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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Where can you go in Japan to hear some of the most colorful language? The hairdresser’s of course! You won’t find too many quiet days at any hairdresser’s, which makes it the perfect place to hear and learn many colorful Japanese adjectives! In Japan and around the world, the hairdresser’s is a place to talk and to be with people you know. Hairdressers are notoriously good psychologists, too. And you know hairdressers are always good for an ego boost. They know how to make their customers’ hair beautiful, and by extension, the customer. It’s as much about feeling and attitude as it is hair. So drop in to the salon in Japan, practice your Japanese adjectives, and leave feeling more beautiful and enriched on both the inside and out!!

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Newbie lesson tells you how to work with Japanese adjectives. You’ll learn how to use them properly in sentences and construct the negative forms as well. By the time you complete the lesson, you will have an enhanced Japanese vocabulary and better Japanese grammar than before. You’ll be ready to add color and flair to your Japanese. 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!

Learn to Speak Japanese Fluently with This Lesson!

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


This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 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.

43 Responses to “Newbie Lesson S2 #12 - Nihongo Dōjō - Where Can You Go in Japan That Leaves You Feeling More Beautiful Inside AND Out?”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Mina-san, have you had your hair cut in Japan?

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kitty-chan says:

I think Fuyuka is fishing for compliments :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Where’s Fabrizio? :kokoro: :kokoro: :kokoro:

Kitty-chan

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クリストファー (KC8UFV) says:

ファブリジオさんはどこですか

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Javizy says:

Good lesson, this sort of pace would have been ideal when I was newbie. I find myself paying more attention to Naomi’s pitch, and noticing where Peter is going wrong :lol:

I was going to ask it any Japanese women have naturally curly hair, but I have no idea how to convey ‘any’. It’s really tough when there is no directly corresponding word in the dictionary :cry:

I had a similar problem the other day trying to convey ‘against’, in the ‘England won 3-0 against Russia’ sense. There are a few tournaments going on at the moment, so maybe a couple of sports fans discussing results and fixtures could be a good idea for a lesson.

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nilfisq says:

みなさん、
こんにちは!
great lesson. unfortunately the audio is missing in the line-by-line audio transcript (and in the ilearning center).
じゃまた! :wink:

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Laura says:

I know one Japanese woman with curly hair. In the last few years she’s been having it straightened. She said it was annoying when she was a kid, and teachers kept trying to get her to keep it under control.

すごいレッスンです。 I can understand about 50% of the intermediate lessons now, but I still learn stuff from the newbie ones, like the bit about the “dangling い”.

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markystar says:

nilfisqさん、thanks for pointing that out! it should be OK now!

marky

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Laura says:

I was going to suggest asking the curly hair question with:
“curly-haired にほんじんがいますか?”
and then realized I don’t know how to say “curly”. For that matter, how do you say “not straight haired”?

まっすぐではない
not straight

the “ない’ makes it an い-adjective? Or do you make the negative in another way when the な-adj precedes the noun.

まっすぐではないかみなにほんじん?
not straight haired japanese person

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Javizy says:

I think curly hair is 巻き髪(まきがみ). Since the verb 巻く means to roll, to coil, to wind, it sort of makes sense. I first learnt this character after seeing it on the pack of a 巻きす(sushi rolling mat) that I bought. When I tried to make sushi, it was kind of like that Beginner lesson where Take makes pancakes, though.

As for people who don’t have straight hair, I’ve seen constructions like 人が多い町(a town with lots of people), so maybe 髪が真っ直ぐじゃない日本人(hair-not-straight person), would be more natural. Modifier phrases are so different from English :???:

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Sindy says:

JP101 crew/listeners! :wink:

Thank you for another great lesson JP101!!! :dogeza:

Fuyuka (Miki) cut her hair ehhh :cool: I want to see a picture if you don’t mind JP101 please! :wink:

I going to cut my hair like her now too! :grin: :cool: S_R_C

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Naomi says:

みなさん。コメントありがとうございます。 :dogeza:
mina-san. Komento arigatou gozaimasu.

Laura さん
Almost!!!! Great work! :grin:
まっすぐではない かみ な にほんじん?

まっすぐではない かみ の にほんじん
かみ/hari is not a -na adjective but a noun. So you need の instead of な

Javizy さん
>髪が真っ直ぐじゃない日本人
Perfect phrase! :razz:

We have several words for curly or wavy hair, but I think “くせ毛/kuse ge ” and “天然パーマ/tennen paama” are the most commonly used expressions.

And it is said that only 30% of Japanese people have perfectly straight hair.
So, 髪がまっすぐじゃない日本人はたくさんいます。
(There are a lot of Japanese people who doesn’t have straight hair.)

では、また
Naomi :kokoro:

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JapanesePod101.com says:

Javizy-san, わざとです。 :wink: Glad at least one of us is learning from my mistakes. :wink:

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Laura says:

naomi-san to javizy-san, ありがとうございます.

I don’t have kana entry on this comp, so it’s either cut-and-paste or romaji =/

髪がまっすぐじゃない日本人 - that does sound better. My ears must be learning!

It seems a bit like the adjective is attaching to both the preceeding and following noun at once.

(hair people

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Laura says:

the board ate my arrows :???:

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Javizy says:

Lauraさん, I picked this up mainly from reading. I’m not sure if it counts as a relative clause, or just a special use of adjectives. Perhaps this distinction could make a good grammar point for an upcoming lesson :wink: By the way, if special characters aren’t being displayed, it’s because HTML is enabled, so you have to enter the special HTML codes for them, which you can find on Google quite easily, still it’s a bit of a hassle though.

Peterさん, ごめんなさい! I’m sure that with the lovely Naomi先生 around it won’t be a problem for much longer.

なおみ先生、勉強になりました!では、なおみ先生の髪は、くせ毛か、真っ直ぐか、日本人の70%のように真っ直ぐじゃないですか。あるいは、モヒカンカットなど違う髪ですか。

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Naomi says:

Javizyさん

はい。私はモヒカンカットです。
うそです。
According to my hairstylist, すこし くせ毛です。

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markystar says:

うそついちゃ、いやーよ!
Naomi先生は丁髷だから格好いいな!  :lol:

マーキー

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Javizy says:

Topknot style? It’s good to see people in touch with their culture, it’s much more of a rarity in the West. なおみ先生は丁髷を結っている立派な方なんですよ。 :mrgreen:

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Amy says:

Hi there–

I have a son who is Marshallese but his grandpa was full Japanese. He has very curly hair and most of the other Marshallese people I know do not have curly hair. I am wondering if he could have gotten it from the Japanese side. Do a lot of Japanese people have curly hair?

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Ilyes says:

The Newbie lessons are really very interesting!!
Nihongo ga dai suki desu :kokoro:

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Neta says:

Would desu be left out in that sentence above? ^ Since suki is a verb…

I LOVE THESE LESSONS! Thank you sooo much!

I :kokoro: :nihon:

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JapanesePod101.com says:

“to like” in english is a verb, but in japanese 好き (suki) is an adjective. so it means “a likable thing.” so you need the です (desu) for polite conversation. if you’re speaking among close friends, you can drop the です (desu). :cool:

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Laurel says:

Mina-san:

In this lesson, Peter-san made reference to the kanji for kirei and mochiron, for the former to explain why an i-ending word is a na-adjective, and for the latter to enhance the meaning (”no argument”.)

However, I couldn’t locate the kanji spelling of either of these words in my dictionaries, the kanji transciption in hte PDF, or the Kanji Closeup. So what’s the deal here?

Thanks for a great lesson.
Laurel
NYC

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markystar says:

Laurelさん、the kanji for mochiron is 勿論
but it’s a bit 硬い (stiff or uninviting) so, usually people will use もちん in just hiragana to keep things friendly. but if you’re writing something formal (for school or business or a to a person you don’t know so well, you should use the kanji). but in general, the kanji is not used.

mochiron is not an adjective, so the -i adjective/-na adjective rules do not apply.

kirei ends in -i, but not all adjectives that end in -i are -i adjectives.

a good example of this is 嫌い(kirai) and 好き (suki).
(hate, like)

to be honest, i’ve never seen a native japanese person use the kanji for kirei.
in my experience, i’ve only seen it in katakana, because it’s more cute in katakana. if you use the kanji, again, it gets stiff and too formal.

the -i adjective name comes from the romaji.
and it’s a standard way to refer to these adjectives.

that said,
you brought up a good point and i’ll put the kanji into the pdf tomorrow!!

勿論 もちろん mochiron
綺麗 きれい kirei

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一 (ハジメ) says:

A non-newbie question:

When Peterさん and Naomiさん are discussing 勿論, Naomiさん says “I didn’t know that”. The 日本語 sounds like:

しらなかた…

but this isn’t correct. I guess I have not learned this conjugation for 知っている.

有難う御座います

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Naomi says:

一 (ハジメ)-san

知るshiru dictionary form
知らないnon-polite negative form
知らなかったshiranakatta is a past form of 知らないshiranai

The verb shiru is used in a affirmative sentence, it’s usually used in ~ている pattern.
ex)
知っていますかShitteimasu ka?
いいえ。知りませんIie, shirimasen.

The phrase I said was “I didn’t know that.” and it’s a past sentence.

This grammar point will be covered in Beginner Lesson Season4 Lesson 14 which is planning to be published on the 7th of October. So please check that lesson too. :wink:

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Naomi says:

Oops!
I mean…
When shiru is used in an affirmative sentence, it’s usually used in —teiru pattern.
ex) Shitteimasu / Shitteiru / Shitteimashita / Shitteita
However when it is used in a negative sentence, it’s not used in —teiru form.
ex)Shirimasen/Shiranai/Shirimasendeshita/Shiranakatta

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一 (ハジメ) says:

Naomiさん、

そうです! I didn’t know the -しなかった form. I am still trying to get to Beginner Lesson #1 :smile: . Since joining JPod101 I have done the first 48 Newbie lessons in the last 12 days. When I finish all the Newbie lessons I will start Beginner Season 1 and Season 4 (as they arrive) simultaneously. I studied the ピラニア lesson yesterday. It was a little difficult for me. Still a newbie!

有難う御座います。  :dogeza:

:kokoro: JPod101.com.

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Laurel says:

Marky-san:

You da man! Thanks for the speedy and thorough explantion about those elusive kanji for mochiron and kirei. You gave us the ins and outs of how they’re used.

Arigato!

Laurel
NYC

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markystar says:

thanks laurelさん!

but now, i take back what i said about kirei. i just received an e-mail from my friend yuu-sensei in osaka and she used the kanji for kirei. lolololol.
but she’s a japanese teacher, so maybe her use of kanji is pretty high level, you know.

keep on rockin’ in NYC!!!
NYC :kokoro:

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Robert says:

Just a quick thing to fix in the pdf. In at least two places, the kana says とてもきれい, but the romanji says massugu. Just thought I’d point that out. Thanks for all the great work!

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Mayumi says:

Robert-san,
Thank you for pointing it out! :dogeza: I fixed them.

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Foniks says:

Also - another thing I have noticed in the PDF -

Where it says まつすぐ it is translated written in Romaji as Kirei - it’s in at least 2 places, maybe more. :)

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Jessi says:

Foniksさん>
Thank you! Everything should hopefully be fixed now :oops:

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jacob says:

Does ‘He, watashi no kami wa massugu ga akarui desu’ mean ‘Wow, i have very straight but bright hair?’
Thanks

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王凱 says:

静かですね。ここはyいつも静かですか。
いええ、静かじゃないです、今日は特別です。
冬果さんの髪はまっすぐです、とても綺麗です。
そうですか、髪だけですか。
いやいや、勿論、ふゆかさんも綺麗です。

また明日ね。

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Misael says:

“だけですか”
That’s is new for me.
other way to make questions :evil:

ありがとうござます。

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Pam Mortenson says:

In many lessons you refer to a bonus video where I can practice speaking as well as listening. Where is this?? I am also wondering if there is a site where I can listen to Japanese conversation to learn to listen to the sounds I am learning. I have used the recorder but do not know about the bonus video…

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Jessi says:

Hi Pam,
The bonus video is the one in the post above, right below the lesson picture. Just click on it and it will start playing :) It will quiz you on the vocabulary from this lesson!

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Danielle says:

Hi,

I the podcast it mentioned きれい having a kanji and no plain い at the end. I have a really good Japanese/English dictionary and it is not in there. Could you show me the kanji so I can add it to my notes?

thanks!

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Motoko says:

Danielle-san
Kon’nichiwa.
きれい is written as 綺麗 in kanji. It looks complicated, isn’t it?
I hope this helps.

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Pam Mortenson says:

In the transcript there is the wording ‘kami wa massugu’ desu. but during the lesson you were talking about paper having the same meaning and used the example that ‘paper hair’ would be kami no kami. Why are they different? one was kami wa and the other was kami no???? I thought they were similar sentence structures.

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Motoko says:

Pam-san,
kami, “hair” and “kami” is written in same hiragana but different kanji.
hair 髪
paper 紙
Mostly we distinguish the meaning by the context.
This time hair made of paper is more likely exist than paper made of hair, I think.
ex) Watashi no ninjoo no kami wa kami no kami desu.
“The hair of my doll is made of paper. / is a hair made of paper.”
I hope this helps.

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