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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 6:45 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.
69 Responses to “Newbie Lesson S2 #3 - Nihongo Dōjō - I’m Sorry, Where Is The Japanese Food I Can Eat?!”
Wednesday at 6:45 pm
Mina-san, Fabrizio is back and this time he’s hungry. Hopefully he’ll get enough to eat tonight!!
Wednesday at 9:00 pm
Fabrizio!! Yay!!
I love this character!!
Kitty-chan
Wednesday at 9:44 pm
Nice lesson, やっぱりなおみ先生はすごくて、本当にうぐいすじょうですね。I can sort of see a sixpack in 肉, although I never would have thought that myself
相変わらず、次のレッスンを楽しみにしていますよ。
Wednesday at 9:45 pm
Excuse me, but the pdf for this lesson needs a little tweaking. Thanks.
Wednesday at 10:44 pm
Hi Liz-san - PDF has been tweaked
Wednesday at 11:07 pm
Peter-san and Naomi-san this is a very good lesson.. especially to persons who like Isakaya(?).. also with this lesson i become interested in kanji.. (especially the six packed)
Believe in or not this is the time i started studying kanji… i wish i started learning kanji in the past rather that this day… anyways i’ll start to study from now.
Thursday at 12:40 am
markobe8さん、
kanji is so integral to japanese. and in a lot of ways it offers you shortcuts when reading/writing!
i recommend to everyone Eve Kushner’s “Kanji Curiosity” in the Blog section. she is definitely excited about kanji!
http://blogs.japanesepod101.com/
and as for Izakaya, here is the kanji:
居酒屋・いざかや・izakaya
居る・いる to be, to exist
酒・さけ sake, alcohol
屋・や store, restaurant
and another interesting related one:
二日酔い・ふつかよい・futsukayoi
二・に two
日・にち day
酔・よい sickness, drunkness
the meaning, of course, is ‘hangover’
Thursday at 3:27 pm
Today we listened to this lesson in class as a group, overall, it was not bad. However, as a class, we thought the lesson would have been better if Naomi san can relax on the word “hai”.
Thursday at 4:07 pm
I’m off to a 飲み会 (nomi-kai; party with adult beverages plentifully available) at Ebisu Garden Place tonight. This lesson came just in the “niku” of time. (noxious pun intended, groaning obligatory)
乾杯! (kampai)
Thursday at 5:11 pm
Bob1
Is that near the Yebisu Beer Factory? I took a tour there last winter and had a great time. Cheap beer, lots of history and even a “magic” show that got better with each drink. I recommend it if you’re near Ebisu station.
Brian S.
I recall them even having beer jello. quite a fun place.
Thursday at 5:12 pm
ooops Bob1-san*
Thursday at 6:31 pm
Just renewed my subscription so it is great to be back in the community.
Thursday at 7:34 pm
どうしてこの人は肉かどうか分からない??めずらしい!
How is it that this guy doesn’t know if it’s meat or not? Weird!
Good luck with the Kanji! In truth I don’t understand how people learn without them… Whenever I click twice on the wheel of my iPod and see the Hiragana version of the dialogue staring back at me I get a headache just looking at it!
(That’s a thought actually… could we have a show of hands of people who would prefer a proper Kanji version of the dialogue instead of the Hiragana version in the lesson mp3s?)
Here’s an interesting Kanji:
海豚 = dolphin
The first is ‘ocean’ or ’sea’, and the second is ‘pig’. I understand the first kanji, as a dolphin lives in the ocean, but I don’t see how a dolphin looks anything like a pig though.
Thursday at 8:39 pm
it has a snout?
Thursday at 10:01 pm
maxiewawaさん、
I have a far-fetched explanation. You can eat pig meat. A few Japanese do eat dolphin meat, so maybe they took one of the kanji of one earth-bound-eatable animal and used it for this sea-bound-eatable animal…
Such a shame to kill and eat graceful and intelligent sea creatures, imho. Pigs might be intelligent, but they clearly lack grace
Friday at 10:11 am
GIllianさん、
turkey meat is ターキー肉, the turkey is a New World bird, so it has to be imported here. 残念
Friday at 2:49 pm
こんにちは。/Konnichiwa
なおみです。/Naomi desu.
みなさん、ありがとうございます。/Mina-san, arigatou gozaimasu.
Thank you very much all your comments.
According to an etymological dictionary, the combination of kanji 海豚(dolphin), was originally from china. In chinese language, dolphin is spelled as「海豚」,「海猪」or「江豚」. The reason they spell dolphin as sea pig was dolphins have big noses similar to pigs’ snouts. So that’s not because we eat dolohin and it tastes like pig…
By the way, I was so glad some people could see six pack in 肉.
Friday at 10:07 pm
markystar.. thanks for the info.. the blog was good.. now i must really get into kanji… the terms of yours about your post is very useful.. maybe i could use them for quite some time hehe
Wednesday at 4:22 am
私は肉と魚好きです。
ヴェジタリアンでは ありません。
Monday at 8:20 am
How come for what is only the third lesson of a beginners course some people are writing Kanji like natives?
If they know that much they surely cannot need to be learning or revising
dewa arimasen etc
Saturday at 8:12 am
I love this site! This is a great lesson… I’m scrounging around to pay for a premium membership…
My question is the during the introduction, the guy ordering the hamburger says something like ‘NUKI’… like ‘Bacon Nuki de’… then the waiter repeats him… i figure it means something like with bacon or with out bacon…
what is this nuki… am i just really hearing this wrong?
thanks!
Cheers,
George
Saturday at 8:36 pm
you heard it correctly! ぬき (nuki) means “without.”
and it implies that the thing you don’t want on the food is standard with the food.
so, he ordered a double bacon burger (which clearly comes with bacon on it) and wants it without the bacon, therefore he says “bekon nuki de.”
marky
Friday at 8:01 am
It seem easier to start with the Nihongo Dojo lessons, it’s more fluid in my opinion. I think after I’m done with the series, I’ll go back to the first lessons in the newbie section! Although for the Kandji…well that’s another story
Domo arigato gazaimasu
Wednesday at 12:24 pm
Great lesson! I liked it because it taught me how to tell others that I am vegetarian.
肉
^ I can see the six pack, but I would not have noticed if Namomi sensei had not pointed it out.
Josh
Thursday at 8:04 pm
A great lesson! I must admit I’ve been a little worried about going to Japan eventually because I’m vegetarian and I’ve never known how to say that in Japanese.
Thank you for solving this problem for me!
I wonder if anybody knows… Will Japanese people mind if I turn down food because I’m a vegetarian? I’ve always been concerned it may be seen as offensive because (as mentioned in the lesson) there are not many vegetarians in Japan.
Thank you!
Thursday at 11:50 pm
Dualityさん,
I don’t think it will be a problem! Honestly, I think at most people will just be a little curious/maybe confused when you tell them you’re a vegetarian and might ask you some questions about it, but I think that’s it really. I don’t think they would be offended. I just think it’d be a good idea to know how to ask about what certain dishes contain at restaurants because meat is used in a lot of them.
Friday at 6:54 pm
Thank you Jessi!
I definitely will learn how to ask what is in certain dishes as I get a bit further on. I’m trying to learn as much as I can. ^_^
Thursday at 9:14 pm
I sorta see the 6-pack in 肉; however, what I usually see is 2 sides of meat hanging inside a warehouse…. I do enjoy the idea of the meat ending up inside the person. おいしい! Thanks, Peter!
Thursday at 2:11 pm
O-hayo gozaimasu.
Not wanting to prove the clichè right, saying that Germans are mostly quite the “it has to be perfect”-way (which is in fact one of Porsche’s philosophies), BUT there is a minor mistake on page 4. The last of the three negations seems to be a little mixed up.
kore(これ) yasai(は) yasai(やさい) desu.(です。)
is supposed to be “kore wa yasai desu.”
Appreciating greetings to all of you from Germany
Nikolas
Thursday at 2:13 pm
Appreciating greetings from Germany to all of you…ehem…
It’s 6 o’clock in the morning -> mixed it up myself, well…
Friday at 9:59 am
Nikolas-san
Thank you so much for pointing out.
I fixed the mistake!
Thursday at 4:44 pm
’肉’は doesn’t look like food in a person,ないんですよ!ははは。。。ごめんなさいピーターせんせい へへ。。。なみせいせいの ’six- pack’は そうです
ピーター先生、ひきわけ。。。lol
ニコレット
Friday at 10:49 am
In my second native language, Afrikaans, ‘豚’ means ‘brother’
You are my Buta….LOL
Monday at 10:05 am
ニコレット-san

おもしろいですね!
Monday at 11:57 pm
How to say “goose” and “duck” in Japanese?
Interesting note:
In Chinese, the Kanji for vegetable reads “wild vegetable”. literally: ya => ye (wild) and sai => cai (vegetable).
Btw, I provided the Hanyu PinYin (Romanization) of my Chinese name. How to Kana-ize it, Naomi-sensei?
Tuesday at 11:46 am
Huang Hong En-san
Goose is “Gachou”(鵞鳥 or 鵝鳥) and duck is “ahiru”(家鴨)or “kamo”(鴨).
I personally can not tell the difference though.
Your name “Huang Hong En” is spelled as “ファン ホン エン” in Katakana. But you have Kanji right? You can write your name in Kanji too
Saturday at 7:20 am
Naomi san, Peter san,
It’s been a long time since you posted this series so I don’t know if you are both still around (I’m starting at the beginning and working frantically to catch up!), but I just wanted to say that, after listening to 60 or so Beginner lessons and the Newbie series 1, I found this series to be really raise the bar in terms of production quality. So, good job!
I find the PDFs really useful, and the forum here is great for clearing up those questions about hard topics or the occasional typo. So, thanks again, and talk to you later!
Mike (How would that be Katakana-ized, anyhow? mi ke?)
Tuesday at 2:09 pm
Mike-san
Thank you so much for the kind comment!
Your name is spelled as マイク in Katakana.
Tuesday at 11:38 pm
Naomi-San,
I want to know how my name ought to be pronounced; that’s why I am asking for the Kana.
Oh yes, and how to ask for non-spicy food and warm water?
Thursday at 11:35 am
Naomi-sensei,
ありがとうございます!
Now I can finally do my self-introduction!
始めまして! 私わマイクです。 どうぞよろしくおねがいします!
Friday at 1:41 pm
Huang Hong En-san
Non-spicy = Karakunai
food = tabemono
warm water, hot water = o-yu
Please, can I have… = onegai shimasu.
So…
Karakunai tabemono to o-yu, onegai shimasu.
I hope this helps.
Mike-san
どういたしまして。My pleasure!
よろしくおねがいします。Nice to meet you too.
Sunday at 1:32 pm
いつもお世話になっております。
コメントは初めてなんですが、おかげさまでいつも勉強になります。
さて、日本語能力試験1級につき、資料がございませんか。
ありがとうございます。
Monday at 10:09 am
真夢土-san
残念ながら、このサイトには一級の資料は用意しておりません。将来的には対策講座を作ることもあるかもしれませんが、いつからというのも未定です。
JLPTのホームページで練習問題を解くことが出来ますので、是非そちらでご確認ください。:)
Thursday at 10:47 am
Yes, I do see the “six-pack” in 肉. Very interesting!
Thursday at 11:35 am
Jason-san
I’m glad to hear that.
Saturday at 3:36 pm
I too was able to see the six pack in 肉 but it took a little bit of time to realize that it’s the ‘white’ space inside that makes it up, at least for me.
However, what I initially saw was spare ribs on a barbecue.
Tuesday at 3:28 am
Hi I am new to the series. I have subscribed to the premium content, am enjoying the course and appreciating the pedagogy. I have arrived to lesson 4 of the Newbie series (season 2) and I was wondering at what point I should begin trying to master Hiragana. Is this something I can (or should) put off till later. Any suggestions on how best to sequence the lessons and the writing?
Thanks so much for your efforts,
Charles
PS .. at least I won’t forget that ‘meat’ is represented by ’six-pack abs’
Sunday at 10:06 am
ITS getting easier everyday
Friday at 11:18 am
I’ve been working through Heisig’s Remember the Kanji, so yeah, I definitely say the 6-pack in the meat kanji, and I’ll be sure to use that in my “story” when I get there in the book. I’m only in the 200s right now.
どうもありがとうございます。ベジタリアン でわありません。肉はおいしいです。
Saturday at 1:24 pm
Several comments and questions:
I too see the six-pack.
I always thought sake was salmon as well as rice wine. Is this incorrect?
If sake is a salmon, and sake is also a drink, are they pronounced the same? Are both sake and saamon used commonly to describe the tasty fish, and if so, which is more common?
I like the nihongo-dojo series so far. I’ve done a bit of the other beginner lessons sporadically over a few years, and I’ve found that these are a notch above the rest. There is much more explanatory information and grammar. That additional information is very helpful for newbies like me.
The website has definitely changed for the better over the years as well.
Monday at 1:20 pm
beadchase-san
I’d say sake usually means “alcohol” in Japanese. To mean “rice wine” we usually say “Nihon-shu”(Nihon=Japan shu=suffix meaning alcohol).
The Kanji for sake meaning “alcohol” is 酒.
Salmon is sake but it has different kanji and pronunciation. This doesn’t have a meaning “tasty fish”.
Kanji for Sake is 鮭.
The Katanaka word サーモン is usually used for western style cuisine. Whereas 鮭 is usually used for Japanese style cuisine.
As for pronunciation, I don’t know if you really want to learn the difference…(Because it’s a bit tricky
), but sa(↑)ke…(intonation goes up) is “alcohol” and sa(↓)ke…(intonation goes down)is “salmon”.
I hope this makes sense.
Wednesday at 9:45 am
Hikiwake, Naomi sensei. I can see the six pack. How do you say, “Naomi is one point ahead”?
Wednesday at 11:31 am
Sara-san
>>”Naomi is one point ahead”
To express “— is ahead” in games, matches and so on, we say “katteiru (winning)” So the translation would be….
Naomi wa ichi-pointo(=one point) katteiru (=ahead).
Friday at 10:28 pm
Could somebody explain me how to write these hieroglyphs? Have I to learn by haurt?
Thursday at 9:44 am
Hey I have certain allergies, so how do you say I’m allergic to wheat, eggs, peanuts in japanese?
Thursday at 9:45 am
Wednesday at 10:59 am
Heh. You guys are teaching my English as well. I never heard the word copula until I started using this site.
Maybe I should learn English before stepping up to Japanese, huh? Heh.
Friday at 5:17 am
すみません、これは肉ですか。
いいえ、肉ではありません。魚です。サーモンです。
そうですか。
はい、肉です、鶏肉です。
いえいえ、肉じゃないです。野菜と豆です。
ファブリツィオさんは、ベジタリアンですか。
未だ今日ね。
Friday at 9:32 am
this is a good lesson!
Wednesday at 9:58 pm
I can’t see the six pack, maybe beacuse I don’t have one myself. The kanji sort of reminds me of a cow carcass hanging from a hook in a slaughter house, which makes it easy to rememeber in an unpleasant kind of way.
Monday at 11:02 am
Am absolutely not enjoying this class because i dont have access to certain thinggs.and these have made me not to be punctual to this class. earlier on you made mention that certain things will be giving out for free after the payment of $1. am willing to pay the amount even before i upgrade my self,but i dont know how.the only card am having is the pasmo card in that case ,i will plead on you to give me dirrectives as to how to pay the said momey and the listed items.
hope my request will be granted.
thank you.
mustapha.
Monday at 12:26 pm
Hi mustapha,
Thank you!
Please send us an email at contactus@japanesepod101.com if you have questions about how to pay
Saturday at 6:39 pm
Yea i saw the Six pac….
Wednesday at 9:38 pm
I’m still working through the basic n00b lessons, so I’ll check this out when i get into the newbie lessons, but is there any mention of veganism?
I’m a vegan, meaning I don’t eat anything from an animal. A bit more strict than vegetarian, but still.
Even some people with religious beliefs are vegan too, so it’s not just us ethical vegans out there.
Thursday at 1:09 pm
Grace-san,

They discuss how to say “I’m a vegetarian”, but veganism is not mentioned
If you are interested in finding out about being vegan in Japan, you can find a lot of interesting links online:
http://www.lisadempster.com.au/?p=2223
Friday at 6:31 am
Jessi-sama,
Thanks a ton! I’ll be checking that out alongside the lesson! Thanks! :3
Wednesday at 10:12 am
Grace-san,
We are planning to cover how to explain vegetarian and vegans on beginner level lessons.
Thanks for giving us a interesting idea
Wednesday at 1:29 pm
Motoko-sama,
Squee! That sounds awesome! I’ll be checking it out when I advance!
Friday at 9:34 am
In my case, Japanesepod101 is good to learn japanese & also english
それでこの頃楽しみに聞いています
これからもよろしくお願いします。
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