Learn Japanese at JapanesePod101.com! In today’s conversation we have two yakuza members who are talking about Hello Kitty (bet you didn’t see that one coming). We’re continuing our look at masculine forms of Japanese, particularly those found in anime and manga. Of course, you’ll hear this on the streets too. Our grammar point is making strong prohibitions using the plain form of verbs plus n ja nai and it’s substandard form n ja nē. After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com and be sure to leave us a post!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Beginner Lessons (S2). 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.
25 Responses to “Beginner Lesson S2 #42 - Kitajima: A Yakuza Exposed! 1”
JapanesePod101.com says:
September 10th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Mina-san, we’re taking a 2 week break from the maids, to bring you this very special 2 part lesson. We’ve gotten a lot of requests about masculine structures, so we’re continuing it with this.
When we come back with parts 3, 4 and 5 of Guy’s Night Out, we’ll take a look some feminine forms and then bring it all together.
Hope you guys enjoyed this one!
クリストファー (KC8UFV) says:
September 18th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Interesting lesson. I would have never expected that combination of かわいい 「キッティちゃん」 and こわい 「やくざ」
Peter -
I forget if ｔｈｉｓ was today’s or yesterday’s lesson (I Iistened to both on my way to work this morning） I’m still working on getting used to using 僕 instead of 私、let alone おれ。 Besides, that would require knowing someone (who speaks 日本語) well enough.
Javizy says:
September 19th, 2007 at 1:38 am
I was reviewing the Welcome Home intermediate lesson yesterday, and was thinking ‘I wish Sakura would host another lesson sometime soon’ 
Sakuraさん 
Great lesson! I was watching Samurai Champloo the other day, and Mugen kept using んじゃねぇ as some sort of imperative, and now it makes sense. For some reason, I didn’t know 借りる either, so today’s lesson has filled in a couple of blanks for me.
Keep up the good work!
Peter says:
September 19th, 2007 at 3:11 am
クリストファーさん、その気持ち、よくわかる。I still haven’t really got used to using 俺「ore」and rarely, if ever, use it.
Javizyさん, yes, it is always great working with Sakura, and today’s lesson was ideal for her. 
The grammar in here was pretty good too! Lot’s more manga coming up.
bakaneko says:
September 19th, 2007 at 4:10 am
How do you ask to borrow something again? I couldn’t catch it fast enough in the dialog. Can someone please write out the two examples sentences Peter used in the dialog? Thanks.
Laura says:
September 19th, 2007 at 4:36 am
chotto matte … honkakuteki na namae wa “kiti-chan” desu ka? (sorry no kana on this comp)
“Kiti-chan” no hou ga kawaii desu yo ne. Please tell me that they didn’t translate “Kiti-chan” to “Hello Kitty” to try and capture the cuteness in a foreign-sounding kind of way. That would mess with my head.
Javizy says:
September 19th, 2007 at 4:55 am
I’m just going from memory here, but I think they were:
お金を借りてもいいですか。Okane wo karite mo ii desu ka? Can I borrow money?
お金を貸してもらいますか。Okane wo kashite moraimasu ka? Can you lend me money?
Like English, it’s ungrammatical to ask someone to borrow you money, so you ask if you may borrow it.
João Paulo says:
September 19th, 2007 at 6:55 am
皆さん、お久しぶりですね。
Hello, everyone, it’s been a while.
最近ちょっと忙しいです！
I’ve been a bit busy lately!
俺は”僕”と”俺”が大好きです。 
でも、”私”よく使います。
I love “ore” and “boku”, but I frequently use “watashi” instead.
あのう、かすとかりるって、かしてあげるはいいですか。
Btw, about “kasu” and “kariru”, is it correct to say “kashite agueru”??
じゃぁ、またね！ 
markystar says:
September 19th, 2007 at 10:32 am
We kept the name Hello Kitty instead of キティーちゃん in English since キティーちゃん isn’t English.
As for 俺, 僕, 私; i use 俺 with my girlfriend and friends. i never use it in a business situation (unless the person I’m speaking to is a friend). i would never, ever say it to my friends’ parents or grandparents, but i will use it with their younger brothers and sisters. keep status in mind. also, i know some guys who rarely use it, including people of high status. they switch between 僕 and 私. basically, you’ll never go wrong with 私 and 僕 and it’s always safer to be on the polite side of things in japanese. you’ll never look bad using 私 and 僕 (in fact, you may come off more cultured). but you can come off looking ignorant throwing around 俺 in the wrong situation. 
marky
Yuki says:
September 19th, 2007 at 11:12 am
João Paulo さん！
貸してあげる/かしてあげる←大丈夫ですよ！
But be careful about this. If someone asks you to do something and you respond with ～てあげる, that’s very 
. This kind of phrase, “te-form ＋ あげる”, might have nuance of condescending in some situations like the follows
A:でんわ、かしてください。 B:かしてあげます。 A:
A:あした、オフィスに来てください。 B:行ってあげます。 A: or 
markystar says:
September 19th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
to elaborate on yukiさん’s post.
if you volunteer to do something, てあげる has a helpful nuance.
if you are asked to do something, てあげる has a condescending nuance.
compare:
volunteering to help, using てあげる
fabrizio： うわー、私の傘ない！
なおみ： すみません、傘を貸してあげますよ！
responding to a request, avoiding the てあげる contruction
fabrizio： なおみ先生、傘を貸してもらえますか？
なおみ： どうぞ、私の傘を使ってください。
condescending; responding to a request with てあげる
山田： キティーちゃんを貸してもらえますか？お願い致しま～す！
北島： はぁ、ほら、貸してあげる。 
marky
kitty-chan says:
September 19th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Wow, you finally did a lesson about me!!
And now I know how to tell people to get their hands off me! 
The vocab practice was pretty funny too!
bakaneko says:
September 19th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Yuki-san and Marky-san,
Wow, thanks for going the extra mile to explain the nuance associated with “te-ageru.” That was really useful to know. I wouldn’t want to offend anyone unknowningly. JPod101’s covering of phrase connotations really sets you guys apart from the other lesser language tools.
kitty-chan says:
September 19th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Yeah, sugoi!!! We’re so lucky to get all this politeness in a Yakuza lesson!!
Kitty-chan
babliku says:
September 19th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I always wondered what a teh quesion is. Peter keeps saying it haha
João Paulo says:
September 19th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Yuki-san and Marky-san,
Thank you very much for clearing things up!!!
Arigatou!!!!
Chris (KC8UFV) says:
September 19th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
babliku -
Peter keps saying a tag question. Basically it is a question simply looking for a response, usually seeking agreement.
Laura says:
September 19th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Marky-san, I didn’t mean it was weird that Jpod translated “Kitty-chan” to “Hello Kitty”. I was imagining the product makers choosing an English name for Kitty-chan. It’d be pretty crazy if they just invented some Japanglish that doesn’t actually exist in Japan.
markystar says:
September 19th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
ohhhhh, yeah, my bad!
it’s also called Hello Kitty here, but the japanese love being affectionate to かわいい things.
you’ll definitely hear ちゃん、さん、さま applied to non-human (and often inanimate) things here.
hope you all liked this one. part 2 is even funnier!!
marky
babliku says:
September 20th, 2007 at 1:49 am
haha Chris thanks SO much. I should have asked this earlier. When I first heard this I thought he said て question, which I assumed was a Japanese grammatical structure that I hadn’t learnt.
I really liked this lesson BTW. The voice actor playing the gangster was great, the script was great, and Sakura was excellent too, as always.
クリストファー (KC8UFV) says:
September 20th, 2007 at 3:27 am
Arrr bablikuさん
no problem matie.
NOTE: I just realized that today is 9/19 (still here in the US), International Talk like a Pirate Day. Just curious, how do pirates talk in japanese? Might be a perfect lesson for the next 9/19.
markystar says:
September 20th, 2007 at 4:02 am
YARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
i’m not even joking when i say i had my calendar planned for Talk Like a Pirate Day since last year.
not sure how i missed it, actually…
guess i should walk the plank….
i talk like a pirate day!
marky
StEvE AuStiN says:
September 20th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I wanna learn how to talk like a pirate in Japanese! Do they even have pirates in Japan?
Naomi says:
September 20th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Yarrrr
Pirate in Japanese is 海賊/かいぞく/kaizoku
Historically, there used to be real pirates around the Seto-inland-sea (which is located between Shikoku and the mainland) before the Edo era. There are about 3000 islands in Seto inland sea and pirates used to hide on those islands. I think the most famous and powerful pirate-group was 村上水軍/murakami suigun “Murakami Maritime force.” Some of Murakami suigun members successfully became Daimyō (feudal lords) in the Edo era.
Here is the link for Murakami-Suigun Museum
http://www.city.imabari.ehime.jp/bunka/suigun/
Naomi
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Category: Beginner Lessons (S2) |
Grammar: n ja nai | Function: making strong prohibitions | Topic: hello kitty, male speech, yakuza | Politeness Level: casual, Informal, rude
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