, you join a wonderful tradition including Peterさん、Sakuraさん、Natsukoさん and Chigusaさん。
よろしくおねがいします!
Wednesday at 9:21 am
Javizyさん、lol, that’s right!
Wednesday at 11:58 am
Enricoさん, that is exactly what I was thinking! Right now しゅう does not have a last name. I would like to suggest 西崎or 西沢.
どう思いますか。
Wednesday at 4:56 pm
こんにちはなおみです。//Konnichiwa. Naomi desu.
Thank you very much for the feedback. I really appreciate it.
みなさん本当にありがとうございます。
Minasan hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu.
Dear Javizy さん
コメントをありがとうございます。
>The pitch accent stuff was useful as well. Are there any patterns to this, or is it on a word-by-word basis?
Yes. There are some patterns, but there are so many exceptions and sometime it depends on the speaker’s background. So basically, you need to check the tone word by word.
Foreign words tend to have flat intonation or be lowered at the 2nd syllable from the last. If the word has only 2 syllable, such as ペン lower the 2nd syllable.
Dear Enricoさんand//digitaljoさん
Yes. You are right! I used 東西南北(west/east/south/north) and 春夏秋冬(spring/summer/fall/winter) in the people’s names.
Speaking of しゅう, I have already given him the last name which includes 西(west). But it’s not 西沢 or 西崎. Good Guess!
もっとかんたんです。
Wednesday at 7:52 pm
なおみ先生、お返事ありがとうございました。とても有用でした。今後とも、抑揚にもっと着目します。次のレッスンを楽しみにしているんですよ。
Saturday at 10:08 am
Wonderful lesson. I love how Fabrizio(Yoshikai) used 外人弁 when he spoke.
Sunday at 9:21 am
ナオミ先生、おつかれさまでした。
よくできました!
Sunday at 9:23 am
Just read the post about sounding like a girl from natsuko sensei… When I first started listening to jPod, Yoshi-sensei was on almost daily. I have a kind of a ‘lisp’, with the ’s’ sound, which I think I picked up from Yoshi-sensei.
omoshiroi dethu ne!
Sunday at 11:23 pm
Hmm, when describing ourselves (or a member of the family) as a ’school/university teacher’ shouldn’t we use 教師 (kyoushi) instead of 先生(sensei)? This would reflect the state of humbleness towards others.
Well, at least that is what my Japanese teacher taught me
Monday at 2:49 pm
Musoukaさん
コメントをどうもありがとうございます。
その通りです。よくお勉強されていらっしゃいますね。
ただし、このレッスンは初心者向けのレッスンです。
ポイントは「私はーーーです。」という文法で自分の職業が言えますよ、という例を出来るだけ簡単に口頭で示したかっただけでした。
教師という言葉を既にご存じでしたら、そちらをご使用される事をお勧め致します。
コメントありがとうございました。
直美
Thank you for the comment! That’s right. I personally never call myself as “sensei” either.
However this lesson is designed for beginners. And we wanted to introduce the structure talking about our occupations by using “Watashi wa —–desu.” Ten minutes goes quick, and I simply didn’t have time to explain the difference of “sensei”,”koushi”and “kyoushi”.
If you already know the word “Kyoushi”, that’s great! Please go ahead and use it.
Thank you very much for the comment again. I really appreciate it.
Naomi
Saturday at 9:19 pm
mmm i have a question!
which should i start with newbie s1 or s2??
i don’t get in contact with japanese people except online since i live in the other par of the world and speak a totally different and strange lang. ( with weired letters 2) but i love Japanese lang and i might go their after i finish college ( in a year and a half )
Sunday at 1:54 am
Lina-san,
Please see: http://www.japanesepod101.com/help-center/the-courses/ for information on which course would suit you best.
Tuesday at 5:03 pm
I started doing Newbie S1 and 2 in parallel, i find that a good way. It’s more like jumping from S2 to S1
I preferred starting with the lessons from Naomi-sensei. But that’s just a feeling. Anyway, I’m happy that i already understand the kana after a 1-2 weeks, yeay for me
Wednesday at 12:20 am
debondtjan-san,
That really is something to feel pleased about!
Wednesday at 9:16 am
debondtjan san> Great job!! Keep up the good work
Wednesday at 2:27 pm
hello, is there a different version of the lesson notes to download? this particular one doesn’t seem to display correctly on my mac, even though all the others do. the japanese characters are not appearing? arigato in advance!
Wednesday at 2:28 pm
okay never mind my above post. have to use a different program!
Tuesday at 11:42 pm
Leigh-san,
If you do want to use the first program you were using try downloading the “lite’ lesson notes. Perhaps they will work with your first program.
Wednesday at 8:51 am
ok thanks for the tip jkid-san!
Tuesday at 9:22 am
whats the difference b/w the newbie series and the beginner regarding grammar and language coverage and stuff like that? should i just start my japanese with the beginner series and skip the newbie series? is that a good idea. i’m only interested in learning the language, not really into fashion and things like that if that helps to answer my question.
lol i just dont know where to start
Tuesday at 9:33 am
makeupaddict14さん>
That will depend on how much Japanese you know already! If you are just starting out, or only know a few phrases, then try the Newbie series first. They start with the very basic grammar and only cover polite (desu/masu) forms. If you have studied a little Japanese before, you might want to check out the Beginner Series.
Check this link for more information on the different courses!
http://www.japanesepod101.com/help-center/the-courses/
Wednesday at 6:02 am
thanks for the reply.
the link says i can just start with newbie s2. so that means i can skip season 1? and is it a good idea to skip all the newbie seasons after season 2 nihongo dojo and start the beginner series? lol i just want to get through this faster than slow..xD
Sunday at 1:20 pm
こんにちは。私はWilliamです。アメリカ人です。
どうもありがとうございます。
I have a question about using wa. In 私は I noticed that it is the hiragana for ha and not wa. I’ve researched that は is pronounced wa when used as a topic marking particle, simple enough to remember, but then while studying I noticed that in こんにしは (konnichiwa) it again uses the hiragana ha character for the wa sound. Is there a rule of thumb to remember for using は or わ?Being new to this, I try to spell things out phonetically. This seems strange to me. If anyone could help me understand when to use which it would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance for any help on this subject.
Sunday at 2:20 pm
Woops! I put こんにしは instead of こんにちは。 Just wanted to point out my mistake.
Monday at 10:16 am
willmcc81さん,
You are right, the hiragana for “ha” is used when “wa” is being used as a particle. The phrases こんにちは and こんばんは used to be full sentences, so those は were also being used as particles at one point - but now they have been shortened in modern Japanese. But basically, the rule of thumb is to use は for wa when it is used as a particle, and also in the phrases こんにちは and こんばんは
Monday at 12:19 pm
Jessiさん
どうもありがとうございます。
Thank you for the reply. This is good information to know.
Wednesday at 12:52 am
I realize this podcast is a couple years old and maybe this suggestion has been made before and taken into consideration, but just in case it has not, during the podcasts I really don’t think it is necessary to apologize, or to point out, “oh boy, we are running really long today.”
Besides the obvious fact that additional seconds are being added to the duration of the podcast every time somebody says, “This is really long”, more importantly this is not an in-person Japanese lesson, where if it goes too long, you risk causing the students to be late for their next class or appointment. We’re listening to these while waiting for a bus or going out for a walk! And if the lesson does go too long and another commitment comes up for the listener, we are all completely free to pause or stop and pick up the lesson later on! Every digression and every additional word or phrase that is touched upon during the podcast should be viewed as a bonus, not as some sort of inconvenience for your listeners! Maybe from the point of view of the people who ~make~ the podcast, it becomes too long, since you are getting the same amount of money from your subscribers whether you create a 10 or 20 minute podcast, but those discussions about podcasts being too long are best had off-air.
Anyways, just a minor pet peeve that I have come across in Newbie Seasons 1 and 2..,, overall keep up the great work and I look forward to hearing many many more of your podcasts!
Wednesday at 2:05 pm
James-san,
Thank you for your feedback! I’m sure that we can keep improving our lessons thanks to feedbacks and comments from our listeners like you! Thank you!
Tuesday at 7:58 am
I’m wondering if anyone can explain the logic or reason behind the spelling of フアツシヨンコーデイネーター. It seems like it should be spelled
フアシヨンコーデイネーター. I guess im not understanding why the ツ “tsu” is there. Obviously im missing something here. If anyone could explain this to me I would appreciate it. Another thing ive noticed is that the ア and ツ and イ appear slightly shorter than the rest of the kana in the word. Is there a reason for that as well and how would I go about typing that so that it appears smaller? Thanks in adavance.
Tuesday at 9:36 am
willmcc81さん,
About the smaller characters -
When you type “fa” in Japanese, the second character will automatically come out small: ファ. To make a small character on its own, type “x” and then the letter. For example, to get a small “e”, type “x” and then “e”: ぇ。This only works for certain characters, though (the vowels, plus ya, yo yu and wa).
As for ファッション, when the “tsu” character is small, is actually isn’t read “tsu”. Instead, it makes the sound that comes after it twice as long. Compare the word “fashion” with and without the small “tsu”:
ファション (fashon - incorrect spelling)
ファッション (fasshon - see how the “s” is doubled?)
Here’s another example:
きて (kite; come!)
きって (kitte; stamp) - Here, there’s almost a short pause in the middle.
I hope that makes sense! Please let me know if you need more help with it
Tuesday at 10:39 am
Jessiさん,
どうもありがとうございます I understand the small “tsu” now. I also now understand the difference between フア “fu a” and ファ “fa”, as well as
シヨ “shi yo” and ショ “syo” but what is the difference between the イ and ィ in コーデイネーター? Thanks again for all your help.
Monday at 9:37 pm
はは
とてもおもしるがったです!!
たくさん笑(わらう)ういました~~~
Tuesday at 11:13 am
ニコレット-san
We’re glad you enjoyed it.
おもしろかったですか?
よかったです!
Thursday at 10:50 am
Hajimemasite
Watashi ha Jenny desu
Betonamu jin desu
Kaishain desu
Thursday at 11:47 am
Jenny-san
Arigatou gozaimasu!
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Sunday at 7:09 pm
Sunday at 7:15 pm
DOMO ARIGATO THE LESSON WAS TOO USEFUL
Monday at 5:27 am
Thankyou for the lesson!
I know I can introduce myself as ‘watashi wa Merryn desu’ and ‘Merryn desu’, but I have also been told I can introduce myself as ‘(watashi wa) Merryn to iimasu’. What is the difference (If any) between these two introductions, and when should they be used? Sorry if I’ve complicated things.
Arigatou gozaimasu!
Monday at 9:18 am
The Egyption Queenさん,
Glad to hear it!
Merrynさん,
There is no difference in meaning, but I would say that “(name) to iimasu” is a bit more formal than using “desu”.
Sunday at 12:29 pm
hajimemasite
watashiwa malaysia jindes
watashiwa aini des…..
douzo yoroshiku
Tuesday at 11:40 am
はじめまして。私はクリスです。アメリカ人です。母です。どうもありがとうございます。
Tuesday at 4:45 pm
クリスーさん
こんにちは。よろしくおねがいします。
Thursday at 12:02 am
It didn’t take me long to figure out the 10 nationalities at the end of the lesson. Which is good because I’m typically bad at that. But one thing made me laugh.
7) Airulando-jin(アイルランド人)
I saw the L in the romaji and that helped me figured out the nation xD I probably would have spent more time on it without that helpful ‘hint’. The last one, Doitsu…is this Deutsche (German)? or Dutch?
Thursday at 9:26 am
Geoffさん,
Oops! It’s now fixed
As for Doitsu, it is Germany
Sunday at 10:44 am
I’m new but i am going to japan one day ( i hope!!) so if u have any advice please help i want to learn as quickly as possible!!
Thursday at 9:29 pm
saya akan belajar bahasa jepang terus
Thursday at 7:40 pm
ようこそ、どうぞ、宜しくお願いします。私は南夏美です。スタイルユーの社長です。大学院生です。ヘアスタイりストです。
こんにちは、私は北川冬果です。カウンセラーです。
えーと。東春人です.
ファブリツィオです。ファっションコーデイネーターです。イタリア人です。
また今日ね。
Saturday at 12:14 pm
hey I try to view the lesson notes but it never comes out right. All i get is some boxes instead of words with maybe the title saying Japanese 101…does this happen to everyone?
Friday at 10:14 am
Saturday at 5:57 am
hahaha i like this stuffs ! carry on , naomi sensei
Monday at 9:39 pm
hajimemasite
watashi wa burajirujin desu
watashiwa fagner desu.
douzo yoroshiku
Thursday at 1:42 pm
hajimemashite
B desu yoroshiku
Wednesday at 1:30 am
the bonus part was AMAZING ahahah (I’m italian, that’s why I laughed pretty bad)
Thursday at 12:15 am
Why i cannot play the video?? I’m already your member!
What, i have to pay for everything you advertise?? Even you haven’t spared even small lessons..so unprofessional by your side!
I won’t return back, which means i won’t waste my time watching this site, even reading comments, which will mostly criticise me, but i know clearly: truth hurts
Founder of this site/idea, nice move..
Tuesday at 2:14 pm
konnichiwa
watashi wa noel desu.hajimemashite
watashi wa osutoraria-jin desu.
wellll, that’s so i know, please help me to improved
arigatoo gozaimasu !
Tuesday at 6:09 am
Looking forward to more Higashi Haruhito…. etto… Reminds me of myself. ^_^
Musouka: My Japanese teacher said the same thing. I think they just went with “sensei” because it’s well known and thusly simpler. I assume they didn’t want to throw too much at us at once. But, whether or not that is the case, Peter Sensei knows best!
Saturday at 11:11 am
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